How amped up is your workplace these days?
From what we’ve seen, today’s workplaces haven’t been this charged since the early days of COVID when we argued over masks, vaccines, travel bans, school closures, Anthony Fauci, Bonnie Henry, Theresa Tam and what the actual cause of COVID really was. Today, we have a broader set of international disagreements. It’s Israel v. Palestine, and Russia v. Europe. In the US, it’s Trump v. Harris. Canada has its own polarized politics. Most visibly we have Trudeau vs. Poilievre and a renewed division between Alberta and Ottawa. Here in BC we recently watched as Eby eked out a win over Rustad, an election that brought attention to the divide between Northern BC and the Lower Mainland and the balance between resource extraction and all things Green. Oh, yes, and then there’s the matter of First Nation Land Claims – as here in BC most of the province remains unceded, non-treaty territory.
We’re divided.
The polarization is increasingly evident, and it has overflowed into our workplaces. As team members bring their diverse perspectives to work, leaders and HR professionals find themselves performing a delicate balancing act: how to create a space where everyone feels safe and respected, even amid differing viewpoints.
Fueled by a bias media, and by social medias that act as our own private echo chambers, employees have become increasingly connected to their political views and there's no shortage of podcasts to support everyone's beliefs. As a result, today’s workplaces are morphing into politically charged minefields, leading to a range of misunderstandings and disengagement to open conflicts.
Leaders, where are you? You’ve seen the changes, how are you maintaining a respectful workplace? What happens if you do nothing?
One of my favorite questions as of late, has been ‘what happens of you do nothing?’. It’s a great question that can be used to help frame all sorts of professional and personal matters, and sometimes doing nothing is a great course of action. In this case, I direct it towards business owners and those who lead their businesses - What happens if you do nothing and let the politics of the day invade and takeover your business?
From where I sit, you can’t avoid the bumps, but it will be much rougher if you don’t act to arrest the political tensions that can fragment teams and kill morale. Why? Because, once damaged, it can take months or even years to rehabilitate a workplace and restore trust and productivity. Research shows that when employees feel divided, their sense of engagement decreases. In turn, this impacts productivity and innovation and, yes, the bottom line. In sectors where margins are already thin, the luxury of time may not exist.
About Psychological Safety
As a leader, make psychological safety an explicit priority of your leadership practice. First, get clear on what psychological safety really means. It’s not about giving people breaks or having ‘fun at work’, it’s about creating and maintaining an environment where employees feel free to express themselves without fear of retribution or judgment.
How to Start?
As Simon Sinek advocates, it all starts with listening. Which sounds easy enough but it’s often the hardest thing to do. If you need proof, think about most of the arguments you’ve attended in your personal life – were you listening when you should have? Really? We're you?
It's easy to write a blog post and proclaim that we just need to listen to one other. That's like proclaiming that all you need to do to be a professional athlete is to run faster, or skate faster. Of course, there’s more to it. However, in this case, a simple practice like listening without judgment can make a big difference. Techniques such as “seeking first to understand and then be understood” (a concept popularized by Stephen Covey) are not only effective ways for leaders to validate diverse viewpoints (even when they disagree), they help to develop a culture where people feel heard. All of us have an innate need to feel seen, heard, and understood. Listening without litigating is a great start.
It’s more than just listening though, it's also about speaking up. An inclusive culture doesn’t allow divisive or insensitive comments to go unchallenged. So, start by acknowledging that not every workplace conversation needs to be infused with politics, nor is every management decision politically motivated. Most importantly, workplace differences don’t require a personal attack, disproportionate anger, or inflammatory language. In a psychologically safe workplace, those behaviors are out of bounds.
Review your Company’s Mission, Vision, and Values with your team. It might feel award to present these if they haven’t been part of your regular leadership practice. Fair enough, but re-connecting with your company values is an excellent way to encourage discussion, reset, and remind your team on things they’ve already agreed upon. You’ll be surprised at how this exercise can help redirect workplace energy away from politics and towards issues of shared professional values.
