Latest news with #DianaLowe
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Building A High-Performing Team: 3 Positive Psychology Strategies
Diana Lowe, CEO of Blue Light Leadership, helps organizations transform employee engagement through Positive Psychology and Coaching. When I started working with a client whom I'll call "Dylan," he was newly promoted, full of energy and ready to make his mark. A bright, ambitious manager at a fast-growing software company, Dylan had just stepped into a hybrid team leadership role. The team was diverse, scattered across time zones and juggling complex deliverables. He knew one team member well from a past project, but the rest? He couldn't quite figure them out. What motivated them? What did they value? What were their strengths, and what environments helped them do their best work? He quickly realized that if he wanted to level up as a leader, he couldn't do it alone; he needed his team to level up with him. Sound familiar? If you work in an environment where your team's performance directly affects your own, you're not alone. In today's hybrid workplaces, team dynamics are more complex—and more critical—than ever. Building a high-performing team isn't just about assigning tasks and tracking KPIs. It's about understanding the psychology of what helps people thrive. Based on evidence from positive psychology, here are three foundational strategies to help any leader—new or seasoned—develop a high-performing, engaged and resilient team. 1. Lead with strengths, not just skill sets. In my experience, too often managers focus solely on what someone can do (skills) and not what energizes them (strengths). According to research from Gallup, "people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job." Dylan began by running a simple strengths assessment with his team. The result? Conversations shifted from performance reviews to potential. He found that one team member, who had been dragging on sprint reviews, lit up when facilitating cross-functional brainstorms. Another, who seemed disengaged, had a talent for writing user-focused documentation that had gone unnoticed. Try This: Use tools like VIA Character Strengths or Gallup CliftonStrengths to identify natural talents. Then design work in a way that activates those strengths weekly. 2. Cultivate psychological capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is the science-backed inner resource of high performers; it includes hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism (HERO). Teams high in PsyCap show better collaboration, performance and innovation—even under pressure. (For further reading on this concept, check out the book Psychological Capital and Beyond by Fred Luthans, or other writing by Luthans.) Dylan began using weekly stand-ups not just to check status, but to foster optimism and hope. He asked questions like "What went well this week?" and "What small win are you proud of?" These micro-moments helped his team build resilience and confidence over time. Try This: Integrate HERO moments into regular meetings. Celebrate progress, talk about lessons learned and build a shared language of growth. 3. Understand what makes people tick through values and ideal work conditions. We all have different drivers—autonomy, impact, creativity, structure, etc. But leaders often manage people the way they want to be managed, not how their team needs to be led. Dylan took time to ask each team member two powerful questions: • "What conditions help you do your best work?" • "What matters most to you in a team?" The answers helped him flex his style. Some team members thrived with structure and weekly check-ins. Others preferred flexibility and async tools. Instead of managing to the middle, he began leading to the individual. Try This: Conduct short one-on-ones focused on work style, values and energy drains. Use the insights to adjust workflows, recognition and expectations. Final Thought Dylan didn't change everything overnight; it took time. But by anchoring his leadership in positive psychology principles—strengths, PsyCap and values-based management—he helped his team not only perform better, but trust each other more deeply. And in doing so, he became the kind of leader people want to follow. If you're building a high-performing team in a hybrid world, the secret isn't in doing more—it's in doing the right things more intentionally. Start with who your people are, not just what they do. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
When Technical Brilliance Becomes A Liability
Diana Lowe, CEO of Blue Light Leadership , helps organizations transform employee engagement through Positive Psychology and Coaching. getty Zara was a senior leader with a track record that turned heads. She delivered results, met every metric and outperformed peers in her technical domain. But behind the numbers was a mounting problem HR couldn't ignore: She dismissed input from peers, labeled colleagues as 'incompetent' and operated with a my-way-or-the-highway mindset. To HR, coaching was a strategic intervention. To Zara, it felt like a punishment. For her team, it was the final hope. This isn't a story about personality. It's about mindset—and how evidence-based coaching can help shift deeply entrenched attitudes, protect organizational culture and turn a high performer from a liability into an asset. What often presents as a 'difficult personality' is, in truth, a set of cognitive and emotional patterns shaped over time. Zara hadn't become rigid overnight—her views on competence, control and value had been reinforced over decades. The problem wasn't capability. It was mindset—and that's where HR-led coaching interventions can have transformational power. Here are three tools from positive psychology and behavioral coaching that helped shift Zara's perspective and her impact—and how they can help other leaders do the same. 1. Cognitive Reframing: Challenging The Internal Narrative When Zara claimed, 'No one here knows what they're doing,' we paused to examine the thought beneath the thought. Was she feeling unsupported? Out of sync with the culture? Holding others to an impossible standard? Using cognitive-behavioral techniques, we challenged absolutes and helped her develop a more accurate—and empowering—narrative: 'I hold high standards, and I'm learning to communicate them in a way that elevates others.' The Takeaway: Use cognitive reframing to reduce interpersonal friction, shift conversations from confrontation to collaboration and enhance team psychological safety. 2. Strengths-Based Coaching: When Assets Become Liabilities Through the VIA Character Strengths assessment, Zara identified her top strengths: leadership, prudence and fairness. While these traits had helped her rise, their overuse had a cost. Fairness became rigidity. Prudence morphed into micromanagement. Leadership leaned into control. By connecting these strengths to emotional intelligence and self-regulation strategies, she began to use them more intentionally—and more effectively. The Takeaway: Lean on strengths-based development to increase leader self-awareness and transform perceived weaknesses into refined leadership behaviors. 3. Visioning Exercises: Reconnecting To Intrinsic Motivation Using the Best Possible Self exercise, we explored how Zara wanted to be described one year from now. Her answer was not 'the smartest in the room,' but 'respected, inspiring, someone people want to work with.' That shift—from proving to inspiring—became her coaching North Star. Each week, she set micro-goals tied to this future version of herself. The Takeaway: Work on visioning to build intrinsic motivation, align behavior with values and create internal accountability—often more powerful than external pressure. The Multiplier Effect: Why Coaching Relationships Matter None of these tools matter without one essential ingredient: trust. In coaching, insight is just the beginning. Sustainable change happens when leaders feel safe enough to be honest—and challenged enough to grow. In Zara's case, it wasn't one "aha" moment. It was a series of micro-adjustments, made possible by a strong coaching alliance and a safe space to evolve. Why This Matters To A Healthy Company Culture When a high performer becomes a source of disengagement, the cost is steep—turnover, complaints and lost productivity. But writing someone off is often more expensive than investing in behavioral coaching. The ROI is improved retention, revitalized team morale and a transformed leader who becomes part of the culture solution, not the problem. Positive psychology tools aren't soft. They're strategic. And when paired with a strong coaching relationship, they don't just inform behavior change—they make it possible. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
