Learning, Growing, Changing

I wrote the following letter as pre-work for a team meeting I facilitated several years ago during the pandemic. Our session focused on well-being and personal development, integrating what we know from the scientific study of engagement at work (Christina Maslach) and resilience (Karen Reivich). My timing was impeccable. I sent it out on a Friday. The following week, an unsettling national event jarred us all. Our Friday meeting was a desperately needed space for discussion and growth.

My colleague Jakob Franzen, MCC wrote about the "mid-week executive pause"?this week,?so I took a moment to re-read it. It's as relevant as ever.

The title of our session was "Learning, Growing, and Changing," based on this inspirational and very cool song. You might find it helpful this week...

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The world in which we work is changing faster than ever. Increasing complexity and volatility drive uncertainty and ambiguity. Such complexity and volatility must be understood and addressed rationally, but ambiguity and uncertainty must be engaged and addressed emotionally. We all need to learn different things faster and in other ways.

Novel and adverse experiences can enable growth. But this growth requires inwardly reflecting with curiosity and humility, challenging our assumptions, and zooming out. We also need others or encouragement, a sense of belonging, dialogue, collaboration, and coaching. The more resilient we are, the more (and better) we can learn as individuals and with others.

Resilience is the ability to grow and thrive in the face of challenges and bounce back from adversity. It isn’t a fixed personality trait or the result of a lucky scramble of genes. Resilience is a set of skills that anyone can learn. Even the most resilient individuals have non-resilient moments. Everyone can improve their resilience.

Resilience can be built through core competencies that enable high performance, effective leadership, and goal achievement. These building blocks are optimism, self-awareness, self-regulation, mental agility, and connecting with others. Optimism is the engine of resilience, critical for peak mental and physical strength. Optimism isn’t a personality trait but a thinking style and mindset. We can learn to be more optimistic thinkers.

Optimistic thinkers focus on solutions when change isn’t possible and accept when it isn’t. They are more accurate in how much control they have, take better care of themselves, and are likelier to try new strategies when the current ones aren’t working. Optimistic thinkers learn from failure, finding meaning in setbacks rather than dwelling on mistakes. Compared to pessimistic thinkers, optimistic thinkers are happier and healthier, seen as better leaders, have stronger relationships, perform better under pressure, and are more successful in school and work.

Resilience also enables our well-being at work and prevents burnout in three ways. We bring physical vitality and emotional energy to our work instead of feeling exhausted and drained. We demonstrate interpersonal awareness and empathy instead of depersonalizing others. We feel productive and have a sense of achievement instead of a diminished sense of personal accomplishment.

We can enable others' well-being by giving them as much control over their workload as possible, providing reward and recognition, creating psychological safety (e.g., support, trust, civility), being fair in practices and decisions, and inspiring a shared sense of purpose.

As the saying goes, we can’t stop the waves but can learn how to surf. I look forward to learning, growing, and changing with you.

PS: I wanted to title this article "Learning, Growing, Changing (WTF?)", apropos for this week.