Happiness at Work

Today my thoughts are on happiness.  Every individual wants to feel it in their life.   Every business wants their customers to experience it in some way. Every employee wants to find it in their work. 

So I decided to do a little research on happiness at work.

Numerous studies show similar findings; that 55% of American workers are unhappy in their jobs.  These same studies also show that employees who are happy have a heightened sense of engagement and are more productive.  

It seems to me that organizations would want to infuse more happiness in their workplace.  So, how do you do that? 

Interestingly, the number one thing that makes us unhappy at work is also the number one thing that makes us happy. Are you ready for it? It is the quality of our workplace relationships.

• How well we get along with our manager and co-workers
• The level to which we feel valued by them
• How well our manager and co-workers communicate with us

Here are three action items that you and/or your team can implement to build happiness at work.

1.   Choose positive thoughts.  The biggest thing that blocks us from happiness is negative emotions such as pessimism, resentment, and anger.  We can shift this by choosing positive emotions, such as empathy, honoring diversity and especially gratitude.

2.   Call out what’s right.  Recognize the strengths of your team and your accomplishments.  Recognize each other.  When a co-worker does something helpful, say it and share with them the impact it has on you.

3.   Learn together. Stay open to new ideas.  Review what you have learned from both positive and negative situations. Choose a job and/or team competency and learn about the skills associated with it.  Learning together provides the perfect forum for improved communications.

You can also call on Madd-Steiny to help you build happiness on your team through our suite of products or a customized learning session just for your team/organization. Our flagship program, respectFULL teams® has proven to be effective in building the quality of workplace relationship.

Happily, Georgine

Times of Change

The first day of autumn is right around the corner.  For me, this season change is my favorite.  I love observing how visible change is and I am always in awe of nature’s beauty.

As an Organizational Development consultant, the topic of change is typically on the agenda with leadership groups.  We all know, intellectually, that change is constant and necessary for growth and development.

Last week I spent the day with a team of executives facilitating a workshop on how to give an engaging presentation.  This leadership competency is core to effectiveness in communication at this level of leadership.

As the group worked through the planning steps of a presentation with current topics, change was on the agenda.  Like other organizations, their industry and thus their company was experiencing rapid and sometimes overwhelming change.  They knew that if they were effective in engaging employees in the change, that the transition through the change would be much smoother.

After the workshop, the feedback from participants showed definite patterns in what the group found most valuable in terms of strategies to engage employees.  Here are a few of their insights.

1.       Understand your audience.  Different levels of employees have different needs in terms of information and what they need for support to implement change.  Objections and/or resistance to change can be simply viewed as an unmet need.  Understand the needs, the questions, the fears, the excitement, and the challenges of your audience and you will find the answers to how to engage them.

2.       Communicate clearly.  During times of change it is just as important to talk about what is not changing as much as talking about what is changing.  Focusing on strengths, mission, productive processes and engrained skills will help individuals feel less overwhelmed with change.  Clearly defining the action items important to progress the change will help individuals stay focused and productive through change.

3.       Facilitate dialogue.  Adults learn best in collaborative environments.  They are naturally problem centered in their learning.  Taking time with teams to discuss different aspects of change and allowing them to collaborate on solutions will engage them.

Warm Regards,

Georgine

Remembrance

With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 nearly upon us, I want to offer up some thoughts in memory of that day.  I believe in the power of love and the incredible resilience of the human spirit.  In spite of all that was lost on that day, both tangible and intangible, there remains a sense of hope and renewal that is at the core of humanity.  I can only imagine how the loved ones left behind in a vapor of loss watched incredulously as the Earth continued to spin.  They must have been certain that all the clocks would stop and the wind would cease, just as the lives of their family and friends had.  And yet, the sun still rises and sets, the leaves still flutter in the wind, the seasons pass, and life goes on.  Therein lies hope.  No matter the pain and suffering, the sun will rise tomorrow and we have another chance to live fully.

The best thing I can do in remembrance is to do just that: live fully and with hope.  So, in that vein, here are my remembrance commitments:

• Be nice and work hard.
• Be of service to others.
• Give more than I take.
• Spend as much time as possible with the ones I love.
• Never give up on hope.
• Laugh.

I would love to hear your remembrance commitments.  Share them with us, please.

In remembrance,

Lynae

Finding Your Leadership Voice

Lynae and I were talking with a potential client the other day about leadership development.  We discussed the journey participants would travel throughout a year-long curriculum that aligned with the organization’s core competencies.

As with any plan, you have to know where to start.  With leadership development, we always start with vision, values, and finding your leadership voice.

In their book The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner say: “To act with integrity, you must first know who you are.  You must know what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you care most about.  Clarity of values will give you the confidence to make tough decisions, act with determination and speak your truth.”

When you find your leadership voice, you become a more effective communicator.  Effective communicators speak both from their minds and hearts.  They understand the importance of speaking with the intention to build relationships and encourage what is possible.  They choose words that affirm, appreciate, support, solve, and inspire.

