Leaning Into Your Strengths During COVID-19

Bruno Zadeh, Gallup Senior Learning Consultant, was our guest on a recent Called to Coach. Bruno conducted informal polls of several hundred Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches in Australia and New Zealand, and shared how they are using their CliftonStrengths as they face the many challenges they encounter as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. These challenges include learning how to work virtually and to be productive in this new context, and balancing work at home, family time, and homeschooling of their children. The webcast highlighted the many resources Gallup offers for employees and parents as they learn to navigate this unique environment.

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including time stamps. Full audio and video are posted above.

We've created the ultimate guide to improving teamwork in the workplace!

Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison, and live from our virtual studios literally around the world, this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on April 14, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:21

Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world. If you're listening live, love to have you join us in our chat room. There's actually a link on the live page right above me for there -- take you to our YouTube instance. You can sign into the chat; we will be taking your questions live during the program. If you have questions after the fact, or really questions about anything, you can send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube. Actually, right down there, there's a little "thumbs up" button. If you click on that, that helps us, that helps us out, gives us some exposure on YouTube. And then there's a little Subscribe button -- actually, it's the other way -- that way. Click on that, and every time we go live, you'll get a notification that we are. A good way to do that so you don't forget. Of course, if you listen to podcasts, you can search "Gallup Webcasts" in any podcast player and subscribe to us there. Anne Lingafelter is our host today. She works as a Learning Solutions Consultant with Gallup out of our Sydney office. And Anne, it's always great to have you on Called to Coach. Welcome back!

Anne Lingafelter 1:21

Thanks so much, Jim. It's great to be here. And I'm loving watching all of the people responding in their live comments in the feed. I'm seeing some of my old friends there that I haven't connected with in a while. So really, really happy to have you, you know, joining Called to Coach. So, great to see you guys. I'm also really pleased to have the opportunity to address this topic today in this sort of special edition really of "Strengths in COVID Times" Called to Coach. My guest is Bruno Zadeh, and he is a Senior Learning Consultant based here in Gallup's North Sydney office along with myself. Bruno leads our Australia/New Zealand coaching community, and over the last week, he has conducted some informal Gallup polls asking hundreds of our Gallup Certified Coaches in Australia and New Zealand about the issues that they and their clients are facing, and how they are intentionally using their CliftonStrengths to address those issues. Bruno, welcome. Thank you so much for reaching out to the coaching community and for sharing what you have learned with us. Let's start with your Top 5 strengths, please.

Bruno Zadeh 2:31

Good afternoon, Anne. So my Top 5 are Learner, Achiever, Discipline, Command and Activator. But in reality, I use 12 strengths every day.

Anne Lingafelter 2:43

Well, we most certainly -- I most certainly saw a lot of those Top 5 strengths on display this weekend because you worked so hard to get this information from different coaches and different folks. And before we really get underway, I'm going to pull up a slide that just kind of acknowledges really and recognizes the -- some of the certified coaches that responded to your callout, Bruno, to get some information about, you know, what they were experiencing and seeing in this time. So I want to thank all of the guys there and girls that are on that list that, that, that responded so quickly to get back with some of the talking points that Bruno's going to address later in the show. If you're interested in reaching out to any of those coaches, you see their names and their businesses, and you can check them out on LinkedIn or you can go to the Gallup Certified Strengths Coaching directory and you will find them there as well.

Anne Lingafelter 3:36

But and, and you, know, all sincerity, guys, thank you so much for, you know, contributing to this, really, and helping us understand what you're seeing out there across Australia. So we have about 500, over 500 Gallup Certified Coaches in Australia and New Zealand. I think Bruno reached out to about half of them and, and we had, you know, some folks come back with some really good info. So thanks, Bruno. And thank you to all of those coaches there.

Anne Lingafelter 4:04

Before we go into what you've learned, Bruno, from our coaches, I do want to back up and to touch on some of Gallup's perspective on, on strengths, and flag some important things that we want to make sure that we keep in mind during this, this time. And I'll send out a thank you to Tom Matson and Jim Asplund for their contributions here. Tom is our Education Subject Matter Expert. Jim is our Principal Researcher in the Predictive Analytics Practice, and they're both based in the Minneapolis [Minnesota] area of the U.S.

Anne Lingafelter 4:37

So when I reached out to them, I had a few questions of my own that I wanted to ask. We really talked about what happens to an individual's strengths in times of crisis? How do we advise our clients to apply their strengths during high-stress times? What data does Gallup have on the impact of strengths on wellbeing? What data do we have on the impact of knowing and aiming our strengths on things like job seeking, especially following a job loss? And what, what data on the impact of knowing and aiming or strengths do we have around burnout?

Anne Lingafelter 5:15

So those were the, the items really that I started with. But I got a lot more information that again, I think, will inform the conversation that we have with Bruno later on and talking about what we hear from the coaches. Some of the points I wanted to share -- No. 1: think during this time about not siloing our strengths science. It's so important to understand how connected it is with our wellbeing and our engagement. So leveraging our natural advantages, our natural abilities of thought, feeling and behaving, should be used to improve our wellbeing and our engagement. That's really the goal, whether it's a time of crisis or whether it's a regular time, so don't silo our strengths science from engagement and wellbeing.

Anne Lingafelter 6:04

The second thing is, as you will all know as certified coaches: 2) Strengths are intrinsic, they, but they can present differently when our wellbeing or our engagement is off. So when I was speaking to Jim Asplund about this, and I said, How should we use our strengths in high-stress times? He said, It's sort of like asking him how he uses his right hand during high-stress times. He said, "I don't really think about it. It's always there. And it does everything the way it always has, because it's an integral part of me." But having said that, crisis does and can present challenges. For example, he said, it's harder for him right now to use his Analytical strength, because he's more distracted by everything that's going on in the world, yet even more demands than ever have been placed on that Analytical strength.

