No matter how much we try to ‘wind down’ at the end of the year, it almost always ends up being a busy time. This year, perhaps even more so. Many people feel that they can relate to the term ‘multi-tasking’. It’s one of many time management strategies, and the idea that you can do multiple things at the same time. It can result in a mix of emotions, from productivity, overwhelm and being pleased that we feel able to juggle so many different plates.
But the reality is, this behavior makes us up to 40% less effective in both our jobs and our lives. It also increases the mental load – with 82% of workers feeling overworked and 43% losing their morale. It’a a concept that requires a lot of effort and is really hard to achieve. There are even many scientific studies that demonstrate that none of us can truly multi-task. If you try to do so, you actually get less done, feel more stressed and often don’t achieve the same results that you would if you were just focusing on one thing at a time.
We prefer to talk about ‘multi-shifting’ instead. It’s the idea that you can move from one task to another in quick succession. Research shows that multi-shifting can be considered a factor in engaging staff, with multi-shifters outperforming other staff by up to 202% (Business2Community, 2019). But how can we put multi-shifting into practice over this challenging time? With a little help from the Pomodoro Technique, we’ve rounded up a few time management strategies to get you started.
1. Prioritize
There is a wealth of research behind the practice of time management strategies. Essentially, effective time management boils down to three main areas: awareness of what can realistically be done in the time you have, arrangement of your goals, plans and schedules and adaptation of your time while you adjust to interruptions or changing priorities. Anybody can hone their time management strategies, regardless of their role in the organization. In fact, it’s one of the skills that most people choose to train through Lifeed, boosting efficacy by up to 31% (Lifeed, 2020).
2. Work to a schedule
According to the University of Florida, 90-minute working periods boost performance and productivity. That means it’s important to accurately estimate how long each task will take you to complete. Your goals need to be achievable so you can keep ticking things off your to-do list. By working towards a goal in a shorter burst, you’ll also be able to take a quick wellbeing break to refresh your mind. That way, you can return to work more focused than if you had worked right through. And continuing to top up care for your personal wellbeing can increase overall productivity by up to 12%. It’s a win-win situation (Oswald, Proto and Sgroi, 2015).
3. Focus your time
24% of people admit it’s difficult to relax in their own time because they are thinking about work. On the other hand, 3 out of 4 workers admit they feel distracted when they’re on the job, whether it’s being distracted by co-workers, background noise or even meetings (Atlassian, 2020). So make sure your time at work really counts. Try using apps such as PomeDone, Focus Booster or Focus Keeper to block out distractions on your own devices, and try to keep meetings collaborative and on-point to make sure everyone is getting the most out of them.
4. Maximize your skills
Over the course of our research and observations, we’ve seen that we can optimize our work even more by using ‘transilience‘. It’s the idea that people can transfer resources and soft skills from one role to another in life. It increases their efficiency across the board. The results can be truly surprising, allowing us to discover our own talent. In fact, after honing this concept with Lifeed, 90% of users experience a better overall work-life synergy.
5. Reflect
The Pomodoro Technique is not just about completing the task in hand. It’s also about incorporating time to recap and reflect on the task itself. We often talk about the benefits of self-reflection in improving personal performance, and this particular technique helps you to naturally weave it into your working day. Our research shows that it boost efficacy. What’s more, it lowers your stress levels and boosts motivation by up to 90%.
As the pandemic continues to unfold, it’s clear that the world of work isn’t going to be going “back to normal”. While we’re still living with great uncertainty, we have the opportunity to listen to our people, work with the information we have and build a brighter future together. Continuing our series on employee engagement, we spoke to Emma Birchall and Harriet Molyneaux, Co-Managing Directors of Hot Spots Movement (HSM) on what’s inspiring them right now, how to manage our multiple roles and ideas for the future of work as we move into the “new normal”.
The most inspiring example we’ve seen in recent months comes from Brit Insurance, a global underwriter of complex risk. In an industry ripe for innovation, they were keen to lead the way. But, rather than go down the usual route of creating a steering committee and action plan, CEO Matthew Wilson and Chief Engagement Officer Lorraine Denny decided to co-create with their people.
