I came across a very relevant and interesting opinion piece in the Business Standard today, titled “Startup Fever” by Ajit Balakrishnan.
Some important notes from the author that got me thinking:
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“…what gives me sleepless nights is that in India, amid all this clapping and cheering abouts startups, at policy making level we need to dive a lot deeper into the startup process…
Statistics from the United States and India show that nine out of ten startups don’t make it; ie. only 10 per cent survive and prosper.
A further analysis shows that 20 per cent of startups fall apart after a year, another 30 per cent close down within two years, 20 per cent shut their doors within five years, and the remaining 20 per cent dissolve within ten years…
Which conveys learning to deal with failure in a startup venture appears to be as important, if not more important, than learning to celebrate success.
…Statistics reveal that the most important reason for failure among startups is that the product/service created does not appeal to the market (market fit).
Second – initial funds startup had at its disposal are used up too quickly.
Third – failing to hire the right people. The founders should complement each other’s skills.
The final reason for failure – something that could happen in the environment beyond your control but damages your business…”
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The opinion piece starts with a reference to an individual suicide scenario, potentially of a startup founder.
Our world tends to celebrate only the few startup successes. Is there a way to cherish the learnings and journeys of those that fail?
Startup founders and teams live through constant high stress and pressure. It is critical to work through the challenges together as a team, and build a healthy internal environment that supports each other during times of both success and failures. The impact of leadership mental and physical health could roll over into many areas, including health of the organization. Don’t leave people hanging, and share graciously during success as well. In the larger context and meaning of life, the universe seems to have a way of balancing. There are various aspects of the organization that can be analysed and improved.
External support networks and the systemic support could be game changers for leaders who may feel lonely. Sometimes, for those who have not faced any previous major failure in life, a major failure like this can be debilitating. Finding ways to cherish the journey and experience, relationships, building personal and organizational resilience (including learning to work through failures), and connecting the dots to larger context (seeing it as part of evolution) can add to the meaning of work and life.
This also reminded of a famous quote from Steve Jobs.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever”.
PURPOSE & IMPACT
Category: Coaching (page 1 of 5)
Content Credit: BiancaVanDijk (Pixabay)
I wanted to share some useful notes from the book, “The Psychology Of Fear In Organizations” by Dr. Sheila M Keegan, a Chartered Psychologist, and Fellow of the Market Research Society and Bath Business School. A lot of these play out in organizations every day and it helps a lot for leaders to be aware.
*Business psychologist and coach, Chris Welford identifies five telltale signs of a fear-based culture.
1. There is a preoccupation with status and conformity, and where rules have precedence over common sense.
2. Distinct in-groups exist and there is little opportunity to cross the boundaries between them.
3. Everything is measured but nothing is questioned.
4. Appraisals are only ever one-way.
5. The accent is on pace but short-term gain is known to be at the long term cost.
…Not surprisingly, in a fearful working climate, employees tend to mirror the behaviour of their managers. Management over-control generally has the effect of discouraging risk-taking, squashing initiatives and dispelling creativity and novel thinking.
… Feeling fearful, threatened or undermined at work can have a major effect on our work performance, as well as on our mental and physical health. Fear impacts our relationships with our colleagues and managers. We bring fear home with us…
How To Develop Personal Resilience, A Critical Element For Working Effectively Through Fear
…On a personal level, developing resilience is an ongoing process that involves a mixture of adjustments. Resilience can be developed by:
* having supportive work networks and healthy relationships.
* focusing time and energy on things we have some control over, rather than expending energy on aspects that are outside our control.
* actively looking for opportunities for self discovery and broadening our perspectives.
* practising cognitive restructuring: changing the way in which we think about negative situations.
* paying attention to our body as well as our mind, paying attention to one’s own needs and feelings.
* keeping a long term perspective, and considering the broader context.
* taking decisive actions.
* maintaining a hopeful outlook…
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These are only few perspectives on a much broader topic.
