The Role of Culture in Adapting to Change

Culture defines the values, beliefs, and behaviours that shape how a business operates. In times of industry change, a strong, resilient culture enables companies to adapt more easily. For example, companies like Google and Apple thrive not just because of their innovative products but because of cultures that encourage creativity, risk-taking, and collaboration.

In contrast, businesses with poor cultures may struggle to keep up with disruption. A rigid, siloed approach makes it harder for teams to respond to changes quickly. Companies that build a growth mindset into their culture are better equipped to navigate the challenges of shifting markets or customer expectations.

Aligning Culture with Strategy for Success

A well-defined strategy provides direction, but it’s the company’s culture that fuels its execution. To successfully navigate industry change, a business’s culture and strategy must be aligned. For instance, if a company aims to lead in customer service, its culture must encourage empathy, collaboration, and continuous feedback across departments.

Think of Netflix, which aligns its culture of “freedom and responsibility” with a strategy to disrupt the entertainment industry. The synergy between Netflix’s culture and its disruptive strategy has made it an industry leader.

Leadership’s Role in Culture and Strategy Integration

Leadership is pivotal in aligning culture with strategy. Leaders set the tone for how the company responds to change and drive cultural transformation when necessary. By modelling key values and fostering a collaborative environment, leaders ensure that the workforce remains adaptable, even when strategy needs to shift.

Leaders must also communicate their vision clearly, ensuring that every employee understands their role in executing the strategy. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and commitment, especially during times of change.

Thriving Through Industry Change: Case Studies

Many industries are facing seismic shifts due to technology, consumer demands, and environmental concerns.

The rise of digital transformation has pushed companies in sectors like retail and finance to rethink customer engagement, internal processes, and their approach to technology. Those businesses that align culture with a forward-thinking strategy are able to lead in this digital-first world.

Building a Culture of Continuous Adaptability

In times of constant disruption, building a culture of adaptability is critical. Companies must foster a mindset that views change as opportunity, not threat. By encouraging continuous learning and risk-taking, businesses can equip their workforce to meet future challenges with confidence.

This adaptability can be nurtured through leadership, training, and a culture that values failure as part of the learning process. It’s this ability to pivot quickly and embrace new ideas that will ultimately define the future success of an organisation.

In Conclusion: Culture and Strategy as the Path Forward

As industries evolve, companies must build cultures that support strategic change. A strong, adaptable culture enables businesses to not just react to change but drive it. By aligning culture with strategy and prioritising innovation, companies can position themselves for long-term success, even in the face of disruption.

For another perceptive take a look at Jon Peppiatt as he gives his version of Culture, Strategy, and Industry Change

At Optimist Performance, we believe that when culture and strategy align, organisations are poised to thrive in the most challenging environments. Investing in your company’s culture while refining your strategy ensures you’re ready for the future.

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Did you know that 65% of employees would like to receive more feedback than they currently do? Also, 98% of employees feel disengaged when managers give little or no feedback?

Feedback can help you increase engagement and performance. Unfortunately, giving feedback is not as easy as it may seem. The reason behind it is the way our brains work. 

How our brains work

Our brains primarily exist in two states: “approach/reward” versus “avoid/threat”. In order to survive, our brains are wired to avoid threats or danger and seek rewards.  

Our limbic system, where the amygdala is, is the part of the brain that receives information from our senses and translates them into emotions. This means that our limbic system is in charge of labelling a situation as a reward or a threat. 

When the limbic system senses a threat, it automatically activates the famous “fight or flight” response. Furthermore, in this process, it impairs our ability to make decisions, solve problems, etc.

Unfortunately, feedback is perceived as a threat by our brains, which means that we move into survival mode when it happens. This makes us incapable of rationalising and considering the feedback as constructive. 

In addition to being unprepared to receive feedback; the majority of us don’t like giving it either. It makes us feel stressed, pressured and generally uncomfortable. 

According to research, 44% of managers believed that giving developmental feedback was stressful or difficult. 

Why do we feel threatened by feedback?

To understand this, we will use the David Rock SCARF model. This model explains five major concerns that drive human behaviours:

Status: Status is about relative importance, ‘pecking order’ and seniority. Humans hold a representation of status in relation to others when in conversations. 

Uncertain: Our desire to predict the near future, or at least have some level of certainty about it.

Autonomy: Our sense of control over our environment and the events around us. 

Relatedness: Our sense of belonging and desire to feel part of something. 

Fairness: Our perception of fair exchanges. 

When we are given feedback, we can feel threatened and all or some of our behavioural responses listed above can begin to be feel compromised and challenged. 

For example, we can think that we have been treated unfairly if more people were responsible for whatever caused the feedback, but we are the only ones getting the input. 

It can threaten our status if we think that the feedback may lead to being excluded from the project or even let go from the company. 

It also threatens our certainty because we are unaware of what may happen. 

All these can seem a bit dramatic. Unfortunately, our minds are constantly worrying about the future, and any of these situations will lead them to think about all the bad things that may happen because of the feedback. 

Optimists Tips towards giving great feedback

Fortunately for all of us, knowing the reasons behind it can help us choose the right way to give feedback. Here are some tips:

The right environment 

The environment in which we offer feedback is crucial. For example, toxic environments that don’t tolerate mistakes or where there is no trust will make it really difficult to provide feedback. 

On the other hand, if people feel safe with you, as a leader, and the rest of the team, they will be more open to receiving feedback constructively. 

• Focus on creating a healthy environment.
• Nurture the relationship within your team to build trust.  

Normalise feedback 

Another essential part of feedback is making sure that it’s constant, constructive and efficient. 

• Make it part of your culture. Offer feedback constantly. 
• Ensure that it is reciprocal. Encourage your team to offer feedback too. 
• Positive and constructive feedback. Ensure that you provide both positive and constructive feedback.

