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Category: Leadership Communication

  • Interoception – 7 Ways to Self-Regulate and Limit the Impact of Negative Interoception

    “Interoception” is not a new concept, it was already receiving attention over 10 years ago. However, with rising numbers of people suffering from mental health illnesses, often emotion and mood related are triggered by external factors that lead to internalising negative thoughts and feelings frequently to a point of “no control.”  Consequently, “interoception” as a concept takes the stage more noticeably in the business environment.

    Defined as the “sense of the internal state of the body, whether conscious about that state or not.” “Interoception includes all signals from your internal organs, including your cardiovascular system, your lungs, your gut, your bladder and your kidneys,” as documented in an article in The Guardian, August 2021, written by David Robson, “The Hidden Sense that is Shaping Your Wellbeing”. In the same article Robson refers to the comment by Professor Mano Tsakiris, a psychologist at the Royal Holloway, University of London who said that “There is constant communication dialogue between the brain and the viscera.”  When aware of this communication link, each one of us is better able to self-regulate. Self-regulation is quite a familiar term for most of us, as one of the main characteristics of Emotional Intelligence defined by Daniel Goleman.

    The main function of the brain is to maintain balance or allostasis within all bodily systems. It is responsible for predictive processes based on previous experience and the perception of the current experience. The former affecting how the brain responds to what is currently occurring. In other words, the brain regulates the body’s internal systems by anticipating our needs and preparing to satisfy them before they arrive. This function is central to our thinking process, emotional responses and decision making. When there is allostatic disruption, this can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders due to the perception that you can no longer control your own thoughts and feelings.

    Who Rules Who?

    This is not totally clear, but the current thinking and research by people such as Professor Tsakiris and Tallon-Baudry is that the brain is controlled by the body. “We tend to think that the brain is sitting on top of the pyramid, and it’s controlling the body in general – actually, it’s probably the other way around.” The main indicators behind this are in the way our bodies are literally wired as eighty percent of the fibres in our vagus nerve ascend to the brain from various organs, especially the stomach and heart. This reflects in our understanding through phrases such as “my gut instinct says….”, “my gut response is….,” “Follow your gut.” And so on. When we fear danger, it is the gut that sends the message to the brain via these communication fibres, triggering the fight or flight reaction, resulting more often-than-not in either standing up to the threat or running away from it.

    The relationship between the heart and the brain for instance, can create enormous resistance to learning something new. Could there be a place for interoception to create a greater understanding of effective teaching methodologies in relation to adults who are unable to self-regulate?

    A Blueprint for Emotional Response

    Craig back in 2002 wrote that “Interception is a blueprint for an emotional response. The body sensation underlies most of our emotional feelings, if not all, particularly the most intense feelings of hunger, pain, body temperature and the need for survival.” Emotional regulation is equal to a coherent relationship with the self and plays a big part in effective communication between mind, body and feelings and consequent behaviour, reactions and mood.

    Interoception – 7 Ways to Self-Regulate and Limit the Impact of Negative InteroceptionTechniques that Positively Influence Self-Regulation

    We know that negative emotions lead to the fight or flight response, triggered firstly by gut instinct and then by the brain. What actions and or techniques are useful in addressing the fight or flight response to create a sense of calm and inner control that enables logical thinking and effective decision-making, thus managing emotional responses and self-regulation more effectively?

    Looking at this question from the opposite perspective.  Fear is directly linked to stress on both mind and body. When we get stressed our ability to self-regulate is less effective. Typically, we become less patient, are more likely to be curt in our responses, and demonstrate less tolerance for others whether colleagues, family or friends. Suppressing emotions will at some point lead to an explosive response, often the situation having little to do with why you are stressed, and very often it is with a person who you feel safe with, usually someone close such as a family member or close colleague.

    Not all stress is bad, infact a certain degree of stress is what gets us out of bed to accomplish the things we want or need to accomplish. When stress is out of balance it has negative effects on the nervous system leading to the fight or flight reaction, limiting our ability to think logically and to self-regulate, especially when internalising the emotions and losing consciousness about those emotions until such time as someone or something triggers their release.

    7 Ways to Self-Regulate and Limit the Impact of Negative Interoception

    Understanding that each one of us has the power to become emotionally aware of our feelings and thoughts and therefore implement actions and techniques to limit impact of stressful situations and our personal stressors through:

    1.  Value and respect yourself through living and speaking your truth and in so doing to minimise “prostituting” yourself in pursuit of money, in an environment in which we are not feeling fulfilled and happy and dread the start of a new day.
    2. Create daily practice of something that diffuses built-up stress and maintains an inner balance of calm, such as breathing techniques, dance and other joyful movement, yoga or meditation.
    3. Encourage and develop self-confidence in yourself and others through appreciation and gratitude.  Seeing and expressing the positive aspects in others, attracts the same to yourself. Remember “like attracts like”. Working for a boss and within a team and environment where you are appreciated, that is fun and creative, is the best support and stress-buster of all.
    4. Make time to play. Humour and playful activities can magic away built-up inner tension and reduce anxiety.
    5. Learn to say “No” to extra tasks when you are already feeling overwhelmed and cannot cope with anything additional.
    6. Avoid procrastination and “Eat that Frog” (Brian Tracy) everyday as one of the first three things you do.
    7. Become emotionally aware and connect to your feelings. Use all your senses of sight, hearing, feeling, touching and tasting to connect with how you feel about particular experiences, occurrences and interactions. Include the different organs in the body. Build your awareness of what each one is telling you about how it feels. Recognise those feelings and release them appropriately before they build up and result in an emotional explosion. (Refer points 4 and 6 above)

    When addressing the internal state of the mind and body through supporting the adrenal axis and nervous system, negative interoception is less likely as our perception of the current experience becomes more positive, therefore does not trigger a deep negative response. All in all, the increase in personal self-awareness through regular practice that dissipates the build-up of emotions, you will be more able to take things and people in your stride through a logical, balanced assessment and approach, overall sustaining an allostatic balance within mind and body through conscious awareness and self-regulatory actions.

