Joe Hart 27/6/22 Joe Hart 27/6/22

Ticker TV Insight- Interview with Mike Loder on authenticity in the workplace

Last week I was interviewed by Mike Loder on Ticker TV in what was a really interesting discussion. To listen to the interview see the link below or read the full interview transcript.

Mike Loder

Hello and welcome back to Ticker Insight. I'm your host, Mike Loder, and my first story for now. And we all hold conflicting views of self, multiple perspectives of who we are and how we should act. And as leaders, these selves seem to be a constant tightrope walk, negotiating personal and professional lives. Joe Hart is the founder of leadership consultancy True Perspective and is here to help us unpack these thoughts. Welcome to you, my friend.

Joe Hart

Thank you, Mike. Great to be here.

Mike Loder

No worries at all. I think this is a really important one to discuss because I mention that everyone has these two sides of the coin, but in your book you say that honesty and perspective are key to effective leadership. Is a time for leaders to live more transparently, do you think?

Joe Hart

Absolutely. It's always been really important for leaders to live with transparency. I guess when I talk about honesty, I'm talking about honesty with self. It's one thing to not lie, I think it's incredibly important for everyone to show up and be truthful, but to be really honest with yourself about what is it that you're doing, what are you engaged in, are you actually in the right role at work? Are you actually a leader? And is that what you really want to be doing? Because it's an important role and honesty is incredibly important in terms of being a leader.

Mike Loder

I think it's very difficult for some people to be honest at times, especially in their workplace. Got to keep going, got to keep moving, not say how they're feeling, etc. But how is important is self-development for leaders at this time, is it absolutely critical?

Joe Hart

It always has been important and I think now it's probably more important than ever. It's really easy, especially as a leader, to want your team to have all of the development opportunities thrown their way. I think leaders need to take a look at themselves and actually know what they need for themselves because that is going to help develop their team. And it's incredibly important to prioritise that as a behaviour. It role models the right sort of behaviour for your team and demonstrates that that's what's important to continually evolve and develop as a leader yourself, it’s not about giving it to everyone else, give it to yourself first, be selfish with it and that is probably the most selfless thing you can do as a leader.

Mike Loder

Absolutely, Joe, selfish is not always an ugly word, but authenticity is another key buzzword at the moment. How important is this for employee buy-in, and do you think when it comes to being your authentic self, it’s really important?

Joe Hart

It is a bit of a buzzword and unfortunately sometimes gets a bad rap. When people say, “you lead with your truth” and “my truth”, it can sometimes turn people's noses up, which I really appreciate. What I'm talking about when I'm saying being authentic is don't be afraid to bring yourself to work and I see a lot of leaders, or even as a psychologist myself, not wanting to fully open up about some of your challenges or what's going on for you. I talk about it in my book, the importance of discovering who you are by disclosing who you are. And when you disclose, a sense of reciprocity kicks in and people want to give more of themselves as a result. So this really lovely process happens, and this ripple effect of sharing happens as a result. So don't be afraid to throw it out there. You can never know how people are going to respond. And I hear people say it all the time, it's like, “Oh, well, I know that's not going to be good”, or “I know that's going to be career suicide”. How could you possibly know that? So just go there, have a go at being who you are and see what happens, and I count on it, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Mike Loder

Totally, your mind starts going, all of the negative things that could happen, sort of catastrophizing, I suppose. But should self-reflection lead from the top down to employees as well, do you think, Joe?

Joe Hart

Absolutely. I think self-reflection is something that we all need to engage in, whether it be journaling, whether it be an opportunity to sit quietly with yourself and reflect on how you've behaved and how others have been behaving around you and in response to your behaviour. Self-reflection should be something that everyone engages in. And of course, the senior leaders in your organisation, whether they be right at the top, they need to be role modelling that and engaging in self-reflective behaviour as well.

Mike Loder

Yeah. Just to finish, what key factors do you see are impacting engagement, do you think?

Joe Hart

The same things have always been impacting engagement. Really what we're talking about is the leader. The leader in the organisation is the single biggest factor that influences how people feel at work. Research from Gallup and other organisations demonstrates that about 70% of the variance in what you're feeling at work is accounted for by that behaviour demonstrated by your leader. So if you're a leader or aspiring to be a leader, you really owe it to everybody and yourself to show up, be honest, and be authentic, because that's what's going to impact everybody else's experience. To step outside yourself and demonstrate a bit more empathy in terms of what you're doing. By that, I mean to allow people to give you feedback so you can see yourself the way they're seeing and experiencing you. So I think a lack of that is probably affecting engagement negatively.

Mike Loder

It's not always easy to look in the mirror, I suppose, as well. Joe, I really appreciate our chat, and love to get my hands on your book because I really enjoyed our discussion today. I think it's a really important one to consider. So thank you for your time and your insight.

Joe Hart

Thank you so much, Mike. Appreciate it.

WANT HELP?

Need help getting your team to ‘play’ nicely? Are you looking for support with managing life on a personal and professional level? Got someone in mind that you think could benefit from talking with me? Book in your obligation free first session to see if I’m the right fit for you or your team.

Book in a session here

NEED HELP WITH CULTURE, OR TEAM ENGAGEMENT?

As a registered Organisational Psychologist, I’ve got the skills and capability to help you master your culture and engagement challenges. I also spent 7 years working for GALLUP, a world leader in engagement, discovering the best strategies to engage your team, enhance productivity and increase profitability. Book in a call below to discuss how I can support you.

Culture and engagement strategy session

Did you like this Article?

If you liked this article, have a look at some of my other articles here or sign-up to my list to receive my articles directly into your inbox each week. If you think someone might like to read them too, simply forward this email on to them.

Yes please, I want more articles!

CHECK-OUT WHAT ELSE I DO

I love writing articles but just in case you were wondering, it’s not all I do. Have a look at my website to discover some of my services, what my clients say about me, and some other interesting facts.

Go to my website

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

I’m fascinated with people, always have been and always will be. From a very early age, I keenly observed people, I was curious about what motivated them, what made them successful and why they made certain choices. This curiosity led me to study Psychology. After graduating with my Master of Organisational Psychology, I worked for Gallup, a global leader in engagement and strengths-based development. I became a strengths-based coach, engagement expert and worked with senior leaders all over the world.

If you’re curious about how I can help you personally or with the leadership of your team/organisation get in touch via my email: joe@joehart.com.au | website: joehart.com.au | Phone: +61425 224 825

Learn more

Joe Hart 27/9/21 Joe Hart 27/9/21

Employee Engagement: Five things you need to know

In October last year, Gallup published the 10th Employee Engagement Meta-Analysis, the world’s largest study linking business performance outcomes to measures of employee engagement. The study revealed the same results consistent with previous iterations - Teams, or business units, scoring above average (in the top 50% of the database) more than double their odds of success compared to teams scoring below average on engagement. More specifically, highly engaged teams outperformed their poorly engaged teams by 10% customer loyalty, 23% profitability, 18% productivity and a staggering 81% absenteeism. After reliably replicating this finding over a 20+ year period, there is no denying the importance, and significance of ensuring the engagement of your team/business sits at the apex of your business's strategic objectives.

The truth is, engagement still features as a formality for many organisations, a tick-the-box exercise to demonstrate that they ‘care’ and want to ‘listen’ to their employees and provide them with a ‘voice’. While there are some organisations out there doing a great job, I’m still astonished at the number of organisations that stuff this up….and by organisations, I mean the people that work in them (you know who you are!).

The reason why employee engagement catapulted Gallup to success back in the ’90s is that they were the first organisation to demonstrate the consistent link between how employees felt, and how organisations performed. It seems like a no-brainer, the happier your people are, the more productive and profitable they will be. Like most powerful ideas, the research merely confirms a timeless truth that we all intuitively know. The real challenge is to take action, now that there is no denying the truth.

Recently, I was reminded of how poorly most organisations apply the knowledge that engaged employees lead to better business outcomes. A client of mine shared that they received the results from a recent employee engagement survey and the results weren’t good. Rather than take this as an opportunity to learn, understand and deepen the opportunity for change, the executive director gave them all a lashing for ‘being so selfish’ and not appreciating how ‘good’ they have it. My client shared that the message was received loud and clear “you’d better give better scores next time otherwise, things won’t go well for you around here”. This was further tainted by some speculation that their executive director needed good engagement scores to achieve an annual bonus.

This is a familiar, and horrible example of how NOT to use employee engagement surveys. Furthermore, it reinforces the importance of measuring employee engagement for the right reasons. To help you establish if you are on the right path, consider the following list:

1) If you don’t want the truth don’t ask I.e. you aren’t willing to accept any feedback from the team, no matter how harsh or confronting…don’t bother asking them at all. You’ll do more damage asking for their perspective and not actioning the results than you will if you don’t ask them at all.

2) Don’t make engagement scores key Performance Indicators. If you must tie them into KPIs, make sure you keep them at the senior executive level and ensure that the focus is on change or improvement in engagement coupled with a measure of taking action or belief that action will be taken.

3) Don’t shield your team or organisation from the truth. If engagement is low, and the data supports this, people already know. They did provide the feedback after all. I know it’s tempting to ‘protect’ people to avoid panic but in reality, people aren’t stupid. The talented people are already looking for other jobs so by facing up to the truth, you are far more likely to engage your best in turning things around.

4) Stop making engagement an ‘HR’ thing. Yes, HR should be involved, but they shouldn’t ‘own’ the result or the follow-up. In many cases, HR holds on to engagement too firmly so this is also something to be aware of. Engagement is measured at the individual level and reported at the group or team level. Anything to enhance engagement needs to start at the individual level and be discussed at the team level.

5) Recognise that engagement as a construct existed long before Gallup or any other organisation reverse engineered questions to measure it. You don’t need a survey to identify if people are feeling a bit ordinary about things. Open your ears, walk the floors, talk to people. The process of listening changes how people feel, as long as it’s done genuinely. If the survey has become a routined tick-the-box exercise, it’s time to find another way to identify the truth.

Joe Hart 21/5/20 Joe Hart 21/5/20

What's the value of coaching? Is it really worth it?

Like any ‘new’ (relatively speaking) area of practice, executive coaching has had its fair share of scrutiny regarding the Return On Investment, the efficacy, and ultimately the value it generates. There is a growing body of evidence supporting what we already knew, effective coaching has a positive and observable impact on employee performance, engagement, wellbeing, self-regulation, goal attainment, and transformational leadership (Burt & Talati, 2017; Teebom et, at, 2014; Jones, et.al, 2016; O'Connor & Cavanagh, 2014). In other words, it works and if you’re smart, you’ll seek out coaching for yourself, your team and make it accessible to the rest of the organisation.

The ‘ROI’ of Coaching

Of course, variables such as capabilities of coach, scope and length of coaching, the willingness of the coachee to engage and the environment the coaching is happening all play a major role in coaching success. For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume 1) The capability of the coach is high 2) The coachee is willing to engage and 3) The environmental context is conducive to a successful coaching outcome. With these conditions being met, coaching becomes an opportunity to express freely, experiment with ideas, test new behaviours and develop as a person and a leader. As outlined in his research (Grant, 2012) the late Anthony Grant, founder of the first Masters of Coaching Psychology course in the world, suggested that traditional ROI calculations were misleading and ineffective in explaining the positive impact of coaching. As such, trying to put a dollar figure to a coaching engagement has often resulted in highly spurious and misleading figures. In many ways, trying to place a dollar value on the impact coaching has had on a person is like asking somebody to explain the worth, in dollars, of the relationship they have with a close friend, spouse or child. While it is possible to come up with a number, as sophisticated as the formula may be, it is likely to produce a dollar amount that doesn’t ‘feel’ right.

The value of coaching for an individual- Wellbeing & engagement

Rather than try to put a dollar value to the impact coaching has had on a person, a much better way to evaluate coaching efficacy is to measure outcomes such as wellbeing, engagement (both leader and their team), goal attainment, and transformational leadership. After all, if we can see a positive shift in a leaders behaviour, it creates a positive ripple that flows through every interaction both direct and indirect with that leader. Moreover, this positive ripple acts just like a stone dropping in the centre of a still pond. The ripples gently expand in all directions, so relationships in all areas of a leaders’ life will be enhanced through the process of coaching.

The value of coaching for organisations- The ripple effect

When I engage with organisations, usually with an intact leadership team, and sometimes with a broader cohort of leaders, I get to see how this ‘ripple effect’ contributes to enhancing organisational culture. At the core of it, culture is made of the relationships, beliefs and behaviours that are collectively shared in the organisation (I recently wrote an article on organisational culture that goes into more detail you can read here). At times I have been able to engage with employees at all levels in the hierarchy from the Managing Director, senior managers, middle managers right through to the front line staff, all in the same organisation. Being able to observe the beliefs, behaviours and relationships that perpetually reinforce the culture at all levels was astounding. The depth of insight a coach is able to access is comparable to an artist shifting from painting a figure on a canvas to sculpting in three dimensions. The result is far more accurate, observable from every angle and highly nuanced. In a study by Sean 0’Connor and Michael Cavanagh (2014), they measured the positive impact of coaching within an organisation using Social Networking analysis. They demonstrated that coaching enhanced wellbeing of coachees but also those that were closely connected to them. The authors concluded that the positive influence of leadership coaching extends beyond the individual being coached.

