Workplace Stress Management & Raising Your Vibration Course for Corporate Employees

Teaser on my new course...

You have finally got your dream job in a large corporation. Yes, that job you have been wanting for years, that job you have graduated two master's for, that job you have taken a dozen courses for, that job you have been planning since childhood. You are a great manager, or team leader, or an amazing specialist. You score professional success after success, but are you happy? Do you wake up in the morning eager to start work? Oh...that was years ago? Hm...how come I know? Because I've been there, done that. I am sure corporate employees are not happy. I've met a lot and I know. I've been one and I know. To get the idea, go visit a place where corporate people shop or eat - a supermarket near an office area is perfect - you will meet corporate employees coming there to buy some lunch. Notice their sad faces or their fake smiles, notice the way they constantly check their watches to make sure their break is not over yet and they don't have to run yet to their desks, notice their tired eyes in the evening after hours and hours spent in front of the PC, notice how they speak to their children (or how they ignore their children while running around the supermarket and speaking on the phone to solve yet another urgent matter late in the evening).

You can't give up your job, or at least not yet. Being an entrepreneur is not for you or you are not ready yet. But you want to be better now. So, how do you do it? Well, there are a few techniques you can use right now, right on the spot as you still work for your dream corporation. Check them out. Awareness never hurt anybody.

In the second part we will cover more advanced and complex issues like programming water, understanding disease, healing, the power of food and air, Neuro-linguistic programming and changing your mental blockages, attracting what you want in your life through gratitude and releasing negative feelings through forgiveness. 

Let's get to it. Love, Geo 

Motivating Your Employees - Change Your Attitude

A while ago I used to have a manager that was a master of mobbing. We all "loved" her. She would burst into the room in the morning, always trying to surprise us while doing something illegal, she would never say "good morning", she would throw her laptop on the desk and start working as if none of us were in the room. Imagine our rest of the day - we were all sad, our motivation was gone (had we had any left in the first place from the day before :)), we were all looking at the clock hoping it would miraculously turn to 5pm on the spot so we could all run to the tram. I wandered along the factory all day begging for a smile for anyone to brighten up my day...just a little at least as the dark clouds came over me again as soon as I entered our HR office.

Well, do you get it? See what's wrong here? Of course! A manager is responsible for a lot of things and among them is team attitude. Your team looks up to you - you have a bad day - don't let them see it because they will borrow your attitude and have a bad day also. You are nice and smiling all the time - they will be happy and smiling all the time. Genuine smile, I mean, not fake, they're not stupid to buy it...

What can you do as a manager to motivate your team from this point of view?

-Never enter the office in the morning without smiling and greeting them;

-Always make eye contact while talking to your team members – it’s not fun for someone to stand by your desk and look at you while reading emails – that’s not a conversation;

-Treat your team members with respect – remember they help you achieve your goals – no, really! You’re not alone there. You wouldn’t be able to achieve your team goals without your team;

-Never take in the office calls or have discussions where you estimate you would get angry – go in a separate room – an angry attitude from a manager shouting influences everybody, even if the manager is not shouting at someone present in the office;

-Always offer negative feedback in a one-to-one meeting; positive feedback can be offered publicly;

-Try to leave your personal issues at home;

-Be positive, expect positive things from your team and they will achieve them – be negative and show them you don’t trust them (see my manager trying to catch us while doing something illegal – we neved did by the way) and they will dissappoint you;

-Speak nicely of people, not necessarily your team members – your manager, your colleagues, your family. Your team will see that you are a good person and will appreciate the positive atmosphere you are creating;

-Don’t be afraid to show them you have weakneses too – you are human too and they will see you as one of the team, having faith to come to you for an open discussion;

-Roll up your sleeves – don’t give them tasks and flee. Try to show them you are able to work together with them on the tasks even if for some time. I know managers are busy, but taking the time to work by them will make them respect you. Trust me. You don’t want them to see you as a God from above that is almighty. You want them to respect and care for you. You will have your ups and downs and if they don’t respect and care for you, you will be alone during your downs;

-Make time for them – even if a few minutes. They will appreciate it. A lunch out or even in the office together, a short meeting, a few minutes spent near your desk talking, try to make time for each of them;

-Be fair – tream them equally when they go wrong or when they are successful;

