EP115: Leadership Lessons from Your Surroundings (Hawaii Edition)
WHAT YOU LOOK FOR - YOU WILL FIND!
Lessons that you can gleen for your leadership are everywhere!
Enjoy!
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(The notes below are only a brief bullet point summary of what is discussed in the podcast. Be sure to listen to get all of the goodness! If you would like a full transcription of the episode, please send an email request to: angie@angie-robinson.com. We’d be happy to provide that!)
It seems like everywhere I go, I'm making connections between where I am and leadership (or general life). This was true during a recent spring break trip to Hawaii that I took with my family. As I share these connections, I encourage you to think about how you might make connections to whatever's going on in your life to the surroundings. There's just so much wisdom just in our natural being, I find that making some of these connections and just noticing all the time actually enhances the experience.
Leadership Lessons from Hawaii
Hawaii is a very special place. There is so much about it that I just love. Making these connections to leadership was a true joy.
1) The importance of intentional culture. We know that every organization and every team has a culture. Sometimes organizations tried to be very intentional about what they want their culture to be. Reality might be different. What people experience as the culture might be different from what the intention is. And each person is going to experience that culture or define it differently based on their own happenings and their own experience. But culture is something to pay attention to.
Organizational culture is a set of values of beliefs and attitudes and rules and the things that outline and influence the way that employees behave within the organization. There can be separate cultures for each team as well. You, as a leader, have a huge influence on the culture of your team and of the organization as a whole. And that culture really reflects how your employees, your customers, your vendors, and any stakeholders experience the organization, it's brand and you.
In my experience, the people of Hawaii are very intentional about waht they want their culture to be and how they want others to experience it. They're very clear about their values, their beliefs, their systems and how they do things. You can feel it. You can understand it. It's very welcoming and authentic. I experienced it in the way that I believe they intend.
My question to you is what would you want your culture to be? What do you hope people say when they work for you or when they experience you? And is your intention aligned with people’s reality? How do you know? What needs adjusting?
2) Having a healthy environment of psychological safety. Psychological safety is when the environment is such that people feel that they can share their ideas, their thoughts, their areas of concern and can take risks and fail without being shamed or blamed or made to feel less than. The level of psychological safety that a team in an organization has directly impacts the culture and the experience that the people in your organization have.
I felt a healthy sense of psychological safety in Hawaii. The people who live there really want you to not only understand their culture, but to learn. There was never a sense of “you’re the tourist” and “you don’t get us.” It felt accessible and open. They inviting questions and showed genuine interest in our experience (this was throughout the island - not just resort areas).
Think about that for your team and organization. How are you ensuring that there is this environment of psychological safety within your team and organization where people don't feel afraid and won't get blamed shamed or reprimanded for trying something new.
3) Language matters. A lot of organizations have their own vernacular and set of acronyms, etc. This is also true within individual professions.
Hawaii has its own language as well. It's very beautiful. And there is a sense of pride of the Hawaiian language. But it wasn't exclusionary. We were constantly being taught words and it would be a word in the Hawaiian language. The language isn’t used as a way to shut you out and talk behind your back. It was more about: understand us, let us invite you in to experience the way that we experience it in an inviting way.
There is a leadership lesson within that. I’ve experienced organizations with their own ‘language’ as a way to not include others. Even in the onboarding experience.
Think about your team. Are you inviting new employees in - teaching them the nuances of your organization so they feel included - or do you expect them to just figure things out on their own? Do you share with them the history and when / where it matters?
4) Your ‘why’ is important. The people of Hawaii are very grounded in their history and culture. They are clear on the ‘why’ they honor what they honor and how they operate their state. When you know your why as a leader - you have a grounding purpose to fall back on when things start to feel off.
What is your ‘why’ as a leader? Why do you do what you do? Are your actions and behaviors aligned with that?
5) Your story is important. We all have a story. A story about what our life has been like, what has led us to the place where we are now - in life in general, but also in your career and in your leadership. In Hawaii, there is a lot of storytelling. This happens through things like luaus and points of interest, but you can also feel the story when you're just driving around the island and taking in. There's such a deeper level of appreciation when you can really understand the story of something.
What is your story? What is your organization’s stor? Are you grounded in that and are you sharing it with those you lead?
6) Genuinely caring for eachother is invaluable. It is so obvious that there is such a care for humans in Hawaii. Not just for the tourists, but for each other, for the people of Hawaii. Everywhere that we went, you could just see it and feel it. Here's the thing leader - I know that you have job duties. I know that you have expectations. I know you are tasked with getting results. AND - you are doing this through leading and leadership is all about human connection. It's all about people. I encourage you to always keep that top of mind. It is okay to genuinely care about the people that you work with and that you interact with. The people that you work with are more than an employee number. They are humans with skills and lives and struggles and triumphs, and things to celebrate and things to grieve.
The more that we can care about humans as humans, the better.
7) Invite peace and calm. I made this connection because this has not always been the way that I have operated. I know that just based on my personality and who I am - when things go awry or there's stressful situations, I haven't always been one who would react in a very peaceful and calm way.
In Hawaii - they are on ‘Hawaii time’. It's relaxation. It's peace. It's calm. It's the ocean waves and the breeze of the palm trees. Of course there are things that happen. There are stressful situations. There are traffic jams and threats of tsumamis. There are fires as the catastrophic one on Maui last year. There is crime and homelessness and pain. Because life is 50/50 - just like in your leadership and career. There are weeks and days that things go amazingly. And then are employee or customer issues or technology problems that throw things off.
But it's the way in which that we approach those and react to those that make such a difference. When we can come from a place that is calm, then the way that we show up is going to be in aligned with that and our results are going to show it. If we show up from a place of frantic and immediacy - that reaction can be unhelpful. The results are going to align with that as well.
It's a total mindset. How can you create an environment of peace and calm, even when things get crazy?
What Do You Think?
Where do you notice leadership lessons in your surroundings?
Links
Episode 5: The Magic of Your Leadership Story
Episode 6: The Magic of Your Leadership Why
Episode 83: Exploring Leaders’ Impact on Psychological Safety with Mary O’Connor
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