Positive Psychology: A Conversation with Leslie Day-Harrell

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, culture, important, associate, values, workplace, pathway, positive psychology, jackson, organizations, conversation, position, campus, growth mindset, means, business, life, experience, amenities, core values

SPEAKERS

Gemma Toner, Leslie Day-Harrell

Gemma Toner  00:02

Have you had this conversation atone networks podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of have you had this conversation? I'm Gemma toner and I'm joined here today with Lesley de Harrell, who is executive vice president associate experience a Jackson healthcare. For the past four years Jackson has been named to Fortune's best workplaces in healthcare and biopharma coming in at 10th. Place in 2021. Being an Executive Vice President and Associate experience is clearly an integral part of the company doing so well. That being said, I am sure it has been a really, really challenging job. So as we think about this, you know, Leslie, you're just the perfect person for us to talk about, you know, the new normal that we're all navigating, and, you know, what is culture? And how do we manage employees happiness, especially with a company like yours, where you really have been in the forefront. So thank you so much for being here.

Leslie Day-Harrell  01:15

Thank you, Gemma, appreciate you having me. I'm looking so forward to our conversation, and hello to all of the women of tone.

Gemma Toner  01:22

Thank you. Thank you. So let's let's just hear, everyone has such an interesting story that we get the chance to speak with. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? That would be really fabulous.

Leslie Day-Harrell  01:36

Sure. Absolutely. Well, I'll start with the most important thing in my life, which is I'm a lucky mom of three kids. I've got two they're in college right now. One is a high school senior. So I'm kind of going through the almost empty nester. I'm married my high school sweetheart. And I grew up living across the globe. And honestly, probably until I was age eight, I thought we were gypsies growing up. But I later learned that my dad was actually contracted through the military. So my anthem in life, really, my early years was change. Everything was always changing, which really has helped me a lot in my life. I love to dream in very explosive color. I'm an artist. I love fine art, poetry, nature. And most of all, I love love, love to travel with my family. So I have a passion for continual learning and evolving entrepreneurship, creating. And sometimes that means creating people teams or physical creations. I love studying human behavior, and I have a passion for lifting and developing people. So it's really fun with my job because I get to wear multiple hats that allow me to really tap into all of my different passions. So many, many moons ago, I got my degree from University of Georgia Go Dawgs. And my original intent was to go to law school when I got out of school, said years ago, I'm not law school, but college. I was getting married. And so I thought, well, let me just get a job. Because we're going on a honeymoon, let me get a job. And I will go back to law school did the LSAT was ready to roll. I landed in commercial corporate real estate, and I absolutely loved it. And I never looked back. So I learned very quickly. That was a lot of hard work, putting in the hours and being a very eager learner. Very ambitious, that opportunities continued to come my way. So I kept working harder and more opportunities came my way. And so I really did stay doing what I was doing for 18 years. And I ended up building up a portfolio of commercial class a corporate real estate to about 2 million square feet. And one of the we call owners that that I worked with was Jackson health care. So I've been involved with Jackson health care for 15 years. But for four of those years was as a contractor, and true to Jackson health care fashion about four years into that relationship as a contractor, they said, you know, we prefer owning our intellectual property rather than renting it so we wouldn't want you to come in house. And so believe it or not actually turned it down the first time. And I think it's an interesting point to make because this all feeds into our culture. I thought it was too good to be true. But they worked me over, took about six months. And finally I said okay to take a leap of faith. I left a job that I had been with again for 18 years, was on a very good path to where I wanted to be with that and took a leap of faith and joined Jackson healthcare 11 years ago. And when I first started with Jackson 15 years ago, I really was kind of a plug filler, anything that needed to be done that didn't already have assigned, you know, it was not already assigned Someone else kind of fell into my room. So it was a very, very mixed bag of all things operational. So some of it was property management, facility management, a lot of things that, you know, just kind of corporate operations, things that needed to be handled in. So the beauty of that even though I never was in the same swim lane two days in a row, the beauty of that was, I really got to, I got a great exposure to a lot of different facets of our organization. And that really kind of helped lead into it, it served me very well over the last 11 years. And it really served me well, in the role that I'm in now. Um, somewhere along the way, I guess in 20 2018, I started pursuing a 240 hour certification and positive psychology and it was kind of a passion of mine. And although I didn't really know where and when, and how I would use my learnings from it. I knew at some point, it would kind of reveal itself. So. So keeping in mind, I've done a lot of things commercial real estate, facility management, property management, corporate operations, heavily involved with our both the company president as well as our CEOs really deeply been able to understand how they think where their hearts are. And then now I've, you know, completed my certification and positive psychology. So all of this together sort of melds into this really interesting, I guess, position, if you will, sort of an opportunity. And in late 2019, we started having internal conversations about, you know, now that we have built this beautiful physical representation of our culture, we did went through $120 million dollar corporate campus expansion, which I led, lead that initiative and love that project, which took about four years from start to finish in. So it really we started saying, well, now I need to start focusing inwardly on that culture and really working on nurturing and protecting it. So you know, when you grow, and move as fast as what we have, over the last 10 years culture, something you can't take for granted, you know, that it's going to be self self sustaining, because it's not, there's gotta be some intentional intentionality around it. And so all of this kind of is sort of the tee up to you know, how this position came to be, which I know, we're gonna get to that in a few minutes. But that's really kind of my background, the evolution of my positions, I've worn a lot of different hats, which is super fun. For me, I would not like it, if I did the same thing day in day out. And it kind of teed up this opportunity when the campus expansion project finished. In late, or I'm sorry, in early 2019, I started ideating around, you know, what next for me, and so taking all of the things, I'm passionate about what my experiences were. And with my my boss, at the time, we started talking about how we really need to focus on one needs to own culture and associated experience. And so they're in the position was born from that. So it's relatively