This doesn’t mean that when you want to give constructive feedback, you start with a positive one (our brains can see through this tactic pretty quickly). It means that you’re genuinely making feedback part of your daily activities. 

Choose the right time and place to give feedback

It’s important to consider when and where we should offer feedback. Also, because you know the people in your team, you will be able to decide if people are in the right state of mind that day to receive the feedback. Remember that we are all entitled to have bad days. 

This impacts your time and place too. Avoid giving feedback when you’re upset or agitated. All of which will involuntarily show through your non-verbal signs. 

Be aware of non-verbal cues

• Choose the right tone of voice.
• Carefully consider how you talk (paralanguage). Pauses, speed, loudness, …
• Pay attention to your posture and facial expressions. 

Choose the proper focus 

As much as any of us wish to, we can’t change the past. So make sure your feedback has the proper focus. 

• Instead of putting the attention on the past, choose to offer feedback that focuses on how a past situation can help us do better in the future.
• In the same way, focus on how your feedback can help the individual’s learning and growth. 

Use questions 

Using questions to offer feedback makes the other person more receptive and responsive to the feedback. (Check our previous post where we talked about how questions activate our brain). 

You can use questions such as:

• What would you change?
• How would you do it differently next time?
• How can I help you more in the future? 

Make sure to take action

Whether you’re giving or receiving the feedback, make sure you act upon it. There is no point in offering feedback or asking for it if it won’t impact how we do things in the future. 

The Optimist view…

We’ve talked mostly about offering feedback, but just as important is being open to receiving it. 

As individuals, whatever position we’re currently in, there are always ways in which we can improve and better ourselves. If you seek improvement, you need to welcome feedback.

At Optimist Performance, we help leaders and individuals maximise their strengths to achieve their full potential. 

Learn more about our motivational speaking, executive coaching, and experiential events. Or get in touch with us for a free consultation about any of our services. 

The post Why doesn’t feedback work? 7 Tips to maximise feedback – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Remote working has changed the way many of us communicate as teams. And so, effective communication is now more critical than ever before. 

According to research, 63% of American workers want to quit their jobs because poor communication prevented them from doing their job effectively.

In addition to helping retain the best employees, communication is a crucial pillar of collaboration, ultimately determining your team and company success. 

86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures, according to research. 

During the last year, we have all made immense efforts to ensure that communication and collaboration in the workplace continue to be effective. Nonetheless, we are still learning, with many companies working towards long-term hybrid or fully remote models. 

In our experience, there is no one size fits all when it comes to effective communication. How you define and structure your communication processes will vary depending on many factors, such as the number of people in the organisation, time zones, flexibility, etc.

However, there are many common factors that we should consider to achieve effective communication. 

CHALLENGES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

1. Meetings overload provoking zoom fatigue. 
2. Difficulty to find opportunities for “water cooler conversations”. 
3. Finding the best time.
4. Struggling to ask questions and find quick answers. 
5. Trouble building trust within relationships. 
6. Loss or missing information. 
7. Different people, different needs. 

TIPS TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Encourage every form of communication 

The first step towards effective communication is to encourage it. One of the challenges of remote working has been the missed opportunities for people to learn from their colleagues. 

Studies have found that office watercoolers help employees share their risky ideas and intentions, produce better research, and gain a 10% to 15% bump in productivity.

So, make sure you highlight the importance of asking questions and having ongoing communication within the team. 

As a leader, you need to lead by example. Encouragement is not only about what we say but also how we react when communication takes place. 

Provide the proper channels 

There are different types of communication, each differently suited to priority levels, subjects, teams, etc. So ensuring that we have the right channels is essential. 

Think about the different types of communication your organisation needs (instant messaging, “face to face”, teams projects, …) and organise your channels accordingly. 

Also, make sure you provide channels for both synchronous and asynchronous communications. And don’t forget to establish clear and understandable processes and etiquette for when people should use each one. 

Assigning priority to projects and tasks can make it easier to designate the right channel for them. 

Allow time for social interactions

Building trusting relationships is more challenging when working remotely. But trust is essential in a team, and social interactions are a big part of creating trust.

Even if they are online, organising social activities is a great way to build trusting relationships and therefore improve communication. It’s always easier to communicate when we have a connection with the other person. 

According to statistics, 50% of the positive changes in communication patterns within the workplace can be accredited to social interaction outside of the workplace. 

As you can see, communication doesn’t end when we leave the office or shut the computer down. As a leader, you need to keep in mind how social interactions affect your team and plan accordingly. (Check out our experiential events here)

Make sure everyone is part of the conversation

Participation, particularly in big groups, can be challenging for some people, so make sure you’re including everyone and encourage them to participate and ask questions. 

Workers aged 18-24 and 25-34 reported 10% decreases in the information given to them by management since they moved to remote working.

It’s important to consider new people too because they will probably feel less comfortable participating in group conversations. 

Also, according to research, 44% of people struggle to keep up with the conversation on a video call if too many people participate.

Keep in mind the number of attendees and try to reduce it when possible. 

Avoid zoom fatigue

Unfortunately, the term “zoom fatigue” is not a mystery anymore. In the process of imitating the office environment, many companies fall into the trap of overscheduling meetings. 

According to a survey of 182 senior managers by the University of North Carolina, 65% said meetings keep them from completing their work, 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient, and 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.

When we overbook our schedules with meetings, we are taking time out of doing the actual work, and it will also impact our level of stress, engagement, and productivity. 

To avoid zoom fatigue, it helps to understand what is causing it:

The missing non-verbal communication cues. Our brains keep on looking for them, but they can’t find them while online. 

TIP: Try to be more precise, even if it seems like over-communicating. 

Learn to leverage its features. Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), has studied the psychological reasons behind “zoom fatigue”. 

And he has come up with some easy to adopt changes that we can do to improve the way we use video conferencing tools. These are four reasons behind it and Bailenson’s solutions for them:

• Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.

