Optimism And Acceptance Mindset Series: Blog 2

Welcome to Blog 2 in the 2-part Optimism and Acceptance Mindset Blog Series. My name is Quincy McNamara, I work with Adaptas and I’m currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Organisational Psychology. Blog 1 in this series focused on introducing the ‘Optimism and Acceptance Mindset’ (If you missed it, you can find it here). The current blog includes actionable tips in adopting this Mindset successfully.

Meditate

If you do a ten-minute meditation, spend five minutes practicing gratitude for who and what you are thankful for in your life, and five minutes acknowledging how you are feeling, without labelling it as good or bad.

As for the benefits of gratitude meditation specifically, one study (O’Leary & Dockray, 2015) found that practicing gratitude meditation four times a week for three weeks (along with keeping a gratitude diary) led to reduced levels of stress and depression, as well as increased levels of happiness and optimism.

Noting how you feel during meditation will help to build acceptance. Learning to accept your thoughts or feelings in the moment without labelling them as good or bad increases resilience, which is imperative to have when life may take a turn for the worst.

Practice Acceptance

Practice acceptance next time a difficult situation that is beyond your control presents itself. Instead of labelling the situation as good or bad, simply acknowledge what happened and move on. Your energy and time are your most valuable reserves, don’t waste either trying to change that of which you can’t control. As previously mentioned, acceptance will build your resilience to life’s difficult circumstances and challenges.

Keep a humour journal

A review of the literature around laughter has indicated that laughing increases optimism and life satisfaction whilst decreasing stress.

To this end, write down three things everyday that made you laugh. This will change the way you perceive the world around you, allowing you to be more upbeat and not take life so seriously.

Take risks

Optimists are known to be big risk takers; we can’t expect quality results unless we take risks. Becoming less risk-averse will open your mind to the world of opportunity that is right in front of you.

Understandably, risk-taking is a frightening concept to some. To clarify, we aren’t advising you to go skydiving or cliff jumping, but we are advising you to take baby steps when it comes to taking risks. It can be something as simple as taking a different route to work, or cooking a new dish.

You may ask yourself where to start when taking risks – here are three things you can do to help you along the way:

1) Assess the risk. We can do this by writing out a list of pros and cons. This will determine whether or not the risk is worth taking.

2) Move past the fear of failure. This fear will stunt us from ever making the move to take a risk in the first place, and will ultimately hinder our potential growth.

3) Think about the upside: If we are successful, we reap the rewards, if we are not, we learn.

If you are struggling with your mindset, you may think bridging the gap between where you are currently and adopting an optimism and acceptance mindset is no easy feat. However, if you do these three things consistently you will most definitely be on your way to experiencing a tangible shift in the way you perceive the world around you.

Optimism and Acceptance Mindset Series: Blog 1

Welcome to Blog 1 in the 2-part Optimism and Acceptance Mindset Blog Series. My name is Quincy McNamara, I work with Adaptas and I’m currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Organisational Psychology. Blog 1 in this series focuses on introducing the ‘Optimism and Acceptance Mindset’. Please continue to read Blog 2 for actionable tips in adopting this Mindset successfully.

Positive pop psychology peddles blind optimism – no matter what the situation, always remain positive. This toxic positivity that has circulated mainstream pop psychology is not good for our health. Denying our emotions is detrimental for both our body and mind. A 2013 study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester showed people who bottle up their emotions increase their chance of premature death from all causes by more than 30%, with their risk of being diagnosed with cancer increasing by 70%.

Whilst optimism has been shown to promote longevity, and has myriad health and social benefits, staying optimistic in light of real struggle, despair or tragedy is not realistic. Acceptance is where positive psychology falls short. Acceptance means perceiving your experience and acknowledging it rather than judging it as good or bad. The way in which we can live meaningful lives with as little unnecessary suffering as possible is the adoption of an Optimism and Acceptance Mindset.

