Leadership & Human Capital

work session 1

By
Tim Pagnaer
 work session one
summary

1. Practical information: Group division (5’)

2. Theory: (I) GRIT; (II) Stress; (III) Leadership

Hormones (30’)

3. Exercise: Emotional Intelligence (25’)

4. Q&A preparation: Marc Kegelaers (60’)

1. Practical information
(5’)
Group division

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Does everyone have a group?
2. Theory
(30’)
(I) GRIT
(II) Stress
(III) Selfless Hormones

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(I) Understanding GRIT
• Definition: Passion and perseverance for long-term goals (even in
the face of setbacks and obstacles)

• Origin: Coined by psychologist Angela Duckworth

• Key Elements: GRIT comprises two main components

• Passion (the sustained interest in your goals) and
• Perseverance (the ability to keep going despite difficulties)

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(I) Components of GRIT
• Passion
• What is it?: Passionate individuals have a deep and enduring love for their work, which
fuels their motivation.
• Characteristics: They often find their work intrinsically rewarding and are enthusiastic
about their goals.
• Importance: Passion provides the initial drive to start and sustain the pursuit of long-term
objectives.

• Perseverance
• What is it?: Perseverance involves the ability to persist in the face of adversity, setbacks,
and distractions.
• Characteristics: Perseverant individuals show grit by maintaining effort, staying
committed, and bouncing back from failures.
• Importance: Perseverance ensures that progress continues despite the inevitable
challenges along the way.

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(I) GRIT as a predictor for success
• What determines success?
• Intelligence?
• Talent?
• Skills?

• Importance of non-cognitive qualities (Terman & Oden, 1947, p. 35)

• Self-confidence
• Perseverance
• Passion

= > Research GRIT: (1) Strong correlation between GRIT and Success (2) GRIT predicts
academic success more reliably than IQ or talent alone

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(II) Stress and Leadership
• Stress is a health hazard
• Stress makes people leave their jobs
• Stress impairs strategic thinking
• Stress dulls creative abilities
• Stress causes absenteeism

= > Stress can have a negative influence on business performance

CTA: Need for organization-level approaches for reducing stress at

work.

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(II) Stress and Leadership
I. Create a work environment that decreases stress
I. Psychological safety
II. Breaks
III. Private workspaces
IV. A right to disconnect from work
V. Flexible work policies and deadlines

II. Build employee engagement

I. Transparency
II. Roles
III. Autonomy
IV. Commitment to growth and progression
V. Culture of recognition
VI. Sense of purpose

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(III) Hormones
1. Selfish hormones
You can get them yourself. You don’t need to be a leader per se to get them. (go for a run, achieve a goal,…)

• Endorphins: Mask physical pain = > Endurance

• Dopamine: Helps to achieve goals = > Motivation (helping the team)  Addiction (performance-addicted)

2. Selfless hormones
These hormones make leaders fulfill their responsibilities. They incentivize leaders to create safe working environments. It
makes leaders put the team first!
• Serotonin: Thé leadership hormone. It gives you a feeling of pride, status, and recognition
= > Enforces the relationship between leader and person being led, additionally when there is danger the leader is expected to protect the group.
• Oxytocin: Feelings of love and trust
= > It makes leaders act in the best interest of the team. It makes leaders willing to make sacrifices of their own.

3. Stress hormone
• Cortisol: Feelings of stress and anxiety
=> Makes you spot dangerous situations  Shuts down essential systems (Unsafe work environment = > inhibits oxytocin, dulls creativity,…)

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3. Exercise
(25’)
Emotional Intelligence

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 exercise
how emotional intelligent are you?

STEP 1 \\
Present yourself to your team members, using the five
25’ characteristics of emotional intelligence and your personal SWOT-
analysis.

STEP 2 \\
Discuss your group’s overall level of emotional intelligence.
 4. Q&A Preparation
(60’)
Framework based on “Strategies for Qualitative Interviews” –
Harvard University

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Step-by-step guide
1) Outline the broad areas of knowledge
? Example: stress, GRIT,…

2) Search background information about the respondent.

? What experiences and expertise does the respondent have related to the outlined
areas of knowledge?

3) Look at the existing literature about these topics

? Google Scholar, EBSCO,…

4) Formulate and reformulate your question

? Ask how questions instead of why questions
? Think about how the speaker may respond to the question and formulate possible
follow-up questions

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Checklist
1) Simple
A question should be easily comprehensible. It must be clear to the respondent what the question means.

2) Ability to answer
The respondent must be able to give long and elaborate answers to the question. Simple yes or no questions aren’t fit for purpose.

3) Literature
Your question should be substantiated in existing literature. This means that the question must refer to academic literature
(preferred) or another source (According to this article, We found data that states, In the opinion of person x,…).

4) Freedom to ask
Don’t be afraid to ask embarrassing or curious questions. However, always maintain a professional and polite attitude in
formulating the question.

5) Types of questions
Develop different types of questions (direct, indirect,…). Also, think about possible follow-up questions.

6) Be creative
The question must involve a certain degree of creativity. Re-using questions from other years is not creative.

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Questions for Marc Kegelaers (Example)
• QUESTION 1: A recent survey by the American Psychological Association found that the most common workplace
stressors include work overload, tight deadlines, lack of control over work, and unrealistic expectations.
(American Psychological Association, 2021) What are the most significant sources of stress in your company?
• What steps did you take (=how) to address these sources of stress?
• How do you measure the effectiveness of your stress management initiatives?
• What advice would you give to employees who are feeling stressed?

• QUESTION 2: According to a recent report from Gallup many millennials are disengaged at work (Gallup, 2016).
What are the biggest challenges you faced in keeping your employees engaged and motivated?
• How do you measure employee engagement and motivation?
• In what ways are disengaged workers possibly able to influence the performance of the company?

• QUESTION 3: In academic literature, a framework was developed further defining different types of passion:
passion to found, invent, and develop. (Cardon et al., 2013). Based on your experience as the CEO of 7 start-ups,
can you describe what passion you experienced during your career?
• Can you share a specific example of a time when passion helped you to overcome a challenge in your start-up career?
• What advice would you give to other start-up founders struggling to persevere?

1. American Psychological Association (2021). The American workforce faces compounding pressure APA’s 2021 Work and Well-being Survey results.

2. Gallup. (2016). How Millennials want to work and live. 150.

3. Cardon, M. S., Cardon, M. S., Gregoire, D. A., Stevens, C. E., & Patel, P. C. (2013). Measuring entrepreneurial passion: Conceptual foundations and scale validation. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(3), 373-396.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2012.03.003

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 guest lecture one
Q&A preparation

STEP 1 \\
Follow the step-by-step guide to formulate questions for respondent Marc
45’ Kegelaers.

STEP 2 \\
Check if your question is following the checklist.

STEP 3 \\
Upload the questions from your group to BlackBoard. Choose your group’s 3
to 5 best questions to ask Marc Kegelaers.
Get in touch!
JELLE SCHEPERS & TIM PAGNAER
teaching team ‘Leadership & Human Capital’

>> jelle.schepers@uhasselt.be
>> tim.pagnaer@uhasselt.be