The results of a national survey that COMENSA conducted of coaching in the workplace in South Africa have now been published – the first ever conducted of the South African market, and one of which COMENSA is extremely proud.  They intend to follow this up with bi-annual surveys.

The survey, conducted by COMENSA’s Research & Development Portfolio Committee from November 2010 to January 2011, encompassed coaches, coaching clients and organisations that utilise coaching in South Africa.  The survey is unique in that this is the first time that the value, nature, perception and application of coaching has been investigated in a purely South African context, and not as part of a global study.

Participants included:

i.            Small, medium and large organisations from the public, private, education and NGO sector, who utilise the services of both internal and external coaches;

ii.            Coaches, either in their own practice, working for companies that provide coaching services to organisations or coaches who are employees of organisations and are providing coaching services as part of the work that they do;

iii.            Individuals who have been coached.

Key findings:

The formal profession of Coaching in South Africa is largely dominated by coaches aged between 35 – 55, based in Gauteng and the Western Cape.  This can be ratified by COMENSA’s membership demographics, which reflects a similar.  A theme that emerged when asked what the biggest challenges are to the coaching industry in South Africa was the need for more black coaches although COMENSA is seeing a growing diversity in its membership.

Most coaches are self-employed and work alone or in coaching teams/panels with other coaches.   It seems that most coaches supplement their coaching income with training, facilitation or some form of consulting.

There is confusion between the concepts of coaching and mentoring, and a general lack of clarity about the definition of coaching.  Organisations seem to define coaching to fit their applications and requirements, and most participating organisations claim only to have embraced a coaching culture within the last 1 – 3 years.

Coaching is used most frequently with Executives, Senior Managers and High Potential Employees, and is used as a stand-alone programme rather than integrated into a training programme.  Coaching in organisations is most often conducted by external coaches (81% of the time).

The research shows that 75% of organisations do not integrate coaching into the performance management system and yet coaching is most commonly used by organisations for performance enhancement (93%) and management development (90%).

The least cited reasons for utilising coaching in organisations were learnerships, addressing skills shortages and dealing with employment equity.

Only 7% of respondents claim that coaching interventions are “not successful”.  Benefits of coaching for the organisation include increased productivity, better quality, better customer service and a more questioning culture. Individuals benefit from increased self-awareness, better communication skills, better relationships with others  in the workplace, increased empowerment, a better quality of life and an improved ability to set goals.

The most important criteria in the selection of a coach are track record/credibility, professional training and professional knowledge.  The survey did not show a clear correlation between a coach’s qualifications and the rates that they charge.  However, most coaches who participated in the survey held some form of qualification whether or not it was coaching related.

The biggest hindrances to coaching within organisations were cited as employees being unsure of what coaching is, and budget constraints.

With regard to coaching clients (those participants who had experienced coaching), most had self-sourced their coaches for personal development or growth.  The majority of coaching sessions took place face-to-face (96%), every two to three weeks.  An alternative method of conducting coaching sessions was telephonic or via Skype.

If a coaching intervention was terminated early, it was more likely due to financial or time constraints than to any other factor, with only 3% of all respondents scoring poor in response to the question regarding how they would rate their coaching experience in terms of achieving their coaching goals.

90% of coaching clients rated their relationship with their coach as having been good to brilliant, with 61% rating their coaching experience as “invaluable”.

There is a definite correlation between the number of years that a coach has been in practice and the coach’s perception of the success of their business.  Those who had been in business for 6 – 10 years rated their business as very successful, and were charging higher hourly rates for their coaching.

Executive coaching, coaching for leadership development and business/entrepreneurial coaching were the three leading coaching applications mentioned, followed by coaching for performance, personal development and life coaching.

A key challenge mentioned by coaches and organisational participants was the need to educate the SA public about coaching, what it is, the different models, what to look for in a coach, the impact and value of coaching.  It is necessary to educate the public in general on the broad definition of coaching versus mentoring.

