Doug Hensch

Doug Hensh, founder of myHappier, revealed the 5½ Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs last Thursday when he kicked off Positive Business DC’s Well-being in The Workplace speaker series. Doug teaches people how to become more resilient and helps businesses develop more engaged, creative, and productive workforces through his expertise in positive psychology.

While Doug made a number of provocative statements that night, none resonated with me more than the following:

“In my experience a person’s greatest weakness is when they overuse their strengths. . . . It feels good to use your strengths. But by focusing too narrowly on your strengths you become less aware of the consequences [of your behavior] and the impact you have on others.”
—Doug Hensch, myHappier.com

As a fan of the Gallup Organization (and Marcus Buckingham‘s work in particular) I can tell you a strengths-based approach to building strong, successful businesses works. In fact, I have repeatedly used their techniques as a basis for transforming organizations with poor morale into companies that excel.

Doug’s observation that an individual’s misapplication of strengths leads to weakness captured my attention because the phenomenon has an organizational corollary. When a strengths-based approach is applied without a structure that enables a company to effectively harness what employees have to offer in a balanced way, performance suffers.

Blinded by Personal Bias

People tend to hire others like themselves. As a result, the recruitment process leads to organizational imbalance unless the hiring manager recognizes and purposely curbs this natural, human bias. Unchecked, the bias spawns an obvious organizational weakness. A company that has too many people with the same strengths unintentionally creates a blind side (or two) and lacks the strength needed to run the distance. Competitors will quickly outdistance this company even though employees may “click” and enjoy working together.

Dilution by Shared Strengths

Doug Hensch presenting the secrets to resilience.

Perhaps a forward-thinking executive has established a safe environment and invites disagreement during discussions because this leader knows that airing differences improves the team’s problem-solving capabilities. If the hiring manager has repeatedly cloned him- or herself, the deck is stacked against the company and the conversation will probably be a short one. This group of people simply will not see a wide enough array of options to enable the company to compete effectively.

Much more subtly, a team comprised of people with too many overlapping strengths dilute those strengths. Even if this group has members with opposing viewpoints and can argue through the issues to develop a sound strategy, I have consistently observed that this team as a whole is less than the sum of its parts. Every time. And that’s just a waste of talent.

Deliberately Blend Corporate DNA

Strong corporate DNA requires a strengths-based focus layered over an existing sense of organizational self-awareness. By using this framework, newly hired employees will share the company’s core values and fit within the corporate culture while being diverse in heritage, gender, age, experience, talent, and strengths. The mix forms a well-balanced team that has the stamina and resilience to keep the company in peak performance during good times and bad.

So, when thinking about developing resilience in your own organization and honing strengths, don’t forget to put systems into place that will ensure that you not only install a well-balanced team, also ensure they have the systems and tools to maximize their efforts.

Join The Well-being Movement

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

Please join Positive Business DC if you’re interested in how science-based disciplines like positive psychology and neuroleadership can improve organizational behaviors, job satisfaction, and overall performance. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

And, if you live in the Metro DC area, please check out our local events. According to research by Delivering Happiness, Washington DC exhibits the lowest level of happiness (and thus job satisfaction and productivity) in the U.S. With your help we can make working and living and working in the capitol region a more rewarding experience.

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Doug, for a compelling presentation. I have purposely avoided writing about the secrets. If you’re curious to learn what we discovered the other night, please download: 5-1/2 Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs.

Thank you also to Andrew Murdock, professional photographer and founder of Natural Artistry Photography, for taking official shots during our first event.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Teqcorner for hosting Positive Business DC’s first event. As a tenant, I can tell you Teqcorner works hard to develop and nurture an enabling ecosystem that takes an entrepreneur “from concept to company.”

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on October 27, 2012. All rights reserved.

Much of our unhappiness stems from the Because I Said So approach, the default setting for a significant number of “leaders.” These managers use their authority to gain compliance rather than treating employees in a manner they’d prefer. Chances are this approach didn’t work for your parents when you were two. Because I Said So doesn’t work any better for employers when you are 42. Unfortunately, the tendency to want to take control starts much earlier than you’d think.

Submit… or Else

According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules, boys establish a pecking order very in early in life. Boys with high status have learned to give orders by the time they enter grade school. Lower status boys obey or get bullied for their insubordination. A rigid hierarchy quickly forms in male groups. Verbal negotiation occurs only as boys with higher status vie for the independence that comes with dominance.

“The beatings will continue
until morale improves.”

Girls also tend to develop hierarchies in grade school, although they do it in a completely different manner. Girls will shun those who try to give orders. They favor collaboration and status comes from inclusion in the right cliques.

