In a recent Financial Times article accompanied by the headline: “‘Big Brother’ managers should turn the lens on themselves”, Rana Foroohar, the newspaper’s Global Business Columnist, made a compelling argument for why the increased surveillance of workers is not the answer within our increasingly hybrid working world.

Stats such as the 13.5% increase in the number of meetings attended by employees during the pandemic speaks of industries and sectors ill at ease in affording workers more autonomy and trust, especially in settings where ‘clocking in, clocking out’ has been a core routine for decades or longer.

The remote work disconnect

Survey results from Microsoft, published back in September, pinpointed this friction, highlighting that while 87% of participants felt they were “as, or more” productive when working from home, a staggering 80% of managers disagreed with the very same statement. Speaking to the BBC, the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, urged companies to look beyond what he termed the “productivity paranoia” and seek real and practical solutions to fix this “disconnect”.

The number of companies using data surveillance software to track employee activities has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic, and Foroohar’s column put forward three challenges in response. Not only are workers more stressed and resentful of being monitored closely, but creative activities – vital in so many organisations – are much harder to quantify and reflect accurately by metrics alone. In addition, research showing that 70% of meetings actually keep employees from doing more productive work puts the onus on managers and our organisational leaders alike to do better.

The inner CEO

And that is where the work and insight of Jeremy Blain, Chief Executive of PerformanceWorks International, is worth considering. Backing up the long-held belief that workers tend to leave managers rather than companies when they switch roles, Jeremy’s excellent book “The Inner CEO: Unleashing leaders at all Levels” was one topic that came up during our broad-ranging conversation on the 1% Podcast. 

Distribution of leadership

Jeremy advocates that developing leaders across all levels of a business is the most effective response for any organisation experiencing significant and fundamental change. In reality, he’s talking about the vast majority of companies right now as they not only embrace digital transformation but also try to address the enormous organisational shifts brought about by blended workplaces, remote working, the so-called ‘Great Resignation”, and our teams being more diverse in nature than ever before.

Empowerment

Business leaders trying to ensure the consistent implementation of a strategy – simply – are unlikely to have both the capacity and expertise to be the only ones to provide relevant guidance through the cultural changes required to embed these same plans. Why does that mean in plain English? It takes a group effort to sustain change. That alone requires honesty and self-reflection at the highest level within management but is also why empowering “inner CEOs” and focusing on utilising talent with a small ‘t’ helps to deliver ongoing and more permanent buy-in from employees.

Speaking to the 1% Podcast, Jeremy explained: “The scope and scale of transformational shift that leaders are dealing with is something I call ‘The Triple Now’. It’s a digital transformation that is happening, a workforce shift, and a piece in the middle of those that is about connectivity, new ways of working, and eco systems.

“All of these mean a leader can be stretched in areas that they potentially have zero capability in. And this is already a reason to include a sense of ‘how do we distribute leadership in a better way’ so that organisations can use the expertise and experience of people in their organisation in more strategic ways.”

Reverse mentoring

Reverse mentoring was one example given during the podcast episode. It has been used to impressive effect by Citibank where millennials have been invited into the boardroom to share their insights around technology and social media, which has the dual consequence of giving younger workers greater buy-in and a feeling of making an important contribution.

Human-centered leadership

Jeremy went on: “There is also a demand from employees for more human-centred leadership – more empathy-driven, more collective, and more empowering leadership. Employees are ready to help and want to be part of the solution. They don’t want to be told what to do all of the time.

“Saying that, leaders do need time. They are navigating uncertain futures right now so by empowering more people to think about what the next two or three years might hold, all this together allows for empowerment (of employees) to flourish.”

Jeremy’s book, The Inner CEO, includes specific tools, frameworks, and templates while providing a strong foundation for any leader looking for practical supports through the implementation of sustainable change in their organisation.

In creating a new sense of ownership, involvement, and trust within an organisation, such an environment will also serve as a motivational tool for its employees. Workers that feel part of the tribe will naturally have a vested interest beyond their specific duties, while the business will feel the benefit of being closer to clients, customers, industry trends, early warning signs, and potential opportunities alike.

There is a striking ‘work list’ that went viral a couple of years ago. Under the heading “10 Things That Require Zero Talent”, the creator wrote of actions we can all take to improve our work performance immediately and without any financial cost or training.

Nothing included on the list is revolutionary – Being on Time, Work Ethic, Effort, Body Language, Energy, Attitude, Passion, Being Coachable, Doing Extra, and Being Prepared. All very sensible, and all traits and characteristics that employers, managers, and executive recruiters love to recognise… and very often reward!

Talent or consistency

That list came to mind again when Justin Roethlingshoefer joined us for a brilliant episode of the 1% podcast in April 2022. A performance coach to elite athletes and executives, a bestselling author, and respected entrepreneur, Justin was a Performance Director at the National (Ice) Hockey League (NHL) in the US for over ten years – an experience that shaped his current areas of research and focus in ways that he didn’t quite expect.

Early on in the episode, Justin says the following: “Talent will get you noticed, consistency gets you paid.” Simple, and yet quite profound – especially in today’s world where talent seems, on the surface at least, to be what secures the high-end roles and accompanying salary and benefits package.

Justin explained that the comment was made to him as a young boy when he returned home after a performance that was not up to his usual standards in a hockey match. His father’s advice struck him deeply and led the aspiring athlete down a path of seeking to understand as much as possible about everything within his own control and what actually and practically impacted his capabilities on the ice each and every game.

