Leadership Today - Practical Tips For Leaders

This month we're featuring one of the guests from our 2023 Leadership Today conference. I had the pleasure of interviewing four time Olympian Drew Ginn talking all things leadership, teams, stress and careers. Drew has had an extraordinarily successful athletic career in rowing with three Olympic Golds and a Silver together with a host of international medals, has coached at elite levels in rowing and cricket, while also having worked in business leadership. The full interview and other conference sessions from leadership experts will be available to subscribers from February 25th. Just go to Leadership.Today and follow the on-demand link, or download the Leadership Today app.

This month we're featuring one of the guests from our 2023 Leadership Today conference. I had the pleasure of interviewing four time Olympian Drew Ginn talking all things leadership, teams, stress and careers. Drew has had an extraordinarily successful athletic career in rowing with three Olympic Golds and a Silver together with a host of international medals, has coached at elite levels in rowing and cricket, while also having worked in business leadership. The full interview and other conference sessions from leadership experts will be available to subscribers from February 25th. Just go to Leadership.Today and follow the on-demand link, or download the Leadership Today app.

Summary

In this episode we explore the numerous benefits of building a culture of care at work.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 171 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how to build a culture of care at work.

Psychology demonstrates that we benefit not just from being cared for, but we're also wired to care for others. Organisations can benefit from meeting this basic human need through a culture that fosters belonging, connections and care. This helps to build trust, effective communication, meaning and purpose. All of this contributes to productivity and effectiveness.

So how do we build a culture of care at work? Here are a few ideas:

1. Role-model the importance of care by actively caring for others. There's no point expecting others to demonstrate care if it doesn't start with us.
2. Recognise that care doesn't have to be soft - it can be very practical. It can include demonstrating a genuine interest in the work of others, or offering to help somewhen when they are under pressure.
3. Show appreciation. Genuine thanks for the contributions of others helps to show you care. Appreciation can often focus on outcomes, but it's also worth recognising efforts even when they don't produce the anticipated results.
4. Recognise and reward efforts to care for others. Celebrate the times when people have gone out of their way to care for others.
5. Look for opportunities to care for others outside your organisation. That might include extending care to your customers and in to the communities where you operate through charities. This helps provide additional meaning and purpose to the work we conduct.

Caring isn't just good for the people we care for, it's good for us as well. Why not grab one of these points and apply it this week.

If this was of interest, you're going to really like our upcoming Leadership Today On-Demand conference on the theme "Belong".

Summary

This week we explore research into why sleep matters so much for our emotional state, and tips for better sleep.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 170 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore research into why sleep matters so much for our emotional state, and tips for better sleep.

We all know that sleep matters for our general health and wellbeing. Getting 7 to 8 hours of high quality sleep a night makes a big difference in our ability to concentrate, be resilient, and relate well with others. REM sleep, characterised by rapid eye movements and dreaming, is thought to be particularly beneficial for memory consolidation and emotional processing. Recent research suggests that REM sleep assists with the consolidation of positive emotions associated with safety, while suppressing the influence of negative emotions associated with danger. It's thought this process helps people to maintain a healthy balance in their focus on safety and danger. A lack of REM sleep can tip this balance too much toward a focus on danger, and a range of anxiety-related disorders can result. Having an appropriate emotional balance will help greatly in the daily stresses of leadership.

Given sleep is so important, how do we make sure we're getting enough? Here are seven tips:

1. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. It's tempting to vary when we go to bed and wake up across the week, but sticking to the same schedule helps.
2. Set your bed room up for sleep. Make sure the room is dark, quiet and cool. Don't get in the habit of watching TV in your bedroom.
3. Avoid screens at night. The blue light from screens, particularly from phones, laptops and tablets, messes with your sleep cycle and hormones such as melatonin.
4. Avoid caffeine and alcohol in the hours before sleep. Both can negatively impact your ability to get to sleep and stay asleep.
5. Wind down before sleep. Most smart phones allow you to set sleep reminders which can prompt you to have a relaxing routine before bed. This might include taking a bath, reading, or undertaking relaxation techniques.
6. Have an exercise routine. Exerting yourself physically during the day will help you to fall asleep.
7. If you wake during the night and are struggling to fall back to sleep, get up and do something relaxing until you feel tired again. This can help your body and brain to reset for more sleep.

