Bree's Path: Embrancing Opportunities with Support and Awareness

Welcome to the next dial on the C.H.O.I.C.E.S. series, Opportunity. 

In the last installment, we talked about Honesty. Where being honest with yourself and others can bring truthfulness and integrity into your daily interactions. Our current installment is all about enhancing our internal and external mindset by being proactive, taking the initiative to step out of your comfort zone, and aiming for growth. In other words, to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. So let’s take a moment to be honest with ourselves and reflect.

Are you ready for a new Opportunity?

You may be ready, but even people who are ready may not feel ready when they are. It’s also possible that you actually aren’t ready, and it’s a difficult, yet wise decision to recognize that and act accordingly. A final possibility is that you are ready, but may not have the support to be successful in your new opportunity. If this is the case, then recognizing that and identifying solutions to address that missing piece will set you up much better than simply going in blind. 

Only you will be able to genuinely reflect and make the determination on where you are in considering a new opportunity. For now, we’d like to share the story of Bree who falls into that third category: She might have been technically ready for a new opportunity, but she accepted one that didn’t provide the right support. Perhaps her story might resonate with you and help you self-assess how ready you are in pursuing a new opportunity. It will also highlight the importance of having the right support in any potential opportunity.

The Story of Bree

The Ascent to Leadership

Bree was a strong, confident orthopedic surgeon with over 20 years of experience. Her competence and commitment to patient care had not gone unnoticed. One day, her supervisor approached her with a proposition - to apply for the Chief of Surgery position. The suggestion caught Bree off guard. She was hesitant at first, wrestling with self-doubt about her ability to take on such a significant role. Despite her reservations though, her supervisor reassured her, promising unwavering support, and encouraged her to apply for the position. Pushing aside her doubts, Bree decided to leap. She aced the interview and soon enough was offered the position.

The Challenges of Leadership

The first few months were a whirlwind. The workload was heavier, the responsibilities more significant, and the learning curve steeper. Despite these challenges Bree remained optimistic, drawing strength from the promise of her supervisor's support. However, the balance between her work and personal time began to falter as time passed. The workload was overwhelming, and the support she had been assured never manifested. Her supervisor was often unavailable, leaving Bree to navigate the turbulent waters of her new role alone.

Microaggressions 

The complications didn't end there. During a leadership meeting, Bree noticed an unsettling trend. Her boss kept referring to someone who wasn't present in the meeting, someone of similar gender and skin color, but with a different name. At first, Bree shrugged it off as a simple error. But when the incident repeated in subsequent meetings, Bree realized the grim reality - her boss continually addressed her by another colleague's name. This was more than just a mistake. It was a form of microaggression, a subtle and indirect discrimination that invalidated Bree's sense of importance. Instances like this created an environment where Bree felt excluded and undervalued.

Addressing the Issue

Bree decided to confront the issue head-on and schedule a meeting with her boss. However, the damage had already been done. This incident was the first in a series where Bree felt marginalized and excluded.

Resolution

Bree, feeling defeated, momentarily lost sight of who she was and despite challenging her boss, self-doubt crept in. During this time, she experienced racing thoughts "What's next?” or “What are the solutions?” Tears gave way to a sense of inner peace in a moment of solitude when she began to acknowledge her contributions to the company and her professional identity. This realization sparked a change in her approach. Bree decided that silence was no longer an option and recognized her need for support. She took a proactive step by scheduling a meeting with the HR department to explore how they could assist her. While it would be a long road to what she actually needed, her meeting with HR opened up a dialogue between her and her manager.

Bree's story resonates as it mirrors a common experience among employees who suffer in silence, mistakenly viewing seeking help as a weakness. Bree’s story serves as a reminder that everyone deserves support, regardless of the issue's magnitude. It also underscores the need to raise awareness about the impact of stress and mental health issues in the workplace.

The next sections will discuss how impactful stress can be on the success of new opportunities and the importance of psychological safety to handling stress. We hope that exposing you to both will better prepare you for new opportunities and make the best of them should you encounter similar challenges.

Stress & Mental Health in the Workplace

In today’s fast-paced work environment, stress is increasingly becoming a critical health issue among employees. Recent studies indicate that 83% of U.S. workers experience work-related stress, with a quarter identifying their job as the primary stressor (Lu et al., 2017; Cieslak et al., 2020; Park et al., 2009). This widespread stress is not without consequence, as an estimated one million Americans take leave from work daily due to stress-related issues, and 76% acknowledge its negative impact on personal relationships (Lu et al., 2017; Cieslak et al., 2020; Park et al., 2009).

