Is it just a staff problem? Organisational change challenges

Leaders impact organisational culture through words and behaviour

“Can you help change the culture here?  We’ve got a real problem with attrition and complaints about senior staff.”

This is not an uncommon request for a behaviour change consultant.  The solution for such a problem, a client suggested to me recently, would be a series of activities including setting clear standards of acceptable behaviour and a number of training sessions with slides to help communicate the company rules including a new work from home policy.  Nobody in the executive and/or senior leadership team included themselves in the solutions they were seeking. 

It’s imperative to find out why company or organisational culture has declined.  It is common to cite post COVID changes, the cost of living, lack of engagement, financial pressure affecting targets and so on.  These are all relevant but sometimes leaders don’t see or don’t want to see their impact on culture.  They don’t see how their behaviour is one of the major factors that affect the levels of happiness or wellbeing in a workforce and in turn levels of productivity, staff retention and attrition.

Leaders say with some frustration, however, that when times are tough, they don’t have time to consider whether or not employees are happy.  And in a drive to make things happen leaders often remove the agency of the senior team.

There are numerous studies by psychologists and behavioural scientists with evidence that the relationship between leadership style and workforce performance is facilitated by organisational culture.  Achieving organisational goals and objectives depends on leaders and their leadership styles. 

Words matter in culture change strategies, both in text and aural communication and so does behaviour.  Influential leaders communicate through a combination on non-verbal modes (including body language, dress, possessions, and use of symbols) and verbal strategies for communicating vision, values, and legitimacy.  Developing confidence in the delivery of considered messages is a good place to start once the reasons behind decline in organisational culture has been openly discussed.

How to be a Happy Woman in Mid-life

This book aims to help women understand the challenges of mid-life, which for most is a time of great change, and identify opportunities for renewal. Using cutting-edge research and the experiences of women in this age group, the book considers how health, relationships, sex, money, purpose, altruism and attitude affect our general well-being and outlook on life.

How to be a Happy Woman in Mid-life, Olympia Publishers London

Feeling the mid-life gloom? Why our happiness dips in mid-life and what to do about it.

Being happy is a human goal.  Everyone, seemingly, wants to be happy.  This is reinforced by our environment; we read and hear narratives everywhere telling us we should be happy and we deserve to be happy.    Advertisers constantly use the concept of happiness as an outcome; “Buy XX and it will make your child/partner/self happier”. Most of us, at some point in our lives, find a point, a place, where we are happy. Typically this was in our youth and, as we reach middle age, it begins to fade away.

The mid-life dip in happiness has been well-researched and consistently shows the relationship between age and life satisfaction as a U shape.  We are happiest in our early 20s. The lowest level of satisfaction occurs in middle age (35–50 years).  Happiness dips towards middle age and then rises again over the age of 60.  Why is this?  It could be that those parts of life that challenge us most are at their peak in middle age including illness, redundancy, divorce or perhaps the realisation that your career is not going in the way you expected. This pattern is not universal but fairly consistent in countries that have higher than average incomes.  In better-off English speaking countries the lowest levels of well-being are 45-54 years. 

Sasha, a colleague in her late 40s, explained her mid-life gloom: “We’re sandwiched between teenagers sitting key exams and elderly parents with increasing health problems.  In-between I am trying to maintain a career and keep my marriage on an even track.  There’s angst at every turn.” 

The added factor is ageing which in women is strongly influenced by hormone decline and the onset of menopause.  The symptoms of menopause affect women differently but can be the cause of enormous misery for some in mid-life.  The CIPD’s excellent paper on menopause in the workplace highlights a much-neglected subject.  https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/menopause

Our happiness is also affected by the wider world, especially the news coverage of horrific global events and divided opinions between people and nations. Political rhetoric and the views of neighbours and family which are vastly different from our own can all lead to feelings of pessimism.  Social media has the capability of amplifying the worst news and the most extreme opinions, things that would not normally be said in person.  It can be hard to manage our own happiness when you read bitter narratives and hear angry voices, even close to home.

Looking to the positive, the mid-life dip can provide the stimulus for change.  There’s a good reason why businesses set up by the over 50s are statistically more likely to thrive than those established by younger people – older workers have life skills and great experience to bring to new opportunities.  Many will say that it’s also necessity that makes entrepreneurs out of mid-life workers.  While there are laudable and very welcome initiatives being established by companies like AVIVA who cite commercial advantage rather than altruism for their support of people over 45   https://www.marketingweek.com/2019/04/09/aviva-support-over-45s/?cmpid=em~newsletter~breaking_news~n~n&utm_medium=em&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_news&eid=7909317&sid=MW0001&adg=cacc0206-a6f2-4c31-b4b9-f2035356ada1, many in mid-life see their career opportunities diminish.  I remember meeting a recruitment specialist about changing jobs in my early 40s.  She told me that if I didn’t secure a new permanent job by the time I was 45 the likelihood of the career development I was seeking would never materialise.  I am glad to report that she was wrong but I know that many struggle. 

The big change I made in mid-life was returning to university to do a Master’s degree.  I took advantage of the support available for post graduate students through a Postgraduate Master’s Loan https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan that helps to fund course fees and living costs.  Currently standing at £10,609 (for the whole course), the loan is available up to the age of 60 (you must be under 60 on the first day of the academic year of the course to be eligible).  For me studying a Master’s in Organisational and Social Psychology at LSE was life-enhancing – both stimulating and challenging.   I particularly loved the opportunity to study and share ideas with people of different ages and nationalities. 

