Archive for May, 2008
Mini Sabbaticals Should Be Mandatory
Accenture refused to layoff their employees when they hit a rough period because they didn’t want to go through a whole new batch of hiring and training. So they decided to pay the staff that they would have laid off 20% of their pay with benefits while they waited for the economy to bounce back. The catch was, they couldn’t work for a competitor. When the economy came back around they rehired the employees they couldn’t afford to keep.
“Accenture has a great solution for a temporary downturn,” said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. “You don’t lose the people you worked so hard to recruit and train, you’re not doing what everybody else does, you look terrific to those large alumni communities, and in some ways it’s really a loyalty-builder.”
This kept their employees happy and it also gave some of them a mini sabbatical. This made me think about the company I work for and the various incentives they offer to keep me happy. They don’t do enough, but what company really does?
I would like to take a sabbatical, and wouldn’t it be great if my company provided such a program as an incentive to stay with them. I believe all companies should offer mini sabbaticals to help with employee retention. I’m not talking about the normal time off that each company provides, but an additional incentive to keeping employees happy and motivated. So here is my idea…
5 Years
If you’ve been with a company for five years then you are eligible for a two week sabbatical. During that two week sabbatical the employee will be paid 20% of her/his salary. If the employee can show that the reason for their leave was work related and how it will improve the company then the company will pay 40% of the employee’s salary during those two weeks.
10 Years
If you’ve been with a company for ten years then you are eligible for a one month sabbatical. During that one month sabbatical the employee will be paid 40% of her/his salary. If the employee can show that the reason for their leave was work related and how it will improve the company then the company will pay 60% of the employee’s salary during that one month.
15 Years
If you’ve been with a company for fifteen years then you are eligible for a six week sabbatical. During that six week sabbatical the employee will be paid 60% of her/his salary. If the employee can show that the reason for their leave was work related and how it will improve the company then the company will pay 80% of the employee’s salary during those six weeks.
20 Years
If you’ve been with a company for twenty years then you are eligible for a two month sabbatical. During that two month sabbatical the employee will be paid 80% of her/his salary. If the employee can show that the reason for their leave was work related and how it will improve the company then the company will pay 100% of the employee’s salary during those two months.
Good Example
Ok, so lets say you’ve been with the marketing department of a grocery store chain for 15 years. You decide to use your sabbatical to travel the country to see the various marketing campaigns and advertising other grocery chains do to reach their customers. You come back with 15 good ideas. You write a plan on implementing 3 of them and present it to your manager. They are all quality ideas and for your effort you are rewarded 80% of your pay.
If that was me and I was given this flexibility to make my company better my loyalty would increase exponentially.
Why Mini Sabbaticals Should Be Implemented Today
Wouldn’t you take advantage of such a program? If you would break down your company’s cost of hiring and training employees each year this program would probably pay for itself in less than a few years. Your company would be sending the message to its employees that they want to help them to become successful, both at work and away from it.
Would you be more likely to stay with your company if they offered a mini sabbatical program?
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Active Managers Win the Race
You’re leisurely jogging toward the finish line in your khakis and button down shirt when you look back and all the other managers from your various competitors are on your heels. You thought you were leading the pack by a good distance, but they caught up. You look forward again and the finish line got pushed so far away that you can’t even see it. 12 swear words pop into your head, you ease up and everyone passes you by.
This attitude has struck down the greatest companies because they stop pushing for innovative ways to separate themselves from the pack. The best way managers can help a company flourish is by dedicating themselves to professional growth. We all need to keep moving or we become a bucket infested with mosquitoes, attacking others to stay alive. The only way to avoid the blood suckers is to keep moving.
Complacency will wreck any company, especially one that relies on the same tactics that they used last year and the year before that. If marketing companies kept putting out the same ads then the audience would learn to tune them out. If managers keep using the same techniques their voices will fall on deaf ears. That’s where continual learning fits in. Whether it be classes, conferences, meetings, or consulting companies, there are ways for a manager and his employees to learn new tactics that rock the world of their customers. It’s the only way to stay alive in this hyper competitive working world.
Chris Bailey wrote Four Professional Growth Issues For Managers (And How To Address Them). My favorite line was:
If you are a leader, know that a key responsibility of leaders is to produce more leaders.
