Written by: Catherine Elizabeth Wood, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Recent research tells us more than 3 in 5 Australians are experiencing stress at work. However, according to the research, many employees feel they are unable to ask their boss for help.
Work-related stress can lead to toxic workplace culture. Addressing the cause of work-related stress is key to building a trusting environment as a foundation for workplace culture change.
Most organisations I have experienced working with, have ignored the toxic workplace culture. This is often because they don’t know how to lead workplace culture change.
Workplace culture change begins with you the leader. How? Consider this. Are you setting a good example for your team through your behaviour when you experience stress? When did you last ask for feedback from your team on your leadership?
Many leaders do not realise how important it is to regularly assess if they are continuously supporting, influencing, and empowering their team. Leaders need to build self-awareness to enable them to shape the workplace culture through their behaviour, building a trusting environment where employees want to work because they feel valued, listened to, and understood.
There are 3 steps you can take to build self-awareness as a leader to shape a future-fit workplace culture, which needs to start at the top. These steps are based on the ABC Technique of Irrational Beliefs (Albert Ellis, 1957).
1. Consider how you currently respond to stressful events and situations.
How do you behave when you are stressed?
What do you do or say to your team during a stressful event or situation?
What feedback would your team give about your behaviour when you are stressed?
How do you make your team feel in a stressful situation?
How do you want them to feel during stressful situations?
2. Consider how you interpret stressful events or situations.
Do you consider if your interpretation of stressful events or situations is realistic or unrealistic?
On reflection, do you think you could have interpreted the stressful event or situation differently? If so how?
3. Consider who you are as a leader in how your behaviours impact your team.
Which stressful events or situations cause you to feel stressed?
What triggers an unhelpful emotional response or negative thought?
Which negative thoughts occur when you feel stressed?
Which negative feelings and unhelpful behaviours do you think are caused by the stressful event or situation?
Ellis believes it is not the event or situation which causes the negative feelings and unhelpful behaviours, but the unrealistic interpretation of the event or situation which causes these.
Practicing self-awareness will help bring into focus the unrealistic interpretations of stressful events and situations causing irrational thoughts. As a leader, it is important to have a rational belief system that drives positive thoughts about self, the world and the future causing positive feelings and behaviours. Positive behaviours in the workplace will result in a trusting, engaged and motivating work environment and therefore reduce work-related stress.
Reframing a situation means to re-interpret the event or situation in a realistic light. Reflective questions to build self-awareness can help you to remain calm during stressful events and situations using reframing to change your perception of what is happening around you.
In summary, building self-awareness will enable you to:
Reframe stressful events and situations to have a realistic interpretation.
Develop a rational belief system to bring rational thoughts causing positive feelings and behaviours.
Modelling leadership behaviours to set an example for your team, is about having a realistic interpretation of stressful events and situations. How you respond to stress will impact how your team respond to stress. Building self-awareness as a leader will influence the workplace culture for the better.
Contact Catherine to learn how you can build self-awareness enabling you to lead a future-fit culture of engagement, psychological safety, and motivation.
Catherine Elizabeth Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Catherine Wood, is a leader in mental resilience, science-based coaching through neuroscience, and creating new habits for behavior change. After an acute brain injury as an adult left her having irrational thoughts and self-doubt, Catherine developed an interest in neuroplasticity to understand how she could challenge her self-beliefs, promote helpful thoughts and create new habits for behavior change. Catherine has since dedicated her life to helping people to establish their self-belief in who they are as their best self to drive helpful thoughts and create new habits for behavior change in the workplace and in their personal life. Catherine is the Founder of Life Renewal, the online coaching business combining leadership coaching and team coaching with evidence-based techniques in neuroscience. Catherine helps leaders drive employee engagement by modeling leadership behavior across 7 key leadership skills. Catherine has helped clients through her own coaching programs, workshops, and digital courses including "Mastering Emotional Competence in Leadership." Catherine has been a guest writer for Thrive Global which included an article on "Seeking Opportunities While Navigating Uncertainty", and she hosted a resilience series including "The Neuroscience of Resilience". Catherine's mission: Science-based coaching for collaborative leadership behavior.
