Heart to Heart Decision Making

Achieving synergy amongst team members can be a challenge in the best of times. Leadership and managers would love nothing more than cohesion with very little effort, but unfortunately that’s not often the case. Conflicts in the workplace are natural, so what can leadership do to make team building and decision making run more smoothly? In a fascinating twist, it turns out the key may be harmonizing our minds and bodies.

In a relatively new area of study, known as physiological synchronization, scientists are seeking answers in how the human body and brain respond to social interactions. After studying “firewalkers” in Spain, researchers began to see commonalities in heart rate variation among close familial relations. In a tradition where men walk across a bed of hot coals, it’s not surprising that the walkers’ heart rates rose and fell at different points. The curious evidence came when they examined the heart rates of spouses and family members who had gathered to watch; which had risen and fallen at the same intervals as their loved one’s (the heart rates of unrelated observers did not synch with the walker’s).

Researchers have since extrapolated this phenomena and applied it to larger groups, such as colleagues in an office environment. A study was conducted, and researchers found that heart rate synchronization helped lead to correct decision making 70% of the time, which accounted for information sharing and free communication amongst team members. Check out the full article here for some amazing insight into the body-mind connection, as well as broader applications of the science behind it.

3 Lessons in Low Turnover

The last few years have been a rollercoaster when it comes to employee security and company turnover. On the one hand, we’ve seen the Great Resignation, on the other, rounds of layoffs. Even in uncertain times, employee retention and maintaining low turnover rates manages to be a top priority for many companies. Many in leadership assume that a competitive salary is enough to make a difference in employee retention. Studies show, however, that employers need to take a comprehensive approach to keeping their best employees happy in other ways.

Inc.com has a great new article with three suggestions for these comprehensive measures. The first centers around building trust among employees and management/leadership. Cultivating an environment in which everyone feels heard is essential to building this trust. If an employee feels as though they are not being heard, as though their ideas are not valued, that employee is much more likely to seek a more supportive and trusting environment.

The second tactic is to promote community by holding employee-led events. These differ from the traditional team-building exercises in that employees are able to promote something that they are passionate about. Whether it be weekly yoga sessions, daily meditation breaks, or annual events that are important culturally such as Pride celebrations or International Women’s Day; when employees can share their passions with the team, everyone grows together as a community.

The third strategy is something that some businesses are learning about the hard way. One thing that we have seen from the COVID pandemic is that employees are largely demanding more flexible schedules. This is especially important if that employee is a caregiver to someone outside of work (children, aging parents, an ill relative, etc.). Those who have to keep working once they leave the office (or clock out if they work from home) need more flexibility with holiday time to actually feel like they are able to take a break. The more flexible a holiday schedule/PTO is, the better employees can support their own individual needs in this area. Check out the full article here for a deeper dive and in-depth examples from companies across the country.

How Managers Can Help Teams Focus

It’s no secret that we are constantly bombarded with distractions. Unless we are asleep or perhaps making space to meditate, our world is filled with things that want to sap our attention away from what we should be focusing on. Until recently, however, no one understood how profound these distractions are.

A new article at HBR.org by David Allen and Justin Hale profiles the research of the Crucial Learning resource center, which conducted a study of 1,600 employees and managers to assess focus. What they found was that nearly two-thirds of all employees rarely if ever do an hour of deep, focused work without distractions creeping in. Shockingly, one-third of participants said that they could only focus on a task for a maximum of 10 minutes before becoming distracted. The detrimental effects of these constant distractions are far reaching. They include feelings of overwhelm, stress, lack of motivation and/or energy, and unfulfillment. At the end of the day we likely all say we’ve been very busy, but how many of us have really been productive?

So what do managers and those in leadership do to help employees stay focused and prioritize tasks effectively? The authors lay out 7 helpful tips that will be able to help productivity and focus from the moment employees check their first email in the morning to wrapping up at close of business. And they should know. They are, after all, the authors of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Check out the full article here and see if the tips will apply to your team!

A Trick to Reduce Turnover

Turnover. The dreaded subject no one wants to spend their precious time on. There’s been a lot made of this topic in the past couple years, what with the Great Resignation and all. Even if resignations might be slowing a bit, no one in leadership wants to deal with having to replace valuable lost employees. In a new piece by Maurice Schweitzer, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Professor of Management at Wharton, he shares one intervention management and leadership can take to help reduce turnover rates.

