These two concepts fit hand in glove. High self-awareness on the part of an organization’s workforce inevitably leads to an exceptionally stable and profitable enterprise. There might be an exception to this rule somewhere, but the very definition of emotional self-awareness virtually precludes failure within a company functioning with highly self-aware employees.
So, what is the 2017 Vitality Study of Emotions and Performance in The Workplace telling us? After surveying 1600 leaders and their teams in organizations throughout 95 countries, the results are not so encouraging:
- Trust drives high employee retention and productivity, but worldwide employee retention rates and productivity measures are distressingly low by historical standards. Low levels of organizational trust likely prevail as well.
- Barriers to high employee engagement and high performance are related primarily to poor supervisory relationships and lack of emotional safety and satisfaction. Organizations with a strongly positive “emotional mood” were sixteen times as likely to have high employee engagement, high employee retention and high productivity and profitability.
Let’s examine several examples of how successful organizations display high emotional self-awareness compared to their less successful counterparts.
Emotional Self-awareness and Organizational Performance
Top Performance Poor Performance
Constructive, Frequent Positive Feedback Infrequent or Negative Feedback
Supportive, Respectful Leadership Blaming, Disrespectful Leadership
Responsible Delegation and Autonomy Micromanagement and Distrust
Generous in Crediting Good Performance Taking Credit, Little Recognition
Approachable and Transparent Closed and Secretive
High Integrity and Adaptability Rigid and Defensive
The important point to be made here is that people who are top performers are also happier, healthier, more affluent, more creative and better decision-makers than their less successful counterparts. Negativity saps creativity, cognitive skills and emotional balance.
The research shows that many leaders resist exactly the training that would make them more successful and effective. Excessive hubris and closed-mindedness are all too prevalent among leaders world-wide There are exceptional leaders running great organizations around the world, and their successes are not secret. One would think more executives might want to emulate their performance
We write about this so often because the consequences of failure are so damaging for our country, our economic health and our citizenry. We need our top leaders to be encouraging and inspiring our nation’s workforce to greater levels of performance. There is no question the people of our nation are fully capable of being far more productive and would be much happier if they were performing more meaningful dynamic work. Our challenge is simply to change our behaviors, our beliefs and our commitment to be better.
Top performers adopt behaviors that provide a compelling model for us to follow. Shouldn’t we begin right now to embrace the models top performers know so well? A very simple and inexpensive way to get started is to sign up for our online course, Exploring the Fundamentals of Self-awareness. Go to our website store, and begin a new, more positive direction in your life.
Tom Searcy, BCC
Spirit of Eagles
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