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Recognize and Affirm Grit

#9 Recognize and Affirm Grit – Psychologist Angela Duckworth found that affirming people’s day-in-and-day-out passion, work effort and perseverance helped them develop “grit,” a form of tenacity that makes them more effective workers. Be sure to talk about grit, to look for signs of it in others and affirm them for it.

This is the ninth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.  Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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A Lesson in Valuing People

Oftentimes how a leader reacts in a crisis shines a light on his or her values.  Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group of companies, showed he valued employees and their families as human beings following a terrorist attack on the Tata-owned Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008, six years ago this week.  Mr. Tata had dependents of those employees who were affected flown to Mumbai and housed for three weeks.  He personally visited the families of all 80 employees who were affected.  He attended the funerals of those who died. Counseling was provided for both employees and their families. Loans outstanding to the affected employees were forgiven, arrangements were made and a trust fund was established so that dependents of those who died would continue to receive their deceased loved one’s salary for life, the education of their children and dependents would be paid for, and the families would receive healthcare and have access to counseling for the remainder of their lives.

Valuing people as individuals, rather than for what they produce, is the heart of a Connection Culture.  As we remember the events on that horrific day six years ago, let us remember the courageous employees of the Taj who lost their lives trying to protect the lives of their guests.  Let us also remember the heart of a leader, Ratan Tata, who shared in the tears of the families and who led not only with skillful hands, but foremost with a true heart.

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Connect by Focusing on the Positives

Smiley face balloons looking up representing positivity

#8 Develop the Habit of Emphasizing Positives

Psychologist John Gottman first observed that marriages were less likely to survive when the positive/negative ratio of interactions dipped below 5-to-1 (i.e. five positives to every negative) during conflict discussions, and that successful couples have a ratio of 20-to-1 during non-conflict discussions. More recently the psychologist Barbara Frederickson found that a ratio of  3-to-1 applied in the workplace. Human beings need affirmation and recognition so get in the habit of looking out for ways to affirm and serve others. Do this by looking for task strengths and character strengths. Task strengths reflect the excellence of someone’s work. Character strengths reflect the way someone goes about his/her work.

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Reducing Effects of Stress Through Connection

Stress is harmful to your health, right?

Not always.

In this TED Talk, Psychologist Kelly McGonigal explains how viewing stress as a positive actually reduces the harmful effects of stress on your body. Reaching out and connecting with others during stressful times further reduces the harmful effects of stress, and can actually shield the body from potentially lethal damage. Connection truly plays a vital role in our health and wellbeing.

Kelly’s informative talk can be viewed below.

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Leaders: Use stories to help achieve sustainable superior performance

Franklin D. Roosevelt TIME Man of the Year 1933 Color PhotoDuring World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Seattle, Wash., to meet with 18,000 aircraft workers at Boeing Corporation. FDR brought with him a young airplane pilot named Hewitt Wheless from Texas.

The pilot had escaped death, thanks to the resilience of the bullet-riddled B-17 plane he flew out of harm’s way. His plane had been built at that very Boeing plant.

Do you think seeing and hearing that young pilot thank them for saving his life connected them to a common cause? You bet it did.

Although the work required for America to catch up to the output of the Nazi military-industrial complex was daunting, Americans rose to the challenge by persevering through long, hard hours of menial factory work.

FDR’s visits helped transform welders and riveters into freedom fighters. From 1941 until 1945 American aircraft companies out-produced the Nazis three to one and built nearly 300,000 airplanes.

People remember stories. Effective leaders like FDR identify and communicate stories to inspire people. Here are three key points to consider when using stories to enthuse, engage and energize people.

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With Connection, Different Strokes for Different Folks

#7  Different Strokes for Different Folks  – This phrase from the past is true when it comes to connection.  People have different predispositions when it comes to their sensitivities to feeling connection or its absence.  People also respond differently to actions in terms of whether it makes them feel connected or not.  Learn about each person and tailor your behaviors to connect based on what you’ve learned about them.  Recognize that it may take time before you get it right. (This practice reflects the Connection Culture elements of Vision, Value and Voice.)

This is the seventh post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.  Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

 

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Your career will soar if you avoid leaders’ #1 blind spot

Many leaders unknowingly sabotage their careers by wrongly assuming their employees are actively engaged in their work.

This lack of understanding about engagement — enthusiasm, effort and enjoyment at work — will eventually affect the bottom line and make the leader look ineffective.

Here are the facts: The average leader engages only three out of every 10 employees. The best leaders engage six or more out of every 10 employees.

Your customers clearly see whether your employees are engaged or not. Engagement affects the quality of their work, their productivity and responsiveness, all of which affect your customers’ experience.  They feel employees’ enthusiasm and energy — or lack thereof — and recognize the bad results of an organization with overall morale problems. Employee engagement matters. 

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A “Must-Read” on Innovation

Myths of Creativity Cover

David Burkus’ new book, The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas, is among the best business books I’ve read this year.  It provides a valuable review of research and practices related to the process of innovation. It’s impossible to read The Myths of Creativity and not come away with new, useful practices that will improve your ability to innovate.   I highly recommend it.

Readers of this book will gain a newfound appreciation for just how difficult innovation is.  Fortunately, Burkus equips readers with practices to help individuals and organizations overcome the biases and potential pitfalls that frequently derail innovation.  For example, Burkus shows how conflict is a necessary part of the process and represents a risk to innovation if it gets personal.  He then goes on to provide a solution by describing the practice Pixar developed that employs conflict in a constructive way while keeping it from escalating into internal combat.

I liked the way Burkus organized the book into ten myths about creativity including the Eureka Myth, the Lone Creator Myth and the Constraints Myth. I also appreciated that the book is under 200 pages in length, and is easy to dip in and out of.  Today’s readers of business books, many of whom suffer from time poverty, will enjoy Burkus’ straight forward, cut-to-the-chase, high value-added writing style.

 

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Neutralize “Killer Stress” to Boost the Bottom Line

Who experiences greater levels of stress: management or employees? Managers seem to think they do, but hard research data makes it clear: Employees experience greater stress, and that affects the company’s bottom line.

It doesn’t have to be that way: Effective leaders can create an organizational culture that reduces “killer stress” and encourages “challenge stress,” which produces gains in productivity and performance.

Despite its reputation, all stress is not bad. What we call “challenge stress,” actually stimulates people to perform at their best.

“Killer stress,” is the kind that comes from feeling like you don’t have control over your work. Killer stress is unhealthy and in many individuals triggers fight, flight, freeze or stalking behavior — not what good leaders want to find in their organizations.

Here are three actions you can take to reduce killer stress, increase challenge stress and boost your company’s bottom line. 

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Seek the Unique

#6  Seek the Unique  – When meeting someone for the first time, ask questions to identify something that is both unique and positive about them.  Doing this will make you more likely to remember them and what differentiates them from others.

While teaching a leadership seminar in Boston, a participant from the American Red Cross told me that Elizabeth Dole, the former president of the Red Cross, practiced this and Ms. Dole frequently brought up in conversation what was unique about a person the next time she saw him/her. (This practice reflects the Connection Culture element of Value.)

This is the sixth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.  Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.