WorkPuzzle

Valentine's Day Movie: When We Were Kings

A quick post today that could help you inspire your Valentine...

I know it doesn’t sound like the best Valentine's movie to watch, but my wife and I finally got around to watching the award winning movie When We Were Kings.

 It's more than a documentary about greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. It is a celebration of the human spirit.

At this point, I would bet that most of the female readers are about to stop reading. What could a documentary about a boxer contain that you would enjoy?

Well, I can’t tell you too much, because I’d be giving away the spirit of the movie. But, I can tell you that my wife said: “that was a great movie”.

If you like good story telling rent it and send me a comment about what you have learned because of it.

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The Flip Side of Panic

Do you feel somewhat paralyzed as a result of the current economic downturn?  If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you’re aware that this reaction is normal.  In previous discussions, we’ve addressed how to cope with the intense anxiety and despair that many are feeling due to the current state of affairs, lay-offs, etc.

Panic is designed to help us survive.  Unfortunately, our nervous systems weren’t designed to manage 24/7 media reminders of doom and gloom.  They were designed to help us run from Tigers!  As a result, panic can induce an “out-of-control” feeling in many of us.

What if I told you that you could learn to control panic?  An overwhelming feeling of panic/anxiety can actually be the beginning of a healthy coping process, rather than result in mounting feelings of helplessness.

How do you tame continuous feelings of panic/despair?  The answer comes in understanding that Panic and Reason are on opposite sides of the same continuum.  If you can get your mind to organize, reason, plan, and take action, you can control panic.

Take for instance the recent events on the Hudson River. Under extremely stressful conditions, Captain Sully Sullenberger managed to guide his plane to a safe water landing.

Is he really that different than the rest of us?  Lets take a look:

“It was the worst sickening pit of your stomach, falling through the floor feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.  I knew immediately it was very bad....My initial reaction was one of disbelief.  ‘I can’t believe this is happening. This doesn’t happen to me!' ". (Interview w/ Katie Couric on 60 Minutes)

Asked what he meant by that, Sullenberger said:

"I meant that I had this expectation that my career would be one in which I didn’t crash an airplane.”

So far he is exactly like you and me.  He first felt tremendous panic and disbelief.  If you’ve read my blogs on the Science of Survival, you know that everyone caught in stressful circumstances goes through the grief process.  The difference between those who survive and those who don’t, is how quickly they proceed through the stages.

Sullenberger went through them quickly.  He panicked, was then in Denial (“This isn’t happening to me!”), then Acceptance and finally Action.  He explains:

"The physiological reaction to this was very strong.  I had to force myself to use my training.  It took some concentration, but I forced calm.”

Sullenberger followed this up by telling Katie that he organized his thoughts and carried out action steps.

This is a good example of how the Panic/Reason Response works.  If you can get your mind to organize, plan, and execute, you’ll tip the seesaw toward the healthy side, feel a lot better as a result, and actually do something productive.  Helping your employees and clients learn to siphon through their panic will do you both wonders!  Take some action today rather than staring blindly at the Hudson.

"A Fool with a Plan"

Last week, I had the honor of speaking at the same venue as T. Boone Pickens and Ron Peltier, two very inspiring professionals.

Prudential California Realty (Home Services) hosted their Second Annual Conference in Palm Springs, California. The company’s top 150 agents converged with the intention of networking, sharing successful business practices, and conversing over how to address current challenges.

These high-end Realtors (with commissions over 1 million per year) proved to be a group of highly professional, inquisitive, and confident, yet humble individuals. They have clearly practiced the principles of Survival and Resilience in order to thrive as they have.

The kind of income they make is no accident. These diligent agents practice discipline in executing their well-thought-out business plans. They perform tasks hour-by-hour and day-by-day, to arrive at a successful end-result.

Highlights from listening to the other speakers include:

•T. Boone Pickens stated that “A fool with a plan is better than a genius without a plan.”  He was speaking primarily of a plan to get our country out of our dependence on foreign oil.  He has a great plan that deserves a good look.  You can check it out yourself at www.pickensplan.com

•Ron Pelteir reported that in his last meeting with Warren Buffett, Buffett stated, “We are in an economic Pearl Harbor.”  As a result, he sees valuable purchasing opportunities and has bought without worrying if we are “at a bottom”.  Plain and simple… “value is value”.

During the Q & A part of my own presentation, the discussion focused around my description of the Stages of the Grief Process.  I addressed how agents can help their clients move from the Denial, Pain, Anger and Depression Stages toward the Stage of Acceptance.

