Safe Leadership: Beating Stress to Drive Performance - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

The time is right for leaders to learn a new way, to understand what is really going on within their teams, understand why interpersonal issues are always rearing their ugly head and most importantly know what to do about them.

Ever wondered why people turn up to meetings but say nothing? Are you tired of going to work and having to navigate the politics and silos to get anything done? Do you work with a colleague whose mood can affect the whole team? Why is it that the poor performer keeps making mistakes and slowing everything else around them down but still manages to keep their job? Is there such a thing as a “toxic” employee?

These are symptoms (a departure from normal function or feeling). These and many other like them are caused by leaders not providing a safe environment for their people to work in. What do we mean by safe - the ability to share ideas and criticisms and make mistakes free of ridicule and persecution. Our brain is wired to survive, and if led well will achieve extraordinary results. However, if not the mechanism that the brain uses to protect us from external threats (our fight or flight response) can work against us. In a world of chronic stress, overwork and burnout this is exactly what is happening to us.

This unique approach to leadership takes the reader on a journey of discovery, discovering what our ancestors used to do and why that worked so well. Discovering how our brain has created rewards for us, to help us not only survive but thrive and to discover how those rewards shape our behaviour. Find out how one of these rewards (a hormone) can bring us together as a team but can also drive a team apart (the cause of office politics and silos). Reading this book will challenge your own thoughts on your behaviour. It will challenge what you think you know about communicating with others and it will also challenge you in how you approach poor performers and 'toxic' employees. It will change your narrative around interpersonal issues in a way that will allow you to deal with the underlying issues and stressors that cause poor performance (one of those could be you!). This will allow you to expend your energy where it is needed most and create an environment for the people around you that keeps them relatively free from the stressors that impede their performance and encourages instead, innovation, collaboration, team work and ultimately success.

This book is an easy read, although it talks about the brain and hormones and is based on research from around the world, the author is not a psychologist and so does not write like one, instead he has taken a few years to translate their findings into a language the rest of us can understand. It is rich with stories, practical examples, a little bit of humour and exercises for the reader to do to help implement some of this new thinking into their workplace.

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