Stress Is An Organizational Problem

Good morning to you all!

I haven’t written about stress in the workplace for awhile.  This week a colleague emailed me an article from www.working.com about the effects of stress on bosses in the workplace. But first let me digress!

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Marci Cohen. At that time Marci was a leader with the Hospital Employees Union in B.C. and Marci was on a mission. She had the goal of helping thousands of health care employees (front line) fight workplace stress.

When I first met Marci she had just finished putting the final touches on a program called The Anti Stress Initiative which involved education & training of union employees and health care leaders.

What was unique about The Anti Stress Initiative was its strong emphasis on the need for organizational change.

At the time that Marci began working on The Anti Stress Initiative there was a growing awareness, backed by research, that dealing with workplace stress was as much the responsibility of the organization as it was of the individual worker.

Prior to that time it was widely believed that individuals were responsible for dealing with stress on their own.  

“The only way to really reduce toxic stress is to change the work and change the workplace.”  … the Workplace Anti-stress Guide

The Whitehall Study, a famous research project, was cited in the Anti-stress Guide.

What made the Whitehall Study famous was that it established a clear link between social hierarchy, stress, and health in the workplace. It tracked 18,000 male English civil servants (now there’s term that could use some updating) for two decades. Secretaries, filing clerks, senior managers and everyone in between took part in this study.

The main findings of The Whitehall Study were that

“the lower a worker’s position in the hierarchy, the greater his or her likelihood of suffering from angina, chronic bronchitis, heart and circulatory problems, and other stress-related conditions.”

Employees were at risk if they had jobs with high demands but little control over their work.

This can be explained in another way:

People are under a lot of stress when they have a high-strain job. A high-strain job is one where you face many demands and have little control and support.

A low-strain job is one where you face demands and have a good measure of control and support.

Guess what? People in low-strain jobs are less likely to suffer from the negative effects of chronic stress.

The Whitehall Study put managers in the low-strain category.

However, recently researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that “being the boss can take its toll on health”.

More about this in the next post! Enjoy your weekend!                                    Lesley

Emotional Vampires in the Workplace!

Hi! I first heard the term “emotional vampires” a few years ago. At that time I had one of these vampires in my own life!

Now Judith Orloff, M.D. has written a book on the subject. The book is called, “Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life” and it is a New York Times bestseller.

Emotional vampires can be family members, friends or co-workers. 

According to Dr. Orloff the best defense, as always, is a good offense. In order to rid yourself of these emotional vampires you first must learn how to recognize them. Only then can you decide how to stop them from “feeding off you”.

There are five types of emotional vampires that you need to guard against:

The Narcissist – this person needs you to fulfill their needs. They are completely self-centered and will find any excuse to talk about themselves, seek compliments etc.

The Victim – this person will wear you down with their “poor me” attitude. Believe me they can be extremely annoying and exhausting to be around. The victim won’t take responsibility (probably has no insight) for their behavior and believe that the world is against them. 

The Controller – this person will try to control you and tell you want to do and how to feel. They can dominate and suffocate you.

The Criticizer – this person will put themselves down and everyone else as well. Nothing is right with the world and they are happy to tell you about how awful everything is.

The Splitter – this vampire sees people in black and white. Unconsciously they turn people against each other.

Interestingly, according to Dr. Orloff we attract these lovely people into our lives when we are vulnerable and unhappy. AND the danger is that we can turn into vampires ourselves if we are not careful.

So, read the book and watch for the vampires in your workplace.                      Lesley

Using Emotional Intelligence to Heal the Workplace

Hi there!  How are you this week? I’m good and I’ve been thinking about how important emotional Intelligence (EQ) is in the workplace.

How important EQ is to creating and maintaining a healthy workplace. 

I keep reading about how important EQ is for effective leadership. YES it is!

I also keep reading about how important EQ is for career success (getting the job you want).

What I’ve not read much about is the relationship of EQ and healthy workplaces.

EQ was first made popular by Daniel Goleman. Daniel Goleman has written a number of excellent books on the subject and I would recommend that you read Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence if you are not familiar with his work.

If you read Working with Emotional Intelligence you’ll discover that the person responsible for first identifying the need for EQ skills at work was David McClelland.

Basically EQ skills fall into the following categories:

• self-awareness (knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, values, leadership style, communication style etc.)
• self-regulation (managing one’s internal states–anger, fear, frustration etc.)
• motivation (persistence, taking initiative etc.)
• empathy (understanding others, developing others etc.)
• social skills (influence, communication, conflict management, collaboration, team building etc.)

We all have to take responsibility for making improvements in the places we work. If we see someone being mistreated we need to speak up. If we know of someone who is acting unethically we need to “blow the whistle”. If we are not happy with the way our colleagues treat us we have to stand up to them. If people don’t pull their weight we need to raise the issue with them, the team and the boss.

