![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/a\/AVvXsEj-Bq-ejQ0hg9xX-BQe4GM876eGRzbHomwrla8iuXm4kP7dULPmYXnoYsBsJpZFryrmbmSNvTVFdrxC55Ed990qOcS8I9qaQhdl527KomUb9nME52SKPpYwTz5sviYBGgF6IhJ3W9Ryi5T1qb6w2qfF4GFqWFYOpaPtkXaIdg-h3xovPzJDvBUSzeUu=w640-h360\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\nOn remote teams, hold space for sadness.<\/span><\/h2>\nI published my How to connect in remote teams<\/a> post one month ago. But this post is about something ten times
\nmore important. It\u2019s not about celebrating and having good times with
\nyour fellow remote workers. It is about the opposite. Of all of the twelve months of the year to pick from to really dwell on this topic, October<\/b> is it; no better month than the one directly preceding Dia del Muertos<\/b> or All Saints Day<\/b>. We\u2019re
\n decorating with black cats, skeletons, and coffins. This is the month
\nto acknowledge death as part of the circle of life. Depending on your
\nspiritual beliefs, death and loss are absolutely necessary in our
\nunderstanding of life. This article is for remote managers and it is
\nabout the importance of holding space for grief.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When
\n I used to train new mid-level managers, one of the very first to-do
\nlist items I would give them would be: \u201cGo to the store and buy a box of
\n sympathy cards. You will need those far more than you ever
\nimagined.\u201d Why is that so important? Because death, loss, and grief are a
\n part of life and most of our culture pushes against acknowledging
\nit. As the manager, you will now know more of your team\u2019s heartaches,
\nsome of which will be shared, but most will be private. I sent out five
\nsympathy cards for every one that my remote team might<\/i> know
\nabout. Because it was private that someone\u2019s cat died just before a
\nresearch conference. It was private that someone\u2019s grandfather passed
\naway and their grandfather raised them. It was private. It was quiet. It
\n wasn\u2019t spoken of. And it happens fast. And it happens often.<\/span><\/p>\nOK, you say, isn\u2019t there a 3 day bereavement leave allowance at
\nyour workplace? Just grant that as the manager and move on. That\u2019s your
\nmanagerial responsibility and it ends there.<\/span><\/p>\nNo. First, despite those immediately two preceding paragraphs, I\u2019m not necessarily talking all about death grief. I\u2019m talking about loss<\/i> grief. <\/b> Loss. <\/b>
\n The grief we feel as professors when we lose a student to academic
\nfailure. That\u2019s a biggie and inside this long article, I\u2019ll spend the
\nmost time on that topic. Also the grief we feel when the next wave of
\nchange knocks us back a few steps in our careers. The grief when the
\npaycheck isn\u2019t enough to cover your life problems. The grief when you
\npet has died and your home office is so silent, you can\u2019t stand it. The
\ngrief of a cancer diagnosis. The grief when a national election didn\u2019t
\ngo your way. And I\u2019m now talking more about empathy than sympathy. <\/span><\/p>\nAs a remote manager, I want you to leave space in your team meetings for sadness. <\/b> Think of it like a chair left open, on purpose. Leave space for sadness. It\u2019s important. <\/span><\/p>\nHow did I learn this? We have to go back to 2012.<\/span><\/p>\nThe
\n university I worked for decided to change the name of my department
\nfrom Liberal Arts to General Education. There were a few old school
\nprofessor types that grumbled. I was a new manager and I didn\u2019t
\nunderstand why. It\u2019s just a name change. One of the more experienced
\nmanagers coached me through the emotionalism of what was happening. She
\nguided, \u201cIt\u2019s only proper to say a few words for the dearly departed.<\/i>\u201d
\n What? Who died? As I listened to the concerns of faculty though, I
\nbegan to understand that they felt that were letting go of the western
\n(Greek) heritage of espousing inquiry and going for a name that felt
\nmore base. Regardless of whether I agreed, I felt empathy. The managers
\nmade space in team meetings for discussion. It was what we needed. It
\nwas not on any university agenda. I realized that it was important to
\nacknowledge that bad things, or more commonly in the work sense, undesired-for-things<\/i>, happen and we become sad. It is important to hold space. <\/span><\/p>\nLet those who are grieving, grieve. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd it’s not always private.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nLonger
\n term, I learned that this space holding was important for my team in 2
\nwork areas and 1 non-work area. Those short stories follow:<\/span><\/p>\nMost common: a faculty member loses a student. <\/span><\/h3>\nI am not referring to when a faculty member loses a student to death– although I have been one of those
\n faculty members myself. I am referring to when we lose a student due to academic
\nfailure. I doubt students know that faculty take this very much to
\nheart. The student is likely to become a university drop, which due to
\nthe online nature of the institution (read: convenient), often means
\nthat no hope is left. Often, the student has left higher education permanently.