There’s been a lot of attention and discussion related to the unfortunate recent death of an employee in a large company in India, related work environment and practices. The fact that this is being shared, discussed heavily on social media and the media, indicates this topic has touched many people deeply.
* As business founders, leaders, managers and HR professionals, it is important to be proactive in ensuring healthy work environments in your organisations. This includes the focus on work, organization culture, policies and practices, leadership behaviors, health and wellbeing of your team members.
* All of you have important, shared responsibilities which impacts lives of your employees and their families.
* Doing nothing or staying silent never helps and most times, silence encourages toxic behaviours. Psychological safety is a core element of a healthy work environment. At a minimum, it is critical to initiate constructive discussions/dialogues with the long term interest of your people and sustenance of your organisation in mind. Do not brush the uncomfortable discussions away. Start with few fundamental steps that may hold high impact and visibility. Figure ways to manage stress proactively, actions to take when the red light indicators show up (they will show up in some form). When groups of managers and leaders work collectively with their support teams, get support and help (internally or externally), things will improve.
* In larger companies, it’s easier to lose sight of individual cases and stay hidden. The stress threshold levels can be different for individuals. Team members play a key role here in identifying, awareness and support.
Don’t let toxic elements/aspects linger and grow till it becomes too late.
For many leaders and organisations, the key learning here is to be proactive and not wait for worst case scenarios (irrespective of direct or indirect causes) to play out.
On the other side of the coin, many professionals and companies have high ambition and drive (that’s normally the path to quick growth) but that needs to be balanced with the constant reminder that the work is similar to a marathon, not a sprint. One needs to be prepared for the marathon. The growth process, and speed will be continuous and one needs to adjust the pace. Companies always are in a race to keep growing. The alternative is gradual decline. It is very important for the individual employee to be equally focused and responsible for safeguarding one’s own health and well being – to ask for support when needed, get help and figure ways to stay healthy physically and mentally. If the organization culture is not supportive, find personal ways to stay healthy. If that doesn’t work still, it is completely okay to find another workplace that works better for you.
The role of leaders in ensuring a healthy work environment is critical.
Chairman of multiple companies, and former CEO Douglas Conant recently said, “Surprisingly, I find that I cannot say it enough.”
…” leadership comes from within, from our humanity. We cannot be “artificial” in any way in our leadership; we must be authentic, true to ourselves, and true to the people with whom we live and work.”
There is a need to reaffirm, remind constantly about the fundamentals of a healthy workplace, and the critical role of positive, healthy leaders. When people spend most of their lives at the workplace, that could make a huge difference.
Image: Pixabay, RoderickQiu
Some of us have seen this happen few times during our lifetimes. A highly successful, global company with thousands of employees and the darling of the press and management books gets into trouble slowly and loses its shine eventually. Thousands of jobs are cut, announced in phases over years and the decline become more visible gradually. Issues become too big to ignore, other companies start taking over market share and breakdowns become more frequent with increasing number of unhappy customers. Few revered corporate names have been visible in the press for these reasons, even during the last week. This has happened to non-profit organisations as well.
The golden mindset to protect dearly during success is conscious humility.
A 2016 HBR Article (The Scary Truth About Corporate Survival) noted that 80% of the companies that existed before 1980 were no longer around. Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Anup Srivastava looked at all companies that listed on U.S. stock markets from 1960 to 2009 and confirmed that longevity is decreasing. Companies that listed before 1970 had a 92% chance of surviving the next five years, whereas companies that listed from 2000 to 2009 had only a 63% chance. They wrote that the bad news for the newer firms is that their days are numbered, unless they continually innovate. In short, even seemingly successful and rich companies can fall into a fight for survival sooner than expected.1
From a behavioural perspective, a consistent common pattern is noticeable. As companies become more successful, arrogance tends to creeps in. When this happens at the leadership levels and manifests in decisions, judgment calls and cultural elements, the damage can be enormous. Most times, the degradation is not evident quickly. This may show up in the form of increased ignorance of contradicting views and potential risks, lack of openness, increased feelings of invincibility, sometimes even translating to visible disrespect. For leaders, even listening to varying perspectives from internal stakeholders goes down. There is a rigid focus on “our approach, our process and we know what is right” thinking. Stakeholders outside the organisation most times see this degradation earlier than those inside. Even at this stage, the general feeling is that nothing could go wrong. Leaders can also become overly focused on themselves. While some leaders may seem to be humble at a personal level, it’s important to watch out for reduced humility at an intellectual level (eg. openness to discussing varying and contradicting perspectives, disregarding others quickly).