Hope for the best, accept the worst

This is a simple analogy to convey what I mean when I speak of adopting the Optimism and Acceptance Mindset. Be an optimist but accept the fact that there are certain things in life beyond your control, and that of which you can’t control – you must learn to accept.

It’s important to adopt a glass-half-full mentality. There are numerous reasons for this. Having a positive attitude can help you keep from getting sick, especially when dealing with stress. In one study, researchers found that optimists generated more antibodies and were better able to reduce inflammation. This is merely one of the many benefits that lend itself to being an optimist, others include having strong social relationships, being viewed as more likeable, better romantic relationships, experiencing more positive emotions and higher levels of life satisfaction.

As for acceptance, you must accept the situation that you are in. Resistance is the root of all unnecessary suffering, so accepting that of which we cannot change will eliminate a lot of the suffering we experience. You must be able to reassure yourself that everything in life happens for a reason. Whatever burden you are facing isn’t accidental. You must simply look at it as an opportunity for a new beginning.

Optimism and Acceptance – opportunities, not challenges

When we incorporate an Optimism and Acceptance Mindset, challenges present themselves as opportunities – obstacles that can be overcome. This, in turn, will help us to become more resilient in every aspect of life. Resilience is the ability to overcome hardship and is vital for our personal development. It is the spring that allows us to bounce back when times are tough. Without it, we would fold whenever life throws us a curveball.

Next week, blog 2 will delve into how to successfully adopt the Optimism and Acceptance Mindset, make sure to join us then to learn some really valuable actionable tips!

Work Engagement: Your Organisation’s Superpower

What is it?

According to Psychologists Bakker and Schaufelli, work engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption. What does this mean?

1) Vigour – People are energetic and have the capacity and will to fully invest and immerse themselves in their work.

2) Dedication – People are passionate and enthused about their work.

3) Absorption – People are completely engrossed in their work activities.

Why it matters

The results are in – there is a salient need for engagement within organisations. A recent Gallup study found that organisations who have engaged employees are four times more profitable than those who do not. How is this so? Engagement brings higher ownership, which can foster entrepreneurial thinking to drive innovation, continuous improvement and increased customer satisfaction. Highly engaged employees also think of novel ways to improve how we work and service customers. A further benefit of employee engagement is higher job satisfaction, which in turn keeps attrition rates low.

Given the value of employee engagement, how can we engage our team?

Two effective ways of engaging our team is through self-determination theory and job crafting.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Renowned and revered Psychologists, Deci and Ryan, coined the theory of motivation known as SDT. This is a theory that claims people will become self-motivated if their needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness are met.

Let’s break this down:

As a leader, we can raise employee engagement by means of ensuring our employees’ needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness are met. Here are three examples:

1) Competence – Provide extensive training for your team so that they feel fully confident in their competence. Cultivating a culture of learning has been shown to boost employee engagement.

2) Autonomy – Allow your team a certain amount of freedom and space to make decisions around how they complete their work. Ask them what medium of communication they prefer – email, Whatsapp or phone calls?

3) Relatedness – You can make sure your teams’ need for relatedness is met by creating regular opportunities for feedback and encouraging employees to speak candidly. You may also organise team activities to boost social connections such as a zoom quiz or meal out.

Job Crafting

The second way in which we can boost engagement is through job crafting. This is a concept whereby we alter (or add to) certain elements of our role when we feel we need a change.

To increase work engagement within your team, you can speak to them about the possibility of crafting their job. There are three different types of job crafting: task crafting, relationship crafting and cognitive crafting.

1) Task crafting – This can involve adding or dropping certain responsibilities outlined in the job description in order to shape or mold the role to fit the employees’ needs. For example, an employee could offer to take over the organisation’s social media accounts.

2) Relationship crafting – This involves the employee altering the people they interact with within their role. This may look like creating interdepartmental relationships or task forces.

3) Cognitive crafting – The employee changes the way they look at or interpret the tasks they’re responsible for, such as focusing on appreciating their contribution to the big picture of the organisation’s mission.