Getting enough sleep is an important element of effective leadership. The better you rest and restore, the better prepared you are to lead others. Have a great week.

Reference

Mattia Aime, Niccolò Calcini, Micaela Borsa, Tiago Campelo, Thomas Rusterholz, Andrea Sattin, Tommaso Fellin, Antoine Adamantidis. Paradoxical somatodendritic decoupling supports cortical plasticity during REM sleep. Science, 2022; 376 (6594): 724

Summary

Much of the discussion around flexible work has focused on the 'where' of work. It turns out the 'when', 'what' and 'why' of work matter even more.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 169 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how the discussions around flexible work are often the wrong way around. Instead of starting with the 'where', we should begin with the 'why'.

A lot of discussion about flexible work has focused on the 'where' of work. Can I work at home instead of the office? If so, how many days a week? Are you going to force me to come in particular days?

Interestingly, a recent survey of 10,000 knowledge workers in the US found the ability to set their own hours was even more important than working from home. While 78% of workers wanted flexibility for where they worked, 95% wanted flexibility over when they worked.

While people are focused on the 'where' and 'when' of their jobs, the 'what' and the 'why' of work provide even greater opportunities to engage and motivate people.

Clarifying the 'why' of the work involves identifying why this work matters, the broader purpose people are contributing to, and how this role contributes to that purpose. This sense of purpose helps with motivation - people are more motivated when they feel like they are contributing to something meaningful and important. And it also ensures people are working in the same direction. When things are unclear, they can refer back to this broader purpose to guide their decision making and efforts. This is what I describe as aligned motivation - people are motivated and heading in the same direction. But it's possible to be aligned and not motivated, so what else can we do to motivate others?

Deci and Ryan's work shows motivation is about providing autonomy, building capability and confidence, and fostering a sense of belonging through meaningful connections. If you're interested in how leaders practically do this you can take a look at our Leadership Practices in the Leadership Today app for a free assessment and tips.

When you're seeking to engage your people, it's easy to become drawn into a discussion about the 'where' and 'when' of work. Instead, make sure you begin with the 'why' and 'what' of work before moving on to the 'when' and 'where'.

Reference

Katherine Bindley and Chip Cutter. Workers Care More About Flexible Hours Than Remote Work , Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/workers-care-more-about-lexible-hours-than-remote-work-11643112004

Summary

Are deadlines always a good thing? And when might they backfire? This week we explore research focused on exactly these questions.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 168 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore when setting a deadline might backfire, leading to a reduced chance of delivering.

If you want someone to complete a simple task for you, are you better off setting a one week deadline, a one month deadline, or no deadline at all?

A team of researchers explored just this question. They randomly selected New Zealand participants and offered a $10 donation to charity in return for completing a 5 minute survey. Their findings showed that a shorter deadline of one week resulted in a greater response rate than a one month deadline. 6.6% completed the voluntary survey with the shorter deadline, versus 5.5% for the longer deadline. The researchers believed the one month deadline provided the greatest opportunity to procrastinate, and it also saw the lowest number of completions of early responses. So a shorter deadline is definitely better.

Interestingly, providing no deadline to complete the survey actually worked best, with 8.3% of people voluntarily completing the survey. Like the one week deadline, not providing a deadline at all led to a higher number of early responses to the survey than a long deadline.

So how do we apply this research in our leadership? The most direct application is in surveys. When I was heavily involved in employee surveys we used to apply a combination approach. Our initial survey requests typically didn't include a deadline. After two weeks, we would then provide a one week deadline to those who hadn't completed the survey. And we would always keep the survey open a week after the deadline. For whatever reason there is always a small number of people who don't start things until the deadline has passed. This combination produced better results than just providing a two or three week deadline up front.

