Tag: organizational culture

Control Freak in the Workplace

Posted on by Rachel Burr

A control freak often has a demanding personality who strains relationships and saps energy in the workplace. Explore ways to manage and redirect controlling behaviors.

We’ve all heard of “control freaks” – people who feel the need to direct, control, and even change the people around them. You may not be a control freak, but you’ve probably run into them. It could be the leader who constantly asks for updates or makes continuous changes throughout a project. Sometimes even changing changes they previously made. Or it could be the colleague who regularly offers unsolicited advice and criticism.  

Being around control freaks can be exhausting and demoralizing. They strain relationships, whether with family, friends, or co-workers. There are better ways to relate to the world!

This article will examine what drives people to become control freaks, and what can be done to loosen their grip.  

What is a control freak?

Managing and directing is a part of leadership.  Leaders are expected to direct, inspire, and organize the efforts of others. Without healthy leadership, chaos can take over. But there comes a point at which the need to control outruns its usefulness. It crosses the line from conscientiousness into coercion.

There are two types of control freak, according to Psychology Today. Both types are rooted in the need to overcome fear, anxiety, and insecurity, but they manifest themselves in different ways.

The first type of control freak, according to the author, are people who have “intense and exact control over themselves.” They are hyper-focused perfectionists who expect themselves – and the people around them – to “perform perfectly and without error.”  

The second type of control freak uses the opposite strategy. Instead of controlling themselves, “they are skilled at controlling other people.” They like to give orders but are “dependent on others to carry out their wishes and demands.”  

Both types use control as a way to manage fear and anxiety. But no one can be another person’s “management agent,” in the author’s words, and trying to be one will just cause damage.

Signs of controlling behavior at work

Here are a few examples of controlling behavior at work, from an article in Forbes:

  • Being a poor team player. To be part of a team, people must give up some control. They can only work on part of the task at hand. For controlling personalities that can be a big challenge. They often prefer to work alone and, when forced to become part of a group, may try to dictate how others work and behave.
  • Failing to delegate tasks. For controlling personalities, delegating is just another way of losing control. That’s particularly true of the perfectionist who believes he or she is solely responsible for the success of any project. When forced to delegate, they tend to micromanage the work.  
  • Strained relationships. Control freaks are prone to making demands and being hyper-critical of the people working around them. To the perfectionist type, any mistake or flaw – whether real or perceived – is intolerable. Working relationships suffer as a result.

Letting go of the need to control others

There are ways out of the “control freak paradigm”, and we’ll discuss two of them here:  Emotional regulation and re-defining control.  

Learning emotional regulation. The source of controlling behavior lies in uncomfortable emotions like fear and anxiety. “Rather than controlling their emotions, [control freaks are] always trying to control the environment,” according to Forbes. Change begins by learning emotional regulation.

The first step toward regulating emotions is to pay attention to them. Identify and name emotions as they arise. It’s an exercise that takes practice, and can benefit from working with a coach or a therapist. 

When negative emotions arise, we can choose how we deal with them. A useful technique is reappraisal, which is a change in perspective. Fear and anxiety can make us feel threatened. Reappraising a threat as a challenge instead, can help us choose a more positive course of action.

Re-defining control. Another useful strategy is to re-define what control means, and what it looks like in practice. It’s a strategy that’s especially useful for leaders.

Most leaders reached their positions by being highly skilled in technical areas. But as leaders take on more responsibilities, they have less capacity to absorb technical details. They need to rely on others.

Re-defining control is a shift from completing every detail personally to having systems in place that allow others to complete them. The systems can include scheduling regular team check-ins and clearly defining project milestones. 

We’ve all run into control freaks. Their overbearing demands can drain energy, productivity, and creativity from the workplace. But practical solutions are available. If you would like to learn more, please contact us.

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Rachel Burr is an executive and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience working with CEOs and the C-suite across all industries, in organizations of from 200 to 10,000 employees. Rachel holds dual master’s degrees in Organization Development and Clinical Psychology, and numerous certifications in the field of executive coaching. Rachel is a “people expert” who works with clients to unleash their leadership potential.  If you would like to learn more about leadership development training, please contact us.

Copyright ©️ 2024 by Rachel Burr. All rights reserved.

Boost Psychological Safety for Healthier, More Creative Teams

Posted on by Rachel Burr

Psychological safety is a feeling shared among team members that it’s okay to admit mistakes, share concerns, and ask questions. Teams that achieve psychological safety are more productive, more creative, and better able to resolve conflict than those that don’t.

What is psychological safety?  

Psychological safety refers to an environment where it’s okay to take risks, make mistakes, and where it’s accepted that people will voice differing opinions and ask difficult questions.  It’s an important part of a healthy workplace, with benefits for organizations as well as employees.  