Key takeaways

1) Work engagement is a positive work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption.

2) It’s important because it boosts productivity, revenue and job satisfaction whilst lowering attrition rates.

3) Engagement can be achieved through implementing Self-Determination Theory and allowing your team to job craft.

4) Engage your team by ensuring their needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness are met.

5) Allow your team to job craft if they feel they need a change.

6) Explore with your team the three different types of job crafting – task crafting, relationship crafting and cognitive crafting.

How Soft Skills Can Help Us Manage A Hybrid Workforce

The past year and a half has truly changed the landscape of modern working culture forever. What we have come to learn is that coming into the office is no longer necessary, as people can efficiently and effectively complete their work from home. Productivity increases with a new work-life balance that eliminates wasted time commuting and enabling more efficient self-organisation – these are both great drivers for higher quality performance. Many organisations have implemented hybrid working on account of this realisation.

Knowing that hybrid working is here to stay, it is important that we successfully navigate this unchartered territory. There is a salient need for leaders to deploy their soft skills rather than hard skills, as studies have shown they boost employee retention, engagement and job satisfaction (Zamolo, 2020). Here are three ways you can effectively manage a hybrid workforce by using your soft skills.

Communication

One of the biggest challenges to hybrid work is communication. Poor communication results in lack of productivity and inefficiency due to people not having the knowledge they need to carry out tasks. On account of the introduction to hybrid working, there will be a natural disconnect between those working from home and those who work in the office. Furthermore, those who work remotely may feel like they do not have the same resources at their disposal in comparison to their in-office counterparts.

How can we bridge this disconnect?

1) Make sure everyone is included and visible – The onus is on the manager to ensure that tasks are delegated evenly and appropriately between all staff, regardless of work location. It is also crucial to have regular check-ins with remote staff, as naturally you won’t have as much access to them as you would in-office staff.

2) Lead with Empathy – Actively listen to your team in check-ins, look out for signs that they may be struggling with their mental health and offer to support them in any way you can.

3) In ambiguous times that lack clarity, make sure you are being clear – say what you mean and mean what you say. Be concise with the message you are trying to convey.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is paramount when managing a hybrid workforce. One upside of the pandemic is that organisations have become more invested in the wellbeing of their staff. Developing your EQ will help you in understanding how yourself and your team are feeling.

There are a number of ways you can develop your EQ at work:

1) Collaborate and delegate

2) Do regular EQ assessments

3) Practice acceptance

4) Journal

5) Schedule time for learning

6) Explore your ‘Why’

Build Trust and Psychological Safety

Because team members are working in dissimilar situations, with differing levels of autonomy, ability to socialise and access to the team leader, it is imperative to ensure that all team members are treated equally and fairly, regardless of their work location.

Here are three ways we can build trust and psychological safety within the parameters of a hybrid work environment.

1) Level the playing field – It is important to make sure there is a sense of cohesion within the hybrid work environment and not an ‘us versus them’ mentality amongst the in-office and remote staff. Make sure an even distribution of time and resources are allocated to everyone regardless of work location.

2) Discover their preferred working styles – Find out what is working for your team and what is not. This is not solely about preferences for remote or in-office work. It can pertain to things like preferred level of autonomy, ways to communicate with you (email, phone, chat or video) to something as simple as what times of the day they are most effective and/or most creative, so you can schedule meetings and calls accordingly. Set up regular one-on-ones and check-ins around their schedule and preferences, rather than yours.

3) Discover new team rituals – To cultivate trust and psychological safety, team norms and rituals must be put in place. These can help to reinforce the team identity and cohesion, so that each team member feels included regardless of whether they work remotely or in-office. This may look like a zoom drinks or quiz, or an employee of the month award ceremony.

