Safe Leadership: Beating Stress to Drive Performance

by David Sewell

There is no such thing as "toxic" employees, there are only stressed employees whose leaders have ignored and not supported over a great length of time and are creating an unsafe environment for them to work in.

Ever wondered why people turn up to meetings but say nothing? Are you tired of going to work and having to navigate the politics and silos to get anything done? Do you work with a colleague where you have to check their mood first thing in the morning to gauge whether or not you are going to have a good day? Why is it that the poor performer keeps making mistakes and slowing everything else around them down but still manages to keep their job?

All these symptoms (and many other like those) are caused because the leaders are not providing a safe environment for their people to work in. Safe "means the ability to share ideas and criticisms and make mistakes free of ridicule and persecution". Our brain is wired to survive, and if led well will achieve extraordinary results. However the same mechanism the brain uses to protect us (our fight or flight response) from external threats can also work against us and in worse case scenarios even kill us. In a world of chronic stress, overwork and burnout this is exactly what is happening to us. The time is right for leaders to learn a new way, to understand what is really going on within their teams, understand why interpersonal issues are always rearing their ugly head and most importantly know what to do about them.

This unique approach to leadership takes the reader on a journey of discovery, discovering what our ancestors used to do and why that worked so well, discovering how are brain has created rewards for us to help us to not only survive but thrive and discover how those reward hormones, levels of which differ in each of us, shape our behaviour. Find out how one of those reward hormones will bring us together as a team but will also drive a team apart (the cause of office politics and silos).Reading this book will challenge your own thoughts on your behaviour. It will challenge what you think you know about communicating with others and it will also challenge you in how you approach poor performers and 'toxic' employees. It will change your narrative around interpersonal issues in a way that will allow you to deal the underlying issues and stressors that cause poor performance (one of those could be you!). This will allow you to expend your energy where it is needed most and create an environment for the people around you that keeps them relatively free from the stressors that impede their performance and encourages instead, innovation, collaboration, team work and ultimately success.

The book is an easy read, although it talks about the brain and hormones and is based on research from around the world, the author is not a psychologist and so does not have the vocabulary to write like one, instead he has taken a few years to translate their findings into a language the rest of us can understand. It is rich with stories, practical examples and a little bit of humour and exercises for the reader to do take to help implement some of this new thinking into their work place.

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2019