Gemma Toner  08:16

so let's talk about the core values and the mission of Jackson. And also, let's talk about, you know, this is a relatively new position, and it's now starting, we're starting to see it in lots of other companies, you know, they're starting to create these culture positions, like someone actually owns it. Right. So can you give us a sense of, of the, the core values and mission of Jackson and then this was just to remind us, when was this position

Leslie Day-Harrell  08:48

created? Yeah, so we started this in 2019, which I love emphasizing that because it really, you know, it was before COVID, it was before a lot of the conversation and, and that is just another example of a forward thinking company, and our leaders of the company that they understood at that time, that this is so important, and, you know, one of our unspoken values is that, you know, if something is important to you, don't just say it, do it, you know, live it out. And so this is this position as an example of that. I'll read to you for and then I'll share with you a little bit about the values around it. But the vision in 2019 that I wrote for this position, goes like this associate experience to continuously cultivate an unparalleled engaging environment, which aligns with Jackson health care's mission and core values, to protect the distinguished legacy and culture of caring, purpose, meaning and holistic associate wellbeing, and be thought leaders in developing ways to foster human flourishing. We want to curate rich experiences and develop opportunities to inspire action and drive personal and business success. We want to influence Jackson health care's culture and conscious capitalism brand and be in service of extending wellness into our communities. We want to continue to be the leaders of a champion workplace culture that is sought after by talent, and customers and marks the gold standard that others actively seek to achieve. Utilizing science and data to benchmark and measure experience, develop pathways to nurture and magnify the impact of our deep rooted culture. Through these metrics, we develop a greater understanding of what most significantly impacts associate wellbeing and drives personal success. So we that was kind of you know, when we put everything on paper, it's kind of like, even though that's a really long vision. That's kind of where I landed with it. Because it was so encompassing, it included so much every aspect from hire, to retire for an associate. And, of course, our mission and our core values, drove and drove the vision and continues to drive the initiatives that that we are creating around this. So our overall mission, and you'll read this, and pretty much everything that you see for Jackson healthcare is to improve the delivery of patient care and the lives of everyone we touch. So this spans from the clinical settings with our providers all the way through to each and every associate or vendor or tenants that we've got on campus, our business partners, we just want to leave a positive mark on anything and everything that we come in contact with. And that's a really big mission. And we take that seriously. And it drives our thinking guides our decisions around it. So our values, you asked about our values, our values, or others first growth and wisdom, we distilled what used to be, gosh, probably 25 or 30 words, we distilled it down into these three words, just because they were easy to remember. And it really encapsulated these three words, or three values and capsulated 25 to 30 different phrases or words that we had used prior to about eight years ago. So others first it means put yourself in their shoes, a lot of people think it means we only think of every one else. It means us never and that's not true. What it means is looking at other people's perspective, before making a decision, that means we collaborate a lot more as an organization, which does mean it takes longer sometimes for things to get done. Because we really want to look at everyone's perspective before making important decisions. Growth, a lot of people think that growth means grow the business grow the revenue. And while that's important, I would say that that's a byproduct to getting all of these other parks right. And so really, for me, it means keep learning and keep pushing every facet of your life, you know, everything within you just keep moving forward and don't stay still. And then the last one is wisdom and wisdom. Wisdom is different than intelligence. It's it's looking futuristically and then you follow backwards to your answer. And our president talks a lot about this. And he truly to be as young as he is, is so full of wisdom, both he and his father Bosal. So full of wisdom. And I learned from them every day. You know, sometimes we want to make those immediate decisions. And we solve for the now rather than looking at what does this mean five years from now, 10 years from now, in a lot of, I believe what feeds wisdom is experiences and failures. And we talk about that a lot. That's a part of our culture, Jackson, healthcare is failures are fine, as long as you learn from them, and failures really do help inform they just help speed and grow wisdom, along with experiences. So our values, though, I love this kind of tagline that I we've used over the years, which our values inspire culture, and our culture inspires our associates. So it's everything to us, our values come up every day, they're in every boardroom, you go in every conference room you go in. And I will tell you, we talk about our values more than we, and we act on our values more than what you're going to see it in writing somewhere. So it's a living. It's living, I guess, is the best way to put it. It comes up more often in more conversations, and I can even begin to tell you so it's not just words on the walls, even though we do have them everywhere. It's far more conversational and actionable than words on paper, which I'm really proud of that it comes up in everything.

