The Positive Energy Workplace

3 Questions Corporate L&D Leaders Can Ask to Determine if there is a Stickiness Problem

Your organization is investing in training, coaching, and cultural transformation initiatives and spending a lot of time, energy, money, and “workforce trust equity” in doing so. It’s a big lift with lots riding on the success of these initiatives.

But are they working?

Are they sustainable? 

Are your people getting what they need from them? 

And are they actually helping you create the results you want from doing them? 

If you’re not sure, you could have a stickiness problem!

Here are three questions to consider when engaging in any kind of training, leadership, or cultural transformation initiative:

We've all experienced it, either within ourselves or with our teammates/leaders/direct reports: that feeling that something is off, or you just can't "feel them" fully in the game. It's not BAD... it's just... off. Perhaps you notice it while working on a project, having a conversation, or just in the general relationship. It may be subtle and just energetically felt, or more obvious and physically noticeable. The tricky thing with this 'off' feeling of energy is that if you're not fully present and aware, you likely won't notice it consciously.  But you'll feel it. And so will your team. And if you let it go on unaddressed, it will cost you financially and spiritually, as well as zap your time, energy, trust, impact, life force... and on. No one wins here. (PS. If you're responsible for leading organizational culture, retention/attraction, innovation, change, performance, etc. -- and especially if your organization is struggling with any of these things right now -- you're going to want to pay extra attention to this post as the energy of your workforce lies at the heart of all of them.)

I think we have to be extra kind to each other right now. I'm noticing in my work with clients, with things my friends and family are going through, and in my own life that there is this extra level of buzz, tenderness, and sensitivity that seems to go with more things than not right now. Tension runs high, misunderstandings feel faster, lots of flux in people's jobs and life decisions and relationships, some more "proving it" and "covering my booty" energy is showing up especially in corporate players (which is like literally the last thing our culture needs right now) -- not to mention politics, global warming, the latest in Texas, and oh, ya... the pandemic and... everything else.

Years ago when I wrote CONTAGIOUS CULTURE (McGraw-Hill, 2015), people were surprised to find that when I talked about “creating a healthy culture,” I pointed them to first look at their own leadership health, and how they showed up, to actually create that culture. This was both confronting and liberating for many, after all, I can’t control my culture or the people around me, however, I can absolutely control ME; how I take care of myself, how I show up, the energy I bring to the table, and how I ultimately contribute to being the culture I want (or don’t want). This means I have tremendous power, this also means there may be big work to do.  

My stance on culture created a lot of positive results as well as many questions for people, so I wrote my next book. In CONTAGIOUS YOU (McGraw-Hill, 2019), I dug deeper into the IEP Method® body of work and took people further into how to be their most positively and usefully contagious self (energetically, emotionally, behaviorally, and attitudinally) and how to strengthen their leadership in order to create the impact and culture they wanted. Again, confronting — however even more liberating if you did the work (at 384 pages, with an executive coaching program pretty much built into it, as one reader emailed me, "It’s not exactly a light read, Anese, but it is a game changer.").