Bonus Episode - Dr Ciela Hartanov - The Future of Work and What it Means for Leaders

We talk all things future of work and what it means for leaders with Dr Ciela Hartanov.

Ciela has a doctorate in Culture and Human Behavior and has applied that knowledge to tech organizations for almost two decades. She now runs humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm.

Ciela was part of the founding team of The Google School for Leaders and Head of Next Practice Innovation and Strategy at Google, where she developed projects designed to help shape the future of work. She is a psychologist, and expert in creating organizations that are more effective, wise and future ready.

Our conversation covers her experiences at Google, the future of work, the importance of being open minded, whether we can still strategically plan for anything, and what it all means for leaders.

Learn more about Ciela and her work - Hum Collective

Episode 152 - Background Music Makes You Faster (and Less Accurate)

Summary

Background music impacts the way we work in surprising ways.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 152 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we look at the impact of background music upon the way we work.

I remember an office I used to work in that had a radio. I know - I’m showing my age a bit here, but the modern equivalent might be putting on some headphones. At the start of the day someone would turn the radio on to a fairly bland radio station. The radio wasn’t too loud, but it was a constant presence in the background. There was always some mix of music or conversation. 

I didn’t mind the radio much. For me it made the office space feel less sterile and more active. Others weren’t so keen on the constant music. But what impact did that background music have on our work performance? I would have assumed very little, but research has demonstrated that background music can indeed impact the way we work.

Researchers had participants complete a range of tasks with three different conditions - in silence, with background music at a relatively slow tempo, and with the same music at a faster tempo. The researchers found that background music resulted in people working faster but less accurately. And that effect was independent of the tempo of the music. The researchers believe the background music made people less cautious. This allowed people to work faster, but also produced more errors.

Brain processing is a limited resource. It appears that processing music can reduce the resources available for decision making. To compensate, our brain throws some of our usual caution to the wind.

The researchers did consider that perhaps it just wasn’t the right music for the participants. Maybe when you have that brilliant track you love playing it feels like you can work more effectively. What we want to aim for is music that improves our mood, but that doesn’t distract us. Familiar music could be fine. But if you’re regularly listening to new music while working, you might want to try mixing things up a bit. It could be impacting you in ways you don’t expect.

If you found this episode helpful, I would love it if you could take a minute to provide a rating and review. This really helps others to find the podcast. Have a great week.

Reference

Perez Santangelo, A., Ludwig, C. J. H., Navajas, J., Sigman, M., & Leone, M. J. (2022). Background music changes the policy of human decision-making: Evidence from experimental and drift-diffusion model-based approaches on different decision tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001189

Episode 151 - Does Working From Home Limit Creativity?

Summary

Some leaders worry working from home may limit creativity. Research partially backs this up, but there are changes we can make.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 151 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore the impact of working from home on creativity.

Some leaders have expressed concerns about people working from home, particularly around the risks of reduced collaboration and creativity. They argue that having people physically together is more effective when we’re aiming for creativity and innovation. The reality is it depends. It depends on the nature of work, the technology you’re using, the way you’re approaching creativity, your people and what you’re trying to achieve.

But what about individual creativity? Surely working from home doesn’t reduce the effectiveness of solitary creative work? If anything, you might expect the ability to work uninterrupted would increase creativity.

Recent research finds a surprising connection between free movement and creative thinking. They found it’s not the movement per se that helps with creativity, but rather the freedom to move. When people can freely move around, they are more creative. You can imagine how that might apply in educational settings. When people are learning from home on a screen rather than interacting and moving around freely in a room with others creativity is likely to be reduced.

But it can apply more broadly too. If you’re needing to complete creative work, sitting at a desk staring at a screen is unlikely to help. You’re better off finding a new place to work or using voice memos on your phone to allow you to move freely. That applies equally at home as it does in the office. 

So, if you want to be more creative, mix things up, work somewhere new and move around.

If you found this episode helpful, I would love it if you could take a minute to provide a rating and review. This really helps others to find the podcast. Have a great week.

Research

Supriya Murali, Barbara Händel. Motor restrictions impair divergent thinking during walking and during sitting. Psychological Research, 2022; DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01636-w

Episode 150 - When Good People Do Bad Things

Summary

We explore the impact of good people doing bad things upon our assessment of others.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 150 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. That’s right - episode 150. Thanks to everyone for your support on the podcast over the past four years - it is much appreciated. This week we look at the impact of good people doing bad things upon our assessment of others.

