My Holland, Author at EQuest Asia

Happy people work harder!

Compassion, Engagement, Wellbeing / My Holland

Happier People Work Harder, Better Most of us, working adults spend a large part of our waking hours at work than any other place. Ideally therefore, business companies should make it a point to ennoble the human spirit and not degrade it and even in some extreme cases, kill it. For these businesses, it should not only be a moral obligation to foster and promote the well-being of its workers. Doing so also makes a lot of economic sense. A Previous Study Over the past decade close to twelve thousand (12,000) electronic diary entries from nearly three hundred (300) professionals in seen (7) different corporations were gathered to study a person’s state of mind everyday at the workplace. They were asked to describe one event that dominated their average working day. These responses then provided a basis for analyzing the latent perceptions, emotions, feelings and motivations that they experienced in response to what went on during their everyday work routine. These also gave an indication of what made sense to them. What The Study Says Two of the vital findings were: In thirty three percent (33%) of the twelve thousand entries, the respondents were unhappy and unmotivated, or both. Some had even claimed they were disgusted and frustrated. Their inner work life had a great impact on workers’ creativity, productivity, commitment and a general predisposition to work with the rest of the company’s employees. When they feel happy, theses guys are more likely to have new ideas and tend to be more engaged in their work. The finding was clear enough to show that workers perform a lot better when they are happily engaged in what they do everyday. What Can Managers Do? It makes practical sense for managers to help ensure that their people are happy and engaged in their jobs. It’s not expensive, since employees’ well-being depends largely on how they are able, and how willing they are to facilitate the accomplishments of their workers. This is generally done by providing his people with help, removing hindrances that tend to obstruct the smooth flow of work and by acknowledging specially strong efforts of his people. In the end, going by all the assessments and evaluation from the recent study, the one clear pattern that emerged was: of all events that engage people in their workplace, the most vital was simply making progress in meaningful work. In other words, as long as workers continue to experience their jobs as meaningful, there is progress, and this is usually followed by joy and excitement about the work. You as a responsible manager should recognize this to be the prime mover in building and establishing employee engagement in their jobs. What will make this happen are workers’ autonomy, ample resources and learning from problems. These are the essentials to a happier working group and a better business potential. The sooner you believe and accept this as part of your mission, the sooner you’ll build a happier employee base leading to higher productivity.

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Positivity in the workplace

Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology / My Holland

We can all learn a lot from positivity and positive thinking. Psychologist @Barbara Fredrickson believes it is the key to unlocking our potential in the workplace, as well as other parts of our lives. In her book Positivity, she explained the ten most common positive emotions and how to focus on them to live life to the full. These emotions are: love, serenity, forgiveness, awe, joy, interest, hope, pride, amusement and inspiration. She explains how focusing on these positive emotions can help us build skillsfor a happier and healthier life, in every aspect. In fact, she believes positivity is more important than happiness, or is at least the key to it. She believes itrelieves symptoms of stress and depression, boosts good health, broadens the mind and helps build skills and success. This theory can be applied successfully to the workplace. While there may be testing times at work such as feuds with a boss or colleague, feeling overworked or undervalued and general frustration, there is also equal potential to focus on and cultivate positivity. Sometimes these emotions may be hidden and feel harder to recognise and develop. We can all do more to help cultivate our own positivity and flourish through getting better quality sleep, regular exercise, staying social connected, meditating and reducing caffeine. We are all capable of tapping in to our own positivity. Doing so can help us see new possibilities, recover from setbacks and be more successful. What’s more, these emotions can act as a ripple effect which is beneficial in a work environment. Work occupies a large chunk of time in a person’s life and paying attention to positive emotions can combat negativity in the workplace. If you feel stressed or negative at work, the chances are you will bring this home and it can impact negatively on home life and relationships as well. A Harvard Business Review article described how growing research confirms that employment stress can cross over and impair the wellbeing of home life and family members. Fredrickson, a positive psychology pioneer, says that harnessing positivity can transform the way we live and lead richer lives. One of her theories is the ‘broaden and build’ theory. This explains that even though a positive emotion can last for just a short moment, it can have lasting benefits in terms of social bonding and traits and helps human growth and development. For this reason, it is an asset to a workplace to have somebody who is able to take the time to cultivate their positive thinking and mental state.

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Creative leadership… why?

Emotional Intelligence, Engagement, Leadership, Productivity, Wellbeing / My Holland

The 7 Key Principles Of Creative Leadership Whether you’re the CEO of a huge business organization, a team leader or a division manager of such a company, or owner of a small business outfit, creative leadership is important. It’s what leads to innovation. Furthermore, from concept to idea execution, a great deal of creativity is required. Here are 7 of its key principles: “It ain’t your creativity, baby! It’s about your group’s creativity.” : It’s true. Creative leadership has little to do with your own personal creativity and a whole lot to do with your team’s creativity. It’s a case of simple math. If it was only about your creativity, why should you need a whole team? You’ve got to tap the cumulative creativity of your group. This could be 6 to 60 and the numbers will surely give you better results. You don’t need to be a creative genius, but, you’ve got to have an understanding of creativity : If you’re exceptionally creative, great! It’ll set a terrific example to your team members. But to be a good creative leader, it’s not necessary to be a creative person. Don’t feel the need to pretend that you are. What is critical though is that you understand the creative process so you can facilitate it for your people. If you want to, you can talk loudly about your skills as a facilitator of creativity. This is, in the end, a lot more important in a creative leader. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team: You’ll need to do this to maximize your effectiveness. Some of your guys may be incredible with ideas but lousy on execution. Others may exactly be the opposite. Some may do wonders solving problems on their own. Others have got to have teammates to add 2+2! Diversity: If teams have not been thrust upon you by circumstance and you are still in the stage of forming one, go for diversity. Choose diversity of experience, educational background, sex, culture, age, knowledge. If there are people you don’t like but are reputed to bring in results, get them too. Think that creativity is built on diversity. A more extensive range of backgrounds, culture and knowledge leads to a wider array of thinking and therefore greater creativity. It’s ok to make mistakes: If people don’t fail, they’ll never achieve great success. In the creativity and innovation fields it’s ok to make mistakes. As a creative leader, you know better. Encourage your guys to try, fail early in the game and try again. Share the failures with the rest of the team so everybody learns from them. You’ve got to trust your guys: Set clear goals. Give them a budget and tools and let go. Let them work out their own approaches towards achieving their goals. They’ll never learn by doing what they’re told. They learn by researching, trying, making mistakes and trying once more. You’ve got to be the champion of your team’s ideas. Surely, your creative team will come up with many ideas. As the leader of the band, you need to champion those ideas. especially, when they offer values to your company or your customers. When you do this, you make it more likely that the ideas could be realized and it’ll demonstrate to your team that you believe in their ideas and that you’re a creativity champion. A creative leader has an open mind. Start off by giving these principles some thought and apply them as quickly as you can.

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My Holland

Happy people work harder!

Positivity in the workplace

Creative leadership… why?

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