The term psychological safety was coined by Amy Edmondson, a professor at the Harvard Business School and author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. She developed the concept while studying teams of medical professionals for her Ph.D.  

At first, Edmondson thought that the highest performing teams would be the ones reporting the fewest mistakes during their shifts, but she found the opposite. The teams that achieved the best outcomes reported a higher number of mistakes per shift than their lower performing peers.  

She later realized that the high performing teams were more willing to admit mistakes – and learn from them – than the other teams.  From that insight came a concept she called “team psychological safety,” which can help anyone who works with a team.

This article will discuss the basics of psychological safety and how to improve that quality in any team.

Make it safe for people to speak up in the workplace

Psychological safety has been called “the belief that one can express themselves freely without fear of negative consequences” in a Penn State University article. Amy Edmondson calls it “felt permission for candor.” However described, the level of psychological safety in any team has major impacts on productivity, innovation, conflict resolution, and more.  

For example, Google’s Project Aristotle, a large, multi-year study of team dynamics and team building, found psychological safety to be the single most important factor in creating high performing teams.

The Google researchers began with the idea that the best teams would emerge naturally by putting the brightest high achievers together and turning them loose. But that wasn’t the case. They concluded that who is on a team matters much less than how the team members interact. According to the authors:

Our researchers found that the best teams created a climate of openness where team members admit to their errors and discuss them more often. In other words, they exhibited high levels of psychological safety[.]  

Psychologically safe teams accelerate learning and innovation by acknowledging mistakes and exploring new ideas. And not only are they more adaptable, they can also impact the bottom line.

The study found that teams with high levels of psychological safety exceeded their sales targets by 17%, while teams with low levels of psychological safety missed their sales targets by 19%. According to Google, psychological safety was a much better predictor of team success than the number of top performers or the general intelligence of team members.

Developing psychological safety

Psychological safety is a team characteristic.  It emerges from interactions among team members over time.  Edmondson states, “This is a group level phenomenon – it shapes the learning of the group and in turn affects team performance and therefore organizational performance.” Team members who collaborate closely feel similar levels of psychological safety, according to the Harvard Business Review.  

Building psychological safety is “more magic than science,” according to Edmondson, but there are simple steps any organization can take to improve teamwork.

Ensure good management.  The first step to increasing psychological safety is the most basic: Establish good management practices, which include setting clear expectations and norms of behavior, ensuring fairness and equal treatment, encouraging open communication, and making sure people feel valued and supported.  

Admit mistakes. Psychological safety begins when people are willing to admit their mistakes and learn from them. Leaders must be in the forefront of the effort by admitting their own mistakes, struggles, and challenges.  In short, leaders need to become willing to appear vulnerable and less than perfect in the eyes of the people they lead. If they are not, the foundation for psychological safety will be missing.  

Actively solicit input. Leaders need to do more than encourage team members to speak out, they should set the expectation that everyone on the team will share their ideas, opinions, and concerns. Some will naturally be more vocal than others, but creating a safe space to share ideas without being judged or criticized is key to developing psychological safety. It may feel awkward at first, but it will become easier with practice. As a bonus, regularly asking team members to express their concerns can help defuse workplace tensions and promote healthy conflict resolution.

In the words of Stanford professor and psychologist Robert Sutton, “When people talk about their own mistakes, rather than pointing out others’ missteps, that suggests your workplace is psychologically safe.” Rather than wasting time and energy blaming and shaming, psychological safety lets teams focus on learning and problem solving in a healthy learning environment, which is the key to unlocking resilience, creativity, and innovation.  

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Rachel Burr is an executive and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience working with CEOs and the C-suite across all industries, in organizations of from 200 to 10,000 employees. Rachel holds dual master’s degrees in Organization Development and Clinical Psychology, and numerous certifications in the field of executive coaching. Rachel is a “people expert” who works with clients to unleash their leadership potential.  If you would like to learn more about psychological safety and how it can improve teamwork, please contact us.

People Development:  Closing the Skills Gap With a Culture of Learning

Posted on by Rachel Burr

People development is the process of identifying the skills needed to achieve organizational goals, and designing learning, coaching, mentoring programs to meet those goals.

People development has become a critical need for organizations big and small.  The tight labor market means that vacant roles involving critical skills are harder to fill, while business and technological changes mean that existing roles will need constant updating. 

According to McKinsey & Company, the great majority of organizations will face a “meaningful skills gap” in the coming years.  The causes are both technological and demographic.  The upshot is that organizations wanting to “future proof” their business success need to make consistent, ongoing people development a priority.

