a collective work by KCC.
5 Ways to Share Gratitude This Holiday Season
5 Ways to Share Gratitude This Holiday Season Did you know that some studies have shown that the positive effects of sharing gratitude can make you feel happier for months afterward? In his 2005 study, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, the father of positive psychology that I present in my book: 21 Days to Happiness, had participants hand-deliver letters to people thanking them for doing something kind. The people who did this felt an immediate increase in happiness, and the effects lasted for months after the delivery of the letter. Gratitude can be a powerful force that brings happiness to ourselves and others. Here are 5 ways to share gratitude and give lift your own happiness level. 1. Hand-deliver a Note Thanking Someone for Kindness Just like the participants in Dr. Seligman’s study, you can write and hand-deliver a note, card or letter to someone you’ve never thanked for their…
5 Ways to Boost Engagement at Work
5 Ways to Boost Engagement at Work One element the long-term success of any organization depends upon is employee engagement. A team invested in the work they do has a contagious energy that helps an organization build momentum. Boosting engagement also helps to boost employee satisfaction and retention, creating an upward spiral. Investing in your individual team members leads to benefits for the organization, which adds to the success and happiness of the team members, which adds to the organization’s success, and so on. Here are 5 ways to boost employee engagement on your team. 1. Recognize and Invest. Take a genuine, personal interest in the members of your team. What are their individual talents and goals? What do they do well? Recognize the value they bring to the team individually and to the group. When someone notices the hard work we’re doing, it helps to energize us to continue…
5 Critical Keys to Collaboration
5 Critical Keys to Collaboration Now more than ever, succeeding at work involves teamwork. The great news is that the right team generates results that far exceed what its individual members could achieve. An ineffective team, however, can slow down the group’s processes and innovation. Full team engagement comes from knowing their “why” and using their unique talents to contribute to the common goal. That’s why these 5 critical keys to collaboration are so important. These pillars of successful teamwork will help boost employees’ investment in the group and their confidence in their own work. They promote innovation and creative solutions that simplify workflow and improve performance. Read on to learn how these 5 keys to collaboration contribute to effective teams. 1. Time Management. Collaboration doesn’t always require a lot of face time. Once the team establishes clear goals and tasks, each member needs focused time to work on their…
3 Big Benefits of Ongoing Training
3 Big Benefits of Ongoing Training In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving job market, ongoing training isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity. As industries transform and technology advances, the once cutting-edge skills can quickly become obsolete. Investing in regular professional development can unlock new opportunities, boost performance, and ensure that both individuals and businesses remain competitive in a rapidly changing world. As kids head back to school, take a moment to think about how returning to the classroom (literally or figuratively) would benefit you and your team. Ongoing training provides much more than critical opportunities for career advancement. It offers a path to increasing your team’s productivity and boosting employee retention. Continued development for your employees also enhances the organization’s reputation. Let’s take a closer look at how this works. 1. Increased Productivity. Learning new skills allows your team to streamline workflow using new tools. From improving technology to optimizing processes…
5 Ways to Boost Client Satisfaction
5 Ways to Boost Client Satisfaction No matter the industry, creating happy clients or customers is critical to a business’s success. A satisfied client is more likely to return with future needs, and they may also leave favorable reviews or share the positive experience with other potential clients. In other words, a happy customer can become your best ambassador (the same idea applies to happy employees, by the way)! Cultivating practices that create happy customers is a powerful investment in your success. Here are 5 ways to boost client satisfaction and build trust and loyalty with your clients, keeping them coming back for more. 1. Communicate Clearly. Manage your clients’ expectations by ensuring they understand precisely how your products or services operate and what to do if they experience issues or questions. This is especially critical for any new clients. Make sure you are extra clear and responsive so that…
Making Decisions with the Six Hat Method
Making Decisions Using the Six Hats Method Most of our decisions are made quickly and unconsciously. Once a decision is made, we often engage our analytical brain to search for data that supports our choice, creating the illusion of a rational decision-making process. Making sound decisions can be challenging and even stressful. Therefore, it’s beneficial to learn new decision-making techniques rather than relying on old patterns and habits. One excellent tool for decision-making and problem-solving is the Six Thinking Hats created by Edward de Bono. The Six Hats method encourages parallel thinking and communication in a group. This reduces conflict by keeping the team focused on one aspect of a situation or problem at a time. Each “hat” represents a different style of thinking. Moving methodically through each different style leads us to consider a problem from multiple angles and fosters more balanced, comprehensive decision-making. Here’s how to use the…
Get Ready for Summer: Update Your Goals and Make Time for Joy
Get Ready for Summer: Update Your Goals and Make Time for Joy Starting the year with goals in mind is a great idea. What makes that approach even more effective is checking in periodically to evaluate what’s working, what isn’t relevant anymore, and when we need to reprioritize. With the summer approaching, now is a perfect time to sit down with our list of New Year’s Resolutions and see how we’re doing and how we feel about the goals we set at the beginning of the year. Here are 3 steps to update your goals and make time for joy. 1. Are your goals still relevant? Let’s spring clean! When reviewing the goals you chose in January, consider which ones you’ve already achieved. Have you finished that big project? Have you been going to the gym? Take a look at your list of goals and check off the ones you’ve…
5 Ways to Influence People at Work
5 Ways to Influence People at Work Influencing people effectively at work is very important for various reasons. It helps you promote your ideas and achieve your goals and is critical for leadership development and career advancement. For some individuals, having influence may seem like an innate trait that cannot be learned. However, the truth is that anyone can develop influence with others. Like any other skill, it just requires a bit of learning and practice. Here are 5 ways to influence people at work. 1. Establish Credibility. Take some time to think about your experiences, education, and passions. Identify the areas where you feel most knowledgeable and skilled. Share your expertise and opinions in those fields to establish credibility. Remember, credibility also involves acknowledging when someone else knows more than you do and being willing to defer to their expertise. 2. Listen First and Be Curious. When people feel…
4 Steps to Introduce Change Successfully
4 Steps to Introduce Change Successfully Introducing change successfully doesn’t happen by accident. Gartner, a research and advisory group, estimates that only about 34 percent of change is successfully implemented, with an additional 16 percent reporting mixed results. Those aren’t the best odds. Using a little organization and some other vital strategies will boost your likelihood of being among the 34 percent who report success with implementing changes on their team. Here are 4 steps to introduce change successfully. 1. Acknowledge the Need for Change. The first step in introducing a change is understanding why it is necessary. What issue will a change improve? What happens if the problem remains unaddressed? Most importantly, how does the change impact the individuals on your team? Remember, people will always want to know the “WIIFM”… What’s In It For Me? Many people find themselves intimidated by big changes. Change is risk; it feels…
3 Ways to Boost Confidence and Happiness by Moving Your Body
3 Ways to Boost Confidence and Happiness by Moving Your Body Nonverbal communication, such as body language, can be a powerful tool to communicate with others, but did you know your body language can change the conversation in your own brain? Your body reacts to your thoughts and emotions in predictable ways, smiling when you feel happy or grimacing when you stub your toe. What we don’t often realize is that the communication from brain to body that creates body language can work the opposite way, too. In other words, you can flex your muscles, change the position of your body, and boost your own mood. Here are 3 ways to increase your happiness with your body language right now. 1. Smile: Your Happiness Superpower When you smile, the tiny muscles in your face do some serious heavy lifting. According to Stanford research scientist Nicholas Coles, smiling actually sends signals…