Gemma Toner  14:40

Well, that is kind of where I was hoping you could help us understand when you think of culture, you know, because it's a it's a word. That means a lot of different things to different people. And so when you think of the culture of the company, and growing that culture, how do you define it, is it? You know, is it like what you were saying before, it's, you know, it's actually the living that living the values as opposed to the words on the wall?

Leslie Day-Harrell  15:11

Yeah, it really is, it's, I think, if you allow your values to guide everything you do from the very beginning, it's it, it helps you make the right decisions with who you hire, and use that hire people that that connect and align with what we believe to be important. So you know, culture is just a group of, you know, it is defined by a group that has the same beliefs and care about the same things and are driven and motivated by similar things. And so I think it all starts with you higher to that you higher to those that connect with what you believe in, and what's important to you. And again, others first growth and wisdom. If you are surrounded, we don't want I guess this is not to confuse it with we like to hire people that are all alike. Because we don't we want a a broad diverse mindset and group of people. But you can have people from every single walk of life, that believe the importance of putting other people's opinions and perspectives in the mix for conversation, that believe that growing and having a growth mindset and continually pushing yourself and others around you to be better, to be better your jobs to be better humans to be better. Moms and dads and friends and co workers and colleagues, we're always lifting each other and pushing each other be better and to, you know, be better citizens, corporate citizens and better citizens in the community. And people that believe in in wisdom, you know, learning from your mistakes and being accountable to ourselves for those mistakes, and not letting mistakes define you in a negative way, but a positive way. So you can have people from every walk of life, that can believe in those core values. And if you do, you've got an incredible culture, that that that stems from that that is created and flourishes from that. And you know, culture has physical representation, as well as an emotional, spiritual connection as well. And, and I think that's really important. And so it's, it is something new, it's tangible, when you walk on our campus, it's it is very real, you feel it. And that goes into experience, you know, kind of what you experience, from an emotional perspective, that's our culture speaking, that's our culture, when you walk on campus, and all of a sudden, you just feel this warm hug, not from a person, even though people here were big covers, but you just feel that that is the experience of a vibrant, lively, rich culture, which is why those kind of go hand in hand experience culture are called, you know, it there,

Gemma Toner  18:08

they do, and it really having been on, you know, having had the good fortune of being on your campus, it is a bit magical, you know, what you what you experience, so, you're certainly in that kind of, it's a magician role in some ways, but in some ways, clearly, it's not because it's, it's, you know, this focus and intention, and having someone like you lead it, again, is evidence of companies that really value culture, and that employee experience. So tell me, you know, you started in 19, before COVID, and then we get to well, you live through CCO and went, you know, experienced that in this position. And then how have things changed over the past? You know, two years as we've all evolved, and workplaces have evolved?

