Being honestly heard is rare in the workplace. Rushing from meeting to meeting leaves leaders feeling trapped with little time. Most conversations hardly ever get the space to go below the surface with a focus on words rather than their meaning. And the hybrid workplace has not helped. In a digital environment, leaders receive less context and fewer cues due to technology limitations. Alarmingly, McKinsey & Co. seems to have found a leadership blindspot. A recent global survey suggests that most executives believe their workplaces are inclusive, but only 30% of employees believe their opinions count. Listening is a gift that every leader can give. Being heard leaves your team feeling valued, affirmed, and emotionally connected to you. Listening enhances relationships, eases tensions, and builds trust. Here is a quiz you can give your team to test your listening skills and how busy leaders can overcome active listening barriers. Why does active listening matter? The skill of active listening is the most effective form of listening. Its benefits are well-documented in the workplace. Evidence suggests that active listening builds trust, improves the quality of relationships, and creates a positive work environment. Employees who feel heard feel better about their work and their leader. Improved relationships reduce stress . Active listening is a skill that leaders cannot outsource. Listening to your team's and customers' implicit and explicit needs and wants leads to used and valued innovations. Also, evidence suggests that improved perceptions of respect mediate an environment for joint problem-solving and creativity. 3 Active listening skills Actively listening is your ability to hear and improve mutual understanding. When you actively listen, you pay attention, show interest, suspend judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize, and share to gain clarity and insight. When practicing active listening, you are available to the other person. Suspending judgment can be tricky for leaders who are pressed for time. Leaders are used to fixing problems quickly, so slowing down can be challenging. The goal of active listening is to hear the other person. Try to understand before you try to be understood. Listening does not mean agreement. One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. Bryant McGill Clarifying involves asking open-ended, probing, and clarifying questions. A good starting question is to ask, what's on your mind? And follow it up by asking, and what else? You might be amazed at what you learn. Actively listening doesn't mean only listening and asking questions. But it is best to share your thoughts, ideas, feelings, and suggestions after you believe you have heard the other person. The part many leaders struggle with is empathic listening. However, statements like, "You aren't the only one feeling that way," or "I felt similarly," help to connect emotionally with followers. The following short video from Simon Sinek is about creating an environment where the other person feels heard. Active Listening Skill #1: Verbal Listening Active verbal listening comprises paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, assumption checking, and questioning skills. The words you use matter. Research comparing verbal and nonverbal active listening skills demonstrated that speaking skills are more critical for improving outcomes than nonverbal skills. Active Listening Skill #2: Nonverbal Listening Active nonverbal listening refers to your body language. Eye contact, leaning forward, and an open body position all provide cues of affirmation. Avoid checking your phone, leaning back in your chair, and crossing your arms. Whether intended or not, these are all cues you are not actively listening to the employee. Active Listening Skill #2: Empathic Listening Active empathic listening combines verbal and nonverbal listening skills with empathy. Leaders practice this listening by sensing the explicit and implicit feelings being communicated. It is vital to innovation and maintaining close relationships. 2 Ways to overcome active listening barriers The use of paraphrasing with metaphors and paying attention by slowing down are helpful tips for overcoming common barriers to listening. Active Listening Tip #1: Paraphrasing with Metaphors Like playing catch with a ball, when the conversation is tossed to you, you should put what you heard into your own words (paraphrase) and use that to make sure you hear the key points correctly. A metaphor is a phrase that conveys something typically abstract through a symbolic image with shared understanding. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Metaphors help create connections. For example, when attempting to clarify, you could state, "It is like driving in the fog at night," instead of asking, "Are you confused?" Active Listening Tip #2: Paying Attention by Slowing Down It is easy not to be aware that you are sending unintended signals that you are in a hurry. Put your technology on mute. Get curious about what they are saying and their emotions. This is not the time to multitask. Be natural and use verbal and nonverbal cues, such as nodding your head or saying yes, to let them know you are engaged. Active listening does not typically happen in a rushed environment. The key is not to try to force a conversation into an arbitrarily scheduled time frame. Allow the option to reschedule additional time as appropriate. Take this active listening quiz When you can't see yourself objectively and don't accurately understand the perspectives of others, you can't make the transformational changes necessary for business growth. Evidence suggests that despite being very important to employees, employees' perceptions of their leader's listening skills are very low. This is significant because perceptions are proven to influence actions. When employees don't perceive they will be heard, they will unlikely continue to speak up. Here are a few statements adapted from the research by Longweni and Kroon (2018) developed to solicit feedback from direct reports. You should adjust the wording for different audiences, such as your peers, customers, and leaders. As designed, they are appropriate for use in a formal leadership 360 survey or anonymous pulse survey. I would suggest using a seven-point Likert scale from 1- strongly disagree to 7- strongly agree. My leader can sense how I feel without me having to say how I am feeling. My leader reads my non-verbal messages when we are in a conversation. My leader reflects on my emotions to let me know that they understand how I am feeling. My leader calms me down when I become angry by reflecting on my feelings. My leader restates my words to make sure that they understand me correctly. My leader makes sure to know what I am saying in a conflict situation. My leader does not justify their actions when I complain about something they have done wrong. My leader does not get angry or defensive when corrected. How to encourage others to use active listening Everyone has been in a situation where they don't feel heard. The next time you encounter that situation, here are a few strategies you can use to try and help bring about the change you want to see in others: Find common ground. Whether you are getting to know a person or engaging an executive on a complicated topic, starting with something you share in common can help create interest. Be a role model. Being the change you want to see in the world is a powerful tool for influencing change in the workplace. Don't be the one wanting to be listened to but unwilling to hear yourself. Look in the mirror and assess your skills honestly before fixing someone else. Let them know. Often, it is not a lack of desire as to why someone is not using active listening skills. If you decide to provide this feedback, you want to use an "I" statement, such as I don't feel like you are hearing me. How to develop active listening skills If you are ready to invest some energy into developing your active listening skills, the following strategies are compiled from various studies on active listening. Daily reflection. Reflect and assess daily how you are doing. Reflect on specific conversations to identify what went well and what still needs improvement. Specifically, focus on how well you pay attention, show interest, suspend judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize, and share to gain clarity and understanding. Find a mentor or accountability partner . A mentor should be someone that is a skilled active listener. This person can role model and help ask good reflective questions to help you learn. Find an accountability partner . An accountability partner can also be someone working on building their active listening skills, or they could already be skilled. The key is that they can observe and catch you using or not applying active listening skills. Focus. Consciously focus on building active listening skills rather than expecting to learn these skills while focusing on another competency. Experiential practice. You can build active listening skills with training, like physical endurance and strength. Use blended experiential methods that require learning by doing. Active listening is influenced by the context of the conversation and cues that are best understood by doing. Don't just rely on reading about active listening. Key Summary Points: Actively listening to employees leaves them feeling valued, affirmed, and connected emotionally with you. Listening eases tensions and makes productive conflict work where resentment exists. When you actively listen, you pay attention, show interest, suspend judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize, and share to gain clarity and understanding. Active Empathic Listening is vital to innovation and maintaining close relationships. The benefits of active listening are well-documented for building trust and improving relationships and the work environment. A study of employee perceptions of their leader's listening skills revealed it was the lowest-rated competency despite being very important to employees. Using metaphors, slowing down, paying attention, and paraphrasing key points are helpful tips when practicing active listening. Being the change you want to see in the world is a powerful tool for influencing change in the workplace. You can build active listening skills with practice, like building physical endurance and strength. References: Bodie, G., Vickery, A., Cannava, K., Jones, S. (2015). The role of "active listening" in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener helpfulness, sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement. Western Journal of Communication ;79(2):151-173. Center for Creative Leadership. (2019). Active listening: Improve your ability to listen and lead, second edition, 2nd edition . Center for Creative Leadership. Doolittle, J. (2023). Life-changing leadership habits: 10 proven principles that will elevate people, profit, and purpose. Organizational Talent Consulting. Gearhart, C., Bodie, G. (2011). Active-empathic listening as a general social skill: Evidence from bivariate and canonical correlations. Communication Reports ;24:86-98. Jahromi, V., Tabatabaee, S., Abdar, Z., & Rajabi, M. (2016). Active listening: The key of successful communication in hospital managers. Electronic physician , 8 (3), 2123–2128. Kourmousi, N., Kounenou, K., Yotsidi, V., Xythali, V., Merakou, K., Barbouni, A., & Koutras, V. (2018). Personal and job factors are associated with teachers' active listening and active empathic listening. Social Sciences, 7 (7) Longweni, M., & Kroon, J. (2018). Managers' listening skills, feedback skills, and ability to deal with interference: A subordinate perspective. Acta Commercii, 18 (1), 1-12.

