Pathway to Flourishing: Employee Self-Agency and the New Social Contract

[Welcome to Issue 3 of 'Cultivating Vibrant Workplaces.' In this issue, I have the honour of featuring a profile of my recent interview with John Toomey, CEO of Wide Awake Wellness, that will be featured in our forthcoming book, Cultivating Healthy & Vibrant Workplaces. We hope you find it both informative and inspirational!]

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the biggest overhaul of work since the Industrial Revolution. Almost overnight, the corporate world transitioned to a de facto Work from Home (WFH) model. This is more than a shift in where work is done; it’s a massive workplace reboot. (1)

From my research and interviews for our forthcoming book, a key impact or outcome that has emerged from this pandemic is that employees have felt adrift in the new virtual workplace. Many continue to seek clarity on work expectations and work priorities, and the boundaries they should now work within.?

In my continued quest to identify optimal work, leadership, and workplace wellness practices for hybrid work environments, I interviewed John Toomey, a frequent presenter in our certification programs, and author of ''In it for the Long Haul" (a highly recommended book). As CEO of Wide-Awake Wellness Pty Ltd and Chair of the Workplace Well-being Initiative for the Global Wellness Institute, John is both an expert and influencer in the workplace wellness space. (2)

As you are about to discover, we engaged in a deep and forward-looking discussion (both during and following our interview), on how agency and self-determinism can support personal governance, self-leadership, and organizational growth in post-pandemic times.

Our illuminating interview revealed the importance of “self-agency” as a critical skill, particularly for virtual work. We also discussed the imperative of a new employer-employee “Social Contract,” and the interrelationship and interdependence of these two constructs.

Introducing Self-Agency. Self-agency is often defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free?choices, the feeling of control over actions and their consequences, or the ability to decide for oneself. (3)

“Personal agency?puts people in the driver’s seat, allowing escape from confining habits, unthinking routines, and circumstances controlled largely by (reacting to) other people's expectations and other situational demands. Personal agency helps people choose their own paths (or make clear decisions) and influence short-term outcomes plus longer-term destinies.” (4)

Mary Lamia, in her article in Psychology Today, provides one of the best descriptions of self-agency. As you read it, reflect on how it might apply to your personal mindset, how you engage in your work, and how you manage work relationships with your manager, direct reports, and colleagues.

“Your ability to take action, be effective, influence your own life, and assume responsibility for your behavior are important elements in what you bring to a relationship. This sense of agency is essential for you to feel in control of your life: to believe in your capacity to influence your own thoughts and behavior and have faith in your ability to handle a wide range of tasks or situations. Having a sense of agency influences your stability as a separate person; it is your capacity to be psychologically stable, yet?resilient?or flexible, in the face of conflict or change.” (5)

To hone “self-agency” and build critical life skills, Mary encourages reflecting on areas in your life in which you feel very successful and areas in which you would like to be successful but are not (i.e., work and/or personal). Then, discern how you might apply the techniques that helped you to achieve success to those areas you might wish to further develop.

Very much connected to agency, fostering work-life balance, integrity, or harmony (pick which one resonates with you), is about a person understanding the requirements of his or her individual work role and delivering on those requirements to the very best of his or her ability, while always caring for the greater welfare of the organization. John suggests that whether it takes 30 or 45 hours is not as relevant as performing the job well. In this same vein, if an employee is constantly under or overworked, from a moral code perspective, he or she should speak up (as we will discuss further on).

To put context around this, John shared that, in Zappos’ implementation of the Holocracy model, all employees were expected to write their own job descriptions and then deliver on them. One rule, from his understanding of their approach, was that if you were moving through the organization and you noticed something that was out of kilter, then it was your responsibility as an employee or leader, to step up to ensure the situation was corrected.

Co-creating the way forward with 'Social Contracts.' If there was ever a time for organizations and employees to collectively review, update or create a Social Contract, now is it. These fluid times have left both leaders and employees feeling especially vulnerable and without a compass or rudder in unchartered and tumultuous waters.

A Social Contract can therefore be a north star, a uniter, and a wellspring of hope for these dynamic times. Here is a compelling definition to help set the context for what is to follow.

“Social Contracts are explicit written statements that clearly lay out the company’s plans, actions and priorities related to employees’ health, safety, and mental well-being. Their purpose is to let employees know exactly what to expect, and who they can approach if they have questions or worries.” (6)

It is crucial that employers have clear and honorable intentions that are transparent to employees, and not be suspected of operating on hidden agendas. Remember, mistakes and setbacks are to be viewed as opportunities to learn and grow versus failures or transgressions. To quote an ancient Lakota Sioux Proverb, “You are who you are. You are not what you have done.”