In partnership with our team at HSM, Brit empowered 10% of their employee population, (selected at random) to create a blueprint for the organisation’s future. Over the course of 12 weeks, we inspired and up-skilled the group in future of work capabilities before tasking them with pitching their ideas to Matthew and Lorraine. The ideas they generated created real change in the business, and brought new thinking into the leadership agenda. They showed that even in times of crisis, it is essential to experiment with new approaches and empower people at every level in creating the future.
I think the most interesting change we have seen is in terms of what’s happened to our identities and boundaries. Let me explain.
We all have a number of identities. Perhaps we’re a parent, a spouse, a manager. And we transition between those identities several times each day. Pre-COVID19 and remote working, we would transition from parent, to manager once in the morning as we left home for the office, and once in the evening as we left the office and returned home. Now, that home and work are no longer separated by different locations, we’re having to transition between our identities perhaps 15 or 20 times each day as we move seamlessly from a conference call to preparing lunch for our children. So, why is this a challenge? Well, each time we make a transition, it takes energy and generates stress. This is tolerable when we transition once or twice each day, but becomes overwhelming when this increases to 15 or 20. It’s why many of us are feeling like, in the absence of boundaries, we’re having to be all things to all people at all times.
The challenge then is to create boundaries where possible. Perhaps working in a different room. Maybe closing down and putting away our laptop at the end of the day rather than leaving it on the kitchen table as a constant draw back into our work identity.
HR teams are going to need to work through three key challenges:
1. Ensure that the new normal is grounded in fairness
What will happen to performance reviews and promotions when people’s working circumstances have been so vastly different? Do we take into account that one person in a team may have been home schooling young children while delivering a project? Have we thought about the person that’s been living in a flat share without a proper home working set up? How do you compare performance in this setting? Likewise, how will we over the long term create a fair and consistent approach to hybrid working?
2. Create a positive narrative around the future
If we don’t highlight the positives of new ways of working, people will hanker for the past. It’s HR’s role to tell the story of what is possible and better in this new way of working so that people see the benefit of the changes they have made – many of which have been painful and required a great deal of effort.
3. Co-create the future
The big questions facing organisations right now are too complex to be answered by HR departments or leadership teams alone. Instead they require the collective wisdom of everyone in the organisation. In the last month we’ve enabled HR leaders in some of the world’s leading companies, including telecoms leader Ericsson, to bring all their employees together in an online, crowdsourced conversation to co-create the future of work.
Yes!
Emma Birchall and Harriet Molyneaux
Co-Managing Directors of Hot Spots Movement (HSM)
As the pandemic continues to unfold, leaders continue to face unpredictability, multiple unknowns and the need to make decisions quickly. So what are the traits of a good manager? The response has to lie in adaptive leadership. Harvard Business review suggests that it involves the 4 A’s:
Essentially adaptive leadership is the ability to perceive, observe and intervene. In their book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky likened this to continuously moving between a dance floor and a balcony. Your experiences and observations will be very different, depending on where you stand. When you’re on the dance floor, you’re focused on the music and probably get the impression that everyone is having a good time. However, when you step away and onto the balcony, you might notice the people around the edges who aren’t as engaged, or even some people leaving the room.
This approach allows you to see the bigger picture, taking steps towards creating a better and more satisfying outcome for all involved. It’s an approach that allows you to manage business changes and shifts in corporate culture too. It’s a chance to exercise your empathy muscles, looking at different points of view within the wider company context. The result? A more personal approach that connects with employees and customers on an emotional level.
So, how can we practice adaptive leadership? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
When change is constant, it’s important to be able to change direction quickly to adapt to the environment. To do so, as good managers we need to regularly create space to review the situation, reflect on what is happening and gain perspective. Once we have observed and come up with an action plan, we need to then go back to the dance floor to make interventions. Ultimately, you need to determine the right amount of time to spend on the dance floor versus the balcony.
Here at Lifeed, we often talk about the concept of generative leadership, or rather investing in people and projects that will outlive our own tenure. Empathy is a big part of that, but a recent DDI analysis of high performing leadership found that only 40% of business leaders have proficient empathy skills to lead in this way. What’s more, 51% of Lifeed users believe that empathy means understanding and putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes. When you can truly stand alongside your team and understand the lenses that they see the world through, you build a deeper level of trust with them and a positive work environment.