We have dragged these styles into the office so perhaps it’s not so surprising that the desire to command still prevails in male dominated corporate America. Only 15 women hold the CEO title in the Fortune 500. It would be interesting to know if these women choose to control or collaborate.

A controlling management style is damaging because it:

• Relies on fear and compliance, which demotivate employees and produces marginal results
• Limits potential to the manager’s strengths and amplifies weaknesses
• Contradicts the economic and social realities of the information age

The authoritarian style may have felt comfortable in the factories of the industrial era. It was, after all, a new way of working and people often came from homes where Dad ruled the roost. But times have changed. We have a diverse, multi-generational workforce that includes women and a vast array of ethnicities. Today’s workforce seeks autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Follow the Leader

Back to the research. Marcus Buckingham has dedicated his career to uncovering the secrets of productive workplaces. His well documented research on strengths-based leadership, when applied, works brilliantly. So why, then, has this methodology not gained a stronger foothold?

Reading a book or learning theory gives most people the right vocabulary. Application is another thing. We learn more from modeling than from reading. I think that’s why some managers use terminology like ‘empowerment’ while ignoring the talents and contributions of their staff. If you want to change your culture, then change the way you lead your people. You can start by getting a mentor that uses the approach you’d like to adopt. Of course, you can also model by rejecting the behaviors of people for whom you don’t like to work.

The links between giving orders, gaining and maintaining status, and ego develop very early in a male leader’s life. But the desire to control is not limited to boys. I’ve also known a lot of bossy women. We’ll take a look at the personality types that like power and control over the next few weeks. Until then, we’ll weave a tale of micromanagement.

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on June 4, 2012. All rights reserved.

Lively discussion at Positive Business DC’s October 2102 Meetup.

A recent article by Forbes about the behavioral differences between introverts and extroverts states, “. . . brainstorming results in lower quality ideas and the more vocally assertive extroverts are the most likely be heard.” Forbes based its article on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. Although other sources have made similar claims, it appears as if  brainstorming has gotten a bum rap.

“Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.”
—Keith Sawyer, Psychologist, Washington University

Rather than blaming a tool or process for shortcomings, we need to look at how the tool is being applied… and testing methodologies that underlie the research.

Is Brainstorming Really Counterproductive?

Yale conducted the first empirical test on brainstorming in 1958. A group of 48 male undergrads were split into 12 groups and given a set of puzzles and instructions for how to brainstorm. The control [group] consisted of 48 students (each of whom worked independently to solve the same set of puzzles). The students who worked alone generated twice as many ideas as the brainstorming groups. ‘Experts’ deemed the ideas generated by individuals to be more creative and feasible that those developed by the groups. As the Forbes article demonstrates, these outcomes have stuck.

The Yale study overlooked some basic group dynamics. Teams that include both men and women outperform teams comprised solely of men. In addition, the terms ‘group’ and ‘team’ are not synonymous. Researchers simply cannot put a bunch of people who don’t know each other in a room and expect them to work together effectively. A safe environment and trusting relationships underlie effective teamwork. As a result, studies like the one from Yale fall short of predicting real-world results.

Cultural Freedom to Disagree

The Yale study also learned that the groups instructed to debate during the brainstorming session increased the number of ideas by 25%, although most of the extra ideas came after the group disbanded. That makes sense because people build off the creativity of others.

Tips for Effective Brainstorming

For leaders, the trick to getting the most out of brainstorming and other activities used to stimulate creative problem solving starts by establishing a safe, respectful culture that:

1. Cultivates and values diversity
2. Ignores the weight usually attributed to title
3. Encourages each person to speak up
4. Refrains from ridicule and personal attacks
5. Accepts input without judgement or punishment
6. Provides constructive feedback on a daily basis
7. Works passionately toward common vision and goals
8. Purposely facilitates strong relationships and communication
9. Lets its hair down

Evidence shows that people share emotions. Even though people often view disagreement as a negative, the ability to laugh at ourselves and have fun at work helps keep things on a positive track. You can creatively solve sticky issues without destroying relationships or morale.

Establish Equal Footing

Leaders get the best results by using visual and behavioral clues that put them on equal footing with other members of the team. Select a chair along the side of the table. Come prepared with questions instead of answers. Invite participation from everyone in the room. Speak last to avoid coloring others’ opinions.

Except in times of crisis leading through a collaborative, democratic process does not make a leader look weak—as long as s/he can make decisions in a timely manner. The ability for people in all positions and experience levels to have a voice and participate in problem solving builds vibrant companies.

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on October 4, 2012. All rights reserved.