Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. Each week we talk about heart rate variability and how it can be used to improve your overall health and wellness. Please consider the information in this podcast for your informational use and not medical advice. Please see your medical provider to apply any of the strategies outlined in this episode. Heart Rate Variability podcast is a production of optimal LLC and optimal HR-v. Check us out at optimal hr-v dot com. Please enjoy the show. Welcome to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. I'm Matt Bennett, uh, here with you just briefly to introduce chapter eight, um, from the Heartbeat of Business in our series on the book, David, Dave Ina and I wrote. And so, um, if you're new to the podcast, welcome. Um, we have been running a series for several weeks now. Uh, you should see, uh, different labels of episodes.
Speaker 0 00:00:57 So if you go back to episode one, uh, we are doing a series where we play a chapter of the audiobook version of the book, and then as authors, we get together to chat, uh, a little deeper about each of the chapters. So you're welcome to stick around, uh, for this chapter, but, uh, highly encourage you to go back to the first episode in this series and enjoy the whole thing all the way through. So, um, and for those who have been listening in, uh, this chapter, we look at engagement. Uh, engagement has been a fascination of mine, uh, since first coming upon the Gallup 12 study or the Q 12 study. Uh, back in, uh, about 2000, uh, when I started my Master's in Business Administration and healthcare program. Um, I found, uh, the book at the time was First Break All the Rules, uh, for about a decade if any of my friends got promoted to leadership positions, they got a copy of that book.
Speaker 0 00:01:54 Um, since then, Gallup has done, I think, some really important work around how managers, leaders, organizations can really engage their staff, uh, around the work, around a vision, around the values, uh, which has been shown over and over again, including the job demands and resources model to lead to better outcomes. Uh, when you couple that with heart rate variability, looking at a measure of stress and burnout, we know through the job demands and resources model that if folks are burned out, it's much harder, if not impossible to engage them, get them motivated to produce excellent results. So while HR v as I like to say, and you can see this, you can download the book for free at uh, optimal hr v.com and, and look at the visuals here on the top line. We're really looking at using heart rate variability to quantify the health and wellness of the workforce on the bottom line, I really think the Gallup Q 12, a great way to measure engagement, both of those coming together gives leaders and managers really good quantitative, uh, data on how well their workforce is doing and connecting that to any improvement projects they might do.
Speaker 0 00:03:08 So I'm excited to get this chapter out to you. If you're watching me right now on YouTube, kind of boring to watch an audiobook. Uh, but uh, you can just kick back, relax, uh, listen along with us. But, uh, I wanna thank everybody for joining this journey and again, you can always find show notes, resources, um, all other things, HR-V at optimal hr-v dot com. Thank you for listening and we will see you next week.
Speaker 1 00:03:31 Chapter eight, engagement. In this chapter, we finally arrive at the box of engagement. To reinforce the point, leaders must effectively manage distress and the top line of the JDR model opening up the capacity for engagement to occur. CH and baker define engagement as positive, fulfilling work related state of mind characterized by vigor, that is high levels of energy and resiliency, dedication, experience in a sense of significance, importance, pride, and challenge and absorption being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in one's work. H R V allows leaders to strategically track and manage the distress and burnout on the top line of the JDR model. Just as there is a negative loop where burnout leads to negative consequences, creating more distress and further declining health, positive outcomes increase engagement and motivation. People's wellness improves when they thrive in their work. A good job in engaging work are vital components for a happy and fulfilling life.