Anne Lingafelter 6:52

So, perhaps a good way to approach that, as we think about ourselves and how we're responding with our strengths, it's really about asking ourselves the question, How am I -- how is stress getting to me in this time? Trying to increase our self-awareness of how the stress is playing out in us, so that we can really use our strengths to, to manage it, to manage how that's coming out. So we know that for some people in this time of crisis and change, the change that is forced upon them will, for some, become -- be an exciting time, or at least something that they're better at managing or tolerating than other people, depending on their strengths themes.

Anne Lingafelter 7:40

And we know that, that some strengths themes are associated with sort of one end of the spectrum of change, and the other -- or the other, depending on what they are. And, but the beauty of strengths at this time is that it gives us the knowledge that we are unique and that we will all react differently to various types of change. So that allows us to better anticipate our reactions, and, and also to give us some perspective regarding those and how others might react differently than we do, whether it's our family, our friends or our colleagues.

Anne Lingafelter 8:16

So, often when, when we are looking at how our strengths are responding, we'll talk about balconies and basements. So those of you who are Gallup Certified will know a lot about balconies and basements, or the raw or mature form that our patterns of thought, feeling and behaving can take on. So, often when we see those as being different, or, in others, as being a bit different or "off," we describe it as being in the "basement," right, or the raw form. But it's important to remember that the "balconies and basements" conversation is really only a model for conversation. So it allows us to understand where those sit, but moving from the basement to the balcony is not our ultimate strengths goal; it's understanding why we're in the basement in the first place. And we know that the answer will most certainly be based in engagement or wellbeing space. And that is when we then leverage those natural patterns of thought, feeling and behavior to help improve that situation and get out of that basement.

Anne Lingafelter 9:23

Lastly, there's a lot of research that Gallup has put out over the years around the impact that strength has on well being. When you get certified, and as you work with your clients, you coaches especially know that we use our -- when we use our strengths, it energizes us, right, it empowers us. It allows us to stay focused on a task longer, which is a bit of flow, isn't it? And we feel better about ourselves when we use our strengths. Those are all really important considerations right now as we try to keep an eye on our wellbeing and our engagement levels.

Anne Lingafelter 10:02

I want to point you towards just one piece of research. There's a lot out there. Let's see if you can see this as I hold it up. This report was written by, or case study, was written by Jim Asplund in 2012. And it is based on an American population sample. However, what, what it found was that the more hours per day that people got to use their strengths to do what they do best, the less likely they are to report experiencing worry, stress, anger, sadness or physical pain. It also talks about how it gives a boost in positive emotions the more that we use our strengths. The more hours per day adults believe they use their strengths, the more likely they are to have -- to report having plenty of energy, feeling well-rested, being happy, smiling or laughing a lot, learning something interesting. and being treated with respect.

Anne Lingafelter 10:56

And lastly, we've also probably heard a fair bit about the additive effect of strengths, which is really that it's associated with feelings of accomplishment and timelessness. Energizing experiences are often evidence of strengths at work and can help inoculate adults against experiencing stress. Again, remember that this was all written and, and this research was done pre-COVID. So apparently time not only flies when we're having fun, but also when we're using our strengths. And again, that's referring to "flow." Both act to reduce a person's chances of feeling stressed or worried about the present or the future, and they make life feel meaningful and productive. So certainly, I think that piece of research alone, Bruno, is a really good -- just a really good encouragement for us to really be focusing on our strengths and understanding why we might want to be focusing on those at the moment.

Anne Lingafelter 11:58

I, I know I've told you this, Bruno, I have a lot of clients that are in the healthcare space. And initially when I was having conversations with, for instance, one of my friends, who works, who runs an emergency department at one of the district hospitals, I thought, you know, I just don't know that a strengths conversation is the appropriate thing to intervene there to try to make -- to try to help. But having prepared for this show and gone back through the research, it's reminded me again how tightly connected strengths and a strengths approach is to wellbeing, prevention of burnout and that sort of thing. So, and certainly when we're talking about managing our staff who are working remotely; when we're talking about how we manage our families; when we have children who are homeschooling there; all of those different elements, we -- it really does help us understand -- strengths help, helps us predict behavior, right? It helps us, it gives us a roadmap or a blueprint for how people could potentially respond to things.

Anne Lingafelter 12:59

So that's, thank you for being patient, Bruno, while I gave a bit of context on some of the, the Gallup perspective on that. I'm very keen now to turn our attention to what you learned in your informal research about the Gallup Certified Strengths Coach community. So if you were to go into some of the highlights, Bruno, that you heard from our coaches, let's kind of talk through those sort of one by one about the questions that you asked them and the things that you heard that you found to be really particularly helpful and useful.

Bruno Zadeh 13:32

OK, so firstly, I would like to thank all the coaches to be so responsive, because I sent this questionnaire on a Friday, Easter. Instead of eating lots of chocolate, they have answered to my question, and it's so helpful and precious insight. So thank you. So when I think about the 4 main highlights, I would say, the first one it's: Focus on what we can control for ourselves and our clients. The second one is: Revisit the basics of our strengths. The third one is: Changing our approach. And the last one: It's be innovative. So that's the 4 main highlights. But in reality, there was much more but we couldn't address all of them. However, they are available if you want to know.

