Emotional Strength is a different way of perceiving yourself in the world in which you live. Emotional Strength is defined as “the ability to respond in an open and vulnerable way in the face of intense emotional experience, feeling ones way deeper into the emotion which allows access to implicit functional processes driving action” (Faye & Hooper, 2018, p.10).
Self Awareness
Leaders who have developed Emotional Strength have advanced self-awareness and they are aware of actions and behaviours. They role model organisational culture which determines the health and success of the business. Their leadership style seems to change from ‘saying one thing and doing another’ to consistent communication based upon integrity. These executives work hard to demonstrate they are serious about change, and they are motivated to show the way forward and bring their people along with them. They know that they need to put the right people with the right skills sets in the right jobs and that jobs need to be designed properly for the incumbent to be successful. It is no longer acceptable for executives to expect staff to perform random tasks “while you are there, can you just do …?” Jobs need to be designed and the incumbent needs to be trained. Expectations of management and staff need mutual communication feedback loops.
Old Model
This contrasts with the old model of business operations and culture. With minimal self-awareness, executives have no idea what they might be saying or the impact of what they say. They often do one thing and say another, they play favourites, they have a ‘purple circle’ (in group). Many of these behaviours are often unconscious as staff and colleagues are too scared to speak up and give feedback to the executive. There are many reasons people shy away from speaking up in the workplace. They don’t feel safe, they worry about things being held against them down the track, they don’t trust that what they say will be in confidence, they have been on the receiving end of malicious gossip and know how much that hurts, they have experienced being silently bullied (the cold shoulder). This is a description of an unsafe organisational culture usually sprinkled with employees sabotaging, staff taking time off, people using up all their different types of leave entitlements every year, people ‘bludging’ or going slow. Resentment builds and is demonstrated through various behaviours including gossip, ‘only joking’, ‘taking the piss’, bantering (it is all in fun until someone gets hurt), and public humiliation by laughing at people etc. Of course, the more this goes on without intervention, the more the business becomes known as a toxic workplace and absenteeism and staff turnover increases over time.
Organisational Culture
When this type of toxic culture becomes ingrained, change is difficult. Long termers roll their eyes and say, “here we go again”. They have seen it all before, change for change’s sake. They are the ones who are more likely to sabotage any change effort. Whether the change agent is internal to the business or external, there are challenges. Some of the most difficult challenges are breaking up group think. Group think is where a particular group agree with one perspective, their own perspective, and any outsiders attempting to join the group are ostracised and shunned and the newcomer gives up quite quickly. Another difficult challenge in this type of toxic culture is the overuse of mobile phones, social media and dealing with personal life issues at work. If the change agent attempts to put some boundaries in place, bad habits prevail, and the agent gives up or moves onto the next priority in the change effort. Another challenge is that employees don’t want to give up the working from home that started with the COVID pandemic and has become an entitlement in the minds of staff. If desired, to counter this one, management needs to set a clear policy where staff are clear that they need to return to work in the office by a specific date. Management needs to have the courage to ride the waves of push back, complaints, excuses, reasons and threats. Remember, change is fast, it is the resistance to change that takes a lifetime.
Leadership Style
Executives need to also remember that this toxic culture was not created in a vacuum, it was role modelled by the leadership group and became ‘that’s the way we do things around here’. When new staff are recruited into the business, the first thing they notice is the behaviours of others and they copy these behaviours to fit in. If leaders legitimately want change, they need to be the change they want to see. In other words, leaders need to change their own mindset and behaviours to role model new values so the behaviours of others will follow. This is where building Emotional Strength becomes vital for a business to be successful in changing toxic cultures into healthy workplaces where people get up in the morning excited to go to work. They know they are working toward a common goal and are clear about what they need to achieve to play their part. They feel safe to speak up, there is flexibility in the workplace, and they thrive with the people they work with. In this safe environment, people are willing to go beyond for the greater good and at the end of the day it is just a nice place to work.