Managers should be creating people that can help a company grow. They should never fear that they are producing someone more capable than them. If that does happen then the manager should be happy. The company will only prosper if it beats out the competition. The only way to do that is to have great people around you. Every master should be ready for the day that his pupil surpasses his abilities. If you taught them right, they will respect this relationship and treat the company and the manager with respect.
Chris wrote four reasons why managers don’t further their professional development as well at their staff’s. It’s a good read for any manager wanting to overcome obstacles that might be preventing them from growing.
My biggest obstacle to continual learning was convincing upper management to buy into the idea. They don’t want to spend money when they think they are doing fine without it. If they were having a bad quarter they sure as hell didn’t want to spend money on professional development. They wanted to cut back on every extra expense. The only thing I can say to this is to keep trying. Most sales people get rejected between 8 and 16 times before a client agrees to do business. Consider yourself a salesman and keep after your bosses. If you keep trying, they will start believing.
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Working Unhappy in Retail
A great question from a reader arrived in my inbox last week and I wanted to share it with all of you. Many of you probably like your job to some extent, but maybe a manager or co-worker is difficult for you to deal with. We all have our problems, but dealing with a difficult manager is tricky.
Her summarized question went like this:
I just started working at my current job in March. This is my first job period, other than two jobs I’ve gotten by being default (’student helper’ for both jobs).
The problem is, I’m only in this job because it’s a job, and one of the managers is in this job as a lifestyle. He consistently harasses us to sell more (or so it feels like to me). We’re either behind and have to sell more, or are ahead and have to sell more. Within the past week, I can count three separate times that he’s harassed me about asking each and every customer to buy a certain product from the registers.
It’s gotten to the point that I don’t even bother asking the customers if they want the certain product. I figure I’ll get reamed about not selling enough later anyways, so why bother?
I love my job (it’s rewarding), I love my coworkers, I get on well with the other two managers and the two supervisors, it’s just him that I don’t get along with.
How can I manage to work happy? He often excuses himself saying it comes from corporate, but the other two managers don’t harass us like he does. Is it maybe because he’s not that good of a leader, or is it just our differing personalities?
On the training front, should I ask to shadow one of my coworkers (there are two that are really good at selling stuff)? I figure I can’t flat out say, “The training I’m being given is bogus, I know it and you know it, are you able to give me any actual *realistic* training?” And I’m not very good with people to begin with (to the point that I honestly can’t think of a way to rephrase that last question in a people-friendly way).
My response was:
The first thing to do is get your thoughts in order. You are a good writer. Your question was well constructed and I think you should use this talent to write a mock letter on how he could be a better manager. It will help you see his perspective. You should not give him this letter, but it will help you prepare for a talk.
I believe you should talk to this manager. It doesn’t sound like you want to confront him, but I think it’s your best bet at improving your situation. Don’t make a big deal of it, but just ask him if he has a minute to talk. I would ask him how you can improve. If he is human he should be willing to help you become a better employee. If he is stumbling around or doesn’t suggest anything helpful then tell him that you have something that might help. I think you had a great idea. See if the two of you can create a schedule, during slower times, to shadow some of the top sellers for a few weeks.
If this manager is still busting your chops after a few months and you are selling better, I would try confronting him on his managing tactics. Sometimes managers need to be shown how to improve. Try to be tactful and constructive, so he knows that you appreciate his style, but it could use a little work. Hopefully he will put his ego aside and listen. If this makes your relationship worse then look for another job. You should never be afraid to chalk up a job to a good learning experience and move on to something better.
Everyone is different and some people can tolerate a bad manager if everything else is good, but I can’t. I need a manager to be supportive and understanding. Believe me there are plenty of them out there.
If you have a question that you would like for me to answer on this blog you can contact me on my question page or at Karl (at) workhappynow.com. Believe me, there is probably someone else going through the same thing right now, so if you ask a question it will probably help other people.
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Stop Flopping Around Like a Goldfish – Create a “Goal Post” Business
Great companies understand that they need to have a “goal post” philosophy to ensure their company’s success. Every employee (player) must know his role. First they need to have the philosophy (foundation) to hold up the employees (cross bar) that support the processes (left upright) as well as the assessment of accomplishments (right upright).
I promise that I won’t use only football concepts to forward my ideas. Like any great game, even the game of business, there are both metaphors that are obvious and those that are hidden deep within. I hope my example pushes on an emotional button that encourages you to improve your company.