The value of the ‘immeasurable’

Just imagine for a moment, that you are at the top of your game, you’ve always enjoyed success and have been rewarded throughout your career for your capability. You’ve seen others struggle at times and wondered why they weren’t able to ‘work harder’ or ‘push through’ to succeed. The very next day, you get a call from your CEO explaining that you have been terminated and an envelope with a severance package was in transit to your home, you are no longer required to go to work. Regardless of the legitimacy of the reason for termination, the value of the severance package, nothing feels fair.

In another example, imagine you are at the beginning of your career and you have landed a massive opportunity to step into a leadership role. You don’t feel ready, you know you don’t have the experience or capability to be a great leader yet but somehow got the role. You feel out of your depth, anxious to succeed but not sure where to start. The day before you were to start your new role, you get a call from an old mentor who offers you sage advice, allays your fears and reinforces their belief in you. You feel an inner confidence rise, your voice takes on a new timber and a calm feeling of ‘I’ve got this’ washes over you.

Finally, I’d like you to imagine that you are a great leader, your team admires you, your organisation rewards you for your success but still, you want to be better. Like a boxer fighting with his shadow, you know you can’t get better at your craft until you have someone real to spar with. The problem is, you don’t know where to find them but you know that to continue to improve you need to be challenged.

In the above scenarios, the value placed on what each person needs is highly subjective, extremely context-specific and would be very difficult to translate into a dollar figure. However, if I was to suggest that as the terminated executive, should you not get any support, you would fall into a deep depression and never find your feet again, what value would you place on getting some help? Similarly, as the upcoming first-time leader, what if I was to tell you that without adequate mentoring and guidance you would fail and likely never want to dip your toe in leadership again. Last but not least, if you were the admired leader that never found somebody to challenge you beyond your current capability, you would lose your motivation to improve along with your far-reaching influence.

The true value of coaching

Like all the best sportspeople in the world, whether it be a team or individual sport they all have coaches. Would they still be great athletes without a coach? Absolutely. Would they achieve the same level of success without coaching? Not likely. There’s a point at which the dollar value you place on the intervention becomes less important than what it means to you. In business, it’s the same. While knowing that it will help you be more successful financially is a critical decision-making insight, the real (immeasurable) value comes with the ability to clearly articulate that which is most important to you and focus all of your effort on it. That clarity and the associated change in thought, feeling and behaviour is the true value of coaching.

References

Burt, D. & Talati, Z. (2017) The unsolved value of executive coaching: A meta-analysis of outcomes using randomised control trial studies. International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15(2)17-24.

Grant, A. (2012). ROI is a poor measure of coaching success: Towards a more holistic approach using a well-being and engagement framework. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 5(2), 74-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2012.672438

Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A., & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), 249–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12119

O’connor, S. & Cavanagh, M. (2014). Research Poster. The Coaching Ripple Effect: The individual and Systemic Level Influence of Leadership Development. http://www.psywb.com/content/3/1/2.

Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. (2014) Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual-level outcomes in an organizational context, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9:1, 1-18, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2013.837499

WANT TO EXPERIENCE COACHING?

Are you keen to explore coaching? Not sure if it’s right for you? Got someone in your team that you think could benefit? I know that making first contact can be tough, especially if you have doubts. Book in your obligation free first session to see if I’m the right fit for you.

Book in a free session here

NEED HELP WITH CULTURE, OR TEAM ENGAGEMENT?

Free culture and engagement strategy session

Did you like this Article?

Yes please, I want more articles!

CHECK-OUT WHAT ELSE I DO

Got to my website

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

Learn more

Joe Hart 13/5/20 Joe Hart 13/5/20

Who needs coaching anyway?

The obvious answer to this question is everyone. However, there is a bit more to it than that. First and foremost, the coachee is taking on the role of a learner, and as with any type of learning you need to be up for it. When I was completing my Higher School Certificate (HSC), I recall how disengaged I was in my English class, reluctantly reading ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Crucible’ in what felt like some sort of punishment. Ironically, once I completed my final exams I had a stack of books beside my bed that included ‘The catcher in the rye’, ‘Crime and punishment’, ‘In the skin of a lion’ ‘Doors of perception’ and ‘A clockwork orange’. Clearly, my choice in books following the HSC rules out avoiding a challenging read. The only thing that shifted is my mindset. Specifically, it was that I got to choose what I wanted to learn.

In my last article, I explored what coaching is and how it might benefit anyone that is curious. Following on from this, I wanted to explore the question of who might need it.

Mindset Matters

When engaging with your coach, if you feel as though you are being given the ‘required reading’ it’s never going to work. You need to want to learn, engage, and be willing to experiment with your coach. I recently wrote an article entitled ‘How coachable are you?’ detailing the traits that I believe lead to a successful coaching experience when embodied by both coach and coachee. Above all else, coaching will be rewarding when grounded on openness, curiosity, and a willingness to learn. In addition, below is a list of common patterns of behaviour that I know can benefit from the value coaching has to offer. I’m not a big fan of labels, but it does help people identify and diagnose where they, or somebody they know, tends to fit. Have a look at the below descriptors and see if you can identify your patterns of behaviour.

Personality Matters

The Floater - This is somebody feeling disengaged with their work, their relationships and their life in general. They don’t feel like anything is wrong as such, but they lack purpose and conviction in what they do. They want more out of life but they’re also comfortable. Deep down they know they are missing out but struggle to conjure up the motivation to do anything about it. They often say to themselves ‘Is this it?….I expected more out of life’. With the right coach, they will re-connect with what energizes them and start contributing to their own life again.

The Self Saboteur - There are many and varied reasons why these people engage in self-sabotage, but they do. This can look like staying out late before an important meeting, presentation or interview, to speaking poorly about their friends or colleagues behind their backs. They actively jeopardise their personal relationships with risky behaviour, emotionally charged attacks and combative discussion. They know that they are ‘out of line’ but just aren’t sure how to control themselves. They often describe themselves as their own worst enemies and greatly benefit from the support and guidance offered by a coach.

The Imposter - They may or may not be suffering from what’s commonly known as ‘Imposter Syndrome’ but they definitely question their capability. They often find themselves asking ‘why me?’ if selected to lead an important project or take on a leadership role. Their humility works against them and tends to erode their confidence to the point that others take note. A coach will challenge them to lead more powerfully, doing away with any self-doubt.

The Know-it-all - These are the last people on the planet that will voluntarily seek out coaching. That is of course because they believe they have nothing to learn. They appear pompous, arrogant, aloof and are often very clever in a book smart sort of way. Vulnerability is like their Kryptonite. They don’t like being around people that show vulnerability and cringe at the idea of being vulnerable themselves. Their self-awareness is typically low so should they engage in coaching, it will likely be a challenging road ahead for both coach and coachee.

The Go-Getter - Highly ambitious, these people are keen to use any advantage they can get to ensure they hit their goals. They are open to being challenged, want to know the answers and are eager to test things out. They are usually conscientious, driven, hard-working and fast-paced. Their hunger to learn is a great match for coaching as is the perspective they will gain from a skilled coach.

The Mentor - Whether they have the formal role of mentor or not, these are the people always counselling others, giving their time and energy to everyone around them. They love their role as an adviser but often describe having low levels of energy, high levels of frustration and find it difficult to ask for help. They are often more senior and have high levels of experience so their positioning in the organisation and in life makes it hard for them to seek support. A coach is critical for these people to ensure they can continue to provide their leadership to others without suffering exhaustion or burnout.

Context Matters

It addition to the behaviour patterns above, there are circumstances created by the environment that coaching can help with too. These include:

Change in job/role/career - This might be someone new to leadership, someone, that has been made redundant, someone looking to change their career or level up in their role. It can also include a leader looking to re-orient their team, engage their workforce or enhance the culture. When facing such challenges, a coach can help overcome blockers and navigate through the choppy waters.

Personal challenges - As much as some people like to believe that they can keep personal and work life separate, they can’t. This is especially true when your personal life falls apart. For most people, talking about their terminally ill parents, kids struggling with sexual identity, messy break-ups, financial problems, and overall family drama is not something to raise in the Monday morning meeting. While I’d like to think that managers out there can handle these types of conversations, many of us can present evidence to suggest otherwise. Having a coach enables people to express their challenges without feeling judged and to openly discuss what support is available to them. The difference a single conversation can make to a person can mean the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go as a society in remedying this challenge.

Relationship Conflict - This largely depends on the experience of the coach, but odds are your coach has exceptional communication skills and is, therefore, able to help resolve relationship challenges. This is different to a formal mediation process initiated by Human Resources (which is, of course, the right thing to do when complaints have been raised). I’m referring to the point before the conflict is escalated so there is still hope of working through any differences. This can be between individuals or even for a whole team but certainly depends on the capability and experience of the coach.

Performance issues - This one comes with a caveat that a coach should never be used to replace the role of a manager. If however, there are known performance issues and the employee has been placed on a clear performance improvement plan, coaching is a powerful way for the organisation to demonstrate a genuine desire for them to succeed. The assumption here is that the employee acknowledges and agrees there is an issue with their performance and are committed to doing everything it takes to lift their game.

High performance - Unfortunately, when people and teams demonstrate great performance in their role or on a project, they are usually ‘rewarded’ with extra work due to their competence. They can sometimes be pushed into a leadership role before they are ready, commonly known as the ‘Peter Principle’. They get pushed and pulled around the organisation feeling pressured to maintain their reputation, slowly becoming less engaged. Too often, they are overlooked as candidates for coaching because their numbers are good, their projects are on time, and ‘you already have a plan’ for them. As a coach, what’s great about working with high performing people is they are so driven to improve. Giving them a coach is like fanning the flames of their personal growth and development.

As you can gather, coaching can be applied to a variety of personality types across a myriad of situations. What remains consistent in successful coaching engagements is the mindset of openness, curiosity and willingness to learn. If you’ve taken one thing from this article, I hope it’s strong agreement that coaching matters.

WANT TO EXPERIENCE COACHING?

Book in a free session here

NEED HELP WITH CULTURE, OR TEAM ENGAGEMENT?

Free Culture and Engagement strategy session

Did you like this Article?

Yes please, I want more articles!

CHECK-OUT WHAT ELSE I DO

Learn more

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

Joe Hart 12/5/20 Joe Hart 12/5/20

What is coaching?

One of my colleagues once described coaching as "A conversation with yourself that you normally don't make time for". While I'm unsure of the source, I find it to be of the best descriptions in conveying the essence of what coaching is all about. Of course, many coaches take a more traditional 'instructional' approach to coaching which feels more like a parent barking orders at a child, or a manager telling employees what to do. While this works for some and will continue to have its place, it's not the type of coaching that I engage in.

For a moment, I'd like you to imagine being completely isolated and unable to speak with anyone. You are left with your thoughts, desires, regrets, aspirations, feelings, past failures and achievements. You have no contact with the outside world, no news, no TV, no books, no phone calls, just your thoughts accompanied by your voice inside your head, lonely and lost. After a period of isolation that feels a lot longer than it has been, you can take a walk in the park. Still, you have no contact with anybody, you are alone and quiet. As you walk through the meandering pathways, you notice the tall trees and the flame-coloured leaves falling in the Autumn breeze, feet crunching through the blanket of dry foliage already on the ground. You Notice a person sitting on a bench nearby on the other side of the park, smiling, eyes closed with their hands gently clasped over their belly, basking blissfully in the sun. You slowly approach then sit beside them hesitantly. After a few awkward moments, not knowing what to say, you shuffle in your seat, relax, then close your eyes and bask in the sun also. The warmth strokes your eyelids and feels so good, you feel safe, and at peace. You are no longer alone. When you open your eyes, the light is harsh, forcing you to squint. You glance at the seat beside you and see that they are gone "Not possible" you say to yourself "They were sitting right here beside me". You stand up hurriedly, elevated on your toes, you quickly scan the park to see where they have gone. You return to the bench, this time you slump, head in hands. While you are looking at the ground you notice the trail you left in the leaves, a clear impression made by your feet. You see no other trail or footprints, just yours. Then it suddenly dawns on you, it was you all along, you saw yourself, you sat with yourself, you enjoyed being with yourself, you led yourself, you were never alone.

I wrote the above short story in an attempt to convey the enigma of what coaching feels like, knowing that it feels a little different for everybody. It can be confusing, challenging, strange, heartwarming, enlightening, and empowering all at the same time. Above all else, coaching is unique to you. If you are willing and courageous enough to see yourself in everything that you do, you will grow. One of my colleagues once described coaching as "A conversation with yourself that you normally don't make time for". While I'm unsure of the source, I find it to be of the best descriptions in conveying the essence of what coaching is all about. Of course, many coaches take a more traditional 'instructional' approach to coaching which feels more like a parent barking orders at a child, or a manager telling employees what to do. While this works for some and will continue to have its place, it's not the type of coaching that I engage in.

I align with the philosophy of enabling people to be 'all of who they are' but first it requires 'meeting my clients where they are at'. I've recently been watching the Netflix series 'The Last Dance' which features the coaching relationship between Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. Following his first NBA championship victory in 1991 with the Chicago Bulls, as Michael Jordan celebrates, Phil Jackson says "You did it the right way". Phil Jackson was the first coach that didn't want to give Michael Jordan the ball all the time. Understandably, Jordan was frustrated by this as he was the most talented player on the team. It took three years, but through Phil Jackson's coaching, Michael Jordan learned that by lifting the capability of his teammates and being selfless with the ball he enabled the team and his leadership to elevate. Indeed, the winning points were not scored by Michael Jordan but were scored off a pass he assisted, hence Phil Jackson's comment that "You did it the right way".

