The pandemic has created seismic shifts in how organisations get things done. These changes naturally call for a different style of leadership. How do you focus on the right things and create healthier and happier teams? Dr Joan van der Brink sat down with CEO.digital to answer these questions and more…
Dr Joan’s career grew from her desire to help others achieve their full potential. Graduating with a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, a classical science career seemed predestined for her. Yet, it was not to be. The funding council’s week-long program took her on an entirely new trajectory: marketing. She began her career as a B2B marketer, but soon transitioned into operations management. She began to work closely with operators, team leaders, and supervisors in the manufacturing industry. Amidst the hum of machines, sweat on the collar, and factory schedules, she acquired a keen understanding of how people work and what motivates them.
In early 2001, she joined Hay Group, a global management consulting firm that helps business leaders turn strategy into reality. Dr Joan was in familiar turf: leadership and team development, executive assessments and coaching, and team development.
She has worked with global brands across EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the USA. Today, through her own business, Araba Consulting, where she helps senior leaders create the environment in which their people can thrive and do their best work in areas such as diversity and inclusion, capability development, developing self-compassion. Most recently she published her book: The Three Companions, Compassion, Courage and Wisdom: The powerful keys to happier work and a fulfilled life.
Meet Dr Joan van den Brink
Founder, Araba Consulting
Joan van den Brink is an experienced consultant and executive coach specialising in leadership and talent development, with 21 years’ experience working with senior business leaders and executives. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Joan began her career in marketing before moving into management consultancy which led to the founding of her own firm, Araba Consultancy, in 2014. Joan provides bespoke leadership services for teams and individuals to create inclusive environments in which people can thrive.
The Need for a Culture of Dialogue in the Workplace
Leaders, even seasoned leaders, can sometimes feel stumped when faced with sensitive and delicate topics like gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial biases. Sometimes, people may witness something unethical and simply look past it, either out of fear of personal repercussions or out of the desire to avoid unpleasantness. How can business leaders broach this?
“That’s not easy,” Dr Joan argues. “You must decide what is the boundary for yourself. What are you willing to risk doing this? And I don’t think anybody can answer that but you. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution. And then, it is important to ask the question, how important is this to me?
“What values are being violated for yourself? Why are you feeling that way? What is the consequence to you and others if you tackle this or not? So that’s the first thing. And then the second thing is, how comfortable you feel in confronting [unethical behaviour]. You don’t have to do it in an aggressive way. If you don’t have a strong or positive relationship with that person [perpetuating the unethical behaviour], then it’s going to be difficult to do.
“And so, you may want to talk confidentially to someone else to get a different perspective on the situation. The stance to have is, Well, I don’t know the full picture here. So, I see things from my perspective and my values, but there may be other things going on, which are driving this person to behave this way. So let me give that person an opportunity to talk about it first.”
When leaders manifest a desire for dialogue, open-mindedness, curiosity, and a willingness to suspend judgement, compassion, wisdom and courage come together in a very real way, and it can lead to a real change.
Incidentally, the very fear that employees feel in talking about delicate matters can illustrate the sort of culture the organisation may be perpetuating, consciously or unconsciously.
Creating a Conscious Team-Bonding Culture
The shift to hybrid working means teams get far less time together face-to-face, which may negatively impact team bonding. This is further exacerbated by the fact that most global enterprises have team lifespans of less than a year or so before they’re dissolved and reconstituted for different projects. Dr Joan has a perceptive answer to the problem.
She encourages organisations to be intentional in every step of the way. Create context for the team members. Design the onboarding process deliberately, giving time for members to get to know each other. Define roles and responsibilities clearly. Set the vision in unambiguous terms. When the team succeeds in achieving the goal, set aside time to celebrate and mark the achievements of each individual member.
An example of this deliberate orchestration of teams is AstraZeneca, which despite the initial negative press it received, brought together their supply chain, vaccine and other key internal teams together with a clear sense of purpose and mission. Their Covid-19 vaccine roll-out was a resounding success.
Compassion, Courage & Wisdom: The Three Pillars of Modern Leadership
Compassion is a misunderstood word, especially in workplaces, warns Dr Joan. It is not about showing sympathy to your colleague who may be suffering. It is not about wanting to “fix a problem”. Often in the misplaced urged to fix things, we may end up making others feel worse.
So, what would real compassion look like, we asked. In response, she said, “[Compassion] is not a generic emotion. It is tailored to the situation.” She illustrated it with an example.
If a colleague were to feel depressed and show up a little sad in demeanour, compassion might involve just acknowledging how he or she feels and giving him or her the space to feel depressed, without insisting on “talking about it” if he or she isn’t ready for it.
The title of the book is not incidental though. Dr Joan is also a practicing Buddhist and her ethos of “alleviating suffering” for others informs the kind of leadership she advocates for. Compassion without wisdom, and wisdom without the courage to act upon it, can lead to sub-optimal outcomes.
But how can business leaders act wisely with courage and compassion?
You must decide what is the boundary for yourself. What are you willing to risk doing this? And I don’t think anybody can answer that but you. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution. And then, it is important to ask the question, how important is this to me?
Dr Joan van den Brink Founder, Araba Consulting
Cultivating Psychological Safety: Admitting Mistakes Without Fear
One of the most important features of modern teams, particularly those that drive innovation, is psychological safety. It is the degree to which a team member feels able to make and admit mistakes to others. Modern leaders struggle to cultivate this key element in their team. Dr Joan’s advice?
One of the best ways of cultivating psychological safety in teams would be to reward team members for risk-taking. She hastened to clarify what she meant by risk-taking.
It is not so much about reckless behaviour as it is about experimentation at work to find newer and better ways to do things at work. The leader must give space explicitly to challenge received wisdom and the status quo. Inevitably, this will lead to mistakes, and that should be okay. The leader must define the ground rules and draw clear boundaries for how far the team can go.
But this can vary across cultures. Risk-averse, hierarchical work cultures like in Japan create space for experimentation through more collective ways. For instance, Japanese enterprises tend to have a culture of continuous improvement, which involves team members bringing up ideas and driving decisions collectively.
Cultivating Psychological Safety: Admitting Mistakes Without Fear
One of the most important features of modern teams, particularly those that drive innovation, is psychological safety. It is the degree to which a team member feels able to make and admit mistakes to others. Modern leaders struggle to cultivate this key element in their team. Dr Joan’s advice?
One of the best ways of cultivating psychological safety in teams would be to reward team members for risk-taking. She hastened to clarify what she meant by risk-taking.
It is not so much about reckless behaviour as it is about experimentation at work to find newer and better ways to do things at work. The leader must give space explicitly to challenge received wisdom and the status quo. Inevitably, this will lead to mistakes, and that should be okay. The leader must define the ground rules and draw clear boundaries for how far the team can go.
But this can vary across cultures. Risk-averse, hierarchical work cultures like in Japan create space for experimentation through more collective ways. For instance, Japanese enterprises tend to have a culture of continuous improvement, which involves team members bringing up ideas and driving decisions collectively.
Final Thoughts
Dr Joan’s work is about effecting both systemic and individual changes. The individual is a part of the system, and the system is made of individuals. While reflecting about the future of the workplace, she spoke about how the future of the workplace will be shaped profoundly by digital.
While many fear that the future might become more digital and automated, she points out that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Digital technologies may duplicate and even master the transactional elements of human work. But this will only mean that what is essentially human will become more sought after and valuable.
The future is not more digital, but more human.
Learn More About Araba Consulting
You can learn more about Araba Consulting and its services by visiting the company’s website.
