It’s not about hiring “better people”: simple tools to help colleagues get out of their own way

Tracey McEachran, Associate Consultant

We can talk about performance focusing on hiring the “right” people. If we could just recruit the perfect colleagues, customer‑focused, innovative, collaborative, the rest would take care of itself.

In my experience the majority of housing organisations are already full of people like that. People who care deeply about tenants, who want to fix problems when they see them, who take responsibility and pride in their work. The challenge isn’t that we’ve hired the wrong people; it’s that even the “right” people can get in their own way when pressure increases.

In a recent talk at the NFA conference session, someone asked me whether the behaviours I was describing were basically a recruitment problem. Should we just be employing different people? I said “no” in the moment and focused my response on people management skills, but I wanted to offer a fuller answer. This article is that answer.

When strengths become fragile

In my work, I see organisations deliberately recruiting for strengths like:

• Customer orientation
• Innovation
• Communication
• Collaboration
• A strong sense of responsibility

These are genuine strengths. They are exactly what you want in people who work in the frontline roles in housing. But through my work with psychometric profiling I have learned they are often learned strengths, and this means that under pressure, they can become fragile.

A few examples:

• The highly responsible colleague who “owns” everything can slide into over‑responsibility, trying to fix problems that are not theirs to fix and burning out in the process.
• The customer focused person who wants everyone to be happy can avoid difficult conversations, saying “yes” to too much and becoming resentful and exhausted.
• The innovative, problem‑solving colleague can get stuck in constant firefighting, reacting to whatever is in front of them, rather than stepping back to see the bigger picture.

All of us have these patterns. None of us are immune. What begins as an admirable strength can turn into an Achilles’ heel when stress is high and our thinking narrows. We start to react rather than respond.

So the real question is not, “Have we hired the wrong people?” but, “How do we help our good people notice when they’re getting in their own way, innocently, and support them to come back to clarity?”

It’s not about perfect people, it’s about awareness

Of course, culture fit and alignment matter. You want people whose values broadly fit with the culture you are trying to create, and you also want diversity of thought, background and voice. There are people who are genuinely not right for a role or an organisation, and your existing recruitment and probation practices will usually pick that up.

But in the main, the people you have are not the problem. The issue is what happens when those people are under sustained pressure; when their learned strengths are activated in such a way that they become barriers to performance and resilience.

Crucially, this is almost always innocent. People are not waking up in the morning thinking, “How can I sabotage my own wellbeing and my organisation today?” They are doing the best they can with the thinking they have in the moment.

That’s why awareness is more important than perfection. Our job as leaders is to help colleagues:

• Notice when they’re in reactive, “rabbit‑hole” mode.
• Gain some distance from their immediate thinking and feeling.
• Move from reacting to responding more wisely.

And the good news is that there are some very simple tools that can help.

Raising consciousness: from “being right” to responding wisely

In the conference, I talked about “raising our level of consciousness”. I used a personal example: I can get into an argument with my partner and feel utterly convinced that I am right. I’m in it. I’m justified.

Then something shifts. My level of consciousness rises just a little, and I remember that the relationship matters more to me than being right in this moment. I drop out of the argument. I “come up a level”. In that higher state, I have more clarity, and I’m able to respond to what’s in front of me with more wisdom and care.

That’s what we’re trying to do for our colleagues, too. Help them rise above the narrow, pressured thinking that drives reactive behaviour, so they can reconnect with their best judgement and intentions.

So the practical question becomes: how do we help people get that bit of distance? How do we create space for that rise in consciousness?

The Circle of Concern, Influence and Control

One framework I often recommend is Stephen Covey’s classic Circle of Concern / Circle of Influence / Circle of Control. It sounds simple, and it is, that’s the beauty of it.

When people are under pressure, they tend to react straight to whatever is in front of them. The email, the complaint, the demand, the policy change, the news headline. Everything feels urgent, personal and theirs to fix.

Using the three circles invites them to pause and ask:

• Is this in my Circle of Control – something I can directly act on?
• Is it in my Circle of Influence – something I can’t control, but can influence in some way?
• Or is it just in my Circle of Concern – something I care about, but cannot realistically control or influence?

