Best-Self Management

Your job is not simply a means to an end, a way of putting bread on the table. What if we looked at our jobs more as a way of expressing our creativity? This may sound like a radical idea, but as today's guest explains, it's not only possible but essential that we design an extraordinary employee experience that unlocks the potential of our people.

Vanessa Shaw is the founder of the global community group the Workplace Lab, which is a welcoming environment for HR and talent leaders looking to discover how to innovate the employee experience. She supports leaders to bring empathy and creativity into the workplace, whether working with the United Nations, West Point cadets, or tech giants in Silicon Valley. Vanessa strives to help people answer the fundamental question, "Can my job be an expression of my creativity."

In our discussion, Vanessa sheds light on why creativity is an essential part of not just feeding our own needs but also for developing a thriving and supportive workplace. Indeed, supporting our creative side is one of the most powerful antidotes to stress. We also take a deep dive into the concept of "design thinking" and its role in engineering cultures.

Throughout, Vanessa discusses the shifting landscape of HR and how managers and leaders can meaningfully implement change without getting overwhelmed in the process. She shares some of the trends and themes that are happening in workplace cultures these days and how these can be implemented in any company to influence the employee experience.

For example, design thinking supports Diversity and Inclusion efforts due to its ability to pull in external voices and create cross-functional collaboration. When we are really close to things that we've built ourselves, we are making assumptions and often have a biased perspective. Diverse perspectives from different roles, levels in the organization, gender, race, and other perspectives help to test for bias. Solutions designed for one type of employee have serious design flaws because they are not inclusive.

What's your experience with design thinking? How can HR leaders and managers enroll employees in creating an outstanding workplace culture? Let us know in the comments!

• The lie that we need to outgrow our creative inclinations as we mature
• What "design thinking" is and how it is an integral part of fostering creative experiences
• Useful tools and techniques for identifying problems and solutions in collaborative work
• Why giving employees a sense of purpose and room to be creative is a better motivator than perks and bonuses
• Predictions about future trends in employee management
• How to use "design thinking" to get the executive team on board with engineering a powerful company culture
• Three key questions that will kickstart your design thinking process

"You can see how [design thinking] becomes a really powerful tool as we're looking to solve for diversity and inclusion, and create organizations that facilitate a sense of belonging for more than one type of employee." [12:51]

"There's a lot of pressure to reimagine the entire employee experience. From how we pay our employees, how we reward them, do performance management, everything is being unpacked and rethought and that's overwhelming to do all at once." [13:47]

"Companies are made of people. If the individual parts internally are operating at their highest selves -- highest being possible -- then that's going to reflect into everything we do." [21:34]

Find Vanessa Shaw at The Human Side of Tech

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Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

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At some point, we've all experienced what it feels like to be around someone who just sucks the energy out of the room. But have you ever been around someone who does the opposite? As Anese Cavanaugh shares, even more than the words that we use, our energy is what most affects the people around us.

Anese Cavanaugh helps people show up and bring their best selves to the table to create a significant positive impact to their lives and the lives of everyone around them. She's the creator of the IEP (intentional energetic presence) Method and is a speaker, advisor, and thinking partner to leaders worldwide. She is the author of Contagious Culture and The Leader You Will Be. Lookout for Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want, releasing November 2019!

In this interview, Anese explains how we can all show up at work with intentionality behind what we want to have happen and how we interact with one other. Anese shares how we can be present and intentional with the energy we bring so that the people around us can feel better supported, inspired, and motivated. Throughout our conversation, Anese expertly explains how we influence others as leaders by subtly communicating our emotions and attitudes and how this can be harnessed in the workplace.

We also talk about how this all impacts company culture at large. It's entirely possible to build a workplace where self-care is a cherished value. To this end, Anese deconstructs the myth that taking care of our own well-being is counterproductive. In fact, we can't afford to ignore it any longer.

What can you do to start being more intentional with your energy today? Share in the comments!

• What the IEP Method is and how it can be indispensable to leaders in the workplace
• The neuroscience behind how we influence each other with our energy
• Practical self-care tips when we need to regain control over how we're feeling in the moment
• How and why to build a sustainable culture of self-care in the workplace
• The power that is within all of us to shift our state and become more intentional
• Why we can't be in a high state all the time and it's okay to feel down sometimes as long as we're in touch with ourselves

"No matter what we say or do, there is always something that is communicating even more loudly underneath it, and it is usually our energetic presence." [2:58]

"We are moving fast and it's not going to change. We're going to always be moving fast so we have to get better. One of the things we can get better at is being really conscious about how we show up for ourselves and each other and be really conscious about our intentions, energy, and presence in anything we do." [14:16]

"Once I claim that my presence has an impact and how I show up matters and that I am the author of that, nobody can take that away from me." [32:32]

"You got to honor yourself first so that you can honor everybody else." [41:40]

Find Anese Cavanaugh online

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Get your IEP resources here

Contagious Culture by Anese Cavanaugh

The Leader You Will Be by Anese Cavanaugh

Heartmath

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We've all heard people say things like "trust your heart" or "go with your gut." But just what does that mean when applied within a workplace? It turns out that science is saying a lot about how we actually do think with these parts of our body. Joe Mechlinski has actually applied these concepts in the workplace with some magnificent results.