Anne Lingafelter 14:24

Fantastic. Do you want to go into those a bit more deeply? Or would you, you know, I'd also be interested in understanding what were some of the issues that our coaches were facing as individuals and how they're applying their strengths to deal with that. You pick, we can either go more deeply into the, the 4 that you're talking about, or go, or talk about the issues that coaches are facing.

Bruno Zadeh 14:46

OK, so I will go a little bit more deeply. So I've Learner No. 1, and Input No. 6. So I love insight. So let's start by the first one: Focus on what we can control for ourselves and our clients. I would like to repeat a quote from Donna Thibault, which is one of our coaches, and I find this quote very inspiring. So it is, "I feel this is a time when we are reminded of how factors well outside our imagination and control can have such a profound impact on us." So as an example, for people, with a lot of Building Relationship Domain, such as Relator. So, one thing you cannot control, it's in this time of COVID, we don't have any more face-to-face interaction. And we don't have any more -- we have to respect social distancing. Most of the businesses are closed. So we need to find a new way.

Bruno Zadeh 15:45

However, you still have the possibility of what you can control to reach out to people via videoconference to stay connected, send SMS, weekly catch-up, cool videoconference. We have all these technology who are very useful, and more than ever, we are using it currently. So the only way to do it. If I continue on the second one, so the second point was: Revisit the basics of our strengths. So here I think it's really important, like you mentioned, Anne, talking about basement and balcony. So basement and balconies strengths are our lens; it's who we are. But as you know, it's depending on the context. And here we are, we have an argument of change. So applying our strength needs to be adjusted, based on what we want to achieve.

Bruno Zadeh 16:44

So if I take an example, we had a conversation yesterday, Anne, about your Empathy and your Restorative. How does that work in this world? And I've had that same conversation with different people. And Empathy, basically, you might feel all these crises with a lot of depth. And it might be a little bit overwhelming sometimes. And with the Restorative in action, you want to fix things. But the problem here, it's a lot of people who have Restorative feel they want to fix, and they realize the problem is too big. And we cannot fix everything. So it's really important to, in this context, redefine what you want to achieve; what you try to achieve; and setup clear new expectation.

Anne Lingafelter 17:35

Can I, can I jump in there really quickly, Bruno? I think that's excellent! One of the things that, that we know, again, is, is that there are certain themes, right, that, that based on research and also on inductive reasoning, that, that tell us that certain, certain themes respond or are more associated with a positive reaction to change -- like Adaptability, and Futuristic, Ideation, Strategic, Learner, Input, Self-Assurance, Intellection and Command -- they tend to respond more positively to, to most change. Whereas for some people, of course you can't say it just in, in, in isolation, can you, because it really does depend on the other strengths that are, that are around them. And, and some people with high Ideation or Strategic will become engines of worry, right, others, or catastrophe, imagining all the ways that things could get worse. Or others could be more open about new things.

Anne Lingafelter 18:34

So, again, it's -- we don't want to pigeonhole people here, but we, as we think about how people might respond, we -- it gives us some space to consider that, that some of these themes are going to be more, you know, will, will lead people to be more resilient, more adaptable, more energized in positive ways, right?

Bruno Zadeh 18:55

Absolutely, and strengths don't walk in isolation. So that's an example to put a situation, but in reality strengths interact with each other and create some different situations. That's why we have 1 chance in 33 million to have the same strengths in the same order. So now in this context, what we should consider also it's, when we revisit the basic of our strengths, is to consider some complementary partnerships, because it's a different environment. So we need to reach also as a community, to have some new perspective and to share our strength and to crack all together, what can we do? So we need to partner with people that can, that can help you in what you try to achieve.

Bruno Zadeh 19:45

I remember an example a few years ago, it was someone who partnered in a Power of 2, and this person had low Communication. And part of his role was to basically deliver some briefing every 3 months. So I think you love funny nosy story, you can talk to you a little bit. So my point is partnership was basically to find the right person to deliver the presentation in public speaking. And in exchange, this person who had the whole Achiever was about to do all the part of Executing for the other one. That's a perfect example of collaboration and complementary partnership.

Anne Lingafelter 20:29

Yeah, I think that was you and -- you and me, right? That was us! Yeah, I think we even won an award for that -- a Power of 2! There you go: strengths in action.

Bruno Zadeh 20:42

So the third point was Changing our approach. Here I have a nice example of one of our coaches, Adam Callender, and I thank him for this quote. So he got Ideation on his Top 5. What he's doing currently it's Ego into his Top 6 to 12 themes, to find a new way to do things. And I find that brilliant, because we have the tendency to use our Top 5 every day. But in this context, we don't know the intensity of our, our Top 10 or 12 strengths. So we could potentially invest in our strengths while more appropriate to the situation. And that's a nice way to do it.

Bruno Zadeh 21:26

So second quote is from Murray Guest, it's, "Aim your strengths to develop a wellbeing plan that motivates and works for you. Don't do what everyone else are doing." So I think it's important to individual -- individualize an approach that works for you; to not try to copy others and to develop a personal wellbeing plan that motivates you. So for people with Discipline, it could be you wake up very early, at 4 a.m. And you do a walk to avoid people instead of naturally you are going to the gym during the day. For people who have high Competition, you could create a challenge with the children at home to stimulate this trend. Your strength, it's your natural way. It's who you are. So point here is to, in this context of crisis, be able to reshape in a way that matches what we're experiencing.

Anne Lingafelter 22:30

Yeah, excellent. I love it! I love it! What else did you have? The fourth one was what -- Innovation?

