Episode 120 - What is Your Philosophy of Leadership?

Summary

In this episode we look at why a philosophy of leadership is important, and how you might develop your own philosophy.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 120 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In fact, this episode marks three years of the Leadership Today podcast. Thanks so much for being a part of that. The podcast has reached tens of thousands of people and I always appreciate your feedback and input. In this episode we look at why a philosophy of leadership is important, and how you might develop your own philosophy.

Whether we recognise it or not, we all have a philosophy of leadership. It’s the lens through which we view leadership. There are aspects of that philosophy that you have no doubt consciously developed, but there will also be parts that are more accidental in their origins. Why does our philosophy of leadership matter? Because it shapes the way we think, feel and act about issues of leadership. For example, if you believe people are born leaders, then you probably also believe that others aren’t born leaders - that will influence your decisions and actions. If you believe leadership is just about managing people downwards, that will also influence your decisions and actions.

I’m going to share my philosophy of leadership with you. I don’t expect you to necessarily agree with all of these points. In fact, it’s great if you don’t! Particularly if that helps to shape your own philosophy of leadership that you apply to you and others.

I will start with the definition of leadership that we use at Leadership Today, which is “achieving results through people for good”. That’s what leaders do. I firmly believe that leaders leave the world a better place. Leadership is for good - the good of the people we serve, the organisation where we work, but also for the communities and families around our organisations. Inherent in that definition of leadership is a balancing act. Leadership is absolutely about achieving results - if you’re not achieving results you’re not leading. And leadership is absolutely about people - leaders deliver through people. If we become unbalanced, that’s where the problems start. If you focus just on results and forget about the people, you’re not going to achieve results for very long. Equally, focusing just on people and paying inadequate attention to results is ultimately not good for the people you serve. Creating a nice, soft environment with low expectations and standards is actually awful for people. We need to focus on both parts - “achieving results” and “through people”, and always link that to the good.

I believe that we can all be leaders. That leadership is about the influence we have on others in the pursuit of results for good. Therefore if you have influence, then you are a leader. Sure, leadership can be downwards, but it can also be across, and up, and ever outside our organisation. Leadership isn’t just what we do at work.

In balancing the ‘achieving results’ and ‘through people’ components, we are best placed if we dial up both challenge and support. People often misunderstand psychological safety - thinking that it’s just about supporting people and making the workplace safe. It’s also about providing a challenging and stimulating place to work. Just as being over-stressed is bad, so is being chronically under-stressed. It’s far better to increase the challenge as you also increase the support. That’s what leads to growth in others.

The way we balance results and people is through aligned motivation - that’s the vehicle of leadership. In a perfect world we have a group of people who are motivated and heading in the same direction. There’s no point having a motivated team if they are all heading in different directions. Equally there’s no point having an aligned team that clearly understand the desired direction, but aren’t motivated to get there. 

The catch is that we can’t motivate anyone directly. I can’t force someone to be motivated. And I can’t motivate someone just through personal enthusiasm in a hope that some of my motivation might rub off. Instead, as a leader I need to create an environment and conditions that align with and unlock the motivations of individuals. You can’t do that without understanding your people.

The research I’ve undertaken suggests there are six practices that outstanding leaders undertake - reflecting, inspiring, developing, connecting, delegating and clearing. If you’re interested in those, you can check out our online course at Leadership Today On-Demand that explores each of these in more detail. Chances are that there are two daily practices you are great at, two you are okay at, and two that you tend to neglect.

I believe that everyone is a born leader. That we all have a head start in some area of leadership, and that we will always need to work on other areas of leadership. As a leader you never stop learning.

And, finally, I believe that leadership needs to be sustainable. There’s not much point being a great leader for a month or two and then collapsing in a heap. We all need routines that allow for challenge, ongoing development and times of recovery.

So that is my philosophy of leadership, gained through research and experience. Can I encourage you to bullet point out your own philosophy of leadership? You can use mine as a starting point if you would like - it’s all in the show notes. But, better yet, why not just list yours out first. Knowing our philosophy of leadership shapes both the way we lead and how we interact with others.

If you have been following Leadership Today for a while, you will also know that my philosophy of leadership development is driven by your challenges and areas of interest. Our Leadership Today App is a great way to undertake your leadership development in your own time. Just go to your App Store and search for Leadership Today. There you can sign up for a monthly or annual subscription, or take our 30 day free trial. I encourage you to then take a look around and dip into the topics that are most interesting and relevant to you. Have a great week.

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Episode 119 - Rudeness at Work - Epidemic or a Few Bad Apples?

Summary

Many people claim there is an epidemic of rudeness in our organisations. Is that true, or is it a case of a few bad apples ruining the bunch?

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 119 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we find out whether there really is an epidemic of rudeness at work, or just a few bad apples ruining the bunch.

Some have described rudeness and incivility in our workplaces as an epidemic. I’m sure each of use can share anecdotal stories of angry and rude people. These examples do tend to stick in our minds. But is it really an epidemic?

In a study just published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers measured the level of rudeness between employees. The research included a diverse range of office, manufacturing and restaurant environments. On first look at the results, it’s easy to see why people refer to an epidemic of rudeness. In fact, the researchers found 70% of people experienced rudeness at work. That’s a pretty extraordinary figure. However, the same research demonstrated that rudeness was a characteristic in just 16% of relationships. So while many people observe and experience rudeness at work, it’s a much smaller percentage of people contributing to this rudeness. Their research suggests that a relatively small number of people being rude has a disproportionately large impact on others.

This finding makes a lot of sense. Even if you’re not on the receiving end of rudeness, it still impacts you. I vividly remember a senior leader who would routinely berate and belittle others both behind their back and to their face. He was extraordinarily rude. So even though I wasn’t on the receiving end, the rude behaviour had a dramatic impact on my assessment of the individual and also the organisation. There seemed to be little interest by other senior leaders in the issue or any attempt to tackle the behaviour. Ultimately people left the organisation while the rude leader remained. 

Given the toxic impact of rudeness, organisations need to have a zero tolerance for rude behaviours. And when I say ‘organisations’, I really mean leaders at all levels. Not only do leaders need to be role models of positive behaviours, they also need to confront negative and rude behaviours immediately. It could be that the person being rude doesn’t have a sense of their impact, so swift feedback may well help them to avoid sabotaging their own career.

However a great work environment isn’t just one that lacks rudeness. You don’t create a great workplace by just removing negative behaviours. We need to also encourage positive behaviours and interactions. We need to foster kindness, respect and inclusion.

So, an epidemic of rudeness? Probably not. However, the latest research clearly demonstrates that a few bad apples can definitely spoil an organisation.

References

Shannon G. Taylor, Lauren R. Locklear, Donald H. Kluemper, Xinxin Lu. Beyond targets and instigators: Examining workplace incivility in dyads and the moderating role of perceived incivility norms.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2021; DOI: 10.1037/apl0000910

Episode 118 - Resilience Starts with Leadership

Summary

Resilience programs are okay, but true resilience starts with leadership. We explore the research and what it means for leaders in this week’s episode.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 118 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we discuss why resilience starts with leadership.

