In this superb article by Kevin Weitz, he explores positivity and happiness in the workplace and shares a good deal of research as well as personal anecdotes and observations about the workplace.  Below an excerpt, and you can access the full article (15 pages long) at the Library of Professional Coaching anytime.  He says, “My experience with positive work environments suggests that these were always was due to a specific manager or leader, who despite the milieu, created energy, positivity and happiness in his or her scope of influence.”

The Happiness “Challenge”

I titled this section of the paper “The Happiness Challenge” because happiness – or positivity – does not manifest easily, particularly in the workplace – certainly not without effort for most of us and it is particularly challenging in most work environments where deadlines, budgets and performance issues can compromise most people’s sense of happiness. Indeed, as Frederickson describes (2009, p. 28), in the United States, despite “The Pursuit of Happiness” being guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence, the US was rather forged under the influence of a harsh Protestant work ethic; a philosophy that holds that enjoyment, pleasure and leisure are bad and that people can only show their worth through hard work and toil; Happiness and fun should be shunned in favor of long, hard work hours and deprivation. Without doubt, this ethic was alive and well in the banking group example I described at the beginning of this paper. The US and many other societies have entrenched harshness in the very essence of who we are as a working nation. Its not surprising that even using the term “happiness” in the workplace, as I have personally experienced, can elicit dismissive eye-rolling and even a degree of contempt. As I describe in more detail later in this paper, the change management consulting methodology known as “Appreciative Inquiry”, in my experience, faces challenges simply based on its title (“Appreciative”) and its focus (the positive). It is common, I find, that business leaders focus on “problems” as their default lens of attention. Seeking out the positive and appreciating what is good in an organization is dismissed or ignored as irrelevant or even worse, a diversion from what is important and urgent.

The focus on negativity in the workplace can create a culture of anxiety, fear and distrust over time. How often do we experience co-workers arriving at work with full-blown flu or other illnesses because they feel guilty about staying at home, and half-joking comments about co-workers who arrive at work late or leave work early with the implication that they are lazy? Or colleagues who have difficulty taking vacations out of fear that they may fall behind at work. A former boss of mine frequently described how he had never fully completed a planned vacation because he felt compelled to get back to work – this is an individual who had a minor stroke in the office next to mine at the age of 42, and is a perfect example of what Achor (2010, p. 73) calls the “Workaholic’s curse”. Despite writing this paper in what is almost 2012, the workplace is still an environment more commonly characterized by harshness and negativity rather than positivity and upliftment. Indeed, as Fredrickson (2009, p. 28) comments, happiness in the workplace may even be considered “Un-American”:

“The United States – and much of the capitalist world – was forged under the influence of the Protestant work ethic, a philosophy that holds that enjoyment and leisure are sinful, and that only through austere work activities can people prove their true worth. This worldview produces characters who shun all pleasant impulses and activities that might generate joviality … in favor of long work hours and personal thrift. It produces a culture that celebrates intensity, competitiveness and doggedness.”

Your thoughts?

Charlie Smith, a brilliant colleague and dear friend, has written extensively about what he dubbed, “the Merlin factor” in leadership in organizations.  You can find more about this in his books as well as the excerpt below from the Library of Professional Coaching:

Most attempts to improve an organization’s performance by changing its internal culture fall short of the desired results. The principal impediments to producing effective new actions through culture change are people’s current beliefs about the limits of what it is possible to undertake and achieve. These self-limiting beliefs based on experiences from the organization’s past. By contrast, executives who successfully instill a new strategic intent in their organizations’ cultures share a leadership quality the author calls The Merlin Factor’.

The reference is to the legendary sage who, according to one account, “lived backward in time”. Merlin was born in the future and aged as he proceeded into the past, influencing events in King Arthur’s court by drawing on his foreknowledge of their destined outcomes. Exceptional leaders cultivate the Merlin-like habit of acting in the present moment as ambassadors of a radically different future, in order to imbue their organizations with a breakthrough vision of what it is possible to achieve. The author, Charles Smith, quotes from interviews with successful visionary leaders whose commitment to future achievements that seem ’impossible’ by past standards are producing extraordinary results in the present. These first-hand accounts illustrate the three action phases of the Merlin Factor: Invention, Ignition and Implementation.

