Michael Lee Stallard's Blog, page 7

Conversation with Pat Farnack on Employee Retention in Today’s Environment

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed again by Pat Farnack, longtime radio host on WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York City.

In the middle of the “Great Resignation,” companies are struggling to attract and retain employees. Studies show that negative emotions in the workplace have been rising. These negative emotions make people less enthusiastic about returning to work and incentivized to seek a more positive experience elsewhere. In our conversation, Pat and I discussed strategies that organizations can use to create a more positive culture that connects and ultimately retains employees.

Listen to the full interview.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

The post Conversation with Pat Farnack on Employee Retention in Today’s Environment appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

Lasting Change = Head Knowledge + Heart Knowledge

It’s one thing to know something intellectually—to learn interesting new data, to gain an understanding of why something works the way it does, to be inspired by a message—but if it stops there and you don’t develop heart knowledge, then you’re less likely to see meaningful or lasting change as a result. In our busy and full lives we need to engage both our head and our heart if something is going to “stick” and make a difference. It takes assent and action, knowing and doing, to arrive at “I understand. That makes sense. Now that I’ve experienced it, I get it.” Having a personal experience that validates or reinforces the head knowledge is often what it takes to know it in your heart and for the information to sink in and affect your attitudes, your words or your behaviors going forward.

Consider a toddler being warned by her mother, “That’s hot. Don’t touch it.” You hope the words of instruction—that new piece of head knowledge—will be sufficient, but often it’s not. When the young child gets too close to the heat source, feels the heat of the open flame or touches the side of a hot object and registers pain, that personal experience leads to heart knowledge.

In working with groups to increase connection in the workplace so each individual can thrive, we begin with head knowledge and help people develop a connection mindset. We frame connection as a superpower that makes individuals and groups perform at their best and disconnection as a super-stressor that sabotages performance. We support this information with videos of experiments and explanations of research studies and relevant findings, all to help people process the knowledge we’re sharing. With that foundation in place, we begin to build a connection skill set of attitudes, uses of language and behaviors they might employ to foster an environment that is rich in relational connection. They come away convinced of the importance of connection in their personal and work lives as well as equipped to take action.

But we would be remiss if imparting knowledge was all we did. It’s important that people begin to develop heart knowledge about connection, so we make sure our time together is interactive. We spend time discussing their own past work experiences and how they square with what we’re sharing about connection and disconnection—whether they felt fired up or burned out, and how the team functioned under those circumstances. We incorporate exercises that allow people to experience connection as they practice skills they can use with their colleagues as soon as they are back in their workplace.

The wrong approach: one without the other

Connection seems disarmingly simple and common sense. So why don’t we see more of it? As Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton explain in The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action, their research shows common sense is surprisingly uncommon in practice. In other words, these common sense practices have failed to make it from leaders’ heads to their hearts.

In the context of promoting the need for connection in the workplace and how to create and maintain a connection culture, I (Mike) have witnessed how the knowing-doing gap has held organizations back as leaders have fallen for one or more of the following fallacies (I’ve given each a label to make them easier to remember):

“Common Sense” fallacy. Because actions that boost connection reflect common sense, they are assumed to be occurring in the organization (when in fact they are not). In this instance, leaders know something intellectually but aren’t emotionally invested enough to follow through.“Seduced by a Management Fad” fallacy. Leaders are seduced by sophisticated-sounding management fads, so there is an utter failure to implement simple, commonsense actions that boost connection and have the greatest effect on results.“Only Give Me the Practical” fallacy. Leaders want to get straight to the practical and actionable in training. Without grounding people in why connection is important and how it works, actions that boost connection don’t take root. This is akin to doing without knowing.“Failure to Measure” fallacy. Leaders see connection as so obvious they fail to measure it, which signals to employees that connection is unimportant, and, as a result, they don’t follow through on actions that boost connection.The right approach: connecting the two

As humans we are hardwired to connect. More and more scientific studies confirm the benefits that positive connection has on us emotionally and biologically. It’s interesting to note that the brain and heart (and gut) are connected by the vagus nerve, which is the largest nerve in the human body. Our physical head and heart are designed to work together to develop a whole body experience. If we are to overcome the knowing-doing gap we should follow the model of this natural partnership between head and heart, and ensure we are engaging both our intellect and our emotions in a way that drives us to “walk the talk” when it comes to connecting with other people.