I think there is a problem with a lot of resilience training that is undertaken in our organisations. It’s not the valuable skills and techniques that worry me - of course, we can all work on our resilience. However the undertone in most resilience training is that you are the problem - that it’s solely your responsibility to become more resilient. But sometimes it’s not the level of an individual’s resilience that’s the problem. Sometimes it’s the job, the work environment or the leadership that’s the problem. If we fix those external issues, that might reduce the amount of resilience people need to get through their day. 

I appreciate this is a balance. However I think in far too many organisations, we effectively blame the individual for not being resilient enough without first examining the work environment around them. Instead this approach is all too common - “if you’re struggling with the demands of your job and work environment, here’s a resilience program”.

So what’s an alternative approach?

Researchers Kyle Brykman and Danielle King found that leaders play an important role when it comes to resilience, particularly within teams. They studied 48 tech startup teams to identify what made a difference when it came to resilience and learning.

They found a key element in team resilience is having a leader who is focused on learning and not solely on short-term performance outcomes. The most effective leaders rewarded a learning mindset, even when the person made a mistake. They recognised that learning requires mistakes. So if something goes wrong, the focus from the best leaders is immediately on learning from the experience.

Where leaders encouraged their people to take risks, contribute suggestions and learn from the experience, teams ended up being more resilient and effective. They created a culture with openness, learning and a focus on development.

If you’re considering a resilience program, here are four steps you might start with instead:

1. Start by creating a work environment that is equal parts supportive and challenging. Help people to feel comfortable to speak up, but also to stretch themselves and occasionally fall short.

2. Examine your attitude to mistakes. What is the language used around mistakes? What are the first things we say when things don’t work out?

3. Ask people how they’re feeling. Radical, right? But think back over your career. How many managers ever asked you how you were feeling? Our feelings towards our work provide an insight into our emotional state and the level of resilience we are needing to demonstrate each day.

4. Remove frustrations. Frustrations soak up will power. As my own research has found, the more frequently you face frustrations at work, the greater the likelihood that you also experience significant negative work-related stress. Wanting to do a good job and being blocked by frustrations is terrible for people. No amount of resilience training can overcome the negative outcomes of unaddressed frustrations.

So, this week, remember that resilience starts with leadership. 

This month we have some very exciting news. Our Leadership Today video on-demand service is now available as an app on Android and Apple iOS devices. You can take all of our video content on the road using your phone or tablet. You can even switch between the web and any of your devices to pick up right where you left off and bring your watch lists with you. The app even lets you download content to watch offline. We have partnered with Vimeo to build this app  over the past few months and couldn’t be happier with the end product. To find out more go to our website at leadership.today or search for the Leadership Today app in Google Play or the Apple App Store.

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References

Kyle M. Brykman, Danielle D. King. A Resource Model of Team Resilience Capacity and Learning. Group & Organization Management, 2021; 105960112110180 DOI: 10.1177/10596011211018008

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210610173947.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Fbehavior+%28Behavior+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Episode 117 - Why 10,000 Hours of Practice Isn’t Perfect

Summary

In this episode we explore why 10,000 hours of practice isn’t perfect, and how we can make practice better.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 117 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we explore why 10,000 hours of practice isn’t perfect, and how we can make practice better.

“Practice makes perfect” - at least that’s how the old saying goes. In fact, you’ve probably also heard that 10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert or master. The 10,000 hours figure was popularised by one of my favourite writers, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. While the general principle is right - that practice is an essential part of becoming an expert - the exact number of hours is at best arbitrary. The quoted figure is based on the work of Alders Ericsson who observed that the most accomplished violin students he studied had put in, on average, 10,000 hours of practice by the time they were 20 years old. Importantly, 10,000 hours was an average rather than a minimum standard. Ericsson found that some violin students had practiced significantly more, and some significantly less, than 10,000 hours to achieve that level of expertise. Even at that point they still all had room to go to truly become experts.

And, as Ericsson noted, not all practice is created equal. Undertaking mechanical repetition - just doing the same thing over and over - doesn’t improve performance much at all. Undertaking deliberate practice - where we focus on making changes and trying new things to move us towards a goal - is much better. Not every hour of practice is equal.

We also start from different points. If I put 10,000 hours into practicing a 100 metre sprint at this point in my life, I’m still highly unlikely to reach a truly competitive level. I will improve, for sure. But I won’t become what would be considered to be an expert or master. 

To illustrate this point, cognitive psychologists Campitelli and Gobet, found that reaching a master level in chess took some people up to 16,120 hours of practice. For others the same level of accomplishment came after just 728 hours. There is a wide range and people clearly don’t start from the same point. When trying to come up with a figure, they estimated the amount of deliberate practice required to reach a master level is closer to an average of 3,000 hours. 

Recent research also shows that it’s not just what we do when we’re practicing that helps us to improve. A study published in Cell Reports just this week demonstrates that short rests while practicing improves performance. For example, they had participants practice a short piano note sequence for 10 seconds. When they introduced a 10 second rest period between practice periods, performance improved markedly. Their study showed that the brain effectively kept replaying compressed versions of the task during the break. In fact, the ‘neural replay’ was 20 times faster than the physical activity itself. They found this effect most pronounced when the rest periods were between periods of practice, rather than just at the end of the practice. It’s as if the brain is virtually rehearsing the finger movements extremely quickly in our heads when we provide the chance for our hands to rest. The whole article is a great read if you have an interest in neuroscience. As always, the reference is in the show notes.

So, whether you’re learning something yourself or teaching others, here are some tips:

1. Start with the ‘why’ of practice - what is the broader goal we are working towards? This helps people to focus and sustain effort.

2. Make the practice deliberate. What is the goal of today’s practice? What are we going to vary or try out? Don’t become stuck in mechanical repetition.

3. Learn from a range of people. Sometimes the way one person explains something may not work for you. It’s always good to get tips from a few people.

4. Take breaks. Give your brain a chance to rehearse and consolidate what you are learning.

5. Keep reading Malcolm Gladwell. Sure, the whole 10,000 hours thing was a bit overstated, but he is brilliant at extending your thinking into new areas in an entertaining way. Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Have a great week.

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References

Ethan R. Buch, Leonardo Claudino, Romain Quentin, Marlene Bönstrup, Leonardo G. Cohen. Consolidation of human skill linked to waking hippocampo-neocortical replay. Cell Reports, 2021; 35 (10): 109193 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109193

Campitelli, G. J., & Gobet, F. (2011). Deliberate practice: Necessary but not sufficient. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(5), 280-285. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721411421922

Gladwell, Malcolm, (2008). Outliers : the story of success. New York :Little, Brown and Company.

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Five - Ongoing Gratitude

We’ve made it to day five of the Growing Gratitude challenge. Over the week we’ve looked at the case for gratitude, then focused on people, nature and tailwinds. Today is about extending what we’ve learned beyond the week.

Clearly it’s best if we can turn gratitude from a state, something we experience from time to time, into a trait, an ongoing set of habits and way of looking at the world.

Now, I can provide you with a list of options, but you really need to reflect on what works best for you.

First, spend some time looking back over what we have covered across this week. Are there any activities that worked particularly well for you? How might you build those in to your daily or weekly routine?