Speaker 1 00:04:44 Effectively. Addressing distress enables leaders to apply complimentary research on engagement resulting from one of the most extensive studies in business history. The Gallup Q 12 research helps leaders measure their success in engaging their people in ways proven to improve business outcomes. As of 2022, Gallup has studied over 100,000 teams and 2.7 million people worldwide. The simple yet powerful conclusion of the Q 12 is that engaged people perform at much higher levels than disengaged people. According to Gallup, the number one reason Gallup's survey is so powerful is that it provides your company with a proven foundation for improving sales, retention, productivity, profitability, customer ratings and more. Gallup's research demonstrates the extent and cost of a leader's failure to engage their people. It also provides a critical finding on an engagement ratio that all leaders must strive to achieve. Actively disengaged employees erode an organization's bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process within the US workforce.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 Gallup estimates this cost to be more than 300 billion in lost productivity alone. In stark contrast, world-class organizations with an engagement ratio near eight to one have built a sustainable model. As organizations moved toward this benchmark, they greatly reduce the negative impact of actively disengaged employees while unleashing the organization's potential for rapid growth. Through Gallup's extensive research, they found that individuals in high performing teams and businesses tend to answer affirmatively to the following 12 workplace elements. I know what is expected of me at work. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right at work. I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person. There is someone at work who encourages my development at work.
Speaker 1 00:07:02 My opinions seem to count the mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. I have a best friend at work. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow. When comparing disengaged versus engaged teams, Gallup found engagement led to declines of 81% in absenteeism, 64% in accidents, 43% in turnover, and 41% in quality defects. Engaged teams experienced a gain of 10% in customer loyalty and engagement, 14% in productivity, 18% in sales, 23% in profitability, and 66% in people's wellbeing. Reviewing the Q 12, it is easy to connect many of these engagement markers with concepts in previous chapters. The elements, I know what is expected of me at work and at work.
Speaker 1 00:08:10 I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day, speak to shared expectations and fit, creating shared expectations and getting people in positions that match their passion and skills. Do not just help manage the distress from job demands. It promotes engagement, the elements, the mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important and my associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. Connect engagement to the concepts discussed in the previous chapter, the purpose, mission, shared values and shared vision. Engage people around the work of the business and help them see the importance of their contribution. The commitment to quality work speaks to one of the foundations of trust and accountability in promoting engagement. The rest of this chapter focuses on the job resources and strategies that promote engagement and motivation by exploring the remaining Q 12 elements and how a leader works with individuals to maximize engagement.
Speaker 1 00:09:14 Just a reminder, most leaders get very excited about strategies to promote engagement, improve quality, and get better outcomes. The success of these strategies relies heavily on the health and wellness of the individual teams and business burned out. People do not possess the energy and capacity to engage fully in their work. H R V provides leadership with a metric to measure the effectiveness of their engagement efforts. Most businesses find that they have work to do on the top line to improve people's health Before moving to engagement strategies, the work on distress and burnout will pay off. In short-term, H R V increases and long-term and improved cognitive stress management and relational capacity to implement the changes discussed in these final chapters feeling cared about as a person. Matt entered his MBA program a couple of days before officially completing his master in psychology, and just as the Q 12 began to gain public attention.
Speaker 1 00:10:18 After spending seven years studying how people heal and grow in therapeutic relationships, it did not surprise him to see the importance of relationships in business success. However, his classmates and professors struggled with the Q 12 as they challenged existing business. Thinking about the importance of relationships, Gallup's work forced people to think about factoring relational health into the bottom line and outcomes of a business. As consultants, we review many Q 12 surveys of our clients. We find that almost half remove the elements. My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person and I have a best friend at work. When we ask why, we usually hear something like we are not in the business of best friends, or we find it hard to define caring. These leaders find the Q 12 significant enough to take the time and cost to implement it as a survey and pay for industry specific data.
Speaker 1 00:11:19 Yet something about these two questions scares many leaders. As discussed in earlier chapters, leaders must pay attention to relational health to co-regulate distress and build trust. Several studies demonstrate the power of social support at work on H R V making a strong argument not to remove these social questions while creating friends among coworkers does not make it onto many strategic plans. Positive answers to the best friend element demonstrate that they get support and enjoyment from their coworkers. This social support becomes a source of resilience and engagement in healthy cultures. Gallup found that relational health plays a crucial role in engagement. The study also found that people who answered positively to the element, my supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person is a significant metric for high performing individuals and businesses. Unfortunately, only 38% of people felt like their leaders valued their wellbeing.