\n I used to monitor how many fails like this we had ongoing around my
\nteam and when 2-3 of a team of 12 faculty experience this, I knew it was
\n time to talk about grief and loss and normalize it in a team meeting.
\nThe faculty members were feeling like failures themselves. They felt
\nthat they’d lost their touch in helping students. They were feeling the loss of why go on if I don’t
\nhave what it takes?<\/span><\/p>\nWhat I used as a remote manager was a combination of borrowed
\nexperts and plants (people plants, not plant plants). I had an advantage in that I had access to faculty
\nmembers trained in basic grief counseling. You can find these in
\nnursing, teaching, and the public health fields. They can come and do a
\npresentation on the stages of grief. If they are a good educator, they
\nwill mention that people move back and forth in stages, occupying more
\nthan one stage at one time, that is, that grief is not a linear path. However,
\nall you really need to do is open the door on a discussion of what it
\nfeels like to lose a student. Next, I used a plant. (Plant definition =
\nsomeone already vetted on a topic and is poised to share information
\nduring a meeting.) I would find a faculty member that perhaps weathered a
\n student loss six months prior and ask them privately in advance if
\neither: a) would they be the first to volunteer to talk about what
\nhappened or b) could I tell their story and keep their identity hidden?
\nOnce a person started to share that yes, it was sad to lose a student,
\nthe other faculty would recognize the grief feeling and start sharing
\nhelpful words centering on the theme of we are humans<\/b>. Feelings that
\ninclude the sad ones are normal. I was lucky to have 50% biologists with
\n me, so a little \u2018circle of life\u2019 talk reminds us all that good and bad
\ntimes come and go and that it is natural. And the end, we look within
\nourselves to see that we maintain our own standards. Did we help as much
\n as we could? Yes? Then we did our best. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nPolicy changes<\/span><\/h3>\nLike
\n the name change from Liberal Arts to General Education, faculty do
\ngrieve policy, functional, and departmental changes. At times like that,
\n I knew that the best thing to do was to metaphorically sit with my
\nteam, throw ashes on my head, and say \u2018woe are we\u2019 and let us stew in
\nall the sad, bad-but-will-never-come-to-pass thoughts we were
\nhaving. It\u2019s only right and valid to let those feelings happen. Again,
\nbottling that up or papering it over wasn\u2019t going to help. Leaving a gap
\n in the information wasn\u2019t going to help either. I would share all I
\ncould about the bigger picture. I knew my team well enough to know that
\nafter ten minutes of woe, someone was going to say something like \u201cWell,
\n I can think of one bright spot to this…\u201d and we would recover, one
\nsmall step at a time. Then, after the public meeting, I\u2019d check-in
\nduring private 1:1s and say \u201cHow did you think that topic went?\u201d and I\u2019d
\n get a read on who needed more counseling or a watchful eye and who was
\ngoing to be OK. <\/span><\/p>\nTo be clear, I’m not espousing that if a team
\nmember experiences a loss like a death, you add it to the team meeting
\nagenda. I’m encouraging that you monitor the critical emotional mass of
\n your team and when 20% of them are in one emotional place, hold space
\nfor it. Hold space and by doing so, create the space for unconditional
\nlove for ourselves individually and for us as a team.<\/span><\/p>\nDanielle
\nLaRock writes, “This is where true power comes from. When we are able to
\n be in unconditional love, all of our thoughts, words, and actions flow
\nfrom it. We are bringing more of that love into the world.<\/span><\/p>\nWhich means holding space isn\u2019t just beneficial for one. It benefits all.<\/span><\/p>\nBy loving ourselves, <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nwe also hold space for the world.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nTragic large scale events<\/span><\/h3>\nNow don\u2019t go into these alone, managers. Get professional help ready. Every manager should have at their fingertips<\/u>
\n the contact information for your company\u2019s counseling service. In
\nhigher ed, it is often called the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). You
\n should also give a sincere endorsement of using counseling as an OK
\nthing to do– just as normal as a daily walk or a trip to the gym. It
\nis important that you role model that taking care of one\u2019s mental health
\n is just as important as one\u2019s physical health. Make it OK to say \u201cI
\nhave a tough time dealing with\u2026, so I talk with a counselor.\u201d I know
\nthat is typically HR\u2019s Benefits area, but it is your job to normalize<\/b> it.<\/span><\/p>\nAs
\n a remote manager, do everything in your power to be able to grant
\nemergency leave for mental health days. Pick up all of their
\nappointments, meetings, and email. Signal to the team that that person
\n\u201cis unavailable\u201d for the rest of the day and don\u2019t say why. It is your
\nprerogative as manager not to provide whys on events like this; it\u2019s
\npart of the protection you can provide, holding space when team members
\nneed time to grieve privately for any reason.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Take Away<\/span><\/h3>\nBy now, you may have figured out that this was just as much a leadership article as it was a remote management article. Because setting the culture within your team that it’s OK to be sad rests with you, leaders<\/b>.