TIP: Don’t use the full-screen option and add an external keyboard so that we can move further from the screen and camera. 

• Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.

TIP: Use the “Hide self-view” button (hover over your video and click the ellipses button, then choose “hide self-view”). 

• Video chats dramatically reduce our normal mobility.

TIP: Use an external camera to allow more movement space or switch to camera off mode once in a while. 

• The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.

TIP: Turn off your camera when possible. 

Be clear and organised 

An essential part of effective communication, even more in remote teams, is organisation. To avoid meeting overload or productivity loss, you have to organise and schedule meetings to create minimum disruptions. 

Did you know that “After a meeting, people take an average of 18 minutes to get their head back into work mode, with one in ten people taking at least 30 minutes before feeling productive again”? 

The best way to organise meetings will vary depending on your company. We have found that meetings first thing in the morning, or at the end of the day cause less distraction and work best for us.

Set up a clear plan

Having a clear agenda with main points and expectations can help maximise online meetings. Send a brief memo with bullet points or even communicate in advance what documents people will need during the conversations. 

“Employees spend an average of 47 minutes getting physically and mentally prepared before using tools like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft.” 

Keep in mind the needs of different people 

According to research, younger people report having more difficulty when it comes to working remotely, including communication and collaboration. 

This could be because of their environments; younger people don’t have access to their own spaces. But it could also be because they are new to the company or even new to the work environment altogether. 

Being the new person in a team is already a challenge, but it gets worse if you can’t interact face to face with the rest of your team and learn all the tricks of everyday life on the job. 

THE OPTIMIST VIEW…

As Optimists, we are always looking for better ways, and finding suitable forms of communication in this new era of work is definitely crucial for us. 

Hopefully, these tips will help you to find your way too. But if you need a bit of external help, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our mission is to help leaders and organisations maximise their potential, and communication is a key ingredient. 

And if you’re looking for the right social activity for your team, we would love to help; click here to learn more about our experiential events. The best way to build trust in a team is by sharing a life-changing experience that creates memories and bonds people together. 

The post How to achieve effective communication in a remote working environment? appeared first on Optimist Performance.

So, what is active listening? It’s a two-way communication process. Actively listening is not just to hear but to understand, interpret and evaluate what we hear.

The majority of us think that we are good listeners, but the reality may be different. As a norm, we only retain about 17 to 25% of the information we receive. 

And as Stephen R. Covey said, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

First, it’s helpful to differentiate between 3 types of listening and understand that whichever one you use will affect the outcome.

Passive listening: It means indifferent listening. It’s just a bit more than hearing. We are not making an asserted effort to understand or even respond to the message in any way. 

Selective listening: We only pay attention to the part of the message that we are interested in or the position we agree with. 

Active listening: Active listening means that the listener is making a conscious effort to understand the message, participate, and show regard for the speaker. Through this type of listening, we can better understand the message, which helps us remember it too. 

Why is active listening important?

We already mentioned some benefits for the listener above, but active listening also has enormous benefits for the speaker. So, this might be the people in your teams and organisation. 

Consider active listening as a form of communication in itself. Focusing all your attention on listening to others is a way of communicating that you care about them and value their opinions and ideas. 

And feeling heard and valued is a significant factor of employee engagement. 

“Employees who feel heard are 4.6x more likely to feel empowered to do their best work.”

Furthermore, it can improve creativity and innovation. In a dynamic world where everything is rapidly changing, innovation and creativity are more crucial than ever. And it may surprise you, but 82% of employees have ideas about how their company can improve according to research. But, unfortunately, many of these ideas will never be heard because people don’t think their employees will listen. 

How can we improve our active listening skills?

There are many tips we can use to improve our active listening. Let’s differentiate three types: behaviours, responses, and self-awareness. 

Behaviours: 

Actions speak louder than words, which is why our behaviours play a big part in active listening. These are some of the things we can do to improve our listening skills. 

Remove distractions. To actively listen, we need to focus all our attention on the speaker, so we can’t multitask. This means removing all distractions (notifications, noises, etc.). For example, you probably know how distracting and frustrating it can be to talk to someone who keeps looking at their phone. 

As Scott Peck said, “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.”

Non-verbal signs. These are simple but powerful behaviours when it comes to communication. For example, maintaining eye contact, smiling, or nodding your head to demonstrate you’re paying attention and adjusting your posture to appear open and positive are some things that will help your listening skills. 

All these behaviours are important to demonstrate interest, but they are not a substitute. The interest must be genuine. 

As Michael P. Nichols said, “There’s a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest.”

Non-verbal communication goes both ways.  Active listening is not only about the words but about all forms of communication. The speaker’s body language can give you more information too. For example, if the speaker is acting anxious, this could mean they don’t feel comfortable. 

Responses:

Active listening is a two-way communication process that requires some kind of response on your part too. The crucial point, however, is to adapt those responses to the speaker and the situation. 

Choose the right time to speak. Our focus is on listening, so we should never interrupt to impose our opinion. Choosing the right time is half the battle. 

Ask the right questions. While listening, you should also ask questions that help you understand the message better and enhance the communication process. 

Summarise and offer brief responses during the conversation. For example, a simple “yeah, it makes sense” tells the speaker that you’re paying attention. 

Acknowledge your feelings and others too. Sometimes the message can be misunderstood; for example, some messages can be taken as personal or offensive. Whilst actively listening, it is essential that we acknowledge these types of feelings and emotions. 

Self-awareness:

Even if we intend to listen fully, our minds most of the time have other plans. They are always wandering. Sometimes it’s about what’s being said, or if we agree or disagree, and maybe we are thinking about our response. 

But to actively listen, we need to quiet our minds and put our full attention into receiving the message.

