Leaders Create Environments That Help People Thrive
Photo by Elisabetta Foco on Unsplash
There is no second topic for this addition. The reading for the main article is longer than usual. My goal is to keep the reading time less than 10 minutes.
Word Count: About 1,600 words, with an approximate reading time of 6 to 8 minutes. Please share your thoughts in the comments. Please be kind and subscribe to my newsletter.
Links to purchase the books discussed in this newsletter can be found on my website's recommended reading page.
Harvard professor Arthur Brooks wrote about how people tend to make themselves miserable. Too often, when we encounter a difficult situation, we play out the worst case scenarios in our minds. We look for everything that can go wrong. Jessica Stillman summarized how Brooks uses the philosophy of Bertrand Russell to highlight eight ways people can remove misery from their lives. As leaders, our responsibility is to create an environment that enables people to avoid this trap. In this post, I share what leaders should do to develop the right surroundings to help their organizations reduce negative thoughts.
1. Fashionable Pessimism
When new ideas are presented, and solutions to problems are developed, some will gravitate toward identifying why something will not work. It is easy to identify barriers and challenges. Leaders must coach their teams to channel these into solutions. The first thing needed to do this is to have a clear and shared understanding of success. Leaders need to ask variations of two questions. "How can we pivot to avoid the challenge and still achieve our goals?" "How can we leverage the barrier as a fulcrum to leap over it?"
2. Social Comparison and 3. Envy
These two items are closely related. We have all heard the story about the new worker who comes in and starts trying to do the best they can, only to be told by the rest of the team to "slow down because you are making us look bad."
People want to succeed but do not want to do so at the expense of others. Leaders must work to make high performance a "rising tide that lifts all boats." Too often, that performance is used to judge others as lacking. For everyone else, leaders need to use the success of others as a coaching moment to help them see opportunity and potential. Leaders must also identify ways to use accomplishments to change the operating model to create new everyone to pursue long-term success.
4. Evading Boredom
Frederick Taylor pioneered the concept of scientific management. In the 1990s and 2000s, Six Sigma became a popular iteration. Everything focused on improving process efficiency and getting more things done faster. This approach has resulted in a culture where people constantly check email, Slack, and other messaging platforms and try to respond immediately. New tools to manage our To Do lists so we can always be busy arrive on the market almost every day. The dings and pings that come with these productivity enhancement tools keep us from more thoughtful and valuable work.
Leaders need to alter the definition of productivity and help teams learn not to be afraid of the quiet time spent thinking about solving problems and developing new ideas. We need to help people know that simply being busy is not the solution to boredom. Help people learn to do fewer things and focus on more essential and impactful work. Leaders must look beyond easy to capture metrics to evaluate performance. We get what we measure.
5. Coping with Fear
Much of what drives counterproductive behavior is the fear of making a mistake. This doubt can be paralyzing because we label everything that does not play out as expected as a mistake. Leaders need to foster a sense of experimentation in their organizations. Every initiative is based on a hypothesis that a given action will result in the desired outcome. We can never have 100% confidence in our assumptions and decisions. We make assumptions about how our customers will react and how our competitors will respond in the marketplace. When things do not go as planned, we have an opportunity to assess, adjust, and respond. The target is always moving. We will not make catastrophic mistakes if we conduct proper due diligence and put in mechanisms to allow for course corrections.
6. Senseless Guilt
Bear Bryant said, "When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don't repeat it." Leaders need to help people through the process.
Just as important is teaching people not to assume guilt for effectively executing a plan that did not yield the proper results. That is not a mistake; that is life. It is a learning opportunity.
To accomplish this, leaders must not continually focus on mistakes. The only reason to revisit these conversations is if it is apparent that the lesson has not been learned.
7. Virtious Victimhood
Leaders must not allow people to redirect responsibility for their lack of success. I have described people like this as either corporate Eeyore's ("It’s the only cloud in the sky and it’s drizzling, right on me. Somehow, I’m not surprised.”) or Milton Waddams from Office Space (“I believe you have my stapler.”)
Leaders must get people to stop being reactive and accept what comes their way. They have to learn to be proactive and take responsibility. There is no room for passive-aggressive behavior in a healthy organization.
8. Fear of Public Opinion
What others think of you matters – to a point. Leaders must help people understand public opinion and use it as a frame of reference. People who are constantly at odds with the rest of the organization need to ask themselves if they are in the right place. People who are never at odds need to ask whether they are giving up an essential part of who they are to belong.
Creating environments where people thrive is a difficult and never ending task. Leaders cannot make people happy. Leaders need to create settings where people can choose to be happy.
Related Articles
Inc - The 8 Most Common Ways People Make Themselves Miserable, According to a Philosopher
The Atlantic - Eight Ways to Banish Misery
Fast Company - HP CEO: The world has an unhealthy relationship with work
The Collector - 5 Quotes from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations Explained
What I’m Up To
We visited The State Fair of Texas. It is the country’s largest fair. Like most fairs, it features an overabundance of overpriced fried food. We went with friends, which made it more fun. Fair Park in Dallas includes many excellent examples of Art Deco architecture.
We visited New Braunfels, Texas to see Junior Brown play at Gruene Hall. Built in 18789, Gruene Hall is the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. We made the trip because my friend performed with Junior in a high school garage band. Brown’s signature instrument is the “guit-steel” double neck guitar, a hybrid of electric and lap steel guitar.
Junior Brown and The Beach Boys - 409
Junior Brown - Hang Up and Drive
A bonus for the trip was that we were in a perfect location to see the annular eclipse. With protective eyewear, we were able to see the ring of fire. Our cameras were only able to catch one good picture of the eclipse. Interestingly, at the eclipse's peak, the shadows the leaves were casting became circles.
Chips and Salsa: Snack-sized news and posts
A small history of a significant transformation.
Talking to yourself is an excellent example of role play. It allows you to practice responses based on variations of the conversation you are preparing for.
Pocket - Talking to Yourself Can Actually Be a Really Useful Way to Cope
Disciplined practice is the key to success. Schwarzenegger’s mantra is ‘Love the reps.’ It is about dedicated practice. On my suggested reading page, there is a link to Peak. This book explains what dedicated practice is.
Inc - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Simple Approach to Achieving Huge Goals
An interesting article on how people perceive AI generated content.
MIT Sloan - Study gauges how people perceive AI-created content
It is important to read the footnotes and accompanying press releases when reading financial statements. Misdirection is often used to make things look better than they really are.
Good health is important. How we measure it is critical. It is not about how you look on the outside.
Nature - Why BMI is flawed — and how to redefine obesity
The debate on self-driving cars continues.
Insider - Elon Musk’s worst nightmare
How to read a room.
Coaching is about developing skills. Mentoring focuses on helping people achieve their highest potential. Sometimes a mentor has to recognize that leaving the current job is the path to long-term achievement.
Texas McCombs - Mentoring Goals
Never stop networking.
Insider - Networking has changed in the wake of the pandemic
I just finished reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a modern retelling of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I highly recommend this book.
Quotes
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
- Karim Seddiki
“The way to succeed is to double your error rate.”
- Thomas J. Watson
“We must meet reverses boldly, and not suffer them to frighten us, my dear. We must learn to act the play out. We must live misfortune down.”
- Charles Dickens
You can order The Leader With A Thousand Faces on the Recommended Reading Page of my website.
My goal is to make this newsletter as interesting and valuable as possible. Please share your thoughts and suggestions for improvement. If there are specific topics in leadership you would like me to focus on in future issues, please send them my way.
You can follow this newsletter on either LinkedIn or Medium.