\n I’ll end with the encouragement that you check out my sources and meditate on a quote from Simon Sinek, “When a leader makes the choice to
\nput the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to
\n sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that
\nthe people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong<\/b>, remarkable things happen.”<\/span><\/p>\nSources<\/span><\/h3>\nSimon Sinek. Why good leaders make you feel safe.<\/b> May, 2014. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lmyZMtPVodo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n“Leadership
\n is a choice. It is not a rank. I know many people at the seniormost
\nlevels of organizations who are absolutely not leaders. They are
\nauthorities, and we do what they say because they have authority over
\nus, but we would not follow them. And I know many people who are at the
\nbottoms of organizations who have no authority and they are absolutely
\nleaders, and this is because they have chosen to look after the person
\nto the left of them, and they have chosen to look after the person to
\nthe right of them. This is what a leader is. \u2026We call them leaders
\nbecause they go first. We call them leaders because they take the risk
\nbefore anybody else does. We call them leaders because they will choose
\nto sacrifice so that their people may be safe and protected and so their
\n people may gain,and when we do, the natural response is that our people
\n will sacrifice for us. They will give us their blood and sweat and
\ntears to see that their leader’s vision comes to life, and when we ask
\nthem, “Why would you do that? Why would you give your blood and sweat
\nand tears for that person?” they all say the same thing: “Because they
\nwould have done it for me.” And isn’t that the organization we would all like to work in<\/b>?”<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhat It Really Means To Be There And Hold Space For Someone Else\u201d<\/b> by Danielle LaRock. Retrieved from https:\/\/tinybuddha.com\/blog\/what-it-really-means-to-be-there-and-hold-space-for-someone-else\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nBrain Craft & The entire movie Inside Out<\/b>, where Sadness is…surprise…the hero. https:\/\/youtu.be\/ST97BGCi3-w<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt’s
\n often culturally and socially reinforced that there’s something wrong
\nor shameful about feeling sad. We have this cultural bias towards
\nvaluing positive thinking. But studies have shown that those who try and
\n suppress negative thoughts actually experience more of them, which can
\nlead to overeating and a stronger stress response. Another study found
\nthat people who experience happy and sad emotions at the same time, like
\n “I’m sad or disgusted that there’s broccoli on my pizza but happy
\nbecause it means I can experience new things” show improvements in
\nmental well-being over the next few weeks, even if the mixed feelings
\nwere unpleasant at the time. Inside Out shows us that negative emotions guide our rational thinking. Sadness is a trigger for seeking comfort and bonding.<\/b>
\n We\u2019re often tough on sadness, but it\u2019s important to our understanding
\nof who we are. In his 1621 work “Anatomy of Melancholy”, Robert Burton
\nwrote that in experiencing melancholy, “increaseth sorrow\u2026
\nincreaseth wisdom.” Even those emotions we consider as negative can lead
\n to good, rational decisions.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nRemote workers and managers, I wish you a month of contemplation and I wish you space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
#connect
\n #grief #HowToConnectOnline #teamwork #management #wfh #WorkingFromHome
\n#RemoteWork #RemoteWorking #OnlineWork #OnlineWorkers #VirtualTeam
\n#AskTheOnlineManager #loss #WhenStudentsFail #Normalize #EAP
\n#EmployeeAssistanceProgram #TeamMeetings #EmergencyLeave
\n#MentalHealthDays #InsideOut #SimonSinek #BrainCraft
\n#DeathOfACoworker #HoldSpace<\/p>\n
This article was posted to LinkedIn pre-pandemic on October 1, 2019<\/p>\n
\nmore important. It\u2019s not about celebrating and having good times with
\nyour fellow remote workers. It is about the opposite. Of all of the twelve months of the year to pick from to really dwell on this topic, October<\/b> is it; no better month than the one directly preceding Dia del Muertos<\/b> or All Saints Day<\/b>. We\u2019re
\n decorating with black cats, skeletons, and coffins. This is the month
\nto acknowledge death as part of the circle of life. Depending on your
\nspiritual beliefs, death and loss are absolutely necessary in our
\nunderstanding of life. This article is for remote managers and it is
