The Happiness Advantage – Part One

Sean Achor, CEO of Aspirant and author of The Happiness Advantage: the Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work was recently featured on a HBR Ideacast where he discussed the profound effect a positive outlook has on our ability to work productively and experience happiness both at work and at home. Sean begins by clarifying what is meant by positive psychology. He’s not talking...

Managing stress this holiday season!

Image courtesy of seaskylab/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Build in Down Time. Holiday time is lots of fun but can get tiring with all the visits and parties.  Make sure you block off time in your calendar to reconnect with your couch and fuzzy slippers.  This will ensure you can keep pace with the demands of the season without burning out or getting sick. Stick to a budget. It’s been a couple of...

Quotes of the Week

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”-William Arthur Ward “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”-John Lubbock “Don’t think of how you’re going to spend your time – use it.”-William Askinas “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”-Thomas Edison “The most wonderful...

Work, Life, and Everything In Between

Maintaining a proper work/life balance is an issue that is gaining more precedence, especially amongst Gen Y’s. Being a Gen Y myself, I can attest to the utmost importance of finding employment that offers the opportunity to maintain a happy medium between work and life. Though employers are becoming more attune to the need for balance, there is still a long way to go. Author of SuperCorp, Rosabeth Moss...

Effective, not just efficient

Image courtesy of renjith Krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net The art of time management involves being effective as well as efficient. The Matrix of Urgent/Important adapted from Stephen Covey’s Book, First Things First, illustrates that it’s important to understand the difference between urgent and important and their relevance in managing your time and tasks (Stephen Covey, First Things First, 1996). Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals. Urgent activities demand immediate...

Quotes of The Week

“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says “Make me feel important”. Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life”-Mary Kay Ash “Everyone wants to be appreciated so if you appreciate someone don’t keep it a secret”-Mary Kay Ash “Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your...

Can Introverts Lead?

So often we assume that good leaders are extroverts, but as Francesca Gino, associate professor at Harvard Business School suggests, that may not always be true. Though North American culture seems to value the extroverted personality, extroverted leaders do face challenges. They can stifle a proactive team by often overlooking the input of team members in favour of their own ideas. Introvert leaders are better in situations when followers...

Take out Time for Life’s Beauty

Image courtesy of scottchan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net I recently came across an article, Washington Post – Pearls Before Breakfast, that made me think about work life balance and how while rushing through life we neglect small beautiful things. The article illustrates the findings of an experiment in which one of the world’s greatest violinists,Joshua Bell, with one of the world’s most expensive instruments was placed in a busy location but received no recognition...

Quotes of the Week

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”— General Colin Powell Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.—Jesse Jackson “I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.”— Warren Bennis “Men make history and not the other way...

Benefits of Belly Breathing

Typically, the only place we really concentrate on our breathing is in a yoga class, but we really should be thinking about our breathing throughout the day as abdominal breathing has a plethora of benefits. Belly breathing a great way to relieve stress as it promotes calmness by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and allows for improved concentration. What’s more, is that it also helps to detoxify your inner...

Managing Interruptions – Part 2

As we talked about in a previous weekly tip , it can take up to 20 minutes to get back the level of concentration prior to the interruption (Organize your work day  – in no time, Karen McCorry). These tips by Meryl Runion can help you manage your interruptions effectively: Encourage interrupters to find their own answers, and help them discover how DON’T: automatically give answers they could find...

Quotes of the week

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”~John Quincy Adams “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.”~Tom Landry “It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”~Adlai Stevenson “By trying we can easily endure...

Enlightened Business Summit: Tony Schwartz.

Two weeks ago, I took out time to listen to Tony Schwartz, NY Times Bestselling Author; CEO of The Energy Project, on News ways of Working (Quality not quantity). The main idea of his talk was to make peoples live better the by-product of which is better performance. Here are the key things he talked about in his seminar: He talks how we are influenced by emotions. When expectations...

Enlightened Business Summit: The Marriage of the Sacred and Commerce as the Only Way to Succeed in Business

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Bettie Spruill, management consultant, entrepreneur, public speaking and transformational technology writer speak about the importance of incorporating the sacred into commence. Here’s some of the key points she expressed during her half-hour seminar: In Bettie’s view, marrying the sacred with commerce begins with adjusting your line of reasoning. In other words, in business ask not, “what am I getting?” but “who...

Quotes Of The Week

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediore minds.” ~Albert Einstein “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.”~Alexander Graham Bell “Determination and perseverance move the world; thinking that others will do it for you is a sure way to fail.”~Marva Collins “Light is the task where many share the toll.”~Homer “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”~Helen Keller “The way to get...