 

READ FULL ARTICLE AND DOWNLOAD HERE: http://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/tools/executive/the-merlin-factor-leadership-and-strategic-intent/

There are a multitude of leaders, bloggers, and authors these days who write about the importance of values in corporations. Having the right values and aligning the players with those values produces great results. My mentor, Charles Smith, PhD. has written a great deal on the subject.  Below are excerpts from one of his articles at the Library of Professional Coaching:

Context is decisive and people always end up  in the context they start with. Corporations need a new context of values that has money and values be of equal importance. There is power that comes from integrating opposites. It’s time for corporations to claim this power. I’ve seen dedication to values in corporations make an enormous difference. Consistently the critical values were;Personal Responsibility for Breakthrough Results: People honor extraordinary performance.  They promise and deliver breakthrough results, rather than good intentions and business as usual outcomes.  Individuals take themselves as cause in the matter of going beyond normal limits.

Group Alignment: People are going in the same direction.  There is shared enthusiasm for the goal.  They have shared values and a similar image of the future.  They are in the same boat.

Conflict Resolution: There is search for common ground and agreement on problems before seeking solution.  People face up to problems and negotiate differences.  They attempt to discover and meet each other’s underlying interests, insofar as possible.

Positive Relationship: People know what others care about.  They practice openness, direct speaking, generous listening, co-invention and dialogue.  They feel safe to express themselves.

Future Focus: People suspend assumptions, they speculate and inquire.  They identify what is currently impossible and imagine ways to make it possible.  Invention and novelty are valued.  On balance, they take responsibility for shaping the future, rather than worrying about it.  They embrace possibility.

Profound Respect: People honor each other and their environment.  They treat each other as “human beings” rather than objects or “things.”  They hold each other accountable and are able to remain generous.

The following excerpt was from a larger article by my dear friend and colleague, Wendy Capland called The Business Case for Coaching which you can read in full here: http://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/research/the-business-case-for-coaching/

The work of effective coaching within organizations involves unleashing the human spirit and expanding people’s capacity to stretch and grow beyond self-limiting boundaries. Coaching should not start with goal setting and problem solving, but rather with exploring the underlying concepts or mental models that a person relies on for meaning in their personal and professional lives. What assumptions and beliefs determine behavior? The truly effective coach knows that you can’t solve a problem before you know what the problem really is, and you can’t know what the problem really is unless the person you are coaching has permission and authority to speak with candor and forthrightness.

Before focusing on performance issues, a masterful coach guides those involved through the exploration process, helping to identify openings and opportunities where there may have been blind spots and failures. He or she helps clarify what really matters to the person being coached. Together, they seek to align personal and organizational goals. Only then can there be commitment to right action within the context of the organizational culture and business reality.

Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee in their book Primal Leadership (Harvard Business School Press 2002) point out that despite the commonly held belief that every leader needs to be a good coach, they exhibit this style least often. In high-pressure situations, leaders say they “don’t have the time” for coaching. Yet the evidence from the studies is clear. Effective leadership coaching not only develops better leaders; it improves productivity substantially – even exponentially, in some instances.

 

“If you ask men why they did a good job, they’ll say ‘I’m awesome.’ If you ask women why they did a good job what they’ll say it’s someone helped them, they got lucky, they worked really hard,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Ladies, there’s a lot we can learn from our male colleagues! This article in the Huffington Post maps out some great points and expands up on these mindsets that  I’ve coached women executives on for years. Namely,

1.  Know you’re awesome

2.  Be visible

3.  Ask for what you want

4. Don’t apologize as a communication strategy

5.  Always create strategic relationships of influence

6.  Own your power and be yourself – fully!

Here’s how Meghan Neal in the Huffington Post breaks it down:

When it comes to workplace equality, we’ve come a long way — long enough for some to say men are on the decline. Statistics show more women than men are now earning college degrees, more women than men are employed, and women are climbing the corporate ladder in record numbers. But the data also show a persistent wage gap, and very small percentages of women at the very top across multiple industries.

