Mike Jones FOUNDER BetterHappy

Having and simple strategy in your business/team/department makes logical reasoning 10x easier than without. We all have ideas about how things can and should be done and are emotionally invested in those ideas. When we don't have clear goals and measures the efficacy of goals and initiatives can only be judged on intuition. This makes logical reasoning impossible. But when we have goals and measures we open the option to place emotion to the side and ask the logical questions, 'is this thing actually working?', 'what do the numbers tell us'. In a business I consult we're going through the process of measuring everything. What that's done is make us realise the things they previously thought were issues aren't issues at all!

There are two major reasons why collaboration doesn't happen enough in businesses, recognising them enables you to fix the issue in your business. 1) Too busy being busy. Most people and cultures prioritise busyness over effectiveness. This leaves no time for collaboration. 2) Fear of conflict or bothering people. Most people find conflict difficult and don't want to feel like they are 'bothering' others, so they just get on with it instead of collaborating. An effective way to address this initially is to systemise collaboration time. Setting specific regular time for teams to work together gives people 'permission' to slow down from being busy and start working together. A culture of collaboration and innovation will follow.

Whenever working with teams I always do work on understanding the mind first. The human mind has evolved learning that change brings risk and potential danger. Therefore it does all it can to talk people out of any type of change. This part of our mind is fear based and although it serves a purpose it's overbearing, unhelpful and irrational. Once you we recognise this part of our minds for what it is we become able to embrace change without being held back by fear. Although teams are sometimes resistant to this type of training (because it's change) I highlight that change is an essential component of businesses today and if we want to enjoy it this is the first, essential step.

Don't put your self worth into the performance of the startup, that's gambling with your mental health. Instead put your self worth into how you composed yourself and went about it. Startups are risky and most fail not because people don't work hard but because of unforeseen or changes. If you go into a start up with the mindset that it must succeed or you are a failure, you're setting yourself up for high stress and poor mental health. If you go into a start up with the mindset that you want it to succeed and you'll give it your best to increase the likelihood of happening but accepting that it could still not work, you're setting yourself up to handle the stress much better and protect your mental health.

I have found fear of conflict to be one of the most common issues for leaders and managers (and most transformational to address). Unfortunately modern politics/culture is driving a message that conflict is bad and should be avoided. A good leader/manager has to not only not avoid conflict but actively encourage it. The only way to do this is to pressurise yourself to lean into - not avoid - conflict. The more of this you do, the more the irrational part of your brain telling you conflict will lead to terrible consequences loses its grip. If you’re an anxious person try writing down before the conflict: - your thoughts - ideal outcome - acceptable outcome - worst case scenario Over time you’ll do this automatically.

Recognition and reward is a skill that needs to be developed for most. You have to understand that humans are hard wired to spot and address issues. Often managers and leaders get to their positions because they are so good at spotting and addressing issues… In leadership this creates a challenge because in any business there is a never ending list of issues to solve - and the more senior you are the more pressure you feel to address them. So many managers and leaders end up rarely focusing on the positives not through spite but because they’re onto the next problem. Side step this by building a process for recognition by ritualising daily, weekly and monthly time for wins and recognition. I’ve seen this work exceptionally well.