The mindset of conscious humility and curiosity are closely related. Genuine curiosity comes from being humble about one’s own views and openness to others. Conscious humility are also related to compassion and empathy. Behaviours are consistently leading indicators of organisational unhealthiness and degradation, while the slowing business results may show up much later. Once the negative impact on business results indicates a pattern, it becomes hard to turn around the ship quickly. The focus then shifts to cost cutting and prevailing phases of uncertainty, leading to complex environments. Does this sound familiar?
Professor Jim Collins (Good To Great) wrote about the Five Stages of Decline, in the book, How the Mighty Fall. He called Stage 1 the “Hubris Born of Success”. “Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success (“We’re successful because we do these specific things”) replaces penetrating understanding and insight (“We’re successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work”), decline will very likely follow. Institutions can be sick on the inside and yet still look strong on the outside; decline can sneak up on you, and then-seemingly all of a sudden-you’re in big trouble. Stage 3 is Denial Of Risk And Peril. As companies move into Stage 3, internal warning signs begin to mount, yet external results remain strong enough to “explain away” disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are “temporary” or “cyclic” or “not that bad,” and “nothing is fundamentally wrong.” In Stage 3, leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data, and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.”2
While sometimes organisations may be truly unlucky in their journey to get hit with factors outside their control, most times, the start of organisational failures can be traced back to the hubris of success and lack of humility. Leaders play a very important role in protecting and ensuring humility in day to day operations. This starts with role modelling related behaviours and incorporating conscious humility mindset into the heart of thinking, decision making and organisation culture. Ignoring these elements can invite serious repercussions.
In the book, Trillion Dollar Coach, the traits of coachability Bill Campbell sought were honesty and humility, the willingness to preserve and work hard and a constant openness to learning. Honesty and humility, because a successful coaching relationship requires a high degree of vulnerability.3 Openness as well cannot exist without humility. Humility can be developed consciously.
References
- The Scary Truth About Corporate Survival, December 2016
- Five Stages of Decline, Jim Collins
- Trillion Dollar Coach, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
Dr. Edith Eger, a well-respected psychologist, has written two books, The Choice and The Gift, and has specialized in treating people with severe trauma.
These are some valuable notes for awareness and wisdom.
* Awful things happen to us and they hurt. These devastating experiences are also opportunities to regroup and decide what we want for our lives.
* Healing comes from freeing ourselves from certain thoughts and feelings that keep us trapped in the trauma.
* Freeing yourself from victimhood – “Suffering is universal but victimhood is optional.” …instead of asking “Why me?” we can ask “What now?”
* Freeing yourself from unresolved grief – It is important to let yourself grieve. Neither denying it nor being totally absorbed by it is healthy. Resolving grief means to release our sense of responsibility for all the things that weren’t up to us and to come to terms with the choices we have made that cannot be undone.
* Freeing yourself from resentment – Often the anger and resentment we have toward another may have more to do with our own issues resulting from unresolved grief or unfinished business.
* Freeing yourself from paralyzing fear – Many of us live a fear-based life. Our thoughts and behaviors are rooted in fear…living in constant fear keeps us from growing. Sometimes fear does not go away, but the best we can do is keep it from totally dominating our lives.
* Freeing yourself from judgment – We should look inward and examine the judgments we hold for ourselves as well as others. If we are being judgmental, we are unable to be compassionate.
