Building an ethical culture requires establishing “the North Star” to which everyone within a company can align their attitudes and behaviors with a well-defined organizational purpose. Achieving this objective appears to be a daunting task in the post-COVID world where many organizational leaders are struggling to deal with the Great Resignation and other challenges. What’s missing from the discussion is an understanding of the power of mental/psychic energy and how this plays out within companies.
Meaningfulness at the Center of Work
COVID forced employers to make drastic decisions about work and the ways in which people work; the Federal Government’s involvement in determining who were “essential” and “non-essential” workers also had significant impact. Decisions about how companies could operate paid little regard to the internal cultures and practices that make businesses succeed and the economy run. Decisions about “population safety” overrode organizational decision-making structures, forcing the world “back on its heels,” raising emotional and psychological stress and bringing mental health to the forefront of personal concerns.
Research has shown that people work for many reasons, but at their core, people “actively desire and seek meaningfulness in their lives and work. By meaningful, we mean that the work and/or its context are perceived by its practitioners to be, at minimum, purposeful and significant” (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003, p. 310). High-performing companies with character-based cultures operate from this premise, and their performances during the pandemic showed resilience without significant loss of mental energy. Despite COVID’s disruption of work patterns and content, how did these companies respect and engage the Human Capital upon which they continue to build success?
Appreciating and Paying “Attention”
Many leaders fail to understand how the human mind works. The human brain processes thousands of operations every minute. Processes one assumes to happen automatically, such as reacting to brake lights in traffic, are a series of complex mental operations occurring within fractions of a second. Facing any situation, the human mind must evaluate events and conditions, retrieving references from stored memory and selecting the “right thing to do” with lightning-fast timing. This process of “attention” requires focus, comparison of information, and evaluating decisions, all of which place “demands on the minds’ limited processing capacity” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 31).
“Attention” is important because it is a form of mental, i.e., psychic, energy through which we get work done. Without paying attention, little to no work of any significance gets done, accidents and errors result, frustrations rise, and psychic entropy occurs. Psychic entropy is a psychic disorder that adversely affects consciousness and distracts one from carrying out intentions. The pandemic clearly showed emotions such as fear, rage, anxiety, or jealousy easily force the diversion of attention to undesirable or negative objects, leaving physical and mental exhaustion in place of positive thinking and effective results (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
The pandemic presented psychic entropy on a global scale because the emphasis was, and still is, on negative events and placing blame rather than on proactive means to counteract and return operations “to normal.” Despite governmental mandates, high-performing companies with character-based cultures continued to focus attention and leverage positive deviance by relying on the virtuous behaviors within their companies to serve customers proactively. Companies like Tasty Catering, Integrated Project Management Co. Inc., MidwayUSA, and Tarlton Corporation continued to thrive because leaders relied on their people to make things happen. They learned from experience that issuing pink slips was NOT the answer to revenue losses. Rather, they paid greater attention to what matters: Having highly motivated, engaged people continuously contributing their knowledge and intellectual capital in creating solutions to vexing issues, regardless of the circumstances.
Zappers, not Sappers
Several years ago, William Byhum* described two types of people who exist within organizations. Zappers are those who continually energize, excite, motivate, and inspire others to give their best efforts constantly. In contrast, Sappers are those who suck the air from the room just by their presence and negative demeanor. Zapping is psychic energy in action. How does this play out in the workplace?
According to the latest Gallup data (https://www.gallup.com/workplace/398306/quiet-quitting-real.aspx?version=print), quiet quitting is real for at least 50% of the workforce. Coupled with previously cited Gallup data (Article #16) about the growing decline in employee engagement (presently at 32%) and the rise in actively disengaged employees (now at 18%), the answer to turning the workplace around lies with leaders and managers: Leaders who define, build, nurture, and protect a company’s culture and the managers who define, support, and refine internal processes for the people most responsible for getting the work done.
The Gallup report issued the following warning: “The overall decline was especially related to clarity of expectations, opportunities to learn and grow, feeling cared about, and a connection to the organization’s mission or purpose — signaling a growing disconnect between employees and their employers.” The declines also suggest the presence of more sappers than zappers. In contrast, high-performing companies with character-based cultures have leaders and managers who zap others, helping them align their work with the organization’s purpose, learning continuously throughout the process. These cultures focus attention on what’s important, where everyone finds their work meaningful with interactions and relationships that serve as a constant source for being zapped. Wouldn’t you prefer to have a culture like this?
Suggested Reading:
*Byhum, W., & Cox, J. (1998). Zapp! The lightning of empowerment: How to improve quality, productivity, and employee satisfaction. New York, NY: Fawcett Ballentine.
Questions for the Week: The Gallup reports underscore the need for zappers, not sappers, today and into the future! What are you doing to create this type of culture within your company?
| About the Author: Dr. Ray Benedetto is co-founder of GuideStar, Inc.® a practice in organizational leadership for performance excellence (www.guidestarinc.com). He is a retired Air Force colonel with a distinguished active-duty military career. He is board certified in Healthcare Management and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Dr. Ray taught leadership for 12 years for the University of Phoenix Chicago campus. He holds degrees from Penn State (BS), the University of Southern California (MSSM), and the University of Phoenix (DM). He is co-author of “It’s My Company TOO! How Entangled Companies Move Beyond Engagement for Remarkable Results” (Greenleaf Book Press Group, 2012) and numerous ezine articles available online. You can reach him at ray@guidestarinc.com. |
Other Sources of Interest within this article:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Pratt, M. G., & Ashforth, B. E. (2003). Fostering meaningfulness in working and at work. In S. Srivastva & D. Cooperrider Appreciative management and leadership (Rev. ed.) (pp. 309-327). Euclid, OH: Williams Custom Publishing