Using Personality Profiles to Boost Growth
Using Personality Profiles to Boost Growth A personality profile is one of the most powerful tools to help you understand your strengths, preferences, and/or traits that come less comfortably or naturally to you and your team. These profiles can help you and your team members understand your natural talents, communication, and work styles, as well as identify blindspots and development opportunities for better collaboration. While this information mainly focuses on identifying and using our talents, it can also shed light on the source of misunderstandings, help pinpoint the team’s unmet needs, and offer insight on leveraging growth opportunities. Here are some ways you can use personality profiles to optimize teamwork. 1. Helps Us Understand Individual Needs. A personality profile, such as the DISC profile, allows teammates to see how their values and traits impact how they relate to their role in the team. This might help explain why we have…
3 Ways to Find Your Work-Life Balance This Year
3 Ways to Find Your Work-Life Balance This New Year Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions boil down to establishing a sustainable work-life balance. Whether you’ve set fitness, health, or financial goals, they become much more achievable when your lifestyle balances work and personal time. Work-life balance means something different to everyone. First, define what is important for YOU. Next, whatever resolutions you’ve set, we recommend that you make it a point to prioritize your work-life balance this new year. Here are three ways you can do that. 1. Be Realistic. Setting a goal to achieve a good work-life balance doesn’t mean getting it perfect. In fact, not only is a perfect work-life balance not ongoingly achievable but if you make perfection your criteria for success, the most significant thing you’ll most likely increase is your frustration. Instead, be realistic. How much flexibility do you have in your…
’Tis the Season for Employee Recognition and Appreciation
’Tis the Season for Employee Recognition and Appreciation As we near the year’s end, we reflect on its many highs and lows. The year may have brought unexpected hardships and losses along with successes and victories to celebrate. As we process and reflect, it’s important to remember the team who navigated the ups and downs of life this year and share with them the meaningful ways they contributed to helping us maneuver around setbacks and achieve our goals this year and to take a few moments to offer employee recognition and appreciation. The fact is, in our post-pandemic world, a little encouragement can go a long way. Forbes recently published an article detailing how employee recognition elevates employee loyalty (which, incidentally, has a significant impact on creating customer loyalty and business growth). It also creates a sense of purpose and belonging—knowing our work matters makes us feel like an essential…
How Gratitude in Relationships Boosts Joy
How Gratitude in Relationships Boosts Joy “Practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.” – Dr. Brene Brown, PhD, LMSW The relationship between joy and gratitude is a powerful one. We’ve talked before about the incredibly positive impact a gratitude practice can have on our personal happiness. This year, as we head into the holiday season, let’s talk about the effect of gratitude on our relationship happiness. 1. Reminds Us of the Value of Our Relationships It may be an old habit to say thank you to your partner, friends, or family members when they do something for you but taking a moment to think about how their actions affect you and what it says about who they are will help you mine more joy. When someone notices you struggling to carry bags of groceries and steps in to hold a door or help carry the bags, it means they are…
4 Ways to Create a Collaborative Team Culture
4 Ways to Create a Collaborative Team Culture Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” It’s one of the best serendipitous qualities of a collaborative group. What began as an ordinary or half-impossible idea can round a brainstorming circle and become a genius solution in the hands of a collaborative team. Creating a collaborative team may take a little effort, but the rewards the team receives are more than worth the investment. Here are 4 ways to create a collaborative team culture. 1. Encourage Open-mindedness and Respect The first rule of creating a collaborative team is that the team must be a safe place to speak up. If team members can’t openly share their ideas, even the bad ones, they’ll withdraw from the discussion. Not only will you miss out on valuable input (even a bad…
3 Steps to Use the Pygmalion Effect for Performance
3 Steps to Use the Pygmalion Effect for Performance Employee productivity depends on effective performance management. The best managers use a combination of strategies to draw upon the full potential of their team and get consistent top-performing results. How do they do this? One powerful tool great leaders use to optimize performance is motivation. The Pygmalion effect explains how and why setting high expectations for employees yields excellent results. Here’s how to use the Pygmalion effect to optimize performance among your employees in 3 steps. What is the Pygmalion effect? The principle is simple. People tend to perform to our expectations, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we have high expectations, they perform better. When we have low expectations of people, they often perform below their capability. 1. Define Your Expectations Take a moment and think about each member of your team. Think about each person and your performance expectations. Do…
4 Reasons to Be Assertive at Work
4 Reasons to Be Assertive at Work Being assertive at work means voicing your opinions and ideas with confidence. Assertiveness helps us set boundaries and ask for what we need without being rude or combative. Communicating assertively increases job satisfaction and creates win-win situations with our coworkers. It also allows us to recognize our feelings and build honest relationships with teammates. Here are 4 more reasons to use assertive communication at work. 1. Keeps the Focus on Your Idea, Not You One common problem we face at work is thinking we’ve communicated an idea more effectively than we actually have. For instance, if you share an idea in a meeting or email, and the tone is too soft, your comment may get lost in the conversation. Your teammates may not recognize that you’re asking for or proposing something. On the other hand, if you pitch an idea too forcefully, the…
5 Ways to Increase Happiness in Your Employees
5 Ways to Increase Happiness in Your Employees Happiness at work is essential to today’s workforce. What’s especially great is the fact that happiness in your employees creates benefits for the company they work for, too. Happier employees complete their work faster and are more creative. They’re also less likely to quit their jobs, even if they’re offered more money somewhere else, according to this analysis from Gallup. Having happy employees doesn’t happen by accident; it doesn’t simply mean hiring people with a positive attitude. Fostering and maintaining happiness in your employees is a deliberate effort. Here are 5 ways you can create a work environment that increases employee happiness and delivers the benefits of a happy crew to you. 1. Set the Example of Happiness Start your day on a positive note. Think about something you’re looking forward to doing or experiencing at work today. Smile and greet your…
Emotional Intelligence: 4 Ways to Build Your Self-Awareness Skills
Emotional Intelligence: 4 Ways to Build Your Self-Awareness Skills The core of great leadership is understanding people. It’s understanding how to motivate them, how to find their strengths and harness them for your team. One powerful tool leaders use in effectively motivating and communicating with their teams is emotional intelligence. This is the skillset that helps leaders read the room and change their approach based on the kind of feedback or direction their team members need in the moment. One of the key pillars of emotional intelligence is self-reflection and self-awareness. Counter to what you may be thinking, the way to get better at self-reflection isn’t through introspection. When we rely only on our perceptions of ourselves, we often get it wrong. Why? We have a tendency to be our own blind spots. We already know and understand our own perspective, but what’s missing, without the input from others, is…
4 Great Ways to Boost Your Interpersonal Communication Skills
4 Great Ways to Boost Your Interpersonal Communication Skills Interpersonal communication refers to the methods we use to communicate thoughts, feelings, and needs to other people. On the job, this includes things like reporting the status of a task we’re working on, asking for information for a task or job, and resolving conflict between team members. When we think about communication, we often think of the messages we’re sending out using words, such as our verbal or written communication, but interpersonal communication includes so much more than that. There are four types of interpersonal communication: verbal, non-verbal, listening, and written. We use all four types of communication daily, even in a single meeting! Here are 4 ways you can boost your interpersonal communication skills so you can more quickly understand others and be understood. 1. Practice Active Listening Active listening sounds basic, and it is quite simple: listening with the…
4 Great Ways to Support Intergenerational Teams
