Michael Lee Stallard's Blog, page 8

GRACE Under Pressure Interview With John Baldoni

Many of you may be familiar with GRACE Under Pressure, a podcast hosted by John Baldoni. John is an executive coach and internationally known leadership expert who has authored many books on leadership. 

I recently had the opportunity to join John for a conversation about what connection is, how it impacts our personal and professional lives, the future of the workplace, the importance of inclusion, and much more.

You can watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen to it on Apple Podcasts.

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Hope Employees Will Return to the Office? Start Here.

As the world opens up again following COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, employers that were previously accustomed to a steady hum of activity in the cubicles and corridors must decide if they are going to bring people back into the office full-time, continue to allow them to work remotely, or come up with a hybrid arrangement that provides for a mix of in-office and remote work. A positive way to view this decision is that it provides a fresh start, an opportunity to strengthen the relational subcultures throughout your organization. 

I believe that over time, employers are going to lean toward having people work in the office because it promotes collaboration and innovation. But is that what workers want? According to a research survey by Gensler Research Institute, 71% of people prefer to have a hybrid arrangement or work entirely remotely going forward. Working remotely is attractive because it reduces commute time and gives people the most flexibility in their personal lives. Those benefits have been especially appreciated during the pandemic by parents with children at home and people who look after elderly family members. But those aren’t the only reasons. Research shows that people prefer to minimize their time in the office because most work cultures are not healthy or engaging. Working remotely has its challenges but at least you don’t have to endure office drama that is distracting or draining, or be around colleagues who are controlling or indifferent to you.

Employers who want people in the office and also want to attract, engage and retain the best employees face a dilemma. Many of the best employees will prefer maximum flexibility to work where they choose and so they will favor employers who provide that flexibility. Requiring people to be at the office five days a week may be a deal breaker going forward.

There is another option to consider: Offer employees the flexibility to work remotely part of the time yet make being in the office such a positive, inclusive and energizing experience that people want to be in the office together. Leaders can do this through cultivating a culture that is rich in relational connection. 

I’m reminded of a conversation I had more than ten years ago with a regional leader of a major technology company that gave employees the flexibility to work remotely. I will call him Tim. Like most tech companies, Tim’s office provided creature comforts such as a beautiful office design and free food. While nice, Tim knew those perks weren’t enough. Having a cool or fun vibe around the office wouldn’t guarantee a cooperative and productive team. Tim shared with me that he purposely invested time into his team’s work culture because he understood that positive relationships and connection were more important than creature comforts when it comes to boosting employee engagement. Tim wanted the relational environment to be so connecting, so engaging and energizing, that people preferred to be in the office rather than at home or in a coffee shop. With that mindset, he made it a priority to dedicate time to cultivating connection and developing relationship excellence. The end result was that he attracted, engaged and retained the best employees. 

As I explained in Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, a culture of connection meets the seven universal human needs at work for respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth, meaning and progress. It gives employees a cognitive advantage, boosts employee engagement, tightens strategic alignment, improves the quality of decisions, increases the rate of innovation, and maximizes agility and adaptability. These six distinct advantages for groups add up to a powerful performance advantage. Only this type of culture is a win-win for employees and employers. 

Great leaders foster a Connection Culture as they communicate a vision that inspires and unites people, value people as individuals instead of thinking of or treating them as mere means to an end, and give people a voice to share their opinions then consider their input when possible. Captured in the easy-to-remember model of Task Excellence + Relationship Excellence (which is further broken down into the elements of Vision + Value + Voice), a Connection Culture provides the foundation for achieving sustainable superior performance. 

Leaders would be wise to tap into the power of human connection to create an engaging, in-person work experience. As you look ahead and consider the future of work in your organization, ask yourself the following questions. 

Are you presently attracting, engaging and retaining people who have the competence, character and connection skills that give your organization a performance advantage? Considering the need for continuous collaboration and cooperation, how important is it for the people you are responsible for leading, and any teams they lead, to be physically located together?How connecting and engaging are the subcultures of teams or departments you are responsible for leading? Which one(s) would benefit by focused efforts to improve connection? Are there specific leaders or team members who would benefit by having coaching or mentoring related to their people skills?Look at the results of past employee engagement surveys your organization has conducted, opinions expressed in exit interviews, and what you’ve picked up through talking with colleagues and observing interactions on your team. Are people inspired and united by your vision? Do they feel valued as individuals and not thought of or treated as mere means to an end? Do they believe they have a voice to share their ideas and opinions on matters that are important to them and that their feedback is seriously considered?  Give people a voice by having one-on-one conversations with them. Inquire about their perspective on being back in the office full-time or part of the time. What have they appreciated about working from home? What have they missed about being in the office? Ask them about their take on the relational culture of the team before the pandemic. What was going well? What was causing issues or concerns for them? What would they like to see done differently going forward?