We spoke with a surgeon one time about her experience of learning to infuse connection into the team she was leading in the operating room. She shared that she was given the option of working with an executive coach when she became a supervisor at Mayo Clinic. The executive coach helped her to realize that her “driver, get it done, make it better” manner was actually conveying indifference, and that her team didn’t believe she cared about them as people but merely thought of them as means to an end. This was a blind spot for her. She assumed they knew she liked them and they mattered to her. Often the coach would circle back to “How did you feel? How do you think the other person felt?” The coach had her begin taking small steps to express and show that she cared. As her team members responded positively, the physician could feel her actions were connecting with them. The combination of understanding the rationale behind the action and feeling its impact gave her a whole body experience and knowledge that took her understanding to a new and higher level.

Through coaching, the surgeon came to embrace the power of words, emotion and connection. Later, when she moved to another healthcare organization that didn’t provide executive coaching, she hired her own coach out of her pocket and continued to work on her leadership practices, including in the operating room. With continued work on combining head and heart knowledge, she and her team implemented changes that improved patient outcomes.

People may intellectually understand why something is desirable but they need to experience the positive emotions that come from doing it and feel the impact in order for it to settle into the heart.

Conclusion

Don’t let the knowing-doing gap become your story. Be intentional and action-oriented about developing a connection mindset and connection skills then put that knowledge to use! As you work to develop a connection culture in the group you’re in and within your organization, people will experience connection and observe the difference that it makes. As you continue implementing ways to boost connection, watch what happens over time. With each effort you and your colleagues make, you gain momentum toward a fully connected culture.

NOTE: Portions of this article were excerpted from Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, 2nd edition.

Katharine P. Stallard is a co-author of this article. She is a partner of Connection Culture Group and a contributing author to Connection Culture.

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

The post Lasting Change = Head Knowledge + Heart Knowledge appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: Emotional Compensation’s Role in Employee Retention

As a growing percentage of the workforce seeks new career opportunities, employee retention has become a major issue facing organizations today. Addressing financial compensation is important, particularly for those lower income workers whose wages have remained largely stagnant, but addressing emotional compensation is another component all organizations need to consider. 

I had the opportunity to discuss this issue on a recent episode of the GovExec Daily podcast. Listen to the conversation to learn more about what emotional compensation is, why it matters, and which organizations are doing this well.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

The post GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: Emotional Compensation’s Role in Employee Retention appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

Connection Culture Cited in PM Magazine

Having a healthy workplace culture is important to the success of organizations in any sector, including the public sector.

PM Magazine, a publication of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), recently explored the role culture plays in local government success. In the article, author Patrick Ibarra writes that while conventional wisdom seeks to address government challenges with additional resources, culture is actually the secret sauce to achieving higher levels of effectiveness. He also cites the Connection Culture framework as an example of the type of culture where government employees thrive.

You can read the full article on the ICMA website.

The post Connection Culture Cited in PM Magazine appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

Learn About the Power of Connection at the ATD 2021 International Conference

Is the relational culture of your group sabotaging creativity and innovation? I’m looking forward to speaking about this topic at the ATD 2021 International Conference next month in Salt Lake City.

Learn which culture sparks the identification of new products, processes, and organizational endeavors. I’ll also share which attitudes, language, and behaviors increase creative conversations and fuel innovation.

Session Title: Boosting Creativity and Innovation Through ConnectionAvailable Session Times: Tuesday, August 31, 2021 from 5:00-6:00 PM and Wednesday, September 1, 2021 from 1:00-2:00 PM

I hope to see you at the conference!

 

The post Learn About the Power of Connection at the ATD 2021 International Conference appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

To Cope with Labor Shortage, Raise Emotional Compensation

The current labor shortage and employee retention are concerning issues for organizations. Many leaders are scrambling to attract and retain the workers they need. A combination of factors has resulted in an insufficient number of workers to meet available jobs: job quits hitting historic highs, declining immigration, and fewer individuals who are of working age (16-64 years old). This labor shortage started before the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to persist for some time.

And then there are those who have a job but are not happy with it. A recent survey found more than 40 percent of people are considering leaving their current job this year. The pandemic has caused many people to re-evaluate their work lives and what they are willing to accept.

Raising wages and offering attractive benefit packages are the primary and traditional tools employers have used to attract and retain quality people. In this new environment, however, employers should not limit their thinking to compensation that is purely financial. Addressing “emotional compensation” will be increasingly important and valued by employees.

Over the nearly 20 years that my colleagues and I have been studying and helping leaders, we’ve learned that boosting emotional compensation is based on meeting seven universal human needs to thrive at work: respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth, meaning, and progress. The resulting sense of connection from having these needs met engenders positive emotions and makes us feel connected to our work and our colleagues.

