Digital edition Your Workplace June 2021 23-3

digital edtion | your workplace | june 1, 2021 supporting ...........managers We all want to believe that we are in control, that we know our place in the world, that we know what is going on and what is expected from us. What we learned from COVID is that there is much that is outside of our locus of control. In this issue, YW supports managers to help them support their employees. Communication No Action Plan Required The Impact of Communication Styles Managing is Hard— Coaching Makes it Easier Developing On-the-Fly Coaching Habits Internal Communications Should Be Up to Speed Teamwork Creating a “Yay, it’s Monday!” Mindset Calm in the Storm: Supporting Employees in Distressing Times It’s All About Energy Talented Terrors: How to Deal With Toxic High-Performers Showing Gratitude Can Improve Workplace Efficiency Wellness Walking a Mile in Someone’s Shoes Relationship Between Stress and Performance The Meaning of Wellness Increasing Your Growth Mindset Maintaining Wellness and Engagement Results Employee Recognition Boosting Performance During Disruptions The End of the Performance Review Recognition from Afar The Road to Resilience Editor's Voice: Managing Is a Two-Way Street JOEL KRANC Editor and Deputy Publisher, Your Workplace It would be difficult to find another period in modern history more challenging for managers than the one we’re living in right now. The ability to maintain a cohesive team, with common goals and support, while ensuring wellness and a work-life balance is about as hard as it gets even in “normal times.” Pile onto that a global pandemic that has upended work norms, and managers become something more akin to circus performers: juggling flaming chainsaws … on tightrope wires …without nets … while blindfolded. The word “manager” is an interesting one. It comes from the Italian “maneggiare,” meaning “to handle” or “to train.” The position has evolved over time. Managers and their employees now represent a two-way street. Yes, managers oversee and ensure the smooth running of production (in whatever form that is). However, they too require support and “handling”—especially now. Consider the workplace as an ecosystem of needs and goals that move vertically from the most senior boss down to the newest junior employee and back up again. Each can give and take, with the idea that, individually, satisfaction and growth is encouraged, and the goals of the company are being met. There are many ways to do this. Coaching, learning, listening and support are all part of getting to a place where everyone is empowered. This takes effort. For example, according to a Mercer report entitled Win with Empathy: Global Talent Trends 2020–2021, democratizing access to learning goes a long way in providing opportunity and encouragement. The report says it is important to have an “infrastructure that promotes an open job market and encouragement for people managers to look beyond their own balance sheets when career coaching.” In today’s market, managers need their traditional skills of delegation and also those of empowerment toward workers. This digital edition of Your Workplace identifies some of the important tools required and breaks them down for today’s—and tomorrow’s—workplace. Issues such as communications, teamwork, wellness and results are discussed to help managers navigate their concerns and find the support they need to ensure cohesion. For example, when it comes to communications, managers may have always been trained to give orders rather than take direction. Simply asking questions and understanding challenges can help open dialogue for a better work environment. Similarly, showing gratitude and appreciation encourages a sense of a “team” within an organization that moves projects, promotes loyalty and supports the long-term effects of business operations continuity (i.e., less turnover). Mercer’s report corroborates this point with the case study of KeyBank. Things changed for the better when the bank started “realizing that they were entering into a partnership with employees.” Managers were supplied with the tools, frameworks and guidance on how to coach, deploy emotional intelligence and engage employees as they navigated the organizational transformation and their own learning journey. Of course, teambuilding has been upended by COVID-19. Extra diligence and effort are required these days as managers struggle with out-of-office teams in disparate locations. With teams at home, recognition is a more difficult tool to utilize, albeit even more important than before the pandemic. Technology and a consistent culture of recognition are more pieces of the managerial puzzle that will support such efforts, ultimately trickling down to employee needs. Speaking of culture, a culture of caring is something driving employee needs, which in many ways trump the economics of the bottom line. The report says that “economics without empathy is even more concerning in today’s climate given that nearly two in three employees already felt at risk of burnout even before COVID-19.” Finding this balance and supporting managers to create this culture of caring will go a long way toward balancing empathy and ROI. The good news, according to Mercer, is that 61% of employees surveyed last year said they trusted their employers to look after their well-being; in the wake of COVID-19, nearly half (47%) of HR leaders plan to add emotional health benefits in 2021. Managers will rely on those tools and benefits when addressing their teams’ needs and to help them move past any stress or anxiety toward better wellness. Another term creeping into the lexicon of management is “unbossing”— leaders becoming listeners who learn from their people. Instead of handing over a task by itself, leaders’ hand over accountability and ownership to employees. The Unbossed Leadership Experience (ULE) was created by pharmaceutical company Novartis. In 2018, new CEO Vas Narasimhan encouraged the new way of thinking as the company struggled with things like collaboration and learning. The company moved from a traditional hierarchy of serving management to a more coaching and empowering environment. The top 50 leaders were taught how to inspire their people to perform at their best, increase self-awareness and approach the change moving forward. The company now uses “Team Boosters” that provide small exercises to build psychological safety, teamwork and trust-building to create an environment where people feel empowered to do their best. It’s a far cry from the original Italian definition of “manager.” Progressive management has moved away from the top-down, task-driven relationship to a more collaborative environment where everyone can learn from each other. It has truly become a two-way street. However, like any path, the journey is never straight. There are bumps, detours and accidents. Hopefully, those are the exceptions. As long as everyone is heading in the same direction, support along the way will make the trip that much smoother. SUPPORTING MANAGERS Chapter 1: Communication INTRO: Talk is Not Cheap People often talk about wanting results. What they fail to take into account is that not all results are positive. They come in all shapes and sizes, and the results you get could be very different than what you had in mind. That may be because communication strategies differ among organizations, or may not be existent at all. Managers would be wise to re-think their communications strategies in order to achieve the results they are looking for. But like many things, process and strategy at the outset will help steer employees to results that satisfy everyone. Sometimes those strategies are very hands-on and sometimes they are a more “laissez-faire” approach giving more freedom to employees to get to Point B. If COVID has shown managers anything it’s that nothing is predictable or immediately solvable. Not always knowing the answer or intended result can help employees speak truthfully, be innovative, be brave and allow them the freedom to take initiatives where they might otherwise just sit quietly and let the orders be dictated to them. Having said that, it’s important for managers to eventually have a strategy in place that guides, but doesn’t necessarily drive, employees in one direction or the other. If you develop effective coaching habits, ideally, you will be working less hard but having a greater impact on employee results. Getting into that “coaching mindset” should start the long-term journey of supporting your employees. How? Simply, asking questions to help clarify roadblocks or eliminate overdependence by employees can start the process moving. Questions as simple as: “What’s on your mind?” “What are your challenges?” and “How can I help?” will get your employee thinking about their own tasks that can develop and provide growth opportunities for them. The worst thing a manager can do is the actual work the employee should be doing. The second is communicating poorly about it. The worst thing a manager can do is the actual work the employee should be doing. The second is communicating poorly about it. Giving employees enough space to take initiative and make mistakes will lead to greater and more impactful results that were created with a sense of purpose (rather than a direction from the top). Another element, and something that runs as a theme through most management issues, is communication style. Managers and employees can have very different styles in the way they provide and consume information. Some are collaborative, some analyze, some socialize and the list goes on. It’s important to understand what style you fit into and what style works best for your employees. If perception is reality then what you say may be interpreted differently than how you meant it. Asking for feedback or listening to your own presentations later can give you some insight into your style. As well, listening, being open to change, and being positive and respectful will allow you to evolve your style that works well for the situation you are in. Your employees will better understand you and the results will (hopefully) be more in line with requests, while at the same time meeting the employee needs for freedom of opportunity. It’s important to remember that effective coaching and achieving desired results makes work more efficient for managers and allows employees to take more initiative. It is one of the most important tools for success, both between manager and employee, and for the company itself. Articles No Action Plan Required The Impact of Communication Styles Managing is Hard— Coaching Makes it Easier Developing On-the-Fly Coaching Habits Internal Communications Should Be Up to Speed No Action Plan Required Stumped, flummoxed, puzzled, confused — all relevant and relatable words in my current state. Except I had no idea why I was feeling this way. Usually I know when and why I am out of sorts; this time, the cause was not clear, at least not right away. It was in a meeting (Zoom, of course) when I felt the darkness disperse and the sun rise. By listening to others recount their experiences at work, I began to understand what was going on. My frustration was actually a feeling of helplessness. As the person responsible for the people in my organization, I was doing everything possible to keep my team healthy, engaged and productive. The more I was doing, the more needed to get done. And everything had an underlying sense of urgency; everything needed to get done today. Taking a deep breath, I wondered if this was just about me — my issues, my workload. However, this overwhelming weight was far-reaching. How do we help our folks cope with change, isolation, technology, remote work, accountability when we ourselves are still learning to deal with it as well? With increasing frequency, we are hearing comments from our team like “there is nothing to look forward to anymore.” As tacky as a white-frosted birthday cake with token candles may have been, it brought us together. The same went for potlucks, celebrations and Lunch’n’Learns. The responsibility many of us are taking on for the people in our organizations can be a very weighty anchor around the ankles. As we watch our team grieve for what was, the feeling of powerlessness to give them the support, the resources and the advice that they need to be fully productive at work can sometimes suddenly feel overwhelming. It is on me to make things better, yet I was struggling to figure out how to do so. Let’s face it, working from home is not as easy, delightful or desirable as we romanticize it to be. It is hard. Take, for example, exercise. The workout I normally got walking 30-minutes each morning from my parking spot to the office and the same distance at night back again to my car had to be replaced. And the COVID cushion is real – if this did not get sorted quickly, there would be a big price to pay. But exercise is perhaps the easiest issue to resolve, provided we have the willpower to do it. It is not too difficult to figure out how to put exercise into my schedule (because it does not tally between my bed and my home office). The harder weights are the ones we can’t just pick up on our own. Whether you have remote workers or are practicing physical distancing at your workplace, the bottom line is the same. The members of your team are struggling. So how do we lift this extra burden on people’s lives? The worst thing a manager can do is the actual work the employee should be doing. The second is communicating poorly about it. There is no simple solution — just as there have not been simple solutions for many issues relating to this pandemic. Have courage. Be brave. Look after others. Continue to try new ideas and take comfort knowing that there are many others in the same position you are in. It’s not much, but it’s the only guidance we can offer. Personally, I called a team meeting. The subject of the meeting was: “Discuss workload and productivity concerns and any impediments to reaching our goals.” I knew that simply asking people to start talking about their feelings is not usually a great way to get them to do so. It was only when we talked about “impediments” that all the emotional baggage that everyone was carrying started to come out. I listened. The conversation was rich and meaningful. At the end there was no solution. There was no action plan, to-do list or follow-up. There was, however, a genuine promise that we would continue to speak truthfully to each other. Given that everyone felt so much better afterward, that was a good-enough start for me. Written By Vera Asanin Vera Asanin is award-winning and the Editor-in-Chief for Your Workplace. She is a published author of hundreds of articles, and a professional speaker at international events. Vera is inspiring and passionate, and she’s also on a mission to make work better. The Impact of Communication Styles We cannot “not” communicate. Our non-verbal behaviour speaks volumes whether we realize it or not. We’ve heard it before: “Know who you’re talking to and adapt your communication style to your listeners’ style.” As many times as we’ve heard these words to be the key for creating and managing relationships, I’ve found that people often do the opposite. Whether I’m observing a speaker or sales representative, or having a one-to-one conversation with a client, it’s obvious their messages are about them. They’re oblivious to reading their listeners’ non-verbal and verbal cues. This is not that difficult to do. Imagine where you could take your relationships with others if you took the time to listen to what works for them. Imagine where you could take your relationships with others if you took the time to listen to what works for them. We have preferences – certain skills and behaviours that make us who we are. Recognizing styles in yourself and others can help you influence and build relationships and become a better communicator. There are a variety of instruments that identify individual communication styles. For the purpose of this article, I’ve chosen the four communication styles identified by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. These styles are based on tendencies to be task-oriented, versus people-oriented and easygoing, versus take-charge. Different communication styles While these are simplifications, tendencies of the four styles are: Controllers: take-charge and want control of themselves, others and situations. They are task-oriented drivers and are only focused on the end goal. Collaborators: easygoing, relationship-oriented, and enjoy working with people to work towards consensus. Analyzers: detail-oriented, logical thinkers and analyze others and situations. Work best alone to come up with solutions; therefore, may take more time to make a decision and take action. Socializers: outgoing, thrive on change and enjoy meeting people. They get their energy from others and work best when brainstorming with others to make a decision and take action. By being aware of your communication preference, you’ll have a better understanding of how others perceive you. The ability to recognize and adapt to your listeners’ communication styles will make them feel like you’ve taken the time to listen and focus on their needs. You cannot be 100% sure what a person means through his/her non-verbal behaviour. However, you can look for consistencies in gesture, eye movement, tone of voice and facial expression. For example: Controllers are direct, prefer to be in control, have a sense of urgency, use louder volume, and express limited or no emotion. Collaborators appear relaxed, ask a lot of questions, have a win-win attitude, are hesitant to make decisions and are highly emotional with an expressive tone. Analyzers are cautious, logical thinkers, soft-spoken, use a monotone voice, use limited eye contact and facial expression. Socializers are outspoken, quick to make a decision, assertive, fast talkers, express how they’re feeling through gestures, facial expression and tone. When communicating with: Controllers get to the point. State what’s in it for them and ask straightforward questions. Communicate confidently with a clear and concise message. Avoid clutter and fluff. Collaborators show an interest in them, listen patiently and give them a good “feel” about your message or what you’re asking them to do. Analyzers avoid small talk, present facts and data, and provide details about the process you’ll follow to service them. Socializers show interest in them, be upbeat, and tie their personal experiences to your message. What does your communication style communicate to others? Does your serious expression say that you don’t want to be there? Does the lack of eye contact communicate you’re disinterested? Does your quick rate of speech suggest that you’re in a hurry and that you don’t have time for them? How to improve your communication style? Ask for feedback from your peers about your communication style. Audiotape yourself to hear what others hear. Take time to observe the behaviours of people you admire, and follow their lead. Five characteristics for being flexible and open to others’ style: Be a good listener: ask questions to learn more; watch for non-verbal cues. Be open to change: be willing to change your mind, look for alternatives and work with others to resolve conflict. Be a learner: be willing to learn new behaviours and what makes others tick. Ask for feedback. Be positive: learn from your mistakes and move on; be proactive and take responsibility. Be respectful and sensitive: accept differences and show appreciation for others, and adapt your behaviour to match that of your audience. If your listener’s facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice or gestures concern you: Ask if he or she has questions. Ask for his other opinion, thoughts and what’s important to him/her. Ask if he or she needs clarification. Take this five-minute challenge: During your next conversation, watch the other person’s non-verbal cues. Pay attention to his or her reaction. Are you willing to adjust your style? Are you willing to adapt your message to grab his or her attention? Is your message for you or your audience? If any of the skills mentioned don’t come naturally to you, take heart. You can develop them. They’re worth taking the time to learn because of the positive results you will receive. With a flexible communication style, you will be able to influence your audience to take action, avoid misinterpretation of your message, and build a stronger relationship with your listeners. Written By Stacey Hanke Stacey Hanke is author of Influence Redefined…Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, Monday to Monday. She is the founder of Stacey Hanke Inc. and has presented to Coca-Cola, FedEx, Nationwide, Fannie Mae and McDonald’s. She has been featured on The New York Times, Forbes and SmartMoney. Managing is Hard— Coaching Makes it Easier Margaret went into work with a feeling of dread. She knew that she was going into an intense return-to-work hearing, and she needed her manager on board with her. As the Director of Human Resources, Margaret had a lot of experience with many difficult situations over the years, but she knew she could always rely on her team to support her. But for some reason, it wasn’t working so well with Ellen, the manager in charge of this business portfolio. Ellen was also a career HR professional and had been in the manager position for several years, but it seemed to Margaret that Ellen was “checking out” — not as engaged as she would have liked. In the previous meetings on this same issue, Margaret had hoped that Ellen would take the lead — it was her business client after all and Margaret had wanted Ellen to get more visibility and gain the confidence of her client. Ellen keep deferring to Margaret forcing Margaret to take the lead, which she felt confused the client. Margaret had a preparatory meeting with Ellen that morning, and the final meeting with the client was in the afternoon. Margaret fretted — what would she say to Ellen to get her on board and make her to take charge? Pause. Here’s what is going on Margaret has a vision for how these meetings should unfold. She has ambitions for Ellen. Margaret knows what role she wants to play, and how she sees Ellen stepping up. Margaret wants the best for Ellen and her client. We can probably agree at this point that Margaret is doing what a good director should — she is creating a successful platform for her manager and developing Ellen’s skills, abilities and knowledge. Ellen should be thrilled, right? But what is going on from Ellen’s point of view? To be honest — we don’t know. Margaret doesn’t know either — and why not? Because no one has asked Ellen what’s going on. Very simply, Margaret is driving, and by doing so, she is creating exactly the situation that she wants to avoid. By taking charge and selling her vision to Ellen, she has made herself the leader and Ellen is the follower. By setting the roles, Margaret is directing, and she expects Ellen to step obediently into her assigned role. Why would Ellen take the initiative? Margaret has set everything up. There is very little left for Ellen to do. In fact, Ellen may even worry that she might say the wrong thing, and by doing so she would wreck Margaret’s plans, and then she would disappoint her director. That would be a career-limiting move. Ellen’s best bet is to play it cautiously and prudently, and continue to let Margaret lead. That way, she won’t disappoint in the meeting. At this point, you may have noticed that Ellen is also creating the very situation that she wishes to avoid. By following Margaret’s