Power & Meaning: Those who are to perform must experience meaning

Many companies are moving in a pressure spiral. Prices are falling, and cost and budget pressures are the consequences of transparent competition. These developments are putting more and more pressure on employees to perform. A turnaround is not in sight.

Current economic situation leads to power environments

In difficult economic times, there is little overall praise, recognition and encouragement.

Both supervisors and employees feel the consequences as uncertainty and fear, even if they try to hide it. Fear of job loss, loss of pay, and worries about whether their own health can keep up with the demands. Questions of meaning and longing for satisfaction accumulate.

Many companies record absenteeism and sick leave due to dissatisfied employees. If an employee is absent for a longer period of time, the pressure to perform increases for the other colleagues, who have to do the work of the sick colleague "on top". It is no wonder that prolonged pressure and stress due to an inner struggle with external conditions lead to depression and breakdowns in the long run.

Employees are not machines! The machines enjoy regular maintenance so that they can work smoothly and reliably shift after shift. Equal care should be taken with employees as a resource.

If this is not the case, unsubtle tactics gain momentum. The employee takes back what he thinks he has earned. Substitute satisfactions to praise and recognition are sought.

For example, he copies private documents, accounts for private car kilometers or takes a dive after an extraordinary assignment. In exceptional cases, the boundaries gradually widen and forgery, evasion and corruption occur. These drastic measures are carried out to withstand the pressure as a substitute satisfaction to the lack of recognition.

Companies react with even more regulations, even more control, even more monitoring and bureaucracy. Mostly without success.

That's not the solution, because that's how companies and employees create a power environment.

What does power environment mean?

In power environments, self-interest is pursued at the expense of others. Creative use of organizational leeway is tapped.

The common definition of Max Weber (born April 21, 1864 in Erfurt, died June 14, 1920 in Munich) is: "My will be done, even in the face of resistance, without making enemies."

Every power environment requires people who have resources that are in turn coveted by others. Particularly in difficult economic situations, many coveted resources are in short supply, such as money, praise, recognition, further training support, life balance (balance between working hours and free time) and separation from private life.

Power is the availability of resources that others desire

• Power of punishment: With a weapon, the robber has the resource with which he can decide about life and death of the threatened.
• Status power: With a Ferrari, Porsche and Maybach in the garage, the millionaire possesses the resource of money that many people covet.
• Charismatic power: With good rhetoric, President Obama has the resource of charisma with which he can move billions of people.
• Power of Origin: The blue-blood has the resource of noble lineage and in many cases has an easier time achieving something specific if those around him are greedy for the company of a noble.
• Power of function: Politicians and CEOs are prime examples of the power of function. They take liberties that a "normal mortal" may not.
• Power of the majority: Good to observe: In Africa in 2011, people forced down various rulers with large and regular protests.
• Power of knowledge, power of technology, power of persuasion, power of reward, power of experts, etc.

Paradoxically, the focus must currently be on meaningful and fulfilling work and constructive interaction in power environments in order to get out of the frenzied standstill, which costs a lot of money, is increasingly regulated and bureaucratized, but brings no profit. In addition a small excursion into our evolution history:

"Already in the nine months of pregnancy we have learned two important things: to grow and to bond," says brain researcher Prof. Hüther from Göttingen.

As soon as we are in the world, we grow and develop and form bonds with other people. Depending on our biography, we have better experiences in one area or another. We naturally build trust and confidence. For example, if a child is encouraged in music or sports and is allowed to celebrate his or her first successes, he or she will gain confidence in his or her development and will face any challenge in later life. Adults know that they can rely on their abilities and successfully tackle challenges. If children grow up overprotected and are not allowed to make their experiences in the big wide and dangerous world, the corresponding skills and self-confidence will not be developed. It is similar with relationship skills. If children are allowed to have good experiences in their relationship with their parents and their environment, they will enter into relationships, including professional partnerships, with confidence and trust as a matter of course. So if people enter into conversations with their business partners without mistrust but full of confidence, the result is open, credible and active communication.

This explains why power environments arise in difficult economic situations: The basic human needs to grow and bond can no longer be satisfied, and so substitute satisfactions are sought. Employees then take back what they think they have earned.

Four action competencies lead to success!

If the following four action competencies are strengthened, you will acquire stability, self-assurance, orientation and resilience in difficult and complex situations and act effectively and successfully in the market. In doing so, you will meet the basic human needs to grow and to bond. Power environments are no longer ignited and the struggle for replacement resources is no longer necessary. Rules and bureaucratic work can be reduced and the success of the company can be increased.

1. strengthen self-efficacy

Here, it is important to move away from focusing on problems and toward solution orientation.

Example: Self-efficacy can be explained very nicely using the example of a soccer game.

As a fan and spectator (blue) can insult performances of referees and players, but they can not do anything with it.

The coach on the sidelines can have a little more influence on the game with the right lineup and smart game tactics.

Once I'm a player on the field myself, I can actively and effectively influence and shape the game by, for example, playing a brilliant pass that leads to a goal.

Transferring the task of the spectator, coach and player of a football game into the business world, it is game-changing to know,

1. which unchangeable framework conditions have to be accepted and
2. which areas can be influenced and
3. which areas I can actively shape.

In the first case you save energy and in the second and third case you can really make a difference and shape things.

Example: The "Change - Leave - Love" model

The model "Change - Leave - Love" means something like: If you don't like something in life, you have three options:

To change something about the situation (Change).

To leave the situation and do something else (Leave).

To continue as before, and accept the situation (Love).