* Freeing yourself from hopelessness – There is always hope. What we hope for may change with time, but hope is always there. It helps to remember that we have survived difficult situations before and that we can do it again.
* Freeing yourself for not forgiving – Forgiveness is something that we do for ourselves, not for others. When we do so, it frees us from the past. Releasing our anger and the people who have harmed us in the past can help to set us free.
* The search to make meaning in my life by helping others to make meaning, to heal so that I could heal others, to heal others so that I could heal myself.
* Suffering is inevitable and universal. But how we respond to suffering differs.
* The truth is, we will have unpleasant experiences in our lives, we will make mistakes, we won’t always get what we want. This is part of being human.
The problem—and the foundation of our persistent suffering—is the belief that discomfort, mistakes, disappointments signal something about our worth.
* Self-acceptance was the hardest part of healing for me.
Sources:
1. Twelve Steps for Healing Trauma..from Dr. Edith Eger’s “The Gift”; Psychology Today, Nov 2020
2. How to cope with grief..; Business Insider, Nov 2020
3. The Choice, Dr. Edith Eger
These are selected notes from the book, “Building Conflict Competent Teams” (Craig Runde, Tim Flanagan; 2008).
Reappraising What’s Happening
“We often think that others’ motives are worse than they actually are, and this causes us to feel threatened and get upset. Looking at the situation to find less sinister motives can dampen your emotions. This process is referred to as reframing; that is, you consider the situation from new frames of reference.
It is associated with a psychological concept called cognitive reappraisal, described by a quote from Marcus Aurelius: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
Cognitive reappraisal means reinterpreting the meaning of what you see or hear. You may initially construe another person’s actions as hostile to your interests. Perhaps you think they are moving in on your turf or trying to make you look bad in front of others. Although this is certainly possible, there may be innocent reasons for their actions. Research has shown that reappraising situations can lessen emotional tension. In particular, changes in brain activity are analogous to those that occur when a person uses reflection and mindfulness techniques. When this happens, negative emotions lessen and more positive emotions emerge….
Team leaders can have a profound impact on the emotional climate of their teams. Leaders who demonstrate positive moods and effective emotional control can create a positive climate within their teams. When a leader conveys news, her tone and demeanor may have greater impact than the content of the message. The team leader plays a critical role, but all members of the team have to work together to address conflict effectively. They need to participate in developing and upholding team norms, which support and empower individual team members to step in when they see relationship conflict emerging that can harm the team. A team member who sees other teammates acting in ways that are breaching trust or contributing to destructive conflict can intercede and remind the others of the team norms for how to deal with conflict… “
Have you observed greed in leadership? How has that impacted/influenced your feeling of trust and relationship with that leader, your organisation, yourself?
These are selected notes from the Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change, INSEAD (from the article, ‘Is Greed Destroying Your Soul?’)
* Greed may have a purpose, according to evolutionary psychologists. They believe that, by pushing us to amass status-signalling possessions, greed can help us attract a mate and thus perpetuate our genetic code.
* I prefer to look at greed as a coping mechanism. In my interactions with greedy people, I have observed that many are trying to fill an inner void or solve another emotional problem.
* Many greedy people obsessively pursue wealth as a substitute for what they feel is lacking inside them. But they ignore the high price that comes with greediness…
*…the greedier we become, the more we advance on the path of self-destruction.
*…like the proverbial leaking bucket that can’t be filled, the personal costs can be high. Far too often, greed comes with stress, exhaustion, anxiety, depression and despair. In addition, it can lead to maladaptive behaviour patterns such as gambling, hoarding, trickery and even theft.
In the corporate world, as John Grant wrote, “fraud is the daughter of greed.”
* Some believe that without a dose of greed, a given person, community or society may lack the motivation to move forward. I believe that, as with most things in life, managing greed is about balance. Like all potentially destructive human drives, greed must be tempered by positive social norms, such as generosity.
* Unchecked greed can destroy the soul of humanity like a great cancer, metastasising throughout society. The victory of greed over compassion may ultimately cause our civilisation’s downfall.
