As the CEO (Chief Energizing Officer) at Hartful Living including GaiaHart.com and BizBuilderCards.com; I’m a Messenger and Mentor for women entrepreneurs, connecting them to their capacity to energize their work and their lives in the art of living Hartfully. At BizBuilderCards.com, you can make a living through giving with greeting cards and gifts to build your network net worth as an additive to your current business or an easy way to send gratitude and kindness to the world.
High Fives to Improve Your Workplace
May 4, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Giving you high-fives with helpful tips in groups of five to handle issues, improve motivation, and inspire your team to get-along and get going. With that, here are several topics with their top five lists:
A helpful tip for managers when confronted with a problem involving people is to ask “why” at least five times in a non-confrontational way such as “Help me understand what happened” instead of “What happened here?” Generally asking “why” five times takes you down the path of:
- blame
- excuse
- symptom
- cause
- root cause
By digging down a little deeper, you can get past the blame and excuses and focus on the root cause of the problem instead of a surface issue.
- A study by U-inspire, Inc which revealed the top five motivating methods of over 250 major companies:
- communication
- growth
- respect
- leadership
- compensation
One of the major findings in the study was the need for organizations to develop a mission statement what conveys the goals of the company and to implement multiple levels of employee recognition programs.
* In the book Clash of the Generations at Work by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, and Bob Filipczak, they give a simple 5-point ACORN model for managing and motivating across the generations:
- Accommodate differences
- Create workplace choices
- Operate with sophisticated management style
- Respect competence and initiative
- Nourish retention
* In keeping with the theme of fives in this post, think of yourself as a 5-pointed star. To keep your star shining brightly, follow these five easy tips from Sharing Ideas Magazine:
- Take care of your inner self and outer body.
- Shepherd thoughts that enter your mind.
- Care for your emotions and relationships with loving-kindness.
- Be on-purpose in how you invest, give, and spend your money.
- Be forgiving and grateful for the unlimited spirit of love that keeps you energized to serve others.
F8 “Fate” : Don’t Allow Fate to Rule You – Manage Your Life
April 19, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Be your own captain and navigate your own way instead of being tossed around by the wind and waves. Charting your own course is empowering and figuring out your direction and speed is half the fun. By using some of the other keys mentioned in this book; living your life on purpose sets you up to recognize and handle fate appropriately.
If you are not making plans for your life, then you are part of someone else’s plan. Take the wheel and take charge of your life. It’s your life, manage it well. A decision of inaction is a vote for fate to take over and run your life. Waiting around for the perfect time or the perfect circumstances or for 100% of all the information to come to you before making a decision will only paint you into a corner and narrow your selections of choice. Taking charge of your timely decisions and taking advantage of opportunities that come your way will help you steer your life in a more positive direction and give you more choices for positive outcomes. It will also help you avoid the stress of making a forced decision or having a decision or outcome forced upon you, which is a big energy drain.
Spring Cleaning Stacks of Teamwork Tips
April 4, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
It’s Spring Cleaning time and you get the benefit of culling through the stacks of articles and information I’ve accumulated over the years.
- American Express Incentive Services commissioned a survey of employees to see what they wanted in a reward. They found that 62 percent wanted the freedom to choose their own reward. They wanted a say in what they received in the manner of gift cards where they could use them for a dinner out, new CD’s, DVD rentals, a BBQ set, new shoes, movie tickets, or whatever else that suited them at the time. So say goodbye to plaques and hello to pre-paid gift cards that have multiple uses.
- If you are tired of meetings where nobody is contributing their share of solutions to the day’s challenges, then tell them that their admission ticket to the next meeting will be an index card with an original idea or their take on a solution to a pre-stated challenge written on it. Collect the tickets at the door and start the meeting by reading each card to the group to generate more active participation and engage them.
- Did you know that compared to the 1970’s, people today work 20% longer hours and have 32% less leisure time? In the past 30 years, psychologists estimate that workplace stress has doubled – along with the increase in stress levels of mixing business with family matters.
- A survey by careerbuilder.com revealed that 60% of the nation’s workforce finds it difficult to be professionally successful and sufficiently involved in family/social life. Over 74% said tele-work is the most desired perk, and 49% said they deliberately sought out flexible work environments during their last job hunt. What are you doing to help your workers balance their personal and professional lives?
- In the spirit of getting along in the workplace and increasing understanding between Generation X, Boomers, and Traditionalists, here are some sites that give some insight into “What the heck do they mean and why on Earth are they acting that way?”.
