Author: ACEC

  • “Moment of Grace: Resiliency” Video by John Baldoni

    The Association of Corporate Executive Coaches (ACEC) have always remained focused on supporting their members and their endeavors. Especially if a member has an important message to pass on or teach, just as John Baldoni decides to share in this video.

    By promoting the inspirational work by their members all while providing a professionally exclusive platform for Corporate Coaches to grow a network for expanding clientele. Considering this, ACEC member John Baldoni applies his experience as a Coach to share a brief message about strength and overcoming adversity.

    Altogether, Baldoni quickly explains the meaning behind a well-respected Japanese Saying, “Fall down 7 times get up 8 times” in order to illustrate for his viewers how this thought dives deep into a concept called Resiliency. John is ultimately reminding everyone that it is the toughest of times that determine who we truly are.

    The most inspiring takeaway from John’s brief time actually speaking is the number of high level concepts being introduced. The most unforgettable expressions, timeless quotes or even ancient proverbs often reveal similar advice. For instance, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”

    In addition, Teddy Roosevelt has a much lengthier explanation surrounding this concept where he concludes that “a man should not be judged by his victories, but people should ask themselves what can be learned from how he carried himself after suffering the worst defeat.” This is merely a summarized interpretation of the lesson to be learned.

    John Baldoni is a certified ACEC Member for his many skill-sets and career achievements, among many other reasons. Perhaps, some of the most actionable advice John can provide his clients consists of effectively communicating powerful messages that can energize others to recognize just how many more lessons can be learned from him speaking for less than a minute. It is often agreed upon that those who speak the most have the least to say. Baldoni calmly expresses his point, then allows for it to sink in on us and upon deeper reflection, we have all already learned more about ourselves and the world around us.

    This is exactly why the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches (ACEC) has become such a valuable group to partner with. The level of quality you have the potential to align with is extraordinary. Not only will the genuine support you receive from fellow Coaches inspire you to focus more than you already had before on the continued growth for your clients, but it will also leave you feeling satisfaction from all the amazing people you have become an extension of and vice versa.

    Thanks to John Baldoni for this inspirational reminder!

    John Baldoni
    john@johnbaldoni.com
    734.995.9992
    www.johnbaldoni.com

    • 2018 Trust Across America Lifetime Achievement Honoree
    • 2020 Global Gurus Top 30 
    • Member of Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches
    • Inc.com Top 50 Leadership Expert
    • Inc.com Top 100 Leadership Speaker
    • Author of 14 books published in 10 languages

  • How To Persuade People to Change Their Behavior

    Our innate anti-persuasion radar raises our defenses, so we avoid or ignore the message or, even worse, counter-argue, conjuring up all the reasons why what someone else suggested is a bad idea. Sure, the governor said to stay home but they’re overreacting.  Maybe the virus is bad in some part of the country, but I don’t know a single person whose gotten it.  And besides, many people who get it are fine anyway, so what’s the big deal?  Like an overzealous high school debater, they poke and prod and raise objections until the persuasive power of the message crumbles.

    So if telling people to do doesn’t work, what does? Rather than trying to persuade people, getting them to persuade themselves is often more effective.  Here are three ways to do that.

    1. Highlight a gap. 

    You can increase people’s sense of freedom and control by pointing out a disconnect between their thoughts and actions, or between what they might recommend for others versus do themselves.

    Take staying at home. For young people who might resist, ask what they would suggest an elderly grandparent or a younger brother or sister do. Would they want them out, interacting with possibly infected people?  If not, why do they think it’s safe for them to do so?

    People strive for internal consistency. They want their attitudes and actions to line up.  Highlighting misalignment encourages them to resolve the disconnect.

    Health officials in Thailand used this approach in anti-smoking campaign.  Rather than telling smokers their habit was bad, they had little kids come up to smokers on the street and ask them for a light.  Not surprisingly, the smokers told the kids no. Many even lectured the little boys and girls about the dangers of smoking. But before turning to walk away, the kids handed the smokers a note that said, “You worry about me … But why not about yourself?” At the bottom was a toll-free number smokers could call to get help.  Calls to that line jumped more than 60% during the campaign.

    2. Pose questions.

    Another way to allow for agency is to ask questions rather than make statements.  Public health messaging tries to be direct: “Junk food makes you fat.” “Drunk driving is murder.” “Keep sheltering in place.” But being so forceful can make people feel threatened. The same content can be phrased in terms of a question: “Do you think junk food is good for you?” If someone’s answer is no, they’re now in a tough spot. By encouraging them to articulate their opinion, they’ve had to put a stake in the ground — to admit that those things aren’t good for them. And once they’ve done that, it becomes harder to keep justify the bad behaviors.

    Questions shift the listener’s role. Rather than counter-arguing or thinking about all the reasons they disagree, they’re sorting through their answer to your query and their feelings or opinions on the matter.  And this shift increases buy-in. It encourages people to commit to the conclusion, because while people might not want to follow someone else’s lead, they’re more than happy to follow their own.  The answer to the question isn’t just any answer; it’s theiranswer, reflecting their own personal thoughts, beliefs, and preferences. That makes it more likely to drive action.

    In the case of this crisis, questions like “How bad would it be if your loved ones got sick?” could prove more effective than directives in driving commitment to long-term or intermittent social distancing and vigilant hygiene practices.

    3. Ask for less. 

    The third approach is to reduce the size of the ask.

    A doctor was dealing with an obese trucker who was drinking three liters of Mountain Dew a day.  She wanted to ask him to quit cold turkey, but knew that would probably fail, so she tried something else. She asked him to go from three liters a day to two.  He grumbled, but after a few weeks, was able to make the switch.  Then, on the next visit, she asked him to cut down to one liter a day. Finally, after he was able to do that, only then did she suggest cutting the soda out entirely. The trucker still drinks a can of Mountain Dew once in a while, but he’s lost more than 25 pounds.

    Especially in times of crisis, health organizations want big change right away. Everyone should continue to stay at home, by themselves, for two more months.  But asks this big often get rejected.  They’re so different from what people are doing currently that they fall into what scientists call “the region of rejection” and get ignored.