I believe having a Connection Culture in place is a must for leaders and organizations if they want to win the war for talented employees and achieve their highest performance aspirations in the post-pandemic world. 

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: The Utility of Breaks and Breakdowns

Recently, Katie Stallard and I wrote about the benefits of taking breaks and even of giving yourself time for a “breakdown” when you’ve pushed too hard. It’s a topic that’s relevant for many working professionals who face pressure to keep producing high volumes of work without sufficient rest.

GovExec Daily invited us to discuss this topic further in a new podcast. Listen to our conversation and consider what steps you can take to give yourself – and those you lead – the space to recharge.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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The Mosaic That is Innovation: New Article in TD Magazine

According to a World Bank analysis, innovation is on the decline. Given innovation’s role in moving organizations and society forward, what can we do to encourage it?

One way to foster innovation is to encourage connection in our work cultures. In a new article published by TD magazine, my co-author Katharine Stallard and I explore how connection contributes to innovation by examining the creative process surrounding the hit Broadway production Hamilton. TD is the flagship publication for The Association for Talent Development (ATD), formerly ASTD, the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations.

Read the full article and consider how connection can help your team to become more innovative.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

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Having an Old-fashioned Nervous Breakdown Might Be a Good Thing

Should the term “nervous breakdown” be embraced again? One of my (Michael’s) favorite journalists, Jerry Useem, provides a fascinating look at the history of the nervous breakdown in this article he wrote for The Atlantic titled “Bring Back the Nervous Breakdown.” Where Useem lands aligns with my thinking as an advocate for fostering connection, both for its positive effect on individuals and for how it improves the performance of groups, as well as what I share with clients about the harmful effects of stress and disconnection.

Useem explains that while the umbrella term of “nervous breakdown” has fallen out of common use as emotional and mental health diagnoses have become more specific and prescription drug treatments have grown, the term was widely used for many decades in the 20th century. Early on, it was culturally acceptable to declare you were having a nervous breakdown. After all, the reasoning went, life could be full of challenges and having a breakdown was your body’s way of signaling that you had exceeded your limit and needed to stop what you were doing, mentally and physically, in order to recover. Your nerves were frazzled by what was happening to you; it wasn’t a reflection of your being mentally strong enough to handle the circumstances. A break would do you good and get you back on your feet.

Choosing to take a break doesn’t mean you are a slacker

History’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., founder of Standard Oil and a philanthropist, retreated from his work in New York City for eight months and recalibrated at his family’s large estate in Ohio. According to biographer Rob Chernow in Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Rockefeller had been in good health into his fifties but “what ailed him in the early 1890s … was overwork, brought on by the combined stress of work and charity.” Of the situation, Rockefeller’s physician wrote, “A little more of that would have killed him. Mr. Rockefeller was close to the edge of a breakdown… when he finally let himself be persuaded that he could no longer do the work of several men with the strength of one.” Digestive issues and possibly stress-related ulcers had also been troubling him. During his time off  he was shielded from all but the most pressing business matters.  “To restore his health,” Chernow explained, “he worked closely with his farm laborers in the field, rode his bike, [and] ate simply… These traditional remedies worked like a charm.” Rockefeller wrote to a colleague, “I am happy to state that my health is steadily improving. I can hardly tell you how different the world begins to look to me.”

His son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was known to have several nervous breakdowns. One, in 1904, “has been variously attributed to overwork, exhaustion, or an identity crisis, but he himself privately emphasized the toll of [a series of critical pieces written about John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and his family by investigative journalist Ida Tarbell]…,” noted Chernow. Junior chose to rest and recover by spending six months in the south of France. Years later, he stayed at Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, a “world-renowned destination of health and healing” that also attracted Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Booker T. Washington. There were numerous public figures who returned to their work after a breakdown and made important contributions to society.

The cost of exhaustion

In the article, Useem argues that it may be wise during the current pandemic to recognize the emotional toll it is taking and intentionally take time off for the sake of our emotional health.

