Working Friendships

By the latter stages of the pandemic, when many of us had been working from home for close to a year, we ached for more connection. We missed the ready-made interactions in the office and the various low-key ways we tried to see friends and families during our free time. Perhaps this renewed attention to significant others in our lives was partly because we had to decide actively, and with intention, to cultivate and find these moments. We thought about our friends, missed them terribly and reached out frequently over the video waves in order to feel connected at a time of great loss. Without the ease of existing relationships, in pretty much most aspects of our lives during the height of Covid, we felt bereft and at sea; we perceived that something was lost and unavailable.

Inner Wisdom Revisited: Jacinda Ardern's Resignation

In February 2020, SmarterWisdom posted Inner Wisdom Personified: Jacinda Ardern, about New Zealand’s Prime Minister, who was elected in 2017, aged 37. Last week, upon the news of Ardern’s decision not to seek reelection, I thought about the words she used in her resignation speech, that “[she] no longer had enough in the tank to do the job.” I wondered if Ardern’s brand of leadership required more in the tank than that of other leaders; I wondered if she felt she had any choice. In the 2/20 Words of Wisdom post, I argued that Ardern was a true servant leader, not someone seeking personal gain, rather someone leading selflessly in the interests of the country. Since we published that piece, which focused on the massacre in mosques in New Zealand in 2019, Ardern has dealt with the White Island volcanic eruption, and of course the Covid-19 pandemic. She has also experienced a myriad of personal threats, among them many that were seen as ageist and sexist. So while the message from our 2020 post stays the same, we are left with a lot to ponder in connection with Ardern’s decision and the loss to the world of this globally-minded leader.

The Liminal Landscape: 2022 Revisited

Summing up the past year in terms of themes, trends, new ideas and developments in the workplace proves not as straightforward in 2022 as we might have expected. In fact, SmarterWisdom believes that any new place at which we have arrived this year isn’t about content at all, but rather about state—state of being, state of understanding, state of wonder! It’s a position that perhaps we would benefit from paying close attention to, even though this moment—or space—is liminal. To be in a liminal space is “to be on the precipice of something new but not quite there yet.” A liminal space can be metaphorical, emotional or physical. And for many people, perhaps understandably, it’s an uncomfortable position.

Trust Your People

It seems there is a whole new movement in the for-profit world related to checking up on employees. As a certain sector of the workforce makes choices about at home, in-office or hybrid work, employers are investing in tracking and other software that monitors workers time-on-task. The concern that because we cannot see them working and therefore how do we know if they are, is driving employers to create a lack of trust, which surely will erode the mutual trust workers need to do their best work.

The Power of Influence

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed us all to the brink in many areas: the definitions of work, parenting, schooling, family and friend relationships and even grocery shopping have all changed. SmarterWisdom’s basic philosophy is that within us we have the solutions to many of our problems and that we can always capitalize and make the most of the situation at hand to learn how to approach difficult issues in different ways. In the same way that we faced the recent upheaval in our daily lives, there is little doubt that leaders who were able to access their highly developed soft (or power) skills have not only fared better themselves, but have ensured the success of their teams and workmates.

Design Mindset, Empathy, Team-buildingJane MouldingNovember 2, 2022workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility

London Bridge Has Fallen

Somewhere on Twitter this past week, amidst all the tributes posted out of respect upon her death, I read that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was “the first girl boss” (she became Queen at 25 over 70 years ago) and it made me think about what her tenure (she was the world’s longest-serving monarch) might teach us about organizations and leadership. “I cannot lead you into battle,” the Queen said in 1957. “I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.”

In fact, it is perhaps easier to think of what kind of leader the Queen was not, rather than align her with a corporate title: not a chief executive officer, a president or a director. Given the length of her service and the ways in which she established the idea of monarchy in peacetime, she seems like more of a founding partner than CEO; and because of her work away from day-to-day operations, she is more like a board chair than senior manager. It is actually quite difficult to find a good analogy for the role of the Queen as a leader, and yet leader she was, as monarch and head of state.

Time and Its Essence

One of SmarterWisdom’s core approaches to our leadership consulting work is to help leaders prioritize among the myriad of bright shiny things that beckon them each day. Step one is to prioritize, and step two is to stay true to the path you set for yourself.