What we need in order to “take responsibility” is to use our EQ skills.

Some organizations are now attempting to hire people with these skills. But organizations also need to help people develop these skills if they don’t have them. 

In fact, this might be the best investment they make!

What if everyone in the organization that you work in had good relationship-building interpersonal skills? What about your team? Sometimes the best teams are the ones in which everyone has the skills to work together–EQ skills.

What if everyone took responsibility for creating an organization that was healthy and productive? Maybe I’m naive but I think that a shift is taking place. Remember the book The Tipping Point?

Well, there is a growing emphasis on EQ and on leadership.

There is an explosion of people stepping up and stepping into leadership roles–in their work, in their communities, in their places of workship, in their schools and around the world.

I believe that we have the power to improve our workplaces but only if we all take some responsibility.

Cheers,

Lesley

Psychologically Healthy Workplaces Are Vital!

Hi there, what’s on my radar this week? Raising awareness about  psychologically healthy workplaces. 

In the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Jennifer Newman and Darryl Grigg write about  about the need to create psychologically healthy workplaces even in times of recession. Especially when organizations are going through tough economic times.

They quote Dr. David Ballard, executive director for corporate relations and business strategy at the American Psychological Association,

“The goal of creating a psychologically healthy workplace is to optimize outcomes for employees and employers.”

Optimizing outcomes might be the overall goal of creating psychologically healthy workplaces but it doesn’t seem to go far enough in explaining WHY psychologically healthy workplaces are so important.  

Let’s look at this another way. What are the dangers of NOT creating a  healthy workplace?

Here are some startling facts:

• The Centers for Disease Control have declared workplace violence to be at epidemic levels.
• The U.S. Department of Justice proclaimed the workplace to be the most dangerous place to be in America.
• One in four workers are attacked, threatened, or harassed every year.
• Homicide is the leading cause of on-the-job death for women and the second leading cause of death for me.

Quite frankly I was shocked when I read these statistics in the 2009 edition of The New Manager’s Tool Kit by Don and Sheryl Grimme.

Certainly there are many reasons why there is so much violence in the workplace. The world we live in is increasingly more violent. People are anxious, angry, stressed and frightened.

Add to this mix leaders, managers and/or coworkers who are bullies and you have “set the stage” for workplace violence.

On the one hand you have people who are unstable or on the verge of breaking down and one the other hand you have workplaces that are toxic.

And what happens when violence occurs at work? Who is to blame?

Here’s some more interesting stats:

• former employees cause only 3% of workplace attacks
• current employees are responsible for 20%
• bosses are responsible for 7% of all physical workplace violence
• customers/clients/strangers are responsible for 44% (WOW)

What can an organization or company do to prevent workplace violence? The first thing is to learn about it.

The second, and perhaps more important, is to create a workplace culture that respects EVERYONE–workers, bosses, customers. In fact, if employees are NOT treated with respect they will probably not treat their customers with respect either.

There are numerous ways to create psychologically healthy workplaces–some I have discussed in earlier posts.

Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians out there.

Lesley

Susan Anton Blames City of Vancouver Workers for 60 Million Dollar Deficit

Hi, I don’t usually write posts about “current events” but after hearing Councillor Susan Anton on the radio this morning I’ve decided to make an exception.

The City of Vancouver has a 60 million dollar budget overrun and when asked how this could have happened Susan Anton’s first response was to blame the unionized workers at the City of Vancouver.

Doesn’t Ms. Anton know that she is in a leadership position? Give me a break.

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of treating employees with fairness, compassion and respect.

This morning, on the drive into work, I heard Susan Anton being interviewed on the radio. She told reporters that the reason that the City of Vancouver has a huge budget overrun is because the unionized city workers received a big pay raise in 2007.

The first thing that she came up with was blaming the workers.

Which leads me to ask the question, “Why was Susan Anton so quick to blame the front-line workers this morning?” Seems like a good way to deflect blame from Council and the organization’s upper management.

…not very helpful and in the long run…off the cuff comments like this from someone in Susan’s positon can be very harmful to the organization’s culture.

In the long run this kind of thoughtless attack on workers will end up costing the City of Vancouver even more money.

Susan…here’s some thoughts about leadership…

Transcendent Leadership  is the sum of the following:

•  Leadership of Others
• Leadership of the Organization
• Leadership of Community &
• Leadership of Self

If you plan on a career in politics, or anywhere else for that matter, you might want to focus on the latter.

Cheers,

Lesley

Values At Work And The Triple Bottom Line

Hi!

Last week I touched on the need for organizations to become more values-driven. Values-driven organizations operate based on the following fundamental human values:

• fairness
• compassion
• respect
• reverence for nature

Increasingly businesses that “live” these values are also more profitable. It’s a win-win situation but becoming a values-driven organization is not always easy. Fortunately there are organizations and other resources available to help.

