forbes.com
Workplace Resilience: Overcoming Anxiety and Building Trust
Professor D. Christopher Kayes, in his new book, highlights the importance of resilience in today's workplace, emphasizing the breakdown of trust and uncertainty as major anxiety drivers, and advocates for continuous learning and embracing challenges to foster well-being and inspire teams.
- What are the primary causes of workplace anxiety, and how do they impact employee productivity, according to Professor Kayes?
- Professor D. Christopher Kayes defines resilience as the daily ability to manage intense emotions, crucial for leaders navigating workplace challenges. He highlights the breakdown of trust and uncertainty as major anxiety drivers, impacting productivity.
- How can leaders leverage the unexpected benefits of unpleasant emotions and continuous learning to cultivate resilience and inspire their teams?
- Kayes' research surprisingly revealed that continuous learning and even unpleasant emotions are key to well-being and resilience. He advocates for leaders to embrace challenges, foster curiosity, and learn from adversity, using storytelling to inspire and motivate teams.
- How does the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic affect the psychological contract between employers and employees, and what are the resulting behaviors?
- Kayes connects low employee trust and organizational failures to support well-being with high workplace anxiety. He emphasizes that unresolved resentment from the pandemic further fractured the psychological contract between employers and employees, leading to phenomena like the Great Resignation.
Cognitive Concepts
Framing Bias
The framing is generally positive towards Kayes's perspective and emphasizes the importance of his research and book. Headlines or subheadings, if present, would likely reinforce this positive framing. The inclusion of Tom Hanks as an example further strengthens this positive portrayal of Kayes' ideas.
Language Bias
The language used is largely neutral and objective, although phrases like "unpleasant emotions" are subjective and could benefit from more precise terminology, for example, 'challenging emotions' or specifying the type of emotion.
Bias by Omission
The article focuses heavily on the views and research of D. Christopher Kayes, potentially omitting other perspectives on leadership, resilience, and workplace well-being. While this is understandable given the focus on his book, it could benefit from including contrasting viewpoints or additional research to provide a more balanced perspective.
Sustainable Development Goals
The article emphasizes the importance of resilience, well-being, and addressing workplace anxiety to improve employee health and productivity. It highlights the negative impact of stress, burnout, and lack of trust on employee well-being and advocates for organizational support to foster a healthier work environment. The discussion on learning and growth as drivers of well-being further strengthens the connection to this SDG.