May You Be Dopamine Dressed in 2022

A reflection on various topics that had me thinking this year.

Last morning, a friend of mine in the music entertainment industry whose gigs have been curtailed this season ended a Facebook post with the line, “Here's to 2022! If it's half as much as what 2021 was, I'll take it!” It was a grim reminder of what the year has been, and that even if the next year is half as bad, it would still be good for many.

Many of us began 2021 on a note of much optimism and hope amidst news of preventive vaccines for COVID-19. Yet, just as the grass started to grow greener, the flowers began to bloom, and the birds began to sing, a dark, gigantic second wave rushed in to drown them all. The force and manner in which lives were snatched away from us exposed our own vulnerabilities. A question on one’s wellbeing was always met with a, “As of now, I’m good,” indicative of the transient nature of everything at the time, even life.

Recovery took long. We as a nation, as a people, had to rebuild emotionally as we came to grips with who and what we had lost. And just as we were ending the last quarter looking forward to some sense of normalcy, came the news of a new variant, and numbers have started to surge. If we go by what epidemiologists are predicting, we could see close to two months of the Omicron wave in India. It’s not an end-of-year message we were all hoping for.

The last day of the year is usually, for me, a day of gratitude. It’s also a time when I look ahead, not so much setting goals but at what I can carry forward with me into the new year. It’s been hard to do the latter in a year where we’ve been catapulted tornado-like into tumult but here are some of the topics that have given me a lot to think about during the year, personally and professionally.

Making Invisible Leaders Visible: What we thought in 2020 would be a short-term blip in how we worked is now a long-term one. As organisations came out of 2020 evaluating various models of the future of work, there was no doubt that it would be hybrid. One of the biggest challenges in a hybrid world is building visibility and presence for “invisible” leaders, and ensuring consistency of organisation culture and employee experience. Technology will probably rise to make the virtual more real through VR and other technologies, but will it have the same impact as meeting your leader in an office corridor or at a town hall, and can it ever replace casual, impromptu conversations? In an office environment, where physical spaces and design help foster an organisation’s culture and enhance the employee experience, how does a hybrid model build consistency of experience across those who work from the office and those who work from home? 2022 will tell us more.

Women and the Power of Networks: One of the best professional decisions I made late last year was to sign up for a Personal Advisory Board (PAB) with Power Women. Over the last 12 months, despite all that was happening around us, our PAB, drawn from four countries, met every fortnight. The fact that we came from different professions and experiences and were at different stages in our careers contributed to meaningful and enriching discussions as we discussed our goals and aspirations, professional and occasionally personal challenges in a safe, non-judgemental space. The PAB came with the added bonus of enhancing our knowledge and networks through participation in learning sessions addressed by fascinating men and women from across the world. Going into 2022, the PAB will continue to be my sounding board, and I hope that many more women will recognise the value and power of women's networks and PABs.

Ageism is for Real: One of our early PAB events was a session by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a gender and generational expert, through whom I was introduced to the concept of ageism which has since taken me on a fascinating voyage of discovery about an important aspect of D&I that receives little attention. As a leading gendered ageism expert Bonnie Marcus says, “The way we view aging starts with us and being aware of our own ageist assumptions that can potentially hold us back.” Ageism is not just about growing old. Recent research shows that it impacts younger generations as much as it impacts older ones, with women having it worse at both ends of the spectrum. Hopefully, 2022 will see ageism gain more traction with organisations adopting ageism policies, and communicators across all streams of communication creating more ageism-sensitive campaigns.

What’s In It for PR: Take the two topics I have mentioned above and you will know what, for me, is one of the most important challenges the PR industry faces – that of retaining and growing women leaders. It is ironic that in an industry focused on building reputation, we have a major internal challenge ourselves of creating an environment that allows women to progress in their careers. Research by Global Women in PR (GWPR) has revealed that although the?global PR industry is two-thirds female, men still hold 64 per cent of seats in the boardroom. My own discussions with many women in PR this year led to an article I wrote on PR interview biases that act as barriers to women launching and/or continuing their careers in PR. Women In PR (WIPR) recently ran a survey which indicated that over 34% of women working in communications experienced ageism in the workplace, over 50% of women under 50 admitted they didn’t see a future in the industry they worked in, and 26% of the 18-34 age group expected to leave the industry altogether. None of this augurs well for women in PR and I only hope?that more concerted efforts will go into addressing the deep-rooted issues that women in our industry face.

Mental Health Counts: As I watched events of the second wave unfold on television screens, I kept thinking of the trauma patients and their families were going through and the long-term mental health effects on them and the medical community. Later in the year, through the assignment submissions of my PR students, I read what they experienced this year as they shared their fears and anxieties, and sleepless nights. No matter which group you look at, each one’s lived experiences through the year has been nothing short of anxiety-ridden. According to Google - Year In Search 2021, the world searched “how to heal” more than ever with “how to maintain mental health” searched more this year globally than ever before. The pandemic’s toll on mental health is one that will take a long time to recover from, and I hope that we will see more investments in mental health programmes.

Leading with Compassion: If there was one good that came out of the second wave, it was of the goodness of people. From individuals, from not-for-profit organisations, from corporates. From strangers and friends, from families and colleagues. People dug deep into bottomless holes of compassion to help and support each other, and it was collective kindness that saw us through a very dark period in 2021. CEO World says kindness is the new superpower for leaders but I believe it is the new superpower for everyone.

On that note, my wish for 2022 is that, no matter what the year may bring, we all carry compassion and kindness with us through the year. I also sincerely hope we will do away with the word “resilience”. It served its purpose in 2020 but it elevates and glorifies a behavioural response to the disadvantage of those who may not be as optimistic and struggle to be resilient. The very fact that “how to be resilient” is also a top Google – Year In Search 2021 tells you something about how unnecessarily aspirational it is becoming.

And finally, in 2022, dress yourself happy! It’s one way to deal with the external world. Dress Dopamine, a term coined by American fashion psychologist Dr Dawnn Karen earlier in the pandemic after she prescribed a?physician client to wear anything bright…to boost levels of dopamine, our pleasure neurotransmitter. “The chemical dopamine is released within the brain, triggering the nervous system,” she explains.?“Dopamine kicks in when we reward ourselves, perform self-care and achieve a?goal. It can also evoke feelings of happiness, joy and supreme elation.” Read more here

May your 2022 be better than 2021...

?