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In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, leadership is changing so fast, its now well beyond traditional management practices. And so we've been building our playbook for leaders, and this playbook acknowledges the importance of humanizing the workplace, creating alignment, fostering constructive dialogue, giving people a voice, and building connection to ensure teaming success! Let's start here, Humanizing the Workplace. Leaders play a crucial role in humanizing the workplace, valuing and respecting team members as individuals, and acknowledging what each person brings to the table. We bring our whole selves to work, even though we presume we can leave things at the door. We don't bottle emotions, we can't control them - they exist for a reason. To deliver performance outcomes requires leaders to embrace the human at the center of it. A little compassion and empathy and more open communication can translate into a whole lot of feel good. A safe and supportive environment empowers people to bring their authentic selves to work, and this often translates into better engagement, productivity, and overall well-being. Now we are on the road to a thriving workplace culture. Alignment. It's vital for high-performing teams. It's up to leaders to communicate the purpose, vision, goals, and expectations with absolute clarity, and to link the teams' with the individual, with the organisations', so that every team member sees their role in harmony with each other. Carve out space for open dialogue and collaborative decision-making to foster a sense of ownership and shared responsibility. When leaders align individual and team goals with the organisations, you embark on the kind of cohesiveness that results in collective success. Constructive and Healthy Feedback. Feedback is a powerful tool for growth and development. As a leader, provide helpful and timely feedback that focuses on strengths and opportunities for growth; a culture that encourages continuous learning and improvement, where feedback (and failure) is seen as a valuable opportunity rather than criticism. Team members need to feel safe for this to happen, and feedback, as I always say, needs to be 360. Giving People a Voice. Inclusive means actively seeking everyone's input. Encourage open discussions, brainstorming and idea sharing. Create channels for feedback and suggestions, such as surveys, town hall meetings, and regular check-ins (which we love and live by!). Empowering the team to contribute their ideas and perspectives, means tapping into a wealth of creativity and innovation, and collective intelligence. Now this drives team success, a buzzing positive workplace culture, and one where people thrive! Connection and Collaboration. In today's mobile and interconnected world, it's important for leaders to foster connection and collaboration among geographically dispersed and/or remote teams. Leverage technology and collaborative platforms to facilitate communication, knowledge sharing, and project management - those who know us well know we love a Miro board or two! Encourage cross-functional collaboration and create opportunities for teams to work together on projects. Connection and collaboration harnesses the diverse skills of your people, resulting in impactful outcomes. Empowering Mobile Teams. In a dynamic and fast-paced business environment, provide the necessary tools, resources, and support for remote work and flexible schedules. To do this well, create a culture of trust and autonomy, so team members take ownership. This we've seen result in agility, adaptability, and work-life balance, which leads to higher engagement and job satisfaction. This is a call for leaders to write their own playbook and embrace humanizing the workplace, alignment, constructive dialogue, giving people a voice, connection and collaboration amongst teams. Elevate your leadership to cultivate thriving, connected, and successful teams. Want some guidance on that playbook you're writing? Reach out for a coffee, we'd love to jump on your side. melina@peopleq.com.au suria@peopleq.com.au Download our program details here.

