Looking back, its been quite the year.  Across the planet seeds of change appear to be taking hold. From the occupy movements and political uprisings like the Arab Spring, to eurozone meltdowns, to American political and economic strife, financial markets are trembling and geopolitical shifts are taking shape. Amongst all the tumult and perhaps because of it, a new perspective seems to be surfacing of what it means to be successful and thrive as individuals and societies.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

It seems necessity truly is the mother of invention and this has given me both renewed hope and inspiration for our collective future.  The predominant economic model of infinite resource, intensive growth and ever increasing profit has clearly pushed people and the planet to the edge. In its place a new paradigm where maximum wellbeing for minimal planetary input is sprouting.  New ways of doing business are emerging from a global re-examination of the link between wealth, growth, wellbeing and prosperity.

The Human Element

I have spent the last decade as an executive coach helping individuals, professionals and leaders find their way to lives that bring them wellbeing. My clients have spanned all levels of economic and professional success. Many of the most unhappy have had more money and status than all the rest combined.

I have observed that company cultures and practices still rarely reflect an understanding of what truly matters to people, whether it be their customers or their employees.  And many leaders still don’t always have the skills to lead in a way that reflects an appreciation of the human experience of daily life.

While happiness or wellbeing are subjective in nature, it is particularly helpful for a company to set about figuring out what makes people “feel” good, positive, engaged, connected, needed etc. as that can be a driving force behind a company’s success.

Many leaders are starting to see this and realizing that just moving in this direction is a good thing because underlying the process is the need for leaders and companies to become more aware of those around them and their relationships in their world. Finding happiness and meaning is a complicated process, but I believe that companies and leaders who value understanding what really matters to people, and are willing to take the first step, will indeed find new ways to prosper and help re-define prosperity even in the face of the challenges of today’s world.

Here’s to green shoots in 2012!

Like the year before it, 2011 has been quite the wild and exciting ride. A year full of extraordinary conversations, further business development in Asia and expanded growth in North America. I’ve upped my social network game and have discovered the joy of twitter. I’m in the process of re-vamping my blogsite to offer improved access to leading edge research and practical tips on leadership, engagement and wellbeing. Along the way I’ve had the joy of simply doing my job; connecting with amazing men & women driven to make their lives and that of others and of their organizations better.

During a year where much of the media has been consumed with the ubiquitous socio-political and economic upheaval sweeping the planet, I discovered a rich vein of hope.

Perhaps late to the game, since starting to twitter a few months ago, I’ve come across people working hard to improve the planet and the lives of all with profound research that implores us to not do ‘business as usual’.

Veins of Hope

Here’s a sampling of some of my favourite thought leaders and organizations that show us not only why but how to not do business as usual:

• The New Economics Foundation:  The tag line says it all: economics as if people and the planet mattered. A veritable treasure trove of evidence based research on how to do business more sustainably.

• Jules Peck: Shows why the holy grail for enlightened companies has become the “wellbeing dividend” where sustainability efforts can be shown to increase rather than damage customer and societal quality of life and wellbeing.

• The Sustainable Business Blog: Explains why we need to radically redesign our business models with less emphasis on growth and more on wellbeing.

• Action for Happiness: This is a movement for positive social change. Through articles by thought leaders and their research, this blog brings together people from all walks of life who want to play a part in creating a happier, healthier society for everyone.

• The Happy Manifesto: In this short volume, packed with stories and practical examples, Henry Stewart sets out the principles that could transform your workplace into a truly great place to work in.

These and other sources of inspiration have further fueled both my mission and resolve to continue making a positive impact on our planet, people and the way we do business. I’m looking forward to continuing to bringing you the latest thinking and tools to help you and your company thrive.

What’s your resolve for 2012 and beyond?

You’ve worked hard all year. And what a year it’s been. Economic uncertainty, increased competition and longer hours. So why not reward yourself with some really cool tools to help you optimize your life?  Here’s a top 10 list of fresh and leading edge gift ideas to help you be at the top of your game at home or work.

10. Stickk: A smart way to set and achieve your goals.  Visit Website >

Stickk helps you set a goal and stickk to it, with incentives of monetary rewards and social pressure. Want to quit smoking or lose weight? Get money and friends involved and you’ll hit your goal sooner than you think.

