Start with the ABCs to Get Better Performance From Your Team

This piece is excerpted from the new book Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team, by Paula Davis. Released this week, the book serves up a research-backed framework to unlock the full potential of your team. Davis is CEO and founder of the Stress & Resilience Institute, and a guest lecturer at Wharton Executive Education.

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Why Work Isn’t Working

Examining the root causes of chronic stress is an important step for organizations. Formally assessing sources of stress often confirms known issues but can sometimes reveal surprises. A large professional services firm specializing in architecture and interior design approached me to help them better understand sources of team stress and burnout, and they were keen from the very start to focus on root causes. We invited 32 leaders on their senior management team to take an assessment to help better understand the deeper issues at play.

From the start, the team knew that workload was a problem. Our assessment showed that this was the leading issue, and the CEO was not at all surprised by this finding. But what was surprising was that I also discovered that many of the senior leaders answered questions about cultural fairness with “hard to decide.” That puzzled me since they dictated the culture, so I raised the issue with the CEO.

The CEO and her team had been consciously trying to dismantle perceptions of cultural unfairness in a variety of ways. In fact, the CEO had ascended to her position as part of management changes meant to address these concerns. They were frustrated to learn that their efforts had stalled, at least among the senior leadership team. While I knew she was discouraged, I pointed out that this information could help her kick-start important conversations about how to pivot their efforts. I will tell you more about the initial steps the team took to address the workload issue in chapter 5.

Digging into the true causes of why your team is stressed, dismantling silos at work, and figuring out how to better engage your people takes time. While I hope that you will see that the Lead Well mindsets are easy to implement, I don’t want to oversimplify the amount of work it takes over the long term to create a workplace that truly works. That’s why some of my favorite work involves helping organizations begin this process.

In addition, the Lead Well mindsets will help organizations take a more balanced “me and we” approach to their well-being and workplace culture conversations.

Working Well Requires Taking a “Me and a We” Approach

When asked specifically about what undermines their health at work, employees frequently cite workplace environment factors like always being on call, unmanageable workloads, low autonomy, and lack of social support.[47] If employers stay focused on the “me” or individual side of this equation without addressing the “we” side, then they may see weaker improvements in employee mental health and engagement given their investment. Individual-focused skills alone can’t compensate for unsupportive workplace factors.

Focusing on the “we” side of the equation involves two parts. It means (1) addressing the workplace root causes or sources of chronic stress and disengagement and (2) educating leaders about how to create positive team cultures that are promotive of thriving. It’s important that organizations take a balanced approach that prioritizes short-term ideas with long-term strategies to create the positive cultures employees seek.[48]

Address the Root Causes of Chronic Stress & Disengagement

Research has consistently identified six main drivers of chronic stress and disengagement at work, which serve as a useful starting point for leaders.[49] I call them the “Core 6.” The following table describes their characteristics.

Table: Core 6 Drivers of Chronic Stress & Disengagement

The Core 6 framework is an easy way to begin evaluating individual and team stressors using the “we” lens. The leaders with whom I’ve worked have helped me see both the nuance and interconnectivity in the Core 6 framework.

First, there is a lot of subjectivity in this framework. What is an unmanageable workload for me might look very different for you. In addition, there is fluidity. What is an unmanageable workload at age 25 might look different at 45 when you are raising a family and/or caring for elderly parents or relatives. These factors alone make one-size-fits-all approaches in this space difficult.

Second, the items on this list are interconnected. Most, if not all, of the teams I talk to have an unmanageable workload issue that is, in many instances, getting worse. Being too busy impacts all the other factors listed on this chart. If you’re too busy and barely keeping your head above water, the odds that you will notice something great that your direct report did and thus recognize him or her for it in the moment is low. Increased pressure to perform or make your numbers might lead to micromanaging projects because you lack the confidence in your team, thus undercutting autonomy. Unfairness eats away at the fabric of having a cohesive team and psychologically safe environment in which to work.

Finally, the owner of a landscape company who attended one of my workshops suggested that a good approach would be to start by improving one of the Core 6. That improvement would then have positive ripple effects with the other factors on that list. He decided to start with lack of recognition, but I’ve had other leaders advocate just as strongly for starting with community. Or values misalignment. Wherever you start, the process is essentially the same: intentionally addressing one root cause at a time to start noticing positive systemic outcomes.

