Innate Potential Blog
Guiding You Towards Excellence Through InsightIt’s Not About the Slippers
A story on the radio this morning caught my attention. It was about a school in the East Midlands adopting a policy of “shoeless learning” to improve grades (read the article here).
Now I’m all for getting my shoes off and feeling relaxed when I work. My shoes come off as soon as I get back in the house and at this time of year I usually don a pair of fluffy slippers to keep my feet warm.
I also think it’s great that the Head Teacher is being proactive in looking for ways to improve her pupils experience and testing new approaches out.
But does wearing slippers really make any difference to my performance or the performance of children in a school?
A quick search on the internet to find the study that demonstrated these benefits led me to lots of articles quoting the study but not the actual data. The nearest I got was to this site. And the data here suggests that there are a number of benefits to shoeless learning, particular on the wear and tear of the environment but there are no statistics on the impact on actual performance. Just anecdotal evidence that children seem to behave better.
So am I saying that it’s a bad idea to allow children to wear slippers at school?
No — but what I am proposing is that we have a tendency to look to external factors to explain behaviour — both good and bad, without seeing the underlying principles in play. And this is why mixed results are frequently seen when adopting a strategy that appeared to work very well elsewhere.
What’s really at play?
Great performance occurs (in both adults and children) when we aren’t caught up in our own thoughts. When this is the case our minds are freer and experience flows through us. We don’t look to outside circumstances for the reason we feel a certain way (be that positive or negative) and we recognise that feelings are a reflection of the conscious and unconscious thoughts we are in from moment to moment. All this is irrespective of what we are wearing on our feet.
So understanding the fundamental principles behind performance, whether that’s in the classroom or the boardroom, is the key to creating lasting transformations.
Action as a result of Insight
I suspect that the original idea to go shoeless came about when a teacher had an insight that children naturally choose the most comfortable way to learn. And when left to their own devices many would choose to kick off their shoes. So it made sense to let the children do this.
But will adopting the same strategy, without understanding the fundamentals behind it, really have the same impact?
It seems more powerful to me to look to the innate design for learning within both children and adults and trust that process. Being shoeless is a bye product rather than the cause of a conducive learning environment. In the same way umbrellas don’t cause rain.
So rather than just kicking off the shoes in the classroom, bringing in dress down Friday to the office or implementing any other external strategy that appears to improve performance, much more value is gained by looking at understanding the true nature of human experience. And from looking in that direction insights abound, that may or may not involve slippers!
Why The Odds Are Stacked Against You When Using Rewards Packages To Motivate and Retain Employees.
I was with the Director of a company last week whose business is rapidly expanding. We were discussing their strategy on merging staff into their Organisation from smaller businesses they had acquired. As part of this he showed me the rewards package they offer and expressed how much better it was than their new recruits were used to.
For their market sector and size it was an excellent package. And given the majority thinking, having a strong benefits package seems a great idea for engaging and retaining your team members.
A recent article I read, posted on LinkedIn, also suggested this was the way to go. It described the rewards packages of 3 companies that both scored highly for employee engagement and consistently made various lists of “Top Companies To Work For”. One of them even ran sessions demonstrating how to put together your own great rewards package and create legions of highly engaged loyal employees.
But there is a flaw in this logic. And for those of you who been involved in finding ways of generating engagement within your Organisation, you will know that you can put together a very attractive package and yet engagement will still vary hugely amongst your employees.
I remember my very first Sales Conference. It was being held in Las Vegas – somewhere I had never been before and I was very excited to have the chance to visit. Having come from another large organisation but in a different sector and role, I thought I had made it to the big time! I was very surprised, then, to notice a real range of emotion from my colleagues. Some were as excited as me to be heading across the Pond. Whereas others ranged from non-plussed to downright annoyed at having to travel so far and spend a week away from home.
But why was this the case?
You see, the use of external motivators is a strategy based on a misunderstanding of how people create their experience. For these strategies to work our external environment would have to be the source of our feelings. And if this really was the case then every person who went on that Sales Conference would have felt the same – whether that was highly excited or downright annoyed.
But, external circumstances are not the source of our feelings. This never has been and never will be the case, as much as it may look that way.
The experience we have about anything in life, is generated within us. What’s more it naturally changes moment to moment. The feelings we experience are just a reflection of the inside out reality being created through us.
