33. The Great Realisation, hosted by Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change Your Workplace. This one is gonna be a really good one to help you uplift your leadership game. Hello and welcome to this solo episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast. This one I am titling The Great Realisation or something along those lines. So I want to talk to you about things beyond the Great Resignation. We've heard all about the Great Resignation. For me, I think it's too simplistic a concept. The Great Resignation happened because of a cause of industry changes, world changes, and the fact that it has been a candidate's market. And the great resignation happened because of what I am calling the great realization. And I want to know if this resonates with you. So what is the great realization? I'm gonna define the great realization for you from a real life perspective. So I've done a heap of reading, I've been listening to my consulting clients, and I'm sharing some stories from my private coaching clients. So the great realization. So this client's value used to be on having a great job, they wanted a promotion, and to move up the ladder. That was their intent throughout their career. However, for this person, what they've actually asked for is a demotion. Yes, to be demoted to a lower level role. They have been in a space where they've been managing many a people. People management comes with many challenges, and this person has asked to be demoted from their people manager role because they've had enough of office politics, they've had enough of indecision by the leaders, and they want to focus on their inner life and personal priorities now. So their value used to be on having a great job and being promoted up the ladder, whereas now they've re-prioritized their value to focus on their inner life and personal priorities. That's a massive internal shift in someone. What a great realization to have. Another value, so a second example, another value used to be assigned to a job title. So one coachy of mine is going to be taking four months off work to travel the outback. I can't wait to hear her stories. So her intention is to completely switch off from work, to connect with the outback, and to see what comes to her for a career change is her intention. So she's cleverly managed using her annual leave in a big chunk so she can have the safety net of keeping a job open while she decides on what on earth she wants to do in the future. It is gonna be different, we don't know what yet. But allowing that time out for yourself, managing the risk financially as well, has really helped her to reconnect with herself, and her value used to be assigned to a job title. I'm really looking forward to hearing all about her travels and seeing what aha moments she's had when she's completely switched off from work for four months and she hasn't played that role. Often we don't have that opportunity to take that solid chunk of time off, but I highly recommend every single person listening to this podcast allocate at least half an hour on a Friday afternoon to self-coach, and I'm going to link to my free self-coaching guide in the show notes. So check it out. Give yourself half an hour to check in on yourself and all that is working well, not working well, and to check in on your priorities and what you really now value and don't value. Another value of another client of mine is time. This person lives in Switzerland and travels two hours each way, so that's four hours spent commuting around two or three times a week. So this person values their time, and their values link to their teenage daughter who is growing up fast, and he doesn't want to miss out on the wonderful growth of his daughter, which is why this coachie of mine is questioning the value of their time. It's often the case that we walk on autopilot in a job and we just get used to things, we get stuck in a rut, but because of recent events, world events, things have really allowed people to look introspectively. And yes, I know that can be really hard. So I hope this podcast helps you to consider all of the things that you need to consider in relation to what you value with your job and what you no longer value, what's serving you and what's no longer serving you. Now, if you're a leader of an organization and listening in, consider what the psychological contracts are that your various people have with your organization. Your salaries, your swanky offices, your wonderful car parking spots, gym memberships, and other perks simply don't cut it anymore. So for the internal leaders listening in, have you heard of the concept of a psychological contract? When sharing it with my coaches, many have that aha light bulb moment as it conveys their feelings regarding their workplace. So the psychological contract can be of enormous benefit or huge detriment to your organizational culture. So before we get into the detail, let's uncover what a psychological contract is. The concept of the psychological contract was originally developed by Denise Rousseau, and Rousseau is a professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. So unlike a formal employee contract, a psychological contract is covert, implied. It's an unwritten set of hopes that the employee has. Each one of us will have a different psychological contract to our workplace. It can include things such as values, mutual beliefs, common ground, expectations between you, the employer, and me, the employee. It really is unwritten and often in the mind of the employee. And it's always evolving as we evolve. That's why I really think that people have had a great realization and they're rethinking this whole psychological contract that they have with their workplaces. So the link of the psychological contracts and your organizational culture is immense. It's the glue that binds the employee to your purpose, to your vision, to your mission, to your values, and all of that good stuff that we talk about. An employee with a positive psychological contract to your workplace will be more agile as your organization changes. So will the employee. An employee with a good psychological contract with your organization will be more loyal. They won't be job hunting. An employee with a positive psychological contract to your organization will be more productive. They know what they have to do, how they fit into your bigger picture, and they'll get on with it. An employee with a positive psychological contract to your workplace will be more customer focused because they know how they fit in to that bottom line. As opposed to an employee with a negative psychological contract with your workplace who's going to be far more disengaged, therefore unproductive, negative, therefore toxic, and we know toxicity leaches into other people. An employee with a negative psychological contract will be more resistant to change. They'll be looking for work elsewhere as well. They'll be negatively impacting your bottom line as well as your organizational culture. So, for the employees who are listening, for the workplaces who are listening, which type of employee do you think is better for your employee brand? Have you read public reviews of your organization on sites such as Glassdoor, which is a global site, or seek Australia Company reviews? I'll link to them in the show notes. And for those of you who want to work on your psychological contract with your current workplace, this is what I recommend to my coaches. So I want you to try out for yourself. Okay, list the great things about your workplace. List the frustrations that you have about your workplace, and what areas do they fall into? Do they fall into leadership? Or is it the case that the frustrations that you have about your workplace fall into the category of communication? Is it a case that you don't have enough autonomy? Is it something about flexibility? Is it something in relation to your team or your the way your team works? Is it the fact that you don't have career progression or that you have too much career progression? Is it the fact that the mission, vision, values of your organization no longer speak true to you? Is your executive crappy? Is your organizational culture crappy? So there's lots for you to consider when you're thinking about the psychological contract with your workplace and considering the many great realizations that you're going to have. Now, before you make any rash decisions, take it further and address the things that are breaking the psychological contract for you. So I've got a brilliant activity for you to do, which I'm going to link into the show notes, and it really gets you to consider the kind of things that you have issues over in relation to your workplace which no longer speak true to your values. And I am going to work with you in a coaching capacity. So check out the show notes, and I have a brilliant activity for you to consider whether the things that are frustrating you currently in your workplace, where you've had these many aha moments and great realization moments, are within your control, whether they're out of your control, or whether you have influence over them to make change and to do good stuff. And then the other thing that people have real true trouble with when we have many great realizations in relation to our job, which is such a big part of our life, the issue that people have is with detachment. So the activity that I have for you is linked in the show notes to consider all of the things that you need to consider in relation to the psychological contract that you have with your workplace. What kind of great realizations do you have? I don't want to leave you in a state of uncertainty and feeling, oh my gosh, what am I doing with my job or my life? That's not the intention of this episode. So after you finish listening to this, check out the show notes, join the Ways to Change Your Workplace Facebook group, and especially do the activity that I'm talking to in relation to addressing the aha moments that you've just had and what you can now do with it. I wish you well in finding good ways to change your workplace. Until the next time, bye for now. All details about this episode are in the show notes. If you like this episode, I'd like you to take a moment and think about at least two people who might enjoy it. And please share the episode details with them too. Also, don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and on Instagram.jar. See you there too.