Why? Slow-to-change gender stereotypes are of course partly to blame — no one disputes that. And research indicates that it doesn’t benefit women to act just like men at work — even if they could, even if they wanted to. But given that men still do hold most of the top roles in the highest earning fields, it may be worth looking again at what they do right in their careers that women don’t traditionally do as well, and figure out how women might adopt these select skills:
Think You’re Awesome

“If you ask men why they did a good job, they’ll say ‘I’m awesome.’ If you ask women why they did a good job what they’ll say it’s someone helped them, they got lucky, they worked really hard,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg during her popular 2010 TED talk on why we have too few women leaders. “Men attribute their success to themselves and women attribute it to other external factors.”

Successful women often have Imposter Syndrome — a psychological phenomenon (not actually a clinical syndrome) in which you feel that you “lucked into” your success, that you’re somehow a fraud who doesn’t deserve whatever reward you’ve earned and will eventually be found out. The term was coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, and has been found to especially affect women in traditionally male fields.

When the time does come to negotiate a raise or promotion, this way of thinking can keep you from asking for what you deserve. Take a cue from men: Not only are you not an imposter, you’re awesome.
Make Sure You’re Visible

Connie Glaser, a leading expert on gender communication and women in leadership, writes:

From kindergarten on, girls are taught that if they do a good job, they’ll be recognized for their work and be promoted accordingly. Unfortunately, success in the business world doesn’t work this way. The right people need to know about your accomplishments if you want get ahead. Women need to seek visibility for themselves — volunteer to make a presentation, write a press release about recent accomplishments, network with company influencers, and let key people know about your successes.

You can also gain visibility through mentorship and sponsorship. A sponsor is similar to a mentor, but high enough on the totem poll to secure your advancement, and willing to put their reputation on the line to make it happen.

The importance of sponsorship in women’s careers has never been more evident, thanks to a recent report from Catalyst, “Sponsoring Women To Success,” which found that even when women start out behind, when their mentors are highly placed in the company, they are just as likely as men to get promoted.

Women face challenges in finding a sponsor — gender stereotypes can make a close relationship with a senior male colleague look suspicious, and high-powered women can be reticent to support other women. Research shows a competitiveness among women in the workplace, which can contribute to difficulty finding a mentor or sponsor.

But here again, women can follow men’s lead. Ever noticed how some male interns seem to have no problem introducing themselves to senior partners, or even inviting the boss to lunch? Neither should you.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

Men often put themselves at an advantage starting with their first job offer. Statistics show that only 7 percent of women negotiate their salaries when they first enter the workplace, but 57 percent of men do.

This is how the wage gap begins for an equally qualified man and woman starting out at the same time in the same role, and it usually doesn’t close for the remainder of their working lives. Authors Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, in their book “Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide,” calculated that by not negotiating her salary on the first job offer, a woman sacrifices over a half a million dollars throughout the course of her career.

Research also shows that women don’t like asking for a raise or a promotion and dread having to do it. Men on the other hand think of it kind of like playing a game, and can actually enjoy it. Because women don’t enjoy asking, they are more prone to wait for someone to notice their good ideas, hard work, long hours and hand them a promotion or raise. The phenomenon is called the “Tiara Syndrome,” a term coined Carol Frohlinger and Deborah Kolb, and represents the false notion that someone will magically place a tiara on your head as a reward for your good work. The reality is that you probably won’t be rewarded unless you ask.
Don’t Get Too Emotional

Countless studies show that women care more about hurting someone’s feelings, offending someone, and stepping on toes. These traits make women better at some aspects of work — the ability to pick up on emotional cues and better understand your employees gives women a leg up in leadership roles, for example.