Being a leader in today's crisis-driven workplace is exciting on the one hand and exhausting on the other. You are presented with new opportunities to make a real difference in areas where you find purpose and are frequently stretched to grow. These 'crucible moments' can leave you questioning your career. Crises disrupt healthy habits creating an imbalance. At times like these, you may not be aware that you are sabotaging yourself. Self-care is fundamental to maximizing your joy of living as a leader. Self-care is not selfish behavior. Like every living thing in this world, if leaders are not continually investing in restoring and strengthening physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, it is deteriorating. No one in the workplace escapes this reality. What is Self-Care? Although no single definition exists for self-care, it involves a wide range of activities that promote physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Implementing and building healthy self-care habits leads to positive emotions, improved relationships, increased physical energy, emotional inspiration, and creativity. Self-care includes the do-it-yourself approach and the use of an executive coach . The scope of self-care ends at the point of becoming dependent on someone for achieving health.⁠ For example, a DIY approach would be independently going to the gym to exercise and receiving guidance but not assistance from a professional coach at the gym. Every leader is different in their definition of physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional health and needs. Because we each have different definitions of success and significance in life, it is natural that health and self-care activities will vary from leader to leader. What is Self-Sabotage? Many executives lack joy in life as a result of self-sabotage. These bad habits can be conscious or accidental, ranging from subtle to devastating consequences affecting every aspect of the leader's life. For example, perfectionism is a subtle type of self-sabotage where a senior leader can work tirelessly, dismissing incremental improvements as flaws or sacrificing relationships with those they love. It is easy to accidentally lose sight of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health in a fast-paced digital, always-on workplace. Before you know it, the day is done, and you realize you rarely, if ever, got up from your desk. Maybe you worked through breaks instead of going for a walk, or you chose to eat the left-over donuts in the break room out of convenience instead of bringing in something healthy to eat. When self-sabotage is accidental, leaders simply mistake not placing achieving health on their list of priorities, or the urgent issue of the day shifts the leader's focus. Neglecting and procrastinating when it comes to taking care of yourself limits your ability to perform at your full potential . The following is a hilarious and insightful TedTalk presentation on procrastination. Organizational culture, past leaders modeling, and the fear of failing can steer leaders toward conscious self-sabotage. Unhealthy corporate cultures that emphasize working harder and longer hours can motivate leaders to purposefully self-sabotage their health. These organizations make heroes out of leaders that sacrifice achieving balance in their lives for the company's benefit. In these organizations, leaders purposely neglect self-care in trade for recognition and rewards within the organization. Self-sabotaging habits also come from past leadership examples and mentors. The previous director, who constantly was checking and replying to emails at all hours of the day, might cause the new director to neglect family relationships thinking that is the company's expectation. Fear of failing at something emboldens the inner critic. In return, the internal critic influences executives to not take risks to avoid falling instead of taking a necessary step to innovate and respond to changing environment. Self-sabotage leaves leaders feeling stuck and lacking self-confidence. Self-sabotage has the potential to stop momentum in a leader's life and career. The following video introduces seven common signs of self-sabotage and how to know if you may need help. Creating Healthy Self-Care Habits as a Leader So how do leaders navigate the new normal high-pressure crisis-driven workplace without self-sabotaging their joy in the process? Achieving balance with self-care is an individual path. However, relationships, rest, and your work environment are proven to have significant influences on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Having a clean and organized workspace can provide a sense of being in control of our work. Going for a walk in the park with a friend and talking about life can give perspective during challenging times, or simply resting away from work can provide time for us to process and work through a situation with clarity. It ultimately doesn't matter where you start, but that you do start. Working on one domain of self-care, such as physical exercise, can improve emotional and mental health. For example, suppose you run in the park. In that case, you may encounter others along the run, which provides an opportunity to build relationships and improve your emotional health. It's not difficult to see how these domains can overlap, and simple steps can lead to significant improvements. The following short video helps you become more aware of your emotions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Creating a Healthier Life guide provides an excellent step-by-step approach with resources to help promote self-care. Use this link for more information regarding the SAMHSA guide: ww.samhsa.gov/wellness-initiative. Key Summary Points: Crises disrupt healthy habits creating an imbalance in life. Every leader is different as to their physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional needs. It is easy to accidentally lose sight of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health in a fast-paced digital, always-on workplace. Organizational culture, past leaders modeling, and the fear of failing can steer leaders toward a purposeful self-sabotage habit. Relationships, rest, and your work environment are proven to have significant influences on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Visit our executive coaching page to learn more about how we help you achieve your personal or professional goals or partner with you to craft a solution specific to your organization's context and challenges. Getting started is as easy as visiting www.organizationaltalent.com or contacting us via email info@organizationaltalent.com. Organizational Talent Consulting utilizes proven, simple, and transformational personal and organizational development solutions to help our clients learn, change, and apply tools in ways that benefit their unique needs and corporate culture. References: Godfrey, C. M., Harrison, M. B., Lysaght, R., Lamb, M., Graham, I. D., & Oakley, P. (2011). Care of self – care by other – care of other: The meaning of self‐care from research, practice, policy and industry perspectives. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 9(1), 3-24. Richards, S. (2010). The benefits of self-care. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 4(5), 246-247.

Acquiring, advancing, and retaining talent is essential for organizations to achieve their mission. A study of over 8,000 leaders across Asia, Europe, North America, and South Africa, conducted by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) discovered that leaders committed to talent management achieve 25 percent higher performance . These gains in performance resulted in a seven percent improvement in revenue and a six percent increase in profit. Unfortunately, the study also revealed that less than 20 percent of senior executives possessed the commitment and capability to achieve these talent outcomes. Getting the right people leaders in the right seat at the right time is easier said than done. While there is no one single strategy that fits all situations some leading organizations are using predictive analytics to create data-based behavioral models to identify critical behaviors that predict organizational success. Social media, big data, robotics, and artificial intelligence-based applications are providing new insights to improve talent management decision making (See Table 1). Measuring Leadership While there is little agreement on a definition for leadership, there is broad agreement on leadership's importance. Effective leadership fosters innovation and creates a climate of excellence. Determining what to measure and how to measure leadership is essential to efficiently and effectively make equitable talent management decisions. Many CEOs point to a lack of qualified, ready now leadership talent as a significant threat to their organization's growth. Growth-oriented organizations need to understand if they have the right leaders with the right skills in the right jobs and have a sufficient pipeline of ready-now leaders for future growth. Companies like Agilent are using leadership effectiveness audits based on external norms to improve business outcomes. Once the organization reaches the top quartile for a given metric, it revises the audit to introduce a new leadership quality metric. A tool being used by many top-performing companies to measure leadership is the value and promotability matrix or nine-box grid (see Figure 1). Leaders are rated as low, medium, or high for performance, values, competence, and ability to promote. Beyond differentiating leaders, this matrix helps organizations create personalized development plans and accountability for growing the leadership pipeline. In my experience, when implemented correctly, this tool and the additional insights from leadership measurement can add immediate organizational value. To obtain the most value from the nine-box grid, it is vital to clearly define value and promotability and use talent review meetings to gain alignment across the organization. Ethical Considerations As organizations make investments into new technologies to measure leadership attraction, development, and retention, there are potential ethical challenges. One such challenge is equity in decision making. Technology creates the potential for unintended bias or violations of employee privacy rights. In a high-profile case involving technology-enabled decision-making bias, an artificial intelligence algorithm used to predict violent crime recidivism was twice as likely to misclassify black defendants than white defendants. Building a reporting and accountability culture is an important step toward spotting and halting technology-enabled ethics violations. We can partner with you to develop a customized solution to get the right leaders in the right seat at the right time. Walk with us and build a culture of leadership excellence that supports organizational growth. Contact us to get started today. References Dahlbom, P., Siikanen, N., Sajasalo, P., & Jarvenpää, M. (2019). Big data and HR analytics in the digital era. Baltic Journal of Management, 15 (1), 120-138. Ellehuus, C. (2012). Transforming business leaders into talent champions. Strategic HR Review, 11 (2), 84-89. Gandossy, R., & Guarnieri, R. (2008). Can you measure leadership? MIT Sloan Management Review . Larson, J., Mattu, S., Kirchner, L., & Angwin, J. (2016). How we analyzed the COMPAS recidivism algorithm . ProPublica. Ledet, E., McNulty, K., Morales, D., & Shandell, M. (2020). How to be great at people analytics . McKinsey & Company. Marr, B. (2019). Artificial intelligence has a problem with bias, here's how to tackle it . Forbes. Oster, G. W. (2011). The light prize: Perspectives on Christian innovation . Virginia Beach, Va: Positive Signs Media. Shen, K. (2011). The analytics of critical talent management [PDF]. People and Strategy. 34 (2) Sivathanu, B., & Pillai, R. (2019). Technology and talent analytics for talent management – a game-changer for organizational performance. International Journal of Organizational Analysis (2005), 28 (2), 457-473. Upcoming Webinar Series We know you are going to love these complementary leadership and professional development events! Organizational Talent Consulting’s webinar content is developed to help leaders meet today's complex workforce and digital challenges. Our free live webinars deliver superior leadership development based on the latest research with no travel costs. Participants interact directly in question and answer discussions with subject matter experts and authors on crucial topics to enhance expertise. Webinars are recorded and shared with participants for convenient on-demand access after the live event. Topics include leadership, strategic planning, coaching, change management, and more ( register and learn more ). About the Author: Jeff's knowledge and expertise include leadership development, coaching, and workforce strategies to achieve influence and grow organizations. Jeff Doolittle is the founder of Organizational Talent Consulting in Grand Rapids, MI. He can be reached at info@organizationaltalent.com or by calling (616) 803-9020. Visit https://www.organizationaltalent.com/executive-coaching to learn more about executive coaching services provided.

