Studies show that compassion in the workplace has numerous benefits, among them are employee retention, decreased stress and improved health. Any endeavor to create change starts with setting a clear intention. Setting the intention to bring compassion into the workplace and setting the tone for a compassionate environment (cheerful greetings, thoughtful acts) is the first step. The second is helping people become aware of how they respond to stress and threat in social and work situations. The Strengths Deployment Inventory is a powerful tool that we use to help people understand the motives and values that drive their own and others behavior, which in turn increases compassion. This understanding combined with interactive training, enables individuals to lead with clarity and empathy, build stronger teams, and more effectively navigate conflict.
Another method for developing […]
Horses have much to teach us about awareness of our environment, the energy and intentions that we project towards others, and the effectiveness of our communication. For horses, mastering these skills means life or death. For humans in the workplace, mastering these skills can make the difference between a cohesive, high-functioning, high-performing team or a team whose potential is hampered by lack of clarity, mistrust, and poor communication.
It’s a beautiful place, being “in the zone”. Everything feels automatic, almost like you don’t have to do anything but show up. Work just flows, the contacts you needed show up, the inspiration is flowing abundantly and all is well.
How many times have you thought to yourself after a meeting, “Well, that was a waste of time. Glad I was getting paid for that!” Consider for a moment the following questions: How focused were you during the meeting? How many times did you check your phone or look at Instagram? Did you give the session an opportunity for you to derive some benefit from it? Were you truly present?
I was sitting in a coffee shop yesterday and overheard a conversation between two young women. One was saying how angry she was after her annual evaluation at work. She thought her boss “liked her” she said. This statement led down the rabbit hole with the two women assessing and agreeing every small irritation they had accumulated — some small, some personal, some financial. For example, Alice “always” gets the best leads, that is why she is top sales this month. Joe got the promotion “I should have had”, The sales team doesn’t understand how hard we work in processing, etc. The conversation was a litany of wrongs done to them, I heard no solutions , just a lot of blaming, judging and wining.