Have you heard any workplace culture gurus say that you can only learn from your mistakes? We disagree. While analysing what went wrong has its place, constantly focusing on deficits can be draining and demotivating. What if we flipped the script? Enter strengths-based reflective practice, a powerful approach that builds you up by focusing on what you do best.

What is Strengths-Based Reflection?

Instead of starting with “What did I mess up?” strengths-based reflection asks, “What went well, and why?” It’s a purposeful process of identifying your successes, no matter how small, and exploring the specific skills and personal qualities you used to achieve them. It’s not about ignoring challenges; it’s about approaching them from a position of competence and resourcefulness. Think of it as building on a solid foundation rather than just patching up cracks. By understanding the ingredients of your success, you create a recipe you can use again and again.

Learning and Improving Through Strengths

Focusing on your strengths is a game-changer for professional and personal growth. It builds confidence and motivation, reminding you of what you’re capable of. This positive reinforcement creates a powerful feedback loop that energizes you to take on new challenges.

So, how do you turn this reflection into action?

1. Pinpoint a Success: Think of a recent situation where you felt effective or proud. It could be skillfully de-escalating a tense meeting, finishing a complex task, or offering a colleague the perfect piece of advice.
2. Analyze Your Strengths: Ask yourself:
   • What specific skills did I use? (e.g., clear communication, critical thinking, empathy, organization).
   • What personal qualities helped me? (e.g., patience, creativity, determination).
   • What conditions allowed me to succeed? (e.g., good preparation, a supportive environment).
3. Frame Improvement Actions Positively: Now, look forward. Instead of thinking, “I need to be less disorganised,” try framing it as, “How can I use my strength for creative problem-solving to set up a better organizational system?” or “Given my success in communicating clearly on that project, how can I apply that same skill to my weekly team updates?” This approach turns improvement into an act of leveraging your talents rather than fixing your flaws.

But what about those that didn’t go to plan

You can use the same approach but you can add in an ingredient which is about whether there was a character strength overplayed or underplayed – for example, ask “Was I too creative in my approach and did I need to show more perspective?” or “Did I misread them and do I need to support my social intelligence with better research before engaging with them again?”

The Secret Ingredient: Self-Compassion ❤️

This entire process is underpinned by self-compassion. It’s about treating yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer a friend. We all have moments where we fall short. When reflecting on a tougher situation, avoid harsh self-judgment.

Acknowledge the difficulty with curiosity, not criticism. Ask, “That was challenging. What strength could I have leaned on more?” or “What can I learn from this experience for next time?” Self-compassion allows you to learn from the full spectrum of your experiences without the baggage of shame or burnout. It’s the safety net that makes honest reflection possible, ensuring that your journey of growth is sustainable and, most importantly, kind.

And then. give yourself a little reward for having the courage to engage in honest but self-compassionate reflective practice.

If you would like to explore ways that we can help you to build reflective practice or with any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

For years, organisations have tackled psychosocial hazards like stress, burnout, and poor workplace culture using a traditional risk management model. It’s a familiar process: identify the problem, assess the risk, and implement a control. While well-intentioned and often required by regulators, this “find-and-fix” approach can feel like a compliance-driven game of whack-a-mole. It focuses entirely on what’s wrong, often creating a culture of blame-avoidance rather than genuine wellbeing.

That’s why we went looking for better ways to help organisations and people build psychologically and psychosocially safe workplaces.

We asked: “What if we flipped the script? What if, instead of hunting for hazards, we started searching for what gives our workplace life?” Here is what we came up with.

It is the power of combining Appreciative Inquiry (AI) with the PERMAH model of wellbeing. It’s a proactive, human-centric approach that doesn’t just prevent harm – it actively cultivates a thriving work environment.

The Old Model vs. The New Mindset

The traditional risk management model is inherently deficit-based. It asks questions like:

• “What’s causing stress?”
• “Why is communication failing?”
• “How do we stop bullying?”

This line of questioning puts teams on the defensive and focuses energy on problems.

