Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business,management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.
It's official. We are out of recession. Okay, it may be marginal. It may well be possible that the sustained growth of the past quarters will recede again in coming months. But for now, it's official. We are out of the recession. Six words that should get us all feeling upbeat and optimistic about the future.
So why, despite this news, is there such a strong and enduring sense of pessimism? In the last week, since the news of sustained economic growth was announced, I've heard nothing but downbeat forecasts for the future. Speaking to senior and fairly influential leaders in business reveals a consistent view that the recession is set for another few years. Apparently this is a 'double-dip' recession and we're about to slide down the double-dip bit. And all positive indicators of recovery have been falsely propped up by cash injection anyway, so the recovery will soon evaporate with the VAT changes and higher interest rates. Everyone seems to have a view on the future, but it's all rather negative.
So here's a challenge. A simple challenge. Be optimistic. Be positive. Not mindlessly or vaguely hopeful, but focused and determinedly optimistic.
Psychologists have long distinguished between two distinct ways of looking at life. There's optimism and there's pessimism. Pessimists tend to believe that negative events will last a long time. They see negative events as threatening and damaging, and believe that a bad experience could undermine everything in life. Facing the same situations, optimists see setbacks as temporary. They see a loss as an opportunity to learn. They are more resilient and determined. And they see a challenge as just that. A challenge. Something that can be overcome with effort and resolve. As Sir Alex Ferguson commented on Andy Murray's recent defeat at the Australian Open, "I am always stronger after I have lost a game".
And consider the side-effects of outlook. Pessimists, for instance, tend to give up more quickly and more easily than their optimistic counterparts. They feel depressed more frequently and will talk of stronger feelings of 'helplessness' in which nothing they try seems to work in their favour.
This isn't meant to be patronising advice to a no-doubt informed and fairly hard-nosed readership. But I'm starting to feel that we need a wake-up call. It's very easy, through fear of the unknown, to become caught in a wave of pessimism. Let's face it, in a perverse way it's sometimes comforting to look on the bleak side. At least it doesn't raise expectations.
But, in reality, pessimism perpetuates pessimism, whether that's with your mates, your colleagues or, more importantly, the people who look to you for guidance and leadership. So perhaps now is the time to step back and make a conscious choice. Optimists also tend to live longer, apparently, so if you do want to be around to see the next great recession, try to look on the bright side.
Almost half of UK employees say their boss bullies them. But why is this happening?
Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business, management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.
Over the next three weeks we will reflect on the experiences of the leaders who choose to step back down the career ladder to taste life on the front line in Channel 4's series Undercover Boss. We will examine their style, values of leadership and look at the learning points for their own - and others' - organisations.
Poor Andy. At the pinnacle of his career as Marketing Director of Park Resorts - a caravan holiday business set to make great profits off the back of the recession - he finds himself on his knees looking for vomit behind toilets, deep-frying sausages in frankly war-torn kitchens and making an impromptu debut on stage entertaining bored kids and generally having to ad lib his way (badly) through the routines. He was clearly away on the day when the TV crew asked for a volunteer.
Nonetheless, our leader takes to the task bravely and cheerfully, and has plenty of questions for the staff he is supposedly shadowing as a trainee. He discovers, much to his apparent shock, that money matters to people who are living close to the poverty line and that by giving people more freedom they generally tend to use their initiative more freely. He also discovers that some staff work damn hard and long hours without much support, while others feel distinctly less motivated and less inclined to please 'them upstairs'. Great lessons in the bleedin' obvious, as John Cleese might once have muttered.
In all, Andy spends time in a number of different jobs around the caravan parks, learning how to scrub, cook, serve, entertain and apologise to disgruntled customers. He has a genuinely likeable and upbeat attitude throughout the whole experience, and boldly struggles to maintain his positive approach to the week's chores, only occasionally wilting under the pressure that many of his staff are likely to feel on a daily basis. He engages readily with the staff and seems to be able to engage almost everyone in open discussion about their likes and dislikes of the job and the resort.
Towards the end of the experience Andy insists that he has learnt a huge amount from the experience. But that's where the problem for me seems to lie. Andy says that he's learnt a lot, but demonstrates very little that convinces us that he has actually learnt anything at all. What we see are lightweight discussions and superficial actions at the close of the programme. We see a promotion for a supervisor who hasn't actually applied for the promotion and may feasibly not want the promotion. Indeed, the one good idea that emerges during the programme is turned into an opportunity to give staff a quick holiday of their own, rather than replicating their methods company wide. We also see a ticking off for disgruntled staff and, with no shortage of irony, the move of the most outwardly negative employee back onto reception - the front line of customer service. And we witness Sean the chef being sent back to school to earn the certificates that he should actually have had in the first place.
So what did Andy really learn? I got the feeling that Andy learnt that it feels good to muck in and get his hands dirty; that he has some decent employees on the resorts who feel undervalued; and that his employees do still value money above most other incentives. His people skills are strong enough to engage and develop relationships in a short space of time, and he is certainly capable of delivering and doing his share of the hard work.
The missing element for me was Thought Leadership - I'm talking about the area within our own Radar model here. We saw little by way of ideas, limited decisions even when given some clear opportunities to change things for the better, and nothing of a vision or strategy evident in his conversations - even during the albeit brief Board meeting. Instead, his actions seemed to be short-term and lacking in imagination.
I suspect that Andy will remember his days back on the floor for some time to come. I'm less confident about his ability to make the most of the experience and really use what he saw and heard to the business' advantage.
Nappies, dog food and re-plastering. No, not my latest wish list on Amazon, but examples of items that appeared on the MPs expenses list this weekend and that have been causing a furore in Westminster. The politicians seem bemused as to what all the fuss is about, but even the most basic understanding of leadership will include an element of integrity and trust. Our political leaders seem to have totally misread the expectations of their followers. More importantly, what impact has this had on our opinion of the nation's leaders?
Let's start with the facts, as this is where Cabinet Ministers seem to have focused in their response. We know that employees, in the course of their work, inevitably incur expenses, and that MPs are employees of Her Majesty's Government. We also know, because it has been repeated in mantra-like fashion that most MPs require a second home in London to be able to deliver their responsibilities in the capital. We also know that there is an agreed expenses system - a rule-based process that has existed for many years and that has rarely been brought into question before now.
So given these facts, what's the problem? Well, the single biggest problem is that while MPs may be technically correct in their application of the rules, this is not enough. It leads us to feel that we are being duped and manipulated by some clever interpretation of the rules. A little like clever accounting that evades a tax payment: we know such actions are within the rules, yet they create a psychological tension (leading to disappointment, frustration and anger) that further reduces our belief in the value system of those who lead us.
Ask any employee - or, in this case, any member of the public - what they look for in a leader and the top three qualities will be fairly consistent. They will be, in no particular order: a sense of vision; an ability to inspire and motivate; and trustworthiness. Our own research into leadership focused on the single-most important quality for remote leaders - trust.
We found that many leaders often confuse trust with facts. In other words, by telling everyone the facts of the situation, they will believe me and follow my lead. Thus, many leaders believe that communicating facts via email is often enough - as it gets the important facts across.
What they underestimate is the affective or emotional element of trust. The part of trust that says ‘I understand what you're saying and I believe that you're saying it for the right reasons'. And this seems to be where the greatest misjudgement lies. Many people know the facts about MPs expenses and understand what they're being told. They simply don't believe those who are telling them.
Feed