The character strength of self-regulation is one that plays a significant part in how people are seen as leaders and how they see themselves as leaders. Those who are adept at managing their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours in the face of challenges or stress are positive influences on others and people to whom others turn for guidance and support. That makes for better relationships, better stress management, better decision-making and better outcomes. 

Why Self-Regulation Is Crucial for Leaders

1. Managing emotions:

Humans are emotional beings and leading people can be emotionally challenging especially where there are different views that people hold or where changes are being introduced or difficult decisions need to be made. If a leader lacks the ability for self-regulation, that can translate into negative emotions such as such as anger or frustration which might not only cloud their judgment but also negatively impact on their effectiveness as leaders. By regulating their emotions, leaders can remain calm and objective, fostering confidence among their teams.

2. Building Trust and Respect:

Teams look to their leaders for guidance and stability. They want leaders who they are confident to seek guidance from ie leaders who have their trust and respect. They want to know that their leader will be honest with them, genuinely listen to them and respond fairly and respectfully to them regardless of the issues in question. They also want to see the human in the leader through the emotions that the leader expresses; it isn’t about not expressing emotions – it is about how they are expressed and what you do with them that matters (ie how you regulate them). Leaders who consistently show the right balance with these attributes are perceived as trustworthy and are more effective in managing challenges for teams and individuals. In contrast, erratic or unpredictable behaviours can create uncertainty and lower morale, especially where no constructive action plan flows from recognition of the emotions surrounding the issue in question.

3. Enhances Decision-Making:

Self-regulated leaders approach challenges with a clear and focused mind, enabling them to make thoughtful decisions. They avoid being swayed by temporary emotions or pressures, ensuring decisions are aligned with long-term goals. However, self-regulation is also about applying good practice in inclusion of people through effective consultation processes to ensure people feel like they have a voice and can buy into the decision, even if it isn’t their preferred one. 

4. Promotes Healthy Team Dynamics:

You will have heard the words “Talk the talk!” and “Walk the walk!” Leaders who model self-regulation and live organisational values every day set the tone for the organisation. Their abilities to remain composed in stressful situations and to lead others through them effectively encourages others to do the same, reducing conflict and fostering a collaborative environment.

5. Improves Personal Well-Being:

Self-regulation isn’t just about managing outward behavior; it also helps leaders maintain their own mental and emotional health. By effectively managing stress, leaders can avoid burnout and perform at their best.

Ways Leaders Can Build Self-Regulation

1. Practice Mindfulness:

Mindfulness is a powerful tool for developing self-regulation. By focusing on the present moment and observing thoughts and emotions without judgment, leaders can build greater self-awareness and emotional control. Regular practices such as meditation or deep breathing exercises can help cultivate mindfulness.

2. Develop Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional intelligence (EI) is closely tied to self-regulation. Leaders can enhance EI by actively working on empathy, self-awareness, and social skills. Understanding their own emotional triggers and learning to manage them is a key step in strengthening self-regulation.

3. Set Clear Personal Boundaries:

Establishing boundaries around work and personal time can help leaders manage stress and avoid emotional overwhelm. When leaders prioritize self-care, they are better equipped to regulate their emotions and maintain balance.

4. Seek Feedback:

Constructive feedback from peers, mentors, or team members can provide valuable insights into areas where self-regulation can be improved. Being open to feedback demonstrates humility and a commitment to growth.

5. Practice Delayed Response:

In emotionally charged situations, leaders should pause before responding. Taking a few moments to reflect allows them to consider their words and actions carefully, reducing the likelihood of impulsive reactions.

6. Engage in Physical Activity:

Exercise is an effective way to reduce stress and improve mood. Leaders who maintain a regular fitness routine often find it easier to manage their emotions and remain composed in high-pressure situations.

7. Learn Stress Management Techniques:

Techniques such as journaling, time management, or engaging in hobbies can help leaders manage stress proactively. Finding activities that bring joy and relaxation is critical to maintaining emotional equilibrium.

