Don't get angry. Get psychological flexibility
Mar, 2010
Research has found that if you can recognize your negative feelings, defuse them, then choose a more appropriate response, you are more likely to emerge as a leader in a self-managed team.
As a leader in a self-managed team, you can improve the performance of individual team members, you will be rated as a higher performer and you will be more satisfied with your performance.
Your colleagues who are not so proficient at hi-jacking their emotions and who respond more reactively, will tend to get shot down by your team members during conflict.
This ability to divorce yourself from your emotions is referred to as ‘psychological flexibility' in a paper released this month by Melbourne Business School's Professor Ian Williamson and organizational psychologist, Carol Gill.
She says, "Psychological flexibility, a metacognitive skill is the ability to be aware of thoughts, feelings and urges, diffuse those that are unproductive, and choose appropriate responses.
"Employees with high psychological flexibility respond reflectively rather than reactively, leading to greater perceptions of control and more behavioral choices.
"It can also improve the quality of attention, build resilience to what would normally be emotionally draining experiences and reduce burnout."
According to Carol, there is a trend away from corporate hierarchy and divisional structures toward flatter and less bureaucratic structures. When building teams in such an environment it is impractical to recruit specific personalities and cognitive abilities. Instead the tendency is to select from a pool of internal candidates, which creates an increasing prevalence of self managed teams.
This research is based on a sample of 395 MBA students, comprising 76 self-managed teams at a large Australian university.
Developing psychological flexibility is important in self managed teams for several reasons.
"First and foremost leadership must be shared in a self managed team rather than be concentrated in one person," Carol says.
"A lack of leadership behavior exhibited by one team member may contribute to a decline in group cohesiveness and have a subsequent negative impact on team performance.
"Individuals with high psychological flexibility have more attention resources to notice how much control they have in any given situation. Because they engage in less avoidant behavior, through trial and error, they also better learn how they can effectively use this control. This equips them to better influence the team's objectives, task behavior, group maintenance and culture."
Carol claims the good news is that this disposition can be developed through acceptance and commitment therapy in interventions as short as four hours.
"It involves training people to be aware of their thoughts and feelings and take control of their behavior by basing their actions on values and goals rather than their internal events," she says.
For more information or to arrange a time to speak to Carol, please call Lauraine McDonald on 0438 418584 or email Carol directly on: carol.gill@mbs.edu
