Happiness Coaching Seeps into the Workplace

There’s an article in the Wall Street Journal that has been picked up by many other papers, including Globe and Mail  careers called “Happiness coaching seeps into the workplace”. It’s worth a read.

The article talks about how the positive psychology movement is making its way into the workplace culture. It identifies positive habits such as: expressing gratitude (say ‘thank you’ please:), being more present, recognizing success in effort and process vs. only outcome — and much, much more. 

I must say as a coach who specializes in ‘engagement’ – this article is very validating. Truthfully, I’ve always thought of myself as a ‘fulfillment coach’ — albeit I work on many different leadership (and life) coaching agendas, it always starts with one’s inner game and what makes them tick (core values, strengths, etc.). My marketing materials refer more to this as ‘engagement’ – a more acceptable term  in corporate circles. But these past few years, the word ‘happiness’ is gaining credibility and seen as an important facet to success, individually and organizationally. Some nations have even declared a Happiness Index as being integral to the country’s prosperity and success.

How’s your MOJO?  Turns out, Marshall Goldsmith (renouned exec coach) has just launched a book called “Mojo” which is described as emphasizing the ‘positive spirit toward what we are doing now starting from the inside.”

I’ve been referring to Mojo for years (ask my clients!). This  reference to “Mojo” is not of the Austin Powers variety – but more related to one’s mood, emotional state, sense of connectedness, etc. 

Inner Game focus:  The article talks about the new inner game focus — but it’s not new. Perhaps more ‘newly noticed’. This term was coined by Timothy Galway and is a very common approach used by anyone professionally trained in coaching (including yours truly). That said, when an article from the WSJ says it’s the latest greatest — well who am I to argue? I say bring it on….or rather, bring ‘more of it on’.

WEBINAR: Beat the Workplace Blahs: Last year, I presented a webinar that focused very much on all these inner game, positive psych strategies. I called it:  Beat the Workplace Blahs . You can still listen to it – you just have to quickly register online.  It’s full of tips and thoughts that are referred to in the WSJ article.

Hope you enjoy.

Till then, here’s to your TGIM worklife from the inside-out!

Eileen

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Soup’s On! …for Employee Engagement

Who doesn’t like a good bowl of steaming, home-made soup? Especially during the cold winter months – soup can really warm up the soul.

(My own home-made beet borscht!)

Well  – turns out soup can also warm up the ’soul’ of a company according to internationally acclaimed Diamond + Schmitt Architects. Featured in the Toronto Star, this company has “soup day” every Thursday in the third floor kitchen of their office. But this isn’t soup to order: each week a different employee dons the chef’s hat and is responsible for brewing up the batch – from scratch.

Selected as one of Canada’s best-managed companies, Diamond refers to this initiative “a culinary project on workplace convergence.” And according to Jack Diamond, head of the firm, “..activities like this create a sense of community at a time of day the staff might otherwise be stepping out to a cafe or stressfully hunched over their desk with a sandwich.”

 Now that’s a recipe for collegiality and inspiration!

Is there something about builders? They seem to get it. Another builder who gets it is Tribute Communities - they earned an International Coach Federation Prism award for their Engagement at Work initiative. Disclaimer: I was involved in coaching and leading that project. 

Soup is one (great!) idea. There are so many more. One of my clients in the financial services industry was out last week with her co-workers building a house with Habitat.

So how about you? What are your experiences with activities that are meant to rally the troupes and build more ‘community’ at work? What’s working? What’s missing that may offer an opportunity to address?

I was interviewed for an article on this topic that was published in the Canadian HR Reporter. You can read it here.

In the meantime, to soup and other strategies to foster that TGIM work-life!

Eileen

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Midlife crisis OUT – midlife transition IN!

Midlife crisis is so passe. Much like the old version of retirement is, well….old.  Today,  boomer mid-life is all about transition and new beginnings. 

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what others ‘in the know’ are saying. According to an article in ScienceDaily, adults in their mid-life years really do face the ‘best time to flourish and grow’. Second acts are possible!

Butterfly by Eileen Chadnick - freedom, transformation, beauty!

Prof. Carlo Strenger of Tel Aviv University’s Dept. of Psychology co-authored an article with Israeli researcher, Arie Ruttenbergfor the Harvard Business Review and Psychoanalystic Psychology. 

“Somehow this line has been drawn around the mid and late ’40s as the time for a mid-life crisis in our society,” says Strenger. “But as people live longer and fuller lives, we have to cast aside that stereotype and start thinking in terms of mid-life transition’ rather than ‘midlife crisis’.

“If you make fruitful use of what you’ve discovered about yourself in the first half of your life, the second half can be the most fulfilling,” he adds.

Read my full post here – posted at my UNretiredLife blog.

To a TGIM work-life at any stage of life!

Eileen

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Rethink Retirement Survey says….

Desjardin Financial Security recently released its 8th annual Rethink Retirement(TM) survey and re-affirmed the notion that retirement ‘aint what it used to be’.

