Category: Improving Yourself

I’m Marcia Zidle and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of career management, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

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Welcome!

For more resources, see the Library topic Career Management.

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Marcia Zidle, a certified career strategist and business coach, works with high potential, high impact executives, managers and professionals to advance their careers and grow their leadership capabilities. As founder of Leaders at All Levels, Marcia helps clients revitalize, reposition or retool their careers for the constantly changing marketplace by ensuring they have the right priorities, right performance and the right plan. That’s the recipe for success.
Email Marcia@MarciaZidle.com .

There are plenty of things to worry us, just turn on the TV or radio news. During times of uncertainly or stressful work conditions, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget who you are as a spiritual being. You may be asking, ‘OK, how do I feel happiness when I have deadlines in front of me or we are buried in work?’ I suggest you look at what you are bringing to the table. Look at how you are demonstrating happiness at work. When you bring your Light to work, you light up the workplace around you.

Think of three things you can do this week to bring your Light to work. Maybe it’s something small like smiling when you see a co-worker who’s stressed, maybe it’s offering to help someone on a project they are working on. Maybe you need to stretch yourself somehow to show you care about someone at work. Look around your workplace and be intentional this week to do some small act of kindness. You’ll feel better by doing it. Then when you catch yourself upset about something, choose happiness. Ask yourself, how can I choose happiness (joy, love, peace) over this? Caroline Myss reminds us, “Happiness is an inside job”.

Next time you go into a meeting, pay attention to whether you are worried or looking for good things to happen. You solicit more ideas and information when you believe someone has something positive to contribute. The Self-fulfilling Prophecy is powerful- what you expect is usually what you receive.

Think of a time recently when you responded to someone’s questions and ideas- was it with a sense of caring and understanding or was it with a sense of tension and fear? I’m guessing you are more open to hearing people’s ideas and seeing new possibilities when you are in a positive frame of mind than when you are worried, grumpy, or frustrated. You’re far more likely to get someone to help you out or focus on your needs when you are open and supportive of them.

Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. It has three central concerns: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. Martin Seligman, considered the founder of Positive Psychology, has written extensively on Authentic Happiness as a way to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances. What helps you be authentically happy?

I’ll end with this quote “ Happiness is best kept when given away”. When do you give away your happiness? Let us know what happens when you do. Enjoy the journey!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

I was inspired for this entry to do an audio message on inspiration. May you be inspired as you listen!

Click below to listen to message:

I is for Inspiration

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most.

Why is networking sometimes uncomfortable? For many people, it’s the expectation and pressure of ‘pushing’ your message. If you’re basically a shy person, this sales approach doesn’t come naturally.

Well, RELAX! With a simple shift in thinking, you can actually ENJOY networking.

Networking is NOT Selling

Effective, engaging and enjoyable networking is an important component of your marketing strategy. But it’s a marketing strategy that is NOT about using people for your gain. Rather, it IS about a win/win exchange of contacts, information, business referrals, and tips that usually help the other person.

When you learn something new that excites you, and the other person learns something interesting or hopeful, a successful networking relationship has begun.

First, Give a Referral or Helpful Tip

Effective networkers are eager to GIVE FIRST. By showing generosity without the expectation to receive, you create enormous goodwill. You also:

• Diffuse any pressure related to ‘selling’ yourself or your business.
• Subconsciously establish a subtle “owe me one”. This will come back to you, whether or not it’s the same person – it’s good energy flow!
• Feel good about yourself, which leads to a relaxed, enjoyable encounter.

When Networking, First Ask to Help the Other Person

It’s as easy as this: Right after you exchange names and establish each others’ jobs/titles, ask the other person:

“I’m constantly meeting new people. What would be an ideal referral for you?”

This question is about GIVING first. It naturally leads to a great conversation about the other person. You may have a connection or referral to help them. But even if you don’t, just say:

“I’ll definitely keep my ears open and contact you when I have a referral.”

And guess what? Nine times out of ten, they will ask you the same question in return. Voila! You’ve just created a memorable networking exchange with positive goodwill.

What networking tips work for you?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

I recently provided a training on Supervising Millenials. We discussed whether in our digitally driven life we are becoming more attention deficit that in previous eras. There are so many opportunities to be distracted- such as reading interesting blogs! If you feel you must answer that email, text or IM immediately, you may want to examine how cluttered your life and/or your brain is.