A Social Contract might include elements such as:

• “Greater work flexibility across all roles and job levels;
• Proactive health support, with added emphasis on mental health care;
• Provision for ‘personal needs’ support, including offers of proactive help for employees with increased caretaking responsibilities (ideas proposed include contributions towards home help, online food vouchers, tutors for children not yet back at school, and more);
• A stronger and deliberate stand on inclusion, equity and diversity.” (7)

“Going the extra mile has never been more important, as employers seek to smooth the way back to business as usual. Working together to find solutions is a very inclusive approach that resonates well with employees. Making ongoing collaboration part of the company culture should be a priority… Experimentation should be encouraged.” (8)

Empowerment—the bedrock of Social Contracts. Perhaps the quintessential element of Social Contracts and a thriving work culture is empowerment.

Brad Killinger defines empowerment as: “the key element that enables both employers and employees to confidently lead. Empowerment on both sides of the employer-employee equation creates a balance and ensures that workplace expectations are fulfilled on both sides. For employers, this feeling of empowerment is the ability to navigate, shift and pivot to fine-tune operations to match the organizations’ work capacity and talent-base with the work volume and business requirements. Employees can feel adrift in the new remote workplace. Workers need clarity on expectations and priorities; employers need accountability. The way to ensure both is to provide a digital workplace with the appropriate structure and guardrails so that employees have a clear understanding of work priorities and expectations. Equipping employees with the right tools to support productivity and engagement is every employer’s responsibility to ensure employees can succeed moving forward in the remote workforce.” (9)

The new Social Contract presents organizations with an incredible opportunity to leverage well-being as a strategic business tool to not only realize cost containment but to increase productivity and enhance recruitment and retention of top talent.

When new work practices and wellness programs, for example, are created 'with' employees versus 'for' them, they will come to expect that every touchpoint of their work experience will be influenced by terms of the new Social Contract.

In the context of employee/organizational well-being, to honor the new Social Contract, it will be important for executives and leaders to actively participate in wellness offerings and be transparent about their own wellness challenges and efforts.

If self-care as an organizational strategic priority is to be truly believed, adopted, and embraced, employees will expect managers and senior leaders to walk their talk and demonstrate “visible permission” by engaging in workday wellness activities and program initiatives.?

There is perhaps no better example of 'leading by example' than this personal disclosure in a LinkedIn post by CEO and TEDx Speaker, Manu Nellutla, October 2021(shared with his permission).

“I am taking a mental health day off this Friday. I announced this to my team this Monday at the team huddle. As a leader of an organization, I am also vulnerable to the many meetings, activities, strategies, personal stuff, and work situations. Over time my mental health also gets affected, no matter how much I try to be positive. Hence no hesitation to say that I am taking a mental health day off to unwind and recover. I also hope that this sends a message to my team members that it is okay to pause, unwind and recover if you are feeling stressed.” (10)

Nurturing 'Psychological Capital' and 'Psychological Safety' through Social Contracts. Wellness programs and healthy work cultures will only flourish to the extent that both Psychological Capital (defined as HERO: Hope, Self-Efficacy, Resilience, Optimism) and Psychological Safety are nurtured. Think of these constructs as the peanut butter and jam to a PB & J sandwich. They go hand in hand, you simply can’t have one without the other. Through self-agency, inclusivity, and the collective will and efforts to establish a 'speak-up culture' (especially in hybrid work environments), Psychological Capital and Psychological Safety by all accounts should develop over time. But to be sure, everyone has a role to play. Employees can’t expect leaders to do all the heavy lifting. The secret sauce is to create an environment by and for all, founded on trust and respect. One where all voices and opinions matter and need to be heard.

From a team perspective, “There’s no team without trust,” says Paul Santagata, Head of Industry at Google. In a Harvard Business Review article, he refers to a massive two-year?study on team performance which revealed that: "the highest-performing teams have one thing in common: Psychological Safety, the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake.?Studies?show that Psychological Safety allows for moderate risk-taking, speaking your mind, creativity, and sticking your neck out without fear of having it cut off—just the types of behaviour that lead to market breakthroughs.” (11)

As we expanded our discussion on the development of new Social Contracts, John offered these additional considerations and opportunities. He proposed that employees should be encouraged to go for higher ideals. Living a virtuous life and nurturing one's personal values are powerful ways to build self-esteem. Values such as kindness, compassion, care, guardianship, courage, resilience, humour, gratitude, forgiveness, acknowledgement, encouragement, support, acceptance, selfless service.