Only in the Acceptance Stage can clients make decisions to buy and sell without unnecessarily waiting for the most opportune time.  Clearly, many clients continue to refuse to accept the reality that their homes are not worth what they once were.  Through our discussion, the agents discovered the traits of people who survive and thrive difficult scenarios.

They also learned that educating clients about the Cycle of Grief can have a great benefit.  That is, if you can elicit a confession from the client regarding where they are in The Grief Cycle this might provide the motivation necessary to move beyond the stage they are in, and ultimately arrive at Acceptance.

The agents and I learned a lot from the speakers and from each other…there is so much more I could write about. Thank you to all the participants for inviting me to join you. I had a great time.

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Effort and Reward

As many of you know, we work with a lot of real estate companies.  More specifically, we help these companies design their hiring systems to significantly increase the number of candidates they are interfacing with on a weekly basis.

Companies hire us to do this work because, on the surface, it is difficult to successfully attract candidates into an industry that has been so battered and bruised in recent years.  To be successful, we must understand and apply the psychology of work. 

While there is some complexity to how this is done, one principle we observe continually is that people innately want a connection between the effort they put forth and the reward (compensation, recognition, perks, etc.) they receive for completing the job.

When the effort-reward connection is missing, talented people become frustrated and ultimately, dissatisfied with the companies they work for.  We constantly interface with people who have good jobs, excellent educations, and above average competencies, but are deeply frustrated that they are not rewarded for their efforts.

The real estate industry certainly attracts the people who most acutely feel this pain.  However, it should be a red flag to anyone who desires to preserve their job and grow their career.  Why?  Because businesses tend to value people they believe contribute directly to the organization’s success.  That value is communicated through a visible effort-reward relationship.

If you find yourself in a role where you don’t frequently get recognized (via compensation or otherwise), it is an indication that your contribution is not viewed as valuable.  This may lead to you being laid-off if your company needs to cut expenses.

To combat this situation, look for opportunities in your existing organization where your efforts can be noticed and rewarded.  Don’t wait for something to come your way—be proactive and seek out new responsibilities.  Like the principle of autonomy, this is a win-win for you and your employer.  Your personal sense of well-being will increase if you’re appropriately rewarded for your efforts.

If you’ve already been laid-off and you’re looking for a job, consider positions where there is a direct connection between effort and reward.  This may force you to look into some nontraditional areas of employment. 

If you’re willing to consider these nontraditional areas, there is a win-win here as well.  Lots of people shy away from jobs where their performance determines their paycheck.  This means there is less competition for these jobs.  If you’re motivated and “wired” to perform the tasks associated with the job, high performance in such a role can lead to job satisfaction beyond what you’ve experienced in the past.

The Psychologyof Being Laid-Off: Complexity

During any recession, there are a large number of people who “need” a job.  As Abraham Maslow taught us, when there’s a mortgage to pay and kids to feed, the goal of finding self-actualization at work gives way to the need for security.

An employer who is hiring during a time when there is a surplus of talented candidates may be tempted to select people who are exceptionally qualified for a position.  While this certainly makes sense on one level, it is important to understand the need individuals have for complexity in their work.

In past discussions, we’ve explored the principles that allow people to “tap into their best work”.  More specifically, we’ve addressed the concept of psychological flow and how it contributes to an individual’s sense of well-being.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who studied and popularized the concept of flow, discovered that a balance must be struck between the challenge of a task and the skill of the performer.  If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur: 

“A flow experience has to be challenging. Anything that is not up to par is going to be irritating or ignored.” (Interview with Wired Magazine)

It is difficult for a person who is above the "challenge level" of a job to remain engaged in their work over time.  The talented employee, who you thought was perfect for the job, may turn into someone who languishes. 

If you are a hiring manager planning to employ someone who is over-qualified, it would be wise to expand the scope of the new employee’s responsibilities to the place where he or she is experiencing a higher level of complexity.

This same principle applies if you have recently been laid-off and are among the masses of people seeking employment.  At some point, you may be offered a job that is not very challenging. There is a downside to accepting such a role—it won’t be long before you’re bored.

Certainly, there are situations where an individual can’t make the ideal choice.  If you need a job, paying the bills will take priority over landing a job that has the appropriate level of complexity and fulfillment. 

If you’re forced to take a job below your ability level, then quickly and proactively seek out ways to expand the job to your level of complexity.  While this will be good for you own well-being, it will also make you more valuable to your new organization.

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Finding Autonomy

As we discussed yesterday, being laid-off strikes at a person’s sense of autonomy.  In order to find meaning in work, a person must experience some level of autonomy.