Heart rate variability

Unfortunately for us all, there is no magic solution to consistent performance – be it on the sporting field, in the workplace, or elsewhere. Everyone’s capabilities are unique, but Justin has identified Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and how it changes as a person responds to stresses around them as an effective indicator of improvement potential.

Working with his research team, he has gone on to develop a framework of eight ‘controllables’ that help to positively affect a person’s HRV and, in turn, deliver more consistent performance. You can read more about Justin’s thinking and how HRV can be monitored here.

No ‘controllable’ on this list will be brand new to regular readers of our 1% Extra articles. However, their effectiveness lies in the consistent implementation of small, yet sustainable changes under each of the headings. What’s the one thing you can do to improve your nutrition this week? It can be as easy as preparing your breakfast or lunch the night before when you’ve more time to consider what is suitable rather than what is convenient, and then making that part of your weekly habits.  

Simple processes and being persistent in following them as part of an established and regular routine will benefit your performance in the longer term. And we already know some of this to be true in our own lives – we feel better when we eat well, a regular sleep routine is encouraged for adults as well as children, and we’ve often heard about the importance of drinking water as well as regular exercise and movement in our life.

Think of it within a work context. The processes and checks we put in place within project management methodologies are there to ensure that outcomes and quality standards are achieved regularly in work. Getting relevant structures in place, having robust review processes, and a mechanism to respond to blockers are several of the key components in any good project, and have a direct and telling impact on the final outputs and outcomes.

Incremental improvements

All eight “controllables” listed are considerations that we have the ability to change and improve at our own pace. And that’s the central argument of Justin and his team of researchers: attaining consistent performance and improving our individual capabilities generally is much more about focusing on ourselves and making incremental improvements rather than trying to influence broader factors outside of our sphere of control.

To make changes, awareness or a deep understanding of our strengths and capabilities is essential, but so, too, is not trying to transform your entire work life in one sweeping overhaul. People who are perceived as ‘greats’ – be it in sport, business, leadership – tend to have an innate awareness of their ability, a motivation to forge ahead into new territory, while also being curious and eternal students. These traits, though, are frequently matched by discipline, consistency, and adaptability.

None of our elite athletes or respected business leaders are slouches that fell into their career path by accident – they’ve found an effective balance between capacity and the capability to deliver time and again. As Justin remarks on the 1% podcast, “the world of average is full of talent”. What separates average performers from those recognised as amongst the “greats” though is consistency as well as the ability to “level up” or push themselves forwards to achieve even more. As employers and recruiters, it’s also our responsibility to ensure we reward those that deliver consistently!

Employee incentives are changing, and housing is next

It’s rarely been easy to buy a home in Ireland but for several different generations in 2022, the thought of owning their own property amid rising prices, interest rate increases, a war in Europe, and the general state of flux across the globe in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, feels – quite literally – beyond their reach at this moment.

That feeling of heavy deflation is one reason why the recent announcement that the Ingka Group, the multinational investment firm behind Swedish furniture giants IKEA, are to invest €100 million in social housing over a three-year period in Dublin has both raised eyebrows and lifted the housing haze, just a little. What if there are other ways to tackle this issue? And what if our employers and business sector are part of an alternative answer?

It’s decades since executive recruiters spoke solely about salaries and annual bonuses. Even before the phrase “The Great Resignation” was first mooted, proactive employers understood the importance of an engaging work culture, presenting a “package”, and creating a “narrative” about company life to attract and retain the best talent.

Where health insurance and annual leave days once sat front and centre alongside base salaries, recruiters are now increasingly emphasising options around remote roles, wellness days, fertility support, menstrual leave, flexitime, four-day weeks, and bringing your furry friends to the office when needed. In their respective ways, these benefits reflect the needs of workers looking to make a move so there’s little to suggest that employer-assisted housing programmes are not the next step. In fact, the seeds of these kinds of programmes exist in Ireland already in many ways.

Relocation packages

If you agree a move to Dublin, many multinationals will not only organise the relocation of your physical belongings, they’ll put a roof over your head for an initial number of months. From there, it isn’t hard to take the next leap – one that’s already commonplace in the US – and have companies help employees secure their own home.

Early in 2021, Amazon, which already has a significant presence in Ireland, announced a $2 billion equity fund to develop over 20,000 affordable homes for moderate- to low-income families in three US cities. Many of the company’s Irish workforce use their Amazon shares as a basis for mortgage deposits or home refurbishments, but consider this: what would happen if an employer was to provide specific financial support or a more affordable option directly? In the midst of the current housing crisis, that would be a hugely influential incentive for employees of almost any age.

The world’s biggest online store isn’t unique in exploring this kind of incentive either. Apple is escalating supports it pledged as part of a $2.5 billion package for affordable housing initiatives in California in 2019, while Google set aside $1 billion to help increase housing supply and combat homelessness in the Bay Area of the state specifically. Here in Ireland, Google announced in 2020 that it would donate 46 apartments within its Bolands Mills redevelopment to local public service workers at below-market rents in 2020, in recognition of its own long-standing tenure in the area. It’s well documented, of course, how rents in the same area of Dublin have increased and provided for bumper yields for local landlords… until Covid hit.