We’ll cover the three foundations to creating a “goal post” business.
Philosophy
If your company doesn’t have a philosophy then you probably have workers that are looking for one. Employees need to connect with something more than just, “Make money.” We are in an age where people want to know why they are doing their jobs.
A philosophy is the foundation of every organization. Every team needs to have a philosophy to guide its actions. The greatest coaches understand this and set the mood for the season. Many teams give up halfway through the season because they were given the philosophy of Superbowl or bust. If a team lost a few games they might believe they weren’t good enough; when this happens no amount of money can make them play hard. Employees in a business are the same way. They want to be paid well, but if the company doesn’t motivate them emotionally they will eventually lose interest.
If you watch football you’ve probably seen teams play awful in the first half of the season then turn it around; the coach probably gave them a philosophy to hold on to that kept them motivated. The coach willed them to believe that they could win.
Most people have a philosophy that guides them through tough times. They use it to make good choices. Great organizations make sure that they clearly convey their message to the rest of their employees.
- “Do no evil” – Google
- “The People of Southwest Airlines are the creators of what we have become – and of what we will be.” -Southwest Airlines
- “ Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.” – Starbucks
The employees believe in the philosophy and give 100% to make it happen.
Process
Every job must have a process or the employee flounders with what to do and how to do it. I’ve worked for companies who have broad job descriptions and I’ve seen workers, including myself, flop around like a goldfish on a countertop, gasping for water.
A process creates action. When people understand what is expected of them, they want to get moving to accomplish their goals. This is good, but we don’t want them to work to feel busy, we want them to work smart. Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots knows how to teach the difference.
Bill Belichick makes sure his players understand where they need to be in every situation. They won three Superbowls in the last seven years because the players understood their roles. They never tried to overextend themselves, which would have caused blown plays. They are also never out of position. Belichick also gives his players instructions on what to do if a play breaks down. They always have options that are calculated risks to minimize bone headed plays.
When we empower people within the process we get intelligent action, instead of just action for the sake of moving. You can do this by encouraging every employee to take an active role in improving the company.
Assessment
Assessing the accomplishments or lack there of will help the company improve. Almost every company I worked for assessed my work, but never gave me the proper tools to help me improve my job. I rarely felt motivated or properly rewarded.
A regular assessment is vital to making positive changes. We wouldn’t sprint through a forest during a cloudy night and we wouldn’t run an organization without checking in and making sure the organization is going in the right direction. The people who are best positioned to assess and improve the company are the employees. They are best able to fix any problems because they are closest to the problem, and the employees who are willing to identify a problem are more likely to find a solution.
That’s why great teams point out the faults of their players and show them how they can improve on the play. Players that take assessment personally and sulk are less likely to improve and may never take their play to the next level. The great players know that they have to improve on their mistakes to become great. A company needs to be able to listen to and empower their employees to move a company in the right direction. Management can’t do it all by themselves, they need their employees’ wisdom. Two heads are better than one and 500 heads are better than 50.
A positive solution is to create a reward system for every employee’s suggestion that is implemented into the company. If an employee suggests buying a computer program to save time and it is implemented then they should receive a small gesture of thanks. The employee understands that he is being listened to (feeling of empowerment) and the company improves. Toyota implements this system and they give between $5 and $2,000 depending on the value of the suggestion.
Every company is different and maybe a monetary reward wouldn’t fit with your company. You can reward employees in other ways like an extra hour off work or a dinner for two after a certain amount of improvements were implemented due to their suggestions.
Review of Creating a “Goal Post” Business
Your company must create a winning attitude otherwise you’ll become a stagnant pond of unhappiness. I know that this sounds extreme, but I’ve seen it happen. Unhappy teams kill all chances for success. You must ask yourself, “Does my company have a “Goal Post” business?” Most companies that I’ve worked for have been small and didn’t have a philosophy that helped an employee connect with the company.
If you feel your company can improve then sit down and write down a revised company philosophy, the process of your job, and five ways your company can improve. If you are the boss then implement them, if not then take it to your manager and see if you can get the “Goal Post” business working for you. If you are hesitant in any way, contact me and I’ll talk to your company and see if we can create a system that encourages improvement and not just by using the same old methods, but by implementing systems that take people’s ideas into account. I believe it’s the best way to grow a business.
