executive coaching – Barbara Kearney

How to build trust quickly

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In some leadership teams I coach, I encounter the idea that trust is earned not given. And while I agree that trust takes time to build and develops gradually, time often is not a luxury teams – especially cross-functional ones – have.

There are many studies that show team trust improves communication, cooperation, and overall performance: high-trust teams are 50% more productive and even have more fun!

Enter the concept of “swift trust”. Developed by Deborah Myerson and her team, swift trust is acting as if trust is already present. Basically it is about substituting your mindset of “trust is earned” with “trust first, verify later”.

Start by assuming positive intent. With the belief that everyone is trustworthy and has the team’s best interest at heart. Assume that everyone is reliable. That everyone sitting at the table is there because they deserve to be at that table. And then trust until there’s a valid reason not to.

Swift trust is not about blind faith. It is about building a mindset and an atmosphere that encourages positivity and a collaborative atmosphere from the start.

❓ Knowing that trust is at the heart of success, has there been a time you missed out by distrusting people? And what is ONE thing you can do today to continue to build trust with your team?

Leading in the COVID-19 crisis: with character, despite fear

What managers can learn from positive psychology in a crisis

Co-authored together with Jan Kiel

“Fear is useful, cowardice is not.” Mahatma Gandhi

“Knowing what is right and not doing it is the greatest cowardice.” Confucius

Tens of thousands have died, hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs. The global economy is facing an unprecedented slump. Countries are going into debt at an unkown extent. And we still don’t know what to expect in and after the corona pandemic. This uncertainty creates fear. Leaders in politics, business and society face challenges of a new dimension and must face up to their responsibilities despite fear. This requires strength of character.

Positive psychology has identified 24 strengths of character, which it bundles into the virtues of wisdom, humanity, justice, moderation, transcendence and courage. Courage is the decisive virtue when dealing with crises. But what is courage, how does it arise and how can we use it sensibly in times of crises?

Courage is taking determined action despite fear

Courage is the ability to overcome fear in dangerous situations. Courage, like perseverance, honesty and enthusiasm, is an emotional strength that helps us to achieve goals against external or internal resistance by excercising our own will. Mark Twain defined courage as “resistance to fear, control of fear, not absence of fear.”

But how do we find the right measure to use courage? To this day, the Aristotelian “Doctrine of the Mean” is the ethical guideline. Aristotle sees the correct practice of a virtue between its excess and its lack.

Courage is therefore not about daring or cowardice, but about bravery. Aristotle sees courage as the essential virtue, since the practice of other virtues depends on it. If managers succeed in overcoming their fears, this radiates on the people around them. Courage enables courage, gives orientation and creates confidence. And this is the essential task of managers in crises.

Navigate the crisis with judgment, determination and implementation power

Carl von Clausewitz, military scientist and general of the Prussian army, considered judgment, determination in the “fog of uncertainty” and strategic adaptability to be essential characteristics of the successful general. The crisis-tested German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, following the same logic, required executives to have judgment, determination and implementation.

In a crisis, framework conditions change abruptly, knowledge is incomplete or outdated, emotions cloud analytical clarity. Processing available information quickly, setting clear priorities and making decisive decisions is critical to success. Concentrate on the three to five most important topics. Share this clearly and repeatedly. Correct if necessary but stay on course. Think in scenarios. Establish clear responsibilities. Give your employees the greatest possible freedom to make decisions. Encourage activity and tolerate mistakes. Ensure regular coordination and the possibility of escalation. Go with the dynamics of change. Use internal and external sources of information. Distinguish between important and urgent. Respond to changed framework conditions with changed measures. Share openly what you know and what you don’t know. Keep in touch with key players. Show presence and collect impressions on site.

You cannot influence essential factors. Take responsibility anyway, take up the challenge. Request this from your employees. Strengthen collaboration within and between your teams. Use three to five simple and effective indicators to measure and actively control your most important priorities. Report them up and down regularly. Pay attention to the stability of your employees. The better you support them in overcoming their challenges, the more powerful and resilient your organization will be.