    In Daniel Goleman’s definition of self-regulation, “Handling our emotions so that they facilitate rather than interfere with the task at hand; being conscientious and delaying gratification to pursue goals; recovering well from emotional distress.”

    References:

    Armstrong, K. (2019). Interoception: How We Understand Our Body’s Inner Sensations. Available: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/interoception-how-we-under…. Last accessed 8 November 2021.

    Goleman, D (1999). Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 318.

    Price, C.J, Hooven, C. (2018). Interoceptive Awareness Skills for Emotion Regulation: Theory and Approach of Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT). Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5985305/. Last accessed 8 November 2021.

    Robson, D. (2021). Interoception: the hidden sense that shapes wellbeing. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/15/the-hidden-sense-shaping…. Last accessed 8 November 2021.

    WANT TO MASTER INTEROCEPTION? SEE OUR WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE E-LEARNING COURSES!

  • Emergence of female leadership

    How interesting that the world is opening up to female leaders.  It is irrelevant what you think about them, but the fact is we see more female leaders stepping forward to run countries in what can only be termed a very troubled and challenging period.  Hilary Clinton in the USA – will she become the next president?  Teresa May slipping through in the turmoil created by Brexit and Angela Merkel holding strong in Germany as the German Chancellor.  Then the Prime Ministers of Thailand, Denmark, Iceland, Australia, Bangledesh and Trinidad and Tabogo are all women, as are the Presidents of Lithuania, Liberia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil and Finland.  Quite a sizeable representation of women in top leadership positions, very often in countries that are culturally showing more masculine than feminine qualities. (Hofstede)

    What are the principle characteristics of female leadership?  Can we characterize these principles and definitively separate them from the principles of male leadership?  Unlikely because styles of leadership differ amongst men and women equally depending on education, experience, courage, individuality, stamina and so on.  However, when looking at women and men, there are differences and when women bring these differences into play we might see different characteristics, which most women have naturally.

    Female characteristics:

    • Intuitive and sensitive emotional intelligence
    • Ability to sense the emotion behind something as well as see the facts – therefore make decisions on both factual and emotional levels
    • Patience and tolerance
    • Ability to forgive and let go
    • Quiet drive, stamina and courage
    • Ability to multi task therefore being able to think about, understand and action different points with ease
    • Ability to release own emotions to relieve tension and break stress often through crying.  As well as breaking the tension in a situation.
    • Happy to be out of the limelight and just get on with the job

    In this list I am not saying that men do not have some of these characteristics, I am saying that these characteristics are more common in women in general, but particularly in female leaders.

    What does this all mean?  Are we moving into a time when female leadership is more appropriate for the challenges we face in today’s world – starvation, homelessness, loneliness, escalation in chronic disease, environmental damage on a huge scale, greed by the few who want to monopolize the many, to name but a few?

    I don’t know the answer to this, but I do know the questions:  How much longer can we, as human beings go on living in an environment that we are determined to destroy, removing the right to heritage for generations to come?

    How long can we continue to ignore, flush over, minimize the impacts of large industrial farming whether it be fishing, dairy, crop or animal farming on human health, not to mention the pain caused to the animals themselves and the impact on waterways, air and the earth?

    How long can we go on not listening to, or covering up the impact of processing on our foods, whether additives or nutrients removed to create something that is so far from what nature intended it gives no nutritious value and creates a build up of toxins leading to escalation in chronic disease, obesity and stress which we see in most of the English speaking world, with other countries fast behind once they adopt a Western diet?

    How much longer are we going to ignore the greed of large corporations that only have one goal in mind, lack integrity and do not care about the negative impact whether on humans, animals, birds, insects or bees?

    Perhaps it is female leadership that will turn the ship to become more caring and responsible about how we live, what we live for and what we leave behind?  I hope so.

  • Emotional intelligence & self-care: the missing competence?

    Emotional intelligence & self-care: the missing competence?

    Daniel Goleman the author of “Working with Emotional Intelligence”, talks about several competencies under “Personal” and “Social” competencies – Self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation and relationship management/social skills. Perhaps it is now time in our world of intensity, fear, overwhelm and stress to add one more competence – “Self-care?”

    In our present-day world, on most corners you meet headlines referring to poor mental health, burnout, stress and overwhelm. Where are we going wrong? For the last several years we have been bombarded with external factors that have created this undercurrent of fear that continues to steadily eat away at human resilience with no sign of abating. Workload is another of the biggest factors in our daily lives to impact our physical and emotional energy resources. Feeling fearful and or overwhelmed means a sense of loss of control. When we are not feeling in control due to the “unknown” – Covid, inflation, petrol prices etc as well as due to impending deadlines, sheer volume of work and a lack of appreciation we leak energy just like a tyre on your car with a slow puncture, that over time leads into a downward spiral until you are literally “flat”. Eventually resulting in poor health as the endocrine system tries hard to rectify the constant onslaught of “fight and flight” reactions.

    What is Self-care?

