JEFF SESSIONS - PLEASE DON’T QUIT!

I never believed I would be appealing to that little weasel, Jeff Sessions, to hang in there; however, he’s got to understand Trump’s classic bullying playbook, which seeks to have Sessions quit – and not be fired. If he quits, he’ll replace him with someone who will be able to fire Mueller. At his point in time, Jeff Sessions is the only person on Earth who can ensure that the inquiry stays alive.

Trump’s latest tweet referring to Jeff Sessions is yet again one more tactic to try to discredit him. He queries, “Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse? Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”

I predicted Trump’s move to hang on to power, come hell or high water. Over a year ago, I pointed out just how predictable Trump is. He knows firing Sessions will make a clearer path to obstruction of justice, so instead he has chosen to try pushing Sessions to quit by harassing him or discrediting him. This is classic bully behaviour.

For an in-depth examination of the mind of the bully and what to do about, I recommend that you read my book, “From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire”.

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STUDENTS ECHO FEELINGS OF DISTRUST FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERS

In this New York Times Op-Ed, David Brooks explains that on college campuses, students express diminished expectations and little faith in big institutions; yet they aren’t hopeless.

While this story articulates the sentiment of college students, I can assert with some authority that almost everyone has similar feelings. A major study of North American workers, conducted by Mental Health America, sponsored by the Faas Foundation, called ‘Mind the Workplace’, echoes the feelings expressed by these students, and further validates why over 70 percent of the almost 20,000 respondents speak poorly about their employer.

Because of the #MeToo movement, organizational leaders are scrambling to find a magic bullet to avoid exposures of wrongdoing.  Breaking this to them gently, I assert that the only magic bullet is trust. People have no trust in leadership; and unless they do, no words, no training, and  no programs will have any impact.

Currently I am writing a series of articles published in MoneyInc magazine entitled ‘A Boomers Guide for Millennials -The A B C’s of Leadership’, which addresses the characteristics leaders need to develop so that they can be trusted. 

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MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S TOXIC CULTURE REVEALED AS CESSPOOL OF BULLYING!

This alarming article in the Toronto Star by Kevin Donovan exposes a once well-kept secret of a toxic culture. If this is happening against lawyers who of all people should be equipped to handle this form of injustice, quite frankly, who can?

Many people have challenged me as being too negative and extreme in my postings. This exposé, if true, validates just how bad it is out there.

Lawyers talk about legal niceties, which is a code word for bullying. Lawyers have been trained to bully. It is indeed ironic that they are now the targets. These victims, like anyone else, deserve justice on this subtle form of discrimination.

However, this should send a sober message to them when they challenge people who are targeted, particularly women who are part of the MeToo movement. The legal profession for far too long has continually turned the victim into the villain. They now know how it feels to be on the other side.

It would be unfair of me to paint the whole legal profession with the same brush; but the respectability of the legal profession is the lowest of all professions. By nature, the legal profession is adversarial, but lawyers too often add to it by becoming abrasive and abusive, which is why they are held in such low regard.

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THE NRA IS CONTROLLING AMERICA - WE THE PEOPLE DON’T COUNT FOR THEM

This story in The Washington Post is reflective of how powerful the NRA is. Notwithstanding the fact that over 70 percent of Americans want gun controls, in response to calls for raising the age limit for purchasing a gun, the NRA basically gave the finger to that over 70 percent. 

The NRA is the most powerful lobbing group in Washington, and they have the lawmakers in their pocket. Their trying to make a survivor of the Florida shooting out to be a conspirator shows just how ‘lower than whale shit attached to an anchor’ the NRA and their supporters are (including Donald Jr. who was dumb enough to weigh in on the conspiracy theory, ‘liking’ a tweet because the student’s Dad was a former FBI agent).

As a believer in conspiracy theories, my belief is the conspiracy here is to make sure there are a sufficient number of people with guns to stage a coupe when attempts are made to oust Donald Jr.’s dad.