Participants highlighted the need to upskill unqualified practitioners through the introduction of some form of regulation/accreditation of coaches into the industry, to introduce quality control through professional supervision, and to ensure on-going professional development.

Article written by Megan Hudson

This is just not okay on any level. When one takes on a leadership role, one becomes a role model. It’s not something you get to accept or decline – it goes with the job. Your people watch you all the time, and what they see you do becomes what they do. Managers are part of the management team – they represent the management of the business. This means that they need to represent that team in a mature manner. When managers gripe and complain, the impact is far greater than one might assume:

1. It ramps up any feelings of dissatisfaction more junior team members might have about the organisation – so minor irritations become major issues;
2. It legitimizes any unreasonable gripes team members might have;
3. It drags down the energy of the team;
4. It causes previously satisfied or neutral team members to join the pity party too;
5. It costs managers the respect of their team members. In a sense, because the manager is sharing too much, it becomes a form of “familiarity breeding contempt”;
6. It makes it difficult to get the work done because of the low energy and general disengagement.

So what is a manager to do when she is hacked off with her boss or her company? Am I saying that there is nothing you can do? Absolutely not. There is always something you can do. I remember the words of a mentor from many years ago. She said “We always have three choices. We can change it. We can live with it. Or we can get out.” Here’s my take on those three choices:

1. Change it. Discuss your issues with appropriate people in an attempt to change the situation and recommend improvements. Appropriate people might be your peers, your manager or another decision-maker or influencer in the business. If this doesn’t work, perhaps you could change the way you think about the situation. Test the assumptions you are making. Are they accurate, or are they completely untested assumptions about other people’s motives or intentions? Could you make another assumption that would enable you to look at the situation in a different light? Could you offer team members another way of looking at things so that they are not dragged down by their own untested assumptions? Could you encourage them that “this too shall pass”? What can you do to improve things?
2. Live with it. In this case, you are choosing to do nothing. If you choose to do nothing, then stop whining!
3. Get out. If the situation is costing you your happiness, your sanity or your marriage, get out. Find another job – in another company or in another division.

Regardless of which choice you decide to exercise, it is better for a manager to keep his own counsel than to share his gripes with his juniors. Just because it passes through your mind, doesn’t mean it should pass through your lips! Your job is to keep people focused and energised. How can you possibly do this if you have joined the pity party?

The starting point in developing as a leader is to become self-aware. Leadership is profoundly about how one impacts on people. It is about what they think of you, how you affect them, the extent to which they respect you and what you stand for, and whether you touch their hearts in some way. The most powerful way to develop your self-awareness is to get some feedback. There are some wonderful online instruments available that will enable people who are important in your leadershp world to give you frank feedback. One such instrument is “Feedback Rocket”, which enables your peers, team members (to whom you provide leadership), and seniors to give you feedback on such dimensions as how visionary you are, how you empower people (or not), your leadership strengths and weaknesses – and you are able to compare this feedback with how you perceive yourself. Of course, the more similarities there are between you perceptions of yourself and how you are perceived by others, the more self-aware you would appear to be.

Step Two: Set Goals

Reflect on your feedback. Do people perceive you in the way you would like them to perceive you? There is no point in debating the merits of the feedback. That is just defensive and self-defeating. The feedback is the feedback. You asked for it – so take it. If the feedback is that your meetings are long, rambling and deathly boring, then they are! If the feedback is that you are like a bear with a sore head around month end and people would rather poke a sharp stick in their eye than come to work when you are like this, well then… The only questions worth asking are: Is this the kind of feedback I would have wanted and would feel proud of? If not, who do I need to become in order to have people see me as a good leader? Once you have the answer to the second question, you can set very clear goals on the competencies you need to develop. These goals need to clearly describe what you want to achieve in a way that would be easy to see if you had achieved it or not. For example, “The meetings I lead will be pacey, purposeful and useful to everyone attending those meetings. They will start and finish on time, and the agenda will be covered and decisions taken that the whole team can commit to. I will know this based on feedback from the team.” If you want more information on setting goals, google “SMART goals”. Decide with which goal you are going to start. You cannot focus on a shopping list of goals, so pick the one that will make the biggest impact in the shortest possible time. Quick wins are good for getting us going. As you achieve each goal, so you can decide on the next goal you will work on.