The old paradigm of retirement saw people go from full time work to complete retirement.  Today, more and more are taking a more phased approach and transitioning their work life.  According to the survey:

• 16% of retirees continue gainful employment
• 8% of today’s workers (including partial retirees) were once fully retired before returning to work. This proportion rises to 42% among partial retirees.
• The main reasons for going back to work: needing more money for personal projects (46%) and wanting to counter the negative effects of economic situation on retirement income (29%).

Read more in my full post at UNretiredLife

To a TGIM work-life now and in your UNretired years too!

Eileen

Goals Inspire; Intentions Actualize

Welcome to 2010! It’s still fresh and early on the first day of a whole new year. What kind of year will you create? This is a great time of year to set some new goals, intentions and make plans for what you want to create in the months and year ahead.

Resolutions are so passe. Too focused on fixing things. They rarely last. Goals, however, if framed right, can inspire, motivate and  energize you.  They are especially helpful if you have a bit of the back to work blues this January. Goals add meaning, focus and purpose to your life and work. They don’t have to be big. They can come in all shapes or sizes.

E.g. learn a new skill; advance an area of knowledge or competency; or fulfill a long-held dream of ___ (whatever that may mean to you).

Declaring goals is good. Declaring and committing to intentions to support these goals is even better.  Intentions are declarations of commitments of what you will do and how you will be to actualize your goals.  If goals are the engine that inspire, then think of  intentions as the  gas that propels and gets that engine working.

E.g. If a goal is to advance a particular skill, then the intention might be to enrol in a course, practice x times a week, get a mentor, etc.  Intentions can be concrete actions. They can also be a way of ‘being’.  For instance “I will be tenacious and relentless in my efforts to advance this skill.”

My goals: I’ve got a whole bunch of goals for 2010, particularly for my business, Big Cheese Coaching and my new practice area, called “UNretiredLife“. And I’ve got goals for other areas in my work and life as well.

For each of those goals, I have plans, strategies and ideas. And intentions (aka commitments) for what I need to do and be to actualize this. Let me share just a few:

1) I intend to be more in touch with my community of readers, clients, network and others. That means writing posts more regularly, sending out newsletters, more meaningful networking, etc. This is all connected to a variety of broader goals related to advancing my work.

2) I intend to be mindful of my perfectionism gremlin that sometimes gets in my way of my sharing news and updates more regularly. This is related to the first intention. You see, I never have nothing to say. Often it’s a matter of too much to say. Often, I get stuck when I feel I haven’t gotten it down ’just right’. So I’m committing to letting go of that and sharing when I have something meaningful to offer.  It’s a bit of a “Just do it” intention.

3) I intend to practice more patience with myself and monitor my pace. Ahh, that pace thing. Yes, this intention is connected to my goals related to fulfillment, peace and effectiveness. I (like others) often fall into that ‘human doing’ trap and the frenzy of ‘rush’. I have so much enthusiasm and passion for all that I want to do – and often want to take on too much. It’s frustrating when I can’t get to it all (sound familiar?)!  In the long term, this doesn’t serve me well. Nor does it serve my clients if I lose my energy, resilience, etc.  So part of this will be a continual check-in on my energy, my commitments (reality check with what I set out to do with what’s ‘do-able’), etc.

Ohhh, there are more.  But this post isn’t meant to be all about me. It’s meant to inspire some reflection for yourself.  Hopefully, my sharing has you thinking of some of your own goals and the intentions you need to commit to in order to actualize those goals.

SO HOW ABOUT IT?

What goals do you have for 2010?

What intentions do you need to declare to ensure you follow through?

What do you need to do (actions, behaviours) and who do you need to be in all your ‘doing’ to honour these goals in the most meaningful and fulfilling manner?

If you need some more inspiration, here are a few other related past posts that may be useful:

Bored at Work – Time for a New Goal

Fresh Start to the New Year (a primer on setting meaningful goals and developing a plan to follow)

Thank G-d it’s Monday (Globe and Mail article inspired by this blog)

Before I sign off, it should be noted that as I re-read this post before I hit ‘publish’ I am noticing how ‘unperfect’ it is. I can write more; say it better; etc, etc.  But in light of my new intention….I’m going to ‘just do it’ (hit the publish button:)

Happy New Year — here’s to your TGIM work-life!

Eileen

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New Post at UNretiredLife

I have a new post at UNretiredLife. …with a few more provocative questions to augment the reflection Qs I included in my last post.

Also, for those of you that have subscribed to the feed (to keep abreast of posts with a reader), please note it’s changed.  For those of you unfamiliar with ‘feed/rss’ talk – no worries. But if you are one of those few folks who subscribed (and thank you!!!), I don’t want you miss out on all the new posts coming your way…..in 2010. Please check it out again and update the feed.

Cheers,

Eileen

Completing a Year and Starting Anew

I have a love-hate relationship with December. On one-hand, I am looking forward to the holiday season, the new year and all the festivities that come with it. On the other hand, t’is indeed the season for rush, rush, rush. Balancing all that needs to be done with the competing desire to slow down,  reflect, celebrate  and plan for the year ahead….ahhh, this is my December. 

