Page 135 - HBR's 10 Must Reads 20180 - The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review

GINO

My research also shows that going against the crowd gives us con-
fidence in our actions, which makes us feel unique and engaged and
translates to higher performance and greater creativity. In one field
study, I asked a group of employees to behave in nonconforming ways
(speaking up if they disagreed with colleagues’ decisions, expressing
what they felt rather than what they thought they were expected to
feel, and so on). I asked another group to behave in conforming ways,
and a third group to do whatever its members usually did. After three
weeks, those in the first group reported feeling more confident and
engaged in their work than those in the other groups. They displayed
more creativity in a task that was part of the study. And their super-
visors gave them higher ratings on performance and innovativeness.
Six strategies can help leaders encourage constructive noncon-
formity in their organizations and themselves.

Step 1: Give Employees Opportunities to Be Themselves

Decades’ worth of psychological research has shown that we feel
accepted and believe that our views are more credible when our
colleagues share them. But although conformity may make us feel
good, it doesn’t let us reap the benefits of authenticity. In one study
Dan Cable, of London Business School, and Virginia Kay, then of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, surveyed 154 recent MBA
graduates who were four months into their jobs. Those who felt they
could express their authentic selves at work were, on average, 16%
more engaged and more committed to their organizations than those
who felt they had to hide their authentic selves. In another study,
Cable and Kay surveyed 2,700 teachers who had been working for a
year and reviewed the performance ratings given by their supervi-
sors. Teachers who said they could express their authentic selves re-
ceived higher ratings than teachers who did not feel they could do so.

Here are some ways to help workers be true to themselves:
Encourage employees to reflect on what makes them feel au-
thentic. This can be done from the very start of the employment
relationship—during orientation. In a field study I conducted with

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