Step Three: Get Some Assistance

Achieving your leadership development goals will require that you acquire some knowledge and some skills. Decide where best you can acquire these. Do you need to do some internet research? Would you be better off finding some good books? Would it be useful to attend a training course? Perhaps working with a leadership coach is the best route for you. Whichever route you decide to take, you will need input. This input should give you new knowledge, tools you can use, and should preferably provide you with an opportunity to experiment with or try out your new skills. Then decide what you are actually going to do differently from a behavioural point of view and decide when you are going to start.

Step Four: Experiment and Reflect

It is critical that you experiment with doing things differently. We learn when we take action, reflect on the action and its impact and then take new action. So go and do what you said you would do. Once you have tried the new behaviour, think about what worked, what didn’t work, what you have learned through this experiment, and what you will do differently next time – and then continue your experiment.

Step Five: Get feedback

If your goal was to make sure that the meetings you lead are pacey, purposeful and useful to attendees, then who is best placed to assess how you are doing? The people who attend your meetings can tell you if you have succeeded – so ask them. It is useful to ask what is working, what isn’t working, what do I need to do differently. The same is true of every aspect of leadership. The best people to give you feedback on how you are doing are your followers. You boss is absolutely not the best person to assess how you are growing as a leader – after all, how often do you have to exercise leadership with your boss? Asking your team for feedback is a sign of strength and courage – it is never a sign of weakness.

Managers who check on their team members make four kinds of mistakes. The first is that they fail to allow team members autonomy in carrying out their work. Micromanagers dictate chapter and verse of what must be done and how it must be done. The more empowering version of checking in would involve giving the team a clear strategic goal, and respecting their ideas on how to meet that goal.

The second mistake that micromanagers make is to frequently ask team members about how the work is progressing, but fail to provide any real help when problems arise.

Their third mistake is to look for someone to blame when mistakes happen or things go wrong. They would be far more empowering if they guided team members through an open exploration of causes and possible solutions. The consequence of this is that team members end up trying to look good (or at least not look bad) rather than honestly discussing problems and how to overcome them. They live in a permanent Threat (of appearing incompetent) → Anxiety → Defensiveness pattern, and team members’ perceptions of their manager settle into a permanent low place.

The fourth mistake of micromanagers is that they rarely share information about their own work with their team members. This often includes withholding information that would help them in their work – and this feels remarkably like an over-controlling parent, which causes team members to feel infantilized, and their motivation and effectiveness plummets.

When you micromanage your people, it poisons their perceptions of you and the organisation, causes them to feel resentful and frustrated, and saps them of their energy and motivation. Furthermore, it stifles creativity and productivity – the consequence is a team whose output is lacklustre and whose ideas are nothing better than ordinary. This naturally causes managers to panic, with the consequence that they breathe down their team members’ necks even more obtrusively and criticise them even more harshly. The result of this is that team members hide problems from their managers, causing problems to become crises.

So what is the solution? The following guidelines will help:
1. Give the team/team member clear strategic goals that clearly describe the outputs required, any specific standards that the output must meet and any deadlines that must be met.
2. Check in regularly to establish how the team (or team member) is progressing and to ask what support they need in order to continue to make progress. Then provide that support.
3. When problems arise, explore what may have caused them (not who) and possible solutions. Use a problem solving process such as GROW in a disciplined way (see http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_89.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GROW_model ).
4. Share information generously – all information that will help with the work, as well as information about your own work. The less people know about their work, their manager’s work and the company, the lower their perceptions of their manager and their company.