Here are a few additional ideas to try:

Three gratitudes - this one is simple and the research shows that even 21 days has a positive impact on our mood and outlook. All it involves is writing down three new things each day that you are grateful for. You can use a notes app on your phone or a notebook - whatever works best for you. The challenge is thinking of three new things each day - particularly over that first week. But, over time, you will find that you notice positive things to be grateful for - that you change your perspective about that ratio of positive to negative in your life to tilt it more towards the positive. 

Daily exercise. Can I suggest that if you struggle with exercise, you mix things up a bit. Aim for something you enjoy and pair exercise up with that. Perhaps you love a particular podcast - why not listen to the podcast while going for a walk? Maybe there’s a friend you like spending time with - why not enlist them to go for a walk or a quick work out together? And aim for the morning if you can. I recently profiled some research that suggests we are even less likely to exercise after a challenging and stressful day. So, instead, aim for the morning, even if it means going to bed a little earlier to then wake up earlier.

Hang out with positive people. Draw around you people who tend to be grateful, kind and generous. It will inspire you to focus more on the positives.

Write a quick thank you note each day. By way of example, we purchase coffee machine pods from a small business that roast their own coffee and put them in biodegradable pods and packaging. I’ve been a customer for three years and we love their products. So I just wrote them a short email to let them know how much we appreciate their products and business, and to say thank you. It really made their day and only took me one minute. Imagine if we did something like that each day.

Thank you for joining me on this challenge - I hope you found it helpful. Can I encourage you to share it with others? Perhaps your kind act today will be to share the word and get others to join you in focusing more on gratitude. Have a great week.

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Four - Tailwinds

It’s day four of the growing gratitude challenge. 

As human beings we have a natural tendency to become caught up with the negatives and challenges in life. Researchers Gilovich and Davidai describe this as the headwinds/tailwinds asymmetry - what they characterise as a tendency to focus far more on barriers than on blessings. This can lead to a sense of unfairness - a perception that we have it harder than most other people. It also leads us to underestimate the benefits we have received that have contributed to positive outcomes in our lives. This tendency runs counter to a sense of gratitude. It’s very difficult to feel grateful at the same time as feeling like you’ve had it tougher than most people. But that’s exactly why gratitude can be so helpful - we can use gratitude to rebalance the asymmetry.

So today we are focusing on the tailwinds in our life - those things that have helped to bring us forward. We’re also reflecting on the headwinds that others face that perhaps don’t impact on us. 

It’s interesting how the working definition around privilege is changing. We used to think about privilege as having an advantage - and that’s something that most people find hard to accept. After all, I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today - it’s not fair to say I’m privileged is it? But another way of thinking about privilege is the absence of impediments. As a white male growing up in a middle class household, I wouldn’t necessarily think of my life as privileged. But as I become aware of the barriers and challenges others have faced by virtue of their ethnicity or gender or just the household they were born into, it’s easier for me to see the relative lack of headwinds I have experienced. My tailwinds have far exceed the headwinds I have experienced.

My mother provided me with great advice - if you’re ever feeling down, look for someone else to help.

I recall an interview with Michael J Fox, the actor who received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease as a young adult while at the peak of his acting career. During the interview he was asked if he ever felt sorry for himself. Michael replied that there was a long list of people to feel sorry for, and that his name wasn’t on it. 

Again, this isn’t about being overly positive or ignoring the hard times, rather it’s about putting those hard times into perspective and also seeking to help others through their challenges.

I think it’s also helpful to understand others’ experiences. A great challenge is to think of who, in your community, is least like you in terms of their circumstances and background. For me, it might be the Iranian asylum seeker, or the homeless person I see in the city. For a period of time I set myself a challenge to stop whenever I saw someone homeless and ask if I could buy them something - a coffee or a snack or maybe some lunch. Yes - it was inconvenient. In fact, on some occasions, I was really tempted to cross to the other side of the street. But I connected with some amazing people whose life was really different to mine, but were generous with their time and allowed me to appreciate how I might be able to help them. I encourage you to do the same, and then find some way to connect with that person and just find out more about their story. 

Today in your workbook, I’d like you to:

List the tailwinds in your life. What have been the circumstances that have helped you to progress and become the person you are today?

Acknowledge the headwinds. What are you finding more challenging and what is holding you back?

What might you do today to take control when it comes to headwinds? You might not be able to remove the headwind altogether, but how might you reduce the negative impact of headwinds?

Who is that person that is least like you in terms of their circumstances and background? How might you connect with them today to learn more about their story? Perhaps you can also offer to help them in some meaningful way.

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Three - Nature

Welcome to day three of the growing gratitude challenge. 

We’ve long known about the benefits of exercise, but there’s also evidence of increased positive outcomes by just being in nature. Peer reviewed research studies have found that green areas, parks and forests are particularly beneficial. There’s something about greenery and foliage which helps. The studies have found that increased time in nature can elevate your mood, reduce stress, increase creativity, boost memory, build team cohesion, help physical health and even reduce mental illness. These studies are careful to control for things like over-crowding and socio-economic status. There’s something special about nature.

But there’s a difference to being in nature and actually taking time to be grateful for the experience of being in nature. 

Today’s challenge is pretty simple. I’m just asking you to take some time in nature to reflect and appreciate what you have, even in your immediate area. That might involve going for a walk, sitting on a park bench, or dusting off that bicycle to go for a ride. Perhaps the weather is conspiring against you. If that’s the case, then even taking time to look out a window at nature can help. If you can’t do that from your workplace or home, perhaps go for a quick drive to somewhere you can observe nature. 

In your workbooks you can write down what you are noticing and how it is making you feel. Also, reflect on your overall mood and positivity. It’s likely you will start to see some changes even after three days of focusing on gratitude.

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Two - People

Day two of the Growing Gratitude challenge is focusing on people.

It’s helpful to think about what the purpose of gratitude might be. Part of the function of gratitude is to form new social connections and build existing connections. Gratitude is like glue in relationships - helping to strengthen connections and support. Gratitude is often focused towards people - people we value and who have helped us in some tangible way. What we should aim for is to be someone that others can be grateful for - to pay it forward.

So there are three things that we can focus on when it comes to gratitude and people. We can be grateful for people - that gratitude will help us. We can express that gratitude to people - that will help us and them. And we can undertake acts of kindness for others. That will help others to be grateful for us, and will help us in the process. 

Some research that I often quote involved a workplace where people were asked to perform kind acts for others. The kind acts were definitely appreciated by those on the receiving end. But what is most striking in this research is that those undertaking acts of kindness rated their life satisfaction and job satisfaction higher a full month after the intervention finished. Being kind to others had a lasting impact on those undertaking the kind act. In addition, those on the receiving end of kind acts also tended to pay that kindness forward to others. The research really confirms what we would hope to be true - that kindness multiplies and has lasting impacts.

Today I’m challenging you, not just to spend some time reflecting, but to take action.

First, think about people in your life for whom you are grateful. List as many names as you can. 

Next, spend 15 minutes sending people quick notes of appreciation and gratitude. It could be an email or a text, or you might even call someone up. It might even mean reconnecting with someone from years ago that you have really appreciated but potentially never thanked.