Have you ever been let down by someone? Perhaps you thought they were a “good” person, but found out they did something surprisingly bad. What impact did that have on your perception of the person?

Research demonstrates that when we evaluate someone as “good” but they then do something unexpectedly “bad”, it understandably shakes our faith in the person. However, it also makes us question our ability to judge character generally. If we were wrong about them, maybe we’re wrong about everyone else?

There are plenty of famous examples  of seemingly good people doing bad things than we could cover here, whether it’s in government, the entertainment industry or in corporations. The research suggest that the immoral act of a “good” person makes the world feel more confusing. In fact, the researchers found that the larger the difference between our initial impression of the individual and their bad act, the greater the impact on our ability to make sense out of the world. 

So what do we do about this? 

1. We need to have realistic standards of others. No one is perfect and we are all going to let people down from time to time.

2. We need to recognise that one person’s bad behaviour doesn’t make everyone else slightly worse. We shouldn’t let it shake our faith in humanity.

3. When people do slip up, it’s helpful to demonstrate empathy. Listen to the person and understand their experience. We don’t need to endorse or agree with what they’ve done, but we also don’t need to write people off over one act.

4. We need to set up work environments where people can speak up and be honest. Maybe someone was tempted to take financial advantage of a customer, or to cut corners on a project. As their leader, I’d rather have that open dialogue early so I can coach someone away from an even worse outcome.

If you found this episode helpful, I would love it if you could take a minute to provide a rating and review. This really helps others to find the podcast. Have a great week.

Reference

Guan KW, Heine SJ. When Good People Break Bad: Moral Impression Violations in Everyday Life. Social Psychological and Personality Science. February 2022. doi:10.1177/19485506221076685

Episode 149 - Cooperation Among Strangers

Summary

Research reveals cooperation among strangers has varied over the past 60 years and the results may surprise you.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 149 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how cooperation among strangers has varied over time.

It’s easy to think that society has become more individualistic and self-centred. With that, you might assume that cooperation between strangers has decreased over time. However recent research demonstrates that the opposite is true. In the US at least, cooperation among strangers has steadily increased since the 1950s.  

The researchers worked through over 500 studies conducted from 1956 to 2017. This research included over 63,000 participants. In summarising the findings, one of the researchers, Van Lange, said “U.S. society may have become more individualistic, but people have not." Today we’ll explore what that means for us in a work setting.

Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have contributed greatly to our understanding of human motivation and needs through their research. According to Deci and Ryan, the need for connection, belonging and support is a basic human need. They found that supporting others is also part of that need - we are motivated to help others. We want to help people and cooperate - it motivates us and makes us feel more positive. 

As we have steadily moved from regional areas towards cities with more people living alone, we now meet these basic needs more through strangers. Pre-pandemic our days would include many times more interactions with strangers than would have been common in the 1950s. However, with a move towards people working from home, perhaps this trend has shifted back, if only for a few years. Maybe we will build deeper connections in our immediate area around where we live. Only time will tell.

Part of what makes work engaging is the ability to work with others - to provide and receive support that contributes to something bigger than ourselves. 

This week, why not put these findings to the test. Find ways that you can support others, even those you don’t know very well. It won’t just help them, it will help you too.

If you found this episode helpful, I would love it if you could take a minute to provide a rating and review. This really helps others to find the podcast. Have a great week.

Reference

Mingliang Yuan, Giuliana Spadaro, Shuxian Jin, Junhui Wu, Yu Kou, Paul A. M. Van Lange, Daniel Balliet. Did cooperation among strangers decline in the United States? A cross-temporal meta-analysis of social dilemmas (1956–2017).. Psychological Bulletin, 2022; 148 (3-4): 129

Episode 148 - Stop Staring at Yourself

Summary

Staring at yourself in a video call turns out to be a real downer.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 148 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how staring at yourself on a video call is a real downer.

