创造优雅自信的文化

Lessons from Lauren Currie

Lauren Crichton

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Imagine an organization where every employee feels equally able to speak up, share ideas, and challenge the status quo. 这就是自信文化的样子, 几乎每一家进步的公司都渴望这样做. 但在大多数组织中，这仍然不是现实. Today, 33% of people 相信他们的组织文化不支持直言不讳. And only 1% of employees 感到“非常自信”地分享他们在工作中的担忧. So what needs to change?

对劳伦·柯里来说，答案就在自信这个概念本身. Lauren is the founder of UPFRONT, an organization dedicated to changing confidence, visibility, and power for 1 million women. An acclaimed activist and entrepreneur, Lauren is building the change she wants to see in the world. 我和劳伦谈了为什么我们需要重新定义自信, 新的自信是什么样子啊, and how Learning & 人员团队可以在整个组织中培养它.

我们需要重新定义信心

社会告诉我们关于自信的错误信息, 这阻碍了我们和我们的组织. 除了被告知自信是与生俱来的之外, we’ve been led to believe that only one kind of confidence leads to success. That of the extroverted, cis-gendered, heterosexual, able-bodied white man. Left unaddressed, this narrow definition of confidence will keep perpetuating bias in the workplace.

经典的自信是狭隘的和排外的

Our traditional understanding of confidence is based on research from the early 1960s. 研究表明，自尊心强的人表现异常出色. It’s the Typical White Male. Calm. Strong handshake. A ‘success at all costs’ mindset. The genius going it alone.

这个60年前对信心的定义产生了严重的后果. 男性的特点——身高、自信、赚钱潜力——都是如此 highly valued. 然而，当一个女人很自信时，她就会被贴上标签 bossy or aggressive.

女性和有色人种得到的赞扬较少 more criticism. 正当的挫折被贴上了“imposter syndrome——把问题的责任转移到个人身上. But no one is born with a 预先确定的信任配额. 自信是一种技能、一种思维模式和一种行为. 它受到我们生活的世界的影响, 我们出生的文化和身体, the streets we live in, 以及社会给我们的信息.

Pushing women and people of color to fit the mold of the Typical White Male leads to lower confidence and higher rates of burnout than their white male colleagues. It even damages bodies at a cellular level.

“The problem isn’t that women aren’t confident but that confidence in women is not rewarded in the world.” Lauren Currie

“新”自信是优雅和包容的

When we stop defining confidence in relation to macho characteristics, something incredible happens. We no longer feel we have to be aggressive and rational in order to trust in our own abilities. Instead, we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable and emotional—to be kind to ourselves and others. 这就是劳伦·柯里所说的 graceful confidence. Imagine how many more people can recognize themselves as confident when we define confidence in this way.

As well as being more inclusive, this new confidence leads to commercial results. 以露露柠檬的首席执行官克里斯汀·戴为例. Her decision to lead with vulnerable confidence helped take company revenue from $297 million to $1 billion. 领导中的脆弱性允许个人拥有自己的专业知识. This breeds a more collaborative style of leadership and accountability that leads to commercial success.

Once we embrace this new, graceful confidence—one that is fluid and learnable—it opens up a rich territory for Learning & 人民领导制定一个新的、包容的标准.

树立新的信心标准

Can there be a more worthwhile and relevant mission for Learning and People teams? 创造一种自信的文化是你的 Zone of Genius. Here’s how to approach it.

获得高管角色塑造失败

高绩效的团队对彼此都有信心. 一个自信的团队的一个特点是公开 embracing failure. 自信失败的文化始于高层. 领导者必须广泛而明确地参与其中 making mistakes. 这是一种自信心态的文化. 如果没有失败文化，L&D可能需要从谷歌那里走在前面 G2G program有时候，高层管理人员培训最好是通过外部供应商提供.

无论你选择什么训练路线, the important thing is to get your C-suite role modeling as quickly as possible. Maybe they can discuss a failure at every All Hands—what went wrong and what they learned. 或者在参加团队回顾时第一个承认失败. The more your C-suite demonstrates that failure is an opportunity for learning and growth, 其他人做同样的事情就越容易.

鼓励女性拥有自己的成功

女性比男性更不可能自我推销. In a world where women are consistently judged 对于缺乏领导潜力的人来说，这是一个问题. Organizations must be proactive about supporting their women colleagues to take up more space. 一种方法是付钱让他们加入 UPFRONT Bond -一个为期六周的女性自信课程. (bond是一群女人的集体名词.)

我在2020年加入了邦德一号，它把我的关系变成了信心. I learned that, as a woman, I needed to become more visible if I wanted to internalize my own successes and use my voice. And that by publicly owning my ambition, I could show other women what is possible. Before UPFRONT, I avoided being visible online for fear of looking boastful. 但我找到了一种符合我条件的方式, 这就是我最终被萨那招募的原因. My story is one of many.

创造长期的行为改变

文化改变是个体行为的大规模改变. 我们不能通过一次性的训练来创造长期的行为改变. Research into diversity training shows that one-off sessions did decrease bias—but the results only lasted two weeks. Checking in three months later, researchers found people were so confident in their abilities that they became even more biased. 一次性的培训实际上弊大于利.

这就是为什么学习和人员团队应该建立可重复的, 行为改变的可伸缩运动. In a hybrid world, this means thinking even more carefully about the tools and skills we use to meet and collaborate.

Facilitate meetings with care

Many people struggle to speak up in meetings. 这些人更有可能 passed over for promotion. This is your responsibility. 领导者的工作是创造每个人都想贡献的会议.

One of the best ways to get everyone feeling confident to speak up is by getting them talking early. 这就是所谓的参与启动效应. 签入问题是理想的选择. Depending on the group dynamics, 你可以问一些轻松的问题，比如, “你今天早上带什么来开会??“但如果团队看起来心不在焉, you might want to encourage focus: "What's one thing you hope to contribute to this session?" The point is to work around the group so that everyone speaks up at the start of the meeting.

Facilitation tools like check-ins are most effective when they become a habit. Check-ins in particular allow us to reveal more of ourselves to each other, which in turn builds empathy. Over time, these micro-moments of relationship-building compound towards psychological safety—高绩效团队的头号贡献者.

使用互动性和包容性的技术

Your virtual meeting and collaboration tools must be able to help you distribute share of voice and create ways for people to share their ideas without speaking out loud. That’s because presenting something and then asking people to say what they think is a recipe for HiPPO syndrome.

This is where an interactive tool like Sana Live really comes into its own. Sana Live是一个虚拟会议空间 Sana platform. 它充满了这些更柔和的想法分享形式，比如便利贴, polls, quizzes, and reflection cards. You can even pull up an interactive sliding scale to let people express their state of mind or view.

Facilitators also get special powers to see who is responding to polls and quizzes—a potential clue that someone is falling behind and needs some extra support. 当然，我有偏见，因为我们每天都在使用Sana Live. But I’ve experienced firsthand the impact it has on everything from a company-wide All Hands to a team retro. There’s a balance between verbal and written contributions and more ways for people’s voices to be heard. 我们都从团队的集体才华中成长，因为它.

Now’s the time for change

灌输一种开放、优雅、自信的文化可能会让人觉得难以承受. 有太多的声音、人群和挑战需要接受. 在这些时刻，请记住:自信是一种习得的技能. It’s not innate. It’s learnable. It’s changeable.

一切可以改变的都在L里&D’s playbook. It’s where we make the biggest, most exciting, most profound changes to our organizations. With the right tools and mindset, Lauren Currie优雅自信的转变可以从今天开始.

Next up:

Zone of genius

Finding flow for every employee