The right wing sliming of Douglas High students by Dinesh D’Souza can’t be ignored. It is repulsive and destructive.

Blaming the FBI for all these tragedies is irresponsible, yet it is in Trump’s playbook, reinforced by NRA chief Wayne LaPierre’s comments. When you listen to his appalling speech, spewing blame on the FBI “socialists” and mental illness for the gun violence, he is making out that the NRA is the custodian of patriotism.

As this Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman articulates, only raw electoral power can beat the gun lobby. The only hope for America is for its citizens to toss out all of the lawmakers who accept contributions from this despicable group.

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To Improve Workplace Health, Let’s Bring Back the Human Factor

By Andrew Faas, Faas Foundation and Paul Gionfriddo, Mental Health America

We have made progress in making hiring and firing processes more open and fairer in recent decades, but is it enough? Are employers and employees better off?

Much of our progress has come in the legal arena, in large part because of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other statutes that have reduced or eliminated discrimination based on chronic disease or condition.

We applaud this progress. But we also recognize that in developing rules about what can and cannot be discussed and disclosed in the workplace, we have created an unintended consequence as well. We’ve eliminated the human factor in much of the employer/employee relationship.

And, we would argue, that has cost productivity and led to the kinds of often toxic, demeaning, and dehumanizing workplaces that exist today.

Mental Health America and the Faas Foundation have been working to assess and improve workplace health and mental health. Our initial goal was to develop processes by which employers could better recognize and support valued employees with mental health challenges.

As we did our work, it became clearer that it isn’t only the mental health challenges people bring to the workplace that we need to address; it is the mental health challenges that evolve or worsen from the stress of the workplace. 

Focusing on workplace stress might in fact be the key to improving workplace mental health.

Consider the following statistics from Mind the Workplace, a report we recently released from a survey of more than 17,000 employees across nineteen industries:

·       Just under half feel that their employer appropriately deals with co-workers who are not doing their jobs.

·       Over 40 percent feel that employees are rarely or never held accountable for their work, regardless of their position in the organization.

·       Over 45 percent feel some employees are being unfairly recognized, while others with better experience and skills don't get recognized.

·       Over 50 percent feel that they could be fired or let go at any time.

·       Over 45 percent feel their organization is overly focused on trivial activities.

·       Only 26 percent feel their organization has realistic expectations about their workload.

It is clear from this research that performance management is a huge contributor to workplace stress.

And while performance management is at the heart of the annual- and semi-annual review process today, there are not very many employees – only 35 percent – who feel confident that the will have the support of their supervisor when things get hard for them in the workplace. This leads to a sense of loneliness and isolation. Former Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy recently argued in an essay in the Harvard Business Review that there is a “loneliness epidemic” in the American workplace, writing that “many employees – and half of CEOs – report feeling lonely in their roles.”

So, what should we do about this?

An important first step is for employers to learn how their employees are feeling and why they feel the way they do. It is easy to survey employees quickly and anonymously these days via online screening tools. The only obstacle is fear of the response.

That fear can be addressed by understanding how best to respond to the information gathered.  There are many tools and strategies to help with that.

In a related project, a third partner of ours – the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence – has launched an Emotional Revolution in the Workplace initiative. Through this innovative program, Yale researchers are taking a deeper dive into the culture of the American workplace, and developing new strategies for building on what’s best in that culture to improve workplace health and well-being.

Here’s what we recommend – a creative, energetic worker review process that forward-thinking employers can substitute for the old, tired annual reviews.

This process should begin with an employer’s own workplace survey. It should then result in a covenant with all employees, which can be used to:

·       Give managers and supervisors the tools they need to address the barriers to employees working to their full potential and capacities.

·       Normalize critical discussions among managers and subordinates by training emotional intelligence. 

·       Develop and agree on clear, measurable and reasonable expectations for the employee, and determine what the employee needs to be able to deliver on those expectations.

