by Judy Rathwell | Jun 15, 2021 | Continuous Learning, Executive Leadership, Habits, Newsletter, Stress Management
To perform their best, leaders must nurture their minds and bodies.
Twenty years ago, the sudden
emergence of ESPN’s daily poker broadcasting sparked global debate. How does
card playing merit coverage, given the absence of spherical objects and sweaty
high-fives? The emerging consensus that cards, chess, and spelling all qualify
made sense to me only when I returned to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster
defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises… requiring
physical strength, agility, or stamina.” Like chess, leading change requires
stamina and takes a toll physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Leadership’s daily demands create a
high-stress work environment. In a December survey, 76% of workers
reported burnout. These challenges are especially
prominent among leaders, and even pre-date the pandemic: school principals, for
example, are nearly twice as likely
to experience stress symptoms
than the general population. Managing change daily on tight timelines requires
nonstop communication, often with overstretched team members and stakeholders.
The work requires the pace of a sprint for the duration of a marathon.
For both athletes and leaders,
sustaining performance throughout an intense season requires careful planning
and consistent execution. For their part, leaders need good mental acuity and
energy to support decision-making. Leaders benefit from a comprehensive plan
that parallels the holistic benefits of an athlete’s support system.
These 8 strategies create the
foundation for optimal leadership performance:
1. Be clear on your priorities.
Fulfilling a leadership role
requires clear vision not only for the organization but also for yourself. What
is most important in your life? What do you want to drive toward, and why? How
do these priorities compare with your role’s goals? Alignment between what your
personal mission and your daily professional experiences is essential for
fulfillment and for preventing or mitigating burnout.
2. Fuel your mind and body.
What you eat directly impacts the
quality of your thinking. Intentionality here is especially important, as high
stress levels can lead to cortisol hormone spikes, which increase appetite and
emotional eating behaviors. As a school leader, I often skipped meals due to a
busy schedule and forgot to drink water; on other days, I chose to eat
something on the go. Processed foods are low in nutrient density; consuming
foods dense with nutrients — such as seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits, and
vegetables — and sufficient water is essential for brain activity. Slowing
down lets your body absorb the nutrients in your food. If you make time to sit,
connect with other humans in a relaxed environment, and chew your food fully,
your brain serves you better.
3. Exercise sustainably.
Athletes must move their bodies to
promote recovery and strong performance. Leaders typically fall short in one of
two ways. Many don’t move enough; twenty minutes of light exercise can trigger
the release of serotonin, which makes you feel more focused, emotionally
stable, happier, and calmer. The movement need not be extreme: walking helps you
think, improves your mood, and helps you
sleep better.
If you have developed an exercise
habit, evaluate whether it is supporting your goals. When an intense fitness
class leaves you nauseous, exhausted, or injured, how does that help you? High
intensity work, in fact, can promote brain fog. Is that actually what you want to do before your strategic
planning session? The ideal is somewhere in the middle. A balance of
resistance training and aerobic work appropriate for your capacity and skills
will best support you. Strength training has been found to improve sleep and
cognition and to alleviate anxiety and
depression.
4. Sleep.
For all humans, sleep is one of the
most important things you can do, yet most Americans don’t get enough. Being
underslept correlates with poorer decision-making and health. The really hard part is that, when you’re sleep
deprived, your brain does not realize how sleep deprived it is. Take steps to
ensure you are getting the sleep you need. Wind-down routines leading to a
dark, cool bedroom help you bring your best self the next day.
5. Balance work and rest.
It’s important to think about
balancing work with rest and recovery, both in the short and long term: day,
week, month, year. Most people enter unsustainable professional stretches,
whether driven by a new project, understaffing, or significant disruption to
work conditions. The rate of work at these times must be balanced by rest in
order to avoid burnout. Periodic pushes may be unavoidable, but they must be
balanced with rest and recovery. Don’t throw yourself out as the starting pitcher
every day all year. Build a full bullpen by empowering your team around you.
There’s a reason why leagues track player minutes and throw counts precisely.
You have to periodize to avoid overuse and burnout. Conventional schedules
allocate time for you to rest: use your nights, weekends, and vacations to
unplug and recover.
6. Regulate your emotions.
Athletes are able to regulate their
emotions to bring out their best performance. Emotional stability brings out
the best performance in you and your team. Practicing mindfulness, noticing
your emotions in the moment, breathing, and building awareness of specific
emotions all support your ability to lead. After practicing these strategies
for your own emotional health, consider creating pathways to support your team
in doing the same. Cultivating a space in which people feel safe to continually
improve starts with you.
7. Learn.
Elite athletes stay on top only by
getting better each day. Modern teams have improved in recent years by drawing
upon new sources of information, such as video and data analytics. Leaders,
too, must intentionally seek out ways to learn. Dedicate time to reflect daily
on what went well and what didn’t. Actively solicit feedback from your coach
and your colleagues, and show your team how you have incorporated their
opinions. Creating a culture in which your team learns starts with you.
8. Build habits and routines.
40% of our behaviors are habitual. Busy schedules do not allow for daily
conscious choices in prioritization, rest, nutrition, movement, learning, and
emotional regulation. Building consistent routines in each of these domains is
essential to bringing your best each day. In the long run, consistency
outperforms short, intensive bursts.
