Be Courageous! Put People First

Shutterstock

We have now spent over two years dealing with a global pandemic. While we can see some hope in the future as more and more people get vaccinated, people are reaching their limits.

Companies are struggling, organizations are floundering, and government agencies are feeling the strain. When this is over, a few organizations will stand out as having thrived despite the crisis.

Based on my experience with U.S. Embassies in crisis, I predict that those successful organizations will all have one thing in common. They are putting their people first. They are prioritizing the well-being of their workforce over profits, products, or policy. They understand that in a crisis, it's the people who make things happen. It's the people who find innovative solutions and solve the toughest problems.

In a crisis, leaders must prioritize the safety of their employees, even when it's hard. Over the past few weeks, I've heard from dozens of employees who do not feel safe in their workplace. Their supervisors tell their employees they care, but their actions say otherwise. They limit telework because they aren't comfortable with remote supervision. They don't fight for masks and hand sanitizers for essential staff who must take risks by coming to work. They won't pay the salaries of employees who are sick or in self-quarantine.

Employees who do not feel safe will quickly check out. Even the most self-motivated employee will lose their energy just when you need it the most. After the crisis, it will be difficult or impossible to rebuild trust, leaving teams fractured and less capable. Staff may become bitter and cynical, which erodes team resilience and limits productivity.

In contrast, when people feel safe, they will often perform exceptionally well under stress. Some will remember the crisis as a highlight of their career. U.S. Ambassador Peter Bodde demonstrated the power of putting people first when a devastating earthquake hit Nepal in 2015. Realizing that the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu was one of the safest buildings in the city, he allowed all embassy staff (American and Nepalese), their families, and their pets to move onto the embassy compound. This move was unprecedented, and he didn't ask Washington for permission. He knew he was taking a risk, but the safety of his staff was his top priority.

Ambassador Bodde’s team exceeded expectations in their ability to assist and protect U.S. citizens and achieve U.S. foreign policy goals. Staff told me that they have fond memories of their time in Nepal, even though they lived and worked through two major earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks.

If you are a supervisor, take a few minutes and ask yourself whether you are putting your people first. Are you making the sacrifices necessary to demonstrate that you care about your staff? If not, ask yourself why. What are you prioritizing ahead of your employees? Identify the barriers preventing you from supporting your people and work to remove or minimize those barriers.

If you’re afraid of the consequences if you prioritize people over profits, products, or policy, remind yourself that courage is taking action despite the fear, not the absence of fear. Commit to being courageous during this public health crisis. You and many others will be glad you did.

What have you done to put people first during this pandemic?

___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.

How to Ensure Formal Award Programs Build Team Resilience

The author presenting an award at the U.S. Consulate Kolkata

In a recent resilience training session, several employees told me they did not feel appreciated by their leadership because they had not had an award ceremony in several years. While the organization gave awards, employees were disappointed that certificates appeared on their desks with no formal presentation.

The organization's leadership, however, had a different view. They felt that employees viewed awards as an entitlement, not as a reward for work above and beyond the norm. They thought employees were overlooking and undervaluing the appreciation they had received in other forums.

This tension highlights a frequent debate surrounding awards and employee recognition programs. While research shows that affirmation, feedback, and reward motivate employees to do their best work, many people strongly dislike formal award programs. While award ceremonies have a positive impact in some organizations, in other offices they may lead to lower instead of higher morale.

I suspect that concerns about award programs arise when leadership has stumbled into one or more award pitfalls. When this happens, morale can suffer, and team resilience may erode. Here are some of the most common pitfalls:

Common Award Pitfalls

• Lack of fairness and transparency: When awards are not fair and transparent, employees become bitter and cynical. To avoid this pitfall, communicate award guidelines widely. Be impartial and transparent when applying the rules. If an employee expects an award, have a conversation about why and be open to finding award-worthy performance that isn't obvious. If you believe an award is not warranted, don't submit an award nomination. Instead, clearly explain your reasoning and what the employee can do in the future to earn the recognition.

• High performers are overlooked: When leadership overlooks high performers, some may become less motivated. Be generous with awards and ensure that managers take the time needed to submit nominations for their best performers. If a manager consistently neglects to nominate employees, have a performance management discussion with that supervisor. Explain that failure to recognize and reward strong performers will negatively impact the office, and you expect the manager to nominate deserving employees for awards. A clear message from leadership regarding expectations can be powerful.

• Poor performers receive awards: When poor performers receive awards, it devalues the awards for everyone else. Staff morale will often go down when leadership recognizes individuals who are widely seen as undeserving, self-serving, toxic, or too absorbed in stroking the boss without performing. Or, they are known to engage in behaviors that violate organizational norms and values (e.g., people who engage in discriminatory or harassing behavior). Managers need to resist pressure to nominate and approve awards for these known poor performers.