Video calls can really sap our energy. Our brain isn’t very well equipped to focus on so many faces at once, making the gallery view in Teams and Zoom particularly challenging for our attention and energy levels. We can also find seeing ourselves on screen distracting. But recent research shows it’s even worse than that - staring at ourselves during a video call actually worsens our mood. Researchers found people tend to look at others more than themselves when on a video call. By tracking participant eye movements though, they found variations in how much time people spent looking at themselves. Those who stared at themselves more tended to demonstrate greater drops in their mood and emotional state across the video call. The researchers even allowed some participants to drink low amounts of alcohol during the experiment, which is usually associated with increased mood and sociability. However, during video calls these same low levels of alcohol did not increase sociability and mood. The nature of the video call dampened these typically positive effects.

So what do we do with all of that? It’s unlikely you’re drinking during work calls, so let’s just park that finding. But one practical thing you can do is to remove your self-view. Once you are setup and sure your camera is working, Zoom and Teams allow you to hide the view you have of yourself. This will help you to focus on the other person. You can also look at other settings that allow you to focus on the person speaking, rather than showing all participants at once. Some leaders I’m working with have even tried phone conferences as a way to change up the approach they take to meetings. So this week, try to stop staring at yourself. It will make you feel better.

Reference

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau. (2022, June 13). Staring at yourself during virtual chats may worsen your mood. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 27, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220613143249.htm

Episode 147 - Discomfort and Progress

Summary

Research demonstrates that becoming comfortable with discomfort is the key to progress.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 147 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore research demonstrating that becoming comfortable with discomfort is the key to progress.

Learning new things requires us to step out of our comfort zone. If we’re feeling comfortable, we’re not learning.

But it’s also natural to want to avoid discomfort. That can steer us away from new learning experiences. 

New research shows that how we interpret discomfort impacts our ability to continue learning. The research by Woolley and Fishbach involved participants undertaking an improvisation class. Half of the group were given instructions for the activity and told the aim of the activity was to feel awkward and uncomfortable. The other half were also given instructions, but not instructed around feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

The researchers found that the group encouraged to feel awkward and uncomfortable spent more time actively improvising and took greater risks. They undertook more practice which gave them a greater opportunity to enhance their skills.

When we’re looking to grow and develop, we should anticipate and embrace feelings of awkwardness and discomfort. Instead of seeing these feelings as reasons to stop, we should instead see them as signs of progress and development. Changing our mindset around discomfort can help us to progress and develop.

Reference

Woolley K, Fishbach A. Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort. Psychological Science. 2022;33(4):510-523. doi:10.1177/09567976211044685

Episode 146 - Extraverts and Listening

Summary

Extraverts are seen to not listen as well - what can they do about that?

Transcript

Welcome to episode 146 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how extraverts are seen to not listen as well, and what they can do about that.

Extraverted individuals are often seen as more comfortable and confident in social situations. This might appear to set extraverts up for success at work and in leadership, but a recent study suggests there may be a downside. 

Researchers, Flynn, Collings and Zlatev studied 147 business students who needed to meet each week working in groups of six on developing their leadership skills. These students rated each other on listening skills. These listening skills included things like appearing to listen when others spoke, and remembering what others had shared. They also completed a measure of extraversion. 

The researchers found that extraverts were consistently rated lower on listening skills. Participants also saw extraverts as more likely to modify their approach in an attempt to shape how they were seen by others. When this impression management is obvious to others, it can impact the ability to build trust and connections. Now, this is all based on people’s impressions of extraverts - maybe they aren’t any better or worse than others at listening. But perceptions are reality in the eyes of the beholder, so it does suggest extraverts may need to modify their approach to avoid these pitfalls.

So, if you are more extraverted, what can you do about this? 

1. Number one is pretty simple - listen. Listening is a skill grounded in genuine interest. If you’re not interested in others, it will show.

2. Ask open questions - be curious about what the person is sharing, listen with interest, and restate what you’re hearing.

3. Remember important details - it’s so powerful when someone remembers your name or other personal information.

4. Give people time to open up. While you might be comfortable sharing with others, it might take them more time to warm to you.

Extraversion, like other personality traits, comes with advantages and risks to be managed. If you’re more extraverted, make sure you demonstrate your listening to others.