- ”Do no evil” – Google
- ”The People of Southwest Airlines are the creators of what we have become – and of what we will be.” -Southwest Airlines
- ” Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.” – Starbucks
What is your company’s philosophy? If you don’t have one what do you think it should be?
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Let’s Learn from a Doctor on How to Work Happy – Small Business Tips
Dr. Charles Kerns of Pepperdine University was kind enough to give me a short interview that I think will help all of us work a little happier. He is an associate professor of Applied Behavioral Science, so if he agrees with me you know I’m on to something with this work happiness thing.
As we all know, it’s better to work with someone that is truly happy. I’ve worked with plenty of co-workers who are happy for the first month and then their true personality sets in and I’m stuck with a dud that just wants to coast. So I asked Charles about separating the fakers from the truly happy.
1. How do you think HR managers can separate truly happy and potentially productive interviewees from fakers?
Actually an operating manager’s challenge is to interact with their people in ways that promote performance and positivity(happiness). In support of this effort HR managers can help by designing performance based interviews that reliably assist in identifying individuals whose profile match the performance profile for a specific position.
Selecting individuals against a specific profile can increase the opportunities for boosting the number of happy high performers in the workplace. Selection interview questions which tap a candidates ability to set goals, be grateful, show resilience and focus on their strengths will help identify individuals who may be happier than others in the workplace. Other questions and activities within the selection interview need to identify candidates who have the ability to take key actions which correlate with success in the position that is under recruitment.
The more data that I gather about work happiness, the more I believe that companies need to start this process from the ground up. It’s harder to turn around the titanic than some little wave runner. I asked Charles how smaller companies can get on board the happiness train now before it’s too late.
2. When implementing a happiness-enhancing intervention, what steps do you think would work best for small companies (under 50)?
Small businesses can potentially have a more direct impact on their people’s happiness and performance than larger organizations. Smaller organizations have fewer levels to communicate through and have leader/owners who are more likely closer to the daily operations.
Leaders in small organizations can promote performance and happiness by offering a clear and motivating direction. People want to know that their work serves a worthwhile purpose. Leaders can help in advancing this by documenting and effectively communicating where things are going and how people fit into this direction.
Also, along the way leaders need to help their people focus on those things that their people can influence and that are important to achieving success. Focusing tools that increase both performance and happiness include setting stretching yet realistic goals, providing effective feedback, practicing forgiveness and optimism and finding the intersection between their people’s strengths and situations that will challenge them…
If you want to read more about work happiness from Dr. Kerns check out the original blog article Bring Happiness to Work that spurred these interview questions.
You can also check out his three other articles:
Connecting Performance and Happiness
Thanks Dr. Charles Kerns for being so accommodating to my questions and hopefully we can work with each other again in the near future.
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How to Tell if You are an Energy Sucker
We are surrounded by energy suckers and givers. What category do you put yourself in? It’s probably an energy giver. No one wants to think of themselves as an energy sucker.
Let me ask you this…Do you complain at work? Yes? I know that we all do and sometimes it’s good, but there is a thin line of overdoing it. You can tell when you are overdoing it when people aren’t complaining with you.
Next time you are complaining about your boss or about a certain project then take notice if people are joining in. If they are silent then you may be an energy drainer. Once labeled an energy drainer by your peers it’s going to take some work to overcome this stigma.
We all want to be energy givers because these are the people that pick us up when we are down. You can do this by cutting back on your complaining and putting your thoughts toward encouragement.
As soon as a complaint floats into your mind, try holding it in and doing a mental 180º and give a compliment or some encouragement to someone around you. When you do this over an extended period of time people will want work with you. You’ll create a happier work environment by giving people energy.
It sounds simple, and it really is. The simple techniques work. I’ve done this plenty of times and it has helped almost every time. My guesstimate would be 95% effective.
Who do you know who should use this technique? Please don’t include names because if you do I’ll have to change it to something weird to make people laugh like Dweezil or Moonbeam. Thanks.
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How You Are Silently Signaling Your Co-workers to Treat You
It could be a look or how you walk into a room. Your co-workers have been trained to recognize these signals and treat you accordingly. We learn these social cues at a young age.
It’s hard to break these habits. We can’t walk around with a friend who is willing to hold a giant mirror so we can see how we look in every situation.