• Low budgets: When budgets are tight, some organizations may reduce the number of awards they issue. While it is always nice to get money with an award, public recognition for work well done is also impactful. It is better to give more awards for less money each than limit the number of awards. During or after a crisis, consider granting more awards than usual to acknowledge the challenges employees experienced.

• A rushed award ceremony: While many of us find award ceremonies to be tedious and lengthy, the only thing worse than a ceremony that is too long is a ceremony that is too short. Bringing people together and then rushing events can feel insulting and give the impression that leadership is not committed enough to give their time to the event. Read the citations, take time for photos, and properly thank employees for their contributions. Find ways to keep the ceremony from dragging on without cutting the essential aspects of employee recognition ceremonies. Skimping on food demonstrates that leadership does not believe people are worth the expense. Don't be lavish or wasteful, but provide quality food that doesn't run out.

Why Have an Award Ceremony?

Given these pitfalls, it can be tempting to scrap a formal award ceremony. In doing so, you may lose an opportunity to strengthen your team’s resilience. If you put in place systems and structures that avoid the risks, award ceremonies can foster team resilience in the following ways:

• Demonstrate commitment: By taking the time to write an award nomination, managers demonstrate their commitment to employees. Time is precious, so taking the time to nominate someone for even a minor award sends a message that the person is worth your time. I often nominated employees for competitive awards and showed them the nomination, even when I was not confident they would be selected.

• Show consideration: Public recognition is a great way to show consideration to employees. While a private "thank you" is useful, public recognition has the added benefit of demonstrating to the entire team how much senior managers value people in the organization. Award ceremonies provide an open forum for leaders to signal to employees that their organization cares about and appreciates them.

• Create one culture: Award ceremonies build one culture by identifying "organizational heroes," individuals and groups who embody the organization's core values. Reading award citations aloud tells the organization's story, and hearing about the work award recipients have done can inspire others.

• Build connections: Once we can have in-person award ceremonies again, they can be enjoyable social events that build relationships between team members. Since they are organization-wide, it provides an opportunity for employees to make social connections with colleagues in other parts of the organization and across hierarchies.  

• Increase coordination: A public event that highlights the work of different organizational components helps employees stay in sync and work toward common goals. When awards are linked to organization-wide goals, it encourages employees to view their work as part of a larger whole.

What are your thoughts on award ceremonies? What pitfalls have you experienced, and how have award ceremonies improved your team's resilience?

___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.

How to Avoid Micro-Aggressions and Offer Micro-Affirmations Instead

There are two types of small actions - micro-affirmations and micro-aggressions - that can either enhance or destroy your team's resilience. Research conducted by academic Emily Heaphy and consultant Marcial Losada found the ratio of positive to negative comments made the greatest difference between the most and least successful teams they studied.

The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was nearly six positive comments for every negative one. The low-performing teams had almost three negative comments for every positive.

Micro-affirmations are small positive actions and comments that demonstrate that we care about our colleagues. Examples include opening a door for another person, friendly facial expressions or gestures, showing genuine interest in a colleague’s personal life, and asking someone’s opinion.

Micro-aggressions are verbal and nonverbal insults, often targeting people based solely on their marginalized group membership. It is often difficult to pinpoint why something is offensive. Some people might not be aware that their statements had an adverse effect. Examples include never seeking input from minority colleagues, commenting on a co-worker’s clothing or hair because it is outside the norm, saying “you people,” and telling a colleague they are a credit to their race/gender.

Here’s how you can increase micro-affirmations and minimize micro-aggressions in your workplace:

Be Aware

Be thoughtful about the words you use and consider how they impact others. Become familiar with common micro-aggressions and ensure you're not using them. Notice if colleagues are using micro-aggressions and the impact they are having on others. Avoid being sarcastic, mocking, or arrogant with your colleagues. 

Speak Up

Commit to a daily practice of offering micro-affirmations to co-workers. Encourage colleagues to also make positive comments to each other. When you witness a micro-aggression, whether targeting you or a colleague, call out the inappropriate behavior.

Avoid Bad Jokes

While humor helps build team resilience, people often use jokes to cover micro-aggressions. Watch for and eliminate language such as "Oh get over it; it's just a joke." Confront colleagues who use jokes in this negative way.

Be Supportive

If a colleague is the target of micro-aggressions, reach out and offer to help. Validate their experiences and ask what you can do to support them. Join them in efforts to eliminate negative comments from the workplace.