Can a simple act of kindness from a leader transform workplace culture and drive exceptional performance? I had just started a new position in Nebraska. We left family back in Illinois, and a significant snowstorm was approaching. It dumped almost a foot of fresh snow on our house while I was out of town for work. My wife was stranded at home with a new baby, a three-year-old, and a dog. Without me knowing, my leader called my wife to offer to go to the store and pick up groceries in his truck. Although this took place over twenty years ago, I still get emotional thinking about this act of love by my leader. There is no serious debate that well-designed organizations with clear organizational strategies influence desired behaviors, culture, and performance. However, while organizational alignment is essential, it is not sufficient. Evidence suggests love brings out the best in how people think, act, and feel . Unfortunately, this four-letter word is rarely discussed in the workplace. But this is good news if you're a leader looking for a competitive advantage. Here are two practical ways leaders can bring love into the workplace culture and drive exceptional results. The benefits of love in the workplace The well-documented individual and organizational benefits of love include: Intrinsic motivation Increased creativity Discretionary effort Better workplace climate Enhanced employee capacity Enhanced leader-follower alignment Two complex challenges leaders face today are attracting and retaining top talent and creating inclusive workplaces that bring out the best in all employees. Diversity in the world and workplace is increasing. Globalization and technological advances are projected to continue to increase workgroup diversity. This increase in diversity can have many positive workplace effects, such as enhanced performance, creativity, innovation , and decision quality. However, workplace practices rooted in favoritism are costly, leading to increased relational conflict and a lack of team cohesion. In-group favoritism results in actions that favor one group. When leaders demonstrate love, they cultivate an organizational culture where healthy and caring leader-follower relationships break down the adverse effects of in-group and out-group differences. All you have to do is drive down any street or walk through your local retail district to see the signs for help wanted and understand the challenge of attracting and retaining the best and brightest employees. Organizational commitment is a term used to identify an individual with a particular company. Research has directly connected higher levels of organizational commitment with lower employee turnover rates. Studies have demonstrated that love enhances organizational commitment. The following short video from leadership guru Ken Blanchard provides some thoughts on the power of servant leadership in today's workplace. What is selfless love? Selflessness  is being more concerned with the needs and desires of others than with your needs. And one of the best definitions I have come across for love in the workplace comes from St. Thomas Aquinas. "To love is to will the good of the other." St. Thomas Aquinas Selfless love in the workplace is to desire and put into action the will for the good of another ahead of your interest . It is a radically different paradigm from a transactional worldview of the workplace. If you have nine minutes, the following video captures the essence of the meaning behind the definition used by St. Thomas Aquinas. Although the video does not use a workplace example, the intent of willing the good of the other is shown.   The following poem called "Outwitted" by Edwin Markham captures the belief that love creates a radical sense of belonging for everyone: He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! Aren't empathy and compassion just different words for love? Empathy, compassion, and love are interrelated, but distinct differences exist. Empathy is the ability to be aware of, feel, and take on the emotions of what another person is experiencing. Empathy plays a vital role in moderating the effects of workplace conflict. Research has linked empathy with forgiveness and healing relationships. The following is a short video from Brene Brown that explains empathy and its value within the workplace. Compassion is an empathic understanding with a desire to help another person. Recent studies into the benefits of compassion at work link it to improved job performance, mental health, and leader-follower relationships. Although having awareness (empathy) and a desire to help (compassion) is essential, the world needs leaders who put the will for the good of others ahead of their interest. Leaders who emphasize love bring out the best in how people think, act, and feel in the workplace, leading to success and significance both personally and professionally. How you can love those you lead The answer for bringing love into the workplace is not hiding in metrics or data within the business- but in your routine practices, you perform automatically in your daily life. A traditional transactional leadership style adopts a top-down view of an organization with the leader on the top. Transactional leadership is based on the belief that employees perform best: within a well-formed chain of command rewards and punishments motivate and following the leader's directives is the employee's primary goal. Transactional leaders give employees something they want in exchange for getting something they want. This leadership style adopts a mental model that workers are not self-motivated and require structure, instruction, and monitoring to achieve organizational goals correctly and on time. In stark contrast, when adopting a selfless love worldview, the leader desires to bring out the best in their followers by giving them the best of themself. A servant leadership style aligns well with selfless love. These servant leadership characteristics are tangible ways for a leader to bring love into the workplace : Listening to self and others Showing empathy Healing self and others Being aware Persuasion and not coercion Conceptual thinking, not linear thinking Applying strategic foresight Stewardship of other's needs Commitment to the development of others Building community Are you a servant leader? Maybe you already understand the basic concepts but are unclear on how servant leadership differs from other contemporary leadership styles. The free Servant Leadership Style Checker answers these questions and provides your Servant Leadership Style Score. Take this free quiz to find out. How to cultivate love in the workplace Love may seem complex and challenging to articulate, much less measure ; however , validated measurement instruments exist. Like competencies and behaviors, love can be developed and embedded within organizational processes for talent management. Also, like competency development, developing love can have various positive consequences for businesses. Virtue and character development should include the following : knowledge transfer reasoning and practice. Selfless love is primarily developed through role modeling with intentional time for feedback and reflection. Feedback is a gift; most people want more feedback on their performance. However, feedback on character gaps is not commonly provided, given the complexity of these conversations. Additionally, most people spend little to no time reflecting on selfless love experiences because of blind spots. A dedicated and skillful executive coach can improve character feedback and purposeful character reflection. Numerous studies have found that dedicated mentors can also support character development by openly reflecting on insights gained from experience. Research supports that organizations can incorporate love development into existing competency development programs. It is not required for organizations to create separate programs focused only on character and virtue development. Great leaders love those they lead to gain a competitive advantage in an uncertain world. What is your real challenge to bringing love into the workplace? References Doolittle, J. (2023). Life-Changing Leadership Habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit, and Purpose. Organizational Talent Consulting. Ferris, R. (1988). How organizational love can improve leadership. Organizational Dynamics, 16 (4), 41-51. Greenleaf, R. K., & Spears, L. C. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness (25th-anniversary ed.). Lok, P., & Crawford, J. (2004). The effect of organizational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organizational commitment: A cross‐national comparison. The Journal of Management Development, 23 (4), 321-338. Mulinge, P. (2018). ALTRUISM AND ALTRUISTIC LOVE: Intrinsic motivation for servant-leadership. The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 12 (1), 337-370. Patterson, K. (2003). Servant leadership: A theoretical model [PDF]. Seijts, G., Crossan, M., & Carleton, E. (2017). Embedding leader character into HR practices to achieve sustained excellence. Organizational Dynamics, 46 (1), 30-39. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.02.001 Zachary, G. W. (2013). spiritual leadership: Investigating the effects of altruistic love on organizational commitment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 6 (2), 767.

