The Global Workplace Study was brought to my attention by Trenton Moss, and if you’ve got some spare time it’s well worth a read. The study focuses on how COVID-19 has affected Engagement and Workplace Resilience — and the interplay between them — in 25 countries.
As someone who is constantly reflecting and advising on how to make teams better (#highperformanceteams) and how to convince managers that their management style is one of (if not THE) defining way to help teams and individuals perform to the best of their ability, I found a few of the findings particularly interesting:
- It is possible to be Fully Engaged but not Highly Resilient, and vice versa.
- The Hypothesis that the more changes individuals experienced, the less Workplace Resilience they would demonstrate, whereas the Result is that the more workplace changes workers experienced, the more resilient they felt.
- Those who love what they do — regardless of whether they consider themselves good at doing it — were 3.9xmore likely to be Highly Resilient.
- Individuals’ Workplace Resilience increases with direct experience of COVID-19
- Workers who say they are on a team are 2.6 times more likely to be Fully Engaged.
And my favourite:
- You are 14% more likely to be Fully Engaged if you trust your team leader.
This finding has profound implications for senior leaders. If it is true that we demonstrate more workplace resilience the more “up close and personal” we get to the reality of COVID-19 and the more challenges we face, and it is also true that trusting our manager makes us more likely to be highly engaged in our work, then we can conclude that being a manager who deals in facts and action, not blithe reassurance, is highly beneficial to your team success.
Not much more to add really, except that managing with kindness whilst always presenting the realities of any situation is a managerial lesson worth remembering.
Andy.
Every Wednesday I book out an hour to hold a FREE agency leaders surgery. If you have something on your mind, a challenge you’re wrestling with or just want an alternative point of view, I’d be very happy to lend an ear and maybe help you start to unpick the issues. You can help yourself to my calendar, here. Speaking to a diverse group of agency leaders helps me stay current and contextualise the issues I’m seeing with my clients. So please see this conversation as a genuine collaboration where we both hope to learn something new.