Admit Your Mistakes

Acknowledge that you are human and may inadvertently commit a micro-aggression. When you do, admit your mistake, learn from the experience, and apologize. If someone confronts you on your behavior, listen to what they tell you, and try not to be defensive. It can be very harmful to deny that someone is hurt or offended by something we said or did.

Though our emotions can often run away from us, we control the words we say and our actions. A daily practice of giving micro-affirmations and the eradication of micro-aggressions demonstrates that you care about your teammates and fosters an atmosphere of resilience in your office.

What is your experience with both micro-affirmations and micro-aggressions in the workplace?

I___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.

Want to Be Successful? Put People First

CC0 Public Domain

I will never forget the first time I thought I would die. It was October 1994, and I was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. Without warning, Saddam Hussein revealed that he had over 70,000 troops on the Kuwait/Iraq border ready to invade.

While Kuwait had plenty of military hardware, they did not have enough troop strength to repel an invasion. And, it would take U.S. troops three days to arrive. We knew that if Iraq invaded before our troops arrived, our lives were at risk.

Since I was the notetaker for the embassy's emergency meetings to respond to this threat, I saw first-hand how our embassy team fell apart under stress. We never believed Saddam would invade Kuwait a second time and therefore had no contingency plans. A resilient team, however, would have been innovative, collaborative, and able to respond despite the lack of planning and high stress. Instead, we were frighteningly inept.

Our ambassador made one major mistake that significantly eroded our team's resilience. He communicated to embassy personnel that our country’s bilateral relationship with Kuwait was a higher priority than our safety and security.

For understandable foreign policy reasons, the ambassador did not want to give the impression that we were panicking and he instructed staff to maintain the status quo. Employees were told to send their children to school as usual and to keep their families in the country. The embassy community’s anxiety worsened as the ambassador spent much of his time with Kuwaiti officials and too little time meeting with and reassuring staff and families.

While Saddam did not invade, the result of putting policy before people was an angry and bitter embassy community with low morale and productivity.

In contrast, the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal’s actions after the 2015 earthquakes demonstrate the benefits of putting people first. When the first earthquake hit, the ambassador’s only priority was the safety of all embassy personnel. He focused on staff well-being, shifting towards the bilateral relationship with the government of Nepal only after he was confident that mission employees were okay. 

Despite the security and logistical challenges, the ambassador let every employee and their families move to the embassy compound since it was the safest place in the country. He allowed people to bring their pets knowing how much animals mean to people and how tragic it would have been to leave pets behind. The ambassador and other senior embassy leaders walked around the compound every day checking on people, listening to feedback, and making sure they were all right.

His actions sent the message that he cared about people and would overcome challenges when needed to protect them.

Knowing that they and their loved ones were valued and safe enabled the embassy staff to devote themselves entirely to assisting American citizens and the people and government of Nepal. As a result, the Nepalese view the United States as genuine partners, and private U.S. citizens praised embassy personnel for the quality of assistance they provided. Embassy employees were proud of the work they did, and after the crisis ended, most were healthy and unscarred.

It can be tempting to prioritize policy or profits over people. However, a lack of consideration for people (one of the 7Cs of team resilience) will inevitably erode the resilience of a team and risk mission failure. Instead, putting people first means that a resilient team will be able to achieve policy goals and earn profits because they are more capable and productive.

Do you have a story about a leader who did or did not put people first?

___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.

We Work With People, Not Positions

Photo by Randalyn Hill on Unsplash

Consideration, showing appreciation for and taking care of other people, is one of the 7Cs of team resilience and is key to building a team that responds to change and disruption with flexibility and innovation.

One common barrier to fostering consideration in the workplace is that people treat each other as tools or resources, not as human beings. Too often, office culture values roles and positions, not people. This tendency to focus on titles, with people becoming nameless and faceless, undermines the resilience of our teams and too often leads to mission failure.

Recognizing and overcoming this tendency to overlook the human factor will strengthen work teams and make it easier to achieve mission goals. Here are some tips on how you can promote team resilience by recognizing your colleagues as human beings:

Get to Know Each Other

Ask people about themselves, their families, their personal goals, hobbies, and dreams. If you are a supervisor, use your first meeting with a new employee to learn about them. Resist the temptation to jump into mission goals, saving that conversation for a later meeting. Invite colleagues to lunch or for coffee and talk about yourselves rather than work issues. Sometimes your teammates may not want to talk about themselves, but most people appreciate being asked.

Step Back

It is easy to focus only on work when there is a never-ending flow of demands. Take five minutes and step back. Ask yourself what would be the worst outcome if this task does not get done right away. Think about the people doing that project. What do they need? Are they getting enough support?