Facebook, for its part, also pledged $1 billion to support the construction of affordable homes in The Golden State, a place that is home to so many tech headquarters. So it’s no surprise that these companies and exact locations are also at the front line in the battle to recruit and retain the finest IT talent.

Not a new phenomenon

The move towards helping employees afford and secure a home isn’t a recent phenomenon though, just one brought about by necessity in key locations. Guinness offered housing for some of its workforce 150 years ago and it was commonplace for housing to be built near factories across Ireland, with the homes occupied by workers and their families.

What might the benefit look like in reality? A once-off contribution towards a deposit or something regular towards mortgage payments? Many companies already provide access to financial planners or pension experts, so this could easily be extended further to mortgage experts or specific educational resources for first-time buyers.

Providing some financial assistance would build on those initial incentives and would no doubt benefit from government support in terms of how such a benefit would be treated for tax purposes. Other possibilities could include specific annual leave entitlement for workers in the latter stages of the purchasing process and/or specific time for people moving or settling into new homes.

Staff retention

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch and like many employee incentives, companies making a significant investment do hope for a return. Employees that buy locally are less likely to relocate in the future and, hopefully, change jobs. Stability and security at home contributes to life satisfaction generally and, in turn, benefit their work life. Management would also hope such supports would encourage longer tenures amongst staff, greater loyalty, and contribute to being known as an employer that looks after their team. All of these outcomes are tricky to measure, but have a cumulative effect. 

Employee wellbeing

A survey conducted by finance company SoFi in 2021 found that 84% of employees believe employers should be responsible for their financial wellbeing, while 60% of participants wanted their company to add, improve, or expand homeownership assistance benefits. The research is US-based, but employees globally have greater holistic expectations of their employers than ever before in 2022, with a specific preference for feeling that their company genuinely cares for their wellbeing.

Are fully fledged employer-assisted housing programmes going to appear in Ireland overnight? No. But if the best recruitment incentives reflect what is happening in workers’ lives, then organisations need to begin to consider what might be feasible to offer around housing and start to plan accordingly.

References

SoFi at Work Study 2021

We all know that teamwork and cohesion are useful in a team or work environment. But when taken too far, at times groupthink can evolve and have negative consequences (Gokar,2013).

Groupthink occurs when people override their common sense desire to present alternatives, critique positions, or express unpopular opinions.  It is common for team members suffering from groupthink to make poor decisions and to overlook possible pitfalls, which can lead to disastrous consequences for the company.  A working definition used in Psychology Today is “Groupthink occurs when a group of well-intentioned people make irrational or non-optimal decisions that are spurred by the urge to conform or the discouragement of dissent.”

Background

This term originated with Irving Janis in his classic 1971 paper on how group decision-making led to historic U.S. foreign policy blunders.

In examining how group behaviour, biases, and pressures influence group decisions, Janis sought to explain why highly intelligent groups often made bad decisions. There is widespread acceptance of group think in many fields, such as social psychology, organisational theory, and group decision-making sciences.

According to Janis, groupthink is caused by a number of structural factors, including the cohesiveness of a decision-making group, its formal rules, its leadership, the social homogeneity of its members, and their context or situation.  He went to explain the impact on decision making :

“The advantages of having decisions made by groups are often lost because of powerful psychological pressures that arise when the members work closely together, share the same set of values and, above all, face a crisis situation that puts everyone under intense stress.”  (1972)

The signs of groupthink are not always obvious, especially in a cohesive team that is used to working together.  However groupthink can be characterised by the following signs and symptoms:

As a result of groupthink, decisions are made ignoring possible alternatives and focusing on a narrow number of goals, ignoring risks associated with a particular course of action. Alternative information is not sought or the available information is considered in a biased manner. As soon as alternative solutions are rejected, contingency plans are neglected, and alternatives are forgotten.

According to Janis, groupthink is most prevalent in the following conditions:

How to avoid Groupthink and Conformity in the Workplace

Groupthink can lead to people ignoring important information, resulting in poor decisions. A situation like this can be damaging even in minor situations, but in certain circumstances it can have far more dire consequences. Therefore it is beneficial to identify groupthink and be aware of measures that can limit its affects.

As a means of preventing groupthink, proposals have included introducing multiple channels for dissent in decision making and mechanisms for maintaining the openness and heterogeneity of a group (Bang  and Frith, 2017).  Where possible slowing down the decision making process can help, by critically evaluating ideas, and including as many levels and layers as possible, in the decision making process.  Engaging external advice can help as well as informed leadership that encourages open feedback and creates an environment where all voices are heard equally.  Encourage open feedback and an environment where all voices matter is required in order to prevent groupthink.

More on Conformity

References

Bang D, Frith CD. Making better decisions in groups. R Soc Open Sci. 2017;4(8):170193. doi:10.1098/rsos.170193

Gokar H. Groupthink principles and fundamentals in organizations. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business. 2013;5(8):225-240.

 Janis, I. L. (1971). Groupthink among policy makers

Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. 1972.

Janis, I. L. (1973). Groupthink and group dynamics: A social psychological analysis of defective policy decisions. Policy Studies Journal, 2(1), 19.

In the recent coverage after Queen Elizabeth’s passing, I heard someone who worked with her say that she had an independent mind and where appropriate would go against popular opinion or the general consensus.  While one of the hallmarks of a democracy or a healthy organisation is the ability of free speech or for divergent opinions to be heard.  But at other times thinking seems to converge and conform.  To explain why we look back to one of the most influential social psychologists, Solomon Asch, who pioneered work in the area of conformity and group thinking. 

