With all of the political polarization in the world, it’s harder than ever to separate our work and personal lives. There are many thoughts on if and how we should talk about societal issues in the office. Either way, we can't be effective leaders if we ignore the mental health of our teams. And while some folks are showing up as they always have, others are devastated and some are happy.
So how do we talk about real-life things without alienating part of the team, tearing relationships apart, or sacrificing our own beliefs? Read on, my friend, and we’ll share what we’ve learned so far.
Moving forward on purpose
In the states, it’s virtually impossible to escape conversations about the changes our country is going through. I know many of us are nervous about societal tensions erupting at work. But humans are gonna human, so as leaders we can be part of the process or we can leave it to chance. But it’s safe to say that nobody is going to leave their political views at the door.
Don’t Compromise Your Own Beliefs
No matter what we do we shouldn’t compromise what we personally believe in order to make things better for others. But this doesn’t mean we don’t listen or engage in meaningful conversation. We just have to be real about our beliefs first and foremost. Otherwise, we’ll end up resenting our teams, our companies, our clients, and worst of all ourselves.
Focus on Understanding
On the polarizing topics of today, it’s doubtful anyone will change their opinion. Instead, we need to focus on better understanding each other. We need to avoid putting everyone in set categories. We’re all on a spectrum with reasons for our beliefs. Let’s focus on the why behind our disagreements so that we can understand each other better.
Listen with Empathy
It can be hard to hear other people when we are convinced they disagree with us. But if we can listen to them without looking for an opportunity to make our point, then maybe we can understand why they feel like they do. What experience did they have that formed their opinion? And once we understand them better, we can focus on ourselves and what caused us to feel how we do.
Allow Yourself to be Uncomfortable
Stepping outside of our own echo chambers makes us feel exposed. We want people to confirm our views. But if we can have a productive disagreement we can at least lower the amount of angst that’s lurking in the shadows.
Keep an Open Mind
We can learn more from those we disagree with than those who think as we do. Again, this isn’t about changing your position on anything, but about allowing our beliefs to be challenged and lean into them.
Know When to Call It
It’s not a perfect world and productive disagreement isn’t always possible. If someone believes factually untrue statements or doesn’t respect the humanity of others, it’s going to be a short discussion. But if we can all agree on a baseline of human rights, then the tough conversations can get us to deeper insights and stronger solutions to the problems we’re all facing.
Leading these days is damned hard. Especially when people on your team may have views you vehemently oppose. But if all are truly welcome, then we have to be able to find a way to have deeper conversations about who we are as individuals.