\nabout the importance of holding space for grief.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When OK, you say, isn\u2019t there a 3 day bereavement leave allowance at No. First, despite those immediately two preceding paragraphs, I\u2019m not necessarily talking all about death grief. I\u2019m talking about loss<\/i> grief. <\/b> Loss. <\/b> As a remote manager, I want you to leave space in your team meetings for sadness. <\/b> Think of it like a chair left open, on purpose. Leave space for sadness. It\u2019s important. <\/span><\/p>\n How did I learn this? We have to go back to 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n The Let those who are grieving, grieve. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it’s not always private.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Longer I am not referring to when a faculty member loses a student to death– although I have been one of those What I used as a remote manager was a combination of borrowed Like To be clear, I’m not espousing that if a team Danielle Which means holding space isn\u2019t just beneficial for one. It benefits all.<\/span><\/p>\n By loving ourselves, <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n we also hold space for the world.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now don\u2019t go into these alone, managers. Get professional help ready. Every manager should have at their fingertips<\/u> As By now, you may have figured out that this was just as much a leadership article as it was a remote management article. Because setting the culture within your team that it’s OK to be sad rests with you, leaders<\/b>. Simon Sinek. Why good leaders make you feel safe.<\/b> May, 2014. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lmyZMtPVodo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n “Leadership \u201cWhat It Really Means To Be There And Hold Space For Someone Else\u201d<\/b> by Danielle LaRock. Retrieved from https:\/\/tinybuddha.com\/blog\/what-it-really-means-to-be-there-and-hold-space-for-someone-else\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Brain Craft & The entire movie Inside Out<\/b>, where Sadness is…surprise…the hero. https:\/\/youtu.be\/ST97BGCi3-w<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt’s Remote workers and managers, I wish you a month of contemplation and I wish you space.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n #connect This article was posted to LinkedIn pre-pandemic on October 1, 2019<\/p>\n
\n I used to train new mid-level managers, one of the very first to-do
\nlist items I would give them would be: \u201cGo to the store and buy a box of
\n sympathy cards. You will need those far more than you ever
\nimagined.\u201d Why is that so important? Because death, loss, and grief are a
\n part of life and most of our culture pushes against acknowledging
\nit. As the manager, you will now know more of your team\u2019s heartaches,
\nsome of which will be shared, but most will be private. I sent out five
\nsympathy cards for every one that my remote team might<\/i> know
\nabout. Because it was private that someone\u2019s cat died just before a
\nresearch conference. It was private that someone\u2019s grandfather passed
\naway and their grandfather raised them. It was private. It was quiet. It
\n wasn\u2019t spoken of. And it happens fast. And it happens often.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nyour workplace? Just grant that as the manager and move on. That\u2019s your
\nmanagerial responsibility and it ends there.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n The grief we feel as professors when we lose a student to academic
\nfailure. That\u2019s a biggie and inside this long article, I\u2019ll spend the
\nmost time on that topic. Also the grief we feel when the next wave of
\nchange knocks us back a few steps in our careers. The grief when the
\npaycheck isn\u2019t enough to cover your life problems. The grief when you
\npet has died and your home office is so silent, you can\u2019t stand it. The
\ngrief of a cancer diagnosis. The grief when a national election didn\u2019t
\ngo your way. And I\u2019m now talking more about empathy than sympathy. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n university I worked for decided to change the name of my department
\nfrom Liberal Arts to General Education. There were a few old school
\nprofessor types that grumbled. I was a new manager and I didn\u2019t
\nunderstand why. It\u2019s just a name change. One of the more experienced
\nmanagers coached me through the emotionalism of what was happening. She
\nguided, \u201cIt\u2019s only proper to say a few words for the dearly departed.<\/i>\u201d
\n What? Who died? As I listened to the concerns of faculty though, I