Key takeaways

1) Employees can work effectively from home – so hybrid working will be a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future

2) Soft skills are crucial when managing a team

3) Effectively communicate – inclusion and visibility of all employees, lead with empathy and be clear and concise

4) Work on your EQ by collaborating and delegating, taking regular EQ tests, journaling and scheduling time for learning

5) Build Psychological safety and trust by making sure all team members get equal opportunity regardless of location, discover your team’s preferred working styles and implement new team rituals

The Power of Vulnerability

I’ve been having a lot of conversations about leadership and vulnerability recently.

The word ‘vulnerability’ raises so many objections. Many people who are leading others are terrified that if they show any vulnerability it will make them seem weak.

What is Vulnerability?

Brené Brown defines vulnerability as ‘uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure’.

And leadership is all about uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.

Leadership and vulnerability have a lot in common!

The Link Between Vulnerability & Leadership

Just like vulnerability, leadership requires us to step up, step forward, constantly stepping out of our comfort zones.

“Vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage.” —Brene Brown

Most of us were brought up to believe it’s not okay to admit weakness. However, we can see everywhere the most authentic leaders are the ones we admire. Authenticity requires developing true self-awareness.

This takes courage and can be challenging, and sometimes painful. In developing self-awareness, we have to admit all sorts of things to ourselves. Transformation cannot exist without courage. Courage, in turn, requires vulnerability. That is, an openness to uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. Much of the literature and research relating to creativity and innovation in organisations shows successful results from cultures where ‘risk taking (within safe boundaries) is encouraged and where there is an acceptance that not all innovation will be successful.’

This type of culture enables ‘psychological safety, such that staff feel confident speaking out about errors, problems and
uncertainties and feel empowered and supported to develop and implement ideas for new and improved ways of delivering services.’ Psychological safety evolves when leaders display vulnerability. Otherwise it will never feel okay for others to make mistakes and admit uncertainties.

When we talk about vulnerability in leadership, the objection is often the fear of having to expose our deepest and darkest fears. However, this is not the expectation.

For example, vulnerability can simply be any and all of the following three:

1. Admit you don’t have all the answers. This encourage others to share their ideas.

2. Share that you have struggled with something in the past and what you did to rectify that struggle. This encourages growth mindset and openness to learning in others.

3. Discuss what is important to you – your values. This will help others to share their values and recognise you all have more in common than it may seem.

Is doing any of the above weak? I don’t think so.

Try ‘vulnerability’ on and let us know how it goes for you…

Embedding Learning When Change and Adaptation Is More Important Than Ever!

Updated August 17th 2023

Imagine if I proposed that the absence of a vital element could render all the investments your company makes in employee learning and development futile, both in terms of time and money.

A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking about this problem.

During a zoom lunch date (one of the things I am doing to give myself some work-life balance while working from home),

I asked her what she had going on at work that afternoon.

Her face shifted to irritation and, with an exaggerated eye-roll, she said:

“Ugh, we have another training workshop… this time on motivation during Covid-19. I could not be bothered.”

As a performance psychologist I am fascinated by motivation and so this statement made me laugh. I was immediately reminded that we should never assume people are interested in the same things as us!

Further questioning clarified that my friend had been subjected to lecture-style training sessions with little interaction and no opportunity to apply what she was being taught. These sessions felt like a waste of time to her, and in fact they were, because afterwards she never felt able to implement the knowledge.

The Power of Habits

We now know that at least 40% of our daily actions are habits. Habits are a combination of automatic
thoughts, sub-conscious reactions and established routines. The longer we have been following these
routines, the harder they are to change. Even when we have the desire and the best intentions to
change, the sheer strength of our established neural pathways pull us back to our old ways of doing
things. When we don’t understand the processes behind this, we are left feeling powerless to make our
desired changes a reality. This feeling of powerlessness feeds a fixed mindset, which whispers to us
there is no point in trying hard to change as it won’t make any difference.

But why is learning such a struggle?

