Are you a thermostat leader?
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One of the most important duties of your leadership is the regulation of anxiety.
Your staff members have anxieties they bring to the job. Every one of your staff is different. Some have enough anxiety to keep them on their game. Others, not so much. Regardless, their anxiety influences the role they play in your organization. Let's address your role as a leader of individuals who are all hired to bring about a certain outcome for which they are paid.
First, a few elements:
Influence
Since you lead, your influence is inevitable. Your influence has no on/off button. It just is, period. Every word you speak, every attitude you display, every emotion, reaction, tone of voice, look ... it's all fair game in your life as the leader. You have to be on your game at all times, no exceptions. Your life as a leader carries a lot of weight. You lead in many areas. Your home, your organization, your marketplace, your church, your local community, your online community, and pretty much anywhere you exist.
Self-awareness
Having this kind of always-on leadership requires deep self-awareness. Self-awareness is the capacity to see your interactions from a bird's eye view. It's how an individual consciously knows and understands their own character, feelings, motives, and desires. When you have this capacity, you can understand how your emotions are impacted by circumstances. The more self-aware you are, the quicker you are able to see what's going on and regulate.
Regulation
Regulation is the ability control or maintain the rate or speed so that things operate properly. For example, a hormone regulates metabolism and organ function.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a strange thing. It can be your greatest asset or your greatest liability. It's necessary as it fuels just the right amount of fear to create movement. Hard work is not something that comes naturally to us unless the pain of change becomes less than the pain of the status quo.
Thermostat leadership
So here's the principle that, if you can master it, will become your go-to behavior whenever you need to light a fire under a staff member, or talk them off a cliff. It's called "thermostat leadership," and many leaders simply don't use it because they don't get it. They're too busy fighting the tendency to be "one of the guys" rather than engage with individual staff members to get to truly know them and offer a little well-timed, well-placed advice. This advice you give does one of two things: regulate anxiety up or regulate anxiety down.
When a staff member is high on anxiety, it's time for you to turn down the temperature. Give them an empathetic ear when they're sharing their struggle with you. Offer advice only as a last resort. Mainly ask open-ended questions that draw your staff member out of their own heads. That way, they'll begin to see their anxiety from a broader perspective and feel better about that. A good resource to become better at this kind of conversation is The Coaching Habit.
When a staff member is low on anxiety, it's time for you to turn up the temperature. In this scenario, you're doing a little more of the talking and showing, by illustration, how important the staff person's role and results are to the overall mission. Be sure to communicate a clear line of attachment between what they were hired to do and how it enables your organization to achieve its mission.
Action step
- Take a quick inventory of each staff member's level of anxiety
- Decide who needs to be regulated down and who needs to be regulated up
- Set up a zoom call with each one and start thermostat leading
 | Scott Couchenour has a combined 30 years of experience in ministry, business and entrepreneurship. He has the perspective any leader needs to grow further in their personal and professional life. Scott served as COO and CEO for a national multi-million dollar family-owned business. He has served in his local church as worship leader and various leadership positions. He serves as Trustee on the Nazarene Foundation Board, the Nazarene Theological Seminary Board, and Harmony Village Board. Learn More » |
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