If I think of one word on the mind of leaders in all companies, and at all levels, it comes down to uncertainty. Whether it is trade or social conflict, new regulations, artificial intelligence, or the global pandemic leaders are uncertain about the future. So, what can leaders do to gain clarity and grow revenue in an uncertain global economy projected to have slow growth? Check out this short two-minute video on futures thinking and then keep reading. Understanding Strategic Foresight Many organizations do not possess the ability to implement change fast enough to avoid becoming obsolete. To survive organizations, and individuals need to become future smart. Future smart is identifying and understanding the drivers of changes as they are forming, so individuals and organizations can be architects of change. Becoming future smart can be assisted by leveraging practices and frameworks from the field of strategic foresight. Strategic foresight is an ongoing process involving framing, scanning, forecasting, visioning, planning, and resulting in actions an organization takes to prepare for the future. Strategic foresight is a way of thinking, engaging, discovering, and acting. The goal of strategic foresight is not to predict the future but enable better decision-making and preparedness. Strategic foresight is a systemic view of change, considering not just the likely changes but all the possible potential changes. When we think about change and its impact on organizations, Kodak is an example of a company that knew digital cameras were coming but refused to let go of the belief that film would always be a part of their strategy. Strategic foresight is intended to help let go of old beliefs. Traditional strategic planning is heavily focused on the internal organization, and strategic foresight links the organization to the external environment recognizing the company will operate within a larger world rather than be only change in the world. Strategic Foresight Benefits No organization sets out to become obsolete, and there are many benefits to applying strategic foresight beyond avoiding obsolescence. Organizations benefit from being better prepared, having the right tools and resources at the right time, and improved decision-making . Strategic foresight leads to enhanced change management and positions organizations to move from responding and reacting to change to architecting trends. Being the first to market and leading new trends fuels revenue growth. About Strategic Foresight Tools Achieving the benefits of strategic foresight is accomplished by applying proven tools so that vital information does not get overlooked. These tools help organizations look beyond current experiences and areas of capability where individuals and organizations typically focus. Strategic foresight tools increase both the scope and the degree of specificity of foresight. Tools increase the number of points of view to be considered and build individuals and organizations that are future smart. Future Smart Workshop If you are interested in learning more about strategic foresight principles, engaging in a company-specific foresight activity, and learning how to use a strategic foresight tool that will help you understand the future better, then this workshop is right for you. The workshop will take 90 minutes and involve a minimum of 5 participants and 25 participants . Contact us to learn more about bringing this virtual or in-person workshop to your team. Free COVID Strategy Scenario Matrix Offer Does your company have the right strategy for a post-COVID-19 world? Become future-ready with our FREE COVID-19 Strategy Scenario Matrix analysis. We will pressure test your strategy against likely realities and give you specific recommendations as well as a strategy rating! It's simple, easy, and painless. Request your strategy analysis today . According to the Institute for Management Development, the interplay of three factors – viral longevity, global mindset, and digital adoption – can lead to remarkably different future worlds. These divergent views on how the post-COVID-19 world might look, applied within our Strategy Scenario Matrix Analysis, will provide a stress test of your strategy against highly important and likely realities so you can prepare and become future-ready. References: Canton, J. (2016). Future smart: Managing the game-changing trends that will transform your world (First Da Capo Press Paperback ed.). Da Capo Press. Chermack, T. (2011). Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Cornish, E. (2005). Futuring: The exploration of the future (First Paperback ed.). World Future Society. Hines, A. (2006). Strategic foresight: The state of the art . The Futurist, 40 (5), 18. McGonigal, M. (2020). What’s a futures wheel [video]. Coursera. Ralston, B., and Wilson, I. (2006). Scan™: Radar for signals of change. In The scenario-planning handbook (pp. 245-257). South-Western. The Audiopedia. (2017, April 4). What is strategic foresight? What does strategic foresight mean? Strategic foresight meaning [Video]. YouTube. Van Duijne , F., and Bishop, P. (2018). Introduction to strategic foresight [PDF]. Future Motions .

Have you ever felt it wasn’t safe to speak up at work? This challenge is universal. According to a study involving over 195,000 US employees, only 30% strongly believe their opinion really matters. Contemporary workplace challenges are increasingly defined by incredible technological advances and workforce friction. Evidence suggests that psychological safety is at the core of highly competitive organizations. An absence of physical safety leads to serious accidents, but the absence of psychological safety leads to poor employee mental health and company performance below expectations. Growth in knowledge-intensive business requires the creativity and skills of many employees built on timely and candid collaboration. There is no perfect organizational culture, and there is no infallible leader. It is best to consider both continuous works in progress. Here are four keys to nurturing psychological safety for executives to keep in mind. What is psychological safety? We all share a need to belong. Psychological safety is a condition when you feel included, able to learn, contribute, and provide critical feedback without fear of being embarrassed, excluded, or penalized. The goal is to increase intellectual friction while decreasing social friction, and the four sequential stages of psychological safety are: Inclusion safety – We are constantly dividing the world between them and us. Inclusion safety is creating a shared identity, so others are viewed as being in the same group. Learner safety – This is feeling safe enough to experiment, ask questions, and fail as a part of the learning process. Contributor safety – Is participating as an active full-fledged member of the team supported by autonomy and encouragement. Challenger safety – This is the last stage when others are able to provide constructive criticism and engage in productive conflict without fear of exclusion or retaliation. This is the stage where individuals can innovate. Psychological safety is different than trust. Trust is if you will give others the benefit of doubt, and psychological safety is the environment influencing if others will give you the benefit of doubt. Psychological safety helps you and others work better together. Trust is a component of psychological safety. It is extremely dangerous in a competitive marketplace not to have a culture of psychological safety. When it is emotionally expensive in the workplace to share what you think and feel, it triggers a self-censoring instinct that shuts down and blocks collaboration and innovation. Psychological safety is a tool for leaders to help care for followers. Whispers become shouts as an executive leader. How you approach creating psychological safety as a peer is different than as a leader due to positional power in the relationship. “The presence of fear in an organization is the first sign of weak leadership.” Timothy Clark Key 1: Humility It is OK to be confident, however, when executives appear to be asking a leading question or know everything, few people will take the risk of upsetting the leader. Smart executives realize there is always more to learn , and humility is not the opposite of confidence. Being humble is recognizing that you may miss something without being inclusive of others' points of view. Key 2: Selfless love St. Thomas Aquinas stated that “to love is to will the good of the other.” As an executive, your whispers become shouts within the organization. Self-awareness, empathy, and compassion rather than the use of a position of power are needed to practice selfless love. Self-awareness improves verbal and non-verbal communication clarity and the ability to understand multiple perspectives. Empathy helps you understand how others are feeling, and compassion inspires actions that are helpful. Willing for the good of your followers is caring so much that you are willing to risk failing. Selfless love may seem complex and challenging to articulate, much less measure, however, validated measurement instruments exist. Like competencies and behaviors, selfless love can be developed. Virtue and character development involve learning, reasoning, and practice. Key 3: Performance-based accountability Psychological safety matters, but it is a means to an end, not the end. Providing clear expectations and giving feedback is essential for employees to achieve high-performance levels . When psychological safety is high, but performance accountability is low, results suffer. Without a focus on the organizational results, there is no incentive to be proactive. It is logical to think that creating comfort is a good place to be, but ideas can die, people coast, and problems not get resolved without performance-based accountability. The following TEDx presentation by Annie Edmondson provides some insight into the value of performance-based accountability in building a psychologically safe workplace. Key 4: Vulnerability Although leaders are expected to convey an image of competence, confidence, and power, followers already know you are not perfect. Being vulnerable as a leader requires courage . Leadership vulnerability involves the willingness to take risks that might end in failure or create the best of what might be in the organization. The following short video from Simon Sinek expands on the tension leaders face. Practicing vulnerability as a leader involves checking your motivation, vision, and paradigm (MVP) before having a difficult conversation. Motivation. Is your motivation about caring for others first? Or is your motivation to be right? Goals for a conversation matter. Vision. How do you see the result of the conversation going? When you see a conversation as a positive step in the journey, it provides a sense of purpose and direction. Paradigm. Is your paradigm for the difficult conversation that real transparent conversation will provide the best foundation for a healthy culture and your relationship? When the lens through which you perceive the difficult conversation is off, your results will turn out poorly. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. Naguib Mahfouz Good leadership habits to build psychological safety Here are a few specific good leadership habits taken from research for setting the stage, inviting participation, and responding effectively to build psychological safety: Ask questions proactively. Address employees by name and ask questions that you don’t have an answer for, that don’t limit responses to a yes or no (or either or choice), and that helps others think about a topic in a new way. For example, you may have a goal to improve an absence of diversity in the organization. Instead of asking others how they can improve the situation, a better way would be to ask others how the organization can embrace diversity. Be transparent. Keep conversations genuine, especially when it involves your mistakes. Being transparent pertains to both the logical rationale aspects of the conversation as well as your feelings about the other person and the conversation. Be willing to learn. Vulnerability is about being weak to defend your point of view and desiring to listen and learn something new. When asking for feedback, it is essential to remember that it is a gift given. Silence is expensive. A good tactic is to ask others for what you need to hear but that they think you may not want to hear. Avoid blame. Use collaborative language. For example, how can we (instead of you) make this better? We statements turn the responsibility into a group effort, keeping the emphasis on the solution rather than an individual. Set expectations about failure. Innovation is increasingly important and dangerous for leaders. Organizations desire certainty, success, and efficiency, and it is uncertainty, failure, and inefficiency that are sources of innovation. Many organizations are designed to keep leaders from taking risks. It is important for leaders to differentiate between excusable and inexcusable failure. Express appreciation. Compensation for the work is not enough. The rewards and incentives you provide can be as simple as saying thank you. Effective reward and recognition systems target specific behaviors, are applied immediately, are tailored to what the individual values, are focused on what and how, and present everyone the same opportunity to achieve the reward or recognition. Use participatory decision-making styles. Although delegating and making command decisions have a place, they should not be the only or primary styles of leadership decision-making. Highly participatory styles such as consulting and facilitating not only improve feelings of belonging but they improve decision quality. So, what is the challenge for you to invite others to challenge the status quo? What steps can you take to create autonomy for followers to contribute in their own way to deliver results? References Clark. (2020). The 4 stages of psychological safety : defining the path to inclusion and innovation (First edition.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated. Daniels, A. (2016). Bringing out the best in people: How to apply the astonishing power of positive reinforcement (3rd edition). McGraw-Hill. Edmondson. (2019). The fearless organization : creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth (1st edition). Wiley. Edmondson, A. & Hugander, P. (2021). 4 Steps to boost psychological safety at your workplace. Harvard Business Review. Frazier, Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., & Vracheva, V. (2017). Psychological Safety: A Meta‐Analytic Review and Extension. Personnel Psychology , 70 (1), 113–165. Gallup. (2020). State of the American Workplace Report.

