Playbook For Performance

So what is polarization? Polarization is moving away from this idea of you and I don't agree on every single thing and therefore you are dead to me. We can never be friends and we are never, ever, ever getting back together. And it didn't use to be this way. Society's become more and more polarized over the years. People are getting more and more frustrated with this, but one of the consequences of this idea of polarization is that our social groups are becoming smaller and smaller and less and less diverse. Everyone in our group must think the same way we do. They must vote the same way we do. They must be of our same affluence, et cetera, et cetera. And this is really quite disturbing, especially since we keep telling everybody that the key to success is diversity, right?

Fieldwork this week:

We assigned fieldwork because coaching without action is just entertainment. And my encouragement to you is to look at your own habits, which of these 10 tips or habits are you already doing? Which ones are easy for you, and which ones are harder to choose? Try to practice this for seven days continuously. So what's the result? Do you find that you have more patients, and more understanding, or do you feel more confirmed in your belief and that you choose to separate from others who don't share that same belief? And what's the result of that? What are the consequences? What will that do for you and your community, your family, and sleeping?

 I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Our themes this month are quiet quitting, polarization, and tips for our HR community. And today, specifically, we're going to be talking about 10 ways that polarization emerges. So where does it come from? How did we go from a society that's like, let's all agree to disagree and we'll still play cornhole and root for the same team and whatever it might be to this, you know, we are never, ever getting back together? And that Taylor swift theme song has been going through my head over and over again while I’m writing this book because that's what I'm hearing over and over again from people. So where did this come from? Well, in my research, this is what we see. We have biases that are unexamined. We've grown up with them. Some are good and they serve us well, but some are not so good. So we really have to examine all our biases and really inventory those things and understand where we're coming from.

Fieldwork this week:

So here's your field work this week because as we always say, coaching without action is just entertainment. 

This is what makes us different from the chat with your friend. There's this action that you take in the accountability that you have with your coach.

So where are you vulnerable to polarization? What steps can you take to mitigate the risk? Who can keep you accountable? We've talked about an accountability partner several times on the podcast. It could be something that can really help support you and finally make a pact. What is it that you are committing to do with one another? And how are you going to stay curious? That is where we need to go until next time.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

What is polarization? Polarization is moving away from this idea of you and I don't agree on every single thing and therefore you are dead to me. We can never be friends and we are never, ever, ever getting back together. And it didn't use to be this way. Society's become more and more polarized over the years. People are getting more and more frustrated with this, but one of the consequences of this idea of polarization is that our social groups are becoming smaller and smaller and less and less diverse. Everyone in our group must think the same way we do. They must vote the same way we do. They must be of our same affluence, et cetera, et cetera. And this is really quite disturbing, especially since we keep telling everybody that the key to success is diversity, right?

Fieldwork this week:

So here's your field work this week because as we always say, coaching without action is just entertainment. 

My encouragement to you is to look at your own habits, which of these 10 tips or habits are you already doing? Which ones are easy for you, and which ones are harder to choose? Try to practice this for seven days continuously. So what's the result? Do you find that you have more patients, and more understanding, or do you feel more confirmed in your belief and that you choose to separate from others who don't share that same belief? And what's the result of that? What are the consequences? What will that do for you and your community, your family, and sleeping?

 I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Today, we're going to talk about 10 tips or 10 steps for HR dealing with polarization in the workplace.

During my interviews in preparation for the book, I talked to leaders who talked about their employees that were polarized and how they wouldn't talk to each other. They'd actually like to be in the same meeting but sometimes things are not done properly because they choose not to communicate with each other. They don’t speak to each other directly. And the sources of this polarization had anything to do with how they felt about a political issue, how they felt about pandemic issues, personal issues, etcetera.  But these things are actually performance management issues, meaning you can be fired for non-performing. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. How can we deal with these issues, how can we deal with the polarization in the workplace?

Fieldwork this week:

So here's your field work this week because we always say that coaching without action is just entertainment. We really want you to test the method.

Not every tip that's been recommended here may work with every culture. So just like when you're trying a new recipe and they say, adjust spices to taste, that's what we want you to do here. Know that communication and teamwork are performance issues and grounds for termination. That is universal empirical. It's there. I don't like to say always. I don't like to say never, but in this case, it's true and petty behavior due to polarization is not tolerated. So the more that we eliminate the sort of canceled culture in our organizations, the more pleasant the workplace is going to be. And we won't see this petty behavior.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Now this month, we're talking about quiet quitting and polarization that is emerging in the workplace, and some tips for our HR partners that are dealing with these problems that are emerging in the workplace. So today we're really talking about the antidote to quiet quitting. So what's quiet quitting? Quiet quitting is when people are just showing up to the job and doing the bare minimum, they're meeting expectations, but not really engaged. And this is not a big surprise for all of you who have read my book, coach culture, a playbook for winning in business.

You know that one of the citations that I make is the idea that over 60% of people are not engaged at work. And how do we define engagement? Well, engagement is productivity, profitability, and retention. Are we able to keep our top employees? Are they productive? Are they making good decisions that make us profitable? So if 60% of people are not engaged, we already had some quiet quitters. We just didn't call it that. So it's getting more popularity and more visibility, which I'm thrilled about. This is what I like to fix.

