By Nancy Elizabeth
The podcast currently has 53 episodes available.
How can you, dear manager, notice performance gains, increase learning, engagement, information sharing, and improve commitment?
I'll give you a hint... the answer does not involve shouts, rants, rages, screams, humiliation, nor punishment.
It happens in spaces where a team feels safe enough to share problems, mistakes, and concerns - and rely on interpersonal exchanges to overcome them.
Tune in to define Psychological Safety beyond the buzzword (buzzphrase?) and back to the brainstorming session, where it belongs.
References in this episode include:
Contemporary careers come with a lot of change. Sometimes we seek out the change ourselves when, for example, we pursue promotion and are successful. Sometimes change happens to us - we're made redundant or the organisation shifts direction and is no longer a good fit.
Changes, shifts, and transitions in a career are challenging. So how do we cope? How do we remain that captain of our ship even in stormy weather?
In this episode I'll take you through three areas of focus:
Cited work in this episode include:
- Protean Careers at Work: Self-Direction and Values Orientation in Psychological Success (Hall, Yip & Doiron, 2018)
- Online identities in and around organizations: A critical exploration and way forward (Barros, Alcadipani, Coupland & Brown, 2022)
- Crafting networks: A self-training intervention (Wang, Demerouti, Rispens & van Gool, 2024)
- Enhancing job seeker self-efficacy, use, and benefits: Effects of an online training program (Wanberg, Van Hooft, Liu & Csillag, 2020)
- Cultivate Self-Efficacy for Personal and Organizational Effectiveness (Bandura, in "Principles of Organizational Behavior: The Handbook of Evidence‐Based Management 3rd Ed., 2023)
- Building Relationships and Improving Opportunities (BRIO) online course
- Developing Career Resilience Open Uni course
Good luck, Professionals!
Substack version
According to a recently published report in McKinsey on Women in the Workplace (2024), men continue to significantly outnumber women at the manager level, making it difficult for companies to support sustained progress at more senior levels like the C-Suite.
In a bizarre twist, research tells us that Organisations with women in leadership positions are more likely to be innovative and to have improved firm performance (Joecks et al., 2023; Sieweke et al., 2023).
How do we make changes to shift away from this illogical incongruity in order to bask in fulfilling our potential?
What are some practices we can put into place to evolve our future and current space for Women in Leadership?
This episode features references to:
- "Which organisational context factors help women to obtain and retain leadership positions in the 21st century?" (Gierke, Schlamp & Gerpott, 2024)
- Gender Bias Scale for Women Leaders by Amy Diehl, PhD
- World Economic Forum - Global Gender Gap Report 2022
- A meta-analysis on gender and leadership with findings on agentic traits (Bandura et al., 2018)
- The Authenticity Paradox (Ibarra, 2015)
Don't worry, there is no management guru snake oil here. This is a broad topic with many facets. It also turns out it's a topic rife with paradox. Not a great surprise, I will say. I imagine this is not the final episode I shall create on Women in Leadership.
Good luck out there, Professionals!
p.s. 1943 Guide to Hiring Women
Substack version
Employees working later into life (and as a result, teams becoming more age-diverse) may be something you're seeing more of in your Organisation. If you haven't yet, you will before too long.
So, how do we create environments and improve teamwork to benefit the best from this diversity?
In this episode, I'll take you through some practical ways you can help an inter-generational team thrive. Some of the following are referenced:
- A Multimethod Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intragroup Conflict (Jehn, 1995)
- Fostering intergenerational harmony: Can good quality contact between older and younger employees reduce workplace conflict? (Drury & Fasbender, 2024)
- Knowledge Sharing in Times of a Pandemic: An intergenerational learning approach (Singh, Thomas & Numbudiri, 2021)
- Age Diversity Training
Good luck, Professionals!
How is it that so much resource is spent on training, and yet behaviour remains unchanged?
We can look to the extensive research done on the topic of training transfer and find several reasons why. And, even better, find recommendations for potential ways to make that transfer have more of an impact.
If you would like to read some of the academic articles referenced in this episode, here they are:
- Making soft skills stick: a systematic scoping review and integrated training transfer framework grounded in behavioural science
- 100 Years of Training and Development Research: What We Know and Where We Should Go
- Work factors influencing the transfer stages of soft skill training: A literature review
- The differences between hard and soft skills and their relative impact on training transfer
- Transfer of Training: A Review and Directions for Future Research
Also, here's a way to improve the interactive nature of your online check-ins with your team -> Mentimeter
Good luck, Professionals!
The relationship between attitudes and behaviours is complex. Perhaps you can immediately bring to mind some examples of how attempts to implement change at work were a major flop.
So.
How do we engage in the process so that change does in fact come?
How do we avoid putting good resources in bad places and then have a collective panic when the same old problems persist?
This episode features references to the following:
- The Role of Attitudes in Work Behavior
- Intervention Preparedness Tool
- Reflected Best Self exercises
- Feedforward Interviews (follow Table 1 for instructions)
Getting people to change their behaviour(s) is difficult - but communicating well, creating a space for concerns, identifying shared goals, promoting autonomy, and having a Before, During, and After plan for the change will greatly improve its viability. Good luck, Professionals!
Hello Professionals!
How's it going at work these days?
What's that - not well? Not being well nor working well?!? Oh, dear.
Sounds like we could use another season of some evidence-based potential solutions to the challenges many of us face in our working lives.
Sounds like you need my dulcet tones to walk you through some new practices and reflect on their impact.
Sounds like it's time for Season Four!
Woo! Talk to you soon, Professionals!
It's time to circle back. We've put a pin in it and we're circling back!
Actually, to be completely honest, your organisation failed to put a pin in it to begin with and that's half the problem. You became a manager one day and everyone moved on with their lives. No training, no development, no new skill set. Eek!
We shall right that wrong on today's episode as we go back to The Basics and talk about four good working habits that will stand you (and your team) in good stead for future challenges.
What are The Basics, you ask? Being composed, kind, clear, and conscientious. Let's get those right, Professionals.
My dearest Managers, would you like to hear the good news or the bad news first?
The bad news is: you're missing a powerful component from your tool kit.
The good news: you've got a tool kit! And you've got me.
Yes, we've been doing Learning a real disservice, I'm afraid. We've limited it to inadequate spaces, left it for someone else to deal with, and not sharpened our skills to make better use of it on our teams. Dear, oh, dear. Let's fix that, shall we?
In this episode, I'll outline common pitfalls we encounter when engaging with the concept of Learning and set you on the path to righteousness. How am I going to do that? With our best friend, evidence-based practice from that light in the professional storm - Organisational Psychology.
Find me
Substack
How, exactly, does one make a team work?
It turns out - common assumptions that have been allowed to fester in the ol' organisational spaces aren't exactly super duper. You may be well aware of that if you look at your particular crack squad of slightly less than savvy, motivated personnel and think, "Oh, dear." Never fear, though - help is on the way!
In this episode, I'll outline some common errors we make as managers and why they are less helpful. After that, I'll share some evidence-based solutions to these problems in the shape of real, practical changes you can start making today.
Here are some promised links:
(Lacerenza et al., 2018) Teamwork Development Interventions: Evidence-based approaches for improving teamwork
(Woolley et al., 2010) Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups
The Recruitment Show - Attract and Retain People with Psychology with Dr Susie Phillips-Baker
Flight of the Conchords - Business Time
I'm sometimes here:
@butimaprofesh
Substack
The podcast currently has 53 episodes available.