Are you easily distracted? If you are like many (and myself) keeping a tight focus on the task at hand can be a challenge. Oh look, a bright shiny object… In his research on mind-wandering, Matthew Killingsworth shows how losing focus on the job reduces both happiness and productivity.  In fact, it appears that about half of our waking hours are spent thinking about what isn’t going on. Yikes. It seems then that a good idea for managers is to look for ways to help their themselves and their team members stay focused.

Be Here, Now

It seems that no matter what people are doing, they are much less happy when their minds are wandering than when they are focused. Killingsworth argues that in order to optimize our emotional wellbeing, we should pay at least as much attention to where our minds are as to what our bodies are doing. Interestingly, this seems to echo the message of spiritual teacher Ekhart Tolle  whose primary message is about living in the “now”.

Mind Wandering & Productivity

Data suggests that letting your mind take a stroll down the garden path reduces productivity, even if you do creative knowledge work. Even if your mind rambles to positive thoughts, it does little to impact your productivity. If your mind ambles into negative territory, your output is curbed markedly. Thus, managers might want to look for ways to help employees stay focused, for both the employees’ sake and the company’s sake.

A Simple Tool

Back in December, I wrote about a simple yet powerful technique that I believe deserves repeating. In order to minimize mind wandering and increase focus, simply set a timer to go off every hour and ask yourself the following two questions:

1. Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now?
2. Am I being who I most need to be right now?

So if you want to increase the happiness & workplace productivity of yourself or your team, try the above strategy and let me know the results. If you’re like me, you just may be surprised at how impactful these 2 simple questions are.

The chorus is growing. Happy people are more creative and productive. Recent work by noted psychologist and organizational expert Daniel Gilbert adds yet more heft.  The problem is that many managers believe that you have to keep people “on their toes,” perhaps even anxious about their job to make them more productive. Fact is that there exist no data that shows that anxious, fearful people are more creative or productive. Given the global tumult effecting western economies, I would argue that now, more than ever, it is important to ensure your employees are happy. Would it not make sense to have your human capital at its best during the toughest times in recent history?

Sources of Happiness

The findings of the science behind happiness may surprise you:

1. A primary ingredient is having a robust social network of friends and family. In fact, Gallup researchers Tom Rath & Jim Harter point out that we need six hours of socializing a day.

2. Frequency of happy moments is important. It is not necessarily how good a particular experience was as much as how many good experiences you have. Having a dozen small good things happen in a day is better than having one fantastic thing. Happiness appears to be the sum of hundreds of small things.

Like weight loss, there is no magic pill that gives instant results. Happiness is the result of small daily steps over time.

How to Increase Happiness

The main things to commit to include: meditating, exercising, getting enough sleep, and to practice altruism. This last point isn’t yet commonplace in business literature yet but is well articulated by the work of Robert Emmon.  Volunteering or helping others is a great way to achieve this.

The last piece is a simple yet powerful tool: practice gratitude by writing down at least twice a week three things you’re grateful for. As Gilbert says, “these sound like homilies form grandmother…but your grandmother was smart. The secret of happiness is like the secret of weight loss: It’s not a secret!”

So if you want to improve workplace productivity and hit your competitors hard, why not start with the basics? The path to increased happiness leads to increased productivity and creativity.

Each year, we see the dawning of the New Year as a time for fresh starts. More exercise, a better job, more time with family and friends, perhaps quitting smoking? No matter what the goals, they’re usually focused on upping ourselves in the big game – the game of life. Well, why not use the ultimate template to help you set your goals? For more than 50 years, Gallup researchers have been exploring the raw materials of a life well-lived. They’ve come up with 5 essential elements that transcend countries & cultures.

So if you’re setting goals for 2012, why not set them based on the elements that differentiate a thriving life from one that’s simply endured?

The Central Five

1. Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time or simply liking what you do every day is key.  Get this right and you’ll never look back.
2. Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life can make a profound impact.  Building connections with friends, family, colleagues and neighbors will support and enrich you everyday.
3. Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life can remove untold stressors from you life. Learning to live within one’s means is a good place to begin.
4. Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis. Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Straight up.
5. Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live is a cornerstone. Volunteer your time. Join a community group or your kid’s school sports committee. Being linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding.

So while it might be easier to treat these critical areas in our lives as if they were separate, they’re not.  They’re all interconnected and shape our lives.  So why not plan to get more out of each day, and your life, in 2012 by ensuring your goals take into account these essential five?