In contrast, Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based methodology. It operates on the simple premise that organisations move in the direction of the questions they ask. AI seeks to understand and amplify the “positive core”—the best of what is and what has been.

This is where the PERMAH model provides the perfect framework. Based on the ground breaking wellbeing theory of Professor Martin Seligman, it sets out six core pillars of flourishing:

• Positive Emotion : Experiencing joy, hope, and optimism.
• Engagement : Being fully absorbed and in “flow” with your work.
• Relationships : Having strong, supportive connections with others.
• Meaning: Feeling connected to a purpose greater than oneself.
• Accomplishment: A sense of achievement and mastery.
• Health: Physical wellbeing through sleep, nutrition, and movement.

How the Partnership Works in Practice

Instead of using a checklist to find deficits, you use AI to explore moments of peak performance through the lens of PERMAH. The questions change dramatically:

This process doesn’t ignore problems. Instead, it uncovers the root causes of success and wellbeing. By discovering what works, teams can consciously design and create more of those conditions, embedding them into their culture. You identify the ingredients of a great day at work and find ways to make them happen more often.

Why This Approach Is More Effective

There are a host of reasons why adopting a strengths-based approach produces better outcomes because it:

1. Builds Psychological Safety: Focusing on strengths and successes creates a safe environment for open dialogue. People are more willing to contribute when the goal is to build on positives rather than assign blame for negatives.
2. Generates Ownership & Energy: AI is a deeply collaborative process. It invites everyone to co-create a better workplace, leading to greater buy-in and a genuine desire to implement change. The process itself is energising and builds morale because people are part of it.
3. Creates Proactive & Lasting Change: A traditional model reacts to problems. This approach proactively builds the foundations of a positive culture. A workplace rich in PERMAH is naturally more resilient to psychosocial hazards. It’s the difference between constantly patching a leaky boat and building a stronger, more buoyant one from the start.

By shifting from a deficit-based mindset to one of appreciation and potential, we move beyond mere compliance. We start building workplaces where people don’t just survive—they truly thrive.

If you would like to explore how we can help you to change the game in your workplace with your own BETTER Workplace Team or with any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Leadership isn’t just about strategy, execution, and results. At its best, it’s also about inspiration. When leaders tap into creativity, they not only solve problems in fresh ways—they also spark curiosity, energy, and deeper engagement from their teams.

Creativity in leadership is powerful because it:

• Builds trust and openness – Creative leaders are seen as adaptable and approachable, encouraging others to contribute new ideas.

• Boosts motivation – People feel more invested when they know their contributions can shape outcomes.

• Drives innovation – Creativity helps teams find unique solutions rather than recycling old approaches.

• Fosters resilience – In uncertain times, creativity gives teams the flexibility to pivot and adapt.

In short, creativity makes leadership more human, dynamic, and engaging. It transforms the workplace from a routine environment into a space where people feel free to imagine and contribute.

HOW TO ADD CREATIVITY TO YOUR LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

So, how can leaders bring more creativity into their style of leadership? Here are six practical ways:

1. ASK “WHAT IF?” QUESTIONS

Instead of sticking to yes/no or black-and-white problem solving, ask open-ended questions. “What if we tried this?” or “What’s another way to look at this challenge?” sparks innovation and invites input from the whole team.

2. ENCOURAGE EXPERIMENTATION

A creative leader creates safe spaces for trial and error. Allowing small experiments reduces fear of failure and builds confidence in thinking outside the box. Even ideas that don’t work can lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

3. USE STORYTELLING

Facts inform, but stories inspire. Creative leaders use stories to connect ideas, share vision, and make complex concepts relatable. This approach engages both hearts and minds, helping people see themselves in the bigger picture.

4. BLEND PERSPECTIVES

Diverse voices are fuel for creativity. Seek out insights from across roles, departments, and backgrounds. By drawing from different perspectives, leaders generate richer ideas and show they value contributions from every corner of the organisation.

