Category: Emotional Intelligence

Importance of Psychological Safety

7/24/2018

July 24, 2018
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #75
From the Greenbelt of Boise Idaho, Summer heat

Psychological Safety provides a foundational element for Team Success. Google researchers found it to be the most important dynamic of their effective teams.

Unfortunately, during times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, people can resort to reactive tendencies that make it difficult to maintain. It requires constant tending by teams and leaders committed to providing the necessary conditions for team success.

The term Psychological Safety describes a climate in which people feel free to express relevant thoughts and feelings without fear of being penalized. Although it sounds simple, the ability to ask questions, seek help, and tolerate mistakes while colleagues watch can be unexpectedly difficult.
– Amy Edmondson

In her book Teaming, Edmondson outlines seven benefits of providing Psychological Safety:

Encourages Speaking Up
Enables Clarity of Thought
Supports Productive Conflict
Mitigates Failure
Promotes Innovation
Removes Obstacles to Pursuing Goals
Increases Accountability

Here is a quick check you can do:

Are your team meetings dominated by one person speaking, or do all team members take turns with the time spread more evenly?
Are people empathetic to the challenges and issues team members are experiencing, or not?

Taking turns speaking and having empathy creates bonds between team members, providing Psychological Safety, the cornerstone of effective team norms.

I assist teams and leaders to create better results by developing the practice of team leadership, including Psychological Safety. To learn more visit here. Let’s create a better future today!

Previous Posts in the Series:

Use Intuition over Impulse to Creatively Lead

3/2/2017

March 2, 2017
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #28
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Spring’s warm sun, cold wind and rain

When the mind is in doubt it is driven this way and that by a slight impulse.
– Terence

Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
– John Naisbitt

We have no reason to expect the quality of intuition to improve with the importance of the problem. Perhaps the contrary: high-stake problems are likely to involve powerful emotions and strong impulses to action. – Daniel Kahneman

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance. – Albert Einstein

Impulses are fundamental to how we live and work, yet we rarely consider how they help us, and how they can send us off course.

Impulse operates unconsciously and without reflective thought, providing us with a sudden strong urge or desire to act. Impulses keep us safe, for example when ducking our heads to miss a swinging branch.

Impulses move us toward what we want more of, and away from what we want less off. Combined with strong emotions such as surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, or happiness, impulses can accelerate us into action before we’re aware of them.

Terence reminds us when in doubt our impulses drive. Looking at the image on the left, what’s your impulse for which way to go?

When we’re moving quickly, driving a car or in a rush to meet a deadline, we’re prone to operate on impulse alone. The problem is, when driven by impulse we override other people and overlook important information.

Today it is easy to be overwhelmed with data, making it ever more important to access our intuition when facing important decisions. The challenge Daniel Kahneman describes is, when faced with high-stakes problems we often think we’re using "Intuition" not realizing our "Emotional Impulses" have taken over.

Impulses compel us to act with what we already know, rather than considering creative new opportunities. New discoveries provide the seeds for innovation and growth in organizations. Yet so often conversations and exploration are cut off too soon, in order to be productive we stay on the "road we know”. We may think we’re reducing risk, while really increasing risk.

No wonder organizations driven by quarterly earnings or annual budget cycles, often lose their way and are replaced by those with greater flexibility to create. Doing what we know reinforces the status quo. To achieve breakthroughs and transformations we need to access the intuition and collective genius of teams.

Intuition gives us insight from our instinctive feelings and the processing of our unconscious mind without conscious reasoning. As Einstein describes “there is no logical way to discovery … there is only the way of intuition”. By following our intuition, “helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance” we reach new discoveries.

In Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant states, “Originality itself starts with creativity: generating a concept that is both novel and useful. But it doesn’t stop there. Originals are people who take the initiative to make their visions a reality.”

Developing our intuition facilitates new discoveries and builds conviction to act on them. It requires being open and curious, listening for insights from other people, using systems thinking to explore underlying order, and allowing time for own insights to emerge.

Grant writes, “we think of procrastination as a curse. … But while procrastination is a vice for productivity, I’ve learned – against my natural inclinations – that it’s a virtue for creativity.” He continues “When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.”

Consider when has using Intuition over Impulse helped you creatively lead?

I assist executives and professionals to creatively lead. Together we build trust, and cultivate leadership and organizational effectiveness to create a better future today. To learn more visit here.

Let’s create a better future today!