Follow these five and you will not only feel the better for it but you’ll be boosting the wellbeing of your friends, family members, colleagues, and others in your community.  Now that sounds like a great outcome.

Here’s to the best in 2012!

Tired already with the influx of seemingly opportunistic holiday thank-you’s as opposed to real gratitude?  What? That coupon from your colleague for a mocha latte at Starbucks isn’t doing it for you? Well, no wonder. Like many of us, you might not be moved much by superficial displays of holiday season thank-you’s.  Instead, what we really crave, and what has the most impact on us and our customers, is honest, thoughtful & respectful acknowledgement.

Gratitude Deficit Disorder

Despite all our good intentions and actions we recieve much more criticism than gratitude. Fast Company blogger Howie Jacobson identifies a global gratitude deficit disorder whereby people across every business sector are hungry for genuine appreciation and thanks. My own experience with clients from all walks of life and across 3 continents would tend to confirm this.

Bust out the Science

Research shows that folks who focus on feeling grateful benefit in many ways, including the physical, psychological and social realms.  At the forefront of this research is Dr. Robert A Emmons.  He uses science to show how feeling grateful can improve your health, thinking abilities and your relationships with other people.

How it Works in Business

In her blog, The Power of Grateful Forbes contributor Erika Andersen connects the dots between gratitude and world of work:

• Leaders who are grateful tend to behave in ways that inspire “followership”;
• Grateful leaders tend to be passionate – their sense of possibility and hope translates into the ability to commit deeply;
• Grateful leaders tend to be generous – their appreciation for what’s working tends to manifest in generosity with praise, credit, resources and faith;
• Passion & generosity are the two most attractive qualities in a leader: we feel supported and included in the grateful leader’s hopeful view of the world.
• Colleagues who are grateful – who focus more on what’s working and on the contributions of others as opposed to complaining, dismissing and blaming – are simply more pleasant to be around.
• Grateful people are more likely to build strong ties of mutual support with others and are able to call upon those ties to get things done.

Roll it Out

So: no matter whether you’re leading a team, an organization or a cubicle, an attitude of gratitude is the way to go.  Between now and the end of the year, how can you communicate your appreciation? How can you fill the far-reaching hunger for gratitude? How can you catch people doing good things? How can you notice the contributions of those around you?  Spend five minutes now and make a list of the folks at work – colleagues, customers, vendors – that you are sincerely grateful towards. Then create an action plan to show your appreciation, with no hidden agenda.

Give the gift that keeps on giving. You, your company and your career will benefit.

Happy Holidays!

The pace has all of a sudden advanced to light speed. Your ‘to do’ pile just doesn’t seem to shrinking fast enough. Yet more work comes your way.  Welcome to the annual pre-holiday frenzy. Fun right? Thought not.  It’s that special time of year when getting stuff done so you can actually relax over the holidays, becomes paramount. Here’s how you can do just that.

Like many others, I start each day with my to-do list.  It’s difficult sticking to it though with emails, phone interuptions, texts and all the other distractions…particularly at this time of year when everyone seems to need stuff done before the holidays.  It doesn’t take long before I’m off track and by day’s end am left wondering how it was that I was so darn busy yet didn’t knock much off my to-do list. Know the frustration?

This all changed a few weeks back after reading Dan Pink’s blog on The Power of an Hourly Beep.  In it he interviews productivity expert Peter Bregman and the tools Peter offers are deceptively simple yet incredibly powerful.  Here’s how it all works:

Begin by setting hourly beeps. Each hour when your watch, computer or phone beeps, stop whatever you’re doing and ask yourself two questions:

1. Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now?

2. Am I being who I most want to be right now?

Like Peter, when I first considered this, I thought that this would be in and of itself, pretty disruptive.  But, in fact, these one-15-second-every-hour interruptions proved incredibly effective. They constantly brought me back to doing what, and being who I needed to be to make it a successful day. This happened so quickly and powerfully for me that I was blown away by how much more productive I became.

So, in this lead up to your holiday break, give this strategy a try.  In fact, use it all the time to create a powerful new habit that allows you to do more in less time. For me, it has made the difference between ending the day feeling frustrated that I didn’t get enough priority stuff done and ending it satisfied that I had. Perhaps it could do the same for you.

Here’s to a clean break from work over the Holidays!