This just feels like the right thing to do. Studies have revealed that more than half of us routinely use our intuition to make significant personal and professional decisions. There are situations when there isn't the time or reliable data available. However, relying on only a feeling of right or wrong would be a big mistake in today's complex and chaotic marketplace. A recent 2021 Fortune 1000 executive leaders survey revealed that 99% are investing in data initiatives to transform their companies. These investments in technology are producing a deluge of available data within companies. But are these investments leading to better decisions? Leading companies are looking for data to transform their businesses, and 96% of executives report that they are achieving measurable business outcomes. However, these same leaders identify culture as the single most significant deterrent to becoming a data-driven organization. Only 30% of respondents indicated their organization had developed a well-articulated data-driven decision-making strategy and culture. What is Data-Driven Decision-Making? Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) has become somewhat of a buzzword as many leaders and organizations aim to be data-driven. A good working definition for what it means to embrace data-driven decision-making is: Using facts extracted from data and metrics to guide business decisions that support business goals rather than relying on experience, intuition, and stories alone. The following video provides a real-world example from Google of how businesses can use people analytics to make better decisions. Why Competing with Data Analytics is Important? Making data-driven decisions is not the only way leaders can succeed. However, many examples prove the power of analytics. Providing direction during turbulent times. One thing that is for sure is that the world and marketplace are becoming more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous . Data analytics can provide leaders with new insights and understanding on how to transform their business. Understanding what is not working. Testing and data collection enables leaders to fail fast and learn from making decisions. Leverage technology investments. Technology is influencing every aspect of life and creating new opportunities. Data-driven decisions move beyond insights to action. Reduce costs and increase revenue. Using data enables organizations to optimize operations leading to reduced costs and increased revenue. Predictive analytics goes one step further, allowing organizations to transform during market change quickly. Reduce risk. Data analytics enable leaders to reduce risk in decision-making by making data-driven decisions based on facts rather than feelings. Strategic foresight. Data analytics can help organizations see around corners and plan for mixed realities. It's not about predicting but anticipating potential futures. Continuous improvement. Data enables leaders to learn and improve decision-making continuously. Measures cut through the haze that comes from relying on intuition. The Importance of Data-Driven Organizational Culture "Culture is more powerful than anything else in the organization," and often why good management ideas fail. Upadhyay & Kumar (2020) Only focusing on building analytics capability is ineffective until an organizational culture supports data-driven decision-making. A firm's capacity and performance with data-driven decision-making are significantly moderated by culture. Organizational culture is the shared assumptions that influence employees' perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behavior within a business. A simplified definition of corporate culture is how things get done within the company when no one is watching. Getting Started by Assessing Your Organizational Culture Company culture must support business strategies for organizations to be successful. Leaders looking to architect a data-driven decision-making culture should start by clarifying their current business strategies and the characteristics of the existing culture. The Competing Values Framework identifies four fundamentally different cultures: Clan Culture creates a collaborative atmosphere similar to a family. The role of leadership is as a facilitator, mentor, and team builder. This culture emphasizes the value of teamwork, participation, and a consensus decision-making style, which may lead to more intuitive decisions. This culture creates value through individual commitment, communication effectiveness, and development. Adhocracy Culture creates an energetic and entrepreneurial atmosphere. The role of leadership is as an innovator, entrepreneur, and visionary. This culture stresses the importance of research and continuous improvement. This culture creates value through innovative ideas, transformation over transactional, and nimbleness. Market Culture creates a competitive, fast-paced, results-oriented environment. The role of leadership is challenger, competitor, and achiever. This culture highlights coming in first, which may lead to a more data-driven decision-making orientation as external data analysis can create a competitive advantage. This culture creates value through capturing market share, meeting or exceeding goals, and profitability. Hierarchy Culture is a top-down formal rule-based atmosphere. The role of leadership is management, supervision, and organization. This culture emphasizes efficient, reliable, and cost-effective performance, which could lead to a more data-driven decision-making orientation as internal data analysis can create improved efficiency and reliability. This culture creates value through promptness, consistency, control, and certainty. The Competing Values Framework⁠ and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) provide organizations with a simple validated method to describe a company's existing culture. For more information regarding the OCAI, please go to ww.ocai-online.com. Leadership creates difficult choices. If you want to build a data-driven decision-making culture or need an executive coach, we're ready to partner with you to craft a solution specific to your organization's context and challenges. Getting started is as easy as visiting www.organizationaltalent.com or contacting us via email info@organizationaltalent.com. Organizational Talent Consulting utilizes proven, simple, and transformational personal and organizational development solutions to help our clients learn, change, and apply tools in ways that benefit their unique needs and corporate culture. References: Cameron, K. S. (2006). Competing values leadership: Creating value in organizations. E. Elgar Pub. Davenport, T. H., Harris, J. G., & Morison, R. (2010). Analytics at work: Smarter decisions, better results. Harvard Business Press. MA. NewVantage Partners, LLC. (2021). The journey to becoming data-driven: A progress report on the state of corporate data initiatives. Schein, E. H. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Stobierski, T. (2019). The advantages of data-driven decision-making. Harvard Business School. Schneider, W. E. (2000). Why good management ideas fail. Strategy & Leadership, 28(1), 24-29. doi:10.1108/10878570010336001 Upadhyay, P., & Kumar, A. (2020). The intermediating role of organizational culture and internal analytical knowledge between the capability of big data analytics and a firm's performance. International Journal of Information Management, 52, 102100

You have a vision for developing your team. But as a leader, the more coaching you provide, the more likely two-edge issues will happen. No matter how hard you try, true coaching complicates the leader-follower relationship. Unhealthy leader-follower relationships have devastating impacts on business performance and results. Many businesses are trying to build coaching skills, but leadership habits take time to change. Maybe leaders don’t make good coaches. Does being a leader and leadership coach have to be that hard? The truth is it doesn’t. You can coach your team and have fantastic leader-follower relationships. How? By anticipating and avoiding what’s causing issues in the first place. Evidence suggests that most problems can be traced back to these five things. Why Avoiding Leader as Coach Pitfalls Matter Leadership is a relationship. A theme in leadership research is that high-quality trust-based leader-follower relationships enhance positive results for leaders, teams, and organizations. The documented benefits include: Improved leader and follower performance Enhanced follower job satisfaction Increased leader and follower organizational commitment Decreased employee turnover Improved workplace climate Better two-way communication Improved creativity Value-added collaboration Decreased levels of workplace stress In an increasingly complex workplace having leaders that can cope with uncertainty and build trust within their leader-follower relationships is a competitive advantage. The benefits of investing in coaching are many; 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence. Over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment in coaching and more. 5 Common Pitfalls to Avoid Too often companies make narrow investments into leadership development with little to no results to show. Effective coaching relies on a partnership that goes beyond investing in leader as coach skill development. Coaching is a partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. International Coaching Federation Successful leaders anticipate and avoid the following five most common categories of leader as coach fails: 1. Expectations Ambiguity Unclear expectations are a common challenge. Often workplace ambiguity results from a misunderstanding about what is coaching versus what is leading. Leaders will need to provide direction, but a coach avoids giving advice. Tip : Establish a written definition that compares and contrasts leadership, coaching, and mentoring . When scheduling meetings for coaching make the purpose clear. If using another meeting time for coaching include a specific agenda item to draw a clear distinction between your coaching and leadership roles. If you are not using separate meetings for coaching (which is my preference) you might find the coaching conversation goes better when it is the first item on the agenda. 2. Conflicts of Interest Leaders that use coaching to drive a personal agenda and put their personal needs ahead of their team members create a conflict of interest. Leaders often run from meeting to meeting and it can become very tempting to hijack a coaching session to cover an action item. If you find yourself falling into this trap, you are limiting your coaching effectiveness. Tip : An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Set clear boundaries upfront and invite team members to provide feedback if you step out of the leader as coach lane. Establishing and sticking to a transparent agenda will help you avoid any potential conflicts of interest when you are under pressure. 3. Lack of Trust Trust is a fundamental aspect of high-quality relationships and an essential competency for a coach. Trust allows a coaching conversation to be open and without concern for being vulnerable. It is in this space that growth occurs best. A threat to trust is confidentiality within the leader-follower coaching relationship. Tip: Establish a coaching agreement with clear definitions of what about the coaching is confidential and what is not. Consider the needs of both you as the coach and your follower as the coachee. The agreement should include how concerns about trust are shared and resolved. 4. Leadership Power The role of the leader as a coach in hierarchical organizational culture is an especially challenging paradigm to establish. Coaching is most effective in collaborative relationships. The higher you go in an organization the more power you are given within the organization. When team members enter a meeting with expectations for the leader to be in charge and have all the answers it is difficult to adopt a mindset of collaboration. Tip: Set expectations upfront for the leader as coach relationship to be collaborative. Make it explicit as a part of the coaching agreement. Include examples of what is and is not a collaborative coaching relationship. Focus on your coaching presence, active listening, and use of powerful questions during coaching sessions. 5. Forced Participation Sometimes out of a desire for everyone to develop leaders and followers are forced to have coaching relationships. However, for coaching to be most effective participation needs to be desired. When a coach or coachee does not want to be coached the effectiveness of the investment is diminished. Tip: Make participation voluntary for the coach and coachee. Even though you want everyone to be developing, you cannot force someone to learn and grow in a coaching relationship What’s the biggest leader as coach challenge you face? Key Summary Points High-quality trust-based leader-follower relationships enhance positive results for leaders, teams, and organizations. In an increasingly complex workplace having leaders that can cope with uncertainty and build trust within their leader-follower relationship is a competitive advantage. The more leadership coaching you provide, the more likely two-edge issues will arise. A successful leader as a leadership coach anticipates and avoids expectations ambiguity, conflicts of interest, lack of trust, leadership power, and forced participation. References: Athanasopoulou, A., & Dopson, S. (2018). A systematic review of executive coaching outcomes: Is it the journey or the destination that matters most? The Leadership Quarterly. 29 (1), 70-88. Lai, Y., & Palmer, S. (2019). Psychology in executive coaching: An integrated literature review. Journal of Work Applied Management, 11 (2), 143-164. Milner, J., Milner, T., McCarthy, G., & da Motta Veiga, S. (2022). Leaders as Coaches: Towards a Code of Ethics. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science: A Publication of the NTL Institute, OnlineFirst, 1. Trompenaars, A., & Voerman, E. (2010). Servant-leadership across cultures: Harnessing the strength of the world's most powerful management philosophy. McGraw-Hill.

