Editor’s note: This is a guest post Mike King of Learn This.

Talent is an interesting topic and one that is SO critical in the workforce.  Talent makes the difference between the top performers poor performers.  It can be cultivated and enhanced. Unfortunately the biggest problem is that talent is not always recognized by those who can see a use for it and individuals do not always see or even know how they can use it.  Luckily sometimes talents are obvious and people do utilize them in their life and work, but more often than not, talent is lost because it is difficult to recognize.  Here are 5 specific ways to recognize and utilize talent!

1. Talents Are Often Masked by Imbalance

Talents are not always recognized and one of the reasons for that is because they can be easily masked by imbalance. The imbalance of skills or lack of skills in a person’s life can easily mask talent because of so much disproportionate other ’stuff’.  In the workplace this can be someone in the wrong role and doing things they simply don’t have any talents in and it could be in life, where people are so busy or distracted by circumstances they don’t ever explore and develop their talents so they are never known.  And then even if they are known, often talents are masked away by decisions in life to pursue a different career, live a certain type of lifestyle or hang around with specific friends that can not only draw a person away from their own talents but literally push those talents out of their life so they can’t ever be recognized.

One great example of this is from the book, “Outliers” by Gladwell where he explores research finding how many sports athletes (specifically with hockey in North America) have an advantage if they are in a school year and born early in the year instead of late since this extra months of maturity gives them many advantages.  Since there are specific dates for cutoffs into programs and the older athletes (relative to each other since they are all young athletes) can have a significant advantage.  This advantage to some is exactly what masks out much of the talent in the other athletes born late in each year.  The talents of many of lost or never discovered fairly because of this. (Karl’s note: We must break through these barriers to bring out the talent, happiness, and success for as many people as possible.)

Many people mask their talents in many other ways as well such as lifestyle imbalance or skill imbalance. People with amazing talents might suffer in other fundamental areas such as social skills, or school skills where they are then quickly stereotypes or ‘labeled’ as a slow learner or put into special programs, often focusing on what they don’t have natural skills for and focusing on that imbalance instead of ever really developing the talent hiding behind that mask.  Social imbalance is a classic example as people quickly disregard or ignore socially inept people and their talents don’t get the attention or development as other people’s might, even though the talents can easily be as great or greater in comparison.

Recognizing talent can only be done if it is objective without prejudice or comparison to others.

Managerial Takeaway: Explore your people’s interests and hobbies to discover hidden talent that may not reveal itself in the workplace.  Let people try new things and explore new work so that you may uncover or develop a talent that is masked by the mundane or repetitive tasks.  You can easily be surprised at who or how real talent might be hiding right under your nose!

2. Passion, the Sure Sign?

Passion is another great way to recognize talent as they often go hand in hand.  Having passion for something can quickly expose or develop a talent and often the talent is what creates the passion in the first place.  Another simple test is to look at passion and how long it lasts or in what circumstances it exposes itself?  Is passion present only with certain activities or skills another person is using?  Or is passion on its own and existing regardless of what that person is doing?  Its much more likely a talent being exposed if they are more passionate about a certain activity or skill than on a topic, for instance.  Always look a little deeper into passions to see the root of it and this will hopefully lead you to more easily recognize talents that relate to that passion. (Karl’s note: Passion is one of the core components of a superpower.)

Managerial Takeaway: You need to really enable people to do things they enjoy and get excited about.  It’s often a sure way to discover a person’s superpower ability when you encourage them to act on their passions and apply it in their work!

3. Instinctive Skills – A Sign of Talent

Instinctive skills are something that is often a great sign of talent but that isn’t always easily recognized.  A talent can lay just out of sight yet related to a skill or action that someone takes or does without ever having been trained or prepared for it.  When this occurs, and they can repeat it, it is definitely a sign of a potential talent.  Musical skills, dexterity, sports, math, etc. can all be somewhat ‘natural’ or ‘instinctive’ to people and when it is, look for that as a talent.  Many of these instinctive skills or traits may actually be related to the talent of the individual, not always that direct skill itself.

Instinctive skills are often discussed around leadership as well, where some individuals are quick to recognize the need for teamwork and cooperation in a challenging situation.  That leadership is often instinctive to a person and is quite likely, a talent.  Is it easy to recognize and develop them if you look at instinctive and natural skills?

Managerial Takeaway: Make sure that you develop natural instinct when you have people who have good gut instinct for decisions, leadership and communication.  If you train and further assess areas of instinctive talent, you will discover talent that you’ll otherwise have to live without!

4. Remove Your Selfish Blinders

Recognizing the talents of other people can often be most difficult since we so quickly make comparisons and judgments based on our own wants and desires.  We must learn to remove and disconnect those selfish blinders though and look more objectively for talent in others.  A colleague up for the same promotion as you, or a competitor in a sport or contest often drives us to disregard their talents in order to push our own egotistical minds above them.  It blocks us from seeing talent and creates fears instead of encouragement.  If you want to be successful at recognizing talent, you must learn to be objective and separate talents from your own desires and see everyone equally.  Quite likely, this is the hardest things of all these 5 ways to recognize talent! (Karl’s note: Jealousy creates a lose-lose situation.)