Reference

Flynn FJ, Collins H, Zlatev J. Are You Listening to Me? The Negative Link Between Extraversion and Perceived Listening. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. March 2022. doi:10.1177/01461672211072815

Episode 145 - Keeping Good Ideas Alive

Summary

Great ideas often get missed. This week we explore how to keep good ideas alive.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 145 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how to keep good ideas alive.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience where someone raises a great idea and, for whatever reason, it is ignored by others and slowly dies. Equally, a confident person might share a not-so-great idea that gains traction just because of the popularity, enthusiasm or position of the person. The best ideas don’t always win.

In our teams we want to cultivate the right ideas. That means keeping an eye out for others’ good ideas and helping them to grow.

Researchers Satterstrom, Kerrissey, and DiBenigno identified five practical things leaders can do to cultivate others’ good ideas.

1. Amplifying - this involves bringing the idea up at a later time. For example - Fiona raised a great idea about our marketing in our last meeting.

2. Developing - asking clarifying to help you and others better understand the idea. For example - Can you tell me more about how that might work?

3. Legitimising - publicly supporting an idea by sharing where you’ve seen it work. For example - Company XYZ tried something like this and it was quite successful.

4. Exemplifying - performing a low-stakes test of the idea to gather more evidence. For example - We tried this approach with two customers last week and they were both positive in their feedback.

5. Issue-raising - calling out the weaknesses in an idea so they can be addressed. For example - One potential challenge with this approach is the additional time required. How might we address that?

Being a great leader isn’t always about having the best ideas. Often our role is to help keep others’ ideas alive. 

Reference

Patricia Satterstrom, Michaela J. Kerrissey, and Julia DiBenigno, How the Best Teams Keep Good Ideas Alive. Harvard Business Review, May 18, 2022

Episode 144 - How to Tackle DIsagreement

Summary

Research shows disagreement has a negative impact on our brain function, so what can we do about that?

Transcript

Welcome to episode 144 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore the impact of disagreement on our brains and how to move forward.

Our brains operate very differently where we are in agreement versus disagreement with another person.

When two people are in agreement, researchers have demonstrated harmonious patterns of brain activity, mainly focused around sensory areas such as the visual system. When we are in agreement, it’s likely we’re paying attention to social cues from the other person using our senses. We’re not having to worry too much about higher-level functions. Our brains aren’t working very hard at all.

When we’re in disagreement though, research shows our brain function shifts more towards the frontal lobe, responsible for higher-level functions like reasoning and restraint. The overall amount of brain activity also increases dramatically, using both emotional and cognitive resources. It takes a lot more conscious effort to process and work through disagreement. As a result, disagreements can wear us out.

Given disagreement takes a lot of effort, it makes sense to try to resolve it. Disagreements rarely become better with age so we want to act quickly. Here are some ways to move forward when we find ourselves in disagreement:

1. Share your desire to resolve the disagreement or at least find a way forward. It’s important to lead with our positive intent. That will help to calm both us and the other person, so the disagreement becomes less confrontational.

2. Ask open questions to understand the other person’s perspective. Disagreements often result from misunderstandings. Explore the other person’s views, interests, needs and wants. Be curious about their perspectives and respectful of their views. You may actually have more in common than you think.

3. Provide insight into your own views and opinions. Be clear about what is important to you and why. If you really explore their perspective, it becomes quite natural for them to explore your perspective.

4. Tackle the disagreement as a shared problem. I picture a disagreement as two people sitting across from each other at a table, facing off. Moving to a shared problem is like we’re both on the same side of the table, with our focus on the issue rather than each other. Here we want to focus on how we can either meet both our needs, or reach another satisfactory conclusion.

5. If you can’t reach agreement, figure out how you can still work together. It may be that you agree to disagree. It’s rarely worth losing a work relationship over a disagreement.

So next time you have a disagreement, think about these five steps. Have a great week.

Reference

Joy Hirsch, Mark Tiede, Xian Zhang, J. Adam Noah, Alexandre Salama-Manteau, Maurice Biriotti. Interpersonal Agreement and Disagreement During Face-to-Face Dialogue: An fNIRS Investigation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2021; 14 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.606397

Bonus Episode - Belinda Morgan - Solving the Part-Time Puzzle

In this episode I speak with Belinda Morgan, author of the book Solving the Part-Time Puzzle - How to Decrease Your Hours, Increase Your Impact and Thrive in Your Part-Time Role. You can find our mote about Belinda and buy the book via her website - www.belindamorgan.com

Episode 143 - Showing Stress Leads to Support

Summary

Research demonstrates that showing stress can lead to greater support from others.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 143 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore at how showing stress can lead to greater support from others.