This next one might be challenging, but today I’d like you to express appreciation to a stranger. It might be the person who made your coffee, or the person who packed your bag at the supermarket, or the delivery driver that dropped off a package. Look out for an opportunity to appreciate someone and let them know.

And, finally, undertake a kind act for someone. It might be to deliver a small gift or perhaps it’s helping someone out.

Across the day, monitor your mood and emotions. Think about the impact of these acts of appreciation on you and others.

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day One - The Case for Gratitude

Welcome to day one of the growing gratitude challenge. 

So why, as leaders, would we spend a week focusing on gratitude? To answer that, we need to think about what gratitude is.

From a psychological perspective, it’s best to think of gratitude as having two elements. The first element is recognising the good things in our life. Most people would agree with that definition. The second element though is often overlooked, and that is appreciating that many of these good things are due to other people and factors other than ourselves. Much of what we can be grateful for in life is a gift from others rather than a reward for our own actions. Gratitude only really makes sense in the context of community - whether that’s the community around you at work, where you study, where you live, or with your family and friends.

Gratitude is both an emotional state and an ongoing trait or disposition. We can feel gratitude in a moment. But we can also develop a grateful outlook to our life. We can actively seek out things to be grateful for through daily practices. Equally, we can seek out things to be disappointed or negative about. Much of gratitude is in the outlook we bring and where we choose to focus our attention and efforts.

So why does gratitude matter? The research into gratitude outlines a range of benefits. For the individual the benefits of gratitude range from improved physical and mental health, elevated mood and happiness, increased life satisfaction, and reduced burnout. By way of example, patients recovering from heart failure who completed a gratitude journal had reduced signs of inflammation after an 8 week period. Other research showed people reported better and longer sleep, and improved overall physical health by increasing their practice of gratitude.

For groups and organisations, research has demonstrated that gratitude can increase generosity and kindness, while helping to build stronger relationships and improving work climate. Gratitude is like the glue for society that binds people together. If someone is generous towards you, you’re likely to feel grateful and, in turn, do something nice back for them or for someone else. Gratitude multiplies.

So on day one of this challenge, I would like you to think about the current balance of negative and positive inputs into your life at the moment. What are you feeding yourself? Where are you focusing your attention? 

By way of example, I recently found myself becoming absorbed in true crime documentaries on Netflix. Before long, the world around me seemed to be filled with art thieves and serial killers. I had let the ratio of negative to positive inputs become out of balance, and it changed my outlook on the world. So we start this challenge with two simple reflections:

What people, activities or habits feed your disappointment or discouragement? What is bringing you down at the moment?

What people, activities or habits feed your gratitude? What is elevating you up at the moment?

Note down your thoughts in your workbook. 

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Growing Gratitude Challenge - Introduction

Hi everyone. The Leadership Today podcast is going to be a little different over the next week as we undertake what I have called the Growing Gratitude Five Day Challenge.

It’s all too easy in the busy-ness of life to become caught up in the negatives - the obstacles, complaints and risks. We’re hard wired to identify threats. However, this obsession with the negatives in life comes at a cost. The Growing Gratitude challenge is all about restoring some balance and capitalising on the benefits that a more positive mindset brings. This isn’t some overly-optimistic wishful thinking - it’s about bringing an evidence-based approach to increasing our performance and well-being through gratitude.

The challenge is running live from 14th to 18th June 2021 at Leadership Today On-Demand and via the Leadership Today podcast.

Each morning starts with an introduction to the challenge for that day. These are backed up by a workbook that includes a range of activities. You can download the workbook via our website - leadership.today. Links are in the show notes.

I’m looking forward to working with you across the week.

Download the workbook at Leadership Today or via Leadership Today On-Demand

Episode 116 - Exercise Reduces Stress and Stress Reduces Exercise

Summary

Are you less interested in exercise after a hard day at work even though you know it will make you feel better? You’re not alone. And research has discovered why.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 116 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we’re looking at why a stressful day at work makes us even less likely to exercise, despite that being exactly what we need. 

If you have a stressful job chances are you already know that exercise will help. Exercise is a great antidote for stress. Exercise effectively burns through stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. In addition, exercise can stimulate production of endorphins which boost our mood and also reduce pain. 

But perhaps you have also had this experience: It has been a hard day at work. You know that a quick visit to the gym or walk will make you feel better. But you’re even less motivated than usual to exercise. You know exercise will help you to feel better, but still you don’t do it.

Recent research suggests that the design of our job can have an impact not just on our stress levels at work, but also on the actions we take outside of work to reduce stress. It turns out that the more demanding our day at work, the less likely we are to exercise.

The research involved setting up a call-centre environment where the demands of the job and level of individual control could be varied. The researchers initially set up two versions of a call-centre job - one with greater demands and one with lesser demands placed on the individual. After their shift, participants were then invited to exercise. Those with the more demanding versions of the job undertook less exercise. Having just experienced a demanding job reduced the exercise they would have otherwise have undertaken.

Researchers then repeated the experiment, but this time some participants were allowed greater freedom and control over the job. They found initial evidence that greater autonomy and freedom positively impacted the individual’s sense of control outside of the job, which in turn could influence the amount of exercise they chose to undertake.

So it appears that job characteristics such as demands and autonomy impact exercise. Our work spills over into the rest of our life.

However, there are things we can do to help change this pattern.

1. Exercise at the start of the day - this will help to buffer you against stress and also increase sense of control

2. Make exercise a habit not a choice - remove obstacles to exercise by laying out your gym clothes the night before

3. Focus on how you will feel at the end - starting exercise can be painful, but you almost always feel great after a workout - focus on that feeling to get you over the initial hump

4. Vary the demand level in your job and build in breaks - chronic stress is terrible for us, so mix up your day to include breaks and recovery time

So this week, get moving even when you don’t feel like it. Focus on the benefits and remove the obstacles. Have a great week.

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Reference

Abdel Hadi, S., Mojzisch, A., Parker, S. L., & Häusser, J. A. (2021). Experimental evidence for the effects of job demands and job control on physical activity after work. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(1), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000333

Episode 115 - Eight Steps to Effective Delegation

Summary

This week we explore how showing the right amount of emotion can improve the impact you have on others and their willingness to invest in your ideas.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 115 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we’re exploring eight steps to effective delegation.

There are a whole host of reasons why people don’t delegate. Perhaps they are worried about quality of the results. Or they just don’t have the time to delegate. Many have had bad experiences with delegation going wrong in the past. However, effective delegation is at the core of great leadership. The rate we delegate sets the pace at which we progress.

Let’s start by with five initial questions to answer before you even start delegating:

1. Does it need to be done? Organisations are generally great at starting new things and terrible at shutting down old things. So before you even delegate, consider whether you can eliminate the task altogether.

2. Does it need to be done by me? There are some things which you can’t fully delegate. This can include financial approval limits or performance management accountabilities. But, truth be told, you can probably delegate more responsibilities than you expect.

