A recent conversation with an HR leader of a large publicly-held company revealed a whole new level of strangeness and leader stress in these unusual times. Six hundred unaccounted-for employees had stopped responding to company efforts to bring them back to the office from home-based work.

These missing individuals previously had a manager looking carefully over their shoulders to keep them accountable and on track, and in the absence of face-to-face interaction, they quietly and gradually disappeared off the radar.

This may seem ludicrous to you, but employee dependency on leaders’ oversight is more the norm than the exception today. This peculiar time has introduced a new level of worry about employee performance, one that has caused an increased emphasis on a familiar leadership practice that is not working so well – that of “holding people accountable”. Chasing employees’ performance (after the fact) pulls talented leaders away from working “on the business”, which includes creating collaborative innovation to proactively solve today’s new problems.  Instead, leaders are being drained by getting stuck “in the business,” including micromanaging details that individual employees are more than capable of taking care of if they could just lead themselves a little better.

If this negative cycle doesn’t end it may mean the end of your business as you know it, given that it threatens to undermine everything you are working so hard to build. Ending it begins with innovating the way leaders approach accountability, including a shift from ineffective after-the-fact reparation to proactive preparation for future effectiveness. This is about setting up win-win success for individual employees and the company. Doing so, however, requires strong Self-Leadership – the kind that builds trust, and ignites individual and team performance.

It may interest you to know that according to a recent study of 1,800 individuals and leaders by People Acuity’s psychometrics team, it was discovered that strong Self-Leaders are 95% less likely to be victims, and much more likely to be solution-focused. They are equally likely to be self-engaged and require less of a leader’s energy to manage. Self-Leaders also have a 97% chance of being stronger team players and are more inclined to contribute to an environment of collaboration and confident interactions.

It’s easy to conclude that companies with the strongest Self-Leaders will lead the future!

To bring a free 2-hour virtual Self-Leadership workshop to your organization, contact us at info@peopleacuity.com or use the button to the right.

We can help you stop the negative swirl and increase individual, team, and organizational performance. Also, to learn more about innovating toward proactive accountability, download our free report, A Leader’s Guide to Igniting Accountability, here.

Free Virtual Session: A Leader’s Must-Have Strategy for Igniting Accountability:  It is more important than ever before that high performance, accountability, and full engagement comes from within the individual employee – rather than forced through an external leadership initiative.

When you consider accountability in the midst of all your pressing leadership priorities, you may find yourself asking

• How can I focus on accountability when people in my organization are navigating the highest stress levels ever recorded, including overwhelming personal battles?
• How can I consider accountability when I am struggling to keep my business alive and recover from the economic downturn?

Come learn what innovative leaders are doing today to Ignite Accountability in their teams by joining our FREE 50-minute virtual impact session for leaders

If you are like most people, standard ways of thinking and seeing engagement may have previously blinded you to something that this COVID era has brought glaringly to the surface.

There is a universal disengagement trigger that is likely deeply rooted in your own organization, and it is one that has eluded many leaders today. We will explore it here, giving you a chance to consider the ball and chain that may have been unknowingly sinking your organization’s engagement and the fastest way to escape it.

If you envision a future where your people proactively create self-accountability and self-responsibility (including for their own engagement); if you dream of having high-performing collaborative teams that ignite transformative innovation; if you hope to have leaders that inspire these things in others, you need People Acuity’s virtual Self-Leadership learning journey. Individuals who attend become adept at:

• Creative problem-solving: moving from powerlessness to possibility and solutions-thinking.
• Proactive accountability: igniting self-responsibility, energy, and performance.
• Manage negative swirl and ambiguity through wise strengths use.
• Growth mindset: exploring tools to Shift Up! interdependent thinking and self-engagement.

Learn more by reaching out to info@peopleacuity.com, or register for an upcoming public program. Early bird rates apply.

Check out the 6-session virtual program running Wednesdays from 11a.m.-1p.m. CDT from August 19 to October 7^th here. For the September 1-October 20 program that runs from 7-9 a.m. CDT, click here.

* According to a leadership study of 7,000 leaders conducted by Fuzu in a June 2020

Around the globe, both companies and millions in the workforce have had to adjust how they work because of COVID-19. Many workplaces are considered modern, but how employees complete their job duties hasn’t necessarily been. Drastic changes to work environments, such as more opportunities for telework, are giving in-house workers a glimpse of what it’s like to be an independent contractor working from home or another location outside of a traditional office.

Through necessity because of the pandemic, to keep operations running during this time, organizations have had to take the guidance of health officials into account when attempting to conduct business as close to normal as possible. Technology has made working remotely much easier, but conventional physical locations still play a vital role when it comes to accessing certain resources, being immersed in company culture, and performing tasks that require in-person collaboration. Commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield is just one global company that has garnered experience with this issue. In China, the organization has helped businesses return nearly one million people safely back to their jobs after the country reopened its economy.

The company used what it has learned (along with World Health Organization data and the advice of medical specialists) to develop a concept dubbed the ‘6 Feet Office’, which it has applied inside its Amsterdam location. Through properly spaced desks and visual cues, the ‘6 Feet Office’ concept reminds employees to keep the recommended proper distance between each other at all times.

Some features of the ‘6 Feet Office’ include see-through shields (often made of acrylic) separating work areas, policies for office navigation, and guidelines for social distancing. For example, a workplace may install signage indicating which doors are to be used specifically for entering and exiting conference rooms, circumnavigating around workstations in a particular direction (such as counterclockwise), and sanitizing surfaces daily.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, in 2017, the calculated space allotted per worker was a cramped 17.6 square feet. For comparison, in 2009, it was just over 211 square feet. That radical decrease of almost 92% went far from unnoticed, as loud co-workers and the inevitable lack of “elbow room” were common complaints. Though the catalyst for the change in spatial allowances is calamitous, it’s no surprise that the return of more space and introduction of the ‘6 Feet Office’ is appreciated by employees worldwide.

Lisa C. Gregory, Chief Product Officer

Lisa Gregory holds nearly 100 certifications and is an expert in instructional design, facilitation, and engineering client solutions. She was the top organizational and leadership consultant at CEB and has holds a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology.

She has coached and trained organizations on 5 continents and makes learning relevant and applicable.

If you’d like to learn more about how People Acuity can help prepare your organization for our new world, please call us at 218.368.5770, email us at Info@PeopleAcuity.com, or simply use the link below.