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“When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”

― C. S. Lewis

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

…about that quote. So many people are confused by A Better Paradigm’s mission. It seems crazy to them. But I’m grateful to count you among the people recognizing the need to make workplaces more compassionate while achieving business goals. Fostering respectful interactions is key, and several of this week’s shares emphasize that point via POVs, stats, and more.

🚀 Stories to Help You Drive Change

Here are my shares for this week:

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall. And hey, if you like the publication, consider subscribing to it—that’s how they keep the good info rolling! I’m hearing some paywalls are impenetrable, so for pubs like The Wall Street Journal and the NY Times, I’ll share a bit more here for those of you without subscriptions.

  • Here’s a quick take on employee burnout and where the blame is being placed. (Spoiler: it’s on leaders.)
  • The Transformational Leader: Being Unreasonable Without Being A Jerk. This is a must-read. It hits on a number of points we’ve been bringing to the forefront with A Better Paradigm. The author, Jim Stevenson, top-lines related topics, including conscious capitalism, managing workers in the gig economy, and balancing being unreasonable (challenging your team for “more”) with compassion. Here’s a quote: “The crux of modern leadership lies in striking a delicate balance between ambition and empathy. While setting audacious goals and pushing boundaries is crucial, it’s equally important to consider the human factor.”
  • What’s your video meeting background look like these days? Interesting survey results from The Wall Street Journal about which backgrounds create the best impressions. For example: “83% of the people agreed that controlling their background could maximize their ability to create a positive impression, and 53% indicated that they form an impression of the person they are talking to based on their background.” But when it comes to choosing the background that gets the desired results, that’s another story. Businesspeople tend to think less is more, but their audiences prefer seeing a little personalization that gives them cues about the “person” they are talking with.
  • Does your company use Workday or a similar tool for human capital management (HCM) and/or enterprise resource planning (ERP)? Do you find the tools very helpful, not at all helpful, or somewhere in between. This Business Insider article talks about the downsides. I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you’re a middle manager not in the HR department.

🦉 You Never Know… Diabetes

Diabetes has become more manageable over the years, but it’s still a growing problem. I’m mentioning it here because when we think about compassionate workplaces, we need to consider reasons for people’s behaviors, especially when they seem negative and directed at us. For example, did you know that people with diabetes can suffer from severe mood swings, or that they are more prone to depression and anxiety disorders that can affect how they present themselves to others? Here’s an article about how diabetes can affect relationships, including those at work. I’m sharing to help us all elevate our awareness of what others may be experiencing and why a little compassion goes a long way.

🌟 Do Good Spotlight: The Human League

The Humane League (THL) aims to end the abuse of animals raised for food. Throughout their history, over 300 companies have promised to spare hens from extreme confinement while 140+ leading US businesses have committed to THL’s science-based welfare standards for chickens raised for consumption. Learn more about how they’re fixing the broken food chain: The Humane League.

🖋 Noteworthy: An Idea This Time, Not a Company…

Years ago, I worked for an HR consulting firm called Blessing/White, Inc. Their unique offering was employee-driven, performance-review programs. They provided workbooks, classes, and consulting around this concept.

The reviews involved the employee and their manager independently completing job and business skills assessments about the employee (1-5 rating system). After they completed their scorecards, they would meet to compare ratings for each skill. If the scores agreed, no conversation was needed, but if one person scored the other person higher or lower than the other did, they talked about that item. Goals and next steps were generated together in the meeting. It was a brilliant way to take stress out of performance reviews for both parties and get them working together on goals and check-in plans.

I looked up Blessing/White knowing they’ve gone through numerous organizational changes over the years, and I couldn’t see that they or anyone else was approaching reviews this way. Here at my company, we do our own version of this process and it’s been rewarding. The employees are more comfortable because they’re taking ownership of their review and their goals, while managers appreciate that they are positioned as career mentors instead of judges.

If you know of a company offering these employee-led review programs, I’d love to hear more. Maybe I can feature them here in an upcoming issue. And if your company is doing something similar, please tell me about it.

🎵 On a Personal Note

Angry? Trying not to explode? Anger is not “bad.” It tells you someone has breached your sense of what is right. Feeling angry is part of your self-respect system. That said, I strongly advise pausing, even if just for a moment, to “respond appropriately” rather than react and lose control of yourself. 

If there’s an opportunity to put some time between the event/person that sparked your anger and your response, consider this: anger is energy. You can diffuse it by expending it. How? Take a walk or run. Shake it out. Tai chi it away. Yoga=wonderful. In other words, acknowledge how you feel and channel the negative energy into positive energy. Controlling your response is a vital key to compassionate interactions.

⏳Until Next Time…

I would love to know which features in Niki’s Notes are most valuable to you and how I can increase the benefit of this weekly e-briefing for you. Please email, call, text, message—whatever works best. It would be great to connect to get your thoughts. 

In the meantime, have a great rest of the week and enjoy the weekend, too!

Niki

Niki’s Notes for Better Workplaces

Weekly news and insights on the compassionate workplace movement with commentary, spotlights on innovative companies, and not-for-profits that deserve extra love! Edited by A Better Paradigm Founder, Niki.