Now for the more formal definition. Coaching is a development process that involves the expert use of questions, discussion, clarification, activities, feedback and thought experiments to shift perspectives, find clarity and achieve outcomes. Coaching is typically conducted with two people, the coach and the learner, or otherwise known as the coachee. However, coaching can be done with multiple coachee's and in many cases, a coach works with an entire team. Coaching is a broad discipline and as such, anyone with expertise in their chosen field can be classified as a coach. You find coaches in Sports, the Arts (such as voice coaching, presentation skills, acting, body language etc., Business, Education, Politics, Health care, and Personal relationships (and I'm sure there are more that I haven't mentioned here).

While the application is vast, the common thread is the two-way exchange of dialogue that enables a coachee to improve or enhance their understanding, insight, capability and confidence in at least one domain of expertise. Take, for example, a young athlete that is showing early promise of becoming an Olympic runner, they will likely engage a coach to ensure that they continue to improve their skills to reach their maximum potential. Similarly, coaching can also be effective in supporting a student that is struggling with mathematics to improve their understanding so they can progress their studies. Equally, a coach may be deemed necessary in the business context to help a new manager succeed in handling the additional responsibilities thrust upon them in their leadership role. At the core of it, each of the coachees mentioned above is looking to improve. Whether that be from a baseline that is below or above average, they are all seeking support and guidance to enhance their capability. In other words, they are all seeking to become all of who they already are or reach their full potential.

WANT TO EXPERIENCE COACHING?

Book in a free session here

NEED HELP WITH CULTURE, OR TEAM ENGAGEMENT?

Free Culture and Engagement strategy session

Did you like this Article?

Yes please, I want more articles!

CHECK-OUT WHAT ELSE I DO

Learn more

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

Joe Hart 16/3/20 Joe Hart 16/3/20

Organisational Culture: Art or Science?

In every moment, you experience something which you can reflect upon. In that same moment, another person experiences you at that moment which they can reflect upon. Imagine that it’s as if we are all walking around like shards from a broken mirror, each reflecting our experience into another person’s reflection, we confirm our own beliefs through our behaviours and our relationships. Our bonds with others are solidified when they reinforce our behaviour and therefore demonstrate that they too share our beliefs. I’ll step out of metaphor for a moment just in case I lost you. Simply put, as individuals that turn up to work every day, what we believe shapes what we do and what we do shapes who we develop relationships with. Our relationships then reinforce our beliefs and so the cycle continues. These three elements are what forms culture or what I also call ‘the brand’. The culture or brand of your organisation is an expression of the shared beliefs, behaviours and bonds that exists within the organisation and externally with your suppliers, customers and marketplace. There is one overarching element that has a governing role when it comes to influencing culture. That is the environment or background that your organisation is nested in.

For those of you that are from a more mature vintage in Australia, you’ll remember cracker night. On June 7th 1986 I was five years old and it was the last cracker night before fireworks were banned in NSW, Australia. Some of my fondest memories were of cracker night, the excitement, the danger, the noise, the smell, the beauty; it was absolutely magic. One of my favourite fireworks were paratroopers. It consisted of a roman candle with some toy soldiers stuffed in the top with tissue paper parachutes to bring them back down safely following being projected into the air via a small explosion….rather ironic. Nonetheless, they fascinated me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been curious about how things work. I loved science at school and liked to experiment beyond the confines of the school laboratory. When I was in high school, a kid in my year managed to get his hands on some fireworks. I begged him to give me some as I wanted to figure out how they worked to satisfy my curiosity that had been sparked eight years earlier. I was so desperate, I offered to pay him five dollars for a single cracker. You’ve all seen the images of thousands of small red firecrackers going off to cleanse the spirits for Chinese New Year. I bought one single cracker for five dollars! Yes, I was totally nuts. What was more extraordinary, I never even saw the firework explode. Instead, I went home sat it on a blank sheet of white A3 paper and carefully dissected it with a scalpel to reveal the raw materials used to make it. I wasn’t satisfied with simply seeing the magic unfold, I needed to understand how to make the magic happen.

After three years of lunchtimes in the library studying books, countless failed experiments at home involving coffee grinders, cardboard tubing, tissue paper and plenty of superficial burns, I performed my first fireworks display. That’s right, my very own fireworks display witnessed by about two hundred people. Let’s just say not all of them worked perfectly and I may have failed when it came to following any sort of safety protocol and thankfully nobody was injured…but they were all entertained. Somewhere in between a wayward rocket whizzing past my right ear and the deafening boom of a rogue mortar knocking the wind out of me, I realised that fireworks are a beautiful synergy of art and science. The spectacle only meaningful in the moment, witnessed by fascinated onlookers captivated by the sorcery unfolding before their eyes. This shared curiosity binds people at that moment, a shared experience to be remembered and reflected upon.

Organisational Culture

With such clarity and passion at an early age, you might wonder why I didn’t become a pyrotechnician. The truth is, that’s all I wanted to be. Following a behind the scenes tour of a prominent fireworks company I did ask if I could do an internship which was denied. The only intern they took on previously was supposedly killed in an unfortunate accident involving fireworks…there’s that irony again. With that, I meandered my way to university and eventually landed on psychology where strangely the question of art or science was still being asked. Even today, you might find people that believe Psychology belongs in the arts. Psychologists, on the other hand, do their darndest to ensure that they are taken seriously with their rats, stats and psychometric profiling. Unfortunately, we are often left with black and white perspectives on something that, just like fireworks, can only be fully appreciated when we combine both art and science.

Organisational culture must be one of the most contentious constructs ever conceptualised. Paradoxically, everyone can describe the culture of their organisation, but almost nobody agrees on exactly how it works. We all agree that it exists, but nobody has ever seen it. It’s this nebulous abstraction that behaves like a bad smell. When you first enter a room the smell hits you hard but after an hour or so, it slowly becomes normal to the point where you can’t smell anything anymore. Having tested my olfactory prowess on hundreds of organisations, and like my curiosity fuelled career as an amateur pyrotechnician, I’m on a mission to understand the science underpinning culture. I’m not the first to investigate, nor will I be the last but one thing I have observed is that much of the focus has been placed on ‘Culture Change’. To me, if the fundamental understanding of culture has not yet been agreed upon, how is anyone meant to change it. Moreover, what are you changing exactly? For anyone in this space, you don’t have to look too far to discover the overwhelming number of failed culture change programs. Furthermore, due to their scarcity, the few high-profile success stories often appear to be more like a magical culmination of perfect timing, perfect leaders, and usually a giant slush fund to ensure it all goes off without a hitch. The reality is, culture happens whether you like it or not. Like water running down a mountain following a massive downpour, the water will find it’s own path. If however you can be bothered, you can influence where that water flows. You can’t always know when it’s going to rain, nor how much it will rain but you can plan for it. The remainder of this paper explains culture through my lens…..both art and science. I define it for you, I break it down into its components then show you how to make the magic happen. All you need to do is be curious.

Culture defined

For the following definition to make sense, you need to accept the following assumptions[i]:

Assumption 1: Organisational culture is an individual phenomenon i.e. It can only ever be perceived and experienced by one person.

Assumption 2: Organisational culture is constantly changing. Like a cloud in the sky, it takes form and shape when it binds with your imagination but when you look away for a moment it changes into another form, forever evolving.

Assumption 3: Organisational culture is made up of critical ingredients that when combined in the right quantities create a ‘chemical’ reaction. Like fireworks, if you don’t have the right combination of chemicals, you will never produce the desired effect.

Assumption 4: The key ingredients and the required quantities of each keep changing based on the environment. If you’ve ever tried lighting a campfire in the rain, or strong wind or when it’s hot and dry, you’ll appreciate what I’m talking about.

Assumption 5: Culture matters. If it’s broken, so is your organisation’s future success. The bottom line is….it affects the bottom line.

With these assumptions in mind, culture can be defined as.

“Culture is a reflection of moments upon moments, shaped by what you expect and believe will happen”

In every moment, you experience something which you can reflect upon. In that same moment, another person experiences you at that moment which they can reflect upon. Imagine that it’s as if we are all walking around like shards from a broken mirror, each reflecting our experience into another person’s reflection, we confirm our own beliefs through our behaviours and our relationships. Our bonds with others are solidified when they reinforce our behaviour and therefore demonstrate that they too share our beliefs. I’ll step out of metaphor for a moment just in case I lost you. Simply put, as individuals that turn up to work every day, what we believe shapes what we do and what we do shapes who we develop relationships with. Our relationships then reinforce our beliefs and so the cycle continues. These three elements are what forms culture or what I also call ‘brand’. The culture or brand of your organisation is an expression of the shared beliefs, behaviours and bonds that exists within the organisation and externally with your suppliers, customers and marketplace. There is one overarching element that has a governing role when it comes to influencing culture. That is the environment or background that your organisation is nested in. See Fig 1. For a diagram outlining the culture model.

The importance of the environment

The environment or background is the least controllable element of culture. On a macro level, it includes that marketplace, public perceptions, the economy, industry regulations, political standing and the list goes on. At a micro level, the environment includes engagement and morale, management capability, geographic location, physical surroundings, local leadership stability etc. Taking it one step further, given one assumption about this culture model is that it is an individual phenomenon, the environment extends to each person. This includes their situation, where they live, their prior experience, and their overall physical and mental health. If you’re pursing your lips and raising your eyebrows on this last point, consider the impact the last bullying or harassment claim had on your business. What was the emotional impact? What was the financial impact? What was the impact on the relationships, behaviours and beliefs that needed to be addressed as a result?

For better or for worse, the micro and macro environment are critical factors that need to be constantly evaluated if you want to effectively build your brand in a way that aligns business success with a strong organisational brand. The environment is often what makes culture so complex, unpredictable, and difficult to alter. As I write this, the world is facing a macro-environmental challenge with the COVID -19 virus. The ripple effect that this creates for beliefs, behaviours and bonds alters everything.

Getting the balance right

When I first began learning about fireworks, I had to understand the fundamental ingredients that when mixed create gunpowder. At it turns out, there are three core ingredients:

Potassium Nitrate (Oxidizing agent) =75%
Charcoal (Fuel) = 15%
Sulphur (Catalyst or heat) = 10%

What the textbooks don’t tell you is that these ingredients come in many different forms and with varying degrees of quality. The grade of powder also has a marked impact on the result. Like most things, with a higher grade of quality and a finer grade of powder, the gunpowder burns much cleaner, faster and brighter. Another factor that the textbooks don’t teach you is that gunpowder is incredibly hygroscopic, meaning that it is prone to absorb moisture from the air. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that moisture isn’t going to be very good for fireworks. How is it possible to overcome these challenges to produce safe, beautiful and predictable fireworks? From witnessing what they did at the fireworks factory, the answer lies in experimentation. Each batch of powder created is unique and has to be modified to achieve the correct outcome. The result is consistent performance but the ingredients had to be changed for each batch to match the environmental conditions. A blind approach of mixing the ingredients without any form of iterative testing would result in disaster.

I see Organisational culture in much the same way and is made up of these three key ingredients:

Bonds/Relationships (Oxidizing agent or oxygen)
Behaviours/Actions (Fuel)
Beliefs/Values (catalyst or heat)

The overarching influence of the environment needs to be accommodated to get the outcome you’re looking for. If the balance isn’t right in response to the environment, you either get no spark at all or the whole thing will violently blow up in your face! Balancing the right proportions in response to the environmental influences enables the chain reaction to occur. What it creates is a brilliant fusion that equates to a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Look no further than the simplicity of fire. Once you have the right mix of wood, oxygen and a spark to get it started, you establish something that is both beautiful to observe, provides warmth, heat for cooking food and boiling water, and light to be able to see. Your brand or culture is the fire you create in your team or organisation. If you leave it unchecked in a hostile environment, the fire can rage out of control and cause catastrophic consequences. In contrast, if the environment is cold and damp, the flame may be weak and go out altogether. A healthy culture has a flame that burns brightly and organically but remains carefully controlled in response to the ever-changing environmental conditions.

Creating an aligned culture strategy

Before jumping in and creating a ‘culture change’ strategy, it’s important to understand each of the elements as they are currently. The best place to start is by asking the following questions across multiple stakeholders at all levels of the business. The objective at this point is to not change anything but to simply understand how your brand interacts with the current environment (both micro and macro).

What are the current beliefs you have about your organisation? How are these beliefs helping or hindering your organisation? How do those beliefs influence the brand or culture of the organisation?
How do people interact with one another? Are they friendly and sociable, busy and frantic, individualistic and isolated or efficient and respectful? Are the behaviours of your people (Staff, clients, suppliers, partner) enhancing the brand of your organisation?
What sort of relationships do people have with one another at your organisation? Are they mutually beneficial? Are they clinical, professional and a touch cold? Are they challenging, robust and growth-oriented? Or do they feel like an annual family get-together around the Christmas table; obligatory and a tad dysfunctional?
What is the current environment (micro i.e workspace, team, engagement) you’re operating in? What are some of the broader environmental factors (Macro i.e market trends, political factors, national security, public health concerns) that are facing your organisation?

