Top Takeaways Tuesday: Creating Safe and Innovative Workplaces

The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast, Ep. 67

Hello KSKOers

I’ve long since been a fan of Lisa Nordquist, with her brilliant insights, wisdom and humour. I really enjoyed our conversation about the body-brain-behaviour link and exploration into who’s driving the bus…

Here are my top takeaways from our conversation…

1. Evolving Leadership Paradigms: The shift from traditional command-and-control leadership styles to leadership that prioritises self-awareness and emotional intelligence reflects the changing dynamics of today's professional landscape - and the different demands employees have on both their leaders and organisations. Leaders are increasingly being recognised not just for their strategic acumen but for their ability to understand and manage their own emotions and those of others. As a leader, consider the specific actions you can take to better understand your team's emotional needs and how you can adjust your leadership approach to be more empathetic and responsive.

Reflection Question: How can you integrate more self-awareness and emotional intelligence into your current leadership style?

2. Holistic Wellness and Leadership: Lisa’s journey from her own personal struggles in self-care to becoming a holistic wellness practitioner highlights that symbiotic relationship between well-being and effective leadership. To really focus on your wellbeing you have to consider your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social health. You’ve got to think (w)holistically. Think about the areas of your life that might need more attention and how better balancing them could positively impact your leadership.

Reflection Question: In what ways can you improve your holistic wellness to enhance your leadership?

3. Importance of Psychological Safety: Psychological safety, a concept which you’ll have heard about from Amy Edmondson and exemplified by Google's Project Aristotle, is vital for fostering innovation and collaboration within teams. It involves creating an environment where people feel safe to take risks, share ideas, and express concerns without fear of negative consequences. If you think about your current practices do you do things like regular check-ins, open forums for feedback, and other strategies to cultivate a trusting and open team culture?

Reflection Question: What things can you do to ensure your team feels psychologically safe?

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4. Personalised Employee Appreciation: Standard recognition programmes often fall short because they fail to connect on an individual level. Lisa talked about the importance of understanding and using each team member's preferred "language of appreciation" to make recognition more meaningful and impactful. Identify the unique preferences and contributions of each team member and tailor your recognition efforts to reflect their individual styles and achievements. Work out what everyone’s ‘love language’ is!

Reflection Question: What can you do to find out the love language of your team members and personalise your approach to appreciation?

“They call it language of appreciation and so that'll mean like mine is, it's called acts of service, so if my husband or my boss wants to do something nice for me, they will actually do a chore for me. That would be like an act of service”

5. Balancing Generational Dynamics in Leadership: Effective leadership in today's workplace requires navigating the diverse perspectives and needs of multiple generations. Lisa shared insights from the International Coaching Federation and thought leaders like Simon Sinek and Brené Brown: their ideas and suggestions can help leaders foster accountability while respecting generational nuances. She also talked about the benefits of motivational interviewing techniques. As we move into an increasingly multi-generational workplace it’s worth exploring ways to create a more inclusive environment that values the unique contributions of individuals and encourages cross-generational collaboration.

Reflection Question: How can you better accommodate generational differences and leverage the strengths of a diverse team?

How can you use these top takeaways and reflection questions (TTRQ)?

1. Pick one of the TTRQs

2. Share it with you team

3. Ask for their thoughts and views. Reflect, discuss and debate

4. Get to know your own thoughts better. Help others to know their thoughts better. Get to know each other better.

5. Share your thoughts here with us on what you’ve discovered and learned.

Hope you enjoy the episode and find that these TTRQs generate interesting and awareness raising discussions!