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"Between Sessions"
​Blog

Not the Typical Psychotherapist

6/8/2022

 
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We would like to dedicate this week’s newsletter to recapping our successful event 2 weeks ago in Nashville, TN, 2022 “Not the Typical Psychotherapist Summit.”
It is geared towards mental health practitioners who seek satisfaction in challenging convention thought. Those who seek to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit. Session topics included:
  • “The 7 Essential Tools Every Entrepreneur Needs to Kick Ass in a Post Pandemic World”
  • “How To Use Your Strengths As A Therapist to Level Up Your Business
  • “Bougie Boundaries: Entrepreneurs who struggle with People Pleasing”
In true “Not the Typical” fashion, therapists got to connect and have fun with happy hour, line dancing and karaoke.
ShrinkSync + “Not the Typical Psychotherapist Summit”
We partnered with the summit organizer, Ernesto Segismundo to simulate pre-event networking among participants across the country. Participants used ShrinkSync to scan into events and take CE surveys. We’re excited to create a seamless system for mental health professionals to track attendance, process evaluation forms and provide CE credit during their events.

Check out the Ernesto’s upcoming events here:
Kona, HI: Kona Foundations of Connection Summit
London, UK: Not The Typical Psychotherapist Summit

Fully Paid Paternity Leave

5/26/2022

 
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Taking time off for mothers to be with their newborn is now encouraged more than ever. It’s even fully paid by employers. 

Companies offer 3-12 month of full pay and a job guarantee when returning. This is great!

Companies are also offering fully paid paternity leave. This is also great. 

Especially for new parents, to be home with a newborn together as a couple with minimal to no financial disruption is awesome!

But many men aren’t using their paternity leave. 

They may feel that having one person full-time at home (the mom) and just coming home early and helping part-time is more than enough. Others always have their ambition on full throttle and will not want to sacrifice their end of year bonus.

Then there are others who feel embarrassed to take paternity leave.

But why should you care?
​

Parenting is one of the most stressful events for a couple. Your patient may be a new mother who feels alone and not receiving enough help. 

This patient may not be able to afford the means of seeking nanny help nor have any family help where they live.

Your patient may also be a new father who is juggling work and lack of sleep. 

They feel stressed at home and at work, attempting to commit to both but resulting in committing to none.

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Paternity Leave is huuuge luxury: Many dads rely on state-sponsored FML (Family medical leave) pay to get this opportunity. This is a pay cut. Some states do not even offer it at all. Remind your patient how fortunate they are to work for a company that will completely pay for it.
  2. Overestimating the impact of his absence at work: Remind your patient that the company will not fall apart when he leaves for 12 weeks. He should plan it out with his team and peers a month prior. He should designate a temporary backfill to help answer emails and attend meetings on his behalf (and he should volunteer to do the same for others).
  3. Overestimating career damage: Ask your patient if they recall any male regretting taking time off with their newborn because they missed out on a promotion. This can be an opportunity to clear his head, take a step back and reflect on his career. Many men have come out of paternity leave with a stronger sense of purpose at work. Many have finally broken out of their work inertia and found a more fulfilling, higher paying job after paternity.
  4. Early parent = good parent: A new father wants to be the best possible father. So it’s disheartening when a 3-6 month year old child refuses to stay alone with his/her father and is always asking for the mother. Dad’s who are as present as the mother from day 1 (i.e., changing diapers and interacting as frequently as the mother) will become less reliant on his wife to sooth the baby. As a result, the mom will endure less stress and feel she is being helped.
  5. Leveling playing field for women at work: Remind your patient that if all males take paternity leave, it will make taking maternity leave much easier. With more people in the office taking family leave, family leave will become more structured, predictable and less career threatening.
  6. Maternity Leave Guilt: The advice above should not just apply to males. While it is expected for a female to take time off to recover from birth, family bonding should not take a backseat to work. Establishing a strong parenting foundation and routine by taking extending leave will make returning to work easier.

The Green Bubble

5/18/2022

 
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Many of your patients likely use Slack or Microsoft Teams as their communication/instant message tool at work. They are great tools to get things done and remove any communication barriers.

