Two Books for Work and Wellbeing

In the pursuit of a more fulfilling and balanced life, sometimes the simplest solutions are the most transformative. If you're looking to enhance both your professional and personal well-being, there are two essential books that offer profound insights and practical advice.

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Here are two books that can really impact your work and your well-being. The first is Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nester. About 90% of us are breathing incorrectly and I don't share that to scare or fear-monger but to build awareness that a lot of us are disconnected from the best way of creating this foundation of well-being within ourselves that can really impact all areas of our lives. The other book I want to mention is Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life. This is one of the books I recommend the most for my clients and for people just thinking about how to re-engage with their work and re-engage with activities both in and outside of the office that bring them joy. It's filled with activities and prompts to help you really get reflective about how you're spending your time hope that these books help you take good care of yourself no matter what you're up to.

Do This When You Can't Sleep

If you've ever found yourself tossing and turning in bed, desperately wishing for sleep that just won’t come, you're not alone. Sleep is one of the most vital components of our well-being, but when we’re stressed or burned out, it can often be the first thing to suffer. Whether you're dealing with burnout from work, caregiving, or just life's demands, the quest for restful sleep can seem elusive. Fortunately, there are practical strategies that can help you reclaim your nights and restore your energy. Let's dive into some effective tools and techniques to improve your sleep quality, even when you're feeling overwhelmed.

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if you want to know more about the stages of burnout or the different characteristics and qualities to look for to assess if you're burned out or not definitely check out some of the other videos on this channel but I want to share a tool that is easier said than done that can be supportive no matter where you are on that burnout cycle.

Sleep is one of the most healing things that we can do for our minds, bodies, and souls. It's often one of the things that can really go by the wayside when we're burned out. Whether our burnout is coming from caregiving or if it's from our work a lot of times when our plates are more full we sacrifice sleep. Think about what you can control and what is within your power to tinker with to get better sleep. Another strategy is Yoga Nidra if you're trying to sleep and you're not able to go down or you're waking up and having trouble going back down this is a form of non-sleep deep rest that can help your body feel like it's recovered that lost sleep.

Take Control of Your Sleep

Remember, even when burnout feels overwhelming, there are steps you can take to improve your sleep and overall well-being. By implementing practical sleep strategies and incorporating Yoga Nidra into your routine, you can help your body and mind recover from stress and exhaustion.

Sleep is a powerful tool for healing and recovery. By prioritizing it and using techniques like sitting in stillness and Yoga Nidra, you can enhance your rest and resilience, helping you navigate through burnout with greater ease. Sweet dreams and restful nights ahead!

Unlock the Power of Hugs

We all have that one friend or family member who's known for giving long, warm hugs—the kind that last a little longer than most. While it might seem like just a quirk, there's actually some science backing up their embrace. According to Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by the Nagatsuki sisters, a 20-second hug can be a powerful tool for combating stress and resetting your body’s natural balance.

When we face stress, our bodies often go into fight, flight, or freeze mode—a natural response designed to protect us from danger. But in our modern lives, these stressors are less about physical threats and more about work deadlines, social pressures, or personal challenges. And while the stress triggers have evolved, our physiological responses haven’t quite caught up. That’s where the long hug comes in.

What Happens During a 20-Second Hug?

When you engage in a 20-second or longer hug, several positive changes occur in your body:

1. Hormonal Shifts: Your body starts to release oxytocin, often referred to as the "love hormone." This chemical not only promotes feelings of bonding and connection but also helps reduce cortisol levels, which are associated with stress.

2. Lowered Blood Pressure: As you relax into the embrace, your blood pressure begins to drop, which is a sign that your body is moving out of the high-alert state that stress often triggers.

3. Slowed Heart Rate: Alongside the drop in blood pressure, your heart rate slows down, signaling to your body that it’s safe to exit the fight-or-flight mode.

How to Use This Strategy

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or caught in a stress cycle, consider leaning into a hug. It doesn’t have to be forced or awkward—just a genuine, comforting embrace. If this feels accessible and safe for you, it can be a simple yet effective way to help your body return to a more grounded state.

So the next time you find yourself on the receiving end of a long hug, don’t rush it. Embrace the moment—literally—and let it be a tool for resetting your stress response. Your body and mind will thank you for it.

Surprising Job Search Mindset Tool

Job search resilience refers to the ability to remain positive, motivated, and persistent despite the challenges you might face during the job search process. Watch this video to learn a tip that can help build job search resilience.

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I want to share one of the most creative things I have heard when it comes to thinking about job search resilience. So I was speaking at a conference and my co-panelist shared that she had been laid off from a job and every morning before she got started with her applications and her networking, she would watch a commencement speech.

Now that was not the thing that I was expecting to hear. And she shared that a lot of times in those speeches, people are talking about really hard times in their lives, how they persevered, and then usually they're pretty successful people. So I thought this was so thoughtful, so creative, so out of the box, and a great way to think about taking care of your mindset and your mental health when going through something that can be pretty challenging for many people.

So I hope that this tool is supportive for you, whether you've been laid off or not, to help you have another tool in the toolkit for taking good care of yourself.

Salary Negotiation

Have you had the desire to negotiate your salary but you’re not sure how your employer will react? Turns out salary negotiation is common and even expected from the majority of employers. Explore compelling reasons why negotiating your salary is helpful for your career success.

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Did you know that about 70% of organizations expect candidates to negotiate after they're given a job offer? Yet only about 50% of people actually do that negotiation. Now there's a lot of factors at hand, and I do want you to know, if you're excited about and happy about the offer, then you don't have to feel pressure to negotiate.

That being said, a lot of times we just get anxious, and I notice that my clients just get nervous that an offer will be rescinded, and that is what prevents them from negotiating. There are many different ways to approach this conversation in a respectful and grounded way, to advocate in the facts and the data that you do deserve more without offending an organization or the employer at hand.

If this is something you're interested in learning more about, I'm happy to connect. But even just knowing that many people put an offer out there expecting you to ask for more can be the nudge that a lot of people need.

Breathing While Scrolling

Have you heard of screen apnea? Explore this phenomenon where we unconsciously hold our breath while using digital devices. Screen apnea can lead to increased stress and decreased cognitive function. Keep reading to learn the the importance of mindfulness and breath awareness to mitigate its effects and promote overall well-being.

I invite you to use this blog post to practice conscious breathing while scrolling!

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Check in right now as you're on your screen on your breathing. Odds are very, very high that it's really shallow in your chest. You might even be going in and out through your mouth. And at certain points, you might even be somewhat holding your breath without realizing it. This is a concept called screen apnea.

Linda Stone, a former Microsoft executive, came up with this term. And it relates to this phenomenon of not even noticing when we're in a deep level of focus and concentration or honestly also mindless scrolling on our phones, there's so much stimulation and our focus is so narrow that we tend to really slow down the pace of our breath.

Now there's a lot of different things to think about with this, but you might notice you feel exhausted at the end of a day, even if it wasn't very stressful because of this type of breathing. This turns our nervous systems into more of that fight, flight, freeze mode because when we breathe in this shallow way, we think that we're looking for, our bodies think that we're perceiving a threat or watching or a threat. So check in on your breathing and make sure you take some breaks and follow for more tips.

Quick Burnout Check-In

Explore the hidden costs of burnout in this quick video. Uncover the toll that chronic stress can take on your well-being and productivity. Implementing small changes can lead to significant improvements in your overall satisfaction and effectiveness at work.

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Many of us spend our days in go, go, go, move, move, move, do, do, do mode. And this is a quick check in to get a sense of whether or not you're headed down a path towards burnout.

Burnout Criteria

So the three criteria that were originally part of the 1975 definition of burnout by Herbert Freudenberger are a decreased sense of accomplishment, a depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Now we know that burnout can come from many areas of life, not just work as it was originally coined to be referencing, but check in on each of these and see how many of them hold true to you.

Do you feel like nothing you do really matters anymore? Do you feel less empathy or sympathy or compassion for the people around you? And do you feel just emotionally exhausted, exhausted most of the time?

If that's the case, I highly recommend that you start to build that self-awareness to take some action to take good care of yourself and get the support that you need.