9. AskMeEvery: Track what’s most important. Visit Website >

There isn’t an easier way to self-track than with AskMeEvery, which will text you the same question once a day. How many miles did you drive today? How many hours did you spend with your family? You simply text the response back and AskMeEvery will graph the info for you.

8. Voyurl: Analytics on your personal trends. Visit Website >

Voyurl is a tiny plugin that sits in the background of you browser, logging every website you visit and how long you stay there. In a few days, it will be able to tell you which sites you spend the most time on.  Social networking anyone?

7. Fitbit: Exercise tracker and social motivator.  Visit Website >

The Fitbit is a tiny device that clips onto your clothes during the day, or can be worn on a wrist strap while you sleep. It tracks all your movement, all day long. At night it will determine the quality and length of your sleep. Think of it like a pedometer on steroids.

6. DailyBurn: Reach your health and fitness goals. Visit Website >

Another exercise tracker, DailyBurn is particularly useful as a nutrition log. Enter all the foods eaten at each meal, and receive an overview of how much sugar, fat, carbs, etc. you are consuming. Correlate this to you workout performance and you may find that that double cheeseburger took 10 seconds off your average mile.

5. SleepCycle: Feel more rested.  Visit Website >

SleepCycle is a cheap iPhone app that measures your sleep quallity through the accelerometer in your iPhone. Place the phone at the head of your bed and it determines your level of wakefulness. It’s a cost-effective sleep monitor, and one that I’ve been using myself.

4. Mint: A great free way to manage your money. Visit Website >

Mint tracks your money – all of it. Using the logins from your checking and savings accounts, credit cards and investment accounts, Mint provides an overview of where your money goes every month. You can also set budgets; Mint can be set to alert you when you go over your grocery budget for the month, for example.

3. MoodScope: Lift your mood.  Visit Website >

MoodScope provides a platform for tracking your mood quickly and easily. There are many different philosophies around mood tracking, but give it a try and see how it becomes relevant to you. Did you have a huge fight with your girlfriend yesterday and have no idea why? Maybe it’s because you were in a bad mood, didn’t get enough sleep and skipped breakfast.

2. Lumosity: Improve your brain.  Visit Website >

Lumosity challenges your brain with cognitive skill games. Work through each puzzle to theoretically improve your intelligence.

1.    Engage360º Coaching: Be at the top of your game.  Visit Website >

Part personal advisor, part sounding board and part strategist, Engage 360º is specifically focused on you and your success. It works with you to identify what you want and need personally and professionally and powerfully supports you in making it all happen.

Whatever you chose, chose to reward yourself. It’s been quite a roller coaster year.  Taking the time out to improve your sleep, fitness, wellness or satisfaction will help you tackle whatever the New Year throws at you.

Here’s to your health, success and happiness!

In spite of traditional corporate values or practice, I’ve always held that all aspects of your life are interconnected, for better or worse.  If my clients were thriving outside of work that served to propel their performance at work, and vice versa.  Overtime, this common sense philosophy has garnered much attention in the scientific community and is increasingly gaining street cred in the corridors of business.

Research on wellbeing is flourishing and it is finally being given the credit it deserves as a lynchpin of organizational success.  Gallup’s latest bestseller, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, draws on extensive research to show the causal link between wellbeing and career and business success.

Wellbeing also underlies the concept of personal sustainability.  Simply, that people who are happy and fulfilled across all aspects of their lives not only play pivotal roles in the success of any organization, they are the underpinning of lasting organizational success.

Dots Connected

The five elements of wellbeing include: career wellbeing, community wellbeing, social wellbeing, financial wellbeing and physical wellbeing.  Based on Gallop’s research and study across thousands of individuals in 150 countries we learn that we cannot look at each area of our lives in isolation.  If one is not doing well in his/her personal life he/she may not be as productive at work either.  This is why it is important to look at all of these areas.  Having a full and rewarding life outside of work simply allows you to show up to work more energized and better able to tackle work issues.  Folks who achieve this high level of personal sustainability are happier, healthier and more productive.

So despite the state of the economy, wellbeing is simply good business.