Bruno Zadeh 22:37

Yes. The fourth one is Innovation. So here it's very interesting. We have one of our very popular coaches, Deon Rademeyer, who is well-known everywhere in the world. He got Connectedness; he knows everyone! And he has been very generous with his answer. So his strategy is to combine CliftonStrengths with a model it's called VUCA; it was created in the '80s. And this model, it's really about Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. And for those who want to know more, please contact directly, you know, let us know, because he's very specialized in that. And he has been very innovative, but his overall mindset of Agile coaching using strengths. So I find this answer very interesting.

Anne Lingafelter 23:24

Yeah, it's excellent. I think Deon is brilliant at taking different things that are sort of, you know, concepts and ideas and theories that become in vogue. And he's really excellent about linking those to strengths. And, and whether it's through Agile or VUCA, or you know, what have you. So I think, being innovative that way and looking at this as an opportunity to be able to link strengths to a different sort of flavor of interventions will be quite, quite successful for coaches and folks who, who do that, for sure.

Bruno Zadeh 23:58

Yes, I would like to add one more point. The magic of strengths -- it's strengths is natural. You can put strengths with any model. And it's very engaging. And if there is a time to use strengths, it's really now. That's the right time.

Anne Lingafelter 24:12

Yeah. 100%. So, Bruno, what sorts of issues are you hearing from the coaches that they're facing as individuals and as Certified Coaches out there?

Bruno Zadeh 24:25

OK, so of many, many issues that I have collected, I will tell you the 3 main issues. Managing new way of working virtually -- that's the first one. The second one would be managing productivity and performance while being at home. The third one: balancing work at home, family time, and homeschooling. So do you want that I explain a bit about the first one?

Anne Lingafelter 24:59

Yes, please, if you don't mind just going into them a little bit deeper. Great.

Bruno Zadeh 25:02

Yes. So regarding managing new way of working virtually, for people who have Learner, some of them say I spent a fair bit of downtime researching, watching, learning video on emerging channels of communication like Slack, Zoom, Teams, Yammer. People use also Significance to place more than normal to learn about Zoom. And those are activities that work well in the coaching community. By the way, Slack, Zoom seems to be the platform much of the coaches are using currently. For Connectedness, it's investigating major trends, where things are moving. For Individualization, tailoring approach to meet client's unique needs. For Relator, organize virtual drinks in pair with friend so we can still catch up. And Strategic it's offering complimentary coaching to those in my network who need it.

Bruno Zadeh 26:08

It reminds me of a recent Called to Coach I listened to with Dean Jones, where he said, At the moment, people are struggling and we need more than ever to do some coaching on pro bono, to help people, to help the community, to give back. It doesn't mean that you don't have to work and survive like everyone, but people need help. And that's a very good opportunity to help people.

Anne Lingafelter 26:33

Yeah. And in that same Called to Coach, I think he did two different ones, didn't he, recently. I think if they're not on the Gallup website, they'd be on the YouTube Live channel now, but Dean did great -- two different shows, talking about how to produce really good webinars, right. So helping our coaches who've traditionally perhaps only worked face-to-face understand the things they should consider and the way they can design a really impactful webinar. So for a lot of these issues that we're touching on today, we'll have some solutions that we can point you towards, you know, papers we're putting out; webinars that we're running. We're really trying to sort of, you know, get behind our coaches and our clients and support them during this time. Sorry, Bruno, go ahead. Keep going.

Bruno Zadeh 27:18

Yes. To finish with this slide, basically, basically, the main takeaway I remember from the Dean Jones session it's, we are now on virtual because we work remotely and we don't know how long time we will stay. However, also a big difference between doing webinar and doing a virtual session: We have now the capability to use some platform to provide exactly the same experience as a face-to-face if we know how to use a platform. We have, in Gallup, experienced last year LHPT calls where I was amazed because I've done the course on face-to-face and the course on Zoom, and the breakout sessions, I find them personally more engaging than the face-to-face, but that's a personal opinion. So we can do it. Absolutely.

Anne Lingafelter 27:38

Yeah. So what else, what else were you finding about the the second one which was --

Bruno Zadeh 28:20

Managing productivity and performance while being at home. So here they are something very interesting. Apparently people with Command, Self-Assurance, Achiever, loves the challenge. They want to go for it and crack it. I have 2 of these strengths; I can tell you that I'm not afraid by this crisis. The only thing I want is to go through it and go for it. But we realize also that people with Adaptability or Connectedness have a natural instinct to go with the flow; to adapt quickly. People with Strategic have been helpful for me to think through my approach and pass through this cause. They really use the Strategic to see some new way. And it's very interesting to, to see these dots. So that's what I've collected for this point.

Anne Lingafelter 29:16

Yeah, excellent.

Bruno Zadeh 29:17

For balancing work at home, family time and homeschooling, that's a big change of the population. I urge that everywhere in your news, people with Positivity find the good on everything. And that's quite nice to have Positivity and to lead with this strength at the moment. I also notice that people with Focus have the capability to concentrate long time and long hours, despite noise and children around them. Now the basement I would say it's, We have to be careful when we have high Focus to to still balance the work at home because it's so easy to be so focused and so "in the zone" that we ignore the rest because we don't realize. OK. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.

Anne Lingafelter 30:12

No, I was just gonna say that definitely, when we think about types of change that folks are having to deal with, we do know that, that some of the themes are associated with a more interactive or extroverted work style, right -- Activator, Communication, Woo, Positivity -- and some are more associated with more individual styles, right, so they may not be struggling as much. So that could be Discipline, Focus, Consistency, Deliberative, Intellection. But it really depends, again, as we talked before, about, you know, what else is around it? But the next one is about working from home, isn't it, and homeschooling is that right?