What do burnout and quiet quitting have to do with one another?

Uncover the impact of "quiet quitting" and stress in this insightful video. Hear powerful stories and expert advice that highlight the toll chronic stress takes on individuals, leading to disengagement and decreased productivity. Gain practical strategies to address stress and create a healthier, more fulfilling work experience.

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Hello we are live the burnout panel on quiet quitting. Welcome everybody to the burnout panel on quiet quitting and we are going to talk to you about this phenomenon that seems to be taking the world by storm right now um there are at least two definitions of quiet quitting one is the person who's saying I'm going to set some boundaries I'm not going on this like ride or die right kind of focus on my work anymore I'm going to say some boundaries around that but then there's another group of people who seem to be really disengaging and are much more likely burning out and moving into that place where they really aren't sure if they want to be in their workplace anymore that's the group we're going to address today sharing with you what we think is going on with that group of people and how you might help them so let's kick it off with our first speaker:

Hi my name is Audrey Holst I am the founder of Fortitude and Flow and the creator of the Perfectionist Archetypes and I help high achieving individuals and teams to rewire from toxic perfectionism into a culture of excellence and we can't talk about quiet quitting without talking about perfectionism these things are are linked together and in order to talk about that we have to talk about the body because we are bringing our bodies to work every single day there are two questions that the body is always scanning for. Am I safe? and do I belong? This combination of perfectionism within an individual and within an organization can create a bit of a survival situation where people are showing up to work their bodies are feeling like they are walking into a tiger's cage every single day. Their body is getting flooded with cortisol and everyday basis and that is bouncing off of co-workers and it's creating a really tough environment which is creating those people who are starting to disengage out of survival this is how they're going to survive this job so some things to talk about is unrealistic expectations that can be again within self and other this is something that is imperfectionism this feeling that it has to be a plus work or not at all it has to be above and beyond and these unspoken cultural rules. So you may not have it in your contract that you you know have to come in early and stay late that may be baked into the culture so that is again trying to follow these very specific rules and maybe they're written or unwritten and having this self-identification with your job as being who you are so not really having anything to identify yourself and your own body outside of your work. Therefore everything having a really really intense impact on you. So in order to deal with this new world we have to figure out okay where is this perfectionism where are these threads how can we come out of this survival situation and become more of our full selves in our work. We have to address those individual and organizational expectations and clarify them. So it's really important to get clear on these things and I think that Aileen is going to be do a really great job talking about the values and how clarifying those can really help us shift what's going on.

Thank you so much Audrey hello everyone my name is Aileen Axtmayer. I'm a career coach and corporate Wellness speaker. One on one I help my clients land work that they love and then I help employers retain that talent through providing customized corporate Wellness workshops all around Stress Management and helping employees restore their energy so they can thrive in their jobs and when I think about quiet quitting and burnout in the intersection here I think you know in my 15 plus years of working with people one-on-one seeing people leave jobs both quietly and loudly there's something really interesting that goes on so a lot of times people end up in their professional roles either in a happenstance way so they couldn't find a job right out of college and then they ended up just doing something temporary and then temporary lends itself to five ten years later or they land work that they love but then as they grow and change as in their personal lives and their professional lives their roles aren't reflecting those changes and values and interests in personality and in the skill sets that they want to want to use not just what they're good at sometimes they're good at something but you don't enjoy using it so I like to encourage people whether it be employers or the employees themselves to zoom out we don't really do these career Wellness checkups we have our annual physical exams we don't do this on the professional level so I I recommend that we do and the framework that I use to examine this is VIPs so what are your values your interests your personality and your skills and when you can create space as an employer or as an employee to really examine these parts of yourself and understand where you're at with each of them you can then use that framework to  understand where your work might not be in alignment anymore and what you can do to really shift and feel like your values interest personality and skills are aligned with the work that you're doing so that's a little bit of my thoughts on how we develop personally and change professionally and how we can Tinker with things to really feel more engaged in our work I think Dr Sharon is going to kick us off into another angle to explore this phenomena.

My name is Dr Sharon Grossman and I am affectionately known as the burnout doc I work with busy Executives and entrepreneurs who feel burned out because their work and their lives feel like too much and they want more time for themselves and their families so what I would like to really shine a light on with regards to quiet quitting is let's take it back for a moment to the brain and when we're doing this quiet quitting thing really we're letting our primitive brain do what it does which is it tries to run away from pain and move towards pleasure but I think it's also important to look at the consequences of just allowing that to happen and not being involved on purpose in that process it's when you are giving up on your goals that you actually are giving up on yourself and why that's important is because you lose Integrity with yourself and we do this and then we justify it because it's uncomfortable because we're tired because we're unsure what I really would like to encourage people to do instead is to use your prefrontal cortex to manage your mind so all of the thoughts that create the stress that make you want to run away that you deal with that stress instead you deal with the overwhelm and make your decisions on purpose because achievement is what will allow you to feel pleasure once you've put in the work so rather than running away from things let's find a way to engage and find out how we can manage the stress rather than just try to take that other route and you know sometimes we do that because we're burned out which is understandable and one of the reasons we might be feeling burned out is because there's just a lot of things that are stewing in our mind and we end up feeling resentful and my good friend Cait Donovan is going to now take that angle and talk to us about quiet quitting and resentment.

Hi everybody my name is Cait Donovan. I work with organizations to reduce burnouts they can keep top talent and I work with people one-on-one to reduce burnout so they can stop hating their lives and I love resentment it's my favorite emotion and resentment and quiet quitting have one major thing in common and that is a feeling or perception of unfairness people quiet quit because things are unfair and they're pulling out they're disengaging right they're not getting out of this what they're put putting into it if we look at Merriam-Webster resentment is defined as bitter indignation at being treated unfairly so resentment and quiet quitting have a common root and I think we have to remember that so if we find a lot of quiet quitting in a corporate setting creating conversations around resentment with support please don't do this if you don't know how call me I'll help with support we can create conversations that allow resentment to be explored in a positive and beneficial way resentments turn into boundaries and boundaries help protect us and one of my favorite people who talks about boundaries energetically is Dr Sandra and she's gonna take over now and talk about boundaries in unresolved chronic stress.

Hello everybody um I am Dr Sandra Lewis and I am a clinical psychologist and personal energy strategist working with women organizations to reconnect them those resources that help them make the journey from burnout to sustainable leadership and an impact that brings them a lot of joy and satisfaction and the threat that I've been hearing us pull on today is This Thread about this nervous system of ours and how when that nervous system gets overwrought it's kind of like we go into survival mode so quiet quitting this this engagement that we see in quiet quitting is really an example of flight or fight right so we we're in this place of just we have disconnected because this thing hurts it's been unfair it's not people aren't recognizing me my talents are being utilized appropriately and now I'm in this situation where I feel like I need to escape so we disengage that's the flight response the flight response might be more of the person who is more cynical right so we're in this space of unresolved stress but when we disengage it's like we move we remove ourselves from the interaction with the stressor itself the lack of recognition or those kinds of things but but we still have the energy going in our body and our bodies stuck in that mode so one of the things that we have to begin to do is to reset our nervous system our nervous system is stuck in that place where we can't get anything we can't even access our mental capacity to make a decision that might bring us to a better place so the first thing is to start with regenerating and rejuvenating a nervous system so that then we can start to hear our creativity again we can start to think about building we can get to our mental energy that energy that allows us to think to what can I do in this situation what are my options we can get back to our emotional energy that ability that we have to actually navigate through stress and see a reasonable solution and to connect with those resources as Cait just mentioned connect with the resources that you need and we've talked a lot about the individuals but we also need the managers to help us so Vanessa's going to talk about how leadership can take apart in ending quiet quitting.