What else would you add to my list?
Take care,
Geo

What to Do as a Manager When Your Team Falls Apart – Prevent & Cure

First of all, let me define “falling apart”. I’m sure you have a rough idea, but let me be clear. To me a team that is falling apart means unhappy people leaving the team, people that are not motivated to do their job and make sure others are demotivated too, people that constantly complain, people that you see are constantly coming late to work, taking too many breaks, spending too much time on social networks or job portals, people who no longer do their job (but used to) and come up with silly excuses, people who stay home on sick leave too often, who no longer answer their phone after 5 pm, who no longer stay willingly in the office to help finish a team project if the clock is 5.01 pm, who miss team events outside the office, people who seem bored and annoyed around their colleagues, around you or inside the office. Sounds familiar? I’m sure you’ve had that in your team at some point…

Now, what to do?

Well, there are several possibilities depending on the number of team members in that situation – if there’s only one, obviously your team is not falling apart quite yet and the situation can easily be improved. However, if there are several team members involved, you need to rethink your strategy entirely and FAST!

But, before treatment, try prevention:

-          Get to know each team member really well – what their personality is (introverts, extroverts, ambitious, timorous, courageous), what their skills are, what their ambitions and goals are and important as well – get to know their personal life too – their parents, children, problems, hobbies, illnesses, whatever they are willing to share. I know it seems like a lot, but it is worth it. You will get to understand them better and use their skills in an optimum way and at an optimum time;

-          Spend enough time with each team member and the team as a whole – this will make them feel valued and important; get to listen to what they have to say, to their suggestions, reply in a realistic manner and use their ideas if they are good – you may never know who is the one saving your next project;

-          Accept the idea that there may be people in your team better than you. I mean it! Help them develop and support them. You will lose them eventually if you don’t and the image they will spread about you and the company won’t be a nice one. If you support them, they may be replacing you when you get promoted and the company won’t lose a great next manager; you may never know what lies ahead;

-          Do your best to offer your team the resources they need to do their job – knowledge, office supplies, time, whatever necessary. Involve them in the process and they will respect you for trying even if you fail;

-          Roll up your sleeves – don’t just sit there ordering them what to do. If there’s a big project that requires a lot of work that is beneath your level of expertise, but the team has to do overtime to finish it (and you have some spare time), leave the strategic thinking for later and help them. Team members respect their manager if they see that he is working next to them archiving dusty papers.  Don’t be afraid you will fall from your throne! No way! They will just appreciate your effort and it will be great team building for them too;

-          Make people feel important – value their ideas. Read more about it here;

-          Accept the idea that attrition is good up to a point and that people need to evolve. Don’t panic and run like a headless chicken around the office if someone leaves. The rest of the team will panic too and moreover they will think that you don’t value them as much. Simply organize a team meeting, explain to the team what happened, ask for ideas if necessary to bring things up to normal then continue your work. That’s it!

-          Allow team members to enter your busy strategic world. Offer them information about the company, about what you are doing, about your projects. Let them see as mush as possible of the big picture. This will allow them to better understand their work and their part in the company;

-          Give your team members SMART objectives. And I mean SMART. Don’t just say they are SMART.  Talk to them and make sure they understand what you need the to do. Putting parts of their job description as SMART objectives for the year is stupid and dangerous. Make sure they can measure at all times what their progress is. If an objective you give them can’t be measured in terms of progress, then that’s a non-SMART objective and can demotivate your team member who will struggle to achieve it but won’t see the end in their struggle. Let me give you  an example of a non-SMART objective that I received some time ago from my manager and that annoyed me and demotivated me: “ Have a good work relationship with your colleagues from location B.”. Well, how do you measure that? How many times I traveled there and took them out for lunch?

-          Be honest – don’t lie and don’t promise things you can’t offer; empty promises  will help on the short term, but they will backfire horribly on the medium and long term;

Now, assuming that you did all that and your team is still falling apart, then…

First of all, if there’s only one team member that is obviously demotivated, you need to:

-          Talk to them.This is the first thing to do. Maybe they don’t have the courage to tell you something. Maybe they have a family problem, maybe they did something and are afraid of the consequences, maybe they are overwhelmed with tasks, maybe their best friend in the team is no longer doing his job and they are doing their job too not having the courage to say. I don’t know. Just talk to them. People react strangely sometimes;

-         Try to improve something – maybe the employee needs more resources, maybe you need to change their shift, maybe they have too many tasks or maybe they just need a few days off. Try to help somehow, the employee will expect it after the meeting; don’t implement favorable measures just for the demotivated employee if there’s the case. Extent it for the entire team;

-          Explain the changes to the team – you don’t want more of them getting demotivated. Allow them to understand what happened and why.

