My Holland, Author at EQuest Asia

Are You Happiest Or Unhappiest At Your Job?

Emotional Intelligence, Mindfulness / My Holland

If you think it’s all about fat paychecks, special perks and privileges and a reserved slot in the basement parking area that make people happy with their chosen work, you’ve got another think coming. Various surveys from different reputable organizations say otherwise. The single, most important element that makes people happy at their jobs is the keen awareness that what they do makes a difference in the life of other persons. In “Happiness By Design”, a new book by UK economist and behavioral science professor, Paul Dolan, he says that florists and gardeners are the happiest among all professions. Not only that. They’re also twice as happy compared to those people working in more prestigious, executive positions that pay better. The next happiest group of professionals are those men and women involved in making others more attractive and more beautiful: hairdressers and beauticians. They claim to be happy almost eighty percent (80%) of the time. By comparison, only forty four percent (44%) of bankers said they were happy with what they do. Look at it this way … if you’re a florist, a creative flower arranger, you’d be having a lot of social interactions and you’d see the fruit of your labor a lot faster. With bankers and lawyers, it’s generally a grey area where feedback is concerned. And, not too many people appreciate what they do. What They Say About Being A Gardener Or A Florist A simple house gardener extols his profession. He says …“Gardening is so freeing! … being outdoor and working with nature and the changing seasons.” Another says it’s the variety, the multi-colored types of plants and flowers that he loves. He finds every hour of every day as different and the scenery … “is spectacular!” Doctors And Nurses Another group of people who are pretty glad and happy to be doing what they do are doctors and nurses. A Dr. Kevin Dynan, consultant geriatrician in the Ulster Hospital says .. “I get the opportunity to meet fascinating patients and improve their quality of life.” An eye surgeon at Moorfiields Eye Hospital in London says .. “The progress being made in my field of medicine is rapid and seemingly exponential in its rate of change – and restoring or improving vision for patients must be the most rewarding surgery that any doctor can perform.” Asked what makes her happy, Joanne Upton, a skin cancer nurse at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Merseyside says .. “When you feel you have made a real posititve impact on the patient.” Another nurse says, it makes her happy to know that every day, when she goes home, she’s helped a sick child and his family – she’s made a difference! The Year’s 10 Unhappiest Professions Culled from these varied surveys as well, are the ten most unpopular “unhappiest” jobs. These include 1) Security officer 2) Bank branch manager 3) Accountant 4) Customer service representative 5) General manager 6) sales executive 7) technical support representative 8) Marketing manager 9) Sales manager and 10) Machine operator. Several of the key reasons employees were not happy in these fields are the lack of support from their management, low wages and limited opportunities for career growth. What Value Does All This Information Give You? This data can prove to be a good basis in the evaluation of current careers and, who knows, perhaps point individuals to the direction that might be most beneficial to their happiness in the work they do.

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Is Your Team Stressed Out? Tense? Burnt Out? Help Them Cope.

Emotional Intelligence / My Holland

It’s hard enough confronting and managing your own stress. But, there’s no running away from it. When your team members are faced with feelings of burnout and disengagement … when they’re on the verge of giving up, as the team leader, you have got to help them. You have got to put them back strongly on their feet! Stress Is Not Uncommon Stress is one of today’s realities in the workplace. When the job gets to be too complex, intense and demanding … when a lot of us now work in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week environments, anxiety and stress almost inevitably will set in. The bad news is that this situation is not likely to change in the next five or ten years. The good news is that the team has got you! You, the good, old reliable, professional leader who’ll always be there for them, to help manage their situation and become more resilient and effective. One of the approaches you, as a team leader can apply is to focus on your members’ personal growth and development. Have a mindset of creating the happiest, healthiest and most productive team on earth. This kind of a perspective is the first step towards producing creativity among your people, unleashing their potential and sustaining their productivity. Here are 3 other very doable, easy to implement approaches team managers can adopt for their teams: Place priority on activities that foster well-being for you and the guys. These may include coming up with some personal development tools as training sessions on mindfulness and resilience, or you could encourage your team member to take some time for exercises or get into some renewal activities like having meetings while walking leisurely in the park. Then you could also build some buffer time for deliverables so that your people can have some flexibility and manage their jobs at a reasonable pace without compromising objectives. Allow time for your team to disconnect from work. On average, workers around the world spend 34-48 hours a week working. Many of them can’t let go of related work activities after office hours. Experts say being “always on” can be an unproductive mind frame. Even the best athletes need time to rest and recover. So, be clear about when to disengage. For instance, no meetings after six or no emails, phone calls and messages on weekends. Be compassionate. Empathize with them. It’s not going to cost you a penny to be kind. And the benefits? Great! A research project at the University of New South Wales found that the single, most important influence in creating productivity within a company is the ability of its team leader to go the extra mile developing and recognizing their people, being open to feedback including criticism and encouraging teamwork. Additionally, being compassionate, understanding employee motivations, hopes and difficulties and having the right support set-up to allow them to be as good as they can be, spells high productivity. Remember, personal development, over time makes each person better, enabling him/her to produce high performance and engagement while on the job.

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Happy Workplaces Are Good For Business

Emotional Intelligence, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology, Productivity / My Holland

In management circles, it’s generally believed and accepted that a positive environment in the workplace leads to higher productivity, minimal employee turnovers and over-all better healthy outcomes. On the other side of the coin, a workplace that is hostile and insensitive, reeking with anxiety and negativity usually produces poor job performance, low creativity and little innovation. A fairly recent Harvard research study has shown that when leaders and top honchos are humble, inclusive and frequently encourage their staff to voice out their feelings or seek help, employees are generally happier and become more engaged. An oppressive corporate culture over time, simply goes against achieving positive results. What You Can Do If you’re one of the team leaders or senior managers of your company, here are three tried and tested rules that will help bring out honest and constructive feedback, important to managing your people, and ultimately, your company better. When you want to correct your employees, do so in a positive context. You may even want to criticize or confront your subordinates. That’s okay, but give out as many as three or four positive statements for every negative one you make. This makes a lot of sense. Our brains tend to focus more on negative feedbacks than on the positive feedbacks. So, when you say a lot more that is encouraging, supportive and appreciative, these will sort of neutralize the brain’s partiality to negativity and will ergo, lead to a higher degree of employee engagement. Research studies say that where there is positive communication, you’re likely to see the best results; good engagement and high morale. Center your communication on the strengths of your colleagues and employees and their unique contributions. It has almost become a habit for us to harp on what’s wrong with our employees. However, by focusing on their weaknesses alone we may just inadvertently be creating competence. By centering on their strengths, we are creating excellence. Be as specific and detailed about your positive feedbacks as you are about the negative ones. Sometimes, we’re guilty of simply glossing on their strengths much like a ship that passes in the night and yet we delve on their weaknesses like the 4th of July fireworks. Put a lot of emphasis on teamwork and commonalities. When talking about the negative incident, be objective. Try to describe the problem in detail rather than evaluating it, and identify the specific consequences that resulted and your personal feelings that came with it without placing blame. Try to stay away from arguing who’s right or who’s at fault. Instead suggest acceptable, reasonable and fair alternatives in correcting the situation. Given an understanding of the foregoing, it won’t hurt to do an honest and candid self-critique to objectively find out where your corporate culture stands. If you feel it could do with some improvements, the guidelines above could pretty well serve as starting points for your top managers and team leaders.

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My Holland

Are You Happiest Or Unhappiest At Your Job?

Is Your Team Stressed Out? Tense? Burnt Out? Help Them Cope.

Happy Workplaces Are Good For Business

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