The Great Realignment
How New Values are Changing the Way We Work
There are certain times in history that stand apart from the rest as periods of enormous expansion — eras remembered for the great achievements, discoveries, or inventions that would forever change the way humans show up in the world and interact with one another. We have names for some of these periods of time – the first Industrial Revolution, for instance, when the steam engine gave us access to a new type of energy, and thus paving the way for a more accelerated economy. Or the rise of the digital age over two centuries later, whose computers and electronics would go on to form part of the foundation for an overwhelming majority of our jobs today.
Though incredibly impactful, none of these times were easy for the people who lived through them – and certainly not everything that came from them was good. But what they did do was require people to reconsider and shift their values on a massive scale, changing society’s values and culture along with them.
As I support my clients through adapting to some of the most uniquely intense years in human history — and observe the challenges, ingenuity, and shifts in values that have been born from them — I can’t help but wonder if we’re going through a period of cultural expansion ourselves. One where the challenges, desperation, and sheer stress of the pandemic guided us towards values that prioritize our health as whole humans?
And while we all strive to understand how our work climates have shifted over these last few years, and what those shifts mean for how our teams operate and how we lead now – I have to ask myself:
Are we living through a new type of modern-day cultural revolution?
And if so: What values are being born from it – and how do we as leaders adapt to them?
What questions have we been too afraid to ask, and is our current shift in values necessitating that we ask them now?
These questions are not only coming up in boardrooms; they’re popping up around dining room tables, as they did just the other night with my brother (a business owner in construction and father of two 20-somethings finding their way), my cousin (an Assistant Vice President of Human Resources for a top 100 of Fortune 500 companies and mother of three adult children), her husband (a career bar tender going through his own work-life transition with their 25 year old son living at home), my mother (a retired OB nurse and dedicated mother to three entrepreneurs), and my father (a retired US Marine and business owner himself - still a life long learner, and often antagonist, at age 87). And with so many varied perspectives, it was not only a fascinating conversation, but an enlightening one; it was clear that no matter their background or world perspective, everyone had been affected by this apparent mass shift in values that has resulted in employees caring more about certain things today that didn’t seem to be deal breakers before the pandemic.
So what are these new values, and how do we go about understanding them better so that we can meet employees at the intersection of their own personal values and those of our organizations?
I’m so glad you asked.
Defining Our New Cultural Values
Beyond the boardroom and the dining room table, these conversations are popping up in everyday life. I ran into an old friend at a concert just a few weeks ago. As we were catching up, he told me about his son who had graduated college and had gone on to make a six-figure salary. Sounds amazing, right? But after working for just two years, his son grew tired of the long hours and the micromanagement, and instead decided to hit the road, seas, and skies – traveling all over the world and currently exploring Bali with a friend.
While this sounds wonderful for him (and something I wish I had done when I was younger), it also represents a larger narrative typical of our current environment. Though versions of this story differ – perhaps trading out a mediocre salary and ineffective leadership for an entrepreneurial adventure and more time with one’s family, for instance – this story is not new. And the interesting part is that it seems to be happening – as the story of my friend’s sons exemplifies – in both lower and higher paying positions, and anywhere in-between.
In fact, according to the US Chamber of Commerce, more than 50 million people quit their jobs in 2022 – something a lot of folks in the media began referring to as The Great Resignation. And while the media doesn’t always mention this, the Chamber goes on to note that while resignation rates were at a record high, so were hiring rates – which had outpaced resignation rates since the end of 2020.
All of which begs the question – if everyone isn’t running off to Bali, why are they quitting, and where are they going?
Well, Gallup’s most recent 2023 report on the State of the Workplace found that employee stress was at a record high in 2022 – the same year of The Great Resignation – rising from the previous record high in 2020. They also found that nearly 6 out of 10 employees engage in what’s called quiet quitting, defined as “what happens when someone psychologically disengages from work”. They go on to estimate that this kind of low engagement at work is so impactful that it costs the global economy $8.8 trillion dollars.
I know; my jaw dropped too.
And why, we might ask, are employees so incredibly stressed?
I just recently returned from a month-long trip (in a van with just my husband and two dogs to keep me company) across Canada and the northern US. During that time — after giving myself time and space to reset, recharge, and get some perspective — it became clearer to me that we all might be suffering from one nasty, common mental and emotional ailment that often accompanies times of intense overwhelm: Burnout.
An article from the American Psychological Association defines workplace burnout as “an occupation-related syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed… It involves ongoing emotional exhaustion, psychological dissonance or negativity, and feelings of inefficacy — all adding up to a state where the job-related stressors are not being effectively managed by the normal rest found in work breaks, weekends, and time off.”
Sound familiar? It certainly does to me. Recently, more and more of our clients have been requesting coaching and leadership training that address the symptoms of burnout: stress and conflict. And though these requests aren’t completely novel — stress management has been part of leadership development for a long time — I will note that it’s something that we have seen an uptick in over the past year.
And for good reason, right? We all know that the pandemic brought with it unprecedented challenges, requiring us to not only manage our lives during a world-wide health crisis, but to manage others who were in the midst of doing the same. It was scary, to say the least; terrifying and oftentimes directionless at worst.
So when the mad scramble to simply keep businesses (and our lives) afloat seemed to die down, and headlines featuring mandates and health emergency statistics became few and far between, we did what humans do — we adapted to our new normal (whatever that looked like for each industry, team, and individual) and got back to work.
