Resilience

In: Career, Resilience

This year has been tough on everyone. I think that everyone is dealing with exhaustion. The pandemic, a global recession, working from home, studying from home, everyone home. What started as a refreshing change became challenging as families juggled work and home responsibilities. The constant fear of the pandemic as numbers grew then fell and then grew again. The recession and its its dramatic flow on impact to employment and financial security. This DIGEST comes from an article by Scott Eblin of the Eblin Group. Scott wrote about his own exhaustion this year and how his wife helped him with a process to getting life back in order. What Do You Do When You Are Dealing With Exhaustion Admit to yourself that you are exhausted – The first step with dealing with a problem is recognising that an it exists. No one can do their best work when they areContinue Reading

In: Career, Resilience

Its going to happen, one day you will be working in a team and face challenges with an individual. Personality challenges with high conflict people happens in all teams and all organisations. Some people may feel incredibly negative to you. They may always need to have the last word. Some people love to split hairs on the finer details. Other people are complainers, blamers or flamers. There are those that wont follow process. Others who will only follow process to the letter. So knowing that we all deal with these people at different times, how can you best manage that relationship to be as productive as possible. Avoid Assuming Intent It is the classic mistake. You are offended or frustrated by the individual and so you already rationalise that the behaviour is deliberate, personal and it is them (not us) that need to change. Our brains have a confirmation bias,Continue Reading

In: Career, Career Development, Resilience

Creative inspiration can help you to be happier, smarter and more emotionally aware. Amy Stanton-Minutes writes about how you can build your creativity and use it to change the way you see the world. She has four ways that can help you have a happier and healthier life through a little creative inspiration. MORNING PAGESAn exercise in free writing your thoughts first thing in the morning. No editing what you have written or criticising it. Much like writing a journal the creativity of capturing your thoughts no matter where they ramble, also helps with clearing the sub-conscience. PERSONAL PROJECTSDesign a business card or a T-Shirt, take photo’s make a music playlist, knit sweater it doesn’t matter what your project as long as you feel you are creating and putting some original thought into it. SING, DANCE & PLAYDancing, singing and other kinds of play help release inhibitions and provide aContinue Reading

In: Career, Career Development, Resilience

Preparing for disappointment, it’s not something you want to think about at the beginning but for some it can become overwhelming, so how do you strike the right balance? It is something that we all face, preparing, waiting, hoping and finally bracing ourselves for the chance we will not get what ever the big opportunity we were hoping for. From school grades to job interviews we all face disappointment and waiting for results can be agonising. The frustration of not knowing can mess with your sleep and your concentration, so how do you manage during the time of uncertainty, rather than drop into a rabbit hole of potential negativity? Amy Gallo spoke with some other experts to advise some coping mechanisms, and here is what they propose: Ask yourself if worrying helps According to Art Markman (a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and author ofContinue Reading

In: Career, Resilience

Recovering from failure, at some point in our careers, we all fail. It is how we recover from that failure that differentiates us. Failure is hard, it is ego shattering and very painful. But as Robert Kanaat writes; “failure, as much as it hurts, is a necessary evil. Failure, and the resultant pain it causes, helps to shape and mold us, tailoring a platform for future success. It doesn’t feel like something that’s beneficial at all when we’re going through it, but that failure is, in fact, a prerequisite for success.”  The first step to dealing with any failure is to fix it yourself – don’t leave the clean up to anyone else, help the team recover and find solutions to move forward. Secondly apologise quickly, own the issue by taking responsibility and having a clear plan for resolution. Thirdly move on by focusing and managing your emotions. Virginia Villari writesContinue Reading

In: Career, Resilience

How to manage anxiety – The pandemic, recession and uncertainty has increased the level of stress and anxiety most people are feeling. Anxiety is fed watered and sustained by the presence of fear, it is such a negative and primal emotion. Designed to keep us safe it can overwhelm our thoughts and emotions. “Anxiety is created when you move into the unknown because your fear response is on high alert. Has your fear produced anxiety because there’s a genuine risk? Or has the fear produced anxiety and panic because you’ve moved into your discomfort zone?“ 1. Stop it at the beginning Fear can trigger physical responses like a racing pulse, high blood pressure or a cold sweat, or it can trigger an emotional response like aggression. Many people are more comfortable with anger over anxiety so they choose it as a way to alleviate the pressure. The problem is behaviourContinue Reading

Punch in face

In: Career, Resilience

“Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth” most will immediately recognise the quote as coming from boxer Mike Tyson, it is such a very a familiar phrase, so much so that you have probably used it yourself at one time or another but what does it really mean. When considering your professional career, as a leader or an entrepreneur we all face set backs at time. How well you recover has a lot to do with your preparation, planning and mental resilience. Having contingency plans for your career is not just logical it is essential. Back in the early 1990’s I was working in advertising, where the average tenure of most creative staff was nine months. Lose a client and the whole team expected to lose their jobs, win an industry accolade or award for great work and get poached to work in new firm withContinue Reading

Toxic Co-Workers

In: Career, Resilience

How do you deal with Toxic People? Especially when they are a co-worker or a boss? How should you manage a toxic staff member? There are numerous articles published on this topic and that is because unfortunately the problem is a fairly common one and many of us find it difficult to find the best way to respond. This article pulls together a range of insights, research and perspectives to provide some useful advice and techniques to manage these relationships most effectively without impacting you. Seth Meyers writing in Psychology Today has four recommendations Avoid sharing personal information or your true opinions – The key point being that you should not share information with a toxic individual that you don’t want the world to know. While openness and honesty are usually positive ways to build healthy relationships, with toxic people this information can end up being used for emotional abuseContinue Reading

McKinsey Purpose

In: Career, Purpose, Resilience

“Creating strong links to an individual purpose benefits individuals and companies alike—and could be vital in managing the postpandemic uncertainties that lie ahead.” Igniting individual purpose in times of crisis, McKinsey Quarterly, 18th August 2020 It is widely recognised that companies around the world are extremely challenged facing the current crisis, so how important is it to be clear on purpose, of your company and of the individuals within the organisation. The authors explain that it may be a very important to have clarity of purpose. During times of crisis individual purpose can provide clarity of direction to individuals helping them address the challenges and potentially mitigate the risks and damaging effects of long term stress. “What is your company’s core reason for being, and where can you have a unique, positive impact on society? Now more than ever, you need good answers to these questions.” Purpose Shifting From WhyContinue Reading

In: Career, Resilience

Feeling safe in an unsafe world is key to grounding our effective leadership, in this article the author explains that humans yearn for a sense of safety, which is deeply linked to our evolution. This provides us with a positive calm when we are confidently able to predict what is going on in our environment, when we can act with certainty and control. However when the world gets unpredictable, we no longer have certainty and we can no longer accurately predict the immediate future in broad terms, that is when our sense of safety flies right out the window. This article is also available as a YouTube video (where you can view Ed’s extremely impressive Santa beard) which is available at the end of the article. “Control is an illusion” Sheldon Kopp We pursue control as way to create a sense of safety in an unpredictable world and here theContinue Reading