When we’re surrounded by uncertainty and change, risk always enters our decisions. So it’s inevitable that sometimes we will get it wrong – we are human, after all. The key thing is to reflect together on the lessons learned as well as any issues that may have arisen through the situation. It’s a chance to transform failure into new ideas and processes that will fuel future success. That’s also why as leaders we need to hold ourselves accountable. When our teams see this behavior modelled to them, and that you’ve created a safe working environment, they will be more willing to open up and share with each other too.
Earlier, we talked about determining how much time you need to spend on the balcony vs the dance floor. The same also applies to how active you are in executing plans vs empowering your team to build the solution themselves. It’s like being a coach on the sidelines of a football match. We need to be able to listen to concerns, provide feedback and give people the tools they need to succeed. 48% of Lifeed users believe that this support can be demonstrated through being present, patient and taking note of non-verbal signals. Your team will undoubtedly pick up on this awareness and feel more engaged with their everyday work.
Now more than ever, change is a reality. Organizational change expert Karen Ferris suggests that leaders shouldn’t see this as a threat or a worry. Instead, we should see it as a chance to build dynamic teams. We can channel that uncertainty into positive outcomes through collaboration and communication.
Have you ever noticed on social media that people tend to predominantly focus on the positive and happy moments in life, filtering out the rest? Many of us tend to do the same in our professional lives too, shying away from the challenges and sides to ourselves that seem less desirable. Most people don’t really want to focus on the negatives out of choice. But emerging research has shown that only focusing on this ‘filtered state’ can be damaging to both your mental health and professional performance. Self-reflection is incredibly important.
It’s only when you acknowledge your mistakes and shortcomings that you can really succeed. As Brene’ Brown says, it’s about talking to yourself with tough love, being radically honest so you can become a better leader by building your decision making, communication and learning skills. Almost like your own personal leadership development training.
What is self-reflection?
Self-reflection is essentially thinking about your own feelings and behaviour, and the reasons that may lie behind them. It’s knowing who we are and how we are seen. Practising self reflection can help you to internalize learnings and identify ways that you can improve by putting your learnings into practice.
It doesn’t have to be a lengthy task either, all you need is 5 minutes per day. Considering that the average person checks their phone 150 times per day, it’s not a huge time investment compared to things we do that are already running in the background. The difference is that this continuous leadership development training can help you tap into higher job performance, career success and management effectiveness.
But how many of us actually put the concept into practice? Only a few, as it happens. Recent research shows that while 85% of people think they are self-aware, only 10-15% of people are. It’s so easy to fall into a routine that works, without considering the wider impact of your choices. This in itself could compromise you reaching your full potential across the board.
Executive coach, Jennifer Porter says: “Reflection gives the brain an opportunity to pause amidst the chaos, untangle and sort through observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning.” This type of leadership development training can inform future behaviors and choices, something that’s especially important for managers as they navigate complex situations. With all the complexity that life is throwing at people right now, it’s never been more important.
By becoming more aware of your actions and noting real-time feedback that others are giving you, it’s also an important way to develop your soft skills and assess their efficacy. In fact, people with a high level of emotional intelligence could allow companies to do better in an increasingly technology-based environment, Forbes has found. Emotionally intelligent workers can more easily navigate situations where there’s fear of job loss or stress about integrating with AI than their peers. It’s something we’ve seen in our own research too, in a range of different contexts. When Lifeed users regularly practice self-reflection, they note a 90% reduction in stress levels. What’s more, 80% see a notable improvement across most of their transferable skills.
Sometimes, it feels like life gets in the way and there’s too much going on to learn. There are lots of distractions that pull you away from engaging with your own self improvement.
Self-reflection is like forming a new habit. It will quickly become a natural part of your routine if you make space to do so. Ideally you should set aside time for it each day. This leadership development training become habitual if you stick to the same time every day. Even if it’s five minutes before your lunch break or at the end of the working day.