Managerial Takeaway: As a manager, you must rate yourself by what talents you discover and develop in your team.  If you want to be a great manager, you must look at your teams accomplishments and development as the main metric for considering your own success.  This will enable you to bring many talents from your team to the table instead of only the ones you think you may have yourself, but actually don’t!!!

5. Get Out of the Way of Talent

Recognizing talent goes beyond what you see yourself and more to what others are able to recognize and evaluate as well.  For this to occur, you sometimes have to get out to of the way of talent and let it surface.  This might have its own sacrifices when it comes to competition or even personally in your own lifestyle or relationships, but if you truly want talent recognized, you have to stop holding it back, whether on yourself or others.  Jobs with strict responsibilities and descriptions are often limiting, rules and guidelines in school, tight regulations or policies and even family boundaries about who does what and how you should behave can be incredibly limiting instead of exposing talent.  Talent being exposed and recognized is typically not the normal behaviors of people and so there are almost always things that get in the way.  Talent is unleashed through creativity and people have to be given some creative freedom to expose their talents and it’s the only way to recognize talent in others.

Managerial Takeaway: You have to let go of control and influence as a manager and let your team operate in their own ways if you ever hope to discover the true talent that exists.  Micromanagement and reports that depend on your every approval and decision is like a noose around your talent.  Let it go, support your team to make their own suggestions and decisions and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you see talents that you were constantly in the way of earlier!

Your Turn

How do you leverage other people’s talents to help people become happier and more successful at work?

Mike is the author of Learn This , a productivity blog for self-learning career, leadership and life improvement tips. He’s written many articles about finding your passion in life, goal setting and many other ideas around learning to have a better and more positive life and workplace. Please subscribe to his RSS feed here or by email to read more of his articles!

* Join us at Party Biz Connect. We throw these Twitter parties (click here to find out what a Twitter party is) to help people launch their cool stuff that they’re putting out into the world. You can win cool prizes at every party. One person won a 3 day workshop worth $1,999. You also get member only access to audio interviews that teach you how to build relationships to level up your business.

All photos are license free from http://sxc.hu

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Editor’s note: This is a guest from Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) of Getting to Zen

What makes my boss so great is that he treats his employees like human beings and not like resources that are there just to help him achieve his goals. Although he is my manager, everything that I do for him feels collaborative (even my performance reviews).

As I was scouring the internet to increase my understanding of boss-employee relationships, I came across a hypothetical note a boss wrote to his employees. What I liked most about note was that it provided great insight on how to establish a good relationship with your boss from a boss’s perspective. I liked the idea so much that I decided to write one of my own.

To: (insert your name)

From: Your Boss

RE: Welcome

Hello (insert your name),

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the company. I am looking forward to working you. My hope is that this letter will give you a better understanding of who I am, what I need from you and how we both can effectively work together

1. I am under a lot of pressure from upper management, of which most of it you don’t see. Please, don’t hesitate to do or say something that would make my job easier. Most days I am working a minimum of 10 to 14 hours. And although I am compensated for it, it is a lot of hard work with rewards that don’t always pay off quickly.
2. Your work is important to me but so is everyone else’s. Please remember that I also have the concerns and feelings of other employees both inside and outside of our company.
3. I may not have been given the training I needed before being named to this supervisory position. As a result, I have had to learn through trial and error; sometimes at your expense. Please give me the same understanding that you would like from me when you make mistakes.
4. If I am about to do something that could be harmful to my job, please tell me. I may not see an impending disaster that you do. I would rather hear it from you than in the form of a pink slip from the Human Resource department.
5. Tell me what you need to be happy at work. I am not a mind reader. I want to create an environment in which we both can succeed. Let me know what your career goals are and we can work together to create a plan to achieve them.
6. If you don’t know the answer to something, don’t make one up. I use the information you give me to make decisions that impact our business in ways that you may unaware of. I don’t expect you to know everything, but I do expect the truth.
7. If you were a former co-worker of mine, please understand that as your manager I have to evaluate your performance. I hope that my managerial responsibilities will not change our relationship. Sometimes being a manager is lonely.
8. I would appreciate if you would respect my time by not coming to me at 5:30 PM with a critical issue that could have been discussed at any time during that day. I understand that emergencies happen but when they happen every day it’s not an emergency.
9. I expect you to take initiative. If you keep running things by me, I’m going to wonder why I have you around.
10. Let me know when I am doing a good job. I want to be the best manager that I can and feedback is essential for my improvement.
11. Just because I am your manager doesn’t mean that you can’t invite me to lunch. I have other interests besides work and like to talk about them too.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, my door, in-box and instant messenger is always open. Again, I look forward to working with you.

Your Boss

Now wouldn’t a letter like this be a welcomed edition to the hiring packet? What would you have liked to hear from your boss when you started working at your company?

Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) is the founder of Getting to Zen, a personal development blog featuring articles on productivity, motivation, inspiration and organization. You can sign up for her RSS feed or follow her on Twitter.

* New things are happening at Work Happy Now. We are gearing up for some big changes, so stay tuned. We are trying to align your needs with our own. It’s how businesses are built. Too many people keep doing the same thing that made them successful two years ago. We don’t want to be that kind of company. So we are taking a proactive approach to work happiness.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Attitude and Productivity
• 10 Common Career Mistakes

Image courtesy of splorp

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Phil LeNir of CoachingOurselves.com. As many of you noticed I’ve been writing more from a personal view of careers and personal development. I published this piece on organizational development because anyone can apply these concepts to their business and life.

There are a lot of management development training programs out there. They help managers and employees to improve their skill sets and become better at what they do.

But what if there was a way to apply self-help concepts to the corporate world? What if managers could train each other, learn through discussions, and be inspired by stimulating material?

Keep reading to find out how we found ourselves doing exactly that.

Let’s go back to the beginning…

We had just hit rock bottom. After three rounds of layoffs, the company off-shored our software development to Eastern Europe, and our competitor acquired us.

That sounds pretty dire doesn’t it? We knew we needed to do something to boost morale and we needed a solution that didn’t cost much. We literally had no time, no money, and we were expected to change quickly.

Luckily when I approached professor Henry Mintzberg, the author of several management development books, he had an idea. He suggested I read his book “Managers not MBAs” and one sentence from this book still sticks with me today:

“Thoughtful reflection on natural experience, in the light of conceptual ideas, is the most powerful tool we have for management learning.”

So instead of having more crisis meetings, planning meetings, and status meetings… my team and I got together for a learning meeting with the goal of making things better.

During that first meeting we made the objective to learn something new about management, and to reflect on our own experience in light of conceptual ideas. If it worked, then we’d do it again.

There was one caveat: I didn’t want people to come to these meetings to talk about grand ideas on how to change things, but leave without intending to put anything into practice.

I didn’t want to fall into the self-help trap of talking about our feelings but not doing anything about them.

During the weekends I worked on the content of the sessions, by editing and crafting the material that Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues had put together for their Masters level management courses. It included lots of provocative questions and exercises to get the meetings to stimulate change.

Amazingly, it worked.

These meetings created a space where our team could come together to make important management decisions, to bond, and to help each other grow.

Suddenly, we weren’t the head of engineering talking to the head of QA anymore. We were simply human beings doing their best to get on with the job of managing, solving problems, and making things happen.

The Result?

We started coming up with new initiatives on both small and large scales that we actually following through on. You can probably relate to meetings where lots of ideas are discussed but nothing ever comes of them.

This was different because we came up with simple changes in a safe environment that fostered collaboration between managers.

Once we started taking action, we saw the time we spent in these meetings differently. This is how I marketed the meetings to my team (because really, who wants to attend more meetings when there is so little time to begin with):

“We all spend some 50+ hours a week running around making things happen, and doing things. Imagine if we spent 1 hour a week talking about what’s going on, reflecting on experiences around our current management challenges, and discussing what we could do to make things better, all stimulated by some really cool management topics developed by some of the best thinkers in the world? Then we could run around making things happen for the other 49 hours. Do you think we might get more done during the 49 hours than the original 50 hours?”

We had stumbled upon management development that really works. And it was just a matter of opening up to each other, putting our heads together, and then taking action. This was like reading a great self-help book, doing all of the exercises, and actually living differently. Wow!

The Three Step Formula

Now it’s time for you to take action with these ideas in your own organization.

Here’s the simple 3-step formula:

Step 1. Schedule a meeting with fellow managers and team members to discuss the issues that are most pressing. If we’re talking about case studies, or potential situations it’s not application and no one will get anything out of it. Make it relevant, make it actionable.

Step 2. Find some materials that relate to the issues at hand: strategic theories, advice for office politics, models of communication between silos and slabs. Once you’ve got some stimulating material, tease some questions out of it to act as starting points during your meeting.

Step 3. During the meeting allow everyone a chance to voice their opinions, and take notes on the interesting ideas that bubble up. Make the meeting a safe place for people to share their experience as managers, to come together to explore new ways of solving problems together. Then after the meeting, follow up by taking action on the new ideas.

What will this three-step process do that a self-help book won’t? It will get you talking to other people who share a similar background; it will boost morale, and make your entire operation run much smoother.

This works because companies are made up of people, not cogs. Unless we take the time to talk about things, we’re going to keep running around inefficiently.

How You Can Apply This to Your Work

It’s simple, put together a few questions to help you and some team members mastermind together.

Then set aside some uninterrupted time to discuss. It might take a few minutes before everyone warms up to each other and begins to share the deep stuff within. The first few meetings might be focused more on surface issues.

Over time you will see that having these types of candid conversations, and knowing that everyone else is in the same boat together, can really transform the way you live your life and lead your team.