4 Great Ways to Support Intergenerational Teams If your team is like most in the workforce today, it’s made up of members of multiple generations. Each generation is characterized by different values and priorities in the workplace. It can be challenging to make sure everyone’s needs are understood and met, yet doing so means greater investment in your company and greater satisfaction on the part of team members. Here are 4 great ways to support intergenerational teams in your workplace. 1. Provide Flexibility One thing the most recent three generations—Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z—have in common is a desire for flexibility. The value looks a little different in each generation, though. For example, members of Generation Y often want the flexibility to work at least part of their hours remotely. They and Generation Z value the opportunity to work outside a traditional 9 to 5 time block. Baby…
4 Smart Ways to Get a Fresh Start
4 Smart Ways to Get a Fresh Start January is a perfect time to get a fresh start. You don’t have to set resolutions in order to give yourself a fresh start. All you need is a few minutes for a brief self-assessment and an open, curious mind. 1. Find Your Why Before setting any goals for this year, consider the reasons behind them. Your why may have to do with your professional life, or it may be more personal. You may enjoy the people you’re working with and find it rewarding to create an environment where you succeed together or you may just want to focus on you and improving your quality of life. Understanding why a goal matters to you personally helps keep you focused. It helps you keep what’s truly important to you front and center. Have you read “Find Your Why” by Simon Sinek? Having trouble…
5 Simple Tips for a Joyful Holiday Season
5 Simple Tips for a Joyful Holiday Season It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And sometimes the busiest time of the year, too. With all the extra celebrations, added errands, and weather changes, the holidays can lead to extra stress, but they don’t have to. Here are 5 simple tips for a joyful holiday season. 1. Limit Your To Do List No one can do it all, and trying to is a recipe for stress and conflict in your life. As you sit down to make your to do list limit the number of items you can add. The holidays bring extra celebrations and events, extra shopping and cooking, and all those tasks take time above and beyond our normal daily commitments. Each morning, think about what your top priorities are for the day and allow yourself to add only one or two things to your Holiday To…
5 Easy Ways to Start a Daily Gratitude Practice
5 Easy Ways to Start a Daily Gratitude Practice In the push from Halloween to Christmas, sometimes we lose sight of one of the most important traditions in holiday celebration: pausing to be thankful. In her research on joy, Daring Greatly author Brené Brown noticed a connection she didn’t expect. People who were living joyful lives also followed a daily gratitude practice. What does that mean? Practicing gratitude goes further than having an “attitude of gratitude”, though that’s a great place to begin. A gratitude practice means taking action or spending time purposefully reflecting on experiences, relationships, and things we are grateful for. This year, as the holidays approach, make a point to pause and reflect on the moments you’re grateful for. Maybe for you, it’s that coffee date with a friend, or watching your favorite holiday movie. How can you reduce stress and celebrate gratitude along with your holiday…
5 Easy Tips for Giving Employee Feedback
5 Easy Tips for Giving Employee Feedback Giving employee feedback is one of the key ways we train, reinforce, and communicate with our team members. Effective feedback motivates employees and increases their confidence in their job performance. It’s actually something team members consistently ask for on surveys about work satisfaction. Knowing how you’re doing, what you’re doing right, and what you can improve helps us feel connected to the job we do. It helps us understand how our contributions matter. And it helps build trust with our managers. Here are 5 easy tips for giving employee feedback to boost your team’s success. 1. Feedback Matters Focused feedback helps employees. Not only does it direct them to continue doing tasks in ways that are effective and beneficial, it also bolsters their confidence about the job they’re doing. A team member who has confidence about his role in the company is a…
5 Proven Interview Techniques to Hire Top Talent
6 Proven Interview Techniques to Hire Top Talent In today’s war on talent, the power of your interview techniques is a critical part of your team’s success. Not only do those techniques determine the quality of the candidates you select, but the interview experience is important to candidates as well. LinkedIn reports that for 83% of candidates, a negative interview experience changed their opinion of a company. The last thing you want is to turn away a top candidate’s interest because they did not appreciate the process. How do you craft an interview experience that’s positive for the candidate and reveals which applicant is the best fit for the job? These six tried-and-true interview techniques will help you find the team members you’re looking for. 1. Create a Positive Candidate Experience One of the most important aspects of the selection process in today’s world is making the experience a positive…
4 Keys to Boost Employee Motivation
4 Keys to Boost Employee Motivation In the engine of business, motivation is the accelerator. It determines the energy with which your team tackles assigned tasks and their enthusiasm about generating solutions to obstacles that may arise during a project. If you want your team to approach their work with a high level of energy and excitement, then crafting a team culture where positive motivation thrives will be critical to achieving that goal. Motivation is also a critical factor in employee retention. Team members who feel unappreciated, frustrated or like their work doesn’t matter often leave their job in favor of a new opportunity. In fact, a recent survey by McKinsey reported that the top two reasons employees leave a job are that they don’t feel valued by their manager or the company or don’t feel a sense of belonging at work. Finding ways to positively motivate your team can…
5 Tips for Energy and Stress Management
5 Tips for Energy and Stress Management No matter how positive your outlook and how zen your mindset, it’s impossible for any of us never to encounter stress or fatigue. Unfortunately, experiencing some stress and fatigue is part of life. In truth, they’re part of what make the days we have great energy or feel calm and at peace so wonderful. The best solution is having strategies for energy and stress management in our arsenal to help on difficult days. Here are 5 great tips for energy and stress management. 1. Adapt Rather than Avoid It can be tempting to avoid stressful situations or choices by putting them off as long as possible. Avoiding the most challenging task on our to-do list or postponing that meeting with a challenging person might feel good in the moment. What it does, though, is give us more time to fret over the event.…
5 Components of Successful Delegation
5 Successful Components of Delegation Delegation is one of the most critical skills you can learn as a leader. Not only does it effectively train your team and give them ownership of the work you’re doing together, but it’s like adding extra hours to your day. Delegation allows you to get multiple tasks on your to-do list completed at the same time. Considering handing over tasks to other team members can seem intimidating at first. The real process of delegating goes beyond simply asking a team member to add an item to their to-do list, though. Successful delegation involves five critical steps to ensure that the work you surrender gets done correctly, on time, and without a lot of hands-on time from you. Here are the 5 key components for successful delegation. 1. Give the job to someone who can get it done. The first step in delegating is, of…
5 Tips for Successful Coaching
5 Tips for Successful Coaching Coaching is one of the most effective methods for leaders to use for performance improvement and for employee engagement. Not only does it help the individual develop and grow, but it shows that we are willing to invest in them and that we believe in their potential. Effective coaching leads to employees who are more proficient, work more independently, produce higher quality work and are more motivated. Successful coaching also increases the performance and ability of the team as a whole. Here are 5 great tips on coaching for success. 1. Give Team Members a Chance to Self-Assess First. Before offering your own insights, always give team members a chance to self-assess. Encouraging self-assessment assists in several ways. First, it encourages improvement even when you are not coaching. It also allows you to determine why the employee may not be performing as desired. For example,…
5 Great Time and Priority Management Tips
5 Great Time and Priority Management Tips Effective time and priority management can make a huge difference in our effectiveness and ability to achieve critical goals. Taking on too many tasks or not having clearly outlined goals can make it difficult to actually be productive. Identifying your goals and limiting your daily to do list can help you get things done in a more focused, effective way. Deciding which tasks can be delegated or postponed helps ensure that you’re spending the bulk of your time on the things you need to do today. Time management is all about how to work smarter rather than harder. It’s how to be busy for the right reasons so that you can rest and relax at the end of the day. Priority management means deciding which tasks are the most urgent & important and require your specific abilities versus which things can wait or…