    Considering “Self-care” from the point of view of Emotional Intelligence, in my opinion it is a combination of “self-awareness” and “self-regulation”. In other words, the ability to listen to yourself and observe a change in reactions to everyday issues, such as being less patient, overly aggressive in your manner, moody and lacking joy, and then to tune into yourself and pay more attention to these changes to understand the real cause. Having understood the cause, whatever that might be to then put in place some actions to self-regulate. In other words, to “manage one’s internal states, impulses and resources” so that your thoughts, actions and overall behaviour no longer drain energy.

    In order to recognise when things are becoming too much “Self- care” goes a little deeper than self-regulation. It requires taking the foot of the pedal, putting practices in place that regulate work-volumes and deadlines to a point where you are stretched, but not over stretched as to over-stimulate the “fight and flight” response, taking down-time and generally assisting your internal physical and mental mechanisms to return to a state of homeostasis. In short-term circumstances when it is temporarily not possible to take your foot off the pedal to put several actions in place that positively support your energy system, for example:

    Pause, breathe deeply for 3 in and out breaths – always ensuring the out-breath is longer than the in-breath. In this way you slow down your emotional reactions and bring an inner calm to the situation. Using this technique in the moment is very useful when your response would otherwise have been reactive and reckless.

    Create space and time for yourself every day – During this time, which might only be 10-20 minutes a day, stay away from digital distractions and invest time in yourself walking, meditating and generally connecting with yourself. Taking time out creates the space in which to assess, evaluate and tune into your thoughts and emotions around different situations. For effective investment of time:

    • Avoid being distracted by messages, calls and other regular interruptions
    • If weather permits go out for some fresh air and if it doesn’t go out for some fresh air
    • Breathe deeply 3-4 times before tuning into your surroundings, the smells, sights and sound
    • Tune into yourself to acknowledge how you are feeling. Allow any negative feelings to manifest, acknowledge them and then let them g
    • Acknowledge the learning these feelings and emotions have given you and move on from that place.

    “Creating space for yourself on a daily basis, helps to regulate daily stresses and create that breathing space in order to “see” your emotional triggers.

    Respect your personal capacity – say “No” when you know it is one thing too much. Talk to someone when you feel overwhelmed and stressed. They will likely be able to see the “wood for the trees” and help find the way out.

    Keep your diet nutritionally rich – Avoid wheat and wheat-based foods. Wheat affects the brain as well as the body, causing stress to the digestive system and ultimately the brain as the two are inextricably linked through the gut-brain axis. If you want to get maximum energy from what you eat choose foods that support effective digestion and an agile mind:

    • Eat the rainbow on a daily basis in fruit and vegetable
    • Eat brain foods – oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, and salmo
    • Chose healthy fats full of omega 3 and 6 – avocado, olive oil and coconut oi
    • Eat good quality protein – grass-fed meat, fish, eggs, and protein from things such as whole grains, sesame seeds (humus), beans and legumes.

    Read my blog about the effect of what we eat has on our minds

    Keep hydrated – when not drinking enough water your body becomes stressed and therefore any additional external stressors accelerate the negative impact on how you feel. Keep a glass of water close by to sip on throughout the day. Aim to drink a minimum of 8 glasses daily.

    Avoid all energy drinks and caffeine – they all serve to dehydrate the body as well as overall increasing the drain on your energy. Before reaching for that caffeine boost, drink a glass of water first and then observe how you feel.

    Long term regulation of mind and body through “Self-care”

    Taking a longer term view on “Self-care” means that you put daily and weekly practices in place to ensure a consistent and constant source of energy to meet demanding periods in your life, which let’s face it we all have. Adopting this kind of practice helps in keeping your mind positive and agile and your body full of energy.

    As we are all unique, practices will differ from person-to-person. In order to find the right practices for you, ask yourself the following questions:

    • What brings me joy
    • What do I love doing
    • Who inspires me so that I want to spend more time in their energy
    • How can I nourish the whole of myself?

    In answering these questions, you begin to identify what activities will help you to switch off from whatever overwhelm, stress and negativity you are facing. In our lives there is abundance of joy, we just have to stop to see it. Is your real passion in baking, cycling, fishing, gardening or walking? How can you build more of this into your weekly routine? What kind of people bring you inspiration? Who are they and how can you see or speak to them as part of your week?

    When I think of personal “self-care” and nourishment, I think of several things:

    • Sitting on top of a hill or by a river and taking in the view emptying my head of circulating thoughts and conversation
    • Taking an afternoon powernap. 10-20 minutes of “switch off” in peace and quie
    • Switching off connectivity and walking outsid
    • Cuddling up on the sofa with a good boo
    • Spending time with an anima
    • Wholesome foods, heart-warming soups, casseroles and stew
    • A long relaxing bath with essential oils.

    These might not be ways in which you prefer to nourish yourself, but whatever it is that nourishes you, how can you take at least 30 minutes each week to create that time for yourself?

    Defined simply, “Self-care” is: Knowing one’s internal sources of energy and how to build a consistent flow through:

     

    Emotional awareness

    Awareness of one’s emotions and their effects on levels of energy

    Physical awareness

    Awareness of one’s daily load and the effects on mental and physical energy levels

    Respecting your personal capacity

    Recognising when everything is too much and putting practices in place to reduce overwhelm

    Positivity

    Maintaining a positive inner and outer dialogue that is positive and constructive

    Self-control

    Managing disruptive emotions and impulses through proactive behaviour

    Self-nourishment

    Taking regular time to nourish oneself to top-up the energy tank

     

    Reference: Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

     

     

  • Empathy – A Business Case

    Empathy, one of the characteristics or we might say building blocks of emotional intelligence, is an essential aspect of effective leadership. Amid the hurried lives we live today and the demands from employers, family members, government and  ourselves for many and varied reasons, often means we are rushing here and there and consequently might say things in conversation that we don't mean or miss things that someone is either trying to say or has said that are important. The bottom line, empathy ends up taking a back seat.

