Forecasting Report—Leadership Trends for Q4 2021 and 2022, Part III

Good morning, everybody. Dr. Robyn McKay here and welcome to this episode of Mindset Rx. This is your place to be if you're an emotionally intelligent leader and you wanna set the tone for a positive, productive and purposeful week. And I am in a little bit different location today, same office, but we are in the middle of getting our house ready for sales so we're kind of shifting things around. A funny story, I was prepping for the photo shoot for the house yesterday, and realizing as I was clearing all the countertops and sorting through all the... Just the minutia of living really is what it comes down to, I realized as my kitchen counters were pristine, more pristine that they've been since we moved in a couple of years ago, I realized these shows that we put on for people as they get ready... As we get ready to sell, we wanna put our best foot forward and all of those things, but I wanted to write a little sign in the kitchen that said, "This is aspirational not reality." Because it really is, it sets the tone for the people to come in and see what's possible for them in this beautiful home, but it also kind of...

In my experience anyway, as a high-achieving woman, I remember walking into this house for the first time thinking, "Oh, my gosh, the counters are so clean," and just having that sense of envy coming over me like, "I want my counters to look like that." And now here I am, I will fully admit that I'm propagating that aspiration as well, so I don't know what to do with that this morning, but I thought I'd start with a little story from my own experience to just share what's going on in my world, what's going on in yours. If you're watching live, I'd love to hear from you, if you're watching the recording or if you're listening to our sister podcast Mindset Rx that you can find on Apple Podcasts and all of the other places where you listen to podcasts, I would love to hear from you, too. So we leave a message in the comments, shoot me an email, let me know, let me know what's going on in your world.

Today, we are continuing our conversation about trends that I'm seeing in Q4 of 2021, and then some forecasting that I've been doing on into 2022 and beyond, and I think that these have become some of my most popular episodes, because everybody kinda wants to see around the corner. We all kinda wanna know what's coming down the pipe, especially during times of uncertainty, I think it's really important to have a vision of what's possible and what's to come that is both positive and grounded in reality, so...

No pie in the sky, crystal ball predictions here at all, these are just things that from my experience, being boots on the ground, working with women executives and leaders in tech, healthcare, FinTech, financial services and so on, these are the things that are on your minds that are showing up in my private coaching sessions, that are showing up in my conversations with the decision makers in your organizations and so on. And what I'm seeing coming down into the future for us, which there's good news there, but there's also some things that I think are hard to talk about, and today is one of those days. And I wanted to share something that I recognized as more and more common in the women executives who I work with privately, not so much with the decision makers in the organizations, apart from when we talk about the great resignation, there's sort of a question mark about why are people leaving?

Why are people leaving, especially leaders, why are they leaving their organizations, and what can we do to prevent it, what can we do to preserve top talent? And the solution, whether you're somebody who's getting ready to leave your organization for another organization, or to go out on your own as an entrepreneur or consultant, or you're a decision maker within the organization who really wants to genuinely preserve top talent in your organization, this is an important episode for you to be paying attention to, because I'm gonna talk about corporate trauma today.

And corporate trauma is... First, let me say that there's no diagnostic criteria for corporate trauma, you won't find it in a diagnostic manual, you won't find it in an ICD code, but this is something that I'm seeing more and more in the executives who are coming in to work with me privately to make decisions about what's next for their careers, to make decisions, "Do I stay? Do I go? Do I become part of the great resignation, or do I stay the course in my current position and try to make some changes within the organization?" While it doesn't rise to necessarily rise to the level of a diagnostic... Of a clinical diagnosis, what I will say about corporate trauma is that it is the thing that will block you, if you are thinking about leaving, it's the thing that will block you from actually creating the vision that you have for your life on the other side of the position that you're in currently.

So let's start with just a brief description as I'm seeing corporate trauma coming across in my world, and again, just recognizing of course, that this is not a clinical discussion necessarily, there are some people who do have clinical trauma, and I do recommend clinical treatments for that. What I'm talking about are micro-traumas, things that happen on a daily basis, weekly basis, yearly basis, a lot of times with women and especially with emotionally intelligent people within the corporate space, so it's kind of one of those things for me, you know it when you see it. So let me just give you some language that I've heard for people who I know have had the experience of having this corporate trauma. They'll say things like, "I gave my heart and soul to this organization, and then out of the blue, they let me go, they changed directions, and they didn't have a position for me in their organization," so there's a sense of betrayal, that goes along with that. Another example that I would label as corporate trauma is being pulled into a supervisor's office and basically told that you don't belong here. You don't fit in.

Now, there's a lot of things to unpack in that, those particular statements besides that, but the effect on the person who's being told that, who doesn't look like everybody else in the organization, who may be a woman, a woman of color, maybe LGBTQ plus. There are a lot of ways that we look different, aren't there? And when that is brought front and center into your awareness, of course, you don't fit in, and of course, maybe you are hired for your diverse thinking, your diverse perspective, and yet being told that is something that can be very damaging to the person's psyche, which then creates the conditions for that person to not perform at top levels.

With physicians, what I see is that physicians are really told from the time they start medical school, put your own feelings aside, be a professional, you basically suck it up buttercup pull yourself up by your boot straps and just keep going. So the irony here is, of course, for our world healers, socially sanctioned healers, the physicians, on one hand, they're told, put your own stuff aside and focus on healing the person in front of you, but there's never an acknowledgement that the healer needs to be healed and very rarely there is an acknowledgement, particularly within the corporate structure of the healthcare structure, behind the scenes, there might be some things going on, but for the most part, there is a... There's really in my mind a betrayal of one's own essence, when you're asked to put your best foot forward over and over again at the expense or the cost of your own soul.