Conclusion

Self-regulation is a vital skill for leaders who aspire to inspire trust, navigate challenges, and foster healthy team dynamics. By cultivating mindfulness, building emotional intelligence, and adopting stress management techniques, leaders can enhance their ability to stay composed and make thoughtful decisions. In doing so, they not only strengthen their own leadership capabilities but also create a positive and resilient organizational culture. Self-regulation is not just a leadership skill—it’s a leadership superpower.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

I want to share with you one of the most remarkable experiences I have had in my life. 

Over the past few months, I have been a volunteer on a political campaign by a first time independent candidate in our federal election.

It has been inspirational, frustrating, educational, unnerving, exciting, disappointing, challenging, rewarding – yes a real rollercoaster – and so valuable.

Here are my top 5 takes from the journey.

Growth

Our candidate was incredible. Having jumped into the ring (after multiple refusals), she grew and grew and grew with each step that she took and it was both amazing and inspiring to see.

Grounding 

Having that foundation of honest, loving, non-judgmental support through family and key supporters/leadership group provides the confidence to dare to be out there – true psychological and emotional safety and support for the leader who knows that the safety net is there to encourage and support positively and to catch them kindly.

Authenticity

One of the biggest lessons that I thought the candidate learned was quite simply: “be me”. Her signature strengths of hope and kindness were a core ingredient in her campaign. Those strengths resonated with people because they are in her essence (ie they could see the authentic her) and starkly contrasted with the political behaviours we are used to. That was really powerful.

Diversity

In any political campaign, there is a massive amount of work to be done requiring a diverse range of skills, knowledge, abilities and connections. Being able to harness those in a positive and efficient way can be a challenge and equally getting it right can be really advantageous.  This group of volunteers have had that diversity and the spirit of collaboration that really makes it work. What they achieved was extraordinary.

Community connection  

For everything above to happen, you need to have strong community connection through having a clear and aligned purpose that gets people engaged and motivated, the processes and resources to equip them to play their parts and the leadership and support to help them to do that. That happened in spades.

There were also some challenging and inspiring things that I personally experienced which I will comment on separately.

It really has been a great experience, and I have met some wonderful human beings in both our own campaign team and those of competing candidates.

It is an experience that I recommend if you have a candidate with the right purpose and values that resonate for you.

Humbly,

Peter Maguire

Practice leader, PosWork

The experience that I had here is illustrative of the difference that adopting a positive mindset and the practice of kindness and gratitude can make in leadership and the engagement and motivation of your followers. If you would like to explore the ways that we might bring these attributes to your leadership and your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

At PosWork, we believe that we have a role to play in helping community-minded small business owners to build positive relationships with others and support each other in their ventures in business and life.

That’s why we run Our Local FIRM lunches:

• to have a bit of FUN through social engagement over a meal
• to get INSPIRATION from others’ stories or news
• to build positive RELATIONSHIPS and
• to find MEANING through belonging to a positive business community  

Each month, we bring people together to share their needs, stories, triumphs and challenges.

We also have a discussion on a relevant business theme and collect songs for our playlists against the 4 Our Local FIRM pillars of Fun, Inspiration, Relationships and Meaning.

Your commitment – your time, the cost of your lunch and drinks and your contribution in discussions and with your song – and remember “no selling”.

This month, the discussion question  is: “What does the federal election result mean for small business owners?”

The playlist song theme is “Fun” = songs that put a smile on your face.

We’ll collect them and add them to the Our Local FIRM playlists on YouTube music. 

DATE: Thursday 15 May 2025

TIME: 12.00 – 2.00

LOCATION: ORA D’ORO, 28 HEWISH ROAD, CROYDON. 3136

Bookings at: https://www.trybooking.com/DBMOI

Want to know more? Call Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311

Do you recall that old saying: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? Are you having any difficulties retaining good people? Are you spending a lot of time and money on finding replacements? Perhaps you need to spend a bit more time and attention on the talent that you already have in your backyard – give them a reason to want to stay – it is much less expensive than having to replace them.

There have been 3 times in my career when, upon being advised of my resignation, my manager asked me: “Why are you leaving? We have great plans for you!”. My response in each case was: “Sorry but you forgot to tell me about them.”

I recently wrote about the SEEK’s Inaugural Australian Workplace Happiness Index Survey – see the blog here.