* Society’s ambivalence about greed makes it difficult to “treat” greedy people. After all, many view greed and its related traits – such as ambition and material success – as desirable rather than a potential mental health problem. It is not always easy to explain the harm caused by excessive greed…
There is still such a thing as free will. We all have a choice.
* If you can’t be content with what you have, you’re unlikely to be happy with more.
* One of the most difficult tasks for greedy people is learning to be selfish in a proper way. They need to pay attention to their inner self. It requires persistence, patience, humility, courage and commitment. But a long-term investment in the self can be a powerful antidote to greed and other forms of addiction.
There is no one perfect path to meaning or joy. There are multiple paths and we travel through our own paths of meaning and purpose. Every journey is special, in our own minds and hearts. There is no need or reason to compare with others. The end of a journey may be the same but the experiences are very different. We are the only ones who can appreciate the depth and breadth of our own experiences and journeys.
We are on our unique journeys. Each one of us has a really interesting story that could be made into a movie – the movie of our life. That involves happiness, joy, sadness, loss, success, failures, relationships, frustrations, struggles, pain, pleasure, meaning….
We evolve through our lives based on all our experiences and choices. There are conscious choices and there are times when circumstances or inner voice nudges us in certain directions. We cross paths with many people through our lifetimes. Some memories, attachments stay longer, and others start dwindling faster with time. The ones that I remember most are times of joy, unique experiences, deep connections, challenges, pain or vulnerability. Many times, memories are brought back through people or other associations.
As the lead character or protagonist in our own movies, we have been there throughout and are the only ones who can understand our evolution through reflections. Others will most probably not share or relate to the same feelings. They may also relate to the different versions of the lead character that they have experienced at different touchpoints. Expectations may vary accordingly. Through this journey, we ideally discover our authentic selves, pure inner voices more and more. Based on some accounts, this movie may play for us at the end of our journeys.
Every journey is interesting, beautiful, precious, unique and meaningful in its own way. Only if every movie could be seen… There is always time to reflect, cherish, find more meaning and joy.
Have you taken the time to reflect, cherish and celebrate your journey?
“If God wanted the sky to be empty, He would not have given birds wings to fly.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo (goodreads)
Image source:
https://pixabay.com/photos/sand-footsteps-footprints-beach-768783/
We live in a world where there are many who claim to be experts or share expert opinions on multiple topics. The amount and impact of ‘pseudo-experts’ seem to be increasing. On all forms of media, lots of expert opinions on varied topics are shared constantly and many people buy into them and trust quickly without realising the quality of information, the individual who is sharing or the actual source. As a result, low quality or unreliable perspectives find lots of eyeballs and mindspace.
I wanted to share 3 tips that have helped me in figuring out right experts, better quality information and perspectives.
1. Understand background and experience, both of the expert and the source
Look for the background, expertise and experiences of the individual(s) in the relevant areas. The quality, depth and breadth of those experiences and their contributions track record over time also matter. Look for how deeply they may have studied that area and shared quality insights. A basic search on the internet or LinkedIn can help. Do note that the number of connections or titles don’t translate to being an expert.
Ideally, there needs to be a mix of conceptual/theoretical and practical experiences for high quality insights and perspectives. Being an expert in one area does not translate automatically to being an expert in other areas. We tend to see that error or bias quite a bit. It also helps to observe who have liked/endorsed them or their insights or shared further. Credibility has to be developed over time and with consistency.
If studies and researches are quoted in articles or conversations, it always helps to see who or where the research was undertaken. Ask the logical questions about the relevance and environment of those studies. The quality of the institution or individuals who undertook the study can be an important factor in the validity of results that are quoted.
2. Openness to alternate views and discussions
The best experts are open to listening, discussing, learning and debating alternate or contradicting views because they understand there are multiple variables to explore, some that they may not have foreseen or others that may be worth learning or engaging further. An open mindset to a quality discussion and exploration improves the outlook of an expert perspective. Keep in mind that we generally tend to read and believe in topics that we want to believe in or have an internal bias towards. We relate better to certain conversational and writing styles.