3. Does someone else have capacity? If there is no one with capacity to delegate to, then you either need to free up capacity or keep doing it yourself. Rather than just stopping here, I encourage you to work with each of your people to make sure they are focusing on the right things and have the resources they need to be efficient. This might just free up the capacity that you need to delegate.

4. Does someone else have capability? It could be that no one in your team currently has the skills required to take on the accountability you’re seeking to delegate. That’s not necessarily a reason to stop, but rather speaks to the fifth initial question.

5. Do I have the capacity to develop their capability? You may think you don’t have sufficient time to train someone up to your standard. But, by way of example, let’s take an accountability that you currently invest 30 minutes a week into. Across a year that is around 24 hours. So, even if it takes you an entire day of concerted effort to train that person up and review their work, you’re still a full two days ahead in the first year, and then three days ahead every subsequent year. Delegation is an investment.

So hopefully you’ve worked through these initial questions and you’re still keen to delegate. Here are eight simple steps to follow to make that delegation work as well as possible.

1. Match their interests. Delegation is so much more effective if you match the interests of the person you are delegating to. Help them to answer “why me?” when you delegate. Perhaps the new accountability aligns with their development plan. Or perhaps you’ve noticed a skill that they can apply in a new way. Whatever it is, help the person to see how this opportunity aligns with their interests.

2. Detail the desired outcomes. It’s really helpful for people to see clearly what you’re after as an end result. That could mean providing an example of a report or other output. Or, if it’s delegating attendance at a meeting, you might invite that person along to a few meetings first with you so they can see what is expected.

3. Outline why this work matters. People really appreciate knowing what their work is contributing to. Understanding the broader purpose of what you are delegating also helps them to make better decisions about their approach to the new accountability.

4. Detail the support available and check-in points. Delegation requires support. One of the traps I fell into when first delegating work was not setting up check-in points. As a result, a week goes by, I haven’t heard anything about how things are progressing, so I drop by the person’s desk to see how it is going. Then a week later I do the same thing again. The problem being that checking in that way feels a lot like micro-management and a lack of trust. How different it is to establish check-in points up front in consultation with the person you’re delegating to. Then the check-ins don’t feel like micro-management, rather they feel like support.

5. Outline the constraints. A risk when we delegate is that the person tries to achieve an outcome exactly the same way we did it. Often the person being delegated to feels like there are more constraints on the activity than there actually are. Occasionally people may not recognise an actual constraint and step outside of what is possible. Either way, we need to let people know what limits are in place.

6. Review what has been agreed. When you ask someone “do you have any questions?”, 99% of the time they will say “no” even if they do have questions. Why? Because they are concerned that having a question might reflect badly on them or badly on you. Badly on them because they clearly didn’t understand, and badly on you because you didn’t explain it well enough. So they just say “no - no questions here”. Instead, you could ask “what questions to you have?”. That sets an expectation that they will have questions. Then ask them to describe what it is that they are delivering in their own words - not as a test, but rather to confirm clarity all round.

7. Provide direction, encouragement and check-in as agreed. Basically, follow through on what you said you would do. A great way to do this is simply to set aside 15 minutes each week at a particular time to catch up about what has been delegated. That way the person can store up any questions or concerns. Maybe you don’t need the catch up every time, but it is really helpful for the person when they do need it.

8. Review learnings and celebrate success. People often underestimate just how much they have learned and developed. So when we delegate, it is great to celebrate the person successfully taking on that new responsibility.

I hope you found that approach to delegation helpful. All the steps are detailed in the show notes which you can access at our website Leadership.Today - and while you are there, why not sign up for our upcoming webinar called Delegation Without the Drama on the 27th or 28th of May depending on where you are in the world. There’s a link to register in the show notes. Have a great week.

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Episode 114 - Who Said Showing Emotion Doesn’t Pay?

Summary

This week we explore how showing the right amount of emotion can improve the impact you have on others and their willingness to invest in your ideas.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 114 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how showing the right amount of emotion can improve the impact you have on others and their willingness to invest in your ideas.

A common misunderstanding of Emotional Intelligence is that it’s all about holding back our emotions. This is certainly a part of Emotional Intelligence. After all, yelling at someone in the lunch room at work for not putting their cup in the dishwasher is probably not going to win you an employee of the month award. But Emotional Intelligence is not just about holding back emotions that might have a negative impact on others. It’s also about harnessing our emotions to have a more positive impact on others. Our ability to understand our own emotional state and how to manage our emotions is crucial, as is being able to empathise with others and build effective relationships. The goal of building Emotional Intelligence isn’t to become emotion-less. Rather it’s to acknowledge and use our emotions to improve our impact and performance.

However, showing too much emotion can also be off putting to others. We need to be able to read the situation. It ends up being the classic Goldilocks scenario, where we need to demonstrate enough, but not too much, emotion.

This has been backed up by a recent study. Researchers used facial analysis software to scan through around 500 Kickstarter promotional videos. Kickstarter is a platform that allows people to gain funding for their prototype ideas with people committing funds to buy the product, but only being charged once the product is produced and shipped. Sometimes there’s enough funding to go ahead, and sometimes there isn’t. It was relatively easy for researchers to measure the effectiveness of each Kickstarter campaign through the funding it received. Meanwhile, the facial analysis software examined each frame of every pitch video to determine the emotion being demonstrated. 

What the study found was fascinating. The pitches that included facial expressions moving through a range of happiness, anger, sadness and fear ended up being more successful in terms of funding. It seems like the range of facial expressions and the emotions they convey has a positive impact on those choosing to invest or walk away. 

Their qualitative analysis showed that effective pitches involved initial signs of happiness as the entrepreneur introduced themselves, followed by anger to demonstrate their determination to overcome a problem, followed then by fear as they talked about the risk and challenge.

Those who were less successful tended to use a more consistent emotional expression - perhaps smiling the whole way through or demonstrating little overt emotion. 

There are limits to this approach though. Showing too much of one emotion too often though was associated with less funding received. 

So this week, feel free to show a little more emotion at work. Express your hope for the future, your determination to succeed, your excitement at working with your colleagues. Above all though - be yourself and harness your emotions. And while we’re talking about improving your leadership, just a reminder that we have an upcoming webinar called Delegation Without the Drama on the 27th or 28th of May depending on where you are in the world. There’s a link to register in the show notes. Have a great week.

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Reference

Benjamin J. Warnick, Blakley C. Davis, Thomas H. Allison, Aaron H. Anglin. Express yourself: Facial expression of happiness, anger, fear, and sadness in funding pitches. Journal of Business Venturing, 2021; 36 (4): 106109 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2021.106109

Episode 113 - Leading Remote and Hybrid Teams with Gina McCredie

The use of remote and hybrid teams has accelerated over the past year. But does this way of working actually work? What might be some of the benefits and drawbacks? And how do we best lead remote and hybrid teams? This week we're joined by Gina McCredie, an organisational psychologist who founded Impactful Work - working with individuals, teams and organisations to tackle challenges just like this.

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Episode 112 - Is Smartphone Use Killing Your Dreams?

Summary

It turns out that smartphone use is associated with shorter-term thinking and a focus on quick wins. The more you use your smartphone, the less likely you are to pursue longer term achievement of bigger goals. So this week we ask the question - Is your smartphone killing your dreams?

