Leadership

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Do Affirmations really work?

Changing yourself requires ongoing improvement, time, effort, and energy. How many times have you put of a change until Monday, then Monday comes and goes, and you decide to wait until the following Monday to try again? Don’t sweat it, we’ve all done this! The good news is that you can steadily move forward without needing to make a large radical change and scaring yourself in the process. Where should you start? I recommend you begin with your daily routine. The first step is to ask yourself where you want to develop, then ask yourself what is preventing you from doing this? Have you really made the decision to act on your desires or are you still deciding? You wont get traction until you've actually made the decision to take action. Top 7 tips on how to improve 1% every day 1. Just Begin Beginning is the hardest part of anything that you do, but once you have decided on what you want to do (a goal) and put a plan in place, commit to your goal and respect yourself and your goal, as if it was for a client or customer, and follow through. 2. Start Planning Making plans is an essential and daily part of your life whether it’s for your family, work, health or other areas of your life. Find a way to plan that works for you such as: Writing a To Do List Blocking out work, events or other needs in your diary Using an electronic or paper diary or planner, or a combination of both. Having a project progress plan Remember the 80/20 rule of planning your day or completing your tasks on your To Do list. For more info on how to use the 80/20 rule effectively click HERE . Up the anti on your daily planning by updating your To Do list, schedule or diary at the end of each day. That way you will end your day with a plan and wake up with a purpose and you wont waste precious time each morning, wondering what you are going to work on that day. I also find that most of my client calls come in the morning, so if I try and complete my planning phase in the morning, it is constantly interrupted, and my day then becomes scattered. Read more about how to do less and achieve more HERE ! Starting the day with a plan and purpose will lessen the feeling of being overwhelmed or frustrated and lower your stress levels. Take 20 minutes and complete your daily and weekly plan on Sunday afternoon or evening (if your work week starts on Monday) and you will find that you Monday morning blues will reduce and your productivity and confidence coming into each week will improve dramatically. 3. Start with the problems that are hardest for you to solve Why? We tend to do the simple jobs first before focusing our efforts on the tough ones, but by the time the simple activities are completed, we often have little energy left to concentrate on our more challenging projects, which are mostly likely to be your most critical ones. You may then find yourself in the cycle of leaving them until the following morning, then getting distracted by the simple tasks, we use up our energy and concentration and the cycle begins again the following day. If this is your process, you will eventually be trying to finish critical tasks in little time (or missing deadlines), not doing them well and adding a significant level of stress, than if you had got them done when you are most productive and alert. If you can complete the more challenging tasks or projects first, you’ll find the others will be much easier to complete and without exerting much effort. 4. Play music Music can be enjoyable and motivating. If you are having trouble concentrating or need a boost or change to your energy, then music might be able to help. Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.. 5. Read more Reading books do not necessarily have to be about advancing your career, although they can help. There are so many types of books, including audio-books - general-interest, philosophical, cookbooks, self-help, or historical, general literature. By reading (or listening) more, your perspective on things will change and grow as you become more knowledgeable and if you comprehend the universe better, or even learn how to make a kick ass stir fry, you'll be happier. Email me to get my list of must reads (or listens) for both work and pleasure and use Book List as your subject line. 6. Use Affirmations A lot of people think affirmations are airy fairy and don't actually do anything. In fact studies have shown that affirmations have considerable force. Affirmations may feel a bit silly when you say them out loud for the first time, but if verbalising doesn’t feel right for you, then you can write them down. A study published in the journal - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience talked about what actually goes on in our brains when we regularly use affirmations. The researchers found that we link affirmations to the reward centres in our brain in the same way that we do for winning something, doing well at something or even eating good food. The researchers used MRI to find that practising self-affirmation activates the reward centres–ventral striatum (VS) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in the brain. To make it simple, these areas are the same reward centres that respond to other pleasurable experiences, such as eating your favourite dish or winning a prize. Lead researcher, Christopher Cascio stated “Many studies have shown that these circuits can do things like dampen pain and help us maintain balance in the face of threats.” So regularly using affirmations does activate and boost areas of your brain that make you happy and positive. If you’re an Affirmation Beginner, here’s a few to get you started: My body and mind are both in good health, and my spirit is at peace. My anger is washed away by a river of compassion and is replaced with love. I have a surge of creative energy that sparks original and interesting thoughts. I am flourishing, growing and developing I'm curious, brave and a strong advocate for myself. I have the power, will, and ability to be the leader I want to be. I forgive myself for my mistakes. It is okay if something doesn’t work out as I planned; I will find another way I am allowed to ask for help I learn from my mistakes Need more affirmation inspiration? I've put together a list of 75 Affirmations for success, work and life HERE ! 7. Choose an activity you enjoy as your reward As humans we are wired to love a reward and often do things consciously or unconsciously to receive those reward feelings in our body or mind. There are so many ways to reward yourself, however I find sometimes the simplest rewards are the most effective. When I reflect on the things I accomplish at the end of each day, while I’m planning the next day, I treat myself to a cup of fancy tea from T2 shop or make a hot chocolate. Through the day, I just have water or normal tea, but I save the fancy tea and hot chocolate as part of my reward and wind down routine. So doing this effectively releases all the reward endorphins and feelings in my body at the end of each day, and I also feel good because I’m getting my planning done for the next day. In turn this helps me close off the day with a routine and wind down much easier after my word day. Celebrating and giving yourself small rewards, actually works just as effectively, if not better than big rewards that you have to wait months to achieve. Takeaway If you start making small modifications to your routine and practices and celebrate the small wins, you will notice a significant positive impact on your productivity, efficiency, wellbeing and happiness. All you have to do is commit to improving 1% every day. Need help levelling up in your work or personal life? Book a time for a free, no obligation, chat to see how I can help you achieve your dreams or check out our most popular coaching packages here .

