Throughout my professional career, I've worn many different hats.
For over 25 years my team and I successfully completed process improvement initiatives and system implementations for companies like Goldman Sachs, AT&T, Sharp Electronics, Merck, New York Stock Exchange, and other Fortune 500 companies.
Although my client’s investments resulted in measurable performance improvements, there was always an undercurrent of people-related problems no process and no technology would ever resolve.
Emotions like Anger, Anxiety, Guilt, Fear, and Shame were common place. These emotions appeared to be the root cause behind a tremendous amount of wasted time and energy.
- Organizational Divides - I watched people who felt threatened by competing initiatives become resentful causing organizational divides.
- Combative Reactions - I worked with seasoned professionals who became combative when their ideas and beliefs where challenged.
- Disengaged Team Members - I saw subordinates disengage. They would refrain from expressing new ideas and concerns because they were afraid of negative consequences and backlash.
- Resentments - I worked alongside of dedicated leaders who became increasingly more and more resentful as their growing list of assigned responsibilities exceeded their capacity.
- Emotion Hangovers - Emotion hangovers were common. Something that made someone angry the day before frequently had a lingering effect.
- Taking Things Personally - I watched leaders take things personally and become offended when their ideas were challenged by their peers.
These types of people-related issues are exhausting to navigate and hinder performance.