    Empathy is not sympathy it is the ability to experience the moment in response to a customer, colleague or employee in a manner that “connects” directly to that person, sharing briefly the emotions that the person might be feeling without taking them on yourself. It has an impact on those involved in that moment as well as longer lasting through a relationship of trust, as well as the organisation bottom line. Customer experiences make the difference between them becoming loyal customers or choosing to go elsewhere. In most cases there are plenty of “elsewhere” companies ready to serve customers who have had a poor or even bad experience with your service offering. In the current labour market, it is not just the external customer who might choose to go elsewhere, but your employees, your internal customer also. Now with the possibility to work from home in many job roles, it has removed the need to be based in a particular geographic location, making the employment market a job seekers market, rather than employer market making hiring the right person so much more difficult.

    The 2020 NTT Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report stated that, “Companies who focus on a customer/employee centricity see a 92% increase in customer loyalty with an 84% uplift in revenue and a 79% margin in costs saved. 

    The rising importance of employee service (EX) according to the survey, “94% of CEOs agree that making EX improvements that empower employees and drive efficiencies will improve CX and directly affect net profit. Furthermore, the study explains, “Organizations that strongly identify as being an employer of choice are almost twice as likely as those that do not achieve promoter-level CX performance. Those that have improved their EX capabilities and significantly increased their levels of employee satisfaction in the last year also show a 30% increase in their share of customer value or wallet (including customer retention).”

    Empathy is the linchpin to delivering excellence in customer service as well as for those delivering service to customers. Equipping leaders through the development of emotional intelligence and the skills of showing empathy to team members is no longer questionable in terms of importance to business performance, or even optional, but essential. 

    The key competencies within empathy according to Daniel Goleman (Working with Emotional Intelligence) are:

    • Sense others' feelings and perspectives 
    • Take an active interest in others' concerns
    • Sense others' development needs and support their development
    • Anticipate, recognise and meet customers' needs 
    • Read emotional undercurrents and power relationships
    • Cultivate and build opportunities through different kinds of people

    The aspect of sensing others’ feelings and perspectives of empathy includes several points that are particularly relevant to leaders and those working in customer service:

    The ability to sense and understand feelings, concerns and perspectives of others through intuition. The feeling aspect is the challenge for the development of AI tools to effectively support employees who provide customer service, truly giving them time to listen and respond empathetically. This likely involves examining interactions, work processes and flows as well as considering overall employee wellbeing. 

    Judith Orloff once said, “Empathy is the medicine the world needs.” This statement sums up the reason why we need this important skill in business to foster the growing need for businesses to encourage empathy centricity in their organisation and work culture both internally and externally. 

     

    Tips for Developing Empathy

    Developing empathy to work with others and communicate effectively takes time and effort, but with willingness and the ability to self-reflect this is a skill everyone can develop and benefit from. Below are some suggestions in how to develop empathy for interacting and understanding others.

    Practice self-disclosure – Self disclosure involves sharing feelings, opinions and thoughts about yourself with others. It demonstrates openness and honesty and leads to a greater sense of ease when communicating, building trust and rapport. Being able to self-disclose develops the ability to show empathy towards others.

    Practice being an empathetic listener – Listening, is about being present in the moment while paying close attention to the other person’s emotions, body movement, gestures, tone of voice and language. It is about showing empathy and understanding rather than evaluating or judging. When listening empathetically you listen not only with your head, but your heart as well. You are oriented towards the person giving them full attention, avoiding any temptation to check an email, answer a text or interrupt in order to speed them up or because you have decided you know what they are going to say. The risk of frustrating the customer when processes require service givers to complete a customer conversation within a set period of time can be detrimental to the overall goal of providing excellent customer service. For example, in a call centre where call length is a key performance indicator (KPI), as is number of calls processed by each agent, ignoring the difficulty of some of those calls by negatively hurrying both service giver and customer, impacting behaviour, tone of voice and response.

    Practice emotional scanning – Tune into the emotional state of others and your team as a whole to sense the prevailing emotional climate at any moment in time. This is achieved through noticing body language, tone of voice, the topic and content of what people are talking about as well as asking, how an individual or group are feeling at any point in time and then responding appropriately.

    Match and mirror – Being able to match means that you closely observe the behaviour of the person to whom you are talking and then adapt your behaviour to better match theirs. For example, if they are speaking slowly, you slow down to match that. This adaptation is called "mirroring". Do not copy or mimic them exactly, the goal is to narrow any gap to be less different and help them feel at ease. Invariably the response is sub-conscious in that they simply feel comfortable with you and as a result the conversation will be more open and trusting.

    Ask open questions – Avoid jumping immediately into offering a solution, some advice or what they "should do" by proposing your own perspective and opinion on the subject. Instead ask open questions to understand the situation and how they feel about it, noticing what they say and how they say what they are saying. The use of open questions and listening to the answers, invariably helps the other person to find the solution for themselves, which is more powerful than any personal advice.

    Keep a journal – spend a few minutes each day writing down how you reacted in one or two different situations. Assess whether empathy was needed and if so did you respond appropriately. How did the other person react? If you feel that you got it right, try to understand and identify what you did in that moment. If on the contrary, you feel you got it wrong, be open and honest with yourself and identify why you responded incorrectly. Think about whether there is something you can do to correct the situation when you next see the person and if there is, do it.