So go ahead, I challenge you to give this “self-help for managers” idea a try. It may seem overly simple, but why complicate things when there’s an inexpensive solution at hand that works?

Let us know what you think in the comments! I’d love to see what kinds of results people get from this!

Phil LeNir developed CoachingOurselves following a new approach to management education implemented in the International Masters Program in Practicing Management. As Executive Director at CoachingOurselves, Phil is working to bring this approach to management development to organizations worldwide. Follow Phil and CoachingOurselves on twitter.

-

* Join over 1,100 people who have already subscribed to the FREE 10 part E-Course on Leveraging Your Superpowers. Learn how to discover and leverage your superpowers so you can do amazing work. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* When we are trying to create a career/business of our dreams we can get lost in the work. Jonathan Fields wrote brilliant piece dissecting why a well known blogger gave up blogging. We have to know our needs so we know how to grow our brand and income.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like these too:

> 21 Reasons a Smart Small Business Coach is Worth the Money

> The Secrets to Workplace Leadership

Image courtesy of thinkpanama

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Almost Everything I Know about Performance Evaluations I learned in the School of Life

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Susan C.

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, performance evaluations seem to be a fact of working life for employees of most companies or organizations.  I don’t think I’ve ever actually met anyone who claims to love performance evaluations.  I would guess that most people, including myself, have mixed feelings about the ordeal—an observation that seems to be borne out in the research literature on the subject. I have a friend who seems to loathe them and is convinced that not only are performance evaluations a waste of time, but they actually train people to be less–rather than more–creative, innovative, independent and productive.  He’s not alone in his thinking. An increasing number of HR specialists are beginning to reach a similar conclusion.  They argue that in its current format, the practice is more destructive than constructive, and is a holdover from earlier paternalistic ideologies about the relationship between employer and employee.

My perspective on performance evaluations and my suggestions on how to deal with negative performance evaluations are grounded in my 20+ years in the workforce and some little gems of wisdom from friends and colleagues over the years.   Most of my evaluations have been fair to good, but I’ve experienced a couple of truly hellish evaluations, courtesy of bully bosses. Since I’m not an HR specialist, I thought it might be useful to supplement my personal observations with some research into what HR specialists and management consultants have to say about why performance evaluations go wrong.

The Ideal Evaluation

Ideally, performance evaluations should be little more than a “mere formality” to keep the HR department happy by completing and returning their beloved evaluation forms. In the best case scenario, your manager checks in with you informally on a regular basis and is aware of your workload, your strengths and challenges, achievements over the last year, professional development activities, and career goals.  Better yet, your supervisor has excellent leadership skills, cares about his or her staff, and has learned how to give timely, appropriate, and genuinely constructive feedback when an issue first arises so you can actually respond at the point in time when it still matters.

The Reality

It would be fabulous if the above scenario was the reality for most of us, but unfortunately that probably isn’t the case. We may currently have an excellent boss who thinks we’re equally as wonderful, but life isn’t static.  Circumstances change and the fates might well conspire to give us a mediocre boss and a crummy performance evaluation at some point in time, whether we asked for it or not. Indeed, a close friend of mine figures that you should go into any job with the understanding that at some point in your career, you will most likely be given a negative performance evaluation—no matter how hard you work or how well you perform.  My friend is neither pessimistic nor paranoid.  But he has many years of experience in the workforce and understands that the longer you’ve been in the work force and the more jobs you’ve worked at, the greater are your chances of having a bad year or encountering a bad boss.

My bad evaluation cropped up a few years ago, 20+ years into my working life.  Given that I’d already seen some bullying behaviour from this boss, I kind of expected that my evaluation that year wasn’t exactly going to be a walk in the park.  Actually it was a walk in the park (albeit a rather unpleasant park)– compared to the events that followed.  That was the year that confirmed for me the value of good record keeping and detailed documentation.  It can be a bit tedious at times, but one day you may be very glad you had the foresight to maintain certain kinds of records.  I recommend keeping the following information from day one at any job you start:

1. A system for tracking your workload and project list. Make sure you update it on a regular basis and include information about start and end dates, delays (causes and how you dealt with them, any other important information about the project status).

2. A system for tracking vacation days, sick days and appointments.

3. Email follow-ups of any conversations about work assignments and projects. Keep hard copies in the relevant file folders.

4. Email follow-ups of any important conversations or meetings with your boss.  Outline the main points of the discussion, conclusions, decisions and any action items with their due dates.  Keep hard copies of these emails—computers have an annoying habit of crashing or vaporizing important information.

5. Print and file hard copies of any and all written praise you receive about your work or work habits. (Among other things, it’s a good mood lifter when you’re feeling blah.)

When Bad Evaluations Happen to Good Employees

Some of the  variables that contribute to a bad evaluation are clearly under our own control (life intervened and we had an off year, we overestimated our performance so we’re inevitably disappointed with the feedback we’re given, something about our job situation has changed and we’re not sure how we feel about it anymore, and so on). In these situations we need to accept responsibility for what we did or didn’t do, and start figuring out how to turn the situation around.