What can I do? I want my co-workers to like me and treat me with respect.
I used two easy tricks that worked well for me. I was not a naturally outgoing person who wanted to enter the room with a bang. You may be shy too, but you can learn to adjust your body signals so people like and respect you. You’ll be giving me silent thanks when your co-workers start smiling when you walk in the room.
If you want everyone to like you then…
1. Treat Everyone Like Family
The best way to be liked is to like others. I know that we’ve all heard this, but it’s true. When you walk into the room think of them as family and know that they love you even if they don’t show it.
When I stopped worrying about what people at work thought of me, I just treated everyone like they were a brother or sister. If they did something stupid I laughed. If I did something stupid I laughed at myself. Family is meant to share in misery and victory. So allow these people into your life. You don’t need to tell them about your latest ailment and what the doctor is doing for you, but share your feelings with them. How to Get Your Boss Naked explains how to open up the emotional barrier that will bring you closer. This works for co-workers too.
Make sure you start slowly when you become friendlier to your co-workers. The best way is not to start right off talking about yourself, but listening to them. People want to be around great listeners because they can do all the talking. You’ve noticed how most people just want to tell you about their lives. Let them do it, and the next time you see them ask how their son, daughter or whatever they talked about was doing. You’ve just made a friend for life.
Getting people to like you is not that hard. Make sure that they know you like them first. People don’t want to put themselves out there and get burned, but now you know better. The only way to make friends is to give 60% and only expect 40% back. This works in any relationship whether it be personal or business related.
By treating everyone as family, your body signals should change. When you love someone you are more confident and willing to approach them. You aren’t afraid of what they think because you have the family connection.
2. Retrain How They View You
I’m a man of average height: 5’ 10” with shoes on. I have soft brown eyes and a pleasant demeanor. This doesn’t command respect in most organizations, so I have to work for it.
You can retrain how a person views your body signals by showing them how you want to be treated. This is hard for the shy person because it means you have to be assertive. It’s very simple. If you walk into a room and someone tries to intimidate you with a loud voice, you do your best to mirror their response. Easy to write, but hard to implement.
You can practice this by actually having a work shop at home with friends and family. A workshop at home? Are you crazy? Well, if you want to put it that way then yes. I want you to practice with people that you trust. Try to explain what is happening at work and roleplay with them until you have it down. Then when you go into work try relaxing and just having fun with the person as you respond back. See above Treat Everyone Like Family to take on this mindset.
The world often will laugh with you if you are laughing. Most people want you to reciprocate the greeting that they’ve given you. If they are excited to see you then let them know you appreciate it with an excited greeting back. This will gain you respect because it shows that you aren’t afraid of that person. We are still animals and people can sense fear by the way you position your body. So by mimicking their reaction you are telling them that you belong on their level.
I had trouble with bullying at work a few years ago. The group picking on me wouldn’t have called it bullying, but it was and it bothered me. They made fun of me, in a little brother way. Laughing at my clothes or a comment I made. I would get upset and just wait for them to get tired and stop teasing me. One time I blew up and let them know that they were going too far. They stopped for a little while, but eventually their old habits came back, so I tried a new tactic. I began to laugh with them, joining in on making fun of me. I never put myself down, but was always willing to laugh at myself. They understood this type of behavior and began treating me as a friend. You can’t take things too personally at work, otherwise your thin skin will bleed, not literally but figuratively. You’ll slowly get angrier and work will only get worse.
Please don’t try to change your personality. You need to be you, but following the social rules at your work will help you get the respect that you need.
Love and Respect at Work
You deserve to have a great working environment and I will write about design, managers, and great companies, but one of the greatest skills you can learn is to enhance your emotional intelligence. People with a high EQ are the ones that make friends and enjoy their job.
Improving your EQ is easy when you take baby steps. Most people don’t come out of college with a high EQ, it’s something they slowly develop through the years. Next time you feel like you aren’t getting the love and respect that you deserve, try to give them the love that they need or use the mirroring technique. Your EQ will jump a few points, making working life just a little more enjoyable.
One tip that I want to share with you before you click away I try to always teach my clients is to have trust in their superpowers. That means doing work that excites you, gets you in the zone and comes easy to you. If you aren’t doing work that plays to your superpowers then people won’t come to you for help. When they aren’t coming to you for help they don’t think they can trust you. Building people’s trust by being amazing at what you do makes it a lot easier to earn respect.
