The last three books about workplace effectiveness I’ve read have all discussed it. Two of our clients are having lots of trouble with it. It is what research shows us leads to team success more than any other factor. It is the concept of psychological safety. According to Amy Edmondson, a lead researcher on the topic, “Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.” And according to research conducted by Google: Following the success of Google’s Project Oxygen research where the People Analytics team studied what makes a great
I’ve found myself talking about skill and will a lot lately. Whether it be in one-on-one leadership coaching sessions or in group training, the conversation is often directed towards customizing a leadership approach based on the needs of the person being “led”. Much of our basic leadership training modules focus on customization based on personality, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. A person’s level of skill in doing a job or task and a person’s will to do the job or task (which includes aspects of personality) are critical to success. So what is skill and what
Tuesdays from 4:00- 5:00 pm. In the car. While our middle child is in gymnastics, I have found that this hour of concentrated time in a concentrated space leads to some productive homework time with my oldest. While his newborn brother snoozes in his car seat, we tackle third-grade homework. And there is a lot of it. Take our list for Tuesday of this past week: -A math worksheet due Wednesday -At least 10 minutes of multiplication facts practice that has to be signed off on each day by a parent for a grade -Practice for a vocabulary test on
I came across a post on a Facebook group a few weeks ago. The mom participant posted a question to the group asking how people simplified their lives. She has three young children, and I took her post to mean she wanted to spend more meaningful time with her kids but didn’t know which direction to take or have the ability to do as a working mom. Most of the responses to her question came down to two types of responses 1) limit your kids (and your) extracurricular activities 2) outsource. People recommended outsourcing laundry, grocery shopping, ironing, and clothes
Hanging pictures on the wall. Proofing documents. Formatting presentations. Checking to make sure calculations in a spreadsheet is correct. I really dislike doing all of these types of tasks. They all require, quite honestly, a sense of detail and accuracy and, of course, patience that doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s not how I’m wired. My husband, on the other hand, finds satisfaction in hanging pictures on the wall, taking care to make sure they are level and perfectly spaced and aligned. He likes to measure, just like he did with the table. And it makes me happy that he finds