If the team is really falling apart, then you need to:

-          Organize a team meeting and encourage the team to tell you about their problems. Try to improve at least of few items during this first meeting if you have the ability and power; they will see you care;

-          Go to upper management with the problem if there’s something you can’t fix – maybe they want higher salaries, maybe there’s a new company on the market offering something more and you could fix it with their help, maybe you need to hire someone new to take some of the tasks the others can no longer handle; come back to your team members with results or at least keep them posted with as much as you can tell them – there may be confidential items you may not say;

-          Keep a close report of leavers – reasons of leaving, duration of stay in the company, positions of leavers, other details you may find useful – this will help you improve the life for the rest;

Tough being a manager, huh? Who said it was easy?  Managers keep teams together and have a difficult job. What else would you add to the lists above?

Take care,

Geo

Motivating Your Employees - Make People Feel Important

As I have mentioned in my previous article, motivating people is a difficult job for a manager, especially when you have only non-financial means available and your team is made up of various types of characters. Money is a good motivator but only for a while and only for lower type of positions. As you go higher, it no longer works, no matter how much money you decide to make available. That's when you need to think of other motivators. Making people feel important is one of them. It works for all categories of team members - juniors and seniors alike.

Making people feel important doesn't necessarily mean promoting them. And you need to remember that not everybody wants to be manager. For some it may be a huge pain in the back. Also, promoting the wrong people may lead to team disaster. Making people feel important may be sometimes much easier than you think. Here's what you can do:

• Listen to people - this shows you care - listen to their problems, to their suggestions, even if you can't apply or solve everything at least give people a part of your time to show that you appreciate their effort in the team;
• Ask for help - this makes people feel useful - delegate some of your tasks - it will help them and you equally;
• Be polite - no matter how angry or frustrated you are. Never forget "Please" and "Thank you";
• Reward people - don't take measures only when something is wrong to solve a problem - also act when people have done something positive;
• Offer feedback - good or bad - this shows that you are following your team members in their actions, that you offer them part of your time, that you praise them when good things happen and that you care about their improvement when bad things do;
• Encourage people;
• Offer them some decision freedom - no matter how small, allow them to make some choices, to implement some of their ideas;
• Show them you care about their professional and personal improvement - send them to trainings, organize team buildings, delegate (I've already said that, but it needs to be repeated here too), talk about what they want to do and help them, give them challenging tasks and objectives;
• Show compassion when they have personal problems;
• Allow them to have a life - let them go home on time to be with their families, encourage them to be efficient on the job in order not to spend the entire day at work, encourage them not to take work at home unless absolutely necessary;
• Smile, be nice and honest;
• Organize personal meetings with each of them to allow them to offer your their feedback;
• Roll up your sleeves - don't run when the team has a big project to finish and tight deadlines- work near them doing sometimes tasks that are below your status - this will show them you care about them and about the team and you don't consider yourself too good and too high on the ladder to do entry level tasks;

What ideas do you have to make people in your team feel important?

Take care,
Geo

How To Create an Effective Employee Engagement Survey

Employee Surveys are used in a lot of large and small companies. Their objective is to evaluate employee engagement, motivation, company strengths, weaknesses and to offer the employees a simple (and most of the times anonymous) tool to express their opinion and suggest improvement ideas.

The effectiveness of any survey you may decide to apply in your company depends on a series of simple factors:
- proper communication: tell the employees that a survey will be conducted (offer details concerning purpose, length, expectations), tell the employees that the purpose is to offer them the possibility to speak their mind and that it will NOT be used against them;
- sharing the results - always share results and keep employees updated - otherwise, the second survey you send will be ignored;
- sharing the action plan - tell the employees that you have prepared an action plan and keep them updated on the way it is being implemented; involve some of them in the implementation plan where possible;
- employee involvement in decision making - involve employees where possible in the creation of the action plan; if they receive the action plan already made, chances are they will not embrace it; if they come with some of the ideas, for sure they will help implement them;
- time frames - try not to organize surveys every month - everybody will get bored and eventually stop opening your emails; a large survey once a year is more than enough; also, give the people plenty of time to open the survey and reply - depending on the number of questions, try to give them 2-3 weeks for 20-30 questions and up to one month and a half for over 60-70 questions; also, remember to consider people on vacation, business trips or sick leave - give them a chance to speak their mind too.
- reminders - people tend to forget all about tasks that are not urgent; reminders once a week or once in 2 weeks help.