Implementing new learning is, at its essence, a struggle against our established habits. It requires a
strong clarity of what you are looking to change and the sheer discipline of repeatedly choosing a new
way of acting or thinking until it becomes your new habit or way of being. Contrary to previous research
which suggested it takes 21 days to form a new habit, we know now that this process can take anything from 3 weeks to
to six months, depending on our focus, determination and how our individual brain works.

So, the problem is this: learning and development training can be waste of time and money if we do not
give people the tools to understand their own learning, take control of their behaviour and implement
what they have learned.

Figuring out how to do exactly that is a priority at Adaptas. As a team, we teach learning and habit
change as a core element in all our training, from presentation skills to higher business performance. We
have seen the benefits of this approach, with clients often reporting back to us that through
understanding their own learning and habit change challenges they were able to take control of their
choices and behaviours and make long-term, impactful changes in work and in life.

The crucial ingredient, as we see it, is habit change.

See more about learning and habit change in Celine’s book ‘Our Learning Brain’.

What Working with Adaptas has Taught me About Learning and Habit Change

Updated August 17th 2023

After ten years of working as an equestrian sport competition coach and two years training and working as a performance psychology consultant, I know that change is difficult. It is challenging to correct an athlete’s incorrect leg position on a horse once the body has formed the habit of holding it the wrong way.

Likewise, it is even more challenging to change the way an athlete thinks about themselves once the mind has formed the habit of thinking a negative way.

In our current climate, many of us have had to change the way we do things overnight. Whether these changes involve thoughts or actions or both, for most of us, this has been difficult. In short, underlying these challenges is the fact that changing the way we move, behave, or think requires changing our habits.

In the past, I was guilty of underestimating the power of habits on our behaviour. I knew making the change was difficult, but I did not fully understand why.

Since I have had the opportunity to focus on the psychology behind habit change through my work with Adaptas, this process has become much clearer to me. It has also given me the opportunity to equip myself with effective tools to help my clients understand their own learning and make lasting changes.

I now understand that habit change is a foundational element of learning in sport, business, and life.

A habit is a deeply ingrained pattern of thought or behaviour. In fact, more than 40% of our daily actions and decisions are ruled by habits. They are both incredibly useful and terribly inconvenient. From an evolutionary perspective, habits keep us safe and free up our brain to tackle complex problems. However, these same mechanisms can get us stuck in unhelpful patterns of thought or action. Because so much of habitual reaction is sub-conscious, we often do not realise how the habit is controlling our thought or behaviour.

I believe that learning about habit change allows us to become more meta-cognizant, to see our own thoughts and reactions from another perspective. Once this has occurred, we can effectively make use of habit change techniques.

Right now, as we continue to navigate the impacts of COVID-19 on our lives, many of us are trying to use this time to do things differently. Pay attention to the old habits you may have left behind and consider what new habits you might be forming to support these new behaviours. If you have been struggling with change, try to figure out what old habits may be holding you in old patterns of thought and action.

This is the strength behind the Adaptas approach: by including information about learning and habit change, I can now empower clients to take control of their thoughts, decisions, and outcomes.

In conclusion, It is truly amazing to see the positive difference this makes in peoples’ experience of making changes in work or sport and the impact this has on their performance and well-being.
Annika McGivern

If you are interested in learning more about how the brain works, check out the Adaptas book page

Are Your Beliefs Stifling Your Confidence at Work?

In our careers, success and confidence often seem inextricably linked. This can be stressful as confidence is a tricky thing to hold on to. Too often we allow our confidence to be dictated by the events and people around us.

Here at Adaptas, we believe the missing piece is the understanding that confidence is something we control for ourselves.

At its essence, confidence is a sense of “sureness.” Feeling sure that we are equal to the task at hand. This sureness comes from preparation and deep-seated beliefs about ourselves. Confidence is not the complete absence of fear, worry or self-doubt. When we are trying to feel more confident, we often focus on technical preparation, failing to tackle the core beliefs that are fuelling our feelings of self-doubt in the first place. Why? Because they are big, intimidating things to tackle, and because sometimes we aren’t aware of them. Here is the problem: if we don’t tackle the beliefs, we can get stuck in a long game of bluffing ourselves and playing a part, all the time feeling like an impostor.