Finding your leadership voice requires some introspection and exploration of what matters most to you and how you can use this self-awareness to inspire others.  With a strong sense of your own internal compass, you are in a more effective position to lead others to bring their best selves forward.  Here are some questions to ask yourself to find your voice.

What do you love to do?

• Where have you been successful?
• In what areas are you most likely to offer your expertise to others?

What matters to you?

• What personal motives and values drive you?
• What gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction and reward?

How can you serve?

• How do I use my passions and strengths to serve others?
• What do others value most from me?

Georgine

Innovation – Turning Ideas into Action

Every organization has a unique personality.  And, every organization has aspects of their culture that really work for them – things that have helped them be successful, developed their reputation and engaged their employees.

I’ve been working recently with a client organization on the development of a leadership curriculum that will help sustain the strengths of its culture.  I have been inspired each day I have the opportunity to work with them.  And, especially inspired when observing how the value of innovation is alive and thriving in their organization.

Innovation can have different interpretations or meanings for different people and organizations.  In this organization, innovation is a noun of action.  Innovation is about putting people’s ideas into action and it requires patience with process and trust in relationships.

In this organization, the state of the economy has a direct and immediate impact on their bottom line and budgets.  And, like any other organization they need to continually develop and make sure that their employees have the tools and equipment to do their jobs.  So, they have been challenged over the last decade to maintain their momentum of progress in organizational development.

How do they do it?  What’s the evidence that innovation is alive in their culture?

I think that evidence was best explained by one of the leaders in the organization.  Here is what he told me.  “It’s easy to find solutions when you only think about adding resources or staff.  It requires innovation to drive progress when resources are scarce. We are very resourceful as an organization. We can find 9 ways to do things where as in another organization they may simply say, we can’t do it.  We have the fortitude and persistence to figure it out. We can do so much with so little. I think that we’ve created a culture where it’s kind of fun for people to try to figure out how to get it done. I remember a workshop that we did recently where we brainstormed cost savings and revenue generating ideas.  We literally ran out of wall space and paper!”

If you would like to turn ideas into actions in your organization here is some advice from one organization that does it well.

·    Focus your vision on your customer driven purpose
·    Generate ideas with the people who do the work
·    Develop the best ideas with an interdependent team
·    Educate and advocate for your ideas; this builds trust
·    Practice the discipline of patience and perseverance

Respectfully yours, Georgine

Look For What You Want

Our good friend and colleague, Laura Goodrich, has just published a book to accompany her video Seeing Red Cars.  We are pleased for her success, and really appreciate her message.  It’s so much in alignment with Madd-Steiny’s philosophy of moving toward what you study.  When we work with organizations, we help them look for what is positive and life-giving about their culture and community, instead of only looking at something that needs to be “fixed”.

Goodrich’s message is simple:  Focus on what you want.  We are conditioned throughout our lives and in our culture to identify what we don’t want.  Many of us have a natural inclination to be motivated by our fear of loss or failure.  In the book, Goodrich cites research that “it is estimated that we have 12,000 – 50,000 thoughts coursing through our brains each day, 70% of them are focused on what we don’t want and what we’d like to avoid.”  Perhaps it’s that Neanderthal in all of us that is motivated to avoid being eaten by something bigger than we are.  There is something undeniably important about outrunning predators.  But, I believe that one of the most threatening predator to our success is our own thought process.  The downside to thinking about what we don’t want, is that we often take our eye off the “ball”─the “ball” being our goals and desires.

So, what can you do, right now, to help focus on what you want and create the results you desire?  Start as I do on most days (not all days . . . I’m an imperfect animal with Neanderthal tendencies):

Create a list of what you want from the day.  This is not a ”to-do list”.  Rather, it’s a list of what you want your day to bring and the experiences you want to have.

This list, helps set an intention for your day and shifts your focus to what you want.  And, these intentions don’t mean you are aspiring to greatness every moment; small steps matter.  Here are some examples:

Today, I want to . . .

-       Create something new.

-       Step outside of my comfort zone.

-       Feel a sense of accomplishment.

-       Have fun.

-       Learn something.

When you set these intentions, your focus then becomes about “how to “ vs. “how not to”.  Try it tomorrow when you awake and see if you don’t find more and get more, of what you want.

Lynae

Is Perception Reality?

I’ve always been amazed with the 3-D artwork of Julian Beever.  I choose one of his pavement chalk drawings to accompany my blog this week because I wanted to write about perception.  And, his artwork is the perfect illustration that things are not always as they seem.

Our perceptions motivate our reactions to other people and situations, how we proceed with projects at work, the choices we make, the attitudes we express, etc.

One of my favorite perception stories is told in the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey and it goes like this.

A store manager heard one of his salespeople say to a customer, “No, we haven’t had any for some weeks now, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.”  He then observed the customer turn and head for the door.  The manager was shocked to hear these words and rushed to the customer as she was walking out the door.  “That isn’t true,” he said, but the customer just gave him an odd look and walked out the door.  He confronted the salesperson and said, “Never, ever say that we don’t have something.  If we don’t have it, say we’ve ordered it and it’s on its way.  Now what did that customer want?  “Rain,” said the salesperson.