lead, she is disappointing her boss, who actually wants her to lead. How did they get to this point? How do they get past it to work as a successful team, not just in the short term for this meeting, but in the longer term as Margaret develops her strategic leadership and Ellen develops her autonomy and operational skills? When people think about what managing entails, they tend to think about the work getting done. However, if you ask leaders what keeps them up at night, it’s the interpersonal issues — why is Dave disengaged at work? Why does Lauren keep showing up late? What is going on between Ahmed and Francesca — why don’t they just get along? Managing people is hard — because you care and you want to do the right thing. It’s also hard because typically, people who are promoted to management positions are recognized for their former achievements. As an individual contributor, they probably shone — they were good at getting work done and out the door, they were technically strong, they provided deliverables of top quality, they took the initiative and went above and beyond, always with a smile. And yet those characteristics are not necessarily the ones that make someone a good manager or leader. So back to Margaret. She has a lot of experience and she’s met with Ellen to pass along her expertise — case studies, legal interpretations, knowledge of the dicey organizational political history of this business unit, and so on. Ellen has taken notes and absorbed it, but if Margaret wants Ellen to take the lead, Margaret will have to let go. Most managers are not good at letting go. Coaching may help When the manager takes on the role of coach, the manager asks questions to gain insight into the coachee’s mindset. This allows the manager to help the coachee clarify what’s going on and what he or she wants to achieve, but it keeps the accountability and work with the coachee — the manager does not take on anything extra. This means that the coachee grows and develops, and the manager supports rather than drives. Margaret decided to take a coach approach with Ellen in their morning preparatory meeting. Rather than telling Ellen what the agenda for the meeting would be, Margaret asked Ellen what her goals were for the meeting. Was it about the longer-term relationship? Was it about the shorter-term task? What was her vision of success? Next Margaret asked Ellen what she knew going into the situation — what was the reality she was up against, and what obstacles she foresaw. Ellen impressed Margaret with her perspective — she had some new insights and it was clear that Ellen had been thinking about this situation a great deal, and had done some independent research. Ellen had several options that she had been considering. Finally, Margaret asked Ellen what her path forward was — what was the game plan that Ellen wanted to create, and what was Margaret’s role in it? In doing this, Margaret firmly put Ellen in the driver’s seat — this was truly Ellen’s chance to shine and excel in front of her client, and in front of Margaret as well. Margaret firmly put Ellen in the driver’s seat — this was truly Ellen’s chance to shine and excel in front of her client, and in front of Margaret as well. How it ends The meeting with the client went exceptionally well. Afterwards, Ellen asked for a few minutes of Margaret’s time. “Thank you,” said Ellen. “The time we spent together this morning really helped me to prepare for our meeting. All through this process, I felt like I was playing catch up because you knew so much about what was going on, so I felt like I didn’t really have a role in there. But today, it was clear that you valued my perspective and the relationship that I’ve built with this client. That was a great meeting. So thanks.” And for Margaret? She felt relieved. Not only had she allowed Ellen to take charge, she had also allowed herself to step back. Yes, the coaching took time upfront, but it was a long-term pay off. Developing Ellen’s ability to lead and take more initiative meant that Margaret could focus on her own work, not on doing Ellen’s work. Let’s not be foolish — coaching isn’t right for every interaction with your colleague or manager or direct reports. However coaching is a crucial tool for success. A few powerful questions around the coachee’s goals, realities, obstacles, options and the way forward (known as the GROW model) will encourage the coachee’s development — and your own as well. Written By Lisa Sansom Lisa Sansom, an accomplished Trainer and Certified Coach, offers professional services, from a basis of applied positive psychology, in leadership, interpersonal communications, change management, team dynamics and other areas of organizational effectiveness. Developing On-the-Fly Coaching Habits It all starts with good communication Michael Bungay Stanier, PhD You’re a good manager. You’re committed to being helpful, but you’re just not sure where to start. Coaching is the best way for you to be helpful to your employees. I’m not talking about sit-down coaching events with formal discussions and timelines. I’m talking about practical, everyday coaching. The real point of coaching is to help others, and to unlock their potential. In doing so, you’ll likely end up helping yourself too. How? Effective coaching translates into you working less hard, yet having more impact. When you establish a coaching habit, you can eliminate employees’ overdependence and overwhelm, and prevent them from becoming disconnected. How exactly do you develop a coaching habit? Luckily, as it turns out, coaching is pretty simple. All you need to do is ask questions, listen to the answers, and then ask more questions. You yourself have probably been managed before. How often did it feel like the conversation between manager and employee fell flat? In many cases, you both felt like you knew how to have the conversation, but one of you would quickly veer off-topic. It would then take too long to get back on track, and by the end of the conversation, you’d both be tired and feel like you didn’t really accomplish what you’d set out to do. Hey, it happens — we all fall victim to our routine habits and the goals we’re trying to meet get lost in conversation. The trick to coaching is not just asking questions, but building a habit of curiosity. Give a little less advice; and offer up a little more curiosity. You have to learn how to ask the right questions, find your own voice, and make your questions an everyday, practical coaching habit. Where to start First, look for a way to open a conversation. Asking a question such as, “What’s on your mind?” immediately helps create a discussion and also eliminates unnecessarily long chit-chat. Following up with “And what else?” can generate more ideas throughout the conversation. Once you get things rolling, hone in on the real issue by asking, “What’s the real challenge here for you?” Then follow that with “What do you want?” Once the person has explained the outcome he or she is looking for, find out exactly why he or she has come to you specifically by asking, “How can I help?” Remember that people sometimes need help in effectively prioritizing and may need to let certain things go, so ask, “If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?” Remember that people sometimes need help in effectively prioritizing and may need to let certain things go, so ask, “If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?” Wrap it all up by finding out what the point of the conversation was with something as simple and direct as “What was most useful here for you?” Seven Key Questions to Ask: What’s on your mind? And what else (AWE)? What’s the real challenge here for you? What do you want? How can I help? If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to? What was most useful here for you? These seven questions (or your own personal variations) will reduce your workload and help your employees learn and develop, all the while making the workplace more productive. You may not need to use all of these questions in every coaching conversation, but you’ll find that “And what else?” is the one coaching question you can’t live without. “And what else?” — the “AWE” question for short — prevents you from jumping in with all the advice and answers you think your employee needs. Sometimes when we don’t really understand an issue, we can be too quick to provide answers. The AWE question puts a halt to that tendency. It also buys you a little time if you’re trying to figure out what the person you’re coaching is looking for (which helps you both in the end). It encourages the coachee to come up with more options and to focus on what they actually need. Aside from its practicality, this kind of coaching allows responsibilities to be placed in the right hands. As a manager, you can help only when you know what needs to be done. Sometimes the way to help is to do less. Practical coaching helps coachees generate their own ideas and head down the path they’ve set for themselves. This, in turn, helps coachees disengage where they aren’t needed, resulting in less work and more impact. Written By Michael Bungay Stanier, PhD Dr. Michael Bungay Stanier is the Senior Partner and Founder of Box of Crayons, a company that helps people and organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. They’re best known for their coaching programs that give busy managers the tools to coach in 10 minutes or less. Internal Communications Should Be Up to Speed Is your internal communications process up to the task? Alice Chen Who hasn’t heard the tale of Enron? Once a business darling with astounding revenue, it was later revealed that the energy company powerhouse of the 1980s and ‘90s had engaged in accounting fraud, bringing it to its knees and eventually forcing the company into bankruptcy. What fewer people know is just how critical the role of communication — poor internal communication — was in its demise. After its failure, research into the organization pinpointed a lack of communicating appropriate moral values and an inability to maintain adequate communication around organizational operations as main causes for failure. After its failure, research into the organization pinpointed a lack of communicating appropriate moral values and an inability to maintain adequate communication around organizational operations as main causes for failure. Enron is not the only corporate Goliath that has been a victim of this weakness. British Petroleum, known more commonly as BP, is a brand now permanently associated with the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil spill. The Achilles heel behind this disaster was poor communication, specifically a failure to share important information with its employees. Internal communication is often overlooked because leadership cannot always see a clear financial case for it. But as these examples illustrate, companies ignore it at their peril. Effective internal communication becomes more important as time goes on. Even outside of a pandemic that has made it more critical than ever to have corporate channels for sharing information and keeping employees united, the changing business world necessitates a shift toward effective communications strategies. Younger generations join the workforce with expectations of collaboration, transparency and a strong workplace culture. Having effective communication enables all these things, plus it engages employees and keeps them abreast of company news. That leaves just one question — how can an organization succeed in their internal communications efforts? The Good News Did You Know? Productivity increases A McKinsey Global Institute study, The Social Economy: Unlocking the Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies, found that while 70% of organizations use social technologies, these platforms are not being leveraged to their full potential for knowledge sharing and collaboration across enterprises. It estimates that there is $900 billion worth of value yet to be tapped. This correlates to a potential 20% to 25% increase in knowledge worker productivity as a result of better communications and reduced time looking for information. Did You Know? Better performance is achieved Organizations with the best communications strategies were three-and-a-half times more likely to significantly outperform their industry peers, according to a 2014 Willis Towers Watson study. Having diverse approaches across social media and other digital channels was also found to strongly impact community building and lead to company-wide performance increases. The Bad News Did You Know? Underskilled, poor resources and no vision prove fatal Of all North American internal communications practitioners, only 43% were specialists in the area, according to a 2018 Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. report. Even worse, three-fifths of organizations surveyed said they had no long-term strategy or vision for their communication processes. Forty-nine per cent reported they lacked the budget, investment or other resources required to do their job, with only one in 20 being part of a dedicated internal comms or engagement team. Did You Know? The hidden costs are very high A poor communications policy hemorrhages money, according to a Holmes Report. More than $62 million was estimated to be lost annually per company due to employee misunderstandings about company policies or business functions. That means the average worker is costing the organization $26,041 per year because of communications barriers. Did You Know? Lack of employee understanding derails organizations A Gatehouse 2016 study found that while two-thirds (64%) of internal communicators felt that employees had a solid understanding of organizational values and vision, only half (49%) considered their understanding of strategy to be good. More critically, only 38% felt that employees understood the contributions they were making toward strategy, and just 27% thought that employees had a good understanding of why leaders make the decisions they do. Doing What Works Did You Know? People won’t seek out information Employees don’t want to expend a lot of effort to get the information they need. One company that took this to heart, Google, put together an internal communication application for their retail demo brand, You Look Marvellous. It focused on satisfying employees wants and needs before focusing elsewhere. As a result, the app featured interactive channels and thumbnails, as well as live information branded to the employee’s requirements and brand guidelines. It streamlined the process for getting corporate information and allowed employees to easily engage with its content. Did You Know? Good timing is good news The right moment can add heft and impact to an internal communications campaign. British Petroleum obeyed this exact rule during its merger with Amoco and Arco and subsequent rebranding to BP. During this time, it launched a campaign focusing on the company’s new position as an energy company, giving employees from the merger a strong new identity to latch on to. A survey afterwards found that four-fifths of employees were aware of brand values and messages and 90% felt positively about the direction the company was moving in. Make sure to leverage your company’s critical moments. Did You Know? Using email has its benefits, but apps are better Email still seems to be the preferred way of communication for many workers. However, according to social networking survey company Radicati, the average amount of emails received in any given day is 88, which explains how corporate communications can easily be missed. Rather than have your messaging disappear into the void, consider targeting mobile platforms with apps and social channels. According to a Nottingham Trent University study, people use their smartphone five hours a day and check it around 85 times in that same span, making these devices a great way to ensure your notifications are seen. Stagecoach tried this approach, developing a proof-of-concept digital app for their bus drivers. Eighty-nine percent of drivers opened the app an average of six times per day, and the end survey reported that 100% would recommend the app to a co-worker. Did You Know? Remote workers may get lost Remote workers regularly feel left out of company operations, despite the fact that 52% only occasionally worked from home, according to a Harvard Business Review study. That figure is even higher now because of COVID-19, with Gallup reporting 58% of staff are currently working remotely. Despite this large number of workers, they are frequently excluded. Staffbase research found that 85% of non-desk workers felt they didn’t receive enough communication on the job. Don’t make this mistake; loop in all your employees and keep them informed about the company and relevant information. Written By Alice Chen Alice Chen is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Top Takeaways Highlights from Chapter 1: Communication PLUS a space for your notes to email yourself. Regularly ask your employees questions to help eliminate roadblocks or overdependence. Encourage team members to take initiative and share progress. Great things may happen. Give employees freedom to speak their mind without fear of penalty. Invite feedback from team members on your own communications style. Everyone can improve. Prepare a communications strategy — don’t just wing it. SUPPORTING MANAGERS Chapter 2: Teamwork INTRO: Go Team! Some say that being President of the United States is the world’s loneliest job. It might be. But even President’s work with teams of advisors, coaches, politicians, ambassadors, other world leaders, and so on. At the end of the day, there are few to no jobs that don’t require team effort to accomplish goals. As a manager, your job is to ensure that your employees are supported, nurtured and understood, so that the workplace team can thrive. Beginning with the basics is always the best place to start. In this case, understanding the value of gratitude and how much of a real impact it can have on employees and the teams they inhabit. In fact, it’s been shown in studies that unhappy employees can be bad for profit. For example, engagement is low, workers adopt a “whatever” attitude, and there is a general absence of feeling appreciated. All of this will inevitably lead to a workforce not producing to its full potential at maximum efficiency. Thus, lower profit. Showing gratitude is much simpler than you may imagine. Communication is obviously important. Performance reviews should not be the first time employees are hearing about their performance. Regular check-ins and communication will maintain a healthy environment where people understand expectations. Also, making sure teams have the tools and training to succeed goes a long way, as does “catching employees in the act of doing something right.” Don’t only communicate when things go wrong. Showing appreciation for the successes will tell employees their work matters. How we get there is important but how we maintain a cohesive team is also key. Energizing engagement brings contentment, loyalty, passion and vitality to work. In a low energy environment you may have “dedicated underperformers” who will lack the drive to go further. Face-to-face meetings and check-ins engage employees in a very real way and boost their engagement, which even scientists will tell you can increase our brain functions to do better. But as managers you know that teams are living organisms. They change and shift like any breathing life form depending on outside circumstances. That’s why strategies must be in place. Things like understanding the dynamics of change and transition (is business slow? are people being let go?), dealing with survivorship (workers who remain after layoffs or mergers, for example), walking the talk and making sure you respond to team concerns. Plus, not waiting to address problems until you have all the answers but dealing with things as soon as possible. Change will happen and so teamwork support strategies must be in place ahead of time. Another kind of disruption? Employees who overachieve yet bring a toxicity to the team environment. Managers know that other workers will jump ship or reduce productivity when one bad apple poisons the team. In some cases, there is no choice but to eliminate that individual thus allowing remaining team members the opportunity for feedback, a respectful environment and managers who correct disrespectful behaviour when it happens. Seemingly simple behaviours such as focusing on the positive, practicing strategic excellence through leadership processes, and being kind and respectful, will alter individual attitudes, team attitudes and create a work atmosphere that satisfies employee needs. Overall, along with the many day-to-day business tasks, managers can find it difficult to create that balance of satisfaction, engagement and morale that encompasses happiness at work (and elsewhere). However, seemingly simple behaviours such as focusing on the positive, practicing strategic excellence through leadership processes, and being kind and respectful, will alter individual attitudes, team attitudes and create a work atmosphere that satisfies employee needs. It is well worth the effort. Articles Creating a “Yay, it’s Monday!” Mindset Calm in the Storm: Supporting Employees in Distressing Times It’s All About Energy Talented Terrors: How to Deal With Toxic High-Performers Showing Gratitude Can Improve Workplace Efficiency Creating a “Yay, it’s Monday!” Mindset Happiness sounds simple but takes work. Focus on these three techniques for sunnier days ahead We’ve all seen the memes on our social media accounts with the guy who is being hit in the face by a Monday — faceplants, trips, sleepy faces and grumpy-looking cats with quotes like “Of course it’s Monday … Does this look like my Friday face?” The funny thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way. A “Yay it’s Monday” culture is conceptually possible. Let me give you some highlights of my research on the subject to get your organization moving more in a happy direction any day of the week, even Mondays. Happiness at work is complex. It’s a feeling that we all share at work, and it’s a mix of three separate measures. Those are the measures of satisfaction, engagement and morale. Satisfaction is the baseline. It’s a cognitive measure that highlights how much we “like” being at work. Things like job features, pay and supervision are important levers to improve satisfaction. Engagement is a little deeper. It’s an affect measure that is closer to thing we “love” at work. The importance and meaning of our work drive engagement. Happiness circles: happiness at work lives where the three circles overlap. Morale is a shared measure that emphasizes membership and organizational culture. Morale is the most fragile of the three happiness measures. A “Yay, It’s Monday” mindset has a better chance of survival when all three measures of happiness are being focused on. You’d think it would be easy to focus on these things, but research showed that only 26% of Canadian employees are happy at work. Eighteen percent are actively grumpy, and the other 56% are generally not happy. Part of the reason why it’s so difficult for organizations to focus on the point where happiness occurs is that the target (the centre of the circles) is so small. What can HR and managers do? There are three techniques that you can use to get closer to your “Yay, it’s Monday” target: Get better at Shining a Light on Strength Practice Strategic Excellence Reduce Workplace Jerk-ness 1. Shining a Light on Strength This is based on the fact that we are happier if we focus on the positives of a situation. People tend to focus on, and have meetings about, problems and what is going wrong at work. If you look at your last week at work and count the hours you were focused on problems, you might be surprised how high a percentage of your time that was. Your reality is shaped by what you focus on, so I suggest you shift your time to focus on strengths and what is going well at work and how you can replicate that. Don’t ignore the opportunities for improvement, but give equal weight to the strengths. Our brains become the architect of our reality, and we have the ability to create our own happiness. 