Everyone will have their own way of doing things, but there are a few things you can try. The best place to start is to clear your mind and ask yourself a few questions. These can include things like:
This gives you a better idea of how to get started. Explore what works best for you. Maybe it’s journaling your thoughts, sitting with your eyes shut or taking a walk. You don’t necessarily need to write the answers down, but the idea is to answer thoughtfully, thinking deeply about how you really feel.
By practicing continuous learning in this way, you need to be honest with yourself. Try to see things objectively, looking at yourself from the outside in, and then also considering your own reasoning. Over time, our research shows you’ll find yourself with more energy. You’ll also have a greater vision for the future on which to build your skills (Lifeed, 2020).
The pandemic has revealed the importance of empathy. It’s a key emotional intelligence skill that’s vital for leaders to get right. Essentially, it’s the ability to read and understand others’ emotions, needs and thoughts. It’s the soft skill that allows us to walk alongside people. What’s more, it allows us to connect and empower them to be the best version of themselves they can be. The kickback is that it also makes us happier and more effective at work too.
But how often are companies using it with their staff? It seems that perceptions vary, depending on where you stand. In their 2020 State of Empathy report, Business Solver noted that 91% of CEOs believe that a key company value is empathy, compared to 48% of their employees. What’s more, a staggering 92% of employees believe companies should be doing more to support workers’ overall wellbeing and needs.
The good news is, we can learn and hone empathy through daily practice.
It may sound simple, but it means being intentional about making care a core company value. The concept can encompass a range of different aspects. Think leaders caring about employees and employees caring for each other. It could also mean customers and employees alike caring about the company’s purpose.
With 88% of employees believing this strong company culture is key to its success, it’s crucial for compassion to be woven into the fabric of everyday life at the company. We’ve pulled together 4 ways you can start building a caring culture right now:
It’s particularly important to continue to communicate both the corporate vision and focus on wellbeing. Especially while teams are working remotely. We conducted a Lifeed user survey earlier this year, where 1 in 2 people told us they were living in uncertainty. This has heightened their stress levels and taken its toll on their mental wellbeing (Lifeed, 2020). When you communicate the corporate vision and upcoming goals, you give them something tangible to walk towards. They’ll be doing so with the support of their team, too. By keeping everyone aligned, you’ll begin to nurture their engagement and the company. Gallup research suggests that engaged employees are twice as likely to adapt to change, which is crucial in the current climate.
When our to-do lists are so long and we’re focused on KPIs, it’s challenging to carve out time to truly check in with our teams. But it’s those conversations that really make the difference when it comes to building trust. In fact, 68% of people feel that their manager should be a good listener. It’s just one of the factors of a caring culture (Lifeed 2020). It’s a chance for employees to voice their concerns and needs, acknowledging and addressing them more quickly. Salesforce research shows that employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. What’s more, companies that focus on gender and ethic diversity consistently outperform their competitors. They draw in a wider range of perspectives when making business decisions and formulating strategy. When we make space to really listen to people’s needs and concerns, everybody benefits from it.
Empathy + action = caring culture. So much so, that 94% of employees believe that putting empathy into practice is an important way for businesses to advance employee retention. Once you’ve listened to your team, it’s important to give them the tools they need to excel in their roles. This will move them into action when helping the company and surrounding communities. This could include professional development opportunities, welfare packages or using Lifeed to show them the power of transilience, reducing their mental load and lowering stress levels for 90% of the corporate population (Lifeed, 2020). This has a direct impact on the bottom line too, as research shows 57% of workers are more loyal, productive and take less time off when employers support their mental wellbeing.
Community builds a sense of belonging. It can motivate members to share their experiences and ideas, as well as helping them to feel part of something bigger. Our research shows that Lifeed users interact with these themes with their managers and community hub. When they do so, 56% feel that they are no longer alone in managing complexity and 90% feel their engagement levels have risen as a result (Lifeed, 2020). Once they grasp this concept, they will start to identify other communities that they interact with through their diverse dimensions in life, whether it’s family members, social groups or people going through a similar life phase to themselves. They’ll begin to recognize and value their different dimensions, generate new ideas and feel stronger, helping them to excel across the board.
