27 Feb Ted Lasso is right, ‘believe’ing in your workplace matters
Reading Time: 3 minutes“I have to believe in the place where I work.” Bam. There it was. In a neatly turned nutshell, my client had revealed how to improve a culture.
Not motivate me with a world-changing mission. Not inspire me to great feats or pay me a gazillion dollars. Simply show me I can believe in this place where I spend a sizeable chunk of my days.
In his book Consolations 2, poet David Whyte says, “Belief stops being merely belief and becomes real presence when the unknown is kept alive, where what is living in my belief is kept alive by the way I keep testing that belief in the real world …”
Or in other words, belief will wither unless put to work. Most of which comes back to what people say and how they do things. My belief grows when you say ‘respect’ and afford me the dignity of choice. When you say ‘care’ and pick up my project when I’m too sick to work. When you say ‘clarity’ and make sure information is relevant and easy to understand. And when you say ‘quality’ and pay attention to the details, even when no one sees the back of the cupboard you’re making.
Anyone who’s watched Ted Lasso knows the power of belief. The crooked ‘BELIEVE’ poster above the locker room door in the first episode is roundly mocked by the players. By Season 3 they sit horrified as Ted tears it up to make a point—that belief isn’t a sign. It’s showing up for each other.
Belief sits at the top of a tree seeded by the trust shown when I trade my time for a pay check. It grows as confidence when I can depend on what you say. Before flowering as fact in repeated acts, becoming Whyte’s ‘real presence’.
Belief is an elixir for success. Stories abound of start-ups and mature organisations alike, lifted above circumstances on the shoulders of belief. However, the truth appears more readily in people’s everyday efforts. Where belief offsets the drag of necessary yet unheroic work. I’ll go further, try harder and stick with something longer when I believe in the people and organisation.
So, here’s an idea. Forget engagement. Shoot for and track belief.
Set a baseline when someone joins you. Ask how they feel. Are they cautiously trusting, optimistically confident, or gung-ho believers? Then check in. Regularly. Failing to lift or backsliding are both good canaries in the office that something needs attention.
Understand also, that some people will join you with a belief deficit. Something broke their belief in wherever they worked last. And they left. So they’re joining you, part wary, part hopeful. Maybe this time will be somewhere to believe again. Others are all in on day one, then their belief is slowly shredded by a thousand cuts.
Of course anything can flip and too much belief has downsides equal to none. Jilted lovers default to vengeance and so too will workers who feel their exuberant belief was betrayed. Settle instead for encouraging a sweet spot of modest, moderate belief. Where there’s room for the occasional, predictable and oh so very human screw ups and disappointment.
Can you believe in your work but not your workplace? Sure. I might love my job, what I do. But hate the environment I do it in, the place. Which is why I’m calling you to think about attending to both each other and how you do things.
There’s an adage that people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. Or put another way, people stop believing. So, whether you work for yourself or for others, it’s worth asking … Do you believe in your workplace?
Thanks for reading.