Now that you have a clear understanding of the factors underpinning your organisational brand or culture, and the environmental factors (both macro and micro) influencing it, you need to be ruthless about whether it is supporting your organisation to succeed. The point being, your brand or culture might be perfectly pleasant but if it isn’t aligned to the growth targets, customer service charter, employee value proposition, or shareholder expectations, you’re leaving your success up to chance.

Our results are good…. why do we need to bother about our brand or culture?

For those of you that are agreeing with the emboldened question above, I hope you’re not in a leadership role. If you are, read the next paragraph carefully.

Your brand and culture are what enables you to deliver excellent service, fantastic products, innovative client solutions, or world-class employee experience. Your bottom line only exists because of the nebulous cloud-like construct we have coined as ‘culture’. Countless organisations have had amazing financial success but ultimately failed due to cultural or brand challenges. See the following list of some well-known organisations and brand names that have either ceased to exist or had a catastrophic fall from grace.

Kodak
Ansett
Schwinn
Toys R Us
Dick Smith
Enron
Polaroid
Lehman Brother
Atari
Commodore Corp
Radioshack
Nokia
General Motors
Compaq

The above list is a reminder of how ephemeral success can be. Furthermore, the need to constantly innovate, challenge, rediscover and push through complacency is critical for continued success. Your brand or culture is made up of the relationships you form, the beliefs you hold, and the behaviours you reinforce. Their combination creates the flames that forge a personal and organisational legacy. How you want to be experienced in the world is directly reflected by how you interact with the world. If you are feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the culture of your organisation where you currently work, before judging, remember the definition. Culture is a reflection of moments upon moments shaped by what you believe and expect will happen. If the culture doesn’t align to you, it doesn’t make it bad or wrong. It simply means that you don’t fit. My advice, try mapping out your own beliefs, behaviours, and bonds that you want to experience at work. Do a sense check based on the current micro and macro environments then start looking for an organisation that fits what you want. If however, you choose to stay in an organisation that doesn’t work for you, your reflections on the brand and culture are a reflection of how you see yourself. In other words, everything you hate about the culture, you become. Finally, to answer the question is Organisational Culture art or Science? I say it’s both. In art, you find science and in science you find art. Your ability to create both in a consistent way that captivates others is what will set you apart.

About Me:

My name is Joe Hart and I’ve spent my life thus far seeking to understand why people do what they do. I’m an Organisational Psychologist and am also obsessed with patterns. Patterns underpin everything we do, everything we think and everything we feel. Organisational culture is like the Rubiks cube of human behaviour. It seems impossible, but there is a method to what seems like chaos. If you’d like to crack the code that’s holding you and your team back.

Contact me here:

E: joe@joehart.com.au

M: 0425 224 825

W: https://joehart.com.au/

Joe Hart 2/9/19 Joe Hart 2/9/19

The importance of Self Expression in Leadership and Life

When I speak of expression I wouldn’t blame you for conjuring up images of you telling your boss to get stuffed, having a massive argument with your in-laws, singing at the top of your voice while driving (out of tune if it’s me!) or delivering a speech at your wedding (with the aid of a little bit of booze). Rather, expression is the most honest form of communication you will ever take part in. When somebody fully expresses themselves, regardless of the activity they are engaged in, you can feel it.

If you’ve been following my blog or have worked with me at some point, you’ll be no stranger to my opinions on the importance of self-expression when it comes to living a fulfilled life. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on why I place so much importance on expression in my work, with my clients, and for myself. The answer…. because it’s what I believe we all most need to be effective.

Expression explained

A colleague once shared with me that he was a very high-level pianist and loved everything about playing the piano. He explained that when he was playing, it felt like he wasn’t in control of his body, as if he was watching himself play. He further described that it was an amazing feeling to be so connected to what you are doing that you can fully immerse yourself in the task and pour your heart and soul into the activity. People gave him feedback such as “you could feel the passion in your music” and “you played your heart out in that last piece”. In stark contrast, some of his fellow students with the same teacher were technically brilliant at playing the music, but they lacked any emotional connection. When they played, people were impressed but not moved.

In another example from one of my all-time hero’s Bruce Lee, he said during a television interview “Honestly expressing yourself...it is very difficult to do. I mean it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool...or I can make all kind of phony things, you see what I mean, blinded by it or I can show you some really fancy movement. But to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself...now that, my friend, is very hard to do.” Watching any of Bruce Lee’s films or interviews, you can quickly see how he performed with such intensity and that his presence on set created a legacy that still burns bright today.

Countless other examples can be seen in artists, leaders, writers, speakers, actors, performers, and athletes. No doubt, at this point you can reflect on a similar experience. Perhaps you know what it feels like to be deeply immersed in an activity that you were able to transcend the task and deliver it with emotion? Surely you have experienced a wave of emotion after seeing someone deliver a brilliant performance, a heartfelt speech, or achieve a breakthrough sporting achievement?

My journey with expression

Dangerous comparisons

I grew up in a highly creative and expressive household. My dad, a professional clown, puppeteer, and musician was readily able to access emotion to communicate his message. I used to watch in awe as he was able to cast a spell over his audience. As a street performer, it was as if people were drawn to him the same way they might follow the scent of freshly cooked bread – comforting and irresistible all at the same time. Similarly, my eldest sister is a gifted musician, actress and dancer. Her ability to express what she was feeling through her craft was nothing short of miraculous. While I had an immense amount of pride (and still do) in my dad and sister for their creative genius, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit smaller when I was in their presence. My attempts to express myself seemed to be inadequate and didn’t quite generate the hype that they both received. In my teens I experimented with music, had a go a street performing, dancing, sculpture, visual arts and drama but never felt that my performances or creations were very good. At the time, I desperately wanted some feedback as to what I was doing wrong but lacked the courage to ask and in honesty would not have taken any constructive criticism very well. Deep down, I knew that that I wasn’t making people ‘feel’ anything I just didn’t know how to fix it.

‘Fixing’ the problem?

Feeling like a failure, I made a conscious decision to reinvent myself when I went to university…to be studious, conscientious, academic, but most of all…. stop ‘trying’ to be creative like my dad and sister. I failed dismally at the first three commitments but sadly managed to kill my creative self with resounding success and a multitude of unforeseen consequences.

I became a consultant and mastered the art of ‘professionalism’. Hiding my emotions, using data to drive my decisions, and advising clients using logic. It worked - I was good at my job - that is all. My identity became my job…. there was no emotion, no connection, just the safety of logic. I recall a time where a new friend had invited me out for drinks. He was quite a loud and obnoxious character and he said to me “loosen your tie mate…..what’s with the part in your hair?….relax!”. He didn’t know it, but I’d received the same sort of comment about three times that week already. I was so successful at not expressing myself that I’d become this boring consultant that wore dark suits, a tie, and didn’t know how to be natural.

One day when I was packing my stuff to move houses for the 3rd time in as many years, I opened a box that I’d been carting around for most of my life to inspect the contents. As I fanned through the pages of an art diary, I recognised my creative self in the ink drawings, self-portraits, and various abstract collages. All these years, I’d kept my expression locked away but didn’t want to let it go. I’d created a state of cognitive dissonance which was driving this unfulfilled state I was in. To put it bluntly, I’d been lying to myself about what was most important to me. As we all know, being lied to is not a nice feeling but it’s always coupled with an element of doubt – doubt that you might be wrong or misinterpreting the situation. When you lie to yourself, there is no doubt and that’s what makes it so damaging. Like the blind-spot in your side-mirror while driving, if you aren’t able to change your perspective by glancing over your shoulder you’ll end up having an accident and likely blame the other driver because you couldn’t see them.

The hidden consequences

At the end of another crazy long day, still in the office, I noticed a feeling in my throat. It felt tight…sort of like that lump in your throat you get when you’re about to cry. It lasted a couple of days then slowly went away, I didn’t think much of it. Over the course of the next few months it happened more frequently and was usually coupled with a bit of stress at work. Despite shifting jobs and having different roles this tightness in my throat would keep showing up. I’d all but given up until when sitting with a client in a coaching conversation, I heard my own advice. You see, my client had spoken about how they would become stressed in certain situations so I’d instructed them to describe where they ‘felt’ the stress in their body. They put their right hand on their throat and said “I feel this tightness in my throat...it’s like that feeling you get when you’re about to cry…you know what I mean?”. Alarmed at how accurately they had described what I felt I replied “Yes…I know exactly what you mean”. They went on to say… “It’s as though I’ve got so much I want to say but I lock it all in, stop myself from saying what needs to be said”. I mentally stumbled backwards…and there it was, I could finally see what was lurking in my blind spot. While I thought by stopping the pursuit of artistic expression, it would enable me to focus my attention on getting ‘smart’ and ‘knowledgeable’, and ‘successful’. Instead, I shut down all expression which turned me into a boring, frustrated, logic machine that didn’t know how to feel or express in any meaningful way. I felt like a dead man walking.

How to fully express yourself

I still consider myself a novice at this…which ironically is the answer to how you fully express yourself. The secret is to stay ‘empty’. The more content you put into your head, the more distracted you become. This distraction basically dilutes your honest, off-the-cuff, unfiltered expression.

One might think of this as an ability to become intensely focussed to the point where there is nothing else in your awareness at that moment. Like, for example, the stillness and calm you see when Roger Federer hits a backhand in slow-motion. Or the moment a child first finds there balance and takes their first couple of steps. After months of failure and persistence, when they least expect it, they effortlessly do what they previously couldn’t.

I could jot down some mindless points that describe the ‘3 steps to expressing yourself honestly’ or ‘7 strategies to become more open’ but this wouldn’t be of service to you. Instead, I challenge you with this.

Forget all that you know, all that you think you know, and everything you know that you don’t know. As if your brain is a cup filled with water to the brim…. pour it all out. Have the courage to start again and not know anything. In my first ever job interview when they closed with “do you have any questions for me?” not really knowing what to ask (being my first job interview and all) I asked, “what advice to you have for someone starting out in their career?”. The answer they gave has stuck with me forever – “Stay curious”.

At the time I thought I knew a lot, I had it all figured out. I’d created a world where everything made sense, so I didn’t have to experience the vulnerability of not knowing. Little did I know (that pun was totally unintentional) that wall of knowledge that I’d built brick by brick was the same barrier preventing me from expressing what was most important to me.

So, at this point, you might be kicking back on the sofa with the TV remote in hand, ready to ‘empty’ your mind and let go of all that you know. Unfortunately, that’s not what I mean. Like the years of practice Roger Federer devoted to his backhand or the thousands of failed attempts a child makes before they finally walk, you need to earn the right to let go of what you know otherwise, you’re just plain ignorant. Mastery of any kind requires deliberate practice (10 000 hours of it according to Malcolm Gladwell) but at some point, you transcend that practice and you’re able to express what you feel through what you do. This is true of anything…not just music or sport. Like pretty much everything in life, to fully express yourself you need to embrace the paradox of knowing so much that you don’t need to know anything at all. The aim here is to enable yourself to express yourself honestly in everything that you do. This is not simply going through the motions by replicating the moves, plucking the strings or delivering the correct sequence. Instead, it is letting go of safety, slapping your fear in the face and embracing the unknown.

Joe Hart 15/8/19 Joe Hart 15/8/19

Performance Management vs Performance Investment: The devil is in your intentions

Feeling shellshocked, Paul left the meeting room feeling confused. Words that his manager had used like ‘disappointed’, ‘commitment’, ‘performance’, and ‘proactivity’ were all jumbled up in his head. The message was that Paul needed to lift his performance as his manager had been disappointed with the results; he needed to show a bit more proactivity and commitment. It was then followed up with, “we’re here to support you to be successful”. Paul knew his probation was due to finish up in exactly four weeks. Blinded by his emotions, Paul agreed to ‘lift his game’ while suppressing the noise his guts were making as they churned with fear.

The phone buzzed relentlessly to notify that a new message was awaiting. As if there was nothing else that mattered in the world on a Thursday night, Paul leapt to his phone with the eagerness of a highschool student awaiting communication from their first love. Despite his enthusiasm, Paul wasn’t expecting an important message, it was more of a distraction from the mind-numbing work he’d been doing.

The message read:

Sensing the urgency, Paul paused for a moment to consider why his manager would be texting him so urgently for a meeting. He then replied:

Paul had only been in the company for about 5 months and was finding his way around his role. He found the organisation quite challenging with very little development, a massive workload, a fairly disengaged team, and a manager who didn’t really seem to care. He wasn’t really happy with his decision to join the company but he wanted to give it a shot and not give up on the organisation too early. Besides, it took a lot of effort to shift jobs and Paul had left a great manager and team for the prospect of a bigger brand, higher pay, and more responsibility.

The meeting

Paul met with his manager in a small windowless meeting room with fluorescent lights so bright and airconditioning so cold, he felt like he was in a hospital ward. His manager seemed tense. Paul knew this meeting was not going to be good.

The problem for Paul was, the decision was already made. His manager had no intention of keeping him and urgently called the meeting to later justify the course of action to the Human Resources department. Paul had also grown very accustomed to ignoring his guts when they started to churn with fear….a practice that prevented Paul from seeing what was really happening around him.