But this emotional intelligence can also keep women from advocating for themselves and their business interests. In negotiations, it sometimes leads a woman to take an apologetic tone that works against her. In her book “Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, And Getting What You’re Worth,” Mika Brzezinski writes a list of some of the common and disastrous opening lines women employ in negotiations: “I’m sorry,” “I know you’re busy…,” “I don’t know if this is possible…,” “I hate to do this…,” “I’m sorry if the timing is bad.” The better approach? Remain confident, and explain why a raise or promotion for you is the best thing for the company.
Work As Hard At Networking As You Do On Work

Remember the male interns who ask the partners to lunch? Think of the squash, tennis, and golf games some male executives schedule into their days. Dr. Lois Frankel, psychologist and author of “Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office” writes that women should stop working so hard and take some time for in-office relationship building. She recommends getting up from your desk at least twice a day to have a personal conversation with someone else in the office, or taking a long lunch to network (without guilt). This links back to being visible. Don’t wait for the work to put you in the spotlight — put yourself there.
Don’t Apologize For Who You Are

And ‘who you are’ is a woman. For obvious reasons, no man pretends to be less masculine (however you define masculinity) at work, but the same holds true for women. As mentioned above, certain qualities women bring to the table are not just likable, they’re good business.

Hanna Rosin wrote in her Atlantic article, “The End Of Men” that stereotypical feminine qualities — “women as more empathetic, as better consensus-seekers and better lateral thinkers; women as bringing a superior moral sensibility to bear on a cutthroat business world” — are being shown more and more so to have a wildly positive effect on the workplace. She quotes a 2008 study which analyzed the top 1,500 companies in America for over a decade that found companies with women in top positions performed better. Own that.

With America’s current economic struggles, the workplace has become much more competitive than in the past. Many people are taking advantage of these hard times to finish their schooling or go for advanced degrees, and the Baby Boomers are starting to retire as a new generation—the Millennial Generation—is entering the workplace. Many employers have traditionally relied on time-tested workplace practices, such as 9-to-5 days and cubicle office space, but times are changing; it’s important for leading businesses to consider changing some of these strategies to motivate a new breed of employees to work their hardest.

Many older employees are used to working independently and can forge their way through the workday with little to no direction. The same cannot always be said for Generation Y employees. Generation Y was raised in a time when parents were deeply involved in every aspect of their lives, and this need for supervision has likely followed them into the workplace. Rather than roll your eyes or become discouraged at this seeming lack of direction, why not use it to your benefit?

By creating clear guidelines about what is expected for each position and maintaining open, fluent lines of communication, your workplace will be more efficient and your employees will feel like a cohesive whole, rather than 30 individuals punching the clock and sitting at their respective desks. This communication can be done through the use of social media like Twitter, or through Skype or text messages. However, it’s also important to engage younger employees in face-to-face discussions where pertinent questions are asked and solutions to any problems are discussed.

Additionally, when clarifying employee expectations, it’s likely that you will find other ways to streamline your business. Many tasks that once required manpower—like time and attendance recordkeeping and payroll—can now be done online , thus freeing your employees to do the tasks that are expected of them. By simplifying individual job requirements, your employees will feel less micromanaged, and will be able to do their job more effectively and with more exuberance.
Another idea for making your workplace more inclusive and encouraging would be to implement a mentor program in which long-term employees take one or two new employees under their wing and show them the ropes. This will not only ensure that your new hires are comfortable and knowledgeable, but it will also show older employees that their successors are willing and able to learn everything that is required of them.

One of the tried-and-true methods that are still effective is creating an incentive-based reward system for your employees. Whether the incentive is a gift card or simple praise, demonstrating that employees are appreciated and are doing a good job will do wonders for office morale and individual performance. While this may make your employees more competitive with one another, this friendly competition can be used to stimulate productivity and reinforce teamwork within your staff.

Most of these techniques may seem like common sense to many seasoned managers, but common sense is, in fact, the cornerstone of successful personnel management. Being a manager is not about being bossy or telling people what to do. Rather, it is about guiding people in the direction you would like for them to go and setting a good example of how you would like for them to achieve their objectives. By leading, rather than dominating, you can guide your underlings into the future.