As Bryant H. McGill said, “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

Be aware of your thoughts. Try to be as mindful as possible during your conversations. Of course, there will always be thoughts coming to your mind, but consciously choosing to be aware of them makes it easier for you to realise when they come and to go back to actively listening. 

Prepare for active listening. Like any other learning experience, understanding why we want to improve is essential to commit to the process. If you fully understand the benefits of active listening and why you’re motivated to improve this skill, it will make it easier to overcome the challenges along the way. 

The Optimist View…

Active listening is a big part of good communication, which is the foundation to building a healthy environment. Through authentic and open communication, we build trust, connections and deeper relationships. 

Fortunately, listening is a skill that we all can learn and improve; we only need to be willing to make an effort. 

The good thing is that you don’t need to do it by yourself. At Optimist Performance, we help leaders to develop and maximise their leadership skills, including communication.  

If you would like to know more about how we can help you, get in touch with us for a free consultation. You can also learn more about our executive coaching here. 

The post Do you practise active listening as a leader? – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Breaking the harmony between our work and personal lives negatively impacts both the individual and the team. According to statistics, it can decrease employee morale by 68%, reduce productivity by 36% and significantly reduce turnover. It will also make us feel stressed, overwhelmed and frustrated. Furthermore, it will impact our personal lives and relationships. 

It is important for us to accept that there is no one size that fits all when it comes to work-life balance and many factors will impact the amount of time each individual spends at work. 

The critical part is to understand your circumstances and how you feel about them. For example, if you’re constantly putting work first or working longer hours, and this makes you feel stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt-out, then you need to re-evaluate your situation. 

In addition, due to remote working, many people have seen their work-life balance threatened. However, working from home shouldn’t be an excuse to forget about work-life balance. On the contrary, it should be used as a way to achieve a better one. 

Remember that we are working from home, not living at the office.

Having a work-life balance can be challenging when we identify too much with our job. This is a bigger problem for Millenials. According to a study, 68% admit they suffer from “workism” or identify themselves through their jobs.

While our careers and professional growth are important; our personal lives, relationships and health must always be top priorities. 

Tips to achieve a better work-life balance:

Protect yours and other’s time

We all know that we shouldn’t look at our emails when we are not working and switching our notifications off should be a no brainer.

Still, many of us look at work-related messages in our free time and once we see them, our minds automatically go back to work mode, disrupting our rest time. 

Changing this is ultimately up to each one of us. However, trying to leave your phone in a different room, or at least switching off your notifications, can be a good start. 

Although the ultimate decision is personal, we should avoid invading someone else’s personal time. This is even more important for company leaders and managers. 

According to research, due to remote working, 53% of the people feel they have to be available at all times.

So, we need to be conscious of other people’s time—no emails or messages after working hours. If you work at different times, you can always schedule your emails to send when you know other people are working.

Or at least you should make your expectations clear and let people know you’re not expecting them to answer or even read your email at those times. 

Use communication to identify and enhance work-life balance  

Sometimes it can be difficult to realise or even admit that we feel stressed. But we can all look for the signs of burnout. For example, binge-watching can be a sign of burnout and stress. 

Also, leaders and managers need to be conscious of their non-verbal communication. Our actions always speak louder than our words. Showing that you value work-life balance is critical. Let people know it’s ok to disconnect and that they don’t need to be available 24/7. 

Use your data right

In the same way, we can find cues of burnout from our everyday life; we can also get them from our data. For example, many companies monitor people’s computers to make sure they are working when they have to, but are rarely concerned about if they are working in their free time.

40% of employees use their devices for work outside business hours.

If you tell your employees when they have to work, you should also see the other side of the coin and make sure they are not working when they are not supposed to.

Use transition activities 

A transition activity is a task that helps you switch to relax mode. For example, a person in our team uses a transition activity at the end of the day. It allows her to put her mind at ease by reassuring herself that she did everything and it’s ok to finish. 

You can also use these types of activities within your team to make sure people switch off on weekends. For example, organising a social activity during the last 15 or 30 minutes of the Friday shift can be a great idea. This way, people know that they should finish by that time. Also, playing something together can help shift their modes to off time. 

As much as our muscles need recovery times, so do our brains. So, disconnecting on weekends is essential for our mental health and work-life balance. 

Have set work hours 

If your job requires you to be available at certain hours, setting up a schedule can be pretty straightforward but for people who can do their jobs any time, it’s still important to have a plan and define working hours. 

You can distribute those hours any way you want and organise your time according to your needs whilst still managing to have a routine. Setting work hours is vital to ensure that you don’t end up working all day every day. 

Be realistic and prioritise yourself 

Ultimately, everyone is different and has different needs, so being self-aware and analysing the past can help you improve your work-life balance in the future. 

When you know your needs, it’s easier to prioritise them. Also, evaluating what impacted your work-life balance in the past can help you avoid making the same mistakes. 

Last but not least, we all need to learn to say no. Being truthful with your colleagues and knowing when you can’t afford to accept any more workload is key to achieve work-life balance. Leaders need to understand and set boundaries where people feel comfortable saying no when needed. 

Improve productivity 

Sometimes longer hours are due to an overload of work but it can also be due to a lack of productivity. So one way to stop overworking is to increase how productive you are. Check out our blog from last week, where we have 7 tips on how to improve productivity. 

The Optimist view…

We all need to find our balance, but we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others. We are all at different times in our lives, both personal and professional, which means our needs will vary. 

An essential take-home point when talking about work-life balance is finding the balance that works for you, even if people disagree. In the end, it’s your life, not theirs. 

What does work-life balance mean to you? And what do you do to ensure it?

The post 7 Tips To Have A Better Work-Life Balance – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Although many studies have shown the benefits of focusing on people’s strengths, we still live in a ‘weaknesses focused’ world. 

In my rugby days, I had a coach who used to say, “Maximise your strengths, and manage your weaknesses.” 