Our core beliefs act as a life blueprint. Forming the foundations of how we interpret the world, core beliefs shape how we react to success and struggle and the way that we see and understand our thoughts and actions within the context of our lives. Sound a little complicated? Well, it is! It can be tricky to identify our core beliefs and understand how they are influencing us. The best place to start is by analysing the thoughts that pop into your head un-invited.

“I won’t be able to answer the questions they ask me at the end of the presentation.”

“I don’t know enough about ________ to be in this meeting.”

“I am terrible at speaking in front of people.”

These unhelpful thoughts are little clues to the core beliefs that are creating them. Identify a negative thought and ask yourself: why do I think this? Follow the thought back into your mind. You’ll know when you stumble across a core belief because it will feel 100% true, even if you wish it didn’t.

I am stupid.

I am not good enough.

I don’t deserve success.

We call these types of negative core beliefs ‘Limiting Beliefs’ because they prevent you from reaching your full potential and they are not true. They feel true but they are not. These beliefs are a habitual way of thinking about yourself, built on faulty information. Like all habits, they can be changed. Our workshops build confidence by guiding participants through the process of confronting and changing their limiting beliefs around important work-related behaviours, while also teaching the tricks and tools of long-term habit change. This empowers our clients to continue the process of developing their confidence long after the workshop is over.

A Look Inside An Adaptas Workshop On VALUES

Updated August 3rd 2023

Values

Values are a buzz word these days, but what are they, really? They are identified with single words like honesty, integrity and loyalty. But even with those words to hand, we can struggle to get a handle on what a value is and what it means to us.

Often the serious ones come to mind first. These are sometimes the values we are taught to hold by our families, communities and jobs, values that are heralded in films, love stories and fairy tales. These values are valid, but do they truly represent what is most important to us? What about adventure or enthusiasm? What about stability or calmness, compassion, brilliance or wonder?

Let’s take a quick look inside an Adaptas workshop on values.

A group of coaches-in-training sit with pen and paper in hand. You can feel the pensive nature of everyone’s thoughts as they sift through the layers of words representing the many values they have heard of, taken on board or dismissed over the years. Which ones are mine? Which are the most important to me?

When they are done, each list is as unique as the individual themselves. The next step is to get to know their chosen values a little more personally. Choosing one of their top three values, everyone goes through a short interview process that allows them to dig into what that value is for them. What does it look like? Feel like? What does that value like and dislike? How does that value help? How does it hinder? Thirty minutes later our trainee coaches are deep in conversation. Someone had a burst of realisation at the end of her interview: she wasn’t living to her chosen value as closely as she thought. Another individual reflects on the contradictory nature of two of his values and shares that understanding this has illuminated the contradictions in some of his decision making.

“I find that the ‘ah-ha’ moments that people have, come in when they start to recognise the decisions they are making in their own lives based on values that they either took for granted, or had never named. And it is often a mind-blowing moment. This is because, generally, we take our values for granted and don’t really think about them.”

Dr. Celine Mullins

Orienting to our values can be a powerful source of motivation and clarity. Conflicts are often based in opposing values and by understanding our own values we can find more empathy for the other person’s values and perspective. Difficult decisions can be made clearer by following the guiding light of what is truly important to us. Here at Adaptas, we think and talk about values a lot and we encourage you to do the same!

You never know, there could be some interesting self-discovery waiting just around the corner.

Winning ‘Excellence in Digital Learning’ Award: Our Immersive Sales Star VR Video

Updated August 3rd 2023

‘Immersive Sales Star’ is an IITD Training Award winner.

Institute of Training & Development, National Training Awards is recognised as the premier Learning & Development event for industry. The purpose of the IITD National Training Awards is to promote excellence, best practice and innovation in Training and Learning & Development, and to highlight the importance of this area in today’s business climate.

