The Glowan Consulting Group L3 Blog
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A important reminder of the simple things that are so deeply important!
My daughter and niece put this poster up in the Hospice room my mom spent her last few weeks.
What would you add to this list?
RIP: Mom we miss you. Today I am going to eat well, sleep well, enjoy my family and not stress too much or worry…
Enjoy the weekend folks. Leadership is first about – Leading Self–this is an important reminder!
Where are you: Left side of this graphic leads to burnout! Right side leads to thriving!
From: Adapted from the Energy Project.
What Is Emotional Resiliency?
Adapted From: Stress Management @ About.com
Emotional resilience refers to one’s ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. More resilient people are able to “roll with the punches” and adapt to adversity without lasting difficulties; less resilient people have a harder time with stress and life changes, both major and minor. It’s been found that those who deal with minor stresses more easily can also manage major crises with greater ease, so resilience has its benefits for daily life as well as for the rare major catastrophe.
What Influences Emotional Resiliency?
Emotional and physical resilience is, to a degree, something you’re born with. Some people, by nature, are less upset by changes and surprises — this can be observed in infancy and tends to be stable throughout one’s lifetime. Emotional resilience is also related to some factors that aren’t under your control, such as age, gender, and exposure to trauma. However, resilience can be developed with a little effort. If you know what to do, you can become more resilient, even if you are naturally more sensitive to life’s difficulties.
What Are Traits of The Emotional Resilient?
Resilience is not a quality that you either do or do not possess; there are varying degrees of how well a person is able to handle stress. Still, there are certain characteristics that resilient people tend to share. Some of the main characteristics are:
Tags: Leadership
This article excerpted from a piece on the Arise India Journal (Dec 22 2011)
full article here…..http://www.ariseindiaforum.org/nurse-reveals-the-top-5-regrets-people-make-on-their-deathbed/
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never
became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a
result.
We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.
It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end.
That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.
Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness
Tags: work-life balance
Recent Gallup Research worth reading
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146867/Workers-Bad-Jobs-Worse-Wellbeing-Jobless.aspx
Tags: Leadership
This is a guest post by Erin Palmer, Erin Works at Bisk Education/Villanova University
How SMART Goals Can Increase Employee Engagement
Getting your company’s employees to be engaged can be a tough task. Deadlines and heavy workloads could lead to workers doing the bare minimum just to get by. However, there is evidence that employees who are more engaged in their jobs tend to produce a better end-product.
While there are numerous motivational “tricks” to keep employees engaged, most leave an individual feeling unfulfilled. We recommend the use of SMART goals for a more thorough and reliable tool for increasing employee engagement.
What is a SMART goal?
SMART goals are essentially detailed, measurable plans with a deadline attached to them. While a traditional goal such as, “I want to get a promotion” is nice in theory, it doesn’t include a concrete means to an end. SMART goals have five essential characteristics:
1. Specific – Goals are streamlined and specific. No blanket statements here.
2. Measurable – The goal’s progress is measurable in some concrete way.
3. Attainable – It’s one that you can actually achieve and is realistic.
4. Relevant – A goal should have some relevance to who you are. A goal that requires you to completely change who you are as a person might not be a relevant one.
5. Time Bound – An element of time has to be included, otherwise you have no deadline to push you toward obtaining it.
Why a SMART goal?
SMART goals promote learning for employees. Instead of just being rated on performance, individuals will work to understand weaknesses and try to improve when necessary. Employees embrace their goals as a benchmark for success. Having a clear objective is reassuring that they’re on the right path.
These goals are a way for employees to individually contribute to the company’s success. While they feel like a bigger part of the team, they also recognize that they’re achieving personal success and possible promotion within the company.
Interaction is another important reason why SMART goals help in increasing employee engagement. As they work toward their goals, employees will get feedback on their progress. Managers will interact closely with everyone and start developing better relationships. Workers are more likely to voice their own ideas and feedback when they’re having regular conversations with higher-ups.
Team morale will be better as well. It starts with the employee-manager interactions and trickles downward. Team members working on projects will begin to ask more questions and help each other when their work environment promotes such action.
Since everyone is trying to accomplishing their goals, employees will learn new tactics that help them in doing the job. They may even develop better ways to accomplish tasks associated with the job and increase overall productivity for the company. Brainstorming sessions between employees or with managers will become commonplace. The SMART goals help workers understand that others in the company may have better ways of doing the same tasks they’re doing.