How about you?

Well to honour this duality of December, I dug back into my archives and re-read some past posts that I wrote that speak to these issues.  I thought it might be useful to offer them up again — kind of like a holiday package of TGIM tips to help you ”complete” this past year and get inspired and ready for the year ahead.  So here they are:

1) Coping with the Season of Rush: (this post links to an article I wrote for the Globe and Mail on this topic)

2) What Do You Need to Clean out Before the Year Ends: a prompt to get rid of the clutter and messes (physical, mentally, emotionally) that can get in the way of creating a brand new, spank’n clean new year for you.

3)Annual Year-end/New Year Reflection -Qs for Thoughtstarters: Ahhh, this one is my favorite – I do this every year. The questions pretty much stay but each year the answers evolve.  Copy and paste this to a Word document and reflect away! If you did this last year – it’s worth having a peak back to see what you had to say last year and what’s changed for you.

(Photo by Doug/Borderfilms – Flickr)

Wishing you a season of celebration, renewal, peace, joy and all that feeds into a TGIM work-life!

Eileen

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What Will TGIM Be for You in Retirement?

I have another blog. Actually not just a blog — a whole new suite of offerings. I call it: UNretiredLife.  This is not as a competitive or even completely different tack from TGIMworklife and the work of Big Cheese Coaching. It’s complementary.  UNretiredLife is all about TGIM – with a more specific focus on boomers, helping them create their own TGIM version of so-called ‘retired’ (or UNretired) life. 

If you are a boomer – or know folks who may be interested, then please check it out. Retirement is undergoing a major paradigm shift (see my next post). This means that the ‘retired or UNretired’ phase of life will call upon even more thoughtful, intentional planning and action to ensure life is worth getting up for not only on Mondays — but everyday all week and year and in all stages of life!

I will post some of my articles from UNretiredLife over here to give you a taste but would love it if you would also hop over for a visit to read about the issues, opportunities and questions. And rest assured, I will still continue with TGIMworklife blog. 

To your TGIM work & life in all stages’n'phases

Eileen

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Have You Started Your Un-Retirement Plan Yet?

UPDATE NOTE (November 10/09): I posted this entry in May and am reposting it with an update. I am excited to announce a second blog with a new suite of offerings from Big Cheese Coaching (and yours truly) called  UNretiredLife. For boomers who will defy old notions of retirement — UNretiredLife will help them plan for and create their own version of retirement. I will continue to post at TGIMworklife on related topics and likely share posts. After all, TGIM work-life is for all stages of life — including retirement, isn’t it?  Stay tuned for lots more news on this front!

ORIGINAL POST FOLLOWS…

Early retirement due to job loss? Later retirement due to pension changes? No retirement due to nest egg meltdowns in this economy?!

Ahhh. Retirement planning isn’t what it used to be. As a coach who specializes in helping people define/create/actualize meaningful work and meaningful life – I am paying close attention to all this.  I am also plugged into this “conversation” because I have a long-standing (7 yrs) working relationship with an organization that promotes financial planning and standards in the profession. But I am also looking at this from more than a financial perspective. I am looking from the perspective of TGIM work-life. What will ‘thank goodness it’s Monday’ look like to boomers who are heading towards what used to be ‘retirement phase’ – but now looks nothing like traditional ‘retirement’ of past generations. This is more like an un-retirement kind of retirement. And it calls for a whole different kind of conversation!   

Some people will work longer either because they have to (financially) or they choose to (work gives them meaning).  Some will opt out earlier (package anyone?). Some will retire at the traditional retirement age. But one thing is for sure. Boomers will not be heading out to the pastures of traditional retirement the way previous generations did. Boomers (or Zoomers as defined by Moses Znaimer as “boomers with zip”) are redefining the stage of life where we might shift from traditional full time work to a life in which we create a whole new mix of work and life. Proportions and details will be up to the individual but the key is to create a work-life that meets our needs – from financial, social, spiritual, etc.

This conversation is about more than financial planning (although it should include it). It’s starts with life (and work) planning.

• What will meaningful work look like to you? Part time/full-time? Same work or a whole new direction?
• What will give you meaning in your life if you are working less? What passions, interests, goals will you pursue?
• What social engagements will keep you connected?
• Who will be your ‘communities’?

Just a few questions that will be part of conversation.

I’m ready for that conversation. For myself (I’m a young boomer) – and with others who want some help to clarify and explore the questions.

You will be hearing much more from me on this. And for those ready to start the conversation – get in touch!  Let’s talk about how you will engage in planning for your un-retirement future.

To a TGIM work-life now and in your un-retirement future!

Eileen

P.S. If you like this post, please share it or ‘twitter it’. And you can find me at Twitter at http://twitter.com/Chadnick

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How to Shine Again, After a Year of Gloom

Wallace Immen of the Globe and Mail wrote an article in this week’s Globe Careers with some interesting advice. S’pose I’m a bit biased on this….as I was quoted in it

You can read a PDF of the article here.

Have a TGIM Work-life

Eileen

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