It found that the top three causal factors affecting Australian workers’ happiness were “purpose” and “their manager” and “day to day activities”.

New research undertaken by Gallup and Workhuman evaluated the relationship between recognition and turnover by tracking the career paths of nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024. They found that “well-recognised employees are 45% more likely to have changed organisations two years later”. Would that be true in your organisation?

The five pillars of “strategic recognition”

Through the research, Gallup and Workhuman identified 5 essential pillars of what they call “strategic recognition”. These are:

1. Fulfilling employees’ recognition expectations (the amount you receive makes sense)
2. Authentic (it isn’t just a checklist thing)
3. Personalised (one size doesn’t fit all)
4. Equitable (it’s given fairly without playing favourites)
5. Embedded in an organisation’s culture (its integrated into the day to day)

They claim that recognition practices that meet only one of these pillars delivers 2.9 times the level of employee engagement that no pillars would deliver and that, if 4 or 5 pillars are in play, the engagement level can be as high as 90%.

Inadequate reward and recognition is a prescribed psychosocial hazard

With the advent of the positive duty to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards, your reward and recognition practices are in the spotlight from compliance and risk management perspectives. That adds another layer to this question of why proper recognition of employees is important, doesn’t it?

The Model code for managing psychosocial hazards at work published by Safe Work Australia in 2022 describes “inadequate reward and recognition as:

• Jobs with low positive feedback or imbalances between effort and recognition.
• High level of unconstructive negative feedback from managers or customers.
• Low skills development opportunity or underused skills. 

The code and most of the research is focused on the feedback that people get in relation to the work that they perform and recognition of their skills and work contributions.

But is that all that there is to reward and recognition? I think it represents just the tip of the iceberg

Do you have the right approach?

When an employee comes to work with your organisation, they bring with them a lifetime of experiences, learnings and talents and their own cocktail of personal circumstances, needs and beliefs. That is simply because we are all human and all have our own individual journeys.

Most workplace’s formal reward and recognition programs don’t consider that – they just focus on technical job performance – ie the outputs. There are commonly  standard processes that people go through periodically without variation or recognition of diversity and often with subjective scoring systems that have little (if any) allowance for contextualisation to an employee’s particular circumstances.

As Gallup and Workhuman’s third essential pillar states “one size doesn’t fit all” yet most reward and recognition systems in our workplaces are “one size fits all”.

The fifth pillar is about it being integrated into the day to day. Performance reviews are just processes that happen periodically whereas the reality is that our emotional receptors are active all of the time and there are so many different ways in which we feel recognition for good or bad in our interactions with others every minute of every hour in every day.

Gallup has long advocated continuous coaching as the ideal model for employee engagement and high performance.

The “Engage for success” model of employee engagement from the UK similarly incorporates continuous coaching with weekly catchups as a key component of the “Engaging Management” pillar in that framework.

We agree and, what’s more, we think that is just the start.

My epiphany

One of the greatest learnings in my life was the incredible impact that a positive, personalised and multi-faceted approach to performance and development had on the development and wellbeing of one of my children.

The Big Picture Education program practised at Croydon Community School in Melbourne’s outer-east delivers curriculum through the lens of a child’s passions with learning aligned to the individual child’s strengths and capacities and life situation. It recognises the whole of the student – not just their ability to do the work set under the year’s curriculum. It helps children to find their true selves, get comfortable in their own skin and build confidence in using the personal assets they have ie to be themselves authentically. It should be in every Australian school.

That was one of the key inspirations for me to learn more about positive psychology and develop our whole suite of PosWork programs.

Our approach to recognition

It is embodied in our EngageMentality coaching model in a few ways.

Firstly, I identified the key components that make up an employment experience and set these as the lenses through which we address individual performance, development and recognition. These lenses are:

1. Roles  – the job that I do plus any of those other responsibilities that I might take on as a leader or an employee or safety representative or first aider, etc
2. Relationships – I rely on certain people for certain things and others rely on me for certain things
3. Values and behaviours – the behavioural attributes that we want to see practised in our organisation to make it respectful, inclusive and high performing
4. Strengths – using the VIA Character Strengths framework to use a strengths-based approach which optimises opportunities for me to use my signature strengths and to work on and be supported with my lesser strengths
5. Wellbeing – using the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey, build on my psychological safety, life balance and overall wellbeing.