Solomon Asch was a Polish American psychologist who pioneered social psychology through the study of Gestalt psychology. Among the topics he researched were how people form impressions of others and how prestige may affect judgements. Group pressure and conformity are two of Asch’s greatest contributions. In 2002, the Review of General Psychology ranked Asch as the 41st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Building on and critiquing the work of the prominent social psychologist Muzafer Sherif, Asch, developed his own research into the areas of group pressure experiments and demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions in his conformity experiments.

Asch came up with another conformity experiment but this time, he made sure that a task with an obvious, unambiguous answer was presented. In 1951, Asch presented the now regarded classic experiment in social psychology using a line judgment task.

Which of these three lines is the same length as the lonesome line on the left?

It’s obviously C.

And yet in Asch’s conformity experiment conducted in the 1950s, 76 percent of people denied their own senses at least once, choosing either A or B.

The main purpose of this experiment was to understand how peer pressure could force people to conform, even when they were aware that the rest of the group was wrong. This included how people are likely to agree to a false answer just because most of the group has sided with the wrong answer. Asch indicated that in many settings, there is always a likelihood that many people doubt their opinions, where the “social process is polluted” (Asch, 1955) and therefore end up siding with a majority of the group either because they doubt being right or they fear being seen as different. This often happens in different contexts including situations where the answer is obvious, and that “any given idea or value can be “sold” or “unsold” without reference to its merits” (Asch, 1955).   Asch’s research revealed the strength of social influence and continues to inspire social psychology scholars to this day.

Further conformity research and Asch’s legacy

Further research on conformity highlighted that the results in the Asch experiment, while significant to social psychology thinking, were to some extent “a child of their generation” and culture. Spencer and Perrin (1980) introduced similar research, introducing a more complex test.

A major difference between learners in the 1950’s and 1980’s is that the learners, in the1950’s, were more subjective and were more likely to join in with the larger population to belong and be viewed as a rising member.

Asch’s work has influenced how psychologists think about and research social influence in groups (Levine, 1999).  His studies on independence and conformity are his most well-known and validated accomplishments. It is apparent from the Asch conformity experiment that people’s opinions are strongly influenced by the people around them. In fact, the Asch conformity experiment demonstrates how willing many people are to deny their own senses for the sake of conformity. The human race is naturally conformist, copying one another’s dress sense, ways of talking, and attitudes without hesitation.

Asch showed that people were willing to overlook reality and give an inaccurate answer to fit in with the rest of the group.  Asch argued that “it brings into conflict two powerful forces by which we construct reality; our own subjective experience, and intersubjective agreement.” (Rock & Rock, 2014).

In addition, it can be seen from the wider Asch research and later research that effective group functioning relies on independence (Kampmeier & Simon, 2001; Graupensperger & Benson), and that independence and conformity are not just mirror images that may be explained by a single psychological process (Levine, 1999). 

Types of conformity

Conformity is classified into two categories: public (compliance) and private (acceptance). Conformity is a movement toward a set of group norms, so compliance refers to behaviours that are overtly aligned with those norms, while acceptance refers to attitudes and perceptions that are covert.   Compliance occurs, for instance, if an individual refuses to sign a petition advocating immigration, learns that a group advocates them, and then signs one. Alternatively, if a person secretly believed that immigration should be outlawed, learned that certain groups advocated immigration rights, and then changed his private opinion, he would show acceptance. The two most important forms of nonconformity are independence and anti-conformity. Individuals who are independent exhibit neither compliance nor acceptance after being subjected to the pressure of a group at first. When confronted with disagreement, a person stands firm. The opposite of conformity is anti-conformity, which occurs when a person initially disagrees with a group after which they move even further away from its position (at a public or private level). (Interestingly, anti-conformers are just as susceptible to group pressure as conformers, but they move away from the group to demonstrate their susceptibility.)

The role of motivation

A person conforms to group pressure to satisfy two important desires: the desire to perceive reality accurately and to be accepted by others. The reason people hold accurate beliefs about the world is because such beliefs usually lead to positive outcomes. Several beliefs about the world can be verified objectively; other beliefs cannot be verified objectively, and must be verified through social means, namely by comparison with those held by other people whose judgment one respects. One gains confidence in others if they agree with one’s beliefs; one loses confidence if they disagree. To eliminate disagreement, people conform to group norms.

Despite being similar and related concepts, conformity and groupthink have important differences. A groupthink process involves decision-making. In contrast, conformity refers to people changing their own behaviour to fit in with specific groups. We will focus on group think in a future post.

Overall, studies demonstrate that most people ‘tell the truth even when others do not’, Hodges and Geyer (2006). The Asch studies demonstrated that people may conform even when no evident pressure is applied, as well as how quickly they can shift when confronted with contradictory information.  

More on Conformity

References

Asch, S. E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193(5), 31-35.

Graupensperger, S. A., Benson, A. J., & Evans, M. B. (2018). Everyone else is doing it: The association between social identity and susceptibility to peer influence in NCAA athletes. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 40(3), 117-127.

Hodges, B. H., & Geyer, A. L. (2006). A nonconformist account of the Asch experiments: Values, pragmatics, and moral dilemmas. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(1), 2-19.

Kampmeier, C., & Simon, B. (2001). Individuality and group formation: The role of independence and differentiation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81(3), 448.