Yes yes yes and thank you lovely the panelists my lovely peers yes for those insights so these three R's that I'm going to share with you right now is from helping my clients reduce their turnover shut down their staff's nonsense and retain their employees while they have been able to lead their teams of employees in their brick and mortar shops and restaurants so these three are to ensure that you no longer have to deal with quiet quitting on your team because yes let's say you are that individual that you know has that require quitting for yourself but you might be watching also as a leader of a team where you're thinking to yourself how do I ensure that this doesn't happen again so three R's one being rewards so you want to ensure that you are acknowledging the great work that your employees are doing this doesn't have to be a five thousand dollar gift card to Best Buy though we would all appreciate that yes right absolutely um but this could even just be a simple thank you some of you love telling your employees what's wrong and you justify it by saying preparing them for a hard not life but really you're preparing them to quietly quit so let's ensure that you are at the very least saying thank you acknowledge them for their great work and doing those rewards number two refreshments and I don't mean appetizers but hey free delicious food let's go uh by Refreshments I mean hosting regular team check-ins they can be monthly they can be quarterly but team meetings where you are realigning with your team about your company's culture mission and vision and last but certainly not least the third are Recreation so Recreation meaning have fun help your employees have fun with each other right with you and the team a holiday party goes a long way but even my client recently hosted an end of summer celebration at the wine bar she didn't think anyone would show up and turned out only one person missed the other 11 employees actually came off the clock they weren't paid for it they came to work essentially to the workspace voluntarily just to have fun and enjoy so whether you're leading an entire business or you're leading a team in a department or you're about to become a leader and you want to do it better than your current boss is remember rewards refreshments and Recreation quiet quitting is preventable now at this time we would love to open the floor to any questions that you may have for us I see we have a question here in the comments that we would love to address at the moment let me pull that question up.

So Olivier asked us is quiet quitting the response of employees to cope to their job rather than to apply the great resignation um so let's go we can go around the room here who already wants to begin and start and we can just go around the room it's quiet quitting the responsive employees coping to their job rather than the great resignation Cait I write about this a lot because I thinkthat quiet quitting is a coping mechanism for Burnout when it is used not as a choice but as a natural reaction so I think we have to separate choosing quiet quitting to protect yourself and quiet quitting because you're so burned out that you have no other choice and you're just trying to make it through your day and not get fired so quiet quitting can be a coping mechanism if you are burnt out and unable to get out of your job at the moment or you think you're unable to get out which is a whole separate conversation we need Carol you know we need to talk about mindset there but yes I think that it can be anyone else on the panel want to address what are your thoughts on quiet quitting versus a great resignation Dr Sandra.

I would say uh yeah it can be and it's probably a more short-term solution it's like what we need right now just to manage to get through right it's just we are here now this situation is really awful and I've determined that in order for me to manage it I have to take a step back I have to do less than I usually do I'm not going to go 187 percent I'm just going to go now 98 to 100 and I'm going to take some time but then we still need to take that next step so what will it look like when my my work life is the one I really want to have and how do I get there yes love it love it look at us look at us yes and we have Audrey yes yeah I think that uh this is one of those things where it's like the all or nothing mindset either you're in it three billion percent or you're completely disengaged in it and there's this this inability or just this lack of skill for a lot of people to figure out how to exist in that middle space like people were talking about engagement versus disengagement or making a choice versus feeling like there is no choice like what's your body's perception of a situation which your mind's perception of a situation so um this is like the conversation of teaching people and giving people the skills in order to exist in that middle ground where you're not completely disengaged and fleeing but you're also not you know it's or not throwing yourself at your work 24 hours a day and feeling like you were identified with that so that's really the conversation we're having right here is how do we get more people exposed to this kind of work that exists in that in between space great question

Love it love it and let's see we have another we actually have two questions from Casey here uh she shares I'm gonna be too long for the screen but here we go I'm reading in some Global surveys that empathy is the number one most value leadership attribute at this time number one what are some actionable concrete steps that leaders can take that show they are empathizing with their team members and then two how can I as a stress team member find my own agency in this crazy world so I can address the first question and feel free peers to also add in and then we can go into number two as well from the individual perspective so in terms of Casey for your first question what are some actionable concrete stuff that leaders can take to show that you're empathizing with your team members and I would say in terms of I'll go back to the rewards perspective and also with the recreation so when it comes to the rewards it's acknowledging helping your team member being the leader that acknowledges your team member for the great work that they did right because it's very easy to say oh my God like you know they give you a piece of paper they finish some you know planning something out and you're like okay they planned that thing but in their mind they're they're saying to themselves I spent weeks on that I spend months on that how could you not give me a thank you how could you not give me a reward how could you not acknowledge me in front of the team for the work that I did right and so it's appreciating and knowledge the work that they put into all the steps that they did to you know get them whatever that they wanted to do that is going to go along with that empathy and the second thing is also you know people have lives so being a leader that understands that your employees have lives right and your employee just as you are perhaps a stress team member for your own leader Your Own Boss right they may be in that same position for themselves too right so how can you ensure that you know we're gonna go into my lovely friends here about to go you know drop some knowledge on how you as a stress team member can find your own agency but just being aware that your employees are people too just as you are and ensuring that you are just showing up and acknowledging and wearing and being aware of the work that they're putting in it goes such long way second question how can I distressed team member find my own agency oh Aileen and then Dr Sandra.

I think uh what a lot of one of us a lot of what we've touched on and talked in depth about today is that stress response and so I think most people especially when you're in that constant state where you're potentially burnt out and you just feel like you're wanting a sense of control you said we have more control over how we feel in our minds and bodies than I think many of us know and recognize so my recommendation is what do you already know that helps you turn that stress response down what helps ground you nourish you get you into that prefrontal cortex like we talked about and out of this survival mode I guarantee you for most people they know these things and that they just aren't doing them as much as they want to or could and it doesn't have to be you know this two-week vacation every month or whatever it might be although that sounds lovely and maybe that is the thing for you but sometimes it's truly just creating some space to be versus to do taking some deep belly breaths so all these simple practices can really be incredibly impactful for helping Center yourself and then the more you do that the more you realize you do have control and you can integrate some of these practice and practices anywhere anytime and then feel like you can see the world from a clearer lens so that's part of my take on that and I just think also the empathizing leader right this kind of empathy it's if that's really about this whole skill that people call emotional intelligence or you know again what our brain does right mirror neurons we see someone having an experience and we're able our brain actually responds as though we're having that experience so when a leader can know and read their own bodies and what how they're responding when they're in the room with someone and they can also notice what's happening with people then they can begin to be more empathetic they can also be more empathetic by just practicing mindful listening making sure that they're saying they're understanding what the person actually said to them because sometimes people answer a question for us and we already have decided what we think the answer is and we're running with that we haven't really listened to them so we want to First slow ourselves down enough to really hear what people are saying and hear those little clues that I'm burned out I really need some support I really need help, Dr Sharon.

So just to continue what everybody has been saying I think it's really important if you are a leader of a team until you work on your own stress it's going to be really hard for you to show up in your best form and the other thing I think is interesting is you know we're talking about empathy and how that's the number one most valued leadership attribute um and I think it's also important to consider the difference between empathy and compassion because sometimes when we're empathetic by definition we're kind of feeling other people's emotions and sometimes if they're stressed and we start to feel stressed and then we're not able to show up and lead them so as an alternative think about how to be more compassionate around what they're feeling once you've taken care of your own stress and that means that you understand that they're having a hard time but you're not necessarily feeling all of their emotions and that allows you to show up as that leader from a place of strength as opposed to now we're all in it together in this mess of stress you know so um it's just a way of kind of stepping back and maybe zooming out and I think a lot of this comes from working on yourself first and foremost and Cait throw in just one last thing Dr Kristen Donnelly who's a multi-time tedx speaker and a fellow speaker friend of ours of the groups did a huge amount of research into empathy into the definitions and the core of the word and what she found out was that underneath the word empathy actually all we're looking for is understanding the word understanding is the only commonality between all of the definitions of empathy so if leaders need to be more empathetic than they need to look to understand wonderful wonderful so we are we have Megan says really nicely said uh we have Kristen who mentioned this is awesome yes we have Casey who says y'all Rock oh well it's been our pleasure definitely to be here on the burnout panel we'll be here every month live on LinkedIn with different topics and I'm gonna pass it off here to Audrey to close us out.