In terms of questions, please find below a few ideas. You can use them as they are, delete some or add more.

Engagement Profile 

All in all, I am satisfied with [Company name] as a company.
I am proud to work for [Company name].
I plan to continue my career with [Company name].
I would recommend [Company name] as a place to work to a friend or colleague.

 
Attitude Towards Client/Company 

Client problems are dealt with quickly.
I believe that our professional excellence differentiates us from our competitors.
I feel personally responsible for my clients' satisfaction.
We convert our clients' suggestions and complaints into improved services and/or deliverables.

 
Communication 

I am well informed about what is happening in [Company name].
I have a good understanding of the overall strategy and objectives of my business area.
I have been adequately informed about the results of the past employee survey and actions have been taken in response to the survey findings.
I see a clear link between my objectives and the objectives of my business area.
In my day to day job, everyone is encouraged to openly express his/her opinions.
The leadership of my business area has communicated a vision of the future that motivates me.
There is open and honest two-way communication in my business area.
I can easily get the information I need to do a good job.

 
Compensation & Benefits 

My compensation is in line with my role and the market.

 
CSR 

I feel [Company name] is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen (e.g. working with communities and charities like Naandi/Planet Finance, reducing our environmental impact, working with our clients on sustainability issues, e.g. Green IT).

 
Ethical Business 

[Company name] shows a commitment to ethical business decisions and conduct.
I feel that [Company name] encourages diversity.
I feel that [Company name] gives opportunities to everyone.

 
Main Motivators 

I am motivated a lot by ... Average time spent at work
I am motivated a lot by ... Bonus and rewards system for holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.)
I am motivated a lot by ... Bonus system for results recognition
I am motivated a lot by ... Budget for travelling
I am motivated a lot by ... Company headquarters
I am motivated a lot by ... Conditions for physichal recreation
I am motivated a lot by ... Conditions of periodical recreation (trips, parties, etc.)
I am motivated a lot by ... Conditions of serving lunch
I am motivated a lot by ... Degree of information upon company results
I am motivated a lot by ... Degree of responsibility on the job
I am motivated a lot by ... Feedback from direct manager
I am motivated a lot by ... Good initial training (Induction)
I am motivated a lot by ... Internal opportunities to develop your career
I am motivated a lot by ... IT support
I am motivated a lot by ... Meeting efficiency
I am motivated a lot by ... Opportunites to develop technical/specialist skills
I am motivated a lot by ... Other material benefits (car, bonuses, etc.)
I am motivated a lot by ... Overtime compensation system
I am motivated a lot by ... Promotions system within the company
I am motivated a lot by ... Quality of collaborating with HR
I am motivated a lot by ... Quality of collaborating with IT
I am motivated a lot by ... Quality of collaborating with other departments
I am motivated a lot by ... Quality of collaborating with top management
I am motivated a lot by ... Recognition of my results
I am motivated a lot by ... Recreation spaces
I am motivated a lot by ... Respect the employee is treated with
I am motivated a lot by ... Safety of position
I am motivated a lot by ... Salary increase system
I am motivated a lot by ... Salary level
I am motivated a lot by ... Support offered during the activity
I am motivated a lot by ... The Office
I am motivated a lot by ... The way knowledge is transmitted within the company
I am motivated a lot by ... Training system offered periodically
I am motivated a lot by ... Transportation facilities
I am motivated a lot by ... Work atmosphere
I am motivated a lot by ... Work itself

 
Management 

All in all, I am satisfied with my manager.
I am encouraged to be creative and innovative in my work.
I am sufficiently involved in decisions that affect my work.
I get the necessary support from my manager to be able to carry out my assignments.
I trust my manager.
I trust the senior leadership of [Company name].
My manager clearly communicates what is expected of me.
My manager deals appropriately with poor performance.
My manager encourages me to contribute, re-use and share knowledge.
My manager is an effective leader.
My manager is committed to providing high quality services to our clients.
My manager supports and practices high standards of ethical conduct.
My manager supports my professional and personal development.
My manager treats me with respect.