It might seem easier to be by yourself at the moment. It feels like the most caring thing to do. Even if we’re not always in strict lockdowns now, even if we could arrange to meet others outdoors, it’s inevitable that we ask ourselves if the effort is worth the risk. There’s always the risk that the week after we meet up, someone in our circle might end up testing positive.
So the default is to put something between ourselves and others. A 2 metre distance, a mask or a computer screen. It’s how we try to understand each other, stay together, sell and buy services, as well as creating new alliances at work and in our social lives. It’s so difficult to do. If our working situation means we have to move, we find ourselves in a “blended” version of life, that would have felt like science fiction a year ago. In our private lives, it feels like we can choose a bit more, it’s easier to stay by yourself. Lots of people are choosing it for themselves.
Lots of people remember how they felt during the first lockdown, when nobody had the choice. When we didn’t have to decide, when caring meant we could rest. When we have to make a series of new decisions in every context, it’s incredibly tiring. From school to health: every area makes us reflect on the best way of doing things, accepting partial or imperfect decisions, talking to those who see things differently, knowing that there’s no one right way of doing things. If we are fortunate, our gut feelings will guide us, but we know that reality could surprise us at any moment. We know because it just happened.
So those who don’t have to interact don’t have to. Perhaps it’s not switching on the camera in a video call, aspiring to be invisible. The same goes for our masks, some people hide and shelter, it’s an act of trying to be invisible. Perhaps it’s giving up on trying, on meeting other, avoiding having to choose how and when, and having to convince ourselves why we’re doing so…and missing the opportunity that passes us by.
Solitude might be comfortable and safe, but it’s not designed for humans. We don’t know how to produce oxytocin alone, the hormone that makes us feel good and happy. Actually, we need others to act as a mirror, just like they need us to do the same for them. What’s more, we need to feel “seen” to survive: we’re only visible when we connect with others. In fact, two isn’t enough. We need a third to be able to see the two that are meeting and caring for each other making this meeting real.
It’s not philosophy, it’s biology. As humans, we feel the need to stay together.
It’s not respect, it’s our instinct for survival: the need to look other people in the eye to see if they are on our side.
Rather than love, it’s an instinct. Caring for each other is a necessity, from birth and all the way through life.
So let’s go and seek out those who have chosen to stay by themselves. To chase them, all you have to do is smile so much it goes beyond the screen. If you’re using a mask, use a smile that illuminates your whole face. The miracle of relationships is that our efforts are repaid with wellbeing. It increases for both you and the other person, so much so that it’s impossible to distinguish one from the other.
This article was originally written by our CEO Riccarda Zezza for Alley Oop, Il Sole 24 Ore. To read the original article in Italian, click here.
Overwhelmed. Emotionally drained. Physically exhausted. Sound familiar? Most people can resonate with the signs of burnout.
In a recent Gallup survey, 23% of Americans reported feeling burned out at work and 63% occasionally experiencing those feelings. As pressures and challenges continue to evolve around us, it’s more important than ever to recognize the signs – both for yourself and your team.
No matter how engaged and passionate a person is about their work, they can still be at risk of burnout. In fact, a recent University of Cambridge study of more than 1,000 US workers showed that many highly engaged employees feel exhausted and ready to leave their organizations. This can be particularly true for those who work in purpose-driven professions, such as care workers, where their identities lie so strongly in the meaning behind their vocation that they find it challenging to switch off from it. The result? They continue to take up new responsibilities and increase the mental load, without considering their overall wellbeing.
Psychology Today defines burnout as a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress but its definition has been long disputed among the medical community.
When it comes to burnout, society tends to frame it as the individual’s problem. A quick internet search will bring up a whole host of self-help ideas, from meditation and boundary setting to learning how to be more resilient. But the reality is that burnout goes beyond the individual. It can have a ripple effect across the organization, touching everything from team morale to decreasing work output by up to 22%.
In the current circumstances, many employees are now working from home which means burnout is becoming increasingly likely as the line between work and personal life blurs.
So how can we spot an employee who is moving towards burnout? First of all, it’s important to look out for common symptoms, which usually include feeling physically and emotionally exhausted, depressed, and suffering from sleep problems.