That one step back, moving from automatic reaction to conscious categorisation, already creates more space. As soon as we are asking the question, we are a little less gripped by the emotion of the moment.

From there, we can focus energy where it actually makes a difference, rather than burning ourselves out worrying about things we can’t change.

But the circles are not the only simple tool available. There are three other practices I find incredibly helpful: walking and talking, flipcharts, and post‑it notes.

Walking and talking: moving the body, loosening the mind

Walking meetings are one of the most under‑used leadership tools. When we stay sitting in front of a screen or around a table, our thinking can get tight and repetitive. We rehearse the same arguments, over and over.

Simply suggesting, “Let’s walk this out and talk about it,” changes the quality of the conversation. Even if you’re working remotely, you can both put on headphones, step outside or just walk around your home, and talk on the move, this brings out our ability to be more visionary.

Physically moving helps people:

• Feel a sense of space and perspective.
• Access a calmer, more reflective state.
• Shift from reacting to responding.

It’s not magic. It’s just that our minds often loosen when our bodies move. For colleagues caught in reactive loops, “Shall we walk and talk this through?” can be a deceptively powerful moment of leadership.

Flipcharts: distilling what we’re actually trying to do

The next tool is wonderfully low‑tech: a flipchart. In many meetings, we rush from item to item, people leap straight into solutions, and before long nobody can quite remember what the original question was. Everyone is working hard, but they can’t see the wood for the trees.

I’ve seen this again and again in workshops and leadership programmes. The conversation gets complex and noisy. At that point, I’ll often pause and say, “Let’s just step back. What are we actually trying to achieve here?”

If we can’t put the answer into a single, clear sentence on the flipchart, something is off. Either:

• We’re all talking about different things, or
• We’re talking at such a vague level that it’s not helpful.

Writing the intention, problem or opportunity in one simple sentence on a flipchart does three things:

• It creates a shared focus.
• It calms the room.
• It helps people separate the issue from their personal anxieties about it.

In other words, it helps raise the level of consciousness in the group. People can see the thing more clearly, rather than being lost inside it.

Post‑it notes: making the invisible visible

The third practical tool is post‑it notes. They are brilliant for getting what’s in people’s heads out into the open where we can work with it.

You might say, “Let’s write down every aspect of this issue, every worry, every factor, every idea, one per post‑it.” Once they’re up on the wall (or on a virtual board), you can:

• Cluster them into themes.
• Spot overlaps and contradictions.
• Then, if you like, literally place them into the Circle of Concern, Influence and Control.

This process does a few important things:

• It surfaces unspoken worries that might otherwise stay in people’s heads, going round and round.
• It shows which concerns are actually things we can act on, and which are either illusions or outside our control.
• It helps people feel heard, even if something sits in the “Concern” circle, it has been named and acknowledged.

So many causes of stress come from things unsaid: catastrophising, silent assumptions, the belief that “I have to solve everything” or “If I don’t fix this, I’m failing.” Post‑its and simple sorting processes can take some of that stress out of the system by making it explicit and shared.

So, is it about hiring different people?

Coming back to the conference question: “Is this really about who we employ?”

In my experience, in the main, you’re already employing the right people. They care. They’re customer‑focused. They take responsibility. They want to fix problems.

The difficulty arises when those very strengths, under pressure, without space and support, tip into unhelpful patterns. People go down rabbit holes. They react from stress and fear, rather than respond from wisdom. Their learned strengths become fragile, and they get in their own way.

The work of leadership is less about finding perfect people and more about:

• Spotting when good people are starting to struggle.
• Helping them raise their level of consciousness.
• Giving them simple tools, like walking conversations, flipcharts, post‑its and the circles of concern/influence/control – to move from reacting to responding.

Because when our colleagues are clearer in their thinking and feeling, when they are more aware of what they can and can’t control, their strengths can shine again. And that’s when performance, resilience, wellbeing and service to tenants all benefit.

To discuss any of the issues raised above, contact: tracey.mceachran@campbelltickell.com.