As the world changes, people and organizations must change too. Recent surveys suggest there is growing confidence in the global economy among executives. A PwC pulse survey of over 5000 CEOs revealed that more than 60% are expecting innovation and M&A deals to fuel their organizational growth over the next 12 months. Growth is a critical driver of organizational performance. However, not all change is innovation and not all innovation flourishes. Successful innovation produces a significant positive change for customers. Like the atmospheric conditions required for the formation of a tornado do not always produce a tornado. The same can be said for organizational innovation. Innovation is unpredictable and often comes from a combination of hard work, curiosity, the pursuit of wealth, and necessity. There are countless prerequisites to any innovation, and analysis reveals both the astonishing and absurd. While this reality may leave you feeling a bit confused about what to do, here are some conditions that will increase your odds of successful innovation. "Successful entrepreneurs do not wait until the muse kisses them and gives them a bright idea: they go to work." Peter Drucker Conditions for Innovation As organizations gain competence and confidence, the likelihood of innovation decreases. Adopting the following approaches and mindsets can reduce organizational threats to innovation: Awareness: The decisions we make reflect who we are. The better organizations understand their culture and their employees; the better decisions can be made at each phase of innovation development. Reward failure: In the pursuit of innovation, failure happens. Organizations lacking positive reinforcement for innovation will not bring out the best in the people attempting to innovate. Too often, organizations are designed to keep people from taking risks. Work hard and reconsider assumptions: As organizations invest time pursuing innovation, it is easy to become increasingly less willing to question an idea. It is essential to step back every so often and challenge the innovation assumptions. Organizations that dare to question assumptions will keep the focus on the best ideas. Growth: Many innovations begin with a simple question. Can it be done better? Organizations that value the pursuit of incremental improvement will not miss the value of the mundane ideas that lead to the next significant invention. Luck and mistakes: It’s essential to recognize that organizations may do everything right and fail as well as do nothing right and succeed. Organizations that acknowledge that luck, chance, and the work of others play a role in their innovation process set themselves up for success. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein The Psychology and Sociology Behind Successful Innovation As stated earlier, not all innovations are successful . No one wants to spend a bunch of time working hard to produce an invention that is considered ahead of its time. An innovation ahead of its time is not a compliment. Adding to the complexity of successful innovation is the reality that the technical merits are essential but not sufficient. Beyond the technical merits are the influences of psychology and sociology. Both are vital determinants for an organization’s innovation success. The following are five factors that moderate organizational innovation success: Perceived value – How much better is the new from the old? Perceptions are realities for customers. Successful organizational innovation considers its perceived value based on cost, status, convenience, pleasure, and style. Effort – What is required to transition to the innovation? Is the cost of the innovation greater than its advantage? If it takes more effort to utilize the invention, most people won’t do it. Learning – How much learning is required to use the new? The smaller the perceived gap, the more likely people will try something new. Ease – How easy is it to try the innovation? If something is risk-free, it is more likely to be used. Likewise, as time, energy, and cost required increases, the likelihood of the innovation being used decreases. Visibility – How visible are the innovation’s results? Consider a fashion fad. It may have limited value, but the results are obvious. The more visible the results, the more likely the innovation will be used. Successful organizational innovation accounts for both the positive and negative psychological and sociological consequences associated with the utilization of the innovation. For each factor, you should evaluate if the consequence is: positive or negative from the users perspective experienced immediately or in the future certain or uncertain Not all consequences have the same degree of impact on innovation success. Consequences that are either positive immediate certain, or negative immediate certain will have the most significant impact on if the likelihood of the organizational innovation being successful. Key Points Successful organizational innovation produces a significant positive change for customers. Key conditions of innovation include: increasing awareness of organizational culture and people, rewarding interesting failures, working hard and reconsidering assumptions, valuing incremental improvements, and recognizing the role of luck and mistakes. The technical merits of innovation are essential but not sufficient for innovation to flourish. Successful innovation accounts for the psychological and sociological consequences associated with innovation. References: Bartlett, R. (2013). A practitioners guide to data analytics: Using data analysis to improve your organizations decision making and strategy . McGraw-Hill. New York. Berkun, S. (2010). The myths of innovation (1st ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc. Drucker, P. (2006). Innovation and Entreprenuership. Harper Business. PwC 24th Annual Global CEO Survey

Working from home can make reading the room during a team meeting more difficult. And have you really had a meeting if no one said 'you're on mute?' Leadership is a relationship. Without human connection, leaders rely on positional power to influence others. Using power can appear to work, but it comes with harmful personal and business side effects. Genuine relationships are not easy to achieve online. Studies reveal that contextual clues and emotions are more difficult to discern online. Mastering the intangible art of building virtual connections is an essential skill for leading a hybrid workforce. One of the five global leadership megatrends identified in the 2021 Global Leadership Forecast by DDI is that leaders crave more time to spend building connections with their teams each day. The hybrid workplace has increased feelings of isolation in the workplace. Leaders need real connections to influence and engage their teams. Also, they need real connections because limited in-person interaction negatively impacts mental health . What is the meaning of building connections in a hybrid workplace? Building connections is establishing meaningful, committed relationships between two or more people. A hybrid workplace is a flexible workplace model that supports distributed employees that work remotely and those that work in a shared office. A synonym for connection is relationship. Virtual workforce challenges Psychological distance and the use of technology present hidden threats for anyone trying to establish real virtual connections in the workplace. Increased psychological distance decreases feelings of belonging that are fundamental to trust and communication. Being virtual increases the degree to which people feel removed from each other. Additionally, increased distance limits the ability to read the room and get a feeling for the atmosphere when building a connection. When employees and leaders are virtual, spontaneous encounters are typically limited compared to being in the same physical workplace. Informal, spontaneous interactions increase communication frequency and opportunities to share personal information that enhance relationships and trust. The less employees see each other, the more anonymous they become to each other. Technology creates the potential for increased anonymity due to the limited visibility of each other. Anonymity raises the potential for misunderstandings, especially during challenging conversations where visual cues convey emotions. The following video presents a humorous and accurate depiction of some of the many challenges leaders face on conference calls. Building virtual communities in the workplace A community is a group defined by a shared social identification among the members. It can be a vital source of support during times of crisis. Social identity theory suggests that we share identity with individuals with whom we associate. And as a result, we are more likely to trust and influence those individuals than individuals and groups with whom we do not associate. In conversations, we tend to find communication more comfortable and more productive with those we consider "us" versus "them." According to social identity theory, we are more motivated to be receptive and mentally able to fully process communications with those we identify. Shared social identity increases both help-giving and social bonding and increases feelings of belonging among community members. These communities produce solidarity and support for community members. Communities generate a wide range of health benefits, including a sense of belonging, reduced depression and anxiety, trust, and increased self-esteem. Types of virtual communities Peer advisory groups, communities of practice, and affinity groups are increasingly popular forms of virtual communities. Peer advisory groups typically serve as an informal board of directors for the leaders. They listen, advise, and debate through shared experiences. They are acting as a personal advisor. Requesting member commitment, confidentiality, and collaboration to get involved will help these groups succeed. These groups also benefit from engaging an experienced moderator to help maximize the value of the meetings. Similar to peer advisory groups are virtual communities of practice (vCoP). A virtual community of practice is a group with common concerns, knowledge, and experiences on a given topic. As the name implies, these online communities are centered around practice, where online peer advisory groups are focused on the role of the leader. A community of practice focuses on creating best practices for niche domains where the members possess specific expertise. Online affinity groups are inclusive to individuals from diverse backgrounds but interested in a shared goal. While they share a common goal, many may not have the expertise to achieve the goal itself or be aware of best practices. Strategies that work for building virtual connections Like there are numerous challenges to establishing virtual connections, there are many potential strategies for how to build virtual connections. The key is to overcome the virtual workplace challenges of identity construction, social facilitation, and building trust. The following are research-proven strategies that work for building real virtual connections. How to create a shared social identity online: Sharing Visual Clues: When using video calls, have each person turn on their camera as a sign of respect. This will also increase the opportunity to observe each-others facial expressions. Fostering Informal Communication: Schedule time for virtual coffee breaks for checking in with others. Informal communication builds relationships and creates shared experiences. These types of opportunities are less likely to occur, so it is important to schedule them. Social Recognition : Look for opportunities to say thank you. Use a reinforcement survey to find out what motivates each other and put them on a shared drive. Then use those learnings to recognize each other. Don't wait until the end of the year. How to leverage the positive influences of social facilitation while working from home: Presence Matters : Although technology has limitations compared to physical proximity, research supports that a digital presence decreases the adverse effects of anonymity. Establish strategies to be present with each other, such as turning on your cameras during a video call and working as if you were sitting across from each other. How to build trust in the virtual workplace: Create Psychological Safety: Being open and candid demonstrates caring and respect. The best way to create safety is to model vulnerability. You have to be willing to have a courageous conversation. Practice Humility: Humble leadership does not need to be an oxymoron. A high degree of self-orientation creates significant distrust from others. Spend time listening to others. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Ask for feedback and help when needed. Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less. Ken Blanchard Adopt a Coaching Mindset : Use the following five questions model by Michael Bungay Stainer to listen. The goal of the conversation is to get curious, listen, and be helpful. What is on your mind? What is the real challenge? And what else? What do you want? What was most helpful? Key Summary Points: Genuine relationships are not easy to achieve online. The hybrid workplace has increased feelings of isolation in the workplace. Building connections is establishing meaningful, committed relationships between two or more people. Psychological distance and the use of technology present hidden threats for anyone trying to establish real virtual connections in the workplace. Communities generate a wide range of health benefits, including a sense of belonging, reduced depression and anxiety, trust, and increased self-esteem. The key is to overcome the virtual workplace challenges of identity construction, social facilitation, and building trust. Visit our executive coaching page to learn more about how we help you achieve your personal or professional goals or partner with you to craft a solution specific to your organization's context and challenges. Getting started is as easy as visiting www.organizationaltalent.com or contacting us via email info@organizationaltalent.com. Organizational Talent Consulting utilizes proven, simple, and transformational personal and organizational development solutions to help our clients learn, change, and apply tools in ways that benefit their unique needs and corporate culture. References Afflerbach, T. (2019). Hybrid virtual teams in shared services organizations: Practices to overcome the cooperation problem . Springer International Publishing AG. Blackford, M. (2021). How real connection in a virtual workplace boosts mental health. FHE Health. Bungay Stanier, M. (2016). The coaching habit: Say less, ask more & change the way you lead forever. Box of Crayons Press. Center for Workplace Health. (2021). Your mental health and well-being. America Psychological Association. Greenaway, K. H., Wright, R. G., Willingham, J., Reynolds, K. J., & Haslam, S. A. (2015). Shared Identity Is Key to Effective Communication. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 41 (2), 171–182. Murphy, S. M. (2020). How the University of Chicago medicine designed virtual rounding to maintain human connections during COVID-19. Patient Experience Journal, 7 (2), 80-82. Neal, S. (2021). 5 Global leadership megatrends for 2021. DDI. The mental health benefits of community helping during crisis: Coordinated helping, community identification, and sense of unity during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021). Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2520 van Dick, R., Ciampa, V., & Liang, S. (2018). Shared identity in organizational stress and change. Current Opinion in Psychology, 23 , 20-25. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.11.005 Waranyuwat, A. (2020). Seeking human connections when all we've got are virtual ones: Strategies for advising students during disruptive times. Harvard Business Publishing.

I wish I had more balance in my life. Sound familiar? Many leaders I speak with have tossed in the towel on managing work-life boundaries. However, the evidence is clear that poorly managed boundary expectations contribute to increased stress, an absence of joy, and broken relationships. Finding focus in today's distraction economy isn't just about where or when you work best but understanding how. Successful leaders know how they work best and consider the different needs of their team. This is not one time to follow the golden rule and treat your team as you would want to be treated. Managing work-life boundaries helps you and your team perform better and reduces feelings of busyness. Here are the four fundamental work-life boundary styles, a quiz to help you find your preferred style, and eight tips toward instantly improving your boundary management. Discover your preferred work-life boundary management style The following short survey can help you become more aware of your boundary management style. The survey measures how you perceive boundary control, manage interruptions, balance personal and professional, technology dependence, and time for yourself. Why it's time to establish better work-life boundary habits Healthy leader-follower relationships are based on trust and respect. Don't assume you know your team's boundary management styles. It is best to apply the platinum rule regarding work-life boundary management. Do unto others as they would want to be done. The following are some tips you can use with your team: Demonstrate respect by getting to know your team's boundary management styles. You may want your team to read this blog and use it as a topic for discussion in your next team meeting or one-to-one. Engage your team in a conversation about the organizational culture and their work-life boundary management style. Where is there alignment, and where are there opportunities to be better? Evidence from multiple studies reveals that blurred boundaries negatively impact the well-being of leaders and employees. When leaders fail to schedule priorities and expectations successfully, it often results in feelings of regret or distress. How leaders and employees manage boundaries has consequences on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and business results. Leaders, followers, organizations, and communities benefit from healthy work-life boundary management habits. Personal Example: Early in my career, I had an opportunity to include my family in a Leadership 360 survey as part of a leadership development program I was taking through my work. My first reaction was to question the value I could get from an online survey about my work performance that involved my family. I knew my family loved me and felt we had open communication. I also debated sending it to my son, given his young age. However, wanting more feedback , I decided to go ahead and send my family the survey. Surprisingly, I learned about hidden strengths and blind spots important to my family . One survey comment I remember from my son was that his dad was always on his mobile device. Yes, it hurt to read that I had a blind spot about dropping the ball on a critical relationship. My first private response as I read the comment was defensive and to challenge the comment. The reality at the time was that my work responsibilities had expanded significantly. I went from site leadership responsibilities to having a team across multiple regions. Also, my young family was growing older and wanted more time from their dad. I failed to consider the impact of growing needs at home and the growing needs at work. Thankfully, my lack of boundary management awareness didn't cost me a relationship, and I could course-correct. I learned an important lesson. Just because you are not hearing concerns or seeing the negative impacts of mismanaging work-life boundaries doesn't mean everything is OK. 4 Boundary management styles Does work-life separation or integration lead to achieving balance? The answer is that it varies by individual. The better you understand your preferred boundary management style and the style of others, the better you can manage personal work-life boundaries and adapt your leadership to the needs of your team. There are four main work-life boundary styles: Integrators make themselves constantly available to work and life needs. Integrators enjoy the freedom of blending their work life and non-work life. They move back and forth between the two as needed. Taking a work call after dinner is OK for an integrator if they can also run an errand during work hours. Cyclers bounce back and forth between periods of solid separation and times of full integration. Separators divide their time and attention between either work or life needs. They set a hard line between personal and professional roles. When they are off the clock, they are done with work. They don't do well with after-work hours work and emails or calls. Hybrid role-first styles have a defined work- or life-first identity, allowing one identity to trump the other. This style can be integrators, cyclers, or separators with a specific hybrid. If you are a work-first hybrid, you will shift work hours or move family events to accommodate work. 8 Tips to better work-life boundary management Generally, individuals with low scores for boundary control are focused on life or work priorities rather than life and work priorities, and either success or significance is sacrificed. If you received a low score on the Work-Life Boundary Management Checker, taking the following suggestions could improve your low boundary control scores: Use separate devices for work and non-work activities. Turn off alerts from devices during periods. Use the Do Not Disturb option on your IOS device to silence notifications. Restrict access to work and non-work social media access at different times. Use physical space to create separation between activities. Many of us work from home, at least part of the time. To help keep work at work, use a separate location for work to the greatest extent possible. Block time in your calendar for work and non-work priorities Add time buffers to your calendar to create a transition between work and non-work activities. A commute builds a natural buffer. Create a regular check-in with an accountability partner for support, feedback, and encouragement. Hire an executive coach . Given that the ultimate goal of coaching is personal change, the process uses essential questions and client-centered critical thinking to invoke self-awareness and individual responsibility with work-life boundaries. Conclusion: Managing Work-Life Boundaries Taking a work-life separation or integration approach is not always the answer. However, not committing to managing personal and professional expectations leads to increased stress, feelings of busyness, a lack of joy, and broken relationships. Effective leaders manage personal work-life boundaries and lead in alignment with their team's needs. Let's discuss how our transformational executive coaching and organizational consulting solutions can help you achieve your goals. References: Doolittle, J. (2023). Life-Changing Leadership Habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit, and Purpose. Organizational Talent Consulting. Foucreault, A., Ollier-Malaterre, A., & Ménard, J. (2018). Organizational culture and work-life integration: A barrier to employees' respite? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(16), 2378-2398. Kossek, E. E. (2016). Managing work-life boundaries in the digital age. Organizational Dynamics, 45(3), 258-270.