It's it's so great to have to be able to hear everybody in like such a short little segment and basically you can take this as it's we're like a flight of tasters where you got to have a little tiny Taste of everybody's perspective and it was delicious for me just even being on this panel being having like these little tastes and there you can see where the commonalities and where the specific areas of expertise that everybody has and what a huge value that could bring to have all of these voices um be heard by your organization like imagine that your organization gets all of our voices and all of this information in like in a package together that's amazing like that's really an amazing thing like I'm excited just talking about it so we're gonna drop a link in the chat where you can check it out it is just a way to contact us gives your information your name organization need or if you are thinking of an organization you're like oh my gosh they need like they need this work they need this work let us know so we're gonna be doing this like I said every single month and when we can collect information that's also gonna help us like if you've got a topic that you want to hear us talk on to get a little taster whether you want to bring us on ask us about it we'd be happy to talk about it and that was the burnout panel on quiet quitting till next month foreign.

Simple Solutions To Burnout

From establishing healthy boundaries and practicing self-care to seeking support and reevaluating priorities, we provide practical strategies to help you regain balance and find fulfillment.

Auto generated transcript from the panel is below. Please excuse any typos!

Welcome welcome everyone to the burnout panel on Simple Solutions today we're talking about is burnout really simple you're chatting before we went live and a lot of us are thinking this isn't rocket science but sometimes it really does feel that way when you're feeling burnt out or you're just honestly in a life where you're not really zooming out and looking at the forest from the trees So today we're going to talk about acknowledge and insights and actionable practical tips for solving preventing recovering from burnout from each of our experts today.

So very serendipitously I have my own little burnout mitigation happening right now I'm joining super quickly my name is Aileen and I got the call school is closing early for snow so life happens but this is what we're talking about life happens instead of pushing against it and honestly that strategy in and of itself is a way to reduce burnout or to reduce stress that we feel in our bodies right paying times resistance equal suffering so let's reduce our suffering so we took today before I scoot in the snow storm is for Burnout Simple Solutions more executive functioning part of our brains comes back online we can actually start to see what's contributing to our stress what is the biggest source of struggle for us and what can we do and Implement in our lives to take action to start to create more ease so I will pass it on to Cait.

Hey everybody this is real life around here so when snow storms happen and children have to get picked up you know we roll with the punches my go-to solution for Burnout might sound a little bit counterintuitive but I really want you to spend some time tapping into what I call the anger group of emotions anger irritation annoyance and my favorite resentment I want you to tune into resentment because I think that I can be bold enough to say that the past couple of years have left a few people that may be watching a little angry you know we've had a lot of change there's been a lot going on just this past week there was a lot of layoffs from a lot of big tech companies I want you to take note of where the most repetitive resentments are the most common ones in your life and then ask yourself a couple of key questions number one does this thing that I'm resentful about even need to be done sometimes you'll find that you're resentful about doing something that if you dropped wouldn't change anything this is beautiful because the next question is if I have to do it is there someone else that could do it now we're talking about delegation the question after that is is there a way to upgrade the tool do you need better software or do you need different help or do you need a new sharpened knife whatever happens to be that you're using that's causing frustration can you upgrade your tool to make it easier and then the last question is is there an unspoken assumption here and unspoken agreement between myself yes for yourself communication communicating with yourself and communicating with others. Now something happens when life happens for example when maybe you're not able to get done on that project that you told your boss or you told yourself or you told your team that you're going to be able to do and so it's very easy to then say okay who will be impacted all these people were counting on me oh my gosh I can't let them down instead Your solution is to think to yourself how do you communicate how are you going to communicate to yourself and to others that hey life did happen and now it is time for me to do X or do I do see for example and now I'm going to pass it off to Audrey thanks so much I will have to you know we were so excited to get into these tips that none of us introduced ourselves which I think is just really it actually it kind of goes to our passionate about this work like we were talking about strategies before you even got on this call and we were just like let's get it you know we were just ready to dive in so we'll have to do a little circle back on you know intros so without the intro just say really quickly that I the folks that I work with are perfectionist that's my my area of expertise is working with folks who are perfectionists have basically self-identified as having perfectionist Tendencies and one of the things that leads this particular population down the path of burnout is not having an adjustable speed and what I mean by that is that they are either in park or they're going 60 miles an hour and that can look at the speed of which they move physically it's often the way that they describe that their minds are running a million miles an hour and they've got so many things going on and if they have a moment just to sit their brain kicks in super super fast so one of the things that I start to bring to folks is teaching them the concept of having an adjustable speed just like a car you don't just have park or 16 miles an hour you actually transition you can try before you can even make the transition you have to start to be aware that there are different speeds so one of the exercises that he bring people through is having them starting to look around the room and to just notice the speed at which they observe their surroundings because often people who are in 60 miles an hour are scanning the room so fast that they're not actually seeing anything and when you're in that state where you're literally not even seeing the things in the room you're also not seeing anything in your brain either you're not going to see Solutions you're not going to be able to hear communication clearly you're not going to be able to grasp creativity the way that you want to so being able to recognize the speed at which your system is processing information is looking is is looking or not looking is scanning but not actually paying attention but not paying attention is the first step in figuring out oh wow okay I I feel like I'm in this this fast speed is there some adjustability here so just starting to understand that we have different speeds at which we operate and that we do have the ability to shift up and down in between them and it's very common that we only use two speeds Park which is an earliest speed but you know what I'm saying and 60 miles an hour which is going running right by and not even actually seeing any of the scenery so I hope that you know keeping that in mind I'm imagining that Doctor Sandra Lewis is going to have some even more juicy tips.

I am going to have some tips but I'm going to give Dr Sharon her chance to go so that we can so she can share something on how to decode your burnout and then we're going to talk about your bodies thank you so much onthat but something came up today. Because one of the reasons that I find that a lot of people burn out is because of that negative chatter in their mind and you know Audrey just talked to us about perfectionism that's an example of something where if you set those standards for yourself and you don't actually have the kind of results that you want you might end up beating yourself up if I have a client who is very much in this place of wanting things to be amazing you know great intention but then tends to beat himself up when things don't turn out the way that he would like and he said something and I thought this is such a great mindset shift that I have to share it and this is what he said it's redundant to beat myself up because I already felt the pain and I was like that is so good right so think about that when you really care about doing something well and it doesn't work out the way that you would like that's painful right it's like here I am showing up putting an effort putting in time and then we don't have control over everything that happened so it's not necessarily your fault but it didn't work out sometimes it's because we have external circumstances that are beyond our control sometimes it's because we're not quite at the level that we need to be in terms of our skills and sometimes when something doesn't turn out we can learn from that experience and that allows us to do better the next time around so this idea of getting away from beating yourself up is a great way to avoid adding to the stress that you already have in your life and with that I would love to now pass it finally to the lovely Doctor Sandra.

Thank you so much I'm going to tell everyone disconnected from everything including their own bodies so when I'm talking to them and they're describing a work situation or some challenge that causing them to feel even more exhausted and anxious I'm noticing that they're either breathing all the way up here in their chest are there holding their breath but they don't know they're doing it so I call them when we get really exhausted and really anxious at the same time what does that mean now we're just feeling even worse we can't focus we can't be present our whole frontal load right as Aileen mentioned has gone offline so the first thing is to get back in your body just get in your body think of your body here's what I call your body your closest partner all of those signals you're feeling from your body will help you get through the burnout you just got to be able to listen so come back into your body by a simple little task simple thing you can just do is notice where are your feet just notice your feet notice your butt right notice what your eyes are looking at and then notice something that you can see right if you're a visual person if you need to close your eyes notice what you smell notice what you can touch feel your hands on your body even you can squeeze yourself you can massage yourself a little bit to get back on your body and then simply ask from your heart what do I need right now breathe as Aileen mentioned and hear what could you use in that moment to stay in your body it's your frontal load back online and then move to do the next thing but getting in your body is important and I recommend people do this like a few you know if you really burned out person just a few times a day a short little standcan help you reconnect toSo you have what you need to start moving out of the exhaustion and anxiety and in closing what I would like to do is share with you that you can hire us to come and talk to your people you can hire us to come and help your team be absolutely well and brilliant like you want them to be I'm going to pop a link and fill out this form to let us know who you are and what you need and we will reply to you and say hey this is how we can help you and with that I am going to turn this over to Vanessa who's going to lead us through our Q&A awesome people here yes how do you prevent being your worst enemy I'm sure always at some point has been a soulpreneur or maybe right now how do you prevent being your worst enemies who would like to smile I'm just enjoying the facial expressions and everybody this is a great question for us as a panel in general but you know also because we're all about preventing burnout what I would say is at least for my experience the thing that's been really helpful to me and what I encourage my clients to do is to be really intentional about yourself care and how that fits into your day so when you're running your own business and you're at the top of that pyramid you might have people helping you and you might be completely alone right even when you're solopreneur you might hire a virtual assistant and things of that nature but ultimately it's your business with you it's so easy to fall into the Trap of working around the clock to really do this in a sustainable way you have to think about what do I need to keep going without burning out so that I can continue to help my business grow and maybe that means that you plug in days and times that you exercise maybe there's meditation that you like to do that really centers you whatever it is for you figure out exactly when you're going to do that ahead of time and schedule that end so that it's not an afterthought and I'd like to pass it if anybody else has anything they want to add Cait.