Leslie Day-Harrell  18:59

Yeah, yeah. I will say that the biggest thing is people are just showing up very differently, meaning, you know, COVID crystallized for people, what they value most what they really care about most. And as I've always said, it's not that those values are necessarily different. We just kind of reshuffled our own decks, you know, there's a different card on top now, you know, so and in so trying to understand what that what that is for people has been our greatest challenge. Um, my most recent focus group that I just did was called what matters most because, you know, if you had asked me pre COVID, what people cared about, I feel with a fair amount of certainty. I could have answered that. And I could have given you a list of five or 10 things that would probably have no 99% accuracy rate for Bing, right? If you asked me that, six months ago, I would have told you to have no clue. I have no clue what people care about anymore. And what I mean specifically by that is that, you know, from a workplace perspective, um, you know, from a retaining talent, attracting talent, keeping people engaged, motivated, feeling good about what they do, and loving being in a workplace, amenities were a really big thing. And I don't want say in the past, because they're still really important to people. But we are so rich and amenities on our campus. very intentionally, we wanted this to be a place where you didn't have to leave, you didn't want to leave when you came on campus every day, we prepared wonderful, nutritious meals for you. We have state of the art fitness facility, we've got every service you can possibly think of. And, you know, when people came back, if those things didn't matter as much, the having said that we're not taking anything away that we did before, because we know it, the people still care again, it's just not the top card in their back anymore, right now. So I stress that people have asked me that they say, Well, do you feel like we should take amenities away? Should we cut back, it's really expensive to keep some of these things going. And, and I say, you know, curve things that absolutely makes zero sense anymore, but don't eliminate those things. Because people do still care and the messaging behind, again, where you put your money, your energy and your time, people pay attention to that. And so even though it might not be the most important to them, you know, working out in the state of the art fitness facility, it still matters. And I think that will come full circle for people. Yeah, did that

Gemma Toner  21:42

answer appreciate? Well, I appreciate your honesty, because I think, you know, we've, all of us, all of us in the workforce have never truly lived through a pandemic before. And so when you talk about, you know, hey, six months ago, I'm not sure I had the answers. I appreciate that honesty, because I think for so many corporations. There is not a clear playbook. Right. There's not a business case study that's been done. Like, here's the roadmap, you know, we are really in new territory. And I think it's that openness. And that honesty, saying, you know, I'm not quite sure. And we need to do some listening. So can you talk about, you know, how one you came to that I'm comfortable enough that I really can be honest, that we need to do something different than what we had done before? And then can you help us understand your process? Like, how did you go about it? Yeah,

Leslie Day-Harrell  22:42

yeah. So feedback is a huge, it's a gift. Sometimes you don't like what you hear, but it's a gift, and you need to hear it. And so this is one thing I really stress, you know, with my team, and for people that ask outside of the organization that we have to evolve, we have to ask questions, we have to understand if we're going to meet our associates where they are, we have to know where they are, which means we have to ask questions. And I know a lot of people don't want to ask questions that they don't want to know the answers to. But if we're going to really address this head on, then then you do so you have to ask the question. So as feedback, second most important thing is listen, listen to what people say, and incorporate changes that you can obviously we can't accommodate everything, you know, we might have some organizations that everybody says I want to work remote 100% of the time for every single job, well, that may not be practical for the model for the way you do business. So you have to figure out what the where the sweet spot is with that to meet people where they are in. So we've, again, right before COVID hit, we started focus groups, and those range anywhere from 25 people to 100 people. Sometimes we do surveys ahead of the focus group so I can get the actual raw data. And then we have in person or zoom or what, you know, whatever format we choose. We have conversations around it so that I can actually get color commentary from people. So I can fill in those gaps that sometimes the raw data points don't really tell you. And so we've done a lot of those. I've done one on one interviews, actually, during COVID. I did quite a few of those, especially for our working moms, they were struggling so much, understandably so because you know, they're having to wear five hats working from home being a mom being a teacher getting their jobs done. And so there was just a lot of struggle around that. So I did a lot of one on one interviews around that and basically took all of that information, summarized it and then created action plans around that, you know, fed that up to our president, Shane Jackson, who was very, very interested in understanding like what matters to our folks so that we can make course corrections and adjustments and, you know, a lot of people say what does that change of culture. And I say, well, culture should evolve, you know, culture should evolve with the times our times are different. Now, if your values don't change, which I would argue, if you really care about the same thing, you know, values wouldn't necessarily change. cultures can cultures can evolve, and they should evolve. And so you do that through understanding what matters to people. So we ask questions, we listen, we adjust, we evolve.