Economic downturns are inevitable. They make companies more competitive and create sustainable business growth. But only if leaders proactively take steps to prepare. Bain & Company found that 47% more S&P 500 businesses moved from the bottom quartile to the top half, and 89% more dropped from the top quartile to the bottom half during economic downturns compared to periods of strong economic growth. It is easy to find out what doesn't work. Reactive workforce reductions, burn-the-furniture cost-cutting, and spray-and-pray strategies out of desperation have historically led to considerable losses. If you immerse yourself in the daily news, the future appears dire – supply chain constraints, geopolitical conflict, inflation, and historic labor shortages are projected to persist. Even the World Bank is suggesting that stagflation is a real possibility. So, what can leaders and companies do now to emerge stronger? Here are three proven tactics to accelerate company performance despite an economic downturn. Performance Accelerator 1: Scenario Planning Only operating in the short term or taking too much risk and gambling on one specific future are frequent traps leaders fall into when facing economic uncertainty. Scenario planning enhances the focus on likely and critical external factors. The benefits of scenario planning include: Creative thinking Informed narratives or stories about possible or plausible futures Improved decision-making about the future Enhanced human and organizational learning and imagination Rather than predicting the future, scenarios help organizations plan for various likely futures, such as economic predictions of stagflation and persistent labor shortages. Wind tunnel testing is the term for the basic concept embedded with scenario planning that allows an organization to be tested in a variety of different turbulent times. There are five fundamental phases of a scenario planning project: Identification of a focal question Scenario exploration of external perspectives and forces with the potential to dramatically change your business Scenario development of multiple potential stories about what the future might look like Scenario implementation of options and priorities. Implementation typically involves experimentation, analyzing the existing strategies, and creative experiential learning exercises. Ongoing project assessment of changes taken with defined early indicators "The most threatening competitor leadership teams face is themself." Tibbs Without a good implementation strategy and effective implementation, scenario planning is nothing more than an intellectual exercise. Change management should be presented in a way that leads to different ways of thinking and acting. Organizational Development can support the implementation workshops with change models and activities for the workshops. In the following video, Dr. Chermack provides an overview of the process using a small business case study. This video provides some practical insights into scenario planning. Performance Accelerator 2: Organizational Change Resiliency Organizational change resilience is responding productively to significant disruptive change and transforming challenges into opportunities. One theme with organizations that are resilient amid change is sharing data with decision-makers openly. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) suggests that organizational resilience (ISO 22316:2017) is dependent on knowledge and information that is: accessible, understandable, and adequate to support the organization's objectives effectively shared to enable decision-making recognized as a critical resource for the organization created, retained, and applied through established systems and processes shared promptly with all relevant interested parties applied in organizational learning “In God we trust, others must have data.” — Ronald D. Snee Evidence suggests that big data holds a key for helping organizations detect and respond to disruption. Descriptive data analytics improve sensing, and predictive data analytics enhance a company's ability to change and seize new opportunities. Descriptive Data Analytics: The interpretation of historical data to better understand business changes. Examples include social media usage and engagement, organizing survey results, and operational efficiency data trends. Predictive Data Analytics: uses historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. Examples include predicting customer preferences based on past purchasing behaviors, predicting employee retention risk based on assessment data, and predicting workforce staffing levels based on seasonal trends. Improving your company's organizational change resilience is also connected to company culture. Culture mediates the knowledge and information-sharing capability. When building organizational change resilience, investing in culture change makes a difference in adoption and utilization. Performance Accelerator 3: Strategic Leadership Ambiguity creates confusion and limits a leader's influence. Businesses are collections of individuals, and an organization's competitive advantage comes from capitalizing on a collective benefit from individual behaviors. Strategy can unify people within an organization toward an organization's purpose. Effective leaders win the hearts and minds of employees, and an organization's survival is tied to optimizing the head-heart balance. Strategies must instill confidence within people during times of turmoil in organizations, creating a sense of ownership. A shared vision that creates benefits for the group is essential to guiding an organization during value conflicts created by organizational changes. A practical approach to strategy leads to employee engagement through participation , communication, and leadership behaviors. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” — William Bennis There are five competencies often underdeveloped in leaders and connected to the challenges of strategic leadership : Scanning. Looking for weak signals that may not immediately affect the business. Visioning. Clarifying the organization's shared purpose and dreams with group benefit. Reframing. Challenging current assumptions and fresh thinking about future possibilities. Making sense. An intellectual process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating data. Systems thinking. A holistic way to investigate how different parts interrelate and contribute to specific potential outcomes. Interestingly, in addition to competence in these areas, strategic leaders need a conscience focused on helping others for the greater good. The character of the leader plays a vital role in unifying a team. During times of complexity and uncertainty like today, when leaders create a vision focused on group benefit, it allows employees to navigate conflicts created by change. Developing strategic leadership requires a leader's motivation and deliberate practice to shape habits, experience-rich learning opportunities to provide challenges, time for self-reflection, and coaching. Self-assessments and 360-degree surveys can help leaders and leadership teams observe their strategic leadership capabilities and better focus development investments. Combined with leadership development, assessments can create a sense of urgency and motivation for change. So what is your real challenge in preparing now for an economic downturn? References: Ackermann, F., & Eden, C. (2011). Making strategy: Mapping out strategic success (2nd. ed.). SAGE. Beerel, A. (1997). The strategic planner as prophet and leader: a case study concerning a leading seminary illustrates the new planning skills required. Leadership & Organization Development Journal . 18 (3) pp. 136 -144. Bennis, W. (2008). Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Journal of Property Management, 73(5), 13. Chermack, T. (2011). Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Douglas, R. (2019, September 12) How AI and machine learning are transforming business planning. Adaptive InsightsBlog. Gallup. (2022). State of the global workplace 2022 report. Gallup. Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. M., & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization's enduring success . John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Knowledge@Wharton. (2009, July 22). Eyes Wide Open: Embracing Uncertainty through Scenario Planning . Tibbs, H. (2000). Making the future visible: Psychology, scenarios, and strategy. Global Business Network . Witmer, H., Mellinger, M. S., Faculty of Culture and Society, Urban Studies (US), Malmö University, & Centre for Work-Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA). (2016).