This is actually great news for Organisations whose leaders and teams operate from this understanding. Because although feelings ebb and flow, so sometimes we feel motivated and sometimes we don’t, our default setting is one of clarity, fulfilment and connection.
Employees therefore naturally exhibit the qualities that Companies are seeking when they look to employ Engagement Strategies. They just at times get lost in the noise of over thinking. People who understand the inside out nature of experience are less reactive when their feelings inevitably ebb. The know that they will naturally self correct and don’t start looking for outside reasons for why they feel that way.
But when someone doesn’t know this then they will look for a reason they feel frustrated, unfulfilled, demotivated etc.
So creating highly motivated engaged teams is never about creating the best rewards package. Instead it’s about realising the truth behind the human experience.
If you’ve gone down the usual route and aren’t seeing the results you want then perhaps it’s time to look in a different direction.
Contact Sally Coton now for a free consultation to unlock your employees’ innate potential.
Tel: 07 88 55 32 697 – Email: info@innatepotential.co.uk.
Employee Engagement – Are Your Managers Up to The Task?
An engaged workforce can make the difference between being the front runner in your industry and going out of business.
Employees who are engaged will demonstrate improved performance, greater productivity, lower levels of absenteeism, greater retention and advocacy, high levels of innovation and a higher standard of customer service.
The Macleoad Review identified 4 pointers of employee engagement. These are:-
- Strategic narrative
- Engaging managers
- Employee voice
- Organisation integrity
Reviewing the case histories of leading Companies, who actively engage their employees, will show lots of different strategies for creating an engaging work environment. These include skills and leadership training, feedback forums, social engagement programmes, flexible working options, and career development pathways to name just a few.
All of these strategies have their merits but is there something more fundamental that is missing?
One of the key criteria identified for having an engaged workforce is the impact the Manager has on their teams. Managers who themselves are deeply engaged are more likely to inspire and engage their workforce. And on the other hand, poor management skills can lead to employee disengagement.
It is often quoted that “people join organisations – but they leave managers”.
So what are the characteristics of a great manager?
Gallup identified the following talents –
• They motivate every single employee to take action and engage them with a compelling mission and vision.
• They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
• They create a culture of clear accountability.
• They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.
• They make decisions that are based on productivity, not politics.
And the research demonstrated that managers possessing all these talents demonstrated a 48% higher profit to their companies than average managers.
Unfortunately Gallup’s research also showed that only 1 in 10 people possess all these traits. And only 2 in 10 demonstrate some of them.
Which, if this is the case, means unless you identify the right people, who naturally have these talents and place only them in managerial positions, you are going to end up with 8 out of 10 teams unengaged.
Judging by Gallup’s State of The Workplace 2013 Study this currently appears to be the case. The figures for the UK show that only 17% of employees were currently engaged in their work with 57% not engaged and 26% actively disengaged.
There are worrying figures – not only for the profits of an organisation but also for the health and wellbeing of the employees.
So what’s the answer?
Well if you believe that these talents are fixed at birth then there is only one way. To have the right recruitment/promotion strategies in place and put only those possessing these traits into managerial roles.
And if you get it wrong?
Then it comes down to damage limitation and hoping you have enough teams, led by great managers, to ensure overall success.
But what if these traits aren’t just confined to 10% of the population?
Perhaps it’s not that great managers possess talents missing in everyone else but that they naturally, without necessarily knowing, allow these traits to shine through.
And if that’s the case what if they are just hidden from view in everyone else. But due to a lack of understanding, of what stands in the way of great performance, they are unwittingly kept suppressed?
After all we have all seen flashes of brilliance from lower performing managers and moments of stupidity from otherwise great managers.
This is great news!
By seeing that we all possess the ability to tap into these characteristics and by realising for ourselves the intrinsic nature of these qualities, we can unlock a greater potential within.
Managers that realise the full extent of their potential will naturally act with wisdom, clarity, compassion and decisiveness. They will listen, be empathetic, demonstrate natural leadership and motivate their teams.
What’s more they are able to help their teams see that they also possess an in built design for success. Which in turn increases their employees motivation, enthusiasm, drive and resilience.
The bottom line result being a more engaged organisation, happy and healthier employees and the financial results to reflect that.
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