Enlightened Business Summit: Conscious Capitalism

This week I had the opportunity to hear from many great speakers during the Enlightened Business Summit.  The premise of the summit is “how to marry enlightened values and the bottom line, as well as how to liberate the full potential of employees, customers, and even investors.”  Since this is a topic I have become passionate about, I was thrilled to participate and am now excited to share these...

Managing Email Madness – Part Three

We hope you enjoyed our series on managing email madness. In case you’re still  experiencing resistance from your email recipients, or you’re just looking for some more great techniques, we’ve extended our series to include a third installment.  In our final chapter, we’re going to look at some more tips from  Stever Robbins on helping you to control the flow of email. Send out Delayed Responses This technique is...

Quotes Of The Week

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”~ Anatole France “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”~ Franklin D. Roosevelt “A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.” ~ Paul Dudley White “Above all, do...

Stress Busters- Part 3

Image courtesy of Michal Marcol/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Feeling stressed? Not being able to focus on work properly? Is stress causing a constant rush of adrenaline? Here is the solution! We have quick stress busters for you AGAIN. Our stress busters blogs have been so successful that we thought we’d provide you with more: Take a mental vacation. – Give yourself a 10 minute mental vacation by imaging yourself on a real...

Managing Email Madness – Part Two

Last week, in Part One of our three part blog series, Managing Email Madness, we taught you how to become a better, more efficient email sender. By now, we hope your new techniques for sending email have rubbed off on those around you, but in case you have some resistors, Stever Robbins has a few techniques that you can use when it comes to reading and receiving email Use a Paper...

Video Weekly Tip: Stress Relief with Wendy Woods

Take a break and watch Wendy Woods, Principal of Watershed Training Solutions, walk you through all the benefits of one of her favourite stress relievers: laughter. For more information about Watershed Training Solutions and stress management tools, strategies and workshops, check out https://www.watershedtraining.ca/

Quotes of The Week

“If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed”~David Viscott “There is only one success-to be able to spend your life in your own way”~Anonymous “There is no failure; only a delay in results”~Helen Hadsell “Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth!” ~George W. Crane “Don’t do anything in practice that you wouldn’t do in the game.”~George Halas “When we lose...

Sitting Your Life Away

A few hours of sitting can be more dangerous to your health than previously thought. Multiple studies, including those published by The British Journal of Sports Medicine and the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Journal (described on Natural Health Care), reiterate how detrimental a sedentary lifestyle can be. After just four hours of sitting, genes that regulate the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to...

Managing Email Madness – Part One

First off, we’d like to thank all of you who responded to our query regarding workplace stress. In response to your comments, we’d like to help you manage one of your top stresses: email overload. Although most of us have been using email for a number of years, many of us still struggle with managing it effectively, making email overload one of the top workplace stresses. Daily, our inboxes...

Stress Busters – Part 2

Image courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Now that the Thanksgiving fun is over and everyone is back to the grind, we could think of no better time than now to provide you with a few more stress busting tips from our Stress Busters Simple Strategies in 5 Minutes or Less Take 10 deep slow breaths – Why? Breathing is one of the easiest systems to control in order to relax (Dr...

Quotes of The Week

“We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.”~Lauryn Hill “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere”~Lee Iacocca “The art of communication is the language of leadership.”~James Humes “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~Viktor Frankl “Outstanding people have one thing in common:...

Manage your stress this Thanksgiving!

Well, it’s almost here (don’t pretend you don’t what I’m talking about), the long weekend! But with copious amounts of turkey and an extra day of rest comes great responsibility and (I hate to say it) stress. With mere hours before the festivities begin, it’s no surprise that some us might be feeling a little anxious about all the work we’re leaving behind (and that’s no way to start...

Tips to Stay on Task and Get Things Done

Image courtesy of Rawich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Let’s face it, everyone out there has griped (at least once) that there are too few hours in a day. Sometimes life gets so overwhelming you feel like there is never enough time to meet all of your demands and complete all of the tasks on your never ending to-do’s. But maybe if we made better use of our time, we could get more done....

Quotes of the Week

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. ~Margaret Mead If you have the courage to begin with, you have the courage to succeed ~David Viscott It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation ~Herman Melville The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense ~Albert Einstein It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves ~Edmund Hillary...

Our Gen Y to Gen X dictionary III

Here are some more Gen Y dictionary of terms to put in your vocabulary. IIRC – if I remember correctly IRL – in real life J/K – just kidding FWD – forward BIB: Boss is back CM: Call me CYE: Check your email DIKU: Do I know you? SLAP: Sounds like a plan TMB: Text me back Keep looking for more terms