Gina Gardiner
How to cure the epidemic of learned helplessness?
This is what I have decided to chat about today with my good friend Rachel. I'm currently working towards the launch of a new and exciting leadership programme and also working with lots of businesses helping them solve their management and leadership issues. I get to see a *lot* of learned helplessness in these workplaces. Essentially the teams have been 'trained', albeit inadvertently, by their leaders to do exactly the opposite of what the managers say they want their staff to be! They have learned to always ask the boss first, they have learned that taking a risk, even a considered one, is not worth it without first running it past the boss. They have learned to stick to what they know is safe and not risk the potential of the boss's disapproval. Yet, to a one, each of the 'bosses' talk of wanting a team that is proactively using their individual creativity, their intelligence and their greater knowledge of the 'front-line' for the good of the business. These bosses talk about wanting to create an 'empowered' culture. So how on earth does this gap develop? We're going to chat about it *and* we're going to talk about how it is possible to cure this helplessness epidemic...
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