So how do you prioritize? A good first step is to consider your work in levels, or as the McKinsey article suggests, gears, that is low, medium and high. Examine all the major projects that you are involved in—which takes precedence, what is next, and so on. If you stay focused on less important, mid-level tasks, you are likely to be stuck in medium gear. Yes, you can tootle along getting stuff done, but both you and your vehicle are not turning on the high-power capability that will allow you to move faster and cover more ground—and dive deeper. As a leader in your organization, you want to be in high gear a lot of the time. Think of high gear on the freeway and the large distances covered. Yes, you need to be paying more attention to your driving—but you will get you and your passengers to more places.

Engage and Make It So!

A standout article in Fast Company in their Leadership Now section (July 11, 2022) especially inspired our deeper thinking about why supporting and engaging Gen Z-ers, in particular, is so important. For leaders and managers to adopt behaviors and create structures to help create the most productive settings for the Zs will clearly be worthwhile. Paying attention to the generational cohorts that exist in your organization might be a good starting point—for example, we know that different ages and life stages often seek different benefits as part of their compensation packages; might that be a good general starting place for your human resource officers?

Is It Worth It To Me?

was talking to my niece recently about her return to work in person. She is a media/communications specialist in higher education, based in the UK. She said that without the ability to work remotely as well as in person, she would go crazy: too many meetings on-site, and no time to get her work done! I was reminded of some of my reading and research about the “new world of work” we are entering, since offices have begun to re-open and many employees are now required to return to work in person. Digging further into my niece’s comment made me think more about the potential value of returning to the office, and how many professionals, like my niece, need to know whether or not it’s worth it to them.

Building on a Soft Foundation

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed us all to the brink in many areas: the definitions of work, parenting, schooling, family and friend relationships and even grocery shopping have all changed. SmarterWisdom’s basic philosophy is that within us we have the solutions to many of our problems and that we can always capitalize and make the most of the situation at hand to learn how to approach difficult issues in different ways. In the same way that we faced the recent upheaval in our daily lives, there is little doubt that leaders who were able to access their highly developed soft (or power) skills have not only fared better themselves, but have ensured the success of their teams and workmates.

Design Mindset, Empathy, Team-buildingJane MouldingJune 7, 2022workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility

Whisper Words of Wisdom

The Beatles’ 1970 album, Let It Be, hit the record stores when I was a junior in high school in the UK. “The Long and Winding Road” brought tears to my eyes and became my go-to Beatles ballad for a very long time. In his new documentary, “Get Back,” Peter Jackson chronicles the making of this seminal album over a period of days and in doing so, according to a wonderful recent article from The Economist, reveals some reliable and creative thinking about an effective team of four.

Hiring Bringing on a 19th Nervous Breakdown?

The hiring process is filled with hopes, fears and expectations on all sides. Hiring someone is a challenging process---especially in this labor market---and everyone is eager to get a good person on board. Candidates themselves bring their own dreams and watch-outs to their job searches, and, at least right now, the market is in their favor. What is aligned across all participants in the process (at least in most situations) is that everyone is eager for a positive outcome. Of course, exactly what that vision looks like may not be fully shared by both the candidate and the hiring manager. In many cases, it isn’t even shared across the hiring committee.

Choppy Waters Need Steady Hands

During the past two years, all types of organizations, from small non-profits to corporate giants, have experienced enormous upheaval. Keeping a steady hand on the tiller as you face and adapt to the changes that appear, and paying attention to opportunities, are vital to how you capitalize effectively on setbacks. It is crucial that leaders cultivate the most productive approach on how to deal in-the-moment, and yet maintain the long-term view on how to stay the course.

Are We Having Fun Yet, Part 2

There isn’t much that is certain about work today, except uncertainty. In June, when we posted the first part of Are we Having Fun Yet, the Covid situation had evolved from office shutdowns and work from home (if one could) to vaccine development and administration. By the late spring, some enterprises (such as Disneyworld, featured in Part I) were adapting their workplaces to respond to the health-related requirements for operating safely in a pandemic. Our hopes rose for a return to something resembling normal, as our world moved toward a reopening.