However, the over reliance on these communication tools begins to take a toll. With most communication conducted on these platforms, employees’ virtual presence and responsiveness begin to be judged. For example, Teams has a color coded presence status: 
  • Red indicating you’re busy/in a meeting 
  • Green: indicating your on your computer and free
  • Yellow indicating your idle and not at your compture
  • Gray you are offline and not logged in
Some employees make it a point to be red or green as much as possible during the weekday to avoid the perception of not working. Even if you have these apps on your phone, unless the app is actually open and visible on the screen, the color will be yellow.

It’s also quite common for employees to wait until their manager’s status turns yellow or gray before signing off for the day.

But why should you care?
Some of you patients are working from home. It’s not unreasonable to step out to run an errand, but many of them will fear the dreaded yellow status assigned to them.

Working parents will need to pick up their children from school and also fear the misperception of slacking. This leads to stress.

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Verbal Status Message: While presence colors are mostly systematically determined, advise your patient to leave a verbal status message to accompany the color. Even being as honest as, “I’m picking up my son from school. Will respond when I get back” is refreshingly honest and respected by managers
  2. Green does not equal Productivity: For those patients who are using this deceitfully to show that they are working well into the evening, remind them that the green bubble isn’t the path towards promotion. It’s delivering that lands promotions. They should spend their evening with their families, not distracted on their work laptop
  3. Leverage Color Bubbles in their favor: Virtual presence status is intended to help employees stay focused and not be disrupted when busy. Just because your patient is not in a meeting, doesn’t mean they should allow their status to be green. They should take advantage of the red-do not disturb status to get their work done
  4. Respect others' colors: Remind your patient that others also feel the need to show a green status as well. For those that aren’t green and it’s pass work hours, respect their non-work hours. Most messages can usually wait the next day

PTO Guilt

5/11/2022

 
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Many of your patients accrue Paid Time Off (PTO) or vacation days from their employer during every paycheck. This is a nice perk and needed for rest and recalibration.

Despite the generous vacation hours, employees find themselves maxed out (meaning, they no longer accrue PTO because they hit the max limit of residual hours they can hold).

So why are people feeling burned out and simultaneously have more vacation days than they know what to do with? Here are some reasons:
  • Guilt/Shame: Despite these PTO hours being part of earned compensation, many feel they will be perceived as slackers if vacationing too often. 
  • Paying out Unused: Some companies offer the option of cash for unused PTO. As a result, employees now feel they are leaving money on the table by using PTO.
  • The House will burn🔥: With looming deadlines any given point in time, many feel things will completely fall through the cracks if they leave for a bit.
  • The House will not burn🌳: Opposite of bullet 3, some feel that things will continue to hum during their absence. This creates a sense of job insecurity.
  • Unlimited PTO: Some companies lure candidates by promising unlimited PTO. However, the issue with this is that without having accrued “ownership” of vacation days, the employee feels even more so that they need permission to take time off.

But why should you care?


Many of your patients feel burned out but fear taking vacation. Some even believe they don’t ever need to take vacation, not realizing that they aren’t operating at their full potential without rest.

Without taking time off and shutting off email, your patient will not have a chance to fully be present on the weekends. They won’t be able to self-reflect and consider career pivots.

Driven by day-to-day work inertia, you patient might be too busy to even notice that they’re fatigued and depressed.

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Plan Your PTO: Advise your patient to be strategic with their PTO. They should consider 2-3 weeks in advance a backfill plan in their absence. Managers appreciate this and allows them to pitch in while your patient is on vacation. 
  2. Promote PTO Culture: For patients that have their own team, they should encourage PTO usage in their team. Even coordinating PTO together helps reduce the email flow during time off. In addition, offering to pitch in while their employee is out will lead to their employees pitching in when your patient, their manager, is out.
  3. Avoid Exit Bonus Delusion: Some patients will attempt to save PTO to have a lofty payout when quitting. Remind your patient that balance is key. They should take vacations throughout the year and leave some saved for emergencies. Also remind them that the signing bonus at their next job can serve as that lofty payout.
  4. Be Intentional and work backwards: Some patients have noted that planning a vacation before declaring PTO makes it easier. For example, some people search for flight/hotel deals and choose a date offering that discount. Running off of that excitement, it becomes much easier to declare “out of office” on your work calendar. 

The FIRE Movement

5/2/2022

 
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FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The FIRE retirement movement takes direct aim at the conventional retirement age of 65 and the industry that has grown up to encourage people to plan for it.

By saving 70% of their income, FIRE movement followers pursue quitting their jobs decades before reaching 65 by living off small withdrawals from their portfolios.

