Everyone wants to be fully alive, but few companies know how to help their workforces achieve these goals. This task can be further complicated when your jobs require physical labor, long hours and less than ideal working conditions. Such is the case for many people working in the pallet and lumber industries.
Just try explaining to neighbors what you do for a living, and you will probably get some weird looks. They may be thinking, “You can make a living doing that?”
Helping workers connect to a larger mission and deal with their own personal challenges is something that employers are going to need to improve upon. Sometimes, you can’t be too choosy when you have limited applicants and work that needs to be done. How well you train and empower employees though is up to the company regardless of your labor situation.
Recently I attended the Catalyst West Conference held in Orange County, California, which focuses on empowering Christian leaders who work in ministry, business, and non-profit sectors. The theme this year was “Fully Alive” and much of the content dealt with spiritual and mental health. The following are some key ideas that I gleaned from the conference. These can be useful no matter your personal views on matters of faith and religion. May some of these ideas help you know how to better connect with your workforce and help them achieve their full potential.
Your Best You
Miles Adcox is the owner and CEO of Onsite which offers health and wellness consulting and treatment programs. He spoke on “Emotional Fitness” suggesting that it can be something we ignore and even self-medicate to avoid having to deal with the underlying issues. He wasn’t just talking about lower level personnel either. He said, “We become better leaders when we become better human beings.”
The problem is that complacency can easily crop up in any organization, and it is the number one cause for resistance to growth and change. Leaders must be deliberate to identify areas that need to change in their organizations. This can be tiring especially when leaders feel like they have to be “on” all the time. Adcox suggested that many leaders wrongly believe they have to achieve levels that are not realistic. He warned, “Our goal as leaders is not to be a perfect 10 all the time, but to know your number.” Then he added that we can know our weaknesses and work to improve upon them. We have to give grace to ourselves before we can be a conduit for this attitude toward others.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, “Am I pushing myself and my organization at a pace that is unsustainable?” And if there are areas that need improvement, how open are you truly to change?
Bianca Olthoff, a pastor and church planter with The Father’s House, spoke on self-improvement using the process of winemaking as her backdrop. Wine takes time to ferment and develop the right qualities that make it good wine. You can’t really rush the process if you want it to taste right. Olthoff commented that spiritual development and personal growth is very similar in its trajectory. She said, “We want the party but not the process.”
Are there people or situations that frustrate you in your company right now? You may have the tendency to ignore them because it is just too hard to fix. But these are indicators of people or areas that need your attention. Normally, the problems will not go away. They will only get worse.
Olthoff pointed out that wine in the bottles are stored for years to reach the right taste. Some don’t make it and burst in the bottle. Going through fermentation, wine is in the process of becoming alive. It may take a long time before some bottles are ready to receive a label and become the final product. She was encouraging the audience to be patient and realize that people take time to develop, just like wine. Take a few minutes and make a list of the situations and people in your company that currently are difficult or present challenges. Then identify one person or situation that you want to address this week. The process starts one person, one conversation at a time.
Ian Morgan Cron, author and teacher on the importance of Enneagram assessments, spoke on personal motivations that impact how a leader looks at a situation. He cautioned, “People who don’t know themselves choose the wrong professions and seek the wrong partners.” That is the reason that Cron has dedicated his focus to helping people identify the internal drive and motivation that guides their decision-making process. According to Cron, people who know themselves are likely to live better lives and have more fulfilling workplace attitudes. Others tend to repeat unhealthy patterns and can create cycles that hurt others around them.
So how does one get this self-knowledge? Cron suggests a classic Enneagram that groups people in one of nine major categories based on their intrinsic motivation in life. You can find out more about this assessment at https://ianmorgancron.com/assessment. Cron’s Enneagram categorizes people in one of nine major motivational types.
Getting Unstuck
Another major topic covered at the Catalyst West is what to do when facing stalled momentum or leadership challenges. Author and pastor, John Mark Comer, admitted, “Nothing will expose your junk like leadership.”
When employees don’t follow through on their commitments or teams struggle to work together, it can be easy to get exasperated and give up. That’s when you have to identify what is truly important and focus on those limited actions. Comer suggested that people and organizations try to achieve more by doing less. Some companies are trying to do too much and will never do anything well. He explained that a three mile per hour walk is the pace of a healthy soul. Your goal may be something that not everyone in the organization is ready to embrace. You may have to identify who can go along for the journey. Comer cautioned that you have to be aware that every relationship can be a limitation.
If you are stuck, maybe you have tried to do too much and need to slow down. Or possibly some co-workers just aren’t ready to work with the changes that need to be made. There are times when everyone needs to follow the same tune. Other times you can work with a small group to facilitate change, achieve wins and then carry that momentum forward to the rest of the organization.
Some people get stuck because they have the wrong mindset. The best-selling author of Will Power Doesn’t Work, Ben Hardy, suggested, “If you think you can’t, you won’t.” Fixed mindsets can create unnecessary obstacles to your goals. They can defeat you before you really even start. Looking at organizations that find creative solutions, Hardy added, “Psychological flexibility is the key to imagination.”
You or your company may need to break with longstanding cultural and historical traditions. Most people are resistant to change until they know it will work. But somebody has to be a catalyst. Somebody has to jump first. Hardy said, “It takes a lot of courage to pursue something that may not work.” Most people want certainty, but that is something you don’t usually have in advance when you are breaking new ground or charting a new course. Hardy advised, “You can’t be free without uncertainty.”
If your company is stuck, it may be the result of employees and managers who are concerned about the outcome. They don’t want to risk the present for an unknown future.
Forward momentum starts with analysis of your current challenge and position. He asked,
“Where are you stuck in your story?” Once you identify this challenge, you can then address it in the hopes of achieving organizational success.
For more information on Catalyst events and training resources, visit www.catalyst.com.