Fieldwork this week:

So fieldwork for this week is to review your culture. What do you give? What do you get? Do you belong? And can you grow? Have this discussion with your team? What small changes in habits and behaviors can shift the culture to one that's more engaged.

Fill our Survey

Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/cordensurvey1

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

All of you have probably been reading articles and the backlash that has to do with people quiet quitting the workplace. The concept behind this is the idea that if I just meet expectations, do everything that's expected of me, and no more and have firm boundaries, in that case, I'll be able to stick through my job, coast through, collect my paycheck, but have enough time and energy and motivation to pursue what's important to me in my personal life. Well, that can make things pretty tough for the workplace. It can show people that they're not engaged and this isn't a surprise because we know from Gallup's research that I published in my book CoachCulture, that this whole idea of engagement is tough. Over 60% of employees are unengaged, and define engagement as productivity, profitability, and retention. And retention being, are you sticking in the job? Are you staying? So where does this come from? Why do people feel the need to do this? Well, it's polarization. So polarization survives on black-and-white thinking.

Fieldwork this week:

So the fieldwork for this week is to examine your black-and-white thinking.

When are you using "ALWAYS" and "NEVER" in your thinking?.

Ask yourself, is this true?.

Can you identify examples that are shadesof gray?.

Acknowledge the gray and name it (to claim it!).

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Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/cordensurvey1

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

This week, we are talking about stop making others miserable, suck it up! So our mission is to make work fun again and this month we discussed how we internally make things more fun by finding joy and being a little less cranky. So one of the things that we really try to emphasize in coaching is agency. We are thinking that you are in control of your situation and everything around you. And so in this case, we want to talk about attitude and choosing a proper attitude. So happiness is a choice. We talked about this last week as well, this idea from Bronny’s research that if we can make ourselves happy, this is something that people have said over and over again, I wish I would have allowed myself to be happy. So one of the things that go along with that is if we're going to do something, do it with love. Don't grouse about it, complain about it, et cetera. Either choose to do it, and do it with love, or just don't do it. Don't torture others. You are in control of your attitude. And so we need to choose a healthy attitude.

Fieldwork this week:

Know Thyself

Gather with those you TRUST.

Discuss the Triggers at the highest level.

Caution: Don't go down the rabbit hole!.

Inventory the triggers.

Anticipate.

Have a plan of action.

Get help from your trusted colleague.

When it happens - excuse yourself and adjust your attitude!

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Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/cordensurvey1

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

This is podcast 50, we're at the 50 marker. Amazing. So we started this off last year and we've been releasing weekly. We've got lots of topics out there and we would love to hear from you about what your favorites are.

And today our idea is really to pick your poison. And that is what is your happiness at work strategy? So we're trying to position you to be an agent of your own happiness because happiness really is a choice. And if we look at the work of people like Bronnie Ware and others, when they have interviewed people on their death bed, one of the things that they have said is “I wish I would have allowed myself to be happy”. They recognize that happiness was a choice, and so we can choose to be happy at work as well. So let's think most about what is affecting your happiness. Is it the sandwich tasks? Is it people or something else?

Fieldwork this week:

We like to say each week that coaching without action is just entertainment and as tempting as it might be to just stream the next podcast in this series, we want you to take the time to draft these things that will reform your work and your attitude in the workplace. I encourage you to think about what are 20 things you could do at work that would feed you. Start with 20, and narrow it down to 10. See if you can practice those 10 consistently for a week. If something doesn't take, don't beat yourself up about it. 

Fill our Survey

Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/cordensurvey1

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

This month's theme is about finding joy and being a little less cranky.

So today’s topic is what you are doing all day, all day long. What is it that's bringing you joy? What's bringing you this crankiness? What is it that really can help you with whatever it is that you need to do to not be a jerk at work and that you can figure out what's really fun for you in terms of what you're doing all day? So when I work with folks when it comes to their tasks and things like that, and what's really working for them, cause a lot of times people are thinking about leaving the workforce, I'd like to have people create a pie chart.  If you break down that whole pie chart, do the pieces of the pie feed you? They contain growth, challenge, and fun people. Do you get to use your strengths? So these are really important questions to ask yourself because if they don't, we want to expand the pieces of pie that do feed you and we want to diminish or eliminate the piece of the pie that don't.

Fieldwork this week:

So your fieldwork is to remodel your “PIE”, and that means beginning negotiations if necessary. 

 Don’t try to do the major remodel, work on 1% a day. If you can do that 1% a day, you're really going to be successful because think about it in a year, that's 365%.

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Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

We're on podcast 48. We are so close to the 50-meter mark here. So this month we are talking about Finding joy and Being a little less cranky.

And this week specifically, we're going to be talking about, do not be that guy at work. This applies to gals too, But it is this whole idea of sometimes people just don't behave, they get resentful and it can be a lot of different things that are causing that. And so all of us need clarity. We need to understand where we're going and what's our part.

Fieldwork this week:

So what we want to do right now is not be that guy at work.  Figure out what's causing our symptoms. Think about the leaders you've had in the past or a coach or a pastor or a parent, what did they do well, and how did they do it? Can you let your leader know that approach works for you? Hey, leaders are humans too, and they are not mind readers and they need help. So please tell them, give them a cheat sheet,  help your leader grow, and let them know what ingredients are important for you.

Mentions on today's podcast

The Five Love Languages

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Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/cordensurvey1

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com