Gemma Toner  25:25

So in asking those questions, because you obviously were brave enough to ask questions that you might not want to know the answers to, but you went ahead. And, you know, faced it, right. Like, what you were saying is, we've got to do this different. And we've got to ask questions that we may not want to hear the answers of all the questions that you asked, What would you say were sort of the top five, aha was for you, that you were like, I'm had no idea that was going to come back?

Leslie Day-Harrell  25:53

Yeah. You know, probably the emotional state of people right now. Um, when asked questions around engagement, you know, how satisfied they are kind of with their jobs with their wives right now. Um, I was really surprised at the chronic rate of burnout with Associates, and it all kind of ticks and ties together in that, you know, there's obviously a severe labor shortage or talent. You know, there's the war on talent right now. And so And also, it's a crazy market, people are offering insane salaries for same jobs that people are doing, you know, across the board. And so it puts a tremendous stressors on businesses, you know, do you stay the course do you cave in on that, I mean, that's not a sustainable model, you know, to pay everybody 30%, more 40%, they do percent more, that's not sustainable for business. And so what's happening, you know, through this great resignation, people are those left behind are having to carry more burden, more weight, more load, and they can't backfill those positions fast enough. And so unfortunately, people are experiencing tremendous levels of burnout right now. And you know, from a management level, I don't know that managers are seeing that and understanding that because it's kind of a new, it's an anomaly. It's something new, that we're not new, per se, but I think it's in a chronic state right now. And so I think managers are not recognizing that early on. And so I think you've got kind of the emotional trauma in some cases and damage that have that people have incurred and sustained through COVID. Then you add on kind of what's happening in the workplace right now, the loads that people are carrying, it's just unsustainable. And so that was probably one of my most recent focus group about a month ago, that was one of the biggest things that came to bear was just people are really struggling right now with anxiety, you know, it's out there, but you kind of think, oh, that's every other business, surely not our people, like we're people, we've got a great culture, we, you know, everybody always looks so happy and excited. But, you know, at the end of the day, we're all human. And we're all on a very similar journey. And we, you know, it times can be stronger than other times, and everybody always has stuff they're dealing with. And, and there's an accumulative effect to that. And I don't think I realized how pervasive that was, um, and you know it because you hear about it, but when you're actually asking it, or getting this feedback from people, that was kind of a wow, moment, for me, I did not realize how pervasive that was. And it just made me realize how much more work how much work there is to do. And, you know, as business leaders and organizations, it is a really hard problem to solve, which I think just you take it back to the basic, which is the understanding, you know, we talked about this a lot, a lot of people's empathy, you know, it's just where are people and try to be empathetic to what their current situation is, because not everybody just floated through COVID Not everybody has adjusted the same to this. And it's real. And I will say that, you know, empathy has always been one of our values, I would say it's it, it really is others first, that is empathy, just in different words. And so that's always been really important to us, but I feel like that piece of what we're doing, we need to amp up more in organizations just need to amp that up more and, and not just ask, but really listen, like I said before, listen, and it might mean that, you know, the unilateral approach to management doesn't work. You know, you can't say, oh, this is how we're going to do it across the board. And, you know, we've never been an organization like that I one of my favorite favorite things that our CEO Rick Jackson said to me years ago, we were talking about our children. He's got three kids. I have three children, and I don't remember what I was talking about something about, you know, training all the kids equally. And he said, you know, the best way to love your kids equally is to love them uniquely. That stuck with me. And that's probably been eight or nine years ago, he said that to me, and, and I apply that to everything I do with Jackson healthcare now meaning everybody here should be valued. And they are valued for their unique propositions for what they bring their whole selves who they are as a person, the contributions they bring the energy they bring. And so that means that everyone, you know, we love them uniquely. And then that way everyone is loved equally across the board. And so what that means is the manager is we just need to spend more time really understanding what matters are people who they are and what makes them tick, and where they are in their their journey. And in walk side by side with them in that in. That's not the easy way. But it's the right way, when you have a culture of caring, and we care deeply. That's the only way. And so it's just kind of a more emphasis with managers and leaders, you know, we just need to really understand that solutions are going to take longer, because now we can't just slap up, this is what we're doing across the board, you really need to walk that journey with each and every associate to really be as inclusive as possible and understanding as to where they are. And that's what you know, and to make them feel valued, honored, and treasure. And that's a really important thing. And so you get that again, through asking

Gemma Toner  31:44

and listening, asking endless listening, and it sounds like empathy. That it we all need that in this new world. So when you experience and have these conversations, you know, how does that psychology background help you? Because, you know, some anxiety? I mean, it seems like everyone has a level of anxiety that they didn't have before. Right? So how do you use your background to kind of run it through perhaps a different lens? And then someone else might?