The goal is to achieve the 4% rule: Save up enough money, where 4% of it equals to your total annual expenses. So if you spend $100k a year on living expenses, you would save $2.5M.

This means extremely frugal living.

But why should you care?

Strong savings habits should always be encouraged. However, your patient may take it too far. Constantly declining social invites to save money can lead to less human interaction and loneliness.

Reducing basic necessities for family members can also lead to harm. For example, reducing grocery budgets and substituting in cheap, unhealthy foods put others at risk.

Even creating a home culture of poverty living will deprive family members the basic joys of life.

Advice to consider during sessions.


  • Why: Remind your patient that the goal of retirement shouldn’t be the retirement, but the retirement should be the means to a higher goal. If your patient is looking to quit a corporate job to start his/her own non-profit, that’s a worthy goal. If the goal is to just quit a job without a plan after, then ask your patient if the real solution is simply to just get a more fulfilling job.
  • Basic necessities are still necessities: Remind your patient that not everything should be eliminated from a budget. For example, canceling health insurance for the sake of saving money places him/her in a vulnerable position if an incident occurs. Even worse, an entire family will be impacted by this poor decision.
  • Free-time is free-time, not happiness: Friendships, community and a sense of belonging creates happiness. But these require sacrifice and years of social investment. Sacrificing this for happiness in the future can lead to free time without friends.
  • Set a realistic budget: Attempting 70% savings is a noble goal, but is it necessary? Have your patient actually calculate what is needed to retire and when. If they realize they actually don’t spend much per year and want to continue working for another decade (perhaps they have a goal to reach a certain status/position in the company), then they are being irrationally urgent.
  • We live in a consumerist society, but not every spend is trivial: People will shop out of boredom. Rather than just eliminating all spending, have the patient consider the ROI (return on investment) for every purchase. For example, purchasing a new iPhone every year will not result in additional value to your patient. But paying for admission to a networking event can pay dividends in the future. 

Side Hustling

4/27/2022

 
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In the last decade, the internet became simpler. Anyone can create a website, online storefront and connect to customers anywhere in the world.

In 2007, the famous book The 4 hour Work Week was published, highlighting how easy it was to only work 4 hours managing an internet business while maintaining a full income. This led to a frenzy of new projects with passive income (aka, side-hustle) as a means to quit the 9-5.

Relatedly, the FIRE movement has become popular with Millennials: Financial Independence, Retire Early. The FIRE retirement movement takes direct aim at the conventional retirement age of 65 (we will discuss this further in an upcoming newsletter).

But why should you care?

Your patients are likely bombarded by ads and articles titled “How I quit my job to make 30k a month online.” This creates anxiety and also makes people regret their life decisions,

“Why did I go to law school and work 70/hr a week when this 22 year-old kid is making more money than me”.

In addition, working remotely in the last few years has generated more disengagement and apathy towards an employer. Why work hard for a promotion that would gain a 10% salary increase when you can make millions online. Right?

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Passive with an asterisk*: Remind your patient that it is possible to create a side business with passive income. However, when probing successful entrepreneurs, they will realize the 1000s of  hours put in initially to get it launched. They will also realize that most of them had several failed attempts before success.

  2. Beware of Side-Hustle Charlatans: There are a number of books and courses on getting started with a side-hustle. While there are credible authors, for many, the course itself is their side hustle. 

  3. Pandemic Funk: Remind your patient that the disengagement they might feel today could pass when they return to the office. Perhaps coming up with personal goals to be promoted or even consider “intrepreneurial” projects (entrepreneurial activities within your company) to develop skills, motivation and visibility.

  4. Side-hustles aren’t bad: Pursuing a side-hustle is great! Remind your patient that even if it doesn’t grow, there are new skills they will develop that will make them better at work or even on their next side-hustle. Perceiving it as a hobby with the potential of commercial success might be a better approach.

