Cheer on employees while coaching for best results

Requiring that employees return to the office may make life easier for bosses, but a new study from Leesman found that engagement and collaboration improve in a hybrid environment, where workers are only in the office three days at most. Allison English, deputy CEO of Leesman, says quality of interactions matter, not quantity, noting that, "In fact, we see that the greater the number of in-person days, the less the worker is generally satisfied with work-life balance, impacting engagement and their connection to the organization."

Put it into practice: Your team members may get more done by doing deep work from home and without that flexibility, English warns they may find a more accommodating employer. "If employees are micromanaged and treated like children, they'll have a lasting sense of frustration -- the best ones will find new roles that are more flexible, with more middling employees unhappily complying with strict mandates."

Cheering on employees is a vital part of coaching because it offers positive feedback and reassurance while also opening the door for deeper, more challenging conversations about performance and future goals, writes John Baldoni, executive coach and leadership speaker. "It is the role of a coach to disrupt current perceptions -- not because they are necessarily wrong -- but because doing so opens the doors to deeper self-understanding," Baldoni writes.

Put it into practice: Don't overdo the praise or it could come across as insincere. "If the amount of applause outweighs the coaching processes, you are likely not doing the individual any good," Baldoni writes.

AI is good at giving feedback based on hard data, which is often more trusted by employees than peer feedback, according to researchers from the Cambridge Judge Business School, but most people still want advice and guidance from their human bosses and coworkers. "We argue that machine failure feedback raises individuals' awareness of the potential to learn in general. This motivates individuals to allocate resources to learn more from peer failure feedback as well," the authors explain.

Put it into practice: The study, which compared feedback from people and from machines, also found that people learn from mistakes with AI feedback. "The study finds that such purely objective evaluation of failure provided by machine, whether they are GenAI or more simple software, can help someone learn better from failure based on human evaluation as well, so that's an important finding," researchers said.

LaFawn Davis, Indeed's chief people and sustainability officer, believes the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion will get worse before it gets better, but the company is helping by giving companies a "Work Wellbeing Score" to help job-seekers find a good cultural fit, as well as using AI to keep hiring "a fundamentally human process." "What we're hoping is that AI and automation just helps to make things faster and fairer by removing some of the decision-making that needs to happen so that humans can focus on the things that matter," Davis says.

If you're reading this on a screen, you're probably holding your breath or breathing shallowly and you don't even realize it, succumbing to something former Microsoft executive Linda Stone calls "email or screen apnea." Shallow breathing can send stress signals to the brain, says science journalist James Nestor, who recommends being aware of your breath, doing some breathing exercises during the day, watching how dogs and babies breathe to remind yourself of a natural rhythm and taking frequent breaks from your screen to breathe deeply.

When I was leading a spiritual community, I would often pause during specific points of the celebration and say, "Breathe deeply." Just that moment of awareness could shift the energy in the room because just pausing to take one deep breath can have an immediate calming effect.

I had never heard of "email or screen apnea," but it makes sense. After reading the article, I realized I fall prey to this syndrome, holding my breath or breathing shallowly as I read emails or scroll social media.

I have learned that it's vital to become more aware of our breath during the day. I begin each day with a session of yoga, and the teacher often spends the first part of the session having us focus on our breath and reminding us as we attempt new or challenging positions not to hold our breath. Whenever she instructs us to breathe in those tricky spots, I realize I have, indeed, been holding my breath.

I  invite you, whenever you feel a bit stressed today, to check your breathing. Are you holding your breath? Are you breathing shallowly in your chest instead of filling your belly or diaphragm with air? If so, stop, take a moment and breathe deeply.

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