Organizations need to not only develop their existing talent pool, but to “think outside the box” in terms of attraction and recruitment.  That will include:

·         Hiring for Potential:  Finding candidates with the ability to master new skills will be as important as finding candidates with existing skill sets.  

·         Considering Non-Traditional Candidates:  People with more circuitous career paths may be more adept at learning new skills and thriving in different environments.

·         Looking for a Growth Mindset:  Organizations will benefit from candidates who view personal development with a positive, open attitude.

People development will be key both in advancing the skills of an organization’s existing workforce and in bringing in new employees.  This blog will examine several aspects of the process.

Creating a Culture of Learning to Spark People Development

Whatever development model an organization chooses, creating an environment in which learning and development are priorities – a “culture of learning” – is fundamental. 

·         Having top leadership and management on board is the first condition needed to create a culture of learning.  Without advocacy at the top, learning and development is unlikely to gain traction. 

·         Setting organizational goals for people development is another way to cultivate a culture of learning.  According to McKinsey, “best-in-class” organizations provide an average of 75 hours of training per employee annually.  Some set “aspirational” goals well above that figure.  Hours dedicated to development is a critical first step.  More important, however, is assessing the impact of development on people and the business goals. Measuring the number of hours is easy. Measuring the impact is far more difficult, but also more critical. 

·         Setting aside a dedicated time and place for people development is another useful step towards creating a culture of learning, and making organizational follow-through more likely.

Organizational support and advocacy are the foundations for creating a culture of learning.  By taking specific, practical actions, like those mentioned above, the organization demonstrates its commitment to people development. 

Choosing Effective People Development Methods

The methods of providing learning and development opportunities include everything from online self-study, to formal classroom work, to on-the-job training and mentoring.  Circumstances may dictate which methods are practical, but the organization will have choices to make in every case.

In Person v. Online Study:  Studies show that in person learning is more effective than online or virtual courses, leading to better outcomes and greater retention.  It is also the most costly training method, but may be appropriate to develop highly technical skills where the extra expense is more cost effective. 

In many cases, due to the number of people to be trained or geographic challenges, online learning or self-study courses are the only practical solutions.  Even in this situation, the organization has a choice in how to present the material.

“Segment of One” v. “Cohort-Based” Courses:  Debate continues whether group (“cohort-based”) or individual (“segment-of-one”) courses are more effective.

According to the Academy to Innovate HR, employees prefer to study on demand, at their own pace, and show positive outcomes from that approach.  The Harvard Business Review disagrees.  According to the HBR, “cohort-based” group learning, with set schedules and milestones, produces better outcomes – partly as the result of group support and reinforcement.

Each organization will have to make its own decisions based on its unique circumstances.  A combined approach may be best, but knowing the options available is the first step.

Practical and Experiential Methods:  People development often comes through on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching.  Some other, less frequently mentioned development tools include:

·         Job Rotation:  A temporary assignment in a different functional area or business division to gain experience and perspective.  Job rotation may be particularly helpful before a promotion to a senior management position. 

·         Peer Coaching:  A process in which two or more colleagues work together to build new skills, or to consider solutions to problems in the workplace.  Peer coaching is a special-purpose hybrid of the “cohort-based” and “segment-of-one” approaches.

·         Targeted Training and Micro-Mentoring:  Both of these are short duration, high effort approaches to solve specific problems or fill specific knowledge gaps.  They require a short time commitment and can be an effective stopgap remedy where needed.

Designing an Effective People Development Program

Organizations have unique circumstances and needs.  Each will benefit from different approaches to people development.  In some cases, the organization may have a dedicated learning and development team to facilitate the process.  In other cases, the organization may seek outside help to design a people development program. 

However the process proceeds, each organization should regularly assess its business goals.  The organization should then consider the skills needed to reach those goals, and the best way to close any “skills gaps” it finds. 

Once the organization has decided on a course of action, the key to any people development program is regular monitoring and assessment, to find out what’s working, and to improve or discard things that aren’t working.  Conducting follow-up assessments 30 to 60 days after the conclusion of a course or training session is especially useful in making that determination. 

Developing an effective people development program with an overall people strategy will only become more critical as time passes.  To “future proof” their business goals, organizations need to ensure they are taking specific, practical steps toward creating a culture of learning. 

If you would like to learn more about people development, please contact us.

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Rachel Burr is an executive and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience working with CEOs and the C-suite across all industries, in organizations of from 200 to 10,000 employees. Rachel holds dual master’s degrees in Organization Development and Clinical Psychology, and numerous certifications in the field of executive coaching. Rachel is a “people expert” who works with clients to unleash their leadership potential.