The Leadership In Me

Be Mindful of Mood
20% to 30% of performance is determined by the mood of employees - like joy, interest, pride, awe, gratitude for example -- it helps to broaden our minds so we're thinking more creativity and collaboratively and build our resources so we're more resilient to deal with the ups and downs we all experience at work. But do you have a mood strategy for your team?

As a leader I decided to apply these ideas to the way we held our team meetings. To help us start and finish our meetings in the right frame of mind, I injected a little positivity into proceedings with a simple check in about what was working well, a funny video I could relate to our work or by sharing a story of gratitude. It didn't mean we shied away from the difficult conversations we needed to have, it just meant neurologically we were in a better place to deal with these challenges.

 

Build Strengths - The Corporate Leadership Council have found that when a manager has a conversation that focuses primarily on an employee's weaknesses, afterwards that employee's performance declines on average by 36 percent. But if the manager focuses the review primarily on an employee's strengths, afterwards that person's performance improves on average by 27 percent. That's quite a difference given all you're doing is talking.

As a leader, I decided it was worth taking the time to know my teams' strengths - the things they liked doing and were good at -- by asking them to take the free 10 minute survey at viacharacter.org. Then I made sure once a quarter I sat down with them and gave them feedback on how I saw their strengths being applied and asked what support they needed to develop these strengths further. Not surprisingly when we were doing more of what we each did best at work, our performance improved considerably.

Cultivate Positive Relationships - Studies suggest our relationships with other people are our best guarantee to lowering our levels of stress and improving our concentration and focus at work. This is because each time we genuinely connect with another person, the pleasure-inducing hormone oxytocin is released into the bloodstream, helping to reduce anxiety and improve our concentration and focus.

For an introverted leader like myself, the good news is that scientists have discovered it takes just a micro-moment to connect by: sharing a positive emotion such as kindness, interest or gratitude; making eye contact or matching body language or vocal tones to synchronise your brain activity; and then investing in the feelings of mutual care that rise up between you. By taking a few minutes at the end of each day to genuinely thank someone in person or by phone for how they'd made my work a little easier or more enjoyable I was able to not only significantly improve my relationships, but found a tidal wave of reciprocated gratitude was returned for my efforts.

 

Find Purpose - For decades, Americans have ranked purpose as their top priority in their jobs, yes even above promotions, income, job security, and hours. But can purpose be found in any job? It seems so. You see a comprehensive analysis of data from more than 11,000 employees across different industries: the single strongest predictor of meaningfulness was the belief that their job had a positive impact on others.

 

As a leader in a large accounting firm where finding meaning in our work felt like looking for a needle in a haystack, the idea that purpose can be built by helping people see the impact they have on others transformed the way we thought about our roles. I started focusing my team not just on the 'what' we did each day, but on the 'how' we went about it and the positive impact they could have as we interacted with our clients and our colleagues. As a result what had felt like soulless corporate drudgery, started to bring a whole new sense of satisfaction in our work and our lives.

 

Ignite Hope - While 89 percent of people believe tomorrow will be better than today, only 50 per cent believe they can make it so. Researchers define this gap as the difference between wishing and hoping, and other things being equal, a 14 percent improvement in productivity.