Your manager also has a huge role in affecting the quality of the evaluation process.  The effectiveness of the performance evaluation is going to be strongly influenced by her leadership skills, people skills and training, as well as her temperament and preferred work style (her personal work style and other styles that she’s most comfortable dealing with).

Most bosses don’t deliberately set out to conduct bad or unfair evaluations.  According to Susan Heathfield, many bosses would be much happier if they didn’t have to do performance evaluations at all: For the most part, managers apparently don’t like having to judge their staff any more than the employees appreciate feeling attacked and put on the defensive by the process. If this is so, why does this scenario happen often enough to give performance evaluations a bad name?

More often than not, managers conduct bad evaluations either because they have not been trained how to give employees constructive feedback, or their people skills leave much to be desired.  But, you ask, “Why would a company hire someone as a manager if that individual has no people skills and no idea how to give feedback?” It turns that often managers aren’t hired for their leadership abilities or people skills at all—they might get hired because of their technical expertise, or a myriad other reasons that have nothing to do with managing people. Furthermore, many companies don’t offer even basic training in leadership or constructive feedback skills to new management level appointees, so new managers are left to stumble along and figure out as best they can how to motivate and develop the members of their teams, provide timely and constructive feedback and conduct effective performance evaluations.   If managers are not given the training or feedback they need to improve their people skills, then it’s probably reasonable to expect that they will make mistakes when it’s time to do your performance evaluation.  Unfortunately, their mistakes can translate as nightmarish evaluations from your perspective.

Next week Susan will talk about how to deal with a bad performance evaluation.

* Join over 700 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning, when you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* Stacey Shipman wrote about the value that food brings to our lives. It’s called So Much More than Food. It’s about her experience with a food cleanse.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> What do I do if I’m unhappy at Work?

> How Does Your Confidence Affect Your Work?

Image courtesy of Fuschia Foot

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Evita of Evolving Beings

It seems that as technology expands forward, it is allowing more and more people the freedom to not be tied to a desk at their office any longer.

More and more people are either being approached by their company with an option to work remotely, such as from home, or are themselves suggesting the option to their company.

4 Hour Work Week

“It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.”
- Tim Ferriss author of 4 Hour Work Week

Working from home definitely takes a certain kind of discipline, but I always had this theory that it would make one more productive. Well, after having read “The 4-Hour WorkWeek (Expanded and Updated)” by Timothy Ferriss, and seeing my husband do it, I am even more convinced. In the book Timothy explains how, just because you are at work, does not mean you are actually working and how much more productive one can actually be through telecommuting.

It is actually too bad that more companies are not open to embracing this approach because it could prove very beneficial for both the employers and the employees.

Cost Savings

For starters, it can greatly cut down on costs. Less employees in the office equals less desks, which equals less space needed. This in turn tremendously lowers rent costs.

Overall facility costs can also be significantly decreased. These take into account various bills for the company like electrical, heating, and air conditioning. Some companies also provide small treats or stationary items for their employees, and even those may be small expenses, in the end it all adds up.

As for benefiting from decreased costs, it is not just for the employers. Employees who work from home normally save on the transit they would be paying for, work attire and food on the go. These costs quickly accumulate for an employee, to the point that working from home can translate to an immediate pay raise, based on all the money the employee is saving. And of course a happier employee, results normally in a more productive employee.

Proof

On the topic of happiness, studies have also found that employees who work from home are actually happier, healthier and more productive.

A 2007 study by the American Psychological Association, found favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work–family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress. Another study in 2008 by CompTIA Research found that 67% of companies polled said employees were more productive, just from cutting back on the commute to and from work.

Where health and happiness is concerned, not going into the office protects and benefits the employee in many ways. First off they most likely get to avoid a normally stressful morning routine, commute to and from work, and work environment. Secondly, working from home normally increases the amount of home cooked meals or just more balanced meals eaten. Most employees will be able to get more sleep as well. This all, as well as decreased exposure to others, decreases chances of infections and sick days, while increasing the general level of happiness. In the end, it results in a win-win situation for both employee and employer.

At a time where our awareness for being environmentally conscious is growing, our discussion would not be complete without also considering the environmental benefits from telecommuting. Less people traveling on the roads naturally decreases the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation that would be used. On a national or global scale, this can quickly add up and make a huge difference where the state of our climate is concerned.

Why More Companies don’t Offer Tele-commuting

So by now you may be wondering – “if it is so good, why don’t more companies go that route?”

For starters, not all jobs can be done remotely. Some obviously require the employee to be physically present.

However for those who can work remotely, the biggest road block why more companies don’t take advantage of this type of work environment, seems to be the old stereotype that still hinders many companies. And that is, that their employees will slack off at home or need to be monitored. The truth is normally very different.

Most people who work from home actually feel more compelled to prove themselves in that they do not need to be monitored, and thus deliver better results, not to mention how much wasted time they avoid. This alongside the mentioned benefits above, can mean a very logical decision in the end for a company who wants to increase its own, and its employees happiness.