Leslie Day-Harrell  32:19

Yeah, well, I would say one of the things I take in a lot of information again, sometimes people you know, dealing with anxiety, stressors in the workplace, really just want to be heard, you know, it's just sometimes just, they appreciate so much knowing that you care enough that you're asking questions. And so and even though sometimes, especially for this something truly that, you know, where professional services outside of what me just being a practitioner is capable of doing, I'm able to refer people into internal programs that we have. But but having a certification and applied positive psychology allows me to apply science to wellbeing. So you know, well being spans across so many different platforms, whether it's your physical well being emotional, spiritual, financial, whatever the case may be, or your career well being, career while being salutely. Yes. And so I'm very plugged in and very closely aligned with our, you know, HR department with our learning and development, with all of the amenities that we provide on campus. So we can look at everything very holistically. And so you know, positive cycle psychology is just having a deeper understanding of what drives human behavior. And I just, you know, the insights that I've been able to gain through through that certification allows, it's just very beneficial. So when I'm at the table with other people, I can just apply a more humanistic approach and that perspective to situations where it's not all so cut and dry black and white, it's really more of that, that subjective viewpoint into things. So just a little bit about positive psychology. So unlike pathological psychology, which focuses on what's wrong with you, you know, what's wrong with your brain, we're going to fix it. Positive Psychology is really studies what's right with you, and it uses science back methods to get more of what's good. Which is really kind of neat when you think about that, because rather than putting the emphasis on what you're doing wrong, or where your strengths are not, it's focusing on where they are, and then how to get more of that out of you. Because you know, that that leads to greater happiness. You know, deeper fulfillment, higher engagement, there is plus sign all across the board on that. So there are a lot of different in the field of positive psychology, there are a lot of different pathways to human flourishing. There are five different halfways one of those is called the positivity pathway, which is really always prioritizing positivity not to be mistaken with, you know, Pollyanna, like, oh, everything's fine. We're just gonna brush it under the rug. But it's really spending time for it, for example, like fixed versus growth mindset. Psychologically, there's a huge benefit to understanding the difference between the two of those and entering every challenge and every dilemma, every stress point that you might have with a growth mindset to educating people what that means, rewiring your brain so that you can approach situations with a growth mindset has exponential effects, Mind Mapping, maximizing rewards theory is very important. Cognitive behavioral therapy and understanding the weight that beliefs have on how we behave, is really important. And there's a lot around that old beliefs, you know, beliefs drive our behaviors. And so understanding what people believe helps inform how they're going to behave, which is really interesting. So again, goes back to ask questions, understand what people believe in will help inform that resiliency is a huge part of a positivity pathway. The next one is engagement pathway, which is about self regulation, depletion and repression, which is, you know, that's popping up now a lot with people when they're talking about their chronic burnout, mindfulness, character strengths, a lot of that falls under engagement pathways, relationship pathways, so it is ensuring the importance or really underscoring the importance of high quality connections, belonging vulnerability, and Tumen empathy is no no those altruism, kindness, volunteering, Hive theory relatively in the workplace. So this is so important right now I see this as an area where organizations are really suffering, with people wanting to do remote work. So remote work can work. It's proven to be productive or fine, in one regard, but you lose that connection, you lose experiential learning, and we as humans, are wired for connecting and a sense of belonging. I mean, if you go back to Maslow's hierarchy, I mean, belonging is right there in that I mean, we need to feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves in the work, we're working towards a greater purpose, and you don't get that as much. So relationship pathway is a really important part of my work right now. Meaning pathway, spirituality and meaning or post traumatic growth, as opposed to to post traumatic stress, which a lot of people endured that through COVID. So from a positive psychology perspective, we treat that as post traumatic growth, like what are the good things that we can take from that, and learn from that, and continue to reinforce and grow from that. And actually, you know, hybrid work models work life balance would be an example of post traumatic growth, you know, there's a lot of good that came from that. So people feel like, wow, now I feel like I can spend a little more time at home, my balance feels a little better. So, you know, we just have to, we haven't quite calibrated that. I think we're works across the board. But we're on the right, we're taking the right steps for that. So that's really exciting. Achievement pathway. There's a lot of research around hope and change, you know, a lot change. Management is a huge part of helping people adjust to sort of the new ways, adopting new ways of doing things on goal setting science of habits, active listening, motivational research achievement, that's part of the achievement pathway. You know, one of the things we're studying right now is how to properly recognize people's achievements, their contributions to things do people feel valued, in the right ways. And so one of the things I'm working on, as you know, one of Gary Chapman, the love languages in the workplace, absolutely brilliant work around that. And so people want to feel recognized for their work, but they need to be recognized in a way that that resonates with them. You know, if you've got a super introverted person, giving them you know, public praise in front of 500 people is probably not the right way to show recognition to them, whereas they may appreciate a handwritten note from you. So there's a lot of research around that and ways that again, we can just deepen our connection with our associates by by really understanding that and the last pathway is vitality, so ensuring people get enough sleep, that physical activity, we provide a fabulous fitness facility here that they're eating right. We have wonderful nutrition programs and eating healthy, balancing stress, doing mindfulness in the workplace. I love that when we started our conversation out Gemma that you said, Let's take some deep breaths. I would love for more organizations to do that before you start a big board meeting. Just take three three Deep breaths, you know, or have a moment of mindfulness, two minutes of silence, a lot of organizations are really moving into that, I'd love to see us move more into that. So that's one of the initiatives that we're working on, it just kind of helps you balance and sort of neutralize some of the stress in your life. So, you know, we just know that forging people are healthier, they're more resilient, and they're better able to focus on their work. So we focus on fostering a thriving mentality, both cognitively and emotionally with people. So