Bruno Zadeh 30:49

We are on homeschooling right now. The last point of this one, and you, you touch a point: It's Discipline. So, Discipline has the ability to break down the day to balance. So they set up some time and they stick to the -- to what they decide. And if it's on the top of that with the combination of all their strengths, they are really able to manage very well the time for homeschooling, the afternoon to walk, the time with their partners, etc. That's what works for them. And they probably have more capability to work independently at home; they don't need necessarily all the people around them.

Anne Lingafelter 31:33

Yeah, yeah. And the, the other thing that I think is excellent, too, and you and I talked about this before, but right now with all the frustrations and challenges that people are having around homeschooling and trying to work whilst their children are there. We've talked a lot about this year about Strengths Based Parenting. And we've talked about -- we actually are in the initial conversations of launching a Train the Trainer course for, for folks who want to learn how to have conversations with people about their own strengths as parents and also spotting the strengths of their children. Or looking at the, the StrengthsExplorer, which is for 10- to 14-year-olds, or even looking at CliftonStrengths for Students, which is 15 and above. So that when they're working with their children at home and homeschooling them, they can start practicing spotting those strengths in their children and talking about those.

Anne Lingafelter 32:26

So now is a good time, I think, for our coaches to be thinking about that and maybe even upskilling themselves as well around that so that they can start to deliver that to their clients. Because now that we have this opportunity to be delivering things in a virtual environment, and they have their own little "Think Tank" right there in their house with their children, as they're trying to teach them, it sounds like it could be a good time for a Strengths Based Parenting workshop or course.

Bruno Zadeh 32:53

Absolutely. That's a perfect time, and it's what I'm doing currently. I'm an advocate of strengths-based parenting. So for those who have Learner or want to know more, what I recommend is this book: Strengths Based Parenting. So you will learn a lot about how you approach your children. And if you need to know more, please reach out. We are here to help you.

Anne Lingafelter 33:17

Excellent. Excellent, excellent. So when we start to think about the things that our coaches are hearing from their clients, Bruno, what, what are, what are, what are they saying, what are they telling you? What are the top issues that they're seeing with their clients?

Bruno Zadeh 33:33

Yes, well, that's a very interesting one because most of our coaches are independent of small business. And our clients are not necessary in this configuration. However, as a human being, we can see some patterns. So the first one it's dealing with the uncertainty of work changing. For some, it's too much work; and some others, unfortunately, and I'm very sad for them, it's the loss of their job. The second one, it's worry about how they will keep team engaged and motivated if this continues for the long haul -- fear, anxiety, ... . And here we would like to point out one reference, which is fantastic. It's this book: It's the Manager, because it's a book that you use like a guide. And it gives you a lot of tips for your team on how you can engage and what you can do. And the third one, it's Answering our level of productivity, I'll maintain, particularly when working from home. So some coaches have provided a few questions to ask who can be very helpful. It's asking the question, How you can strength -- your strength can help and what specific action you can take?

Bruno Zadeh 34:56

And also internationally, checking with a team member to have a chat. But what I mean, it's, as a manager or as a coach, in this time of change is not necessarily related to only work. It has to be a personnel with a lot of Empathy. It's really asking the person, How are you? And going deep into communication to, to just help him to just be empathetic and support people. That's very important -- be able to listen, to have solid empathy, and communicate with positive intent to reduce fear and anxiety and also ... .

Anne Lingafelter 35:36

Yeah, excellent. That's excellent, Bruno. And maybe we can even get our producer, Jim Collison, to throw the link into the chat room for the COVID-19 Leading Through Disruption [page] that we have on Gallup Access. So we've created this sort of pillar page that has all of the research that we're doing right now around COVID-19 and the impact that's having. How leaders can lead. And then it also has information and will continue to have more information on burnout and wellbeing. Because it's really important as we talk to managers and to leaders, about trust, hope, stability and compassion, and all of those things, that we don't forget that, that we also have to keep an eye on the leaders' and the managers' strengths and their wellbeing and their levels of engagement. Because, you know, if we're all turning to the leaders to give us that, who's looking after the leaders?

Anne Lingafelter 36:31

So we want to make sure that we keep that, that human, human element of understanding and appreciating that these are folks trying to do the best that they can in difficult circumstances. And, and what we have to share, as a lot of that's outlined on that COVID-19 site, would be something that you may find useful. So I think, yep, Jim's just put it in the chat room. So have a look there, guys. And that will -- keep checking in on that, because it will continue to be updated every week as we put more and more out there.

Bruno Zadeh 37:00

And to add to point, Anne, on that, I think it's really important. We know that in terms of employees and people, the manager plays around 70% of the place. And I would like to insist the importance for manager to touch point with their people every single week; if you can, every day, but doesn't have to be long, but just to touch points because they need you. They work remotely and it's really challenging. And for the coach, listen, it's a time to reach towards the manager because as you can see, Anne, well, they are even less supported, so they need you to, to boost them, to energize them, to work with their strengths.

Anne Lingafelter 37:43

Yeah, fantastic. And again, lots of those great articles out there that you'll find probably in that COVID site that's talking about working from home. We have -- Jim just did a Called to Coach with Adam Hickman, who has done so much research on, on working from home and remote working over many, many years. It's just now, you know, we're pulling him in front of the camera all the time, right, Jim, in order to have him be talking about this content that he's had and that is put out there. So it's really quite good stuff. That, that show was was done recently as well, hey.