This article is based on the ideas of Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer as contained in their book “The Progress Principle”, published in 2011, Harvard Business Review Press).

In recent months, one of my clients invited their employees to complete an online and confidential survey that captured how they think and feel about working for the company. First off, conducting such a survey is brave for any organisation. After all, they are setting themselves up to be told things they might not want to hear. It is also a very scary prospect for managers in the organisation because whatever employees say is going to reflect on them. Furthermore, it is scary for the respondents. What if it turns out that their responses are not so confidential after all? What if the boss doesn’t like what we say?

It has been my experience that the first time an organisation conducts such a survey it has been catalysed by a sense (at senior levels in the business) that the organisational climate or leadership culture is not what they want it to be. Embarking on such a survey then has the objective of setting the baseline – the starting point that will form the basis of whatever work will be done to get the climate or culture aligned with their vision for the organisation. From my perspective, this is exciting – but then I am not inside the organisation, and the survey makes no comments about my own leadership style.

For many, in fact MOST, managers in such an organisation, the delivery of the results of such a survey is very stressful and threatening – especially if the results are critical of the climate or leadership culture. It is particularly stressful and threatening if there is a strong theme of fear and blame within the organisation. Do you remember the THREAT – ANXIETY – DEFENSE response I described in a previous article? The results of the survey create a THREAT of appearing incompetent (as a leader); this provokes immense ANXIETY and the person is likely to respond DEFENSIVELY.

This DEFENSIVE behaviour could take the form of:

• Dismissing the feedback and criticising the instrument as being poorly worded or misleading;
• Dismissing the feedback and criticising the respondents or blaming the timing;
• Trying to figure out who said what and going after them.

All of these responses are going to destroy whatever fragile trust there was that made so many employees respond to the survey in the first place. Their reaction is likely to be something like: “Well you asked for the feedback. You said you really wanted it. You said it would be safe to be honest. Now look what you do. I will never fall for this again.” And they all go back beneath the parapet and seethe with resentment – the exact opposite of what the survey was intended to achieve.

I’d like to offer another perspective. What if we accept that there is nothing to be gained by debating the merits of the feedback? There is nothing to be gained by hunting down whoever said what. Whatever flaws the instrument may have, the feedback is the feedback. It is telling us how people think and feel about working here. We wanted to know, and now we know. We may not like it – but at least we know. The next questions are:

• How do we want people to think and feel about working here?
• What do we leaders need to change or do differently to make sure that happens?
• What is our action plan?
• When will we run the instrument again to see how we are doing?

Imagine how your teams would respond if they saw you responding in this way. I would anticipate the following:

• Huge relief that there is not going to be a backlash;
• Increased trust;
• Admiration and respect for the leader who is able to take it on the chin non-defensively;
• A willingness to work together to create a climate that is in alignment with our vision;
• Greater transparency and openness;
• A real improvement in organisational climate and leadership culture.

Those of you who read my articles will be aware that they are always drawn from experiences I have with my clients – and you will have noticed a certain air of exasperation that what seems obvious to me is not obvious to all. Of course, this is based on the fact that I have opinions on everything, and those opinions are informed by many, many experiences – however, they are just opinions.

Now I am reading about the science that backs up some of these opinions. A newly released book by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer called “The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work” is adding grist to my mill. Their work involved analysing 12 000 daily email diaries from 238 volunteers (there was nothing in it for them). Most of the questions were numerical ratings about their perceptions, emotions and motivation during the day (which they call the “inner work life”) but the most important question was an open-ended one: “Briefly describe one event from today that stands out in your mind.” This was the gold mine. From these 12 000 reports, they were able to show what many managers are not able to see:

• Inner work life has many aspects to it and is complex;
• Inner work life profoundly influences creativity, productivity, work commitment and collegiality (the vibe in the team, and the extent to which colleagues help and support each other);
• Inner work life is of profound importance to companies because, no matter how brilliant the strategy, it still has to be executed by people – and its execution usually depends on great performance that requires real stretch;
• Our inner work life is profoundly affected by events occurring every day at work – and negative events have a far more powerful effect than positive events;
• Inner work life matters very much to employees.

