Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations

Word count this issue: 637

Estimated reading time:   3:15 minutes

One of my favorite podcasts is the CBC show, “Spark, with Nora Young.” It is smart, interesting and has an almost musical rhythm to it. It explores tech trends and ideas from across the planet and brings them to your device simply and elegantly. 

A recent show, is a fine example; http://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/285-data-collection-cheering-up-the-internet-and-more-1.3061448  In the midst of this show is a fascinating piece on fighting depression on a social network (beginning at 14.36). With the usual qualifiers and ethical boundaries, the idea seems to make good sense. A network of individuals who support each other not by platitudes like “it’s just a passing phase”, or “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle”, but with tangible, real time suggestions to change our thinking patterns.

Now when I talk about mental health here, I like to think about the whole spectrum. In the same way I could go from having a cold through the flu, pneumonia and to a deadly chest infection, in terms of my mental health, I can have a tough moment (an unexplained sneeze), through a mental cold, pneumonia where I need some time away and some pharmacological support, through to a very, very serious illness. 

In the work place we can have unexplained sneezes and colds a lot, to continue the metaphor. For example, there is an old case study I’ve used on and off for years. Your boss says to you, “I have some feedback for you from a customer. Let’s connect this afternoon at 3 pm to discuss it in detail.” Then some hours later at 3 pm you arrive and she is on the phone with another manager, and she says, “come back tomorrow at 9, we really need to talk about this.”

How do feel? What would you do? What does your default thinking take you? (Do you feel a sneeze coming on?)

In a workshop, I’d let participants talk about their responses and then tell them that their boss simply wants to discuss a ‘GREAT’ feedback, and to explore with you how you can replicate what you did to get that feedback with the rest of the team.

Frankly, most of the participants in the hundreds of times I’ve run this and similar case studies default to negative thinking in the first part of the case, before we know it is good feedback. What has got me inspired from the “Spark” episode, is the social aspect of finding new ways of changing our thinking. For example, what would it look like if you had a good friend at work?(check out question 10 from the now famous Gallup Q12 http://home.ncifcrf.gov/SAICFTraining/2011_Gallup_Questions.pdf ) If, in a situation where your negative default was kicking in, what in coaching circles is known as a ‘gremlin’, you could go to this friend, tell them what was going on, how you were triggered, and you want help in changing your thinking. It’d be like them giving you a warm lemon tea or a kleenex.

Some general questions you and your friend might explore include:

1. What do I know to be true and what is fiction in the situation?
2. What are 4 different possible outcomes?
3. If you were coaching someone in the same situation, what would you have them do right now?
4. In the bigger scheme of things, how important is this?
5. What will you think of this 5 years from now?

Clearly, we have opportunities as leaders to make a difference in each other’s lives. It may be that supporting people in the vital work of changing their minds is one of the great roles for each of us.