Get a Fresh Start with These Tips for Managing a Hybrid Team
Get a Fresh Start with These Tips for Managing a Hybrid Team The new year is the perfect time to create a fresh start and update your skills in managing a hybrid team. You may have practices that used to fit your team that simply don’t work well today. We live in a new world in which employees may be at home, in the office, or some combination of both. From time to time, we all need to reevaluate our performance and change what we’re doing to meet new challenges and opportunities. Turning the calendar to a new year is a perfect time to freshen up our management approach with some new strategies for today’s agile teams. Here are 4 tips for sharpening your effectiveness as a leader and help in managing a hybrid team. 1. Communication is Key Whether your team works on site or remotely, one of the…
3 Tips to Avoid Holiday Stress so You Can Celebrate What Matters
3 Tips to Avoid Holiday Stress so You Can Celebrate What Matters Sometimes the excitement of having time off, being with friends and family, sharing our favorite foods and drinks and creating special memories can get lost to the holiday stress of preparing for each event. What can we do to minimize stress and maximize happiness this holiday season? Here are 3 tips to boost your joy and be more “zen” this holiday. 1. Give Yourself Permission to Update Your Plans. If you find yourself dreading a particular event or aspect of the holidays, take the time to pause and examine why. Are you dreading a particular event because it’s located in a difficult place to get to? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the number of things crowding your calendar and really wishing you could take a break from the hustle and bustle? Give yourself a moment to understand what’s…
4 Ways to Manage Perfectionism for Success
4 Ways to Manage Perfectionism for Success Perfectionism has recently been a big topic for discussion in the workplace. While perfectionists are highly motivated, dedicated workers, a study on perfectionism published in the Harvard Business Review states, “perfectionism is strongly and consistently related to numerous ‘detrimental’ work and non-work outcomes, including higher levels of burnout, stress, workaholism, anxiety, and depression.” Not only that, but another recent study of nearly 42,000 people published in the Harvard Business Review indicates that perfectionism is on the rise in the US, Canada and the UK. Now more than ever, we need great strategies to manage perfectionism in the workplace. How do we create a work environment that supports the assets perfectionists bring to our teams while helping to shield them from the potential harmful effects that can come from perfectionism? Here are 4 ways you can create a supportive environment where perfectionists can thrive, and…
4 Ways Personal Development Boosts Leadership Skills
4 Ways Personal Development Boosts Leadership Skills It is exciting to lead people and it is a critical role. According to experts, leaders can have a direct impact on their team’s happiness and self-esteem. That said, in today’s new reality, with fewer resources and a hybrid workforce, being in charge of a team presents unexpected and complex challenges that can leave even seasoned managers at a loss. The solution? Focused personal development training or coaching gives leaders the effective tools they need to navigate these challenging times. Personal development assists leaders and managers in critical ways. Here are 4 key reasons to take advantage of the “back-to-school” season and prioritize personal development to boost your leadership skills. 1. Identify and leverage your strengths and manage your weaknesses Personal development often incorporates assessments that allow managers to discover strengths and opportunities for development. It also teaches how to strengthen both. This…
4 Amazing Benefits of Play
4 Amazing Benefits of Play Summertime is here! Are you ready for a break? The wonderful truth is that taking a break and making time for play and fun actually creates lots of benefits in other areas of your life. Now that the weather is lovely and warm again, it’s the perfect time of year to get outside and get our bodies busy making vitamin D, reconnecting with friends and family, and even getting some much-needed activity. We all recognize the importance of play in the growth and development and happiness of children, but what we may not realize is the critical role that it plays in our adult lives. Spending time at play offers lots of benefits. Here are the top 4 amazing benefits of play that will help to increase your happiness. 1. Boosts Creativity and Problem-solving Skills Sometimes all our brains need is an opportunity to think…
4 Reasons Leadership Requires Friendliness
4 Reasons Good Leadership Requires Friendliness Leadership requires a lot of different skills. In addition to expertise in a specific field, it requires the ability to manage resources, budgets, projects and most importantly, employees. One of the best ways to invest in the people who make up your team is to make friendliness a key component of your relationship with them. Friendliness isn’t the same thing as friendship. It’s possible, even beneficial, to craft a friendly management style and still maintain professional boundaries with your team members. Why does good leadership require friendliness, now more than ever? Here are 4 good reasons to use a friendly approach with your team in order to boost morale and reap the rewards of success together. 1. People respond more openly and positively to friendliness. Getting results through friendliness can take a lot less energy than getting results through direction. Task-oriented managers find it…
5 Tips for More Effective Meetings
5 Tips for More Effective Meetings Meetings: people seem to love them or hate them. Some see meetings as a time waster, while others thrive on the collaborative energy that comes from regular check-ins or stand-ups. Whatever the emotions that seeing a meeting on the calendar causes, meetings are an essential tool for an effective, successful team. Crafting effective meetings takes a little time and planning, but it yields great results. Here are 5 tips for more effective meetings that will boost your team’s communication and success. 1. Craft a clear and inspiring agenda. Before calling a meeting, establish the agenda. What are the meeting objectives? These days, more than ever, we should remember to include a more personal goal. On top of “taking care of business”, we need to ask people how they are doing, show that we care and offer our support when needed. 2. Make sure a…
5 Ways a Daily Mindfulness Practice Will Increase Your Happiness
5 Ways a Daily Mindfulness Practice Will Increase Your Happiness One of the most effective ways to increase your happiness and reduce your stress level is to engage in a daily mindfulness or meditative practice. You don’t have to spend hours a day in order to achieve results, but you do need to do a little research and gather some helpful tools, like a quiet space, perhaps an app or video to guide you through your practice as you learn. The goal is pretty simple. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that helps you to focus on what you feel or think and accept it without judging. You can do this in really short sessions—as little as two minutes to begin. There are a number of great free apps that offer guides to mindfulness practice. My favorite is CALM. Before you know it, your daily practice will begin to bring…
9 Positive Leadership Maxims
9 Positive Leadership Maxims Being a great leader is more than a job—it’s a way of approaching life. It can sometimes be a challenging lifestyle, and can even be discouraging. Here are 9 positive leadership maxims to energize you in your leadership role. 1. To make a difference, be the difference. Are you practicing the changes you want to see in your team? Leading your team by example is a powerful way to lead. 2. Leadership is showing people not that they MUST take a certain action but that they GET TO take that action. The way we word something can make a huge difference in perception and motivation. “I chose you for this and here’s why it’s an opportunity…” sounds and feels better than “I need you or want you to do something…” 3. To get the best out of people, embrace the best in them. What gifts and…
5 Ways to Celebrate the Holidays with Social Distancing
5 Ways to Happily Celebrate the Holidays in a Socially Distanced Season With the challenges and losses we’ve faced this year, gearing up for happy holidays may feel more overwhelming than usual. Some of our traditions may be altered or impossible this year. It’s easy to get focused on the things that are missing, to notice the empty spots on the calendar where a holiday party might once have been. It’s okay to grieve for those things. What we don’t want to do, though, is let the losses swallow up our attention and steal the possibilities of other happy holiday celebrations. Instead, take some time to reimagine your holidays. Are there things you can update or reinvent that allow you to celebrate in a socially distanced way? Here are 5 ideas to jumpstart your imagination and help you reframe your traditions and help you keep the happy in your holidays.…
The Difference Between A Boss and a Leader – 3 Tips!