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 112 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we’re looking at whether your smartphone is killing your dreams. Pretty dramatic.

I’ve picked up my smartphone 32 times already today. Now, how do I know that? Because pickup number 32 was to check how many pickups I had used today. My average pickups per day is 86. I have no idea if that’s good or bad, or how you might compare. Either way, smartphones have become an integral part of how we work, how we socialise and how we relax. There are few parts of our lives that smartphones haven’t managed to invade.

You might suspect that all that smartphone use is making us more reactive and impulsive. That ‘ding’ or vibration from your pocket can easily steal your attention, if only for a split second. Our brains are notoriously bad at handling this. Once something has grabbed our attention, it takes a while to get back to what we were initially focusing on.

Recent research shows that those who spend more time on their smartphones also tend towards chasing smaller and more immediate rewards. They tend to steer away from longer-term rewards that require greater effort. They are more impulsive. This effect is particularly pronounced for those who use gaming and social media apps.

Is smartphone use causing this impulsivity, or is smartphone use a measure of impulsivity? It’s hard to say and look it probably goes both ways. 

Now, you might say, I’ve heard social media apps are addictive, so maybe it’s not my fault. It’s definitely a mixed picture when you look at the research, but the most recent articles suggest it’s unlikely that social media apps are addictive. They are distracting, absolutely. They fight for your attention, for sure. But they’re not truly addictive in the way that cigarettes might be, or gambling or drinking might be for some.

Instead, this research suggests that smartphone use and impulsive decision making go hand in hand. When we take a short-term focus we can end up missing out. Our smartphone can be a diversion for our time, but it can also be a diversion from our goals.

You can use the screen time data on your smartphone as a measure of your impulsiveness. Take a look now - see what you have been up to over the past week. Greater discipline with your smartphone use could well extend into other areas of your life. Even if the smartphone isn’t making you more impulsive, it’s a great way to tackle your impulsiveness.

Part of the value we bring as leaders is a long-term focus. It’s our ability to look beyond what’s immediately in front of us to the emerging opportunities and threats that helps us to add value to those we lead. In order to take a longer-term view, we really need to understand what an impulse is and how we can fight it. An impulse is effectively an urge - something in the moment that compels us to do something. An impulse can be physical, mental or emotional, or a combination of all three. Here are a few tips for dealing with those impulses:

1. Be aware of the impulse - acknowledge it. It’s the classic “name it to tame it” approach. Acknowledge that you’re really tempted to pick up your phone and dive into whatever distracting app is your preference. That will help you to avoid the impulse.

2. Ride it out. This applies to many psychological challenges that we face. If you’ve tried to quit smoking, no doubt you were taught this technique. And why not? It works really well. In the moment it feels like an impulse is just going to build and build and build, so we may as well just give in. But there will come a point where any impulse passes. Ride that wave with a confidence that it will become less of a challenge over time.

3. Fix it at the source. Use screen time and other apps to limit phone usage. Turn off notifications that distract. Use the technology to help you.

4. Be more intentional. I’ve spoken before about planning for self-control. Will power in the moment is notoriously bad. Instead, we need to plan for the times when these impulsive time wasters tempt us the most. So, for example, in the evening I read books on a Kindle rather than on my iPad. Not only is it far easier on my eyes, there’s absolutely nothing on that Kindle to distract me, except perhaps another book.

5. Change your mindset. It can often feel that avoiding an impulse is losing or missing out. Instead, it is something you should reward yourself for. Watch how your ability think longer-term increases, and as those distractions become less distracting - reward yourself for the progress you’re making.

So this week, take a quick look at your smartphone screen time, and the extent to which your goals and dreams have become smaller. 

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References

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201118141844.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Fsocial_psychology+%28Social+Psychology+News+--+ScienceDaily%29 

K. Thomson, S. C. Hunter, S. H. Butler, D. J. Robertson. Social media ‘addiction’: The absence of an attentional bias to social media stimuli. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2021; DOI: 10.1556/2006.2021.00011

Episode 111 - Can You Overdose on Mindfulness?

Summary

Is becoming more mindful automatically better for us and our well-being? And does being more mindful help those around us? The research is really clear - more mindfulness is not always better. Thankfully we also know how to avoid these mindfulness downsides. 

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 111 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore whether it’s possible to overdose on mindfulness.

Mindfulness has seen dramatically increased popularity in recent years, particularly within Western organisations. And why not? Mindfulness has repeatedly demonstrated lots of personal benefits for individuals. As a result, mindfulness almost automatically appears in leadership development training with the typical recommendation being that people should just do more. 

But can you have too much of a good thing? Let’s take optimism and curiosity as an example. Both are generally positive. However the research shows us that you can absolutely be too optimistic and you can also be too curious. Not only can having too much optimism and curiosity have negative impacts for the individual, it can also have negative impacts on those around them. Does mindfulness demonstrate a similar pattern? And does mindfulness encourage people to help others more?

It’s important to appreciate that mindfulness is not one thing, so let’s take a look at some of the research around specific types of mindfulness. 

There’s mindful attention which focuses on mind–body awareness and perception of what is going on for us mentally and physically in the moment. The research shows that mindful attention is positive up to a point, but too much can lead to worse mental health outcomes. As the researcher Amit Bernstein highlights, this includes increased rates of depression, anxiety, dissociation, and substance abuse, along with decreased ability to tolerate pain. These negative outcomes can be somewhat decreased when the individual is being non-judgemental and non-reactive. Mindful attention works best when we are observing rather than responding. But that’s easier said than done.

Research demonstrates that mindful meditation can help increase the amount and depth of sleep up to a point. But once people get beyond around 30 minutes of mindful meditation a day, people actually demonstrated decreased quality of sleep in both depth and amount.

Then there’s mindful emotion regulation where we seek to gain greater control over our emotions, increase our emotional regulation and accept what we are experiencing. Again, this can have lots of positive impacts, but in excess research demonstrates it can lead to emotional blunting - where people experience fewer positive and fewer negative emotions. As a results life can become flat and dull.

It is better to think of mindfulness like many other things in psychology as having an inverted U relationship to well-being. Up to a point mindfulness can absolutely increase wellbeing. But as someone continues to increase the amount of mindfulness, there will be a point where well-being actually declines.

So for the individual you can have too much of a good thing. But what about the impact on others? What’s the impact of mindfulness on what us psychologists call ‘pro-social behaviour’ - effectively, doing good things for other people.

Research about to be published in the journal of Psychological Science shows that mindfulness can make some people more selfish - that is, they do fewer good things for others than they otherwise would have as a result of mindfulness. This is the case for those participants who had more of an independent outlook to start with. Increased mindfulness for those who tend to be more independent resulted in them undertaking fewer prosocial behaviours than a control group - mindfulness resulted in them becoming even more independent in their actions. However, for those who viewed themselves as interdependent, mindfulness increased prosocial behaviour. When it comes to mindfulness, it’s important to recognise where you start and the outlook you bring.

