Good morning from a dark and rather dreary Vancouver. I do love the Fall, but there is always a certain melancholy in me when many jurisdictions in this part of the world switch to Standard Time. It is dark by 5 pm, and still dark when my alarm goes off at 7 am. I wonder if some of you experience this shift in feeling? And after December 21 or 22, the local Winter Solstice I actually get a little excited about the lengthening days!
This has got me thinking about our personal impact on the environment of our workplaces. Now I know that there are thousands of articles and blogs about workplace environments, both physical and social, but what I’m wondering about is how I can impact the mood and therefore the longer term productivity of the place in which I work. For example, I’ve had the experience of working with people whom I’ve termed (perhaps unfairly) ‘black cloud’ people, based on my childhood memories of the L’il Abner comic strip character Joe ‘Btfspik.’ I recall working with a couple of tourists here in Vancouver who in the midst of a gorgeous summer weekend complained about how long the line ups were to get into the Sun Yat Sen Gardens, how hot it was, how the tour to Victoria was so slow because of the 90 minute ferry ride, they found no joy in the beaches, the mountains and even the shopping on Robson Street. I actually wondered why they had got on the plane to come here in the first place! I have experienced the negative side of mood in the workplace, and in my practice I’ve certainly come across people who see the world through perpetually dark glasses. And there is a wonderful book by the late Peter Frost called “Handling Toxic Emotions at Work” that explores how leaders and the rest of us have to deal with what he called ‘cancer cells’ in our organizations.
My wondering recently has been, what about the positive side? Are there actually people who bring light into our workplaces, who simply by their presence make the work place a better place for everyone. I think there are such people, and what I’ve noticed are a few common traits. One, there is a sincerity about their positivity; some folks will actually try too hard to be warm and happy and we pick up on the cracks in the veneer. The most sincere folks we warm to automatically. Second, there is a self-deprecating sense of humour about them; again, not false humility, but a light heartedness in how they view themselves and the world around them. Third, in my conversations with them they all talk about choice; they actually make a choice to view the world through the lens they do. A couple of Monday evenings ago I attended a symposium where I heard Rabbi Michael Lerner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lerner_(rabbi) speak. Towards of the evening he said something like, ‘look, there are loads of people out there who will keep telling us to be realistic, who will beat us down to the pragmatic and the doable. The problem is that being realistic, being pragmatic and doable means we won’t change, we won’t grow. So choose to be an idealist, revel in your idealism, and in doing so begin to change your neighbourhood, your city, your country and the world for the better.’
And you know what, I think these three characteristics are actually very powerful leadership qualities; sincere positivism, self-deprecating humour and making conscious choices, including the choice to imagine and work towards a better world for all of us.
May this week be filled with opportunities to explore each of these for each of us.