The Difference Between a Boss and a Leader – 3 Tips! Every leader is a boss, but not every boss is a leader. What’s the difference between a boss and a leader? It all comes down to how you do it. A boss is in charge because of his or her position and title. He may be the company owner, or a senior level manager. Usually, a boss has years of experience and familiarity with the job, which are great assets to bring to a job. What truly determines the success of the team working with him or her, though, is not how much they know about the tasks to be done, but how they lead the people on their team. A leader learns the tasks and familiarizes himself with the process, but the secret he knows that sets him apart and makes him successful is that he sees his…
5 Tips for Happy Family Relationships
Creating a Happy Family is an Investment Family relationships can be some of the most challenging and most rewarding relationships in our lives. When relationships at home are going well, we feel much happier and better equipped to endure stressful situations in other parts of our lives. What better way to increase our overall happiness than to invest in happiness in our family relationships? Here are 5 tips for creating and increasing happy family relationships that you can start doing right now. Each of these things takes only a minute or two to do. Try them all. See how they improve your family’s overall happiness. 1. Create Opportunities to Express Gratitude Set up a bowl or jar with some scraps of paper beside it. Each day, perhaps just before dinner, ask family members to write down something they are thankful for. Periodically—such as when the bowl gets full, as part…
5 Ideas to Create an Atmosphere of Employee Appreciation in Your Team
Benefits of Employee Appreciation We all crave appreciation, even when we already know we’ve done a job well. When is the last time a coworker or boss showed appreciation for what you do? Do you remember how it made you feel? In the 1940s, Lawrence Lindahl conducted a study on employee motivation. The results may surprise you. During the study, supervisors and their employees were asked, “What motivates an employee?” The number one answer was “appreciation for a job well done.” This is pretty amazing for a number of reasons. One is that appreciation is free! Motivating an employee doesn’t always need to come from bonuses or pay increases. Simply noticing a good job and offering praise can be a huge motivator. You might be thinking that our culture and workplace culture may have changed since the 1940s. It was a long time ago, that’s true. But these study results…
Minimalist Living: Why Fewer Things Equals Greater Happiness
If you’re a creative person, a pack rat, a shopper or a collector, minimalist living and the idea that fewer things equals greater happiness may feel impossible to you. It doesn’t have to be! And you don’t have to be a true minimalist in order to decrease the amount of possessions you own and increase your happiness. Who’s in Charge Here? If you’ve seen the movie Fight Club, you may remember the scene in which Tyler Durden talks about the paradox of owning things. “The things you own,” he says, “end up owning you.” It’s especially easy to feel this in our lives when things aren’t going well. For example, when something breaks can mean having to take time to find someone to fix it and then squeeze extra funds from our budget to cover the costs of repairs. Even maintaining and cleaning out stuff can end up making us…
The Link Between Curiosity and Leadership
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.” – Albert Einstein Think about children for a minute. They’re naturally curious, imaginative, and always learning, always looking for new experiences and information. They know what they want, and they chase after it wholeheartedly. Does you hear your childhood self in this description at all? There are a lot of good things about “being an adult: the knowledge and experience we gained, knowing what we want and don’t want, the discipline to stick through a task even when we don’t feel like finishing it. Those are things kids aren’t so good at doing. But what about the benefits we’ve lost? Where did that natural curiosity and that vivid eagerness go? Many motivational experts like to say that leaders are made, not born. I believe we are all natural born leaders, but some of us have…
How to Increase Your Productivity Without Working More Hours
More Work Doesn’t Equal More Productivity According to the American Dream Project, the average American works between 43 and 51 hours per week. That’s a lot of hours! One key question to consider as you plan your own workweek is, are you getting the best productivity from your work schedule? Does working extra hours actually make us more productive? The truth is, it doesn’t. In fact, the United States is ranked 5th in productivity behind countries like Norway, Belgium, and Ireland. Yet people in those countries work fewer hours than we do. So, how do we make our working hours more productive? Work Time Versus Productive Time Here are some interesting facts to consider: The average person is only productive 5 hours a day, yet our average workday is 8 hours, or more! Fewer people take breaks and vacations than ever before, which means people spend more time working than…
Happiness Comes From Your Mind
What do You do When Feel Unhappy? Everyone has days when they feel down. What do you find helps you on those gloomy days? Do you go out for a meal? Maybe see a new movie? Visit a friend? Take a walk? Do you get a buzz from jogging or going to the gym? Maybe you find it energizing to go shopping. Or perhaps you treat yourself to an ice tea with friends to overcome your unhappiness. We all have our preferred methods to shake off a dreary day. Sometimes those things are enough to make us feel better in the moment. But science tells us something interesting about achieving real happiness. Right now, scientists are in the process of showing us how happiness can only come to us through internal change and positive daily habits. Other things might lift our moods for the moment, and that’s not a bad…
Top 3 Myths About Change Management
Did you know that… “Studies show that 70% – 80% of change initiatives in organizations fail” -John Kotter As an organizational psychologist, I can tell you that this alarming failure rate is often attributed to the human factor! Here are 3 classical myths that I frequently deal with in my practice. Myth #1 – It is important to communicate the information in groups Several organizations formulate a communications plan and focus on presenting the changes in information sessions to employees. The goal is to deliver the same message to all employees so they can hear it at the same time and in the same way, minimizing misinterpretations and rumors. Warning!! This often has the opposite effect. Within a group, many people avoid speaking and asking questions. I often say “after every meeting, there’s a meeting … it’s the real meeting … the bosses are not invited and employees really say…
Creating Happiness
Creativity or Problem-solving One of the amazing things about humans is our constant endeavor to create or improve things. When we are inspired to create something, we demonstrate our passions or talents. When we run into a problem, we want to fix it and come up with a solution. These days it’s not unusual to complain about something and hear someone say in response, “There’s an app for that!”. Whether we are trying to express our creativity or simply improve our lives, coming up with something new seems to make us happy! Inventions are all around us. From books and music to sports and games to comfort items to technological gadgets aimed at making life simpler. Someone created every one of them! Any form of creativity is enough to fill us with happiness. Think of the joy that comes from cooking a special meal, decorating your office, coming up with a tool for…
2 Strategies to Develop Your Leadership
Having more than 25 years of practice and experience under my belt, I can share with you 2 winning strategies to have more impact as a leader.
3 Reasons Going Outside Makes Us Happier
This is the perfect time of year to boost your happiness by going outside every day. What’s amazing is you don’t have to spend hours outdoors in order to receive the happiness benefits. Just a few minutes each day is usually enough to make a big difference in our levels of happiness and energy. Going outside is free. It’s easy. And it offers some pretty significant benefits to our health. Here are just 3 of the reasons to put going outside on your daily calendar starting this week. 1-You Need Sunlight to Make Vitamin D Your body makes vitamin D while you’re out in the sun. Researchers believe at least 1 billion people suffer from vitamin D deficiency. When we don’t get enough vitamin D, we can begin to experience symptoms of a vitamin deficiency, such as fatigue, increased vulnerability to illness, back pain, and even depression. OMG! All those things would…
3 Common Performance Management Mistakes
Good Management is Key According to Gallup, a US firm specializing in management research, in a survey of more than one million Americans, “people quit their bosses, not the organization.” The effect of mismanagement is widely felt. Gallup also determined that poorly managed teams are on average 50% less productive and 44% less profitable than well-managed teams. As an organizational psychologist, I can confirm that an apparent lack of commitment from employees is often the result of the absence of effective leadership from their boss or bosses! The following are 3 common mistakes that I have often observed in my practice and tips that could help you improve your performance management skills. 1 – Waiting until the end of the project or the year to give feedback We often wait before giving feedback for several reasons: lack of time, we do not want to disrupt, derail or demotivate people; it is…
Two Tips for Managing Stress and Improving Focus and Effectiveness
Did you know… According to the Statistic Brain website, 76% of people cite money and work as the main causes of their stress. As an organizational psychologist and happiness expert, I can tell you that people think it’s normal to be stressed, overwhelmed and tired, but it’s not! Certainly, when experiencing it, stress gives energy, but in the long run, it hurts our performance. Stress is the answer to a perception of danger. In difficult situations, the adrenaline released allows us to be fast, strong and agile. It’s very practical in the moment, but in the long term it harms our physical and psychological health. Here are the 2 most effective tips I recommend in my practice. 1-Breathe Slowly and Deeply By slowing down our breathing, we send a signal to our brain that we are in control. This allows us to react better because we are more effective when we are calm than…
Leadership Tools: 4 Steps to Handle Difficult Relationships
We’ve all experienced them. We can’t get along with everyone, right? Difficult relationships can be stressful, frustrating and exhausting. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to run a business or be a leader or work with people without encountering some difficult relationships. With a few simple tools, though, you can learn to minimize the roller coaster ride dealing with these challenges. You can learn to manage your own reactions in ways that put people at ease and diffuse frustrating situations rather than allowing them to escalate into bigger problems. Here are 4 steps which will help you handle these challenging situations in your professional life. Realize You’re On the Same Team. Whether the person you are having issues with is a customer, coworker, peer, or friend, recognize that the issue is the problem, not the person. You can’t control another person’s reaction or…
Give the Gift of Experiences
What do you buy the person who has everything? Have you heard people ask this question? Sometimes it seems overwhelming to try to think of a gift for a friend, coworker or loved one when they seem to have everything they could ever want already. It’s probably because you’re thinking of giving them a thing, an object, something they could easily buy. I’m going to tell you a secret about gift giving that will change how you think about birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas celebrations. Ready? Here it is: the best gifts aren’t items. They’re experiences. Opportunities to Buy Experiences Are All Around Us Look around your community for local events and experiences. Take a music-loving friend to hear a community orchestra or a jazz ensemble. Find a new park or trail to hike together and pack some fun snacks to share along the journey. Is there a show or an…
6 Ways to Develop Your Leadership Skills
Learn 6 simple ways to take your leadership skills to the next level.