Levine, J. M. (1999). Solomon Asch’s legacy for group research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(4), 358-364.

Perrin, S., & Spencer, C. (1980). The Asch effect-A child of its time. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 33(NOV), 405-406.

Rock, I., & Rock-DECEASED, I. (2014). The legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays in cognition and social psychology. Psychology Press

There is more to leadership than being the smartest or most charismatic individual in a room. Leaders influence and inspire through action. They determine the company culture from the top-down. But what truly makes a leader great? And why is great leadership so important?  

According to the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer, 1 in 3 employees don’t trust their leaders. This lack of trust in leadership has a direct impact on retention, job satisfaction, and overall performance, which influences the company’s success. In fact, 79% of employees quit their jobs due to a lack of appreciation from leaders. It is no doubt a great leader directly impacts the business, for better or for worse.

What are the traits of a good leader?

  1. Emotional Intelligence: This includes self-awareness, empathy, communication skills, and the ability to be vulnerable and ask for help when needed. Emotional intelligence means recognizing that different people require different styles of management and adjusting based on the individual.
  2. Competence: Leaders must know what they are doing and be able to do it well. You cannot get a promotion or get to the top of a company without having the skills to do the job itself. Competence is an essential leadership trait.  
  3. Charisma: It’s not always what you say that matters; it’s how you say it. Charisma on its own is not enough for great leadership, but a great leader does need the skills to inspire others. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of a great leader because of his ability to move people in an authentic way.
  4. Vision: A great leader needs to be able to see the big picture. Vision enables the leader to make strategic, long-term decisions, especially in the heat of the moment. Having a clear vision keeps a leader motivated and helps them stay true to their mission.
  5. Integrity: Integrity is essential to great leadership. This requires honesty, openness, and trust. It means a leader acts in ways that align with their values and has a strong moral compass.
  6. Decisiveness: Often, leaders will have to make the decisions that others don’t want to make. Great leaders are also not afraid to ask for input to ensure they have all the information necessary before finalizing a decision.
  7. Innovative: It’s important for great leaders to be innovative and to inspire innovation in their employees. It may be comfortable to follow the status quo, but greatness doesn’t come from comfort. Innovation is also profitable. According to a Booz & Co. report, innovation organizations saw 11% more revenue and 22% more growth than their counterparts. 
  8. Risk-Taking: Innovation also requires taking risks. Risk-taking does not mean reckless decision-making, however. It means having the ability to make an informed and calculated risk, assessing whether the cost outweighs the benefit. Further, research shows that leaders who take risks are better liked by their employees, regardless of the outcome of their decision. 
  9. Invest in People: To lead people is to invest in them. All great leaders value their employees and their continuous growth as well as their own. The people are the company’s greatest asset, and great leaders know this.
  10. Holistic Health: A burnt-out leader is an absent leader. Those who care about their overall well-being such as their diet, exercise, sleep, and work-life balance are not only helping their own performance but are setting a better example for their employees. Moreover, research shows that self-care improves performance and productivity.

These ten traits are some of the core values of great leadership. All of these are important to inspire loyalty, trust, and retention in the workplace.

Lastly, what’s most essential is a leader who cares, whether that’s about their people, the business, or their overarching mission. Passion is contagious, and that is what true leadership inspires. 

The concept of mentorship traces back to the character of Mentor in Greek Mythology in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, King of Ithica, asks his trusted companion, Mentor, to keep watch over his son, Telemachus, while he is away. Mentor acts as a guide to Telemachus, supporting him in his father’s absence. The term mentor then became used more widely for a trusted guide who imparts wisdom and shares their knowledge.

In the Middle Ages, mentorship became popular with apprenticeships in trade work. It wasn’t until the 1970s that mentorship made its way into the business world. Though the stakes may not be the same as they were in ancient Greek civilization, mentorship plays a key role in career growth and success.

What is the role of a mentor?

A mentor is someone with more experience than the mentee who passes along their knowledge and experience in the field the mentee aspires to work in. The role of the mentor is to guide the mentee throughout their career progression.

It’s also important to note that anyone at any stage in their career can—and should—have a mentor. According to a Harvard Business Review survey, 84% of CEOs with formal mentor relationships were more likely to avoid costly mistakes and became efficient in their roles more quickly, and 71% of CEOs attribute their improved performance to their mentors.

How does mentorship work?

Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Boston University, Kathy E. Kram, in her research on mentorship in the corporate world, lists four phases of the mentoring process: initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition. According to Kram, mentorship is an ongoing exchange that moves between these four phases.

The initiation phase is when the relationship is established, and trust is built between the mentee and mentor. Cultivation is when more frequent interactions and collaboration occur (this stage can last 2-5 years). Separation is when the mentee begins to operate more independently from the mentor, and the redefinition stage is when the relationship shifts from mentorship to peer.

The mentorship relationship should also have specific and measurable goals, frequent interaction, and actionable steps. There should be a clear desired outcome for both the mentee and the mentor.

What are the benefits of mentorship?

There are proven benefits to mentorship for both the mentee and the mentor. Mentorship increases retention and overall job satisfaction. In fact, 25% of employees who enrolled in a mentoring program saw a salary increase, and mentees are promoted five times more often than those not in mentoring programs.

Further, high-potential mentoring is a way to nurture top talent and develop them for potential future leadership roles. There is a reason that 71% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. The statistics don’t lie.

