A newsletter to support High Performance Leadership and Creativity in
Individuals and Organizations™
Vm.
1, No. 1, 2001
By
Jan Hoistad, Ph.D. and Associates
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I am
interested in how all individuals develop the leadership potential
within them and how, as leaders, we can promote and apply the most
creative methods possible to every aspect of our lives. Over the years
I have noticed four foundations - for groups and organizations, partnerships
and families - which seemingly must be in place for creativity to
flourish. Without these cornerstones or foundational blocks, the house
does not stand. These include:
In this
issue, I want to focus on the cornerstone of health within organizations.
(Upcoming issues of Thoughts on the Big
Picture will discuss the
remaining foundations.) I include in this definition health at all
levels, be it mental, emotional, behavioral, social, spiritual, values,
as well as physical health.
Over
the last 20 years we have made great strides in integrating and attending
to the physical health and wellness in the workplace. However, as
I coach and train within companies, I am amazed at the vast distinction
between companies who overlook or tolerate dysfunction, who don't
help an employee in trouble, or who turn their gaze away from misbehavior
among the leadership or their employees, and those who do not. Many
organizations have policies and procedures for addressing major misbehaviors
- drugs, drinking, sexual harassment, embezzlement - but they go into
a state of confusion, denial, or passive aggressive anger, gossip,
eye-rolling, hand wringing, when it comes to dealing with more subtle
"misbehaviors" among co-workers.
What
I notice first and foremost about these companies in denial, is just
how much time they spend thinking, talking, and gossiping about the
problems, behind the scenes. And, how demoralizing it is, at all levels
of a group, to be passive about such behaviors.
- A
common example of misbehavior is disrespectful communication,
sarcasm, bad boundaries, or consistently interrupting others at
inappropriate times during the day.
- A
common example of not helping someone in trouble might be the
employee who is obviously stressed, maybe a perfectionist approaching
burnout (would you or your employees be able to identify these symptoms?),
or someone exhibiting the signs of depression or anxiety (do you
and your employees know these signs?)
- A
common example of dysfunctional leadership might be when inappropriate
people are consistently hired, then lots of time and energy, and
dollars, are spent trying to make it work.
I recall
the first time I asked the owner of a $500,000/year and growing business,
just how many hours she and her staff had spent talking about a certain
employee - an employee with poor communication skills, a sometimes
belligerent attitude, who continuously overstepped her role and boundaries,
making other staff members quite angry and frustrated. I asked her
to add up the number of coaching hours I had spent with her talking
about the situation. I asked her to add up the number of hours she
had spent complaining about this employee to her husband when she
arrived home for dinner.
Then
I asked her to tally that number and multiply it by her hourly rate,
the rate of her average staff members, and my hourly rate. She was
astounded - but it drove the point home - "I see what you mean about
not taking action!!" Following that exercise, she consciously worked
to become more proactive, the employee was appropriately trained to
see if she could fit in, the staff was guided to stop gossiping, work
on their attitude, and use appropriate channels to file complaints.
The staff member was eventually let go after continued disruptions.
However, after cooling down, she returned to thank her former employer
for a difficult lesson well learned.
A year
later, my coaching client's entire staff is stable and working well
together. She, as owner, has time to devote to the new growth she
is starting to put in place. She even has the creative time and energy
to become president of her professional board and help them get out
of some deep dysfunction! And, her self-esteem is 50 times higher
than a year ago! She is proud of herself and the skills she has developed
in herself and others. What great pay-offs all the way around!
These
types of issues are more common in teams or organizations in the earlier
stages of development. If they persist beyond the first 3 - 4 years
- if the leadership has not found help to clear up these problems
- you can be sure you are looking at a company that is "stuck", whose
creative juices are not flowing fully. Many companies survive in this
mode - they just don't thrive.
Culture
is the expression of the vision, values and goals of a nation, society,
family, group, business, or organization. The four foundations on
which creativity rests become a part of a consciously developed culture
of any group that wishes to thrive. How consciously have you developed,
stated, and role modeled your company values so that it permeates
your entire organization and everyone is aligned with this culture.
In my
experience, including specifically stated value and systems for addressing
these problematic or dysfunctional issues should be so much a part
of the culture of a company that it becomes "like breathing air".
What is the quality of the air in your company?
Now obviously
you should consult your company lawyer for boundaries in how to approach
touchy situations, however, much of this is in the realm of human
caring, human development, raising the bar of expectations for everyone
in an organization to grow - mentally, performance-wise, emotionally,
value-wise, behaviorally, interpersonally, and maybe even, spiritually
and philosophically - no matter what business you are in.
When
you act on these expectations you are reinforcing the values and visions
of a cultural expectation. You, as leaders, can learn to talk about
these expectations upfront, to train your supervisors and managers
to speak of them in the hiring and training process, so it becomes
an expectation of all.
You might
notice that I keep referring throughout my materials to the "ripple
effect" we each have - for better or worse - on those around and even,
beyond us. You may want to be proactive in clarifying, if you haven't
already done so, what you value in the promotion of basic healthy
human behavior within your team or organization - your "ripple effect"
on one another. You will then want to put in place training (a few
words in staff meetings on a regular basis, written materials in the
employee handbook, etc.), and development of new policies, procedures
and systems that managers can implement. Most importantly, you will
want to "Walk Your Talk" and have everyone in your leadership
levels consciously doing so as well.
Most
people want to achieve. Most people want to live all aspects of their
lives in alignment with deep, core, simple human values guiding behavior
and interaction.
Where
to start?
| 1. |
Expect
it of yourself on every level - from brushing your teeth and making
your bed every morning to treating everyone with grace, dignity,
and acknowledging their capacity to grow and become conscious
no matter where they are starting. |
| 2. |
Start
talking about this as a value with everyone around you and brainstorm
all the ways you can role model and train in this expectation
of healthy behavior throughout your lives and within your organization. |
| 3. |
Brainstorm
ways to approach situations that are problematic within your team
or organization. Be sure to be sensitive to issues of respect
for the individual, confidentiality, empathy and human caring.
|
| 4. |
Spread
the word that gossip and demoralizing talk and actions will no
longer be tolerated. That everyone is responsible for raising
the morale, consciousness and behavior of the organization. Teach
them to take appropriate action is something or someone is troubled
or bothering them or the team. Then, be sure to follow-up on your
promise. |
| 5. |
Finally,
have courage, grace and dignity and begin to address the smallest
of issues one at a time as they arise. If you have a backlog of
inappropriate behaviors going on within your group, begin to clean
them up one at a time. Soon you will see there is no backlog and
everyone is working in alignment almost all of the time. |
Good
luck! I'd like to hear your feedback, questions, or experiences as
you work toward upgrading the health within your organization and
develop more capacity for creativity.
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