The most effective leaders know that high levels of emotional compensation benefit the individual as well as the organization. Leaders who cultivate a culture of connection through communicating an inspiring vision, valuing people, and giving them a voice will meet the seven needs, unite employees, and foster a relational environment that helps people do their best work.

Costco’s “Do the Right Thing”

Costco attracts, engages, and retains employees at levels that are the envy of its competitors. Not only does it pay workers on the higher end of wages and benefits for its industry sector, it also cultivates a culture of connection that produces positive emotions. I am not at all surprised that Costco ranked #4 on the Forbes / Statista “America’s Best Large Employers 2021” list and leads the retail and wholesale category. Costco has consistently been in the top five of the list for years. Costco’s leaders are clearly doing something right.

Jim Sinegal, Costco’s cofounder, once told me that Costco’s culture can be described as “do the right thing.” By this he means, Costco: 1. obeys the law, 2. takes care of its members (i.e., customers), 3. takes care of its employees, and 4. respects its suppliers. In adhering to these standards, Costco rewards its shareholders. It’s a win for all parties.

Costco employees are proud to work for an organization that does the right thing. They know that Costco’s leaders value them as individuals and don’t think of or treat them as mere means to an end. Costco promotes from within and invests in apprentice-like training to develop employees and give them opportunities for advancement. In addition, it gives employees a voice to share their ideas. When I spoke at Costco’s annual managers conference one year, I witnessed video after video of employees from warehouse club locations all around the world who proudly shared ideas they came up with to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve member and employee experience. These aspects of Costco’s work culture boost employees’ positive emotions. I’ve written about how Costco lives out its vision, which might help you on your organization’s journey.

Costco is just one example of leaders and organizations that are boosting emotional compensation through cultivating cultures of connection, as I’ve documented in my book “Connection Culture.” These include Oprah Winfrey as she led her media companies, Tricia Griffith of Progressive Insurance, Alan Mulally when he was CEO of Ford Motor Company, CNO Admiral Vernon Clark of the U.S. Navy, and Steph Curry and Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors NBA basketball team.

Positive Emotions at Work Are Especially Needed Today

The Gallup Organization’s State of the Global Workplace 2021 found that:

negative emotions among employees across the world have been rising for years and reached record levels in 2020,seven in 10 employees are presently struggling or suffering, and80 percent of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work.

These statistics may sound bleak but leaders should consider it a major opportunity.

People are longing for more positive workplace cultures. The signs are there that emotional compensation would be highly valued by employees. Coming out of the pandemic is a natural time to make improvements, especially as we’ve learned from COVID-19 why relational connection is so important.

Given the economic and emotional benefits of working for leaders and organizations that cultivate cultures of connection, it’s no wonder that organizations that pay well and provide emotional compensation become the employers of choice in their industry sector. Connected, engaged employees are more collaborative, innovative, and productive. Leaders and organizations that get the emotional compensation piece right will gain a competitive advantage.

Photo by Leon on Unsplash

The post To Cope with Labor Shortage, Raise Emotional Compensation appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

IE Insights Video: Back to the Office

Are you and your team preparing to return to the office after more than a year of remote work?

Recently, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the talented team at IE Insights, IE University’s thought leadership publication for sharing knowledge on a variety of topics. I shared some insights on what managers can expect from employees based on the similar experiences NASA astronauts encounter when re-entering society after time in space.

Check out the approximately 5 minute video for a quick summary of what to watch for and how building a connection culture can ease the transition.

Photo courtesy of NASA

The post IE Insights Video: Back to the Office appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

LinkedIn Live Interview With Lee Newman, Dean of IE Business School in Spain

This week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lee Newman, the Dean of IE Business School, in Madrid, Spain. We talked about Connection Culture, the current longing for connection coming out of the pandemic, and how leaders can be proactive to help reconnect their teams.

The conversation was broadcasted on LinkedIn Live and is available to watch on demand.

The post LinkedIn Live Interview With Lee Newman, Dean of IE Business School in Spain appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

Preparing for Re-entry into the Physical Workplace: Lessons from NASA

Astronaut crews living and working in space experience as a matter of course what many of us experienced unexpectedly during the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic. Consider these similarities:

They are physically isolated for a long period of time from family, friends, and the majority of their work colleagues.Their daily in-person interactions are limited to the few people they live with and their other interactions are intermediated through digital technology.Their home also serves as their workplace.They are surrounded by a dangerous environment that poses a threat to their physical health. (For them, the dangers include a lack of oxygen in outer space; for us, the danger has been the risk of contracting COVID-19.)