\nbegan to understand that they felt that were letting go of the western
\n(Greek) heritage of espousing inquiry and going for a name that felt
\nmore base. Regardless of whether I agreed, I felt empathy. The managers
\nmade space in team meetings for discussion. It was what we needed. It
\nwas not on any university agenda. I realized that it was important to
\nacknowledge that bad things, or more commonly in the work sense, undesired-for-things<\/i>, happen and we become sad. It is important to hold space. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n term, I learned that this space holding was important for my team in 2
\nwork areas and 1 non-work area. Those short stories follow:<\/span><\/p>\nMost common: a faculty member loses a student. <\/span><\/h3>\n
\n faculty members myself. I am referring to when we lose a student due to academic
\nfailure. I doubt students know that faculty take this very much to
\nheart. The student is likely to become a university drop, which due to
\nthe online nature of the institution (read: convenient), often means
\nthat no hope is left. Often, the student has left higher education permanently.
\n I used to monitor how many fails like this we had ongoing around my
\nteam and when 2-3 of a team of 12 faculty experience this, I knew it was
\n time to talk about grief and loss and normalize it in a team meeting.
\nThe faculty members were feeling like failures themselves. They felt
\nthat they’d lost their touch in helping students. They were feeling the loss of why go on if I don’t
\nhave what it takes?<\/span><\/p>\n
\nexperts and plants (people plants, not plant plants). I had an advantage in that I had access to faculty
\nmembers trained in basic grief counseling. You can find these in
\nnursing, teaching, and the public health fields. They can come and do a
\npresentation on the stages of grief. If they are a good educator, they
\nwill mention that people move back and forth in stages, occupying more
\nthan one stage at one time, that is, that grief is not a linear path. However,
\nall you really need to do is open the door on a discussion of what it
\nfeels like to lose a student. Next, I used a plant. (Plant definition =
\nsomeone already vetted on a topic and is poised to share information
\nduring a meeting.) I would find a faculty member that perhaps weathered a
\n student loss six months prior and ask them privately in advance if
\neither: a) would they be the first to volunteer to talk about what
\nhappened or b) could I tell their story and keep their identity hidden?
\nOnce a person started to share that yes, it was sad to lose a student,
\nthe other faculty would recognize the grief feeling and start sharing
\nhelpful words centering on the theme of we are humans<\/b>. Feelings that
\ninclude the sad ones are normal. I was lucky to have 50% biologists with
\n me, so a little \u2018circle of life\u2019 talk reminds us all that good and bad
\ntimes come and go and that it is natural. And the end, we look within
\nourselves to see that we maintain our own standards. Did we help as much
\n as we could? Yes? Then we did our best. <\/span><\/p>\nPolicy changes<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n the name change from Liberal Arts to General Education, faculty do
\ngrieve policy, functional, and departmental changes. At times like that,
\n I knew that the best thing to do was to metaphorically sit with my
\nteam, throw ashes on my head, and say \u2018woe are we\u2019 and let us stew in
\nall the sad, bad-but-will-never-come-to-pass thoughts we were
\nhaving. It\u2019s only right and valid to let those feelings happen. Again,
\nbottling that up or papering it over wasn\u2019t going to help. Leaving a gap
\n in the information wasn\u2019t going to help either. I would share all I
\ncould about the bigger picture. I knew my team well enough to know that
\nafter ten minutes of woe, someone was going to say something like \u201cWell,
\n I can think of one bright spot to this…\u201d and we would recover, one
\nsmall step at a time. Then, after the public meeting, I\u2019d check-in
\nduring private 1:1s and say \u201cHow did you think that topic went?\u201d and I\u2019d
\n get a read on who needed more counseling or a watchful eye and who was
\ngoing to be OK. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nmember experiences a loss like a death, you add it to the team meeting
\nagenda. I’m encouraging that you monitor the critical emotional mass of
\n your team and when 20% of them are in one emotional place, hold space
\nfor it. Hold space and by doing so, create the space for unconditional
\nlove for ourselves individually and for us as a team.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLaRock writes, “This is where true power comes from. When we are able to
