The Positive Energy Workplace

I've worked with my team for years; one member has been with me for almost fourteen years now, another just two. Some vendors for years, some for short bouts. All of them I've learned from -- they've each grown me as a leader in their own ways. Writing this, just fresh off of our Q3 Team Meeting, I am flush with gratitude and also awe at what teaming takes. Whether you are in person (which we are not), or remote (which we very much are and always have been), there are a couple of best practices and beliefs to hold that I've found extra useful.

You walk into work on a Monday, feeling pretty great, and are immediately greeted by the "stress bug." People zooming around, stressed out about the week at hand, discussing their weekend dramas, worrying about their next meeting, or just feeling overwhelmed by all the "magic" of Monday. Your mood starts to shift as you feel the pull of the "dark side" — the dark side of stress. What started out as an awesome Monday is quickly becoming a bummer. And nothing bad has even happened to you. In fact, not much has really changed for you from the moment you walked in the door. The only thing that has changed? You're surrounded by stress.

Over the last two weeks, I've shared three primary ingredients for building stronger leadership prowess as an individual and as a team. The three were: show up for yourself (addressed in part 1), show up as a team (addressed in part 2), and hold a big "container" (which we're diving into now).

The "container" I refer to is not about holding someone in a box or constraining your employees, but rather about creating more belief, possibility and space; what you believe is possible for them, how you regard them, the potential you see in them, and how you hold them as whole, wonderful, magnificent, and capable--or not. The ability to hold a safe container is one of your leadership super powers.

Last week I shared one of three primary ingredients for building stronger leadership prowess as an individual and as a team:

• How well they show up for themselves
• How well they show up as a team
• The size of the "container" they hold for each other and those they lead

In part one I gave you five places to look to nourish your own impact. This week I'm hitting up showing up as a team, and next week we'll wrap it up with ever awesome "Container Game".

The level of disengagement in the American workplace is staggering. But the solution is as simple as getting consistent feedback from your employees and providing positive feedback in return. [tweet_quote hashtags="@iepmethod" ]This feedback loop has been shown to increase employee engagement[/tweet_quote] as well as boosting creativity and productivity while improving retention.