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… — These are only few perspectives on a much broader topic.
On Mahatma Gandhi’s 155th birth anniversary, we remember his life and wisdom.
We continue to live in times of high uncertainty, violence and wars threatening to spread. As much as everyone likes to focus on their own world/environment, we live in a more interconnected world, and the impact of good and bad outcomes will be felt wider.
Is it becoming increasingly difficult to wish for a world of peace and harmony? Are we speeding up our Doomsday clock/own extinction? How could we get out of a vicious cycle of violence? —-
* Blessed is the man who can perceive the law of ahimsa (nonviolence) in the midst of the raging fire of himsa (violence) all around him. We bow in reverence to such a man by his example. * Gandhi objects to violence because it perpetuates hatred. When it appears to do ‘good’, the good is only temporary and cannot do any good in the long run. * Gandhi feels that violence is not a natural tendency of humans. It is a learned experience.
Satyagraha, the Centre of Gandhi’s Contribution to the Philosophy of Nonviolence Satyagraha is the quintessence of Gandhism. Through it, Gandhi introduced a new spirit to the world.
What is Satyagraha? Satyagraha (pronounced sat-YAH-graha) is a compound of two Sanskrit nouns satya, meaning truth (from ‘sat’- ‘being’ with a suffix ‘ya’), and agraha, meaning, “firm grasping”. Thus Satyagraha literally means devotion to truth, remaining firm on the truth and resisting untruth actively but nonviolently. Since the only way for Gandhi getting to the truth is by nonviolence (love), it follows that Satyagraha implies an unwavering search for the truth using nonviolence. Satyagraha according to Michael Nagler literally means ‘clinging to truth,’ and that was exactly how Gandhi understood it: “clinging to the truth that we are all one under the skin, that there is no such thing as a ‘win/lose’ confrontation because all our important interests are really the same, that consciously or not every single person wants unity and peace with every other”. Put succinctly, Satyagraha means ‘truth force’, ‘soul force’ or as Martin Luther Jr would call it ‘love in action.’
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”
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
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.
Toxic work environments can be dangerous, result in physical and mental health issues, and impact sustainable business results (often missed in the short term). Are they more widespread that we assume?
Poor leadership could be one of the leading causes and indicators.
Many will experience, are or would already have experienced a challenging, toxic work environment or leader at some point in their career. That can be debilitating and intense. It may also change you. It is difficult to understand pain until you’ve experienced it yourself.
* Among the top Predictors of Employee Turnover During the Great Resignation, professors from MIT Sloan and NYU Stern found (2022) that a toxic culture is 10.4 times more likely to contribute to attrition than compensation. A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition. * From a poll of 1,000 UK employees (2021), 7 in 10 Brits shared they’ve worked in a toxic environment at some stage of their career. According to Oak Engage’s Toxic Workplace Report (2023), 75% of UK employees admit they have experienced a toxic workplace culture. 87% agreed that a toxic workplace culture has had a negative impact on their mental health and 73% agreed that a toxic workplace culture has contributed to their burnout. * According to a poll (2023) of more than 1,300 U.S. adults conducted by online career platform Muse, nearly two-thirds of workers have faced so-called toxic work environments. * According to Talent Works (2022), the majority of women in technology have experienced toxic work environments, with 21% experiencing it frequently. * According to one survey in India, tech workers are willing to accept lower salaries and even take pay cuts, if it means being a part of a company with a non-toxic work culture. In another one (2023), 87 per cent felt work-life balance is top priority for combatting toxic work culture and 31 per cent attribute pressure at the workplace as one of the main concerns for mental health issues.
What approaches have worked for you, to effectively manage through a toxic work environment?
I’ve found Bill George’s writings on leadership to be deeply thought provoking – based on his personal experiences, as corporate leader (CEO-Medtronic, EVP-Honeywell), board member, mentor and teacher (Harvard).
The following selected notes are from his article, ‘Reflections On Fifty Years Of Leadership’ (available in the free ebook, Lead True -link shared below). These apply to developing organizations and leaders in all environments.
As I reflect on the past half-century, enormous changes have taken place in organizations, their leaders and our expectations of these leaders. Many formerly great organizations have fallen by the wayside, as new ones have sprung up to replace them. Economists often attribute this phenomenon to rapid changes in technology and markets, using phrases like “creative destruction.” I beg to differ with them. If there is one thing of which I am certain, it is that the difference between successful, enduring organizations and those that disappear is the caliber of their leaders – at the top and throughout the organization. Among the most important qualities for leaders, these two stand out: adaptability and courage.
All of us will experience great crucibles in our lives from which we can discover what is real for us: our True North. Sometimes in life bad things happen to good people. There is deep learning in these experiences if we take the time to discern their meaning and reframe them to make our lives richer and more meaningful.
By choosing leaders for charisma, image and style – subjects often taught by business schools and leadership experts in the 20th century – we were overlooking far better leaders with character, integrity and substance.
The defining quality of today’s leaders is their authenticity – their ability to know themselves and discern their True North. Authentic leaders are secure within themselves. They do not need external validation to prop up internal insecurity. Instead, they have worked hard to develop the self-awareness to lead with clarity of purpose, practice their values every day, discern the “sweet spot” where their motivations merge with their strengths, build enduring relationships, and inspire and empower others to rise to the challenge. They know what it means to LEAD TRUE: to have the courage to adapt to any challenge while still being true to themselves.
