Leaders: Are We Creatures of Comfort or Not?

Last week we discussed some basic process considerations for leaders during a change event.  Namely, leaders should develop skills to address negativity in the work environment resulting from a change.   That entry touched on the notion that leaders have a responsibility to provide as much reassurance as possible to restore workplace stability and to quell concerns and uncertainty.  Who would have thought that one of key characteristics of effective leadership would be to demonstrate comfort and compassion?  But then again, how else would leaders encourage a stable, safe working environment if not by anticipating and dealing with emotional reactions to change or any other workplace issue.  This week, let’s talk about just how important this is.

Recently, I was invited to speak at a session on Change Management.  In preparation for the session, I received materials the facilitators were using in the class.  One article that caught my eye was based on the SCARF model founded by David Rock, CEO of Result Coaching Systems and author of SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others (Rock, 2008).  This model asserts that five particular domains elicit specific human reactions:  Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness (Rock, p.1, 2008).  These domains have scientifically been proven to manifest human sensations of “threat” or “reward” (Rock, 2008).  Another study was even more provoking in demonstrating that Social Pain and Physical Pain both trigger the same areas of the brain (Lieberman & Eisenberg, 2008).  This latter study was complete with diagrams of the brain during social and physical pain experiments (attached below for you). 

Think about it:  the type of discomfort associated with stress in the workplace, negative workplace dynamics, and tension stimulate the same neural reactions as physical pain.  It would seem to me that this is an important piece of information for those of us interested in leadership and especially if we are also interested in creating a change, which we know will cause discomfort, stress, and eventually the social pain we’ve just been talking about.   

It is obvious why it is important for leaders to know about this.  Not only does this help us understand the potential impact and byproducts of change initiatives, this information is useful in our dealings with people on an individual level.   The learning here is about how to tackle matters – whether in a group or individually – in a way that provides certainty, comfort, and no threat.  It makes sense to us to steer away from situations encouraging a negative environment, but if we know even the most benign suggestion of a threat destabilizes the workplace, how can we even focus on getting the business done at the same time as these experiences are affecting staff? 

Rock (2008) says that leadership awareness of these research findings is the first step.  I’ve just glossed over the SCARF model, and if you read the articles I refer to in this blog in depth, you’ll see that all five SCARF domains intersect and are relevant, and that it is more than just social and physical pain being neurologically connected. 

However, it is the concept of “pain” that really stuck out for me.  Who, as a leader, wants to know that they are causing pain?   We can take comfort in knowing that according to Rock (2008), awareness is the first step.  However, knowing about this neurological factor is one thing – doing something about it is another thing.    

What do you think of this topic?  Have you seen this played out in your workplace?  How do you create a safe, comforting work environment when you are leading change?

Below, I’ve provided citations for the two articles I referred to in this blog for those of you motivated to learn more about SCARF. 

Have a great week!

Rock, D. (2008) SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others, NeuroLeadership Journal , 1(1),  296-320.

Lieberman & Eisenberg (2008).  The pains and pleasures of social life, NewuroLeadership Journal, Edition 1. 

Leader-led Phenomenom

phe·nom·e·non

1.
a fact, occurrence, or circumstance observed or observable: to study the phenomena of nature.

2.

something that is impressive or extraordinary.

3.

a remarkable or exceptional person; prodigy; wonder.

4.

Philosophy .
a.
an appearance or immediate object of awareness in experience.

b.

Kantianism . a thing as it appears to and is constructed by the mind, as distinguished from a noumenon, or thing-in-itself.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phenomenon

This new entry elaborates on the notion of a leader’s role in shaping workplace phenomena (environment). 

This is my own story this time, of a research question I investigated.  I asked a number of Canadian leaders about change initiatives they led.  Of special interest to me was to hear how leaders who had led successful and sustainable change would describe the workplace phenomena during the course of the change process.