When we want people to voluntarily complete a short task, we're best to initially not provide a deadline. If we are asked for a deadline, we're better off specifying something short like one or two weeks, rather than a longer deadline of a month. This approach helps to provide people with freedom to manage their time. Not setting a deadline provides that freedom while avoiding the risk of procrastination for simple tasks. It's like we all operate with a range of vision for deadlines.

In a firm I worked for there was a running joke. If anyone ever said something would be ready in six weeks, it was taken to mean that it would never be done. Six weeks was long enough into the future that it was beyond most people's planning and attention.

For smaller tasks, why not experiment with shorter deadlines and not having deadlines at all. You will likely find things will be completed more reliably and faster than if you set a one month deadline.

Reference

Knowles, S., Servátka, M., Sullivan, T. & Genç, M. (2022) Procrastination and the non-monotonic effect of deadlines on task completion. Economic Inquiry, 60( 2), 706– 720.

This week we explore how agreeableness as a personality trait has a positive impact on work investment and teamwork.

Welcome to episode 167 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how agreeableness as a personality trait has a positive impact on work investment and teamwork.

Since the 1950s, and particularly from the 1980's, personality research has focused primarily on the big 5 personality traits - Openness-to-Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Taken together these 5 traits account for the majority of differences in personality between individuals while also having predictive ability across a range of positive and negative outcomes in workplace settings. They provide our best understanding of personality across a range of settings and individuals.

A recent study focused on the agreeableness trait. As a personality trait this describes people who are cooperative, polite, friendly and kind. Agreeableness is associated with an interest in others and in building positive relationships. The study by Wilmot and Ones is of the most comprehensive analyses of agreeableness undertaken, bringing together 1.9 million participants across more than 3,900 research studies.

Their research highlighted a broad range of positive outcomes associated with agreeableness in a workplace context.

The benefits for individuals and teams included:

• Focus on growth and concern for others

• Contentment with current circumstance

• Investment in building and maintaining relationships with others

• Team working including cooperating with others and working towards shared goals

• Work investment and commitment

• Tendency to place less emphasis on results, and being more lenient in rating others' performance

• Ability to adjust to new contexts

• Greater likelihood of respecting social norms and rules

In summary, those with agreeableness as a personality trait are likely to invest more effort into their work, primarily in a corporative and team-building way.

Here are some tips for building agreeableness:

1. Take a genuine interest in others. Empathy is a cornerstone of agreeableness. It's easier to get along with people that we understand and can relate to.

2. Invest time in building relationships. Agreeableness is often about quantity time. Relationships require investment.

3. Consider shared goals, not just individual goals. Agreeableness is interested in collective outcomes and team wins.

4. Maintain connections during moments of disagreement and conflict. Relationships are usually more important than winning an argument.

It's also worth nothing that, as a leader, you can assess and select for agreeableness and other personality traits that may be important for work performance. This requires personality instruments that are specifically designed for a selection context, but is worth exploring if you want to build effective teams.

Wilmot, M. P., & Ones, D. S. (2022). Agreeableness and Its Consequences: A Quantitative Review of Meta-Analytic Findings. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 26(3), 242–280.

Is optimism always better for happiness and well-being? This week we explore which is best for mental well-being - being pessimistic, realistic or optimistic.

Welcome to episode 166 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore which is best for mental well-being - being pessimistic, realistic or optimistic.

The benefits of optimism have been widely promoted over the past few years. However, as we have discussed before, unrealistic optimism can lead to negative outcomes. Pessimism often has a range of even worse outcomes. The classical view in psychology is that mental health requires accurate self-perception. So are we better off just being realistic?

A recent study tackled the question of pessimism, optimism and well-being in a clever way. They tracked the financial expectations and actual outcome of 1,600 people over an 18 year period.

The researchers identified those with unrealistic optimism - where they consistently overestimated the likelihood of positive financial outcomes - as having a 14% reduction in long-term mental well-being, and 12% increased level of distress. Constantly falling short of expectations is clearly damaging. But those who were unrealistically pessimistic were even worse off, showing a 22% reduction in long-term well-being and 37% higher psychological distress than those with realistic and accurate expectations.