Develop a code of conduct that aligns with your Mission, Vision, and Values. This is a great next step because it reinforces team values. Such a guide can serve as a reference for both employees and leaders when issues arise and reinforce the requirement to commit to inclusivity and respect.
Let’s face it, our workplace is changing.
Never has our workplace been so diverse. I’m not just referring to skin-color, or where we originated. This isn’t a debate on immigration or on who arrived first. Here’s two examples, but there are so many more:
For the first time, today’s workplaces have great-grandchildren working alongside great-grandparents. To some degree, every generation is clocking in - the Traditionalists (the Silent Generation), The Boomers, GenX, Millennials, and GenZ – and each carry with them differing perspectives on how the world ‘should be’. Have you looked at your workplace through this lens? (Related to this, here's a good link)
Employees today come from a variety of home environments: single parents, common-law parents, same-sex parents, and grandparents who have stepped in as parents. You get the idea. The list is long. Each of these environments represents a variety of contemporary or traditional secular or non-secular approaches to parenting and, writ-large, life. As a mentor once advised me, “You’re the leader, this is your lot to manage."
What else can you do?
Leadership is a privilege, and as the workplace becomes more diverse, finding ways to unify employees is essential to maintaining morale and productivity. After you’ve reconnected with your Mission, Vision, and Values there are some practical steps you can take to foster a common sense of unity and purpose in your workplace:
Focus on Shared Goals: Encourage employees to align around shared goals that reflect and support the company’s mission and values. By focusing on what unites the team rather than what divides it, leaders can help build a stronger, more cohesive culture.
Create Cross-Functional Teams: Building cross-functional teams encourages employees to work closely with individuals they might not interact with regularly. This exposure can help employees view the workplace environment differently – not just from a new personal perspective but from a new departmental perspective, as well. For instance, more than once I’ve seen sales staff walk away with a new perspective after spending time with the finance department, and vice versa.
Celebrate Diversity and Commonalities: Diversity programs and team-building activities can help employees appreciate each other’s unique backgrounds, values, and reveal common interests. Early in my career, I worked for a company which I once jokingly referred to as the ‘UN of workplaces’. The meeting room consisted of many colors and, naturally curious, I was routinely rewarded after a simple coffee with someone whose background was far removed from my English / Irish / Scottish heritage. Diversity programs, while they must be managed, can create lasting bonds that transcend political beliefs. I believe we have more in common than we accept.
Train Your Staff: There are so many topics you could pick from. So whether the focus is on Bullying and Harassment, the Human Rights Code, or Workplace Communications training is never a waste. However, Conflict Resolution training is essential. Empowering employees with conflict resolution skills enables them to navigate disagreements maturely without toxic outcomes. Conflict resolution training, combined with emotional intelligence workshops, equips employees to manage political discussions with respect and tact.
Wrapping Up
I recently overheard a new Department Head say that “this ‘Leadership thing’ is easy” – a hallmark of someone who hasn’t been tested yet. Leadership is not easy. If it was, we’d all be self-actualized leaders, and the $ 366 Billion US Leadership Development industry wouldn’t exist. If you’re a leader, I invite you to take a breath. If your workplace has turned toxic, it didn’t happen overnight. It happened through a series of unchecked comments that you may not have been aware of, or (let’s be fair) comments that you may have minimized. The point is, it took a while to get here, and it will take a while to change things. Begin by looking for the small wins – celebrate the exchanges that didn’t spiral out of control and thank those responsible. Over time, you’ll empower agents of change who will support the cause and move things forward.
Most of all, watch your own conduct. Your team is looking to you to uphold the company’s Mission, Vision and Values. They will look to you to be the voice of reason who listens before speaking. You are the example. This is why leadership isn’t easy. What you say is important, but your behavior and what you tolerate are essential ingredients to fostering psychological safety and turning your workplace a great place and not a 'hateplace' where people hate going to.
Norm Adams has 30-years’ experience working with business owners, First Nations Governmments, as well as public and private companies in Canada and the United States. How effective is your team? Do you know? If you need a second set of eyes, contact Norm today at norm@pivotleader.com.
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