Joe is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, and social entrepreneur. He greatly believes that having engaged employees is the key to unlocking human potential. Joe is the founder of SHIFT, a collective of businesses united by a common mission to create a more engaged workforce. Like us, Joe has a strong desire to revolutionize the workforce and drive engagement within an organization to levels many would think impossible.

In this interview, we dive deep into the theme of trust as an essential part of any functioning organization. We also explore the research around the intelligence of our hearts and guts and what the science says about the importance of listening to these vital parts of ourselves.

We go on to talk more about the importance of psychological safety at companies and building trust between employees and leadership. Without this mutual trust, there will always be limits to what the workforce can achieve and Joe shares some great ideas for how to establish it.

How do you show your vulnerability and that you trust your employees? Leave us a comment below!

In this episode:

• How "following your heart" or "trusting your gut" are more than just cliches, but actual parts of a healthy decision making process
• What the science is saying about how you actually think with your heart and gut as well as with your brain
• How we can build a culture and organization that encourages us to leverage the intelligence of our hearts and guts
• What many companies inadvertently do that discourages their employees and how to avoid making the same mistakes
• Real ways to establish mutual trust within a company or organization

Quotes:

"The single greatest lever of a company's potential is a more engaged workforce -- people who don't dread Mondays, who don't have the Sunday scaries, who aren't watching the clock tick down every single day." [7:23]

"The way we think about the heart-brain connection is that it's really connected to your passion, what you love to do. When you think about developing high-performers, they have a tendency to actually love what they do." [11:55]

"If you don't trust your employees, they're not going to trust you." [23:59]

"We're going to find it really funny that every power structure in an organization is a pyramid and that there are these few people, mainly the CEO who makes all the decisions. And let's be honest, the buck stops with that person. That is the dumbest, silliest way to construct cooperation in an organization." [31:00]

"You can't go to the gym and just spectate, you'll look like an idiot. I think the same thing about this work; I can't spectate. I have to be at least part of the pack if not helping to promote and influence part of the pack." [48:46]

Links:

Find Joe Mechlinski at Shift the Work

Follow Shift on Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Linkedin | Instagram

Shift the Work by Joe Mechlinski

Shift Happens podcast

Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal

Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Bob Chapman's Truly Human Leadership

Listen to Best-Self Management Here

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Realizing our potential to become fully developed adult human beings is not an easy task and it doesn't just happen on its own. At 15Five, we feel strongly that company retreats provide the opportunity for levels of growth and connection that people need to become their best selves. A retreat layered with emotional renewal and peak experiences, which Abraham Maslow believed was necessary to achieve self-actualization, can make all the difference for individuals as well as the company culture and overall business success.

Today, we're exploring the importance of retreats. We've been putting these together since the start, even when there were only a handful of us here launching the company. We still hold them every year and the benefits have been substantial! We explain the many benefits we have seen as the result of our company retreats and how to get your employees enthusiastically involved.

The term "Corporate offsite" makes us cringe, and retreats are something completely different. They bring everyone together to align around the mission and company priorities, and also to build camaraderie and connection in a setting away from the office.

We also see retreats as a way to strengthen a company's culture and values. We talk about how we design our retreats to do this. Success here involves many factors such as choosing an inspiring location, creating effective content, facilitating deeper connections on the team, and delivering peak experiences along with time afterward for integration.

Have you had transformational experiences as the result of a company retreat? Tell us about it in the comments!