    Empathy is a skill that can be learned. The ability to show empathy with internal customers and to external customers is a foundation stone to building loyalty by reducing churn, increasing job satisfaction and in turn increasing organisation profitability and overall reputation.

     

    References

    Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (1999)

    The Language of Emotional Intelligence, Jeanne Segal, Ph.D, Jaelline Jaffee, Ph.D

    Leadership in Easy Steps, Jon Poole

    https://services.global.ntt/en-us/insights/2020-global-cx-benchmarking-report#

     

     

  • Employee Engagement

    Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organisation to give of their best each day.  It means they are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, with an enhanced sense of their personal well-being.

    The 2018 Glint report on the “State of Employee Engagement” states that most participants believe that less than 70% of their employees are engaged’ and that “over 90% believe there is solid evidence linking engagement to performance.”

    Engagement has an impact on a number of performance indicators including product quality, customer service and productivity.  It is logical therefore to extend the thought that poor engagement whilst affecting performance in terms of productivity and profitability will also have a direct link to absenteeism and sickness which is likely higher when there is no engagement.  When looking at MIND figures in relation to mental ill health and sickness, the figures are staggering:

    • More than 1 in 5 employees have called in sick to avoid work when asked how workplace stress has affected them
    • 30% felt that they would not be able to tell their manager they felt stressed

    The second point is directly related to engagement or non-engagement of employees due to negligent or ineffective leadership.

    Engaging employees in their work, the company culture and values is the responsibility of leaders within each organisation. In other words – creating the right environment, building trust, nurturing relationships, and being transparent.  Leadership behaviour is itself driven by the organisational culture and company values.  The old saying of “the fish stinks from the head down” adequately sums up the need within an organisation to ensure senior management lead by example and roll down company values, ensuring they are manifested throughout the organisation.

    Engagement can be measured in different ways.  However, to be effective it is likely that the process is continuous and uses a combination of ways, such as:

    • Formal employee surveys – will get the feedback that is needed to lead to relevant change, so long as employees feel safe to answer openly.
    • Exit interviews – taking the time to really find out why an employee is leaving is critical to reflecting on what can be done better, whilst also providing feedback about the environment and culture to the manager of the person who is leaving.
    • One-to-ones with managers – Work very well when there is an atmosphere of trust.  Without trust, it may bring limited results.
    • Customer satisfaction ratings – The customer is the one who truly bears the brunt of poor employee engagement, experiencing poorly motivated service people, with a “don’t care” attitude. Thus, hearing about their experiences is a very important gauge whilst also providing pointers for improvement.
    • Employee productivity – measured in different ways, is a valuable measurement of employee engagement.  Low productivity very often reflects low engagement and vica versa.

    How can managers and leaders influence engagement levels?

    Again there is no one answer, there are several answers and in reality a combination of different actions are needed to positively influence employee engagement:

    • Give employees the chance to do quality work
    • Maintain a positive work culture
    • Listen carefully to employee feedback
    • Communicate clear expectations to employees
    • Encourage employee collaboration
    • Build a trusting environment through being fair
    • Give positive feedback and praise employees for their performance
    • Train and coach

    It makes sense that employee engagement is part of the core business strategy. Engagement on a consistent basis will pay dividends in increasing productivity, thus profitability. The work place will be a happier place to be and consequently increase pride in doing quality work and serving customers, as well as succeeding in achieving department and company goals.

     

    References:

    The State of Employee Engagement 2018 HR.com

    Managing for Sustainable Employee Engagement, CIPD

    https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-bank/employee-engagement

    https://www.Mind.org.uk

  • Employee Engagement Stagnates while Mental Health Escalates

    With the advent of the still recent fallout from the pandemic and the impact on society we are seeing an acute escalation in mental ill-health disorders including anxiety, depression, ADHD in children especially, and fatigue. Could there be a link between employee engagement and the need for “social belonging as well as the need for individual autonomy and achievement?” Bruce Alexander the author of “The Globalisation of Addiction: A study of Poverty and the Spirit,” professor emeritus of psychology at Simon Fraser University thinks this is so, naming it “psychosocial integration”.

    Organisations are dealing with a tidal wave of mental ill-health amongst employees and in efforts to support those employees and combat this wave provide aspects of education around the topic, train mental health first-aiders and provide help lines via dial in phone services to those who might need help when feeling desperate. Whilst honourable and necessary, are these actions:  

    1. Correct? 

    2. Enough?

    3. Dealing with the real cause?

    In this blog I am going to try to answer these questions, if not fully answering them to at least put some meat on the bones and give further food for thought.

    Without this integration of social belonging, autonomy and achievement, an individual has conflict between belonging and being oneself which in turn undermines authenticity and the need to belong which might manifest as some form of mental ill- health, lack of confidence and self-esteem and consequently lead to withdrawal, ultimately affecting productivity whether at work or in one’s personal life. In other words, a “dislocation” to oneself, to others and a sense of meaning and purpose, consequently likely asking questions such as, What am I here for both in an organisation and life in general? What is my role and how is my contribution valued? 

    Bruce Alexander likens this state to a dislocated shoulder. “It is a shoulder out of joint, disarticulated. This is not treated by cutting the arm off, so the arm continues to just hang there, unable to work, while at the same time being very painful. This is how “dislocated” individuals feel – useless and in pain.”

    Dislocation does not only happen to individuals but can also happen to groups working in organisations when they are cut off from autonomy, trust and meaning, more often than not through poor leadership. Leaders who choose to micromanage, not allowing individuals and the team as a whole to take autonomy and grow through working within broader parameters, but at the same time with clear goals. The scary thing about social dislocation is that it is now our normal. Prior to the pandemic it was already growing in western societies, but now has fully ballooned in our cultures and most noticeably in work cultures within organisations, leading to the acute escalation in mental ill-health. 