    A better approach is to dial down the initial request. Ask for less initially, and then ask for more. Take a big ask and break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Government officials responding to the pandemic are already doing this to some extent by setting initial end dates for social distancing measures, then extending them. But there might be more opportunities, for example when experts allow for some restrictions to be lifted — say, on small gatherings — but insist that others, such as concerts or sporting events, continue to be banned.

    Whether we’re encouraging people to socially distance, shop only once a week, thoroughly wash hands and wear face masks, or change behavior more broadly, too often we default to a particular approach: Pushing.  We assume that if we just remind people again or give them more facts, figures, or reasons, they’ll come around.  But, as recent backlash against the Covid-19 -related restrictions suggests, this doesn’t always work over the long term, especially when your demands have no fixed end date.

    If we instead understand the key barriers preventing change, such as reactance, and employ tactics designed to overcome them, we can change anything.


    Author:

    Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author, most recently, of The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind (Simon & Schuster, 2020).

  • Global Spirited Leadership

    I’ve been thinking a lot about all the changes we have been making during this time, as I am sure we all are, and most often I find myself asking if any of these changes are here to stay?

    The only thing that we know for certain with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic, is that we can’t be certain of anything! I am, however, sure that as with all things: this, too, shall pass. But what will our world look like when it is over? If it is ever over. What will be the new “normal”?

    Until a short few months ago, it would be considered rude to refuse a handshake upon meeting. In many European cultures, that handshake was accompanied with one or more kisses as standard practice. In addition to all those polite and intentional “contacts”, think for a second about how many accidental contacts you encountered in a day through either not thinking before touching someone else while chatting or through a lack of spatial awareness, accidentally invading another person’s space. And I am certain that very few people washed their hands every 20 minutes for 20 seconds at a time.

    It didn’t take very long at all, just a couple of weeks, for “social distancing”, self-isolation, obsessive and thorough hand-washing, and maintaining a 6 foot gap between anyone else in public became the new standard; and, by all accounts, this behaviour change has been effective at doing what it was supposed to do and we are starting to see the flattening of the curve. With the rate of infection slowing, I find myself starting to wonder how many of these new habits will remain the social norm. What habits will stick and which will be forgotten?

    I predict we will see that many businesses and schools will permanently adopt some of those temporary measures that have been implemented during this time without seeming to have had a negative effect on productivity. Most notably, I think we will continue the practice of fewer face-to-face meetings, likely fewer meetings in general, less travel, more distance learning opportunities, and a greater acceptance of working from home. We are finally using the technology that has been improving over the last few decades in a way that makes sense for business and learning institutions.

    Moving away from businesses and schools, I expect we will also see lasting changes in our personal lifestyles. Which direction will it go? Many people set a weight loss goal at the beginning of the year, but now we are joking about the “Covid 19 [lbs gained during our social isolation]”. The trend has shifted towards comfort foods 

    and increased alcohol consumption. When life returns to “normal” will we continue to prioritize our comfort habits picked up during a crisis, or will we resume striving for a healthier lifestyle? What habits have you adopted during this time, and do you feel they were taken up as a temporary coping mechanism, or have your priorities changed long term? Will those habits be hard to break?

    We are starting to hear that social distancing may be the way of the future, at least in the near future. I personally dislike the term “social distancing” as it suggests a social disconnect that I am not feeling during this time. I prefer to think of it as “spatial or physical distancing”. It is my hope that, out of all the behaviour changes we have adopted during this pandemic, that “social distancing” fades quickly. We can maintain a healthy physical distance, yet strengthen and nurture those close social connections. As a self-proclaimed introvert, I must admit I have, somewhat, welcomed the peace and quiet of this period, but I have also realized how much I miss and crave the joy and fun of really connecting with people for longer than a 30 minute Zoom meeting. 

    Here is what I hope we have learned and continue to practice long after the world “reopens”:

    o Increased empathy: tough decisions have had to be made across a wide variety of industries over the last month, and I am happy to observe that the majority of these decisions have been executed with greater understanding, transparency and kindness than I was used to seeing in the past.

    o Renewed appreciation of family: and I include this in the wider sense of a shift from “Me” to “We”. Our blinkers have been removed, and we are now more aware of the health of the community as a whole – we want them to be safe and well.

    o Respect of people’s space and time: we are “seeing” each other with greater clarity than before. Currently we are being more intentionally aware just in case the other person has the “virus”, but I hope this will stick in a more meaningful way of “ I see you and I am aware of you and I want to give you as much space as you want”. Maybe we will even see fewer car accidents from our heightened awareness and decreased need to rush everywhere.

    o Showing appreciation: I am filled with hope when I hear the outburst of community applause each evening in appreciation of all our healthcare and essential workers, buildings lit up with hearts or messages of community and love, neighbours coming together to play music together from their balconies or doorsteps. I sincerely hope that this appreciation of others continues long-term.

    So, what are your thoughts on all this? Will the “Covid-bump” permanently replace hugs, handshakes, and kisses? Will we continue to be more respectful of people’s space? Throughout this crisis, what is the ONE habit, realization, or behaviour change that has meant the most to you and will you commit to nurturing that in our post-Covid world? 

    I’d love to hear your thoughts.

    Author:

    Schedule Call
    Cellene Hoogenkamp – Global Spirited Leadership 601 Union Street, Suite 2600 Seattle, Washington 98101 United States +12068298217

  • KORN FERRY’S PERSPECTIVE ON EXECUTIVE PAY ACTIONS ARISING FROM COVID-19

    A New Compensation Committee Game Plan.

    INTRODUCTION

    “Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the global
    economy been under so much pressure. While there are echoes
    of the financial collapse of 2008, the economic pain from the
    current pandemic is far wider and deeper. Fissures have formed
    in entire industry sectors and millions of employees have been
    terminated or furloughed. And yet the biggest casualties of
    this crisis are the tens of thousands of people who have lost
    their lives, and the hundreds of thousands more who have
    been hospitalized.

    Given these unprecedented times,
    corporations around the world have
    acted in unprecedented ways. They have
    found ways to create new virtual work
    arrangements for large segments of their
    workforce. They have kept employee
    well-being at the top of their priority list.
    They have found new ways to stay
    connected to and interact with
    their customers.