Excellence in Digital Learning Award.

We are delighted to announce that ‘Immersive Sales Star’ won the ‘Excellence in Digital Learning’ award from the Institute of Training & Development Awards 2019. Adaptas created ‘Immersive Sales Star’ with the Learning and Development Team at FBD Insurance. ‘Immersive Sales Star’ is a number of Virtual Reality simulations of Sales Call conversations being utilised for motor and home insurance customer contact centre training. It is being used to scale best-in-class behaviours and competencies and replace the need for the shadow sessions.

What do FBD say about this VR training solution?

“Great solutions in business are never created by a single individual; they are done by a talented and committed group. This is why we chose to partner with Adaptas Training. Adaptas have been early adopters of using Virtual Reality technology, a medium which enables more immersive staff training. The Adaptas team helped us create an innovative, practical and results orientated training solution to overcome a real business challenge. The ‘Immersive Sales Star’ tool has improved product knowledge which in turn is improving Sales Performance and has eliminated the cost associated with employing a full time Sales Coach”

-John Mulreid, Learning and Development Manager, FBD Insurance

What are the learners saying after using ‘Immersive Sales Star’?

“When I made my first real call, I felt like I had done it before”

“It brought all the jigsaw pieces of the training together for me”

”It makes you feel like you have done a call and achieved the sale”

“It made me feel like I stepped into an expert seller’s shoes”

“It trains you in the exact environment that you’re working in rather than a meeting or training room”

“Rather that skating around the question, I now go straight in and ask directly for the sale”

You can check out the Immersive Sales Star FBD case study here.

Creating and Maintaining Culture: Leadership of Self and Others.

Updated August 3rd 2023

Understanding Personal Values: Responsibility To Ourselves And Others

Since recently writing a blog about why it is important to understand our own personal values before we can live an organisation’s values, I’ve received a lot of comments, both on LinkedIn and in private messages and conversations.

It’s great to hear from so many people who are really thinking about what their values mean to them and are more aware of considering how their own values drive their behavior, decisions and their choices. It’s also super to see that more people are thinking about how important it is to understand ourselves before we can understand or have expectations of other people, teams and organisations. Additionally great to hear and see people considering where their own personal responsibility to their values and the values of the organisation they decide to work with are, rather than looking to blame. It is clear that we still have a way to go on this. People might be less disappointed when they settle into a role if they know how to look for evidence that an organisation and the people in it are really actively looking to live to the espoused values and holding each other accountable to same

Why Have Values Become So Important to Business?

Research shows that when an organisation creates a strong culture by focusing on values and the day-to-day behaviours that align with these values, the result is an increase in employee engagement. This is at least in part because these values are guiding principles for how everyone in the organisation makes decisions, and what they hold each other accountable to in their actions. An organisation cannot implement its stated values if the values and the ensuing behaviours are not fully understood, and supported by the people within the organisation.

As I think I have made clear at this point, many leaders and organisations are ‘missing a trick’ by not helping people understand their own personal values, before they ask them to live the organisation’s values and behaviours, in line with the culture they want to create or maintain.

The call to “bring one’s self to work” with one’s interior value set aligned with the work-place has been found to enhance individual engagement and organisational success. Yet, organisations are comprised of people from a variety of different personal and professional backgrounds, with different personalities. Therefore it cannot be taken for granted that personal and organisational values will fully align. Awareness is the key, as with all success and contentment in life. With awareness comes choice around the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Why Are Values So Important In Leadership?

A huge obstacle to creating and maintaining a culture that works well for all stakeholders is when senior management fail to consistently role-model the values and behaviours that have been agreed upon. I have seen so many examples of this, some of them quite hilarious in an ‘are you serious?!’ kind of way. Like when the head of training at one organisation expected his staff to be customer focused, friendly and proactive but yet he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘good morning’ or ‘how are you?’ to any one of his direct reports, and indeed only did so in the company of his senior peers.