    A recent Gallup poll, January 2014 of US employees identified that only 33% of employees feel engaged at work! Specifically noting that “Employees still feel more detached from — and less satisfied with — their organizations and are less likely to connect to the companies’ mission and purpose or to feel someone cares about them as a person.”

    Part of this is caused by misidentification through material gains and status. When these gains disappear our identity and security goes with it. How many people do you know or perhaps you experienced it yourself who lost their job and consequently their house, car and the lifestyle to find themselves without any so-called friends and perhaps even their partner? This loss is being experienced more and more by individuals questioning their worth both in jobs that carry a professional image in society, such as doctor, lawyer and accountant as well as those whose roles have less apparent status, but never-the-less require long hours in toxic environments ruled by KPI’s and other productivity markers, or bonus schemes connected to individual and group output, but with little attention to the importance of sharing feedback that shows their performance really matters and makes a valuable contribution. This is further exacerbated since the advent of the internet when everyone is expected always to be “on”. It is a bit like chasing a never-ending result that when achieving there is hunger and further drive for more from those in charge within the organisation, leaving those charged with delivery questioning the cost to them due to an inflated view of personal identity, self-importance, material rewards or ambition and the pay back and whether that pay-back is in balance with their effort and the rewards.

    How does all this link to mental and physical health? It is well known that those who lead a meaningful life are more likely to be mentally, physically and emotionally healthy. Having this knowledge, how are organisations tapping into this foundation of helping individuals and teams be their best which not only serves the employee interests, but the organisation interests as well?  It is clear how many organisations use the importance of belonging to promote their products through selling meaning and identification and a sense of belonging through the brand. Take Apple for example. It now has almost a cult following to share in the belonging giving the impression that a particular iPhone is tailored to your exact needs with the question and chosen imagery of “Which iPhone is right for you? Of course, Apple is not the only one, this is a well-known marketing approach amongst all in business whether large or small organisations.

    While such marketing messages have been in our societies for many years, the question is at what cost? Encouraging individuals to lose their self-identity in pursuit of a product that helps them feel they belong. It is very sad that individuals might be building their identify, self-confidence and self-esteem on a product. Surely there is something wrong here?  Does each organisation provide that much needed belonging, sound self-confidence and esteem to fill that gap by encouraging employees to belong in a way that has a strong foundation and breeds good health and wellbeing, or is this simply a marketing ploy, that is all about driving productivity and goal achievement for the benefit of an increased bottom line? 

    Forgetting that employees are human and they give of their best when they are given autonomy, clear direction as well as being treated in a way that fosters a feeling of belonging, care, gratitude for the value they deliver within an open, honest environment that listens, shows empathy and concern when needed, and above all creates social belonging might just be fuelling the pandemic in mental ill-health.

    References 

    https://www.gallup.com/workplace/608675/new-workplace-employee-engagement-stagnates.aspx?version=print

    The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mate & Daniel Mate

  • Enthusiasm – a leadership characteristic

    “I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.” Queen Elizabeth II

    One of my clients some years ago, on arrival in England, with very little knowledge of English was told by one of his friends, “In order to be successful at getting a job you need to show enthusiasm”. What’s this “enthusiasm he thought?” and went away to find out.

    Dictionary.com defines “enthusiasm” as “Absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; a lively interest”.  “Keen interest, excitement.”

    The word “enthusiasm” comes from Greek, meaning possessed by God’s essence, divine influence, inspiration. It has a history of being “confined to religious inspiration or intense religious fervor or emotion”.  In the 16th and 17th centuries there were several Protestant sects who were called “Enthusiasts”.  After the Glorious Revolution between 1688-1689 the reigning king, James II was replaced with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. This was the point in British history when parliamentary supremacy was established over the crown, thus beginning the path to a parliamentary democracy.  “Enthusiasts” become a term of advocacy for any political or religious cause in public, a form of fanaticism.  It was this level of enthusiasm that was seen as the cause of the English Civil War in 1700, and all the related atrocities.  Consequently, Royal Society Bylaws stipulated that any person discussing religion or politics at a Society meeting was to be summarily ejected for being an “enthusiast”.

    What was my client’s friend saying?  Skills are not enough, they are not the only thing that employers look for when recruiting to fill a vacant position.  Enthusiasm is no substitute for experience, intelligence or skills, but when added to these qualities enthusiasm creates the difference between you and the next person.

    Enthusiasm as a leader is a person who is driven by his or her passion to excel at what they do.  Enthusiasm fuels achievement both of the leader him or herself as well as individuals in the team and the team as whole. Enthusiasm drives self-confidence, a positive outlook, and a contagious atmosphere that others want to be part of, and are sad to leave.

    Enthusiasm is a choice, you choose to either express it about something or not.  However, when choosing to express enthusiasm you reap the benefits of personal success of loyalty from others, a passion in others to follow you, drive, commitment and achievement.

    Donald Trump in a recent speech said:

    “We have to straighten out our country; we have to make our country great again, and we need energy and enthusiasm.”

    Are there any downsides to enthusiasm or is it all positive?  Having a passion and following that passion with enthusiasm is positive, however the down side of this might be that enthusiasm for a cause, might warp judgment, thus leading into a situation that is undesirable, perhaps unproductive and even down right ignorant, until it is too late to see what we have created, where we have ended up, and more importantly that we did not listen to those around us and blindly steamed ahead, putting both ourselves and others at risk.