Career success, Leadership, Team-buildingMarcie Schorr HirschFebruary 1, 2022workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility

Wonderland 2021: Our Top 5 Takeaways

A year ago, in one of our posts, SmarterWisdom enjoyed describing 2020 as an exceptional year. We have since been toying with how to label 2021—and Alice in Wonderland came to mind: topsy turvy, a croquet field where the balls are live hedgehogs? Definitely. Through the Looking Glass, with a grinning Cheshire Cat! For sure. So here we go: the crazy journey of the year behind us…

An Ounce of Prevention...

Research shows us that boards and leaders who have already faced different kinds of crises, perhaps the need to cut programs, or a significant loss of accustomed admissions sources in schools, or a public relations scandal of some kind, or the loss of a senior leader mid-term and so on, are better equipped to face new ones, such as the pandemic. Schools, for example, who put policies and practices in place during the mid-2000s SARS-epidemic crisis, or even just surfaced the key generative questions, were more prepared for the recent challenges related to Covid. Having faced different trials and tests, organizations that incorporate ongoing reflective learning from these experiences, and create replicable, sustainable approaches, will thrive during new challenges and threats.

Don't Go It Alone

SmarterWisdom has written a lot recently about uncertain times, times of change that provide opportunities to transform your approach to leading and learning. We see the leading with people, not the leading of people as key to your team’s success, especially now. Placing the science and expertise of organizational change front and center, will ensure that you can navigate unknown situations ahead, and be ready for a sustainable future. In a recent blog, Marcie wrote about psychological safety and how leaders can create workplaces that are healthy; earlier Jane wrote about burnout and resilience, teams redefined and how individuals need to consider the ethos of the culture where they work to ensure they are in the right place. In all of these pieces, we urged leaders, at all levels of the organization, to ensure they had time to lead and coach their team members, checking in, asking them how they can help, and engaging in active, forward-thinking mentorship. In some ways this need for leaders to coach and tend to their colleagues is a new aspect of leadership, but in many ways not: generative leadership always pays attention to the health and well-being of the team, building trust and developing engagement.

Psychological Safety

What are the lessons to be gleaned from the sudden shift to work from home? My biggest takeaway, by far, has been the level of flexibility humans can exhibit when they have to. The work from home arrangement into which so many have been thrown during the pandemic, required flexibility from both organizations and their employees at all levels. The shift to home-based work by massive numbers of employees was a head spinning change accomplished in a snap. And, by all reports to date, it is largely a story of success.

The speed with which the workers and organizations adapted to a new normal has been nothing short of astounding. Not that long ago virtually all workers were paid to perform their jobs on site. Additionally, until relatively recently, many not only had to show up, they were also required to punch a timeclock when arriving and departing to prove that they were at their jobs at the agreed upon times. Of course, these employees weren’t proving that they were working, just that they were at the worksite. But still, punching the clock was what was required if an employee wanted to get a paycheck.

What Goes Up....

Something I learned early on as a leader was the idea of managing up. I remember my Harvard MBA spouse describing the idea to me after a particularly unproductive series of meetings with my boss at the time. It seemed I could never get my needs met, that she never seemed to notice anything that I did that I felt good about, and that she had a lot of needs of her own that I was unsure about. Fast forward through almost 30 years of leadership, working for one boss sometimes and working for entire boards of directors at others, to today and the work SmarterWisdom does with leaders facing the same issues. How do we collaborate best with our immediate supervisors? The advice my MBA spouse gave to me was to manage up, which meant to considering more where the “boss” or “the board” was coming from and work it. Is this effort really necessary? Does it pay off? How does it integrate into the whole picture of leadership success?

Team: Redefined

During the pandemic, we have all been sorely tested—not just leaders, or teams, but all of us, as individuals. We have been forced to question what work means, our roles and the systems we have taken for granted since we entered the world of work. Looking back to my own education, in high school and college, I was definitely taught, in general, that to be part of a team meant to subjugate self; to be sure that the team trumps the individual. The old adage ”There’s no ‘I’ in team,” that leadership guru, Peter Drucker articulates above, seems mostly to remain tried, tested and true. We have certainly read, and SmarterWisdom has written, that the team must take precedence, and paying attention to both the formation, and the nurturing of the team is vital to success. Is that really the case? Or has the pandemic and our changed ways of living and working perhaps pretty much upended much of our thinking about the concept of team?

Career success, Leadership, Team-buildingJane MouldingAugust 11, 2021workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility