By Mireia Las Heras, professor of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School
As the COVID-19 pandemic has blurred the line between our work and home lives, it has also made glaringly clear just how important personal relationships in both places are. Coworkers and partners can create safe spaces where we can seek help, share concerns and let off steam – or, conversely, they be a source of conflict, an additional stressor and yet another cause for burnout.
Yet new research shows that the right kinds of relationships at work and at home might be the source of something else — creativity. Supportive coworkers and loving partners allow us to feel safe to create, to innovate and to try new things rather than repeating ways of working that might not be adequate under ever-changing circumstances.
To understand the dynamics, Yasin Rofcanin, professor at the University of Bath in the UK; Jakob Stollberger, associate professor at the Free University of Amsterdam; and I looked at 260 dual-career couples in the U.S. over 1,274 weeks. Support changes over time and so do outcomes. Collecting information weekly ensured we understood how changes in support affected the ways people work. And collecting data from both members of the couple gave us insights into how what one does affects the other.
We asked couples questions about the kind of support for their family life they received at work, about what their relationship with their partner was like, and about what their job performance was week-by-week. The findings, “Sharing is Caring,” are published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Key to feeling supported at work was informal support from coworkers – more so than an understanding supervisor or formal family-friendly policies. Obviously, coworkers can’t be supportive if management and policies don’t create a conducive context. But the support of coworkers goes beyond that of supervisors and policies alone are not enough.
That might be for various reasons. We share with coworkers things that we might not share with supervisors, making them better placed to offer support targeted toward what we need the most. Coworkers might be able to cover for us, as they know our job better and know what might ease the stress building up. What does all this look like in practice? A coworker offering to sit in on a last-minute meeting that’s scheduled at precisely the same time as your child’s piano concert. A colleague asking how you’re doing after your partner lost his job. A coworker giving you quick feedback on a presentation so you can finish it on time.
Beyond supportive colleagues, our research also found that companies should encourage the generous use of flexible working schedules, and empower employees to manage their day-to-day work-family support needs independently. Managers should also consciously limit work practices that contribute to work-family conflict. Think scheduling a team lunch rather than a team dinner, or avoiding emailing late at night or on weekends.
Crucially, this supportive environment at work set into motion what we call the “gain spiral”. People brought that positivity home and those in a loving relationship were supportive of their partner, who in turn was more productive and creative at work. In short, there are two relational resources in work-life balance: valued colleagues and loving partners, and the two are intricately linked.
But not all relationships are equal. Defining them is a fraught exercise, but we asked the couples to categorize the nature of their relationship into compassionate love (a selfless bond built on sharing and caring), romantic love (involving strong physical attraction) or companionate love (something close to a deep friendship).
For work purposes at least, it turns out that a partner who cares about your wellbeing is better than someone who sweeps you off your feet. Compassionate love was best for fostering the creative potential of partners in dual-career couples. So, yes: love matters. This seems fuzzy and unprofessional, and perhaps even dangerous. As an employer, should I do something to encourage these kinds of relationships? You can’t make choices for your employees, but you can help create conditions for people to cultivate deep relationships. Those who already have them will be able to keep them, and those who do not have them might generate one.
This also leads to insights on the sources of creativity. Creativity may not depend on inspired individual genius or an organization chock full of whiteboards with colorful Post-Its. Instead, the family may be a source of creative inspiration, especially for dual-earning couples. Being creative requires being daring, making mistakes, failing get what you want on the first try. You have to be willing to take those failures, rebound, and try again. And family has been shown to be a source of energy, a safety net, that enables daring behaviors.
It’s a tall order to fill: finding a selfless partner and supportive coworkers. But as so many people rethink their lives in the wake of the upheaval of COVID-19, it serves as an important guide for where to begin looking.
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May 04, 2022 at 09:33PM
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How To Be More Creative At Work? Supportive Colleagues And A Compassionate Partner May Be The Keys - Forbes
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