    But the crisis has also taken its toll on the
    workforce beyond the obvious impact
    of the health crisis. Companies have been
    forced to shut down large portions of
    their operations, if not close their doors
    altogether. And, as a result, millions of
    people have been subject to furloughs,
    job cuts, or hefty pay reductions.
    Amid this turmoil, executive
    compensation has naturally come under
    an even brighter spotlight than usual.

    Many CEOs and senior executives in the
    companies hardest hit by the COVID-19
    crisis have announced significant pay
    reductions of their own, and others will
    likely follow suit. Cutting pay for
    executives is a visible and potentially
    necessary step in stabilizing some
    companies as they manage through the
    crisis. It sends a positive message to both
    employees and shareholders, and could
    enhance, or at least limit the tarnishing of,
    the company’s reputation. While some
    outside observers have heralded these
    early actions, others have opined that
    they are too few and too limited.”

    Summary

    Korn Ferry has organized a committee of executive leaders who have formulated an actionable Game Plan in the form of a visually stimulating and professional version of a whitepaper, ultimately highlighting useful suggestions for leadership behaviors during times of unprecedented crisis. Their guidance is not only sincere and genuine, but all information presented is undoubtedly provided by experienced professionals.

    To discover all their tips and advice, it is highly recommended to download and read the entire Korn Ferry whitepaper. See link below:

    View Here

    Authors:

    Don Lowman
    Global Leader Rewards & Benefits
    don.lowman@kornferry.com


    Irv Becker
    Vice Chairman, Executive Pay & Governance
    irv.becker@kornferry.com

    Todd McGovern
    Senior Client Partner, Executive Pay & Governance
    todd.mcgovern@kornferry.com

    Kurt Groeninger
    Senior Principal, Executive Pay & Governance
    kurt.groeninger@kornferry.com


    Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We work with organizations to design their organizational structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward, develop, and motivate their workforce. And, we help professionals navigate and advance their careers.

  • LinkedIn Becomes A Serious Open Learning Experience Platform

    LinkedIn has become quite a juggernaut in the corporate learning market. Last time I checked the company had more than 17 million users, 14,000 corporate customers, more than 13,000 courses and was growing at high double-digit rates. And all this in only about two years.

    And the company just threw down the gauntlet; it’s now announcing it has completely opened up its learning platform to external content partners. This is the company’s formal announcement that LinkedIn Learning is not just an amazing array of content, it is a corporate learning platform. The company wants to become a single place for all organizational learning content.

    Let me summarize briefly. Just a few months ago, LinkedIn launched Learning Pro, a set of features that let companies publish their own content and create custom learning paths. Last month, the company announced Skills Insights, a set of tools that let you examine your company’s skills and promote courses based on known skills gaps.

    Now, the company is going forward. LinkedIn now offers skills-based learning recommendations to any user through its machine learning algorithms. It is opening the platform so customers who have purchased multiple content sources can offer their employees a single place to discover and access all of their organization’s learning content. This content will not be sold by Li

    nkedIn, as these are integration partnerships, not licensing partnerships. This allows LinkedIn to apply its insights to the broad range of content that enterprises are already using today.

    This includes partnerships with some of the significant learning content providers in the market.

    • Harvard ManageMentor: Leadership development content fueled by the latest thinking and proven practices from Harvard Business School faculty and business leaders.
    • getAbstract: 18,000-plus book summaries and TED talks.
    • Big Think: 500 short-form, actionable video lessons to stay ahead of business changes and stimulate agility in the workforce.
    • Treehouse: An online school that’s taught more than 850,000 adults how to be software engineers and product designers.
    • CreativeLive For Business: Expert-led classes on creativity, innovation, design thinking, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship (and more).

    All of this means LinkedIn is now in the learning experience platform business and to some degree the LMS business as well. Of course, the platform is not necessarily a compliance-management program for many industry applications. But for just about everyone else, it’s now an enterprise-class learning platform that can deliver training in almost every domain.

    Coming in the newest release, LinkedIn is also adding collaboration and Q&A features to LinkedIn Learning courses that let learners communicate with each other and interact with the author or publisher, making it a collaborative learning platform as well.

    These are significant moves. As I described in the article “LinkedIn Announces… A Lot!”, the company is now a serious end-to-end talent solutions provider. In the L&D domain, the platform can complement and even replace many existing systems. Given that the content market is now so big and so important, LinkedIn now realizes that in order to really drive value, the company has to embrace best-of-breed content experts as well.

    There are many learning platforms in the market, and most have similar content relationships (Cornerstone just announced the acquisition of Grovo, moving further into the content business). But LinkedIn has one leg up: a massive amount of data.

    When your employees use LinkedIn Learning, the platform knows a lot about them that your typical LMS does not understand. It has their job history, their connections and their social profile and inferred skills. This means the recommendations and learning paths they see in LinkedIn will be fairly well targeted, useful and directly relevant to their jobs and future career paths. Most LMSs barely do this at all, so this alone is a reason to take a look.

    It’s time for learning professionals to think about LinkedIn differently. Yes, the company is the largest professional network. Yes, it’s a fantastic platform to find jobs and people. But now it’s a serious learning solution, and one with some pretty interesting competitive advantages.

    Author: Josh Bersin provides consulting and advice to brands, including LinkedIn. Josh Bersin is the founder of Bersin by Deloitte, and an industry analyst and researcher covering all aspects of corporate HR, training, talent management, recruiting, leadership, and workplace technology.

  • “The Anatomy of Trust” by Brené Brown

    Background

    Brené Brown is a professor and social scientist. This speech was originally delivered at UCLA’s Royce Hall in 2015.

    Speech Transcript

    Oh, it just feels like an incredible understatement to say how grateful I am to be here with all of you. I feel like I have a relationship with many of you on social media, and you were like, “T-minus two days.” I’m like, “It’s coming! We’re going to be together.” So I’m so grateful to be here with you.

    I’m going to talk about trust and I’m going to start by saying this: One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to research topics that mean something to me. One of my least favorite parts of my job is I normally come up with findings that kicked me in the butt and make me change my entire life. That’s the hard part. But I get to dig into the stuff that I think matters in my life and the life of the people around me.