\n be in unconditional love, all of our thoughts, words, and actions flow
\nfrom it. We are bringing more of that love into the world.<\/span><\/p>\nTragic large scale events<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n the contact information for your company\u2019s counseling service. In
\nhigher ed, it is often called the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). You
\n should also give a sincere endorsement of using counseling as an OK
\nthing to do– just as normal as a daily walk or a trip to the gym. It
\nis important that you role model that taking care of one\u2019s mental health
\n is just as important as one\u2019s physical health. Make it OK to say \u201cI
\nhave a tough time dealing with\u2026, so I talk with a counselor.\u201d I know
\nthat is typically HR\u2019s Benefits area, but it is your job to normalize<\/b> it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n a remote manager, do everything in your power to be able to grant
\nemergency leave for mental health days. Pick up all of their
\nappointments, meetings, and email. Signal to the team that that person
\n\u201cis unavailable\u201d for the rest of the day and don\u2019t say why. It is your
\nprerogative as manager not to provide whys on events like this; it\u2019s
\npart of the protection you can provide, holding space when team members
\nneed time to grieve privately for any reason.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Take Away<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n I’ll end with the encouragement that you check out my sources and meditate on a quote from Simon Sinek, “When a leader makes the choice to
\nput the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to
\n sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that
\nthe people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong<\/b>, remarkable things happen.”<\/span><\/p>\nSources<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n is a choice. It is not a rank. I know many people at the seniormost
\nlevels of organizations who are absolutely not leaders. They are
\nauthorities, and we do what they say because they have authority over
\nus, but we would not follow them. And I know many people who are at the
\nbottoms of organizations who have no authority and they are absolutely
\nleaders, and this is because they have chosen to look after the person
\nto the left of them, and they have chosen to look after the person to
\nthe right of them. This is what a leader is. \u2026We call them leaders
\nbecause they go first. We call them leaders because they take the risk
\nbefore anybody else does. We call them leaders because they will choose
\nto sacrifice so that their people may be safe and protected and so their
\n people may gain,and when we do, the natural response is that our people
\n will sacrifice for us. They will give us their blood and sweat and
\ntears to see that their leader’s vision comes to life, and when we ask
\nthem, “Why would you do that? Why would you give your blood and sweat
\nand tears for that person?” they all say the same thing: “Because they
\nwould have done it for me.” And isn’t that the organization we would all like to work in<\/b>?”<\/span><\/p>\n
\n often culturally and socially reinforced that there’s something wrong
\nor shameful about feeling sad. We have this cultural bias towards
\nvaluing positive thinking. But studies have shown that those who try and
\n suppress negative thoughts actually experience more of them, which can
\nlead to overeating and a stronger stress response. Another study found
\nthat people who experience happy and sad emotions at the same time, like
\n “I’m sad or disgusted that there’s broccoli on my pizza but happy
\nbecause it means I can experience new things” show improvements in
\nmental well-being over the next few weeks, even if the mixed feelings
\nwere unpleasant at the time. Inside Out shows us that negative emotions guide our rational thinking. Sadness is a trigger for seeking comfort and bonding.<\/b>
\n We\u2019re often tough on sadness, but it\u2019s important to our understanding
\nof who we are. In his 1621 work “Anatomy of Melancholy”, Robert Burton
\nwrote that in experiencing melancholy, “increaseth sorrow\u2026
\nincreaseth wisdom.” Even those emotions we consider as negative can lead
\n to good, rational decisions.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\n #grief #HowToConnectOnline #teamwork #management #wfh #WorkingFromHome
\n#RemoteWork #RemoteWorking #OnlineWork #OnlineWorkers #VirtualTeam
\n#AskTheOnlineManager #loss #WhenStudentsFail #Normalize #EAP
\n#EmployeeAssistanceProgram #TeamMeetings #EmergencyLeave
\n#MentalHealthDays #InsideOut #SimonSinek #BrainCraft
\n#DeathOfACoworker #HoldSpace<\/p>\n