The human body is wonderous in
its creation. In fact, according to leadership researcher and author (not to
mention YouTube sensation!), Simon Sinek, leadership is not only a social
phenomenon, it is a biological one as well. He goes on to identify the body
chemistry that has direct impacts on how we lead and function in organizations.
This has me thinking out loud about how we as leaders not only have an
emotional impact on those we lead, but a physical one as well.
In his book, Leaders
Eat Last, Sinek describes the 5 key substances the body produces in
response to various situations. The personal effectiveness chemicals are
endorphins, which provides us the
ability to work hard and persist, and dopamine,
which allows us to set goals and incentivizes accomplishment due to how it
makes us feel. The group effectiveness chemicals are serotonin that provides a sense of well-being
when we please others and oxytocin
which helps us experience love and affection for those we work and live with.
Whereas all the above is
great, the positive effects can be negated by the release of cortisol. Cortisol is released when we
experience a threat or fear. It provides us with that boost of adrenaline that
powers our “fight or flight” response. The problem is that cortisol is not
designed to stay in our system due to the stresses it causes on the body and its
eventual health.
So, what does all this have to
do with leadership? Essentially this all has to do with SAFETY or what Simon
Sinek calls the Circle of Safety! Leadership
guru John Maxwell shares that the first
job of a leader is to define reality. I agree but I believe the second job of leadership is to help the
people you lead feel safe. Safe
from harassment and bullying. Safe from prejudice and intolerance of different
cultures, races, genders, and beliefs. Safe from unreasonable and humiliating
job demands. Safe from unhealthy competition and toxicity in the workplace. Safe
from feeling jobs will be lost over inconsistent and arbitrary criteria.
You see, when those negative
conditions are present, we are constantly in a state of fear and anxiety that
triggers a continual drip of cortisol that hampers the release of the positive
chemicals and compromises our immune system. So, for you toxic leaders that think
its funny to degrade a co-worker for your own advancement or pit team members
against each other under the mistaken impression that such a strategy will get
bigger and faster “results”, you are literally slowly harming others. When leaders
and managers allow or create a toxic environment they unleash emotional and
physical consequences that impact the health and emotional well-being of others.
Now I am sure most of us
understand the ethical and legal reasons why we should have safe workplaces,
but I bet few of us have ever considered the physical reasons of why that is such
a good idea! I know I did not. But I certainly know now that as leaders it is
our job to create a Circle of Safety
where the only threats we experience in our organizations are external and definitely
not internal. In light of that new understanding here are some suggestions
to ensure the more beneficial body chemistry is flowing in the workplace or your
organization.
Provide
Safety – as I said, this is job two of a leader. As leaders, we
need to make sure the environment is not only physically safe, but mentally and
emotionally as well. This is accomplished by stating clear and mutually agreed
upon expectations in terms of job performance, interpersonal interactions, positive
recognitions, investment in team member success, etc. along with clearly
stating what negative behaviors are not acceptable and will not be tolerated in
the organization.
Provide
Connections – as much as we love to promote our own unique
identities, biologists tell us that we are still at our core a tribal
species. The cooperative practices that have allowed us to survive in our early
hunter/gatherer groups are still hard-wired into us. People have an innate need
to be around others. As a leader, make sure to provide social time among your
teams. This is so important that Gallup in their Q12 assessment has found that having
a close friend at work is a primary indicator of a positive and engaged work
place. Even if you have part of your workforce telecommuting, make sure they
are getting face-to-face time and not just SKYPE time!
Provide
Support – there have been a variety of studies that show that emotional
support and connections have a more powerful impact on employee retention than
money alone. If your people mess up in a non-malicious fashion, help them work
through it. As Campbell Soup CEO Douglass Conant shares, when errors occur, he
is tough on the issue but soft on the people! When team members know that they
can fail sometimes without harsh censure, they will be free of the fear of
trying something new or innovative.
Provide
Reasons – nothing unites a group of people more than accomplishing
something hard. Something, as Simon Sinek describes, that “outsized” their
resources and assumed capabilities. Nothing gets the right chemicals flowing
than when a leader tells their teams over and over again how their individual contributions
make a difference in the life of an organization and, more importantly, in the
lives of others.
To make sure all the above is
present, it requires a different kind of leadership that I will be discussing
in future posts. A type and style of leadership that I believe is not well
understood but has the potential to transform the very fabric of families, schools,
businesses, and communities.
As always if I can help you and
the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would
invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training
or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact. I am also pleased to
announce the launch of my first book, Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising
Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. It may just help you get
the right juices flowing! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies
website (www.outloudinc.com) and
enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a
mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be
critical to add value to your organization!
Yours in Leadership,
Bill Faulkner
Principal Consultant – Out
Loud Strategies
Independent Coach, Speaker,
and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email
= bill@outloudinc.com
For more information on the
John Maxwell Team, please visit
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