5 Ways to Find Happiness and Inspiration at Work
Are you happy and inspired at work? If you spend eight hours a day, five days a week at work, you will spend more than 2,000 hours on the job in a year. That’s a lot of time! If you enjoy your job, then 2,000 hours probably flies by. But if you struggle to find happiness in your work life, it can seem like an eternity. So how do you find ways to make work a source of happiness? It’s not an impossible question! There are lots of ways to bring happiness into your workday. Here are five questions to ask yourself about your job which will help you uncover sources of happiness beyond that paycheck hitting your bank account. 1. What parts of your company or job inspire you? Inspiration comes in lots of forms. Maybe something inspired you to apply for this particular job, like being able to…
Leadership Tools: Building Your Ideal Team
How to Build Your Ideal Team One of the best and sometimes trickiest parts of being a leader is having the opportunity to build your ideal team. Choosing the right employees can make a huge difference in the success of your company. Employees represent and translate your company’s values to your clients. What do you look for in an employee? You probably already have an idea of the education or skillset you’re looking for. But how do you determine if a person has the right personality or work ethic to be a great fit for your team? When interviewing prospective employees, always try to notice their energy level and to understand their motivators. Does he seem passionate about he’s saying? Is she eager to put her skills toward the job? Build Your Ideal Team with the Right Values and Motivation Ask questions about what drives the person. Do his…
Increase Your Productivity and Happiness
Start Your New Year Off Right with This Simple Technique Happy New Year! This is the perfect time of the year to start new habits for healthier, happier living. It’s also a busy time of year. Being busy can add extra pressure to our schedules and mean that we need to be extra productive. With so many things on our minds, it can be tricky to focus on one task at a time, and we can end up hopping from one task to another to another without actually completing much. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone, and I’m here to help. Making a few simple changes to how you approach your work periods can really impact your productivity. One of the most effective changes is to work in short, focused bursts. Take quick breaks in between work sessions to let your mind relax. A great…
Being Grateful
We have so much to be grateful for. It’s that time of year…the holidays, the parties, the excitement! You probably have a lot to be grateful for and may take some things for granted. You don’t need much in order to be happy. Many people without a lot still find real happiness in their daily lives. Have an Attitude of Gratitude What you do need in order to be happy is to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Take a moment to reflect on the past year and make a list of 10 things you have to be grateful for. Note the things you tend to overlook. Think of what you do have instead of what you don’t: health, family, work, home, friends… Focusing on these blessings will foster an attitude of gratitude in your life. And that attitude is like fertile soil where happiness will grow and flourish. Develop a…
Celebrate 21 Days to Happiness E-Learning with a 3 Day Happiness Challenge
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – to Work on Your Happiness! This is the best time of the year to work on your happiness. It’s almost Thanksgiving in the United States and just a few short weeks until Christmas. Taking a few minutes now to center yourself and focus on your happiness can help you have the best holiday season. Very soon I’ll be launching my new 21 Days to Happiness E-Learning. I’m so excited to share it with you! The e-learning will share all the practical, effective happiness habits and resources I’ve put in my book, but in a fresh, interactive format. You’re going to love it! To help start our holidays off right, I’m offering a three-day Happiness Challenge. Each day, I’ll ask you to do one task that’s guaranteed to help boost your happiness. And, if you participate along with me, you can enter for a…
Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Happiness
Variety is the Spice of Happiness Have you ever felt trapped by your day to day schedule? Maybe you feel like you’re busy all the time or you simply don’t have anything coming up soon that you’re really looking forward to. Being busy or simply maintaining our day-to-day responsibilities can make life feel monotonous. We feel like we’re missing something. Trying something new– big or small– can give us a boost of happiness in a lot of ways. Not only does planning the new thing give us something to look forward to and anticipate, actually doing it can be a fun adventure. Then we have a story to tell and a memory to look back on, which is like a happiness bonus! 5 Cheap, Easy Ways to Boost Your Happiness with Something New Here are some quick and easy ideas for new adventures you can try on any budget and…
Leadership Skills: Motivate for Success
Great Leaders Create Great Leaders We’ve all faced the temptation as leaders to simply direct people by letting them know what we need done. Sometimes it feels like if people would just do what we want them to do the way we want them to do it, everything would be so simple. Great leaders resist that temptation because they know the most effective kind of leadership involves empowering their followers and team members to make decisions and take ownership of tasks. Remember: great leaders create more great leaders. Motivating people to take ownership is easier than you think. One of the key components is simply understanding what motivates your team members. What are their values? What do they need from their job in order to feel successful? What type of management style best supports that success? Identifying Key Motivators You can figure out what motivates your team in lots of…
Happiness Versus Pleasure
Seeking Pleasure In our society, we spend a lot of time seeking pleasure. We work hard, and many times we want to play just as hard. Having fun and spending time with friends are great things, but those pleasure-seeking experiences don’t always leave us feeling truly happy. Why is that? The Difference Between Happiness and Pleasure Pleasure is that momentary high we feel in the midst of a good experience: a fabulous meal, a hilarious joke, making love, and so on. It comes from an external source. It’s a response to what’s happening around us, directly affecting our senses. Unfortunately, this great feeling doesn’t last beyond the good experience causing it. Happiness is a long-lasting feeling that isn’t directly affected by what’s happening to us in the moment. It has some overlap with pleasure. For instance, if you go out for dinner with a good friend, you will experience pleasure…
Leadership Tools: Clarity in Communication
Clarity Begins with Our Mighty Minds Did you know our brains communicate information at the rate of some four billion neuron impulses per second? All that information feeds through our senses, and yet we’re only consciously aware of about 2,000. That’s only 0.00005%. If you stop to think about it, you’ll begin to notice things you normally wouldn’t be aware of. The feel of air moving in and out of your nose, throat, and lungs. The touch of clothes on your skin. The thrum of your pulse. The number of things in your field of vision- most of which you probably weren’t actively looking at. Before I pointed these things out, you probably didn’t even notice them. The good news is that our brains have developed highly sophisticated ways of sifting out the less important information and pushing the important stuff to the top of our notice. This keeps us…
How Connections Create Happiness
Connections Are Key Do you want to know one of the best secrets to true happiness? It’s probably not what you think. One of the greatest ways to have a happy life is to create connections with others. Does this sound too easy? Too hard? The truth is, relationships can be challenging. But they also bring the greatest rewards we can imagine. Connections with People Think about the people in your life with whom you have connections. You look forward to seeing them. They give your life some unpredictability. Something to look forward to. You never know exactly what they’ll say or do. A chat with a friend or peer can provide an opportunity to celebrate your successes or share a disappointment and gain some perspective or get some advice. “A joy that’s shared is a joy made double” Proverb Connections with Nature In addition to connecting with people, forging…
20 Ways to Make Someone Smile
Spread Happiness with a Smile Do you want to put a smile on someone’s face today? Maybe make their day a little better? It won’t cost a single penny or much time to do just that. And because smiling is contagious, you’ll find that making one person smile causes happiness to spread like a sweet smell on a warm breeze. 20 Ways to Make Someone Smile Challenge yourself. See how many of these smile-spreading techniques you can complete this week! 1. Smile at someone. 2. Compliment a friend or work colleague. 3. Donate something to charity. 4. Take a friend out to lunch. 5. Let someone know you miss them. 6. Make a surprise call to your partner or a friend at work, just to say hi. 7. Hold a door open for someone walking behind you. 8. Hug your partner for no reason. 9. Share a joke with someone.…