General Generation info and links to other sites addressing the issues:
www.millenials.com, and www.generationsatwork.com
Veterans: www.seniornet.org and www.seniors.com
Boomers: www.babyboomers.org and www.boomersint.org
Generation X: www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/lead/genx.html and www.go.com/webdir/people/society/generationx
Nexters: www.growingupdigital.com, www.northwesternmutual.com/2001/summary-main.html, and www.millenials.com/ltm/ltm.html
- Research from ComPsych – the world’s largest employee assistance program provider shares their recent findings on employee stress at work. 48% of workers report high levels of stress mixed with extreme fatigue and a sense of feeling out of control. Among that 48%, there were 41% who cited their workload as the culprit, 31% said it was people issues, and 28% of those with high levels of stress said it was juggling work and personal life that stressed them out so much. The next group of workers, 38% cited they experienced constant, but manageable stress levels, and 14% said they had low stress levels. What are you doing to manage your stress levels or those of your team so they will be more gruntled and less disgruntled and grumpy?
F5: Focus on Fulfillment and Future Financial Freedom
March 19, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Are you living a fulfilling life and doing what feeds your soul right now? At what age do you want to retire and what does retirement look like for you? The average American retires in their mid-sixties with only $10,000 – 13,000 in savings, which is far, far below what is needed for a comfortable life in America.
Plan for fulfillment now and for the future – you have a choice between short-term gratification and long-term satisfaction. Fulfillment is not necessarily in monetary terms – there is a balancing act of emotional, financial, spiritual, and intellectual fulfillment. Knowing you have a secure financial future will give you peace of mind as well as increased energy for today. Living on excess today means there may not be enough left in the future. Our futures are uncertain, as much as we’d like to think otherwise, so hoarding everything today and living meagerly in hopes of living well in the future may not turn out in your favor.
It’s always a personal choice of balance between today’s wants and tomorrow’s needs and ensuring that our resources can provide for us in both accounts. What are you doing now to take advantage of compounding interest rates and to make your money work for you in the future? What percentage of your income are you regularly saving?
Do you have at least 6 months to a year’s worth of income saved for emergencies or other unforeseen situations? Do you know where you want to retire and what the cost of living is in that locality? Do you know how much assisted living, nursing homes, or home health care will cost? Have you researched long-term care insurance plans or life insurance? Have you filled out a retirement worksheet that can be easily downloaded from many of the investment or mutual fund websites? Do you know how much of your savings account will be eaten up by inflation and how much you will need to have put away to live in the style you are accustomed to today?
Take the time to focus on these issues to give yourself some peace of mind and alleviate the burden of anxiety or fear over your future well-being.
Things About Energy, Empowerment, and Employee Retention that Make You Go Hmmmm
March 4, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Work-life programs are keeping workers at work and experts are attributing fewer sick days to these programs. With more flexibility to arrange their schedules and more workplace help with dry-cleaning, day-care, and car washing; workers aren’t as tempted to take “mental health days”. According to a CCH, Inc. survey of absenteeism, it declines to 2.1% as compared to 2.7% last year and 2.9% in 1999. Absenteeism costs companies more than $600 per employee per year which translates to $9000 for a 15-person operation or $3 million for a 5,000 employee organization. Research shows that only 40% who call in are really sick – the other 60% are taking care of personal business.
* According to www.realage.com, laughing can make your “real age” up to 8 years younger.
* What steps does your organization take to help keep workers at work by offering some conveniences or assistance for staff so they can handle life’s responsibilities? Some organizations: have a car detailing service 1-2 times per week in the parking lot, have a corporate concierge who arranges to meet plumbers or the cable guy at a worker’s home while the worker stays at work or makes dinner reservations or arranges for concert tickets, have a dry-cleaning operation on site, have pet-care centers, have arrangements for eldercare options, have a massage therapist come on site for breaks, or have take-home dinner options available from the employee cafeteria.
* The National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that 62% of recent college grads expect to leave their first job in 3 years. What will you do to retain your top talent when they come to you with this expectation?
I wanted to share some energy boosting tips to improve your personal energy and keep stress at bay:
- Spend time deep breathing to oxygenate the body.
- Get fit in bits – even bursts of 10 minutes three times per day will help.
- Mind your posture and stand or sit straight to help your diaphragm and aid in deep breathing, it is also less fatiguing on your back.
- Sit properly with your knees at right angles and feet and back flat. Pat attention to your chair or elevate your feet to help your back – stretch and move often if you sit at your desk for long periods.
- Get outside for fresh air and sunshine.
- Learn to use acupressure points to release more energy doors for better energy flow throughout the day.
- Practice yoga for body movement and breathing techniques – it helps relax you, tone and strengthen muscles, and add flexibility to aid in energy flow.
