Humans, People: Why Should YOU Care?

Today as leaders, we can combine psychology with neuroscience and our own experiences, to intentionally, mindfully, create a community within our organizations that:

• lowers our liability exposure by eliminating misunderstandings that come about when our GAIL’s float to the surface
• increases profit by hiring to retain your team and allowing those team members the space to enter FLOW and deep work
• sets our companies up to navigate the future with resilience to anticipate industry disruptions, integrate failure and setbacks into the company story, the team’s story and the individual’s story

We know that our brains use a lot of energy- and we don’t want to waste it by:

• trying to read our colleagues’ minds & intentions
• focusing on our weaknesses
• wearing a mask of who we think people want to see

So, what’s your job in all of this?

• bring out the best in each person on your team- create a system and process for mistakes, failures, and learning to take place in real time
• create an environment where each person feels safe, respected, heard and can produce the highest quality & quantity of work possible
• communicate your intention to set each person up to succeed and grow

I’ve been really lucky over the years to have the chance to work with some amazingly talented people. I’d like to share some of the tools that they found most helpful, to give you a peek into what I’m talking about here.

Best practices and tools for your toolbox:

1. SBNRR (Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reflect, Respond)
2. Listening
3. Practicing difficult conversation strategies
4. Design Thinking

We know that there are financial costs when we lose skilled workers. We know that there are a lot of options for those skilled workers- 6.7M options (# of open jobs in the US). We know that there are fewer people looking for work than there are jobs to fill. We haven’t even addressed the multi-generational communication challenges, or the PTSD that many feel just living in the world today. As a leader, you have decisions to make about how you choose to show up in your life and whether you will be authentic, guided by purpose and principles.

Today, you have the opportunity to commit to your one best, authentic life and be a leader in creating a company community that allows every other person there to also live their best, authentic life.

You can do this imperfectly. You can learn together. You can create a community whose purpose is to deploy the company’s human, financial, and energetic assets in strategic, fiscally sound, dedication to the short, mid and long term objectives and learn to celebrate each other while you are doing it!