How often have you made an assumption or jumped to a conclusion, responded accordingly and then found out that the “miss” was in your perception?  I have, plenty of times!  It’s easy to do.

This story reminds me that everyone has a unique perspective because of their frame of reference.  And, this story reminds me to stay curious and observant in life, to ask questions to understand diverse perspectives, and to gather information about a situation before I form an opinion.

Respectfully yours, Georgine

“Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, are the sources of our attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately our relationships with others.”  Stephen Covey

Practice Respect by Demonstrating an Open Mind

I’ve been thinking lately about the power of having an open mind.  Probably because the holiday season brings increased social gatherings with friends and families in which we get to engage in good old fashioned dialogue. I had a conversation with my spouse the other day on the way home from one of these gatherings about “open-mindedness”.

The text book definition of “open minded” includes words like; curiosity, impartially, non-prejudice and broad-minded.  My favorite is “receptive”.  When we are receptive, we can actively listen to any thought or idea even if we disagree.

Aristotle once said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”. I think that what he is saying is that everyone has their own “truth” and it may not be what is true for you at the moment.

An individual’s belief system is based on things like life experiences, upbringing, generational influences and ethnicity.  Everyone has an interesting and unique story that has shaped their beliefs.  I have found that if I practice listening to others with a curiosity to understand their perspective, I learn a lot about that person and more often than not, broaden my own perspective and viewpoint.

With the New Year just ahead of us, we often think about resolutions; changes we want to make to expand our businesses, ways we can improve our health or build our skills.  Keeping an open mind will help you in finding new ways of doing things and make change more exciting.

Here are a few tips that will help you keep an open mind.
1.    Let go of the need to be “right”. Allow everyone to be “right” and see how it transforms a conversation.
2.    Listen actively and practice clarifying what you heard and understood the other person to say.
3.    Exercise your curiosity by asking questions to better understand someone’s perspective.  Chances are you’ll learn a lot!

Respectfully,

Georgine

The Power of Words

I attended a conference recently and had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Doreen Virtue speak. She spoke of the energetic power of the words. Because words are essentially sound waves they do have mass and do have an effect on us.

The most important lesson I took away is that our positive words are so much more powerful to influence our relationships, customer service, team environment, and work culture.

In a service situation the language that we use can have a strong effect on how the customer perceives our service. And, the words we use with our co-workers can have a strong effect on how our team operates together.

Numerous studies have shown how the words we speak to ourselves have an impact on the way we feel and act. Words are a powerful force and the powerful effects of negative words cannot be underestimated. Because we are constantly giving messages to ourselves and others, it is more vital than ever to ensure that those words you hear in your mind and speak to others are as positive as possible.

I invite you to put it to the test for just one week. Try to be consciously aware of the way you speak and see where you could choose words that are more positive. I believe that you will be pleased by the results.

Here is a list of 10 positive words and phrases that you may want to try.

1.    Yes
2.    I understand
3.    What I can do is …
4.    How can I help?
5.    I’m sorry for …
6.    I would suggest/recommend …
7.    What I like about what you said is …
8.    That’s interesting
9.    Tell me more
10.  What a great opportunity

Yours truly, Georgine

Key Words of Respect

Lynae and I have been working with individuals, teams and organizations for a long time and one of the very practical tools that we offer in our work with teams is to think about “key words” that individuals can use during “key times” to articulate intention and influence outcomes in any given situation.

I was recently with a group in Florida that found this concept and the practical application of it to be very valuable.  It was fun to see the shift of energy in people as they realized the power of influence that they have in challenging customer service situations simply by the way they responded.

I love seeing the confidence that is created when individuals recognize their own personal power of influence in any given situation when the answer and action is really quite simple – speak from a place of respect and intention about what matters most.

As humans, we naturally react from our ego.  So, when a customer expresses a frustration, dissatisfaction or negative emotion it would be natural to “react” in a defensive way and feel frustration ourselves.

Identifying “key words” gives us the power to “respond” in challenging situations vs. react.  Using “key words” keeps us centered on what matters most and opens doors to service, collaboration, and connection.

Here is an exercise that you can apply individually or with your team to identify “key words” during the typical or tough situation that you find yourself responsible to respond to.

1.    Identify:  Write examples of the comments, questions or complaints that you typically hear from your customers or that are challenging to respond to.

2.    Interpret:  What could the customer be thinking, feeling, wanting?  What is their perspective?  Now, think about what you want the outcome to be in this situation.  What is your perspective? What matters most to you in terms of the outcome?

3.    Respond:  Identify “key word” that you could use from how you answered the “interpret” questions.  Write down the words that you could say to explain or respond to the customer.  What questions could you ask to gain a better understanding?  How could you best educate the customer?  How can you best articulate your intent?  What key actions and behaviors are important to demonstrate as you say these words to ensure that you meet your desired outcome?

Respectfully yours,
Georgine