Let’s put all of this in a cultural context. Most mindfulness practices that are being used in organisational settings have been derived from East Asian and particularly Buddhist traditions. In East Asian cultures people tend to be more interdependent in their outlook - on average, people tend to focus more on others and their contribution to a broader society rather than on themselves. The recent research we just explored suggests that in these cultures mindfulness will increase this focus on others, and lead to greater prosocial behaviours. In Western countries however people tend to be more independent in their outlook. Mindfulness may increase that independent focus and reduce the amount of prosocial behaviour that otherwise would have been demonstrated. There is a risk when we rip a practice like mindfulness out of its cultural and spiritual context hoping to just get the upside impact. So in our Western business context should we abandon mindfulness altogether?

It’s true that becoming more mindful is not automatically better for individuals and those around them. It depends both how the mindfulness is set up and how self-aware and mindful the individual already is. It’s perhaps better to think of mindfulness in the way we think about exercise and sleep. Clearly exercise and sleep are both helpful and necessary for wellbeing and health. But just telling everyone to do an hour more exercise a day, or to sleep two hours longer every night is not great advice. You can end up having too much exercise and too much sleep. It all depends on what they the individual is currently doing.

The research by Poulin, Ministero, Gabriel, Morrison and Naidu that I quoted earlier shows that you can vary the outcomes of mindfulness by initially increasing people’s interest in others. When the researchers primed people for interdependence, they saw a 40% increase in the likelihood of volunteering for a not for profit organisation following mindfulness. When people were primed for independence, they were 33% less likely to volunteer after some mindfulness practice.

At work, we can help people appreciate the role they play in building an interdependent culture. As leaders, we can help our people to think of the role they and the organisation play in their community.  If we do this, practices such as mindfulness are more likely to then lead to greater individual and social outcomes.

When it comes to mindfulness, it’s important to recognise we all start from a different base. More is not always better. When we are being mindful, we need to not just focus on ourselves, but also on how we can be a benefit to others.

As always, the research I have referred to is in the show notes with a big thanks to ScienceDaily who continue to serve up great research in my email inbox each day. Have a great week as you look after yourself and others.

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Research

Michael Poulin, Lauren Ministero, Shira Gabriel, Carrie Morrison, Esha Naidu. Minding your own business? Mindfulness decreases prosocial behavior for those with independent self-construals. Psychological Science (forthcoming), 2021 DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/xhyua

University at Buffalo. "Mindfulness can make you selfish: A pioneering new study examines the social effects of mindfulness." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 April 2021. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210414100147.htm

Willoughby B Britton Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way. Current Opinion in Psychology 2019, 28:159–165  https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/sites/britton-lab/files/images/Britton_2019_Can%20mindfulness%20be%20too%20much%20of%20a%20good%20thing.pdf

Episode 110 - Productive Failure

Summary

Is it possible we are approaching learning and development the wrong way? What if we allow people to fail early before we even teach them the basics? This week we explore research around the counterintuitive idea of productive failure.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 110 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore research around the counterintuitive idea of productive failure.

How do you think about failure? For most people, failure is something to be avoided at all costs. However, failure and mistakes are usually a critical part of learning. In fact, if we want to learn and develop, we probably need more productive failure. Failure that pushes us forward and leaves us better off.

I know that seems counterintuitive, so let’s look at some research that illustrates the point.

How do we normally teach people something new? Well, in schools, universities and colleges around the world the process usually goes like this. First we walkthrough the concept and provide an example. Then we give people a chance to apply what they have learned through a practical activity. Then we provide feedback to people based on how they performed during the activity. Learning complete. And we’ve reduced the likelihood of failure in the practical activity by making sure people understand the theory first. But what if we varied the order of those elements in the learning process? 

Researchers explored precisely that using students in an undergraduate biology course. Some students followed the traditional method I just outlined. However, the researchers also took some students through a very different process. In that instance they started with an activity where students could problem solve without instruction. The students then received feedback about how they went. And, finally, there was a walkthrough of a model expert approach to explain the concepts. Basically this approach forced students to get things wrong and receive feedback early. The students had almost no chance of getting the initial activity 100% right. That provided a rich opportunity for feedback. After all, everyone was likely to have failed the activity in some way. Following that feedback, the students were primed to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts at play in the activity. But did this alternative approach work?

It turned out that the students following the non-traditional approach of productive failure had an average result that was five percentage points higher than the group using the typical approach. That’s pretty impressive. However, the most impressive increases came for students who typically struggled to learn. Those students saw even greater increases in their scores as a result of being allowed to productively fail, receive feedback, and then understand the theory.

So, how does your workplace view failure? What kind of reaction do people receive when they get things wrong? How many opportunities are there for your people to safely, but productively, fail while learning something new? Maybe it’s time to change the way we think about failure and how we develop our people. 

Well I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, the research referenced in this episode is in the show notes. And we’ve got a really exciting opportunity for groups to learn on our Leadership Today On-Demand platform. If you do want to try that out with a group just get in contact at our website www.leadership.today or send an email to info@leadership.today for more information. I look forward to signing up some more people for a trial and I will see you next week.

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Research

Sunita G. Chowrira, Karen M. Smith, Patrick J. Dubois & Ido Roll (2019) DIY productive failure: boosting performance in a large undergraduate biology course. npj Science of Learning volume 4, Article number: 1

Episode 109 - The Single Best Question to Build Community

Summary

Community really matters, but can be hard to build when we’re in a hurry. In this episode we discuss the single best question to build community (at least the best I’ve come across!).

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 109 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we discuss the single best question to build community.

I’ve spoken before about five things research indicates are difficult to build when we’re not all in the same place at the same time. They are:

1. Community

2. Collaboration

3. Culture

4. Climate

5. Capability

Today we’re focusing on the first one - community. Building community in our teams and organisations is extremely important, both from an employee experience perspective, but also for performance. This is true whether you are currently working remotely, are back in the office or, more likely, some mix of the two. 

The catch now is that we are often needing to build community and connection at speed. Research shows us that the shift to online meetings has resulted in more meetings with more participants per meeting, but shorter meeting times. You’re also far less likely to have all of your team in the same place at the same time, so the opportunities to build connections are fewer and further in between. We therefore need to be intentional about building community. We can no longer leave such a central part of workplace culture to chance now that the proverbial water-cooler discussions have all but disappeared.

Community is about what we have in common - that’s where the word comes from. It’s about shared characteristics, beliefs and interests. We build community when people share things about themselves with each other. As leaders, we want to give people a chance to learn what they have in common. This can be challenging though. We want people to be personal, but also to feel safe. We don’t want people to feel as if they’re being forced to share too much at work. But it also needs to be inclusive. If you ask people to talk about their children or a favourite pet, what happens for the people who have neither? 

I was working with a team recently, and one of the members shared about how hard it was in that team if you weren’t into sport, as most of the non-work conversations would revolve around football. What was a well intentioned effort to build community by talking about something non-work related left several team members feeling out of place.

As a result, I’m sure you have come across some great ‘get to know you’ questions. Here are a few that I think are quite good:

• What career did you want to have when you were a child?

• What's one thing about you that surprises people?

• What’s something you want to become an expert in?

• What qualities do you value in friends?