Communication is important. Keep your team up to date on changing framework conditions. Make sure that your employees meet regularly, if necessary by telephone or video conference. Listen, take concerns seriously, report on successes and failures, show the context and the importance of crisis management. Do not despair but dare to show your own weaknesses and accept help. “In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Sense is strength. Our survival may depend on looking for and finding it. ” (Viktor E. Frankl)

Prepare for the time after the crisis – despite uncertainty

In the short term it is crucial how leaders and companies prove themselves in the crisis. For some it is an opportunity to demonstrate quality, for others it is not. The behavior of a leader in a crisis shows strength of character and potential, but also development needs and limits.

Who needs support after the crisis to fix shortcomings disclosed during the crisis? Who will no longer belong to the inner leadership circle in the future? Which leaders have proven to be particularly reliable and which additional responsibilities should they take on in the future?

Learn from the crisis yourself. What do you want to do differently when you are tested next and how can you prepare for it? When the dust has settled, it will be important to find your way around in the new normal, to anticipate developments at an early stage and to find entrepreneurial answers to new social questions. We can already anticipate some of these questions. How deep will the coming recession be? Does the expected economic V-curve or do we have to expect a flattened L-curve? What impact will this have on political stability? Can tax increases or even property taxes be expected? Will inflation rise sharply despite persistently low interest rates? How will consumers and investors react? What lasting changes in consumer behavior will the experience of the crisis make? How will the value systems of customers, employees and investors change? What does this mean for future product development and marketing? What do the supply chain managers have to learn from the crisis? What role will remote work, business trips and video conferences have in the future? What effects does this have on everyday cooperation, coordination and trust in the company? What does this mean for leadership and hierarchy?

The answers to these questions are still open and will be very different for each company and market segment. It is important to ask the right questions at an early stage and to derive relevant scenarios. The right time for strategic decisions is important. The range of possibilities will initially be very wide. This carries the risk of wrong decisions. Keep close to your customers and follow their signals. Make the most of your company’s market and customer knowledge. Anticipate the most realistic scenarios and prepare yourself for the worst. Check how well prepared you are and what preparations are missing. And actively seek opportunities beyond the crisis. What strengths did your company show during the crisis? How can you use them for new business approaches?

Derive optimism from coping with the crisis and use it to make a fresh start

Taking on new opportunities will take courage again. The courage to make decisions with knowledge of risk and uncertainty, to break new ground and to escape the pressure of conformity. For this, a culture is important that allows one to be different, to think outside the box and to consciously take risks.

Trust in the strengths that your employees have shown in the crisis. Don’t tell them how to do something, but what. Give them the opportunity to face their own challenges. Support your employees in discovering and developing their character strengths. Give them tasks that match these strengths. Question the status quo and encourage your employees to do the same. Ask questions about why and “what if …”. Transfer responsibility. See problems from different angles. Surround yourself with people from different perspectives. Identify brave lateral thinkers and reward their dissenting opinions.

This crisis caught us when we least expected it. But we will survive it. At the same time, it is a great opportunity. A chance to prove ourselves, to use the optimism of the crisis that has been overcome for new beginnings and new activities. Courage is a prerequisite for emergence from crises to be stronger and more confident.

About the authors

Barbara Kearney and Jan Kiel coach, advise and support entrepreneurs, managers and their teams in successfully mastering challenges and increasing their performance. They not only share their love for positive psychology, but also encourage their clients to develop their strength of character and to exercise their own leadership role authentically and powerfully. Benefitting from both their different character strengths themselves, when writing together they describe themselves as Mozart and Beethoven.

Positive psychology, a relatively young, Anglo-Saxon research area of psychology, does not aim to help sick people better, but rather to make healthy people even stronger. Positive psychology has defined 24 globally valid character strengths, which describe the human character through their respective composition and characteristics, bundled into six virtues (www.viacharacter.org)

Can’t touch this – Change and Communications in times of COVID-19

“A pestilence does not have human dimensions, so people tell themselves that it is unreal, that it is a bad dream that will end,” Albert Camus wrote in The Plague.

This rings very true, as we are in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis that is currently developing. Change is hard. And today most of us find it hard to bear that something so invisible, so incomprehensible to us can have such a major impact on our plans and our lives.

As someone who advises and coaches organizations and their people how to move through change, seeing how we are trying to make sense of what is happening with COVID-19 as it unfolds has many parallels. Both are characterized by high uncertainty — about what is happening and what we should do about it, as individuals as well as a collective.