Huge chunks of time are wasted over the course of a day by switching from one task to the next. It takes mental energy, and time, moving from one activity to the next. I’ve read it takes anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes to regain your thoughts after an interruption. Pay attention to how much time you may be wasting switching back and forth between tasks. You can take control of your time and your energy by uncluttering your life. In many cases you can decide whether to let the phone ring into voice mail. Same goes for answering an email message or IM. Regardless of your generation, Millenial or otherwise, the essential point is that YOU CHOOSE what you focus on.

What brings you peace? Have you been able to still your mind? Do you want to?

A few bold companies are claiming one day a week where people cannot answer emails (and presumably can’t IM or text). That day is spent in conversation, reflection, planning etc. It’s time out that can create opportunities for new ideas to emerge, relationships to strengthen, or general rejuvenation and renewal for the brain. There’s research that suggests that our greatest breakthroughs or “Aha’s” happen when our brains are in slower brain waves, such as when we are just waking up or in the shower in the morning.

Here are some simple suggestions for finding some peace and stillness in the midst of your work day:

1. Let the phone ring into voice mail and bless the person who is calling you. Know that you can call them back when your mind is more clear and focused.
2. If you must answer the phone, let it ring one extra time and take a deep breath before picking up the phone. Allow yourself a little space to bring your awareness on your breath.
3. Turn off your IM and email alerts if your job permits. Choose when and how regularly you will check emails or IMs.
4. Every time you sit back down in your chair, focus on your feet touching the floor. Feel your back in the chair. Focus on how your body is feeling in that moment. No judgments, just notice.
5. Stretch your arms and legs and take a deep breath at least once an hour. Allow your body to relax even for 10 seconds.
6. As you walk to a meeting or out the door, snap your fingers to bring your awareness into the present moment.
7. Allow yourself a few extra minutes to get to where you are going and make it a walking meditation. Intentionally slow down your pace. Breath 3 deep breathes before you enter the room.

Quietness by Rumi

Become the sky.

Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.

Do it now.

You are covered with the thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,

and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign

that you have died.

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence.

The speechless full moon

comes out now.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

Stake your online real estate NOW!

The internet and social media is in its infancy, and you may never have this opportunity again. You now have the one-time chance to ‘claim to your online real estate’.

The internet is one big unclaimed territory. Each social networking community offers you and your brand a free account – your real estate. Imagine yourself a few years down the road, and you’ve decided to ramp up your social media presence. But you discover that the name you want – your BRAND – is taken!

Establish accounts in your name with key online and social media platforms before your brand and/or your name is taken by someone else. Once they’re taken, they will not be available again. You have this one chance to establish a full portfolio with your unique brand – do it now!

Outsource Social Media Identity Protection

A few online companies offer this service. AllDoneForYou.com offers ‘Social Media Identity Protection’ services for $59.00, proclaiming;

“There are 150 social media sites where securing your identity is mandatory. Just one breach in your identity in these sites can cause a tidal wave of trouble for your image and reputation. Our job is to secure your own identity in all of these social networking areas before someone else comes along and claims your identity. We will sign you up personally at all 150 networking sites. We will prevent someone else (perhaps even your competition) from claiming your identity. This way no one can use your identity in malicious ways.”

Basic Social Networking Sites

You’ll want to cover the basics, as well as those in your business niche. You can do this yourself, if you’d prefer to save the money. A few of the top social networking sites include:

1. Twitter
2. MySpace
3. Facebook
4. Bebo
5. Friendster
6. Hi5
7. Orkut
8. Zorpia
9. Netlog
10. Propeller

To find sites related to your industry or niche, search for “Top ____________social networking sites” – fill in the blank with your niche descriptive word.

Have you protected your brand? What other sites do you recommend?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

What perfect timing it is for me to write this blog entry on happiness. I just came back tonight from an event for women alumni sponsored by the university I attended for both my undergraduate and graduate degree – the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota – and met one of the author’s of the newly-released book What Happy Women Do: A Salute to Sisterhood and the Rituals That Sustain Us. Dr. Carol Bruess is a wonderful example of a “happy woman” as she has found joy in sharing her work.
I’m always attracted to books on happiness because just like the great philosopher Aristotle said that happiness is the goal of all goals. “To be happy” is often the answer you’ll hear to the questions asked about what’s most important to you or what do you want most from life. So what does it mean to be truly happy? And how can we bring happiness to our work?