Whilst across the globe we are revolutionising the way we lead, organisations are still relying on traditional methods of leadership development. Emerging as a game-changer is executive coaching. We explore a few reasons why executive coaching outperforms traditional methods of development and how it can drive transformative growth for leaders and organisations. Personalized and Tailored Approach Unlike traditional development programs that mostly (not always) adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, executive coaching is a personalized and tailored journey. We work closely with leaders to understand their strengths, challenges, and goals, allowing targeted interventions and strategies that align with the leader's needs. The result is a more effective and efficient development journey that maximizes potential and drives more meaningful outcomes. Focus on Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence Our executive coaching places a strong emphasis on self-awareness and emotional intelligence, foundational to high performing leaders. We help leaders gain deep insights into their strengths, blind spots (or as I prefer to say opportunities), and interpersonal dynamics. By developing self-awareness, leaders better navigate complex challenges, manage their emotions and build stronger relationships with their teams. This enables leaders to make more informed decisions and create a positive workplace culture. Ongoing Support and Accountability One of the significant advantages of executive coaching is the ongoing support and accountability. Traditional programs rely on short-term interventions that may not fully translate into sustained behavioral change. Where as executive coaching ensures continuous guidance and feedback throughout the journey. We become your trusted allies, challenging leaders to stretch beyond their comfort zones, acting as a guide and holding leaders accountable for growth, keeping leaders focused and committed to their goals. Targeted Skill Development and Performance Improvement Executive coaching targets specific skill development and performance improvement. We work closely with leaders to identify areas that need focus such as communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, team dynamics or strategic thinking. We support leaders to experiment with new tools, techniques, and perspectives to grow their capacity, and with that grow their confidence! Executive coaching provides real-time feedback and practice, which can accelerate learning to deliver tangible improvements in leadership effectiveness. Integration of Learning into Real-World Contexts While traditional leadership development programs often take place in structured environments, executive coaching integrates into real-world contexts. We help leaders apply new skills and knowledge to their day-to-day challenges and support them to navigate complexities, make better decisions, and drive meaningful results. This integration of learning with real-world application ensures their coaching journey is practical, relevant, and immediately impactful. Long-Term Return on Investment Executive coaching offers a significant return on investment (ROI) in terms of leadership effectiveness and organisational success. Research has consistently shown that organizations that invest in executive coaching experience higher employee engagement, improved productivity, increased retention rates, and enhanced overall performance. The personalized and targeted approach translates into long-lasting behavioral changes, creating a ripple effect throughout the organization. The positive impact leads to sustainable growth. With its personalized approach, focus on self-awareness and emotional intelligence, ongoing support and accountability, targeted skill development, integration of learning into real-world contexts, and long-term ROI, executive coaching revolutionizes leadership development. By investing in executive coaching, organisations empower their leaders to reach their full potential, drive transformative change, and create a thriving workplace culture. For more information on our executive coaching programs and our coaches located across Australia, reach out for a coffee, it could be the start of something great. melina@peopleq.com.au suria@peopleq.com.au download our brochure here.

Leadership is a vital capability in any successful organization. The role of a leader is to guide, inspire, and support their team to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Effective leadership can make all the difference in ensuring the success of an organisation, and the hallmark of a great leader is their ability to foster a positive, productive, and collaborative work environment. Here are a few key traits we feel are essential for effective leadership: 1. Visionary: A great leader is someone who has a clear and inspiring vision for their team. They communicate that vision well, motivating their team to work towards achieving it. 2. Empathy: Empathy is a critical trait for leaders. It helps them understand their team members’ perspectives and challenges, and to also create a supportive and connected work environment that prioritizes the well-being of their employees. 3. Transparency: A good leader is transparent in their decision-making, communicating regularly with the team about what they are working on, their goals and challenges. This means team members are involved, and become invested in the team's success. 4. Authenticity: Authenticity helps leaders to build trust with their team. When a leader is true to themselves and their values, it inspires their team to do the same. 5. Positive attitude: A positive attitude is infectious, and it can have a significant impact on the morale of a team. A great leader encourages positivity and celebrates successes, no matter how small. An effective leader is committed to their team’s success. They are willing to invest their time and energy in supporting and developing team members, and they lead by example. By embodying these key traits, leaders can create a thriving work environment where their team can achieve their highest potential. Discover how PeopleQ works with Leaders to build an organisation's most critical asset. email melina@peopleq.com.au or suria@peopleq.com.au Find out more about our RiseUP Emerging Leaders Program by downloading the brochure here.