What was new and disorienting in our work lives and personal lives over the past year is the ongoing reality of an astronaut’s day.

So what does the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) know about the effects of living in relative social isolation for an extended period of time and then adjusting upon return to being around lots of people again?

Over the years, my colleagues and I have had the privilege of speaking and teaching workshops at NASA. Their interest in our work has been to help their leaders and managers learn to cultivate a culture of connection so that everyone can give their best performance. They’ve also been interested in how cultures of connection reduce the risk of negative outcomes that arise when people become disconnected and isolated from one another.

Previously I’ve written about how relational disconnection between NASA engineers and senior managers contributed to the fatal accidents of the space shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Today, with the International Space Station in operation and anticipation of a multi-year human mission into deep space, protecting astronauts from the negative effects of disconnection and isolation has become an issue of greater interest to NASA scientists.

NASA knows that a person’s level of connection affects his or her well-being and performance, and that individual and collective connection is critical to a mission’s success.

The Dangers of Disconnection

Disconnection — which includes isolation (being alone) and loneliness (feeling alone even while in the presence of others) — is unhealthy. For starters, people who are disconnected experience lower sleep quality and diminished self-control to eat healthy and exercise. That sets them up for other issues.

Evidence of unhealthy coping behavior as a result of the isolation and disconnection people have been experiencing during the pandemic is showing up in research findings. The American Psychological Association’s survey of U.S. adults in late February 2021 found that 61 percent of adults experienced undesired weight changes since the pandemic began, two in three adults (67 percent) report they have been sleeping more or less than desired, and nearly one in four adults (23 percent) reported drinking more alcohol to cope with their stress.

On top of changes to our physical health, we’ve had to navigate this period of uncertainty, stress, and loss without our emotional and social support systems functioning as they did pre-pandemic. Far too many people lost a family member or friend due to COVID-19 and had to grieve or process the trauma alone. Extended family members couldn’t be on hand to welcome a newborn child, graduates in 2020 didn’t get to cross a stage and receive their diploma to the cheers of the proud audience, and colleagues weren’t together to celebrate the completion of a major project or encourage one another during challenging times. Trauma experts expect the mental health ramifications of the pandemic will rise once the physical threat of COVID-19 declines.

Disconnection and the negative emotions that come with it have been associated with poorer cognitive performance, impairment of executive control and self-regulation, narrowing of awareness and perspective, and lower levels of self-rated physical health. Given these findings, it should come as no surprise that researchers found greater employee loneliness leads to poorer task, team role, and relational performance.

Disconnection may also be contributing to the high level of dissatisfaction at work. A recent Microsoft survey of 30,000 individuals worldwide found that 54 percent believe they are overworked and 39 percent are exhausted. The pain is sufficiently high that 42 percent report they are considering leaving their jobs.

Protection through Connection

As humans, we’re hardwired to connect. Connection makes us smarter, happier, more productive, and more resilient to cope with stress. Teams and organizations with higher levels of connection have higher employee engagement, tighter strategic alignment, better decision making, higher rates of innovation, and greater agility and adaptability. These benefits add up to a powerful advantage. Organizations need a culture of connection in order to thrive for a sustained period of time, a case I make in Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work.

NASA is intentional about helping astronauts in space maintain connection on multiple levels — as individuals and crew mates. To aid in remembering a set of principles and practices that will protect them from disconnection and the negative effects of isolation, NASA uses the word CONNECT. Their mnemonic device stands for Community, Openness, Networking, Needs, Expeditionary mindset, Countermeasures, and Training and preparation. For example, CONNECT equips astronauts to:

be aware that their own mental health affects their crew and so it’s their responsibility to take care of themselves,be attentive to how their crew mates are doing and help them if they need it,recognize that feeling disconnected may cause them to not want to connect with others, and to ignore that feeling and purposely counteract it,reach out proactively in new and innovative ways to maintain connections with family and friends, and also with individuals who energize them and increase their positive emotions, andthink the best of others so that when someone does or says something that’s disconnecting, it isn’t viewed as having a malicious intent behind it.

Dr. Tom Williams, Element Scientist for Human Factors and Behavioral Performance in the Human Research Program at the NASA Johnson Space Center, goes into greater detail about the actions NASA takes in this podcast.

Another proactive measure NASA employs to protect the mental health and well-being of the astronauts is to have resources available. During the year that astronaut Scott Kelly spent on the International Space Station, he had a scheduled conversation every two weeks with the “brain trust,” a group of psychologists and psychiatrists who helped him cope with isolation. Kelly has said the conversations helped him.