Evita’s next post will explain how to apply 5 important rules when telecommuting.

Do you work from home?

What are the advantages and disadvantages when telecommuting?

Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN – is the main author of EvolvingBeings.com where she writes about spiritual and personal development. She hopes to inspire people, to truly live out the life of their dreams and awaken the highest version of themselves. She is also the main author of EvolvingWellness.com where she writes about nutritional science and holistic health for optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.

* Don’t miss out on any more great articles. Sign up for my RSS feed or email feed and you’ll stay updated on the latest tips and ideas to bring more happiness to your working life.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- Work Happiness Tip – Tag Your Co-Worker

- How to Write a Career List

Image courtesy of Scott Adams

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

When a business stops trying to control their employees, the employees begin to feel free at work. This freedom will allow them to feel more comfortable and happy.

Let’s say you have 50 employees who each have 100 Facebook and 100 Twitter friends. That’s 10,000 people that your employees are interacting with. They are talking about you to their friends.

What are they really saying?

Employee Outreach

You should be encouraging your employees to talk about their company, but never force them to use social media. Your employees will share the company’s story with their friends when you treat your employees like the superstars that they are.

This is where freedom comes in. If your people feel that they are free to do what is best for them and the company, they will use this freedom to make both themselves and the company happy.

It’s this happiness that flows into the rest of their conversations.

Some employees will always rebel against their employer. They will feel stifled working for someone else. This is a small percentage. The majority of the people will compare their freedoms with their friends. If they can leave work to watch their daughter in a school play on a Wednesday afternoon, they will feel lucky. If they don’t have to ask the boss for permission to do so, they will feel trusted.

They will also be more willing to think about work while in the shower. This after hours thinking is when the big ideas manifest themselves. When at work people are distracted by the small tasks.  When away from work (i.e. taking a shower) their mind is free to expand into creative solutions.

It’s About the Results

A person who is engaged in their work and who cares about what they do will be working at all times of the day. They will feel free to do this because they were free on a Wednesday afternoon when they wanted to watch their daughter in her play.

“It’s a two way street,” as my father always told me. The more freedom and trust you give your employees, the more energy they will give back to you.

Is this a perfect method? No. But the alternative is watching employees like a hawk, restricting their creativity until you piss off most of your employees, then they feel forced to leave or stay under the radar. We know how both of these options work out.

We have to adapt and treat people the way they want to be treated, so they will be happy and create results that will make both employer and employee proud.

A New Direction

We must rehumanize business for the sake of our health (economy and individual).

It’s also the best way we can reduce stress. People don’t stress out because the work is too hard. People stress out because they feel forced to do work that they don’t like.

70% of people go to the hospital because of stress-related symptoms. It’s funny that 70% of white collar workers are unhappy at work. Coincidence, hmmm I think not.

When people believe that they are making choices instead of being told what to do, then they will feel like they are creating their own destiny.

Rehumanizing business will improve most companies’ bottom line (more creativity, increased engagement and less absenteeism) as well as individual employee’s happiness and job enjoyment.

My Own Rebuttal

If this is such a great idea, then why don’t all companies give more freedom to their employees?

Old Habits Die Hard

We are so used to the old way of doing business. We are afraid to try something that might not work. We don’t want to risk the whole company crumbling because everyone is off watching their daughter in her school play or hanging out in coffee shops.

We need to crush this fear and replace it with fear of falling behind. We all know that when we are happy and free, we do great work.

We should give employees more freedom to connect with the customer (improve marketing), take off when they want without fear of big brother keeping track (improve trust), and develop projects that will improve the company (improve creativity).

Let’s rehumanize business together.

Link to this post or tweet about rehumanizing business and let’s get more people talking about this concept. You could also send this series of posts to a friend who owns a business. Hopefully they see the value in letting their employees have the freedom to create amazing work.

Want to catch up in this 3 part series? Then check out:

- Part 1 – Rehumanize Business

- Part 2 – Unleash Your Employee’s Creative Marketing Beast

* Join over 600 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning, when you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* I love an article from Office Arrow. It’s called Challenge Your Potential: Competent Leadership.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- The Secrets to Workplace Leadership

- Team Building Activity – Hint – Colorful Balls

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

You may have read that title and thought, “What does my company’s marketing have to do with work happiness?”

A lot.

70% of business is transacted because your friend told you about a product or service. You probably own an iPod because your friends wouldn’t stop raving about their iPod. You trust your friends to recommend good stuff.

Zappos let’s their employees Twitter on the job. They trust their people to connect with the customer.

I love Zappos, not because they have every kind of shoe on the planet, but because they ship for free, have a 360 day return policy and pay for shipping back to the company if you want to return a purchase. Now that’s worth spreading.

People want to share stuff that makes them happy. It’s up to companies to encourage their people to share their story.

Your Marketing Team

When a company thinks of everyone as a part of their marketing team, they become more humane to their employees. For example, an employee can now blog or Twitter about an event that happened at work and there is potential for millions of people to hear about it.