As I said, these are all quite good questions, but you can only ask them once. If you keep asking about dream jobs as a child people will check out of the conversation, or think that you’re not listening to them in the first place.

Recently I came across what I think is the single best question to build community. As is often the case, it’s not my idea - a participant shared it during a workshop about building trust in a remote context.

In every team meeting they would ask each person to provide a five star recommendation. What is one thing that they would recommend to others? Now, importantly, the recommendation can be for anything. It can be a recipe, a car, an event, a restaurant, some music, a book, a holiday destination, a product - the options are almost endless. The question works so well because it’s 100% inclusive, and it’s what I would call evergreen - you can ask it every week and people can come up with something new to recommend. Plus, it’s interesting to hear people answer the question. After all, who doesn’t love a new five star recommendation?

So - remember the question - What is your five star recommendation? I would love to hear how you go using it in an upcoming meeting - I’m planning to use it on Monday.

Speaking of five star recommendations, if you’re enjoying the podcast, how about providing a rating and review? It really does make a difference in helping people to find the podcast. 

If this episode interested you, then our upcoming webinar on (Re)Building Trust will also be worth joining. Go to the Leadership.Today website to sign up, or you can watch a recording after 19th March via Leadership Today On-Demand. There are links in the show notes. Have a great week.

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Episode 108 - Three Keys to Dealing with Defensiveness

Summary

This week we explore three keys to dealing with defensiveness.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 108 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore three keys to dealing with defensiveness.

I am sure, like me, that you have needed to work with a defensive person before. Perhaps they just don’t want to hear some feedback that is being provided. Or they quickly blame others when something goes wrong. Maybe they are resistant to new initiatives and changes. All of this defensiveness can make a leader either escalate things or just try to ignore the person.

The most important thing to appreciate is that defensiveness is functional. It serves a purpose. When we have done something wrong, defensiveness is an effort to minimise the perceived harm to ourselves and others. How does that work? Well, let’s say you come to me with a problem that I have caused. I might defensively respond that it is no big deal. That’s because I genuinely hope that it is no big deal. I’m even trying to convince myself that it’s no big deal. So I argue back, resist accepting feedback, misrepresent what happened, or even misremember what happened. That’s right - we can be so defensive that we actually change our memories of the event to protect ourselves. While those responses may protect me in the short term, it doesn’t change that what I have done may indeed be a big deal.

Research demonstrates that defensiveness has a broad range of negative impacts. Team unity and collaboration suffer. The defensive individual’s connection with the workplace suffers. A key part of psychological safety is feeling you belong. The defensive individual reduces that sense of belonging through their actions. In addition, when faced with someone who has done something wrong, we tend to push them to one side and to exclude them. This makes the person even more defensive and takes us even further away from a resolution and progress.

Researchers Wenzel, Woodyatt and McLean found that defensiveness is strengthened by negative social responses. Our natural reactions to the defensive person makes the situation even worse. We enter a cycle of increased defensiveness. But thankfully their research also indicates three keys for dealing with defensiveness:

1. Help people to belong. As people feel more respected, valued and secure in the group, their defensiveness tends to fall away. After all, you don’t need to be defensive if you know that you will still be accepted and supported even if you make a mistake. You can value the person even if you disagree with their opinions or actions.

2. Normalise apologies. Saying ‘sorry’ is not a sign of weakness, rather it shows a strength of character to admit when you’re wrong and apologise for the impact on others.

3. Talk about values. Wenzel and colleagues found that having people share their values reduced defensiveness. If I value honesty and openness, reminding myself of those values will make me less defensive.

Try these three approaches out this week to reduce the level of defensiveness amongst those in your team. As always, details of the research referenced in this podcast is in the show notes, and a big thanks to Lauren Staveley who did the research on this one.

Now for a quick moment of celebration. The Leadership Today Podcast has just passed through 100,000 downloads. When I kicked this podcast off in July 2018 I had no idea the global reach and impact it would have on so many people. And so, can I ask you to do me a favour? This week, please tell three colleagues or friends about the podcast and help them to track it down. And, for bonus points, take a minute to provide a rating and review wherever you download this podcast. That all helps to spread the word. Have a great week.

Reference

Michael Wenzel, Lydia Woodyatt, Ben McLean. The effects of moral/social identity threats and affirmations on psychological defensiveness following wrongdoing. British Journal of Social Psychology, 2020; 59 (4): 1062 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12378

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Radical Reflection Challenge - Day Five - Reflection

It is day five of the radical reflection challenge - well done! Today we are reflecting on reflection. I know that sounds like we are just about to disappear into ourselves, but hear me out. Hopefully this week has shown you just how powerful reflection can be when we make it a regular practice. And while we would all agree that reflection is important, it is rarely urgent. As a result reflection will always be pushed down to the bottom of our priority list unless we prioritise and schedule it. My challenge for you today is to identify how you will continue reflection beyond the challenge.

We started the week thinking about our values. Without reflection it’s easy for our lives to drift away from those things which matter to us most. On day two we considered what success means to each of us. It’s all too easy to take on someone else’s definition of success and find ourselves chasing that down. But by reflecting on what success means to us, we can set goals for the various seasons of our life that will help us to feel a sense of fulfilment and purpose. On day three we explored learning and growth. We often overlook just how much we have learned, so can feel stuck. I believe growth needs to be intentional, so pushing ourselves into new areas is important. And yesterday we focused on gratitude. Hopefully you have had a chance to try out some of the gratitude techniques we discussed. 

One simple thing you can do to continue reflection is to schedule a time in your calendar to complete this challenge again in 3 or 6 months from now. That is a clear goal you could easily set and achieve.

I also think that building reflection as a habit is really important. This is going to be far more effective than bursts of reflection a few times per year. 

So today I am asking you to reflect over various time horizons. Often we end up focusing on too short a time horizon, usually measured in weeks and months rather than years and decades. A quote attribute to Bill Gates sums it up well - “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

I think it’s important to identify your focus for the decade. What is the season you are in? Where do you hope to be in 10 years? Make it a clear picture. What will it look and feel like? Now you can always revisit that - I’m not asking you to set it in stone - in fact you should revisit it. That’s the same for every other level of reflection. So we start by thinking abut a decade, and then work back from there.

• Focus for the year. What is the theme for this year? What are a few key words to sum up this theme?

• Focus for the quarter. What is the one thing that will make the biggest difference this quarter? What is a key theme for the quarter?

• Focus for the month.

• Focus for the week.

• Focus for the day. What can I do today to make progress?

I think we can keep this really practical. For example, at the end of the week you can take 15 minutes to look back at what you have achieved over the week, and set your focus for the following week. That’s a simple routine you can schedule into your calendar so it becomes a habit.

To round out this week of radical reflection, I’m asking you to reflect across these various time frames. When you first do this it will take some time. But when you have done it once, it is then about week to week maintenance. Schedule time for regular reflection to return to those areas of focus.

I hope you found this week’s challenge helpful. I encourage you to check out all of the other resources we have at Leadership Today On-Demand. The link is in the show notes, or just go to leadership.today to learn more. There’s something new every week to help you to become an even better leader. We will be back to our regular podcast episodes from next week.

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