- Laughing reduces stress hormones and invigorates the circulatory system, the respiratory system, and muscles throughout the body. Contrary to popular belief, it does not release endorphins, but it does have other healthy effects.
- Dance and since for physical and emotional release.
- Rest with intensity – get plenty of sleep nightly to rejuvenate and refresh.
- Eat smaller meals and eat more frequently to keep your blood sugar stable and your metabolism on track to help balance your energy levels.
F4: Full Attention to the Fundamentals of Family and Faith
February 19, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Your faith and your family can pull you through most anything at all. The strength of your aspirations is based on the solid foundation of these two factors. It’s not necessarily about religion, but the true spirit of the goodness in people and the faith that there is kindness, love, spirituality, and caring in the world. Family isn’t always blood relations either; rather it is the people who trust, love, and support you in a united group.
Are you providing full attention to your faith and your family? How you spend your time is a telltale sign. Where our intention goes, our energy flows. If we state that our family comes first, yet we are spending 80 hours per week at the office, then we need to refocus our attention. What have you done lately to show your family or your faith that they have your attention?
Do you have special rituals with your spouse, kids, parents, or siblings that mark certain dates or commemorate specific milestones? Are there certain times you make phone calls or other ways that you show each other you care that are special between you? Creating these connections keeps your attention focused in the right areas and energizes you and the people around you.
Inspiration and Incentives that Work to Improve Work
February 4, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
According to CCH, Inc. – an HR research firm, the Unscheduled Absence Survey found the number of employees missing work for personal reasons has increased to 21% from 11% last year. Of the 333 human resources executives surveyed, personal illness was cited 33%, with 67% absent due to personal reasons resulting in a cost of $789 million.
The study found that an increase in morale significantly lowers the number of absentees. Organizations with good overall morale has a 1.9% absentee rate while others averaged 2.4%. The more options employees have, the better the morale and the lower the absentee rate. Two of the major things to do this are provide more flexible time off and offer more work/life programs such as childcare, working from home or compressed work weeks.
The top four most cited incentives to keep workers working for you according to a survey of 352 employers by the American Management Association:
- Sending employees to conferences and training
- Tuition reimbursement
- Skills training
- Pay for performance
A “new” way to recognize employees: ask them to participate in an important project they might not otherwise work on. Using involvement to reward workers tells them that you value their performance and it provides you with a pool of creative thinkers.
Beat the turnover odds: in the fast food industry with turnover rates close to 100%, one owner explains his staff longevity of 8-10 years at a Chick-Fil-A is due to his treating them like customers and greeting them daily, talking to them throughout the day, and saying good-bye when they leave. Talking to them -what a concept!
When the economic times are tough – it’s time to energize employees and make sure you hold on to your top talent. Here are some hints to keep them around:
* Celebrate all the victories, no matter how small
* Look for other incentives besides money – ask them
* Consider changing some work hours – be flexible
* Take more time for personal connections at work
* Don’t focus on the negatives, keep the talk positive
* If business is slow – take the time to do foundational things and create new programs or write personal
notes to staff thanking them for their work – do the things that you normally wouldn’t have time to do
* Keep networking in your industry – invite a colleague
* Create a terrific atmosphere in the break room or the bathrooms to make people feel as if they matter – take care of your team by taking care of their space
F3: Find (F)understanding Friends
January 19, 2016 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Surround yourself with these people and your life will be filled with good times, support, laughter, camaraderie, and somebody to keep you in line when your energy is waning. Research suggests that having a support system with your friends or family decreases stress and the frequency of colds and flu. Of course, laughter and fun are the best medicines around with no harmful side effects.
Those who play together stay together and have enhanced energy and enjoyment, as well as a better outlet to cope with negative situations. Collect a diverse group of friends to attain a well-rounded perspective on life and to bring more interest and opinions. To find fun and understanding friends, practice being one first. Like energy attracts like energy. If you find yourself surrounded by deadbeats, then you may need to take a second look in the mirror and re-direct your energies.
Family and friends are extremely important to personal energy. Remember to prioritize people first before things to help you sort out what is important in life. Regular social contact can lower potentially harmful hormones that are released by the body during stressful situations, not to mention more perspectives to help you gain awareness of other avenues around your stressful situations.
Keeping in touch with open communication in any form helps build support, trust, and a sounding board to keep you on track while adding years to your life as well as life to your years. Talking to close friends or a complete stranger can be uplifting. Communicating can be a challenge, but when it gets through, it is a victory. Celebrate the thrill of sharing ideas and dreams. Look at the explosion of cyberspace chat rooms and email; we are all just dying to talk, be heard, and befriend others.