Messenger Options Overload

4/19/2022

 
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Life was a lot simpler when we all relied on basic SMS, email, and AOL instant messenger (remember that?). Now there are a multitude of popular message apps. It's overwhelming. We will attempt to summarize the top 7 in the US:
  • WhatsApp: Now owned by Facebook, WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging app in the world. It is specifically known for “End-to-end Encryption”, which means message content is completely hidden when traveling the server pathways between sender and receiver. In other words, not even FB, Whatsapp or the government can ever see your messages.
  • FB Messenger: Originating as simple 1:1 messages between Facebook friends, FB messenger is a standalone app enabling video chat, message, payments etc. FB Messenger has improved its methods of keeping random people from messaging you. Instagram messages is also conducted via FB Messenger.
  • Snap: Snap originated as a messaging app where photos disappeared. The idea was to foster genuine, non-polished posts by eliminating the fear of permanence. It is now a big social media platform commonly used by Gen Z and younger millennials.
  • Discord: Discord is tailored to gamers. Think of a community behind specific game titles, where gamers can play an online game and chat with each other via Discord, simultaneously. Discord has also been used to create NFT (non-fungible token) communities. We’ll get into NFTs in the next newsletter
  • Signal: This app was born strictly for privacy. Signal has security features that block screenshots,end-to-end encryption (refer to Whatsapp bullet) and can set messages to disappear using a timer.
  • Telegram: Similar to signal, this is a popular message app that focuses on privacy and security. Telegram is very popular in Iran.
  • Corporate - Teams/Slack: Lumping Microsoft Teams and Slack together, these are typically used in the office. Employees can directly message each other and create “channels” (multi-user chats grouped under a theme/project).​
But why should you care?
Your patients are likely using 2 of these messaging apps daily. They are also likely on social networks (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, etc.). Understanding where they are spending the majority of their daily interactions might provide a glimpse into their lives.

For example, someone who talks about Discord is likely a gamer interacting with other gamers. Gaming is a great hobby and should not be discouraged at any age. However, observing your patient on Discord all day while neglecting family and friends around them can be perceived as escapism or addiction.

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Privacy and Safety: While all the popular messaging apps try to do their best at securing their platforms, remind your patient that nothing is 100% safe. Practice due diligence when interacting with strangers and always assume hacks can happen no matter what. 
  2. Corporate Chat: Many patients will leave the office and continue to chat on Slack or Teams (since it is also on their phone). It is easy for work conversations to evolve into non-work discussions. Remind your patient that most companies store the messages and log keystrokes for audit
  3. Multi-Factor Authentication: Remind your patient that the more chat applications used, the more targets they open themselves up for hacks. Ensure they have alternative verification methods to restrict others who have their password from logging in (e.g., SMS verification, Google Authenticator, etc.)

Long Live the Office!

4/12/2022

 
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After a long period of working remotely, employers are asking workers to return to the office. Some employers (Microsoft, Apple, Google etc.) will embrace a hybrid workplace, requiring workers to be in the office 2-3 days a week. Others (Spotify, Amazon, etc.) have decided to make the office optional. 

Since returning to the office, there have been different reactions:

  • Hugs and Coffee: People saw each other in person for the first time since the pandemic. It was a happy and celebratory moment. 
  • Same Zoom, Different Desk: Others found themselves at a desk doing the same exact thing they were doing at home: On a zoom call with earphones.
  • Covid Anxiety: The fear of contracting Covid has not waned for many. For some, going back to the office during a pandemic seems crazy.
  • Silence: The cohort of workers who were excited to return found themselves in a 10-20% occupied silent office. The office hustle and bustle seemed like a relic of the past.
  • Panic: People that moved out of the city to work remotely found themselves in a bind. They’ve established a new way of life in a different city and do not want to go back an expensive city.

But why should you care?


At least some of your patients are in this return transition phase. Even if perceived positively, it’s still a big change. We’re not the same workers as 2019. Our work schedule is more fluid and office walls no longer bound us from running errands.

Your patients will consider changing companies, especially if they are going to experience change via either path they choose.

Those offices that require your patient to move back near headquarters, they will feel forced to start interviewing elsewhere. Leaving a job you love and good at is a stressful decision.