This lack of energy can lead to substandard work, reduced productivity, poor presenteeism and low effectiveness. Employers also note a 41% drop in employee experience when individuals reach burn out.
Now it has been officially recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an “occupational phenomenon,” businesses and organisations are being held accountable for finding solutions to this global issue.
When it comes to supporting your team, care is your superpower.
When your team is feeling the pressure, it’s an opportunity to practise generative leadership with them. Take the time to listen to their narrative. Exercise your empathy muscles. Try to understand the situation through the lens of their different roles. This will support them in communicating their needs and feelings to you as an employer, highlighting areas where they need additional support. When you recognize and value all that a person does, they will feel more connected to the company. 53% of Lifeed learners tell us this behaviour makes them feel important at work, while 56% feel they are not alone in navigating complex situations (Lifeed, 2020).
The result? 87% report lower stress levels and 90% feel more involved at work. Surely that’s a positive change that’s worth investing time in achieving.
Signs of burnout also serve as a reminder to walk alongside your team. It’s a chance to empower them to see the resources and support network they have available to them.
Transilience will become their greatest asset, becoming a driving force at work too. Our research shows that the more roles a person has, the stronger they become: it’s at the heart of our Life Based Learning Method. Perhaps there are parents in your team who are great at negotiating with their toddlers, who could use those same skills to close new sales deals for your business. Maybe there’s a team member who is studying alongside their work and is great at time and priority management, forming the basis of their project management skills moving forward. The reverse is also true: effective managers can “manage” their home life too to achieve different outcomes. The same soft skills can be honed, strengthened and applied across all areas of life.
Take Siram Veolia, for example. They used Lifeed programs as part of their support package for their employees. The idea was to continue to build a caring culture. Following the program, 90% of participants found a new way of bringing work and life together. What’s more, 80% of participants striving to become an “agent for change” in their company. An increasing amount of people want to highlight the value that life experiences can bring to the workplace.
It doesn’t stop there. 71% of their employees have seen a net improvement in time and priority management, empathy and listening skills. This has improved efficacy, productivity and communication across the organization. What’s more, 45% feel their manager is supportive of their work-life balance.
Organizations can take concrete steps to preventing burnout. It requires managers to be alert and take note of the signs and listen to their teams. By helping employees to unlock their true potential, they will be able to reframe the situation and bring their whole selves to work. They’ll realise that their diverse dimensions actually enrich them. Plus, they’ll no longer hide parts of their identity, having more energy to effectively carry out their jobs. All it takes is generative leaders to point them in the right direction.
We’re currently going through the transitional phase called the neutral zone. It feels that nothing is certain because that’s really the case.
The initial feeling of fear had begun to subside. But things weren’t going as well as we’d originally hoped when we started the strangest summer of our lives (up until now, anyway). We still feel as though we’re navigating into the unknown. It’s as if we’re waiting for someone to tell us that this “test phase” has now finished and we can resume normality.
Our brains find it hard to tolerate uncertainty, as our primal instincts tell us that uncertainty equates to danger. So what does it do? It fills the gaps with provisional and imperfect solutions, but good enough to lower stress levels. But what are these solutions? They are reasonable connections between different concepts: links and suggestions based on past experiences. Often they refer back to our immense knowledge pool on stereotypes.
It’s because they are born out of social knowledge that may not always be up-to-date, but commonly accepted. They can often be confirmed through episodes that the stereotypes in themselves contribute to creating. It’s because they are easy to access, there’s many of them and they exist in every culture. They help to recognize similarities and keep “difference” away, without having to use additional energy to accurately evaluate things.
In uncertain times, mental energy is a precious and rare thing. It’s easily used up when managing uncertainty, and when wanting to conserve energy, we feel justified by putting our “health first”!
We are in the middle ground, between an unexpected event and emergency management, and a space that will extend in different directions for many months to come. Who knows if our grandparents felt this way during the way, living in uncertainty for six long years. They must have found the strength to find a “new normal” to last so long. Will we be able to do the same?
In this transitional phase, we’re living off interim solutions. Will we accept them in our lives and even create our own, even when we know they are imperfect and will soon change again?