2. Practice Strategic Excellence Practicing strategic excellence is the approach that involves the most organizational effort. Strategic excellence is when your organization, as a whole, is committed to leadership, planning, process management, customers and, of course, people. Our research shows that organizations with high levels of commitment to these five things have higher levels of employee happiness. 3. Reduce Workplace Jerk-ness The third ingredient to improving happiness at work is to reduce “jerk-like” tendencies (or jerk-ness). This is the easiest one to get started with right away. Basically, you need to remember to be kind, be active and be present. I challenge you to commit at least one act of kindness today (be deliberate and conscious). Acts of altruism decrease stress and contribute to enhanced mental health. Some examples would be: praise good work, write a thank-you note, or send an encouraging email or text. Being more active can help too. Moderate levels of activity releases endorphins and boosts positive mood. For example, a 20-to-30-minute walk two to three times a week can significantly increase your happiness at work. Being present is also important. People are often lost in the past or worried about the future. Happiness lives in the present. Try to stay in the here-and-now more often. A small but meaningful effort is to put your devices away at meetings, listen better and smile more. I wish you luck on moving towards the centre of the happiness circles and increasing your “Yay, it’s Monday” mindset. Be aware that no one lives in the centre of those circles all of the time. We all have our days, but if you shine a light on strength, practice strategic excellence and reduce your workplace jerk-ness, you’ll have a much better chance of increasing satisfaction, engagement and morale. Written By Adam Stoehr, PhD Adam Stoehr, PhD, is the VP of Research and a facilitator at Excellence Canada. He researches strategy, employee happiness, organizational excellence, customer experience, leadership, process improvement and quality management. His published thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol Business School, explores the relationship between a strategic approach to quality and employee happiness. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Calm in the Storm: Supporting Employees in Distressing Times Change, whether through disruption, COVID, M&A, economic disaster … well, it doesn’t really matter what causes the change, supervisors and managers often ask for assistance to be more helpful and supportive to their employees and work teams. These are individuals who may be highly stressed and emotional about their rapidly changing circumstances. Here are some key “best practices” for managers to consider and embrace. Best Practice 1: Understand the dynamics of change and transition. This is a very important prerequisite for any manager talking with employees who are going through unsettling organizational and work team changes, especially those that involve loss of fellow employees. The more you know about the process of change and its impact on the emotional and physical well-being of employees, the better you will be able to respond with empathy, authenticity and sensitivity. We would recommend that you participate in a workshop for leaders on understanding and managing the dynamics of organizational change. If that is not possible, seek out authoritative on-line sources of information. Best Practice 2: Learn about survivorship. Once the impact of the announcement settles into the workplace, an important leadership task begins: supporting the remaining employees. Now, everyone is a survivor including you. Over the past two decades in North America, social scientists have studied surviving workplace cultures and talked to thousands of managers and employees who have been through significant organizational change … for better or for worse. Only when you truly understand yourself and your personal reactions can you really be of assistance to your employees. On the key topic of survivorship, read Survivors by Caplan and Teese and the classic survivorship text, Healing The Wounds, by David Noer. The insights of these authors will definitely enrich the way you support and respond to your employees in the weeks and months ahead. Best Practice 3: Know thyself. Employees often convince themselves that by some mysterious process you, as their manager, are totally immunized against any distressing and disorienting personal reactions to the very same organizational changes and pressures being experienced by the employees themselves. During a transition, you know that this is certainly not the case. Everything that they feel, think and react to affects you too. However, you have the daunting additional responsibility of leading everyone through the turbulent times to emerge on the other side as healthy, motivated and productive individuals and work groups. Managers often avoid dealing with employees’ reactions, because they really don’t know what to do with the cascade of raw emotions and distressing behaviour that inevitably flood into the discussion or play out daily while working. Moreover, employee reactions often catalyse the manager toward similar thoughts, attitudes and behaviours that can be really hard to come to terms with personally. You need to take the time to reflect carefully on your own reactions to the changes. You need to get in charge of them and not let them get in charge of you. Some managers use coaches or more experienced peers to guide their understanding of the dynamics of change and transition and to assist in developing a support strategy. Only when you truly understand yourself and your personal reactions can you really be of assistance to your surviving and distressed employees. Best Practice 4: Seek first to understand, then be understood. Stephen Covey in his best-selling book, First Things First, states it simply and powerfully: Listen more than you talk. Once you truly understand, then talk. In distressing times at work, many managers talk before they think, in the false belief that saying something is better than saying nothing at all. When meeting with a distressed employee or work group, listen and understand first, then talk. Stated another way, you were born with one mouth and two ears. In difficult situations, use them in the same proportion. Best Practice 5: Talk straight. Be honest. During distressing times, employees want straight talk and honesty from you. You are not doing them any favours by telling them either what you think will happen versus what you know for sure will happen or what you feel they want to hear. The three rules are simple: tell them what you know, tell them when you don’t know, and tell them there are things you do know but can’t tell them. Best Practice 6: Walk your talk. Be visible. Hang out with your teams and be ready to respond to all questions and deal with the emotional storms that are loose in people’s souls. A common criticism expressed by employees in changing organizations is that managers are like ghosts. You know that they are there, but you rarely ever see them. Don’t be a ghost to your employees. Be present for them in both body and spirit. Choose your attitude each day. Nobody but you makes the choice about how you will feel and act in the workplace each day. During distressing times, there are countless negative things that you could legitimately seize upon and wear grumpily on your emotional sleeve all day long. Choose to be positive, upbeat and cautiously optimistic. Your staff will certainly look to you as a role model, whether you intend to be one or not. It’s your choice, but the attitude and behaviour you choose to model will certainly impact their world. If their world is, in part, a product of yours, doesn’t it make sense to make the right and healthy choices? Don’t be a ghost to your employees. Be present for them in both body and spirit. Best Practice 7: Don’t wait until you have all the answers. A common mistake of managers leading in changing times is to wait until they have all the answers before they say anything to employees. It is important to continually share information as it becomes available and is able to be shared. Even if you have to say, “discussions are continuing, and I’ll have something for you as soon as I know” is better than maintaining silence, letting everyone draw their own unhelpful conclusions, which in turn feeds the hungry rumour mill at work. Best Practice 8: Engage in encouraging and reinforcing, open and supportive behaviour. Creating and maintaining positive interpersonal relationships with all team members is an absolute must in distressing times. Establishing genuine rapport through empathic listening and giving clear, direct and uncluttered responses is another communication habit that will help you effectively support distressed staff in changing times. Best Practice 9: Catch people doing something almost right. One of the few certainties about disruptions is that more mistakes will be made than is the norm. This is not deliberate, but because people are learning and trying out new skills and habits and, as a result, they drop the ball occasionally. Look for things to celebrate. Crank up the reward and recognition process in your teams and repeatedly reinforce attitudes, behaviour and values that are pro-competency, connection-making and commitment-growing. Transition or disruption can be a catalyst for positive change and improvement of employee relations when these ideas are put into action. Written By Don Herald Don Herald has held progressive leadership positions in both the public and private sectors in Ontario. Acknowledged as a specialist in corporate wellness, organizational change and adult learning, he is the founder of Creative Change. It’s All About Energy Time and again, we see that the more leaders try to manage engagement, the more disengaged their employees actually become. It’s not that employees don’t want to be engaged — many are committed and loyal soldiers who come in early, stay late and try hard in-between. But in today’s era of exhaustion, they are simply struggling to make it to the weekend. Employees are engaged, but depleted. As a result, organizations have become hubs where people are unable to think innovatively. Bogged down in the day-to-day minutiae of work, employees don’t have the time or mental capacity to identify or focus on fixing systemic issues. They are simply going through the motions — incapable of future-based, innovative, value-creating thinking. And so you get an abundance of organizational cultures scrambling to fix problems as they become full-blown issues, fighting “fires” with duct-tape fixes and quick workarounds instead of taking the time to address root causes of problems. It’s the perfect ecosystem for endless employee depletion. Engagement is necessary but insufficient. Without energy, it is simply unsustainable. Engagement is nothing without energy It’s not that employee engagement is dead. Quite the opposite: employee engagement is essential, foundational and elemental to business. It is critical for building workplaces where people are dedicated, committed and willing to give discretionary effort. However, employees simply cannot put forth their best work unless they are also full of passion, resilience, vitality and enthusiasm — and these are the byproducts of energy. Engagement is necessary but insufficient. Without energy, it is simply unsustainable. To create a sustainably engaged organizational culture, businesses need to focus on both engagement and energy — essentially, moving beyond “engagement” as we think of it today. The customer experience is at risk Engaged employees can supply loyalty, commitment and even discretionary effort — but if employees feel overwhelmed in their job, under-supported, exhausted and depleted, the best they can inject into the customer experience is something transactional and mechanical. The employee experience can make or break the customer experience. The human magic required for a great customer experience happens in one way only — through an energized employee. Energy unlocks an employee’s enthusiasm, creativity, intuition, authentic warmth, vigour and verve — all ingredients for an unforgettable customer experience. The energized employee brings not only commitment, loyalty and effort, but also passion, intensity and vitality. These qualities make all the difference in the world, because these qualities differentiate businesses from their competitors. The secret sauce What can managers do to energize employees beyond engagement? It’s all about integrating neuroscience into employee engagement initiatives. We know that when we are low on energy, the executive function of our brain suffers: that is, the part that helps us focus our attention, process information, regulate our emotions, predict outcomes, plan, prioritize duties and take action. But expose the brain to quality face-to-face conversation and high-performance hormones (dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin) are released within both parties. In fact, brain mapping shows that these ‘miracle-grow’ hormones boost creativity, amp up connection, and cut through fear and worry. In essence, conversation deepens relationships, energizes employees and garners easier results. Without energy, engagement is simply unsustainable. Have an energy conversation For over a decade, we’ve seen organizations use short and simple conversations to generate energy and reduce depletion in their employees’ lives. Many managers take this one step further and have energy conversations in their team meetings. Team members ask each other, “What do you need from the rest of us to free up energy in your world?” Some of the fixes are simple and fall into the category of, “We just didn’t know that was important to you — we can totally make that happen.” Others are more systemic, and require an integrative approach from other functions or levels in the organization. But the solutions all have one thing in common: they free up energy, mind space and time for managers and employees. Once leaders understand the vital role energy plays in fueling high performance, they get curious about how to measure it. Once you’re clear on what generates energy inside the “lived experience” of an employee (things like connection, progress, freedom, pride and meaning), a pulse check can be created that will give you a clear view of the energy levels in your organization. Go beyond engagement Without energy, all you get is dedicated under-performers. However, by understanding how the brain works and incorporating meaningful conversation into the corporate culture, leaders can enhance strategies for employee engagement. As a result, you unlock passion, innovation and enthusiasm, generating true and sustainable engagement — and creating a higher-performing workforce than you ever thought possible. Written By Brady Wilson Brady Wilson is co-founder of Juice Inc., a corporate training company. Talented Terrors: How to Deal With Toxic High-Performers Enhancing productivity is a laudable and important organizational goal. In the current economic environment there is a heightened demand for high performers, which is further intensified by our new reality of being asked to do more with less. Finding ways to meet or exceed our performance targets keeps many senior leaders (and employees) awake at night. Within this context, it may appear that performance is king. Although it may even seem more attractive to focus exclusively on the what (e.g., results), rather than the how (e.g., process), this may be a losing strategy — one with potentially long-term, debilitating impacts on an organization. The problem with toxic high-performers We have all likely come across individuals who are capable of achieving extraordinary results, but with a style that leaves a lot to be desired. They can be quite ruthless, impersonal and aggressive. Often, these destructive behaviours are trivialized in a joking manner (“Oh, that’s just Bob being Bob”). Part of this response may stem from discomfort in dealing with the individual in a direct manner. Another, more likely scenario, especially in the domain of senior leadership, is that it may be tough to imagine letting Bob go, since he “brings so much to the organization”. Leadership IQ, a globally recognized research and leadership consulting company, conducted a study to examine the impacts of the “Bobs” of the world on both their corporate culture and performance. Their research results, involving over 70,000 individuals, demonstrated how these “Bobs” are negatively impacting their organizations. Think of performance as having two dimensions: skills and attitude. Of course there could be more, but Leadership IQ’s numerous studies show that almost all attributes of performance ultimately get subsumed by skills or attitude. Some people have great attitudes but terrible skills. Others have stellar skills but bad attitudes. The latter group, called “Talented Terrors”, when at their worst are like emotional vampires. And while they won’t actually suck your blood, the frustration of dealing with them just might suck the life out of you. To truly appreciate the damaging effects of these individuals, Leadership IQ looked at the impact that working with “Talented Terrors” had on the top-performing employees — those who truly give it their all every day when they are at the office. When asked what it was like to work with a “Talented Terror”, 87% noted that they had seriously contemplated switching jobs as a result. To make matters worse, 93% mentioned that their productivity also declined. Although these findings emerged from the highest- potential employees, there is no reason to believe that this trend does not also extend to the rest of the organization. This research highlights the far-reaching impacts of “Talented Terrors”. An especially important point to note is that although it may be tempting to keep “Bob” for his contributions to the organization, the impact he may have on the rest of the top performers (e.g., through potential voluntary turnover at worst, or decreased productivity, at best), reverses the benefit of keeping him on-board. He should be considered a low performer and be dispensed with accordingly. Based on the above, consider these steps that organizations can take to eliminate these “Talented Terrors” from the workplace: Three steps to eliminate toxic high-performers: Provide numerous opportunities for anonymous employee feedback. There are countless ways the senior leadership within organizations can address this potential problem. For example, skip-level interviews could be introduced, whereby employees bypass their immediate supervisor and talk to a member of the senior leadership team directly. This strategy can provide invaluable information concerning what is happening on the front lines of an organization. Furthermore, 360-feedback exercises can also be used, such that anonymous and unfiltered feedback can be received about the “how” of leadership. Looking for trends in responses and highlighting troubling behaviours can go a long way toward identifying talented or even untalented terrors in your organization. Make respectful behaviour part of your core values. As the saying goes, “common sense is not all that common”. Certain individuals may be predisposed to the belief “results at all costs” while others may interpret certain messages from the organization that they feel appear to support this mantra. Clarifying the core values and acceptable codes of conduct can erase any uncertainty and make it easier to address any departures from these standards. Correct disrespectful/inappropriate behaviours immediately. Civility experts Drs. Christine Porath and Christine Pearson highlight the necessity of stepping in right away to address these problem behaviours. In their research, 88% of people who feel disrespected by a coworker or colleague “get even” with the organization, which adds to the potential costs of ”Talented Terrors”. Organizations need to maximize their productivity in order to survive and thrive in today’s competitive landscape. A by-product of this reality may be a temptation to focus exclusively on results, at the expense of everything else. Although “results at any cost” may yield short-term dividends, the longer-term negative impacts are considerably higher. Focusing greater attention on “how” the results are achieved may not only benefit the output goals of the organization, but will likely contribute to a healthier and more productive work environment. Written By Craig Dowden Craig Dowden & Associates is a firm focused on supporting clients in achieving leadership and organizational excellence by leveraging the science of peak performance. He is author of Do Good to Lead Well: The Science and Practice of Positive Leadership. Showing Gratitude Can Improve Workplace Efficiency When was the last time you took a colleague to lunch to show your gratitude for his or her hard work? Do you make a point of regularly saying “thank you” to the people who work for you? Have you ever bought a teammate, who is a hockey fanatic, a collectible hockey card or a mug displaying his or her favourite team’s logo to show how helpful that person was in getting important work done? These small acts of appreciation play a major role in the kind of relationships you develop, and the level and quality of output that you can expect from the people you work with. Classic research in organizational behaviour conducted in the 1940s found that leadership involves two primary activities: One focuses on tasks, and the other focuses on relationships. The best leaders, and the best coworkers who demonstrate leadership in their behaviour, know that productivity and morale are heavily influenced not only by attending to and monitoring task issues such as deadlines, budgets, project plans and quality standards, but also by paying attention to how we treat the people we interact with on a daily basis at work. They also know that small acts of kindness, appreciation and recognition go a long way towards creating a climate of high performance. This is not to suggest that focusing on tasks and materially rewarding people for good performance is unimportant. It is meant to highlight the fact that the casual, seemingly insignificant ways we treat and recognize people can sometimes play a bigger role in producing positive work attitudes and performance than the seemingly more business-like, task-oriented activities many managers focus on, sometimes exclusively. Human beings are communal creatures, neurologically attuned to the subtleties of social interaction. We are designed to detect, remember and respond to the small acts of gratefulness, appreciation and acknowledgement that are or are not available in our daily encounters with others. These small acts play a major role in determining how we feel at work, our job attitudes, and how motivated we are to invest