What the New Emotional Intelligent Leader Knows About PTG

I introduced the New Emotional Intelligent Leader in the previous blog, Disrupting the Leadership Role in Response to Trauma and PTG. As the “future of work” and workplace models go through disruption daily, there is a louder voice from my clients who say, “I want to lead differently.” or “I want to be a different kind of a leader.” Their time has come! Their choice to lead differently is being validated.

"Change it all - the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, and our livelihoods." Invest in Our Planet, 2022 Earth Day 

Before we take on changing it all, let's attend to recovery and take some time - with commitment, due diligence, and tenacity - to respond to the effects of trauma (insecurity) being experienced by everyone at this time. Make no mistake: trauma can happen to anyone, it does, and it has. Let's take some steps to clear the path and provide a foundation for post traumatic growth (PTG) at work.

Emotionally intelligent leaders intentionally ramp up their authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy. They engage in conversations about trauma. They don’t delegate to HR; they don’t ignore it; and they don’t put a flashy positive façade on it – like “business is great”, “I’m great”, or post happy-face emojis. They courageously provide and reinforce an environment for psychological safety in which everyone (leaders and employees) can share their stories, restore their wellbeing, and re-affirm their sense of purpose. How?

The New Purpose for Meetings

During the pandemic, many of my clients revisited the practice of regular weekly meetings. Intentional, purpose-driven, and effective meetings. Not simply rah-rah. Definitely, not to keep tabs on remote workers.

Pre-pandemic, meetings were often dismissed as timewasters. Meetings got a bad rap with good reasons: psychological minefields; power-plays; grandstanding; silenced voices and no commitment to showing up or following up.

Clients who lead with emotional intelligence have since re-evaluated the value of meetings with a clear purpose and structure to connect and measure the pulse of the well-being of their employees and leaders. Adding the “Segue” at the beginning of the meeting sets the tone for pro-actively assessing individual and group well-being and reinforcing psychological safety.

Many clients have added personal one-to-one check-ups into their leadership culture and have reinforced with all direct reports at every level of the organization that meetings are no longer focused solely on bottom-line activities and measurement. The emotionally intelligent leader recognizes that meetings involve people and hence, the well-being of individuals and groups/teams is a significant measurement impacting top-line success. I am encouraged to see new tools and new strategies for focusing on the top-line being embraced. It’s time!

Impact the Top-Line with Group Storytelling for PTG

Here is an effective storytelling exercise published during the pandemic in Harvard Business Review ¹.  Using an outline of key questions, leaders can help employees validate an experience and move forward constructively. Below are five questions, tailored to pandemic recovery:

1. What is your greatest loss as a result of the pandemic?
2. What is your greatest gain as a result of the pandemic?
3. What self-discoveries have you, or are you making as a result of the pandemic?
4. How can you apply your discoveries going forward? What would it look like?
5. What can you use to prompt you to apply your discovery? Specifically, what two words or phrase?

These questions are commonly used by professional coaches in the process of supporting anyone who is moving through transition and/or re-invention after trauma. You can adjust the questions for any event - a milestone birthday or a career change.

Setting guidelines and boundaries is critical for group storytelling. While the best-case scenario would be to train everyone on the best practices for “group facilitation”, designing an agenda that reminds people of best practices for leading and participating in meetings is helpful.

When using this exercise in a group setting, a best practice for ensuring psychological safety is to remind group members consistently and sometimes firmly to

• Refrain from cross talk. Don’t interrupt or comment on what someone else has said.
• Refrain from judgement and/or giving advice.
• Be aware of your own body language and the non-verbal messages you send.
• Remember that whatever is shared is confidential – “Their story is their story to share when and to whom they choose. Their story is not yours to share.” Otherwise, it’s gossip and a breach in personal privacy.
• Listen as “attentive companions” and “trusted colleagues” to create and hold a safe space for one another.

When we use storytelling based on these questions and honour best practices, we express authenticity, vulnerability, empathy, and trust: for others and in others.

What has been your experience with well-facilitated storytelling? Is this a conversation you would like to continue?

Would you like to explore the connections I make with this topic and emotional intelligence? You can reach me on LinkedIn. Or click to Get in Touch.

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Resources:

1. An Exercise to Help Your Team Overcome the Trauma of the Pandemic, Lisa Zigarmi and Davia Larson, September 1, 2020,  Harvard Business Review.