If leadership wants to retain employees, simply reorder their assigned tasks. In the largest field study of it's kind, Schweitzer and his colleagues found that employees are far more likely to quit when given many difficult tasks consecutively. When they are given a more balanced workflow of difficult tasks followed by less challenging tasks, morale remains higher and employees are far more likely to stay. Seeing as there is always difficult work to be done, this can be a bit of a challenge in and of itself, but maintaining a balanced workflow can be one of the most powerful tools in retaining and motivating workers.

This study explains how employees associate their satisfaction with their job with the “Peak-End” rule. Most of us follow this rule for any experience. We tend to remember the “peak”, meaning the best, worst, or most extreme moment, and the “end”, the most recent moment associated with the event. Therefore; if an employee is constantly having to deal with extremes in their workload, they will associate more negative feelings with their job in general. The original paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, connects the behavioral psychology of the findings with practical steps management can take to make sure employees maintain this balance. Give it a quick read and see if the practical tools can help leadership with employee retention at your company.

The Six Types of Genius

Pat Lencioni knows all about struggles in leadership. This prolific and bestselling author/speaker is most known for his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, likely because he has dealt with all five dysfunctions. Pat writes from his experiences, and his new book is no exception. Published earlier this fall, The Six Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team, this book also came from his own frustrations with understanding not only his team, but also himself. With this book, he says, he wants to help leaders “be the CEO you were built to be.”

Not long ago, Lencioni found himself mired in frustrations with his consultancy, The Table Group. Feeling stuck and listless, he did some self-reflection on why. He realized that while much of the advice around these common feelings is to “work less”, that didn’t fix the problem. It wasn’t until he worked harder on the things that brought him joy and energy that he started to see a shift in his perspective. He started to reflect on his own talents and those of his team, and thus the “Six Geniuses” were born (Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity).

In an interview with Chief Executive Magazine, Lencioni dives into what each of these geniuses means, the potential of identifying them in yourself and your team, and how to take the first steps in doing so, even in uncertain economic times. Take a minute to read the interview and the synopsis of the Six Geniuses, identify which one applies to you, then see if you don’t rush out to get the book!

The Ill Effects of Job Insecurity

All companies have ups and downs, it’s part of running a business in a capitalist economy. No one expects things to be good all the time. As such, sometimes companies go through periods in which cutbacks are a reality, and employees must be let go. Sad, but true. In an effort to get more from their employees, some business owners or managers may use job insecurity as a motivating factor to get employees to work harder, work longer hours, or to try and outperform colleagues. But does this threat of the lay-off actually work? A few of the brains over at HBR (Mindy Shoss, Shiyang Su, Ann Schlotzhauer, and Nicole Carusone) have published the results of a 3-month long study of how job insecurity affected employees.

According to a recent Gallup poll 15% of workers do not feel that their jobs are secure, despite unemployment being at record low levels. This new study surveyed over 600 participants and how they felt over a months-long process. One very interesting aspect of the study is that in the short term, these threats or scare tactics seem to work well to motivate workers. People will try to work harder to make themselves an indispensable part of the team, to impeccably follow the rules, and to make higher-ups aware of their achievements even if those achievements added no real value to the company. Over the long-term, however, the burnout becomes very real. Many participants described the heightened anxiety around job security as negatively impacting their job performance. Eventually, most people felt so distracted, tired, or worried that they began failing at their core tasks. Yes, they may have been working longer hours, but productivity, reliability, and creativeness suffered overall.

While some companies freely admit to using this strategy, others may do it unknowingly. Discussions of scarcity, austerity, or potential cutbacks can be overheard or mentioned in passing, and still have a negative impact on employees. Check out the full article here and get access to the full range of studies on the subject. See if your company and your employees are caught in this cycle of negativity.

Leadership Goals Achieved

Manager, manage thyself. That’s how that saying goes, right? In all seriousness, though, once someone rises through the ranks into leadership or upper management, busy day to day tasks can interfere with achieving goals. It’s important to take time and active steps to achieving personal goals, as well as helping a team achieve collective goals.

Many in leadership and middle management can find this difficult when any given workday is filled with putting out metaphorical fires and answering questions. HBR’s new article by Diana Kander seeks to remedy this, and offers 3 actionable steps to holding oneself accountable. You know how to set goals, now see how you can change your habits to make them an achievable reality.