5. MODEL PLAYFULNESS AND CURIOSITY

Creativity thrives in environments where curiosity is encouraged. Leaders who show a sense of play, ask genuine questions, and demonstrate curiosity signal to others that it’s okay to think differently and push boundaries.

6. CELEBRATE CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS

Recognize not just outcomes, but also the creativity behind them. Celebrate bold ideas, unique approaches, and innovative problem-solving efforts. When people see their creativity being valued, they are more motivated to keep contributing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Leadership that embraces creativity is leadership that engages. By encouraging experimentation, storytelling, curiosity, and diverse input, leaders cultivate a culture where innovation feels natural—and where people are excited to be part of the journey.

If you would like to explore ways that we can help you to build resilience practice or with any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Science tells us that the practice of gratitude is great for our personal wellbeing as well as for anyone who we give thanks to or show gratitude towards in other ways. This week, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving which is centred on the practice of gratitude so what better time to explore the Gratitude App – Sharetree – and ways that you can use it to support your practice of gratitude.  

Giving gratitude context 

Have you ever had  someone say “thank you” or “great job” or something else that is acknowledging and complimentary and then scratched your head and asked yourself “why did they say that?”  or “what exactly are they grateful for?”

Do you think that, when you express gratitude, it would be helpful both to you and to the recipient to provide the context? For example, instead of just saying “thank you for a great job”, what difference would it make if I say “thank you for doing the research and coming up with  the plan. I really appreciate the work that you put into it and the clarity in your presentation, That made the decision much easier for us to make.” 

It makes a lot of difference, doesn’t it? It is better for both my appreciation of the strengths of that person and for their feeling acknowledged for those strengths and the positive impact that they have had by applying them.

That is just one of the things that the Sharetree App helps you to do.

What is Sharetree?

Sharetree is a platform designed to develop positive workplace cultures at organisational, team and individual level through the practice of gratitude and strengths acknowledgement.

It utilises a strengths framework from the Virtues Project that includes 120 different character strengths sitting in 12 groups – purposefulness, hope, wisdom, truthfulness, trustworthiness, love, compassion, courage, respect, tolerance, mindfulness and self-discipline.

Each of the 120 character strengths has a Character Card describing what it is and what behaviours exemplify that strength in practice. That which helps us to understand the strength and relate it to what we see in the words and actions of ourselves and others…and then provide properly contextualised feedback.

You can download the Sharetree App and access video tutorials ion using it at https://sharetree.org/sharetree-app/

Ways to use Sharetree

There are a number of ways in which you can use the Sharetree platform, the app, the character cards and other programs that Sharetree offers – here are 6  of them::

1. Know your own strengths: learn what your character strengths are by using the Character Self Profiling tool on the app and then explore the ways that they manifest in your everyday life.
2. Undertake the 30 Day Character Growth exercise: build gratitude practice into your daily schedule at a time that works for you. 
3. Journal your daily character experiences: use the Gratitude Journal facility on the App to embed your own gratitude practice and build a record that you can access and reflect on at any time.
4. Acknowledge another’s character strengths in action: send someone a genuine and timely expression of gratitude in the context of the character strengths that the person showed and how they did that to give your feedback powerful context. That leaf when accepted will attach to that person’s personal Sharetree which shows the strengths that others are acknowledging them for.
5. Learn from your own and other’s personal Sharetrees: each individual has their own personal Sharetree which shows the strengths that they have been acknowledged for. Review yours to see what is working well and where you might have opportunities for improvement and review other’s Sharetrees to see haw you might learn from each other.
6. Form a group with your colleagues: by sharing your strengths practices with each other, you can encourage each other’s participation, learn from each other and even start to explore common strengths and opportunities for development for the group.

Sharetree also offers a range of corporate programs which can be used to develop and measure character-centred workplace cultures and psychologically safe workplaces.

PosWork Founder, Peter Maguire, is an accredited Sharetree Culture Practitioner.

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

Do you have a growth mindset and what difference does it make to your wellbeing and relationships if you do? Here we explore how the theory on growth and fixed mindsets, first introduced by psychologist Carol Dweck, plays out in a work setting.