Mentorship can also help with:

Conclusion

It’s also important to remember that mentorship does not always work out. The initiation phase of mentorship is the time to assess whether the mentee and mentor are compatible and can offer something of value to one another. Mentorships can also end at any stage. Mentorship is a form of leadership. It is a way for those with more experience to give back to the company and leave behind a legacy from their own experiences. It also helps foster a sense of community and belonging within a corporation.

“Your legacy is every life you’ve touched. It’s every person you’ve harmed or helped.”

Maya Angelou

As the age-old saying goes, ‘If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life’. But how true is it? For most people, loving what you do comes at a cost. And loving what you do may not be as fulfilling as you’re led to believe.

It is natural for humans to search for meaning in their careers, especially when most of the waking day is spent at work. In fact, the average person spends 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime, which is one-third of a life. That is a lot of time that could either be soul-fuelling or soul-destroying. However, building a life that you love involves more than simply enjoying your day job. For some, benefits, stability, and the ability to spend time with loved ones and shut off at the end of the day are far more rewarding than loving the work itself.

Should you quit your job to pursue your dreams? You might want to consider what it means before jet-setting across the world.

Where did the idea of ‘loving the work you do’ originate?

Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, explains how the slogan, ‘If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life’ originated from a time when women were expected to do unpaid labour in the domestic space under the guise that it is ‘natural’ for women to enjoy this type of work. In creative pursuits, artists were underpaid or not paid at all because their work was seen as their passion and therefore, the reward was in the making.

‘Loving the work you do’ was a way to exploit workers, and it still is. Many creative jobs do not pay well. It may be appealing to quit your 9-5 in the hopes of living the digital nomad lifestyle, but the reality is often much bleaker than it appears. For entrepreneurs, the idea of starting a business may appeal for similar reasons — flexible working hours, control over one’s own time, passion, and potential to earn more — but those benefits often do not come until years later.

Why doing what you love doesn’t always pan out

It can be exciting to take the leap and pursue your passion, but managing expectations is essential. First, doing what you love may require sacrifices in other areas of life. This may mean working longer hours, working on weekends, and accepting little to no monetary reward at the outset. Further, research shows that 60% of businesses fail in the first three years. If your dream is to be your own boss, accept that it may take a lot of trial and error before achieving that status.

For entrepreneurs and creatives especially, doing what you love can also be incredibly lonely. Humans need social interaction. According to a Harvard Business Review study, half of CEOs experience loneliness in their careers, with first-time CEOs the most susceptible. There are ways to combat feelings of isolation such as forming communities outside work and with other like-minded individuals. But it may be worthwhile to assess whether an environment that provides social interaction is a non-negotiable.

What are some ways to pursue a life you love?

First, don’t quit your job without a plan. Always have a safety net in case it doesn’t work out. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains that our basic needs must be met before we can achieve self-actualization. You will not enjoy the work you do if you cannot afford to put food on the table.

Second, it’s also important to consider your desired lifestyle and what kind of career can provide that. For example, if ‘doing good’ is a core value, then you may have to accept a downgrade in pay. If work-life balance is important, then perhaps working for a 9-5 at a medium-sized corporation rather than pursuing a passion is more in alignment with the life you want.

Lastly, work is not the only means to living a life you love. It’s important to diversify your interests to ensure your whole identity doesn’t revolve around your career. This can include hobbies, side gigs, passion projects, spending time with family and friends, or even physical activity.

“When you have money, it’s always smart to diversify your investments. That way if one of them goes south, you don’t lose everything. It’s also smart to diversify your identity, to invest your self-esteem and what you care about into a variety of different areas — business, social life, relationships, philanthropy, athletics — so that when one goes south, you’re not completely screwed over and emotionally wrecked.”

Tim Ferris

How can you find meaning in your work?

Ikigai is a Japanese term roughly translated as ‘a reason for being’. It is often represented as a Venn diagram (shown below) as a guide for discovering your life’s purpose. Your Ikigai is doing what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

A key component of Ikigai is the ability to see the direct impact of your work. Ikigai can even increase longevity. Japanese Okinawans who embody Ikigai are known to live well past the age of 100.

Finding your Ikigai does not need to be in a grandiose way either. In fact, humans have the incredible ability to create meaning out of even the most mundane, or awful, of circumstances. In Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which he wrote after enduring the concentration camps, he explains:

‘To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way…that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone…It is this spiritual freedom — which cannot be taken away — that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”

Perhaps the answer is to focus less on loving the work you do and more on doing work that is meaningful.

What does it mean for a person to function at their peak? Peak performance means that all basic needs are met so the mind and body are nourished, which allows for the highest level of success. It’s about long-term, consistent, and sustainable growth.

Often, peak performance is a term used in the athletics world. Athletes are in a constant cycle of training and recovery, learning their body’s cues in order to perform their best in matches or competitions. But the same mentality and techniques can be applied to entrepreneurship, the business world, or to anyone who is striving to live their best life. Superhuman status is not just for the elite.

“Peak performance in life isn’t about succeeding all the time or even being happy all the time. It’s often about compensating, adjusting, and doing the best you can with what you have right now.” — Ken Ravizza, Sport Psychologist

Ken Ravizza, Sport Psychologist

The power of the to-do list

It may seem simple, but one way to achieve peak function is by writing down goals and to-do lists for accountability. The goals should be SMART goals: specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. But a to-do list can include everything from long-term planning to what to accomplish before breakfast the next day. To-do lists help to organise the mind in a more linear fashion and create space to focus on the present moment rather than stressing about what’s to come.