What would it be like to have a neighborhood ‘feel’ at work? Would it add or take away from your ability to get things done or for your company to be profitable?  In a refreshing take on corporate culture, business psychologist Art Markman argues that creating a sense of neighborhood at work can only help it succeed.

In hierarchies, everyone takes on a role.  If you’re at the top of the food chain you get more privileges and rewards.  Those at the bottom usually have less control, input and are often told what to do.  The understanding is that as one works their way up the hierarchy and takes on more responsibility, higher pay and benefits are provided.

In a neighborhood, while not everyone shares equally, we tend to strive for equality.  If you need help doing something like changing your tire, chances are a neighbor might offer to help. It would be strange for you to offer him or her money in return. In turn you reciprocate somewhere down the road and a relationship builds.

Interestingly a company cannot succeed unless you and your colleagues start to think of yourselves as a valued part of a bigger picture.  You might stay at work late a few times out of fear that your boss is watching.  But you’ll be more likely to put in that consistent effort if you feel part of the ‘neighborhood‘ and feel like everyone is pitching in.

To have a neighborhood culture, the company must respond in kind. Seemingly small actions like supporting you or your colleagues families through tough times and providing educational opportunities for you go a long way to creating a general sense of community.  This investment in community is repaid in behaviours that ultimately affect the company’s bottom line.

Fairness is key because it supports the creation of a community.  Ultimately, the loyalty of a company’s neighborhood helps them avoid or lessen the ills and impact of the market economy.

What’s the ethos of your workplace?  Is it a neighborly feel or more of an everyone for themselves feel?

I just came from a restaurant where I was powerfully reminded of the importance of an often elusive piece of business success – great customer service.  For me it’s like the elephant in the middle of the room.  So many company’s flout their extraordinary customer service yet deliver the opposite.  I’m particularly puzzled about this, especially in our current economic climate.  The bottom line is that, all things being equal, people will go where they’re treated the best.

What Gives?

It seems like such low hanging fruit.  If you say that you deliver great customer service then you should do it.  But perhaps it’s more complex than this?  If you google ‘customer service’ you come up with all sorts of sites giving ‘top ten’ types lists of customer service.  A few even mention the workplace environment as being a key piece of the puzzle.  It is this latter piece where I’ve observed many businesses flounder.  For some reason, taking care of it’s employees, or ‘walking the talk’, seems to be a difficult thing for some businesses to master.

No Secret.

Treat your employees well.  It helps to think of them as your internal customers and they need regular doses of appreciation.  In Appreciation on a Shoestring I outline a number of ways to do this effectively with little or no budget.

It is the tone and content of the day-to-day interactions that you share with your team that build a place where people like to come to work.  Treat your employees like you want your customers to be treated.  Chances are they will then have a higher regard for customers.  Appreciation stems from the top.  Treating employees with the same regard that you’d like them to show customers should be of equal importance.

If you really want to rise above the competition, stand out by creating a place where your team feels genuinely valued.

A new vision of what it means to be successful and thrive as individuals and as societies is increasingly taking hold.  The link between wealth, growth, wellbeing and prosperity is being re-examined and new ways of doing business are emerging cites global economic and business expert Jules Peck.  In fact, Peck argues for a new economic model completely.  Given the tumult in the environment and the global economy these past several years I say that the timing for a new way couldn’t be better.  

Myth Busting

Money does not bring happiness.  In fact only 7% of our wellbeing comes from income.  So where does wellbeing come from?  According to the New Economic Foundation wellbeing springs from 5 critical elements.

• Connection to friends, family & community
• Giving back/volunteering
• Being physically active
• Having goals & continuing to learn
• Taking notice and being engaged

This message of an alternate and more fully integrative understanding of what corporate and individual success means has been at the heart of my philosophy from the start.  It’s been nearly 10 years since I first spoke of ‘happiness’ as a key driver of lasting success to the business community via the Vancouver Board of Trade.  It’s been a long haul but it is both refreshing and inspiring to see this shared idea take hold.

New Model Required

Peck argues that combined with the above findings, the economic model of constant growth and ever increasing profit has pushed both people and the planet to the edge.  Not only are we seeing the vast majority of workers – worldwide – disengaged from their work but we are at the limits of many of our finite resources our way of life depends upon and we risk pushing the planet into unstoppable climate change.

