OK, I’ll just come out and say it. We don’t use rotary phones in the workplace anymore, right? Our computers aren’t running on MS-DOS. We aren’t saving our work to floppy disks. We don’t listen to the dulcet tones of the model dial-up as we log in to our AOL. I don’t travel to visit my clients in a horse and buggy. 

Why? Because science and technology have improved, and we utilize the newer, more efficient tools available to us. 

So whyyyyyyy are we still cool with accepting outdated leadership strategies? Ineffective at worst and harmful at best? 

I saw a post on LinkedIn some time ago that I can’t stop thinking about. It was written by Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist and Stanford Professor. The post explored the pitfalls of having 40+ years of experience in a given role or field—specifically, the potential to fall into entrenched thinking rather than continue to question norms and long-held standards with curiosity and compassion. It’s an excellent read. 

However, the part that stuck with me was his quote from his former student, Andrew Hargadon, now a professor at the management school at UC Davis. He said…

Ok, I’m kidding. I love yoga. Truly. I have three mats: one for home, a slightly thinner one for studio travel, and a 1.5mm foldable mat for suitcase travel. I even got my yoga teacher certification a lifetime ago before I started my master’s in counseling. I wanted to learn more about how yoga can help with mental health. Ahhh, youth. The joy of wonder.

I'm sorry, 20-something-year-old Laura! While yoga has tremendous benefits for individuals, it’s ineffective as a workplace well-being intervention.

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

Something I see all too often is leaders who are overwhelmed with too much on their plate and not enough time or capacity to develop their teams properly. The result is an unbalanced workplace, where the leader or manager carries the load while their team feels unfulfilled, underdeveloped, and resentful. Leaders also resent carrying the load—creating narratives that “No one can do it better than I can,” or worse, “My team is so incompetent that I have to do the work for them.” 

This scenario is obviously not great. Big yikes. 

We're entering the holiday season, and with Thanksgiving just a few days away, we're seeing the inevitable chatter about gratitude. Gratitude can be an extraordinary tool to improve our mental health, as it reframes our current situation so we see how abundant our lives are instead of focusing on what's lacking. Having a gratitude practice works, meaning it helps us emotionally regulate and relieve stress.