Joe Baker can be reached directly at Joseph625@suitsandladders.co.uk

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These are anxiety-producing times.  The economy is in a dither, and every leader I come in contact with is expressing new levels of anxiety that is impacting their ability to focus on the important work of leadership.  Here’s a couple of quick strategies/tools I often share with leaders, and they report powerful results from these practices.

Not only is anxiety a habit, it also has a cumulative memory, so it quickly piles higher in an escalating manner. Here are two quick tools you can use in the moment along with reframing the story (shift the story you’re telling yourself to a new one that serves you better) and inviting play.
1.  Feel your feet.  Simply bringing awareness to the bottom of your foot and feeling the skin of the sole of your foot and feeling the sole of the inside of your shoe (or feeling the ground if you’re barefooted) can do wonders for grounding you and giving your breathing a chance to slow down and drop lower in your body.  This can bring focus, clarity, and calm.

2.  Controlled breathing.  Often the anxiety response in our heads is caused by a physiological phenomenon where the body “does” the anxiety stuff that then triggers the brain to identify (or simply respond to) anxiety. So, to interrupt that automatic cycle, awareness of calming your breathing, slowing it down, dropping it into your low belly, and mindfully stretching your in-breath to match the beats of your exhale will make a difference in your ability to approach tasks from a clear head rather than an automatic anxiety place.

Try it and let me know what results you observe!

Are you involved in any business or venture that is out to change the world? Then you need this book.

Guy Kawasaki‘s new book, Enchantment, is out today! I was delighted to have an advanced review copy (thanks, Guy!) and had a blast reading his latest treasure.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions is Guy’s tenth book. In it, he explains how to influence what people will do while maintaining the highest standards of ethics.

The book explains when and why enchantment is necessary and then the pillars of enchantment: likability, trustworthiness, and a great cause.  Have you ever wondered how to go about achieving likability or trustworthiness?  Guy tells you how in this book. More importantly, though, he tells you why.  You’ll even learn a bit of Japanese!

He has a fun little quiz to go with it as well, which you can access from Facebook, or go directly here: but it’s GREAT: Guy’s Realistic Enchantment Aptitude Test.  Clever, right?  Or so I thought until I took the quiz.  I wanted to take it before reading the book to see how naturally enchanting I was according to Guy’s test.  Harumph.  I got a 15 out of 23, which means I am not so enchanting!  So off I went to read the book.

Here’s a handy little overview guide for you:

Prior to reading this important work, the book I most recommended to executive and leader clients was an early book co-authored by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr called The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, not Time is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. I still recommend that book an awful lot, but now there’s THIS book, which is a must read:The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

Many executives are running a corporate marathon.  Most leaders believe that given the many demands on their time, they would be better off plodding through, working another hour to get it all done or at least move the needle forward a bit, rather than taking that hour to sleep or work out or some other recovery/ renewal period. They believe they will get more accomplished than if they didn’t work that hour.  As the authors of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working tell us, “most people continue to wrongly assume that working more continuously — hunkering down, staying the course, burning the midnight oil — is the best way to generate more productivity.”

Most organizations and leaders are interested in increasing profitability and sustainability.  THIS BOOK is the answer to how they can harness the best of their current talent, and truly get more productivity.  The answer lies in balancing high-energy demand with intermittent renewal, and for those leaders and organizations wondering how to achieve that ever-elusive balance without sacrificing the results of the business, this book provides the roadmap.  It is also very well researched, and the authors demonstrate and prove how it can be done.  People cannot operate continuously, even if the culture and environment demand it.  This counter-intuitive look at how to get more out of yourself as a leader, out of your people, and out of your organization is the key to generating lasting value.

As a leadership coach I work with top leaders in high performance, fast-paced driver environments, and this book has become my number 1 recommended read.  I’ve had senior executives report back that it has changed their lives.

The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

by Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes, and Catherine McCarthy, PhD.