Have you ever thought about why we demonstrate stress? Surely showing signs of stress to others puts us at a disadvantage. Why would we want to show weakness? And why do even the most accomplished professionals still show signs of stress?

Researchers from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Portsmouth recently reinforced what we already know - people are pretty good at identifying stress in others. As people feel more stressed, others notice more stress in them - there’s nothing revolutionary about that finding. However they took it one step further to examine the impact of those stress signs on others. It turns out that people reacted more positively to those who demonstrated signs of stress than those who didn’t. Those who demonstrated signs of stress were seen as more likeable. So why might that be the case? The researchers highlighted that human beings are largely a cooperative species - we survive and thrive by helping each other. They theorised that an honest sign of weakness may show that we are willing to cooperate, or at least that we’re not a threat. 

All of this builds on a body of research that suggests being more emotionally expressive helps us to be well-liked by others and results in more positive social interactions. 

Here are some thoughts based on this research that you can take and apply:

1. Show your emotions - the goal of emotional intelligence isn’t to become emotionless. In fact, showing no emotion may lead us to be seen as competitive or difficult to read.

2. Encourage others - when someone does show signs of stress, provide them with some support and encouragement. Imagine yourself in that situation and how much a kind word would help.

3. Don’t overdo it - one of the worst ways to start a speech is saying “I’m really nervous”. People want someone they can relate to, but also someone that they can be confident in.

4. Rewrite your emotions - if you feel stressed or nervous, reframe that as wanting to do a good job or being excited to present work that matters to you.

Stress isn’t necessarily bad. We can use our own and others’ stress as a way to build connections and cooperation.

Reference

Jamie Whitehouse, Sophie J. Milward, Matthew O. Parker, Eithne Kavanagh, Bridget M. Waller. Signal value of stress behaviour. Evolution and Human Behavior, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.04.001

Episode 142 - Diversity is Good for Recruitment

Summary

Diversity isn’t just great for teams and organisations - it can also help with recruitment.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 142 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we look at how diversity can help with recruiting.

We know that diversity in organisations produces lots of benefits when it is well managed. A well-managed diverse team will out perform a more uniform team every time. 

But actively promoting the diversity of an organisation also appears to help its attractiveness to job seekers. Recent research has found that disclosing key diversity scores in job advertisements increased the click-through rate of jobseekers, particularly for those organisations with higher diversity scores. Applicants were even willing to look at lower paying jobs where the employer had better diversity scores. Follow up research found this approach was particularly effective for women and people of colour who were more likely to see a diversity score as useful in deciding which jobs to apply for.

So let’s assume that you’ve made the effort to improve the diversity of employees within your organisation. Here are some ideas of what you might do next based on these findings:

1. Think about diversity diversely - I always encourage clients to look beyond the more obvious diversity dimensions to also explore differing personalities, thinking styles and other factors.

2. Promote the diversity in your teams - if you have actively built diversity in your team or organisation, celebrate that and promote it to others inside and outside your organisation.

3. Diversity helps build even greater diversity - this research suggests that building and promoting diversity in your organisation will help attract more diverse candidates.

Diversity isn’t just a nice-to-have - it leads to real benefits for organisations, even extending to our ability to attract stronger candidates.

Reference

Choi, Jung Ho and Pacelli, Joseph and Rennekamp, Kristina M. and Tomar, Sorabh, Do Jobseekers Value Diversity Information? A Mixed Methods Investigation (April 25, 2022). SMU Cox School of Business Research Paper No. 22-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4025383 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4025383

Episode 141 - Mind Wandering Improves Task Shifting

Summary

Mind wandering might actually be useful after all.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 141 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how mind wandering can help us at work.

Mind wandering is usually viewed negatively. We typically view mind wandering as a failure to maintain focus, taking us away from something to which we should be paying attention. However, mind wandering may not be quite as bad as we thought. As I’ve shared before, it’s often in those mind wandering states that we come up with out best ideas. We’re not really designed to operate for long periods of time with extreme focus on one thing. Research by Wong, Willoughby and Machado published just this month helps to shed more light on how mind wandering tendencies might help us. 