Happiness Resources

I’ve read a lot about this subject and have presented on it as well. A couple of my favorite resources I’ll share with you, like the society of happy people. A scientific perspective on happiness that really resonates with me and many other happiness experts out there is the work of Sonja Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.

Her scientific research demonstrates that we all have a happiness set point and the ability to determine about 40% of our happiness. According to Lyubomirsky, 50% of our happiness is determined from our genetic make up, 10% from our circumstances and then the other remaining 40% is up to us! While I’ve been wired with a happiness gene, I’ve also chosen to learn about and practice being happy.

Marci Shimoff’s book Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out is another wonderful resource on happiness. One of the things she stressed is that happiness is something you have to be intentional about and practice. Just like you can’t expect to be a master pianist without dedicated practice, you can’t expect to master happiness without consistently making concentrated efforts.

Happiness Habits

I love Shimoff’s concept of having happiness habits. Being happy is a choice and a habit that each of us has the opportunity to make each day. I’ve been starting my daily affirmations with this beginning phrase, “I’m so grateful and happy….” Every time I say the word happy, it physically makes me smile, which in turn helps me feel more happy. I heard once that it takes many more muscles in your face to frown than it does to smile. Smiling to me is one outside indicator of happiness. Lasting happiness however needs to come from the insideout. Shimoff describes being happy for no reason as “an inner state of peace and well-being that doesn’t depend on our circumstances. It’s just an inner backdrop that you carry with you. Rather than trying to extract happiness from your life, you bring your happiness to all of your experiences.

One of her happiness habits from the heart is to spread loving kindness. “You’re your heart flows in love, you naturally feel happier. You can restart you heart’s flow by sending lovingkindness to anyone and everyone you meet.” After hearing about this concept, I’ve been intentionally practicing this throughout the day. When people are working or walking down the street I will look at them in the eyes, smile and silently send lovingkindness from my heart to theirs. I’ll never know if this makes them happier with my positive energy and love flowing their way, but it sure does make me feel happy doing it!

What happiness habits will you practice at your workplace?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most.

I’d like to continue the theme from Janae’s post last week on gratitude, to explore more applications at work and highlight three ways it works.

Focusing on What you Have

For starters, gratitude gets your minds off of all the things that worry you, annoy you, or challenge you. Instead, when you focus your attention on all that you have in your life, you channel your focus on all the ways you are blessed and supported.

I’ve done meditations where I listed all the things that work in my house – that keep me comfortable and cozy- water for my shower, electricity, my warm bed, plumbing and pipes that work, my refrigerator that keeps my food cold and fresh, toothpaste so my teeth feel clean. You get the idea. You could do a 30 minute meditation on gratitude for everything in your house from the smallest light switch to your AC system. And while you do it, send prayers for all those on our planet who do not have that item or comfort in their home. By the time you get to work after doing a meditation like this, you’ll know you have many things that fill your life with goodness and comfort.

You get to choose how you want to see things. You can focus on what you lack or you can focus on what you have. You will almost certainly feel better focusing on what you have than what you lack.

You can be pissed off that you didn’t get the report you needed or you can’t find the tool you need, or you can choose to focus on what you were able to finish and how grateful you are for the people who help you with your work.

Supporting What You Have with more Energy

The second reason gratitude works is that when we focus our attention on something, we feed it energy. Or to put another way, what you give away you receive back (some would say you get back 3 fold what you give away).

So you can either feed the thought – ‘I don’t have enough; I don’t have what I need” or feed the thought ‘I am bountifully supported; All that I need is available to me’. As I was appreciating a beautiful day last week, a guy who I had been meaning to call across town happened to stop by my office and give me exactly what I was looking for. How cool is that?

Receiving Joyfully

The last part of gratitude is that when we practice living and working in gratitude, we learn to receive with joy. How open are you to receiving? Can you receive joyfully? Can you accept goodness in your life? Or do you push away offers for help, people offering to pay for your lunch etc.? Pay attention to how you are blocking the flow of energy and support vs. receiving gifts and support from others – in large or small ways.