I came across the book “Values-driven Business” by Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick. This book is part of a serious of books published by the Social Venture Network. 

The Social Venture Network is about promoting the concept of values-based business. SVN’s model includes the following “five dimensions of values-based business”:

• Employees
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Community
• Environment

This is an expanded version of the 3 P’s of Socially Responsible Business: People, Planet and Profits.

Chapter Three of  the book Values-driven Business is titled “First Thing First: Your Employees.

“The most valuable asset any company possesses is its intellectual capital, which is the accumulated knowledge of its workforce as well as its management.”

The authors describe six reasons for treating employees well and paying them a “living wage”:

1. Employees will find their work more satisfying and be more productive.
2. The costs of high employee turnover are as great or greater than the cost of a decent compensation package.
3. Low-paying jobs attract only those who can’t find work elsewhere.
4. Employees who are paid low wages will often be forced to take second jobs. These employees are more likely to come to work exhausted and have added health problems.
5. Poorly paid employees are more likely to steal from the company they work for.
6. Low wages tend to result in poor morale, poor customer service and low productivity.

One interesting note…not-for-profit organizations which have traditionally been values-driven are now being encouraged to become more “business like” and for-profit organizations are being encouraged to become more like not-for-profits in the way they do business.

Cheers, Lesley

Code Of Conduct Or Values Conversation?

Hi there, how was your week? I’ve had a great week as usual. Being a self-employed contractor has its benefits.

Recently most of the people visiting my blog are looking for information about Codes of Conduct.

Which leads me to today’s post. Unfortunately I don’t know the reasons why people are interested in this topic…in fact I can only speculate…which I will.

That’s the nice thing about writing a blog…you can pretty much write whatever you fancy.

So, let’s suppose that people are seeking information about how a code of conduct in the workplace might help them deal with a problem employee, or a nasty boss, or a myriad of other issues in the workplace.

Some codes of conduct are so long and so complicated (seeking to cover every possible misdemean0r) that it is overwhelming to try and read them and digest their content.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about from the table of contents of one organization’s code of conduct:

• compliance with the law
• conflict of interest
• use of assets
• confidentiality
• insider trading
• intellectual property rights
• bribery prohibited (I kid you not)
• workplace environment
• gifts and entertainment

Now, from a risk management perspective I suppose the organization needs to spell these things out. But is this really the purpose of a Code of Conduct? I think not!

Which brings me back to the question, “What is the purpose of a Code of Conduct in the workplace?” Hang on a minute while I check my trusty dictionary.

Code = a system of principles

Principles = a basic truth, law or assumption

Conduct = personal behavior

Let’s try this…a Code of Conduct is a system of beliefs, basic truths or assumptions about how people will behave in their workplace.

This brings to mind values. An organization’s Code of Conduct is written (or not) based on the values that the organization holds dear. 

The starting point for creating a Code of Conduct is identifying those values. This is a process that if done well should make the need for a Code of Conduct unnecessary. This would work in a small organization but would be more difficult (but not impossible) in a large organization.

I’ll save the values conversation for another post.

While searching on Google I came across the following site, “solutions to your workplace problems through the Hypnosis Network“.  That’s it! Forget about writing long and convoluted Codes of Conduct and have everyone hypnotized so that they will behave themselves at work.

You have to admit that this would make a great episode of The Office!

Cheers, Lesley

Stop Bullying NOW!

Hi, the other day I heard a fellow being interviewed on the radio and he was telling his listeners that…1 in 4 children are bullied at school. So I thought, “I wonder what the statistics are for the workplace?” After digging around on the www for a few minutes I discovered that…

According to an article in National Currents a newsletter of the National Communications Association, 1 in 10 US workers report feeling bullied at work with 1 in 4 reporting that they work in an “extremely hostile environment”.

Wait a minute here! What’s wrong with this picture and why is this form of abuse tolerated?

I know from personal experience that bullies are adept at covering up their actions. Most bullies in the workplace are in leadership positions and as such they are in a position of power over their employees. It is also my experience that senior management will overlook the actions of these bullies. Sometimes the bully has a friend or friends on the senior team. Sometimes the bully has some knowledge or other resources that the organization believes it needs.

I once worked in a hospital that condoned the actions of a bully who was in a senior medical position. In fact he was head of psychiatry and he was really something to observe. He was an equal opportunity bully too…bullying medical staff, nurses, social workers, patients and family members.

What was interesting about this situation was that the senior management team knew about this man’s abusive behavior and chose not to do anything about it. In fact when I mentioned it to someone I was told that this psychiatrist brought in a considerable amount of research money and was well connected in ways that benefited the hospital.