    Let me leave you with one more thought, a quote from Bo Bennett, a businessman:

    “Faked enthusiasm is worse than bad acting – it is bad acting with the intent to deceive.”

  • Female Leadership: Leading Change Now

    On 8th March, as we mark International Women’s Day around the globe, it feels more relevant than ever to recognise the women leading at every level — from Heads of State and CEOs to founders, frontline managers and mothers. Female leadership is quietly leading the way as the world around us appears to go from one crisis situation to another. A change is needed. Are women able to live up to the needs of a changing world?

    The global picture has shifted significantly in recent years. While women still hold only around a quarter of national parliamentary seats worldwide, and fewer than 10% of countries are led by a woman Head of State or Government at any given time, representation at senior levels is slowly increasing. In the corporate world, women now hold over 10% of Fortune 500 CEO roles — the highest proportion in history — and in the UK, women occupy more than 40% of FTSE 350 board positions. Progress, while uneven, is real and perhaps even to be accelerated in the Year of the Horse and the age of Aquarius.

    Recent and current female Heads of Government and State have included leaders such as Mette Frederiksen in Denmark, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, Ingrida Šimonytė in Lithuania, and Katrín Jakobsdóttir in Iceland. In recent years we have also seen influential leadership from figures such as Angela Merkel in Germany and Sanna Marin in Finland, who served as Prime Minister from 2019 to 2023 and became one of the world’s youngest serving heads of government, leading through the COVID-19 pandemic and complex security shifts in Europe.

    It is not about whether we agree with their politics or even like them. The fact remains: women are leading nations, steering economies, managing crises and shaping global policy during periods marked by geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, climate disruption and rapid technological change.

    What are the principal characteristics of female leadership?

    Can we clearly separate “female” and “male” leadership principles? Probably not. Leadership styles vary widely among individuals, influenced by upbringing, education, experience, personality, culture and values. Courage, decisiveness, empathy and resilience are not gender-bound qualities.

    However, research consistently shows that women leaders are often associated with strengths such as:

    •    High emotional intelligence and relational awareness

    •    The ability to consider both data and human impact in decision-making

    •    Collaborative and inclusive approaches

    •    Patience and long-term thinking

    •    Resilience and quiet determination

    •    Comfort with shared credit rather than personal spotlight

    •    Strong communication and listening skills

    •    Systems thinking — balancing multiple priorities simultaneously

    This does not suggest men lack these qualities. Rather, many of these attributes are frequently socialised and strengthened in women, and when brought consciously into leadership, they can significantly influence organisational culture and performance.

    Why does this matter now?

    We are living in a time defined by complex, interconnected challenges:

    •    Climate change and environmental degradation

    •    Rising chronic disease and health inequality

    •    Economic instability and widening wealth gaps

    •    Loneliness, mental health pressures and social fragmentation

    •    Food system sustainability and public health concerns

    These are not problems that respond well to purely hierarchical or short-term thinking. They require courage, collaboration, empathy, systems awareness and long-term stewardship.

    The question is not whether female leadership is “better.” The question is whether broader, more balanced leadership — drawing on the full spectrum of human capability — is essential for the world we now inhabit.

    How long can we continue to live in ways that compromise the inheritance of future generations?

    How long can we ignore the impact of industrialised systems — in food, energy and production and on health, ecosystems and communities?

    How long can we overlook the connection between how we lead and the wellbeing of those we lead?

    How long can we blindly drive forward in disharmony with the all living beings and the environment in which we live?

    A celebration — and a responsibility.

    Let us celebrate female leadership not only on International Women’s Day, but every day — in government, in business, in communities and in homes.

    Progress is not about replacing one form of leadership with another. It is about expanding what leadership looks like. It is about ensuring talent, perspective and capability are not limited by gender.

    Perhaps it is this more inclusive, emotionally intelligent and system-aware leadership — embodied by many women and increasingly embraced by men — that will help us steer the ship toward a more responsible, sustainable and humane future.

    And perhaps the real leadership question is not who leads — but how we choose to lead, and what legacy we intend to leave behind.

    Interested in developing your leadership team? Contact rachel@greenkeypersonaldevelopment.com or book a call https://www.greenkeypersonaldevelopment.com/pages/contact

    #leadershipdevelopment #managementtrainingcourses #Leadershiptrainingoxfordshire #Hospitalityleadership

  • Great Leadership – Taking Difficult Decisions

    Teresa May quoted in a recent press conference on the reaction to the Brexit plan that has just been signed by all 27 member states – “Great leadership is not about taking the easy route, it is about making difficult decisions.”  Putting Brexit aside – I hear a sigh of relief?   This quote is at the heart of what effective leaders are faced with on a regular basis – that self questioning and draw of the easy route, which we all know rarely delivers, or taking that difficult decision which one knows will meet opposition, denial, ridicule and even refusal.

    Peter F. Drucker the management guru, once said, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

    Making that difficult decision takes courage to stand in the face of adversity and keep moving forward, despite your inner self reminding you that there is an easier route, which may leave you unscathed, (probably not in Theresa May’s case!), but completely dissatisfied with yourself.  In other words, not living your own truth.

    Currently in South Africa enjoying the beauty of the landscape, the birds and wild life, knowing that underneath all this is a very rocky and unstable government.  The new temporary president, Cyril Ramaphosa is walking the tight rope through the land reform, and the demands of the opposition who believe it is reasonable to take away and redistribute land from farmers who have bought and worked their land, in some cases for generations, to African communities in those areas, for no compensation. Ramaphosa has looked for common ground in the negotiations and has signed off on the land reform. However, with a caveat that land cannot simply be removed from farmers, there has to be a system to request the land and process that transition, with the goal of ensuring it stays productive in supplying food for the South African people.  Did Ramaphosa take the easy route, or that difficult decision?

