As leaders of teams, we will all of noticed times where staff are finding things hard, it may be due to external or internal factors or a mix of both. As humans we bring our whole selves to work, even if we try and front up as a different version of ourselves in different environments, truth be told trying to suppress the impacts we experience in one aspect of our lives from another, leads to troubling personal outcomes.
The strategy I’m about to share with you can work to uplift the energy in a team at any point and doesn’t need to wait for turbulent times to be used. Actually, my recommendation is that it is used when you know your team are going to have to lean into turbulent times, rather than when they are in it, as it will help shift them from red brain into green brain. However, it’s never too late to provide inspiration for others to shift from a negative (red state) to a positive (green state) of mind.
When we are in red brain it is as the colour implies, we get stopped from moving forward, unable to problem solve or see the light at the end of the tunnel, only able to focus on the negative resulting in us searching and discovering things to help validate that. Remembering we see the world through our eyes and the messages are driven from our brains, so it goes without saying that if we are in a red brain state our interpretation of what we see & hear can be misconstrued to help confirm the negative stories we are telling ourselves.
The strategy I am about to share is one I’ve successfully used, yet in order to share it, I think it is best I take you on the journey of what inspired me to introduce it in the first place.
From the beginning of my employment, I was welcomed by not just the staff I led & worked with but also wider company staff. In fact, people were so friendly and open to chat it took be back a little. I had come from a 20-year corporate career, where I knew a lot of people, but I wasn’t expecting to have people be so open and engaging when I started at this new company. It was refreshing that strangers would say hello and initiate a conversation so readily.
Another surprise was the number of staff that referred to ‘the restructure’ in general conversation. Not only the staff in the team I led, but wider company staff. This piqued my interest, so I started asking about this restructure thinking it must have been recent for the impact to still be echoing so loudly. Yet, now for my 3rd surprise it had been 4 years earlier.
I refer to them as scars, when the impact of an event cuts deep, and in this case, they cut very deep. It’s highly likely that you too have experienced a badly managed restructure & can relate to how these staff felt. When scars are left to heal on their own, they create scar tissue, which means staff find it harder to let go of the past experience. Their trauma from it remains and influences the way they act, interact and engage. It’s likely a topic for another newsletter.
A number of months after I started a merger was announced, two similar companies in two different regions were to become one, and as to be predicted a restructure followed. I knew this would trigger old unhealed wounds for the team. I wanted to help them approach the restructure with a green brain mindset. I wanted to help them have something joyful to focus on, to foster a positive mindset knowing this would help them manage the turbulence that can come with a restructure.
Then it came to me, I know how powerful words can be, I know how we don’t always stop and acknowledge what we like in those we work with, I know that interrupters can shift our mindset and stop us spiralling.
We had a large wall mounted white board. I cleaned it of the work focused material, randomly picked a staff member and wrote their name on the board. I then sent an email out to whole team explaining that each week I will randomly choose one of them to have their name added to the board, and that the rest of the team was encouraged to write a positive word expressing what they like or are thankful for about that person. There was no limit to the number of words, yet everyone was encouraged to write at least one. This would stay up on the board for a week, the positive word cloud would organically grow over that week, as more words were added it would inspire others to add more. For the person whose name was on the board, they got a joy juice injection each time they walked past this board and saw the positive things their peers thought of them.
When the week ended, I would take a photo of the personal word cloud, clean it off and randomly choose the next staff members name to start the cycle all over again. I then took the image and digitally framed it then emailed as a gift to the person named.
Doing one staff member per week naturally meant we were still positively referencing our colleagues when the consultation process started. Yet, this didn’t detract them from continuing the practice of sharing what they liked about their teammates.
This helped centre them and gave a positive focus in a time of worry. Giving positive feedback to others is a powerful way to shift our mindset. Receiving positive feedback, well that takes a little more practice for people to learn to receive, yet even through bashfulness the message still helps them feel appreciated & connected.
Then in steps surprise number 4! The additional outcome from this experience was helping staff who felt a little disenfranchised from the wider group feel connected. In turn it helped the group of staff whose bond had created a click, to be able to stop, pause, and recognise positive attributes in others they weren’t as close too.
By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of difficult events, people reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future. It is a gift of a lifetime and can have long reaching benefits.
