Month: June 2021

Language, Leading and Culture: What Do You Need to Know?

Language and Brain Function: If you’re leading diverse teams who speak different languages, you’ve experienced the challenges that arise from language confusion. What you may not realize is that new brain research reveals that the differences may arise in the very structure of the brain.

Brain Scans: In a classic chicken and egg conundrum, new brain scans on people raised with different native languages have found that the brain either reflects or drives those differences. Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist from the University of California at San Diego, studies these issues. Watch Your Mouth | Hidden Brain : NPR

When she had the opportunity to observe the language of an aboriginal community in Northern Australia, the Pormpuraaw of Cape York, for example, she found that they had excellent ability to orient themselves in space: north, south, east, and west. The way you say “hi” for example, with this group is: “which way are you headed?” In order to answer, you have to be able to place yourself in space. As an English and Russian speaker, she didn’t have that kind of spatial intelligence and they seemed to think she was pretty stupid that she didn’t know. They have, for example, no words for right and left, using instead the directions. Hard, she laughs, to teach someone the “Hokey Pokey”, since you’d have to say: “put your northeast leg in”, and so on.

The Brain’s Ability to Learn: While Boroditsky started out with no particular spatial intelligence, she found that her brain did learn how to orient, the longer she worked with that community: what neuropsychologists call “neuro plasticity”. At first, however, these brain-based language differences can cause confusion, stereotypes, and challenging differences. Consider, for example, the idea that the word “chair” in English is neither masculine nor feminine but in Spanish it’s feminine because you use “la” ahead of “silla”. When students who spoke different languages were shown pictures of objects we English speakers consider neutral, they imagined stereotypical masculine or feminine descriptions.

What Should You Do? 

Learn a New Language!  Nothing will give you more empathy for the non-native English speakers on your team than trying to master their language. While you may never be fluent enough to lead in that language, you’ll understand some of the confusion and become a more useful leader.

Understand Language and the Brain: Realize that language influences the very structure of the brain and vice versa. This structure is not permanent but may explain seemingly bizarre differences between people and groups.

Be Aware of Culture Differences: While we never want to excuse unacceptable workplace behavior because of cultural differences, understanding such clashes can help us learn what the consequences should be and what education is needed. Go to workplacesthatwork.com for more articles on this subject.

What Do You Think?

Have you observed differences between behavior and those who speak different languages? Contact us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

A New Worry for Leaders!

WATCH YOUR BACK: As if leaders did not have enough to fuss about with various employment lawsuits, Corona back-to-work confusion, a shortage of qualified workers, and financial woes brought on by the pandemic, now you need to be concerned with sophisticated PR techniques from alleged discrimination, harassment, and other workplace mistreatment victims.

POTENTIAL PUBLIC RELATIONS NIGHTMARES: Because many victims feel out matched by the large corporate entities they are suing, they’ve started to turn to a new ploy: telling their stories through the media, with the help of a specialized PR firm. The newish firm, Lioness, founded by two accomplished PR pros, helps claimants craft their stories and seek appropriate outlets for their narratives. Read how the world learns about bosses behaving badly.

In a well-placed New York Times piece this week, the firm describes its work as “We’ve noticed that stories change hearts…. It’s much more effective than the legal case, in a way…. We think of ourselves as an intake and conduit for them to know how to tell their story.”

After vetting and corroborating the allegations, the firm works with a law firm that reviews nondisclosure agreements to avoid that legal minefield. What the firm finds is that most businesses involved know that it will reflect badly on them to sue employees who speak up about bosses behaving badly and other mistreatment, so they believe the risk of a countersuit is slim. In addition, in New York and California, for example, there are some new protections for victims of sexual misconduct who speak out.

A Trail of Targeted Employers: Since starting in late 2019, Lioness has worked with more than 100 individuals. The service is free for people speaking out: Lioness supports their work by doing paid public relations work for other clients. Because many people do not understand the backlash that can occur after they go public, Lioness helps them prepare for the onslaught. So far, they have worked with former employees from Tony Robbins’s companies, Better.com, and many others. A documentary is in the works.

What Should You Do? 

Do Not Assume: Nondisclosure and “mutual non disparagement agreements” used as a part of a settlement may or may not keep people from talking. Make sure that any you use are updated by your employment counsel.

Review the Basics: As always, systemwide training and policies are the best defense against baseless employee claims. If you make sure that your people are doing the right thing under your values, your policies, and the law, you will reduce or eliminate grievances.

Go to www.workplacesthatwork.com for more articles about how to select the best training and other preventative measures.

Take Bad Bosses Seriously: Most workers understand that work is work; they will forgive (grudgingly, perhaps) a lot of extra work or management errors but a toxic boss — even if they are what I call “equal opportunity jerks”, because they’re not discriminating based on race, gender or any other protected characteristic, and they’re just horrible to everyone — leaves you at much greater risk for potential claims, as well as turnover costs. Even if the employee cannot prove discrimination, you end up needing to put on an embarrassing defense: this boss was not discriminating or harassing, because they are jerks to everyone. A judge or a jury will do what they can to find a claim, even if none technically exists, just because they do not like the leader.

