I had a chance to meet with a lady in a company where I work. I help with orientation and check in during an employees first 90 day check in and I was asking her questions about our company culture and the culture she was in before. And at the end of the conversation she said “I just realized something that's really different from where I used to work.”
She said, “where I used to work before (and she worked there for many years), I was always saying ‘I’m sorry’. Since being here I haven’t had to say sorry near as much as I used to. And so I asked you to unpack that why do you think that is and she said “Well, in the former company. You know, I, I felt like if I made a mistake, or didn't know something...if I was to admit that I might get punished or even fired.”
And I said well why did you feel that way and she said “Because I observed. That's what really happened in this company as I worked there for years, I saw a lot of people get punished or fired for making mistakes so I just automatically developed an apologetic sort of stance and apologized, even before I did many things, and since coming to this company she said I don't say that as much. And I don't use that word as much.”
I said well what's the difference and she said, “Well what I observe and what I’ve experienced here is that when I make a mistake or I don't know something I can ask for help. That's exactly what I did, I, if I make a mistake I get help, and if I don't know how to do something I get help. This is really different and I love coming to work. And I love that, if you know, leaders and my colleagues that I work with, they're here to help me if I struggle.”
And so for me it just highlighted the importance of creating a non anxious environment, and how it’s impacted the productivity of this particular lady. She's a great team member. She's learning skills. She's growing, and she is getting life out of coming into work.
So many people don’t know how to really eliminate an environment filled with fear of punishment, or maybe favoritism for special people, or even where they fear they're going to get fired. I just feel like you do yourself a real favor to understand what to do to get rid of a toxic environment.
And how do you show people more and more that it's a safe place and we're here to help one another grow and learn. And yeah if mistakes do happen, then if you're honest about it, we can unpack that we can learn how not to repeat the mistakes.
Yet I feel so few leaders don't understand or don't even recognize what a toxic environment looks like and whether or not they're contributing to it. So, one of the things I do at Enlive is try to bring awareness, whether you're in a toxic environment, or whether you're part of the toxic environment, and how to differentiate from that and just sort of change the trajectory of the environment you might be in or the experience of the people you work with.
And so if you want to lead and create a non anxious environment you can purchase my course Improving Your Life With Non Anxious Leadership. Sign up here learn how to be a non anxious leader that promotes a non anxious work environment.
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