How to Harness the Power of Anticipation as a Leader
It's the Christmas season, and there's only a few weeks to go until the big day. In our house, the Christmas tree is decorated, the stockings are hanging and the lights are flashing. My kids are counting down on their advent calendars and eating chocolate for breakfast every morning. My youngest son, Jack, is working on his list for Santa, still unsure about what he really wants from the big guy.
This time of year and the lead up to Christmas can be just as exciting as the big day itself. It’s all about the anticipation of what’s to come.
Social psychologists Liz Dunn and Mike Norton describe this type of period of anticipation as “free happiness”. It costs no extra to harness the power of anticipation and yet it can add so much more excitement to an already good experience.
A mentor once told me, you only need two things in life to be happy:
Someone to love and
Something to look forward to
So as a leader, what are you doing to give your people something to look forward to? How as a leader can you harness the power of anticipation in your workplace?
The most powerful action you can take is to embed rituals; daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, to create not only a sense of rhythm in your team but also a sense of anticipation. These rituals can be big and small and may involve some form of reward but the most important thing is to make them connected to your people’s work, their behaviours, your organisation’s values and culture and the achievement of meaningful goals.
When your people have a healthy sense of anticipation in the office, they will:
Be committed and engaged
Be motivated to go above and beyond
Have high energy and optimism, and a can-do attitude
Be able to get through the tough and stressful moments
Have the persistence to keep moving forward
If you want your people to achieve a goal, they have to anticipate the outcome of achieving it. What will be the result? What will it feel like?
If your people don't have anything to look forward to in the workplace, they’ll become disengaged and stagnant. You might get compliance but you won't get commitment. Your people won't go above and beyond. There'll be no buzz, no positive energy. When things get a little tough, people will give up. You'll have people ringing in for that sick day, giving you pushback, and only looking forward to 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
So, just like the lead up to Christmas day, consider what you can do as a leader to bring about excitement and anticipation in your workplace. Always have something for your people to look forward to.
Happy Monday!
Midja x