 
Performance Evaluation and Recognition 

I understand how my performance is measured and evaluated.
In my business area, poor performance is dealt with appropriately.
My last performance review was conducted in a fair and reasonable way.
Outstanding performance is recognized appropriately.
Throughout the year my manager gives me useful feedback on how I can improve my performance.

 
Professional Development 

All in all, I am satisfied with my opportunities for professional development in [Company name].
I have the training I need to do my job effectively.
New employees receive the training necessary to perform their jobs effectively.
The training I receive in [Company name] allows me to develop my competencies for my current and future roles.

 
Team work 

There is good collaboration and teamwork within [Company name].
I feel that I am part of a team.

 
Tools 

I have the tools, equipment and support I need to do a good job (technology, equipment, knowledge database, templates, methodologies, quality processes, helpdesk).

 
Work-Life Balance 

I am able to balance the needs of work and personal life.


In terms of statistics, try to use the Likert scale for answers. It looks like this:

1- I stronlgy agree
2 - I agree
3 - Neutral
4 - I disagree
5 - I strongly disagree

If you have only a small number of employees and a small number of questions, processing the data internally is simple and you can do it even on paper with paper surveys and then insert the data in a small spreadsheet. However, a large number of employees (let's say 100+) requires a huge amount of time and effort to process all surveys. A dedicated software or even an external company can help you. Just for your information - I work in a company with 120 000 + employees throughout the world and our survey has over 80 questions - imagine the amount of data there! We use an external provider.

In terms of interpreting the results, add the positive answers on each question (or area).
I.e. Calculation of Engagement profile in your company - see how many employees answered with 1 (Strongly agree) and 2 (Agree) to questions 1 up to 4 above. The highest the score, the better.

Your action plan should focus on the questions/areas with lowest results. Try to ask people what's wrong and why did they give low ratings - maybe they didn't understand the questions or maybe there's a problem in your company that you don't know about.

All in all, I strongly recommend employee surveys. If you need my help with anything, please feel free to ask. I am going right now through my third yearly survey and we do it seriously.

Take care,
Geo

Motivating Your Employees - Opening the Johari Window

A good manager is the one that people know and trust, the one that people are not afraid to share ideas, thoughts and fears with, the one that shows not only strengths but also weaknesses. Good communication is a critical key in a team. Only when your teams knows you, they will trust your decisions even when you are not allowed to share all the details with them.

A good tool to build engagement and motivate your employees is opening the Johari window.
What on Earth is that you may ask?

Well, you can find a lot of great details about it on Wikipedia if you want to go in further detail. It's a concept developed by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the US, in the 50s. I will not detail it too much - I will just tell you that from the table below which represents the Johari window, you need to start opening the Hidden area, the area which includes all the items you know about yourself and that others don't and would be useful to know for the well-being of your team.

The Johari Window

All nice so far, but what to do exactly to open this area?
I will tell you what I did. I created a set of open questions, some work-related and some personal that we all answer during our weekly meetings.

At the end of each regular weekly HR meeting where we discuss important items for our department, I bring out a set of 5 questions that each of us has to answer (refusal is of course an option - nobody is forced to do it, but answering allows us to know each other better and allows the ladies in the team to know me better and understand my decisions).

5 questions in a session are enough because answering them (we are 4 people) takes us around 15-20 minutes, so that's enough for one session. You can use our ideas or create your own questions - the idea is to start communicating with each other and share thoughts and ideas, know each other better, know what you like or dislike and understand your fears and reasons for being proud - the purpose of the exercise is to bring the team together and create stronger bonds.

Ideas of questions to use:
1. What I like most in this company is that...
2. What I would improve in the way our team works is.....
3. What I like about you best is ... (here each member of the team tells each of the others what they like best)
4. The positive items that I bring to this team are...
5. What I would improve about myself is.......
6. I find it difficult to work with people that...
7. I would like you to support me when...
8. The most difficult thing about my work is...
9. During week-ends I love to...
10. I find balance in life doing.....

The list is practically endless - you can put in it whatever you can think of. Just make sure to insert personal details as well not only work-related; the team is stronger if the members have personal connections as well, not only work-related. And use it as often as you can. You will be surprised to see how many new things you discover about each other.

Take care,
Geo