Speaker 1 00:12:21 50% of people felt that their wellbeing didn't matter at all to their leaders, and only 10% felt like they were a vital asset to the business. Maybe the reason many leaders excluded the relational question is that they knew they would get uncomfortable negative feedback from their people. One of the crucial findings on the caring question concerns increased turnover rates. Turnover rates are up to 37% higher for people with a negative answer to the caring question. Additionally, those who felt cared about had a better understanding of the business's goals. Increased trust improved collaboration with leaders and coworkers and a solid commitment to the business. We discussed relational health earlier in the audiobook. Here we want to build on that information and discuss how leaders can demonstrate caring. While each leader's personality may manifest this strategy differently, all leaders need to view caring as a business strategy that promotes engagement and improves outcomes.
Speaker 1 00:13:24 Nothing could clarify the leader's role in engagement more than Gallup's. Finding that 70% of the variance in team engagement is attributable to the leader. The first variable necessary to demonstrate caring is time. Chapter six showed that trust takes dedicated time to build and maintain this time. Investment shows that the leader values the person enough to dedicate time to their wellness and professional development. Leaders should not overlook the impact of their time and attention. For people who trust their leaders, time and attention become potent reinforcers. Without an investment of time, relationships will not promote engagement. The second variable is caring about the worker as a person. One of the best ways to show people they are a vital asset to the business is to show interest in their lives. Outside work time spent on small talk about family, hobbies, sports favorite television shows and children is time well invested.
Speaker 1 00:14:27 Every leader cares about their people's ability to get work done. Those with an engaged workforce also take the time to learn about their people and their personal lives. It is in the leader's best interest to make a personal connection with each person they supervise at least once a week or for smaller teams as frequently as every day. Connecting regularly with people demonstrates the leader cares while allowing them to get the pulse of the team or business by tapping into informal communication networks. The next variable to demonstrate caring is the leader's expectations of their people. The leader's belief in the ability and motivations of their people creates a set of self-fulfilling prophecies. When leaders believe someone can excel, it often predicts their ability to achieve excellence. A great example of self-fulfilling prophecies and performance is the Oak School experiment. James REM describes the experiment in the famous Oak school experiment.
Speaker 1 00:15:29 Teachers were led to believe that certain students selected at random were likely to be showing signs of a spurt and intellectual growth and development. At the end of the year, the students of whom the teachers had these expectations showed significantly greater gains in intellectual growth. Then did those in the control group. First graders in the control group showed a gain of 12 IQ points. Persons in the experimental group showed a gain of 27.4 IQ points. That's right. The students whose teachers expected them to excel gained twice the IQ points when compared to their peers in the control group. Even though there was no difference between the groups before the study. Just as research demonstrates that a teacher's belief impacts students performance, it also shows that a leader's belief in their people is a potent predictor of performance. The correlation between belief in a person's ability and performance levels is known as the pigmalian effect.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 The effect gets its name from an artist and Greek mythology. Pigmalian created a beautiful statue of a woman and fell in love with his creation. A couple of millennia later, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play Pigmalian. In his play, the main character on a BET trains an impoverished girl to fit into rigid British upperclass society, a storyline that was replicated in the musical MYFA Lady in leadership, the Pigmalian effect distinguishes two types of leaders, theory X and theory Y leaders Theory X leaders believe that people work because the business pays them and if not consistently monitored, they will stop working. Theory X leadership is more than the act of micromanaging. It is leading from a place of distrust. People with a Theory X leader jump to meet every demand of the leader while losing internal motivation or creativity. Theory Y leaders believe that people work for intrinsic motives.