    And the topic of trust is something I think I probably would have eventually started to look at closely because I study shame and vulnerability. But there’s a very personal reason I jumped to trust early in my research career, and it was a personal experience.

    One day, my daughter, Ellen, came home from school. She was in third grade. And the minute we closed the front door, she literally just started sobbing and slid down the door until she was just kind of a heap of crying on the floor. And of course I was … It scared me, and I said, “What’s wrong Ellen? What happened? What happened?”

    And she pulled herself together enough to say, “Something really hard happened to me today at school, and I shared it with a couple of my friends during recess. And by the time we got back into the classroom, everyone in my class knew what had happened, and they were laughing and pointing at me and calling me names.” And it was so bad, and the kids were being so disruptive, that her teacher even had to take marbles out of this marble jar.

    And the marble jar in the classroom is a jar where if the kids are making great choices together, the teacher adds marbles. If they’re making not great choices, the teacher takes out marbles. And if the jar gets filled up, there’s a celebration for the class.

    And so, she said, “It was one of the worst moments in my life. They were laughing and pointing. And Miss Bacchum, my teacher, kept saying, ‘I’m going to take marbles out.’ And she didn’t know what was happening.”

    And she looked at me just with this face that is just seared my mind and said, “I will never trust anyone again.” And my first reaction, to be really honest with you, was, “Damn straight, you don’t tell anybody anything but your Mama.”

    Yeah, right? That’s it. I mean, that was my … “You just tell me. And when you grow up and you go off to school, Mama will go too. I’ll get a little apartment.” And the other thing I was thinking to be quite honest with you is, “I will find out who those kids were.” And while I’m not going to beat up a nine year old, I know their mamas.

    You know, that’s the place you go to. And I’m like, “How am I going to explain trust to this third grader in front of me?” So I took a deep breath and I said, “Ellen, trust is like a marble jar.” She said, “What do you mean?” And I said, “You share those hard stories and those hard things that are happening to you with friends, who, over time, you filled up their marble jar. They’ve done thing after thing after thing where you’re like, ‘I know I can share this with this person.’ Does that make sense?”

    Yes!

    And that’s what Ellen said, “Yes, that makes sense.” And I said, “Do you have any marble jar friends?” And she said, “Oh yeah. Totally. Hannah and Lorna are marble jar friends.” And I said … And then this is where things got interesting. I said, “Tell me what you mean. How do they earn marbles for you?”

    And she’s like, “Well, Lorna, if there’s not a seat for me at the lunch cafeteria, she’ll scoot over and give me half a heinie seat.” And I’m like, “She will?” She’s like, “Yeah. She’ll just sit like that, and so I can sit with her.” And I said, “That’s a big deal.” This is not what I was expecting to hear.

    And then she said, “And you know Hannah, on Sunday at my soccer game?” And I was waiting for this story where she said, “I got hit by a ball and I was laying on the field, and Hannah picked me up and ran me to first aid.” And I was like, “Yeah?” And she said, “Hannah looked over and she saw Oma and Opa,” my parents, her grandparents, “And she said, ‘Look, your Oma and Opa are here.’” And I was like …

    And I was like, “Boy, she got a marble for that?” And she goes, “Well, you know, not all my friends have eight grandparents.” Because my parents are divorced and remarried, my husband’s parents were divorced and remarried. And she said, “And it was so nice to me that she remembered their names.”

    And I was like, “Hmm.” And she said, “Do you have marble jar friends?” And I said, “Yeah, I do have a couple of marble jar friends.” And she said, “Well, what kind of things do they do to get marbles?” And this feeling came over me. And I thought … The first thing I could think of, because we were talking about the soccer game, was that same game. My good friend Eileen walked up to my parents and said, “Diane, David, good to see you.” And I remember what that felt like for me. And I was like, certainly, trust cannot be built by these small insignificant moments in our lives. It’s gotta be a grander gesture than that.

    So, as a researcher, I start looking into the data. I gather up the doctoral students who’ve worked with me. We start looking. And it is crystal clear. Trust is built in very small moments. And when we started looking at examples of when people talked about trust in the research, they said things like, “Yeah, I really trust my boss. She even asked me how my mom’s chemotherapy was going.” “I trust my neighbor because if something’s going on with my kid, it doesn’t matter what she’s doing, she’ll come over and help me figure it out.” You know, one of the number one things emerged around trust and small things? People who attend funerals. “This is someone who showed up at my sister’s funeral.”

    Another huge marble jar moment for people, “I trust him because he’ll ask for help when he needs it.” How many of you are better at giving help than asking for help? Right? So, asking for help is one of those moments.

    So, one of the ways I work as a grounded theory researcher, is I look at the data first, then I go in and see what other researchers are talking about and saying, because we believe the best theories are not built on other existing theories, but on our own lived experiences.

    So, after I had looked at this, I said, “Let me see what the research says.” And I went to John Gottman, who’s been studying relationship for 30 years. He has amazing work on trust and betrayal. And the first thing I read, “Trust is built in the smallest of moments.” And he calls them “Sliding door moments.”

    Sliding Doors is a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow from the 90s. Have you all seen this movie? So, it’s a really tough movie, because what happens is it follows her life to this seemingly unimportant moment where she’s trying to get on a train. And she makes the train, but the movie stops and splits into two parts where she makes a train and she doesn’t make the train, and it follows them to radically different endings. And he would argue that trust is a sliding door moment. And the example that he gives is so powerful.

    He said he was lying in bed one night, he had 10 pages left of his murder mystery, and he had us feeling he knew who the killer was, but he was dying to finish this book. So he said, “I don’t even want … I want to get up, brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, and get back in and not have to get up.” You know that feeling when you just want to get all situated and read the end of your book?

    So, he gets up and he walks past his wife in the bathroom, who’s brushing her hair and who looks really sad. And he said, “My first thought was just keep walking. Just keep walking.”

    And how many of you have had that moment you walk past someone and you’re like, “Oh, God. They look … Avert your eyes.” Or you look at caller ID or your cell phone, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I know she’s in a big mess right now. I don’t have time to pick up the phone.” Right? Yes or no? This looks like guilty laughter to me.

