Category: Uncategorized

What better way to start a new year than to think about how our thoughts and emotions impact our health? This article from the University of Minnesota has dozens of terrific insights. Some you know (and possibly ignore) and some may be new to you. Here are a few of my favorites.

• Since we are wired for negativity bias, we “prioritize bad over good”
• Chronic stress damages the immune system and can actually decrease our life span
• Positive feelings, such as being connected to others, has a direct impact on health and well-being
• Positivity can lead to fewer colds, better sleep, and faster recovery from cardiovascular stress
• A practice of forgiveness is linked to better immune function and a longer life span

Take a minute to read the entire article and take the positivity self-test. I scored a 3.33. What’s your score and what does it mean?

I searched for an article that would be worth sharing, and I found something from 2017. With the pandemic et al, I wasn’t sure if the content would still be relevant but was pleasantly surprised. The authors of How to Regain the Lost Art of Reflection, provide multiple ideas that are worth thinking about:

• Schedule unstructured thinking time – many of my clients do this weekly, while the article quotes a CEO who blocks out a full day each week.
  
• Get a coach – “The Socratic Method remains the most effective way to stimulate reflective thinking”. Personally, as a coach I firmly believe in the power of coaching, enough said.
• Cultivate a list of questions which prompt reflective thought – the authors have a list of several including: “What do I not know about the industry and the company? What unique value can I add in my role as CEO?  What imprint do I wish to create as a leader on employees and other stakeholders?”
• Protect yourself and your company from information overload – a great point, the authors wrote “the primary challenge is to ensure that excessive communication does not undermine productivity and prevent reflective thinking.” Do we sometimes over communicate unnecessarily?
• Reimagine yourself as a meta-problem solver – this is a good point, IMHO. Using reflective thought to solve the problem, while not leaning into the tried and true. Why wasn’t the problem solved before it got to you?
• Be a role-model for your employees – reflective time “should not be the privilege of the enlightened CEO” but should trickle down throughout the organization. Try it. Set aside some time this week and every week in Q1 2023 for reflective thinking and see how it works for you.

Read on to learn more.

While it has always existed in some way, rudeness and bad behavior is so prevalent in our society today that it is being addressed in companies across the country and around the globe. In our personal lives, we have all seen when people behave badly in a public space. We may be aware of how we treat others when we are stressed out and behaved badly ourselves.

It seems to be at such a fever pitch that Harvard Business Review just released a complete series of seven articles entitled Incivility on the Front Lines of Business.

One article from the series is Frontline Work When Everyone Is Angry, which is written by a researcher who studies incivility at work. The author, Christine Porath, did a survey of 2000 workers in 25 industries around the globe and found that 76% have experienced incivility at least once a month, and 78% believe that bad behavior from customers toward employees is more common than it was five years ago. She cites causes which include increased stress, negative emotions, weakened ties to others and technology. The article contains a lot more research.

Another article in the series, How to Respond to a Rude Comment at Work provides solid tactics that are useful, including that you check your emotions first. Why did that rude comment strike a cord in you? Think about the risks of speaking up about the bad behavior, or not. What is your best path forward in that specific situation? Asking questions, showing empathy and forming alliances with colleagues to support each other when rudeness happens are all tactics to try.

Read on to learn more.

Have you heard the term VUCA? It stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. It was popular even before Covid and right now, in our semi-post Covid world, I would argue it continues to be relevant. The impending recession, ongoing war, job uncertainty, and the speed of change all contribute to the VUCA world we now live in. This article from Center for Creative Leadership provides an outline of how to lead in a VUCA world. Taken from the book: Leaders Make the Future, here are Bob Johansen’s ten future leadership skills.

After that meeting, I wanted to better understand the power of positivity in leadership and was grateful to find this article, The Best Leaders Have a Contagious Positive Energy  It brings to life the importance of positivity, stating that it is a key determinant for success in leaders, beating out things like charisma, innovative genius and power.

Authors Emma Seppälä and Kim Cameron state: “The one thing that supersedes all these factors is positive relational energy: the energy exchanged between people that helps uplift, enthuse, and renew them.”

With authentic, values-based leadership, these leaders uplift themselves and their organizations. Positive energizers are themselves high performers and positively impact others.

When it comes to their companies, the positive energizer as a leader also generates greater innovation, teamwork, financial performance and workplace cohesion, according to the authors. How can we argue with that?

Take a moment and read this article or pick up their book, Positively Energizing Leadership.

What I value about allyship is the practicality of it all. It is a very important communication tool that helps to build healthy cultures. Women can be allies for other women and other underrepresented groups. Men can and should be allies too. I would argue that ALL voices should be heard, and to do that, we all need to be allies for each other.

This article, Male Allyship is About Paying Attention, provides a few of those practical tools, including:

• Self educate
• Attend to non-verbals
• Notice sexist words and phrases
• Focus on the intersections
• Pay attention to who is included
• Ask women (and others) about their experiences

Read on to learn more

When coaching clients, I often ask them “What time of day are you most productive?”. Knowing your most productive time of day helps you to operate more efficiently. You can tackle your most difficult work when you do it at your best time of day.

This article, by renowned author Daniel Pink, takes that exact approach. He calls those who work best in the morning “larks” or in the evening, “owls”.

Here are his seven tips for maximizing peak performance:

1. Determine your chronotype which is based on your sleep patterns
2. Find your peak, for example most larks work best midmorning
3. Know when your “slump” is coming, for many of us it is right after lunch (no surprise there!)
4. Recover, this is when you rebound and have another spurt of productivity later in the day
5. Set goals, for example, start something big on a Monday or at the beginning of the quarter
6. Get energized, Pink recommends recognizing the mid-point as a motivator
7. Keep the end in sight, once you can see the end, it is easier to push through

To read more detail, go to this link from Masterclass.