Southwest Airlines has the rapping flight attendant. Over 100 thousand people have viewed videos of the flight attendant rapping the rules of the flight. It makes me wish that some day I will have him on one of my flights. This is more valuable than a Super Bowl ad (2 million dollars for 30 seconds). This YouTube video is being passed around by friends, making people talk about it. Because our friends like it, we trust it.

Friends encourage one another to watch the video, which makes people more likely to try the product.

We are living in a day and age when employers can encourage employees to take a larger role in a company’s success. Why aren’t we jumping all over this?

Fear.

- Companies are afraid that their employees may do something to embarrass the company.

- Companies are afraid that their employees will take advantage of these new tools.

- Companies are afraid that…

And on and on. The fear rolls on.

Your fear should not determine the happiness of your employees. After all, your employees who are taking advantage of you are doing it right now and will continue do it because they feel they are justified.

You can’t stop this.

It Comes Back to Trust

What you can do is give your trust, and when your trust is broken you can create a warning system (3 strikes you are out) then pull that trust from that one employee. Don’t take it out on everyone else.

Most of your employees will be more loyal when they know that they have your trust and respect.

If you allow your employees to Twitter, blog, and Facebook while at work then it’s up to you to create some guidelines.

The idea is to create an open community of thoughts and ideas. When you allow your employees to share their thoughts with the world about your business, you will get honest feedback and a chance to reach out to the world with your people’s ideas.

Company Culture

Zappos encourages a fun, interactive, and creative culture. They want to develop relationships that stick. Read my interview with the CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh right here. Zappos has some of the stickiest relationships with their customers.

I admit that tweeting and blogging isn’t for every company, but I do believe that every company should implement some kind of open forum for their employees to reach out to the community. We need to create a culture that allows people to let their personalities out.

Let’s stop hiding our people away form the public. Let everyone have a chance to influence the customer. The freedom to make connections that will build loyalty. It’s this marketing that pays forward in many directions. The employees feel trusted. The customer doesn’t feel abused (they opted in to the message). The company makes both employees and customers happy.

In the next post we will talk about freedom at work.

Want to catch up? Check out Part 1:

- Rehumanize Business

* Don’t miss out on any more great articles. Sign up for my RSS feed or email feed and you’ll stay updated on the latest tips and ideas to bring more happiness to your working life.

* Tony the CEO of Zappos wrote an enlightening piece called Your Culture Is Your Brand. It’s a must read for all business owners.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- Work Happiness Expert – Tony Hsieh of Zappos
- Make Every Employee Feel Cool

Image courtesy of lowlevelrebel

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Too many businesses are worried about playing it safe. They don’t want to uncover the bad stuff that is happening in their business, so they look the other way instead. Human Resources is there to protect the company. Upper management only wants to know about positive sales figures.

Who can most employees turn to?

They don’t turn to anyone; they just leave.

I want to rehumanize (I borrowed the word from Chris Brogan) business so that people feel free to speak up. The only way business is going to become faster, more enjoyable and more profitable is if you have every person in your company and even your customers become a part of your marketing department. That means they tell their friends, family and their internet buddies that your products/services are awesome.

Eliminate Employee Criticism

A great way to reduce or eliminate badmouthing of the company by the employees is to give them the chance to talk about what is bothering them, listen to their concerns, and allow employees to be a part of the change.

BzzAgent’s CEO Dave Balter learned that his employees’ opinions mattered. They mattered so much that the whole company addresses everyone’s issues, from needing four pronged forks in the lunch room to discussing how they can communicate with clients better. He created an anonymous suggestion box that was open to everyone. This created an opportunity to listen to and address people’s problems.

There will be times when a company is unable to accommodate an employee, but most employees understand this. At least they had a chance to make their feelings heard.

Your company probably has a few disgruntled employees. Every company has them. If you aren’t listening to their needs, you are creating a divided culture.

Listening Skills

Think about what you can do to improve your listening skills and deal with your employees’ needs.

When a company stops treating their employees as dollar signs and actually allows them to direct the company, that company gains 1,000 paddles in the ocean pushing their message out to potential customers. Believe me, the money will flow back into the company. I promise. All it takes is a leap of faith.

In the next post we’ll talk about how to unleash every employee’s creative marketing beast.

* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,000 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow

* Gallup wrote an interesting piece called How to Bolster Employees’ Confidence. I’ll give you a hint, encouraging words matter.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, Book Review
- 4 Techniques to Help You Deal With a Difficult Boss

Image courtesy of CC Chapman

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

You may have heard about the 24 employees at France Telecom who committed suicide because work was too stressful. I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem.

Many employees are afraid to speak up for fear of being fired or looked down upon by their peers.

France Telecom is going through a restructuring in order to stand out competitive communication industry. They are trying to trim the fat and fix the problems. This isn’t easy in France where demand for employee rights is very strong.

I was thinking about the times in the past when I was depressed and worn down by work. That’s why I quit that old job.

I really think people should quit instead of putting their lives at risk.

