Better relationships increase employee wellbeing
Let's face it, the world is currently in a state of turmoil. 13 million people across Australia are in lockdown. According to www.worldometer.info we have reached over 4 million deaths worldwide and have 190 million cases of COVID19 reported since late 2019.
As leaders, we have a responsibility to our employees. Whether they are meeting their KPIs or producing a high level of output, right now we need to prioritise that they are healthy, safe, and have the tools required to continue to work during this chaotic and uncertain time.
This pandemic is new territory for many leaders. But our experience and ability to lead people through difficult, uncertain, and trying times is what we need to leverage off.
There is so much literature on looking after your employee's wellbeing, mental health, and ability to handle stress and how leaders can support their employees to become more agile and resilient. It is often thought that resilience is built through adversity, a series of setbacks that challenge our beliefs and help us build new skills to cope with difficulty.
Action-Strategies-By-Design believes that resilience, both individual and social (team, organizational, community), requires:
A high level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and emotional agility: Emotional Intelligence can be defined as having skills in four areas: self-awareness; self-management; social awareness; relationship management. Those individuals who can most successfully manage their own emotions and understand the emotions of others are in the best position to proactively respond to change and uncertainty.
A broad perspective: Resilient individuals can look at a situation from a variety of different viewpoints, leading to increased flexibility. As Darwin is often misquoted as saying: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
Openness, tolerance, and trust: These characteristics are especially important at the team and organizational level as teams look at creative, innovative ways to solve problems and develop new approaches to doing business.
According to the article “The Secret to Building Resilience” featured in the Harvard Business Review in January 2021; resilience is heavily enabled by strong relationships and networks.
We can nurture and build our resilience through a wide variety of interactions with people in our personal and professional lives. These interactions can help us to shift or push back on work demands and alter the magnitude of the challenges we’re facing. They can help crystallize the meaningful purpose in what we are doing or help us see a path forward to overcome a setback — these are the kinds of interactions that motivate us to persist. People in our support systems can provide empathy or simply help us laugh and bolster our resilience by shifting perspective and reminding us that we are not alone in the fight. We can become more resilient through connecting with others in the most challenging of times.
In a recent blog written by Integro titled “How to build a culture that cultivates resilience” it is noted that: If having strong relationships can contribute to increased resilience, how can leaders utilise this insight to encourage a positive and engaged organisational culture that prioritises relationships?
To build a strong network in the workplace, individuals need to reflect on their own behaviors to gain the self-awareness necessary to stretch when needed. That ability to stretch and adapt our responses to the unique needs of those we work with is the starting point for more effective work relationships. However, learning the social and emotional skills necessary to stretch is not a one-size-fits-all process and that’s where Everything DiSC® can help. Everything DiSC is a personal development learning experience that empowers individuals with the social and emotional know-how to increase self-awareness and build more effective relationships.
How do we do this?
Understand yourself
Understanding yourself better is the first step to becoming more effective when working with others. How valuable is it to understand what drives you and what your workplace priorities are? To gain a deeper understanding of your motivators and frustrations, as well as where you tend to focus your energy. To explore strategies to help you become more effective at work, whilst learning to appreciate the different priorities, preferences and values each individual brings to the workplace.
Understand others
Learning about others can help you to understand their priorities and how they may differ from your own; what motivates them and what is stressful for them. There are probably some people you can relate to easily and others who are more challenging for you. So, learning what drives different people can really help shed light on your relationships and improve your interactions.
Understand how to work together.
We all want good working relationships but that often means different things to different people. So, building better relationships really starts with understanding where someone is coming from and learning how to meet them where they are.
Looking at:
Our similarities and differences
Creating more connections, collaboration, and buy-in
Creating less tension and conflict
At Human Interactions, we work with leaders to get the best out of their people. We partner with you (leaders) to build teams that are agile, resilient and confident. Please call us for a free strategy meeting on how to build resilience in your team.