Stuck Doing what we "Know"

2/6/2017

February 6, 2017
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #25
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Mid-Winter melt off

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge. – Daniel J. Boorstin

Exploring is an innate part of being human. We’re all explorers when we’re born. Unfortunately, it seems to get drummed out of many of us as we get older, but it’s there, I think in all of us. And for me that moment of discovery is just so thrilling, on any level, that I think anybody that’s experienced it is pretty quickly addicted to it. – Edith Widder

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust

Today it seems we’re too busy reacting to the latest event, headline, email or tweet. The answer increasingly is tit for tat, doing what we “know” as a conditioned habitual response. When an alternative view is raised, the reaction is to discredit and demand more vociferously for doing what we “know” is “the truth”.

Stuck doing what we “know”, we quickly lose the ability to explore what might be possible, what might work better, and how we might figure it out together.

It is an automatic human tendency to avoid uncertainty, and react based on our learned fear of social ridicule, reverting to what we "know". Exploring, as Edith Widder describes, can be drummed out of us. When we think we know, it is easy to have the illusion of knowledge and forgo the possibility of discovery.

It is the trap for every leader to have the illusion of knowledge, and be too busy or unwilling to listen to the insights of people in their team, organization, community or society. Real issues and creative solutions are left unshared due to the “knowing” of someone in charge. Left unresolved for too long, things can melt down.

When we open ourselves to exploring and seeing each situation with fresh eyes, we create the possibility for discoveries that elevate people and organizations everywhere.

Where might you be stuck doing what you “know”?
How do you explore and see each situation with fresh eyes?

How do you engage everyone to listen to their insights?

I work with executives and professionals to get unstuck from reacting to the complex, volatile world around us, to creatively lead. Together we build trust, and cultivate leadership and organizational effectiveness to create a better future today. To learn more visit here.

Let’s create a better future today!

Mindful Awareness, a foundation for Leading

11/20/2016

November 20, 2016
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #14
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Frosty mornings

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.
If you are attentive, you will see it.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

By developing mindful awareness, we enhance our ability to lead our own lives and engage other individuals toward achieving a common purpose as leaders of teams, groups or organizations.

Mindful Awareness or Mindfulness
Mindful Awareness consists of feeling, experiencing or noticing what is happening within ourselves and with the individuals and wider world around us (awareness), and considering its potential importance (mindful). The combination of the two is the subject of Mindfulness. Mindfulness has been developed and practiced for thousands of years, and has renewed value in our current always-on, internet-connected world, benefiting our health, well-being and leadership effectiveness. Mindfulness is the focus of new scientific discovery, has led to the creation of multi-disciplinary fields such as Interpersonal Neurobiology, and provides significant insights for leaders and practitioners in many fields. In the The Mindful Brain, Dr. Daniel Siegel states “Mindfulness in its most general sense is about waking up from a life on automatic, and being sensitive to novelty in our everyday experiences.”

Characteristics of Mindfulness
Jon Kabat-Zinn in Mindfulness for Beginners, describes mindfulness as “awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Siegel describes mindfulness as having several qualities including “reflection on the nature of one’s own mental processes, … having awareness of awareness,” and “approaching our here and now experience with curiosity, openness, acceptance and love”. By developing mindful awareness, we open access to a wider range of resources within ourselves, enhance our compassion and empathy for ourselves and others, and show up with greater skill in engaging and leading our teams, groups and organizations. By being open, curious, accepting and discerning in the present moment, we set the stage for the connection, collaboration and innovation that is vital to the health of people, organizations and society.

Developing Mindfulness
Developing mindful awareness consists of learning and practicing self-observation. Through history this has been done through a wide variety of reflective and meditative practices. By dedicating time to observe and reflect on how we show up in different situations we begin to distinguish our sensations, feelings, beliefs, opinions, judgments, habits and the narrative that is often running in our mind, from what is happening right now. For example, before I enter a meeting I find it useful to assess my current situation, including:

what am I sensing, and where am I feeling tight and constricted vs. open and accepting,
what is my energy level, mood and mental attitude,
what story is running in my mind, and how might that be different from what is actually happening,
how do I want to connect and relate to the people and world around me,
what do I need and what do they need right now.

After the meeting or at the end of the day I find it useful to reflect on what I noticed before entering the meeting, what happened during the meeting, and what I notice now upon reflection. Doing this as regular self-observation practice will develop Mindful Awareness, and the capacity to lead growth and change for oneself and with others.

Let’s create a better future today!

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Importance of Psychological Safety

Use Intuition over Impulse to Creatively Lead

Stuck Doing what we "Know"

Mindful Awareness, a foundation for Leading

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