It is also important to not rigidly adhere to a to-do list. Psychologists have found that a growth mindset is more indicative of long-term success and motivation. Part of being a highly successful person is learning to adapt to the inevitable fluctuations of life.

Mindfulness & mental health

Mindfulness and meditation can help with stress and the ability to remain calm under pressure. Prioritising mental health is equally important as physical health and the items on a to-do list. Goals are important, but they also need to be sustainable.

In fact, in a study in The Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, athletes who performed just twelve minutes of meditation a day showed higher mental resilience than those who didn’t. They also had more improved focus during training. Rest and recovery can often seem counterintuitive when schedules are jam-packed and the lists endless, but ultimately, taking the time to be present and slow down will lead to more effective results.

Diet, nutrition & sleep

A healthy diet, nutrition, and adequate sleep are essential to achieve peak performance. Sleep debt — fewer than seven hours of sleep — may be an ‘unrecognised, but likely critical factor in reaching peak performance’, says Cheri Mah, researcher at the Stanford Sleep Disorder Clinic and Research Laboratory. There is a strong correlation between diet and nutrition and quality of sleep. For example, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol negatively impact sleep, whereas eating a Mediterranean diet, and a diet high in Omega fatty acids, may lead to more restful sleep (Godos et al., 2019).

Many high performers work around their ‘peak performance hours’, which is the time of day when a person is most efficient based on the body’s chronotype and circadian rhythms. In other words, knowing whether one is a night owl, or a morning bird can help determine the day’s structure for optimal success.

The importance of deep work & flow

Lastly, the ability to be in flow is not only a factor in success but also happiness and overall life satisfaction. ‘Flow’, a term first coined by positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, refers to being completely immersed in the task at hand. It can be achieved by avoiding multitasking, focusing on quality of the work rather than doing as many things as fast as possible, and by doing a task that is enjoyable.

In the book, The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance, the authors explain that optimal focus also requires some level of stress. Too much stress will inhibit focus, and too little leads to a lack of motivation. To achieve deep flow, then, there needs to be some sense of urgency in the work. There needs to be a purpose driving the task.

Conclusion:

Peak performance is not achieved overnight. It requires consistent practice, having clear goals, and holding oneself accountable, while also maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Anyone can achieve peak performance and success by implementing the right habits.

More on sleep

In a pre-pandemic world, employees would often show their dedication to the job by being the first one in the office, the last one to leave, and rarely taking breaks. Busyness was a sign of the high achiever. Now, with hybrid working conditions of both remote and in-person, the method might not be the same, but the mindset is still prevalent. The ideal employee is one who is always ‘on’.

For an executive, the need to be busy might look like an inability to shut off, constantly checking emails on the weekends, or refusing to delegate work. But this is not sustainable. The cultural obsession with productivity has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress in the workplace, and it’s impacting quality of life as well as businesses.

What are the signs of burnout? And why should leaders care about the well-being of their employees and themselves?

The World Health Organisation classifies burnout as a ‘syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed’. It lists the three characteristics of burnout as:


In a study by Personio, 38% of employees in the UK and Ireland are looking to change roles due to toxic workplace culture, bad work-life balance, and a lack of career progression. This turnover rate could cost businesses nearly €17 million. In fact, companies in the States are seeing a similar trend with a ‘record number’ of employees quitting their jobs. McKinsey & Co. refers to it as ‘The Great Attrition’. Burnout always existed, but the pandemic has exacerbated its effects.

Employee burnout is a huge problem that affects not only the employee themselves, but the business, the leaders, and the broader culture. And it’s costing millions.

Busyness can lead to burnout because of the ‘tunnelling’ effect. According to a Harvard Business Review article, researchers describe this phenomenon as the inability to focus on anything but the immediate task at hand. In this state, there’s no bandwidth to focus on long-term goals or strategic planning. It’s exhausting. The first step to breaking free of this cycle is to recognize the signs of burnout and admit that something needs to change.

As burnout and stress are cumulative and chronic, a few ‘bad’ days in a row should not be ignored. Nutrition, sleep, and physical exercise play a huge role in overall well-being. It’s important to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night, eat a well-balanced diet, and move the body regularly. Meditation and mindfulness are also proven to improve the effects of stress when practised consistently.

Another way to combat burnout, which on the surface may seem counterintuitive, is scheduling downtown and relaxation into the workday. A Scientific American article explains that ‘downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to achieve our highest levels of performance’. Downtime can include a meditation practice, but it can also be taking a midday nap or a walk outside.

For a company culture to drastically change, leaders need to create new models for productivity and success. Perhaps the ideal employee is one who prioritises their mental health and physical well-being while getting the job done. Leaders can also encourage their employees to create personal boundaries. There will be times when an executive or manager sends an email at 9 p.m., but it does not mean that they require an immediate response.

Lastly, burnout is often a symptom of an underlying issue. There are simple ways to combat burnout, such as proper diet and nutrition, sleep, and setting boundaries, but there could also be another cause that requires deeper reflection.

In a study on how the most successful people conquer burnout, Bismarck Lepe, CEO, talks about the importance of mission in relation to burnout:

‘I don’t believe “burnout” is a function of the amount or intensity of work one takes on. Rather, feeling burned out is usually caused by a misalignment between the individual and their daily tasks’.