While we shouldn’t neglect our weaknesses, it’s our strengths that make us unique and deserve more emphasis and focus. As leaders, we can increase our performance and engagement by bringing people’s strengths into the spotlight and collectively building on them. 

Gallup has found that building employees’ strengths is a far more effective approach to improving performance than trying to improve weaknesses. When employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged, perform better, and are less likely to leave their company.

DISCOVERING OUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Definition of a Strength: “A good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person.”

They are qualities that come naturally to you, that you enjoy, and give you energy. It can also be any type of quality, such as kindness, optimism, …

Unfortunately, sometimes we limit ourselves by our thinking or by social standards without realising it. 

As David Rendall says: “In the right situation, your weaknesses become your strengths.”

A great example is Thorkil Sonne, founder of Specialisterne, a software testing company, where 75% of its staff are autistic. 

After his son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, he started to study people with autism and their role in the workforce. He realised that the skills of people with autism matched the desired skills of a software tester. 

His motivation to give his son better opportunities allowed him to look at strengths and weaknesses from a different perspective. 

THE BENEFITS OF KNOWING AND PLAYING TO OUR STRENGTHS

Playing to our strengths means using them daily and as often as possible every day. This has positive effects for the individual:

• Improve your self-confidence and energy. 
• Drive engagement and quality of life. 
• Reduce stress and anxiety.

But also for our teams. According to studies; teams who focused on developing their people’s strengths and provided opportunities to use them daily have reported significant benefits:

Lab Survey 2019 by @MichelleMcquaid

• 36.4% increase in people’s performance.
• Up to 19% increase in sales.
• 50% lower employee turnover.
• 38% higher level of productivity.

HOW TO BUILD A TEAM THAT FOCUSES ON STRENGTHS

“To build a strong team, you must see someone else’s strength as a complement to your weakness, not a threat to your position or authority.” – Christine Caine.

If we believe everyone is unique and has something to offer, it’s easier to work together rather than compete against each other. Think of it as if we all were pieces of a puzzle. To be able to complete it, we need to find people who complement each other. 

These are some ideas of how I build a team that focuses on strengths:

Identify strengths 

For the majority of us, it’s easier to identify our weaknesses than our strengths. Sometimes we are unsure what they may be, others we maybe don’t want to seem ‘braggy’. 

First, we need to identify everyone’s talents, not only what they are excellent at but also what tasks they enjoy. This way, we make sure everyone feels motivated and engaged. 

Then, we need to make everyone aware. As a group, spend time getting to know each other’s strengths and how they add value to the team. 

Assign teams and projects based on strengths 

Knowing each team member’s strengths and weaknesses can connect people who can complement and help each other grow. 

It can also help collaboration by understanding who is the best person to ask for help in every situation. 

Focus on developing people’s strengths

When we know our best qualities, our growth can be exponential. In addition, investing in people’s development requires you to know their strengths so that you can help find the proper progression for each person. 

Sometimes companies invest time, money and resources on development opportunities that people are not interested in. Providing the correct development will help people be more invested and engaged with their jobs and companies. 

Find talent that fills the gaps

Knowing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses can help you reduce turnover and recruitment costs. By being aware of precisely what you need, you can be more accurate when recruiting your next talent. 

You should focus on finding someone who complements and fits your team and not someone who ticks the standard CV or interview boxes. 

Implement a strength-based company culture

To ensure long-lasting changes, you can integrate strengths development into your company culture, creating a strength-based culture. 

Including the individuals and team strengths into your company culture is a way of making sure that everyone is looking towards helping each other grow. It will also help collaboration and teamwork. 

THE OPTIMIST VIEW

We aim to build teams where every individual can leverage their talent and their unique ability. To do this, we need to find out what we are great at, what motivates us and how it can add value to our lives and jobs. 

We love to work with highly motivated and engaged people that collaborate and work as a team to achieve common goals. Everyone has something to offer, and the first step is to find out what that is. 

If you want to achieve your full potential, get in touch with us and find out how our coaching sessions can help. 

The post Focus On Strengths To Drive Performance – By Ollie Phillips appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Studies show that “More than half of workers admitted to being nervous about returning to work.”

So, you need to focus on reengaging and reconnecting with your team. And providing some team-building activities can help you do it. 

First and foremost, it will allow you to spend time with your team and understand how they feel and how you can help support them through the transition. Second, it’s a way to ensure that people feel supported and valued during the process, whether it be remote or onsite teams. 

OUR PERSONAL STORY

At Optimist Performance, we had our first in-person meeting a couple of weeks ago. Naturally, we wanted to see each other personally, but we also wanted to evaluate how everyone felt. 

We started our morning by focusing on people’s strengths and how we could help each other to reduce workload and stress. Based on this, we created a strategy to optimise people’s strengths and time. 

After a productive morning, we move onto the fun part of the day. We spent the afternoon out in the river and enjoyed our first lunch together……..finally! 

It wasn’t a crazy team-building activity, but it still brought us closer together and allowed us to catch up, break bread, re-engage and get to know each other better. 

The reason to share this story is that we have seen first-hand how getting the team together for some ‘out of the ordinary’ activity can help productivity, performance, teamwork, and even mental health. 

THE BENEFITS OF TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Team building activities can have many benefits, but it’s essential to have a clear purpose. Knowing what you are trying to accomplish will help you plan a suitable activity for your team. 

Once you know the purpose of the session, it’s important to communicate what you intend or hope to take away from the experience, whatever that may be.   

These are some of the benefits and purpose of team building activities:

Reconnect with your team 

According to a Microsoft study, our networks have shrunk during the pandemic. Team building activities or events are an excellent way to build new connections and strengthen the ones you already have. 

Why not explore organising an event for every team in your organisation? An opportunity to help people build connections outside their immediate teams and reconnect with each other and the company after such a long time away.

Improve productivity and innovation

Changing our scenery can be hugely beneficial to innovation. It gives people a different perspective and can help to bring new ideas to the table. 