Gemma Toner  40:30

long winded on Oh, my God, I can talk to you for hours and hours, because obviously, I find all of this extraordinarily fascinating. And as, as someone who, you know, there's post traumatic stress, but then to actually speak to people who also recognize and see the potential of post traumatic growth and how that can be so transformational for all of us, quite honestly. Right? So we, unfortunately, are going to run out of time. Yeah. So what I would just like to wrap is just to say, given all that we've just talked about, is there one thing that you would say, even just in the past six months, because you said it was so important to that listener to ask those questions, and that listen, and is there one thing that you would say, I wish everyone that's listening could have the benefit of x? What would it be?

Leslie Day-Harrell  41:33

I would probably have to say, having a manager and if you're a manager, I think this is really important that our roles of leadership in honestly, let me I would even say, it doesn't have to be a manager, because leaders can be at every level. But realizing the importance of the most simple things, a kind word to someone taking five minutes to talk to someone face to face versus sending a text message to them or an email to them. I am seeing the aftermath of people losing the sense of connection, human to human connection. And I think we think, Oh, it's fine, like we're communicating with each other, I can't underscore enough, it's kind of an insidious decline, the damage of that, we won't see it in six months, we won't see it in a year. But three years from now, we're going to start seeing that it's going to show up in the workplace, five years from now. And so I would say don't miss an opportunity to make a difference in a person's life. And it doesn't have to take a lot of your time to do that. But it really comes back to that human connection piece. And so, you know, ask someone how their weekend went. If you know something about their family, so the kids graduating, you just wish them good luck with something, I can't even begin to underscore the importance of that. Look around. I bet if you think when was the last time somebody asks you that in a meaningful way, it's probably been a while. And it takes so little to do that. But we've become kind of robotic and the way we do business, and we can't lose that human piece of it. So that would be the end. I'm hearing that if people are not able to articulate it that way. But then the aggregate results, you know, or takeaway that I'm getting from a lot of my focus groups is that very thing. They're feeling that loss of human connection so that we can take

Gemma Toner  43:43

away and take the opportunity to make that human connection and to practice it right. Well, again, thank you so much, Leslie, this has been such a treat. And I just want to remind our audience that we want to continue to hear from you. And please submit your ideas and questions and thoughts using the links that we have below. They're located in on our Instagram bio. And again, thank you so much for taking the time, Leslie to be here with us and for our audience to be listening. And remember, each one of us, you have the power to set the tone of your life. Visit tone networks.com for more content like this, and stay tuned for next week's episode of have you had this conversation