Survival mode is a performance state that an employee adopts in his career, to ensure that they manage to retain their respective jobs. Pivotal to this behaviour is the mental state that predominantly focusses just about to survive so that the paychecks are credited into their banks every month. Company growth is a remote thought; even self-growth has very low or no importance, to survival mode individuals.
Survival mode individuals know the company's policies verbatim and probably can rattle them out even in their sleep. Their decision-making is regimentally limited to the Bible of the organisation. Policy Deviation decision of any kind, even if warranted in the organisation's interest, is something these employees cant even think off. Suppose, a binding contract needs to be shipped urgently, the company security policy lists, predefined, packaging, courier and approvals. Unfortunately, the approved courier company does not service the given sector. The Survival mode individual responsible for having the document shipped shall not allow shipment until the deviation criteria are not met even if the organisation loses the contract and the associated revenue. " I am just doing my job" is a standard answer given by Survival mode individuals. Action against Survival mode Individuals rather tricky, as they are merely following the rule book, which is the prerequisite from any employee.
Organisations infested with Survival mode Individuals lose on opportunities more often than those who have happy, healthy employees. With acquisition numbers staggering, customer satisfaction scores dipping, and loss of market share, it is common for such an organisation to have a survival mode culture. Why, because survival mode employees stubbornly hang onto the rule book for manageable process adherence, and approvals. It's not that Survival mode Individuals do not have the potential or rational to comprehend the consequences of heir adamant behaviour. It's the culture that prevented them from taking that little deviation.
The culture of an organisation is what employees value and what they are evaluated for. Organisations that consider money as the only currency have employees bound by stringent rules and policies. However, the organisation believes that employees and their involvement matter have a different culture, known as the" Secure base."
A secure base is an environment that protects, nurture - and most importantly - provide motivation. They allow employees to take intelligent risks and challenges. It is no different from what happens to children during their childhood. Parents are responsible for establishing a secure base at home. A child might be scared for a mistake that he or she has committed but will never fear being abandoned by his parents for his mistake. Similarly, in school, the teachers provide a similar environment.
However, suddenly, when he grows up and joins an organisation, this child understands that a mistake in this individually motivated environment means loss of employment. He changes to this safe mode, to the Survival mode, which is to go by the book.
It's the duty of the top management, to have a sufficiently well-defined requirement process. The top management also needs to ensure that they provide a safe base to their first line, monitoring that that culture is percolated to the last man in the organisation. Stringent performance evaluation parameters to couch and monitor managers for creating a secure bases culture is critical. The point is that the leaders need to cultivate a safe emotional, and dynamic work environment for their subordinates and be competent to do so.
George Kohlrieser—psychologist, professor of leadership, observes that having a secure base at work is crucial for high performance. Kohlrieser asserts that feeling secure allows a person to focus better on heir work, achieve goals, and perceive impending obstacles as challenges, not as a threat. He explains: When you offer a secure base, you begin to manifest trust and safety. When a person feels safe in heir environment, they can transition from primary survival mode thinking to a more complex outlook, looking for opportunities and chances to thrive."
In extreme situations, this lack of a secure base can even foster paralysis. Far too often, people distrust their bosses. They're occupied with thoughts like, Who's going to stab me in the back? Who's against me? If they don't have the support to seek calculated risks, they won't. Instead, they work to avoid risks. They're afraid of failure. In the incident share earlier clearly shows these fears in the employees. They don't dare themselves to maximise their potential. As a leader, you're expected to seek risks, challenges, and opportunities; and create a safe space for your team to do the same.
The Ingredients of a Secure Base are
Managers
It's an age-old saying that" people don't leave organisations, people leave people."
Horrible bosses, who exploit subordinates, using trivial tactics, such as no or partial communication. Bosses with terrible mood swings, who at their whims and fancy change employees' assignments or sometimes bench some of them for their lack of understanding of that individual's role. Perfectionists (sometimes called "pacesetters") hurt their direct reports emotional state and performance. Perfectionist leaders only give failing grades – they never praise good performance. When you encounter a mistake, they frame it as a lesson, rather than just another blunder. They are the old school grumpy teachers who shall pedestal an employee in a team meeting, with a view to coach everyone and land up with a team trembling with fear. Such managers are usually responsible for injecting a survival mode culture.
Organisation Driven
When an organisation is only finance-driven, and that in no terms is mistaken as revenue, finance is profitability period and nothing else. Revenue driven organisations, promote employees to seek challenges stretch and bring revenue for the company. However, Finance is when everything is a cost centre perspective. In such organisations, products, services, and employees are venerable if they at any given point of tie don't seem to be making sense to the management. Such organisations promote the Survival Mode culture.
How to create Sense of Belonging
It's a leader's job to ensure all team members feel welcome and see their efforts as valuable to the team and the organisation. With difficult team members, a leader must be exceedingly open. They need to put the proverbial fish on the table, and ask, "Do you really want to belong to this team? If you are ambivalent, it's going to be a source of conflict."
Choices
We all want to feel we have a say. That's why leaders should offer their employees choice and power over what they can do, whenever possible. When you delegate wisely, you open up possibilities to let people shine. Additionally, creating a foundation of support often leads to explosions of creativity.
Forward Momentum
When a work conflict isn't resolved, a backlash is inevitable. It's important that the entire team, leader included, has a procedure to get over with what happened. Be a leader who speaks the truth, but says it with empathy. And remember: the future is the future, and the past is the past.
Coaching
Leaders can create a secure base by helping employees identify their unique strengths and weaknesses, and then linking them to their personal and career aspirations. These leaders will encourage employees to establish long-term development goals and conceptualise a plan to attain them. They'll also make agreements with their employees about their role and responsibilities in enacting development plans, and they give plentiful instruction and feedback.
Understand what's your currency and run your organisation accordingly. And run your organisation accordingly.