The levels of stress and anxiety have increased during the pandemic because of significant changes to our daily lives, including adopting necessary public health measures that have limited our ability to meaningfully connect with others in-person. Unrelenting stress and anxiety typically lead people to consume addictive substances or engage in addictive behaviors as a means to cope and manage their moods. As Useem points out, alcohol use has risen and the rate of drug overdoses has increased during the past year.

Useem also notes that suicides spiked following the global flu pandemic in 1918-1919 in which more than 600,000 individuals died in the U.S. He is right to express concern. As of March 9, we have already surpassed 526,000 fatalities in the U.S. and 2.6 million fatalities worldwide attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trauma caused by COVID-19 to the general population, and especially to the families and friends of those who suffered or died, will create emotional health issues in its wake. We also worry about the wellbeing of healthcare workers who were stretched thin and witnessed so much suffering and death. It will take time and effort to heal emotional wounds.

Michael has written previously about the need to increase social connection to reverse the rise of suicides and cited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention adopting the strategic direction of “connectedness” — which it defined as the degree to which individuals or groups are socially close, inter-related or share resources — in its efforts to reduce suicide ideation in the U.S. In recent years, we’ve trained leaders in the fields of education, healthcare and the armed services on how to cultivate cultures of connection that reduce the risk of burnout and suicide ideation that members of their organizations were already experiencing pre-pandemic.

Toward the end of the article, Useem quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby. Writing in 1936 of his own experience of having a nervous breakdown, Fitzgerald used the analogy of overdrawing money from a bank account: “I began to realize that for two years my life had been a drawing on resources that I did not possess, that I had been mortgaging myself physically and spiritually up to the hilt.” His sentiment would resonate with many people today.

Carrying on until you are depleted or you collapse is not the way to go. It’s harmful to you personally. You should also think about the ripple effects on your relationships and your ability to perform well at work. If you feel you are on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, literally or figuratively, how well are you able to parent or attend to relatives who may need your support? How productive are you in your job? How is your willpower to eat healthy and exercise?

Maybe you are not feeling very stressed or anxious at this time. Do you take pride in having a “go-go-go” work ethic? Would those around you say you are addicted to your smartphone? Do you continue working into the evening and on the weekend? We can tell you from our own experiences that you are setting a pace that is not sustainable.

Bringing back the break, before you break down

Taking a break is the important step. Now, few of us can unplug for months at a time at an estate in the country or a lovely location abroad. And while a break that is multiple days in a row would be ideal, we can start by not being so quick to keep working during the hours in which the office is technically closed. Do something restful or rejuvenating instead. You might lower your overall stress level by using part of the time to attend to a personal matter you’ve been putting off under the guise of being too busy with work. Reclaim the time that is supposed to be yours anyway.

According to statistics gathered by The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the average American worker puts in more hours than the average worker in any peer country, including Japan and the U.K. In his article titled “Why White-Collar Workers Spend All Day at the Office,” Derek Thompson of The Atlantic adds this comparison: “If the average American worked as much as the typical German, she’d have about 30 extra days off per year. That’s a free six-week vacation in exchange for embracing the famously leisurely work habits of… Germany.” All of those hours you are devoting to work beyond the 40 hours that might be in your job description add up.

Having at least part of the break be social in nature will make it even more restorative due to the benefits of connection. We were interested to read in the article that people who could afford it went to sanitariums where they recovered in the company of others. Today, the word “sanitarium” might conjure up images of a stark and sterile institutional setting with scrubbable floors and walls. In reality, some were positively resort-like. Battle Creek Sanitarium, with its marble floors and Persian rugs, offered an array of social opportunities, including plays and lectures, nightly dances in ballrooms with music provided by an orchestra, indoor pools to swim in, bicycles to ride on the property and fields for playing sports. There, notes Chernow, “[John D. Rockefeller, J.] heard the inevitable: He worked too hard, suffered from strain, and should set aside more time for recreation.”

As we see the end of the pandemic in sight, we hope leaders will reexamine their “time on the clock” expectations and give people they are responsible for leading sufficient margin that enables them to protect their emotional health. It helps to establish and clearly communicate to the whole team what the “office hours” are and the acceptable response times. The goal is for each individual to truly disconnect from work for sufficient stretches of time.

Equally important, we hope leaders will cultivate cultures of connection that not only help people heal from the traumas and stressors brought on by the pandemic but provide an environment in which people can thrive and do their best work going forward.