Wellbeing is Primary

Instead of focusing on wealth we should instead be focusing on wellbeing. Peck highlights that consensus is building that infinite high resource intensity growth is simply not possible and that most businesses will have to adjust to a very different reality…soon.  That reality will still be a a version of capitalism, but it needs to rethink the point of the system.

Instead of the goal of maximum linear growth in GDP, Peck argues that we should be thinking of maximum wellbeing for minimal planetary input. This will challenge business to move beyond efficiency gains and really rethink their business models.

In both Britain and France, Prime Minister David Cameron & President Sarkozy have taken notice and have instigated policy reviews and frameworks focusing on wellbeing & community instead of wealth and individualism.

Peck points out that new “holy grail” for many progressive companies has become the “wellbeing dividend” where sustainability efforts can be shown to increase rather than damage worker, customer and societal quality of life and wellbeing.  Hurray.

Well, here you are back in the saddle.  It’s been a great summer.  You’ve had a super vacation, enjoyed many a succulent BBQ and raucous night out.

You’ve rediscovered the joys of sleeping in and being unplugged.  But now, here you are back at work and feeling guilty, a little heavier and somewhat slower thinking.  Now what do you do?  The way I see it you’ve got only once choice: get back on track as quickly as possible.

Here are four ways to get back on track with your routine after the dog days of summer:

1. Ditch the guilt.  So, despite your best intentions, you didn’t stick to your usual retinue of healthy food choices, exercise, moderate alcohol consumption and goal setting at home and work.  Well, congratulations. You enjoyed yourself.  Feeling guilty about overindulging or slowing down is wasted energy.  Instead, spend your energy doing something productive.
2. Dump the extras.  Be it excessive food, alcohol or nightlife, get back to your normal routines as soon as you can.
3. Review or reset your goals.  Look back to your pre-summer goals and restart them, modify them, or create new ones.  Perhaps, now with a well enjoyed summer behind you, you’ll have discovered deeper clarity or new insights.  So re-examine your personal and professional goals now.  You’ll feel better immediately just doing this.
4. Take action today.  Nothing like the present moment to get things rolling again.  Don’t delay.  You’re only one meal, workout, or phone call away from getting back on track.  Nothing will help you feel better more quickly than by simply taking action.

Use these four tips to get back on track and you’ll soon begin to feel on top of it all again before you know it!

The recent death of a respected political leader here in Canada reminded me of the importance of civility.  Jack Layton, leader of the official government opposition party died of cancer a few weeks back.  It caused shock waves around the country and with people of all political stripes.

Why?  Much of the commentary centered on the fact that he acted with a high degree of civility, a rare commodity in politics these days.  And I would have to agree.  Leaders like Jack, whether they be in politics or the workplace, can be a rarity.  Yet they make such a difference…but their examples continue to be ignored or downplayed at work.

Manners at home…not so much at work.

Why is it that many people behave one way at home and yet another at work?

Rudeness at work is a counter productive element that many workers have to deal with.  Business commentator Jason Dorsey argues that this is due in part to current economic circumstances and the struggle to survive.  I would argue that this only adds fuel to a pre-existing fire.

The workplace has always seemed to foster some fairly ill treatment of others.

There is much research out there pointing to the pitfalls of behaving poorly at work.  A recent article in Maclean’s highlights the importance of civility in the workplace. While it focuses on relations between co-workers, the fact remains that most people leave their jobs because of the leader directly above them.   One way or another, treating others with respect at work remains key to creating a productive, engaging and ultimately, highly competitive business.

Where to start.

Creating a workplace culture that supports people to do their best depends much upon the leadership of the organization.  As I’ve observed time and again in my consultancy, leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin.  Leadership determines the tone of the work environment.  Here are 3 steps to help you begin the process of putting civility at the forefront in your workplace:

Step 1 – Vision: it’s important to get clear on the culture that you want. Begin with having open and honest discussions with staff about what professionalism and respect look like in their work environment.

Step 2 – Be Inclusive: all staff and every level of management should be included in this exercise.  Remember, given the wide range of ages that exist in many work environments, views on manners will be different.  For example, Millenials may see texting during conversations or meetings as being OK, whereas Gen Y’s or Boomers may see it as rude.

Step 3 – Modelling from the top: leadership is the fundamental driver of culture in the workplace.  Leaders must model civil behaviour and be prepared to lead by example.

Remember, the above steps will take time to develop and change will not come overnight.  But with focus, personal accountability, and by leadership setting the tone, shifts will occur.