What Do You Think?

Have you found ways to experience flow during this past year? Contact us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Three Ways to Coach Empathy and Why You Should

DEFINING EMPATHY: According to Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, in a recent interview on Hidden Brain, empathy, at its deepest level is understanding that someone else’s worldview is just as real as your own.

THE EMPATHY PROBLEM WITH LEADERS: We’re frequently asked to coach leaders who’ve been accused of harassment, discrimination or just being overall jerks, especially those who are condescending or demeaning. Read my article Do You Know Why Condescending and Demeaning Behavior Continues and What You Should Do? | (workplacesthatwork.com) Yet when we start coaching those executives, they don’t understand why their staff would think that. Our first step is always moving them toward this link. Regardless of the complaint, we find that the underlying issue is a lack of empathy.

THE TYPES OF EMPATHY: According to Zaki, there are three types of empathy:

1)    Emotional empathy, where we vicariously feel the feelings of others;

2)    Cognitive empathy, where we may not feel others’ feelings, but we can intellectually understand them; and

3)    Compassion or concern, where we have concern for what people are going through and a desire for their wellbeing.

Someone on the autism spectrum, for example, may struggle with cognitive empathy but they can care. Conversely, someone with psychopathy, can understand someone’s feelings but not share them.

LESS EMPATHY TODAY: Studies have shown that we’re less empathetic today than we were in previous centuries, perhaps because we live more urban and solitary lives, the anonymity of the Internet or that our interactions with the people we meet are more transactional. In previous eras, when we lived in more rural environments or smaller towns, we were both more likely to interact with others who were different than us and more forced to know them on more human levels because we had to depend upon them for our survival, and we knew that we would see them again at school, religious functions, or local clubs. Today – especially with so much online work and school — those forced interactions and dependence may be less common.

What Should You Do?

1.  RECOGNIZE THE ISSUE: If you or someone you’re coaching is struggling with empathy, leading to unacceptable behavior, realize what’s happening and that empathy is an emotional muscle that you can strengthen with practice.
2. EXPAND YOUR TRIBE: Ironically, various studies have shown that the more empathetic you are to your own group or kind, the less empathy you’ll have towards strangers outside your tribe. Recognizing the problem can lead you or those you coach to experiences that take you outside your comfort zone and help you understand other people.
3. EXERCISE YOUR EMPATHY MUSCLE: Acting in plays, reading novels and certain kinds of virtual simulations can force you to live through someone else’s experience, increasing empathy with their plight. If you do these kinds of exercises, your ability to understand and care about how others experience the world will grow.

What Do You Think?

Have you found ways to experience flow during this past year? Contact us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Three Ways to Banish the Blahs for You and Your Team

A NAME FOR “MEH”:  Our kids call it “meh”, we may call it feeling blah. In any event, many of us are slogging into 2021 – not really depressed, but not inspired either. As one of the most emailed New York Times pieces recently put it: “There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing” by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton.

For those of us who were not grieving tremendous personal or job losses the past year: “It wasn’t burnout – we still had energy. It wasn’t depression – we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out that there’s a name for that: Languishing.”

 For mental health pros, languishing lies in the middle of the mountain between flourishing on top and the valley of depression. As many of us realize that the pandemic and its consequences drag on, we may feel as if we are wading through a swamp. We’re no longer afraid of alligators or snakes, but the path feels endless and uncharted.

Recognize the symptoms for you and your staff:  We may find ourselves staying up way too late binge watching a detective series we’ve already seen twice, neglecting our morning run, eating an extra cookie because well, why not?

We may have trouble starting new projects or finding the joy in spring flowers. We complete the work with hard deadlines and shovel food at the kids and dogs so they don’t starve, but beyond that? Not so much.

What Should You Do?

Name the Mood: Psychological research has found that admitting the feeling is the first step to walking through. When someone asks how you’re feeling, admit that you have the blahs, or, if you think they’re interested, languishing. Encourage your staff to do the same. If you don’t feel safe in your work environment with that level of transparency, find a coach, friend, therapist, or spiritual advisor to help you through the thicket.  

Recognize Flow States:  The opposite of depression and lethargy is flow: the feeling of being immersed in work or pleasure so that time melts away, concentration peaks, and our boundaries collapse in a healthy way. Again, vocabulary is helpful. Use the concept with your own self talk and with your staff so that you know when you’re in a flow state.

Intentionally Create Flow:  The research on flow is extensive but psychologists have a few tips. Try to schedule uninterrupted time: no checking email or phones when you’re on a project, create and celebrate small goals and above all, recognize that you’re not alone with what you’re feeling now.

For more ideas on thriving now, go to Monday Memo Archives (workplacesthatwork.com)

https://www.workplacesthatwork.com/resources/monday-memo-archives/

What Do You Think?

Have you found ways to experience flow during this past year? Contact us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com