The importance of a thriving workplace culture cannot be overstated. A positive and supportive environment can lead to increased employee engagement, retention, and productivity. In contrast, an unhealthy workplace culture leads to high turnover, low morale, and decreased performance. So, what makes for a thriving workplace culture? It starts when leaders value transparency, open communication, and respect for everyone. When leaders communicate openly with their teams, it fosters trust and creates an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. It's also recognising the importance of employee development. This includes opportunities for training and learning, as well as regular feedback and recognition. When employees feel invested in, they are more likely to stay with the company and contribute positively towards its growth. Collaboration and teamwork are also essential components of a thriving workplace culture. When employees are encouraged to share ideas and work together, it leads to greater creativity and innovation. Plus, a positive team dynamic creates a sense of belonging and camaraderie that boosts morale energy momentum and engagement. A thriving workplace culture is essential for any organization that wants to attract and retain the best people, boost productivity and performance, and create a positive reputation in the marketplace. By prioritizing communication, employee development, and collaboration, companies can foster a positive and supportive environment that benefits everyone involved. At PeopleQ, we are proud of our own thriving workplace culture. We prioritize open communication, employee development, and teamwork, creating an environment where our team members can grow and thrive. Discover how we work with organisations in supporting them to cultivate a thriving workplace culture, contact us melina@peopleq.com.au or suria@peopleq.com.au Download information about our workplace culture tool, PQfactor, powered by Teamgage.

Executive coaching has become increasingly important in recent years as businesses realize the direct impact that leadership can have on the overall culture and performance of the workplace. A recent study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies that invest in coaching at the executive level see an average ROI of six times their initial investment. Here are just a few reasons why executive coaching is critical to workplace culture and performance: 1. Enhanced Communication: Leaders who receive executive coaching are better equipped to communicate effectively with their teams, which can lead to improved collaboration, increased productivity, and a more positive working environment. Through coaching, executives can learn how to better understand their own style, identify their strengths and opportunities, and develop strategies for effective communication in a range of situations. 2. Better Decision-Making: One of the biggest challenges for executives is making tough decisions that impact the entire organization. Coaching can help leaders identify their own decision-making biases and blind spots, learn how to gather and analyze data more effectively, and develop a more strategic approach to decision-making. This can lead to more informed, thoughtful decisions that have a positive impact on the company, and its employees. 3. Improved Performance: A key responsibilities of executives is to manage the performance of their teams. Executive coaching provides space to consider the style of dialogue that is right for them, their team and their organisation, that will enable constructive feedback to land. This can lead to changed behaviors' that have an immediate impact on outcomes. 4. Increased Self-Awareness: Effective leadership requires a high level of self-awareness, and executive coaching helps leaders develop this skill. The nature of coaching is self-awareness. Executives learn how to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, recognize biases, beliefs and blind spots, and commit to strategies for self-improvement. Improved self-awareness also helps leaders develop a more authentic style that has a positive roll-on effect on workplace culture. 5. Culture Change: Executive coaching plays a critical role in driving culture change. Through coaching, leaders become intentional about their values, purpose and vision and role modeling behaviors they want to see in others, creating a more inclusive, supportive environment for all employees. This can lead to a more positive workplace culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and growth. Executive coaching is critical to workplace culture and performance because it helps leaders develop the skills they need to communicate effectively, make better decisions, manage performance more effectively, increase self-awareness, and drive culture change within the organization. By investing in coaching for their leaders, companies can create a more positive, engaging workplace culture that supports the growth and success of both the organization and its employees. To find out more about our executive coaching services, download our brochure here. Contact us to arrange a confidential coffee chat. It's the first step in finding the right executive coach for you. melina@peopleq.com.au or 0498 800 008

We called it early, 2023 is the year of re-engagement, we’re now going to add it's also the year to get accountable for workplace culture! But how can you create accountability for something that is mostly intangible? Make it tangible and the only way to do that is by bringing visibility to culture. Visibility shines a light on what’s already there, it doesn’t change anything. It either confirms or negates leaders' gut feel on what's happening throughout the organisation. It provides insight into where your energy is best placed and where the risks lie. If as leaders we can better use our energy for maximum results and work to minimise risk, isn’t that good for business, good for people, good for customers? So why do we shy away from it? Are we worried our status will be impacted or do we simply avoid confronting the real issues? There may be shame in what could come to light. Or is it just in the too hard basket! At PeopleQ we ultimately believe it's human nature to avoid difficult, unknown, and complex situations. Well actually scientifically we know our brain steers away from anything that may feel uncertain. But we need to cut through the fear in making culture visible. Don’t put this into the too hard basket because when you start to address culture, you start to address the real issues an organisation is facing. Bringing visibility to culture, also means addressing what it is we want instead. And those willing to invest energy, in a disciplined fashion, acknowledging culture as fundamental to strategy, go the distance. We can’t really know how well culture is if we rely solely on our leaders perspectives, based on gut feel or intuition. Bringing visibility to culture adds factual data to these stories. And whilst there are strong signs of a poor culture, high turnover, reduced revenue, high absenteeism, high error rate, poor customer satisfaction, inefficiencies, customer losses etc, sometimes the journey to these red flags is a path of subtle signs along the way, that if missed, can be catastrophic. Visibility over culture brings these subtle signs into view faster. We may make it sound easy, but we know workplace culture is not easy to lead. We want to acknowledge that it is complex because we are talking about humanising the workplace, and the systems within which we operate are becoming more complex than ever before, being aware of this means we can embark on starting our workplace culture journey. When it comes to visibility, let’s consider what’s emerged to date. The once a year or pulse surveys, are they enough, what's wrong or right with them? Is an engagement survey all we need to know about culture? Engagement is a small piece of the puzzle and once a year / pulse surveys may be influenced by time sensitive contextual aspects, so there is limited value in working with parts of culture, parts of the time. And what role do leaders’ play? Quite frankly if leaders are key drivers of culture, shouldn't they play a key role in bringing visibility to culture? Once you know what culture you want, consider building it into your leaders' job descriptions to generate accountability. Regular workplace culture check-ins and performance reviews are wonderful ways of collecting parts of the data needed to make culture more visible, as well as turnover and absenteeism rates and understanding industry benchmarks. Turning this into useful data for leaders and teams can be quite cumbersome as well as some of the data being flawed by biases! You can make it effortless to collect useful data on culture, unbiased and 360, and we know how. Also lets just clarify, we are not suggesting leaders alone remain accountable, we are merely suggesting leaders as a starting point. And because it's a starting point, it also doesn't mean we are suggesting an end point. Culture is not a project, it is a continuous effort, where everyone is accountable from employees to leaders, stakeholders and boards. Finally, what if you’ve already got a great culture, euphoria right! You’ve done the hard yards to get here, we don't need to see it to sustain it? Thinking you’ve done enough could fall short. Visibility is both a starting point and a way to sustain your workplace culture efforts! It boils down to this, the ones who don't want to do the work the organisation needs, avoid visibility because working with culture requires us to think deeply simultaneously about people, customers, systems and the complexity of our environments. And that takes energy, effort, focus and discipline. Time for a culture assessment check-point? Download our free culture assessment tool here. Want to know how we can help? Download our culture tool flyer here. Contact us to schedule a demo of our culture tool, PQfactor suria@peopleq.com.au