The results reported to me were that change did lead to a “negative and destabilizing work environment, but despite these occurrences...most challenges were eventually overcome” (Bezzubetz, 2009, p.136).  As a matter of fact, the majority of leaders owned up to the fact that the changes created an uncertain and negative view of the management leading the change (p.107).  The lesson here for all of us is that no matter how thoughtful the process, uncertainty is a by-product of change efforts, and the fingers point to leaders being responsible for this.   

There are obvious risks associated with the scenario described above:  not only do you have to worry about the work environment during a change process, you have to manage the environment well enough to keep the regular business going!  How is it that leaders maintain staff morale high enough to keep the productivity going at the same time as change is taking place?  

The study participants said that 1) it took time (over time the new change starts to feel more familiar), and 2) it also took a concerted effort for leaders to create as much certainty as possible during uncertain times. The leaders also said it was important to give as much information and reassurance to the workforce as possible about what could be expected in the future.

I’d like to hear what have you observed in the workplace during the course of a change effort.  How would you describe the environment?  What observations have you made of leaders who really flopped or those who soared? 

In the meantime, let your leadership shine with transparency and communication during your own change efforts.

Do leaders trust their "intuition"?

in·tu·i·tion

   /ˌɪntuˈɪʃən, -tyu-/ Show Spelled[in-too-ish-uhn, -tyoo-] Show IPA

noun

1.

direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.

2.

a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.

3.

a keen and quick insight.

4.

the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.

5.

Philosophy .

a.

an immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object.

b.

any object or truth so discerned.

c.

pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge.

 

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intuition

This is my first entry, and I’m a bit unsure about what will interest leader readership even though I know many leaders and I think I know what they’ll be interested in reading about.  Bear with me – this will get better.

 I’ve been around for a long time, and one of the good things about that is that I know people from all kinds of industries throughout North America.  Many of those people are leaders at various levels in their field.  Invariably, whenever I’m chatting with any one of my leader colleagues, we swap stories about events going on in our respective workplaces. 

The leaders I know are interesting creatures, and they know how to put the pressure on themselves … they expect to know themselves, know their teams, motivate others, take care of themselves, and essentially use some mysterious internal barometer to lead and  orchestrate staff  through the most intricate, challenging work-related passages.  In addition, there are a whole lot of other leadership competencies they occasionally have to pull out of their magical bag of tricks when the right scenario calls for an obscure technique or reference.  Leaders are indeed very interesting creatures…how do they know what to do when they do what they do?  Sure there are books, but books don’t reflect the living, breathing everyday lives of every unique situation.  So how do leaders do it? Well, I’ve learned that some leaders use their “intuition” to guide their decision-making.  Read on. 

This story evolved throughout 24 hours – a colleague from Ontario was telling me about the challenges she has in finding and retaining good people for her team.  She’s a leader in the service industry, and has over ten years of experience working in her field.  She was recently promoted to a more senior level in her organization, and with it came the additional responsibility of hiring, training, and motivating her staff to do the very best they can in an environment where customer service makes or breaks the company.  She was telling me about a new applicant and some misgivings she was having about her.  I was curious about her lukewarm attitude towards this new staff, and when I asked her about it, she said she had a “bad vibe” about her.  See, she’d made arrangements to obtain some information from the newbie over the weekend, and when it didn’t come in, my friend said it was a bad sign.  As a matter of fact, the newbie could miss out on this new job.  Does that sound a bit harsh to you?

My friend later told me she’d heard the newbie was sick over the weekend and that was why the information didn’t come in.  “Too bad” said my friend – she said she could tell this individual would be a challenge to manage and was not worth nurturing and courting.  Then she made the final decision not to hire the newbie.  Wow.  What was it that allowed my Ontario friend to make this decisive move?  She told me she knew the future because she’d learned the hard way time over time.  However, one could argue that every individual is different and this newbie could have legitimately been sick, so how does past experience inform today’s decisions?  Is this leader’s intuition?  In the next few weeks, we’ll explore other areas where “intuition” plays a part in the work place. 

Now, I’d like to hear from you.  Do you rely on your intuition in the workplace?  If so, when, and what are your stories?   Do you have any references or links to articles to share with the rest of us leader creatures?

Take good care.