What if you or your employees started increasing their levels of wellbeing and personal sustainability? What if your company began to help you and your team make this happen? What would it mean for you, your team or your business?

Where does innovation come from and how do you grow it?  Does it simply fall from the sky or are there things your company can do to promote it?  The answers to these questions may surprise you.  Simply, the best way to promote creativity and innovation in your company is through an environment that serves as fertile ground; one where the employee’s health and wellbeing is paramount.

We now have greater evidence linking personal sustainability to greater employee engagement, productivity, talent retention and – of utmost importance in today’s economic climate – creativity and innovation.  In fact, organizations that promote employee wellbeing are three and a half times more likely to encourage creativity and innovation according to a study at the World Economic Forum.

Fringe Benefits

Being happy and satisfied at work not only builds the innovation muscle but leads to significant gains in performance, problem solving skills, resilience and the ability to handle failure.   Obviously, workplace cultures that promote wellbeing reap mutual benefits.  A more engaged, productive and creative workforce will lead directly to increases in whatever the bottom line may be, be it customer service, widgets or sales.

When you think about it, none of this should seem like rocket science.  Simply ask yourself, are you able to think at your clearest and most creative while stressed out, exhausted and under extreme pressure?  I thought not.

So what would it take for you or your team to become more innovative?  How would it benefit your customers or stakeholders?  How would it impact your bottom line?

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.

Guest Blog by Mary-Jane Melenbacher, founder FIITFU, coaching client of Doug Brockway

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just stare at the computer not really knowing where to start?

Each morning, as the founder of FIITFU, I wake with ideas on how I can improve our website for our users, how to market it, increase usage and how to give back to those that are in the wonderful world of network marketing…my mind reels, and once I am up, whether it is 4:30 am or not, I HAVE to write these ideas down. Then often I get overwhelmed with everything that I have to do, so I look at my computer, turn to the easiest thing; yes you guessed it emails, and then at night I lie in bed not being able to fall asleep because I didn’t do what I KNOW I should have done. I decided it was time to get a mentor, and a coach so that I could stay a bit more focussed and on target. Working with my mentor has brought on some amazing idea sessions as well as some great “thinking outside of the box” concepts. My Coach is a bit more structured but so effective that I wanted to share with you some of the things he has helped me with:

He challenges me
He holds me accountable for what I say I am going to do
He is realistic, and makes me focus on what is realistic
His eyes looking in from the outside can put things into perspective
He helps me focus on what is important at the moment
He gives me weekly activities to move me closer to accomplishing my long term goals
He is encouraging, and helps me to determine what I need to do to stay on track
He acts as my sounding board for all issues at hand, including frustration and helps me re-direct that energy
He has new ideas which I may not have thought of before
And he has given me some fantastic tools that are invaluable and I want to share three of them with you today.

TOOL NUMBER 1. SUCCESS JOURNAL

Get yourself a book, and each night write down in that book what went right today…forget about any of the negative stuff that may have happened, instead write down all the positives. Make this both professional and personal things that went well, this will help not only your business, but as well your relationships!

Each morning get up and the first thing you do is read what went well in your book! Challenge yourself to do this every day for the next 30 days and see how it changes your perspective! It is amazing how when you look back at this you can see how much good you actually do get done!

TOOL NUMBER 2. THE TO DO LIST

We all know that we should be writing down our TO DO list, but it is like goal setting, so few of us actually get into a daily practice of doing it! Again, try this for 30 days and see how it changes your business and life! Write down the most important things you need to do for the day.

START with these activities. Forget about your emails until you need a bit of a break, or you have your most important things done. Emails suck you into a vortex of responses and different trains of thought; they will take you OFF focus on what needs to be done. So stick to your list until it is complete!

TOOL NUMBER 3. CELEBRATE THE SMALL STUFF

Reward yourself along the way. So many of us have our eyes on the long term outcome and goals…but what about those little successes along the way? Time to start celebrating those now! Did you make your ten calls today to your clients? GREAT then give yourself an hour of focussed time for you. Perhaps you are working on a challenge with your company, if you worked towards it for 5 days in a row, then celebrate that! Even if you don’t earn the official prize, at least you worked 5 days towards it that will of course increase your business success down the road as well. You see it is not just making the final destination, but it is the little things you do along the way that need to be celebrated so that we feel like a success. When you feel good about what you have done, guess what, you keep on doing it.