Advice to consider during sessions.​

  1. Embrace Office Spontaneity: Dressing up and commuting to an office might seem like a big inconvenience, but the relationships that form in the office are more lasting than virtual ones. Many great company-changing ideas have originated from simple banter in the office kitchenette.
  2. Use the Office for Visibility: Even if the office is never more than half full, encourage your patient to use that to their advantage. Rubbing elbows with leadership in the elevator/hallway constantly places your patient on their radar. It is much easier to speak to C-level individuals casually than over emails or in meetings.
  3. Embrace Tough Decisions: For those patients contemplating moving back near headquarters, perhaps if they aren’t willing to move for their jobs, maybe that signals they actually don’t have the perfect job. It’s a healthy and needed reflection point that can help break your patient's inertia. It may lead to bigger things.
  4. Rationalizing Virus Fears: Exposure to more people will increase likelihood of contracting all sicknesses, Covid included. Covid is also not going anywhere. Have your patient consider their risk profile (health/age/vaccination status) rather than assuming 100% doom. 
  5. Rationalized Virus Fears: Assuming your patient is at a serious risk or in proximity to a high risk individual, have them consider an open conversation with their manager. Highlighting their accomplishments in the last 2 years will instill the manager's confidence in extending the remote work sitution.
  6. New person Perspective: If your patient is adamantly against returning to the office, have them consider another point of view. Imagine they were a new hire starting remotely. Would they not ramp up faster if everyone were in the office? Being able to swivel your desk chair to ask a question rather than email someone is a lot easier. They will one day be that new person at their next company and will appreciate the office culture. 
  7. Hybrid Compromise: Have your patient see this as a win for the employee. Companies (not all of them of course) are realizing that working in the office 5-days a week is overkill. Employees used to try all sorts of incognito ways to work from home on Fridays. Now employees can do that without any guilt. They can turn off their laptop Friday afternoon and immediately start the weekend. No commute time.

Creating the Nightmare Boss

4/5/2022

 
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In the last newsletter, “Unignoring the Employee”, we discussed how managing employees with intention can result in lower stress for your patient. Strong management increases team productivity. And promoting employees and celebrating team success is fulfilling.

In this newsletter, we’ll take a different perspective with “Creating the Nightmare Boss”. We all hear people complain about their boss, but we only hear one side of it. We’ve heard complaints of micromanagement and a lack of interest in people development. But probing further, other facts start seeping in. For example,

  • Employee: “I feel like my manager is constantly checking on the progress of my tasks. I’m an adult. I can do my job”.
  • Friend: “I can imagine that being annoying and stressful. How often do you voluntarily give your boss updates though.”
  • Employee: “Oh. I’ll just send it to him when the task is done. I don’t have the time to just email him a weekly update.”
In this situation, the boss may be a micromanager, but one can argue that the employee might be causing this behavior. If the boss is relying on the employee to complete an important task, it's not unfair for him/her to know the progress and whether it'll meet the deadline. It’s also not unfair for a boss wanting to contribute and actually make the task easier for the employee.

But why should you care?
As a therapist, we will always hear the one-sided complaint of a manager. We’re not attempting to defend bad managers, but we’re making a point that there are also bad employees (or good employees acting as bad employees in certain situations).

Employees sometimes deliberately undermine their bosses behind their backs or passive aggressively produce bare minimum results. These behaviors drive managers crazy. It can cause good managers to act out and exhibit bad manager qualities.

Referencing Newsletter 7, “Unignoring the Boss,” fostering a healthy working relationship with a boss is important for mental health. But the employee also has to put in work.

This is not at all analogous to a child and parent relationship. The employee is also an adult and needs to put in the effort. That is where you can offer some advice and perspective as a therapist.

Advice to consider during sessions.

  1. Establishing trust and dependability with the boss will lead to a happier workplace for both manager and employee. Employee actions that help build this relationship include emailing a weekly update on tasks, calling out project blockers and asking for help/collaboration. A competent employee is able to hide for several weeks and come back with a finished project. But why not make the experience positive and transparent? Allow the boss to provide feedback throughout the task. The positive experience will leave a lasting impression. The boss is likely to assign more ambitious promotion-building projects in the future as a result.
  2. Remind your patient to take a vested interest in their boss’s career. Help their boss succeed. Their project results make their manager look good and help them move up the ladder. This is a good thing for the employee. You always want to work for a rising star in the company and ride their coattails to the top. The boss will likely want to take the employee with them when leaving to a different company.
  3. Be a good person. Remind your patient that they may have disagreements with their boss. That’s expected. But they should restrain from going out of their way to hurt their boss. Why spend prime career years driven by resentment and pursuing vengeance when the employee should actively fix the current situation or leave.
  4. Secrets have a short shelf life in the office. If a boss confides in your patient with information or even gossips, they need to absolutely keep it to themselves. As time goes by, the recipient of the secret takes the secrecy less seriously. Whether the information itself needs to be secret, the boss finding out about his/her employee gossiping will not bode well. However, knowing that the employee was able to keep a secret amplifies the trust.
  5. Motivate your patient to their job as best as they can. If your patient is choosing to be passive aggressive out of resentment, remind them that they are unknowingly making the lives of their peers harder. These peers are your patient’s professional network. It is from this network of people where they will find new, unposted jobs in the future.
  6. Most people think they deserve a promotion. Rather than discussing it with the boss with a ,”If Henry just got promoted, then I clearly deserve one too.” Instead they should congratulate Henry and the boss’s successful attempt. They should then honestly admit that they would like to be on a path to promotion and want to work with their boss on a 6-12 months plan to get there.
  7. Remind your patient and discussing salaries in the work place can lead to bad consequences. In a perfect world, companies can be 100% transparent with everyone’s salary. People would just accept and continue with their work. What drives a boss crazy is when an employee asks for a higher compensation because someone else on the team makes more. Unless there are clear discriminatory practices, try a different approach. Present your boss with market average salaries and highlight their recent achievements. Not only is that a positive conversation but it gives the boss some ammunition to work with.