Their research also revealed 3 types of positive events:

1. Progress in meaningful work (work that matters to the employee);
2. Catalysts – which are events that help to move a project forward; and
3. Nourishers – interpersonal exchanges that uplift people during the course of their work.

Of these three, progress in meaningful work stands out as the most powerful.

They also found three negative influences that undermine inner work life:

1. Setbacks  in the work;
2. Inhibitors –  events that create obstacles to getting the work done; and
3. Toxins – interpersonal exchanges that undermine people doing the work.

So what does this mean to us? People are most engaged in their work when they can see that they are making steady progress – whether this means that they are achieving their productivity targets, customer service targets, or meeting project milestones. This is why visual management systems are so very powerful – they give people a visual that shows that they are making progress. This is tremendously satisfying – and a sense of satisfaction is just one of the many facets of inner work life.

Secondly, a central role of leadership is to get the obstacles out of the way so that people can get on with the job and make progress. We have to take this job very seriously. It means solving problems and giving answers quickly. If your people struggle to get a response from you, or sit with unsolved problems that are yours to address, don’t be surprised if they give up and disengage. If, on the other hand, they see you responding and taking action quickly, they will be encouraged and energised to continue making progress.

Thirdly, make sure that your every interaction with a team member is uplifting and encouraging. Publicly praise and encourage. Any feedback for improvement must be in private and delivered with absolute consideration for its impact on the inner work life of the team member for the rest of the day. Do you want the team member to spend the rest of the day engaged in making progress, or do you want him ruminating on how you treated him? Also, have the leadership courage to insist that everyone in your organisation is spoken of and spoken to with respect. Disrespect and disregard is toxic.

Finally, I repeat – negative events have a far more powerful effect than positive events on the inner work lives of people. Toxic interpersonal exchanges, constant obstacles that prevent one from getting the work done, or the sense that we just can’t get it right are like acid eroding our organisations.

1. Mind your mind.

When life becomes stressful it is easy to allow our minds to take over and torment us with our fears. Resilient people take charge of their thoughts and deliberately do some of the following:

• They keep their sense of humour and find something amusing about their experience;
• They know that recreation is not a waste of time, and allow themselves to “play” at times that they have set aside especially for this;
• They avoid the company of people who increase their stress or drain their energy;
• They do work that they like and can get some pleasure from;
• They acknowledge that what cannot be cured must be endured;
• They don’t take life too seriously;
• They are objective about criticism they receive from others;
• They know that there is always someone worse off than themselves.

2. Pay attention to what you put in your mouth.

When life becomes stressful it is even more important to choose foods that energize and uplift you rather than those that make you feel sluggish.

• Boost your magnesium intake. It’s good for balancing blood-sugar levels and maintaining healthy blood pressure.
• Don’t drink coffee before 10am. Having a hit of rocket fuel first thing becomes another form of stress.
• Never skip meals. Your blood-sugar levels will crash.
• Eat oats for breakfast. It’s still the best thing you can eat if you want a stress-free day.

3. Find ways to reduce stress at work.

• Be reasonable with your ambitions;
• Remember that you don’t have to be a winner all the time;
• Let go of your need to be a perfectionist – sometimes good enough is good enough!
• Learn to forgive yourself (and others!);
• Be realistic in how much time you allocate to any task – they always take longer than you expect;
• Learn to say “No” – even if it is “No, not now. I can help you later”; or “No, not me. Why don’t you ask so-and-so”; or “No, not this way. I can do it that way.”
• Set aside some time each day when you are not available for phone calls or visitors;
• Delegate!
• Learn to tolerate mistakes.

4. Take care of your health and fitness.

• Breathe! When you breathe deeply your heart cannot race.
• Carry yourself upright and watch your posture – lifting yourself will lift your spirits.
• Move! Exercise for at least 20 minutes a day.
• If you need medical help, get it – and take the medication!