The real intention

Sadly, like Paul, many people experience very similar situations where they join a new company full of hope and expectation to soon find themselves staring longingly into the rear vision mirror that was their old job. It’s not that their old job was better or even good, it’s that the performance management conversations endured with an ill-equipped manager guided by a dehumanised organisation are humiliating. While it would be easy to lay blame on the manager, or the organisation, that is not the intention of this article. Given so many people I have worked with over the years have experienced a similar situation I wanted to provide an alternative view on how to generate the best outcomes for both employers and employees, without all the noises from guts churning with fear.

Performance Management vs Performance Investment

As a standard practice, most organisations are well acquainted with the annual performance review which often carries no benefit beyond HR meeting their KPIs. If the organisation is ‘progressive’ and has the capacity, they may even conduct a talent review to determine the true performance of their employees in relation to their potential. In recent years, organisations such as Accenture and Deloitte have radically revamped their performance management process in favour of ongoing regular performance conversations, reliable performance measurement, and strong investment in development for employees. Early indicators are demonstrating the increase in employee engagement and productivity as a result not to mention the massive amount of time that is no longer wasted by leaders gaining consensus on employee performance behind closed doors. In a 2015 HBR article, a study conducted on Deloitte employees suggested as many as 2 million hours a year were spent on the employee evaluation process of all 65 000 employees. None of this is surprising if you consider the data presented in Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, suggesting that 85% of the world’s employees are either actively disengaged or not engaged.

Rather than focus on evaluating employees to understand their performance and whether they have potential, I’d like to suggest that organisations evaluate how much they have invested in their employees to maximise their performance. Assuming that you’ve made a decent hire, how much time have you invested in that employee? What sort of opportunities have you given them to grow, develop, and expand? Is their performance a reflection of their capability or the amount of time you have spent with them?

Below is a decision matrix that you can use to quickly classify how your team fits and more importantly, indicates what you can do improve.

Performance mgt vs performance investment.png

High Growth (Engaged + Productive)- These are high performers that are responding to the investment you are making in their development. They are engaged and productive employees. Sadly, there are only about 15% of employees globally that fit into this category so when you get them there, the trick is to keep them there.

Flight Risk (Not Sustainable)- They are your high performers but the discontent is usually written all over their face. They have the capability and like to demonstrate what they can do. Unfortunately, you can’t provide them with the development they are seeking. Without providing them with an opportunity to stretch themselves, you’ll lose this talent.

Poor Fit (Wrong role/company)- For many reasons, people end up in the wrong role and sometimes in a company that just doesn’t gel with them. You’ve invested in their development but somehow, they just aren’t performing. Go back to your selection process and make sure you have a good process in place to support who you are bringing in. Often, the recruiters that sourced your employees are doing such a great job at selling the role that they might be inadvertently setting unrealistic expectations. Sometimes, despite a great process, things still don’t work. In my experience, the majority of performance issues fall into this category. Try changing the person’s role first but if that still isn’t an option, initiate an honest conversation about organisational fit and support them to move on.

Neglected (Helpless + Stuck)- For these poor souls, they’ve never really been given a fighting chance. The philosophical debate of the chicken coming before the egg springs to mind here….did you not invest because of their poor performance? Or did their poor performance stem from a lack of investment? Regardless, the right thing to do is to provide them with an opportunity to feel valued and supported. It’s amazing what a little bit of encouragement can do for someone’s productivity. Even if their performance doesn’t improve, you’ll be able to help them find their next role knowing you gave them a shot.

Where to from here?

For all four quadrants, while there are differences in how to manage employees that reside within them, the solution for all is the same; invest!

For my entire career, I’ve been listening to justifications about why 360-degree assessments don’t work or how engagement survey data is wrong, or why employees are too entitled. The truth is quite simple. If you take the time to invest in your employees by encouraging them to expand, learn, grow, and develop, they will perform. If you hold them accountable, give them responsibility, and let them fall, they will perform. If you treat them with respect, empower them, trust them, and have good intentions, they will perform.

The next time you are on either side of a conversation like Paul was at the beginning of this article, see if you can decipher the intention that sits beneath the words.

For managers- challenge the investment you have put into the employee. Ask yourself if you really are willing to invest in their success and develop their capability. Can you see yourself cheering for them on the sideline like a doting parent….all while you know they will never be the best player on the team? If the answer is no, then your falling back on a process to help you terminate an employee i.e you have bad intentions. My advice, rise to the challenge of having a tough conversation and be a manager. That’s what you get paid for.

For employees- listen to your gut….if it’s churning with fear it’s probably responding to what’s happening around you, while your judgement is clouded by emotion. Hanging on to a role to prove a point, save your pride, or dodge adversity simply doesn’t work. When faced with bad intentions, simply walk in the other direction.

My final thought for the day….before embarking on a 360 review or performance management process, reflect on your real intentions that lurk beneath the surface. If your intentions are bad the tools you utilise will also turn bad. These tools are designed to elevate and support employees not trip them up.

Joe Hart 16/7/19 Joe Hart 16/7/19

It’s not at all about winning…but it’s all about winning : The paradox of life

“It’s been a rough week,” said one of the other dads standing on the sideline pre-match, thermos in hand at the ready. I gave him a wry smile followed by a confirmatory nod, acknowledging that I too was weary from the five back to back losses our boys had experienced over the preceding three days. Not only that, we’d been battling the bitter cold dished up by Canberra mornings; frost, biting wind, and a little bit of drizzle for extra misery. You see, our boys’ team was firmly lodged at the bottom of the ladder in the soccer tournament, about to play their last match against an undefeated team secured at the top of the ladder. With heavy hearts, everyone was expecting another loss.

The pressure of expectation

Earlier in the week, the boys started out strong, winning their first match comprehensively. In some ways, this set them up for the expectation that they could do very well in the tournament. In contrast, their second match was an absolute disaster, outclassed in pretty much every way. They got crushed with a 6-0 defeat. Following on from that first day the losing streak was maintained. There was a predictable amount of controversy both on an off the field. Some questionable calls by the referee (who appeared to be barely 14 years old) were heavily influenced by the intimidating shouts coming from parents that value soccer more than life itself. Their screams resembling the snarls and growls of an angry dog, foaming at the mouth, ready to attack. Despite the rule of ‘silence on the sidelines’ there were some that couldn’t help it, their desire to win was too great even though they weren’t the ones playing the game.

The dangers of watching from the sideline

We’d all been looking forward to the tournament, knowing that the boys had worked hard to be there. We secretly expected them to do well….and held a desire to see them at least get through to the semi-finals…After all, it was entirely possible? After the jubilation of the first win, you could feel the excitement of the parents lift momentarily before the almost audible ‘thud’ following the first crushing defeat. On the surface, we all say to each other “it’s all about the boys having fun….” or “As long as they do their best and learn something, it will all be worth it”. In reality, what we want to say to each other is “It would be awesome to go home with the cup in hand our boys victors in the tournament” or “I’d love for my boy to experience the joy of being in a team that has what it takes to win against the toughest competition”. What became evident by the end of the week is that the parents were more invested in the team winning than the players were. The challenge with this position is that none of us was able to influence that which we were so invested in. We were powerless, confined to simply watch, support, observe, and stay silent. Victims of our own frustration.

The power of ‘showing up’

The boys are a group of talented young players. They train a couple of times a week and they are all good mates. They take their sport seriously and all have a deep seeded aspiration to become a great soccer player one day. They are however only 10 years old and having fun seems to be the most popular item on the menu. What’s refreshing is that even with the crushing defeats, the boys would get over it quickly. They didn’t dwell on the bad calls, the angry parents on the sidelines, the bullies on the other teams. They kept getting back up and dusting themselves off. Of course, they each had their moments where they were upset with their performance, made mistakes, and felt like they could have done better but they were persistent. They were playing to win but if they lost, the game wasn’t over for them. It’s almost as if they knew they were playing a bigger game of growth and development that was beyond the scope of the tournament.

The outcome

So, here we are, the final match that EVERYONE expects our boys to lose. I’d even had a work call scheduled for the first half so wouldn’t have to endure the assault but, as it often happens, my call was rescheduled. I was locked into watching the entire game. As they were warming up, another this other dad and I noted while sipping on our hot tea fresh from the thermos, that the boys seemed unusually vocal. They were talking to each other a lot. The chatter was positive and constant which created a vibe around the team. Their body language was ‘up’, they seemed confident…not about winning but about how they were going to play their game. Just before they ran onto the field, I grabbed my son’s attention and said “hey mate, what’s the plan”. He said, “We’re going to play to win and have fun”. What unfolded next was nothing short of glorious. The boys played their best game yet. It was a tight tussle which ended with a victory to our boys who managed to defeat the undefeated. What started as a melancholic conversation about the week that had been, ended with every parent giving each other high fives. As one of the parents, I know how tempting it is to remedy any situation with the cliché of “it’s not about winning…it’s about having fun”. Reality speaks a different language and that sounds more like “losing feels crap, especially if you know you can do better”. The trick is to keep playing to win even when you’ve been on a massive losing streak. While their campaign was over and the opposing team still progressed through to the semi-finals, they were later beaten in the semi’s and denied a place in the final that I’m sure they had their minds set on.

Leadership lessons from the sideline

Just in case you got caught up in the ‘story’ of it all, I thought it would be helpful to summarise some of the leadership lessons that spending a week with hopeful parents and a group of competitive 10-year-old boys has taught me.

1. Expectations are poison – The best movie I ever saw was the one that I didn’t plan to see. I had no idea about the genre and the title gave nothing away so when I watched the film I was totally engaged, in-the-moment and enthralled. The opposite can be said of the worst movie I ever saw, the hype and expectations were so great that the movie couldn’t deliver. Similarly, when we have our heart set on an outcome such as a sporting event, academic achievement, relationship, job offer etc. We are living in a fantasy, one that is not grounded in the present moment. Don’t get me wrong, we need to set clear expectations at work to get results but when you find yourself drifting into the realm of fantasy, pull back, you’re ironically setting yourself up for a remarkable fall from grace.

2. Is it about you…or them? – This is a tough one because nobody likes to admit that they have an ego and everyone likes to think that they put the needs of others before their own. The truth is, altruism is rare, and some would argue doesn’t really exist. I could tell myself that sacrificing a week of my time was all in the best interest of my son and his aspiration to be a soccer star but that wouldn’t be entirely true. I like watching him play soccer, I like watching the team succeed and deep down I feel part of that success which strokes my ego. At work, this can be seen often when teams or individuals are awarded recognition for outstanding achievement. Whether it’s the manager’s intention or not, it’s impossible not to connect oneself with the success of the team or individual. Like the parents cheering (or snarling) from the sideline, it’s a combination of wanting what’s best for the team and what’s best for you. Once you understand that you are indeed selfishly invested (at least a bit) you’ll be able to reconcile some of the anxiety or stress you feel when things aren’t quite going according to plan.

3. Keep ‘showing up’ – Like much of life the ability to keep showing up is 90% of the battle. If we decide to stay in bed at the first hint of a challenge, we will likely never make it past the challenges of kindergarten. Regardless of how tough it is, how “it won’t make a difference” or “it’s hopeless”. The power of simply showing up and having a go carries more weight than anything else. Many people go through the motions, but this is not showing up. ‘Showing up’ can be defined as being present both physically and mentally to fully engage with the task at hand. The temptation to give up is strong especially when things aren’t going your way. It is in those moments that the truth about who you are and what you are capable of is revealed.

4. It’s not about winning, but it’s all about winning – Political correctness says that I should encourage my son to play for fun and not push him to be competitive. On this point, I fundamentally disagree and proudly admit that I encourage my son to play to win but make sure that he’s having fun in the process. I know he loves soccer and works hard to develop himself. I think it’s brilliant that at such a young age the boys all demonstrated a relentless commitment to their development as individuals in a team that wants to win. It’s that spirit, courage and tenacity that will enable all of them to succeed. In business, if you don’t win your customers’ hearts and minds, you lose. It’s tough, cold, relentless but in the real world, nobody is going to soften the blow for you. The balance is right when you’re doing something that you love, that matters, that’s worth fighting for but you also have fun with it.

5. It’s all in your head – There are countless examples of people achieving extraordinary things that reinforce the same point. What your mind wants, your body will deliver and what your body delivers your mind wants. In other words, by thinking you create desire and by doing you gain satisfaction. If it’s combat-sports, extreme strength, cold exposure, wealth accrual, scientific breakthroughs, artistic expression, or motivational leadership; If people had used logical reasoning to achieve their goals, they would have quit long before their breakthrough. Possibilities will always remain unknown to you, that is until you do the impossible.

The moral of the story?

If you want to live a fulfilled life, behave like a bunch of 10-year-olds playing soccer in a competitive tournament. You’ll have your moments of glory, setbacks, mistakes, unfair calls, injuries, a bunch of tears and a whole lot of disappointment. Always play to win, but make sure you also play to have fun. If you’re feeling a bunch of pressure from some onlookers from the sideline ‘supporting’ you, don’t play for them, they are there for themselves as much as they are there for you. Play your own game

Joe Hart 25/6/19 Joe Hart 25/6/19

The cliché of poor communication

If you ask someone if they are a good driver, most people will indicate that they are above average. This is also true for intelligence, leadership, and even communication. This phenomenon is known as the Dunning-Krueger effect. Basically, most of us have an inflated sense of our capability regarding pretty much everything we do. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule (of course you are thinking you are one of them) but mostly, it’s true. What’s even scarier is that those of us that are most incompetent overestimate our abilities to a greater extent.

