The obvious reason it is almost impossible for senior leaders to change the work culture for the better
Asking senior leaders to change the work culture for the better is almost like asking Lionel Messi to quit playing soccer, and instead take up swimming.
The main reason for that of course being that those leaders typically are a 20-30-40 year old product of the very culture they are supposed to change. Senior leaders are in other words deeply and unconciously SOAKED in the old ways, the old paradigm.
A paradigm in which an ever-growing stress-pandemic, “quiet quitting” and “people washing” are symptoms of a world of work (deeply) out of balance. A paradigm in which working your ass off, achieving KPI’s and climbing the corporate ladder speaks louder than mission, meaning and real human thriving.
But how can we then make the change towards the truly compassionate and inclusive workplaces that we talk so much about? Only by senior leaders undergoing deep personal change.
Change that first of all involves acknowledging that right now (dear senior leader), you ARE the culture you’re supposed to get rid of.
So how can you as a senior leader get out of the sticky gel of the old paradigm? By making a deep dive into your subconscious and discovering all your deeply entrenched patterns. For instance; in order to be more compassionate towards your employees, you need to start being truly compassionate towards yourself.
One of the best ways to discover your own deeply embedded, destructive behaviours is dreamwork. I.e. working with, understanding, the contents of your nocturnal dreams. Leaders like Barack Obama and Winston Churchill are / were known to use their dreams in this way.
Your dreams are all about what unconsciously controls your behaviour.
As scientific dream research has shown, we gain deeper personal insight, grow our self-esteem and obtain better relations with others (incl. employees and co-worders) when working with the contents of our dreams. Dreams that btw. we all have 6-8 of every night (might be that you right now don’t recall yours, but that can easily be changed).
Senior leader: It is time for you to fully face yourself – and go first in leading the new paradigm.
Talk / workshop on unconscious intelligence for leaders: https://michaelrolsen.com/talk-use-your-unconscious-intelligence-and-become-a-much-better-leader/.
General talk (internal employee meetings, seminars etc.): https://michaelrolsen.com/use-your-unconscious-intelligence-and-become-much-stronger-and-creative-at-work/
We seniors are having a hard time getting the new generation of worker’s to take a proper phone message and getting them to slow down so they can be understood on a call is met with sighs and rudeness. We are struggling to get the younger generation to spell and punctuate properly, Basic accounting and math skills elude many and, without GPS, you can’t even send them on an office errand. So, tell me again why the senior workforce is the problem.