Becoming a Group Flow Catalyst

Vulnerability is not weakness. ~ Dr. Brene Brown

Link to Video Modules

Access this training’s video on MightyNetworks here

Link to Related Slides

Access this training’s slides on MightyNetworks here

Key Takeaways

Sparking Group Flow & EQ

Accelerating Performance with Trust

Tactical Empathy & Active Listening

The Essence of High Performing Cultures

Dialing up Psychological Safety

Exercise - How Are You Going to Become a Group Flow Catalyst?

Glossary

Shared Goals: Everyone in the group is working towards the same end.

Ensure goals are stated, attain buy in from all stakeholders, get in sync.

Close Listening: You’re paying complete attention to what is being said.

Listen to understand, not to respond. Deploy active listening and tactical empathy.

Yes and… : Conversations are additive not combative.

Always add to the point. Even if you disagree. Power of a positive no = yes, no, yes.

Complete Concentration: Total focus in the right here, right now.

Intentionally exert extreme focus and attention while listening. Eliminate all distractions. Provide undivided attention.

A Sense of Control: Each member of the group feels in control, but flexible.

Elevate people’s sense of autonomy, freedom and choice. Never be adversarial.

Blending Egos: Each person can submerge their ego needs into the group’s.

Have, and restate the common purpose to which everyone is equally subservient.

Equal Participation: Skills levels are roughly equal for everyone involved.

Design teams of high performers. Play with people at the same level.

Familiarity: People know one another and understand their tics and tendencies.

Be the first to be vulnerable. Share openly, honestly, candidly.

Constant Communication: A group version of immediate feedback.

Be radically candid with positive intent.

Shared, Group Risk : Everyone has some skin in the game.

Acknowledge what everyone around is investing

Effective Pauses: Show the courage to stay silent, hold space and wait for the other person to talk.

Minimal Encouragements: These are your nodding and little yes/yeah/aha noises. They show you’re paying attention and encourage further sharing.

Mirroring: Repeat back the last few words that your client said to you to show understanding.

Labeling: This is a step up from mirroring. Instead of just repeating back, you are putting forward your hypothesis about how the other person is feeling.

Paraphrasing: This technique is also related to mirroring. But instead of repeating back your client’s words, you are using your own words to repeat back their statement.

Summarizing: This is a combination of mirroring, labeling and paraphrasing.

Emotional Intelligence: “From a scientific (rather than a popular) standpoint, emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately perceive your own and others’ emotions; to understand the signals that emotions send about relationships; and to manage your own and others’ emotions. It doesn’t necessarily include the qualities (like optimism, initiative, and self-confidence) that some popular definitions ascribe to it.” — John D. Mayer of UNH

Emotional Intelligence & Peak-Performance: “The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but…they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. My research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.” — Daniel Goleman, What Makes A Leader.

Self Awareness: This is the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions and drives. As well as their effect on others.

Self Management/Regulation: The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment.

Empathy: The ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and the skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions.

Social Skill: This is where we bring empathy, self-awareness and self-management together. It’s how we practice emotional intelligence.

OXYTOCIN Acronym For Building Trust:

Ovation: Show appreciation by celebrating the work well done and project completed. Simple and genuine ovations are motivating and enrich an organizational culture.

Expectation: Create challenging goals to stretch the creativity and engage the brain.

Yield: Let employees take control of their work. Train them well and give them authority to make decisions.

Transfer: Let employees decide how to transfer their skills. Encourage job rotation and flexible integrative learning.

Openness: Share information to encourage the stakeholder effect.

Caring: Show caring and empathy to create bonds of friendship.

Invest: Invest in developing the human talent of employees.

Natural: Be honest about weaknesses to share the human factors of imperfection.

The Trust Quotient Assessment: The Trust Quotient Assessment allows evaluation of trustworthiness at the individual level- as well as the aggregated trustworthiness of a department, team members, or organization.

T stands for trustworthiness—how much the buyer/client trusts the seller, or consultant.

C stands for credibility—it speaks to words and credentials.

R is reliability—how others perceive the consistency of our actions, and our actions’ connection with our words (integrity).

I is intimacy—how secure or safe the client feels sharing with us.

Self-Orientation: The lone term in the denominator is Self-Orientation. Partly it’s about selfishness. Self-orientation is also about our attention, our focus.

Psychological Safety: is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.