Enjoy your day, give yourself a list of all the important things that need to get done, focus on them, write them down and then celebrate tonight for everything you DID accomplish! Here is to your success!

Best,

Mary-Jane Melenbacher
Founder
FIITFU

If you’re like most busy professionals, you know what you need to do to take better care of yourself. But you just somehow keep putting it aside. Whether it be lack of time, energy or some other reason, making it to the gym or daily meditation just doesn’t seem to happen. Fortunately, your vacation is the perfect time to get on top of these activities again.

Vacation time provides a great opportunity to road test new activities or get back into long neglected ones that you know help you feel great. By carving out regular time to go for that run or yoga class on holidays, you’ll help yourself get back into the swing of taking care of yourself. You’ll also increase your chances of continuing on with the activity upon return home by having some momentum behind you.

Pick One

Where I see some people fail in this effort is by picking too many things. While you may have a number of things that you want to do, narrow it down to just one thing that you will commit to doing after your vacation has ended. This way, you’ll improve your chances of following through. Once you get this new activity securely rooted in your post vacation schedule then add another if you like. Remember, you’ll likely have more success by taking small steps rather than trying to make wholesale changes.

What are some of the things that you’d like to try during your break from the office? What is that one thing that you’ll do that’ll make the biggest difference for you over the next 3 months?

Happy exploring!

What would you do if your new boss turned out to be an underwhelming hire? Do you simply tough it out or do you start looking for other opportunities? Well, if you are like many other highly driven, accomplished and talented performers you may do well to choose the door.

I’ve seen it time and again. Highly motivated rock star employees transformed into bundles of self doubt and frustration by new bosses who have half the talent. Have you ever felt the sting of having to report to someone who not only has less ability but deems others with more talent a threat? Not fun is it? Sadly, it’s more common than you think.

Recruiting Lemonade

The big problem is with recruitment, particularly when a board committee that is quite removed from operations makes the hiring decision. I cease to be amazed at some of these hiring decisions. Many boards, for example, tend to ignore warning signs because they simply don’t want to see them. This is due in part because people invest part of themselves in the leaders they decide on and they want to believe their choice was as close to perfect as possible. No matter what the sector, I’ve seen this type of ‘mystical thinking’ underscore many a disappointing hire.

Risks

So what are the risks of remaining in this type of situation? In my work with many talented men and women there are a number of the common themes:

1. New boss could develop jealousy or resentment towards you and your skill set. Again, this is not uncommon as many new leaders can be very concerned about appearances and ‘measuring up‘ and may perceive you as a threat. Unless they have truly good leadership instinct, they won’t relish having folks with superior skills around them.
2. Related to the above, I’ve observed the unfortunate dynamic of the new boss competing with those he or she deems more competent. This is surely a road to hell which can lead to you being demoted, demoralized, threatened or ‘outplaced’ due to ‘restructuring’.
3. A sad but frequent theme I see is talented men & women’s self esteem taking a hit. Here’s one scenario. You start off wondering how anyone so incompetent could have been hired. Over time, and particularly if the lemonade boss treats you unprofessionally, this can lead to you questioning your ability. Eventually you begin to believe that your skills and accomplishments are worth much less than they really are. You begin to accept as whole and true this misperception of your talent.
4. Other risks include a loss of motivation and increasing disengagement. Poor managers are the single most common reason why people leave their jobs.
5. You may become increasingly frustrated and/or discouraged especially if your prior boss was also a mentor. The lack of respect and learning potential you feel the new boss provides can be the nail in the coffin for you.

Of course, if you are the supervisor of a struggling new leader, you need to address the situation immediately! Begin by identifying the areas where the new hire is in need of training or support and provide this. Continuing to allow the leader to lead without these supports is a sure-fire recipe for burnout, frustration and attrition amongst the other staff.

If you work in a situation where your new boss’s superiors are either not open to feedback, or it’s too risky to provide this, get out. It likely won’t get better. And hey, there might be no time like the present to chart a new adventure! Or, you can choose to stay in a compromised situation and potentially suffer all that that might bring.

What would you do?