How can we possibly ask other people to live a certain way when we are not willing to ‘walk the talk’?

The 21st century has been plagued with extensive, and disheartening leadership failures. For example, Enron, AIB, Fanny Mae, Northern Rock, FIFA just to name a few. Of course the stories could be told from many different angles but many charismatic, dynamic and seemingly transformational leaders who rose to prominence in both the public and private sectors have shown evidence of moral and ethical deficiencies.

In response and in reaction to ego, corruption and ethical blunders, people have been looking for something else. Leadership and management theorists have more recently placed an emphasis on the importance of ethics and morality in leaders. What has emerged is values based leadership theories.

The key qualities of a values-based leader have been described as;

self-reflection
balance
self-confidence
humility

Values-based leaders align their own values with those of the organisation in which they work. Self-reflection is a discipline in itself and communicating that through behaviour is a skill. Reflection on the self is not always accurate, because as individuals, we have so many blindspots and unconscious bias.

Leaders Must Model Values To Create A Culture

Values based leadership requires leaders to model values. Ciulla (1999) described different leadership styles and their relationship to values and commented on transforming and servant leadership where the leader demonstrates values but also ‘help followers develop their own values’ which fit with those of the organisation in which they work.

It’s up to leaders and managers to live the values and to help their people understand these values. Where many organisations have made mistakes with this, is where a senior team decides the values, stick them up on the walls around the offices and buildings, send an email out, rather than asking for people’s opinion, and then not living the espoused values themselves. Because, the opinion of the employees is not asked for, there is no buy-in and it becomes a wasted exercise and the leadership teams lose the trust of their colleagues, teams and customers.

One considerable difficulty in developing and maintaining a culture where people hold each other accountable to the Values and Behaviours is that there is a presumption that managers have the skills to implement and share them. As stated previously, this requires self awareness. With the levels of stress, mental health issues, and levels of bullying that exists in modern organisations, we have a way to go when it comes to self awareness in our own behavior; what drives us, what blocks us and the personal impact we have on our working relationships.

What one thing can you do to create and maintain an organisational culture that is values based?

Change Is All Around Us!

Update August 3rd 2023

Change is all around us!

In a world where things seem to be changing faster than ever before, you may find yourself, like me, struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of developments in technology, global politics, and more. However, you should take comfort in knowing that our brains have evolved to adapt and re-adapt to this ever-changing environment we live in.

When we focus on learning new things or new ways of doing things, our brains grow. The size of the cortex, the length of neurons, the number of synapses, and the level of neurotransmitters and growth hormones increases. So we can make ourselves brainier, as such!

The ability to learn is dependent on modification of the brain’s chemistry and architecture, in a process called “neural plasticity”.

What is “neural plasticity” or “neuroplasticity”.?

Neural plasticity reflects the ability of neurons to change their structure and relationships to one another in an experience-dependent manner according to environmental demands. It means that everything you think you know and feel now, can change for better or worse depending on what you focus on.

How can we make it attractive to learn?

There are many ways to make it attractive to learn. Here are two suggestions:

1) Recognize the importance of learning for the longevity of your memory: Reading Norman Doidge’s book “The Brain That Changes Itself ” will inspire you.

2) Think back to when you were a child. Many of us liked making up stories and playing games together and generally using your imagination. This is how we learned as children, and believe it or not, this is how we learn as adults. Learning needs to be engaging, fun and full of “imagining the possibilities”. Experts and researchers (e.g. Caine and Caine, 1990) all over the world have found that brains grow best in the context of interactive discovery and through the co-creation of stories, that shape and support memories of what is being learned. Learning together in teams and groups therefore has a lot of benefits and long-term impact.

As adults it’s easy to get stuck thinking, “you can’t teach and old dog new tricks’. Actually we can learn new things; it just takes a more concerted effort than when we were children. What can you do today to help your brain learn and adapt and have some fun doing it?

Optimism And Acceptance Mindset Series: Blog 2