Use Names, Not Titles

When referring to colleagues, use their names and resist the temptation to use titles or designations. Government employees often fall into this trap since we are trained to use acronyms and it is easier to use titles. This tendency to refer to colleagues only by title dehumanizes the person in the position. For example, instead of saying “the secretary is late today”, say “George is late today”.

Develop Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Put yourself in the shoes of colleagues and make an effort to see issues from their viewpoints.

Stop Making Assumptions

Many of us assume we know what colleagues are thinking, what they want, and how they are reacting. Instead of making assumptions, ask questions. Find out from them what they are thinking and feeling.

Build on People’s Strengths

Help people understand where and how they contribute most effectively given the skills and abilities they have. If people need to learn new skills or overcome weaknesses, focus on how they can grow and improve rather than where they are deficient.

Deal With Poor Performance and Misconduct

Addressing poor performance and misconduct is one of the hardest things a manager can do. Managers are often reluctant to have honest and difficult conversations with employees. They risk having complaints filed against them or creating conflict. By taking on this challenge, managers communicate to the rest of the team that the hard work is worth the effort and risk to improve the working conditions for the rest of the group.

How do you create a culture that values people, not positions?

___________________________

 To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.

5 Things I Learned From My Thank You Note Resolution

Researchers consistently find that gratitude builds resilience. A 2006 study published in Behavior Research and Therapy found that Vietnam War veterans with higher levels of appreciativeness experienced lower rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that gratitude was a major contributor to resilience following the terrorist attacks on September 11.

To test this in real life, I decided a few years ago that my New Year’s resolution would be to write a thank you note every workday to a colleague to whom I was grateful. Here's what I learned:

My Resilience Improved

Spending a few minutes every day thinking about how colleagues helped me gave me a much more positive outlook. It forced me to focus on the positive events of the day, minimizing annoyances or irritations. Writing down my appreciation helped me clarify why I was grateful.

It Was Hard

I underestimated how much self-discipline I needed to spend 5-10 minutes every workday thinking about whom I would send a thank you note. It was easy to get absorbed in my work and forget to write a card. To stay on track, I posted reminder notes and put the cards where I would see them.

Having a Routine Helped

At the beginning of the year, I kept forgetting to write my cards because I hadn't set a time of day during which I would write. After trying several options, I settled on writing a card at the beginning of each day. I created a recurring calendar entry as a reminder. The added value was that I started each day thinking positively about everything people had done the day before to help me.

People Love Personalized Cards

I printed cards in bulk on moo.com using photographs I had taken. By personalizing the cards, I made a connection I had not anticipated with recipients. Recipients wanted to learn more about where I’d taken my photos and were glad to see I had a passion outside of work. These cards ended up being much more impactful than cards I bought at a stationery store.

Team Resilience Improved

One significant benefit of this practice was that people loved receiving a handwritten thank you note. I realized that I was fostering team resilience by showing consideration to colleagues, one of the 7Cs of team resilience. Members of my team appreciated that I was taking the time to say thank you and commenting on their positive impact.

Consider giving this a try in 2021 and tell me in the blog comments how it goes.

___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Why Holiday Parties Are Not a Waste of Time

Photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash

The winter holiday season is almost here. With most of us working virtually and avoiding crowds, we may be tempted to cancel holiday parties this year.

Many people view these as fun events that give us a nice break from work, but not an essential part of operations. Others think they are a waste of time and are happy for the excuse not to have a holiday party this year.

However, these parties play a significant role in building team resilience, and leaders would benefit from prioritizing their success. While it may be more challenging to have a safe and, most likely, virtual holiday party this year, it’s worth the effort.

Here’s how a holiday party contributes to team resilience:

Culture

The annual holiday party can become a part of a shared identity, with staff taking pride in presenting their office to others. The positive stories from a successful party become part of the shared history. New employees are brought into this shared history by helping to organize and then participating in the event.

Connections

Connections are built across an office, not just at the event itself but, even more important, through the committees and working groups that organize items such as food, decorations and clean up. The best committees have members from various divisions within an office. By working together on a shared goal, employees get to know each other. They will then have much better connections later on when collaboration may be more challenging.

Commitment

Parties give managers an excellent opportunity to show their commitment by helping with party set-up, breaking down, contributing food and drink, or paying for decorations or entertainment. Managers who show up and actively engage with staff communicate that they are committed to the people who work for them.

Consideration

These parties provide an opportunity to invite guests to whom you are grateful. Invite your professional contacts and colleagues from other offices who've helped you throughout the year as a way of saying thanks. Parties that are welcoming and inclusive show community members how much you value them.

So, instead of canceling this year’s holiday party, put a committee together to figure out how to host a virtual party or a safe in-person event.

What are your thoughts on holiday parties? How have you seen them contribute to team resilience?

___________________________

To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.