Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 311 | Personal Development, Leading & Managing Section | 1

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since September 2017 | Week 311 | August 25-31, 2023

Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval

By Michael Gervais | Harvard Business Review Magazine | September–October 2023 Issue

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Fear of people’s opinions (FOPO) has always been part of the human condition. With the proliferation of social media and our overreliance on external rewards, metrics, and validation, the pressure to succeed is intense and FOPO is even more acute.

FOPO is an anticipatory mechanism that involves psychological, physiological, and physical activation to avoid rejection. It is also characterized by a hypervigilant social readiness and a relentless scanning of the environment in search of approval. In overvaluing what others might be thinking, we become highly attuned to signals—body language, microexpressions, words, silence, actions, and inactions—of potential rejection. FOPO is an exhaustive attempt to interpret what others are thinking in an effort to preempt a negative evaluation by them.

Identity is one of the most fertile breeding grounds for FOPO. Identity is a subjective sense of self built on our experiences, beliefs, values, memories, and culture.  A performance-based identity means we define ourselves by how well we do something relative to others. No matter how well we perform by objective measures, our identity must be buttressed by continual external validation and hinges on the praise and opinions of others to fuel it.  A healthier alternative is to cultivate a purpose-based identity. Purpose is an internally derived, generalized intention that has intrinsic value for you but is also bigger than you. It has a forward-looking orientation. Purpose becomes the filter through which we arrive at decisions, establish priorities, and make choices. 

Begin with a frank conversation with your employees, making it clear that who they are and how they do their jobs have a significant impact on the culture. Explain the benefits of a purpose-based team identity and that you’re now going to evaluate them not just on performance but also on how well they embody the team’s purpose in their words and actions.

Next, work with them to collectively define the team’s purpose. The purpose has to genuinely matter to each individual, must affect everyone on the team, and must be future-oriented; it can’t be something the team will achieve today, tomorrow, or even in a year. Celebrate purpose-driven achievements. Highlight success stories that go beyond performance metrics. Encourage team members to imbue their work with meaning.

For people with a purpose-based identity, it’s not other people’s praise that drives them, it’s the meaning of what they’re doing and the impact they can make. Those are two very different types of fuel: One is sustainable, and the other will burn you out.

Each individual’s purpose is critical to the team’s success. As a manager, you should regularly meet one-on-one with your employees. Ask them questions like: What is your motivation for doing this job? What inspires you to work your hardest? What vision do you hold for your future?

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Fear of people’s opinions (FOPO) has always been part of the human condition. FOPO is an anticipatory mechanism that involves psychological, physiological, and physical activation to avoid rejection.
2. Identity is one of the most fertile breeding grounds for FOPO. Identity is a subjective sense of self built on our experiences, beliefs, values, memories, and culture.  Replace performance based identify with purpose base identity to help your employees to cope up with FOPO.
3. Each individual’s purpose is critical to the team and organizational success. As a manager, you should regularly meet one-on-one with your employees. Ask them questions like: What is your motivation for doing this job? What inspires you to work your hardest? What vision do you hold for your future?

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Topics:  Purpose, Performance, Culture, Organizational Behavior