    So, he said, “That’s a sliding door moment.” And here’s what struck me about his story, because he said, “There is the opportunity to build trust and there is the opportunity to betray.” Because as small as the moments of trust can be, those are the moments of betrayal as well. To choose to not connect when the opportunity is there is a betrayal. So he took the brush out of her hand and started brushing her hair and said, “What’s going on with you right now, babe?” That’s a moment of trust, right?

    So fast-forward five years, and I’m clear about trust, and I talk about trust as the marble jar. We’ve got to really share our stories and our hard stuff with people whose jars are full, people who’ve, over time, really done those small things that have helped us believe that they’re worth our story.

    But the new question for me was this: What are those marbles? What is trust? What do we talk about when we talk about trust? Trust is a big word, right? To hear, “I trust you,” or “I don’t trust you.” I don’t even know what that means. So, I wanted to know, what is the anatomy of trust? What does that mean?

    So, I started looking in the research and I found a definition from Charles Feldman that I think is the most beautiful definition I’ve ever heard. And it’s simply this: “Trust is choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.” “Choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.” Feldman says that distrust is what I have shared with you that is important to me is not safe with you.

    So, I thought, “That’s true.” And Feldman really calls for this, let’s understand what trust is. So, we went back into all the data to find out, can I figure out what trust is? Do I know what trust is from the data? And I think I do know what trust is.

    And I put together an acronym, BRAVING, B-R-A-V-I-N-G. BRAVING. Because when we trust, we are braving connection with someone. So what are the parts of trust? B, boundaries. I trust you. If you are about your boundaries and you hold them, and you’re clear about my boundaries and you respect them. There is no trust without boundaries.

    R, reliability. I can only trust you if you do what you say you’re going to do. And not once. Reliability … Let me tell you what reliability is in research terms. We’re always looking for things that are valid and reliable. Any researchers here or research kind of geeks? There’s 10 of us.

    Okay. So we would say a scale that you weigh yourself on is valid if you get on it and it’s an accurate weight. 120. Okay. So that would be a very valid scale. I would pay a lot of money for that scale. So, that’s actually not a valid scale, but we’ll pretend for the sake of this. That’s a valid scale.

    A reliable scale is a scale that if I got on it a hundred times, it’s gonna say the same thing every time. So, what reliability is, is you do what you say you’re going to do over and over and over again. You cannot gain and earn my trust if you’re reliable once, because that’s not the definition of reliability.

    In our working lives, reliability means that we have to be very clear on our limitations so we don’t take on so much that we come up short and don’t deliver on our commitments. In our personal life, it means the same thing. So, when we say to someone, “Oh God, it was so great seeing you. I’m going to give you a call and we can have lunch. Yes or no?” “No. It was really great seeing you.” Moment of discomfort. Goodbye. Right? But honest.

    So B, Boundaries. R, Reliability. A … Huge. Accountability. I can only trust you if, when you make a mistake, you are willing to own it, apologize for it, and make amends. I can only trust you if when I make a mistake, I am allowed to own it, apologize, and make amends. No accountability? No trust.

    V, and this one shook me to the core. Vault. The Vault. What I share with you, you will hold in confidence. What you share with me, I will hold in confidence. But you know what we don’t understand? And this came up over and over again in the research. We don’t understand the other side of the vault. That’s only one door on the vault. Here’s where we lose trust with people.

    If a good friend comes up to me and says, “Oh my God, did you hear about Caroline? They’re getting a divorce and it is ugly. I’m pretty sure her partner’s cheating.” You have just shared something with me that was not yours to share, and now, my trust for you, even though you’re gossiping and giving me the juice, now my trust for you is completely diminished.

    Does that make sense? So the Vault is not just about the fact that you hold my confidences, it’s that, in our relationship, I see that you acknowledge confidentiality. Here’s the tricky thing about the Vault. A lot of times, we share things that are not ours to share as a way to hot wire connection with a friend, right? If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit next to me. You know? Yes or no? Our closeness is built on talking bad about other people. You know what I call that? Common enemy intimacy.

    What we have is not real. The intimacy we have is built on hating the same people, and that’s counterfeit. That’s counterfeit trust. That’s not real. So, the Vault means you respect my story, but you respect other people’s story.

    I, Integrity. I cannot trust you and be in a trusting relationship with you if you do not act from a place of integrity and encourage me to do the same. So, what is integrity?

    I came up with this definition because I didn’t like any of the ones out there, and that’s what I do when I don’t like them. I do. I look in the data, and I say, “What’s integrity?” Here’s what I think integrity is. Three pieces. It’s choosing courage over comfort, choosing what’s right over what’s fun, fast, or easy, and practicing your values, not just professing your values, right? I mean, that’s integrity.

    N, Non-judgment. I can fall apart, ask for help, and be in struggle without being judged by you. And you can fall apart, and be in struggle, and ask for help without being judged by me, which is really hard because we’re better at helping than we are asking for help.

    And we think that we’ve set up trusting relationships with people who really trust us because we’re always there to help them. But let me tell you this, if you can’t ask for help and they cannot reciprocate that, that is not a trusting relationship. Period. And when we assign value to needing help, when I think less of myself for needing help, whether you’re conscious of it or not, when you offer help to someone, you think less of them too.

    You cannot judge yourself for needing help but not judge others for needing your help. And somewhere in there, if you’re like me, you’re getting value from being the helper in relationship. You think that’s your worth. But real trust doesn’t exist unless help is reciprocal and non-judgment.

    The last one is G, Generosity. Our relationship is only a trusting relationship if you can assume the most generous thing about my words, intentions, and behaviors, and then check in with me. So, if I screw up, say something, forget something, you will make a generous assumption and say, “Yesterday was my mom’s one year anniversary of her death, and it was really tough for me, and I talked to you about it last month. And I really was hoping that you would’ve called, but I know you care about me. I know you think it’s a big deal. So I wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about that.” As opposed to not returning calls, not returning emails, and waiting for the moment where you can spring, “Well, you forgot to call on this important …” You know? You’ll make a generous assumption about me and check it out.