I always ask participants to spend time talking about the Core 6 in my workshops. It’s usually the first time they have associated the Core 6 with their own or their teams’ experience of stress and disengagement, and the framework helps them to more fully explain and understand why they feel stressed and burned out. There are always wonderful questions and observations that come from these discussions. Here are common themes I hear (in their words):

·    It would be nice if we could have more fun at work. Fun builds community.

·    On paper, my workload might be manageable, but it’s been so consistently high for so long, and that takes a toll.

·    Our workload is high because we don’t have the budget to hire more people; there is economic uncertainty and talk of layoffs, so nobody wants to say “no.”

·    What does community at work even mean today? This needs to be better defined and more intentional. The office is one of many tools now to accomplish work.

·    Unmanageable workloads get labeled/disguised as “productivity” and it’s financially rewarded.

·    Work is getting more complex, but teams aren’t getting bigger.

·    Recognition doesn’t always feel authentic because senior leadership doesn’t really understand or know what our team does. We need a team PR person.

·    How do I say no and establish boundaries without feeling guilty? Or fearing repercussions? Leaders need to provide “cover.”

·    It’s stressful not knowing which way to go and who to go to, and how to get what you need to be successful.

·    Sometimes unmanageable workload looks like a combination of high workload at work and high workload at home, such as caring for aging family members. How do you address this type of unmanageable workload?

This is only a small sampling of what we discuss. You can see that people have a lot of questions and insights in this area. I strongly encourage everyone in my workshops to screenshot or otherwise capture the Core 6 framework, make it consistently visible to the team, and continue to discuss it after I finish my work.

A school superintendent in one of my workshops raised a great point. He wondered whether his people might have been speaking in Core 6 language about their stressors all along, and since he didn’t know the framework, he didn’t “hear” their words. Now he could more consciously listen for Core 6 themes. The framework is a vital starting point and provides common language for teams to talk about the root causes of chronic stress and disengagement.

Leverage the Root Amplifiers of Thriving

Traditionally, organizations have focused on developing an employee’s functional or technical skills. As work becomes more uncertain and less predictable, people must be motivated to adapt to changing conditions and to try new ways of working. In addition, leaders need to understand the core drivers and workplace experiences that form the psychology of motivation and high performance. Just like the Core 6 help leaders and teams uncover the key drivers and root causes of burnout and disengagement, the ABCs help leaders and teams unlock the positive opposite: thriving.

What Are the ABCs?

There are three essential nutrients at the heart of thriving, intrinsic motivation, engagement, and high performance at work:[50]

·    Autonomy (control and choice): You feel like you have some choice as to how and when you perform the various tasks that make up your job and in how you execute your daily responsibilities; you have a say in the way things are done; and you can take initiative and make decisions about your work. Autonomy does not mean going it alone or individualism.

·    Belonging (connection): You feel connected to your colleagues; you feel like you belong to groups that are important and significant to you; you feel cared for by others; and you value creating high-quality relationships and friendships at work.

·    Challenge (growth): You feel like you’re getting better at goals that matter to you; you feel effective in your work role, and you want to continue to grow and develop as a professional and master new skills.[51]

I refer to these essential nutrients as “the ABCs” or “ABC needs.” I wrote about the ABCs in my first book. At that time, I identified this trio as an important part of the “anti-burnout” team environment, and their importance has only increased in the workplace well-being and performance conversation. In fact, the ABCs are a foundational aspect of two large-scale, national well-being frameworks: the US Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being,[52] and the National Academy of Medicine’s Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being.[53]

In addition, unmet ABC needs are a significant part of disengagement at work. Organizations can save up to $56 million of the total $90 million at stake from disengagement at work by focusing on these six employee factors:[54]

1.   Inadequate total compensation

2.   Lack of meaningful work

3.   Lack of workplace flexibility (A—Autonomy)

4.   Lack of career development and enhancement (C—Challenge)

5.   Unreliable and unsupportive people at work (B—Belonging)

6.   Unsafe workplace environment

These factors also map onto or could be subcategories of the Core 6. As you can see, unmet ABC needs are three out of six drivers of disengagement. Companies are losing millions of dollars by not prioritizing these needs.