Too Late

The problem is that people don’t realize that something is seriously wrong until it’s too late. They feel like their life is out of their control.

It’s easy for me to say, “Just quit,” nothing is worth putting your health at risk, but that’s not fair.

I endured a lot of crap while working for some pretty awful bosses. I’ve talked about my depression at work and bullying that I endured.

On 14 July, another 52-year-old employee killed himself in Marseille, leaving behind a note blaming “overwork” and “management by terror”. He wrote: “I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom. That’s the only reason.”
- Angelique Chrisafis of The Guardian UK

We don’t think that a man would stab himself in the stomach to show his company that he is in pain. This is what happened at France Telecom. A 52 year old man stabbed himself while in a meeting to send a message.

He was not happy!

Communicate Our Feelings

We don’t communicate our feelings with each other often enough. We don’t want to get labeled as a complainer.

I don’t have the answer to this problem. A company needs to stay nimble and that may mean restructuring every few years, but how far should they go?

It’s tough to see that invisible line.

France Telecom did hire counselors, help people with moving transitions, and even helped subsidize new businesses in order to assist people in creating new careers. It still wasn’t enough.

All I know is that the leaders in companies must learn to do a better job of listening to their employees. They need to take the time to hang out and understand their concerns.

Should leaders be trained to help their employees become happy?

What do you think?

* Join over 450 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning. When you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* Mark Silver over at the Heart of Business wrote a wonderful post called Stopping the Cycle of Violence in Business. I couldn’t agree more.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- What Hidden Emotional Anchors are Holding You Back?

Image courtesy of Yves Le Bail

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Adrienne Carlson.

If life could be split into two general parts, work would take up one compartment and personal life the other. While we tend to put our personal relationships on a higher rung, work too is significant in the larger scheme of things because it puts food on our table and provides us with the money we need to lead a comfortable life.

So when your work life is not satisfactory, your personal life suffers too, because as much as we may try to keep the two like parallel lines that never meet, the fact is that they are like train tracks that tend to cross over and merge once in a while. So if you have the misfortune of working with a boss who is difficult, your work tensions may spill over into and ruin your personal life, which is why you must know how to deal with superiors who make your work life a heavy cross to bear.

A few ways to deal with a difficult boss are to:

1. Keep a low profile

If you feel your boss is picking on you for no reason at all, the best thing to do is keep a low profile and stay out of his/her hair. Give them fewer chances to take off on you by keeping to yourself and letting their ire subside before you run into them again. Most bosses go through phases where they tend to pick on employees for a certain period of time. A friend of mine ran into some trouble with his boss even though he was not at fault. The problem arose because a few people who were against him at the office bad-mouthed him and their boss was biased enough to believe them without giving my friend the benefit of the doubt. Instead of arguing his case (which was a pointless exercise as his boss was a jerk), my friend chose to avoid getting in his way, and in a few weeks, this issue was forgotten. So if enough time goes by and you deliberately avoid adding to their irritation, something else invariably crops up and you find that you’re off the hook.

2. Don’t neglect your work

If you’ve been doing your job effectively and continue to prove yourself, you don’t give your boss additional reasons to be difficult towards you. There was a problem at work recently that arose because of payment issues – my boss felt I was taking too much time off and also demanding a higher salary. I felt that I was entitled to raise because my work proved it, and my time off was due to mitigating circumstances. Instead if arguing my point, I dedicated myself to proving my worth through my work so that my boss would not grudge having to pay me more. Some superiors tend to pile work on those who they know are capable of getting it done (even when it is beyond the call of duty) and who they know cannot refuse to comply to an order. Instead of stressing yourself out because you’re not able to complete all this extra work, explain to your boss firmly but politely why it is not possible to take on more work than you have at the moment.

3. Know when to stay silent

Very often, superiors hate being proved wrong, especially if it is in the company of people who work under them. So in situations where you know you’re right and your boss is wrong, it’s ok to be magnanimous and stay silent instead of risking your boss’s ire and fire. Even if you’re being taken to task for no fault of your own, sometimes it’s better to just apologize and get on with your work. You save yourself further harassment from your boss if you restrain yourself from arguing with him/her. None of us like to be proved wrong, especially if we’re in a position of considerable power. So putting yourself in your boss’s shoes (no matter how distasteful that must be), could help you understand and accept this situation.

4. Leave the office at work

No matter how difficult your boss is, you must learn to leave the office behind after your work day is done. If you carry all the tensions and stress associated with the job back home, your personal life is going to suffer too, so if things are really bad, it’s better to ask to be transferred or search for a new job and quit once you’ve found one. Your health is important and if your relationship with your boss is affecting it adversely, you must not hesitate to quit.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of accelerated online degrees . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com.

* Need a boost to your work happiness? Then check out the Happy at Work Project and start one yourself.

* Evita over at Evolve Beings has a really amazing guest post called Redefining Success: Why I Quit My Job.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

- Day 1of 30 – No complaining

* Image courtesy of Symic

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!