    Does that make sense? So we’ve got boundaries, reliability, accountability, the vault, integrity, non-judgment, and generosity. These, this is the anatomy of trust, and it’s complex.

    Why do we need to break it down? For a very simple reason. How many of you in here have ever struggled with trust in a relationship, professional or personal? It should be everybody, statistically, right? And so, what you end up saying to someone is, “I don’t trust you.” “What do you mean you don’t trust me? I love you. I’m so dependable. What do you mean you don’t trust me?”

    How do we talk about trust if we can’t break it down? What understanding trust gives us is words to say, “Here’s my struggle. You’re not reliable with me. You say you’re going to do something, I count on it, you don’t do it.” Or maybe the issue is non-judgment. But we can break it down and talk about it and ask for what we need, very specifically. Instead of using this huge word that has tons of weight and value around it, we can say, “Here’s specifically what’s not working. What’s not working is we’ve got a boundaries issue.”

    So, one of the things that’s interesting, I think, is one of the biggest casualties with heartbreak and disappointment and failure and our struggle, is not just the loss of trust with other people, but the loss of self trust. When something hard happens in our lives, the first thing we say is “I can’t trust myself. I was so stupid. I was so naive.”

    So, this BRAVING acronym works with self-trust too. So, when something happens … I just recently went through a really tough failure, and I had to ask myself, “Did I honor my own boundaries? Was I reliable? Can I count on myself? Did I hold myself accountable? Was I really protective of my stories? Did I stay in my integrity? Was I judgmental toward myself? And I give myself the benefit of the doubt? Was I generous toward myself?”

    Because if braving relationships with other people is braving connection, self-trust is braving self-love. Self-respect, the wildest adventure we’ll ever take in our whole lives. And so, what I would invite you to think about when you think about trust is if your own marble jar is not full, if you can’t count on yourself, you can’t ask other people to give you what you don’t have. So we have to start with self-trust.

    There’s a great quote from Maya Angelou that says, “I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves, but say I love you.” Right?

    She quotes an African proverb when she said that, and she said, “Be wary of the naked man offering you a shirt.” And so, a lot of times if you find yourself in struggle with trust, the thing to examine first is your own marble jar, how you treat yourself. Because we can’t ask people to give to us something that we do not believe we’re worthy of receiving. And you will know you’re worthy of receiving it when you trust yourself above everyone else. So, thank y’all so much. I’m so honored to be here. Thank you. Thank y’all.

  • EMPLOYMENT ENGLISH LAW UPDATE – CORONA VIRUS

    Introduction

    The government has recently announced financial support for employers/employees and selfemployed individuals whose businesses are unable to operate during the coronavirus lockdown subject to certain conditions. This update sets out the main details of each scheme.

    Employers/Employees

    Corona Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) – furlough leave
    The CJRS provides support to employers whose employees are unable to work because the business is unable to operate due to the coronavirus lockdown. For example, restaurants, retail and leisure which were closed by government order.

    The CJRS enables employers to be reimbursed for 80% of employees’ wages subject to a
    maximum cap of £2,500 per month (plus employers’ national insurance and minimum auto enrolment pension contribution) provided employees were employed before 19 March 2020 (previously 1 March but changed on 15 April 2020).

    Employers can choose to pay the additional 20% of wages (which will not be reimbursed) but there is no obligation to do so

    How do Employers apply?

    To qualify, employers have to put employees on ‘furlough leave’, i.e leave of absence due to
    the (temporary) shutdown of the business. Employees cannot do any work for their employer while they are on furlough leave, so employees on reduced or shortened hours would not qualify.

    Employees have to agree to furlough leave but, as the alternative could be redundancy,
    employees will most likely agree. Under the CJRS, the furlough leave agreement must be in writing and also as the 20% wages reduction and absence leave is a variation to the employee’s contract. The minimum period of furlough leave is 3 weeks and it is possible to rotate staff if some work is available.

    Once the employees are on furlough leave then the employer pays their 80% wages in the
    normal payroll with the tax and NI deductions (on 80%) and then applies for reimbursement from the government through an online portal system due to be available by the end of April.

    The government has suggested that if employers cannot afford to pay the employees, they will be able to do so through the Government Loan Scheme.

    The online portal is administered by HMRC using existing PAYE records. Claims can be
    backdated to 1 March provided employees were unable to work during this period.
    © Grower Freeman 2020

    Does it apply to all employees?

    Yes, all employees are covered including full-time, part-time and zero hours workers provided they are on PAYE. Agency staff on PAYE can be furloughed by their agency. Employees who were made redundant in February 2020 and now before 19 March due to the corona virus can be reinstated and claims backdated to 1 March.

    From the latest HMRC guidance, employees on sick leave can be furloughed and vice versa. However, this should not be abused by using furlough pay to top up small amounts of SSP for short term absences

    Employees on maternity leave do not qualify but are still entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay.

    What happens at the end of the three-month scheme?

    Depending on the state of the business, employers can either retain the employees, putting them back on full wages or make them redundant. It is also possible to make employees redundant while on furlough leave. However, the furlough scheme is intended to avoid redundancies during the lockdown period and hopefully save jobs.

    Can employees do any other work whilst on Furlough Leave?

    Employees cannot do any paid work either for their employer or any other employer unless
    there is an existing agreement. They can do voluntary work (unpaid) and, if the employe
    requires them to do training during furlough leave, then they are entitled to be paid the
    national minimum/ living wage.

    Statutory Sick Pay For anyone suffering from Covid-19 or who are self-isolating or shielding others, SSP will be paid on the first day of absence rather than the fourth day. Small to medium sized employers will also be reimbursed for the full amount of SSP rather than having to pay it themselves.

    SSP is minimal – £95.85 per week from 6th April. There is, however, now the option to furlough staff instead, if appropriate

    SSP only applies to employees but self-employed people can also make a claim for universal credit or contributory employment and support allowance.