Bismarck Lepe, CEO Wizeline

Stability, benefits, and healthcare are all important aspects of a job, but if a person hates their work, it can also have an array of negative health impacts. The solution to burnout might be less about finding work-life balance and more about finding work that is fulfilling.

Burnout may be leading to a million-dollar loss for businesses, but the price on quality of life is equally bad, if not worse. If leaders can address burnout and stress and create better working conditions, there will be more attraction and retention rather than attrition. Change needs to start from the top-down for the culture to shift.

What is the subconscious mind?

We spend most of our time on autopilot. Everything we do, from breathing to walking, to eating and having a conversation, occurs automatically as a way for our brain to preserve energy for what it considers more important tasks. This is the subconscious mind at work.

Freud developed the 3-level model of the mind, which is often represented as an iceberg: the conscious as the tip, the subconscious just beneath the surface, and the unconscious, buried below. The subconscious mind makes up 95% of the brain, while the conscious mind only 5% (Szegedy-Maszak, 2005). If we can learn how to access our subconscious, we have the power to unlock our full potential.

The Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a network of neurons that act as a filtering system between the conscious and subconscious mind. As our brains cannot absorb everything that is happening around us, the RAS controls the information that goes into our consciousness. It exists as a mechanism for survival. If we had to consciously think about every small action we take throughout the day, our energy would be depleted for when we need to be alert.

How can we use the RAS to change behaviours?

The RAS reinforces behaviours we have learned to do automatically. To change a behaviour, the neural pathways need to be reprogrammed to create a new response. For example, if we want to start waking up earlier but have the belief that we’re not a morning person, it will be difficult to suddenly start waking up earlier. We have to first become aware of the thought that may be holding us back—‘I’m not a morning person’—and shift that to a narrative of why we might enjoy the mornings, what we want to achieve by waking up earlier, and repeat the action until it becomes automatic.

This is also known as neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to rewire pathways to create a new behaviour response. Researchers have also concluded that to truly change a habit, we have to see the value of the new goal and the reward. So, how can we begin to bring the subconscious into awareness, shift our habits, and set ourselves onto the path of success?

Visualising success

The first way is through visualisation. Visualisation has long been used by top performers and athletes competing for the Olympics to prepare for the day of the events. It requires imagining the exact conditions you will be in, what it’s going to feel, smell, look like, and envisioning how you’re going to succeed.

As Frank Niles Ph.D., explains: ‘visualisation works because neurons in our brains, those electrically excitable cells that transmit information, interpret imagery as equivalent to a real-life action. When we visualize an act, the brain generates an impulse that tells our neurons to “perform” the movement. This creates a new neural pathway that primes our body to act in a way consistent to what we imagined.’ In other words, if we see it, we can believe it.

Take the time to pause

Meditation is a powerful tool to bring the subconscious into awareness. Studies have shown that practising mindfulness and meditation can help with depression, chronic pain, anxiety, and a variety of other mental and physical conditions. Meditation also aids in rewiring the brain’s circuits by increasing the amount of grey matter, which improves emotional regulation and impulse control. It gives us more control over our subconscious behaviours and leads to better decision-making that aligns with our goals.

Write down thoughts

Since the subconscious mind absorbs information that the conscious mind does not have the capacity to process, it contains a wealth of data, waiting to be accessed. Many high-achieving individuals swear by morning pages, which is the daily practice of freewriting in the morning before starting the day. As you write, it’s important not to edit or get caught up in spelling and grammar. This is the time to see what may come up without the conscious mind interfering.

Journaling is also a great way to define our goals. Unlike morning pages, this is best to do at night before bed to clear the mind for sleep. By writing down what we want to accomplish, our goals for the future, and how we want to achieve them, we bring them into awareness.

Get adequate rest

We often underestimate the value of a good night’s rest. Sleep, however, is essential to giving our minds and bodies the time to reset; it is when the brain recharges and processes information from the day. In fact, studies have shown that having adequate sleep, seven to eight hours a night, improves memory, regulates metabolism, reduces fatigue, and improves cognitive and behavioural function. The subconscious mind is more likely to repeat old patterns if it’s running on empty.

Consistent practice

Tapping into the subconscious and rewiring neural pathways takes time. Change will not occur overnight. By becoming aware of our subconscious thoughts and behaviours, implementing techniques such as visualisations, meditation, journaling, and getting enough rest, we will soon begin to see the positive impact on our daily lives.

More On Meditation

References

Eugene, Andy R, and Jolanta Masiak. ‘The Neuroprotective Aspects of Sleep.’ MEDtube science vol. 3,1 (2015): 35-40.

Berkman, Elliot T. ‘The Neuroscience of Goals and Behavior Change.’ Consulting psychology journal vol. 70,1 (2018): 28-44.

Clarey, Christopher, ‘Olympians Use Imagery as Mental Training.’ The New York Times. February 22, 2014.

Luders E, Toga AW, Lepore N, Gaser C. ‘The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter.’ Neuroimage. 2009 Apr 15;45(3):672-8.

Niles, Frank, Ph.D., ‘How to Use Visualization to Achieve Your Goals.’ Huffington Post. June 17, 2011.

Szegedy-Maszak, M., ‘Mysteries of the Mind: Your unconscious is making your everyday decisions.’ U.S. News & World Report, February 28, 2005.

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