Cultivating 'Curious Minds'. Safe and high-performing work environments (key pillars of Social Contracts), are those that embrace and foster 'active appreciative inquiry.' Employees and leaders should be encouraged to approach their work from a place of curiosity, and to “seek to understand before being understood.” (12) Through coach skill-building, Workplace Wellness and HR leaders can help organizational leaders develop skills in situational coaching to support the 'whole employee.'

Leaders as coaches. Imagine if, when employees make a mistake, leaders fully explore the situation with the employee as an opportunity to learn and grow, achieve personal discoveries and realizations, and then shared such learnings with the whole team. Perhaps not all the time, but occasionally, and where valuable work and life lessons could be disseminated.

'Happiness comes from what we do for others.' I love this sentiment that John shared in our interview. He then posed the following questions that really got me thinking…

• What if both employees and leaders approached their work with a 'Servant Leadership' mindset?
• How might we bake a 'Happiness' sentiment into the Social Contract?
• How might leaders tap into their own 'Why,' their true personal needs and wants for themselves, their organization, and those they support?

Enter Workplace Wellness leaders. John expands on the above questions with the suggestion that Workplace Wellness leaders can help both employees and managers tap into their personal truths and needs as workers and as human beings.

He proposes that Workplace Wellness leaders would be well-served to sit down with senior leaders over coffee and say, “Let's get really real about the world right now,” and then asked the following questions.

• What are your fears for our organization?
• What do YOU want?
• What do you fear for your people?”

He suggests we approach these and other questions with curiosity and interest, not with a fixed idea of what the answer should be. (I agreed that collectively, we need to get better at being vulnerable, having a growth versus fixed mindset, being super curious, and allowing the answers to naturally surface.)

In short, through inclusive, employee-driven initiatives, Workplace Wellness Leaders can help employees and leaders alike become inspired in and by their work. They can help them work from a place of inspiration and collective good. A place of serving and supporting humanity for the greater good through purposeful work versus shareholder return.

These next two questions posed by John really intrigued me. “What if or how might Workplace Wellness leaders inspire members of their organization to become dedicated to their own growth as a person? How might they be instrumental in helping employees in their journey towards Maslow’s ‘Self Actualization’?”

Developing as a person and achieving self-actualization, John suggests, might mean a number of things, including…

• Finding a strong sense of purpose in life.
• Becoming fully aligned with one’s own moral code.
• Continuing to evolve...using mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow.
• Choosing to reach for personal responsibility in all situations.

As it relates to personal agency and the Social Contract, John suggests that being fully and personally responsible involves:

1. Making decisions and taking actions in alignment with one's moral compass.
2. Owning one's mistakes, errors, and poor choices and discovering what was behind them so that genuine learning and growth can occur.

Bringing the 'Social Contract' to Life. It was perhaps John’s simple tactical tips for fostering open and safe work cultures that really lit me up (although, if being honest, he had me captivated as always from the moment I hit the Zoom recording button at the start of our interview).?

He suggests that when employees make mistakes, it can jar them into self-protection mode, a place where they may become inhibited from further exploring or learning. A place that he describes as, 'living in pretense,' which can be destructive to the employee’s self-esteem and agency and can erode team trust. To help prevent or mitigate such, he offers the following personal/team development exercises.

[Exercise #1] 10 Things You May Not Know About Me. In a safe environment, have employees open up and share with their closest team members, 10 things that others may not know about them (the good, the bad and even the ugly, as they say). This should be set up as a space of no judgement or negative reaction. A space where team members become reminded that 'my teammates have flaws just like me, just like all of us.'

As he frames it, once everyone knows their team members are neither saints nor archangels, they then become more real with each other. In this space, employees feel safe in expressing themselves and putting their ideas to the test. It helps them 'fall forward,' and through such, enhances bench strength. Exercises such as this can also help break down a culture of pretense. It helps people see each other’s flaws, and can serve as powerful growth opportunities for all, including leaders.

