By Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO
In 2016 I founded Thrive Global “to end the stress and burnout epidemic,” citing the Belgian philosopher Pascal Chabot’s definition of burnout as “civilization’s disease.” And this week, burnout was elevated by the World Health Organization from a built-in feature of our always-on world to a fully defined “occupational phenomenon” that stems directly from our collective crisis of workplace stress. It’s a real milestone to have the World Health Organization for the first time include burnout in its handbook International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Burnout, according to the entry, is “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It is characterized by three key factors: “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.”
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by Katie Santamaria
What’s your most cherished value? We all have driving forces that keep us inspired and motivated, whether it’s supporting our loved ones, giving to those in need, finding fulfillment in our work, or making a difference in our community. Determining your most cherished value and using it to your advantage can drastically change your approach to your work, infusing you with additional internal motivation, says Rebecca Greenbaum, Ph.D., professor of human resource management at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations. That’s where value triggers come in. Value triggers are items that represent something that matters deeply to you — for example, ... By Jessica Hicks,
You shouldn’t hold off until that long-awaited promotion or the culmination of a big project to celebrate the progress you’ve made at work. Reaching a milestone should absolutely be commemorated, but what if you could experience a little sliver of that joy every day you’re in the office? Paying more attention to your little victories, in addition to your big-time accomplishments, won’t just make you happier in the workplace — it will motivate you, too. Bringing your attention to small wins in your daily work routine will drastically improve what Teresa Amabile, Ph.D., a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, calls your “inner work life,” or as she explains it in Harvard Business Review, your “mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions over the course of a workday.” How happy you are, how motivated you feel .... by Megan Grant
There's something about waking up to sunshine, birds chirping, and warm air that puts many of us in a better mood. But why do we notice such a shift in our feelings and emotions when the seasons change? It turns out that there actually are scientific reasons you're happier in the summer; the warm weather and your sunny mood are no coincidence. It's rather common to feel more satisfied during the hotter, brighter months, and when this season gives way to the longer, darker days of winter (depending on where you live, of course), we'll once again experience a shift. I personally noticed a huge change when I moved from Michigan to Las Vegas earlier in my 20s. In Michigan, rain is abundant. You're frequently stuck under a ceiling of gloomy clouds. Summers are short and winters are long, freezing, and downright brutal. There are days when it's too cold to be outside, and driving is pretty much impossible due to the snow. But upon arriving in the desert, where it almost always feels like summer and the air is hot and dry, I immediately picked up on something: People here seem happier. So what is it about summer that puts us so at peace? Why are we so much happier this time of year? Here's what we know: 1. Our Sleeping Habits Change Due To Light Exposure The number of hours of daytime and nighttime have been found to have an effect on how and when we sleep. One study compared Norway (a country with large seasonal variation) to Ghana (a country with little seasonal variation). During the summer months in Norway, not only did people go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, but the rates of insomnia and fatigue were noticeably lower than in the winter. These differences were not noted in Ghana. by Suzie Doscher, Executive Coach and Life Coach focusing on Personal Development, Self-Help Author
Coaching your team? Add this skill to your coaching style – being non-judgmental. There is an abundance of articles on being a coach to your people. I enjoy reading the quality information provided by the Harvard Business Review. The desire to increase, enhance or maintain the quality of work, and in some cases even the quality of life at work, is evident. The article in the HBR: Most Managers Don’t Know How to Coach. But They Can Learn, offers wonderful insights on what coaching is all about and aims to achieve. Your responsibilities include leading, motivating, inspiring and with your coaching you hope to further their growth, development and enhance their skills. By Elizabeth Yuko, Ph.D., Bioethicist and writer From early on — usually before we’ve even started our careers — we’re told about a magical thing called “work-life balance.” Essentially, this myth amounts to the idea that if we do everything right, we will somehow be able to achieve the elusive equilibrium of having a fulfilling and meaningful career, while keeping up an active social life, and being the ideal partner and family member. In reality, though, this perfect “balance” is nearly impossible to achieve. That’s why at Thrive, we’re all about what our CEO and founder Arianna Huffington calls “work-life integration” — an approach focused on preserving your health and well-being and recognizing that there is no secret formula to “having it all.” In fact, the pressure we put on ourselves, and the stress that results from when we’re feeling as though we’re falling short in one or more aspects of our lives, can be a cause of burnout — precisely the thing that work-life “balance” is supposedly designed to avoid. Here are three small steps to help you aim for your own version of work-life integration: ... By Jaleh Bisharat, Co-founder and CEO, NakedPoppy.