Any activity that gets us out of our comfort zone can spark our innovation and creativity. Even games that make our inner child flourish are great to inspire innovation. 

Enhance teamwork and collaboration 

Collaborating outside the office environment can help people to recognise and value each other’s strengths. In addition, it will make it easier to apply these strengths to the workplace and make people more confident about asking for help. 

Organising an activity where people need to work together towards achieving something, be it big or small, can help boost teamwork and collaboration. 

Improve communication

Sometimes, it can be challenging to find the time to have a conversation with a colleague during work hours. If you’re new to the company or a more introverted type, it can be complicated to start conversations at work, even more so if working remotely.

Team building activities allow everyone to talk to each other in a more relaxed environment that feels less time-constrained or work specific. 

Take advantage of our newfound freedom and try to get everyone together for an in-person activity. It’s a lot easier to talk to different people when we are next to each other. 

Develop a better work-life balance 

Investing in these kinds of activities is a great way to show people that you care about their work-life balance. Of course, we all want our teams to be productive, but it’s important to let people know that not everything is about numbers. 

By providing a fun activity and environment for your team, you demonstrate the value you give to work-life balance. 

Create a sense of belonging

Everyone likes to feel included, but for some people, it can be challenging to interact with others while working remotely. Being part of group activities allows more accessible interactions and can help people feel part of the team. 

The more varied, challenging and, in some cases, extreme the situation, the deeper and stronger the bonds can be. It’s common sense but often isn’t common practice.

When you spend an extended period of time with someone or overcome a challenge together, it creates a memory. That memory prompts you to feel more connected to that person, which in turn builds trust, and trust helps to foster long term, sustainable and more productive partnerships.

Thankfully for you, life-changing experiences and creating great memories is one of our areas of expertise! :). 

Team building activities have many benefits, and they can help reinforce your company values; unfortunately, they can’t produce miracles. 

If your company values aren’t aligned with and underpin the event’s purpose, then the whole thing just becomes an excuse to have some free time and a jolly. Either way, it loses its value and undermines the entire intention of it and can end up being a waste of time and money. 

THE OPTIMIST VIEW

As a leader, it’s your job to lead by example and ensure that your actions and intentions are aligned with your company values. A well-planned team-building activity can help you deliver and emphasise those values to the rest of the team. 

We are aware of how much we can gain from these activities, which is why we organise life-changing experiences that help you re-engage with both your team and your clients. 

Life is about creating memories, and we want to create an unforgettable one for you and your team. We can organise activities both online and offline, and we tailor all our activities to your purpose, values and needs. 

Get in touch with us to know how we can help you create a life-changing experience for you today.

The post Engage with your team through team building activities – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

When one of my peers bought Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, for me, my first thought wasn’t a positive one. 

I immediately thought: “Gee, thanks…What I always wanted, a book to tell me how screwed up our company is. While oversimplifying it into five reasons with some fancy consultancy speak to prove the author’s point.” 

I’m always wary of fancy-suited consultancies pitching, “There are only five of those, 3 of these and 7 of the other to think about.”  With 30 years of HR leadership experience, I can assure you there is far more than three, five or seven buckets to fill when it comes to dysfunctional human behaviour in human organisations!  

But I give it a read and then saw the following graphic for clarity’s sake:

Dysfunctional Teams: I got it instantly  

I could instantly relate to the 5 dysfunctions that Mr Lencioni puts forth in his parable. Down the right-hand side are some issues that almost every company I’ve worked for suffered from.

Most of them couldn’t get beyond the Trust factor full stop, much less evolve up the pyramid to manage Constructive Conflict, build Commitment or engender any personal sense of Accountability that translates into superior Results.  

In actuality, my experience with organisations and the leadership that shapes their cultural norms often involved hiring the best and brightest minds available. Then pulling the wool over their eyes about the trust issues.  And straightaway pushing them into being committed and accountable. 

Unfortunately, this tapped into their desire to belong to a known brand to create a resume passport stamp that says “I was special enough to work here,” which typically lasted no more than 18 months to 2 years. After which, they’d politely bow out and thank the mad leaders for the “wonderful opportunity” to work alongside some terrific people, sort of thing on LinkedIn.  

Sadly it’s more common than not to work in a dysfunctional organisation. Unfortunately, it’s far easier to create one of those than a high performing organisation.

To achieve the latter, we need to consciously focus with awareness and intention about engendering trust. Provide a constructive channel for conflict. And organically encourage everyone to commit to a cause by being highly accountable on a personal level to produce exponential results.  

Learn more about our leadership development programmes here or get in touch with us to learn how we can help you and your team to achieve your full potential.

Examples Of Other Teams

I’ve found some powerful examples (which aren’t perfect, I can assure you). Wherein the founders and leadership foresaw and understood the natural chaotic behaviours that large groups of people could tend toward. 

My favourite example I point to is Reed Hastings’ Netflix.  What I like about their journey of discovery and is that Reed engaged directly with Patty McCord – his first HR leader – whose ideas about hiring the best people, paying them well, treating them like adults offering them the freedom to solve problems within a framework of responsibility – whilst being rather selective about the folks who make the cut – was enlightened.

They built their model over ten years, having experimented endlessly with a variety of approaches.  

What they landed on was memorialised in Patty’s book Powerful, where she very honestly outlines how they created the Freedom and Responsibility framework and instilled some fundamental behaviours that they strongly encouraged everyone to embrace.  

It wasn’t a dictum as much as it rewarded the desirable behaviours and firmly dealt with folks who didn’t buy into the framework’s approach.  

Netflix is amongst a rather small group of clever companies who fall into the Venn Diagram centre, where Great Place to Work overlaps with the Highest Net Employee Promoter Score, along with strong Top Pay and Benefits, Endless Opportunities and Bring Your Whole Self to Work.  

