By Declan Noone
In a world of ever-increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, there is a greater need now, more than ever, for strong, adaptive and purposeful leadership, i.e., for Positive Leadership.
A multitude of competing factors that have an impact on our own personal space, in both our professional and private lives, are adding to increasing stress levels, mental health challenges, as well as high levels of employee disengagement. In its Negative Experience Index, which is a measure of how many people experienced worry, stress, sadness, anger or pain on the day before the survey, Gallup’s Annual Global Emotions Report for 2018[1]notes that “almost 40% of adults from 146 countries said they’d experienced worry or stress the day before the survey, while 31% said they’d felt physical pain, 23% said they’d been sad and 20% said they’d felt anger”… the Gallup Reports also notes that “a staggering 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged”.[2]
In such challenging times, what can you do as a leader to have a positive impact in the workplace? Well, you can communicate and demonstrate P.U.R.P.O.S.E.
POSITIVITY:
In evolutionary terms, humans are naturally hard-wired to recognise negative stimuli and responses with greater efficacy than those that are positive. Consequently, as leaders who have an impact on individual and collective mindscapes, we need to be conscious when we experience a series of perceived or real negative events. Due to influences in the way we perceive and analyse further events and situations if unaddressed experiences of perceived threats can lead to negative downward spirals of emotions, individually and within groups. This, effectively, results in a “bunker” posture and mentality, where everything is seen as a threat and our capacity to see the big picture and keep events in a realistic perspective is restricted. Fear, anxiety and disengagement results.
To paraphrase Barbara Fredrickson, positivity involves “a realistic assessment of the current situation and identifying the positive actions required to move forward.” Leaders, therefore, have an obligation to place an event or series of events in context, identify the real vs perceived the event(s) consequences and impact, and engage with others to create solutions so that the individual, team and organisation can move forward.
A positive leader will communicate the reality of the circumstances, as well as the action plan to move forward. You will lead by example and demonstrate a measured manner in trying times and a positive mind-set to enable forward progression. Doing so does not mean avoiding negatives, impacts, consequences or challenges but rather puts them in their proper contexts. Avoid contagion and catastrophic thinking.
INCLUSIVITY:
The increasing complexity of challenges faced in the workplace mean that it is unlikely that any one person will have the knowledge or skills necessary to identify, design and execute the required solutions.
People have a natural desire to be an active part of the solution. Empowerment comes from utilising knowledge, experience and the desire to be involved in the aspects of the key role of the leader. A sense of inertia adds to the negative, downward spiral of emotions and its related consequences. However, active engagement generates greater positive emotions, reinforces a sense of belonging, and enhances the sense of a shared collective experience towards a common goal.
Nurturing inclusivity to the extent that is possible, as dictated by time, team size and resources, is critical during challenging times, especially in decision-making processes. Inclusivity also applies to the sharing of information – which, as much as possible, should be disseminated across a team, as it relates to their work. Communicate an inclusive message, i.e., “this is us, this is our situation, we are in this together, we will succeed together”, and demonstrate through your actions a willingness to include and listen to multiple opinions and perspectives. Tools such as Appreciative Inquiry and Design Thinking enable inclusive and active engagement in teams and organisations.
RELATIONSHIPS:
In stressful and difficult times, we rely on our strong personal relationships for support. Building and maintaining positive relationships in the workplace is a key enabler to building a strong and generative work culture. Positive relationships enhance trust and resilience, they encourage greater discretionary effort and positive organisational citizenship behaviours and further fuel a sense of “US” (connectedness).
Positive relationships are built on many facets, but three significant factors they have in common are:
- Vitality: The energy and enthusiasm each person brings into a relationship dynamic.
- Positive Regard: The respect clearly visible and demonstrated towards each other.
- Mutuality: The shared created value that arises from this relationship.
A Positive Leader will strive, through daily interactions with others, to bring energy, respect and support into relationships and connections. Building strong and resilient relationships enables you to: enhance your situational awareness, i.e., your understanding of what is happening inside and what is external to the team; build a strong series of networks that affords you greater access to resources and to people; surround yourself with trusted colleagues on whom you can lean on for support.
PERFORMANCE:
Sustaining or improving performance during challenging times requires a heightened awareness of what people need to sustain themselves under stressful conditions. Leadership requires you to meet those needs and to create the right context. Factors you should consider are:
- Set realistic challenges: Managing workloads requires the clear assignment and division of tasks across the team. How you assign work to individuals is context sensitive, depending on their abilities, your trust in them and their work capacity, etc. Setting challenges that are beyond a person’s capacity will result in increased stress levels and an inferior end product. Consequently, more time and resources will be required to finish the task to the desired level. Set challenges that push people beyond their comfort zone to levels that engage their cognitive capacities and technical skills, but not to areas where they have had no previous exposure or experience.