5. Avoid stress at home.

• Avoid bringing work home – actual work as well as work-based emotions. Use your drive home to leave the office behind. If you work from home, take 15 minutes to “decompress” – take a walk in the garden or around the block by yourself and mentally leave the office behind;
• Don’t take any office unpleasantness home;
• Do not continue to play the role of the boss at home. Play your more appropriate roles – mother/father or husband/wife;
• Avoid allowing discussions to turn into arguments, and always patch up a tiff before going to sleep;
• Appreciate the small kindnesses you are shown at home and ignore the minor irritations;
• Plan your budget and enjoy living within your means.

Are there any tips here that might be useful for you? What specifically will you do to build your own resilience?

Belinda Davies

1. The performance of the team (or individuals in the team) is inconsistent and not where you would like it to be.
2. People are not making decisions and not solving problems effectively;
3. People are pulling in opposite directions, not supporting one another or even getting in each other’s way;
4. There is gossip, dissatisfaction and grumbling;
5. People are disengaged and appear uncommitted.

We simply cannot get work done effectively through our teams if we never meet with them. I wonder if we never meet with them because our meetings have seemed so pointless in the past. Meetings must be purposeful and effective if they are to have the desired effect. The purpose of regular meetings includes the following:

1. To set direction and ensure the team is clear on what it is trying to achieve – in other words to discuss and reach agreement on where we are going and how we are going to get there.
2. To review progress – to reflect on what we are trying to achieve and what we are actually achieving;
3. To learn – what are we doing well; what are we not doing so well; what can we learn from this;
4. To correct course – what do we need to do differently or pay attention to going forward;
5. To collaborate in finding solutions to problems affecting the team and making decisions that require the engagement and commitment of the team.

So how can you make sure your meetings are effective? Here are some ideas:

1. Have a clear agenda with items phrased as questions to be answered or decisions to be made (e.g. How is our actual performance tracking against our targets?) Invite input from the team for the agenda. Assign a specific amount of time to each agenda item. Circulate the agenda with any documents team members must read in preparation for the meeting.
2. Have a clear starting and finishing time. Start on time. End on time. Manage the amount of time spent on each agenda item. If you don’t finish your agenda by the end of the allotted time, schedule another meeting. Do not run over time. It is inconsideration. Team members have other commitments and plans for their time.
3. Get the team to agree on some meeting ground rules, such as:

• Stay on track. If we go off track we all share the responsibility to bring things back on track – even if the boss is the one who has taken it off track.
• Everybody must speak once before anyone may speak twice. (It is a good idea to go around the table from person to person giving each person an opportunity and a responsibility to give input on the agenda item. This ensures that everyone contributes and makes sure your meetings don’t turn into a talking competition. This will make the discussions shorter as well.)
• Don’t indulge stories – once we get the picture move on.
• Keep your contributions relevant to the agenda item.
• Agree on what you will do with topics that need discussion even though they are not on the agenda. Will you set another meeting or have time for “Other business”?

1. Make sure the agenda item is dealt with – the question must be answered or the decision made. Ask the questions:
2. Who will do what?
3. How?
4. By when?
5. What could get in the way?
6. What will you do about that?
7. How and when will we get feedback on progress/completion?
8. Make it possible and necessary for everyone to participate. If they have no contribution to make, why are they there?
9. Make sure the team finds the meeting effective. End meetings by asking the team:
10. What did we do well in this meeting?
11. What did we not do well in this meeting?
12. What must we do differently next time?

Belinda Davies

1. We all want our lives and our work to matter and mean something;
2. We all want to belong to a family, tribe or team;
3. We all want the respect that comes from being effective and competent;
4. We all want the self-respect that comes from performing well and mastery of a skill or discipline.