Eventually the management team couldn’t ignore the fact that nurses were calling in sick (refusing to work with him) and his bad reputation eventually began to effect the hospital’s reputation…but the bullying went on for years before he was fired.

So, here we are again at the beginning of a new school year and there is a lot of attention on preventing bullying in the school system.

In a previous post I wrote about the “sea of pink” campaign that began in Nova Scotia and spread around the world. This  campaign was started by two grade 12 students (Travis Price and David Shepherd) who witnessed a bullying episode and decided to do something about it.

This story deserves repeating again:

“…on the 1st day of school a grade 9 boy wore pink polo shirt to school. He was singled out and targeted by bullies. Travis and David witnessed this attack and decided to do something about it. They decided to wear pink t-shirts to school the following day in a show of solidarity. They also emailed their fellow students and urged them all to wear pink. The result was a SEA OF PINK…pink shirts are far as the eye could see. Of course the bullying stopped!”

Now, every year on February 25th people around the world wear pink to raise awareness about bullying.

So, why can’t we do this in the workplace? What about using a different colour? Any ideas? White for peace? Maybe I’ll start something…what do you think?

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you next week.  Lesley!

18 Ways To Survive In Your Workplace

Hi there, happy labour day!

How many of you know the origins of this holiday?

Labour Day began in 1894 and is now celebrated all over the world.

Back in 1894 a group of tired workers appealed for a shorter work week. The emerging labour movement wanted to put an end to the 12-hour day!

Fast forward to 2009 and what do you see? Despite all of the gains that have been made on the labour front in the past century…the 12-hour day is once again becoming a norm.

If you have a job but are not happy at work  here are 18 ways to survive in your workplace. This list is from an article called, “18 Ways To Survive Your Company’s Reorganization, Takeover, Downsizing, or Other Major Change.”

Written by Dr. Morton C. Orman the original article is 8 pages long so I’ll just give you the highlights here:

1. Be Prepared For Change
2. It’s OK To Express Sadness, Loss, Anxiety About The Future
3. Watch Out For Unrealistic Expectations
4. Don’t Let Yourself Or Others Be Abused
5. Acknowledge Any Increased Pressures, Demands, Or Workload
6. Protect Your Leisure Time
7. Don’t Ignore Your Family
8. Don’t Turn to Alcohol, Drugs, Food Or Other Chemical Coping Strategies
9. Remain Upbeat And Positive
10. Get Creative
11. Expand Your Value To The Company
12. Celebrate Your Accomplishments
13. See Appropriate Compensations Or Risk Share Arrangements
14. Improve Lines of Communications
15. Become More Efficient
16. Learn From The Experiences Of Others
17. Rise To The Challenge
18. Never Become Complacent

Check out Dr. Orman’s website for more detailed information.

Lesley

Healing the Workplace with Spirit and Compassion

Goodmorning!

How many of you work in a place that has “enlightened leadership”? Good question you ask. What exactly is “enlightened leadership”?

According to author Danna Beal, “enlightened leaders are authentic leaders–they leave their egos at the door or at home when they go to work”.

In any event these leaders are AWARE. They are aware of their own behavior and how their behavior affects others.

Here’s Dana’s definition of an authentic leader:

“Authentic or enlightened leaders operate from trust and faith in the universal energy (God, source, the creator) and they see everyone as equal regardless of their role in the organization.”

Many leadership courses today reflect this growing need for authentic leaders. In one course called “leading yourself” the students learn “powerful strategies for harnessing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.”

You can’t lead others until you can lead yourself and that means becoming enlightened.

Ego always seems to get a “bad rap”.  Of course our egos play an important role in helping us to define who we are.

But what if someone is “ego driven”. We’ve all heard the saying “it’s all about me” and most of us will have worked for bosses who believe “it’s all about them”. These bosses operate from a place of fear and typically have no insight into their behavior.

Have you heard of the term “the imposter syndrome”? Well many leaders do not believe that they are worthy of the title or the position they hold. Even though they may be very talented they don’t believe in themselves, they haven’t tapped into their “authentic power”.

These are the leaders that micro-manage, steal other people’s ideas and take credit for them, bully other workers, and find fault or blame others to deflect attention from themselves.

 On the other hand enlightened leaders demonstrate the following qualities or values:

• vision
• trust
• honor
• commitment
• affinity
• non-resistance (check out non-violent communication)
• patience
• acceptance
• integrity
• compassion

Enlightened leaders recognize leadership qualities in others and are happy to share the “spotlight” with them.

Danna Beal’s book, The Tragedy in the Workplace, is an innovative approach to understanding and healing our disfunctional workplaces.  You can purchase her book and learn more about how to rebuild relationships in your organization by contacting her at www.theextraordinaryworkplace.com

Cheers,

Lesley