Researchers found those with higher spontaneous mind wandering could handle forced switching between tasks far more effectively, transferring their attention to the new tasks faster than others.

We know human beings are pretty bad at multitasking on similar tasks. So while we can probably walk and chew gum, we are less effective at having a phone conversation while scrolling our Instagram feed. What our brain does instead is to switch between tasks, moving attention back and forth between the two activities. That takes time and energy. If we’re constantly switching, there’s going to be a drop in productivity. 

As a result, we might try to focus on one thing at a time. But there are moments in every day that require us to shift our attention rapidly for reasons outside our control. For example, someone might come to us with an urgent query. Being able to shift rapidly from one task to another is called cognitive flexibility, and that’s exactly what those with mind wandering tendencies appear to be better at. 

Focus serves a purpose, and so does allowing our mind to wander. Perhaps we need to think about mind wandering as a skill that can be developed. Scheduling some down-time for your brain to wander across a range of spontaneous ideas could well help you to switch between tasks more effectively.

Reference

Yi-Sheng Wong, Adrian R. Willoughby, Liana Machado (2022) Spontaneous mind-wandering tendencies linked to cognitive flexibility in young adults, Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 102, July 2022.

Episode 140 - Variety is the Spice of Development

Summary

Variety may be the spice of life, but it also helps with personal development.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 140 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we discuss how variety can help with learning and development.

You may have heard the expression that variety is the spice of life, but variety also turns out to be important for development and learning. Research shows us that learning in a broader and more variable setting ultimately helps us to do three things:

1. It helps us to better identify which elements are relevant

2. It helps us to make broader generalisations

3. It forces us to reconstruct memories - getting us out of the ruts that might otherwise trap us

Let’s take an example from the research. If an infant is learning what a dog is as a category, it’s quick and easy to just show them one type of dog. Show them that exact dog, and they will tell you that it is a dog. It takes longer to learn what a dog is if we expose that same infant to multiple types of dogs, however they’re then much better at generalising that learning to a new type of dog. If I’ve only ever seen one type of dog, I may not correctly identify a new type of dog as a dog. If instead I learned what a dog is by seeing lots of different examples, I’m much better able to correctly identify a new type of dog.

The same principle applies for adults learning a new sport. One option if I’m learning tennis would be to practice one shot over and over again. Another way could involve learning and practicing lots of different shots. The second way takes a lot longer to get us to the point where we can hit the ball over the net, but it is going to be much better in the unpredictability of a tennis match than the first approach to learning.

So variety and variability in learning is harder, but it leads to better generalisation. 

The researcher Raviv highlights a great example of this relating to face recognition.He shares that “face recognition is affected by whether people grew up in a small community (fewer than 1000 people) or in larger community (over 30,000 people). Exposure to fewer faces during childhood is associated with diminished face memory." So even in social skills like face recognition, we’re better off learning with variability and variety.

Other research highlights that even incidental exposure to something new primes us to learn more about it. There’s something about allowing ourselves to be exposed to new experiences and things that sets us up for learning. 

So how much variety is there in your job? How often in the average week are you trying things for the first time?

We all know that learning is hard - it takes effort. But if we want to maximise our learning and ability, it’s important to remember that variety is the spice of development.

References

Limor Raviv, Gary Lupyan, Shawn C. Green. How variability shapes learning and generalization. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.03.007

Layla Unger, Vladimir M. Sloutsky. Ready to Learn: Incidental Exposure Fosters Category Learning. Psychological Science, 2022; 095679762110614 DOI: 10.1177/09567976211061470

Bonus Episode - Interview with Dr Kim Hazendonk - The Neuroscience of Leadership

Dr Kim Hazendonk shares the neuroscience of leadership. Find out more about Kim and her work at www.positivebrain.com.au

Episode 139 - Be More Strategic… Whatever That Means

Summary

Have you ever received the feedback that you need to “be more strategic”? We pick apart what this might mean for your development.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 139 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore what it means to be more strategic.

As I coach and work with a range of people, it’s amazing how often people share they’ve received feedback that they need to be more strategic. They’re typically no more clear about it than that - just that they’ve been told to be more strategic. 