·       Make the changes required to support supervisors and employees.

·       Conduct regular and ongoing meetings using the covenant as the basis for the discussions.

What this would accomplish is simple. It will bring the human element back into the equation. And it will bring more productivity back into the workplace.

Andrew Faas established the Faas Foundation in 2005 to promote wellness and well-being in all aspects of our society. He is also a Public Voices Fellow at Yale University. Paul Gionfriddo is President and CEO of Mental Health America.

TURNING THE VICTIM INTO THE VILLAIN BY USING WARNINGS WITHOUT TEETH

A USDA employee stunned the agency by publicly admitting that sex was used as a commodity used when promotions were being considered. This sickening behaviour occurs far too frequently - both subtly and overtly. People with power and control give favourable treatment to those who ‘accommodate’. 

To gain a deeper understanding of this disgusting behaviour and to see just how endemic it is in the workplace, one should read the new report that exposes the National Public Radio’s news chief for continuing inappropriate behavior despite repeated warnings. The NPR’s responses are typical of how most organizations deal with harassment and abuse. This is yet another example of the complicity of Human Resources.

People may think that these are extreme instances in the way organizations respond to harassment and abuse allegations. However, that is simply not the case at all. These responses have become more the norm than the exception.

Abuse and harassment incidents are atrocious enough acts; however, what is even worse is the culture where this is allowed to happen or is even encouraged. When are executives going to respond the way they should and stop protecting the bully. Abuse is terrible; but, turning a blind eye is deplorable!

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOT CHRISTIAN

Jocelyn Morffi was one of the most popular educators at a Catholic school in Florida, students’ parents said. She was terminated less than a week after her wedding, as Christina Caron describes in this article in the New York Times.

Firing an effective and popular teacher because she had the audacity to marry someone she loves; and threatening to retaliate against those who support her, adds to the appalling positions of a Pope who continues to support perverted pedophiles. This sick institution has zero moral authority to continue to preach Christianity. 

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N is for NURTURER

Every one of us, whether we are a sibling, parent, teacher, spouse, friend, coach, teammate, boss, co-worker, mentor, or community leader has a responsibility to nurture others.

The word nurture comes from the Latin term to feed and to nourish; and in the late 18th century it was expanded to mean, “to promote and develop”.

Had the definition not changed, my Mother, who passed away in November, would not have qualified to be called a nurturer, she was a terrible cook, and thanks to my Dad’s culinary skills, my four brother’s and I did not starve.

Under the ‘new’ definition however, Mom was a remarkable nurturer of my brothers’ and countless other young people’s minds, souls, and spirits. In my eulogy to her, I tell the story of her life in the context of how wonderfully she nurtured us.

Of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, only the basic needs of physiology address the origin of the word nurture; the other three - safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization address the expanded definition “to promote and develop”. These “promote and develop” needs relate to everyone. To fully understand this, I suggest you, as I did in recognizing my mother as a nurturer, reflect on how you were nurtured, remembering that those you have any responsibility for need to be nurtured, too. 

Much of what you do to nurture the “promote and develop” needs of others require human interactions. Unfortunately for a variety of reasons, this is outside of most people’s comfort zones.

We are living in an age where technology has changed the way we live, learn, work, play and even worship. There is no question that advance of technology has many positive aspects. However, what overshadows the positives is the diminishment of the human element, particularly as it pertains to people’s ability to and comfort in having civil critical discussions.

When we add to this the command and control approach embraced by people in leadership positions, people who need to have the “promote and develop” nourishment are left to starve.

In a recent Mental Health America survey, sponsored by the Faas Foundation, called Mind the Workplace, we found that two thirds of North American workers cannot rely on their supervisors for support when things go wrong. Furthermore, almost the same numbers of people have the same feelings about their co-workers. A recent USA Today survey found that 80 percent of employees, including managers feel they could do their jobs without managers. Given that the primary role of a manager is to nurture, these statistics speak volumes about the lack of nurturing occurring in the boss/subordinate relationship.

