Stop Limitations, and Start Transforming Yourself & Your Team to Reach New Heights
How have you, your team and partnerships transformed this year?
I love butterflies (this is a picture of my fence on my backyard patio). I am amazed with their transitioning from the furry and unattractive (in my opinion) caterpillars and transforming into beautiful colorful creatures that fly around with grace and beauty.
As we prepare to wrap up another challenging yet opportunistic year, I want to share some key topics I’ve taught, and hope that the questions below will encourage you to pause, reflect and identify your opportunities to transform. I’ve learned so much and hope by the time you finish reading, I’ve inspired thoughts on my path to share wisdom, knowledge and skill transfer.
Three topics that I’ll share now are:
· The path to a culture of belonging with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
· Psychological Safety
· The power of instilling growth development
1. Belonging: DEI
People used to immediately think of race, gender, and age when they thought of DEI. These are still critical components, yet there are so many more dimensions to consider as we commit to diversify our organizations. Let me share a few for you and I encourage you to look around your office, (or screen) to recognize how diverse your team is, or isn’t.
· Religion
· Gender identity
· Neuro-diversity
· Generations
· Sexual orientation
· Disabilities (physical and mental)
Now that you reviewed some of these added dimensions, the main question to ponder is how can you open opportunities for others in your current org chart to uncover what they may be masking, and how can you welcome others who may be experiencing some of these dimensions to your team?
How are you and your team activating allyship? (by allyship I mean advocating, standing up for others).
2. Psychological Safety
I’ve been saddened by the number of people who express their fears of speaking up at their previous companies when I've led classes. I usually incorporate this topic in the content with DEI and/or Leadership, and it’s appropriate, always.
In fact, feeling unable to be authentic and honest tends to be a top reason people have decided to leave their company in hopes that can be who they really are at their next company. However, many are discovering that the grass was not greener on the other side. This means that every company needs to be focused on how to be inclusive, encouraging, and listen. And change…transform.
More for you to ponder:
· How safe is it for people to feel included in your workplace?
· How safe is it for people to feel safe to learn? And admit that they don’t understand something without fear of hearing about it during their performance review?
· How safe is it for people to contribute? If they don’t have a title, is it ok to speak up and suggest some out of the box idea?
· How safe is it for people to challenge? What if they disagree with the majority of people in the room, or even the boss? Do they feel open to disagree, and offer a completely different perspective?
Click here to learn more about Psychological Safety:
https://hbr.org/2021/06/4-steps-to-boost-psychological-safety-at-your-workplace
3. Growth Development and Action
The great resignation! OMG, we know about it. Well, what are you doing to provide what employees are saying they want during employee engagement surveys or on their way out of the door in their exit interviews?
They say they don’t get feedback about their performance, how to advance or what possible career steps might be.
So, what kind of training are you offering to help them grow? Usually the "hard" or technical skills are offered so they can complete their tasks more accurately. I think that’s a good thing.
Do you provide a culture of learning so they can engage more? According to Gallup, only 32% of work populations are engaging and this is not a surprise when we consider the various work styles we have now: in person, hybrid and remote.
Ponder this: How often do you encourage growth in the "soft skills" (I like to call them "power" skills required for people to engage and collaborate)
· Personality/workstyles (one person who wants to chatter drives the person who just wants to get their work done crazy because they don’t understand their differences...talk with me about getting assessments)
· Communication – this is one of the top three challenges I hear from almost every company – working in silos, forgetting to tell significant people about project status, not listening…it’s a long list. Body language, tonality and words are all sending messages-90% of what we convey has nothing to do with what we say.
· Empathy/Emotional Intelligence – understanding ourselves first and how we respond emotionally, then understanding others
· Giving feedback- knowing how to give and receive feedback is what helps individuals move forward (and the feedback is not necessarily top to bottom)
By reviewing these three transformation opportunities: DEI, Psychological Safety and Growth Development, I hope you have been able to identify what is not working and commit to removing those limitations. Replace them with new ideas and actions that will result in true transformation for you and your team. The new year is right around the corner and will be here before we know it.
Show your beauty like the butterfly, soar with grace and beauty and reach new heights.
If you read through this letter it validates that we are on this journey together. Thank you for showing your appreciation to me!
I am here to help you with tools to become an even more effective leader.
I'm looking for more individuals like you, who are committed to cross the bridge from where they are, and take the right steps to narrow gaps...at work, at home and in the community.
If you missed my last Linked In Live on Leading your Team to Overcome Stress and Burnout, not to worry. We addressed some great tools, feel free to listen here:
https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6983803269458370560/
My next LI Live is November 16 at 11:00 PT, I invite you to join us on the subject:
Work Culture Focus: Listen, Care, Change, Empathize
https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6993368677173608448/
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As a walking warrior and committed to the cause to end breast cancer, my walk is coming up in a three short weeks. I donate a percentage of my revenue and am blessed to be able to contribute by fundraising and walking. My training and fundraising efforts are in full force.
If this is a cause that you care about, I invite you to visit my page and encourage you to donate so we can continue to research and find a cure! Within the last couple of months I've learned that two women are in fact, going through breast cancer. When you click the page scroll down to learn more and you'll see the Susan G. Komen link to donate.
To learn more about my advocacy to breast cancer, click here
Abundance to you!!!
Connect with me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/michellebeauchamp
Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thechampgroup
Make today matter. Let's cross the bridge together to learn.grow.succeed.