B Y O B be your own bestie right if you don't want to be your worst enemy then you have to be first and foremost to yourself and to me being a friend to yourself starts with what I call in my work foundational self-care there's a massive joke with my podcasts being your own best friend means paying attention to your body's basic signals and responding to them in kind this is how you build self trust every time you need something and then you give your body what you need your body says oh cool we're going to be good over here like we're all set every time you ignore your body it says how else do I need to scream so bye and you don't have to do anything massive or drastic you have to drink when you're thirsty and rest when you're tired and pee when you got to pee like right now for example you know that the snow storm and I'm no pretty cool but yeah so love that bestie without add to that is what I usually say during my workshop is be selfish and owning the word selfish right that's ultimately what it's about it's really understanding what is that you need to best succeed so not even in a moment by moment for everyone else around you because it starts with you it starts with like there's a post I saw actually right before we got here You know she was looking at the snow and she just felt like cuddling on her couch and watching Netflix but then she told herself no I got to do these photos I got to put in all this work and my comment was and sometimes you just have to rest and watch Netflix yeah I had a thought about this is that the whole idea that sometimes it we get into this place where it feels like the business is running us instead of us running the business right so the business is actually literally directing how we feel is directing how we see ourselves more importantly so we now if the business isn't going exactly as we wanted then we say oh there's something wrong with us we start the internalize it because the business is not working so that means I'm broken right but in actuality you had a reason for creating this thing you fell in love with this for a reason so this relationship you have with your business it really is a relationship why did I fall in love with doing it with me and being with you oh okay so let's work this partnership out a little bit more let's think about how you can give me a little bit more how I can recognize what you're giving me and what I'm giving you right do some give and take thinking about but staying grounded in why you are running the business why is it important to you what is the gift you're giving to the world what is it that impact you want to have that thing will help you keep saying in love with that you're doing and you'll have to love yourself because you know you won't be able to do it if you don't love yourself oh man I'm living everybody's I was like I was like I need to hear everybody's answer to question I need to hear like the entire panels and I and I think that that is that is my input to this is that you need to surround yourself with people that are doing business in a way that you want to do business that are exhibiting Exquisite self-care that are using business models that are that that are working for them and that they are sticking to you mind and their clients and themselves that is a you know a mutually nourishing and supported model because I think that for many of us who step into these things.

Just as Dr Sandra was saying we do it because there is a calling in us and we may not be natural business people right I'll say for myself I'm not a natural I'm not a natural business person right this is not the thing and the business had to be right so my models for what a boss was was not all was not maybe necessarily who I need to be for myself so for me how I work is I need to see the examples to understand the concept I need to be with the examples to understand the concept so starting to surround myself with people that were displaying and modeling and being in the world the way that I want to be in the world is the way that I started to get my you know get my feels around how to do this myself I need to get I need to see the examples in order to understand what that looks like for myself.

I'd say keep showing up to these discussions and surround yourself with more people like us who maybe are you know modeling away that helps you do that for yourself I love that I love that so if anyone's watching whether you're watching a replay or watching the slide continue to type your questions in the comments because we are here every month and so we'll take your questions and answer them on the next panel happening in February okay such a great such a great event yesterday.

Righty well in that case you don't control other people's feelings and you have to learn how to disappoint people sometimes absolutely and the point about you know listening life happens right and understanding how to deal with life and what you're hearing whether you are maybe you work for a company or you know a company or you know someone who can benefit from the burnout panel and hearing what is we have to say to you.

Increasing Employee Productivity

In this video, you will discover the delicate balance between increasing employee productivity while mitigating the risks of burnout. Listen to our experts and their real life examples. Prioritizing a supportive work environment is key.

Transcript automatically generated from the video. Please excuse any typos!

All right hello everybody Welcome Back to the burnout panel today we're talking about increasing employee productivity but I think this discussion may go in some directions that you may not be expecting because productivity is a symptom but it may not be the problem so we're going to be digging into that today.

My name is Audrey Holst and the founder of Fortitude and Flow and I work with companies and there are a couple of things that are going to be important to Anchor to during this conversation in order to really understand how we are talking about productivity number one employees cannot run on adrenaline long term and they have been running on adrenaline for the last few years especially High performers especially folks who want to get the work done especially High performers all of these people working and there is absolutely no reason for productivity things that we do in 2023 have to be made in 2023 we cannot be thinking about the stuff that worked back in 2019 and try to get back to there because we are at a different location in time we are at different place in our workplace we are different place with our mind and bodies so whatever works standards existed back then is not going to be relevant to the solutions that the workplace needs now so we have to be honest and present about employees needs right now and thank you for that intro Audrey.

I'm Dr Sandra clinical psychologist and personal energy strategist who is absolutely focused on how do we have the resources we need to actually to sustain this productivity that we want to have right how do we actually create that for our people in our workspaces and how do we help them recognize how things to what matters to them so when you think about productivity you want to actually think about this kind of intersection between the demands are challenges of what you're doing and the skills that someone in the resources that someone brings to it as or as you started alluded including to it people are overloaded that's what they can give to that place and they start to feel like it is taking me twice as long to do half as much twice as long to do half as much so you can imagine that that actually at some point you have people who are high performance and when you're in that space and you're not having resource you don't have the resources you need you actually just start to say I'm not sure I'm me anymore there's a sense of self-doubt that comes and a loss of confidence so in order to help people find this place that some writers are here too and I've got I got this right nowthis organizational Mission also matches something in my own internal Mission so as employers one of the things that's important for helping people to have this sense of flow toYou want to look at how you're setting up the environment for that I wanted to a real estate office last year sometime and they actually had it on the wall their mission and their philosophy I was like so every time you walk in here somebody sees this so whatever their minds are that you can put in place that would support people knowing this is the mission this is what we're going for in this project is a part of making right now involved with this Mission so having people get clear about how their own personal values natural this organization like I mean I know many of us no matter what we do it's like we're at a point in our careers where we don't want to be in places where that don't match our values and this is something we're seeing about younger Generations as well is that people are looking for work that's fulfilling so when you do that you can actually help them make the most of that relationship between the demands and the challenge that they have being flexible some people need flexible work schedules that's another way to help them like stay there stay with it right but the why behind there there is is really important because when you stay in touch with that why that is like a resource inside of you that matches the resource outside of you this goal that the organization has that can sustain you over time so those two things for me I think are the most important things and employers can do are one is to make sure there's flexibility in the environment and then the other is to make sure that there's a clear connection between employee purpose and values and organizational purpose values Mission I think the last thing I would add is something or drink into it to normalize taking breaks and to put in place buddy systems even more people help each other and so those are my thoughts on this productivity.

hello everybody my name is Cait Donovan and I work with organizations to reduce burnout so they can keep top talent which is currently a massive issue when I think about productivity one of the first things that pops into my mind is the study that was released I want to say 2017 or 2018 about the fact that when we are distracted it takes us 23 minutes 23 minutes so slack emails text messages on and on and on when we moved to a hybrid and or remote situation we expected people to be answering our dings all day every day and the problem with that is we're not giving people any Focus long-term not a great thing but on a short-term helps people focus however you can't get the benefit from it if you're aiming to create a focus if you're starting something and then you are continuously distracted so as an employer as a leader if you can create space within your teams that people are allowed to be on do not disturb for period yes exactly I see Rebecca virgin it can take even longer exactly so let's really pay attention to the fact that if we want people to stop and focus and be productive we have to create an environment in which within which that is acceptable that is my spiel for today and I'm going to pass it on to Aileen to give you more.