J.R.D. Tada addresses this when he wrote, “No institute of science and technology can guarantee discoveries or inventions, and we cannot plan or command a work of genius at will. But do we give sufficient thought to the nurture of the young investigator, to providing the right atmosphere and conditions of work and full opportunity for development? It is these things that foster invention and discovery.”

The research I conducted for my book, ‘From Bully to Bull’s Eye - Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire’, indicates that for most people, the only communication that occurs between a manager and subordinate is the dreaded annual or semi-annual review, or when things go south. This dynamic is not exactly nourishing, nor does it encourage psychologically safe workplaces.

As an expert in organizational dynamics, I can assert what is being fed to these people is more poisonous and toxic than nurturing, which kills the motivation for development and aspirations. What it also kills is the motivation to nurture others - kind of an ethic of reciprocity in reverse.

The Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, in a survey of 20,000 high school students, found that 70 percent of the respondents were tired, bored and stressed. Doing a deep dive on this, they found that the main reason for this was standardized testing. At some point in time, the curriculum has shifted to the extent that proportionately more time is spent teaching kids how to pass tests than teaching them how to learn, leaving these students starving for their “promote and develop” needs. In the words of Dolly Levi to her suitor Horace Vandergelder in ‘Hello Dolly’, “Money is like manure, you have to spread it around to make young things grow.”

Here are some tips on how to nurture: 

. Understand your “promote and develop” needs.  This understanding of your sense of self, positions you to understanding the needs of others. Also this will give rise to nurture yourself.

. Reflect on how your “promote and develop” needs were nurtured by others. These examples will help you apply with others.

. Understand how people you have a responsibility for feel (and why they feel the way they do). What makes them  - happy, sad, angry, frustrated, fulfilled, motivated, depressed, anxious, satisfied etc. What you will likely find is these emotions will reconcile with yours.

. Teach rather than lecture.

. Other than sending information, communicate person-to-person, ideally face-to-face. 

. Make those you nurture comfortable in having critical discussions, reinforcing ‘it’s ok to disagree’.

. Be open, honest and direct in your communications.

. Be empathetic.

. Practice active listening.

. Allow those you nurture to nurture you.

Andrew Faas is the author of ‘From Bully to Bull’s Eye - Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire’, and is a Public Voices Fellow at Yale University.

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EVERYONE IS A HUMAN BEING

There is clearly a need for a substantive change in how politicians demonstrate leadership because the underpinnings of our democratic system are in real jeopardy. This is a recurring theme historically, as explained in this insightful opinion piece by David Brooks in the Globe and Mail. This lesson is particularly relevant today, not just as it relates to Governments, but to organizations in general.

The British, during the period of upheaval in the mid-nineteenth century, did not consider Irish Catholics as human beings. Today we live in a period of time where far too many people are being dehumanized.

For reflection on this important subject, I refer you to the article and informative graphs by John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker illustrating by country the percentage of people that believe that there’s too much immigration - the US at 48% and 35% in Canada.

Let us all learn from this not only to value one another, but let us all learn that we actually need each other.

SO WHY DO WE NEED MANAGERS ANYWAY????

In the weekend edition of USA Today- USA Snapshots there is an interesting article - “80% of all employees including managers themselves, feel they could do their jobs without their managers.” I highly recommend reading it.

This astounding statistic reaffirms for me the need to re-evaluate the role of managers, particularly when this is reinforced by a Faas Foundation/ Mental Health America study called ‘Mind the Workplace’ found that 2/3rds of North American employees feel they cannot rely on their supervisors for support when things go bad.

These stats reinforce my belief based on extensive research that most managers are restrainers vs. enablers – very indicative of a culture of fear.

In my experience, where managers are emotionally intelligent, organizations can decrease the ratio of managers per employee and increase performance, engagement, innovation and creativity. 

Illustration: Dureall Ramsdell