Photo of NASA/SpaceX Crew courtesy of NASA

Facilitate Reconnection as Employees Re-enter the Workplace

Reflecting on his re-entry experience after that long mission, Kelly observed, “In my case, returning from space and isolation was instantaneous, shocking, and anxiety-producing. I should’ve eased into it.”

As the current pandemic abates and the world opens up again, educating employees so they understand their human need for connection and what they might experience upon re-entry into a more complex social environment is a proactive step leaders can take. This could be especially important for employees who live alone and have primarily relied on interactions in the workplace to meet their need for social connection.

As you prepare to return to the office, here are three issues to be mindful of:

Heads-up #1: “Lethargic” Social Skills

“Use it or lose it” is a mantra often employed as motivation to exercise and not neglect our physical fitness. It turns out that our social skills are like muscles, according to research. They too strengthen the more we use them and weaken when we use them less. Figuring out whether we’re physically out of shape is pretty straightforward. But how socially out of shape have we become during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The make-up of the team may not have changed over the past year but how teammates relate to one another has. It’s good to recognize that following an extended period of exercising their in-person social skills less, those skills will have become somewhat diminished for many people. Even if you are an extrovert who is counting down the days until the whole team is seated around the conference table again, don’t be surprised if you too feel a little off your game initially.

What’s going on? It may help people to understand that their unease is triggered subconsciously by their brain and autonomic nervous system. The amygdala, a part of the brain, is constantly monitoring the environment you’re in, assessing if someone or something may be a threat and sending signals throughout your body accordingly. (Think “fight, flight, or freeze.”) Working from home, with perhaps a pet, roommate, or family member occasionally crossing your path and your interactions with colleagues limited to video calls, your brain has grown accustomed to a much different set of stimuli than commuting and having activity all around you in a physical workplace setting. It will need to adjust to reacting to the more complex social environment of being in the physical presence of coworkers once again.

Heads-up #2: “Foggy” Cognitive Skills

Many people today recognize that the pandemic has had an effect on them, including the onset of brain fog. You’re not alone if you’ve noticed changes in your memory, problem-solving abilities, or attention span. NASA’s twin study found that upon Kelly’s return from his year-long mission in space, he experienced a pronounced decrease in [cognitive] speed and accuracy which persisted for six months. For those wondering if the fog will clear and their previous abilities might return, that’s encouraging news.

Heads-up #3: The Ongoing Need for Connection

Leaders would be mistaken to think they can spend a little time on being social in the first weeks back and then check “reconnect the team” off their to-do list. The need for connection is not a one-time or short-term thing; connection should be the ongoing reality of how a team functions together. And the kind of connection that fires people up and brings out their best is much more than merely chatting about what you did over the weekend or gathering for a slice of cake to celebrate a colleague’s birthday.

To set your team up well for a successful transition period, I encourage you to prioritize addressing the connection deficit that was deepened by the pandemic. One way to do this is through providing online or in-person training to boost connection among employees. In the training, educate people on the harmful effects of loneliness and isolation, and the many benefits to individuals and groups that come from tapping into the power of human connection; support them by strengthening their connection and resilience skills; and equip them with context-specific attitudes, language, and behaviors that boost connection on their team.

Taking Connection Seriously

As discussions are taking place about what work might look like post-pandemic — whether fully in the office or a hybrid approach of remote and in-person hours — leaders would be wise to also carefully consider the relational side of work and what they should do differently on the other side of this collective experience.

Having adjusted to working remotely, you might find that the overall level of engagement people have with colleagues and the organization has waned. Now would be a smart time to infuse the organization’s culture with attitudes and actions that foster connection, energy and enthusiasm. It will also make it easier to bring employees back into the physical workplace if they feel it will be a healthy and engaging environment with colleagues who value them as individuals and give them a voice.

Casting a vision for a culture of connection going forward and then equipping people to make it the norm will help your organization achieve its potential. As NASA knows, the ramifications of not addressing disconnection make it too important to ignore.

Top photo by NASA on Unsplash

The post Preparing for Re-entry into the Physical Workplace: Lessons from NASA appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.

GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: Bringing Employees Back to the Office

The decision to bring employees back to the office is one facing many organizations. But what type of workplace environment are employees returning to? Is it a healthy or unhealthy workplace culture? The answer has important implications for whether employees will be willing to return. 

I recently discussed this topic in an episode of the GovExec Daily podcast. Listen to the conversation or read the accompanying article.

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

The post GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: Bringing Employees Back to the Office appeared first on Michael Lee Stallard.