Unignoring the Employee

3/29/2022

 
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In our last newsletter, “Unignoring the Boss”, we discussed the importance of investing more time and thought into the relationship with a boss. Quoting that last newsletter, “When taking a weighted ranking based on time spent with a person, a work boss will likely take the #1 or 2 spots. But it is not uncommon for someone to spend more weekly hours with their boss over their own spouse.”

In this newsletter, we will focus on the other side of the relationship: Unignoring the Employee. Many of your patients likely manage employees. 

Whether they realize it, they play a critical role in their employees’ mental health. They set the company/team culture by the types of people hired, promoted and fired.

Being a proficient manager requires a dedicated amount of time outside of actual desk work. 

Managers sometimes dedicate at least 50% of their time to coaching, hiring and promoting.

Why do people decide to become managers?

Typically companies pay a higher salary to managers. In addition, sometimes the only promotion path is to be a manager. Many jobs require a big team to increase their scope of work. As their scope increases, their team grows and promotion opportunities become available.

Being manager can also be very satisfying. Helping grow and promote your people is very rewarding. Many managers have claimed that a promotion for one of their employees felt as good as if they were promoted themselves.

But why should you care?

If your patient treats their managerial role as an afterthought, they will likely face downstream stress. When employees aren’t properly managed, team productivity will decline. When reporting to engaged, emphatic bosses, employees are more ambitious and are bias for action.

Employees that are backed by their boss will take more pride in their work and produce output beyond the bare minimum.

Bad bosses lead to employees quitting. With the current hot job market, employee churn is as high as ever given the options out there. Employees quitting creates a 3-6 months vacancy and consumes 40+ hours of time to interview and hire a new candidate. This all contributes to your patient’s stress levels.​

Advice to consider during sessions.
  1. Companies don’t invest heavily in manager training. Your patient should consider their own relationship with their manager to help develop empathy for their own employees. They should reflect on when they’ve been the happiest and most successful at work. How did their boss contribute to that. They should practice those lessons with their own employees.
  2. Remind your patient that their employees may likely fear or be intimidated by them. They shouldn’t be advised to completely deconstruct the company hierarchy, but they should ensure enough dialogue and risk tolerance (i.e., allowing employees to experiment and fail) to have the best version of their employee.
  3. Invest in employee 1:1 sessions. These shouldn’t be used for status updates on projects. Employees own this time slot and should discuss their careers and goals with them. If employees still hesitate to discuss their careers, then they should actively bring it up by asking for example, “In exactly 1 year from now, what would cause you to say you had a successful year.”
  4. Encourage your patient to also have team goals outside of the day-to-day business. That could mean setting goals such as number of team promotions, new patents filed and number of trainings completed. Celebrating team success creates a sense of culture and belonging.
  5. Remind your patient that there is no one size fits all management style. In fact, they should adapt their management style to every individual on their team. People have different talents and work in different ways. Your patient’s goal is to lean in and maximize everyone’s talent.
  6. Humans tend to be biased towards others that resemble them. Remind your patient to avoid having a “golden child” on the team, who will likely be someone like them (i.e., similar work backgrounds, etc.). This is easily sensed and can demotivate other employees.
  7. Empathy does not mean being soft. There are bad employees who will go out of their way to hurt their boss. Nothing will drive out a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one.” Being a good boss also means knowing when to put your foot down.
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