This is not some esoteric fantasy about people. It is fact based on research that has been replicated over and over again (see Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”). Furthermore it simply defies logic to assume that entire population groups don’t care about their work (they’re just here for the pay-cheque); have no interest in what is good for the team; and don’t care if they are competent or not. What arrogance to assume that we are special in this regard and that we are surrounded by low-lifes who just don’t care!

People underperform because they are disengaged. Why are they disengaged?

Primarily people are disengaged because:

1. They are not working at something that interests them, are good at and which makes a difference in the organisation, and they are not having the experience of achieving mastery in their field.
2. They feel irrelevant and unimportant – their work doesn’t matter to their manager, the team or the organisation;
3. They receive no or minimal recognition when they do well or improve;
4. There is no sense of team – the team doesn’t meet, talk, pull together, problem solve together. In fact, people probably work against each other in the competition for their own survival;

Most disengaged people did not start out that way. How many new employees have you come across who made no effort in the beginning? They become disengaged over time. So what does a manager need to do to get people engaged?

1. Make sure they are doing work that interests them, in which they can gain some mastery and which matters to the business.
2. Give them regular feedback about what they are doing well, how they are improving and the positive impact that is having on the business.
3. Pull the team together. Make sure the team meets regularly to talk about:
4. What are we trying to achieve?
5. What have we actually achieved?
6. What are we doing well?
7. What are we not doing so well?
8. What have we learned?
9. What do we still need to do / do differently?

This keeps the team focused on its deliverables, keeps individuals focused on their own contribution, and ensures that the team is constantly learning.

1. Give team members challenging work that requires them to learn constantly in order to achieve mastery. Provide learning opportunities. Know their strengths and make sure that a meaningful proportion of their work plays to their strengths.

Here are twelve key questions designed by The Gallup Organisation after 5 years of research that you can ask your team members to ascertain how engaged or disengaged they are and why:

1. Do you know what is expected of you at work?
2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?
3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
7. At work, do your opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
9. Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
10. Do you have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
12. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The manager who is always telling people that they are stupid or useless, or telling them that they don’t know their jobs or are going to lose their jobs is going to make his people fearful or anxious. As a consequence, their thinking brains will shut down and they will fight (get aggressive, defend themselves or blame other people), flee (withdraw and try to fly under the radar) or freeze (become paralysed and unable to take decisions or act).

The threat – anxiety – defence response sets up a vicious cycle. Here is an example:

Your boss is in a meeting with an angry customer. The customer asks him a question to which he does not have an answer. Your boss feels this as an attack on his competence (threat) and this provokes an emotional response in him (anxiety). He angrily promises the customer that heads will roll and heads back to the office. At the office, he calls you in and hauls you over the coals for not doing your job properly (threat of appearing incompetent), you feel anxious and angry (a double hormone whammy) and angrily remind him that you had been waiting for him to make a decision and come back to you. The only reason you had given him no feedback is that you were awaiting his decision so you could take action. So actually it is not your fault at all (defence). This does not go down well with your boss, who experiences the second attack on his competence in one day and … etc. etc. You get the picture.

People who are afraid will never perform well or take the initiative:

1. Their brains cannot think because the pre-frontal cortex shuts down.
2. They do not have the confidence to act because, if they get it wrong, their survival will come under threat – again.

If you want people to perform, managers must do the following:

1. Admit that team members are fearful and take responsibility for putting that right.
2. Make it safe for people to report errors or mistakes, and treat them as opportunities for the whole team to learn. If you don’t, people will continue to hide their mistakes (can you blame them?) Better still, acknowledge them for having the courage to report errors or mistakes.
3. Resist the temptation to yell, accuse people of being incompetent and threaten them with the loss of their jobs. That is the thing they fear most and it will cause their brains to shut down. It will also cause them to disengage from their work.
4. Make the effort to connect with your people. Talk to them. Thank them. Show an interest in them, their work and their lives.
5. Do not pass on any unhelpful stuff you experience with your boss to your people – have the strength of character to act as a buffer.

Belinda Davies