- Autonomy: Understand how your leadership style evolves during times of stress and pressure. Do you increasingly micro-manage as a response to greater expectations, tighter timelines and increasing demands? Micro-management will result in the corruption of individuals’ and teams’ natural work flows. Autonomy is a reflection of trust. Give people the space to do the required work, in a manner that suits them, to meet the requirements you have set. Using the Task Enabling Tool[1], developed by Dr Jane Dutton, is an excellent way for you to be “attentive to your colleague’s needs and to be alert to opportunities to help them improve and grow”.
- Mastery: Even in difficult times, invest in your people. The skills of today may not enable your team or organisation tomorrow. Enabling people to enhance their skills and mastery in their respective fields builds confidence, enhances a sense of being valued, and encourages loyalty. The more mastery attained within your team and the greater the challenges you can set for them, the more engaged and productive they become.
- Wellbeing: Sustaining performance is a key concern for positive leaders. Military organisations and athletes, for example, have heightened awareness of the need to look after personal wellbeing on the emotional, psychological and physical levels in order to sustain performance during intensely stressful situations. A Positive Leader will be no different.
The first step is ‘self-care’. Understand what you need to flourish and sustain your performance levels: Sleep, nutrition, exercise, meditation, down time, etc. If you don’t practice this, your physical and cognitive capacities will inevitably suffer which, in turn, can impact your decision-making capacities and your all-round performance levels. Can you lead effectively if you are worn down and exhausted? Set the tone by visibly demonstrating how you care for your own wellbeing. Explain why it is important to others.
The second step is ‘caring for others’. Take what you know from your own experiences and apply it to the team or organisation. Ensure people have the time to take a break, eat lunch, avail of holidays, and go home at a reasonable hour. Create events that are not connected to workload, and that are fun. Empower people to make use of flexible working arrangements when possible, as well as gym facilities.
COMMUNICATION:
Words create worlds when leaders communicate with their teams. Communication, including poor communication, constructs the emotional context in which those listening will be operating for the foreseeable future, so that context must be set carefully. Emotions are contagious, so poor communication has both a psychological and physiological impact, which in turn spreads like a virus through a team or organisation.
Positive Communication is not about providing only positive content, disregarding facts, or being unrealistically optimistic about everything. It is the means of addressing core human needs and of building strong relationships through interaction with others. It is about understanding:
- Your needs and those of others and how they impact your relationships.
- How those relationships influence group dynamics and how to blend in with the group.
The Positive Communication Tree, developed by Serrano 99, highlights the key components of Positive Communication:
Understanding how these components are interrelated and mutually supportive, as well as how to communicate and deliver your message, allows you as a positive leader to inspire and motivate others.
Positive Communication: builds strong, collaborative relationships; improves morale; increases goodwill; encourages dialogue; enhances efficiency; and makes diversity work.
CONSISTENCY:
Erratic leadership and mixed messaging increases confusion and uncertainty in others. You must remain consistent in your leadership approach, your manner and behaviours, as well as in your messaging.
Behavioural fitness, developed by Prof Lee Newman, Dean of the School of Human Science and Technology at IE University, refers to ‘the new era of professional development focused on training behaviours at work’. This can be achieved through examining your constructive and destructive behaviours at work, and using tools such as habit hacking and behavioural nudging to address some of those destructive behaviours.
To ensure consistent behaviours at work, you can ensure your team or organisational values are clear in the workplace. Visual examples can be placed on the wall as a reference. Ensure that the values you have collectively identified are connected to expected behaviours. In turn, ensure that your performance management cycle measures whether individuals demonstrate those behaviours and encourage them in others.
MEANING:
One key reason for poor employee engagement is the inability to help individuals connect their work with the team and organisation’s objectives and purpose. There is a disconnect: there is lacks emotional or cognitive connection to the work they do and the impact it has. A positive leader helps team members identify the impact that their performance has on the team and the organisation, as well as the overall purpose. Employees must see themselves – “the I” – in the greater “We”.
As individuals in periods of increasing stress and workload, we can create a sense of being a “drone from Sector 7G”. A positive leader will help their team to: identify who they are and what they need to flourish; share their “why” and align around a collective “why”; develop a vision for the future; and, create an action plan to realise that future. This ensures that individuals in the team understand what is needed to perform, that they are invested in achieving the vision for the team, and that they can identify as part of a collective without losing their own identity.
Overall, leading with P.U.R.P.O.S.E is a human-centred approach to leadership. It is built on the pillars of Positive and Mindful leadership of: positive psychology; behavioural science; and mindfulness.
Only through understanding yourself, what you need to flourish and perform can you fully appreciate your role as a ‘context creator’ for others. In turn, you will then be best positioned to set the right context for your people to sustain high levels of performance in good and bad times. You will aid the development of a resilient, agile and adaptive team in a positive and generative work culture.
[1]https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/Glance-Task-Enable.pdf
[1]http://time.com/5393646/2017-gallup-global-emotions/
[2]https://www.gallup.com/services/190118/engaged-workplace.aspx
