Category: Leadership
Audience: Leaders
Overview: This article explores how feeling both challenged and confident in one’s role, supported by effective leadership, is crucial for achieving employee well-being and connectivity.
By: Cynthia Kyriazis, Chief Experience Officer, The Culture Think Tank
Read Time: 3 Minutes
I remember being interviewed early in March of 2020, right after we were put into a pandemic lockdown.
I learned that Will Lindstrom, the President and CEO of The Culture Think Tank, wanted to meet me.
After a discussion, I asked why he wanted to begin this startup amid a pandemic.
I’ll never forget what he said, “If you think organizations faced issues sending everyone to work remotely, wait until you see what happens when they try returning employees to their offices.” Hmm.
Since then, I’ve had many more enlightening discussions with Will.
And one I loved in particular was about employee well-being.
Will shared with me that our solution and metrics were based on a theory based on the research of a Hungarian psychologist by the name of Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who is known for his book Flow.
His research defined Performance Leadership Theory.
Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s research showed that employee well-being is achieved when a person feels both challenged by the work and confident in their role.
It had nothing to do with money or extra vacation days.
It was an intrinsic state fostered and supported by the organization’s leaders. Hmm.
This led me to begin thinking of my own professional journey as well as that of 3 individuals I know or have worked with in the past. All 4 of us love what we do or did for a living.
The one thing we all had in common was we felt challenged by what we were doing and confident in whatever role we occupied at the time we were able to do this ‘thing.’
We also were fortunate enough to have had the leadership support needed to help us experience these feelings. We had supervisors, managers, directors or vice presidents who were caring and consistent in their desire to see us grow.
Their efforts were paid forward as they became our models of what great leaders looked like. And the outcome was our engagement to drive to the vision.
So…what do you think?
Can you remember a time where you felt both challenged AND confident in your role at work?
How do you think you got there?
What or who helped you on your journey?
I love ‘a-ha’ moments. They don’t come along too often, but when they do I just love them.
So…thanks, Will. For this a-ha moment and mostly for giving me the opportunity at this stage of my career to live happily at the intersection of challenged and confident.
P.S. If you want to read more about the topic of engagement vs well-being, this is a phenomenal post from Fast Company – Leaders don’t really care about employee engagement. Here’s why
Cynthia Kyriazis is the Chief Experience Officer at The Culture Think Tank. Her experience includes executive coaching, consulting, and training. Book a 15-minute chat to discuss your people, performance or profit challenges.
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