Welcome to Week 38 of the Authenticity@Work Leadership Tool-kit! My intention for this series is to share a quick tool each week to help you lead with more authenticity, adaptability and inspiration so we can together create workplaces where we bring the best of ourselves and inspire others. So grab a journal and an accountability partner to make these practices even more powerful for you!
In last week’s post we talked about the saboteur hijack and how to deal with them when they show up. Did you recognize a time this week when you were in a saboteur hijack?
A time when our saboteurs really show up is in high-change, high-stress times. Know anyone going through one of those? This is when everyone’s saboteurs run rampant and collude to create team dynamics that drive fear-based behaviors and decision making that erodes long-term value and trust.
I recently led a team workshop for a global team in a company that had announced a restructuring. Members of the team had no idea whether they would have jobs in a few months, yet it was also critical to deliver their objectives. Some of the key talent had already left. The leader’s job was to keep the team engaged and motivated in this tense environment. It was tough because when fear sets in, we shut down—innovation, creativity, and collaboration are challenged. This is a critical time when choosing be before do becomes really important—for each individual and for the entire team as a whole.
Through the power of authentic conversations, we started to surface the fears and concerns. As the team got conscious of what each person was feeling individually, it allowed for greater open conversation and for trust to build. For most people, the first impulse was to have a job, any job. The being underneath this impulse was a sense of desperation that is often our default when we feel unsafe.
Team members learned that they had a choice about who they were going to be in this situation. They could choose who they were being in a high-challenge environment and develop new resilience skills that would serve them throughout their careers and lives. What an empowering place to be!
This Week’s Tool:
Teach someone you know the tool of choosing be before do. What do you notice?
Get the latest resources for Authenticity@Work (this tab will get updated with all kinds of cool resources). Curious to know more about the book? Read the reviews about Wired for Authenticity here.