I don’t know about you but the phrase “work-life balance” actually increases my levels of stress, guilt, and shame! I actually attribute the word gaslighting to this phrase. Gaslighting is loosely defined as saying or doing something to make someone question their own reality. The term work / life balance not only infers we are doing life wrong, but if we are feeling tired, busy, stressed or burnt out that it’s all our own fault and outside contributors such as work, expectations, being a parent and other factors are not part of the problem. Studies have also shown that the term work / life balance actually decreases mental health, particularly in women. The statistics also show that across the world, we currently have all-time high levels of stress, unaddressed mental health issues and burnout. Telling someone that they need work-life balance to manage those stressors and they will be mentally healthy actually fuels anxiety, depression, stress, and eventual burnout. What is stress, anxiety and burn out? Stress - is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from an event, a person, a lifestyle and even thoughts that make you feel nervous, frustrated, angry or overwhelmed. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts stress can be positive for example where it helps you avoid danger, try something new or meet a deadline. You may also feel stressed in situations like a job interview or performing or speaking in public. Beyond Blue states that stress and anxious feelings are a common sense response to a situation where we feel under pressure, but they usually pass once the stressful situation has passed. Anxiety - is more than just feeling stressed or worried. Beyond Blue also tells us that people with an anxiety condition is when stress o anxiety is more frequent or persistent and is not always connected to an obvious stressor such as a challenge, deadline or situation. It also has ongoing impacts on a person's day to day functioning and quality of life. While each anxiety condition has its own unique features, there could be physical, psychological, emotional and behavioural systems. Burnout - seems to be specifically used in relation to the workplace. It is a syndrome that is often related to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is normally characterised by three dimensions - exhaustion or low energy, increased mental distance or negative feelings related to your job and reduced professional efficacy and performance. Things that can contribute to burn out are toxic workplace cultures, lack of empathy and compassion from leaders or the workplace at large, lack of psychological safety at work, unrealistic expectations. Why is stress, anxiety and burnout getting worse? During COVID and now in the COVID normal era, there has been added pressures to always to be 'on', productive, available and be perfect in everything we do. The work from home and hybrid working arrangements have also created a gap in leadership knowledge who have not managed hybrid or remote workforces before which has led to some inadvertent micromanaging or worse, absent managing, so people are feeling they are being watched too closely or not feeling engaged or supported by their leaders at all. Studies also have shown that both staff and leaders have taken less annual leave and sick leave over the past 2 years and we have been sacrificing our health and wellbeing to spend more time working or trying to figure out the magic work / life balance equation. What should we be doing? Instead of telling people they need to find or fix their work / life balance and letting them figure it out alone, we need to address the expectations of perfection, available around the clock, provide managers with new leadership skills to manage their changing workforces and provide other tools to help people recognise and manage their emotions and signs of stress, anxiety and burnout. We also need to encourage people to seek out professional support to deal with other factors that stress, anxiety and burn out affects such as gut health, sleep, hormonal imbalances etc. Supervisors, managers and leaders need to start the conversation with their people around workplace stress and get educated on the best ways to support their teams and provide a psychologically safe working environment. Until these discussions and support is normalised, we will continue to see high levels of employee stress, anxiety and burn out and the knock-on effects to businesses will be turnover of staff, difficulty in employing good staff, underperformance and inefficient work practices and increased long term workers compensation claims and absences due to extended sick leave. Ensuring a psychologically safe working environment will enhance employee engagement, foster a positive and inclusive workplace culture, boost innovation, productivity, efficiency, decrease turnover and increase employee happiness. These items also result in a better bottom line and a sustainable, future ready business. If you'd like to know more or need help improving your workplace culture or implementing a psychologically safe working environment, please book a time to talk to one of our experts in this area.