Can we tolerate that, whatever the choice that we’re faced with today, nobody can promise or guarantee that the decision will last?
Perhaps we will enjoy a walk that was forbidden to us a few months ago, knowing that the government could make it illegal again at any time?
Or maybe we’ll teach our children that schools will open again, well today they are but who knows about tomorrow, and these decisions aren’t in our hands?
Together with them, will we make this time of uncertainty a place where we can live with energy and volition, without saving ourselves or putting off living until the wait is over?
Maybe our decision margins have tightened. Our margins of control certainly have. But at the same time, there are new margins. We can think about new ways of living, talking about and connecting them. It’s time to recognize when we no longer automatically fill in the gaps. We no longer have to use the most obvious and quickest route, keeping us anchored on old and tired definitions instead of moving forward.
The fear has started to pass, now we can find our energy. We need more courage in times of uncertainty, adapting to a new pace and being tolerant of diversions and new paths.
Maybe looking for a dimension where we can keep writing our story will make us feel foolish.
But now more than ever, this collective trauma has put the pen back in our hand to start writing.
It’s true that our conservation instinct brings us towards existing definitions. It’s easily accessible and quick to use, even though they don’t hit the mark. But the neutral zone that we will find ourselves in for some time to come invites us to see so much more.
Everything that is new is uncertain, we’re living through it for the first time. Now that this transitional phase is our new territory. It comes at a time where we felt newness could only come through technological innovation. It was there that we channeled our creativity, curiosity and fear.
But today our whole world is new. We’re starting from our hidden seeds that we find along the way, continuing to get to know and recognize ourselves. It’s an opportunity to meet each other, even to the point where we fall in love and live with them, learning and working. It’s scary, but it’s also a great opportunity.
The neutral zone is always a “new beginning”, but it’s not born from nothing. It’s continuously born out of what we’ve been able to do, taking small and courageous steps into uncertainty.
If you close your eyes and imagine power, what do you see? Maybe it’s about being strong, about seeing things in black and white. Perhaps it’s dominant, trying to be better and higher than everything around it. Or it could even be solitary, edgy and dangerous.
That’s how society has traditionally seen power. When did we agree that power was about supremacy, strength and victory over others? When did power become synonymous with the “fight or flight” reflex? It’s not that anybody particularly has recommended it to us, but alternatives haven’t always been clearly laid out either.
Thankfully, there is another way.
Close your eyes again, but this time think of a tree. Think of the roots that tunnel deep into the ground. Branches continue to grow and flourish, expanding to create something much bigger than the original tree trunk. Think about the oxygen it produces, literally breathing life into other beings. It’s an image of a generative power, synonymous with responsibility and vision for the future. It’s a revolutionary way of thinking. It creates a long-term impact that goes way beyond our own selves.
Generative leadership is something that’s naturally very prominent in parenthood. In fact, our Lifeed parent leaders believe generativity is a big part of their life experiences. 21.5% state it creates and raises a new generation. 29.7% believe it lets others flourish and grow. 20.9% say it’s about generating ideas and innovative solutions (Lifeed, 2020). It fosters innovation, organisational adaptation and encourages high performance. It’s about creating and nurturing something that’s bigger than ourselves. Essentially, we’re talking about something that will outlive our tenure.
Generative leaders at work know the importance of delegation as a means to making others responsible and accountable. Often, they strive to make a lasting contribution and impact on their company, colleagues and even society.
When we invest our time and efforts in those around us, HR usually calls it ‘inclusion’. We believe it can be better defined as generosity. Enabling everyone in the team to contribute to the collective narrative. And although parents may have an advantage in their lived experiences of generativity, this new mindset can be embraced by all those who believe in building a future legacy. So much so, that 92% of Lifeed participants agree that generative leadership can be used in the workplace (Lifeed, 2020).
Teams are looking for a different type of leadership from their managers too. Recently, we asked people about what they believed to be the traits of a good manager. The results were clear. 70% believe that the best managers share more, talking openly about personal vision and experiences rather than keeping employees at arm’s length. 68% believe they are good listeners. That means they are willing to reciprocate by hearing and understanding their team’s struggles, ideas and ambitions. Moreover, 60% told us that they believe that the best managers know how to take risks, weighing up the evidence before making strong decisions that propel both the team and the business into the future (Lifeed, 2020).