Thank you Cait. Experience workshops all around reducing stress and improving the employee experience beneath there's this balance rate of being availableHybrid environment and you can't just pop over to someone's cubicle and say hey can I ask you a quick question about this there is the need for those last teams emails Etc we have to find that balance of that deep focus time so what can this look like and what's the sign say around it Doctor Andrew Huberman podcast to the whole Siri behind this is that we can try to work with our systems with work with the way our brains work to maximize that efficiency and productivity so if you batch out 90 minutes to really have your head down and get things done and then take breaks you're more likely to be more efficient with the task that hand and the study show we can then tap into more of that critical things notifications of your employees who can you take that 90 minute Max window and start to think about the workflow and create ways for your employees to have that focused activity time and also maybe maxing out people can't have more than 90 minutes of meetings in a row and then of course you can move things around but there has to be that schedule do things that do not require the cognitive faculties to be online so it's washing dishes if you think about sleep that's the ultimate defocused time if you imagine this akin to doing weight training or weightlifting you wouldn't do 50 sets all at once you would do I don't know I don't like trying but a couple sets you take a break if you're saying yeah yeah you can have that head down time but then you are responding to emails during vacation your sending emails or asking people to be in touch nights weekend you're not walking the talk so specially for managers and leaders this is challenging cuz it trickles down if you say that deep focus time is approved and encouraged but then you're doing things so I am going to pass it on to Vanessa.

So they call me the business the fibrillator because I essentially helped ignite that spark amongst business owners and helping them to empower their own team members and employees also continue that spark and my lovely panelist members here essentially we went into a lot around the low productivity due to burnout right so your employees have low productivity due to burn out from doing so many things but there's also low productivity due to doing so many things that don't give you Joy right in summary your employees abroadokay so going back to the idea of flow right the doctor Sandra had brought up your employee support and I'm going to share a little bit about my experience as an employee when I was in the corporate space in corporate Consulting and working with Fortune 500 the multi-billion dollar companies with you know wanted to make more billions of dollars okay and then I'm going to a solution so the fact is that I like very things when you know you may find this as well too even as a team leader yesI like my work 75% of it but that's 25%, yesterday I was connecting with a software engineer and he had a bit of field for 15 plus years now the senior manager level you know and he was looking to definitely you know move up the ladder as well too to the principal level as well and he had shared that you know 75% of the role he does enjoy but there's 25% he does not and you can see that 25% is what is taking over because that he talks about his job you can see that there's the level of dissatisfaction you know but it's like yes he loves 75% of it and that he doesn't like that he doesn't enjoy now of course with all these layoffs happening whether someone is over performing underperforming he's very much like you know what let me know Rock the bull I'm just going to keep my head down management team hit the goals but you know he's still bored I remember those times when I was born to right maybe you're listening here as a team leaderboard now well guess what your employees your other team members are probably feeling similar things as well productivity your own team the main idea here is that you want to make them come to work you want to make them want to come to work you want to make them want to enjoy what they're doing and that looks different you can do that different ways right if you have a virtual team versus if you have you know everyone comes to the office or everyone comes to the business type of team it's going to look a little different but here are some ideas that some of my you know when I was a employee so for example but for example right one of the former employers that I used to work for today very popular when I was in the Consulting space as well where it's like happy hour right you leave the client office and it's time for happy hour let's all go out for for time for drinks or whatever I mostly drink the water but still it was so fun time activities hey Google as you know that yoga class that many golf in the middle of the day or at the end of the you know end of the work day those are also things that help to shift the mind and provide that break as well too right for your employees and sometimes it's just as simple as for me not simple this may not be as simple depending on your particle structure in your company but even putting a structure in place your company where people can move around or they can take on additional unnecessarily different projects strategy and at some point I was you know working on the US team and essentially so ultimately what happened is that myself and so that didn't mean I didn't do my usual us work but I also then did the US work and then also was able to take on the Canada team but you as a team leader think about like you're connecting with your peers at the VP levels the director level you know what else is happening in the organization do you see that one ofI hope your employees navigate how else can they you know bring that to Joy back into their work maybe you can't promote them but they can still be you know get some joy in and what is that they're doing so I'm going to pass it off.

Thank you so much Vanessa. I'm Dr Sharon Grossman I work with organizations that want to create a workplace environment where employees are engaged productive and fulfilled by addressing and preventing burnout now as you've heard here today there is more than one solution to Bringing productivity up but what I really want to talk about and I think some of our panelists have already kind of planted the sea but I want to take it I want to talk about leadership and culture so I just had a session this morning with a client who tends to be a perfectionist and he really leads with his heart so never would he expect his employees to have the same standards that he has on himself and what we talked about is that it's important for you as a leader to be a role model because even if you don't have those same standards and you're not getting your employees up for making mistakes or not having the kind of productivity that you expect they're watching you and if you have a different set of rules for yourself they're going to often emulate what you're doing and that perfectionism in those standards and there's unrealistic expectations may end up burning them out and affecting their productivity so it's not enough to say everybody has to follow these rules which takes care of them but I'm Different it's really important to remember that you are leaving this entire company and that even if you're just a manager and you're not leaving the whole company those employees that you're leading are looking up to you so you have to take that very seriously and not make yourself the exception to the rule it's important for you to as somebody here mentioned really walk the talk and so what that means is if you have perfectionistic standard you need to start with you right what is it that you believe that creates that standard is it a fear of failure is it I need to prove yourself is there something about if I'm not number one or if I don't do everything perfectly then you catastrophize what that means right think about what it's like for one of your employees and what you would do or say if they made a mistake or they didn't have the best performance ever you probably have a lot of compassion for them and are able to lead them with that compassion but if you're really hard on yourself and you're beating yourself up then that's going to be problematic so we really want to think about the kind of culture that you create through your example and we talked about the idea of not just getting to the goals that you have in terms of your productivity but also think about the Journey of getting there because you can get there in more than one way you can get there by really pounding the pavement and working super hard and working nights and weekends and never taking a break because you've got so much to do on your list or you can incorporate more of that wellness and getting away from the perfectionistic black and white thinking of things where we're really extreme thinking about how to incorporate and introduce a little bit more flexibility and validity so that you have that space to breathe one of the things I talk to my clients about is how let's see make a mistake yes you want to incorporate whatever you learn from that situation so that you grow from that experience but in between the mistake and the fixing of it or the problem solvingyou want to take that moment to just get in touch with your emotions because oftentimes we feel disappointed if you've worked really hard and you experience failure you're going to experience something emotionally so take that time out for yourself to really breathe some Humanity into the experience before you jump into the solution again the idea here is we're not robots and if we are going to be doing this in a sustainableHave to take into consideration the human element which includes our emotions so you've heard so many really great tips here today and I really hope that you take some of these ideas and you run with them and we'd love to hear in the comments also whether you're watching this on replay or live what you're going to do and to just close this out I know we're going to have some q&a's and I'm going to pass it over to Vanessa and then Audrey.