ourselves in our roles. Research bears out the importance of small acts at work. Gratitude research Fundraising can be a thankless job. In a 2010 study researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looked at what happened to the productivity of university fundraisers when a senior manager engaged in the small gesture of showing gratitude for the fundraiser’s work. The researchers had the director of annual giving visit the university and perform a seemingly minor deed: he personally thanked the telephone fundraisers for their efforts. They found that those who had received the director’s thanks ended up placing a lot more calls (63 versus 41). Although perhaps a nice gesture, most people wouldn’t consider this an example of particularly great or effective leadership. But when the researchers looked at the number of phone calls the fundraisers placed the following week, they found that those who had received the director’s thanks ended up placing a lot more calls (63 versus 41). The simple act of demonstrating gratefulness for people’s work had a major impact on the employees’ work output. Consider another example: Researchers at Western Michigan University ran a study to see what effect a manager’s praise would have on improving the customer service of employees at a grocery store. Specifically, they wanted to see if the frequency with which employees smiled at customers, made eye contact with them, and offered customers appropriate greetings and closings, such as saying “Good morning” and “Have a nice day”, would change if the manager offered praise for such behaviour. As a first step, the researchers noted that the level of customer service the employees provided was not very high. Employees offered appropriate greetings only 12% of the time and appropriate closings only 8% of the time. They then had the store manager clarify the customer service behaviour that was expected of employees and offer them praise by saying things like “Great job on your greeting,” or “That was great customer service,” when he caught them performing a proper greeting or closing. The results were pretty dramatic. Correct greetings rose to 66% and correct closing rose to 70%. Even more striking was that when the researchers followed up 48 weeks later, employees were still performing correct greetings 70% of the time, and proper closings 77% of the time. The lesson seems clear: small acts of recognition can have a big impact on important work outcomes. Imagine that you know that one of your direct reports likes to press flowers as a hobby. She has entire volumes of scrapbooks at home with pressed flowers in them that she will occasionally show to only her closest friends. Now imagine that this employee goes the extra mile at work one week. Maybe she comes in on Saturday to help meet an important deadline, or volunteers to sit on a committee nobody else wants to get involved with. It goes without saying that she would undoubtedly be pleased if you thank her and show recognition for her effort and dedication. But imagine you do one better. Imagine that on Monday morning she arrives at her cubicle to find a pressed flower on her desk with a little note that just says “thanks”. It would likely be an understatement to say that she would feel appreciated. Small gestures demonstrate genuine caring for your people, and have long been recognized as crucial elements of effective leadership. So, when you’re at work be sure to say “thank you” when people help you out, offer immediate and public praise when people do a good job, and remember to keep a stash of hockey cards in your desk. Written By Dr. Jamie Gruman Dr. Jamie Gruman is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the University of Guelph’s College of Business and Economics. He specializes in human sustainability and productivity in the workplace, and recently published the book, Boost. Top Takeaways Highlights from Chapter 2: Teamwork PLUS a space for your notes to email yourself. Gratitude is powerful. Embrace the knowledge of how far gratitude can inspire the team. Employ regular 1:1 check-in’s with employees and avoid only communicating when things go wrong. Embrace and understand that change will occur even in cohesive teams. Teamwork support strategies will go a long way in this effort. Remove disruptive team members, if and when necessary. Practice strategic excellence by personally setting a positive leadership example. MESSAGE FROM YOUR WORKPLACE Make. Work. Better. https://youtu.be/SLnrWbp44jk SUPPORTING MANAGERS Chapter 3: Wellness INTRO: All’s Well When People Are Well Employees and workplaces are unique with their diverse sets of needs and wants. At the same time, managers should recognize the consistent, overarching theme among their employees of how important wellness is in day-to-day operations. Over and over experts discuss the need for managers to understand how wellness goes far beyond the after-work yoga class. It represents a constant theme among workers that creates an environment that motivates, reduces stress, creates better team cohesion, improves engagement and, as far as the bottom line goes, helps improve employee retention. While it is, of course, the employees’ responsibility to work hard and bring their “A-game” to work, leaders and managers have an extremely important role to play in establishing an environment of wellness, and the support for it. In the not-so-distant past, (and perhaps currently, as well) managers’ attitudes were to reprimand if things were going poorly – the stick approach or motivation by bullying, in a sense. Those days are waning as younger employees demand more in terms of their emotional needs at work and the kinds of relationships that motivate them. That is why managers must listen and flex their empathy muscles to improve their ability to understand what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Listening and understanding stress factors creates a more empathetic management style, which can only increase the support provided by management and the support felt by employees. Of course, this has never been truer than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers at home may feel less engaged and connected to their work, co-workers, and management. Having that empathy and taking the time to understand the challenges of workers is a win-win for you and your team. Having that empathy and taking the time to understand the challenges of workers is a win-win for you and your team. Interestingly, the more managers listen and show willingness to listen, the more their “growth mindset” improves, allowing for businesses and individuals to succeed. It is a constant growth attitude that betters you as a manager and shows employees you are striving to better yourself, the situation and the environment as a whole. These elements of understanding, learning and empathy culminate in the need for good lines of communication to always be open. Communication is the key to understanding the relationships between stress (or lack of wellness) and performance. Managers can adapt and recognize the relationship between the two while communications are open, which in turn improves the care and support they provide. Everything up to this point is Step 1. Step 2 is the maintenance of the knowledge gained and building on the foundation to continue the process going forward. For managers, this can mean reallocating resources to assist with wellness engagement and communication. It can include supporting leadership engagement that in turn trickles down to employees, and engaging employers to “buy-in” to the programs that will help support engagement, leadership and wellness now and into the future. Ultimately, everyone should be on the same page. This means head office, management and employees. Goals towards purpose, forward momentum and meaningful work, lower health-related risks and yes, a stronger bottom line. This can create the foundation of what wellness is and how your employees view it. Articles Walking a Mile in Someone’s Shoes Relationship Between Stress and Performance The Meaning of Wellness Increasing Your Growth Mindset Maintaining Wellness and Engagement Walking a Mile in Someone’s Shoes Leaders have more to do than ensure productivity. They must show empathy towards employees to be truly effective Empathy as a management trait is often overlooked, forgotten and not necessarily discussed when dealing with issues in a workplace setting. Despite this, and the fact that the benefits of empathetic management are touted academically, it doesn’t always come naturally to every leader. Joe, a senior manager at his organization, strongly believed in the command-and-control style. For him this meant being aggressive and inflexible and doing a lot of yelling. According to CEO of Ontario-based Shift Coaching Susan Pahl, “In his mind, it’s ‘If I say this, then they should do that.’ Even Joe’s superiors, who were also a command-and-control style, were saying this is not working,” says Pahl. Pahl was engaged to coach Joe to be more empathetic. She found that in addition to being unaware of the impact he was having on others, he also scored low on measures of emotional intelligence (EQ). Despite this, she says minor changes like greeting his staff in the morning and shifting his view to work outcomes made a major difference. “His staff thought were going to fire him, but Joe ended up taking over the position of the senior executive who was thinking about firing him,” Pahl says. “He thought when you’re mad you yell, and when people disappoint you, you tell them. And it just wasn’t successful. Joe really went the other way and almost became an evangelist for empathetic leadership.” But it’s not just stalwarts of old management styles that can benefit from more empathetic leadership. Though empathy has long been recognized as a useful interpersonal skill and part of leading, the current workplace climate may favour this talent even more. As workforces get increasingly more diverse, empathy becomes more and more relevant, says Ray Williams, owner and president of Vancouver-based executive development group Ray Williams Associates. He says that the Center for Creative Leadership looked at this issue and found that, across 38 different countries, “empathetic emotion played an important role in creating this paternalistic climate of support and protection.” Similarly, Kristen Harcourt, global executive coach and speaker, points out that the younger generation entering the workforce has different expectations for workplace empathy. “For previous generations there was not an expectation of understanding. This was just the environment you had to work in,” Harcourt says. “Shifts have happened for other generations in terms of what they’re looking for in wanting to be in a purposeful organization. They’re not going to want to work with a leader that treats them poorly.” She adds that even if older workers may not have the same view, they likely want empathetic leaders just as much as anybody else. What is Empathy? Pahl describes empathy as the ability to understand what it’s like in somebody else’s shoes. “The difference between sympathy and empathy is: with sympathy you feel for somebody else, whereas empathy is actually putting yourself in their place and trying to understand what they’re dealing with,” she says. Harcourt says there are many advantages to having more empathetic leaders, like increased staff loyalty, better team cohesion, more employee engagement and better retention. She adds that stats have shown 60% of employees would be willing to take less pay for more empathy while 70% reported being willing to leave for another organization with equal pay and more empathy, referring to statistics from the 2017 Businessolver Workplace Empathy Monitor. Harcourt thinks that empathy is sometimes seen as a less important skill — especially in the more technical fields like engineering and tech. “People in these fields tend to have really strong technical aptitudes, but there’s usually not a lot of emphasis on any of the soft skills,” she says. “If they don’t naturally have these skills, there isn’t a lot of emphasis on developing them and helping people understand why it’s so important.” Williams similarly bristles at the implication that empathy skills are less valuable, pointing to “no less a hard-muscled body than the U.S. Army in its Army Field Manual on Leader Development that empathy is essential for competent leadership.” Despite these upsides, Camille Issacs Morell, executive director of the Alzheimer Society of Montreal, warns that empathy can have organizational drawbacks. Specifically, Morell says that managers should be careful to maintain a balance between having empathy and managing workplace obligations. As an example, she describes an employee who came to her after the death of a family pet. “That family had the pet for over 15 years and the employee needed to go home,” Morell says. “I said okay but that I would need him to come back tomorrow to work on a project. There was a compromise between accommodating needs and the need of the organization to get work done.” In addition to the potential drawbacks, Williams notes that empathy is not a standalone leadership style. Instead he sees it as “an essential part of emotional intelligence displayed by all leaders.” As management norms have changed, empathy has become an increasingly needed foundational skill especially with the rise of an empowering, coaching-focused approach that favours empathetic leadership, says Pahl. “You can’t rely on those old ways. You have to be able to respond in the moment, in time, and be able to support people to figure it out themselves. It’s a better way than trying to figure everything out for everybody.” Learning Empathy On an individual level, Morell says empathy is key to avoid defensive listening. “You might be listening to the person, but your body language isn’t open. People rolling their eyes, fidgeting, doing things to show that they’re not engaged in the conversation are all examples of defensive listening,” she says. On top of improving listening skills, Harcourt says the proactive approach can be better than waiting for employees to come to you. “Part of being an empathetic leader is paying attention to what’s going on and, when you notice something’s going on, to take that individual and have a one-on-one conversation. Sometimes empathy is also about taking that proactive approach before they even come to you.” Other tips she provides include setting empathy goals, reflecting on progress and asking others in the workplace for feedback as to how you can better support them. Harcourt also dismisses the concern that learning empathy can come off as artificial or that it’s an innate and unchangeable quality. “Empathy falls under emotional intelligence, and it’s not like IQ where you have a stop point. You can develop it and get stronger at it.” She admits there might be some hurdles in learning to be more empathetic, like an initial discomfort with new behaviour and unexpected vulnerability. “Any time you’re building a new skill, it’s about working through that vulnerability. It might feel uncomfortable at first,” Harcourt says. Moving from the individual level to a broader organizational focus, Williams says many corporations have room to change towards more empathetic leadership. According to him, there is currently a lack of empathy in the workplace. “I believe it’s because of several reasons: Business, in general, is based upon the premise that the only important bottom line is profit to the shareholders, and how employees are treated is considered to be not important or secondary,” he says. “There’s also still a prevailing stereotype about how to motivate people to perform, by the carrot of financial reward or the stick of punishment … ignoring behaviours such as empathy, compassion and recognition.” Williams recommends a cultural shift to focus on promoting managers with higher levels of EQ as well as developing performance measurements that better align with empathy. Meanwhile, Harcourt feels that empathy is undervalued due to its intangible quality, especially when compared to hard revenue figures and business results. She advises rewarding and recognizing empathy while pointing to culture shifts and increased training and education as other avenues for improving compassion across the board. Harcourt also calls on organizations to pay more than just lip service to empathetic leadership styles. “You can say empathy is important, but actions speaker louder than words … The gaps aren’t just about the individual. It’s on the organization to actually support and believe in empathy and then to actually invest in that way.” Written By Alice Chen Alice Chen is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Relationship Between Stress and Performance Even before COVID, the connection between stress and performance was affecting the workplace The relationship between stress and performance at work is often a reciprocal one. On one hand, employees who bring their personal stress to work generally have performance issues; in turn, the workplace can cause stress, which will then affect employees both at work and at home. Is this situation a balancing act, one of cause and effect, or something else entirely? Some claim a healthy amount of stress helps to drive optimal performance. For Ken MacDonald, associate vice-president of national accounts at Hub International Ltd., “Too much stress can overwhelm, and too little stress can underwhelm and hinder performance. ” However, Arla Day, professor of occupational health psychology at Saint Mary’s University, says there’s a clear negative relationship between stress and performance. “If your workers are stressed, their overall quality of work will suffer. They can lose focus on their work — which can create more mistakes and accidents — and have lower performance, especially in the long run. “Those who argue that stress is a good thing are confusing stress with engagement and they are ignoring the long-term effects of stress.” The Challenges The relationship between stress and performance is personal for everyone, notes Liz Horvath, manager of workplace and mental health at the Mental Health Commission of Canada. “Given that stress is cumulative and can compound from multiple sources of pressure at work and in the workers’ personal life, it can be challenging to provide a working environment that supports optimal performance for everyone.” For many people, stress is related to negative thoughts about a situation, the emotions that are attached and the individual’s ability, or inability, to control the situation, says MacDonald. “It’s possible to reduce stress simply by changing those negative thoughts. For example, if someone feels like they have too much work or that their boss is too demanding, they will likely be stressed. But if they can change those thoughts to something like, ‘I have a lot of work right now but the experience I’m getting may help accelerate my career,’ it can help reduce stress. If you’re constantly fighting a situation in your mind that you have no ability to change, you’re going to be stressed, but if you can accept that’s just the situation you’re in right now... you can reduce stress.” “Acceptance can also reduce stress. If you’re constantly fighting a situation in your mind that you have no ability to change, you’re going to be stressed, but if you can accept that’s just the situation you’re in right now, not fight it and focus on something more positive, you can reduce stress. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s possible.” From an employer perspective, stressful work environments are generally less pleasant to be in. High levels of workplace stress are often associated with increased turnover, more disharmony and more absences from work, says Dr. Keith Dobson, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Calgary and researcher and expert for the MHCC. He also notes that the recent move to remote working brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has certainly increased stress levels. It is blurring the line between work and life, adding uncertainty and financial strain, forcing adjustments to new ways of working and increasing isolation, especially for people who live alone. “Also getting information, organizing meetings, knowing what co-workers are doing and communication in general have become more challenging,” he adds. Regardless of the disruption, the fundamental relationship between stress and performance has not changed — more stress is still associated with poor performance. “What has changed is that there are a lot more demands and stressors that no one anticipated, and everyone is scrambling to figure out a way to deal with these new demands. This situation has created uncertainty and overload, creating more stress for workers, managers and employers,” says Day. The Solutions So what can employers do? First and foremost, they must recognize and acknowledge the relationship between stress and performance. “Successful managers have recognized the increased stress their workers are facing during COVID, and they have jumped in to help fix the problems that are fixable, and help support their workers to deal with the other problems that aren’t so easily or quickly fixed,” says Day. “I encourage all leaders to ask their employees a simple question: ‘What do you need to do your job?’ And then act on what they can change and work with their staff on the things they can’t change.” Employers can also make staff aware of both corporate and community resources and support programs to help them deal with stress, anxiety and other mental-health issues, says Horvath, pointing to the MHCC’s website. MacDonald recommends that organizations offer online cognitive behavioural therapy to staff because it helps change negative thought patterns that can lead to a downward spiral. “Some solutions cost little if any money, which is great for employers and employees on a tight budget.” He also suggests stress reducers like better sleep, meditation, journaling and practicing gratitude. “Employers should look for ways to introduce these stress-reducing concepts and coping mechanisms to their employees.” If the stress is related to workload and reducing the load is just not possible, employers should at least try to show empathy and appreciation for the effort their employees are putting in — and do so on a regular basis. Once is just not enough. Dobson advises employers to keep good lines of communication open, check in regularly, and ensure workers have meaningful work and that they are recognized for their successes. But equally he notes the importance of watching for isolated workers (i.e., silent in meetings, not checking in), harassment or bullying in group meetings and address these issues directly. “Ensure return-to-work protocols are in place and support workers who need to continue to work from home, or who return to the office, as their situations warrant.” Like many aspects of health care, Day says it’s important to first consider this issue in the context of primary intervention: so reducing the problems that cause stress, then providing supports for employees to deal with stress, and finally “treating the wounded” by providing care and support for those who are already facing negative health outcomes because of job stress. “If we ignore the primary intervention, we end up creating more problems and stress for our workforce and creating problems for the organization, which requires much more support and money to fix on the back end.” Written By Kyla Colburn Kyla Colburn is a Toronto-based freelance writer. The Meaning of Wellness Engaged employees? More productive employees? Employees who take less pay? It’s not that hard to achieve These words mark the beginning of so many emails. But what do they really mean? For most of us, it’s likely just a polite way of acknowledging the person on the other end of the computer screen. Rather than get straight to business, we like to take a moment to recognize the person as a person. Yet, for employers concerned with employee performance and productivity, wellness is more than just a nicety. To be well is to be fit both mentally and physically for the job. Wellness means less time off and more time on. It means less stagnation and more forward momentum. Wellness means greater efficiency and effectiveness. It means a better bottom line. Yet, common sense tells us that there is more to wellness than just personal fitness. We might say, for example, that we are doing well when our friends and family are thriving or when our joint-projects are successful. After all, it would be hard to say we are doing well when a loved one is sick in hospital or when our hockey team is on a major losing streak. What these simple examples reveal is that wellness also involves things like purpose, success and community. It is a holistic term, one that includes aspects of the mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, the majority of employee wellness programs focus solely on supporting individual health. By failing to connect health goals with wider social wellness, by failing to make their wellness programs meaningful, employers are failing to incentivize involvement. As a result, participation in employee wellness programs remains consistently low. The bottom line is that the bottom line isn’t enough. The Benefits of a Wellness Program Wellness programs lower health-related risks. Improving employee health is a great way to decrease the chance of health-related absences and insurance costs. A 2014 RAND study found that for every $1 spent on wellness programs, companies recuperated an average of $3.78 in health-related expenses. Wellness programs lead to greater productivity. According to a 2017 study at the University of California Riverside, when employees leverage wellness programs they become 5% more productive. That amounts to an extra day’s worth of productivity per month per employee. Greater employee wellness corresponds to greater adaptability. A 2015 Gallup study found that employees with a high level of wellness were 45% more likely to adapt to change. Rather than waste time and energy worrying about shifts in their environment, employees that are well tended to take challenges head on. High Availability, Low Participation Most workplaces already have a wellness program in place. The message has been received loud and clear wellness programs work. That is why, according to a 2014 Gallup study, approximately 85% of U.S. employers offer a wellness program. Despite availability, few employees take advantage of their employer’s wellness programs. Unfortunately, according to the same Gallup study, only 24% of those with access to a wellness program take advantage of it. A lack of participation is largely driven by a failure to emphasize common goals. For most employees, a better bottom line is not a strong enough motivator. That’s why a 2016 Gallup study found that managers who collaborate with their employees to determine company goals are 73% more likely to have a fully engaged workforce. Meaning Is Motivation The majority of people are willing to trade money for meaning. According to a 2018 BetterUp study, nine out of 10 employees would be willing to take on a job with less pay if it meant that their work would be more meaningful. Respondents were actually willing to lose up to 23% of their lifetime earnings for a little bit of purpose. That’s a full 2% more than the average cost of lifetime housing. Employees who find their work meaningful are less likely to quit their job. According to the same BetterUp study, employees were 69% more likely to remain at their job for more than 7.4 months if they found their work meaningful. That translates to an average $643 million saved in training costs for every 10,000 workers. A purpose-driven employee is more profitable. BetterUp estimates that, on average, employees who find meaning in their work are able to generate a whopping $9,078 per year more than those for whom work is not meaningful. Making Wellness Meaningful Showing people how their work impacts others is a great way to emphasize purpose. A great example of this is Facebook’s strategy of sharing stories of friends and families who have been reunited with the engineers responsible for designing the website. Employees who see their work as a force for good in the world are more likely to come to work eager and excited to contribute. “Celebrating wins” is a simple and effective way to make an employee feel like their work is meaningful. Incorporating celebrations into your wellness program is a great way to encourage engagement and can drastically improve an employee’s sense of purpose within the company. Groupon, for example, celebrates the work anniversary of employees by providing them with a jacket and an additional star patch for every year served. Providing social spaces for employees can help foster a sense of communal purpose. Even while practicing physical distancing, when people get together in non-hierarchical shared spaces they naturally generate a sense of community. Interacting with coworkers in a social environment is crucial to developing the bonds that make working with one another meaningful. Rather than just serving vegetables and encouraging exercise, try following Italian clothing manufacturer Comvert’s example. Their lounge area is located in an old movie theatre and features a fully operational skateboard half-pipe. Written By Josh Livingstone Josh Livingstone is an award-winning PhD candidate (philosophy) at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. Increasing Your Growth Mindset “I have OCD — that’s not obsessive compulsive disorder. It’s organization compulsive disorder. I restructure every organization I walk in,” says Dr. Dave Ulrich, partner at the RBL Group in Provo, Utah. “I love to study organizations and I love to think about the workplace and how I’d make it better. And I look for ideas. What’s new? What’s fresh?” Ulrich delivered the closing keynote address of a recent Imagine Your Workplace Conference. His talk related the importance of the “growth mindset” to business success, on both the individual and corporate level. Ulrich asked attendees what they had learned throughout the conference. Responses included the importance of work-life integration as opposed to work-life balance, team engagement, the value of good nutrition and “me time”, improving productivity and the need for mindfulness. By asking for, and thoughtfully digesting, audience input, Ulrich demonstrated: “The growth mindset means I’m constantly trying to learn. I’m trying to grow. I’m trying to get better”. This view, developed by psychologist Carol Dweck, suggests that the human brain is malleable and your ability to learn can grow. In contrast, a fixed mindset assumes that abilities such as intelligence, talent at work or skill with people are set in stone. In her pioneering research in the field of motivation, Dweck found that IQ is not the biggest predictor of long-term success. Rather, grit, which she defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”, is. “The kids who succeed the most are not the smartest,” elucidated Ulrich. “They have resilience. When they make a mistake, they run into it. The sense of resilience, the sense of growth, is what helps an employee be most successful.” People should adopt the mindset that making mistakes or failing is okay, as long as you fix the mistake and learn from it. By running into, rather than running away from mistakes, you become stronger and more resilient, Ulrich suggested. Personal and professional success hinge on believing that “when things get really hard, I get more interested, engaged and hard-working” or that “when I struggle with a task, I break it down, try a new approach, or practice more”. This is the meaning of the growth mindset. When things get really hard, I get more interested, engaged and hard-working” or that “when I struggle with a task, I break it down, try a new approach, or practice more”. This is the meaning of the growth mindset. On the other hand, when you run into difficulties and have a fixed mindset, you get anxious and worry that you will embarrass yourself. Another example is “when I struggle with a task, I often conclude that I’m just not cut out for it,” explained Ulrich. Workplace leaders in particular can show by example that a commitment to learning — regardless of setbacks — leads to greater resilience and growth. “What makes an organization successful?” Ulrich questioned. Answers ranged from the organization being profitable to it impacting the community or having predictable outcomes. While all of these factors are key, it is most important that the organization serves people who are both internal and external to the business. Internally, a successful organization “creates people wealth by helping be engaged, motivated, creating meaning for their lives.” It also serves the needs of people outside of the organization, such as customers and investors. Keeping A Competitive Advantage In today’s changing world, only companies that are flexible and growth-oriented will remain relevant. For example, NIKE could be developing a program that would allow you to take a picture of someone’s shoe, upload it to NIKE, which will then identify the make, and order it for delivery within 12 hours in just a few clicks, reported Ulrich. Meanwhile, Google has developed a driverless car that has gone over 700,000 miles (1,126,540 kilometres) accident-free. “If we can’t change our company as fast as the marketplace changes, we lose,” explained Ulrich. Moreover, companies can keep a competitive advantage in a time of rapid change by adding value to customers and doing so in a unique way that the competitor cannot easily copy. “Value is not what we do . It’s what somebody gets from what we do,” Ulrich told the audience. Referencing New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham, who advises people to build on their strengths, Ulrich stated that Buckingham is 50% right. “Build on your strengths that strengthen others.” Ulrich urged attendees to constantly consider whether they are doing work that creates value for others and to recognize that value is in the eye of the beholder. Companies that add value will also be ahead of the curve. Ulrich suggests that while competitive advantage can be strategic, financial or related to technology and operations, the key piece distinguishing any successful company from the marketplace is the talent, leadership and culture within an organization. This is clear with the examples of successful businesses like WestJet and Apple. Both companies demonstrate that people power fuels success. At WestJet, the product, price and airplane can be copied but the organization itself cannot. In Apple’s case, the company’s capacity to continually reinvent itself is also a result of the organization. Upon Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997, he acknowledged that while having a vision was important, it was even more critical to have the right people behind him to implement his vision, and he sought Ulrich’s advice to make that happen. Clearly, leaders must take charge in managing talent in a way that builds a positive work culture — one where people are not afraid to take risks, seek to learn and adapt and aim to always provide their best for customers. Furthermore, companies must take care to recruit employees who will contribute to an ever-evolving workplace. Leaders must always consider, if they are hiring people who have the cultural skills to do what is needed, Ulrich emphasized. While technical skills are important, leaders should hire for culture and train for technical. In his research, Ulrich found tangible evidence that employees’ passion for work — starting from the top — affects the company’s bottom line. “We have discovered that there’s an incredible correlation between the quality of leadership of a company and stock price, and that 30% of a company’s stock price can be attributed to the quality of leadership,” noted Ulrich. So how can leaders help foster passion and a growth mindset in their workers? Ulrich offered the following suggestions: Help people find their own identities and strengths by asking what is comfortable for them and what they are good at doing. Build on these strengths and bring them to work; Assist people to find purpose in their work; and Build a collegial work environment, supporting employees to find people they enjoy working with. It may seem challenging to convince top management of the importance of investing in company talent. However, in the case of Walgreens, a drugstore chain with 10,000 stores across the U.S., Ulrich was able to successfully show the link between leadership training and a return on investment. It costs $5 million to open a Walgreens store. One HR team that Ulrich had worked with wanted $150,000 to do a leadership-training program for 200 new stores. Instead, Ulrich proposed to the senior executive that they open 199 stores and put $5 million into leadership training for the new stores. He and the executive did the math: if 199 new stores had better leadership, then that would result in a 3% productivity increase per square foot in each store. Ulrich then recommended that $10 million be spent on leadership training — and they got it. The senior executive was convinced that the potential for increased productivity was worth the risk of investing more training dollars. Ulrich further made his case to this workplace leader by stating that while they were working with a smaller group of stores this time, with $10 million they could touch most of Walgreens’ 10,000 stores in the coming two years. “You never put training in business charts,” was the response from the Walgreens exec at the time. “Start to study and talk about the link between people power and company outcomes, and in time those concepts will gel,” noted Ulrich. On a more personal level, Ulrich related an instance where he reached out to a colleague who had just experienced a devastating loss. While at the airport en route to Europe for a business trip, Ulrich got a phone call from Joe, a young man who had been hired by his company three months prior. Joe told Ulrich that one of his twin boys had just died. In response, Ulrich called the consulting company where Joe worked and asked that the company of 40 to 50 workers shut down for the day. He then requested that, for the next 24 hours, everyone try to get a hold of Joe and his wife to see what they could do. Joe later called Ulrich to express his gratitude that he would do such a thing for someone he did not know very well. Joe had received many calls and offers of support. While it did not take away the pain, it showed him that the company cared. “And how much more likely would Joe be to stay at the company?” asked Ulrich. “I hope we’re building organizations where that can happen.” One clear means of fostering both a passion for work and a growth mindset is creating a culture where employees feel cared for. Other simple means of building a growth mindset include: getting rid of your threats by removing boundaries to action; building on your values and persevering by constantly keeping your values and goals in mind; and getting close and attached to people by surrounding yourself with allies who encourage your growth. Think beyond the status quo by asking how you can help your organization build a line of sight between the business results needed and the way people are treated. Think beyond the status quo by asking how you can help your organization build a line of sight between the business results needed and the way people are treated, Ulrich urged to continually reflect on the following questions: What do I want? What matters most to me? Who do I serve? Are my skills helping someone else?, and How do I build? Am I creating a culture that will outlast me and my people? How do I sustain the future? In the end, successful companies are those where the employees find meaning in what they do and bring their passions to the workplace, and those where they are taught to take risks and learn from their mistakes. “We have an opportunity in our organizations to create a line of sight between the meaning that employees feel their passion for work. That helps a company compete. That helps a company win.” Written By Christelle Agboka Christelle Agboka is a freelance writer living in Toronto, ON. Maintaining Wellness and Engagement Engagement and wellness are difficult to separate even as challenges persist The fear of being infected by an indiscriminate virus and compliance with physical distancing guidelines have given rise to economic, technological, and emotional challenges for organizations and their employees. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented diverse challenges. These challenges adversely impact employees’ well-being and their willingness to contribute discretionary effort at work or to even perform adequately in their jobs. There is evidence that employee engagement and wellness are strongly correlated. Any organization that expects to survive the pandemic must make the well-being of its employees a priority. A resilient workforce that is in good health and that is engaged is key to organizational success and benefits people, communities and businesses. Admittedly, during a pandemic, keeping employees motivated and engaged is difficult. Basic human needs for personal safety, stable relationships, job security and significance are top of mind for employees facing economic uncertainty, fearing job losses, and carrying the dual burden of professional and personal responsibilities. When unmet, these needs put employee wellness and engagement in jeopardy. As remote work has become the new normal in the pandemic, these needs have become even more evident. The Correlation In its April 2020 research report, Driving Connection & Engagement in a Remote Workforce, the U.S. firm Gallagher found that employee disengagement is a big risk with remote work. Employees working remotely say they need more structure, boundaries and expectations from their managers. They also need to feel connected when changes occur that affect their job. Remote workers need to know that their individual contribution makes a difference to the customer experience. Employees’ stated needs were a stable, secure work experience, trusting relationships, social cohesion and inclusion, and individual purpose and contribution. McKinsey’s research report COVID-19 and the Employee Experience: How Leaders Can Seize the Moment found a strong similarity between employees’ stated needs and the underlying drivers of their engagement, well-being and work effectiveness. Their stated needs were a stable, secure work experience, trusting relationships, social cohesion and inclusion, and individual purpose and contribution. Ways to Support Employee Wellness and Engagement There are five areas of action that can lead the way to ensuring a thriving workforce that is both well and engaged. As a first step, organizational leaders must first aim to clearly understand and address employee needs for safety, stability and significance. Communication that balances optimism and realism, while reassuring employees of leadership’s commitment to transparency Empowering employees to adapt to the remote work environment through training on the use of new technology and on new ways of working together productively and effectively Cultural reinforcement and change to ensure that human resources policies meet the needs of a diverse workforce facing diverse challenges Reallocating resources to match adjusted priorities and invest in employee well-being Leadership engagement with employees to validate employee contributions and reinforce the relevance of their work The pandemic is obviously not business as usual. We cannot have any illusions that post-COVID-19 we will return to the pre-COVID-19 way of working. The pandemic has afforded leaders of organizations the opportunity to find better ways of supporting employee wellness through engagement strategies and tactics that should evolve beyond the pandemic. The Alzheimer Society of Montreal is the largest non-governmental organization of its kind that provides services to elderly persons and their caregivers in their communities. The Society’s elderly clients are most vulnerable to COVID-19. The health care system regards the organization as a partner and considers the organization an essential service. Understanding Employee Needs When the lockdown was announced on March 13, the leadership of the Society organized a staff meeting with the dual purpose of outlining the immediate measures to comply with health and safety regulations and of giving employees a forum to air their concerns. The main concerns raised by employees were job security, personal safety and adapting to remote work. Employees questioned whether government funding for important in-person services would continue. They also expressed concerns about the availability, ease of access and functioning of work tools and resources to enable them to work from home. Employees were initially unsure of how they would adapt our services to meet client needs and justify the continued funding of programs from both government and private-sector sources. The postponement of a major fundraising event and questions as to the willingness of donors facing potential financial hardship to maintain their commitment created anxiety about the financial stability of the Society. 