A reflection of the Being Leaders Circle hosted by Tim Collings + Melina Lipkiewicz Recently we hosted a circle for our Being Leaders community, bringing into focus how adults learn today, to create a micro experience of the program. We invited the sharing of learning experience challenges and opportunities, followed by peer discussion to deepen the dialogue on how learning can support leaders to sustain change, and finally coalescing to reflect on what we now think about learning and what this means for how leaders learn. Rather than offering expertise, our approach was to hold space for knowledge to be shared and leaders stretched and challenged collectively, which includes us as hosts. As we applied this experience to the theme, the very essence of it became topical as leaders identified the need to decentre expertise to learn collectively, embark on challenges and create safe spaces to be stretched in, which often resulted in growth you wouldn’t have previously imagined. Over time this brought about sustained behavioural change and increases in performance. From here the conversation flowed to the importance of making learning sticky to sustain change. 80% of people acquire knowledge and do nothing with it, inviting dialogue around the need for practice not just safely but also within the context of our own environments being crucial to the way adults learn today. The role of conversation in a community of practice was necessary for embodiment, deepening understanding and reflective practices. As was the role of storytelling to the way we seek to understand the world, ourselves and each other, so nurturing spaces for this to organically appear was critical to adult learning. A cycle emerged for learning to be sticky - digest smaller amounts of content at a time, that is relative to your situation and environment and place of beginning. We processed the role of leader vulnerability and authenticity in not just your own growth, but also as a witness and in giving feedback to others. When we witness and experience with you, we are also experiencing for ourselves, paving the way for thresholds to be crossed and participant action. The campfire enabled us to form a mutual starting point; the flow deepened our understanding collectively of what leaders needed to learn; relationships are needed to explore and challenge each others safely so that change emerges; and thresholds are crossed when expertise and knowledge is decentralised and not the focus; decentralising knowledge enables multiple streams of knowledge. And all of this is how the Being Leaders program is designed. To allow for deeper collective discussion, emergence, safe practice and sustained behavioural change. To find out more about the Being Leaders program, visit us here and register for the 2023 cohort. Co-authored by Melina LIpkiewicz and Tim Collings

What not to do Part 1 Employee engagement and culture survey tools are a great way to invite and collate feedback from your employees in a meaningful way. The insights generated from this collection of data is useful not only to quickly gauge team and employee sentiment but also to empower leaders and organisations to identify where and how they can improve. The more transparent and action oriented the engagement tool, the better the outcomes, given transparency builds trust and actions naturally propel us forward. Whilst these tools are a game changer to how we design, measure and manage workplace culture, there are some potential pitfalls that leaders need to be aware of. Even the very best leaders can easily become caught up in one or more of these challenging scenarios. The good news is that with a bit of troubleshooting and practice, we can overcome pitfalls. Feedback that disappears into the metaverse This is the most common and detrimental pitfall. There is nothing worse than asking for feedback and for the organisation and leader to never make mention of the survey or results again. Without the right follow up to discuss results, you can be sure to erode trust. Employees naturally perceive the organisation and leader don’t take workplace culture improvement seriously. This also applies to inconsistent engagement with your culture tool by leaders. The end result? Overtime response rates drop, productivity may also drop and you may even notice an increase in staff turnover. Missed opportunity: The aim of most culture tools is to promote productive and focused team conversations. These discussions generate new questions, insights and ideas. It’s predicted that bringing teams together regularly to brainstorm enhances the sense of connection, improving engagement and morale. Practice: scheduling team meetings in advance as a show of commitment to prioritise, share and follow up on feedback as a way to build trust and team rituals. Score tunnel vision Setting goals and utilising your culture tool as a mechanism to measure your progress is a great way to help you and your team stay on track and drive continuous improvement. While culture and engagement tools are designed for leaders to pay close attention to survey scores, it can sometimes cause leaders to have tunnel vision which in turn can create some unintended behaviours. Missed opportunity: If you’re focused on simply attaining a particular score then you are at risk of missing the point of employee engagement. Culture tools should encourage leaders, teams and organisations to think deeply about what the team wants to achieve together and how they will get there. Practice: Nurture what’s in your control by prioritising productive team conversations. Through productive and genuine conversations and follow through on actions, scores will naturally follow. Hopefully we’ve given you some ideas that you can implement today ! And if a culture tool is on your list of ideas, speak to us about PQfactor, our thriving cultures tool powered by Teamgage! Look out for part 2 coming your way soon!