    Holiday Leave

    The Working Time Regulations have been amended to allow employees/ workers to carry over four weeks of holiday leave to the next two leave years if it was not reasonably practicable to use holiday leave due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Self-employed

    The government rescue package for the self-employed (individuals and members of a
    partnership) comprises the following:

    • A new self-employed income support scheme will pay self-employed people a taxable grant worth 80% of average monthly income, capped at £2,500 per month © Grower Freeman 2020
    • Income will be calculated by taking the average of income over the last three years from HMRC records.
    • Self-employed people can claim these grants and continue to work in their business (so it is not the same as furlough leave where employees are unable to work for their employer).
    • The scheme is only open to those with trading profits of up to £50k and who make the majority of their income from self-employment.
    • It only applies to those who have submitted a Tax Return for 2019 (this is to minimise fraud).
    • However, those who have only just set up a business or who did not submit their Tax Return by 31.01.2020 can still submit a Tax Return for 2019 for a further four weeks from 26th March 2020.

    How do Self-Employed people apply for this?

    The scheme will not be up and running until the end of June. Unlike the CJRS no application is required. Instead, HMRC will contact eligible self-employed people directly inviting them to fill out an online form and, if approved, will then pay the grant direct into their bank account. Similar to the CJRS, the scheme will only be open for three months from 1st March to end of June but, as it will not be in operation until the end of June, it is not going to provide immediate support

    Other help for the self-employed

    Tax payments due on 31st July 2020 can be put back to 31st January 2021 and VAT Returns can be deferred to 31st March 2021.

    Comment

    The government’s financial support packages during the coronavirus lockdown and the speed with which they have been introduced is unprecedented but these are unprecedented times. It remains to be seen how the schemes will work in practice. Various legal issues have already been addressed in the government’s latest guidance updates and doubtless, more will follow

    Website links:

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

    Contact details:

    This update was produced by Tessa Fry, Head of Employment at Grower Freeman. For further information or advice, please contact Tessa Fry at tessa@growerfreeman.co.uk -or- 020 7563 5477.

    Disclaimer – This update is intended to provide readers with information on recent legal developments. It should not be construed as legal advice or guidance on a particular matter.

    Publisher/Author Info:

    Grower Freeman
    Ivor House
    25-26 Ivor Place
    London NW1 6HR
    T: +44 (0)20 7723 30
    E: tessa@growerfreeman.co.uk
    W: www.growerfreeman.co.uk

    To View Original Published PDF by Tessa Fry of Grower Freeman, Click HERE

  • Tessa Fry On The Radio Again

    Tessa Fry, our employment law specialist was recently interviewed on Resonance FM discussing furlough leave and other government support for employers, employees and the self-employed due to the corona virus lockdown.  The interview starts 35 minutes in.

    Do tune in.

  • COVID-19 Crisis: How to help leaders and teams ‘decide how to decide’ their priorities

    We are thrilled to be supporting you with our guest bloggers.
    We’ve had many posts recently about working through the pandemic, check them out here.
    This week we learn how to decide priorities.

    This week’s guest blogger, Dr. Laura Hauser, MCC, helps us in the COVID -19 Crisis by helping leaders and teams ‘decide how to decide’ their priorities

    Here’s what she had to say…

    decide priorities

    When Luke Skywalker questions his ability to use the Force to lift his ship out of the swamp, Yoda tells him ”Do or do not. There is no try,” advising the young Jedi to use the power of giving something his all, not just a try.

    This is wise counsel during today’s novel coronavirus crisis where it may feel like you’ve been dropped into a swamp with no way out.

    Now, more than ever, it’s critical to quickly help leaders and their teams focus, assign resources, and take action.

    I continually hear concerns that some of the most visible and valuable casualties of this crisis are the cancellation of team development initiatives, strategic off-sites, and team meetings.

    They’re asking “Now, what?” How do we decide which team development interventions including off-sites and leadership coaching courses should we focus on now, later, or not at all?

    Jedi Triage – How To Decide How To Decide

    Think triage, like medical professionals during a time of crisis. They use degrees of urgency to decide how to treat large numbers of casualties. Quick assessment is critical to get the patient to the right resources at the right time and place.

    During the COVID-19 crisis, team leaders, coaches, and business partners (learning and development, human resources, talent managers) need to become triage experts.

    It’s a critical time for you to summon your Jedi superpowers to quickly assess and focus on your team’s work and development.

    Developing a simple, effective way to define criteria will help you decide how to decide while bringing your Jedi skills of timeliness, compassion, calmness, wisdom, and resources to bear.

    People want to focus on the right priorities, particularly during a time of crisis. They need compassion amid their personal circumstances and clarity about their work priorities.

    The Power of Urgency and Importance

    Like medical first-responders, your job is to help leaders and their teams quickly assess and prioritize using two core elements: Urgency and Importance.

    Urgent matters require immediate action

    Think customer or technology firestorms that could severely affect the business, NOW. They require us to stop what we are doing and attend to the current situation. Ask how critical is it to run the business? What is the level of impact on strategy, people, customers, etc.?

    Important matters require time for thoughtful planning and delivery

    These activities have the potential to profoundly affect the well-being and success of the business but don’t need to be done now. They require thoughtful time, energy and resources.

    Even though a team cannot meet f2f during this COVID-19 crisis, we can use technology like videoconferencing to bring us together and address urgent and important matters.

    Jedi Triage Matrix

    decide priorities

    To help you quickly decide how to decide priorities, I developed a simple matrix. Adapt it in any way that works best for you. The elements of urgency and importance to prioritize decisions originally came from Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II, and later was popularized by Stephen Covey and others.

    Do Now = Emergencies

    Important and urgent (top left): Critical to do now. Unexpected hard-to-plan-for emergencies, like consequences of the COVID-19 virus:

    • employees need computers at home to do their work and stay connected
    • customer complaints, unanticipated bottlenecks in customer supply chain and fulfillment processes
    • team members contracting the virus and families need help

    Jedi tip: Too much time in this quadrant can lead to burn-out when stress levels are already off the charts. Minimize time spent here by ensuring that the issue at hand truly belongs in Q1–not just being reactive. Plan ahead–don’t wait until the last minute to address issues so that they won’t become a Q1 issue.