So what can we take away from this research? Here are four ideas to improve our mental well-being:

1. Learn from the surprise wins and the tough times. It's striking how these patterns of unrealistic optimism and pessimism were sustained by participants over nearly two decades. Let's aim for learning and improvement, converting these wins and losses into personal development and growth.

2. Gather information to confirm or refute your perspective. When things are uncertain our natural tendency can be to avoid information. Instead, we should actively seek out alternative perspectives.

3. Speak to others and gain their perspectives. Good advice and feedback are priceless. We often underestimate how important it is to learn from others.

4. Aim for accurate self-perception. The more we can see ourselves and events as they really are, the greater our mental well-being.

de Meza, D., & Dawson, C. (2021). Neither an Optimist Nor a Pessimist Be: Mistaken Expectations Lower Well-Being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(4), 540–550.

Summary

If we expect something to be boring, it ends up being even more boring.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 165 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how expecting something to be boring makes it even more boring.

Let's face it, we all get a little bored at times. Sometimes we even expect something to be boring in advance. Universities are a great place to research boredom. Lectures can be amazing, but they can also be a little tedious. One of the best psychology lectures I ever went to was on human perception. Our amazing and rather elderly professor put glow in the dark dots on his torso and limbs, then turned out the lights in the lecture theatre. He walked around in front of a hundred or so students demonstrating how just a few dots allow us to clearly see the human form. Unfortunately he then tripped over, and the dots all ended up being in a pile on the floor. Fortunately he was fine, but the lesson always stuck with me. But for every lecture like that, there were many others that didn't quite reach the same heights.

Researchers have shown that our expectations about a lecture can impact the way we feel about the lecture. If we expect a lecture to be boring, we actually end up feeling even more bored than we would have otherwise felt. Expecting something to be boring makes it even more boring.

So what can we do about this? Here are four ideas.

1. Remain curious. Even the most boring topic, presentation or meeting will have some interesting elements if we just look out for them.
2. Remind yourself of why you're there in the first place. Positioning the potentially boring even in the context of a broader purpose can make that time more meaningful.
3. Try a little daydreaming. Letting your mind wander during a boring event might just help you to come up with that breakthrough idea you have been chasing.
4. Cut your losses. If something is truly boring and doesn't add any value, you can always walk out.

Have a great, and not boring, week.

Reference

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/if-you-expect-lecture-be-boring-youll-probably-end-feeling-more-bored

Summary

Research demonstrates the process by which biased people become more biased. Here's what to do about it.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 164 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore how biased people become even more biased.

We are living in particularly polarised times. On so many issues across society and politics we see people becoming more entrenched in their thinking and less open to alternate perspectives. Clearly this isn't great for us individually and collectively. I'm sure, like me, you would love people to be open to changing their mind.

A key driver of what we're seeing around us is selective exposure bias. Research demonstrates that people will actually walk away from the opportunity to make money if it allows them to avoid reading an alternative view of issues like same-sex marriage or gun control. A recent piece of research showed so-called "pro-diversity" thinkers are less susceptible to this bias. Someone who is pro-diversity in their approach is more comfortable interacting with new ideas and people who don't share their perspective. They don't necessarily just agree with others, but they're happy to listen to different perspectives.

This presents a challenge though. If people who aren't open to diversity in the first place also actively avoid information that might change their perspective, aren't we doomed to just become more polarised? The authors of the study believe part of the answer is in making cross-group interactions inevitable. If we can, in our organisations and in society at large, cause people of differing views to come together. How do we do become more pro-diversity and less prone to selective exposure?

1. Read widely. Don't limit yourself to one news publisher. Actively expose yourself to new ideas and different perspectives.
2. Engage someone who you know has different views to you. There's just one rule here though - you're only allowed to ask questions. Don't argue back, just seek to understand.
3. Agree to disagree, but be open to changing your mind. Saying we agree to disagree is a bit of a cop out - it closes down further discussion. Instead, be open to changing your mind.

Adam Grant's book Think Again is a great read if you want to extend on these ideas.

Reference

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/cognitive-bias-can-push-people-more-extreme-ideological-positions