Yes so essentially a question that we got and is do we think that burnout has gotten worse right and I think this is coming from the space of there are you know layoffs happening and such that nature as well too in this world or at least in some industry not all industry but some Industries and there are people you know I think there was an article recently about how a lot of CEOs have you know quit ultimately thoughts here right now I think burnout is first of all we've gotten language around it so May 28th 2019 the World Health Organization decided burnout was a thing so first of all we're going to hear more about it because if you're looking for yellow cards you're going to find yellow cars we're looking for Burnout we're going to find more burnout is also more common to talk about it so we're going to have more people talking about it that being said what I see happening is you know when you are stressed for an extended period of time you go on vacation you end up sick or with a headache we talked about this on our last panel the same thing is happening on a grander scale everybody's stress hormones went through the roof during the pandemic we maintained we maintained now things are normal going to get again things are starting to come back down now if that makes sense any other thoughts yeah I had a similar thought which is that because the pandemic pushed us to change the way he worked so so rapidly traumatic in some sense like a shop that happened so we're at the place now where we're trying to heal it so even though I don't even know probably 20 30 years ago people who work in professional development we're talking about the personal images you do work in a way that sustainable and that fulfills us and that allows us to grow and evolve that's where I think we are so we can't get there without looking at the problem burnout exhaustion you know this sort of perfectionism all these things that we talk about are the pieces that have to be solved in order for us to get to this place where we're working in a different way that is sustainable that allows people to grow and that makes an impact in the world love it love it thank you so much for sharing I see you on music awesome awesome so if you have any other questions if you are watching us and you have any other questions feel free to type in the comments or chat if you are watching the replay because you signed up to watch replay yes then also type in your questions as well we love seeing them in the comments and we'll definitely keep an eye out as well too and oh and said this is a great panel I've gotten a lot thank you Anne appreciate you thanksbut yes yes love love andShared some people think it was just 20/20 but we forgot there a whole lot of other things pre-2020 absolutely right yes absolutely mentioned as well it's like the the topic got a lot more you know steam but I know that I was talking about growing a business without burnout is it before 20 okay you wrote a book on it you know and I'm not okay yeah exactly what Vanessa said we've been we do this every single month so last month we talked about we talked about high turnover rates and that's a big topic and we got a lot of interactivity on that so please head on back and take a look at that our next topic.

Next month we're going to talk about decreased morale and engagement we've got a lot of topics we're going to continue us we're not talking about computers all the solutions that we talk about are human Centric Solutions and these are things that are going to be number one on the list for for people going forward this is not going away this is only going to continue so this is work that the earlier you implemented the earlier you start to get folks like us on board in your organization the faster the better the results are going to be because these problems are not going away anytime soon so make sure that you are following us at the burnout panel make sure that you are registering for these events every single expert in this group is constantly posting really high quality high value and I keep those questions coming we look forward to seeing you again next month.

How to Give Positive Feedback to Your Employees

Embark on a journey to boost employee morale and create a lower stress work environment. Through inspiring stories and expert advice, discover the power of positive leadership, effective communication, and fostering a sense of belonging among team members.

Transcript from video- please excuse any typos!

59%.

59% of workers globally will say yes they were stressed at work yesterday. Only 21% of employees worldwide and 33% or 30% in the US will fall in the engaged category… meaning that they are provided with their optimal productivity for them. So we are here today. Turnover is not a cost if you really need to have new business okay they say you don't have to worry about paying for somebody else so with that being said I would love to introduce my lovely lovely is seemed appears we're going to start with Dr Sandra Lewis.

Let's just think of this whole lack of morale as a signal right something that says things are going quite well in the organization because our employees are disengaging they actually don't feel like they trust you anymore because morale means I'm I'm not really feeling good about this place anymore this is not a great place for me to be there are many things that contribute to that as we know burnout is multi-layer and I just want to touch on a couple of things that that is getting us to pay attention to what's going on right so in the environment we can think of this in a couple of ways the kind of culture that you create but also you can think about what is the structure of the relationships between people and the environment one of the most poignant things that happened noticing how some employees particularly if you have an environment where you have people who are the only right they may be few people of color they may be few women noticing whether or not they feel like they're fitting into this puzzle that you put together of this Talent right and noticing noticing that there are certain social issues that might impact them differently that was a challenge that I hope some employees work through 3 years ago when they felt that their managers were just ignoring the fact that they couldn't even participate the way they usually do so when you notice that as a manager you want to pay attention to that that disengagement that is telling you okay on the employee side it's also important for us to begin to think about how we navigate the challenges in the world and how they impact us because they can combine with the demands of our job to leave us in a sense of loan morale when something in the environment happens at least those feeling hopeless and we're in a workplace that also seems not to notice us then there's much greater chance morale and dealing with these kind of environmental issues microaggressions things where people feel invisible or not cared for not noticed is that you have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations get comfortable being uncomfortable you heard many people say it before but we will not end these challenges these environmental challenges that impact people's well-being if we are willing to talk about them it's sort of like you know that that closet until now repeat many organizations it's about nurturing so in this environment we're trying to create a space where everybody flourishes so be comfortable being uncomfortable so that you can actually grow and I'm going to turn it over to Kate with thaton you but we are looking forward to hearing what you have to say so yes all right hey everybodyWhen we want to engage those parts of the brain so that people even on a biological level feel more engaged with their work we have to give people feedback that is really specific so that they actually feel seen so this is building up a one more layer on.

Dr Sandra was just talking about making sure you're seeing people noticing their needs Etc this is making sure you're seeing people and noticing their contributions so you're looking at somebody and you're saying hey I saw you showed up that day Hanging On The Edge and because of that simple thing that you did that was hard for everybody else but you made it happen you really save the day that day really specific feedback is what is going to get this moving this is most important top down so from leadership levels from management levels however there are also here recognition mechanisms that are critical so if you build in this type of peer recognition remember to notice each other and accept praise when it comes in because it will feel more natural there's a lot of software now that you can use for this so you can just Implement a top-down solution manager start doing this people will probably start doing it naturally but there are also a bunch of different options like 6q Kudos that is used on slack High Thrive bonus Lee they're all built on engaging with each other through positive feedback Cycles if we all knew a little bit more of that what we're doing is worthy and valuable and seen and recognized and appreciated everything would be a little better the next person up on my list today is Miss Aileen who does exactly that.

It helps employees feel like their valued by their colleagues by their organization and it's much harder to disengage when you when you see that impact so my recommendation today for increasing morale is to actually go a step further and see how people feel valued by checking in with them and asking them was creating disengagement what is impacting your morale organizations is something you need to to pay attention to we want to kind of note what really matters to people so it could be serving your colleagues your employees but also I just ran a session for a big tech company this week had over 500 people at the session and just noticing what people are sharing in the chat in a 60 Minute session I got a good sense of people feeling like they can't step away from their work to take a lunch break things like that and then we can start to think about reverse engineering that when people share with you permission. Thanks so much Aileen.

Hi my name is Audrey Holst this is a big topic and you know something that came up recently as I'm having calls with different HR folks and managers is that sometimes we think as a company that we are doing a lot for our workers because we've provided them with all these benefits and here's what sometimes happens is the benefits that we provide are not aligned with the needs of the workers so I was just having a call yesterday with someone who said yes and they said we pay their tuition so if they want to go get an education will totally reimburse their tuition and I'm like that's great except they're just trying to like not sync right now so they're just paddling in place they cannot think about how they're going to swim longer swim faster like that's just not what they need right now so it's not enough to throw stuff at people right now what are you doing to incentivize them and they said the resources are the incentive and here's the truth that about 25% of workers never utilize the resources and we know that because people aren't taking their vacation days off right we give them all kinds of benefits they're not using them so a smart thing to do is to also glamify it and to reward them for getting through a number of different resources are supposed to help them prevent burnout be more engagement amazing amazing yesterday.

So we are now at Q&A time so you are listening to chat on anything that you would like to know about how to increase employee around engagement with a lot today Company's not about this colleges around the world to talk about to train team members and your team and your leaders and your management on various things related to ensuring that you are reducing turnover rates and increasing retention within your team and part of that comes with increase in the productivity of each employee each leader and while employment question as well as fill out the form in our chat that we're going to put in right now and with that being said any other thoughts from the panel that any of you want to share here today awesome with that being said imagine some horns blowing right now how to decrease acetism okay how to ensure that your employees are showing up for work and being present and being most engaged when they do.

Chat with you June 26th

The Greatest Lessons I’ve Learned as an Entrepreneur

I’ve officially been a woman-owned small business owner for 7 years!

Here are 7 lessons from 7 years of my entrepreneurship journey to help YOU in your work and wellbeing.

1) Celebrate your wins… and save proof!

Life is too short and there is always more to achieve. If you don’t acknowledge what you’ve done to get where you are, you’re never going to feel fulfilled.