Jim Collison 38:15

Yeah, we've actually done a couple, so one, one around kind of parenting; one around teams; and one around wellbeing with Ryan Wolf, one of our, one of our Senior Wellness Experts at Gallup. Those are available; I put a link in the chat room earlier to the, to the live page. You can see those right now.

Anne Lingafelter 38:33

Hey, Jim, do you, do you have a link to that new Careers pillar that was launched too, is that open to the public in Gallup Access?

Jim Collison 38:41

I do. Let me see if I can pull that up. We've got -- and we've got a teamwork one, too, by the way that we've put together on on teams and, you know that applicable to, you know, as we've sent teams home, in a lot of in a lot of cases, right, that weren't before -- not all. And then, and I just I dropped that in the, into the chat room as well. Teams are also under an enormous amount of stress that they haven't -- so not everybody's come home; here in the United States, we're about a third. And so there's still two-thirds working under enormous amounts of stress. And so there's opportunities, as we think about these new conditions that they're under -- whether it's long hours, or it's high pressure, or, you know, whatever it might be -- we've got some opportunities and some advice to help managers and teams kind of cope with that stress.

Anne Lingafelter 39:32

Yeah. Excellent. Thank you for that, Jim. And I saw that Jim has just put into the chat room the, the Careers one: How to Improve My Career. And I guess if people are listening to this show, anything other than live, how do they get these links?

Jim Collison 39:46

We'll actually put them in the show notes when we produce this. So all of these shows have a complete transcription and they have links to all these. And I'll make sure Mark includes them.

Anne Lingafelter 39:56

Yeah, thanks for that. That's perfect. And Bruno, I've jumped ahead and we'll have to go back. But I, I wanted to flag that while I thought about it because I know that one of the things that we asked the coaches, and also that I asked my internal Gallup folks, was, what do we do? What, what are we doing with strengths around those who are losing their jobs and those who are starting to seek jobs? So I think because they've, they've been displaced or what have you, that, that, that Careers link is, is quite useful at the moment, you know, for that, and, and I think, again, we've got a lot of -- some feedback and research from our higher education space about when students in universities take strengths, they feel far more capable, their self-efficacy goes up as far as their ability to get a job and to understand what they have to offer and how they can bring, bring that to interviews and that sort of thing.

Anne Lingafelter 40:55

So some of our coaches are probably spending a lot of time with their clients talking about how strengths can be used to improve their career, whether it's finding a new job or figuring out what they want to be when they grow up. So again, all of these things are available on Gallup Access or on gallup.com. And you guys can access those and share those with your clients as well. Sorry, Bruno, I, I interrupted there. What, what were some of those other things we were talking about -- wellbeing and burnout and how they might use strengths and how they, your, your coaches can say they're using strengths to address some of those topics?

Bruno Zadeh 41:37

Yes, absolutely. So before to start there, I think it's very important to review what's been wellbeing. So Gallup has defined wellbeing in 5 Elements: So 1) Purpose (or Career) Wellbeing; 2) Social Wellbeing; 3) Financial Wellbeing; 4) Physical Wellbeing; and 5) Community Wellbeing. If you want to know more, there is this book, which is fantastic. As you can see, I have Learner No. 1, so I read every book. It's the Wellbeing (book). It's very helpful especially in this time, but you don't need necessarily you don't have to buy it, because we have also a lot of research to provide you. You can find any information on Gallup News if you select "Wellbeing." So let's start with that.

Bruno Zadeh 42:24

So first on wellbeing, I've asked as a coach, and the first one, which comes back to what you explained at the start of the, of this Called to Coach, its "Use your strength as a resource to build resilience, and to respond more effectively to the challenge around you." So strengthen your natural talent. I think it's the first area where we need to go back, adjusting, but using definitely. Strengths promote wellbeing; it minimizes the chance of burnout and it boosts productivity. The second point was "Developing a wellbeing plan that motivates and works for you" -- something very individualized, not a common one; something will -- you will have to follow during all this time of this crisis. OK. So it's trying to energize us. So example, for people who got Competition are this great example. One of my coaches, she's Catherine Donaldson. She's brilliant, and she's very high in Competition. Same as you, Anne. So what she's doing, she creates some Fitness Bootcamp at home, and she makes it a competition with all her children. I know you have done the great idea to do some tennis challenge yesterday with your children. So because that energizes you, that feeds you, so that's an example you can do. But each strength will find some activity you can stimulate you. OK?

Anne Lingafelter 43:55

You know, one -- you know one of the things that I've done this that I haven't done before, surprisingly, but I'm doing it now, is I have one of those big Post-It, you know, pages on my wall at home. And I'm doing it per week, I'm going through -- I'm a paper person, OK? I always will be. I know I should do this digitally, I guess, but I like having it right there on the wall so I see it all the time. But I have the different things that I need to make sure that I'm taking from those 5 Elements, right, from those 5 Elements of Wellbeing -- so it's not just fitness, physical fitness, it's, it's also looking at my financial stability and how secure do I feel in my finances in these uncertain times? It's, it's my social and my community. So how often am I reaching out and Zooming with my elderly mom who's in the states, who I can't go see? How, you know, how am I doing on the community side? Am I reaching out to folks in the, in the neighborhood and, and even going down to my favorite cafe and making sure that I buy something from him like two -- at least two or three times a week, because I want to make sure he stays in business. And that, that feeds my wellbeing, even just, you know, knowing that, that I can support the community in that way. So it's really being intentional about having that and tracking it so that we're not just all focused in physical or all focused in financial. I think that's useful too.