    Do Soon = Essential

    Important but not urgent (top right): These are critical activities that are not as time-sensitive and requires more time for collaboration compared to Emergencies:

    • expand team member’s capabilities to contribute to current and future business needs by learning how to coach each other, and coach their teams through crisis
    • innovate strategic initiatives for growth of the company, teams, and individuals
    • solve problems and innovate new opportunities such as how to shore up our supply chain or cybersecurity during and subsequent crisis

    Jedi tip: Don’t assume that projects and tasks before the COVID-19 crisis retain the same level of importance. Help your leaders and teams assess what’s critical amidst the wicked challenges posed by the crisis. Ask what previous projects can we move to other quadrants? What new projects and tasks do we need to add?

    Wait = Distractions

    Low importance and urgent (bottom left): Not critical but appear important.
    These activities are productivity killers that interrupt a team member’s performance:

    • non-time sensitive requests for information
    • checking emails frequently to see if a teammate needs your help but then gets distracted clearing out unnecessary emails, checking social media posts, newsfeeds, etc.

    These types of interruptions take attention away from Emergency and Essential actions and cause missed deadlines and poor quality work. Minimize time spent on distractions as much as possible.

    Jedi Tip: Intentionally reduce unnecessary interruptions and distractions. Calendar specific time slots during each day for team members to check and respond to emails, texts, and phone calls so that members can concentrate on important and critical items for longer periods of time. Delegate tasks when appropriate.

    Eliminate or Hold = Time Wasters

    Low importance and not urgent (bottom right): don’t require focus right now, and potential long-term risks and opportunities at some future point.

    • activities and meetings no longer relevant to the team’s goals and new work environment
    • long-term future tasks, but not needed in the near future

    Jedi tip: For activities still on your list, help your team assess if it’s still a priority. If it doesn’t fit into one of the other three boxes, or if it isn’t an idea to capture for future opportunities, let it go!

    Stay Focused

    During this time of crisis use your Jedi superpowers to triage and help yourself and others focus and decide on the right level of learning and development for the right people at the right time. Help leaders and their teams use some method of prioritization. When coaching, ask:

    • how urgent and important is this (project, task, opportunity, challenge)?
    • where can we best spend precious time and energy to support the development of individuals, leaders, and their teams that fosters enterprise-wide success?

    This will help you create a reality that’s manageable and moves you and your team forward in this time of crisis.

    And most importantly, remember to breathe. May the Force be with you.


    Tell us what you’ve learned about how to decide priorities or what you can add to the conversation by commenting on this blog or by connecting with your colleagues on our Facebook page.

    Here is some information about the author:

    laura hauser

    Dr. Laura Hauser, MCC, MCEC, works with corporate leaders (and professionals who develop leaders and teams), to help them build their capacity and courage to build healthy workplace cultures. She is an internationally-recognized thought leader and researcher in the highly specialized space of team coaching. Using the art of science, she teaches, coaches, supervises and consults in a way that expands people’s mindsets needed to excel during complex times. Laura is the developer of the Team Coaching Operating System®, an ACSTH coaching school accredited by the International Coach Federation. Contact Laura at engage@leadership-strategies.com or via her LinkedIn profile

  • Should non-disclosure agreements be confidential or not?

    With new rules reducing the scope of confidentiality provisions in NDAs, Tessa Fry weighs up the arguments for and against their use

    Nobody can be forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) – or, more accurately in the employment context, nobody can be forced to sign the confidentiality and non-disparaging provisions of a settlement agreement. The key requirement for a valid settlement agreement is for the employee to have independent legal advice before they sign. The employer usually contributes towards legal fees for this purpose.

    Settlement agreements provide certainty and finality for both businesses and employees. They can be used to settle existing or potential tribunal claims, but are commonly used on termination where there is no particular dispute. Under the standard terms, employers do not admit liability and employees receive compensation in exchange for giving up their employment rights, and are then unable to bring any claims against the company. 

    Over the years, settlement agreements have become more complex, with detailed provisions on confidentiality and non-disparagement (the NDAs). Standard provisions include both parties agreeing to keep the settlement figure and background details confidential, together with an agreed reference and mutual ‘no bad-mouthing’. This protects both parties. 

    Until recently, these NDAs were generally accepted. However, since the #MeToo movement, the various disclosures made regarding NDAs in sexual harassment cases have led to consideration by the Women and Equalities Committee and the Court of Appeal. The committee was concerned in particular with a settlement agreement with Zelda Perkins, Harvey Weinstein’s (pictured) former PA who worked for him 20 years ago. The agreement prohibited disclosure to the police and medical practitioners, and even prevented the employee having a copy of the agreement (it had to be viewed in the presence of a solicitor). 

    Although most NDAs do not contain these prohibitions, the committee concluded that cases of workplace sexual harassment and discrimination were being covered up by the use of these agreements, and in particular their confidentiality clauses. It proposed that employees signing such agreements should get specific advice on the limitations of confidentiality clauses. 

    By contrast, in the Philip Green/Arcadia injunction application, the Court of Appeal considered settlement agreements with five former employees and noted their legal fees were paid in full, they were not pressurised to sign the agreements and there was no restriction on reporting to the police or whistleblowing. So the disclosure of the allegations by two former employees to the Daily Telegraph was in breach of the NDAs. Accordingly, the injunction was granted to protect the employer’s confidentiality – confidentiality that the employees had agreed to in exchange for very high compensation. It was noted that the allegations were denied and two other ex-employees supported the injunction application.

    In responding to the committee’s report, the government has stated it will introduce new legislation to ensure confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements cannot prevent individuals from making disclosures to the police, regulated health and care professionals or regulators. There will be new requirements for the mandatory independent legal advice on a settlement agreement to include the limitations of any confidentiality clause. Confidentiality clauses that do not comply with the new legal requirements will be void. 

    It is not known when the legislation will be introduced. However, some aspects have already taken effect because of regulatory pressures on solicitors. Under new SRA guidance, if a solicitor is drafting clauses that are unenforceable, such as clauses preventing reports to the police, this may lead to disciplinary action.

    The standard precedent now takes this guidance and government proposals into account and there are long lists of categories to whom disclosure may be made – in particular, the police, regulated health and care professionals and any professional regulator.

    If employers are no longer able to rely on confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements then they may be less inclined to settle disputes. This may leave the employee with applying to a tribunal as the only other remedy available to them – with the risks and costs involved. 

    Author: Tessa Fry