[Exercise #2] The Power of Setting Intentions. John suggests that following Exercise #1, employees might talk about the power of setting intentions in different work situations such as:

• Starting a new day
• Starting a new project
• Going into a meeting
• Taking on a new role
• Making a phone call to a client or supplier

[Exercise #3] Assessing My Day. As a follow-up exercise to 'Intention Setting', at the end of the day, employees might be encouraged to reflect on the following questions.

• How was my day overall?
• Did my day turn out as I had planned and hoped?
• Did I honor and fulfill my intentions?
• Did I remain aligned with and true to my intentions (or did I pivot in any way, and why)?
• What could I have done differently or better?
• Gratitude Reflection: What are 3 things I am most grateful for today? What role did I play in manifesting them?

Following our interview, John sent these additional considerations that leaders might reflect on, model and encourage, to help their employees flourish, live their truth, and hone their agency. He suggests we need to make stretching out of our comfort zone (i.e., as leaders and employees), a desirable thing—something we want for ourselves and are able to engage in. He believes that leaders can initiate this by helping employees identify goals that inspire them, such as opportunities to care for and be guardians of the world; and delivering value through the creation of products and services that make the world a better place.

If I were, to sum up, key takeaways from our interview, it would be that employees and teams are motivated by high goals, strong virtues (values) and the pursuit of initiatives that align with their moral code. They need to know that they matter and are making a difference. And that members of cohesive, high-performing teams will stand alongside each other, and have each other’s backs.

Here's what we are working on for you...

The Workplace Wellness Centre of Excellence will be launching a?'Leader Turned Coach' course?in spring/summer 2022 to help leaders of all levels (including Workplace Wellness professionals) acquire and amplify employee-centered coaching skills for supporting employee well-being, performance, and development in both virtual and onsite work environments. Join our?VIP list?to be notified of the course launch!

Sign up for our?Book Registry?today to receive notifications of our summer 2022 book launch and special promotional offers!

Also, be watching for future 'Cultivating Vibrant Workplaces' Newsletters featuring additional previews from our forthcoming book, 'Cultivating Healthy & Vibrant Workplaces' and future CHVW Podcast (WWCOE YouTube channel).

#cultivatingvibrantworkplacesnewsletter #workplacewellnesscentreofexcellence #cultivatinghealthyandvibrantworkplacesbook2022

?Sources:

1. Brad Killinger, “Post-COVID Workplace Requires New Social Contract,” DigitalWorkforceTrends, July 27, 2020, accessed on December 15, 2021, https://www.digitalworkforcetrends.com/story/14472/post-covid-workplace-requires-new-social-contract.
2. John Toomey, CEO, Wide Awake Wellness, interview with Lisa Kelly, October 12, 2021.
3. ?James W. Moore, “What is the Sense of Agency and Why Does it Matter?” Frontiers in Psychology, August 29, 2016, accessed on December 15, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-42936-001.
4. Thomas Bateman, “Personal Agency Drives a New-Look Motive Heirarchy,” Medium, April 24, 2020, accessed on December 15, 2021, https://medium.com/leading-and-managing/personal-agency-drives-a-new-look-motive-hierarchy-2b7c1c84a8ac.
5. Mary C. Lamia, “Your Sense of Agency: Are You in Control of Your Life?,” Psychology Today, September 24, 2010, accessed on December 15, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-white-knight-syndrome/201009/your-sense-agency-are-you-in-control-your-life..
6. Andie Burjek, Lauren Dixon, Geri Anne Fennessey and Sarah Fister Gale, “The New Employer-Employee Social Contract.” Talent Economy, May 8, 2017, accessed on December 15, https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2017/05/08/employer-employee-social-contract-2/.
7. Mark Spratt, “How to Create a Post-Pandemic Social Contract,” HRzone, July 6, 2020, accessed on December 15, https://www.hrzone.com/lead/culture/how-to-create-a-post-pandemic-social-contract
8. ?Ibid.
9. ?Brad Killinger, “Post-COVID Workplace Requires…"
10. Manu (Manobhiram) Nellutla, LinkedIn, Oct 7, 2021, accessed on October 7, https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/manobhiramnellutla/?originalSubdomain=ca.
11. Laura Delizonna, “High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety,” Harvard Business Review, August 24, 2017, accessed on December 15, https://store.hbr.org/product/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-here-s-how-to-create-it/H03TK7.
12. Mike Greene, “Why you should first seek to understand—before trying to be understood,” The Business Journals, May 12, 2014, accessed on December 15, https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2014/05/why-you-should-first-seek-to-understand.html.

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