In 2014 I ran the NYM raising $30K for charity. I spent 12 months preparing and, in this picture, I'm running through Harlem. Why New York and the marathon changed my life. This was the moment I was awoken to leading a purposeful life, focusing on contribution rather than gain. Nine weeks before the marathon I had a level 2 tear to my calf muscle and was told it would be near impossible to run. Determined, my physio and I worked intensely through a program that had me back up and running. Three weeks out, I did it again. That’s when he announced through my uncontrollable sobbing, there would be no marathon! But when we landed, New York lifted me, I knew I had to give it a shot even if I didn’t go the full 42 kms. It was a goal I had intensely trained all year for, and I was used to pushing towards my goals no matter the personal cost. I had also committed to a lot of people who donated, and that key factor got me through, shifting my perspective forever. It would be the start of a new journey and future, leading to PeopleQ in 2018. We started over the bridge from Staten Island waiting in freezing conditions from 4am. The wait stressed the importance of timing and structure, and as I was running alone, I met many strangers, listening to their stories which broadened my perspective and compassion for humanity. I grew to understand the gift of conversations with strangers. I ran through Brooklyn immersing myself in the views of Manhattan and the energy of the 1000s of people around me to propel me forward. When we fully immerse ourselves in the moment, we stop thinking about what’s left to do. We ran by a church filled with soul singers and whilst everyone else kept running, I was compelled to pause my goal for a moment and show appreciation for the beauty in their voices. Their soulful voices carried me for the next few kms washing over the pain that was building with a vengeance. How often in the workplace do we focus on what’s to be done rather than pausing to express appreciation for the value of someone’s contribution? As I reached the bridge to cross over to Manhattan I slowed to a crawl, the Tylenol was wearing off and my back almost frozen in place. I limped to the medical tent at the halfway point, they strapped me with ice, dosed me with more Tylenol and suggested the run was over. I was there 30+ minutes when my husband rang (intuitively knowing what had happened), he told me they were waiting for me in Harlem (12 kms away), and that the kids wanted to see me run by - he strategically picked the spot knowing if he got me there, I would do the rest. He was right. That call lifted me and it's when I truly comprehended the role others can play in your most difficult moments, to lean on them for support, as prior to this I thought asking for help was a sign of incompetence. I also realised that breaking goals down helped minimise overwhelm as our minds work better when we break it into parts. And how a desire to be a role-model for others helps you dive head first into challenges. And, all this combined builds resilience. This is my husband taking a photo of me as I reached them in Harlem. Shortly after I was back in the medical tent begging and crying for more Tylenol even though I had reached my quota. Persistence pays and it's amazing how words filled with genuine emotion might influence others. I was on the home stretch, a few kms left, I had to focus forward. Having lost my father at a young age and suffering through an abusive first marriage in my 20s I was no stranger to the power of mindset, story telling, self-belief and determination in navigating challenging times. My marathon experience was on a different level, perhaps because in my 20s I was living behind a mask, whereas now I was living into who I knew I was meant to be. The stories I told myself to get to the finish line became character building moments and the critical role people played whilst I was in the thick of it changed how I leaned on others forever. I also didn’t want to let people down who had donated money to a worthy cause, The Little Heroes Foundation, they expected me to finish. So I anchored to this story. I was in agony crossing the finish line, yet experienced a sense of joy and accomplishment like never before, my energy lifting (I still had an 8km walk to my hotel) and I knew in this moment life needed to be about something more than personal gain, and that was going to fill my cup. Being purposeful blasted through me like a tornado. I love New York, it's a glorious state and I'll never forget how this marathon was the start of a more purposeful life and journey. These experiences inform the person I am when working with our clients to deliver powerful leadership programs that support leaders to inform their own journey.