If this sounds like you, the first advice I give is to setup time with the person who provided the feedback to better understand what they meant. In a non-challenging way, ask for examples. Have them describe what being more strategic would look like in your role. This is likely to draw out a clearer picture of what you should be working on and the impact it is having on your performance.

I believe there are four main areas where we can all be more strategic. That being strategic is about time horizon, breadth of focus, interpersonal consideration and openness to new ideas. Let’s take a look at each of these.

1. Being more strategic could be about the time horizon you bring to your work. We can all end up not looking far enough into the future, particularly when we’re under pressure. We all have a tendency to focus on immediate threats, rather than longer-term threats and opportunities. Take time to look and plan further out into the future.

2. Being more strategic could be about the breath of your focus. Sometimes we can become too narrowly focused on our own interests or areas of expertise. Take the time to look more broadly beyond your specialisation. What are people doing in other industries or geographies? What broader trends are playing out in business and society? A great way to do this is to read more widely. If you find yourself reaching for the same kind of reading material, branch out. Ask for recommendations from others. Meet with people with different professional backgrounds and speak to them about emerging trends they are seeing.

3. Being more strategic could be about Interpersonal consideration. Sometimes we don’t take enough time to take others’ needs and interests into account. We can then end up blind-sighted when our brilliant plan is opposed. Build connections across your organisation and run your ideas past others to gather their views and feedback. Ask for advice. You don’t have to just take on everything they say, but it’s much better to be genuinely interested and informed.

4. Being more strategic could be about openness to new ideas. Those who are seen as not being strategic can often be caught up in the past or the current way of doing things. They may oppose change, even when the change is inevitable or likely to be beneficial. A great quality and practice here is curiosity. Rather than seeking to respond to others’ ideas right away, stay curious and ask lots of questions.

Take some time this week to examine how strategic you’re being across these four areas. Have a great week.

Episode 138 - Angry Men and Sad Women

Summary

Research shows the way we interpret emotions in men and women differs, where we’re more likely to see men as angry and women as happy or sad. We look at ways to challenge this to make sure we understand where people are coming from.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 138 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we look at the way we interpret emotions in men and women.

It turns out that we are more inclined to associate anger with male faces, and happiness or sadness with female faces. Research shows it can work both ways - the emotion we see encourages us to perceive someone as more male or female, but also whether someone is male or female influences the emotions we see.

While this field of research is still expanding with these findings published in Emotion just recently, it builds on the idea that we don’t always get it right when we try to guess at someone’s emotion and how they’re feeling. This can lead to all sorts of confusion and interpersonal challenges in the workplace.

Here are three tips for counteracting this tendency:

1. The first tip is really simple - just ask how people are feeling. Rather than guessing or interpreting what we are seeing, a simple question such as “how do you feel about that?” can make all the difference. It can also help the person to consider how they are feeling. So often we are not tuned in to our emotional state. We can help others to check how they are feeling.

2. The second tip is to check your biases. We all have biases - there’s no point trying to pretend we don’t. Rather take some time to review your areas of bias. Is it about gender, or age, or nationality? It’s a fine line, but we want to recognise and celebrate diversity, while not letting it drive the way we act towards others.

3. The third and final tip is to watch your language. Are there words that you use exclusively with one gender and not the other? I found that I would occasionally describe female colleagues who I admired as “feisty” - a word I would never use to describe a man. Instead, now I’m trying to use words like “determined”, “clear” and “confident” - words I could use equally with men and women. And it may not just be gender, it could be words you use with people of different ages or nationalities. Take some time to pay attention to the words you use.

Understanding our biases around interpreting emotions can help us to pause, reflect and change the way we respond. Take some time this week to reflect on your approach.

Reference

Sebastian Korb, Nace Mikus, Claudia Massaccesi, Jack Grey, Suvarnalata Xanthate Duggirala, Sonja A. Kotz, Marc Mehu. EmoSex: Emotion prevails over sex in implicit judgments of faces and voices.. Emotion, 2022;

Episode 137 - Five Differentiators of High-Performing Teams

Summary

Research demonstrates five surprising differentiators of high-performing teams. How does your team stack up?

Transcript

Welcome to episode 137 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we look at five surprising differentiators of high-performing teams.