Researchers have known this for awhile.  For example, Harvard professor Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee have noted:

“From classic studies on worker motivation to seminal research on work re-design, the concept of autonomy plays an important role in understanding worker attitude and well-being.  Studies highlight the idea that lack of autonomy, or control over the process and product of one’s work, leads to worker dissatisfaction…  Greater autonomy allows individuals greater input into their work process and product, engendering greater work satisfaction and commitment.”

To many people, being laid off reveals that their sense of autonomy was based on something they could not control.  Of course, this can be devastating to a person’s sense of well-being, especially if the consequences of being without work begin to mount.

As Dave outlined in previous discussions, many people melt under these circumstances and sink into varying levels of despair.  Others see the same circumstances as a pathway to better things.

Finding that pathway means exercising a sense of control.  Resilient people figure out what they can control and focus on these things.  They ignore the things they can’t control.

This doesn’t mean ignoring the lessons learned from the past, rather using negative experiences to see the possibilities for the future.  Finding autonomy in our work is a lesson that can benefit each of us.

How can this principle be applied to your circumstances?  If you’re in a situation where you’re looking for work, try to find positions where you’ll have greater control over your personal destiny.  This may require that you push into some areas that feel uncomfortable at the moment.

If you have a job, be thankful.  But, don’t be lulled into complacency.  Use the time and your current work situation to increase your own level of autonomy.  This is a win-win situation: it will improve the level of satisfaction you experience at work, and at the same time help transform you into a more resilient person. 

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off

It’s been tough to watch the news in the last few weeks.  In fact, it’s downright depressing.  Company after company, many of them brands that we all know and trust, continue to announce layoffs.   

If you really want a dose of despair, you can track the nation’s lay-offs as they happen by checking Layoff Daily.  The owners of this site now have to provide updates four to eight times a day to keep up with the news! 

If you’re a recruiter or you’re coaching someone, in the near future you’ll probably come in contact with candidates, clients, and potential clients who have been laid-off.  Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of someone in this situation?  It might be worth some additional thought.

Over the next few days we’ll be discussing this topic.  I’ll start by sharing some recent insight I gained from Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book called Outliers.  In this book, Mr. Gladwell tells the story of how Jewish immigrants to New York City in the late 1800s had a profound effect on how a small group of people were able to become wildly successful attorneys in the 1970s.  If you’ve read any of Gladwell’s previous books, you know he’s a master at making these odd connections.

During the development of this story, he makes an interesting observation.  Jewish immigrants who came to New York City were extremely hard workers.  They commonly worked in the garment industry and would put in 100 hour work weeks. 

“When [the main character in the story] came home at night to his children, he may have been tired and poor and overwhelmed, but he was alive.  He was his own boss.  He was responsible for his own decisions and direction.  His work was complex: it engaged his mind and imagination.  And in his work, there was a relationship between effort and reward…  Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying.  Work that fulfills these three criteria is meaningful. ”

With these criteria in mind, what happens to a person who has recently been laid-off?  Many perceive that two of the three legs to their “stool of meaning at work” have been knocked out from under them. 

With a good job, a person has the perception of autonomy.  But when a lay-off occurs, that perception is shattered.  Self-sufficiency was really “company-sufficiency”, and is no longer available to that person.

In addition, many lay-offs are not performed along the lines of performance alone.  A person may be a very high performer and still get laid-off.  In the short term, this disrupts the desired connection between effort and reward.  To a person going though this experience, it doesn’t seem fair.

If you’re coaching someone, it is important to address these two issues.  Helping a person conceptualize how his previous job eventually lost its meaning is an important first step in establishing a new direction.

If you’re a hiring manager interviewing a person who has recently been laid-off, it might be worth probing on these two issues:  (1) Can the candidate find autonomy in your organization? and (2) Is there a connection between effort and reward in the position you need filled?  While these may not be pertinent issues during the interview (there are a lot of people who are desperate for jobs), they’ll become retention issues at a later time when conditions improve.

Finding the Pearls in a Crisis as an Organization

As an organization, it is easy to become inwardly focused during a time of difficulty or crisis.  While some of this cannot be avoided, it is important not to lose sight of the horizon.  There is a future out there, and that future will one day become your organization’s reality.

If 30% of us get stronger and better during difficult circumstances, doesn’t it make sense to conceptualize ways of indentifying who those people are in your organization and support their efforts?  I’m not talking about pre-selecting those who you think are going to survive.  That doesn’t work. 

Instead, I’m suggesting you notice which of the people on your team are selecting themselves by displaying the transformational coping skills of commitment, control, and challenge.  These are the people in which you should invest resources.  Your investment will pay a big dividend in future performance and increased commitment to your organization.
 