Are You Chasing the Butterfly of Happiness
Is Happiness Like a Butterfly? Sometimes we treat happiness like it’s an elusive butterfly in the garden of life. Imagine a young child in the garden on a summer day. He sees a beautiful butterfly flitting from flower to flower. He wants to see it close up, touch it, and hold it in his hands. But as he moves towards the flower that the butterfly is resting on, just as he gets within reach, the butterfly moves to another flower. And so the child follows the butterfly to the next flower, and then the next. But the butterfly always stays just out of reach. Even to adults, happiness can seem just like that butterfly: always just out of reach. It can become almost an obsession and the words “if only…” become an increasingly large part of our thoughts and vocabulary. “If only I had more money I would be happy,…
Leadership Tools: Conquering Fear
What do you fear? Stop for a moment and think about this: what keeps you from living your dreams? What problem tends to dominate the average person’s life without us even noticing? The answer: FEAR! People live every day in fear. Fear of not delivering, of dissapointing others, of being judged, of losing wealth, fear of conflict with loved ones, fear of making the wrong decisions. We are afraid to be ourselves, afraid to grow up, afraid to make commitments. The list goes on and on. Think for a moment. Does this apply to you? The fear of living life to the fullest may have paralyzed you. If you let it, this fear will cause you to hold yourself back in your business and in your personal life. Most people live life in the grip of this fear without ever becoming aware that it has control over them. Fear can…
Leadership Tools: Effective Listening
Effective Listening Isn’t Waiting Your Turn to Speak All too often we are far more enthusiastic about talking than we are listening. Yet effective listening is vital for effective communication. Would you believe that most conflicts are simple misunderstandings? When we are actively listened to we feel valued and are far more likely to be engaged and compromise if necessary. Listening is about far more than words. Watching facial expression and body language is often a far more accurate barometer than the words that are being used. For example, think about the way you know a genuine smile from a false one. A genuine smile reaches the eyes of the person smiling. A false one is usually just an upturn of the lips. 10 Tips for Effective Listening Here are some practical tips to help you develop your listening skills and improve your communication with others. Make eye contact. Looking…
Nature: One of the Greatest Sources of Happiness
The Cost of Time Spent in Nature Going outside is free! Nature is there for everybody to stand and stare and take happiness and comfort from. The trees do not distinguish between rich and poor, strong and weak, man and woman. Warm sunshine is free; the glow of the moon is free. You don’t have to pay for the cool breeze, warm seashore, towering mountains, smooth flowing rivers, or the dark and inviting forests. You can enjoy them all for free. Take Time to Enjoy Nature Around You Instead of sitting during a break, try taking a short, brisk walk outside. Take your lunch to a park or outdoor area and enjoy a picnic. This weekend, invite a friend to hike a nearby trail with you, or take a day trip to a park or forest. Explore someplace new! While you spend time outside, breathe deeply. Look at the sky.…
You are Your Own President
Welcome President You Congratulations! You are the president of your own nation, and it is called “Imagination”…get it? “Imagi-NATION”. This particular nation is the driving force behind your life and is the underlying factor for your future. You have an enormous responsibility as the President of this nation because its success depends entirely on you. Its entire population (you!) can’t succeed without you. Whoa! That’s a lot of power. You’re in charge! Take a minute to internalize the power you have as the President of your own life. Among many things that you have is the power to choose and/or consider. You get to hold the votes on who is allowed to live in your nation and on how your nation operates. It’s so exciting to think that we are the CEOs and designers of our life. Each of us has the ability to imagine such powerful dreams for our…
10 Keys to Happiness
We are Always Pursuing Happiness Think about it … every single thing we do is intended to make us happier. The people we choose to spend time with. The ways we spend our time. And yet sometimes we get distracted and do things that actually move us away from this goal. We all have the potential for genuine happiness. We make choices throughout our lives. Each option is like a series of locked doors in front of us. We choose which path to follow and open the door we’ve chosen. The result of all these choices combined determines our level of happiness. Make the right choices and happiness can be yours. Ten Keys to Greater Happiness Here are some tactics we can follow on our journey toward genuine happiness: 1. Look For The Positive In Everything: You know the old saying about a glass being half-full or half-empty? Finding the…
Vital Leadership Question: What Does Our Organization Reward?
A Good Leader Listens What sets leaders apart? Good leaders not only ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers. Ask people in your organization: “What does our organization REALLY reward?” Listening to the answer may help you achieve a huge increase in results. Over the years I’ve worked with thousands of leaders, and I’ve learned that many organizations reward the wrong things. Some organizations may pay lip service to rewarding people for what is viewed as the right things: getting the right results in the right ways. But what they may really reward, often in terms of promotions and job perks, are things like “not rocking the boat”, seniority, managing their image, working HARD, but not SMART. Transform Wrong Rewards into Right Results Here is a way to transform wrong rewards into right results. 1. Find out what your organization really rewards. Take some time to…
Secrets of a Positive Attitude
Managing Your Mental Diet Are you bombarded by thoughts of negativity? Have feelings of insecurity, stress or worry? This is normal… just watch the news and notice how many stories are negative and dramatic! You are what you mentally and spiritually eat. This is the time to go on a diet– a diet of “positive attitude”. You have to literally stop feeding your mind negative things. Ask yourself, is this thought positive or negative? What do negative thoughts look like? Well, they start with “can’t” rather than “can”, “no” as opposed to “yes”, or focus on “won’t” instead of “will”. We tend to let our thoughts control us. Let’s flip this around. Identifying the Subject of Negative Thoughts A great way to know what we are negative about is to ask those people who are closest to us. Ask your spouse or a close friend how they would rate your…
Taking Responsibility as a Leader
“With great power comes great responsibility.” Who could forget the ever-famous line from Spiderman, spoken by Peter Parker’s uncle: “With great power comes great responsibility.” In the movie, society expects Spiderman, a comic book, TV, and movie superhero, to take responsibility for saving his town or even the world from evil because he has super powers. Indeed, he never lets us down. With the power he possesses, he makes sure to be responsible in using it for the good of the people around him. Leadership is not all that different from being superheroes. Yes, you may not have super powers like Wonder Woman and Spiderman, but you have the power to lead other people towards success. This is so much greater and stronger since it is a power that can be used by real people in this real world. Being a leader requires a great sense of responsibility. The power…
Work-Play Integration: The New Work-Life Balance
Integration for Life Harmony Balance. It’s a nice word but the reality is hard to pin down. It may not even put us on the right track in our quest for fulfillment and happiness. Today we will talk more about “work-play integration”. Let’s think about integration, which means bringing the various pieces of our lives into a cohesive whole. We each have many roles, goals, responsibilities and life plans. We have to consider all of those aspects globally and identify clear priorities. Identify Priorities Experience shows people best at balancing their lives are ones who have very clear priorities and their own clear definition of success. They know what’s most important in their lives. These are people who can say, before it happens: if I have to make a choice between different activities, I know what my biggest priority is. Recognize the Choices You’re Making Sometimes we fall into going…
Leadership Tool: Delighting in the People You Lead