There’s no such thing as a slow day when you’re an entrepreneur. To me, the most anxiety-producing days are the ones where a lot of people need my time. These are days filled with a never-ending stream of meetings, calls, requests, and interactions — with little time to reflect in between. And when the work backlog keeps rising, and I don’t have a minute of “think time” to myself, it can be easy to start operating in a reactive (and not proactive) state. I love people. I actually thrive when managing teams. But part of being successful is finding ways to remain calm and clear during hectic moments of the journey. When my days get crazy and difficult to manage, I use a series of productivity hacks, mental tricks, and other strategies to make sure I’m achieving progress, not simply motion. Here are some of my favorite strategies for staying grounded and productive during a hectic day: By Shelley Zalis
I always say a woman alone has power; collectively we have impact. Traditionally we have been taught to be competitive with one another, because there was such a scarcity of jobs at the top. It’s so clear that strategy doesn’t work. The truth is that raising each other up and channeling the power of collaboration is truly how we’ll change the equation—and have a lot more fun along the way. There is a boys’ club where women never felt comfortable, so we decided to create a Girls’ Lounge more than six years ago where everyone feels like they belong. We discovered two things:
We need to reverse the stereotype that women don’t support other women. There is research that shows women in particular benefit from collaboration over competition. Study after study shows women who support women are more successful in business. By Michael Schneider
The transition from individual contributor to manager is not an easy one. In many cases, the skills that got you the promotion will not be the same ones that make you effective as a manager. Luckily, we have organizations like Google that have spent years researching this transition, to help us demystify the secrets to new managers' success. Using Project Oxygen, an internal study that analyzed more than 10,000 manager impressions including performance reviews, surveys, and nominations for top-manager awards and recognition, Google identified eight habits of highly effective managers. Google also designed a management training workshop to share its newfound knowledge with its bosses and now the world. Through the company's Re:Work website, a resource that shares Google's perspective on people operations, Google posted this training presentation in hopes that it could benefit all. Let's take a look at the six key attributes that Google instills in its managers..... by Suzie Doscher, Executive Coach, Life Coaching and Self-help Author
Knowing you have the skills to bounce back, not only on an intellectual level but also feeling this on an emotional level is true strength. Resilience, in my opinion, is knowing that no matter what comes your way - you can handle it. You know you have the strength and confidence to get up, dust yourself off and move forward. Your self-esteem is strengthened by this ability. You have the confidence to figure out and fix, or change, whatever has set you back. This might sound easy so it is important to remember that when emotions are present (have been triggered) I can handle this is not necessarily the first thought or feeling that might occur. Neuroscience has proven when emotions are present, the brain’s cognitive resources are the first to be disrupted. In other words, emotions overpower thinking in that moment. When a situation results with you feeling stressed, kicked down, frustrated, angry, unsupported, alone, confused, overwhelmed etc. - these feelings are the emotions triggered by whatever happened. By John Rampton
Take a moment to think about the best boss, manager, or leader you’ve ever had. Why did you enjoy working with her? What made you admire her? Did she play a hand in helping you grow personally or professionally? If you were fortunate enough to work with someone like that, I bet she wasn’t just your boss. She was also a coach who clearly explained what was expected of you while encouraging you to play to your strengths. She educated you and helped you work on your weaknesses. In other words, she empowered, motivated, supported, and trusted you. At the time, that may not have seemed like a big deal. But research has found that organizations with a strong coaching culture “reported that 61 percent of their employees are highly engaged, compared to 53 percent from organizations without strong coaching cultures.” What’s more, 46 percent in organizations with strong coaching cultures notched “above-average 2016 revenue growth in relation to industry peers.” By Arianna Huffington
Well-being = performance The idea that performance improves when we prioritize well-being, and that a burnout culture is bad for business, will move into the realm of settled fact. Sure, there will still be outliers and denialists, as there always are, who continue to celebrate burnout culture or congratulate employees for being always on and answering texts in the middle of the night. But leaders who incentivize burnout by bragging about how little sleep they get will sound increasingly retrograde in 2019. The disruption of AI is here, but so are the opportunities The conversation around AI will no longer be just about the jobs it will replace. This conversation is hugely significant and will continue, but increasingly apparent will be the opportunities AI creates for new jobs based on what can’t be automated: creativity, complex decision-making, empathy, compassion, engagement, and caring. So, yes, while AI will cost jobs, it’s a chance to rethink what we value: humans working and caring for other humans. Knowing how to work intensely but avoid burnout will be a job qualification..... By Suzie Doscher