In business, communication is an exceptionally important part of our day-to-day. Without effective communication our relationships deteriorate, our productivity is hindered and our undesirable emotions (anger, frustration, anxiety) start to bubble up to the surface. In fact, every qualitative focus group I’ve ever conducted highlights communication as being a key factor influencing employee morale. Scarily, this finding is so pervasive that I can confidently include ‘poor communication’ as a key finding for any organisation having trouble with culture and engagement. Rather than go down an infinite path of micro diagnosis (this is my term for the need to keep running diagnostics to identify ‘core’ issues rather than taking action to face them) I’ve come up with a couple of communication hacks that will instantly turn things around for you, your team and organisation.

“Without effective communication our relationships deteriorate, our productivity is hindered and our undesirable emotions (anger, frustration, anxiety) start to bubble up to the surface.”

Admit that you need to develop

In line with the theme in many of my posts, you need to start with yourself and acknowledge that if there is an issue, you’re probably a big contributor to it. Try resisting the temptation to look at everyone else as the problem and start by committing to make a change in yourself. With regards to communication, this means accepting that you will need to improve to get a better outcome. Self-development takes humility and relentless commitment. Drop your ego about being a brilliant communicator as your belief serves no purpose in effectively communicating.

Enhance your dialogue

Any decent engagement survey measures how clear employees feel about their role, the company direction, the vision, values, team goals etc. In fact, Gallup’s Q12 survey identified that the statement “I know what’s expected of me at work” is one of the single best predictors of an individual’s overall engagement. As such, one of the best practices you can incorporate into your meetings is to finish with “can I just go over where we landed and make sure we are on the same page?” or “Can I have a go or playing back what you want me to do to ensure that I’m clear on what you need” or “can you share back what I’ve asked so I can be sure that how I’ve articulated myself is clear?”. While you need to find your own language and the words that work, simply adding a few questions in your toolbox that help bridge the gap between what we said and what we want is a game changer.

Be consistent

If you follow the first two pieces of advice, you’ll realise very quickly how often you make poor assumptions and leave meetings where people are confused, unsure, disengaged and frustrated. You might even be telling yourself “I already do this at the end of every conversation”. I’d invite you to further challenge yourself because even the very best I’ve worked with struggle to keep up this practice. Just saying “right….is everyone clear?” is not enough. People don’t want to look stupid by seeking clarification. They also don’t want to look like they are challenging your authority, so they’ll sit back and be silent. Furthermore, most people are so busy and, in their head, that they aren’t really listening anyway. Their assumption is “If it’s really important I’ll get an e-mail, or someone will follow-up with me about it”. In general, people hold a view that internal meetings are not useful, so it shapes their behaviour when they show up. They are disinterested, not clear on objectives, and distracted. By simply asking somebody to articulate what they heard and share back the actions they are going to carry forward, you have engaged them.

Be patient with yourself and others

Initially, you might feel as though you are patronising or you might stumble on your words when clarifying expectations. This is totally fine. It takes practice to clearly and consistently set expectations. You’ll need to allow for some growing room as you’ll find that it feels awkward the first few weeks you try this. You might also see some resistance from your team and those around you. They are used to showing up to meetings with you in a certain way. When you shift your behaviour, it will necessarily shift how they show up. This can take time before you see any benefit. You may indeed find things get slightly worse before they get better.

Be open and transparent

Whenever we change our behaviour, people need to figure out ‘why’. It’s an inherent human need to know the cause or meaning associated with any shift in behaviour. As outlined in the book Hardwired Humans, everyone loves to gossip, it’s a basic human instinct associated with social grooming. One thing you can guarantee, if you shift your behaviour and it’s noted, your team will discuss it with each other. Rather than allow this conversation to evolve organically (and potentially in a harmful way), try being upfront about what you are doing and why you are doing it to ensure they aren’t creating a story around your motivation. For example, if you asked someone to ‘playback’ their understanding of the issues raised or the actions you want them to take, they could easily assume that you aren’t happy with their performance or even questioning their capability. It sounds silly but if you sat in on some of my coaching conversations, you would realise how much of what people worry about is completely made up.

As a final thought, most challenges that individuals and teams face are due to poor alignment of expectations resulting in what feels like bad communication. Even if you don’t get it right, simply discussing expectations will dramatically shift the dialogue you have with yourself and your team. If you find yourself sitting silently in a meeting, a little confused, disengaged or distracted, draw on some courage and ask a clarifying question. You’ll either get full alignment in response or some valuable discussion will ensue. For those of you that scoff at the idea that people may not be clear on what’s expected of them, know that you represent a red flag. It is likely you that needs to step back and evaluate whether your assumptions are serving you or shielding you from the truth.

Joe Hart 19/5/19 Joe Hart 19/5/19

5 Reasons why perspective matters

I distinctly remember the first time I created a sculpture.My art teacher had decided that a boy in our class who suffered from rheumatoidarthritis would need to sit on a chair positioned on top of the tables so wecould all observe him as our “subject”. I remember feeling sorry for the guy ashe was mildly disfigured due to his disease. I wasn’t sure if the teacher hadasked him to be the subject for this reason…. or had he nominated himself tohave a whole class full of students use his body as the subject matter fortheir sculpture. He didn’t seem to be phased by the request so I relaxed intothe task at hand. Having never done sculpture before, I was curious as to how Icould create a great sculpture. We were using clay and I found that I couldmake my figure interesting from one side only to find that the other sidelooked horrible. This push and pull became a little frustrating and seemed tobe an ineffective way to create a masterpiece. Feeling a little miffed with theexercise, I heard my teacher say “your challenge is to make your sculptureinteresting from every single angle. You need to let the piece emerge as youcontinuously refine your interpretation of the subject”. For whatever reason,what she said clicked for me. I’d been trying to create a three-dimensionalsculpture by observing the subject, my mate with rheumatoid arthritis, from asingle perspective. It prompted me to get up and move around the subject andexplore how he looked from every angle. As a result, I was able to create afantastic sculpture that was unique and interesting from every single anglethat you looked at it.

"Unfortunately, the perspective taken in many cases is unidimensional, fixed in their seat and only observing the subject from a single point of view. The result, an uninspired piece of work that is dull with little impact on the observer."

Every time I’m stuck on a problem, helping my kids with achallenge, working through a solution with a client or even observing someoneelse’s artwork in a gallery, I always think back to that experience I had whenI first attempted to create a sculpture.

Indeed, I use sculpting as a metaphor in leadershipdevelopment, self-development, culture. In all of these areas, we are aiming tosculpt something be it a great leader, a better version of ourselves or aculture that everyone would love to work in. Unfortunately, the perspectivetaken in many cases is unidimensional, fixed in their seat and only observingthe subject from a single point of view. The result, an uninspired piece ofwork that is dull with little impact on the observer. In an organisationalcontext, these are the run of the mill ‘leadership development’ courses thatare a ‘feel good’ fiesta for a couple of days but ultimately develop nothing. Or a self-development course that enables youto feel better about yourself but see everyone else in a negative light. Orworse still, the culture ‘change’ program that promises to change so much thatnothing changes at all….at least not before the environment organically changesfirst.

What’s my perspective on all of this? Get more perspective!It’s way too easy to put the blinkers on and see things from a familiar, triedand tested viewpoint. If you always see a problem, in the same way, you’re veryunlikely to develop novel solutions. In fact, when you take a different perspective,you might not see it as a problem at all!

One tool that I love to use with clients (and myself) iscalled the ‘5 perspectives tool’ (thanks to David Drake for creating the tool).When an individual or team is stuck on a problem, the ‘5 perspectives tool’ isa great way to help them get unstuck and see things from a different angle. It’sa very simple method to generate multiple viewpoints where there are seeminglyno options left. Start by writing down your problem or challenge in the centreof your page then draw 5 spokes representing other perspectives you could taketo describe the same problem or challenge. You’d be surprised how hard it is togenerate more than 3 perspectives and to get the 4^th and 5^thcan be exponentially more difficult.

This tool reminds me of that first experience I had creatinga sculpture. It helps me see things from every angle and ensure that myinterpretation is a well-considered, ‘interesting from all angles’ solution.

One final perspectiveI’ll leave you with, most problems that we are facing a no bigger than a grainof sand. It’s just that our focus is so intently fixed on the grain of sandthat we can’t see anything beyond it. If we are bold enough to step back andsee the bigger picture, our problems become no more than a grain of sand on abeach that is barely perceptible in this vast universe. If you’re up for the challengeof becoming a better leader, better version of yourself or shaping a betterorganisational culture, have the courage to step back and see the biggerpicture. You might surprise yourself and end up creating a masterpiece.

Joe Hart 13/5/19 Joe Hart 13/5/19

How master manipulators keep you on their string

As a child, the world is full of wonderment, everyexperience is new and filled with excitement. The world feels like a magicalplace of endless possibility. Until of course, we hit our teenage years and oneday we wake up to the familiar burden of the mundane, the known and the boring.While the contrast is stark, our wonderment slowly ebbs away with each joyfulexperience fading like a favourite shirt that’s seen too much sun. As adults,we are constantly pursuing the magic, the innocence and the curiosity that weall once had for the world. So much so that we can overcompensate by fallingvictim to those that see our insecurities, our weaknesses, and our deepestdesires.

When I was about 15, my dad was working toward developing a puppet show that he could tour locally in schools, markets, and private shows. He’d worked long and hard on it and needed someone to help him out as a second performer. Being fascinated with such things, I was more than happy to help. As I got to understand the show, learn my lines, practice how to perform using glove puppets, I soon began to appreciate the art form. I also became increasingly aware of the ‘magic’ tricks associated with bringing a puppet to life. For example, if you’ve ever watched a puppet show, what makes it brilliant is when the puppets interact with the audience. They come to life as real characters by asking questions, pointing people out and making quick-witted comments in response to any hecklers (usually a pesky 3-year-old) amongst the audience. For a child, the mystery is too great…and the puppets are confirmed as the real deal. There is no possibility that they are fake. For adults, they are impressed at the cleverness of the script and wonder how such a feat is achieved…all the while knowing that a puppeteer is in control of the show.

They keep us on their string by being highly entertaining to all, brilliant storytellers, quick-witted and almost psychic in their responsiveness to their stakeholders. Such abilities are extremely powerful for influencing stakeholders and equally damaging for those that get drawn in.

For those of you that know, this will seem obvious, but the secret lies in the material used as the backdrop. It’s a very thin vale, with highly reflective material so when lights are shone directly at its surface it sparkles brilliantly for the audience. For the puppeteer, however, this becomes the perfect camouflage to observe the audience undetected. For the illusion to work, the puppeteer must be in complete darkness otherwise their silhouette becomes detectable and the illusion of the puppets being alive is destroyed. I distinctly recall one show where my dad and I were about halfway through our version of 3 billy goats gruff. Suddenly an overly bold child (most likely the pesky 3-year-old heckler from before) snuck around the back of our puppet theatre and lifted the canvas door. Light poured in exposing the magic trick, the child’s face was a combination of excitement and disbelief. The answer they were looking for was right in front of them….they just didn’t want to believe that what once was beautiful and magical was now just a man with his hand in a puppet.

Puppeteers are master manipulators, actors and magicians all rolled into one. An ageless art form that continues to capture the imagination of audiences to this day. I’d like you to consider the master manipulators you’ve come across in your work-life over the years. More specifically, I’m referring to the Machiavellian leaders from the Dark Triad (Machiavellian, Narcissism, Psychopathy). Those that appear to be able to manipulate us with their cunning, strategic minds. Lure us in with their charisma and appear to understand our emotional state providing us with a sense of comfort and security. They always know what the right thing is to say. Like the puppeteer, these master manipulators have a highly reflective backdrop that when surrounded by darkness makes their true character completely undetectable. They keep us on their string by being highly entertaining to all, brilliant storytellers, quick-witted and almost psychic in their responsiveness to their stakeholders. Such abilities are extremely powerful for influencing stakeholders and equally damaging for those that get drawn in.

Nobody likes being manipulated, especially when they have no idea it is happening. There are those that prefer not to know how a magic trick works and enjoy the sheer entertainment of it all. They buy their ticket at the door, scoff some popcorn and immerse themselves in the experience. In contrast, there are some that prefer not to get involved at all. They stay at home in safety, never exposing themselves to the thrill of the illusion. Finally, there are those that are familiar with the ‘magic’ of it all and revel in the opportunity to take up a ringside seat at the circus, carefully watching each act to see if they can spot the trick, catch the illusion or unveil the master manipulator.

As a psychologist and executive coach, I’d like to share myperspective on how to deal with a Machiavellian leader as it’s highly likelythat you will have to at some stage….or most likely already have!