In this episode:

• The ROI that comes with a retreat that can't easily be quantified
• Presenting the retreat to your employees so that they understand its real purpose - to accelerate business growth
• Retreats as times to truly reflect on and celebrate all the accomplishments that your business and employees have made
• The detailed structuring of a company-wide retreat including where to do them and what to focus on each day
• Candid and inspiring reflections that our employees have had about our retreats
• Taking advantage of great settings, activities, and places that will help inspire and excite your employees
• What happens when the retreat doesn't go as planned
• Retreats as a space for your employees to connect to their own personal dreams and ambitions

Quotes:

"We really credit the retreats we've created, company-wide, the leadership team, and for departments, as one of the key drivers for building an extraordinary culture." [1:55]

"Take a moment to really smell the roses, to celebrate. In this start-up game it's so easy to constantly be focusing on the next mountain to climb and never actually sit down, have a cup of tea, look back over everything you've already done." [9:05]

"Get some time outside; be inspired by the natural world. We now know that being immersed in nature changes our entire brain chemistry and helps us shift gears into a different way of being." [25:16]

"You want to create an arc of experience. You want to create these emotional highs followed by space for integration." [33:44]

Links:

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A.H. Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation

Gallup Strengthsfinder Assessment

Via Character Strengths

Double Double by Cameron Herold

How can you have the life that you want, finding satisfaction in each moment through your work and experiencing a sense of flow and of purpose?

This podcast is all about celebrating being your full self in the workplace. Too often we're limiting our human potential in some very avoidable ways. Maybe your employees are worried about appearing too vulnerable to communicate what's best for themselves or the company. Perhaps the leadership team isn't modeling a supportive culture. Whatever it is, there are solutions!

We're David Hassell and Shane Metcalf, co-founders of 15Five, a leading continuous performance management software company with a strong focus on creating healthy and thriving workplaces.

We started 15Five back in 2011. We're now in a high growth phase, hitting some pretty big revenue milestones, and recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the Best-Places to Work. All of this while helping our 130+ employees become the best versions of themselves.

We credit our many successes to the Best-Self Management methodology, which is based on the latest research in the fields of social science and positive psychology. By supporting people in being and becoming their best selves, higher and ever-increasing performance becomes a natural by-product, not to mention uncommon levels of passion, commitment, and loyalty. We're here to share with you the many important lessons we've learned over the last eight years.

In our first episode, our guests will be... ourselves! We interview each other about where we went right over the years and where we went wrong. We started with a belief that there's a different way to do business and that the key to creating a thriving, sustainable company in the long term was supporting our people. Coming off our latest all-company retreat, many employees shared how unique an experience they had of connection with others and of a shift in mindset around what's possible for their growth in a business setting.

We also discuss the influence that managers can have via clear and regular communication with employees because managers have the greatest line of sight to a person's motivations and challenges. Candid communication develops the trust required to have authentic relationships so that you can help employees succeed without being stymied by their own limiting belief systems.

And of course, none of this is possible without having solid practices in place for your leadership team. For example, doing transformational personal development work is critical for having the types of epiphanies that inform the creation of a thriving culture.

How can your workplace create an atmosphere in which employees feel comfortable sharing more openly? Tell us in the comments!

In this episode:

• Creating intimacy in a room to cultivate vulnerability and deeper relating so that information and issues get shared
• Envisioning a company in which employees are given the support to become their best
• Moments of personal and professional growth that have influenced our workplace
• The belief and compassion necessary to help someone have the vision to change their life
• Creating a climate of psychological safety and trust so that everyone can feel comfortable sharing their fears and doubts
• Focus on the individual relationships between members of the leadership team to model a healthy working environment for all employees

Quotes:

"We had a really clear intention that we believed that there is a different way to do business and that the key to creating a thriving, sustainable, high-performing company for the long-term was that we felt if we could create an environment where people were supported and becoming their best selves and unlocking their potential, then things would take care of themselves." [3:24]

"I came to the realization prior to 15Five that it's possible to grow and change and transform, that we're not fixed and we're not stuck with the life that we have, that we can actually go out and change ourselves and change the world if we want to." [8:54]

"You can't see the potential in somebody unless you have experienced those moments of transcendence where you actually get to see that you yourself are capable of more than you think you are. That allows you to have faith that somebody is capable of more than they are currently demonstrating." [13:05]

"We're typically terrified of truth. We're typically terrified of feedback and hearing about negative experiences that other people might have of us. And yet it is the secret to good relationships to lean into that truth." [28:38]

Links:

Find 15Five online

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The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team assessment

Welcome to the Best-Self Management podcast where we explore the brave new world of bringing your whole self to work. Best-Self Management proposes that if leaders build cultures and institute practices that support people in being and becoming their Best Selves, then high performance and uncommon loyalty is the result.

Co-hosts, David Hassell and Shane Metcalf, regularly discuss the uniquely healthy and productive cofounder relationship they've built at 15Five over the last 7 years. They also interview academics, business leaders, and coaches, who are revolutionizing our understanding of human performance and what it takes to build a thriving culture that celebrates every employee and guides them towards greatness.

Links Find out more about how 15Five can help your staff become their best selves

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