1. Communication The leadership team committed to sending daily written updates to the staff outlining the latest information in response to the questions and concerns raised in the initial meeting and in the subsequent weekly virtual meetings with all staff. The process of bi-directional communication continued with department leaders meeting with their teams in small groups. The leadership team reviewed employee needs for technology tools and training and discussed employee concerns expressed during small team meetings. The leadership team also understood that front-line employees were witnessing the adverse impact of the pandemic on their clients and that this had a potentially detrimental emotional impact on these employees. To allay fears, the following key messages were regularly reiterated in all leadership communications: We are committed to speaking the truth: Clear statements were made about the financial situation at the Society. Employees understood how the organization was being managed, the risk mitigation measures that were being implemented and the subvention applications that were being prepared. Employee wellness is the priority: Employees were kept informed about their benefits plans and the services of Employee Assistant Programs; information resources were provided to supervisory staff on how to recognize employee distress. Sanitary measures and practices were clearly defined, and staff was provided protective equipment and information on its use, particularly for client-facing staff. We want to hear from you: We had several virtual fireside chats — not only to discuss work but also to ask employees how they were feeling, what was working for them, challenges, group discussions. We even held two virtual baby showers for employees who were going on maternity and paternity leave. You are doing great work and you are participating in the solution: Regular updates on the growing demand for our services and the services that we were providing, reassured staff that they were doing meaningful work. 2. Empower employees In response to concerns about adapting to remote work, the leadership team encouraged employees to provide input on how they could adapt services for clients and adjust their work schedules to balance personal and professional responsibilities. Employees launched a client survey to understand their service delivery preferences. Employees quickly found solutions on how best to serve clients in ways that was neither complex for the employees nor for clients. Feeling confident about the work they were doing, employees identified free online training offered to non-profit organizations on the use of various technology tools to support their work. 3. Cultural changes The pandemic afforded the Society the opportunity to deepen its commitment of building a culture of collaboration and employee accountability. A new level of employee engagement emerged as the leadership team encouraged greater collaboration between the Programs and Services Department and the Financing Development Department, as they prepared submissions for subventions to fund innovative programs and services that they developed together. A flexible approach was taken to respond to the specific needs of the Society’s diverse workforce. Some employees who had to balance childcare and professional responsibilities during business hours committed to work a reduced number of hours on certain days of the week, without a reduction in their salary. The Society also maintained its half-days on Fridays during summer and occasionally shut down communications on other days, giving staff some well-needed rest from sitting in front of their computers. 4. Reallocation of budgets Employees understood that the leadership was committed to wellness and engagement. Although the lockdown prevented the Society from holding in-person events such as group training, staff birthday lunches and team-building activities, the cost savings from travel budgets was used to increase investment in activities that supported employee development, wellness and engagement. The Society was able to invest more in staff development and learning in areas such as communication, fundraising during the pandemic, new functionalities in our database and donor management systems. Employee perks such as pizza night, movie night and lunch coupons after a virtual staff meeting were greatly appreciated by employees. 5. Leadership engagement with employees The leadership team realized that it was important to build and maintain relationships based on trust and credibility with employees. Prior to the pandemic, the strategic plan was presented to employees. Addressing human resources challenges was identified as the main priority. More resources for services that were experiencing an increased demand, training opportunities and the review of some of our policies were promised. In addition, employees understood that the Society was expanding its operations and that a new permanent activity centre was to be created by renovating the basement of the Society’s head office. These promises were reiterated as commitments that would be honoured to the best of the Society’s capability during the pandemic. Random calls were made to employees on special occasions (e.g. birthdays) and to congratulate them personally on their contributions to special projects. These acts reinforced employees’ sense of belonging and that their work mattered. Client testimonials were shared with employees to highlight the importance and value of their work. The permanent activity centre was started and completed during the pandemic. Additional funding was secured so that vital services can be expanded. A Human Resources Director was hired shortly after her predecessor retired early in the pandemic. All these actions reinforced the leadership’s credibility and relationship of trust with the staff. At the time of writing this article, pandemic restrictions have been in force for just over nine months. As with any organization, the Alzheimer Society of Montreal cannot make any assumptions about the future. However, since the start of the pandemic, there have not been any layoffs, all permanent staff have remained with the Society and no employees have had to take sick leave. None of the key services were shut down. Services have been adapted to meet client needs, based on the input of employees. The closer collaboration of teams is evident, even though remote work is the new normal. This case study provides strong indicators that employees are engaged, healthy and thriving. To stay on this path, the organization is committed to building a workplace that prioritizes wellness by ensuring that employees’ needs for safety, security and significance are constantly understood and addressed. Written By Camille N. Isaacs-Morell Camille N. Isaacs-Morell (www.camilleisaacsmorell.com) is a marketing professional with extensive experience in the development and delivery of brand strategies for global institutions that have achieved their business development objectives through effective communication and customer service delivery. Top Takeaways Highlights from Chapter 3: Wellness PLUS a space for your notes to email yourself. A “because I said so” approach does not support individual or team well-being. Move beyond it by fostering deeper conversations. Listen to employee concerns and learn to flex your “empathy muscles”. Keep communication lines open (especially during a disruptive environment). Use internal resources (money, time, programs) to create engagement and corporate “buy-in.” Get leadership “buy-in” for new programs and wellness initiatives. SUPPORTING MANAGERS Chapter 4: Results INTRO: A Roadmap to Results Results seem like an easy concept. As a manager you ask for something and what you get back are the results. In your mind you have a desired result and you hope your employees know it, execute it, and provide it to you. But nothing is ever that black and white – especially when dealing with employee quirks and stresses plus workplace issues. Certainly, one way to steer results in the direction you need or want is through employee recognition. Consider that strategic recognition can reduce turnover, increase productivity and prove a good work environment. These are all motivating factors that produce a sense of purpose that (hopefully) gets the results you and the organization need. As difficult as that may be, consider that recognition now exists in a virtual work environment. Connecting with employees, and creating cohesive teams that work well and understand their value, is that much harder and so, as managers, efforts have to be doubled to establish programs that garner the best results. To enhance programs ensure company buy-in, reliable measurement, frequent and ongoing praise, manager support and leadership, consistency, and the use of technology. It will support an environment of motivated employees eager and willing to produce the strongest results possible. But recognition does not always recognize – pardon the pun – the stress that lies within the day-to-day work of your employee. Ensuring staff are aware of resources, are communicated with, and can see the empathy for the problems they are dealing with, can reduce stresses that affect team and individual cohesion. Results suffer when stress and anxiety come into play. Reducing them, or at least acknowledging them, begins the road to better work results. Moving forward with recognition and support for programs are some of the tools in the manager toolbox to achieve a desired result(s). However, sometimes we are our own worst enemies, and managers have to consider boosting performance, and creating a playing field that is level and, frankly, positive. It may seem trite but visualizing and anticipating victory can be all that is needed to help boost employee morale and performance. It may seem trite but visualizing and anticipating victory can be all that is needed to help boost employee morale and performance. Your mom was right when she said, “stay positive” and doing so allows you and your team to focus on achievements. Having something good to consider is one of the greatest motivators. As managers, motivation will take you and your team very far into reaching the results your organization needs. What you don’t want is a staff that turns on each other and points fingers when the stress settles in. “The culture you have is the culture you’ve allowed” and so listening to your staff and shifting them away from the negativity will help. Ask them about their stress, don’t shy away from problems and always be thinking. All of these steps can and will lead to a sense of resiliency – a way to maintain the efforts even as anxiety sets in. Making those long-term connections, accepting change, taking decisive action and most importantly, taking care of yourself provides the fuel to tackle the small things so that the bigger things don’t pile up. And that, leads to better results. Articles Employee Recognition Boosting Performance During Disruptions The End of the Performance Review Recognition from Afar The Road to Resilience Employee Recognition Maintaining a thriving work environment can be a challenge. Here’s a solution Great leaders and managers have learned that strategic recognition implemented consistently throughout an organization is instrumental in reducing turnover, increasing productivity, and creating an excellent work environment. People repeatedly do what they are praised and rewarded for. People repeatedly do what they are praised and rewarded for. Therefore, it is important for an organization to identify the desired behaviours that directly align with corporate culture, values, and goals and convey these desired behaviours to managers and their employees. For recognition to be effective, employees have to be able to connect the dots between the recognition received and the organization’s desired behaviours. For example, “innovation” may be a value in an organization. What does innovation mean to an employee and how does it fit into his or her role? Without that connection, innovation is just a word, and possibly has different meanings to everyone. Behaviours that align with innovation in one organization could include: Contributing to a new idea Helping others think outside the box Undertaking a task or challenge that has never been done before Experimenting with a new process even if the old one is not “broke” Questioning an existing process to keep it fresh and innovative Demonstrating breakthrough thinking; developing and applying new ways of looking at a situation. Identifying the behaviours that align with innovation give the organization’s employees a connection to what is expected, and what innovation means to them. This process must be done for every value, goal, and/or commitment that is critical to the organization’s success. Sean Schooling, Career Development & Recognition Manager at TELUS, agreed. “Our recognition program aligns to our corporate strategy and values. Team members at all levels recognize behaviours aligned to our TELUS values and contribute in ways that enable us to achieve our strategy. Whether it’s nominating a team member for an award, celebrating years of service, or sending someone a hand-written thank-you card, we show our appreciation for the contributions of our team members.” Recognition is part of the coporate vision and is as important as any other business initiative. 10 Elements of an Effective Recognition Program: 1. Higher management buy-in This is required to demonstrate commitment and responsibility for developing a recognition culture. A successful recognition program has top management believing in it and “walking the talk.” Recognition is part of the corporate vision and is as important as any other business initiative. In addition, buy-in from higher management is evident when adequate resources are provided to manage the program. 2. Manager responsibility Everyone is involved, however it is the responsibility of all managers to support and lead recognition throughout the organization. Managers can be accountable for participating constructively in the recognition program through manager performance reviews. 3. Strategy The organization has well-defined values derived from their mission and goals, which need to include desired employee behaviours. Establish and document processes that promote employee recognition at all levels, including continual (day-to-day), casual, and ceremonial recognition. 4. Consistent training Educate managers on what, when, why, and how to recognize employees to accelerate the recognition culture and maintain it at a high level. Professional development courses should be available for everyone who will be in charge of the program. 5. Measurement Establish measurement indicators and tools to validate program participation, satisfaction, and effectiveness. Increasing employee retention levels as an objective can be quantified before implementing the program and then compared a year later. Another objective could be employee satisfaction and morale. These can be measured using an employee survey and running the survey again once the program has been implemented over a period time. 6. Communication Communication makes recognition programs successful. Brand the recognition program in all communications such as, internal newsletters, senior leadership speaking on the importance of recognition for the organization, and putting recognition on meeting agendas. 7. Celebrations Celebrating progress towards milestones, achieving goals, and behaviour that significantly advances the organization is key to developing an excellent work environment. Put processes in place for organizing and documenting celebrations and provide the necessary resources. Whether in person or virtual, recognition events require planning. Some actions to consider in planning the event: choose the right person to make the presentations; know exactly what is being recognized; script the presentation and have it include positive and upbeat comments. 8. Day-to-Day This includes frequent and ongoing praise and recognition of behaviours that support organizational values. This can be thank-you cards, notes or other forms that employees can give to one another, or verbal praise. Without consistent day-to-day recognition, the larger celebrations or formal awards lose meaning. All employees participate in day-to-day recognition. 9. Flexibility Recognition programs need to be flexible and easy to change. Measurement results and employee feedback will indicate changes and improvements required. Flexibility keeps the program fresh and alive. 10. Share the news Keep everyone informed on what is happening with the recognition program. Good news stories that are shared are vital to the successful building of a culture of recognition. News can be shared in internal newsletters, celebrations and bulletin boards displaying recognition activities. These ten elements, developed based on Recognition Professionals International Best Practices, ensure a powerful and strategic recognition program when fully implemented. Written By Suzanne Schell Suzanne Schell is the owner of Business Excellence, a Certified Recognition Professional, professional Speaker and consultant. Boosting Performance During Disruptions Maintaining a thriving work environment can be a challenge. Here’s a solution As a former player, coach and now an author of leadership books, Ryan Walter distills hockey greatness into wisdom that applies to us all. If you’re feeling the pressure of external influences, if you think your business might be about to go into sudden-death overtime, consider these insights to help you stay in the zone with your team when the pressure is highest. 1. Anticipate the victory Walter identifies six key areas of thinking, one of which is called “future negative thinking,” in which we fixate on bad things that haven’t happened yet. “This is where you lose the sale before you get on the call — where your NHL team loses the Stanley Cup before you even play.” Of course, smart leaders still consider future negatives, as they have to plan to avoid them. But Walter suggests that, if you want to think about the future, set aside a time to do that specifically to avoid it taking over your thoughts the rest of the day. “Twenty minutes — think of everything, then get out,” he suggests. Any longer and you’re absorbing doubt rather than anticipating victory. 2. Focus on achievements No one has trouble remembering their mistakes, but we often don’t focus on our achievements — the brain is just wired that way. But winners have to think of themselves as winners, and so a good way to inspire that subconsciously is with visual cues in the workplace. For instance, there’s a reason NHL teams hang banners from the rafters in their stadiums, marking their Cup wins and immortalizing the jersey numbers of the greatest players who got them there. Although an office is a little smaller than a stadium, find a space in any high-traffic area to celebrate your team’s own highlights. Or, if everyone is distanced, build signals of silent reinforcement into your digital communications, even the backgrounds of your video calls. Give your team something good to remember and you’ll give them the confidence to aspire to those heights again. 3. Assists lead to goals Think the above points are wishful thinking? Nope. There is science behind it all — and it leads directly to revenue. He points to work by Barbara L. Frederickson, who transcribed the meetings of 50 companies then went through, sentence by sentence, flagging positive and negative interactions. Companies that out-did others in revenue showed a ratio of over 3:1 positive-to-negative comments. Those that earned less had consistently smaller ratios. In other words, attitude is directly connected to earnings. Whether cause or effect, any way you look at it, that’s a win. Read how to give your team the advantage – every single shift here. Written By Wade Guyitt Wade Guyitt is copy editor for Your Workplace, and is also a freelance writer and editor working from Kingston, ON. The End of the Performance Review Evidence is mounting that performance management (PM) systems are broken. The appraisal process is one in which employees and their managers set goals for the year; managers interview others who have worked with them and write up an appraisal; employees are rated and ranked numerically; and salary, bonus, and promotion opportunities are awarded accordingly. A 2013 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management asked HR professionals about the quality of their own PM systems; only 23% said their company was above average in the way it conducted them. Other studies uncovered even more disdain. According to CEB Inc., a management research group, 95% of managers are dissatisfied with their PM systems and 90% of HR heads believe they do not yield accurate information. The performance management systems in many companies are misleading, cumbersome and complex, requiring some HR departments to put aside an entire quarter to manage them. More importantly, they can be counterproductive. In the context of neuroscience research, most PM practices turn out to damage the performance they are intended to improve. That’s because they are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of human responses, as revealed in recurring patterns of mental activity. How your brain responds to performance rankings There are at least two basic problems with performance management: First, labelling people with any form of numerical rating or ranking generates an overwhelming fight- or- flight response that impairs good judgment. This neural response hijacks the brain, much as when there is an imminent physical threat like a confrontation with a wild animal. It primes people for rapid reaction and aggressive movement. But it is ill suited for the kind of thoughtful, reflective conversation that allows people to learn from a performance review. For example, a supervisor might say, with the best of intentions, “You were ranked number 2 this year, and here are some development actions for the future.” In this company, which scores its appraisals on a 1–3 scale, a 2 ranking is supposed to represent high praise. But a typical employee immediately disengages. Knowing that others were ranked still higher is enough to provoke a brain hijack. The employee may not say anything overtly, but he or she feels disregarded and undermined — and thus intensely inclined to ignore feedback, push back against stretch goals, and reject the example of positive role models. The second problem with PM is that it fosters an incorrect but prevalent view of human growth and learning. Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, discovered that most people hold one of two implicit theories about human growth and learning. The fixed mindset, as she calls it, holds that intelligence and talent are basically established at birth and remain static throughout life. People are born smart or not, and there’s not much anyone can do about it. The growth mindset, by contrast, holds that people learn, grow and improve all their lives. This is accurate; most people do learn throughout their years. But they could learn far more effectively, and bring more of a high-performance attitude to everything they did, if they weren’t held back by the mental paralysis associated with the fixed mindset. Few people are thoroughly inclined toward either the fixed or the growth mindset. Some people, for instance, might go to work with a fixed mindset about their ability to be creative, believing that they can never become any better at innovating new products than they are today. But they might have a growth mindset when playing classical piano, associating the rigors of daily practice with their ability to improve. Unfortunately, the fixed mindset is prevalent in many organizations — and reinforced by PM systems. This induces many employees to avoid the kind of effort that leads to learning and professional growth. Think back to your days in school. Chances are, no one liked to appear as if he or she had to work really hard to get good grades. They feared others might think they were not naturally talented. Similarly, in a work environment where the fixed mindset holds sway, people will typically strive to avoid difficult challenges. Any stretch goal or strategic imperative, no matter how worthy, will be seen as an invitation to fail. Unsurprisingly, this mindset also makes people more likely to cheat. In one study, people primed just before a test with fixed mindset suggestions (for example, statements that they could not change or grow) were 300% more likely to cheat than their growth mindset counterparts. The effects on organizations are devastating. Conventional performance management has been linked to high levels of attrition, low productivity, and significant problems with collaboration. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC’s) 17th Annual Global CEO Survey, conducted in 2013, found that 93% of the CEOs surveyed recognized the need to change their talent practices — something their companies were doing wasn’t working. If you want a high-performance organization, you have to reverse the destructive effects of conventional performance management. You need to find ways to evaluate people that recognizes the unique role each person has played in moving the organization forward. These evaluations must be based on a growth mindset: They must recognize that with the right context and conditions, anyone’s abilities can be improved, especially given the expansive, flexible nature of the human brain. The discontent of ranking A standardized, objectives-based PM system should be a straightforward exercise: Set goals, provide feedback about progress, agree at the end of the cycle on whether these goals were achieved, and link an individual’s compensation to the results. It is also easier to manage this approach with a common rating system for all employees. Typically, people are ranked on a 1–3 or 1–5 scale. The lowest number denoted an outstanding performer, and anyone with the highest number was a problem employee. Soon, many companies discovered that managers tended to rate everyone in the middle. As one executive from a large food manufacturer (with a 1–5 rating system) explained, “Anything other than a 3 requires extra work for a manager. You have to justify it if you give an employee a 1 or 2, and you have to put the employee in a performance improvement plan if you rank them 4 or 5.” Starting with General Electric in the late 1980s, under Jack Welch’s direction, companies tried to solve this problem by requiring managers to differentiate their people and spread out the ratings on a curve. In this system, known as “forced ranking” (or “rank and yank”), a specific percentage of people had to be ranked at the top and bottom ranges, with their promotions and bonuses affected accordingly. Yet both managers and employees find these systems dispiriting and exhausting. Satoris Culbertson, Kansas State University management professor who studied responses to more than 200 performance reviews, argues that the mere act of receiving a numerical rating can be perceived as negative feedback, and even people with a growth mindset don’t react well to negative feedback. “You would think that having so many smart people try thousands of variations of a scale over decades, someone would have found the right way to do this,” says Culbertson. Codifying the fight-or-flight response I developed a neuroscience-based framework called the SCARF model, which posits that five organizational factors have an immense, but often unnoticed, effect on negative human reactions. These factors are: STATUS: the perception of being considered better or worse than others CERTAINTY: the predictability of future events AUTONOMY: the level of control people feel over their lives RELATEDNESS: the experience of sharing goals with others FAIRNESS: the sense of being respected and treated equitably, especially compared with others When an organization’s perceived level of any of the SCARF factors is low, people feel threatened and perturbed. Even if they don’t express it, the feeling is there, and it often impairs their productivity and willingness to show commitment. Performance rankings trigger that perturbed feeling in all five ways: STATUS: People in lower-status positions have been labelled with numbers throughout history, as a way of dehumanizing and demoralizing them. In performance rankings in most organizations today, any number except 1 automatically signifies a lower-status position, with pay levels and promotion prospects to match. People carry that number, and the insult implicit in it, mentally around with them for a year, until their next performance review. CERTAINTY: The process of determining how people are rated is usually set in the Human Resources department and is often opaque to everyone else. People may work as hard and as cleverly as they can, but they still don’t know if this will get them a higher rating. That’s because the rankings reflect not just their individual performance, but their perceived contribution compared to a cohort of their peers. AUTONOMY: When a student gets a poor grade at school, there is generally a clear path to improvement — a path that may involve studying harder or seeking extra help. Whatever it is, the individual has some control. In an organization, a clear path is not always evident. Improvement may depend on factors (such as customer response to a product or the willingness of others to collaborate) that employees feel they cannot control or even influence. Though workers may actually have more influence than they think, the ratings trigger a sense of lack of autonomy. They reinforce the perception that the employee is neither trusted nor empowered. RELATEDNESS: If only one person can be given the top rating and get the best bonus, suddenly employees have good reason to undermine one another’s ratings, rather than collaborate. “We spend performance season getting battle ready,” explains one manager. “Two weeks before my review, I begin to prepare my attack. It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.” A similar unintended consequence occurs up the hierarchy. If employees feel that their bosses are comparing them against their peers, they will not openly share information that might compromise their ranking. FAIRNESS: A study by CEB, a best practice and technology company, showed that at least two-thirds of the people paid as top performers are not actually seen by their peers as contributing the most to the enterprise. Unfairness is perhaps the biggest problem with forced ranking, because the system is set up in a way that makes the decisions seem more arbitrary every year. In most companies, after several years of a forced ranking system, poor performers have already left. Everyone who remains performs above expectations, almost by definition. But managers are still forced to rank their subordinates on a 20/70/10 scale, and the bottom 10% are required to leave. Thus, every year, at least one highly motivated, highly capable employee is ranked as a bottom performer. This ends with the employee exiting the company, and the manager deeply frustrated. Of course, all these factors reinforce one another in ways that worsen the effect. For example, when people feel that others were ranked more highly without merit, and have no recourse to complain, the combined lack of fairness and autonomy can generate a much stronger emotional reaction than either would alone. The result of all of this? People feel unappreciated. They become more conservative. They set their goals low to ensure they are seen as succeeding. They retreat from candid conversations about development, because the whole issue of progress and feedback is so emotionally charged. The experience becomes one of ticking a box. There is little of the type of conversation that actually promotes personal growth. The rating system is particularly harsh on those who conduct the appraisals. Supervisors feel pressure to continue to show improvement, raising some people’s rating over time. They also feel pressure to differentiate, leading them to scapegoat some of their subordinates as poor performers. Rethinking evaluation An increasing number of organizations have been listening to their employees’ complaints and taking a more sophisticated approach to performance management. They are replacing year-end appraisals and ratings with in-depth conversations, often drawing on the myriad data points now available about employee and company performance, such as sales information, organizational climate survey results, and employee engagement data. One noteworthy example is Microsoft, which revamped its entire approach in 2013. It now focuses evaluation on results that people deliver together, leveraging and contributing to one another, emphasizing continual learning and growth. The company completely retired traditional PM tactics, including ratings, distributions and annual reviews. Only one person feels neurologically rewarded by the PM exercise: the senior executive who oversees it. How do these organizations transform their destructive performance ranking practices into a system that can develop talent consistently and pay people fairly? They do it by not throwing out the old approach entirely. In the CEB study, goal setting was shown to increase performance by 36%. Even feedback, which is often destructive to learning, can be designed in a productive way. The structure of bonuses and the calculation of salary can also be improved. As firms make the courageous transition to a no-rating system, they tend to choose one of two options. The first is highly structured types of conversations regarding employee performance. The HR department might lay out five or six topics to discuss in an annual review, such as career growth, contribution, collaboration or innovation. The companies also provide guidance on how to talk about each topic. The second option is a guided conversation that focuses on the goals people set for themselves and how they are progressing toward those goals, along with their contribution, past and present, to the company. In either a structured or a guided conversation, one key element is to prime people — both the employee and the boss — to induce a growth mindset. This improves how people listen to feedback, encourages them to set stretch goals, makes it easier for them to put in extra effort toward a worthy project, and helps them learn from positive role models. You can hear the difference between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset in the subtle nuances of conversation, and managers can make a difference in a company by deliberately choosing one kind of phrasing over another. For example, in giving feedback to employees, the phrase “You did well; you must be talented,” activates a fixed mindset. Talent is perceived to be innate and changeless. If the manager says instead, “You did well; you must have worked hard on this,” or, “I see you put everything you had into this”, a growth mindset is activated in the employee. The effort and creativity that people bring to bear makes a difference. The employee can also prime the boss. For example, saying “I want to be the top performer” primes the fixed mindset. It implies there can be only one. By contrast, saying “I want to take on challenges where I can learn new things” primes the growth mindset. How some companies are changing their PM systems Some firms that got rid of numerical ratings left one type of rating in place: the determination of whether someone is essentially “in or out” as a fit with the company’s culture. At Juniper, this is defined as being a “J-Player” or a “Non-J Player.” A J-Player is someone who generally behaves according to Juniper’s values and delivers reasonably good performance. Juniper clearly and consistently explains which types of behaviour result in Non-J Player status and helps those employees fit in if they choose to stay. More than 80% of the people rated as Non-J Players have opted to leave the company; they understood why they would never succeed there. There is also an effort, at many companies, to reframe the entire PM process as something else. At Gap, managers conduct monthly conversations in a new performance management process called “Grow, Perform, Succeed”. (Its abbreviation, GPS, is also the company’s stock symbol.) By redesigning its PM system and giving it a new name, the company repositioned the process as less of a threat. That in itself is an important step to better conversations. Sharon Arad, a Cargill executive, describes how the company made their shift: “We found the system failed to generate quality conversations, leaving employees with a that many viewed as a deficiency statement. In the end, the ratings given were not a trustworthy indicator of the actual status of performance or engagement.” Cargill leaders set up a no-rating pilot of several thousand employees for three years. Every year Arad’s team compared the pilot group’s feedback to that of a random sample of rated employees. “Overall, 90% of the no-rating pilot participants reported, year after year, that their experience was positive,” Arad says. This was in stark contrast to the feedback that people normally gave about their performance management experience. After the pilot, Cargill adopted the no-rating approach for its entire organization. The results of no-rating systems are dramatically better than their rating and ranking counterparts — in satisfaction, retention, and engagement scores, which have been shown to correlate to organizational performance. It would be nice to believe that eventually the ideal of labelling people numerically will be seen as a blip in the history of HR. Giving people a rating might be a useful tool in a company with a lot of “fat,” where it makes sense to shake people up and create competition, but in many of today’s lean businesses that demand a great deal from their employees, we need a better model. We need to improve the quality of the conversations we hold with workers. It’s time to kill your performance ratings. Written By Dr. Rock Dr. Rock has authored four successful books including Your Brain at Work, a business best-seller, and has written for and been quoted in hundreds of articles about leadership, organizational effectiveness, and the brain. Recognition from Afar Recognizing employees’ efforts while working remotely It seems like an eternity since people were regularly working in offices across the country. But in reality, it has only been a few months. Before physical distancing rules took effect, communicating with staff and recognizing their efforts was straightforward. But the transition to mobile operations has impacted recognition norms, and human resources teams are working feverishly to ensure their employees’ efforts are not going unnoticed. Numbers don’t lie One of the main challenges faced by managers and employers is how to keep their staff engaged and motivated while working remotely. In the virtual office, daily meetings, check-ins and flexible work schedules certainly help this cause. But recognizing employees’ efforts and personal achievements is a different matter, and making the effort goes a long way, especially if the company has an established recognition program or system. An O.C. Tanner survey conducted from April 27 to May 1, 2020, showed a 47.4% increase in employee engagement as a result of regular recognition efforts, and 58.6% of respondents said they were more likely to trust leadership as well. However, the results also indicated that companies without an active recognition program during the pandemic saw a 48.6% drop in employee engagement. “When the pandemic first hit, we had clients in Canada put their recognition on hold,” says Chris Vyse, Vice-President of Sales and Business Development for O.C. Tanner Canada. “ said they couldn’t recognize because there were no managers there to handle the recognition, and employees weren’t there to receive their awards.” Employers realized quickly that suspending or halting such programs was detrimental to morale and workplace culture. “Over time, several of these clients came back … to do the recognition remotely,” Vyse says. “There are some tactical challenges, but nothing that can’t be overcome through planning and using some of the remote tools available.” The tactical challenges associated with remote recognition are often organizational in nature. For instance, management must coordinate a time for a virtual recognition session with the entire team. They must also ensure they have the recipients’ home addresses on file if they mail out or hand-deliver the awards. Employees enjoy being appreciated, whether virtually or in-person. So it’s up to management to ensure the company is effectively recognizing their work. It is equally important for companies to “be consistent with their recognition,” says Derek Wood, Regional Vice-President for Robert Half Canada. “If you do it ad hoc, whether it is with an individual or a team, if it happens inconsistently, it can have an adverse effect in the sense that it looks like favouritism.” Management should also have their employees’ best interests in mind when implementing a recognition program. They are typically not a one-size-fits-all solution, and the last thing you want is to have a motivational tool that does more harm than good. “Think about what will motivate each individual,” says Wood. “For example, while one individual might prefer the opportunity to attend a conference, another might appreciate having his or her achievements relayed to senior management.” Some employees might prefer a personal email, handwritten note or one-on-one chat with a supervisor. For example, some employees may not necessarily enjoy being in the spotlight. Instead of public acknowledgement, they might prefer a personal email, handwritten note or one-on-one chat with a supervisor. They may also prefer to have a token of gratitude sent directly to their homes. “For our team-based awards, which are given by managers at the end of a quarter, we would typically hand them out in person and perhaps make a speech,” explains Michelle Brooks, Vice-President of People and Culture for Security Compass, a cybersecurity firm with offices in Toronto. “Now, we are doing that via Zoom,” Brooks continues. “For our more introverted employees, we aren’t them publicly; we send a prize directly to their houses instead. Doing so creates an opportunity for less visible but highly impactful feedback.” Program maintenance Employee recognition programs should not be treated as a spur-of-the-moment occasion. They should become a regular part of the workplace routine in order to realize their potential to motivate staff. “The key to maintaining as a manager is making recognition a part of your regular schedule, setting aside time weekly and monthly, and making it a priority,” says Wood. “The program should be structured enough that it doesn’t get left behind or forgotten as other things come up; it needs to be engrained in the fabric of leadership.” It is also vital to ensure the program evolves to meet the staff’s changing needs as the workplace continues its remote operations. “Before , you could see how hard were working . It’s not that we are worried that they’re not working or that there are trust issues; that’s not the problem at all.” “What we have tried to do to solve this problem is engage our front-line managers to have more touch points with these employees to discuss the work they are doing. They are paying particular attention to these quieter and not letting them drift into the background.” The future Remote work has forced Canadian employers to re-examine how they recognize their employees. Some companies have used this transition to enhance the ways they celebrate their staff’s achievements. But as many workplaces continue their online operations, they realize that even the purest forms of recognition are effectively motivating their team. “I think many people will walk away from this situation and realize that recognition is a lot easier than they might have thought,” says Wood. “It doesn’t need to be a giant event-planning with coordination to appreciate the efforts of . A simple shout-out, call, email or gift card is not costly and is just as effective.” 7Geese allows employees to send peer-to-peer recognition to anyone within the company, and we align it to key attributes we foster. Technology helps to enhance recognition during the pandemic. “We use a software tool called 7Geese. It allows employees to send peer-to-peer recognition to anyone within the company, and we align it to key attributes we foster. These attributes include embodying our corporate values and going above and beyond to create positive customer experiences.” “Using this tool, employees decide who they want to recognize and the category, and the goes directly to that employee’s inbox. It is also copied to the manager, and from there it is sent to the main 7Geese screen. Anyone who logs in can see a list of anyone who has ever received that award.” Some companies will use their time away from the office to re-examine the purpose of their recognition programs. The success of a program hinges on whether or not it resonates with the staff. “To keep the program evolving, supervisors should take the time to sit down with their staff during regularly scheduled touch-base meetings or performance reviews to discuss which rewards they find most meaningful,” says Wood. “Anonymous informal surveys also can be used to gather feedback on recognition activities.” Brooks says, “It’s important that people feel connected to the purpose and that their work impacts the company and the world.” Focusing on that gets people motivated and more willing to put their best effort forward.” A return to the physical office may be months or a year away, or even not at all. Nevertheless, whether done over video conferencing, emails, phone calls or in-person, a little recognition goes a long way. Written By Mark David Mark David is a freelance writer based in Toronto. The Road to Resilience Learning to pave your own level of resilience is key to navigating life’s twists and turns One could say we are at the height of innovation, kick-ass workplace cultures, and in many cases kick-ass bosses and supportive coworkers. We are experiencing the rise of the agile organization. It’s the era of work-life balance, open-door policies, flexi-work weeks, technological innovation, fair compensation, employee engagement, cross-departmental collaboration and so much more. But while life may be looking good for some employees, the reality is far more bleak for others. Those employees who don’t have all the benefits of a progressive work situation can learn to cope, but they need resilience to navigate the ups and downs of an unhealthy workplace. Take the story of Safiyyah Cotton. The dismal employment situation of this single mother and McDonald’s employee was featured on CNN Money. Cotton shared that she has been working at the fast food chain for almost a year earning $7.50 an hour, which amounts to $240 every two weeks. She borrows to pay her rent and survives mainly on food stamps and other government benefits. Cotton said her manager shows no concern for fair compensation, fair treatment or employees working scheduled hours. “I came in to work one morning — I had to be there at seven am — and once the general manager came in, around 7:30 or 8 am, she said, ‘Okay Safiyyah you can go ahead and clock out’.” Cotton said when she told her manager that she had just gotten to work, her manager said labour was high and she was not needed. Cotton is not alone. Many documentaries, studies and news stories have brought similar narratives to us over the years. One can’t help but think that the more things change, the more they stay the same. You show up for work day after day, but feel as though you are in the Dark Ages, maybe even in an alternate universe. Your salary can hardly cover your daily expenses, you feel unsafe at work and lack the proper resources to get the job done effectively and your managers are unapproachable. Many people buckle in the face of such odds, while others like Cotton keep pushing, hoping that things will change and that her employer will see her value and treat and compensate her accordingly. Only resilience makes it possible for Cotton to persist and bounce back in the daily struggle to eat and pay the rent. How does resilience come about? Resilient is defined by the Oxford Canadian Dictionary as “of substance, recoiling; springing back; returning to its original shape after bending, or of a person readily recovering from shock or depression.” The noun ‘resilience’ has been touted as one of the key ingredients in the workplace puzzle, one that drives employees to perform at their best, bounce back from adverse situations and face stress without buckling. As such, employees want to be resilient and employers want resilient employees. The question, then, is how does resilience come about? Is it innate, or is it something that we learn as we go through life and make our way around the curve balls we are dealt? Is it generated by daily pep talks about pushing through and not buckling under the pressures of life? Is it sparked by our connections with families, friends and colleagues? Is it created by the policies in place at our various places of work that enables us to cope with stress and perform at our best? Is it all of the above? Contributing to the ongoing discussion in www.sciencemag.org, Irene S. Levine notes that a growing number of studies looking at the role of resilience in the workplace suggest that personal resilience is one reason some people succeed and others do not. In her article “Mind Matter: Resilience”, the trained psychologist and freelance journalist said there is still controversy about the extent to which resilience is innate or learned. There is widespread agreement that humans can increase resilience and learn to handle workplace stressors better. 