Save those happy emails and any data of those wins… and take pictures when possible. The photo below is from February 2016 commemorating the first time I received payment for my own business. 😊

One way to integrate this into your regular workday? Start your weekly team meeting by asking everyone to share one win. It builds connection, community, and helps retrain your brain to start to look for the positive.

2) It’s okay, and beneficial, to cringe.

There are MANY things I did when I started that I cringe at now. It reminds me of when I found the resume that I submitted when I first applied be a career coach in 2007 … I had an interests section that listed “the internet” #eldermillenial

We all started somewhere and were novices at some point. If you look back and cringe, it’s a good sign of all the skill development and expertise you’ve gained along the way.

3) Be kind to yourself

Most of us have a feed running in our minds filled with negative self-talk. In a world that pretends perfection is attainable, let’s dispel that myth and honor that we’re human and to be human is to make mistakes.

There are over 2000 studies on the power of self-compassion for improved wellbeing and professional development.

Life is hard enough - have your own back.

4) Ask for help

Oooooo… growth edge anyone? <<raising my own hand>>

My thanks to my best friends and family for being my unofficial board members at the start of my business. This isn’t new advice for most, but my invitation is to explore how much you’re implementing this on a regular basis in your personal and/or professional life.

5) Zoom out

You've likely heard me preach about doing career wellness check-ins. I said I never wanted to have my own business. My interests and values shifted, and I've changed my professional life to align with those shifts.
 
You're not the same person at 43 that you were at 23. Give yourself space to see what you want your work to mean and how it is or isn't aligned.

6) You can have too much of a good thing

It’s less talked about, but you can absolutely burn out from doing what you love.

How can you create boundaries to not let work take over?

7) Live your life

We’re human beings not human doings. You can work hard AND have hard boundaries about when it’s time to rest. When you learn how much happens when we sleep, it becomes clear how productive rest is and how critical a component it is to achieving.

Often, we don't take this to heart until life puts it in perspective for us...
 
Take the vacation. Close the laptop when you’re fried and just mouse-moving. There will always be more unread emails.

Be okay leaving things on the to-do-list and reconnecting to things on your who I want to-be list.

Cheers to 7 years, and to you celebrating yourself more!

5 Ted Lasso Lessons To Use To Create A Healthier Work Culture

The Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, will forever hold a most special place in my heart.

I first started watching thanks to the encouragement of my mother. At the time, she was enduring treatment for stage IV non-smokers lung cancer during a global pandemic… so basically, she was trapped at home feeling like garbage and was a prime candidate for both entertainment and some cheer. 😊

She and my brother swiftly ripped through the first season, and every time I would travel to the home I grew up in in Connecticut to take care of and visit her, she’d rewatch episodes she had seen at least twice already so that I could catch up.

Before the second season dropped, our entire family counted down to it with incredible anticipation. When we found out they were only going to release one new episode per week, we were frustrated with the news at first (who doesn’t love to binge their favorite show?!).

It ended up being the most precious gift for us all.

Each week we faced medical complications, side effects, treatments, and often bad news. This show gave us something to look forward to – some light in the darkness that made up those days – and for that I will be eternally grateful.

It’s a great reminder of one of the many lessons the show imparts on its viewers – we all have much more power to create a positive change on the lives of each other than we realize.

Whew! Now that you know the depths of my love for this show, let’s get into some of the other lessons and how they can inspire us to create a healthier workplace.

Lesson 1: We don’t always have to change everything - sometimes listening can be just as impactful

When the legendary Roy Kent finally gives in and seeks out the “Diamond Dogs,” he’s surprised that they don’t offer advice and/or fix his problems. The conversation goes a little like this (after removing his signature expletives!):

Roy: Wait. So sometimes the Diamond Dogs is just chatting about stuff, and no one has to solve anything and nothing changes?

Ted: Sometimes. Yeah.

Roy: That's cool.

It all comes down to the power of connection and mindful listening. Sometimes, your employees and colleagues just want to be heard.

If you’re trying to make changes – big or small – in your organization to create a healthier culture, start from a place of being attuned to employee needs. This makes it much more likely that the changes will not only land well, but will also be impactful.

When it comes to 1-1 conversations, the question “How can I support you?” provides an avenue for this kind of discernment and getting to the root of what people want and need.

Image via GIPHY

Lesson 2: PLAY is powerful

In season 2, Isaac becomes Captain of the team and starts to lose his competitive edge. Roy tricks him into playing a nighttime pick-up football (soccer) match with young players, and there, Isaac remembers that having fun is why he started playing in the first place. When he taps into that innate joy, his performance elevates as well.

This demonstrates how playfulness and joy can impact many areas of our lives. My “The Power of Play” corporate wellness workshop covers how to infuse more joy and perspective into our lives. There is some interesting research on how play helps adults with resiliency, productivity, creativity, problem-solving and more.

When it comes to the workplace, there are two ways to explore integrating this concept:

1. Can you create more moments for this amongst teams? Some companies try by having foosball tables and axe-throwing events, but referring back to Lesson 1 here, it’s good practice to see what fun means to your employees first

2. Can you encourage this by creating more room for employees to do it on their own time? Especially if you’ve educated them on the power of play, perhaps creating a yearly “Friday Fun-day” where they have one full or ½ day off. This gift of time could demonstrate how serious a company is about facilitating more joy for their employees    

Image via GIPHY

Lesson 3: Mental health is physical health

That same season, Ted’s panic attacks are made public. He leans in and takes the opportunity to speak with the press about the importance of mental health and reducing the stigma around when people struggle.

This is another big lesson many organizations have learned over the last few years.

With rates of anxiety and depression rising 25% globally over the last 2 years, facilitating a culture where employees feel safe, supported, and able to access the resources they need to restore their mental health is critical.

What support tools does your organization have and how are those communicated to employees? In terms of prevention, what programming and tools are provided to employees to support their physical, mental, and emotional health, as we know they are all connected?

Lesson 4: We can’t control how others act, but we can control how we respond and model the behavior we’d like to see

This lesson is a core tenant in meditation and mindfulness practices, and it plays out on the Ted Lasso screen time and time again.

Ted appears, at times, impervious to the harsh words from AFC Richmond fans and the press. He repeatedly responds to criticism and negative energy with his trademark optimism and one-liners. 

If you’re in a workplace where you’re dealing with a difficult colleague/culture, one way to keep yourself grounded is to embody this mindset.

But what about applying this same notion to create a healthier workplace?

We know by now that company culture is contagious – which is great when it’s a healthy and positive one, and not so beneficial when it’s a culture of burnout and toxicity. Given this, we want to be mindful of what we’re “spreading” and how our behaviors contribute to these cultures.

For leaders, it is even more important, as tone trickles down. For example, let’s take this scenario:

Leaders encourage employees to take their vacation days and really disconnect (to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and aim for more work life harmony), BUT when they themselves are out of the office, they’re still attending meetings and responding to emails.

That mixed message has a powerful impact on an employees' ability to trust that it’s okay to truly disconnect.

If trying to create a healthier workplace, leadership needs to “walk the talk” and be offline, otherwise the status quo will remain. And while we can’t make an employee really disconnect when they’re on vacation, we can model that it’s not only acceptable but encouraged behavior… and that may make all the difference.

Lesson 5: No matter our job title, there is always more to learn and more ways to grow

In Season 1, Ted relied on “kit man” Nate (a colleague typically ignored by many, and in an organizational chart, a “lower-ranked” employee) for an important idea that impacted the whole team. Ted’s ability to not only be open to feedback and ideas from others, but also his active solicitation of it is a great example to follow.

A healthy workplace is one where we recognize that all people can add value, not just the highest ranked employees.

Whether formally, through things like 360 reviews, or informally, through the way we treat one another in everyday interactions, how does your organization embody this simple yet powerful principle?

I hope these Lasso Lessons inspire you to explore ways you can integrate more wellness into your workday to create a culture where employees feel valued.

Want to learn more about how I support companies in creating wellness programming with this mission in mind?

Reach out for a complimentary consultation and let’s talk more.

Image via GIPHY

Finally, as a parting bonus, if you like to listen to music while you’re working, here’s a playlist I made from the soundtracks of both seasons. The songs are mostly instrumental, and the overall energy of the playlist is relaxed. Cheers!