We’ve shared a few pitfalls now, part 1 referred to feedback disappearing into the metaverse and score tunnel vision, part 2 referred to spreading your focus too thin, ruminating on the who what and where and approaching workplace culture as project. We could continue the list of pitfalls, however we see these and the two below as being the major ones for leaders to bring into vision. Don’t replace dialogue with data Employee engagement and culture tools will provide leaders and organisations with data and insights, but remember that’s all it is, just powerful data to support you as a leader to direct your focus and attention. It’s the team conversations that shape and give context to the scores and overall data. Missed opportunity: Whilst the data is useful and will provide you as the leader with some valid insights, it’s important to not rely solely on data alone. The richness and real transformation will always come from having the team conversations and following through on actions. Leaders risk this valuable opportunity to dig deeper into what their employees want without the dialogue. Practice: using fearless inquiry and asking powerful open questions to prompt deeper team discussions. Part of your role as the leader is to facilitate a quality discussion, so set the stage for the team and let them know you’ll be inviting their input. Not prepared to change When embarking on your cultural transformation journey, it’s easy to think of it as an exercise with a start and end point; however, as we mentioned earlier in part2, culture is not a project with a due date. It’s a group construct that everyone contributes to and is responsible for. It does require an open mind, and it’s the leaders that are prepared to be courageous, show a little vulnerability and genuine care for their people that do better than most. Missed opportunity: If you’re not prepared to use your employee engagement or culture tool to support your team’s transformation then you could be missing out on accessing a whole range of benefits. Research tells us that cultivating a feedback and learning culture promotes creativity, sharing of ideas and innovation which of course results in further growth, agility, adaptability and resilience. Practice: Embracing change! I know that’s easier said than done, however no one experiences growth in their comfort zone. You need a bit of head wind to evolve and grow. Regularly ask yourself “What didn’t serve us well the past week that we should let go of? And what did serve us well in the past week or month that we should do more of?” As they say, nothing changes if nothing changes. At PeopleQ, we exist to inspire cultures to thrive, so people thrive. We do this by choosing to focus on our strengths to execute a few key things exceptionally well that relate to workplace culture! That's our culture tool, PQfactor, powered by Teamgage, our leadership programs, our consulting on talent acquisition frameworks and our SVP workshops. Discover more via our website, or we love a great coffee meeting ! Schedule one with us today!

In part one, we shared a few pitfalls of employee engagement surveys when you focus on scores and feedback that disappears into the metaverse! Today we are building on this to give you a few more pitfalls to consider the next time you're having a team huddle. Spreading your focus too thin When you first embark on culture transformation there may be a number of items brought to your attention as responses come through. And it’s tempting as a leader to want to address all the challenges at once; this approach has the potential to overwhelm team members and can feel quite surface level. Missed opportunity: Addressing too many challenges at once in most instances has the ability to lose impact and can be more of a distraction as opposed to focusing. Hone in on one priority at a time and give it the effort and focus it needs to get the lift it deserves. Practice: Discussing together as a team, which is the priority to focus on and explore right now, and what actions will be most impactful? Obsessing over who, what, when Leaders, we’ve all been here, we receive feedback we don’t agree with and our focus shifts to understanding the source of the feedback to make sense of it, or validate how we feel about it. In an anonymous survey, it might be tempting to go to lengths to find out who might have left a not so glowing perspective. Just don't! Missed opportunity: Feedback, whether anonymous or not, it's still feedback and that’s a gift! People don't invest time in giving feedback unless they trust you will do something productive with it. If you’re putting your effort into finding out whodunnit, you’re distracted from the main goal - cultivating a feedback culture where everyone’s voice and perspective matters. All feedback is useful, it provides insight into the diverse perspectives of our teams, so use it wisely! Practice: Applying a growth mindset. We are all here to learn and grow. Notice what you’re feeling and examine why you might be feeling this way about the feedback. Sit with that feedback and accept that this is someone’s perspective. Approach with curiosity; Is there something