    Mandala walked the tightrope throughout his life, bringing liberation to the people of South Africa.  He did not stop to blame those who created the apartheid regime, he simply kept his goal in mind and moved peacefully and assertively forward towards his goal, making those decisions that had to be made despite lack of support from many his own ANC members. Eventually it all paid off with the end of apartheid, with liberation for all and a new beginning for South Africa.  Did it take courage and dedication to live his vision?  Did he have to make difficult decisions? I believe there can be no more difficult a decision to take than committing yourself to life imprisonment to serve the greater good of your people.

    Being a leader takes courage, it takes courage to make the decisions that have to be made, knowing very often that it will not please many of your followers.  However, firstly taking a decision is important, and making that decision work through a plan of action, communicating that plan to others and keeping the ship on course to overcome barriers to change, whilst inspiring followers to embrace that change, bringing about something new, different and exceptional.

    What lies ahead for Theresa May, the British government and people is going to take great courage and leadership to drive forward on the decision to leave the EU, to keep “Britain Great” and move into a new history.

  • Have our Government forgotten how to Collaborate?

    With all the chaos in the world and the never ending devastating and horrifying news, I believe it is time to re-visit the importance of authentic leadership. Most of our world leaders, whether prime ministers, presidents or M.P’s seem hell bent on dividing nations globally as well as locally. It doesn’t take much to find the subjects that are being used to create this great divide whether we think about ULEZ (Ultra low emission zone) climate change, Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, covid or any other vaccination, limitation on freedom of speech etc, the list goes on. In this blog I don’t intend to go down the rabbit hole of why this might be, and why several governments seem to only have one goal in mind and that is the destruction of individuals, groups, countries, cities and nations, but rather focus on leadership and the key characteristic and skill that is needed to bring us all back together to be more accepting of each other irrelevant of how you identify yourself, what your beliefs and opinions are and what your nationality or religion might be. All this is irrelevant when we choose to come from a place of kindness, unconditional love and collaboration.

    What is collaboration? “Collaboration is a joint effort of multiple individuals or work groups to accomplish a task or project.” Within an organization, collaboration typically involves the ability of two or more people to view and contribute to documents, work processes and procedures, or other content through a structured and organised approach. In other words, if we don’t work together, companies will not function well, employees will be dissatisfied and unfulfilled, probably leaving for sunnier prospects due to day-to-day chaos caused by a lack of leadership that brings about collaboration and teamwork and encourages a win-win output by sitting down in a group to address issues whether that is conflict, things not going to plan, processes and procedures that are not fit for purpose and so on. Seldom if ever, in my multiple years of employment in front line and management positions have I experienced a lack of collaboration when a proactive leader has realised the need to increase communication and collaboration and therefore has encouraged this to happen through appropriate leadership.

    The next question might be; Do we need a leader to drive collaboration? Actually not, if we all make an individual decision to collaborate with others whether that is a work colleague, peer, boss or when we are out and about shopping, driving, eating and drinking, or on public transport. Every single one of us can decide through self-leadership to positively collaborate to get the issue in hand resolved or the task accomplished and in so doing will avoid the need to jump the queue, treat a fellow driver with contempt, the waiter with annoyance because things are not as fast as we think they should be or verbally attack the human who finally takes our call after several minutes of being asked by the robotic bot why we are calling, venting our frustration and annoyance at being reduced to sub-human.

    The bottom line – how can you improve collaboration and show small acts of kindness to others in your everyday life which not only makes their day, but also yours as you realise what this does for others and how you feel at being able to show that kindness and collaborate with them to achieve a particular outcome that works for both parties.

    Back to leadership and our leadership structures. In the workplace, and let’s face it government of a country is no different, just a large organisation that has a specific goal of serving the community that it governs for the best outcome for all and the nation as a whole. Examples of collaboration might include communication, conflict management and resolution, understanding through a willingness to listen, questioning to understand other points of view and problem solving in a team. It is similar to teamwork, however collaboration has no hierarchy, even though someone might be nominated to organise the collaborative process. In collaboration everyone is equal. Everyone has equal right to share their opinion and be listened to respectfully, challenge others about their opinion in a polite manner while communicating together for the common good to achieve the goal. Collaboration skills are vital for a company’s very existence as well as growth and development. Governments are no different.

    According to J. Ibeh Agbanyim in his book the “The Five Principles of Collaboration: Applying Trust, Respect, Willingness, Empowerment, and Effective Communication to Human Relationships is the foundation to effective collaboration.” When using these skills as a checklist it is not difficult to identify what is missing from our governments and world leaders today. Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” We seem to have come a long way from Churchill’s comment. I’m sure he wasn’t referring to what our world leaders are giving today, even though he served as Prime Minister during the second world war.

    Don’t sit back in your comfort zone and ignore what is going on, unless of course you are satisfied with your country’s leadership and the leadership in those unelected organisations that seek to control our lives such as the World Health Organisation, World Economic Forum and the like and the only people they are interested in collaborating with are themselves. We can all choose to collaborate with each other and show our fellow humans kindness and unconditional love. In other words, don’t wait for someone to lead you, lead yourself to a place where you want to be and encourage others to do the same. In this way as we each throw a pebble into the pool of water, soon that pool will become the ocean. An ocean of collaboration and kindness.

     

    “Extend a hand whether or not you know it shall be grasped.”

    – Ryunosuke Satoro, the Japanese father of short stories.