A person’s mindset can significantly influence their performance, their relationships with colleagues, and their overall success. It can make a difference to how individuals approach challenges, development, and collaboration.

Understanding how growth and fixed mindsets manifest in work environments can lead to improved cultures, greater innovation, and enhanced personal satisfaction.

Growth Mindset at Work

A growth mindset is the belief that skills and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and continuous learning.

People with this mindset thrive in environments that encourage experimentation, feedback, and collaboration.

They tend to see challenges as opportunities for improvement rather than as threats and they tend to focus on what they can learn from an experience and what improvements can be made rather than allowing perceived obstacles or uncertainties get in the way of progress.

In practical terms, employees with a growth mindset:

1. Embrace challenges: They willingly take on tasks that push their limits, seeing them as opportunities to expand their capabilities. Whether it’s learning a new skill or taking on a demanding project, they approach the situation with a problem-solving attitude.

2. Persist through setbacks: Rather than seeing a mistake or failure as a reflection of their abilities, they view it as a temporary issue that can be solved with effort and adjustment. This resilience allows them to bounce back from difficulties with a focus on improvement.

3. Seek feedback: Individuals with a growth mindset actively seek feedback to learn how they can improve. They view constructive criticism as a valuable tool for self-improvement and are more likely to use it to refine their skills and performance.

4. Collaborate openly: They are willing to share knowledge and ask questions, believing that learning from others is an essential part of growth. They support the growth of their colleagues, creating a cooperative and forward-thinking work culture.

A growth mindset in the workplace leads to a higher level of innovation, as employees are more willing to take calculated risks and explore new solutions without the fear of failure. It also creates a positive environment where teams support each other and are not afraid to make mistakes in the pursuit of progress.

Fixed Mindset at Work

On the other hand, a fixed mindset is the belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents are static traits that cannot be significantly changed eg I am who I am and you’ll just have to accept me as I am.

People with a fixed mindset often avoid situations where they may fail or appear less competent, leading to stagnation in their professional development.

In the workplace, this mindset can manifest in several detrimental ways:

1. Fear of failure: Employees with a fixed mindset tend to shy away from challenging tasks or projects that might expose their weaknesses. They prefer sticking to what they already know, which limits their opportunities for growth.

2. Avoidance of feedback: They often resist feedback, perceiving it as personal criticism rather than constructive advice. This can lead to defensiveness or complacency, hindering their ability to learn from mistakes.

3. Blame culture: People with a fixed mindset may place blame on external factors or colleagues when things go wrong, as accepting responsibility would challenge their belief in their fixed abilities. This can also be an issue when issues arise in workplaces and workplace processes are targeted on finding fault and applying consequences rather than exercising curiosity to generate consensus solutions.

4. Undermining collaboration: Because they see skills as static, they may be reluctant to collaborate openly, fearing that others will outshine them or highlight their weaknesses. This can result in a competitive, rather than cooperative, work culture.

People with a fixed mindset are more likely to be threatened by change because they want things to stay as they are rather than venture into the uncertainty of something new. This is one of the reasons why change management always comes up as a significant area for improvement in employee satisfaction surveys.

Fostering a Growth Mindset Culture

To foster a growth mindset in the workplace, leaders need to emphasise the importance of learning, effort, and improvement over natural talent or immediate success. Encouraging employees to take risks, learn from failure, and seek ongoing development is key. This can be achieved by:

1. Praising effort and learning: Managers should focus on recognizing the process employees go through to achieve results rather than just the outcomes. This reinforces the idea that effort leads to improvement.

2. Providing constructive feedback: Rather than merely pointing out mistakes, feedback should offer clear guidance on how to improve and grow. This helps employees see challenges as areas for development.

3. Encouraging collaboration: A workplace that encourages the sharing of ideas and learning from others will naturally promote a growth mindset.

What can also be helpful is aiding employees to understand their inherent strengths by using character strengths instruments like VIA Character Strengths and giving them opportunities to use their signature strengths as well as supporting them when they need to leverage their lesser strengths.

