Which currency is more important to you and your team?

Frustrated with your team?

Frustrated with yourself when you want to be your best self at work and you just can’t seem to sustain the positive self??

To ease your frustration and activate your team, you must connect to a different sort of currency. Activating yourself and your team have never been more important and to do this you need to go slow to go fast.?

I experienced this firsthand in December when a person dear to me and my children passed away after a long fight with cancer. It was my ex-husband of 25 years, Paddy Hewitt.

This image is our family 19 years ago on holidays.

He has developed cancer initially after our divorce and an extremely stressful time in his business. Even when we were together it would be normal for him to get up in the middle of the night and go to work as he was concerned and couldn’t sleep. A part of me was scared if I worked too hard, then my fate would be the same.

This season of my life seemed to bring little work. Delivery of my programs and coaching slowed down to a walking pace to process his death. Life gave me space. The self-worth from helping people disappeared and I had to search for another source. I lost my mojo, and even though I was working on a companion deck of cards for the book Transformational Nurse Identities, I needed help to focus, and I questioned my measure of success. ?

Each day, as I found ways to stay tethered to motivation and even a structure, I counted my small wins. It took energy and focus, and it was hard. My head was scrambled but started to become clearer than it had been in a while.

I realised deeper connections with people were more important than a higher ambition as my life got simpler. Fulfilment trumped walking the path that my expectations said I should walk. ?

I had to reconnect to my why.

My why was the drive behind what I did and how I wanted to do that. I realised that money was secondary, and impact, expression and connection were a more important currency.

I am not alone. ?

There is a shift in values all around the globe. In organisations that care, like healthcare and community services, it's even more pronounced. ?

Never before has exploring yours and your teams expectations and values been so important. With the shift in values since COVID-19, workforce expectations are higher, and modern employees want autonomy, purpose, and personal growth opportunities. They want to know they are making progress, and they want to live a worthwhile life. They want to make a difference and feel the difference.

Women want to work and have a family and they expect a flexible workplace to enable this. They want you to understand what is important to them and accept that they want both. ?

Most people in healthcare and community services are people people. They want connecting and belonging in this time of disconnection and loneliness.

You might think it’s just work, but it’s not. It’s a source of energy and juice that makes life worthwhile.

Mental health and well-being are also at the forefront of people's minds. People are craving leaders who take the uncertainty out of their lives by being clear, adapting to conditions quickly, and giving them the autonomy that stops them from feeling helpless.

As a leader, you shift the dial on your team's well-being much more than you think.

Understanding these fundamental shifts and knowing how to empower your team means you will have a loyal bunch of people who love to work with you. You create an environment that helps your team feel capable and motivated to contribute. ?

In short, you activate their abilities and strengths, which in turn creates a culture of support, connection, and contribution. This happens effortlessly. ?

How is this related to going slowly? ?

What is reflexive is not the best idea. It is automatic thinking and acting that Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman highlighted as getting in the way of progress and interactions.

He showed us that making decisions quickly and unconsciously based on preconceived notions and mental shortcuts leads to judgement errors and high risk in relationships.

Suppose your teammate triggers you, even by complaining. In that case, you risk extinguishing an opportunity to hear what it is underneath and find a solution that works for everyone. ?

The ability to go slow when needed, and make a choice about your response, taking in values and deep listening is emotional intelligence. It allows you to connect to what is needed now, not just an automatic response from your past.

Want this for your team? Ask me how.

Michelle