046 Walking the talk

Fit for Work

Welcome to this special episode of the Fit for Work Podcast. This episode will wrap up Season 2, where we’ve enjoyed 6 months of guests and topics that I hope have helped scratch your health, safety and leadership itches. We’ll be taking a break for a little while and endeavour to return to your ears in the coming months with more gusto, vision and strategy to continue to serve your effectiveness in the workplace.

I had a conversation with a colleague last week about leadership which I felt would be a fitting way to wrap up Season 2. Our chat was about the importance of leaders walking the talk.

Let’s dive in…

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People embody many of the fundamental principles of human effectiveness that lead to long-term health, happiness and success. To fully understand these principles we need to first understand our own “paradigms”.

As Stephen Covey describes it, a simple way to understand paradigms is to see them as maps. Each of us have many, many maps in our head, and we interpret everything we experience through these mental maps – of the way things ARE, or the way things SHOULD BE. We rarely question their accuracy; we’re usually even unaware that we have them. And our attitudes and behaviours grow out of those paradigms and are the source of the way we think and the way we act.

An example of a health paradigm which you may be able to relate to personally or of a loved one:
I’ve started a new diet—for the fifth time this year. I know I’m overweight, and I really want to change. I read all the new information, I set goals, I get myself all psyched up with a positive mental attitude and tell myself I can do it. But I don’t. After a few weeks, I fizzle. I just can’t seem to keep a promise I make to myself.
Does this sound familiar? This situation is very real for many people and can be the root of a lot of frustration, pain and heartache. This problem cannot be solved by a quick fix ‘Personality’ shift as it’s a values or ‘Character’ issue. There are many equivalent scenarios for a health and safety professional or leader who feels ineffective, but we’ll get to those later.

THE PERSONALITY ETHIC VERSES THE CHARACTER ETHIC
Both the Personality Ethic and Character Ethic are examples of social paradigms.

Personality Ethic is secondary to Character ethic in the pursuit of happiness, health and contentment. Think quick fixes, social band-aids and aspirin that address acute problems and sometimes even solve them temporarily, but leave the underlying chronic problems untouched to fester and resurface time and again. Things like education about communication, positive thinking, attitude training, personality growth Eg. “Your attitude determines your altitude,” or “Smiling wins more friends than frowning”. These things can enhance communication and outcomes but ultimately won’t support you to sustain the DOING as it neglects the importance of BEING. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote sums up this dilemma of the personality ethic “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

Character Ethic should be the core focus of our lives because it’s based on the fundamental idea that there are principles that govern human effectiveness—natural laws that are just as real, just as unchanging and unarguably “there” as laws such as gravity. Things like strong morals, integrity, humility, encouragement, loyalty, trust, fidelity, courage, justice and patience.

One of the challenges of our impatient society is that most people want to HAVE before they DO before (if at all) they BE.

In order to transform your reality to align with your greater VISION – lets say for health and safety – you must embrace the opposite strategy. You must embrace the idea of transforming from the INSIDE OUT so you can BE the person or professional you want to BE, consistently DO the things that get you there and then (only then) will you HAVE the life, success, influence, respect, career, relationships, health and safety outcomes you want to HAVE.
TRANSFORMATION FORMULA: BE => DO => HAVE

You can’t reap before you sew. You can’t HAVE before you DO or BE. Did you ever consider how ridiculous it would be to try to cram on a farm—to forget to plant in the spring, play all summer and then cram in autumn to bring in the harvest? The farm is a natural system. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.

This principle is also true, ultimately, in human behaviour. To take the health example once again which I think we can all relate to, why would the outcome of this ‘cramming’ be any different for our bodies with quick fix diets or hard core exercise programs come summer when we’ve hibernated and been coach potatoes all winter. Too often we look for that shortcut, expecting to be able to skip some of the vital lifestyle steps in order to save time and effort and still reap the desired result of a fit summer body. It is simply impossible to violate, ignore, or shortcut this development process. It is contrary to nature, and attempting to seek such a shortcut only results in disappointment and frustration. Again the price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.

Or in the case of the safety professional, maybe you’re wanting to improve peoples attitudes to safety following an incident. So you spotlight the incident, highlight the omitted controls, lengthen the procedures manual, do a frenzy of toolbox talks, plaster posters everywhere then wonder why a month later workers can’t recall the controls or procedure you worked so hard to produce. Because safety culture takes time, repetition and reinforcement of the good stuff. It’s not something that can be instilled by fear, forced overnight, through pretending to care or by declaring ‘safety is our #1 priority’ when everything else screams operational priority. Again to achieve a positive safety culture, the price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.

LIVING A PRINCIPLE-CENTERED LIFE

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. They’re fundamental. One way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of principles is to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live an effective life based on their opposites. I doubt that anyone would seriously consider unfairness, pride, deceit, dishonesty, uselessness, blame and mediocrity to be a solid foundation for lasting health, happiness and success.

The more closely our maps or paradigms are aligned with these principles or natural laws, the more accurate, functional and long-lasting they will be. Correct maps will infinitely impact our personal and interpersonal effectiveness far more than any amount of effort spend changing our attitudes and behaviours.

EMBRACING THE INSIDEOUT APPROACH means to start first with YOU; with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves is more important than making and keeping promises to others. It says it is pointless to put personality ahead of character, to try to ‘fix’ others when we haven’t dealt with our own stuff.

For example the inside-out approach says if you want to have more freedom, more opportunities in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful and a more contributing employee. If you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of partner who gives off positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. BE patient, kind, generous and loving. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want a healthy body, be committed, consistent, honest and kind with yourself. Be honest with yourself about your current health and the consequences of living your current verses your desired lifestyle. If you want to be a respected Safety professional, then genuinely CARE for your workers, be helpful and be human. If you want to be an influential leader, then be authentic and humble and WALK THE TALK.

Resolve that you will BE an effective health, safety, HR professional and/or business leader and commit in your heart to DOING the habits required to BE that person. You need to BE that person before you can HAVE that SUCCESS, RESPECT AND INFLUENCE at work.

We each have our own technical strengths which we contribute to the workplace. In fact many of us are promoted into leadership roles due to those technical competencies irrespective of people leadership skills.

Don’t let your talents [personality] take you where your character can’t keep you – Rick Warren

Instead of getting frustrated that people aren’t picking up what your putting down, that health or safety isn’t high on others agenda or that people just don’t seem to care enough about what you care about, maybe take some time to reflect as to whether you’re operating mostly from the personality ethic rather than the enduring character ethic. And ask of yourself the question “Am I a leader who walks the talk?”.

Our Perceptions determine how we see, how we see determines the way we act. Sow a thought reap an action, sow an action reap a habit, sow a habit reap a character. Sow a character reap a destiny – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks so much for joining us for Season 2 of the Fit for Work Podcast. I’ve learnt soooo much from my wonderful guests, as I hope you have too. In the interest of effectiveness, I’m going to take a few months off the podcast and focus on doing just one thing well – being a GREAT occupational health coach. In the meantime, your feedback, friendship and future vision for the podcast is so welcome.

Until next season, continue being part of the solution in taking your workplace from good to GREAT! See ya!

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