What is your greatest emotional strength? Mine would probably be the ability to see situations from multiple angles. Responding to this question is not about being conceded; it’s about understanding who you are at work and how to maximize your potential. So let us know what makes you good at what you do.
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Create the Work Atmosphere You Want
There are people who create their work atmosphere and then there are people who let their work atmosphere create them.
“Recreate yourself in and through your environment and shape the resulting atmosphere until it is yours.”
- Alexander Becker
A good friend of mine has a father who makes friends instantly by getting people involved. When John speaks with you, he looks you in the eye. He laughs easily and doesn’t mind letting you dominate the conversation. He’ll talk about sports, politics, religion, barbeque, video games, and relationships because he knows that you want to talk about what interests you. He doesn’t force the conversation around what he knows, but allows it to move where it naturally wants to go.
All of his wonderful social attributes help him create his environment, but this isn’t the reason for his success. What makes John special is his ability to allow his natural personality to engage others. He’s not afraid of you; he wants to get to know you better. He wants to love you.
He figures out a way to love you by giving his attention to you. Everyone responds to someone that shows interest in who they are. The first time I ever met him, I knocked on his front door, he opened it then smiled and said, “Welcome!” With such enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but feel loved. “I’ve heard so much about you. Please come in.”
He didn’t have any fear. He welcomed me into his home like I was an old friend. I instantly liked him.
I thought about why he didn’t have any fear. How was he able to generate such a loving feeling from me? The answer was in him. He didn’t have any fear because he knew that I would like him. And I did. He didn’t have any fear because it didn’t matter whether I liked him or not, all that mattered to him was that he extended his friendship to me. It was up to me to accept.
As I’ve watched him operate over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that he’s never afraid to give his opinion because he believes in it. He has reasons to back up his choices, but doesn’t fight for them. If someone doesn’t agree with him, he doesn’t care if you are on his side because he accepts your feelings and enjoys the discussion.
John is able to create his environment because he takes pleasure in the people he’s with. He never worries about what you are thinking because he can’t change that. He is who he is because he accepts himself and you accept him because it feels right.
You can create your own environment wherever you go if you use John’s techniques:
- Give yourself to others.
(When you give your love and attention to other people they will reflect it back to you. Most people are like mirrors waiting to see how you treat them before they decide how they will treat you.)
- Stop worrying about what other people think of you.
(When you trust yourself you’ll stop worrying about other people’s judgments.)
- Let your personality shine out.
(If people aren’t enjoying the real you then you aren’t giving them a chance to love you.)
By applying these techniques, you can create the work atmosphere that makes you the happiest. When you are happy the people around you will feed off of your positive actions, helping to make work fun.
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How to Be a Woman at Work
Steve Pavlina wrote an article “How to Be a Man.” At first I was like whatever. You can’t put us all in a little box. As I read I understood his reasoning for his article. He wanted us to understand our true potential. He wrote about what all men are really capable of being if they let go of their fear. All of us actually put ourselves in a box. We try to define who we are by what we’ve accomplished when in reality we are so much more.
Some of the women do this at my work. They play the role that society puts on them. There are many that I’ve met that have broken through and they’ve become their own women. They aren’t afraid of who they are. They act from their values and make smart choices.
Steve Pavlina asked his fellow bloggers to write “How to Be a Woman.” I might not have as much insight as a woman, but I can shed light on the topic since my CEO is a woman and most of my co-workers are women.
Here are 8 ways to live consciously as a woman at work:
1. Be Compassionate
Women have an innate ability to have compassion for others. It’s why so many of them make great bosses. They understand when their employees are having a bad day and they let them know that they are there to help. They give positive reinforcement, letting their staff know that they are cared for by their co-workers and the company. It makes the employee/co-worker feel more secure in his or her position at work and it’s a great motivator to get them back on track.
2. Feel Sexy
Women are sexual creatures and they know it. When they hide from their sexuality they are telling their co-workers that they are afraid to be a woman. Let me make this clear. Yes, there are women who flaunt their sexuality with way too much exposed flesh and constant sexual hints. That’s not sexy; it’s gross. Sexiness can be as simple as a smile or a brush back of the hair. They don’t flaunt what they have, but they embrace their sexuality.