in this feedback that you can apply and take on board? To all the perfectionists out there, accept that it’s never going to be perfect, all at once or all of the time, we are working with humans, who are coming into the workplace with a diverse range of external factors. Our role is to perfect our ability to adapt to this changing sequence of events, or as we like to call it, humanising the workplace!. Seeing workplace culture as a 12 month project This is one of the most common pitfalls we see, leaders believe a solution will transform their organisation/teams in 12 months and so they take a project perspective when it comes to transforming workplace culture! If it took you years to get here, what makes you believe you'll transform in 12 or even 18 months? Like strategy, productivity, talent acquisition and marketing, your approach to workplace culture is not a project, it's not a once off and it certainly isn't short term. Missed Opportunity: A focus on workplace culture is a continuous effort by leaders to create forward positive momentum, and in the same way strategy incorporates productivity, financials and customers, so too should it include people and workplace culture, for they are the driving force of any business! And like a river ebbs and flows, so does workplace culture as people move within organisations. Practice: Incorporating workplace culture into your day to day accountabilities, engage everyone and ensure leaders understand they are key drivers of workplace culture. Take a top down approach to workplace culture, and at a strategy and board reporting level, include a culture measure along with your financials, productivity and customer measures. Hopefully you now have a few more ideas to implement, join us for part 3 coming your way soon! For more information on PQfactor, let's have a coffee meeting, you can contact us on suria@peopleq.com.au or melina@peopleq.com.au.

Hands down my favourite subject was economics. I was fascinated by opportunity cost and those unseen yet powerful forces like Adam Smith’s invisible hand; a metaphor describing a free market economy. Later on I noticed unseen forces alive at work, this time in the context of culture. I was part of both dysfunctional and thriving teams and often team members were unchanged. I wanted to understand how this could be? And if we could experience moments of thriving together, how we could find a way to sustain this ideal? Or at least create the momentum needed to move towards it. So as many leaders do, I asked my teams the big sweeping question about how they’re feeling at work and combined this with intuition and productivity to predict where culture might sit on a spectrum of terrible to amazing. But this was always a guess influenced by one’s perspective. And a single perspective is almost always flawed given we see the world as we are and not for what it is, unless you’ve mastered the art of holding many perspectives at once? In more recent times, as the world increasingly digitizes, we’ve asked teams to convert their responses into a rating using anonymous survey tools. How good is that!? Leaders and organisations now have the opportunity to use technology to collect feedback which allows for a more objective and accurate view of team culture rather than rely on intuition alone ! Contemporary leaders will love that those previously elusive elements of culture are finally brought into plain sight and quantified. These tools and their results now even feature more prominently in board reporting as well as elevating employer brand and that’s a positive, given how widely culture is talked about in the public arena without any data to back it up. Now you’ve got the data to back it up! Employee engagement and survey tools have the best of intentions; they simply are not all created equal. Many tools boast multiple functions from allowing you to customise questions and even integrating reward systems. This is great, but make no mistake; the work to achieve and maintain a thriving culture does not come from the tool or a recognition platform, it comes when leaders and teams take shared responsibility and work together to create change. The moral of this story? The tool alone is not the answer, it's how leaders are supported to work with their teams and the tool to enact change. Creating space for team members to have continuous deeper conversations, checking in, sharing new ideas, discussing challenges, celebrating wins and driving actionable change is what will move the dialler on employee engagement and workplace culture. Taking action goes a long way towards the pursuit of a thriving culture. The tool is just that, a tool. And whilst it’s now best practice to have a people measure in place; the real gift is feedback and guidance as to where leaders should focus their energy to achieve a thriving workplace culture. The outcome: a much more inspired workplace. Assess your workplace culture with our complimentary assessment tool or better still check out our culture tool PQfactor, powered by Teamgage and let us support your journey from good to great. Contact us today and let's schedule a coffee meeting. suria@peopleq.com.au