We receive and internalize complex messages about our bodies and our work. Optimizing for leadership performance requires aligning professional and personal visions with habits. As with professional sports, leading change requires discipline around the clock to maximize your results.
Source: Leading Well, Leaders as Athletes
by Judy Rathwell | Jun 1, 2021 | Adaptability, Flexible Schedule, Newsletter, Talent Management
When it comes to what talent management in the future might look like, a 2020 study points to three defining priorities among knowledge workers.
The last year has forever changed the way employees view and approach work, but one thing holds true: Businesses that want to attract and retain the talent they need to move forward must understand the top priorities of their future workforce. They must embrace new, flexible work models and cultivate a workforce that can design their own careers. Employees want to determine when and where they work. They want to work with a diverse team. They want to be measured on the value they deliver, not the volume they deliver. And they expect to be given the space and trust they need to do their very best work, wherever they happen to be. Companies that understand and embrace these wants and needs will not only boost the motivation and engagement of their existing workers, but will gain the attention of the brightest new recruits and take their business to new heights.
1. Employees overwhelmingly expect flexible options.
According to the study, 88% of knowledge workers say that
when searching for a new position, they will look for one that offers complete
flexibility in their hours and location. Also 83% predict that in response to
the global skilled talent shortage, companies will leverage flexible work
models to reach out to suitable candidates no matter where they live — yet,
only 66% of HR directors feel the same. What’s more:
- 76% of the workers polled believe that employees will be more likely to prioritize lifestyle (family and personal interests) over proximity to work, and will pursue jobs in locations where they can focus on both — even if it means taking a pay cut.
- 83% of employees think that workers will be more likely to move out of cities and other urban locations if they can work remotely for a majority of the time, creating new work hubs in rural areas.
In order to position themselves to win in the future,
companies will need to meet employees where they are.
2. Employees
want to re-imagine how productivity is measured.
In the future, companies will need to rethink how they
measure productivity because traditional metrics — and views that real work
can’t get done outside the office — will no longer cut it. According to the
study, today’s employees want to be measured on the value they deliver, not the
volume. And they expect to be given the space and trust they need to do their
very best work, wherever they happen to be.
- 86% of employees said they would prefer to work for a company that prioritizes outcomes over output. What does this mean? New employees want to work for a company that cares less about the qualified work output they are able to produce, and more about the impact they can deliver to the business in a holistic sense.
- But there is a gap here, with just 69% of HR directors saying that their company currently operates in this way, and only half of HR directors saying that their organization would be more productive as a whole if employees felt that their employer/senior management team trusted them to get the job done without monitoring their progress.
Forward-thinking companies will focus on
closing this gap, and will design people-centric experiences that give
employees the space they need to unlock their full potential and deliver
transformative results.
3. Employees
want to work with a diverse team.
One thing on which both employees and managers seem to
agree? Employees want to work for a company that prioritizes diversity.
- 86% of employees and 66% of HR directors assert that a diverse workforce will become even more important as roles, skills, and company requirements change over time.
- Honest, accessible metrics around your diversity progress and remaining gaps are critical to ensuring that efforts to build a diverse team are measurable, targeted, and impactful.
Takeaway for Leaders
What should the major takeaways be for business leaders
when it comes to the implications of these findings?
1. See the forest through
the trees.
Without the restriction of location, business leaders
must look at their recruiting from a broader lens and expand the potential to
attract employees who can boost an organization’s creativity and productivity.
They might, for instance, dip into untapped pools of
talent such as the “home force” and bring back parents who’ve put their careers
on hold to care for children, or people who left jobs to tend to aging
relatives. It could also mean looking to Baby Boomers who’ve retired, but who
still want to work a few hours per week. And it could mean enlisting more
part-time, contract, and gig workers — who make up a larger percentage of the
workforce than ever — to take on more hours. And, of course, it means looking
for global talent that may reside anywhere.
2.
Prioritize learning and development.
New business models sparked by the pandemic and changes
in customer preferences and needs have given rise to new roles and
opportunities for companies — and their employees — to grow. Upskilling and
reskilling will be critical factor in capitalizing on them. As the study found:
- 82% of employees and 62% of HR directors believe that workers will need to hone their current skills or acquire new ones at least once a year in order to maintain competitive advantage in a global job market.
- HR directors believe that ensuring that an organization has the latest collaborative technology in place to enable agile learning is the most important factor in recruiting and retaining the best talent, and 88% of employees confirm this notion, saying that they look for this when searching for a new position.
It bears repeating: Organizations will need to prioritize
reskilling and upskilling to attract and retain the talent they need to make
their businesses grow. Those that do will not only boost the motivation of
their existing workers, but will gain the attention of the brightest new
recruits and position themselves to emerge from the pandemic not just where
they were, but in a stronger, better position to move forward.
The last year has forever changed the way employees view and approach work, but one thing holds true: Businesses that want to attract and retain the talent they need to move forward must understand the top priorities of their future workforce. They must embrace new, flexible work models and cultivate a workforce that can design their own careers. In doing so, they will not only boost the motivation and engagement of their existing workers, but will gain the attention of the brightest new recruits and take their business to new heights.
Source: by Tim Minahan via Harvard Business Review