Changing what you do rather than just what you think seems to be the best route to better well-being.  We have the capacity to be happier.  Our brains are hard-wired for optimism.  It is, however, unrealistic to expect life to be joyful all the time.  Mid-life can be a good time for reflection; if we have experienced problems and circumstances in early life that are not conducive to happiness it’s important to take steps to reinforce happiness in later life.  Developing a positive outlook helps - most research indicates that it is linked to greater achievement in life and better health.  

Are you happy in your job?

An email popped into my inbox this morning that identified nine UK based companies where the employees say they are particularly happy. Glassdoor 9 companies with happy employees.

Having spent the last six months studying happiness and it association with career success as part of a Psychology Master’s Degree at the London School of Economics, I was fascinated to find out which companies distinguish themselves in this way and why.  The companies were all selected on the basis of good work/life balance scores. Staff use words like inclusive culture, supportive management, admirable values, and trust to explain their good reviews. “I’m trusted to work when and where suits me best, trusted to wear what I like and trusted to get the job done” said one current employee. The majority are in digital companies working on software development or Fintech, (apart from a notable exception, an award-winning firm providing carers for the elderly in Yorkshire) and tend to be private businesses, with under 200 employees. 

What does this tell us? 

In recent decades, interest in happiness has increased sharply and there now is wide acceptance in society of what happiness is and means to individuals. Contemporary happiness research is focused on both the outcomes and causes of happiness.  Happiness in the workplace has become a significant area of research because higher subjective well-being leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, engagement, optimal performance and affective organisational commitment. 

How well you fit the job and how the job suits your needs matters. This notion of person-environment fit in organisations has been discussed and debated for many years. This is the idea that individuals want to find organisations that best make use of their skills and meet their specific needs; and organisations want to recruit those who will best meet the demands of the job, adapt to training and changes in job demands, as well as remaining loyal and committed to the organisation.  In my view this still premise still holds. You will be happiest in a job where your skills are well-utilised and you feel valued. 

It is, however, more complex than this. Your genes affect your well-being and a variety of environmental influences affect happiness, including relationships, community, personal freedom as well as work and income. Commuting behaviour for example, affects happiness and there’s some evidence that long commutes affect women more than men (possibly because women with children don’t want to waste time getting home). 

It is widely known that those who have friends and relationships are happier than those without, and interestingly religion (of any type) brings happiness, though it is possible that this is because of the social contact gained by being part of a like-minded group. 

I found in my research (replicating other similar findings) that happiness precedes career success, meaning that the happier you are to begin with, the more likely you are to be successful in your chosen career (having found the right job to suit your skills and needs).  So if you are unhappy at work and want to change jobs, look at the factors or influences on your well-being outside the workplace too.   

How you manage failure can determine your future success

The exam season is all but over; A levels, GCSEs and most university exams are completed.  Students are taking picnics to the park, planning summers away and enjoying the lull before results are published.   For many young people this may be the first time they encounter rejection or failure determined by an outside organisation.  Putting yourself forward for external scrutiny can be tough.  Anyone who has applied for a job and been rejected knows the disappointment and reflection that follows, especially if it was a position where you considered yourself the perfect candidate.

Some people seem to be able to put failures behind them, learning from the experience, rapidly being able to move on.  There’s no doubt that confronting failures, evaluating what could have been done better so that lessons are learned for the future helps.   The good news is that we can learn to fail and to take risks from the behaviours of others around us.  The attitudes of those around you, the values and ethos of your place of work or study are, in my opinion, enormously influential on your ability to manage failure. 

In his book Black Box Thinking Matthew Syed cleverly sums up the lessons businesses and individuals need to learn from mistakes in order to succeed.  If you work in a place where failure is unacceptable, not discussed, or at worst hidden, it will obviously affect your attitude to mistakes.   Conversely, if you work in an open environment where failing is a defined part of the learning and development process you will gain courage and take risks for the benefit of the team.  Scientists and engineers approach knowledge on the basis that significant gains are only made by trying, failing and trying again. Failures are viewed simply as points of information that can help lead to the right answer.

How you manage rejection and failure can determine your future success.  This is the reason that job interviews so often include questions about managing difficult situations and failures.  It is simply to identify those who are comfortable taking risks but can cope and take appropriate action when things go wrong.

There's sound reason why we talk colloquially about the pain of rejection.  Humans are evolutionarily wired to connect with others and crave inclusion. This was originally linked with our survival; in prehistoric times if someone became isolated or was rejected from the group, then their life would be at risk. Our brains and behaviour have adapted to avoid disapproval from others. Research has shown that social rejection activates many of the same brain regions involved in physical pain, which helps explains why disapproval stings.  Put a person in an MRI machine and ask them to recall a recent rejection and you will see the same areas of the brain being activated as when physical pain is experienced.

While some analysis is necessary and desirable following rejection or failure it’s better to avoid lengthy periods of self-deprecation that may dent self-esteem.  An honest appraisal of what went wrong is essential in order to prepare for similar situations or to build a strategy or the future.  And a logical examination of the context helps.  We all know that the selection process for jobs often comes with a set of requirements and circumstances that we have no control over. 

We can build confidence by focusing on the positives, what we offer as an employee for example, reaffirming the qualities we have that are valuable.  Knowing how to limit the psychological damage of adversity like rejection will help to build resilience and manage attitude to future risk-taking. 

These ideas are not new.  In his book The Obstacle is the Way Ryan Holiday discusses concepts that great leaders have always known, from the Emperors of Rome onwards, that “setbacks and problems are always expected and never permanent.” Holiday uses the concepts of stoicism to teach us how to deal with life’s adversities and to turn negatives into positives.