Coaching Solutions Executive

Global Work-Life Balance Concerns Tied to Employee Turnover on the Rise

admin — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:38:27 +0000

According to a worldwide survey by the Hay group, work-life balance concerns across the globe are on the rise, with 39 percent of employees in Hay Group Insight’s 2012 normative data indicating that they did not have a “good balance” between work and personal life, compared to only 32 percent who reported the same in 2011. Concerns also persist about the number of workers available to complete the work required, with the majority of employees (52 percent) reporting that there are not enough people to do the work in their area. “Organizations across the globe continue to ask their employees to ‘do more with less’, leading to increasing dissatisfaction with work-life balance,” said Mark Royal, senior principal at Hay Group Insight.

Indeed, this is a major concern, and a complaint I hear everywhere. However, there is no need to wait for head office to come up with some brilliant plan or to ask permission from the boss to do something about it. Employees and team can do very constructive work together to respond to employees’ concerns and improve their work-life balance. Contact me for more information.

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Asking for help at work

admin — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:25:34 +0000

Employees can make decisions every day to act like givers or like takers. Just recently Adam Grant published an interesting book on the topic, Give and Take. Grant published also an article in the Harvard Business Review of April 2013, In the Company of Givers and Takers.

Companies have good reasons to promote giving behaviour: effective collaboration, innovation, quality improvement and service excellence to name just a few benefits. Research shows that at work, the vast majority of giving that occurs between people is in response to direct requests for help. Yet most people are rather reluctant to ask for help. Certain exercises can help. Grant refers to the Reciprocity Ring as a structured exercise that makes it easier to ask for help. Since everybody asks for help there is no need for embarrassment. This alone makes it more likely that people in the group will start helping each other. Also a good tool is the SF Reflective Team Format, one member asking for help from the whole team. Fantastic tools to solve problems quickly AND build the team at the same time! Contact me if you like more info.

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Multitasking is counterproductive.

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:49:18 +0000

By finishing one task at the time, you can win about 25% of your time. Multitasking is simply counterproductive: people are not computers, they can not run on multiple programs at the same time. Now you can quickly discover which distracting activities have been eating up your day by using RescueTime. At Harvard Business Review you can find a comparison between two people on a time line. I signed up for Rescue Time!

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Run your family like a business.

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:33:58 +0000

Every time we move to a new destination, I sit down with my family and we have a team coaching session. Questions include: What did you enjoy about our stay here? What are you looking forward to in the new place? We also made vision boards, hold regular family meetings and have a weekly planner on our fridge, where every member of the family can ‘post’ what activity he/she would like to engage in in the coming week. I also use coaching techniques with our daughter and evaluate her school results based on her goals and strengths, a different approach from most parents. What do you take home from work? For more inspiring ideas, read the article Family Inc. in the Wall Street Journal.

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Philippines ranks as the most emotional country in the world

admin — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:43:29 +0000

People familiar with the Philippines, will not be surprised to hear this. Gallup measures daily emotions in more than 150 countries and areas by asking residents whether they experienced five positive and five negative emotions a lot the previous day. Negative experiences include anger, stress, sadness, physical pain, and worry. Positive emotions include feeling well-rested, being treated with respect, enjoyment, smiling and laughing a lot, and learning or doing something interesting. 60% of the Filipinos say ‘yes’ to these positive emotions. And Singapore is the most emotionless society: Singaporeans are the least likely in the world to experience emotions of any kind, with the 36% who report feeling either positive or negative emotions, the lowest for any country. Interesting! You can find out more here.

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How SF works in organizations

admin — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:26:23 +0000

Recently the SOL 2012 conference took place in Oxford, an annual gathering of professionals who use SF in their work. The Guardian published today an article on the CEO’s panel, providing some valuable insight in how they use SF in their organizations.

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Forget Time Management, Energy Management is key!

admin — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:48:05 +0000

Many people are putting in longer hours at the office, but time is a limited resource! Talk to your boss about this, because employers can help their employees refuel their energy.

Some interesting ideas are:

‘renewal rooms’ where people can go to relax, meditate or even sleep;

a fitness facility (or a subsidized gym membership);

midday walks/workouts in the park; healthy, high-energy foods in the cafeteria;

avoid emailing employees during the evening or during weekends so they do not feel compelled to check their emails all the time;

no-meeting zone between 8 and 9 am;

checking emails embargo during meetings.

For more inspiration read: ‘Managing your Energy, not your Time’ published in Harvard Business Review (Oct. 2007, can be viewed here if you sign in at the site) and by the same author, Share this with your CEO, Tony Schwartz’s blog.

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