Is your organization the only one suffering challenges?  Of course not.  Some of the 30% mentioned above are being arbitrarily jettisoned from their organizations.  There are others who are not getting adequate support and opportunity from their organizations (ex. some employees are getting hours cut).

These are talented survivors who have been dealt a difficult hand.  Like me, many will need to go through a process of grief and self-discovery.  But at some point, their batteries will be re-charged and they’ll come out with guns-a-blazing.  Will you be there to find them?  

If you’re too inwardly focused, you won’t be able to engage these individuals.  Besides, they won’t be attracted to organizations that have their “heads in the sand” anyway.   Progressive companies are always recruiting.  Survivors know where the escape hatches are.

 

Finding the Pearls in a Crisis

The current economic funk doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.  But it feels this way for the millions affected personally.  I know it’s really hard to see, but many of you will thrive more as a result of it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out whistling a happy tune every day.  However, research has found that in stressful business environments, 30% of us will become stronger and better at what we do.  With this experience, we will be able to achieve more and perform better in the future.  I want to be part of that group.

Stress is an interesting thing.  It can devastate some, but invigorate others.  Those who approach stress with a sense of curiosity, hard work, fortitude and the characteristics of resilience (remember: the 3 c's), can unveil aspects of themselves that they didn’t know previously existed.  If we are able to fend off despair, we can enter a period of self-renewal.  This process plants the seeds of new growth and new opportunity.

Let me give you an example from my own life.  I lost a great deal of money in the Tech crash of 2000-2001.  My hope of someday having the freedom to figure out “what I really wanted to do” was quickly dismantled.  From this disappointment I had to make my way through the stages of grief (Shock and Denial, Pain and Guilt, Anger and Bargaining, Depression, Reflection, Reconstruction, Acceptance).

As a result of this experience, I realized I was putting off developing what I really wanted until some future arbitrary date.  This deferred hope was not a reliable platform on which to build my future.  I realized that I needed to start doing “what I really wanted to do” in the here and now.  Where I once was feeling loss and despair, I was now feeling a new found self-renewal… an opportunity.  I became excited about learning, growing, and ultimately carving a new path with renewed vigor.

While I learned a lot from this crisis, I constantly have to re-learn this lesson based on the new circumstances that come my way in life.  This same principle applies to organizations.  Tomorrow I’ll share how current economic difficulties can be a catalyst for making your organization stronger.
 

Vision and Becoming a Student of the Human Condition

We interface with clients every day who are trying to make sense of the recession, the job market, and all the other negatives in our world today.  As leaders, they are regarded by those in their organizations as visionaries who are supposed to help them make sense of the future.  The perception is that employees want their leaders to be the “emissaries of the future delivering the news of how their markets and organizations will be transformed.”    

That’s difficult work in today’s climate.  But, it also may also be the wrong work to be doing if we want to be effective.  In research conducted by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, there was a slightly different, but important focus that was uncovered:

“Constituents want visions of the future that reflect their own aspirations.  They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled.  The data tells us what leaders struggle with most is communicating an image of the future that draws others in—that speaks to what others see and feel.”

It isn’t that people don’t have a desire to know what’s going to happen.  It just gets a lot more interesting when a leader can describe what is going to happen and then make the connection to how it personally affects each member of the team.

If you’re coaching someone, this has an important implication.  Those who you are coaching need to understand how to be visionaries.  But, they also need to understand how to communicate the vision so that they engage those they manage, work with, and even sell to.

If you’re in a recruiting role, it’s your job to outline the vision of your organization and paint a picture of the possibilities that exist if the candidate leaves their existing organization.  Wouldn’t it be more attractive to the candidate if you could weave those possibilities into the things that he or she is trying to accomplish in their own life?

There becomes two important parts to the equation:  (1) The development of a vision that appropriately addresses the future of the organization, and (2) An understanding of how that vision can personally engage each member (or potential member) of the team.  

 “As counterintuitive as it might seem, then, the best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present.  The only visions that take hold are shared visions-and you will create them only when you listen very, very, closely to others, appreciate their hopes, and attend to their needs.  The best leaders are able to bring their people into the future because they engage in the oldest form of research:  They observe the human condition.”

We think observing the human condition is worth the time and effort.  I hope you do too.  

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The information and the direct quotes in this discussion were adapted from a Harvard Business Review article (January, 2009) called To Lead, Create a Shared Vision.  The article was written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.  These authors recently wrote a book called The Leadership Challenge.