The issue is that, in that adaptation, it seems as though many workplaces skipped over a few crucial steps in the process: namely, healing and expansion.
Now, as we enter the third year post the emergence of the pandemic, one thing that seems clear to me (as I continue to work with clients battling the same issues of low employee engagement, dis-interested teams, and values caught somewhere between the pre-pandemic era and post-pandemic employee mindsets) is this: The pandemic has reduced the once defined lines between life and work, leaving much of our society with views that value mental health, positive work cultures, and the ability to be flexible with their time more than money and status. What this leaves us with is a group of people willing to make drastic changes (like leaving their jobs – or even going to Bali!) in order to have more well-rounded lives.
So how can employers jump on the bandwagon of this new cultural shift and support their employees’ new values? How can we as leaders support the health and happiness of our teams in order to secure our organizations’ futures?
We have to learn to treat the duty of protecting our employees’ peace (and all of the factors that contribute to it) as if it dictated our bottom lines.
Because it does.
Supporting Your Teams with a New Kind of Leadership
What does it really look like to invest in our teams, and to meet them where they’re currently at in the midst of a large-scale shift in values?
As with most things, the answer is simple, but not easy.
The truth is that this new version of the world we’ve been dealt — one in which we’ve been forced into mental, emotional, and physical survival mode as a global community, and then asked to recover from it in a relatively short period of time — requires leaders with high emotional intelligence who know how to prioritize their teams’ mental and emotional well-being while simultaneously managing the business and the bottom line.
Gone are the days where work and life were treated as separate entities. Gone are the days when employees were expected to operate as if they had separate energy reserves for work and the rest of their lives (Fun fact – we are not dolphins who sleep with half their brain – look it up!). Gone are the days when leadership skills were defined by one’s ability to do certain tasks more efficiently or otherwise “better” than others; or by one’s organizational and/or delegation skills; or even by one’s communication skills, though these will always be vital.
Today, the needs of our workforce are different. Or, perhaps they have always been the same, but now we no longer have the luxury of ignoring them in favor of what businesses think is important. Today, our workforce needs leaders who hear them and act accordingly; who monitor and support their progress; who coach them and collaborate with them rather than direct them and judge them; and who purposely create space for mental processing, rest, recovery, and understanding.
And yes, we may also be entering a space where we as leaders need to consider whether or not we’re truly giving our teams the flexibility they need to support their lives outside of work.
That may look like being brave enough to ask the historically unpopular questions (such as Is a 5-day work week truly more effective than a 4-day one? or Do employees who are offered unlimited PTO actually take much more time off than those with limited PTO?). It may also look like asking ourselves if we’re more interested in staying comfortable in the practices and policies that we know than in understanding what environments our teams need to succeed.
And for those of us whose minds unfailingly (and understandably) go back to the ever-present bottom line, I’ll note that there is no shortage of research to support that healthy teams equal healthy profits. In fact, the newest findings from Gallup state that companies with engaged workforces have 23% higher profits than those with disengaged workforces. And beyond the bottom line — but in areas that we all know affect it — they found that those higher profit teams also saw significantly lower absenteeism, less turnover and fewer accidents. They even saw higher customer loyalty.
As they so eloquently put it, “The point is: Wellbeing at work isn’t at odds with anyone’s agenda.” It’s not about letting go of accountability. We’re not talking about being soft. We’re talking about being human. And when we are humans leading humans, we give rise to happier, healthier, and - yes -, more committed and productive team members, with the magical outcome of accountability being owned by everyone, rather than being managed by one.
Because the truth is: we don’t have separate energy reserves for work and life. Our workplace worries and stressors don’t disappear when we get home, or vice versa. And our capacities don’t infinitely expand to fit the loads that are placed on us. Just like we need a change of pace and sleep to integrate new learnings and to reduce the effects of trauma, we need space and permission to heal and expand. This doesn't mean letting them off the hook and paying them anyway, it means meeting them where they are, to lead them to where they (and you) need to be.
I’ve always believed that out of all the great things that make leaders, leaders, one of the most important markers of all is courage. I challenge us all to access that courage, to overcome our old ways of thinking, to face our fears of failure, to find comfort in the discomfort, to hold the space for others to feel, heal, and thrive. I challenge each of us to consider this new definition of leadership and take just one step in…little by little, if that’s all that we can manage right now. This is a daily practice of returning to self. I promise, there is an ease and a reward in it for us all.
Our teams — and perhaps our world — may depend on it.
We hope you’ll keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter, which will dive deep into traditionally taboo questions about how we might support our teams and maybe even address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
Reach out today to learn more about what we do and how we might benefit your team – we love making new connections and re-establishing connections from the past!
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AUTHOR – Gretchen Reid is the Founder and Chief Change and Leadership Architect for Integrated Growth. She has spent over 25 years coaching leaders and creating award-winning Leadership and Talent Development Programs, directly contributing to multiple awards for her clients, including Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Forbes America’s Best Employers List, Forbes Best Employer for Diversity, and ASTD BEST. She is an Adjunct Professor of Change Management in the Strategic HR Masters Program, Denver University, University College. (MS, Career and Human Resource Development, Rochester Institute of Technology, BA, Psychology & Business Management, University of Rochester)