Leadership entails getting results, and getting results entails human relationships. One of the best leadership tools you can use is delighting in the people you lead. The more closely the leader and the individuals of the team bond, the more results will usually accrue. However, sometimes leaders and the people they lead look at those relationships as somewhat one-sided. For example, charismatic leaders are commonly defined by sentiments bestowed on them from people. But great leadership is really a two-way street, also involving sentiments from the leader to the people. We can never reach our full potential as leaders until we are delighting the people we lead and, through that delight, leading them to get continually better results while they become continually better as employees and as people. To use this leadership tool properly, three things must be kept in mind. 1. Delight must keep high expectations. In your…
5 Great Reasons Smiling Makes Us Successful
Smiling is a simple thing to do, but it can make a huge difference in how we feel and how we’re perceived by the people around us. Here are some great reasons to give us a grin. 1. Our smile shows others people that we are likeable and helps us connect. If a stranger or new coworker approaches you and gains eye contact with you and then treats you to a smile, you’ll have a fairly good idea that they are friendly and likeable. Which type of person do you prefer? A person that has a tired or overly serious face; an expression that may reflect their inner thoughts of boredom and worry; or would you prefer someone who is usually smiling and shows that they have an enthusiastic passion for life? Few of us would choose a miserable person to talk to whether it’s in our work or personal lives. Let’s face…
Staying Focused on What Matters
Are you in a hurry? When you go about your day, take a moment to look at the people around you. Do they look like they’re in a hurry to get somewhere? Have you had the experience of asking friends or coworkers to meet for a gathering, only to be told, “Sorry, I’m super busy”? ” Maybe you’ve been the one to have to put off get-togethers or activities because your schedule simply doesn’t have openings for those fun events. Busy seems to be the “new normal”…I noticed it can be embarrassing not to be busy these days! It’s easy to become chronically busy. It’s easy to develop the compulsion to be successful as fast as possible. It can be tempting to feel like in order to achieve our goals, we have to compress five years of work into one, by moving five times faster! But what’s the cost of…
3 Steps to Deal With Worry
Are you a worrier? “I know worry works because nothing I worry about ever happens.” Have you heard of this quote? It sounds funny, but it’s not far from the truth! It’s normal to worry from time to time, but more and more people seem to worry about the smallest stuff. They also worry about the big things, too, of course, like health, relationships, and finances. Because worrying can be overwhelming and counterproductive, when writing my book 21 Days to Happiness, I decided to try to understand it through research and dedicated the chapter “Don’t Worry Be Happy” to address how to decrease it. Maybe you’d like to know what to do about it. 3 Strategies for Peace of Mind: 1) Practice catching yourself. During a recent phone call with a friend, I caught the person worrying 5 times about 5 different things. I’m not kidding. “Hey, you’re worrying again.” What I’ve learned is…
Change Your Thoughts and the Rest Will Follow
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw Creatures of Comfort Change often has a negative connotation for many people, especially when we have no choice. We are creatures of comfort and we automatically seek out what feels good in the moment. We long for comfort and this usually comes from that which we know; that which is familiar to us. Our minds and nervous systems are designed to find and attach meaning to everything. Something new can feel stressful, even scary.Comfort in Patterns Your mind and your nervous system has to understand and adapt to the unknown and this process feels uncomfortable on many levels. Our nervous system works primarily by conditioning and by repetition we notice consistency and assume patterns. This system is really there to serve us in helping us being more efficient and to be…
7 Unique Ways to Make Someone Smile
Making Someone Smile is Easier Than You Think. Do you want to put a smile on someone’s face? Maybe make their day a little bit brighter? It doesn’t have to take much time or money on your part. In fact, many things can be done as a part of your normal routine and cost little or nothing. We often underestimate how people can be affected by an act of kindness and they are contagious, so it’s well worth the small effort. Try out one or more of these 7 ways today, and put a smile on someone’s face. Spread a little happiness today! 1. Send a positive message. We often don’t take the time to send a positive email or text message. Handwritten notes are even more rare…just grab a “Post-It”. Start a new practice: take a few minutes to write/send a positive note on a regular basis. You just…
Finding Balance at Work and Home
Sometimes We Chase the Wrong Things In a culture obsessed with high tech gadgetry, cellphones, credit cards, fast cars, large houses, and job titles, it should be no surprise that most people experience stress and anxiety. The strain of striving after material advantage and the dictates of the Almighty Dollar have made many people virtual slaves in their jobs. Even after working more than 50 hours a week or getting every material need and luxury that money can buy, many people still live unhappily. Success at work, instead of bringing fulfillment, leaves many people with a feeling emptiness and disillusionment. But there is still hope for the tired professional and the exhausted worker. Stress and anxiety need not ruin lives and careers. To get back on track, it may be helpful to consider the following advice on how to be an achiever who lives a balanced life: Identify what’s important…
How Office Plants Can Boost Your Happiness
Get a plant and bring nature indoors. Well, most of us are eager to take a few days off for the holidays. Here’s an idea: plan to buy a plant for your office or home. If you don’t have the chance to go outdoors as much as you would like, why not bring a little outdoors, indoors? Even a small plant can make a big difference! Working indoors all day can feel draining sometimes. One simple way to boost your happiness in the office is to bring a little nature into your workspace with you! While you can’t control the indoor climate in an office, you can improve the way the space looks and feels by brightening it up with a plant or two. Office spaces can easily become too hot, too cold, too dry or too damp. Finding the perfect balance of temperature and air quality for a group…
Giving Happiness
We ALL want happiness We all want to feel useful and make a difference. It is even better when we get appreciation and recognition. We tend to look for some kind of validation from friends, family and our colleagues or boss. It makes us feel good about ourselves and raises our confidence in ourselves. It can create feelings of positive self-esteem, which is very important. It makes us happy. But how do you get the appreciation and recognition, or those positive responses from others? Be the happiness GIVER Instead of waiting for others to notice the good things about ourselves, be the person who notices the good in others. Make a point to praise the people around you, even for small things. Thank a person who holds a door open for you. Offer appreciation for a job well done. Notice the things your peers do well and compliment them. Point…
How to Use Success Strategies for Happiness
Choices, choices Success and happiness tend to go hand and hand, but you have to define what would make you feel successful and happy. Sometimes success and happiness will lead you in two different directions. For example, you may find that your current situation makes you happy, but if you ever want a promotion, you will probably have to give up some things in order to step up to your new challenges. You should always consider what is more important to you at that time. While financial success can be appealing, the happiness which comes from personal success often lasts longer and feels better. Set Your Happiness Goals Life can be frustrating or seem meaningless at times: get up, to work, run a bunch of errands, repeat! You should set some key goals in order to find happiness and success. Take time to consider what kind of life you want…
5 Choices to Create Happiness
We’ve all met people who seem to be happy most of the time. You may have assumed these people are just naturally happy, or that they are the lucky people who have an easy life, or they had really loving parents. Often, this is just not the case. In my book, 21 Days to Happiness, I explain how happy people make specific choices regarding their thinking and behavior. Happy people tend to consciously or unconsciously think and behave in ways that result in happiness. Unhappy people unconsciously think and behave in ways that create unhappiness. What choices and thoughts are you making about your happiness? Wherever you are on the happiness continuum, you have the ability to make changes that improve how happy you are. Here are 5 key areas to help you get started. 1. GRATITUDE Happy people are consistently grateful for what they have, rather than complaining about what they don’t have. They notice…
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