Speaker 1 00:17:32 They work harder and achieve more because of the satisfaction they receive from good work. Theory Y leaders still set shared expectations and guidance and then trust their people to meet these expectations. The interesting finding is that leaders hire or transform people to fit either the X or Y theories. Leaders create teams that fulfill either a positive or negative view of people. When a leader believes a person will thrive in a position, their chances for success improve. When a leader expects a team to fail on a challenging project, the leader's actions and words will likely serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Setting the team up for failure theory. Why leadership is far from viewing the world through rose-colored glasses. Theory. Why leadership views their work with what Sandra Schneider terms realistic optimism. Realistic optimism means being lenient in our evaluation of past events, actively appreciating the positive aspects of our current situation and routinely emphasizing possible opportunities for the future. In addition to supporting engagement and theory, why leadership optimism also creates H R V. The final way a leader demonstrates they care about their people is through supporting their professional development. We will explore this in the next section.
Speaker 1 00:18:59 Supporting professional development, A leader supporting professional development does two essential things. The first is realizing that professional development serves as a wellness strategy to battle distress and burnout. If someone only focuses on surviving the distress of their job each day, a hard day becomes all encompassing. If the professionals and leaders establish goals and a plan for their people's development, then a tough day while still stressful becomes part of a more extensive journey. Someone focusing on their development is more likely to view a challenging situation as an opportunity to learn and grow. This shift in perception helps minimize the distress of hard days and weeks and turns some of the distress into eustress as the person learns and grows from the experience. Second, professional development is a vital job resource that supports engagement. One of the aspects of job resources in the JDR model is the ability to make a difference, develop professionally and accomplish meaningful goals.
Speaker 1 00:20:06 It also promotes engagement and addresses the Q 12 elements of There is someone at work who encourages my development. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress, and this year I have had an opportunity at work to learn and grow. One key goal of personal development is the creation of a growth mindset. The researcher behind this concept, Carol Dweck, explains the growth mindset in the following way. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way, they believe that a person's potential is unknown and unknowable, that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil and training. Burnout and past work experiences are crucial influencers on how a person sees themselves as an individual and professional discovered that there was an opposing mindset.
Speaker 1 00:21:07 She termed the fixed mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe that they were either born with specific talents or not. They think there is little they can do to develop new talents or competencies. When people with a fixed mindset receive negative feedback or experience setbacks, they feel like something is inherently wrong with them and they have little ability to achieve future success. Obviously, looking at a setback as a personal failing and not a challenge increases distress, lowers H R V and makes those with a fixed mindset more prone to burnout. A person with a growth mindset realizes that success results from the effort put forth. If confronted with setbacks, a growth mindset motivates a person to search for new creative solutions and apply more effort to turn the setback into success. A growth mindset means recognizing that a better future is dependent on the effort invested in making it a reality.
Speaker 1 00:22:09 Not surprisingly, research shows that adopting a growth mindset increases H R V. Some people will bring a fixed mindset into their jobs because of their past experiences. The good news is that helping people see themselves as a result of the effort they put into developing their talents and skills strengthens resiliency and engagement, and also communicates that the leader cares about them and feels invested in their professional success. Leaders supporting professional development and the growth mindset show increases a 15% productivity, 10% profitability, and 9% loyalty. Making this small investment worth the time and effort. A leader's time and support provide the psychological safety for the person to get comfortable with challenging themselves. At work, the best leaders see strengths in their people that they don't see in themselves.
Speaker 1 00:23:07 Resources. Remember one determinant of whether someone views a stressor as distress or eustress is perception. Someone might start out excited about a new project or opportunity. They initially view the new challenges as positive and the eustress as a motivator. Whether the leader provides the right resources and support will determine if the stress associated with the challenge will continue to motivate or become a source of distress and burnout. Providing the necessary resources addresses the Q 12 element. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right. An inspiring shared vision and healthy business culture evoke a desire to achieve outstanding outcomes. When a lack of resources prevents the person from helping the business or reaching personal goals, their motivation and passion quickly turn into frustration, moral distress, and burnout. Unsurprisingly, people with the resources to succeed achieve better outcomes. Gallup's research shows that customer engagement, productivity, and safety all improve when people feel they have adequate resources. One of the more powerful findings on resources is their relationship with turnover. Leaders who provide the necessary materials and equipment to allow people to succeed may experience 20 to 40% drops in turnover rates.