10 steps to resilience Levine outlines these 10 steps from The Road to Resilience, a publication developed by the Practice Directorate of the American Psychological Association (APA), to guide the process of developing resilience: Make connections with people who can provide social support (e.g., mentors, friends and colleagues). Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable and maintain a long-term view toward the future. Accept that change (and the need to adapt to it) is part of living Focus on small steps and realistic goals that can be accomplished on a regular basis. Take decisive action rather than wishing problems would go away. Look for opportunities for self-discovery; learn lessons from stress and adversity. Nurture a positive view of yourself that allows you to trust your instincts. Maintain perspective and don’t blow things out of proportion. Make sure to take care of yourself mentally and physically. Consider meditation and spiritual practices as they are helpful to some people. Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association (APA) says many studies show that the primary factor in resilience is having caring and supportive relationships within and outside the family. Relationships that create love and trust, provide role models and offer encouragement and reassurance help bolster a person’s resilience. The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses is another strong factor in bolstering a person’s resilience. The APA also outlines several other factors, all of which it says people can develop within themselves. These factors include the capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out, a positive view of self, confidence in one’s strengths and abilities and skills in communication and problem solving. The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses is another strong factor. Andrew Soren, positive psychology coach and Senior Advisor for Talent Strategies at BMO Financial Group, shares similar sentiments regarding the signposts on the road to resilience. Soren notes that one of the biggest myths about resilience is that it is a solo act involving a lone person on the battlefield. Resilience is actually a collaborative act between people and teams and the relationships we maintain. Being resilient also entails people being more in touch with their emotions and has a lot to do with how individuals approach and deal with everyday challenges. “Resilience doesn’t need to be about the really big things. Resilience can be about the way we deal with the really small things every day, whether it’s about the projects that we manage or the teams that we supervise or the way that we deal with strategy execution,” Soren says. Resilience gives us the skills to tackle small things and ensure they do not add up to something bigger that ultimately destroys our excitement and engagement at work and dampens our ability to perform at our best. Soren, however, notes the research that there are six factors that allow people to thrive from a resilience perspective: Emotional awareness: How adept are we at recognizing our various emotional responses and dealing with them? Impulse control: How well can we regulate what is happening within us and ensure we do not act on the first thing that comes to mind? Optimism: How do we look at the world and explain things to ourselves? Mental dexterity: How flexible, accurate and thorough are we in the way we think? Interpersonal relations: How is our empathy, connection, social support and connection with other people? Self-efficacy: How much do we believe that we can act and overcome obstacles? Research shows that behaviours and attitudes are more positive and enduring when people have the psychological capital to be resilient at work. Research shows that behaviours and attitudes are more positive and enduring when people have the psychological capital to be resilient at work. There is greater organizational commitment and people are more excited to come to work. When people are more resilient they perform better and are less stressed. So is the picture any clearer yet? Can we say that resilience is innate or built based on our interactions and associations? Is it a combination of the two? Dr. Michael Ungar, Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says he believes that it is both. “There is a bit of a misunderstanding that resilience is some sort of inner trait that you can somehow meditate your way towards,” he says. Resilience is born from an interaction between personal strengths and what we are given in our environments. Ungar’s research does not support this belief. Resilience is born from an interaction between personal strengths and what we are given in our environments. If somebody wants to develop resilience, he or she has to find environments where it is possible to express talent and build on strengths, Ungar noted that if people are in workplaces that make this possible, they are more likely to experience resilience: “Is it a workplace that is helping you to maintain relationships with your coworkers, does it provide a sense of belonging, is your work rewarded, are you compensated in a fair way and are you safe at work and free from harassment? Do you have a sense of worth and is your job meaningful?” All of these factors enable employees to better navigate stress in the workplace. The development of resilience is a collaborative venture between the employer and employee. The responsibility is on the employee to ensure he or she is in places of work that fulfill these needs while the onus is on employers to supply them. Once this reciprocal process is in place, employees can be motivated to participate and bounce back. Employees have the right to decline working in environments that fail to provide what they need to be resilient. The chances of finding employees who continue to work in environments where they are treated unfairly and their bosses are horrible are rapidly declining. “If you are thinking of spending money to train people to think like that, why not simply take the same money, create environments that are fair and equitable, get rid of the negative bosses and change the work environment to a more comfortable and pleasing one,” Ungar says. Somewhere in our lives, people need to feel meaningfully engaged and valued for what they bring. Overwhelmingly, though, people tend to seek fulfillment in their jobs and build their resilience on that foundation. Ungar acknowledged that there are a few people who are able to look outside their jobs, however dismal, and create that formula for resilience. “If someone was really feeling disempowered and vulnerable at work and I was working with them, I would probably suggest they look elsewhere for that same expression of themselves as they may not find it at work,” he says. These outside forces may include participation in community, family relationships, friendships and recreational activities such as sports. With all of this on the table one can thus theorize that the road to resilience is both innate and learned. We pool from our psychological and emotional strengths and blend these with the value and fulfillment we find in our work and personal lives. For Cotton, her resilience springs from her relationship with her sister and her desire to provide her son with a better life. This keeps her going as she regroups from the ups and downs of pursuing fulfillment at work. Where does your resilience come from? Ungar outlines nine resources for developing increased resilience. The more of these we have, the better we deal with adversity. A structure of expectations from people around you Knowing the consequences of your actions Having intimate and sustaining love from another person Lots and lots of other strong relationships A powerful identity A sense of control A sense of belonging/culture/ spirituality/life purpose Rights and responsibilities Safety of self and support from community Written By Akay Hendricks Akay Hendricks is a Toronto-based freelance writer with an undergrad in mass communications and a post graduate degree in corporate communications and public relations. Top Takeaways Highlights from Chapter 4: Results PLUS a space for your notes to email yourself. Engage in employee recognition actions to help encourage results in desired directions. Ensure consistent measurement and management support. To achieve results, direct employees to resources they need to reduce stress and manage workload. Visualize and anticipate victory. Stay positive and steer away from negativity. Don’t underestimate the power of motivation and how far it can take you and your team towards reaching the desired result(s). SPONSORED BY TALENTMAP Drive engagement and get results Speak to our team https://youtu.be/t-hEKZZe_mo Fasten Your Seatbelts: Managers should expect workplace turbulence Vera Asanin Editor-in-Chief, Your Workplace https://youtu.be/GFczkfC9hzo Managers have it rough. They are responsible for ensuring the organizational goals and objectives of their teams are fulfilled. For some managers, this is a position they always wanted. However, and more often than not, managers of people today were promoted into that position. They were “rewarded” for doing a good job, but no one bothered to ask them if they wanted or could handle the reward itself – being a manager of people. This is your time to take responsibility for supporting, connecting, collaborating with and energizing your workforce. Your team is counting on it. And Even More to Learn Helping Employees Who Are Showing Signs of Distress So many people are smiling on the outside while they are crying on the inside. Allan Kehler tells a great story and provides strategies to identify and approach employees displaying signs of stress, mental illness or substance abuse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v_VnSe6QwCFQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?vHMAfAnTo4_M Social Exclusion at Work What happens when an employee feels excluded from the social circle at work? Dr. Jane O’Reilly explains that the negative impact of social exclusion is even worse than the outcomes associated with harassment. YW Profile: Kraft Heinz Canada When two separate workplaces agree to merge, questions naturally arise. Employees wonder whether their jobs will be safe. Team leaders and management wonder if their staff will get along with their new counterparts. There is a recipe for success. learn more YW Profile: Kraft Heinz Canada A Recipe for Success: How two major players in the food industry found the secret sauce for a successful corporate merger A corporate merger is similar to a recipe. It begins with a list of specific ingredients that must be adequately measured and mixed. By combining and cooking the individual ingredients, the result should be something that tastes as good as it looks. When two separate workplaces agree to merge, questions will naturally arise. Employees wonder whether their jobs will be safe. In contrast, team leaders and management wonder if their staff will get along with their new counterparts, especially if the companies were previously competitors. But if all goes according to plan, the transition will be seamless, and the members of the now unified organization will learn to work and cooperate with their new teammates over time. Such was the goal of Kraft Foods and Heinz, two notable names in the food industry, when they announced their merger. Birth of a merger In 2015, Kraft Foods and Heinz proclaimed their consolidation to create the world’s fifth-largest food and beverage company, and North America’s third-largest, with about US$26.2 billion in annual sales, as of 2018. Once the ink was dry, however, there were some initial concerns about the merger on the employee side, especially in the company’s Canadian factories and offices. Questions also arose as to how the merger would directly impact Kraft Heinz Canada’s daily operations and employee culture. Even the best amalgamations are created with a certain amount of anxiety. “As with any merger, there were moments of uncertainty for all teams given the changes that were implemented to bring two iconic brands and businesses together,” explains Stephanie Goyette, Director of Condiments and Sauces for Kraft Heinz Canada. To ensure a smooth transition, the company vowed to adopt an honest approach to the process. The new corporate structure had yet to be clearly defined, which required the leadership and employees to work together to deal with the challenges that lay ahead. “Communication was key, and the organization rallied the teams and kept them informed of what to expect over the merger transition period,” Goyette says. The changes to the corporate structure also led to a significant culture shift. Emphasis was placed on helping the staff adapt while ushering in a stronger sense of ownership. “An increased focus on ownership was an important part of the culture change,” says Goyette. “An example of a new process that was part of the cultural change was the implementation of zero-based budgeting so that we all look at every dollar in the organization as if it was our own. It’s an entrepreneurial approach that drives increased accountability.” Zero-based budgeting is a method of accounting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. The process of zero-based budgeting starts from a “zero base,” and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. Uniting the teams Combining the teams of both organizations was another essential aspect of the merger that required the creation of a functional, united company as quickly as possible. “A merger is a time of excitement and anticipation,” says Alexandra Hyland, Canada Zone Talent Lead for Kraft Heinz Canada. “I often think of it as being like the blending of two families. Each comes with history, memories and traditions. We the merger quickly; it was not a long, drawn-out process. This was the right approach, as it allowed us to keep things moving while focusing in the future.” Despite being involved in the same industry, the two companies faced several challenges in crafting a recipe for its culture that featured the best of both organizations. “The main challenges were around processes and reporting alignment, which were a bit bumpy at first. Concurrently, there was also a cultural change happening,” says Goyette. Also, leaders at the newly united company made the decision to shift its culture from two distinct approaches to one that focuses more on ownership and meritocracy. “This didn’t happen overnight. It took months before we could start saying that new culture was fully embraced and implemented by all because a major culture change impacted everything from how we manage our budgets to how we manage people,” Goyette explains. “Effective change takes time to implement, but what was great was that the ownership of leading the cultural change wasn’t led solely by the top executives,” she continues. “Every employee had to play a part to make this happen successfully. We’re now about five years post-merger, and many employees started working at Kraft Heinz Canada after that, so all they know is our current culture of ownership, meritocracy and accountability.” Kraft Heinz employees at Live Well event Maintaining a transparent environment In the five years since the merger occurred, Kraft Heinz Canada strengthened the bond between employees and management by harbouring a culture of transparency. The first step in the process involved eliminating all barriers to communication between employees and senior management. “Our size ultimately gives us the resources and scale that allows us to be innovative with minimal barriers,” Hyland explains. “This means we work very closely with our leadership within the organization. It’s because of this that we can move faster. We don’t have multiple layers that we need to work through. As a result, we are a very flat and transparent organization.” Unlike other companies where executives are often challenging to communicate with, Kraft Heinz Canada prefers a culture of openness. The company frequently holds regional and national town hall meetings with senior management and maintains open-concept workspaces. There are no barriers to communication, and every effort is made to diminish the distance between employees and leadership. “The Canadian executive leadership team also meets with the directors of the organization. This is a time to cascade messaging and answer questions, in full, in order to empower the directors to follow up with their teams, answer questions and support their teams,” says Hyland. “Our Canadian leadership team recognizes they don’t have all the answers and that they want employees at all levels to feel empowered to bring ideas to the table.” Empowering the staff In many corporations, employees often feel as if they do not have a voice and management will not take their ideas seriously. Since the merger occurred, the company adopted a culture that emphasizes creating “a company of owners.” By encouraging the staff to adopt an owner’s mindset, they feel empowered to take pride in their work, while feeling that their contributions to the company’s culture will not go unnoticed. A recent company-wide event spotlighted this commitment. “We recently hosted what we hope is the first of many Efficiency Days,” says Hyland. “This was an opportunity for employees to bring ideas to the leadership team on how we can work better together.” The ideas presented at this event were not “drawn-out, lengthy proposals with a six-month timeline for decision-making,” Hyland explains. “This was about making the right decisions at the moment to improve our working methods,” she continues. “We know that our employees are the experts in their fields, and we empower them to bring their best ideas to the table.” Efficiency Days were not the first instance where employee-generated ideas made an immediate impact on daily life at Kraft Heinz Canada. In one notable example, the company implemented changes to how managers supported their teams. “Last year, the employees told us that we needed to equip and empower our people managers to support their staff,” says Hyland. “We then dropped everything and rolled out training across the organization that was consistent for all people managers.” The result is a management team that is more receptive to their team’s demands and concerns. Community involvement Kraft Heinz Canada is active within the various communities it serves, and some of its initiatives are renowned countrywide, such as Kraft Hockeyville. This event sees Canadian and American communities compete for the chance to have an NHL pre-season game played at their local arena. The winning cities also receive a cash prize to be used towards arena upgrades. The company also has “a long-standing partnership with Food Banks Canada,” says Hyland. “We have donated over $3.5 million in cash funding and over $55 million in food donations to this cause over the past five years.” PowerUp: Fuel your body for better performance Asparagus: These fleshy green spears are succulent and tender. Just as a spear is used as a weapon, asparagus’s javelin-shaped form is symbolic for its age- and disease-fighting abilities. And it is loaded with vitamins and minerals. learn more Power Up: Asparagus Power Up: Asparagus The fleshy green spears of asparagus are both succulent and tender and have been considered a delicacy since ancient times. Just as a spear is used as a weapon, asparagus’s javelin-shaped form is symbolic for its age- and disease-fighting abilities. Asparagus is a good source of fibre and protein, both essential for good digestion and immunity. It is loaded with vitamins and minerals and it is also a diuretic. It detoxifies and helps break down carcinogens and other harmful compounds like free radicals, which is why eating asparagus may help protect against and fight certain forms of cancer. Asparagus is packed with antioxidants, ranking among the top fruits and vegetables to neutralize cell-damaging free radicals, which may help slow the aging process. Another anti-aging property of this delicious spring veggie is that it may help our brains fight cognitive decline. In a study from Tufts University, older adults with healthy levels of folate and B12 tested better on mental flexibility and speed. Therefore, if you’re 50-plus, be sure to get enough B12 as your ability to absorb it decreases with age. Lastly, asparagus contains high levels of the amino acid asparagine, which serves as a natural diuretic and helps rid the body of excess salts, especially beneficial for those who have high blood pressure or other heart-related diseases. – Ingredients- Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipia 2 ripe avocados, cubed1 lb asparagus, rinsed, tough ends snapped (about 16 spears)1 cup shucked peas, fresh2 tomatoes, diced into 1″ cubes½ lime2 tbsp Olive oilSea salt and freshly ground pepper scing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. – Directions – Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Lightly coat the asparagus with half the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes, or until al dente but not soft. Remove from the grill. The asparagus will continue to cook as it cools. Do not overcook or the spears will be too soft and difficult to handle. Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Cube the avocado meat and place in the serving bowl. Squeeze juice from lime and add to the serving bowl. Add the olive oil and gently stir to combine into a dressing. Don’t mash the avocado but do expect it to help to form a thick, yummy dressing. Cut the cooled asparagus into 1″ pieces and place in a bowl. Add the diced tomatoes, peas and asparagus. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over fresh greens (or with corn chips… and a Corona… on the dock). Serves 4. VARIATIONS: Add a can of rinsed black beans for fibre. – Nutritional Analysis – Calories 282, Fat 22 g, Carbs 21 g, Protein 6 g, Sugar 8 g, Fibre 12 g. Feedback You just enjoyed Your Workplace on a new digital platform. If you have already sent your feedback, thank you. No need to do it again. Otherwise, we’d love it if you could answer a few questions. YW-Digital Magazine-Feedback Form We've detected that Javascript is not enabled. It is required for an optimal survey taking experience. Please check your browser's settings and make sure Javascript is turned on. Learn how to enable Javascript. Skip survey header 1. The platform was easy to use: Agree So-so Disagree Agree So-so Disagree 2. The content overall was valuable: Agree So-so Disagree Agree So-so Disagree 3. 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