We explore and address each of those items through a process of:

1. Positioning – doing a stocktake of where I sit in each of those areas
2. Planning – identifying the actions that I want to take for my performance and development, timelines for doing that and supports that I need and any people who are involved
3. Performing – implementing my plan and catching up with my manager each week for a coaching session
4. Presenting – providing me with the opportunity to showcase my achievements in performance and development and areas for further development

The coaching conversations simply involve asking and answering these 4 questions in the context of each of the 5 coaching lenses:

1. What has worked well (celebrate)?
2. What has been a struggle (recalibrate)?
3. What has changed (update)?
4. What are we going to do about all of that (activate)?

Conclusion

Recognition involves a lot more than just giving people occasional performance feedback as I have set out above.

It is essential that we recognise all of the individual and contextualise the way we do stuff to who they are.

We also need to ensure that day to day behaviours are consistent so that people feel safe to be themselves and can flourish by design.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

To us, the findings from SEEK’s inaugural Workplace Happiness Index survey are no surprise – study after study has shown much the same findings about the factors that are most important to people feeling happy at work. Let’s have a look at them.  

According to SEEK’s Head of Customer Insights and Strategy, Aimee Hutton: “The aim of this inaugural Workplace Index is to spotlight the strongest opportunities to improve happiness at work for both employees and employers and, ultimately, drive a happier workforce in Australia”.

You might think that pay and promotional opportunities and flexible working would be among the key factors that people reported as the things that make for a happy life at work. Not according to this study which found that the top 5 factors ranked as the most important for happiness at work were:

1. Purpose
2. Their manager
3. Day to day responsibilities
4. Company culture
5. Stress levels

Salary came in at a distant #9.

So why are we not surprised?

Because we have known it for years, for example:

1. In 2009, “Engage for success”, the report on employee engagement commissioned by the UK Government and created by Robert Macleod and Nita Clarke was published. We use their 4 pillars of engagement in our Better Workplace Projects and the first of those pillars is “Strong strategic narrative”, the centrepiece of which is “Purpose”
2. Again in 2009, the famous Simon Sinek published his celebrated work “Start with Why” which is all about purpose being at the heart of successful organisations.
3. Then in 2011, Professor Martin Seligman’s masterpiece “Flourish” was published. It sets out the 5 pillars of wellbeing that are necessary for living a flourishing life – the PERMA model in which the “M” stands for “meaning”. It is on his work that the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey that we use in our Better coaching process is based.

That’s why we aren’t surprised that “purpose” has come out as the #1 factor for happiness at work. There is a huge body of evidence that has been telling us that for years.

Looking at #2, the second pillar in the Engage for Success framework is “Engaging management” which is about providing people with clarity of role and expectations, equipping them to be successful and coaching them to be the best that they can be. That is, it is about THEIR MANAGER enabling and supporting their people to be successful in managing their DAY TO DAY RESPONSIBILITIES.

Additionally, Gallup has been telling us for decades that the first line manager is the most dominant causal factor in whether an employee decides to stay or to go. They also preach a coaching model where there are regular catchups between an employee and THEIR MANAGER and they feel trusted and supported in undertaking their DAY TO DAY RESPONSIBILITIES.

So there isn’t really anything new in these latest findings from SEEK, is there?

Our “EngageMentality Coaching” model has been specifically designed to help managers to become coaches and be a reason why people want to stay because they feel trusted, supported and appreciated.

Perks are nice but…….

Over the last couple of years, we have seen new positive duties being introduced to prevent sexual harassment and gender-based behaviour and to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards. That is because, in too many workplaces, people aren’t enjoying work – the SEEK study showed that nearly half of the people surveyed said they were not happy at work.

The COVID experience has had the effect of causing people to reevaluate their priorities in life and what they want to do in a work sense, who they want to do it with and where they want to do it.

