"This accident got me thinking about how people deal with the disruptive events that pop up from time to time. It s great when we can learn from these disruptions and use them to get better and better as we move forward."
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Empathetic leadership has always been important. But it really matters right now. The COVID-19 pandemic and all of its fallout have created extreme, accelerated change in a very compressed time frame. Employees lives at work and at home have been turned upside down. All of this has been very hard on their mental and emotional health.
It s tempting to think, Well, things are starting to open up now, and life is getting back to normal. We made it through, so let s get back to business as usual. What you may not realize is that employees may still be suffering. For some people, the stress and anxiety may just now be catching up to them. In many cases, businesses are still trying to figure out how to move forward. (Come back to the office? Keep working from home? Move to a hybrid approach?) This means employees are having to navigate even more change.
Understand what gratitude is and what gratitude isn t. Gratitude is about appreciating the positive aspects of our situation, NOT focusing on how our life isn t as bad as others . This insight comes from a study on young people who kept gratitude journals. Those whose journals focused on comparing themselves to others didn t get the same benefits as those who journaled on what they were grateful for.
A grateful disposition can rewire the brain. Gratitude engages our brain in a virtuous cycle. It s hard to focus on both positive and negative stimuli at the same time, so it makes sense to give our mind lots of gratitude fuel. As Korb writes, Once you start seeing things to be grateful for, your brain starts looking for more things to be grateful for.
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In a recent presentation for the Gratitude Symposium, Dr. Stephen Beeson explained that a sense of collegiality, community and belonging is the most powerful countermeasure to burnout.
While Beeson s work was focused on health care (you can find his session here), this is something everyone can relate to. He clearly explained how the best antidote to the exhaustion, cynicism and disconnection that come with burnout is being part of a strong, collaborative team.
I thought Beeson did a beautiful job of describing what he called the camaraderie and sense of esprit de corps that honors and values each and every team member. He used simple language and a lot of specificity to show the kind of team that helps remedy burnout, the kind that feels good to be a part of. The thing I liked most about his presentation is that he decoded the very specific behaviors that make a team collegial and create a sense of belonging.