Employees are looking for a chance to grow. Who wants to do the same job for years and years without ever learning something new or advancing within the company? SMART goals keep everyone motivated and striving for greatness. Coupled with encouragement from the company, SMART goals will lead to happier, engaged employees – something every business should seek to accomplish.
University Alliance, a worldwide leader in interactive education, provided this article. SMART goals are very popular in project management so to learn more about them consider taking a project management certification course or even an MBA in Project Management.
Tags: Leadership
Choose To Lead?
1. I can influence and affect the quality of my work, life and family.
2. My personal initiative is almost always rewarded, either through
recognition from others, self-satisfaction of doing my best, or
through the experience I gained.
3. It is in my own best interest to obtain the direction and/or
support I need to get the job done.
4. Most people want to and are willing to help me learn a new skill
or achieve a goal.
5. I stay ahead of the curve by taking the initiative to identify and
challenge my own assumed constraints.
6. I create the conditions for my success when I take ownership for
my responsibilities and actions.
7. I am accountable for my work, effort, and outcomes, thus helping
to eliminate a victim mentality and culture of entitlement that
serve no one, least of all me.
8. The personal and professional rewards of responding to challenges
through the insights, skills, and actions of the self leader are
worth the effort.
9. My choice to leader feeds my my work and life purpose, enables me to act on my values, and achieve my aspirations.
10. Change is inevitable; growth is optional—it is up to me to be the
change I want to see in the world.
Our new weekly graphic: Simple Ideas!
Are your employees committed to the company, aligned with its goals, and anxious to contribute.
Are employees, leaders and managers frustrated by barriers that exist in the work environment confronting them from being the best that they can be?
What I often hear from team members is that their expectations for their roles are not properly defined which leads these individuals to become disillusioned, frustrated, and sometimes very angry. Most of them experience leadership and alignment on the fly!
Yes, we are living in a new world of work where READY, FIRE, AIM is the daily mantra for leaders and managers who are asked to climb mountains with their teams.
The new world of work requires organizations to equip their people who are now leaders without titles in the DO -MORE – BETTER – FASTER WITH LESS workplace that executes with the READY-FIRE-AIM approach.
There has never been a more important time to invest in the skills development that enhances critical thinking, resilience, collaboration and self management. This is the short list–there are many more skill and tools required for today’s workplace that most leaders, managers and employees do not possess.
From my perspective as an executive coach, leadership development facilitator, and trusted advisor to many teams it is time for soft and hard skills to become one. We call them Smart Skills, those skills that equip each and every worker regardless of their titles, to get the job done, offer discretionary effort and high levels of engagement under fire.
Time to remove the categories associated with skill acquisition and focus on a more holistic approach to leadership, management and employee development!
Tags: learning
Presenteeism is more complicated than absenteeism and is often not well understood by leadership and management. Leaders and managers may see their team arrive for work, ready for a full day’s work but not recognize whether they are actually in the physical, mental and emotional space to deliver their best efforts.
Are your employees absent while being present in their job?
Presenteesism costs are estimated to cost companies up to four times more than absenteeism through the loss of productivity on the job. Are your employees sitting around staring at the computer screen, unable to prioritize their tasks, unable to remain focused on important deliverables? Are they finding excuses for not performing well?
All levels of productivity can be affected by numerous influences namely their physical, mental and emotional states. An employee who is out of balance due to personal relationship issues, financial stressors, a poor relationship at home will struggle to stay on task at a satisfactory level.
Numerous studies have show that “the lack of presence” on the job costs US companies billions of dollars.
An assortment of preventable health problems contribute to such losses in productivity. For instance research has shown that inactivity can reduce productivity by 7%, excessive alcohol consumption by 4%, smoking by 10%, stress by 13%, neck and back pain by 20% and lack of sleep by a whopping 30% per employee
It is in the employers best interest to recognize the impact of presenteeism in their business and provide solutions to gain the best from employees.
Employees who are more focused, present, and healthy are those who lead their life well. Make sure you provide an employee well-being program to foster higher levels of personal presence vs presenteeism.
Think about it this way…let’s say you pay your team 500, 000 per year and they show up at 100% only half the time–you just lost 250,000-cash, and an undetermined level of value related to innovation, problem solving and customer satisfaction.
We want our employees to be PRESENT, HEALTHY and ENGAGED
Well-Being = Presence, Presence =Engagement and Discretionary Effort –which is PRICELESS
Tags: Leadership