Naturally, there is a dark side to this: it’s a highly selective culture.  If you don’t engage, you’re gone. And if you stay, you’re going to work hard to keep up your end of the bargain. 

But according to their Glassdoor reviews, 92% of employees approve of Reed’s approach, and 76% would recommend it to a friend.  I’d say that’s far better than average. And the shareholders seem to think Netflix is still a great company to own.  

My experience in different teams

My own experience working in a high performing environment would have included my time at Goldman Sachs as a recruiter or my time at Peoplesoft prior to Oracle’s acquisition.  

In both cases, there were ridiculously high standards in recruitment (took me 11 interviews to get an offer). But once in, it was a factor of keeping pace, if not excelling.  Culture translates into a sense of being part of an elite tribe of uniquely capable people.  

That sensation of having ‘arrived’ felt good at the bar with your friends outside of work, but “You’re only as good as your last trade,” was the continual refrain amongst employees at Goldman.  

High performing cultures can create competitive environments, which can tilt positively to drive up quality outcomes or negatively when it becomes political.

If leadership doesn’t stop it from happening, then trust is out the window. Conflict becomes nasty, commitment becomes selfishly oriented, and accountability is all about who to blame when the boss is less than satisfied.  

And you’re right back in Dysfunctionville all over again.  

But let’s go back to our example

Reed Hastings is hard-driving, highly competitive and super clever, but he’s also all about his people. He knows full well that without these bright sparks shining their light on Netflix’s deepest challenges, he’s just another fleeting success story walking the streets of Silicon Valley.  

He pulled together some of the best minds and made sure the voice of the people was represented.  He plays hard, takes big bets on hiring the best, paying the top end, trusting them to solve problems with lots of latitudes. He also takes swift and direct action against anyone who isn’t pulling their weight (with a respectful severance package).  

He does what he says he will do.  More so than many leaders these days.  

He encourages intelligent and constructive conflict. It’s not very comfortable initially, but you learn how to focus on the problem and not the people involved.  

The vision sits at the centre of everything – and says, “We’re going to make people’s lives better in these ways…” and mean it.  That creates a personal sense of commitment and ownership.  

And there is always an explicit focus on the end game, what must be delivered. No black boxes or secret agendas. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), published everywhere, with hundreds of subordinate OKRs, are broadcast across every laptop in the company.  

That’s where accountability is tracked, and commitment is measured. There are no questions about what you’re there to do or what Netflix is laser-focused on.  It’s all there in black and white, and you just need to do your bit to deliver it. 

My conclusion…

The Five Dysfunctions are sadly very familiar to me as I’ve lived in that world far more than I’ve lived in the inspired “High-Performance Land.”  And it sucked as the company wobbled and dragged itself along, especially in an HR role.  

I wasn’t inspired to fix everything, but I tried. It was just too daunting, and I couldn’t change how leaders behaved in the end. 

At the apex of my career, I’ve become far more entrepreneurial and offer the wealth of my own experience to help HR teams build their people strategy consultancy. 

My focus is to show leaders how NOT to be dysfunctional and design the business that would inspire them, starting with trust as the basis for the journey to high performance.

So much work goes into achieving and earning the trust of others; as it’s said, “you earn trust in drips and lose it in buckets.” 

If you think about architecting your culture, underpinning it with meaningful core values, then refer to those religiously in every decision you make (especially the hardest ones). 

• Loudly reward the folks who thrive in the culture. 
• Urgently course-correct those who struggle keeping pace.
• Keep the vision front and centre every day of that business’ life.

Then, you’re in with a chance.  It requires you as a leader to keep the faith, toe the line, and keep one another honest, constructively.  

If you collectively own the dream of working with inspiring people, delivering great products to delighted customers, you might just find yourself feeling rather proud about the whole thing.  

Check out MIT Sloan’s annual Culture 500 report to get a sense of how employees view the cultures within which they work.

About the Author

Jeff Wellstead began his 30+ year human resource leadership career in NYC working with global consulting, investment banking and technology organisations for 17 years until his move to the UK, where he’s focused on the technology & biotech SME and start-up sector in the UK for the last 16 years.

Jeff is an expert in transformative talent development across all HR lifecycle activity having worked with Fortune 100 global brands including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Accenture, HP/EDS, Novartis and PeopleSoft/Oracle – and high-tech, hyper-growth start-up companies such as MessageLabs (now Symantec), SpinVox (now Nuance), Dialog Semiconductor, Skype (now Microsoft), MetaPack (now Stamps.com), Brady Plc, Oxford Nanoimaging and Summit Therapeutics.  

Jeff founded Big Bear Partners, Ltd. To help companies undergoing tectonic shifts in exponential computational shifts, needing to re-engineer their people strategies, attract, retain and develop differentiated skills and capabilities and embrace the spectrum of new workforce innovations across the entire talent management strategy.

The post Do You Work In A Dysfunctional Team? – By Jeff Wellstead appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Even the most reliable person needs to have a WHY.  The one thing that drives each of us to wake up every morning and give our best even if we encounter challenges along the way. 

Without that WHY, even simple things become hard to achieve. 

On top of that, not only is it crucial to find that WHY, but also to make sure that it’s the right one. 

My drivers weren’t always the correct ones, and even though I achieved outstanding results, they didn’t fulfil my needs, and in the end, they didn’t make me happy. 

FINDING YOUR WHY

For me, it took a long time and some external help to finally understand what was driving me and why I wasn’t feeling fulfilled.

Understanding your past. Being in the present is essential, but there are occasions where we need to look back to where we have come from in order to find answers.

In my case, when I looked back at my past, I realised that I was driven by the desire of proving someone else wrong. This was my motivation, but it was clearly the wrong one. This is why even if I achieved the desired results; these didn’t bring me fulfilment or happiness.