There are many more valuable notes for reflection and learning throughout the book. I would highly recommend to read and reflect.
Source: Reflections On Fifty Years Of Leadership, Lead True, Bill George, eBook; http://www.billgeorge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Bill-George-Lead-True-eBook.pdf
Many current and aspiring leaders across the world grapple with a basic question:
What areas of competencies are needed to become an effective leader?
My first podcast focuses on the required awareness of fundamental leadership capabilities and the four competency areas for leadership success in any environment.
Many smaller organizations find it difficult to figure out relevant activities in the area of leadership/management development. Related questions come up frequently and at times, a mistaken perception exists that leadership/management development is only applicable to larger organizations.
If left ignored, this is one area that will hurt any organization in many ways. Worrying symptoms start showing up in different areas for the organization including stakeholder engagement, execution and it becomes difficult to diagnose the real problem as time passes.
Here are four topics under leadership/management development for leaders and HR teams to consider.
Any development effort starts with developing self awareness. Leadership self awareness development can start with understanding oneself deeper through facilitated 360 degree/other feedbacks, personality assessments (like MBTI, Hogan etc.) and follow-up reflections/coaching sessions. These sessions can be facilitated at the individual or team level, or a combination of both for quality reflection and action. Periodic follow-up interventions are invaluable for any development effort. Self aware leaders also recognize coaching opportunities for themselves and their team members toward meaningful results.
A related impactful area to consider focusing on is leadership team development. Many leaders miss the opportunity or don’t take the time to consciously reflect on establishing the building blocks of developing an effective team and co-creating a focused agenda with the team. When teams are not developed consciously and carefully especially at senior levels, it leaves room for potential confusion, conflict and frustration. Even for well established teams, this is an important topic to revisit consistently and not to be taken for granted. Supporting leadership transitions in this context also become highly relevant.
Building a shared understanding of what “leadership“or being a leader in the organization means (leadership constructs) will help clarify expectations. Support can be provided through training programs for first time managers, middle managers and leaders. The more leaders understand what it means to be and is expected from a leader in the organization, the more impactful results organizations can consistently achieve through them.
Building a shared understanding on the organization’s strategy, values and culture is often an important item that loses focus. Many times, the clarity on values and culture stays strong with only the founding or early members. As a result, many people tend to apply their own interpretations which leads the organization’s value system in different directions and dilution over time. Sometimes, there is a need for a discussion on how the culture has evolved or needs to change in the context of business direction. Reinforcing and aligning the organization’s understanding and shared beliefs will ensure stronger cohesion, commitment and execution across the board. This can be facilitated through various well designed OD/HR, engagement and communication initiatives.
If you are a leader or HR professional in a smaller organization considering impactful activities to implement in leadership/management development, these may be some practical and actionable ideas to think about for the new year. It is important to constantly be aware of the paradox of busyness & development.
Best wishes for a Meaningful, Impactful and Successful 2017.
After years of observing leaders in business and non-profit environments around the world, one point is absolutely clear to me. Leaders play fundamental roles that determine the success of any organization and impact many lives, directly and indirectly.
If you have any doubt, please check out the business news sections or conduct a quick, direct opinion survey among your experienced connections. We see this power of leadership manifesting everyday through the news about flourishing or struggling organizations and the resulting massive impact on individual lives and communities, both positively and negatively.
How should leaders earn their premium?
1. By making key decisions/judgments and executing successfully.
This is probably the most important element. By the nature of key strategic choices, decisions and judgments being made, tremendous value can be created or destroyed quickly. Think about organizations that announce hundreds or thousands of job cuts and those that create opportunities. It is easier to destroy than create value.
Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis defined judgment as an informed decision making process that encompasses three domains – judgments about people,aboutstrategy andin time of crisis.
Every key business decision, strategic choice or judgment made by a leader can hugely impact the future of an organization and the lives of many people and their families. Decisions should be followed by effective execution and both need equal attention.
Leaders have to be focused on building sustainable businesses and organizations. This may sometimes result in difficult choices in the short run but if they miss to balance financials with employees or other key stakeholders aspects, morale drops quickly and trust gets impacted.
A recent Fast Company article noted that leadership in the future depends less on knowing things others don’t know, and more on seeing new relationships among facts available to all of us – pattern recognition. The time honored relationship – correlation of knowledge with greater influence in business – is now dissolving, as technology dissolves knowledge monopolies. It is not uncommon even nowadays, to see many individuals holding on to knowledge without sharing, to feel important and secure.
2. By building highly engaging organizational environments and capabilities.
Ensuring the first element alone will not work. Leaders can influence sustainable success for the long run by engaging, empowering, motivating individuals and teams to deliver successful outcomes; creating an environment of openness, inclusion, trust, with high performance practices and systems.
For most employees, the “company” means “leaders”. It’s not uncommon to hear employees across the world say, “The company did something.” It is worthwhile to think, “Who or what is this company?”.
Leaders also influence heavily how employees feel about themselves and their relationship to the organization. Studies in one of the best books on leadership (The Leadership Challenge) note that leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.
At the heart of it, leaders create the feeling of “We” and “Us” in organizations with shared responsibility, not “You” and “Me”.
Boards, executives, shareholders and organizations at any level or sector who understand these fundamental elements and expectations from leaders will be able to build and enable sustainable and impactful organizations.
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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