As you practice receiving in joy, you recognize the abudant flow in your life. From that place of abundance, you draw in more abundance – of helpful people, of small acts of kindness, of physical things appearing in your life- rather than shutting them out.

When you focus on gratitude, you shift your energy – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

What have you seen happen in your life when you receive joyfully or express gratitude for what you have?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

“I’m blessed – thanks!” This is how the finance guy of a local car dealer shared with us in response to the question that we are all asked daily, “how are you?” His response not only made us feel good, we ended up having a very meaningful conversation during our 15 minutes together. Even though this was a couple of years ago already, I have never forgotten how inspiring his response was. I’m still trying to change my habitual “I’m good” response to one of gratitude like above. Not only do we feel better when we choose a grateful response, we have the ability to elevate those around us.

Gratitude Teachers

There is so much I want to share about gratitude, as this is one of my favorite teaching and topics to live. All of the master teachers that I’m learning from stress the importance of gratitude. In fact I was just listening to an interview of Anthony Robbins who said that the secret to living is giving. I heard how Wayne Dwyer gives thanks whenever he sees a penny, dime or any change on the ground by picking it up and saying a prayer of gratitude for how financially blessed he is. During an interview with the authors of Project Everlasting as my husband and I recently won a national love-story competition (mentioned in C is for Connection blog) they said how the marriage masters interviewed for their book and documentary explained that love is a four letter word: GIVE!

Gratitude Reminders

What I need are gratitude reminders, those little things to help keep me on track to remember to stop and appreciate all the blessings in my life. If you could only choose one thing to work on in your life that you bring you the most happiness and abundance I believe it’s about learning how to be grateful. Embracing a new mindset – an “attitude of gratitude” has transformed my life. While I’ve always been an optimist by nature I realize how many of my thoughts were not. Yet practicing this skill over the years through keeping gratitude journals, researching it, teaching it all have helped me tremendously think grateful thoughts and thus act accordingly.

Gratitude in the Workplace

The first thing that I suggest to those at work who are struggling with someone in particular or with the workplace in general is to keep a gratitude journal. Every day for 30 days write at least one thing that you are grateful for with that person or that place. Then focus on that grateful thought for the day. You’ll be amazed how just shifting your thoughts for a month will provide you a new perspective. You might even be as grateful as my friend who did this experiment for 30 days. It was around day 23 when she called to tell me how good this attitude of gratitude was going with her boss. In fact she didn’t have to journal any more as he decided to leave the company! 🙂

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Insert the word thank you into your thoughts and actions. This alone has helped me remember all the ordinary things that we take for granted to be thankful for. Meister Eckhart’s wise words tell us, “If the only prayer you say in your life is “thank you,” it would be enough. Linda and I would like to THANK YOU for taking the time to read our blog and provide comments.
How will you give and live gratitude today?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most.

I am not sure this is a training issue or a human performance issue, but recently I observed a situation where a Japanese firm was looking to do business with an American firm and the American firm was not prepared as they might have been and possibly lost the contract. Before seeking out new clients CEO’s and the like need to do is research.

Research the company you might be contracting with, look at their plant or business facilities see what their standards are for business and manufacturing, make sure you take a look at what type of quality control policies they adhere and aspire to. Then make sure when they visit your facilities that you make efforts to please them, if you find they require documentation of assembly procedures, that the documents are available, and so on. Remember they want to do business with you and your company. Make the effort to show them you are just as interested in their policies and their company. Know who you are doing business with, especially if the company is an overseas or Asian company.

With the global society we live in count on doing business with a foreign country at some point and time and remember to look outside our own cultural boundaries and be respectful of your guests and the outcome will be more successful. Think of the learning opportunities this might be providing and how much your new and potential business will me for employees and your company. Learn about some of the business customs and personal customs that your guest expect and show them you respect them enough to learn about them. I am sure they have done the same for your organization and you.

Leigh

Happy Training….

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

– Looking for an expert in training and development or human performance technology?
– Contact me: Leigh Dudley (Sassenach Training Services)  – Linkedin – 248-349-2881 or 248-277-2966
– Read my blog: Training and Development