So I just wanted to write down and share some of my thoughts:

Understanding our brain and how it deals with change can help us better understand how we can deal with it. Neuroscience is a great place to start. Most of us know, that for our brain, the goal is survival. And it is very good at trying to meet that goal. To survive our brain needs to do two things; avoid threats like the saber-toothed tiger and to seek rewards like food or shelter. Both matter – but a threat is far more important. We can go without food and shelter for a while (although judging by the panic buying going on in my local supermarket you’d think otherwise). But if that tiger gets us…..

Our brain is a prediction machine always trying to make sense what is going on, what is happening to us, what it can do to protect us and how to make sure we survive.

So a feeling of uncertainty (or “threat” in fight or flight terms) leaves many of us thinking less clearly and having difficulties controlling our emotions. We start to perceive the world around us as much more hostile. This is where the uncertainty causes anxiety, leaving people struggling and asking many questions about what is happening, what we could or should do. Studies have shown, that we are more comfortable with certainty about a negative outcome than dealing with uncertainty itself.

With COVID-19, the facts around the situation are highly dynamic, there is very much we do not know yet. And that is why good and transparent change /crisis communication is key. When people feel there is a void, they try to fill it by coming together to make sense of what is going on which often can turn into the spread of misinformation. This can be dangerous.

The challenge now is to ensure that those who are managing responses from leaders to scientist to journalist diminish bad information, increase a trusting, transparent communication to decrease uncertainty and anxiety, and to make sure people can take the right decisions based on what we currently know is true.

Here are some of my tips for those communicating around COVID-19:

Keep communicating, talk about facts, debunk misinformation
In times of change and crisis there is no “over communication”. Even if you have shared the story already a dozen times or more, the more people hear, the more they can process and understand. Remember that not everyone is always on the same level of understanding about what is happening yet. Talk about facts and debunk misinformation (constantly). It’s more important than ever to be clear and thorough, even if you feel like you’re repeating yourself again and again. Repetition in times of change is actually a good thing!
Use clear language and include context
No one likes jargon. How many people truly understand what the term “community transmission” means or what quarantine is? So explain things in clear language. Also provide context in helping people understand more about how science works (what a great opportunity!) – from immune systems to scientific publishing, these subject are not only vital in communicating around COVID-19 but also are fascinating subjects in themselves.
Showcase competence
The world needs to know and to appreciate that, science is a process and real people do science. So showcase these people, but make sure they are truly experts. In times like these it is especially important not to provide false balance. So stop showcasing people like anti-vaxxers or other deniers of scientific facts.
Explain what we do not know yet
When working with change in organizations, I always advise on being as transparent as possible with their communications to alleviate as much uncertainty as possible. This means clearly communicating what we know, what will happen, what will not happen but just as much on what we don’t know yet. People have a lot of questions and it is ok to say that some we cannot answer yet. Just make sure to let them know that there are many people, such as researchers and scientists, who are working hard on finding answers we need.
Acknowledge fears and uncertainties.
The worst thing I read or hear in the media (on – and offline) currently are the words “don’t panic”. Many people are worried and that is understandable in any situation where we cannot predict how it will end. So be respectful and acknowledge them and what they are feeling. Then provide these people with what reliable information we have to date , so that we can help them process the changes happening in a better way.

Yes, COVID-19 is a worldwide health crisis. It means that each and everyone of us needs to undertake specific actions to protect ourselves, our families, our friends, our communities and the world. To master the coming changes, it will be critical to have good, constant, factual information that we can trust, to inform the actions that we need to take. That is why I would urge all leaders and communicators to use the right kind of communication that will help us in best responding to COVID-19 on an individual and collective level.

PS for those who like music, dancing, fun and positivity, check our my collaborative playlist on Spotify around songs in times of COVID-19 “Desinfect yourself, before you wreck yourself”

Edelman Trust Barometer 2020: CEOs can seize the day

When the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, the first thing I look out for is the Edelman Trust Barometer. Now in its 20th year, the PR agency Edelman has been measuring public trust in people and institutions.

And this year, this stuck out particularly for me:

Business is seen as the most competent of institutions, inching ahead even of NGOs. And it is seen as competent, even if seen as too self-centered by most respondents.

Time for CEOs to step up!

