The Positive Energy Workplace

This morning I was sitting with my kids, having breakfast, drinking my a.m. Joe, and catching up on a bit of email. It’s a gorgeous Monday morning out. And I was excited to cruise through email so that I could devote an entire day to creating content, wrapping up Power Pack audios, and writing. I love these mornings; they’re fresh, they provide a lot of inspiration, and I always have some new really simple but important “different lensed” insight emerge from having different space in the weekend. Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I got the gift of 4 hours to write and be, so I was particularly refreshed this morning.

As I reviewed client notes, I started to think about what my clients (self included here) deal with on a day to day basis, things/issues/solutions/ways of being that they may have learned as kids, but in the chaos of life, games, and politics, so easily get lost, buried and even forgotten. I often notice in my work that ironically most of what we really need to know as adults, was taught to us in elementary school and Human Goodness 101. I find this thought entertaining, sometimes saddening, and then almost always inspiring. Of course it gets more complex as we age and get into our lives, but not that much. Not that much if we keep it in perspective and stay true to ourselves. So I sat back, pulled out 3 key things that I believe are foundational to “being” and told my kids to look me in the eye, imprint my face in their psyche and remember these three points for the rest of their life…(no pressure now to make these “3 points” profound and significant with an intro like that!)

For you to be your most effective self, to be on your cutting edge, and to think clearly - what do you need? What kind of self-care do you want to engage in to help set yourself up to be the best instrument of change possible? How can you increase your energy, stamina and vitality? What boundaries may you want to initiate? What practices may you want to engage? This is something you can decide for yourself, I can make suggestions, but what's important here is that it resonates for you, and you feel good doing it. Commit to some kind of self-care starting TODAY. Right now, what are you going to do to treat yourself extra well? Mind, body and soul? This can be a commitment to clean eating, exercise, making a list of 25 things you LOVE to do (and then doing at least 2 of them a day - the "25 things to do" exercise is from Jack Canfield, by the way), body work, dance, skin care, white space, a weekend away, etc. Whatever works for you, make self-care a priority, pull it to the front; you, your organization and the people around you will benefit. (If you would like more information on more ways to do this, check out our "Engage Your Inner H.E.R.O." Product or "Lead Your Energy" Paper - both address self-care and its impact on leadership.)

Be Grateful. What do you have in your life right now that you are grateful for? What's happening in your business, with your team, with your spouse, your kids? Did you take a shower today? Get a workout in? Eat a good meal? Do you have a business you care about deeply? Clients? Capture 5 things a day you are grateful for - FEEL the gratitude, express it, write it down. To me, gratitude is the QUICKEST mindset shifter I've ever experienced (that or a huge loss or tragedy and I prefer gratitude any day!)

Take advantage of down time. What are the things that you've been wanting to do, but haven't had the time? Now's the time to do them. Notice if you resist this one. Notice it. What are you really resisting?

Develop yourself and your people - NOW. Now is the time to take advantage of some of the space you may have in your schedules and bandwidth to actually develop the people in your company. It may seem counterintuitive, but it can provide you with a stronger foundation so that when things pick up or more challenges arise, you're all better armed for it. There are a couple of ways I look at this: 1) Develop them while there's time, energy and bandwidth, 2) Give them something to focus on together that will move them forward in the long run and help them be better leaders, salespeople, designers, human beings, communicators, etc. Whatever the case, give them tools, resources and space to do so. Not only will it help them and make them feel seen and appreciated, it will strengthen your own bottom line, 3) Now is a great time to inspire people to lead, take initiative and grow themselves. It inspires people to be better at working with each other. Gives them common language and purpose, and invites them to step into a bigger place. When morale could take a huge dive, giving people the tools and resources to better themselves will boost morale and result in a higher level of personal ownership for your company's outcomes. BTW, you don't have to do this alone, and it doesn't have to break the bank.