Embracing Reality

Embracing Reality - World, Workplace, and Workforce

The world is floating in a sea of change these days. That is obvious if you pay attention to the news at all. Whatever you may think about the world we live in today – it is where we live, where you work, and where you lead. Part of leadership success is learning to embrace where we are and the workforce entering the workplace today. That doesn’t mean you like everything about where we are, but building a thriving organization is difficult if all you do it complain about the current world, the workplace, and the workforce. Why? Negative vibes are contagious. Your negative vibes impact how your team thinks, what they do, and how much they emotionally invest in what they do every day.

A better solution is to engage your team in building new strategies to thrive as the waves of change pound you and your organization. Evolution is a real thing, and the basic principles of evolution stand firm. Those who adapt as things change are more likely to survive and thrive than those who resist change. Work to change what you can change, but beyond that start adapting.

There is another principle that can also help us during these times – History tends to repeat itself. We have been here before, but not in our lifetime. In fact, we have been here a few times since The United States of America was officially founded in 1776.

One of the songs I often hear leaders sing today is the “The workforce today is part of the problem. There are not as committed, dedicated, and resilient as our generation was.” Heard that song before? If you haven’t you’ve been hiding under a rock. By the way, do you know the first person who recorded the “next generation is the problem” song? Socrates who died in 399 BC. Thank about that for a minute. It appears that we have been blaming the problems of our current era on the new generation entering the workforce for at least 2500 years.

Here’s the crazy thing – my generation entered the workforce in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Back then, virtually everyone that was my parent’s age who lived in Marietta GA, where I grew up, thought we were the generation that corrupted the culture in the US – Woodstock, free thinking, rock-n-role, equal rights for all, etc. Now MY generation, who is mostly retired, is complaining about the generation entering the workforce today. The cycle goes on and on unless we make the choice to stop complaining and embrace the world, the workplace, and the workforce that we have today. It’s not the same place and the same workforce you found when you became a leader, unless you are a new leader. The easy path is to start singing the old familiar song, “the next generation is the problem.” But… that will not improve your organization. The more effective path is to discover who they are, what’s important to them, and why they come to work every day. Connect their daily work to those 3 things and they will help you drive growth.

Start Building the Behaviors of Growth In your Team

In a crisis, people do not rise to the occasion, they rise to the level of their conditioning.

During spring training this year, UGA head football coach, Kirby Smart, was complaining about the level of conditioning of the freshmen and transfers that were participating in spring practice for the first time. One reason UGA wins a lot of games is that they practice and train to a higher level of conditioning than most other teams. Many football games are decided in the last half of the fourth quarter. Those with the higher level of conditioning usually prevail. The UGA level of conditioning was new to the freshmen and transfers.

If you want people to rise to the occasion, you must raise your level of conditioning. You have many tools at your disposal today to create the growth you want. The key is building the behaviors of growth and the conditioning in your team that helps them thrive when the going gets tough. The behaviors of growth are what transform actions into achievement, intentions into impact, and effort into excellence. 

There are 3 core behaviors of growth that create the conditioning your team needs to thrive today. Everything else you train your team to do will be enhanced when you first build thse behaviors of growth throughout your team. Here they are. The ability to see, anticipate, and respond in ways that drive growth – however you define growth.  That is what elite military units do.  What is what great athletic teams do. That is what great organizations do that depend on their people to drive growth. The foundation is building the behaviors of growth.