How Leadership and Workplaces are changing? The new generation of leaders are raised on rapid change, technology and the expectation of a team-based, collaborative environment and the manager / employee relationship has become more of a partnership, rather than a boss and subordinate. This new model ranges from providing input to and the execution of strategy, new ideas, business planning, completing day-to-day work and where and how that work is done. In the last 12 months, we’ve seen employees in both in leadership roles and non-leadership roles leaving their jobs and businesses that they’ve worked with for years, looking for better working arrangements, workplace culture, and where they get to have more input into their work life.

Leaders and business owners are both blessed and cursed. On one hand, they have more control of when, and what kind of work they do, and what they pass on to others. On the other hand, most leaders and business owners tend to end up working long hours and have higher stress due to the demands of their work. Fortunately, there are some simple ways for you to start to do less while accomplishing more which will in turn can lead to better health, wellbeing, productivity, client outcomes and a happier life. Use the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule: If you want to get more done in less time, then you need to create your daily work schedule around the Pareto Principle which means that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of your input, so you need to aim to complete the top 20% of your most critical tasks (or the highest priority items on your to do list) each day. This model helps you focus on what is really important and critical to your job or business and ensures you don’t get distracted by the menial and unimportant tasks each day. Disconnect: If you want to keep up your energy levels and your mind fresh, then you need to take a break from your work frequently. Don’t continue to work under the assumption that you have to work harder to accomplish your goals. Taking frequent breaks throughout the day and disconnecting from your email and phone calls, and stepping away on the weekends, will allow your brain to refresh, your body to recover and for you to produce better results. Be Willing to Say No: Those who are highly successful have to contend with a lot of demands on their time. They are also the people that say no more frequently! To do this you need to get clear on what you want to achieve and be willing to say no to other projects along the way. If you don’t start saying no, you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed and on even burnt out. Have a Plan: While most leaders have a long-term plan on how they’re going to reach their team or business goals, they can fail to plan and prioritise their days. When you are scattered throughout the day, you can’t maximise your time, your teams time and your productivity. If you want to get more done, then you need to set some time aside every afternoon/evening to plan out and prioritise the tasks you need to accomplish the next day that will move you forward toward achieving your goals. Doing this, will mean that you go to bed with a plan and wake up with a purpose! Outsource Where You Can : This doesn't just apply to work tasks that someone else would be better suited to complete. Think about all those menial but necessary jobs that you have and determine if you can outsource them to another team, contractor or business. Don’t be afraid to refer a lead to a trusted competitor if you’re too busy to take on new work or the lead doesn’t quite match your skills or interests. This is a good way to build positive working relationships with your competitors who may also be able to refer work to you as well as give the prospective client a good customer experience, which will hold you in good stead for future work. Takeaway If you’re feeling overwhelmed with your current work schedule or work / life balance, consider changing your habits to include the above. Having a laser focus on the vital tasks that are critical to your role, or business and leveraging your resources to help you get the best results for yourself, your business and your clients the best way to actually achieve success in whatever you do. If you'd like further coaching or training for yourself or your team with time management, delegation or prioritising, contact us now to discuss our options.

