Psychology distinguishes four types of justice at work. The one that creates the most altruistic and performance-enhancing behaviour is procedural justice: I understand and am involved in decisions that have an impact on my daily life.
How do you bring this about? By actively participating in decision-making rather than participating in decisions that have already been made! Putting an end to purely ‘formal’ consultations requires a little effort but produces notable effects.
What recognition can you offer your employees who are working remotely when the results are not as good as usual?
Psychology invites us to dissociate recognition both from the results themselves and from the time of their achievement. A manager who says, « I know it’s difficult for you right now with your children at home. Thank you for your effort, it’s precious to me and is a real credit to you” is demonstrating a recognition of effort over results, valuing the present work without making that value conditional on success in the future.
This paves the way for improved confidence and motivation, which will drive performance over the long term. And for getting employees back on their feet post-lockdown, it will be essential.
Did you know that referring to ‘engagement’ at work is pretty limited? In psychology there are in fact three distinct forms of engagement:
The emotional engagement that all companies favour: I stay because I love my company/ job/mission. This works miracles when everything is going well but is disastrous at any other time.
The normative: I stay because I am loyal. This is the expression of a « corporate » mentality.
I’m staying because it could be worse elsewhere and I’m afraid to leave. This is the poorest quality engagement.
A positive and lasting emotional engagement at work is like a love story. It is nourished by sincere dialogue along with ample helpings of care, conflict, and passion.
In the middle of working on my next conference « How to pass on a difficult message with respect and kindness? », I’m interested in testing out your knowledge on the different forms of « pathy »: empathy, sympathy, antipathy and apathy.
If a friend says to me: « Adrien, I’m afraid that the lockdown will last for a long time » and I answer: « you have no reason to worry, it will end one day », what kind of « pathy » is that and why?
The right answer is quite counter-intuitive (and that’s the whole point of the question). It is an example of antipathy: my friend shares his fear with me and I « counter » his emotion by telling him that it is not legitimate. I listened to him but I neither understood nor helped him. What can be learned from this riddle? A few things:
You can adopt an antipathetic stance with good intentions. Antipathy is neither violence nor aggression.
Listening is not enough if we are not able to recognize the other person’s emotions as legitimate.
There is often a fine line between sympathy and antipathy.
We should be lenient towards others. It’s not always easy to be empathetic and it’s easy to become benevolently antipathic.
Some examples of other forms of pathy:
Sympathy: I understand that you’re scared. It’s true that the situation is quite terrifying. We are not out of the woods yet (listened, understood but not helped).
Apathy: Do you know if the shop will be open on Sunday morning? (not listened to, not understood, not helped).
Empathy: I can see that you’re afraid and that’s normal in a situation like this. It’s true that the near future is rather uncertain. But you have always been able to face difficulties in the past. You have the qualities to succeed, and if you have any concerns you can count on me to help you. (Listened, understood, helped).
Right now we are all learning new ways of operating. But novelty consumes a lot of energy, and our attentional resources are limited. If our cognitive faculties are being used for adapting to the situation, they are no longer available to perform at their peak when teleworking, doing domestic tasks or interacting with our children. So I urge you not to feel guilty if you don’t feel perfect right now. You are doing your best and that is already a lot.
Have a good weekend one and all and remember that instead of suffering in silence, you should really pat yourself on the back.
Are you ending the weeks tired, with brain overload? The mental load resulting from telework is the consequence of multiple tasks not completed or lacking their usual quality. How can you minimise this effect, enjoy your weekend and be back on form Monday morning?
I invite you to declare Friday afternoon a protected zone. No meetings, no conference calls, no emails… only time dedicated to baseline tasks with a single objective: finishing off some of them with the satisfaction of a job well done.
I promise you an immediate improvement in your efficiency and serenity.
Social support is the first line of defence against psychological distress at work. In these times of teleworking, a manager’s primary role is not to monitor performance but to maintain the quality of connection.
It is by taking care of what unites us today (despite the distance) that we may re-discover the path to performance tomorrow.
Teleworking has brought about an opportunity to manage differently. Psychology teaches us that management based on trust increases productivity, engagement, and quality of life. How do we do it? By setting objectives to be achieved rather than by controlling the amount of time employees are online. It means allowing everyone to be autonomous, to allow colleagues to get to know each other well enough to organise themselves optimally.
Those who sow seeds of trust today will reap greater performance tomorrow. Those who plant seeds of mistrust will reap seeds of distrust.
Right now we all need support—and would also like to give it to those who are far away from us. However, we are not all created equal when it comes to the kinds of support we offer. Men are more oriented towards task-oriented support (I’ll do it for you); but at a distance during lockdown it becomes more complicated. This is where we can activate esteem support. It’s about offering others the confidence they need to move forward by reinforcing to them: « you’ve always managed in this kind of situation; it’s difficult, but you have the ability to do it ».
Distance does not alter the support you can offer. It just changes the nature of it.