2. strengthen relationship competence

Step 1: Build an "I'm OK - You're OK" Attitude

This involves analyzing in which situations and with which people an "OK-OK" attitude is already cultivated and with whom a submissiveness sets in because, for example, one doubts one's own abilities or considers the other person to be more competent. It should also be checked when an arrogant attitude is adopted because one does not think that much of one's counterpart.

So try to steer a development into a respectful "OK-OK" attitude to be able to shape valuable and purposeful relationships.

Step 2: Build trust

Rational trust is trust in abilities and competencies, for example trust in your colleague as an accomplished professional. Emotional trust is given to a person you are convinced is honest and will only do what is best for a good relationship.

 

Strengthen rational and emotional trust to build relationships of integrity. Relationships with transparent communication, where words are followed by actions and decisions are honored.

3. strengthen navigation competence

Step 1: Build and maintain networks

In addition to internal and external networks, informal networks with important opinion leaders and leaders should also be defined. If the decision-makers are defined, regardless of function and organizational structure, it will be easier to successfully launch concerns. Thus, it is not unusual that the assistant enjoys and also perceives the competence of the decision.

Fiorina Carly, former and successful boss of Hewlett Packard, has formulated horizontal cooperation, with people in the same functions from different industries, as the best fundus for the promotion of one's own valuable employees, and as a guarantor for motivated specialists and creative progress. With the possibility to deal with other people's recipes for success, one can look beyond one's own nose and new creative and necessary approaches can emerge.

Once the stakeholders and their needs have been taken into account, greater emphasis must be placed on emotional barriers in addition to factual arguments. Resistance is often not based on factual arguments that are loudly and energetically proclaimed, but on fears, small setbacks and everyday injuries. No burnout patient burns out because of a big "disturbance", but the many small injuries bring the barrel to overflow. Day after day we reap injuries, but always think that we have to be above it and strong. Therefore, it is not a weakness to name fears and mental images in one-on-one conversations with superiors, customers or other business partners, but ultimately the only chance to maneuver healthily and with a clear view effectively through the professional challenges and to find a way out of the negative spiral. Those affected describe with conviction how much energy, motivation and progress is possible again once emotional barriers have been removed.

Step 2: The right timing

Acceleration and deceleration are the magic words here. What do experienced alpinists say? "Go slowly if you want to climb to the top". That's another paradox you should cultivate just as boldly in business. Many coaching clients buy time with a coaching appointment to "stand still" for once. Check if your own agenda really still reflects importance and urgency or if only urgency and dependency dominate. By the way, Einstein said, "A problem can't be solved with the same mindset that created it." So think about bringing in a coach to incorporate valuable input from another professional mindset for your personal advancement.

4. strengthen innovation competence

In executive committees, people regularly talk about innovation and its importance for the continued existence of the company. But let's be honest: When and where was the last time you were allowed to innovate? When and where was time and money granted for experimentation? If you don't work in a research or development department, you can wait a long time. Leaders are often only administrators in standardized paths, administrators of knowledge and concepts. They are expected to be able to conjure up the right knowledge and concept at the necessary moment. This has nothing to do with innovation.

Step 1: Establish "not knowing

In relation to many open questions, researchers can only answer a small fraction. Nevertheless, they regularly participate in congresses with like-minded people (horizontal cooperation) to give talks without shame about questions that have not yet been answered. It is a matter of course not to know a lot of things, but nevertheless to get money for their "not-knowing" in order to tackle questions in a systematic and committed way. In business, the experience is completely different. Leaders bring a lot of knowledge to the table, but an answer is expected from well-paid professionals and not knowing is not tolerated.

In the current business world, new approaches, innovations and creative ideas are needed to get out of the mess. For this, the handling of non-knowledge must be established in the decision-making bodies. Recent years have shown that the tried and tested concepts of finance, marketing, sales, logistics and communication have only provided limited answers to today's challenges. Global and transparent trade poses new questions and needs new answers. They arise from the clever handling of non-knowledge.

Step 2: Cultivate "Teachable Moment

Everyone knows the big eyes of small children. Day after day, they discover the world and marvel when, for example, the sun sets and turns red. Amazement when it snows and the flakes melt in their hands. Amazement at thunder and lightning. Amazement at mushrooms in the forest that weren't there yesterday. How often do leaders marvel? How often are captains of industry surprised? Maybe once a year, when they climb a mountain together and enjoy the view in amazement at the summit. Don't you think that such a moment is absolutely necessary for our progress?

This moment is called the "teachable moment". And we need to cultivate this moment again in our economy in order to remain flexible and open. It is therefore a must for every employee, right up to the CEO, to remain teachable and open. The openness to learn should not only take place after failures and after promotions, but day by day.

Step 3: Risking mistakes and asking the right questions

Risking mistakes and learning from every mistake is important. Just like James Dyson, who built 5127 prototypes until the first vacuum cleaner.

It is also important to ask the right question. Because searching for an answer to the wrong question can be very expensive. As the following example of space travel shows. "How can astronauts write in ink in space?" After years of work and millions of dollars of investment, the Americans had their answer: a recorder (fisher spacepen) that works in any position, in a vacuum, and at temperatures ranging from -62°C to 148°C. Only every diver already realizes that a pencil would have been the cheaper option and that "thinking out of the box" would have sufficed.

Benefits for companies and employees

Employee satisfaction or effectiveness, adherence to rules, the image and thus the profitability of the company improve. Because power is neither good nor bad, but anytime and anywhere. And nothing is more powerful than being silent about something.

Author: Claudia Wehrli. Ms. Wehrli supports you with a power planning game to make the dynamics of power and its effects visible and perceptible, in order to then develop from this the responsible and constructive handling in power environments.

More information can be found at: www.c2g.ch/macht