The value of the SEEK news is that it brings us back to what really matters when it comes to how we help people to enjoy work and be productive so that business and employees flourish together.

That is what PosWork is about – we have the tools and programs to help your workplace to flourish by design.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Gallup has released a “2024 Employee Engagement Strategy Checklist” in which it tells us that 44% of employees worldwide say they are stressed and proposes some things that organisations can do to get people more engaged and less stressed. 

Here is Gallup’s list:

1. Check in on your managers because they are more likely to be feeling burned out and stressed and you need them to feel supported and capable of leading their people effectively.
2. Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with employees in which they recognise strengths and achievements, set and refine goals and priorities and support then in relationships and collaboration.
3. Prioritise promoting vision and purpose, especially among remote workers for whom Gallup’s research says that only 28% feel connected to their organisation’s mission and purpose.
4. Measure engagement to show employees that you care about their feedback and want to know how they are doing.
5. Take action on survey results – nothing builds positive momentum for an engagement initiative more than asking for feedback, doing something about it and sharing and celebrating positive results.

They say that their research shows that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged, regardless of how many days they worked in the office.

When it comes to having meaningful conversations with employees, Gallup said that they should include:

1. Recognition or appreciation of recent work
2. Collaboration and relationships
3. Current goals and priorities at work
4. Employee strengths and the things that they do well

How long should these conversations be? If they are done regularly (ie weekly), they should take no longer than 15 to 30 minutes.

Our EngageMentality Model

This is a continuous coaching model which incorporates all of the features that Gallup recommends plus more.

We did our own research on the things that we believe impact on an employment experience and by extension employee engagement and wellbeing – these “coaching lenses” are:

1. Roles  – the job that I do plus any of those other responsibilities that I might take on as a leader or an employee or safety representative or first aider, etc
2. Relationships – I rely on certain people for certain things and others rely on me for certain things
3. Values and behaviours – the behavioural attributes that we want to see practised in our organisation to make it respectful, inclusive and high performing
4. Strengths – using the VIA Character Strengths framework to use a strengths-based approach which optimises opportunities for me to use my signature strengths and to work on and be supported with my lesser strengths
5. Wellbeing – using the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey, build on my psychological safety, life balance and overall wellbeing. 

We explore and address each of those items through a process of:

1. Positioning – doing a stocktake of where I sit in each of those areas
2. Planning – identifying the actions that I want to take for my performance and development, timelines for doing that and supports that I need and any people who are involved
3. Performing – implementing my plan and catching up with my manager each week for a coaching session
4. Presenting – providing me with the opportunity to showcase my achievements in performance and development and areas for further development 

The coaching conversations simply involve asking and answering these 4 questions in the context of each of the 5 coaching lenses:

1. What has worked well (celebrate)?
2. What has been a struggle (recalibrate)?
3. What has changed (update)?
4. What are we going to do about all of that (activate)?

If you would like to explore our EngageMentality process or any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

I have recently been exploring research on why it is worthwhile for people to understand and use their character strengths. In the process, I came across an excellent publication by The Strengths Lab, a Michelle McQuaid Program which sets out a Business Case for Strengths citing 10 reasons overwhelmingly supported by authoritative research.   

So, in summary, investing in strengths delivers massive paybacks through increases in employee engagement, staff health wellbeing and happiness, productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction and reductions in absenteeism, depression and staff turnover.

That sounds like a pretty good business case to me.

Acknowledgement: content on the 10 reasons is drawn from “Introduction to strengths – The Business Case for Strengths published by The Strengths Lab, a Michelle McQuaid Program” . Refer https://www.michellemcquaid.com/.

Interested in learning more about PosWork’s strengths coaching services? Call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

I recently watched a video on Linkedin which featured expert employment and WHS lawyer, Andrew Douglas, talking about psychological safety in the workplace. In that, he spoke about the role that work plays as a haven from everyday personal stresses and anxieties and that really resonated. So I thought I should explore that concept further and here are a few thoughts.

Try the survey free at https://permahsurvey.com/

iInterested in learning more about PosWork’s workplace wellbeing and psychologically safe workplace services? Call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Want to know more about how we can help you define your EVP and make it real? Call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.