Authors

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 Ben White on Unsplash

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GovExec Daily Podcast Appearance: How to Connect While Working Remote

One of the biggest challenges leaders face in leading remote teams is finding ways to keep members connected.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be a guest on the GovExec Daily podcast to talk about this issue and share a simple tactic for facilitating employee conversations: bringing back “show and tell.” Listen to the podcast to learn more about this tactic and how to implement it with your own team.

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

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Finding Brave Podcast Appearance

Recently, I had the privilege of being a guest on the Finding Brave podcast hosted by Kathy Caprino. A therapist, career coach, and author, Kathy is on a mission to help listeners – particularly professional women – access the courage they need to honor their true passions, talents, and values in life and work. 

Our conversation focused on the challenges of loneliness and rising stress sparked by the pandemic. We talked about what leaders can do to help support their team members during this challenging time, and what individuals can do to cope.

You can access the podcast on the Finding Brave website or through Apple podcasts. To learn more about Kathy and her work, visit kathycaprino.com.

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Connect Your Remote Team Through Personal Knowledge

Remember doing “Show and Tell” or presenting to your classmates as the “Student of the Week” when you were in elementary school? As it turns out, our teachers were on to something. Bringing back an updated version of this practice would be more than merely an entertaining way to enliven a meeting at work. It may be just what teams need in year two of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

How well are the members of your team doing at being teammates, especially if you pivoted to working remotely almost a year ago? How has the extended time being physically apart impacted the dynamics? Are people becoming less responsive to one another? Are you seeing any behavior that is hindering another person’s effectiveness?

There may be direct conversations that need to take place to address specific situations or working relationships. We recommend you also consider an indirect but very beneficial step: be intentional about facilitating connecting in ways that allow colleagues to get to know one another as unique individuals. It will improve the overall level of positive relational connection across the whole team.

Research supports the benefits of sharing about our lives outside of work. Organizational behavior professor Ashley E. Hardin of Washington University has found that greater personal knowledge leads to a more human perception of a colleague, which results in increased responsiveness and decreased social undermining. That makes sense, doesn’t it? When we see the humanity in others, we’re more likely to treat them with dignity and respect, and to help them, as compared to when we see them as mere means to an end.

Jane Dutton, professor emerita of business administration and psychology at the University of Michigan, and one of the pioneers in recognizing the power of high quality connections in the workplace, observed: “…  it turns out the more you know, the better off you are in terms of connecting potential with another person. There’s this idea that we need to put on our professional masks and we don’t want to blur the boundary between the professional and the personal, but [Hardin’s] research suggests there’s not a lot of downside to letting people know more about you.”

Two Simple Practices You Can Use in Virtual Meetings

To breathe new life into cooperation and collaboration on your team, take time to connect with people on a personal level and resist the inclination to skip time spent in conversation getting to know the people you are responsible for leading or who are your teammates. The 2nd edition of our book Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work features a robust collection of practices you can employ that will boost connection among your team. Below are two you can easily fold into virtual meetings.

1. “Share one good thing”

When Maureen Bisognano was CEO of Institute for Health Improvement (IHI), a not-for-profit independent healthcare organization, she began each Monday morning meeting with the senior executive team by asking the members to take one or two minutes and share one good thing.  Invariably, most of the good things that were top of mind were personal memories of the weekends with family and friends. She shared with Michael that this simple practice helped the leadership team get to know one another better.

2. “Inside Scoop”

Dr. Vivek Murthy, author of Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, served as the 19th Surgeon General of the U.S. from 2014 to 2017. One practice he and his colleagues developed to boost connection was called “Inside Scoop” and it helped them get to know each other on a deeper level without cutting into personal time or requiring a lot of planning, preparation, and resources. As part of the weekly all-hands meeting, one individual would have five minutes to show a few photos related to their life and tell the others about them. Over time, each participant took a turn.

Of the impact, Murthy told an audience of physicians, “In listening, in just five minutes, we got to see whole other dimensions of people we had not understood in working together for a year. People started treating each other differently, stepping out of their lanes and helping each other more. They felt they had been seen. It’s powerful as institutions to create simple opportunities like that to see each other clearly for who they are.”

As a result of “Inside Scoop,” Murthy observed that people felt more valued when their colleagues learned about them on a more personal level, introverted individuals began speaking up more and taking more responsibility, people seemed less stressed, and they commented that they felt more connected.