Further, research reveals that there are six leadership practices that foster meaningful work:[55]

1.   Communicate the work’s bigger impact

2.   Recognize and nurture potential (C—Challenge)

3.   Foster personal connections (B—Belonging)

4.   Discuss values and purpose during hiring

5.   Lead in alignment with stated organizational values

6.   Give employees freedom (A—Autonomy)

Meeting ABC needs forms a substantial part of the leadership practices that foster meaningful work.

Finally, ABC needs form the basis for specific job resources that help drive thriving at work. Job resources are aspects of work that help employees meet and manage the stress caused by the different job demands they experience, enable the achievement of goals, and promote learning and growth.[56] New research suggests that while many different job resources influence work engagement, three are critical to activating it:[57]

1.   Skill discretion: being able to use different skills, be creative, and learn new things at work. (A—Autonomy)

2.   Feedback: seeing the results of your accomplishments and understanding how your work fits within the group context. (B—Belonging & C—Challenge)

3.   Team empowerment, which includes the following four components: (all ABC needs)

a.   Team efficacy (a team’s belief in its ability to cope with a broad range of stressful or challenging demands and to succeed);

b.   Meaningfulness (your work has meaning and leaders know the specific practices that foster meaningful work);

c.   Autonomy (you have some freedom and flexibility); and

d.   Impact (you know your work matters)

Leading in a way that promotes and emphasizes these and other resources is connected to increased work engagement and lower burnout.[58] Overall, while the ABCs form the basis for thriving and high performance at work, you can see that they unlock much more than that. The ABCs play a very important role in influencing your overall well-being, promoting engagement, amplifying meaningful work, and mitigating the stress associated with job demands.

Paula Davis is Founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute, and a guest lecturer at Wharton Executive Education.

References:

[47] Brassey et al. (2022).

[48] Mallon et al. (2024), 59.

[49] Christina Maslach (1998). A Multi-Dimensional Theory of Burnout. In Theories of Organizational Stress (Cary L. Cooper, ed.), 68–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Christina Maslach, Wilmar B. Schaufeli, & Michael P. Leiter (2001). Job Burnout. 52 Annual Review of Psychology, 397–422; Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter (2008). Early Predictors of Job Burnout & Engagement. 93 Journal of Applied Psychology, 498–512; Omer Aydemir & Ilkin Icelli (2013). Burnout: Risk Factors. In Burnout for Experts: Prevention in the Context of Living and Working (Sabine Bahrer-Kohler, ed.), 119–143. New York: Springer; Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter (2022). The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[50] Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan (2014). The Importance of Universal Psychological Needs for Understanding Motivation in the Workplace. In The Oxford Handbook of Work Engagement, Motivation and Self-Determination Theory (Marylène Gagné, ed.), 13–32. New York: Oxford University Press.

[51] Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan (2000). The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. 11(4) Psychological Inquiry, 227–268. See also Maarten Vansteenkiste, Richard M. Ryan, & Bart Soenens (2020). Basic Psychological Need Theory: Advancements, Critical Themes, and Future Directions. 44 Motivation and Emotions, 1–31.

[52] Office of the Surgeon General (2022) The U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services.

[53] National Academy of Medicine. (2019). Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

[54] Aaron DeSmet, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Angelika Reich, & Bill Schaninger (September 11, 2023). Some Employees Are Destroying Value. Others Are Building It. Do You Know the Difference? McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/some-employees-are-destroying-value-others-are-building-it-do-you-know-the-difference.

[55] Zachary A. Mercurio, Tamara Myles, Wesley Adams, & Jeremy D. Clifton (2024). Mapping and Measuring Leadership Practices Intended to Foster Meaningful Work. 8 Occupational Health Science, 435–469.

[56] Jari J. Hakanen, Arnold B. Bakker, & Jarno Turunen (2021). The Relative Importance of Various Job Resources for Work Engagement: A Concurrent and Follow-Up Dominance Analysis. Business Research Quarterly, 1–17.

[57] Hakanen, Bakker, & Turunen (2021).

[58] Jan Luca Pletzer, Kimberley Breevaart, & Arnold B. Bakker (2024). Constructive and Destructive Leadership in Job Demands-Resources Theory: A Meta-Analytic Test of the Motivational and Health-Impairment Pathways. 14(1) Organizational Psychology Review, 131–165.

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