Learning how to respond to a situation rather than just reacting to it brings huge rewards. Needless to say, it is one of those behaviour changes that is easier said than done. However it can be achieved. Responding rather than reacting means you will have taken time to consider the situation and which response and consequent outcome best suits you. The difference between reacting and responding:
By Elizabeth Yuko, Staff Writer/Editor at Thrive Global
We all have days that are more productive than others, but there are some people who seem like they’re in the zone all the time. What’s their secret? Two scientists at MIT wondered the same thing, and, using the results of a survey they conducted in conjunction with the Harvard Business Review last year, they’ve narrowed it down to three habits. Before we get to those, let’s take a look at that survey. According to Robert C. Pozen, Ph.D. and Kevin Downey — the authors of the survey and subsequent HBR article — the aim of the survey was to help professionals assess their own personal productivity — meaning, the habits they associated with accomplishing more each day. It focused on seven habits: developing daily routines, planning your schedule, coping with messages, getting a lot done, running effective meetings, honing communication skills, and delegating tasks to others. By Michael Coren for Quartz
Life coaches’ careers are taking off. The occupation, which hardly existed a few years ago, has now become indispensable to the careers of everyone from Oprah Winfrey and members of the (formerly wildly dysfunctional) Metallica, to average professionals trying to improve their lot. While the US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not collect data on life coaches just yet (it groups them with other types of trainers and counselors), the International Coach Federation estimates (pdf, p. 8) that there are now 17,500 coaches (outside of sports) working in North America alone as of 2015. Working with a mix of business and private clients, they earned an average income of $61,900—nearly twice the US median annual wage. Since the late 1980s, Google’s Ngram index shows the mention of life coaches growing exponentially. Life coaches help their clients identify goals, remove barriers, and encourage regular progress for days or years. Most clients, according to the ICF (pdf), are managers who use coaches to help them in their career, but the number of clients using coaches in their personal life is growing as well. BY DR. JOSH DAVIS
Most tasks, at least for professionals and knowledge workers, lead to some mental fatigue. After all, we are constantly engaging in activities that involve decision making and self-control. The key to limiting mental fatigue is recognizing the work that is most likely to deplete your resources in a substantial way and, when you have any say in the matter, to simply not engage in that work before you want to be at your best. So how can you identify the tasks that lead to mental fatigue and keep you from being incredibly productive? If you feel spent after doing a task, there’s a good chance it is tapping into your self-control. The degree to which tasks take a toll on self-control, decision making, or other executive functions varies with each person. Here are some examples of common activities that can lead to mental fatigue: By Marcel Schwantes
Are you a negative person? If you're at the point where you're seriously looking to shift to the positive, step one is to change your attitude and alter your perception about your current situation. Since that may border on cliché, allow me to suggest a practical plan of action focused on three mental hacks that work. This will take some commitment and intent, but it's what the most positive people have mastered. By Adam Hoette
If you’re like most people, the idea of being the center of attention makes you uncomfortable. For many of us, just the thought of doing something to stand out is enough to give us butterflies. It’s easy to feel like every unique move is being monitored by our our network of family, friends, coworkers, and even complete strangers. by Nora Battelle
Dealing with a toxic coworker is a uniquely difficult situation: You probably don’t have the ability to cut off a relationship with that person, as you would a friend or romantic partner. That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to accept the status quo indefinitely. In fact, it’s crucial to find a healthy way to navigate a difficult working relationship. Left ignored, it can become perilous for you, your team and your company’s bottom line. In a seminal book by psychologists Alan A. Cavaoila, Ph.D., and Neil J. Lavender, Ph.D., called Toxic Coworkers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job: Working with Narcissists, Borderlines, Sociopaths, Schizoids and Others, the authors highlight a staggering stat that’ll make you feel less alone as you traverse this tricky terrain: Of the 1,100 employees the duo surveyed, 80 percent of them reported experiencing moderate to severe stress as the result of dealing with a toxic coworker, whether they were a boss or subordinate. by Nora Battelle, Multimedia Staff Writer at Thrive Global
76 percent of Americans — a clear majority — said they have or recently had a toxic boss, according to new research conducted by Monster and released today. A positive work environment is crucial to performing good work — and to managing your own stress — and leadership often plays a vital part in setting that positive tone. Toxicity, in the survey, took several different forms, and the numbers on all of them were high: 26 percent of bosses, according to Monster’s survey, are “power-hungry,” 18 percent are “micromanagers,” 17 percent are “incompetent” and 15 percent are simply absent (“What boss? He/she is never around,” as the survey phrased it). These numbers are a stark contrast to the 19 percent of employees who see their boss as a mentor and the 5 percent who indicated that their boss is someone with whom they have “the best relationship.” Alan Benson, Ph.D., a professor of Work and Organizations at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, explains the significance of these numbers to Thrive Global:...... by Rosamond Hutt, Formative Content World Economic Forum