Understanding your drivers and realising what does and doesn’t bring you fulfilment is the first step, then you need to work on them.

Be selfish. By this, I mean that in order to achieve fulfilment and happiness, you need to find a motivation that works for you, even if other people don’t understand it or necessarily agree with it. 

Keep it constantly in mind. Once you have found your motivation, you need to keep it front and centre of your mind. Don’t just leave it as you need to continually reference it in order to reinforce it so that it becomes ingrained. 

I think about my WHY every day because it gives me the energy and focus I need to keep working hard even through the tough times. 

HELPING OTHERS TO FIND THEIR MOTIVATION

Once you have great motivation and you feel how powerful it is. It’s time to bring that same power into your teams. 

Imagine how amazing it would be to work with people who are as highly driven and as motivated as you are.

In teams and organisations, motivation is a fundamental driver of performance, but most of the time, leaders and managers don’t pay enough attention to it. 

THE BENEFITS OF MOTIVATION

People who have the right motivation perform better; they are more creative, productive and happier.

This affects their performance, their satisfaction and their engagement with their peers, colleagues and teams, decreasing turnover and improving trust and loyalty. 

Motivation also drives positive behaviours, which will create unique working environments in which change is embraced and sought after, rather than being feared and avoided. 

UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATION

It’s pretty standard for companies to motivate their employees with monetary incentives. And while these work well on some occasions, it’s essential to know that more money is not always the right motivation. 

Studies show that when the tasks rely on cognitive and creative skills, monetary motivation doesn’t work. In fact, they negatively impact results. 

Just as we talked about finding the right motivation for yourself, you need to find the right motivation for the people in your teams. 

There are two different types of motivation:

Extrinsic motivation. Refers to behaviour that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. 

Intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is behaviour stimulated by what comes from within an individual.

Even though intrinsic motivation comes from within, you can do things to inspire this type of motivation. 

Daniel Pink suggests there are three critical drivers for intrinsic motivation: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. 

HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR TEAM

Focus on Autonomy. Creating safe environments where people can work remotely, autonomously and at their own discretion is a great way to motivate and empower people. Giving them the independence to work and focus their energy on projects they are passionate about is an amazing way to inspire them.

Focus on Mastery. Channel your effort into creating an environment that promotes learning, development and growth that works for your employees. Or allow them to participate in projects that are not necessarily related to their positions but can help them learn. 

Focus on Purpose. Finding the right people from the beginning is a great start. Introduce the motivation factor into the recruitment process. The most qualified people to do the job are not always the ones who are the most motivated or have the right motivation that aligns with your company. 

As always, communication and feedback are essential elements if you want to motivate your employees and make sure that you carry out suitable measures to do it. 

MY CONCLUSION…

Can you imagine working among a group of people who feel motivated, inspired, and are working towards a great goal? It doesn’t need to be a utopia; you have the possibility to create that environment and work with that group of people. 

You need to pay attention to your motivation and the people’s motivation in your team, and even the new talent you plan to recruit. 

It takes time and hard work, but it’s possible. And you don’t need to do it alone. Our mission is to inspire and motivate leaders and teams across organisations to optimise their performance. 

Get in touch with us for a free consultation and find out how we can help you. 

Before you go, leave a comment and share your motivation with us. We would love to hear from you. 

The post Are you looking for fulfilment? Look at your motivation – By Ollie Phillips appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Here are five essential points for leaders to focus on in the near future:

Relationships, human connections and the wellbeing of people

Over the recent weeks and months, the value of human interactions and how important meaningful relationships are to us has become very clear.

This last year has shown us how essential those relationships are to us all, and with it, it has brought an increased awareness of how much an absence of these relationships can impact our mental health. 

Leaders will need to keep this in mind when looking at the future: 

Workspaces need to be redesigned with social integration and community creation at their heart, instead of the traditional function of office space. 

Activities need to be reengineered to centre around building substantial and deeper connections between individuals. So that those relationships become more powerful and deep-rooted in the future. 

Implementing mental health programmes that help safeguard and support people moving forward. This action will create safer environments in which people feel comfortable talking about their issues. 

Adapting to new generations coming into the workplace

Leaders have to be aware and prepared to provide the relevant environments if they want to bring in new and valuable talent into their teams.

Younger generations are increasingly looking to people and organisations that play to their passions and beliefs, with money becoming less of a motivator. 

They want to work for organisations that care about important issues and try to play their part to solve them. 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Awareness has been rising for years now, and it will continue to increase in the years to come. 

Leaders have to make a more considered effort to create a more inclusive workspace by placing diversity and equality at the heart of everything they do. 

Moving towards a more agile, flexible and independent work environment

People have demonstrated that they can be held accountable and trusted without being monitored every minute of every day. Leaders have seen that it is possible to be productive even when people are not in the office every day. 

Creating new strategies where flexible and remote working is the new norm would be essential for leaders who want to attract and retain the best talent. 

Using technology to deliver value

Technology has been one essential part for everyone at work this past year. We all have grown accustomed to it now. 

We have learnt that creating relationships, working together as teams, and having valuable conversations is possible through our computers. And even though it will never replace human connections, it still offers excellent opportunities for leaders to deliver against leadership’s core values.

Technology offers multiple channels for open and constant communication. Which could help leaders deliver a more authentic leadership style and message. 

It presents new methods for people to work remotely while still working together as a team. 

It allows new and better opportunities for leaders to acquire the best possible talent for their organisations. 

CONCLUSION

The current situation provides opportunities to create better environments, with inclusion and diversity at its core. Leaders need to do their part, but so do we. We all have a role to play and must take action to create a new and better future. 

At Optimist Performance, we help businesses and teams to create a culture to succeed. 

Get in touch with us for a free consultation about our transformational talks, workshops and 1-1 coaching sessions. We run all our sessions online at the moment. 

What do you think will change in the near future in the world of work? Let us know in the comments. 

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