Fostering a growth mindset mentality plays an important part in developing and maintaining a psychologically safe workplace culture because it encourages people to speak up and to work together to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards and to not be bystanders.

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.

What a difference it makes if you look at challenges in life and business through the lens of positive psychology!  What would happen if you looked at psychosocial hazards that way?  

This morning, PosWork’s Lee-Anne Hunt and Peter Maguire presented at a Whitehorse Business Group breakfast where they spoke about the new positive duties to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards and to prevent sexual harassment and gender-based behaviours.

It was a highly interactive session with people engaging in groups to explore psychosocial hazards and how they can present in practice and discussing ways to deal with them.

Lee-Anne and Peter also spoke about psychosocial strengths – looking at the hazards in the context of the things you do well in each particular area of hazard and how you can leverage and build on those strengths to recognise what you do well and build on that in a positive way.

That totally changes the mindset and the conversations and the engagement and the outcomes…..and it is a lot more fun.

If you would like to explore how we can help you to deal with positive duties in a positive way for your people and organisation, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

You love the fact that this manager is always on top of everything that is going on in his team but is he actually micro-managing and creating risks to psychological safety for himself, his team and your business? Did you know that micro-managing is associated with a number of the psychosocial hazards in Safe Work Australia’s “Model code for managing psychosocial hazards at work”? 

So what is micro-management?

Essentially, micro-management happens when an employee is subjected to excessive scrutiny, overly constant supervision, and an intrusive level of management involvement in the performance of their work.

Often, the manager might not realise that they are micro managing – they might think that  they are just  ensuring productivity and quality or being available to help but they are inadvertently sending a message to the employee that they don’t trust them to do it themselves.  This can be extremely detrimental to both the professional and personal well-being of employees.

How does micro-management affect people?

When employees feel constantly monitored and questioned, it creates an environment of suspicion and unease. That erodes trust which is a foundational element of any healthy work relationship and, in turn, that leads to decreased morale and engagement among team members.

Employees may become hesitant to take initiatives or make decisions, fearing constant scrutiny and potential criticism. They can be reluctant to put their hands up to take on additional tasks or responsibilities if they believe that that will result in potentially more scrutiny and exposure to criticism.

That can also lead to people feeling pressured and anxious which can result in them experiencing increased stress and burnout.

That is why micro-management is associated with psychosocial hazards.

What does micro-management look like?

The truth is that different people need different levels of supervision and different people want different levels of supervision – and those needs and wants don’t always align. 

So it can look different for different people.

A common trap is to adopt the same approach with everyone doing similar roles or within a team – for example, if one person is consistently getting things right and has proven that they know their stuff, do they require the same level of supervision as someone who is less experienced or lower performing? And what message are you sending them if you do apply the same level of supervision?

Sometimes, there are supervision standards that have to be applied from a governance perspective eg in medical settings or government services or the like. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to have the same process or conversation with each employee – you should be able to tailor it to the needs of both the individual and the organisation.

Moving from managing to coaching

 Gallup tells us that we will get the best results in productivity and employee wellbeing if managers become coaches for their people and especially if strengths and wellbeing are part of the conversation.

Gallup encourages regular check-ins with people by their manager/coach but that isn’t micro-management if the focus is on supporting the employee in being successful in their work rather than checking up on what they have been doing or unnecessarily requiring your sign-off on the work that they have done.

They can simply be conversations about how things are going like we have in our EngageMentality coaching model where we essentially ask four questions:

1. What’s gone well?  
2. What’s not going to plan?
3. What’s new?
4. What are we going to do about all of that?

Then you work together on the plan  with the manager/coach’s input being what is needed for the particular employee in the particular circumstances – no more and no less.

Conclusion

Micro-management is bad for business, bad for people and risky when it comes to psychosocial hazards. It is also far from enjoyable for managers who have the misfortune to be doing it and creates real risks of burnout for them.

So, as the saying goes, “let’s work smarter not harder” because micro-management is hard on everyone. 

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.

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.