3. Encourage Others
A woman likes to help others become better at their jobs. A woman who creates an environment of encouragement for others will be successful. She knows that when she picks up the people around her it makes her job easier as well as more enjoyable.
4. Laugh When It’s Funny
A woman doesn’t just laugh at a joke because a superior makes it. She laughs when she thinks the joke is funny. She doesn’t want to make the person who told the joke feel bad so she’ll acknowledge the try, but won’t fake a laugh. A fake laugh is disingenuous.
5. Help Others
A woman understands the social cues of a good work environment. She is willing to help others without receiving help in return, but she also knows the benefits involved in helping her co-workers. She wants others to help her when she is struggling and the only way to do that is to extend a helping hand first.
6. Appreciate Mistakes
Mistakes are natural, especially in a fast-paced work environment. She isn’t afraid to tell someone that they made a mistake and they need to correct it or watch for it next time. She doesn’t do this maliciously or in fear, but for the other person’s own good. She understands that helping others to improve will make the company better.
7. Support Other Co-workers
A woman will back up her co-worker or staff when a client or customer is treating them badly. There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism, but berating someone in front of a group is wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s the richest client that the company has. A company’s staff is more important than money.
8. Share Good Fortune
A woman who receives a bonus because her staff has outperformed expectations will share the wealth with them. They are the reason she looks competent to her bosses so she wants to show her appreciation for their hard work. Her staff deserves to feel good about their hard work, which creates loyalty.
The How to Be a Woman at Work can apply to everyday life, too. Working happy is the theme of my site, so I didn’t want to stray too far off topic. Next week I will post a blog about “How to Be a Man at Work.”
If this article offended anyone, I won’t apologize. This blog was meant to praise women in the workplace. If you can’t see the improvements women are making in the work environment then you aren’t looking hard enough. Women are making the workplace more enjoyable and compassionate than it was way back in the male-dominated work environment. It’s been a slow process, but meaningful change often takes time.
If you enjoyed the article and hope to read more like it then check out my archives section or subscribe to my daily Work Happy Now feed and see if there are some tips that you can use to improve your job. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by an article that may help you enjoy work just a little more. Enjoying work is something that should be at the top of all our “To Do” lists, so pick an article and give it a go.
If this article doesn’t get linked to by Steve then so be it, but I still want to thank Steve and Erin for sparking a little creativity. Let me know what you think of the topic in the comment section, and I hope to hear from the smart women and men who I know want to leave a comment.
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Sometimes We Need to Pretend We Are Happy
We can’t always be feeling great, smiling at every customer and co-worker as we tackle every job with robot-like efficiency. We are human and our emotions fluctuate. Right now I don’t feel like writing, but my fingers and mind keep on going, so I continue for my future, to help you, and because tomorrow I will be glad that I pushed another good article out. That’s right I’m not working happy, but I’m doing my best with what I’ve got.
Now you know the truth. I’m not always working happy. Please don’t tell your friends.
We all have bad days and sometimes we need to fake it. Seth Godin is a blogging wunderkind. Okay, I guess he isn’t that young but he’s a great blogger at any rate. He wrote an article Pretending that you care that has some great insight.
No, you can’t always hire exceptional people for these jobs. No, you can’t always invest enough time to train them sufficiently. But yes, you can make, “pretending you care,” a barely acceptable alternative.
It doesn’t take much to take the edge off an encounter.
[Boy does this sound cynical. How inauthentic! How manipulative! Isn't it better to just hire people who actually care? Of course it is. But as far as I can tell, that's a lot harder than it looks--because so many organizations are organized around policies, not caring, and because so many employees have been trained not to care.
So, the essence of the lesson here is this: if people start out pretending to care, next thing you know, they actually do care. They like the positive feedback and they like the way being kind makes them feel. It spreads. It sticks.]
Read the whole article here.
Sometimes we need to fake it to get to where we need to be. I know that you don’t always feel like working on that boring project, writing that last email of the day, or calling one more sales lead, but no one wants you to pack it in because you don’t feel like doing it. Your company wants you to fake it like any good professional.
What was the last thing you faked? I’m not talking about what goes on in your bedroom. I’m wondering when was the last time you faked your happiness on the job and eventually became happy.
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