Teams are expecting their managers to be more empathetic and open. It’s why our programs weave these principles into the curriculum. Where Lifeed has been used with various levels of leadership, 56% of employees feel they are not alone in facing their daily challenges. What’s more, 42.5% feel that generative principles offer them a more sustainable approach in their work. The participants themselves underline the importance of generative leadership, with 58% of learners choosing to work on honing delegation, listening and empathy. These are the key skills that are essential to putting this leadership style into practice (Lifeed, 2020).
These leadership behaviours empower everyone on the team to contribute and become leaders in their own right, irrespective of seniority or role. It’s a matter of truly engaging employees on a personal level. It’s about making them feel valued, listened to and ready to take action.
The results can be astounding. Highly engaged employees are 38% more likely to have above-average productivity at work. The Workplace Research Foundation has also highlighted that when employee engagement levels rise by 10%, companies can experience an increase of 2,400 dollars in profits per employee. Aside from building a more understanding and positive working environment, there’s tangible evidence that it boosts the business’ bottom line too.
We’ve gone back to being behind the screens. It was nice to see each other in person for a bit last summer, keeping our social distancing and discovering the strange combination of “sunglasses and mask”. While we wait for companies to give us guidance on how, when and how much we can see colleagues and clients again, we’ve gone back to communication via videoconferencing. Some habits were already well formed, and lots of companies have released ettiquette guidelines for online meetings. But just like the invention of emails 20 years ago, it’s difficult for us all to agree on a common way of behaving on video.
It would be useful to answer some questions though. It would make our meetings more efficient and maintain our connections while we continue to work in this way for a little longer. Do we still remember how important relationships are for productivity, our wellbeing and business? And do we remember that relationships are there to facilitate meetings and exchanges? And in these exchanges we express just 7% of what we’re saying using words. Non verbal communication (linked to body language and facial expressions) influences 55%, and paraverbal communication (tone, volume, rhythm of the voice, etc.) influences 38%? How many of these behaviors remain when we meet online?
Let’s think about breaks. When we’re in the same room as other people, we recharge our thoughts, even if we’re feeling tired or reflective. Only the people in the room have the ability to sense when the right time is to break the silence or leave the other people space to think.
What happens to moments of reflection when we meet online? Or did we think that those spaces were unneccessary?
Let’s think about interruptions. In Italian culture, we’re constantly interrupting each other, building concepts off the back of each other. But it’s really difficult to do when you’re in front of a screen, because it requires us to understand and layer our voices over each other. Online, this can seem excessive and disrespectful.
But interruptions can contribute to the collective creative process.
We don’t want to keep putting digital down by going through a long list of shortcomings. It’s a precious tool that we should have learned to use a long time ago. But we can be more aware of our interactions online. For example, what should we do with the camera: keep it on or switch it off?
What best mirrors “normal human interactions”? Surely seeing each other: in a physical meeting, we’d see each other the whole time.
But we don’t look at each other all the time. We exchange direct eye contact and then look elsewhere, giving us a margin of freedom. Usually we look at the person that’s talking, then maybe we make notes or scroll on our computer. We might look at our phones or look at other people. When we have the camera on, it’s difficult to know where to look, and we know that others can’t see what or who we’re looking at. Visible contact is impossible. Looking at a screen without moving for 30 or 60 minutes is unnecessarily tiring. Lots of people switch the camera off, and their presence becomes a circle with their initials or a photo of their last holiday. Not much remains of their presence, while others who feel more comfortable on camera could seem stronger and more effective.
If this remains the main method of communication for any longer, our behaviors and boundaries could make the difference in our relationships with others. It’s about establishing “digital relational skills“, or digital soft skills, recognizing, learning and capitalizing on our wellbeing and productivity at work.
This article was written by our CEO, Riccarda Zezza, and originally published on Alley Oop, Il Sole 24 Ore. To read the original article in Italian, click here.