The survey shows that people have a high expectation that their company’s CEO takes the lead in speaking out on important issues – from climate change, diversity or jobs of the future. A whopping seventy-five percent (75%) believe CEOs should lead the way to change, almost that it is imperative for them to speak out and not wait for politics and government to step in.

Larry Fink only last week spoke out on jobs lost to automation and the need for ESG-only investments. Microsoft taking more carbon out of its operations. Steps in the right direction. But the level of consciousness needs to be raised! Just think to Siemens who recently have been criticized around their decision to invest in coal mining in Australia despite the recent environmental (fire) crisis.

More needs to be done and being a change enabler should move to the top of any CEO’s agenda in 2020.

Technology is a worry

83% of respondents said they were concerned also about losing their jobs for various reasons like a weak economy, lack of job security, automation, or a lack of skills. Meanwhile, 62% feel work technology is “out of control,” and technological change is happening too quickly. Yikes.

Therefore CEOs will need to make real investment efforts in the coming years in people, not just technology. Why? Because we need a perfect balance of the two!

Mastering challenges collectively

But also engaging stakeholders across the board will be a key opportunities for businesses and CEOs alike. 87% say that customers, employees and communities are more important to a company’s long-term success than shareholders alone.

Maybe we have already seeing a shift when looking at the announcement by The Business Roundtable Group of CEOs who said that we should start to move away from a sole focus on shareholders to a more balances purpose centred on all stakeholders.

My encouraging question to all CEOs out there: How will you use your opportunity to own the narrative and to drive change to build trust in the coming years?

Where has my day gone?

Not sure how often you and I have thought or expressed this frustration. While we are all given the same amount of time each day, it often seems there are not enough hours in a day to set out all we want to accomplish and we are left dissatisfied and feel a self-imposed pressure of “doing more”.

Sometimes I wonder if this self-proclaimed problem is due to modern life and technology. But reading Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life” (written already some time around 49 AD!), it becomes clear that we were already struggling with how to effectively allocate our time way back then. Thankfully, Seneca reminds us “life is long if you know how to use it.”

So why are we connected on 24/7 basis almost by default? Why is there this expectation that we need to be reachable at all times? That we constantly need to be busy and productive?

Maybe we need to step off that treadmill of engaging in activity for the sake of activity, being mindlessly busy. Maybe we need to remove the things that are keeping us busy but are not achieving useful results. Maybe we need to stop constantly obsessing over time management in order to maximize every second of our day. What if we started giving ourselves the permission to obsess over something else, namely the quality of our attention? The quality of attention we give to ourselves and to the people and issues that matter most to us. Because attention does more than enable us to achieve. It enables us to connect and engage.

When we wish for a “long life”, we wish for a sense of satisfaction, for a life well lived. So next time when you will feel rushed, remember that life can be fulfilling if you invest your time in the right things, the right people and the right experiences.

2020: The Human Decade

The end of the year always brings about many reflections for me, especially as we are about to step into a new decade, still in the middle of our global technology revolution.

And even though we only hear terms like tech or digital, we need to remember that this revolution is first and foremost a cultural transformation with humans in the driver’s seat.

For business leaders it is imperative in the coming decade to truly put humans at the center of their organizations. It’s all about creating positive employee experiences to make employees feel valued, appreciated, safe and energized to bring their best to work.

We need to take a close and hard look at how we define leadership, work and collaboration, saying goodbye to the old normal of “business as usual”. This may be painful but it will be an amazing window of opportunity.

We need to provide a “north star” that brings a sense of meaning and direction, showing us what place our organization and therefore also us as humans have in the world. We need to create a space for everyone where we can share knowledge and experience, continue to learn and have the time for critical and creative thinking. We need to ask ourselves how can we create more connection, kindness, wellness, diversity, inclusion and happiness even amid the crazy pace of technological change that we are feeling.

After all, humans have always been the driving force behind every innovation and will continue to be so.

Leaders who understand how to meaningfully invest in others will have a critical competitive advantage in the coming decade. Maybe we are already seeing a shift when looking at the announcement by The Business Roundtable Group of CEOs who said that we should start to move away from a sole focus on shareholders to a more balances purpose centred on all stakeholders.

I am excited and am looking forward to working with leaders as we move into the new decade to support you in seizing the vast opportunities to advance the work you do and the people you do it with in truly transformative ways with a focus on the humans inside your companies.