Mental health challenges, particularly depression, are alarmingly prevalent in the global working population (Spence, 2010). Research shows that depression affects 3.73 to 19.0% of workers worldwide (Blackmore et al., 2007; Kessler et al., 2006; Niedhammer et al., 2020). Anxiety, another significant concern, has a reported prevalence ranging from 5.40 to 20.70% among employees (Chevance et al., 2020; Andrea et al., 2004). These mental health issues can severely affect workplace productivity and quality of life and even lead to early retirement, resulting in substantial social and economic costs (Cocker et al., 2014; Niedhammer et al., 2006; De Bacquer et al., 2005). Take a moment to think about your own work environment. Do any of these statistics resonate with you?

Do you experience work-related stress or mental health challenges?

Job satisfaction is an essential aspect of employees' mental health (Spence, 2010). It’s essential to recognize that new opportunities in the workplace, while exciting, can also amplify these stressors. Being placed in unfamiliar situations can intensify feelings of anxiety and stress. To support yourself or feel supported in new opportunities and occupational environments, it is critical that you identify the level of psychological safety you feel and assess whether there are opportunities to improve your experience. Otherwise, you will not be able to last very long in new opportunities. Regularly evaluating your work environment and seeking strategies to manage stress can be crucial in maintaining overall well-being in the workplace.

Four Stages of Psychological Safety

"Have you ever been a part of an organization that was dominated by fear?"

-Timothy Clark (4 Stages of Psychological Safety)

Timothy Clark discovered from his research as a cultural anthropologist that human beings want the following: (1) to be included, (2) to learn, (3) to contribute, and lastly, (4) to challenge the status quo when they believe things need to change. In his book, 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, he synthesizes these experiences as 4 progressive stages and labeled them as the following for psychological safety. Psychological safety here refers to feeling safe to take interpersonal risks, speak up, disagree openly, and voice concerns without fear of negative consequences. He notes that this pattern is consistent across all organizations and social units and that violating these patterns instills fear. 

According to Timothy Clark's stages of psychological safety, all four stages need to be present to create an environment where individuals feel safe to challenge the status quo without fear of embarrassment, marginalization, or punishment. In Bree's case, these stages were not present, resulting in a workplace that undermined her sense of safety and inclusion. Had her organization taken an opportunity to check in on the level of psychological safety in her role she might have had a better transition into her new position.

Optimal levels of psychological safety are clear opportunities to reduce stress and negative experiences in the workplace and also foster success, creativity, and innovation.

Conclusion

Personal and professional journeys are rarely a straight path. They are filled with twists and turns, challenges and triumphs. The story of Bree, a seasoned orthopedic surgeon, offers insight into the realities of stepping into a leadership role, navigating workplace dynamics, and the importance of psychological safety in fostering an inclusive and supportive environment. Remember that a journey in any competitive field like the medical field for Bree or academia, law, consulting, business, or marketing are more demanding and complex due to the lack of support or job expectations.

Also, Bree's story underscores the importance of psychological safety within the workplace in general. It serves as a reminder that creating an inclusive, respectful, and supportive environment is pivotal to fostering employee satisfaction and promoting overall team performance. Stress is unavoidable in the workplace, especially if you aim to be successful in your career. It is important to acknowledge that you will experience stress, but you can also take steps to improve your everyday well-being. The best opportunities come with a particular set of familiar and unfamiliar challenges. The best thing you can do is try to anticipate and address them the best that you can.

The goal of Opportunity is being proactive and taking the initiative to step out of your comfort zone and aim for growth; hence, being comfortable with being uncomfortable. However, your environments or relationships can impact your ability to embrace that Opportunity. With the support of tools from the previous newsletters about Communication and Honesty you can seize opportunities to open new doors to new experiences, relationships, and fresh paths for personal growth.

Citations: Lu et al., 2017, Cieslak et al., 2020, Park et al., 2009, Spence, 2010, Blackmore et al., 2007, Kessler et al., 2006, Niedhammer et al., 2020, Chevance et al., 2020, Andrea et al., 2004, Cocker et al., 2014, Niedhammer et al., 2006, De Bacquer et al., 2005, Clark, 2020