As I write this article, I channel surf ‘Stan’ for all kinds of Olympic Sporting coverage. Swimming, surfing, tennis, table tennis, archery – the list goes on and on.
I can see athletic displays, and the entourage of people supporting athletes, and crowds admiring them, from a neutral view, an Australian one, or from channels around the world. How cool is that!
As I ponder each and every individual on the screen (including trying to recognise and match flags and nations), including swimmers from land-locked countries, each has a rich and colourful story of their Olympic journey, their life journey, their world. To be in the Olympics, even in the very first unseeded swimming heat, or as a ‘lucky’ entrant as another athlete withdraws due to injury, you are a high performer. The eyes of so many see you, admire you, and are fascinated by your fight.
With the Olympics on one screen, and a swathe of social media, news and business sources on my laptop screen, I continue to see opinions, ads and events highlighting the rise and rise of psychosocial risk factors. From legislation, into practice and training. The psychosocial factors matter, and have probably been elevated as we navigate workplaces in a post-covid world.
Many of the HR people we speak with are continuously focused on understanding psychosocial risk, reducing it, or trying to remove it. Then, it seems to have captured our collective HR attention – but it terrifies leaders given its opacity and the near impossibility of creating a psychosocial utopia.
Every single person deserves a safe and fair workplace that won’t continuously and irrevocably harm them, but I firmly believe we go to work to contribute and perform. Most workplaces are pretty safe; most leaders want people to thrive, not flounder. The foundations and care in the real world are much more solid and robust than we might think.
This got me really thinking through the question, can psychosocial safety and high performance co-exist?
Watching the Australian Boxer, Harry Garside breakdown after an unexpected loss, the sheer rawness of it, was hard to watch.
The elation we saw with the medal-winning performance of Emma McKeown, fuelled by, and on the shoulders of – her late father, who died from brain cancer.
And my interest peaked in achieving greatness despite adversity, as the legend of Matthias Steiner, a German Weightlifter who promised his wife he’d win gold, which he did in Beijing in 2008, just a few months after she died in a car accident.
In all of these, there are great ambition, world-leading heights to scale in their sports, and considerable adversity, and a range of psychosocial factors to navigate.
For every 100 articles on managing psychosocial risk, i.e., the potential downsides – there’s very little openly discussed, with oppositional or positive language for the other side, that maybe an element of psychosocial risk, is really what creates diamonds. If my premise is true, it can go beyond Olympic diamonds, to a level in each and every one of us, set differently by nature and by nurture, that can help us perform, to be better versions of ourselves.
I believe we need to shift the focus and talk about post-traumatic growth and psychosocial hardiness, as much or maybe more than psychosocial risks. We should not forget the positive changes that can come from difficult experiences, and how they can help us become better versions of ourselves.
As entrepreneurs, business leaders, and small business owners are so acutely aware, we don’t make risks zero, as there would be little or no growth. We seek returns appropriate to the level of risk and reward.
And maybe this is how we need to navigate the world for individuals too around psychosocial risks.
Everyone should have settings that enable them to grow, not by eliminating all risks, but in a manner that aligns with their individual risk appetite. This may vary at different times and can be adjusted with input from others. Some will set it and not want to deviate, others will welcome the wind lifting under them that others can provide, and they’ll reciprocate.
Every single person has a role in helping protect, support and enhance the experience of every other when they’re at work. The goal is to raise the standard and to have the standard raised – not so high that it’s unattainable, but to strive to be a little better.
So, what lessons can we learn to improve, grow, and take the right risks?
Lesson 1: Nobody is an island. Where there is risk and adversity, there are support villages.
Even the fiercest individual competitor, is not an island. They are human, with fallibilities, strengths, and needs. Every single one of them, has a deep network of support, family, friends, coaches, peers – that lifts them to be better, helps them along the way, and leans in to the lows, as they share the highs
Lesson 2: The thresholds between risk and performance are different for each of us, and are situational and contextual – not fixed. I.e. – there are moments where we need to protect our own safety.
Each of us has a risk appetite, that is situational, contextual, innate – that we must continuously explore and test to grow. Not all of us will be tearing down the mountain on a bike with no brakes at all times. Not all of us will never ride the bike. Lots will be somewhere in between – and if each of us is testing our own limits at work even fractionally, even for a moment, our work will be richer for it.
Lesson 3: Don’t shy away from raising the bar at work – because most of us, and our environments are very safe!
The key is to not be afraid to raise the bar. Raising the bar presents an opportunity for growth, whether it’s from just missing a goal or surpassing it by far beyond your wildest expectations, and everything in between. In most work scenarios, the landing is usually relatively soft and well supported.
If each of us can enjoy and admire the Olympics, while appreciating the importance of support networks, risk-taking, and striving for excellence, we will all benefit and grow – individually, collectively, organisationally, and societally.”
L-E-T-S G-O!!!!