The last few years have placed enormous pressures on teams. What leads some teams to collapse under the pressure while others thrive? Research by Ron Friedman and colleagues has uncovered five things high-performing teams do differently to other teams. Some of them may surprise you.

1. People in high-performing teams make more phone calls. Bizarre I know. Surely we live in a time when making a phone call is outdated. But Friedman found those on high-performing teams made, on average, 10 phone calls per day versus 6 in other teams. Speaking over the phone is far more personalised and connecting than a text message or email. If you want to improve the performance of your team, stop typing that email and pick up the phone.

2. High-performing teams have greater discipline around meetings. Meetings are perhaps more universally hated than any other aspect of our work life. While fewer meetings is generally better, Friedman found that high-performing teams had much greater expectations around meetings - both for those setting up the meeting and those attending. High-performing team meetings were more likely to require pre-work, more likely to have an agenda, and spent more time checking in with others around progress. If you want to increase the performance of your team, meetings and meeting disciplines are a great place to start.

3. Members of high-performing teams don’t just talk about work. It may be tempting to think that these high-performing teams are 100% focused on work and efficiency, but they actually take more time to discuss non-work topics. High-performing teams create opportunities for people to connect in genuine ways. Don’t see this as a waste of time, but be intentional in connecting with others, and in connecting others together.

4. People in high-performing teams express and receive more appreciation. We know informal recognition from leaders matters. Many surveys place this higher than salary on the list of things employees want. But in high-performing teams it’s not just top-down appreciation, but also appreciation between peers. If you want to increase team performance, model showing appreciation to people. Look through a list of those in your team and think about who you could show appreciation to more.

5. Members of high-performing teams are more genuine and comfortable being themselves. Interestingly high-performing teams don’t just have greater demonstrations of positive emotions. They also have negative emotions on display more often. People can be celebrating successes, but also expressing frustrations. People are more real in their interactions, making it easier to know how people really feel and where you stand.

More phone calls, greater meeting discipline, non-work-related connections, more appreciation, and people being themselves at work? That sounds like a great place to work to me. Note down one thing you can try this week to move towards being a high-performing team.

Referenece

Ron Friedman, October 2021. 5 Things High-Performing Teams Do Differently. Harvard Business Review.

https://hbr.org/2021/10/5-things-high-performing-teams-do-differently 

Episode 136 - Social Status and Collaboration Don't Mix

Summary

It turns out that designer labels and other signs of social status can get in the way of collaboration.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 136 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we look at the impact of perceived social status on collaboration.

Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who show off signs of social status, like fancy accessories, designer labels and high-end cars, are perceived to care more about self-interest than helping others. As a result, they are seen as less willing to collaborate and more competitive. When I came across this research there were a few examples that stand out in my mind.

The first was a leader who stood at the front of the room, talking to his team about innovation. At the end of his talk he said “speaking of innovation, why don’t you all come out to the car park”. He led the team out to show them his brand new Tesla, taking the next 30 minutes or so to show off every feature of the extraordinarily expensive car. He later received feedback that members of his team found him hard to relate to.

The next was a meeting with a General Manager. In her office I noticed she had a hand bag awkwardly placed on the table where we were meeting - almost like it was on display. I kept wondering why she didn’t take it off the table to give us more space. As we left, my colleague asked me if I noticed the bag. It turned out to be a luxury handbag worth many thousands of dollars. Her peers confided that the General Manager was aloof and not connected with her team.

The third was a meeting I heard about but wasn’t involved in. It was between the CEO of a trucking company and one of his lawyers at a restaurant. The lawyer was in a perfect suit, while the CEO wore functional if slightly dated clothes. At the end of the meeting as they left the restaurant, the CEO saw one of his company’s trucks coming down the road. He waved the driver over and hopped up into the cabin, asking if he and the lawyer could catch a ride back to the head office. Despite owning hundreds of trucks, he knew the driver by name. Apparently this was a regular occurrence. His employees absolutely loved him.

While we don’t want to obsess about our image, it pays to be selective in signs of wealth and social status if your objective is to build collaboration. Be wary of things that might come between you and your people.

Reference

Shalena Srna, Alixandra Barasch, Deborah A. Small. On the value of modesty: How signals of status undermine cooperation.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2022; DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000303