We know that different cultures prefer different leadership styles. Now new research shows how different countries favour certain character traits at work. If you’re a straight-shooter who likes to tell it as it is, you might fit in well in the Netherlands where employees like their bosses to be direct. On the other hand, if you’re a more diplomatic leader who always wants to keep business conversations affable, you might do better running teams in New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, and much of Latin America. This is according to business psychologists Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Michael Sanger, who argue that successful leadership is largely about “personality in the right place”. In an article for Harvard Business Review, they discuss research showing that leaders’ decision-making, communication style and so-called “dark-side tendencies” are influenced by the countries they’re operating in. Here’s a look at how six major leadership styles might fit with working cultures in different geographical locations: by Benjamin P. Hardy, Author, husband, father
According to the British philosopher, Alain de Botton, “Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.” How different is your life, right now, from where you were 12 months ago? If it’s quite similar, then you haven’t been learning very much. To learn, by nature, is to change and evolve. In order to change and evolve, you need to regularly create peak experiences — those moments which create deep awe, gratitude, and a shift in how you see yourself and the world. When was your last peak experience? What was the last time you flexed your courage muscles? When was the last time you tried something that might not work? If you’re ready to make wild progress during 2019, you need to make some tweaks. This isn’t anything to be upset, distraught, or frustrated about. Life is, inherently, a learning experience. Life is beautiful. You get to have fun with it. One thing that is really beautiful about moving forward intensely in your future is that, simultaneously, you change your memory about the past. The past, regardless of what it has been — great or disappointing — will change in meaning as you make new decisions in your future. Your future is flexible. Your past is also flexible. What you have is now. You get to decide what you’re going to do. You get to decide how you’re going to live. Look around… No one is stopping you. Want to make a shift? Here are 30 behaviors to get you started: 1. Wake Up Earlier “You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling, than feeling yourself into action.” — Dr. Jerome Bruner by Marcel Schwantes
Nobody likes to fail. Yet failure is the secret to success. If you haven't been rejected a number of times, the current mantra goes, you just haven't experienced success. Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, swears by this premise. At Virgin, they encourage and even celebrate failure. There's an underlying theme there that, without trying something new and failing, it's virtually impossible to innovate and grow. Branson says, "Do not be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start again. Making mistakes and experiencing setbacks is part of the DNA of every successful entrepreneur, and I am no exception." Wherever you are on your career path, it's time to acknowledge that failing is common, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. But here's the thing. There's one superhuman quality -- a mindset -- every person needs to master on their journey of failing forward. Without it, you may as well toss in the towel now and never try again. I speak of resilience. by Marcel Schwantes
So much has been written about the burgeoning happiness movement. While combing through my own research and notes on what happy and successful people do, it struck me how intentional they are about choosing the right mindset to become happier and more optimistic. While countless books have been written on happiness, I'm narrowing this article down to a working template for living life to the fullest. Here are seven sure signs of the happiest people. 1. They choose to have healthy relationships. I've learned to be picky over the years about whom I let into my inner circle of friends. Why? Because I believe close relationships are the key to sustaining happiness. One profound longitudinal study proves this. For 80 years, researchers followed 268 men who entered Harvard in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. BALANCE - It is Yours If You Want It by Suzie Doscher The BALANCE Handbook helps you with difficult moments. This book is about change and finding balance in life. Read it when you feel vulnerable and unsure of yourself. This book will help you find new opportunities, learn new behaviors and life skills to become the best version of yourself. Handle everyday problems more effectively and improve the quality of your life and the life of those around you. Take the time to invest in yourself before you find yourself off balance. Strengthen your weaknesses before they rule your life. This 2nd Edition Handbook now includes the Interactive Workbook for Self-Coaching. With the journaling in the Workbook you explore your goals, where you stand now and the issues from the past holding you back. Buy your bookook today and start bringing more balance into your life. Available in Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook at Amazon stores or Audiobook alone Audible or iTunes Contact Suzie Doscher
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