3. Observe patiently and do your own research over time
Hold off from jumping to conclusions from one expert opinion or view, unless you have done your homework and looked across multiple expert views or studies. The predictiveness of quality is better if you have been tracking someone’s work over time. Even then, it helps to maintain a broad perspective and expand your senses to multiple experts. If the opinion relates to your own area of work, it helps to reflect on your experiences and the links to the perspectives shared.
As a result of all these, the quality of your insight and perspectives will improve over time and chances of being misled will reduce substantially. Your quality of thinking, actions and growth will be on a better curve.
Have other approaches worked for you?
“Logic, it is often said, is the study of valid arguments. It is a systematic attempt to distinguish valid arguments from invalid arguments.” – William H. Newton-Smith
Logic: An Introductory Course (goodreads)
As part of a yearly practice and commitment to myself, the last couple of weeks in each year become a time for deep reflection.
I started writing posts in LinkedIn during a difficult personal time in 2014. At that time, my only thought was that it would be meaningful if my writing positively influenced, educated or inspired even couple of individuals. After 5 years (recent slow years in writing), I’m very grateful for the cumulative 25,000 views, 2000 likes and thoughtful comments from readers around the world. That makes all this very meaningful. A deep thank you to all dear friends and readers who keep checking and encouraging.
There are 4 important self-review questions I love to revisit each year:
- How did I live my year, especially in the context of things I aspired to do? What have I learned from my experiences, how have I grown?
- How much did I live meaningfully? When did I feel in touch with my soul?
- What positive impact did I have on the people and environment around me?
- What are key things in life that I am grateful for?
On general observations from 2019, the following 5 themes and questions kept coming back for me. All of these impact businesses and organizations, in some form or the other.
- Leadership styles and principles – Looking at events happening around the world and behaviors (including some of the world leaders), is there a fundamental shift to what people respond better to? Where is the topic of ethics headed (with some blatantly obvious public scenarios)?
- Everyone has a voice but… – The power of social media and ubiquitous mobile smart devices is that anyone anywhere can share his/her voice and be seen, heard anywhere. However, there is a really important question regarding how much of that is educated/thoughtful or just ‘noise’ devoid of facts?
- Short term Vs. Long term – Are we ever more focused on short term (all sides) in all sectors? How much does this impact actions all round?
- Increasing Gap in Society – Collectively, it’s really nice to see most people are willing to give and help others during times of difficulties. That said, is the gap between haves and have nots, rich and poor in society increasing to worrying proportions? Are current economic models supporting that in most parts of the world?
- Environment – Without doubt, we are at the mercy of mother nature everywhere, whether we like to admit it or not. How much do we really care about preserving our world for a healthy future and how many truly believe that actions today are helping?
Guessing that these topics won’t go away soon but hoping that they will get discussed actively at all levels and evolve positively. How do you see them?
Warm wishes for a wonderful holiday season, Christmas time and New Year!
I sincerely hope that this post leaves you with one positive thought and action. We evolve through all our experiences.
“Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (goodreads)
About Tojo Eapen
Leadership Coach, Consultant, HR Leader with diverse, global experiences (U.S.A, Europe, APAC).
Master of Human Resource Management from Rutgers University, New Jersey, U.S.A. Recipient of the U.S. Garden State Council SHRM HR Leadership Scholarship.
Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India.
Certifications: MBTI, Hogan, RBL Leadership Code, SHL 360, Team Management Profile, NeuroLeadership Results & Team Coaching.
Facilitated coaching sessions, workshops and programs for Nokia (Helsinki, London, Berlin, Global/Virtual), Rio Tinto (New Delhi), QuEST Global (Global/Virtual, Bangalore, Kerala), Matrix Partners India, Women Inclusive In Technology (India).
Mission: Enable healthy, purposeful, and impactful organizations, through leadership knowledge and wisdom.
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