Risk & Business Magazine Spectrum Insurance Spring 2017 | Page 19

what he or she would do first and then
adds to the employee’s suggestions. The
manager’s real role, Emerald says, is to
coach employees into finding their own
solutions to problems and then support
the employees in implementing them.
When a manager encounters a truly
entrenched Victim who is hard to counsel,
the best approach is to acknowledge the
difficulty the employee is facing and then
ask how the employee chooses to solve
this problem, given the employee’s current
reality. “It’s a matter of redirecting the
ones stuck in victimhood and showing
them how to create something great,” he
says. To instill a more positive mentality
in team members, Emerald recommends
leading by example, showing rather than
merely telling people the path to a more
fulfilling life.
FIGURE 1
TED* THE EMPOWERMENT
DYNAMIC
Another useful tenet of TED * , according
to Emerald, is the notion of baby steps
as comically illustrated in the movie
What About Bob? In which Bill Murray’s
character learns to take baby steps toward
growth as coached by his psychotherapist,
played by Richard Dreyfuss. In actuality,
small changes often are necessary in
order to achieve a bigger long-term goal.
Change does not happen overnight, which
is why both individuals and companies
invest endless time and energy to reach
significant milestones.
Once the TED * framework has permeated
a corporate culture, it becomes much
easier to indoctrinate new employees
into how things are done at a particular
company. If applicants are not good
cultural fits for a company organized
around this framework, they simply will
not get the job no matter how good they
look on paper.
On an individual level, personal change
may be more difficult to achieve. You can
tell someone repeatedly that there is a
path to a happier and more productive
life, but if a paycheck isn’t attached, the
effort r