Business must give people enriching, rewarding lives, or it is not worth doing.
Richard Branson
THE IDEA: I recently was coaching a friend who had lost her spark and MOJO. I asked, “Are you still having fun and is your team energized by your presence?” She looked down at her coffee cup and with a pained look shared, “I’m feeling burned out, anxious and unmotivated. I’m not feeling inspired anymore.” It’s hard to be an effective leader when you are emotionally disconnected from your team and your work. My friend is not alone, and many leaders have lost their edge over the last two years. Are you still having fun?
In a post Covid world, everyone’s mindset and expectations have changed forever. We strive for our work lives to be more healthy, holistic, and purposeful. But today, more than 6-in-10 believe their team’s climate is negative, found McKinsey. And 7-in-10 leaders plan to leave their job within 2 years, reports KellyOCG Global. Why? 1-in-2 don’t feel a sense of belonging with their company, manager, or their work. Our emotional bandwidth has been stretched and most are experiencing mental overload due to this grind. How are you adapting in today’s world and do you provide a positive spark to others?
When you love something, your brain chemistry changes, releasing oxytocin and dopamine, allowing you to tune into other’s emotions & perform cognitive tasks faster, wrote Marcus Buckingham. And ADP Research Institute found that when we are happy on the job, we accept new thoughts easier and create more freely. They also found that job love matters more than ability if you want to build team resilience. When we utilize our strengths, we are 6-times more likely to be engaged, resilient and emotionally connected.
Are you fulfilled in your work, and do you know how to lead in an evolving world? Consider this:
- 9-in-10 executives feel symptoms of burnout. But burnout is not being overworked; it is being overly frustrated with the repetitiveness of the work struggles, and lack of connectivity to the team or leadership.
- Marcus Buckingham uncovered that only 17% of people work in fields that utilize their strengths and 27% are in jobs that are a bad fit. Are you personally doing work that you love and are you aware of what steals your energy?
- Do you trust your team, your boss, and other leaders? We are 3x more likely to be fully engaged and resilient when we align with 2 of these 3. We are 15x more likely to be fully engaged when we trust the team, our boss & senior leadership.
- Daniel Pink writes of intrinsic motivation being when the reward is the activity itself. We are intrinsically motivated when we experience mastery, purpose, and autonomy. Are you allowing others enough autonomy and is your group purpose led?
- Control leads to compliance while autonomy leads to engagement. Management is about creating conditions for people to do their best work, writes Pink. How do others respond when you walk into a room: do they play tight or relaxed?
Are you partnering with your company to become more emotionally healthy, regenerative, holistic, within a safe culture? Daniel Coyle recently reminded me in his bestselling book “The Culture Code” that great cultures practice vulnerability, are purpose-driven, and offer psychological safety. They protect and practice these three organizational pillars in every team meeting, coaching discussion, and customer engagement, enhancing culture.
Are you courageous enough to discuss how to improve team’s candor, emotional safety, and culture? Are you still having fun and are other’s energized by your presence?
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.
The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
—Max DePree