If you’ve cottoned on to their cunning ways, manipulative tendencies, and magnetic lure. Move on, get out and don’t look back. While you may want to go toe to toe with them, demonstrating your ability to uncloak their true character, you’ll ultimately fail.
If you’re currently caught in the web of a Machiavellian leader but aren’t sure, ask yourself how they make you feel. If this swings between “I can do anything” to “I feel smaller than a grain of sand”, I hate to break it to you but you’re being manipulated. Upon this realisation, see point 1) Move on, get out and don’t look back.
Like most people, you’ll ignore my advice and think that you are a smart capable human being who is resilient and strong. Therefore, you will go toe to toe, you’ll jump in the ring with them and give it all you’ve got. You may even knock them down a few times but to your dismay, they keep popping back up again like a bobo doll. Here’s the secret, like the highly reflective backdrop of a puppet theatre, you can’t see the puppeteer’s true character, the harder you look you will begin to see a form. That form is merely your own distorted reflection, your shadow self, aka, your dark side. The sooner you recognise that by fighting the Machiavellian leader, you are fighting with yourself, the better equipped you will be to bow out gracefully, move on, get out, and never look back.

One closing remark, spare a thought for the Machiavellian leader, the master manipulator or the genius puppeteer. While you may not feel they deserve any of your empathy, consider their existence. Highly reflective, surrounded by darkness, living by stealth to remain undetected. A keen observer of others, but never observing themselves. Their own reflection is impossible to detect in the absence of light. Despite their relationships, they are never truly known to others. A victim of themselves, ostracised by their inability to see themselves. As one can only imagine, isolated to a small room in complete darkness devoid of any connections would be the ultimate punishment. Understand that when you try to take them on, you are stepping into that darkness with them. My advice, have empathy for their suffering then move on, get out and never look back!

Joe Hart 22/4/19 Joe Hart 22/4/19

Stop watching from the sidelines and get amongst it!

I’m a full-blown unapologetic martial arts fan. Everybodywho knows me understands that regardless of what form, what country, whatlanguage, if it involves two people duelling it out using their bodies todefeat their opponent, then I’m in….and I’m not the only one.

When I was about 11 years old, I recall being at home ‘sick’(which may or may not have been legitimate) and decided to rent some videosfrom the local video store (my 4 kids still find it crazy that I used tophysically walk to the store and rent a video cassette that I had to physicallyput in a machine before I could watch a movie). They had a special on at thetime so you could rent 7 ‘weekly’ movies for $7. I was drawn to the martialarts section so decided to load up on some Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee…….and soit began.

Bruce Lee soon became my hero and while there weren’t anyKung Fu schools in Lismore, I started doing Karate. I continued with martialarts for a couple of years but then life got in the way, I moved to a new house,changed schools and all of my extra-curricular activities altered too.

Fast forward 23 years, marriage, 4 kids, 2 degrees and abusy career, my love affair with martial arts was even stronger but I was atotal observer. My wife and I decided that Karate would be great for our kids asit offered some strong values, taught them confidence, kept them physicallyactive and enabled them to further reinforce their Japanese language skills….allpositive. Deep down, I had another agenda and that was to live out my fantasyof being a martial arts superstar vicariously through my kids. My weekends soonbecame peppered with karate tournaments, seminars, demonstrations and tests ofcourage. I was in heaven….all while watching from the sidelines behind mycamcorder.

Every now and then, someone would ask, “have you ever donekarate?” or “have you thought about joining?”. I would always answer in a predictablematter of fact way. “Yeah….I did it when I was a kid but you know….life tookover so had to quit” and “I’m a bit old for it now….maybe when I was in mytwenties, but not now”. The truth is, I desperately wanted to join but I hadthis bullshit story going on in my head that people would laugh at me and thatI wouldn’t be able to find the time. My body was stiff as hell from years ofsitting hunched over a desk so the thought of trying to kick at head height wasinsane! I could just imagine my hip joint popping out of its socket and neverbeing able to walk again! So….I dutifully dropped off my kids and picked themup 3 times a week, took them to tournaments, pushed them to fight, massagedtheir injuries, encouraged them to continue when it got hard, etc. But…. I wasstill observing from the sideline.

"The truth is, I desperately wanted to join but I had this bullshit story going on in my head that people would laugh at me and that I wouldn’t be able to find the time."

About 4 years ago, I was sitting with a client one morningand he mentioned that he’d just come from his dojo, where he had been training.He proceeded to explain how he got into martial arts, through taking his kidsalong and decided to stop watching from the sidelines and give it a go. Thiswas the spark that I needed, the prod that I was looking for……but I stilldidn’t join.

Three years ago, I made the decision to join Karate and, get out of my own way. Making the decision wasn’t enough, you see, the karate that my kids and I do (Shinkyokushinkai) is known as the strongest form of karate in the world because of it’s gruelling training regimen and physical conditioning techniques. The style is designed for full contact bouts so fighting is a core component of learning Shinkyokushinkai. I quickly learned that that the decision that I’d made wasn’t at all the hard part…the training was. Many have questioned the training methods and the constant push to improve one’s capability but I’ve come to love the will, mentality, and spirit that is at the core of Shinkyokushinkai. The literal translation of Shinkyokushinkai means the ultimate truth. When you are exhausted, are fighting someone bigger and stronger than you and can barely stand….that’s when you start to appreciate what the ‘ultimate truth’ is all about. In a nutshell, it’s about never giving up. Always having a go and mustering up the courage to push through what you thought wasn’t possible. If you're still wondering how this might be relevant, I’ve often heard HR directors and CEOs refer to leadership and business as a ‘contact sport’ respectively. It wasn’t until I engaged in a full-on combat sport, that I started to appreciate the meaning behind their words. You can't lead people or run a business through observing on the sidelines, you need to get amongst it and sometimes this results in a bloody nose.

"You can't lead people or run a business through observing on the sidelines, you need to get amongst it and sometimes this results in a bloody nose."

What often looks like a mindless brawl is a test of will,courage, and spirit between two people that understand the benefit of challengingthemselves against someone worthy. Through my studies of martial arts andcombined years of a collective admiration of those in my dojo and famousfigures alike, I’d like to invite you to explore in yourself the following insightsthat practicing martial arts has taught me to live by.

Never give up.This insight is pretty simple and doesn’t really need an explanation. I knowthere is an academic argument for when it makes sense to give up. etc. etc.Basically, it’s all rubbish. Giving up is an expression of ‘it’s too hard’ or‘I don’t like it anymore’ or ‘I’m not seeing the progress that I want to’ or‘it’s a big-time commitment’. To this, I say, bullshit. Get over yourself andget on with it. If you’ve got a broken hand, don’t punch with that fist. Ifyou’re sick, don’t push yourself too hard. This is not about hurting yourself;it’s about showing up. Too often, we willingly take the easy road becausethat’s what most people do.

It’s about consistency and frequency. It never comes down to a single bout, test, grading, belt, competition or training session. It’s about weaving together your decision to live by your ‘ultimate truth’ in every moment. There is nothing magical about it….just hard work and persistence. I’ve worked with thousands of people that have expressed their most compelling aspirations to me, yet aren’t willing to do what it takes to make it come to life. It’s in those moments that you know most people would give up….and if you did, nobody would judge you. Those moments are the turning points or thresholds that you need to cross within yourself. Some might question how to recognise such a moment….to them I say, if all of you wants to run and hide then you’ve found it….you need to stare yourself down and persevere.

Keep showing up and making progress. I know not everyone likes combat sports so my suggestion isn’t to go join your local dojo (although I highly recommend it and guarantee you will discover ‘the truth’…whatever that means to you). I do, however, invite you to stop watching from the sidelines, encouraging others, living in a fantasy world or putting everyone else first. Who cares if you’re crap or don’t know what you’re doing or even if you look like an idiot. It’s through the process of having a go that you’ll discover what drives you, what scares you and what sparks something powerful. It’s about making progress and pursuing a better version of yourself, every day. I

If you'd like to learn more about how I can help you step into life, stop being an observer and start developing who you are, make contact with me here or book in a free 30 min chat to kick start things for you.

Joe Hart 15/4/19 Joe Hart 15/4/19

Are you a master juggler?...or do you keep dropping the ball?

I was staring across the schoolyard basketball court, trying to avoid any eye contact with the cool kids. You know, the group of kids that everyone wants to be ‘in’ with? Well, I wasn’t. I’d recently moved schools and was in year 8, 13 years old and awkward as hell. I was classified as a city kid and didn’t have any friends. To quote Brené Brown , I had to “embrace the suck” and was feeling totally vulnerable.
In this moment of vulnerability, I caught a glimpse of someone on the other side of the basketball court juggling three balls. This wasn’t just a simple juggling pattern like you see in the background of movies like Gladiator, this was some seriously sophisticated juggling. The kind you might expect to see at Cirque du Soleil! I was simply mesmerised and couldn’t help but step out of my fear and vulnerability so I could learn how to juggle.
Predictably, I learned how to juggle, in fact, juggling became such an obsession for me that it was all I really did for a few years. I loved the challenge, the process of learning, the perfect combination of mental stimulation and physical mastery. Sadly, my understanding of society at the time didn’t really reinforce that I should pursue juggling. Instead, I was met with a staunch view that ‘juggling was a game’ and ‘you should focus on your studies’ because ‘juggling will get you nowhere’.

"Juggling is just like life. Embrace the opportunity to learn and you shall be rewarded. Resist the process or attempt to explain it and you will be frustrated to no end."

As life took over, I juggled less, studied more and started succumbing to the inevitable process of detaching from my body through a sedentary existence, sitting at my desk, being inactive for hours on end and losing my strength, flexibility, and mobility. The repercussions of modern life sound heavily biased toward the physical but don’t be fooled. If you are weak, inflexible and not very mobile with your body, your mind has no choice but to follow. It’s similar for somebody who is depressed, anxious or tense, their body language reflects the state of their mind.
While I juggled less, I never stopped completely. At university, I was part of the Circus Society and taught many people how to juggle. For anyone who has worked with me, they know that I have always had juggling balls at my desk and would often use them as a ‘stress down’ activity to bring a bit of fun into the work environment and break things up a little.
A few years ago, I watched Tod Samson’s hit series “redesign my brain” and in one of the episodes, he was tasked with learning how to juggle as a way of improving his brain’s capability. In fact, research has now demonstrated that learning how to juggle increases both white (Scholz et al., 2009) and grey matter (Draganski, et al., 2004; Driemeyer, et al., 2008) in the brain and also reduces anxiety (Nakahara, et al., 2007). Additional benefits include improvement in circulation, posture, hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision, memory, and attention just to name a few. With so many benefits associated with such a simple and accessible task, I started exploring how Juggling could serve as an antidote to the physical and mental stagnation that stifles even the most innovative organisations.
Indeed, Juggling also serves as a powerful metaphor for many of the challenges we face in corporate life. Juggling is one of the best ways to highlight Carol Dweck’s work and diagnose whether someone is exhibiting a fixed or growth mindset (Dweck, 2008). In organisational development, we often speak of wanting to tap into the holy grail of engagement…the ‘flow’ state as outlined in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work (Csikszentmihaly , 1990). Once somebody has learned the basics, Juggling is one of the best ways to replicate the state of flow in anyone. Given the complexity and difficulty faced when learning how to juggle, there are many opportunities to simply give up. Over the years I’ve taught hundreds of people how to juggle and often heard them say “I’m not coordinated enough to juggle” or “I’ve never been good at throwing and catching”, “it takes too long to learn” or my favourite “I’ll never be able to do it…it’s impossible”.
While some people get it more quickly than others, there is one trait that stands out above the rest regarding those that succeed vs those that don’t. It just so happens to line up very nicely with Angela Duckworth’s research on ‘Grit’ (Duckworth, 2016). Those that focus on getting the throw right and aren’t afraid of dropping the ball, are the ones that succeed. They are the same people that consistently drop the ball knowing that each time they do, they further hone their skill and acuity. These are the people who believe that consistent effort will enable them to learn and develop. I’ve come to realise that Juggling is all about the art of learning. It’s a process of dipping in and out of progression (pushing oneself beyond your current capability to develop) and flow (being engrossed in the task to a point where time stands still).
This equilibrium is essential for us to maintain our engagement and vitality for life. When we get too comfortable, we stop growing and we become bored. On the flip side, if we experience too much strain or discomfort, we burn-out. We must embrace and understand the infinite pattern that is at the core of everything. For anyone that has achieved flow while juggling, they will understand and appreciate that the flow of the juggling pattern in a three ball cascade follows the sign of infinity.
Without going too deep and philosophical I wanted to make a few points before closing this out:

Learning to juggle is a fantastic way to change your brain’s composition.
Juggling is a form of active meditation, so it relaxes your mind while stimulating your body; something our modern lives have thrown completely out of whack.
A successful juggler embraces true grit and isn’t afraid of dropping the ball…. Repeatedly and to keep picking them up to try again.
Juggling represents the dynamic process of learning agility by balancing the challenges of growth with the seduction of comfort.
With discipline and consistency, your practice will be rewarded with progress beyond what you ever thought was possible. All within the same infinite framework. This doesn’t have much to do with talent…but a lot to do with motivation and hard work.
Juggling is just like life. Embrace the opportunity to learn and you shall be rewarded. Resist the process or attempt to explain it and you will be frustrated to no end.

I still juggle to this day and continue to deepen my practice. I use juggling in my work as a coach and psychologist to enable people to create conscious change. Therefore, the aspiration is to be both a master juggler and to keep dropping the balls. I’ve learned to love the sound of the dull thud that a juggling ball makes when dropped. It’s no longer a source of frustration or angst but a simple reminder that I’m still learning.

If you’d like me to help you break through barriers, align your team or enhance your organisation’s culture book in a free 30minute discussion so we can discuss how I can support you.

