What is the impact when you discover that what keeps you energized is out of alignment with your company’s priorities? Do you attempt to force fit? Stick around and stew in your frustration? (Not recommended) Or do you try to influence the culture?
Over the last several weeks I’ve been coaching an executive who, on the surface, felt she was struggling with a values mismatch with the company she has worked for and loved for over 18 years. However, our discussions continued to get hung up around the word “values.” While she was able to quickly articulate the company’s published Corporate Values, and we also took a deep dive into her own personal values, the conversation simply didn’t resonate.
As a coach, I knew I wasn’t asking the right questions.
She and I both recognized what triggered this deep feeling of misalignment was the company’s unexpected mandate for all leaders to return to the office, in person, five days a week – effective immediately. It was a punch in the gut for an executive who, during the pandemic, moved her family, including three young children, to a new, more family friendly suburban location that placed her close to two hours away from her designated work location.
The announcement rocketed her into a place of catabolic, negative energy. In her own words, it felt like a betrayal after her years of service and dedication. And, after she (and many others) had shown they were just as effective – if not more effective – in their remote locations. This toxic energy was gaining a life of its own within her, and it was beginning to impact how she was showing up at work with her clients, leaders, and team. And she knew it.
Getting emotionally caught up in the “all or nothing” impact of the mandate clouded her ability to consider her level of influence, as an executive, regarding the policy. It also compromised her ability to consider alternative options.
Recognizing her passion for her job, I asked her, “What has kept you engaged and devoted to this company for 18 years?”
It was a breakthrough moment. She didn’t miss a beat answering me. Two items: Her ability to make an impact and…the company’s commitment to employee well-being and work/life harmony. In fact, she shared how the company surrounded her with support, extra time, and resources during a life event several years earlier. As she shared, she smiled and snapped out of her catabolic funk.
There it was. The return to office mandate violated one of the two core items that kept her – and many, many other leaders – engaged. Commitment to well-being and work/life balance.
This realization provided her the talking points she needed to have a positive, impactful conversation with senior leadership. To propose and consider alternatives from a place of engagement rather than anger. To share how deeply she treasured her time with the company, and the values they’ve modeled consistently up to this point.
Shifting the conversation made such an impact this leader and her peers are now posing the same question to their own teams. How cool is that?
Oh, and in case you’re wondering. The company did rethink their mandate, recentered themselves around their corporate values, and altered the policy to offer more flexibility.