Bruno Zadeh 45:10

That's a great point because that's a trap. Most people, when you think about wellbeing, have a natural instinct to link to the physical aspect. But it's really the 5 Elements. I totally agree. So, another point, it's thinking about your native theme to help us exercise self-compassion.

Anne Lingafelter 45:31

So your native theme, did you say?

Bruno Zadeh 45:33

Yes, yes. Because it's very crucial in this time. So that's very important. And I will give you another example, which is very easy. It's for Achiever: Do a "to-do" list, which creates some multifaced and helps you to journaling at home and stimulate you. And for Self-Assurance, it can be helpful to back yourself, navigating this time. And then some advice. Sorry, go ahead.

Anne Lingafelter 46:06

No, no, no, keep going with the wellbeing. I was going to say something about burnout. But keep going.

Bruno Zadeh 46:11

Yes. So the last point before to go to the next one, it's don't let Responsibility and Achiever gang up on you, and take on too much on your plate. Because it's also very easy to go to stretch in balcony and overdo it and be burned out.

Anne Lingafelter 46:33

Yeah. 100%. And one of the things that I, that I just -- I just did a burnout webinar with Claire DeCarteret. And one of the things we were talking about was, prior to this time, so many folks said they didn't want to have their staff work from home because they were concerned about performance and productivity. And what we're finding in, in actuality now is that the larger concern is most likely burnout. Because folks are struggling to compartmentalize their work and what they need to have done. They no longer have those barriers and boundaries between homeschooling their children and looking after their house and their family and doing their work. That can be a very highly stressful situation to have all of those sort of on top of one another.

Anne Lingafelter 47:23

So being able, you know, anything that we're doing with burnout is obviously reactive. What we if we can keep that focus on what you just spoke about, Bruno, which is wellbeing, then perhaps we can put ourselves in a better position to reduce the likelihood of burnout and again, another link, Jim, sorry, but I'm going to take advantage of this. If you can throw the link to the burnout position paper in the chat, that would be fabulous. If you guys haven't seen that. It's so good. It talks about the root causes of burnout and specifically even during this time, the impact that, you know, managing the basics of the pyramid of human needs at work. So expectation, materials and equipment, having the ability to use -- to do what you do best -- managing those along with mission and purpose. So if you can really dial up the connection between mission and purpose and individuals' jobs, then that has a great inoculation effect against burnout. So those are some of the things you may want to think about in that paper will walk you through that as well. Sorry, Bruno, back to you on the burnout.

Bruno Zadeh 48:37

Now that you've covered everything, that's perfect.

Anne Lingafelter 48:43

There we go. Love it.

Bruno Zadeh 48:45

Here we go. So here's the link. So now burnout prevention. So I have 4 points, which ... follow. 1) Be realistic in what you are aiming to achieve, and be kind to yourself. And you point out -- it's very interesting because organizations for that if everyone works at home, it may be less productive. But on all the questionnaires I sent, and I sent to 220 people, well actually it's the opposite. Everyone is overproductive. So that's Be kind to yourself; that's the point. The second one is 2) Take regular breaks. Try setting an alarm, if you're Discipline, at a regular interval, and force yourself to get away from your desk and have a coffee or tea, whatever. But get out -- firstly, because it's important to not burn out but also for your own wellbeing on all (5) different elements.

Bruno Zadeh 49:46

Stay active. People with Intellection -- I found this example brilliant -- might be walking, running alone and thinking. So we know that stay active is very important, especially if you stay a long time on your seat. You can also stand up and walk; stand up. You can also -- some do on treadmills; some do on different option, but try to not sit all day long. Because it's bad -- it's bad for yourself; it's bad for your brain, and also for your eyes. I learned that recently. It's not on this paper, but it's from my doctor. We spend too much time on the screen, even more than before. And what she explained (to) me, it's our eyes need to be humid. And to do that, every minute, normally, we blink a certain number of times. But because we focus on the screen, we don't blink enough times. That's why we start to have irritation. So you just -- if we want 2 minutes, get out of your screen and blink 15 times and go back on your screen. OK? I don't have the science behind, but that might be helpful. And so that's why these people with Executing Domain and a strong desire to maintain a high level of productivity need to step back and self-regulate. Otherwise you go back on basement and balcony. So that's the point I extract. Now we move on. Would you like to move on (to) job loss?

Anne Lingafelter 51:18

Do you have some to some good points to share there? I mentioned the Careers website. Jim, how much time do we have left? Do we have a bit of time to go through and still be able to take some questions?

Jim Collison 51:32

Well, if you want to, if we're going to go an hour, top of the hour's in 6 minutes.

Anne Lingafelter 51:36

OK, great. So we still have enough time.

Jim Collison 51:38

Yeah, we could do some questions in the postshow too.

Anne Lingafelter 51:41

Yeah, perfect.

Bruno Zadeh 51:42

OK. So what I would like to prefer to jump because we have a lot of science and research on on Career that you just provided, I would like to jump on homeschooling -- on this topic, because I have that everywhere. Well from every people who are -- who have some children at home. How do you manage that? Do you feel overwhelmed? How you balance? So this is a few tips and so I've collected. Design the learning at home in a way that aligns to your children's talent is always a focus. Research and learn; be flexible and realistic. And so that's really about strengths-based parenting. Be alert to the strength of your kids and offer support in line with your own strengths. So you need to balance on the line; you have to walk both way. Have them first explain to you how they think they can walk with homeschool and help build out from their ideas. I found this really really brilliant. For Developer, seeking to understand what success looks like for your children. And one -- do that; one, do a quarterly get-together with other parents and they kind of brainstorm to see how they can do things better. And each of the parents will catch up online for the same kids from the same class. That's another one. I found it.