About Joe

Joe’s visionis to enable people to be all of who they are by aligning who they are with whothey want to be. Working with Leaders and their teams, Joe coaches people tohave the conversations that most need to be had. With a Masters ofOrganisational Psychology and 12 years experience as a consultant, coach,facilitator and Culture expert, Joe understands what makes people tick. Joe’sclients love his approachable nature, flexible style and deep insight thatcreates meaningful changes to peoples’ lives.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Draganski B, Gaser C, Busch V, Schuierer G, Bogdahn U, et al. (2004) Changes in grey matter induced by training. Neuroplasticity: Nature 427(6972): 311–312.

Driemeyer J, Boyke J, Gaser C, Bu¨ chel C, May A (2008) Changes in Gray Matter Induced by Learning—Revisited. PLoS ONE 3(7): e2669. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002669

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY, US: Scribner/Simon & Schuster.

Dweck, Carol S.. (2008) Mindset :the new psychology of success New York : Ballantine Books

Nakahara, T., Nakahara, K., Uehara, M. et al. (2007) Effect of juggling therapy on anxiety disorders in female patients. BioPsychoSocial Med, 1: 10. doi:10.1186/1751-0759-1-10

Scholz J,Klein M. C., Behrens T. E. J., Johansen-Berg H. (2009) Training induces changesin white-matter architecture. Nature Neuroscience 12, 1370 – 1371

Joe Hart 29/3/19 Joe Hart 29/3/19

The Magic of Fire

It felt late at night, I glanced at my watch to discover that it was only 8:47pm. There was something magical about fire…how it soothes one's soul, warms one's heart and calms one's mind. While it seemed as though I'd been staring into its playful rhythm for hours on end…barely 10 minutes had passed. It was a cold still night, and earlier I'd decided to build a nice campfire to lift my spirits following on from the past couple of days. This trip was supposed to be my chance to get away from it all and enrich myself with the basics, experiencing nature and eating simple food. Instead, I'd spent two days enduring some fierce weather that involved gale force winds, horizontal rain and less than ideal temperatures. Having endured all that mother nature could throw at me, it felt natural to want to enrich my experience by building a fire.

A task I normally take for granted, turned out to be a challenge that I hadn't anticipated. What is normally as easy as striking a match was now being hindered by the environment, a cold, wet and overall unpleasant campsite. I couldn't help but get annoyed with myself as I brought this suffering into my world. As it happened, the holiday I was seeking turned into the challenge that preventing me from experiencing the nourishment that I thought I so desperately needed. How is it that my planned escape from reality would unearth a new level of suffering when I was meant to be enjoying myself?.... Wrong question! At that point, I realised, by questioning why I wasn't enjoying myself I was becoming a victim of the situation, held hostage to the weather. I could only blame myself which ultimately, led me to more suffering. The better question to ask myself turned out to be far simpler. I was bloody cold, my socks were wet and I was getting more depressed by the minute. I really needed to make a fire…but it seemed hopeless. The right question was "Based on this crappy situation where all the kindling is wet and I have no dry wood, how do I get a bloody fire started?" It was at this point…at the threshold of giving up that it clicked for me. I discovered the magic of fire…..even in the absence of a flame.

"The right question was "Based on this crappy situation where all the kindling is wet and I have no dry wood, how do I get a bloody fire started?" It was at this point…at the threshold of giving up that it clicked for me. I discovered the magic of fire…..even in the absence of a flame."

After gorging myself with toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate the night before, I emerge from my not so dry tent to a smouldering pile of ash with no wood to get the fire started again. The reality was, my environment was constantly shifting and there was a rhythm within the complexity of the shift. Once I'd been camping for a week, I finally got into the discipline of searching for wood the day before I needed it, knowing that I'd be able to capitalise on the hot embers from the previous night in order to build up the fire again the following day. My focus had now shifted from creating fire to one of sustaining fire.

A fire has the power to mesmerize the most active mind and inspire hope in those that feel demoralised. The challenge to get a fire started is fuelled by anticipation of what that fire will create for you. I'd argue that one of the most powerful skills a person can ever learn is how to generate a fire both literally and figuratively. It is a fire that provides us with warmth, the ability to cook our food and provide light for us to see. Regardless of what is happening around you, a fire has an uncanny ability to bring people together in a way that encourages friendship and collaboration.

My experience got me thinking about organisational culture and more specifically, how we create that same magic that fire inspires in a business context.

Most organisational change stories can be linked back to a visionary CEO that paved we way through great leadership and a relentless focus on people. Unfortunately, like in the academic world, we don't ever hear about the many hundreds of unsuccessful experiments that never got published but simply hear about the one or two success stories that gain notoriety. Similarly, in the right conditions, the simple flick of a match can set fire to a blaze that can burn brilliantly without much effort whatsoever. The Australian bushland is notorious for its catastrophic bush fires that can even be a result of a rogue lightning strike.

In contrast, a deliberate and orchestrated change in culture is all too often met with an insurmountable brick wall that further reinforces that change is hard, not for the faint-hearted, fails more often than it succeeds and for most…can't really be changed despite what all the culture change specialists tell us. Culture evolution on the other hand (non-deliberate) simply represents reality, the very nature of how we and the organisation as a system operate. It will change and must change…. regardless of how deliberately we direct or sculpt the shift. The distinction here is that the culture of an organisation is always changing whether we like it or not. The issue with traditional culture change is that it follows a linear ( from x to y, time 1 to time 2) change process for something that is constantly changing anyway. Simply put, if you know it's about to rain do you wash your car? If you're about to move to a new house would you change the layout of your bedroom? If your organisation is about to go through a restructure do you pull everyone together for a team building offsite?

Back to my analogy of fire……too often, culture is limited to a discussion that revolves around the immediate environment and what you get from it…be it experience or tangible "stuff". My desk, my fruit, my massage fairies, my manager, my team, my tasks, my car space, my salary, my processes, my systems…and the list goes on. How we currently conceptualise culture and the change we aspire to create is very much about what people "get" as a result of the change. WIIFM is the approach that most consultancies and HR practitioners use to determine if people are going to jump on board the rusty old change bus they so religiously keep refuelling year after year. The reality is, the sooner that we see the environment as something that either fuels or hinders our culture, the better. In order to create something sustainable, the environment (emotional and physical) needs to be recognised as:

Constantly in a state of flux and change so nothing stays the same

A critical factor that influences my mindset, behaviour, and success

Something that is within my control to enhance

When camping, fire is an essential ingredient to ensure that one returns home feeling fully rejuvenated. Ever tried camping in the rain? More specifically, ever tried lighting a fire when you are camping and it just so happens to be raining? Yeah……not the most fun you've had I'm sure. What's more, is the need for fire when it's raining is so much greater. You are most likely wet and cold and can't find any dry wood….so it's hard to get that first spark going. Even if you do happen to get a flame going, keeping it going is even harder!

Applying this thinking within organisations, we are only ever setting camp up temporarily (ok so I'm sure there are a few ‘lifers' out there challenging this notion, but for most, they join an organisation knowing that it's not forever). We know it's going to be an experience, we know we need to generate a fire and we know we will need to take our constantly changing environment into consideration in order to do so. We also know if we depend on anyone else to build a fire for us or expect that it's already going to be lit and sustained before we get to camp…..we may have made some pretty poor assumptions.

"We also know if we depend on anyone else to build a fire for us or expect that it's already going to be lit and sustained before we get to camp…..we may have made some pretty poor assumptions."

The truth is, before you build a fire, you need to survey the environment when you arrive. Often, we have an idea of what the environment is like but when we finally arrive at our destination, we see it for what it is. Are you experiencing a cold, wet, dark, windy campsite that is positioned smack bang on top of a smelly quagmire? If so, you know that starting a fire is 1) super important and 2) bloody difficult. The first thing you need to do is think about how you can increase your chances of being successful in getting the fire started because another certainty is that anyone else on the campsite is going to be facing the same challenges.

While fire certainly feels magic….there are some tangible steps you can take to build one.

Step 1- Build a shelter: It doesn't need to be grand, but you do need somewhere that you can get out of the elements and enable yourself to start the process of creating a fire.
Step 2- Gather some fuel: You need the fuel to get a fire cranking ready to go. Ideally, this is as dry as possible and starting with small kindling, increases incrementally as the fire increases in size.
Step 3- Create a spark to get things cranking: The first spark is the hardest and will need fine attention to detail to ensure that it takes. This takes perseverance and patients when facing off against the elements. As painful as it is, you can't skip past this step and come back to it later.
Step 4- Build it up and sustain: Now that you've got a good flame going, you need to carefully stack the wood on (without smothering it) to ensure that it builds up to the desired intensity. It's easy to get carried away at this stage and overdo it….either burning through all of your fuel unsustainably or snuffing it out completely.
Step 5- Sit back and bask in the magic: Once you've got it cranking and found a rhythm and balance for the amount of fuel you need to keep feeding it, you can sit back relax and bust out the marshmallows. It's time to bask in the warmth that it throws offs, stare into the endless complexity and predictable unpredictability of the flames, share stories, laugh, engage and ultimately nourish yourself.

Rather than seeing the responsibility of culture as an HR thing or something that the CEO has to drive, think of culture as a whole group of people collectively taking responsibility for their own campsite, knowing full well that if they don't take the necessary steps to ensure they can build a fire in their current environment, they are likely going to get cold, have no light and nothing to eat. Having said all of that, if someone is in despair, there is usually a few free spots around the campfire for those in need. It takes nothing away from the fire to have an extra person experience its warmth.

My challenge to you…..take a look right now at your environment. What's the lay of the land….is there a storm coming? Are you experiencing a considerably frosty winter? Or is the environment more like the Australian bushland in the middle of January, hot dry and ready to burn? Regardless, you need to take the necessary steps to identify what it will take for you to understand your current situation, search for the necessary fuel and shelter, create the spark that takes you from the hope of generating fire to the reality of sustaining the level of light and warmth that you need. This is not a set-and-forget exercise but something that you need to adopt as part of your daily discipline. If you don't continually monitor your fire, you'll either end up burnt or your fire will simply flare up and go out.

Joe Hart 8/8/17 Joe Hart 8/8/17

Why is Executive Coaching Important?

People, engagement and culture – It’s life or death

I became a Psychologist because I have a deep fascination in understanding people and using this understanding to influence how they behave. To me, regardless of how it is perceived, all behaviour is simply ‘interesting’. When I first started working as an Organisational Psychologist, like many others, I was quickly introduced to the world of spreadsheets and data collection which, in truth, I found pretty draining and monotonous. Within my first few weeks I had compiled numerous presentations describing the engagement and culture of organisations but the work I was doing didn’t feel ‘real’. I couldn’t help but notice that the data looked quite similar from one organisation to the next and that the recommendations that went with that were somewhat generic. Of course, there were differences in the data but to what extent those differences were expressed in real behavioural terms was unknown to me at the time. After a few months, an opportunity arose to conduct some qualitative focus groups. In preparing for the brief, I reviewed the quantitative results and noted that they were pretty low (in the bottom 10% of the global database) and the CEO had flat out rejected the quantitative data and demanded that we go speak to the frontline to determine the ‘truth’, which in his mind, was that the engagement levels were some of the highest in the world. As my first road trip, I was extremely excited to be out and about but also to test my belief that the data may not be real and that the last few months of my career had'nt been a big fat waste of time.The client was a manufacturing and engineering organisation, 98% male with 0% females in leadership positions. In fact, the first group that I presented to was about sixty people of which I was informed at least two were female. They were so well disguised amongst the group (most likely out of self-preservation or fear) that it took me until the end of the session before I could point them out. So, there I was, in a room full of blokes that according to the data, were some of the most disengaged people on the planet. Was it real? I tried to ask myself that question at the time but the giant lump in my throat induced by a combination of fear, anxiety and utter disbelief confirmed it was valid. The reality was, the CEO was wrong. What I experienced from the group was deep seeded anger, bitterness, resentment and learned helplessness and this all confirmed what the data had first indicated. What’s worse is when presented with the 'qualitative truth' as requested, the CEO was adamant that we had made an error and that our research methodology was incorrect.There were a few important lessons from that first gig that I carry with me wherever I go.

The data is real but represents a generalised view of what’s going on and often overlooks the important factors that reflect truth.
Speaking to people and eyeballing the organisation is essential in determining the truth but needs to be complemented by some far reaching quantitative data.
What the CEO and executive team choose to accept and believe determines the reality of the organisation. If they believe they are engaged, no data however compelling will convince them otherwise. There must be a level of openness and receptivity in order to create change.
Ultimately, qualitative data represents the truth and quantitative data represents how generalisable that truth really is. The real power comes from interpreting them together.

About 6 months later, I learned that the organisation had suffered due to some severe cases of bullying and harassment. Sadly, this was so chronic for one young man that he decided to end his life as a result. I considered if I had done enough to educate the executive team that they had a significant problem or if I could have been more influential. In essence, I couldn’t have done any more as there was no appetite for change amongst the leadership. From this outcome emerged a powerful sense of purpose in the work that I do and people that I help. If you talk about people initiatives being ‘fluffy’ or brand them as ‘discretionary spend’, I challenge you to consider that people initiatives are real, lives are at risk and you have the ability to help save them. That is why executive coaching is important.