Speaker 1 00:24:36 Democracy, people feel engaged when given power and control over their work. Leaders who empower people and involve them in critical decision making, engage them in the process and ensure their investment in the implementation of the decision. Democracy addresses the Q 12 element. At work, my opinions seem to count, bloom and farrier state the importance of managing distress and burnout in the integration of democracy. In a business democracy requires the ability to manage emotions even in the face of conflict and to exercise good impulse control. It requires process and patience, using words as a substitute for action, trusting others enough to share in decision making, a willingness to listen, demonstrate fair play, exercise, influence wisely and flexibly, and the willingness to compromise and negotiate. All these are advanced social skills, which may be severely impaired by exposure to chronic stress. Democracy requires high levels of honesty, humility, trust, and psychological safety.
Speaker 1 00:25:46 The presence of these in a business culture increases collective H R V. This increased H R V helps people make better decisions. The leader uses democracy and collaborative decision making to unleash the true potential of their people's collective expertise and motivation. Democracy is more than just asking a group to make a decision. It involves making them trusted partners in the success of the initiative and business. When a leader shares power than accountability, creativity, productivity, job satisfaction, commitment, and overall wellbeing increase. Democracy takes time and effort from the leaders. They must provide time, structure, information, and support throughout the process with all this necessary effort. Although it may seem counterintuitive, democracy is cost effective because democracy leads to better solutions and increased ownership and engagement. Democracy saves money and time recognition. The final leadership strategy to increase engagement is recognition. Effective recognition programs promote growth mindsets by supporting and encouraging effort and positive accomplishments.
Speaker 1 00:27:02 Recognition promotes growth mindsets builds competence and increases motivation. People thrive in positive environments. Studies demonstrate that for people with similar skills, those who get 5.6 times more positive feedback than negative perform much higher on a range of activities than those with lower positive to negative ratios. Conversely, those who received 2.8 times more negative than positive feedback struggled the most. When comparing high recognition business environments to low ones, high recognition environments have an incredible 64% increase in engagement. A focus on recognition addresses the Q 12 element. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. Besides engagement, there is also a 73% increase in morale, a 45% increase in loyalty and a 93% increase in staff satisfaction. Why would staff leave work where they find enjoyment and satisfaction? Recognition is one of the most enjoyable parts of leadership and a key driver of improved outcomes.
Speaker 1 00:28:14 To realize the benefits of recognition, leaders search for specific positive actions happening throughout the workday. Applying a growth mindset, a leader should recognize behaviors and their outcomes and avoid recognizing someone's personality or talents. When a leader affirms specific behaviors, it tells everyone what behaviors help the business reach its vision, which will motivate everyone to adopt that behavior. A few additional best practices will help leaders maximize the positive impact of recognition. Always ensure recognition aligns with shared values and vision. Just as accountability addresses misalignment with values and vision, recognition reinforces actions that lead to success make it timely. The behavioral sciences establish that reinforcement increases motivation when given soon after the specific behaviors. Also, make sure that significant recognition happens publicly. Letting others celebrate their teammates contributions will not only promote positive mindsets, but also communicate which behaviors and actions help the business reach its vision. Finally, let people recognize each other. It is almost impossible for many leaders to reach the 5.6 to one ratio on their own. When recognition becomes a cultural norm, people celebrate each other's accomplishments. The leader should create a formal process for peer recognition. This way, the leader can track outstanding achievements and follow up with the person getting recognized and the one providing the recognition to reinforce the positives listed above.