Put another way to me... And you're not gonna find this in the Harvard Business Review, but to me, when I think about corporate trauma, it's a soul sickness. It's wondering, how could I do this one more day? How can I be in this space? One more day. How can I do this thing? One more day, maybe I don't belong here. And you start looking around for other organizations and other opportunities that might give you the chance to either prove yourself or express yourself or contribute in the way that you are really meant to contribute in the world, and yet at the same time, there's a push-pull because you don't want to recreate the conditions that you are thinking about leaving, so there's a whole lot more to the corporate trauma piece, but I will say this, what I'm seeing is that the people who are raising their hands and acknowledging... I'm burned out. I keep thinking about and reprocessing things that happened at work, things that happened with my colleagues, things that happened here there, I want out or I want something different, but I'm not sure how to get that different thing to happen.

I'm not sure if I'm communicating as best I could. Maybe there's something wrong with me, or I feel like an impostor. The old impostor syndrome, which I'm gonna talk about next week, actually, 'cause I don't think that there's any such thing as the imposter syndrome, but that's a conversation for another time. All this to say, that when an emotionally intelligent, very bright, accomplished, high-achieving women leader comes to me and has some of these... Is saying some of these things and I say she has symptoms or she's saying some of these same things. I feel like I'm losing my soul is another one. Like literally those words come out of her mouth, that's when I know that we have to really do that soul level surgery and that healing and transformation at that level first, so that when it comes time to go to the next level, when it comes time to find the position that you really want, that next level position, you're healed enough so that you can go out and do your work, so that you're not still entangled with the past, but your full steam ahead and you're present and into your best possible future.

But if you don't do this inner work, which you've heard me talk about periodically as the inner work is a number one thing that I'm seeing coming down the pipe actually for 2020, the rest of 2021 and on into the future as well, is a focus on doing your inner work, not glossing over it, and I don't just mean sitting in meditation for five minutes, but just really allowing yourself the time and space to do some deep exploration about what's going on inside of you, healing and transforming what is being called to be transformed as a result of all of these experiences that you've both positive and negative throughout your profession throughout your life, and I'm not necessarily talking about doing psychotherapy either. Certainly, I think that there is a time and place for that, but what I'm talking about really is perspective and a shift of your perspective from why is this happening to me to how is this happening for me? And in so doing, you actually begin to reclaim that vital part of who you are, your soul, your spirit, that vital essence, so that you can go out and do your best work in the world.

But unless and until you do that, it's not that you can't do that because your intellect is so bright, you can make yourself do almost anything, you can pull yourself up by your boot straps, you can keep going until you can't... Because of a physical ailment or because of a relationship conflict or some other kind of crisis that creates the conditions for you to actually go inside and look at yourself and do the inner work. So in addition to what's coming in the rest of 2021 and on into the future, with a focus on doing the inner work, there's also a focus on finding clinically-informed/trauma-informed executive coaches to work with you on these things. So a lot of the executive coaches who are out there in the world, and there are many terrific executive coaches, but a lot of them are coming out of training programs that are designed and taught by the schools of business.

There might be a little bit of focus on the psychology, on the clinical aspect of it, but there's not nearly in my mind enough to be able to really rest in the knowing that your executive coach is also informed, clinically informed of trauma. Not that you're necessarily doing the trauma work, but at least is aware of the effects of trauma on the brain. On the heart, on the soul. So with that in mind then, if you are somebody and you're watching or listening to this, and you are somebody who is a leader who kind of thinks like, I'm feeling burned out, I'm feeling like I'm... This is landing for me, what I want you to really consider doing is when you start looking for your own executive coach, you make sure make sure that that person, even if you're not doing therapy with them because... Obviously, coaching is not therapy.

But you want to find somebody who can really hold you... And I don't mean as a child, I just mean hold the space for you to be able to process those difficult experiences that you've had throughout your career that... Yes, have brought you here and yes, have informed who you are today, but also can serve as binding agents to your current circumstances, and by clearing those binding agents, by clearing those things that continue to crop up inside of you as you interact with your colleagues, as you make decisions about what's next for your career, we wanna get those clear, so you have a really strong perspective on what's exactly right for you, so that you know what you don't want and you know what you want.

And of thinking that I'm talking about comes from working with somebody really understands the energetics of trauma, who understands the energetics and the of what it takes to go through and to keep going through, and to keep showing up in spite of... In spite of the experiences that you've had in your work.

So I'm gonna close there today, I know that this was not necessarily an uplifting, here's what's to come, let's go get them tiger kind of conversation, but I do think if there is a deeper conversation about... And looking at, looking at what's going on for you right now to clear that, to heal that, so that whatever comes for you in the future, you're ready for, you're poised for and you're your best self. It's not that you can't do things when you're not your best self, but boy, it sure is a whole lot more fun, it's a whole lot easier and more joyful, and your contributions are even magnified even more when you're feeling your best. And that's what we want for you, for all of you is to feel your very best. I am Dr. Robyn McKay, this is Mindset Rx, and thank you so much for joining me today. We will see you next week when I talking about, what if there's no such thing as the impostor syndrome with them. Alright, see you later.