Leading a team of people can be challenging. If you are confused about why sometimes your team are rockstars and other times struggling, or driving you crazy, then you need to understand Tuckman’s model of effective teams. In 1965, the US Navy engaged a psychologist named Bruce Tuckman to develop a model that represented effective teams. Tuckman, came up with his model and the memorable phrase "forming, storming, norming, and performing" in his 1965 paper, "Developmental Sequence in Small Groups." He later added a fifth stage, "adjourning" (also known as "mourning") to mark the end of a team's journey. The secret to forming a high performing team is understanding your teams behaviour, how to guide them through various stages of behaviour and to help them grow! An overview of Tuckman’s five stages of team development are: Forming – the team is a set of individuals and there is uncertainty about roles. The team will seek to establish ground rules. Storming – the team starts getting real but there is often resistance and jostling for position. Norming – The team develops a set of norms, start communicating better and become more accepting of each other. Performing – The team is cohesive, competent and focused on getting the job done. Adjourning (or Mourning) – The team celebrates achieving goals and may also dissolve or have significant changes in the team. This stage is about reflection and closure. This model is fantastic for understanding and predicting behaviour and it’s a bonus that most of the stages rhyme, making them easier to remember! The strength of the Tuckman model is also that it provides a framework of expectation, and actions. I find Tuckman’s model helpful to view on the Kubler Ross change curve. The combined Tuckman and Ross model’s are a great visual reminder of the process of change which includes team development.

When I was a new leader, I had trouble finding my voice at the leadership table. I was afraid to speak up and I was worried that my peers wouldn’t take me seriously because I was new in the leadership game. I was also feeling really nervous about how to start leading my team without sounding too bossy and I was concerned I wouldn't have all the answers if my team asked me questions. Have you ever felt like this too? The good news is, this is all completely normal, but if you let your fears take over, then you can lose your leadership confidence and leadership voice before you even begin! If you've lost your leadership voice or haven't found it yet, here's my TOP FIVE TIPS to help you find your confidence in your leadership voice: Know your core values – be consistent in living your values at work and home. Think about both WHAT you say and HOW you say it – delivering your message calmly and with confidence will enhance trust within your team. It’s not just about your voice – your leadership voice includes body language, eye contact and non-verbal cues. Ensure that your body and voice are aligned. Become comfortable with silence – allow others time to take in your message and ask questions. Be able to take criticism – not all feedback comes to us in the right way and we can become defensive or hurt. However try to take the emotions out of criticism and dig deeper to get to the heart of the feedback so you can learn and grow. The other thing to remember is that your leadership voice is part of your leadership style and specific to YOU ! Finding your leadership voice is a skill that needs to be developed just like your other leadership skills. Are you ready to find the great leader inside of you? Contact us HERE to find out how we can help you improve your leadership skills or check out our current one on one and group leadership coaching programs HERE !