If you were to bring this modern-day “Show and Tell” exercise into a regular meeting you have with your group, what photos would you select and, more importantly, what do they represent about you?

Letting Others In

Will people choose to be open about their personal lives with their colleagues? Dutton counsels that you explain that your aim is to “build better connective tissue so that our group will be better and more capable,” adding that when people understand the reasoning, “they let their guard down and participate more fully.”

Personal knowledge can be a powerful connector, especially when people discover points of commonality. What might you do this week to encourage your colleagues to offer a window into their world outside of work?

Authors

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 Surface on Unsplash

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Thriving Through the Ongoing Pandemic

As the pandemic moves into year two, would you say that overall you are thriving, barely surviving, or hanging in there, treading water, but feeling worn down or worn out some days? Is thriving even possible in the midst of this period of adversity, when life has been so disrupted by a persistent and mighty virus, we’ve experienced heartache and loss, and worried about our own future and the future of our democracy in the U.S.? I believe that we can thrive, especially when we do so together. The individuals who will look back when the pandemic is finally over and feel they did more than just make it through will have several attributes in common.

I’m framing each attribute as a call to action starting with the verb “stay” for a reason. Back when the first positive cases of Covid-19 were identified in the U.S. and “hot spots” surfaced on the West Coast and East Coast, concern was mixed with hope that protective measures being adopted would successfully limit the spread of the coronavirus. We rallied around the need to “flatten the curve.” (The office is closed and everyone will be working from home for the next several weeks? Okay, we can do this. It’s not ideal… and it’s so sudden… but we’ll figure it out.) Despite rosy predictions espoused by some leaders about how quickly we could return to the daily lives we were used to, weeks extended to months and entire seasons as the virus extended its reach across the globe and into communities throughout the entire U.S. In March 2020, we had hoped this race to extinguish the coronavirus would be a short-distance sprint, yet it has become a long-distance marathon. “Stay” is a reminder to re-calibrate your mindset about where the finish line is and pace yourself to go the distance.

At the time of this writing, two factors make it likely that the pandemic will go on through most, if not all, of 2021. First, several variants of the coronavirus have been discovered which reduce the efficacy of the new Covid-19 vaccines being produced. Practically, this means the percentage of the world’s population that will need to be vaccinated or develop natural immunity in order to halt the pandemic will increase from 70 percent to somewhere in the range of 80-85 percent. Furthermore, the longer the pandemic goes on, the greater the probability new variants develop which may reduce the efficacy of current vaccines.

The second factor presents a serious challenge: A sizable number of individuals are skeptical that the recently-developed vaccines are safe so they are either unwilling to get vaccinated at all or they are taking a wait-and-see approach for now. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, 20 percent of U.S. adults surveyed do not intend to get vaccinated or will only get vaccinated if it’s required. This resistance will make it more difficult to vaccinate such a high percentage of the population.

I wish it were not so, but it may take a personal encounter with the virus—the loss of a family member, friend, or acquaintance to Covid-19, or witnessing the long-term negative health consequences that some people are experiencing—before people change their minds about getting vaccinated or complying with public health measures of mask-wearing, hand washing, and social distancing.

The bottom line is that it’s going to take some time to stop the pandemic. We can see a distant light at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic tunnel, but we’re still in the tunnel and have a ways to go before we come back out into the open and light again.

With all of this in mind, what can we learn about how to thrive through the pandemic?

‍Stay Realistically Optimistic

Our mindset fuels our actions. You’ve likely witnessed how differently a person with a “glass half full” perspective approaches an issue than a member of the same team who is a “glass half empty” type. Thrivers through the pandemic will maintain a realistic sense of optimism and communicate their rationale to others whom they influence. Their optimism is not wishful thinking and pie in the sky; it’s grounded and based on reputable information. Thrivers keep the expectation of a brighter future in front of people while not minimizing the very sobering time we are in right now.

Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna have developed vaccines that have been shown to be 95% effective in protecting people from Covid-19 and those vaccines are currently being administered in the U.S. and other nations. They developed these vaccines, put them through stages of testing, obtained approval for use, and began manufacturing millions of doses in less than one year. As of February 1, there are several other vaccines in limited use outside of the U.S. (a vaccine developed by Oxford University/AstraZeneca, for example, is being administered in the U.K.) as well as 20 additional Covid-19 vaccines in the approval process or in late-stage, large-scale trials, including one developed by Johnson & Johnson. Variants of the virus have and will continue to emerge but so far it looks like some of the available vaccines will still provide relatively high levels of protection from these variants of Covid-19. What the biomedical community has done is astounding considering previously it took four years, best case, to develop a vaccine.