Bruno Zadeh 53:15

For Arranger, it's well coordinate what needs to be done. Stay in some sort of routine. And of course, Command leads the way; Positivity it's to make it fun. So that's what I have from homeschooling.

Anne Lingafelter 53:32

Yeah, yeah. Excellent. That's fantastic. And, you know, again, as we think about, you know, starting to spend some of that time, you may say, oh, Anne, you don't get it. You don't understand how hard it is homeschooling kids and still trying to get work done. There's no time to add anything else to it. But I will share this, this data slide with you. It's for older students, but when we talk about the importance of strengths to student wellbeing, our data says students are 4.1 times more likely if they can say that at this school, they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day, they're four -- 4.1 times more likely to strongly agree that they have thriving wellbeing. If they can strongly agree that they get to apply their strengths at school, even homeschool, then then it's 3.6 times more likely to have higher wellbeing. If they have -- they can strongly agree that they can use their strengths in many situations, 3.3 times higher, and if they can strongly agree that they know their strengths, that's 3 times higher. So there's a lot of, a lot of increases in student wellbeing just by having those strengths conversations with them whilst you're, you're homeschooling.

Bruno Zadeh 54:54

Yes. I would like to add another point. Anne here is leading all the Education Department for host in Australia. So if you want some data and some advice about homeschooling, she's the right person because she got four children.

Anne Lingafelter 55:09

None of whom are homeschooling, however, so. But anyway, so that was -- and then what about productivity whilst remote working. Anything else for that?

Bruno Zadeh 55:21

Yes, I've a lot of that. And that's a big, big, we could do just one Called to Coach on this topic. It's a big one. So just a few bullet points. Have put a team together with diverse strengths to work on business challenges. So complementary partnerships. That's full. Give individual responsibility for helping with practice and process that will build team effectiveness. As an example, the person with a high Input to organize a filing system. So Deliberative to run risk review; the a person with high Individualization and Includer to ensure all voices are heard in the Zoom meeting. So it's really everyone brings their best and partner together.

Bruno Zadeh 56:10

Now, another one, very important, it's set up clear boundary at home. You need to break down and to have some limits; otherwise it's not sustainable. Know when you are at your best, because we all work with different time zone in your biological clock. So I know that if I want to learn, I need to wake up at 4 a.m. And everyone has some different time. And one of the coaches say, It's better to focus on 5-hour productive with clarity than 8 to 12 hours when it's the wrong time and you're tired. That's it for this part.

Anne Lingafelter 56:51

Yeah. Excellent. Fantastic, Bruno, you have gathered so much good information from our coaches, and thank you again to, to the coaches that we have acknowledged and recognized at the beginning of the show on that screen, and I think Jim's going to put it up again. So thanks, guys, for taking the time to send something else out there. And I think there were some other folks who came back even later today, but we were already -- it was kind of done and dusted at that point. But thank you, we do appreciate it. And for your support and your advocacy of this. So, Jim, do we have any questions from that very busy chat room that we would like to bring to the fore?

Jim Collison 57:30

It has been busy. But let's save those for a little bit of postshow for that. That way we can get the -- I think there's some great advice in here; or we can get that kind of wrapped up for a recorded show. And then we can kind of dialogue with folks who can stay around for some extra time. How does that sound?

Anne Lingafelter 57:44

That sounds great. Seeing, seeing that we are really in fact out of time, that probably makes sense anyway. But Bruno, thank you so much for coming on today. You were -- all of -- you brought all of your strengths to make this happen, and I'm really, really pleased. You, you brought amazing information to us. And thank you so much. We value you, as you lead the coaching community, just as I'm sure they value you as well, but, but your internal colleagues here at Gallup value you as well in that role. So thanks again.

Bruno Zadeh 58:13

Thank you so much, Anne and Jim, for organizing that. It's a privilege to be in this Calling -- Called to Coach session.

Jim Collison 58:20

It's great having both of you doing this as well, and I think a great reminder, like there's no one-size-fits-all. This is why people need coaches; they need support; they need help, because every situation is different. What works for me, I was mentioning in the chat room, like if, if this was 10 years ago, and I had to homeschool my kids, that's a whole different world than today where it's me and my 21-year-old daughter right here. It's just a different world. And so we are glad you are out there on the front lines working with folks and that's never been more important than it is right now. So I hope you found some value in that; some great suggestions. There's still plenty more and networking of course together as a community is most important.

Jim Collison 58:58

With that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantages of have all the resources we have available. Anne mentioned a bunch of them. You can kind of start at gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. We have a ton available for you as well. If you have any questions after the fact, you can send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. We'd love to have you jump in our -- well, if you're joining for the first time, we'd love to have you get registered with us over at Eventbrite. So you go to gallup.eventbrite.com. Follow us there; you'll get a notification every time I add a new event. And we have about 40 events lined up between now and July at this point. Love to have you come to some of those, because it's just more fun when it's live. So do that today. And then don't forget to join us for our -- in our Facebook group. So facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach, as well in our LinkedIn group, if you want to head out to "CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches" there as well. And then one reminder in all of this, our, our 2020 summit has gone completely virtual, and you can now sign up for that for a pretty low price. So head out to gallupatwork.com, everybody's $195, and you can get involved in that with as well. We'd love to see you there; more details on the site. And lots more information coming here in the month of May. I want to thank you for joining us today. Again, if you're staying live, stay around for some postshow we'll ask or answer some specific questions. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Bruno Zadeh's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Learner, Achiever, Discipline, Command and Activator.