This is very good news that we should be encouraged by. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer people the virus can infect, the fewer people those who are infected might expose to the virus, and, most importantly, the fewer people will die from Covid-19 or suffer long-term effects. With these vaccine breakthroughs, there is reason to be realistically optimistic that the Covid-19 pandemic’s days are indeed numbered. Still, for reasons described in the section above, that optimism is tempered with realism: I believe it may take most or all of 2021 before we can return to a semblance of normal.

And it’s not just biomedical breakthroughs we should keep an eye on. History has shown that past catastrophes produced breakthroughs that improved the lives of many people. As Derek Thompson wrote in his inspiring article “How Cities Come Back from Disaster” published in The Atlantic:

“A major crisis has away of exposing what is broken and giving a new generation of leaders a chance to build something better. Sometimes the ramifications of their choices are wider than one might think.”

Thompson goes on to show that the cholera epidemic of 1832 contributed to breakthroughs in understanding that vastly improved public health and life expectancy, Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871 led to improvements in fireproof building materials that sparked urban growth, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers in New York City in 1911 led to safety protections and reasonable work hours for workers.

As you look out on the horizon, what do you see as post-traumatic growth lessons and opportunities that will arise out of our collective experience of the pandemic? In the 2nd edition of Connection Culture, updated and expanded in 2020, I argue there is a lot to be optimistic about. I’m optimistic that the pandemic will increase people’s appreciation for the importance of human connection, including in the workplace. It follows that because connection helps individuals and organizations thrive, greater levels of connection will boost nationwide productivity, innovation, and health.

‍Stay Focused on Your Top 3-5 Priorities

Have you noticed a change in your energy level during the pandemic? Perhaps you have less stamina throughout the day or your sleep quality may be diminished. When the brain senses a change in the social environment, it may perceive it as a threat. With all of the change directly or indirectly related to the pandemic, your brain has had a lot to assess and process during the last year! As a result, it may be drawing on even more energy these days as well as sending signals to the body’s fight-or-flight systems to be at the ready. If we have less available energy to consciously expend, we need to be strategic about how we use it.

Thrivers through the pandemic will maintain focus on what’s important and what they can do well in the current environment. This is a good time to be laser-focused on identifying, or re-evaluating, your top 3-5 priorities for the year and making progress toward achieving those goals. Again, pace yourself. Don’t try to do too much. Think about quality over quantity.

‍Stay Connected

If you know me and/or my work, you saw this one coming! Staying connected to family, friends, colleagues, and community provides the foundation to do everything else well and to experience joy in life. Past articles I’ve written have offered practical ways to stay relationally connected during the pandemic. If you haven’t read the new edition of Connection Culture yet, you should, for it will help equip you to be a better connector, to influence others about the importance of connection and perils of human disconnection, and to cultivate cultures of connection that will help you and yours thrive through the pandemic, and beyond.

With these three attributes in mind, what actions can you take in the next few days? Do you need to verbalize your realistic optimism to a certain colleague or the whole team? Does your project list need a fresh look and greater focus? Are there old friends with whom you could reconnect? Are there clients you could call with no agenda other than a sincere “How are you doing?” By staying realistically optimistic, staying focused on a few priorities that you can do well, and staying connected, you are likely to come out on the other side of the pandemic in a better place.

‍Photo by Jimmy Dean on Unsplash

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Two Great Conference Opportunities in February

I’m happy to share that I will be giving keynote speeches at two exciting virtual conferences this February. I hope you will consider joining me.

Campus Community Conference: Better Together 2021

If you work in the field of higher education, then this event is for you. Campus Community’s inaugural conference will take place on Thursday, February 25. I will be sharing specific examples and strategies for connection across higher education. Learn more about the event and register.

Knowledge Resources Conference: Organisational Development Conference 2021

An international event hosted by Knowledge Resources, the Organisational Development Conference 2021 will bring together speakers from around the world. The main conference sessions will take place February 24-25 and are designed for professionals in the human resources and development fields. I will be sharing how connection gives organizations a competitive advantage.

My readers can receive a 20% discount off the registration fee by sending an email with the subject line “20% Chair/speaker discount” to busie@knowres.co.za or magdeline@knowres.co.za. Learn more about the event and see the full program.

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