Posts Tagged ‘Culture In the Workplace’

Having a Hoot is a Bottom Line Issue

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

As our economic mess heads into its third year, business has never been more serious. It might seem an odd time to make a case for levity in the workplace. But The Levity Effect authors Scott Christopher and Adrian Gostick are doing exactly that.
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TGIM e-zine: October 25, 2010

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Issue 101 ~ October 25, 2010

In this Issue:

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Be You

Monday, October 25th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ It’s far too easy to lose sight of who you truly are when you’re at the office.

“I’m not on track to reach quota, so I can’t waste my time engaging with other employees.”

“I can’t take it. Jared’s success is making me look bad.”

“Should I jump in and make that joke? What if they don’t laugh?”

This discontent, this frustration—it’s all driven by a lack of comfort.

By this point in your life, you have a pretty good sense of who you are. And by this point in your life, you’ve come to the conclusion that when you stray from the path that defines you, you quickly grow frustrated.

So choose comfort. Don’t hesitate to be yourself.

Everyone’s laughing at the lunch table, and a joke pops into your head… make it! You feel that the company is underachieving, setting the standard of excellence beneath its capability… raise the standard!

BE YOU, and create a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

Love this audio message? You may also download the MP3 version and PDF transcript below:



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Coach Up

Monday, August 16th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ Your discovery is right… your boss is NOT perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination. So, that leaves you with two choices. You can spend your days complaining to others about the imperfections of your boss, but you must then expect the outcome: you’ll never be promoted to a management position because of your cruel way of handling your boss, or worse, you’ll be made a boss and you’ll have six people knocking you down all day every day. You’ve heard of Karma haven’t you?

Well, if you can’t complain, what do you do? You coach up. That’s right. You ask your boss for what you need. You follow a simple 4-step process that goes like this.

When you allow Tommy to keep coming in late, what happens next to the others in your department?
They start coming in late and pretty soon customers have to wait for service. My request is that when people don’t come in on time, you disallow this act immediately. Do I have your commitment?

What did you just do? You just asked your boss and said, when you create this observable behavior the outcome is this. My simple request is this. And do I have your commitment?

Now… doesn’t that feel better to know you can manage your boss? The good news is it will feel better for your boss as well. Rock on!

And yes, you get to choose the language every day.

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

Love this audio message? You may also download the MP3 version and PDF transcript below:



Download Instructions: Right-click the download button(s) and
choose ‘save link as…’ to save the file to your computer.

The Limits of Compassion (and yes, there are some)

Thursday, July 15th, 2010
© Beatrice Killam | Dreamstime.com

© Beatrice Killam | Dreamstime.com

I am human.  And I’m willing to bet that four out of five readers of this column are human, too.

As humans, we come equipped with massive contradictions and imperfections.  Our emotions battle with our intellect.  Our community spirit wrestles with our selfishness.  We think thoughts both lofty and low and emit smells both lovely and, uh…not.

But when we come together in the workplace, we’re making a deal with each other to bring our higher, stronger, better selves to the game.  It’s not that our weaknesses cease to exist, but they do cease to ride shotgun on our day.

There are days when I’m running on two cylinders or less—not enough sleep, not enough breakfast, too many pressures, bad news, whatever.  You have to figure at least one out of every four people around you feels about the same on any given day.

Now suppose we all had permission to give full expression to those feelings—you’d have 25 percent of the people in any given workplace whining, sighing, crying, or screaming their way through the day. The drain on productivity would be impossible.  Forget about achieving anything great or being of profound service, even on your own good days.

A little expression of fatigue or frustration once in a while is fine, and we can all be there for each other at those times.  But then there are the people who seem to have woven dramatic emotional displays into their job description, day after day after day.

Not okay.

Approach this carefully by all means, but for the sake of everyone’s sanity, DO approach it.  Start by expressing genuine concern.  Is there something going on in this person’s life that they’d like to talk about?  Is there anything you can do to help?

If he or she waves off your attempts to help and continues to be a vortex of negative energy, ramp it up a bit.  Ask Human Resources or your immediate manager if anything can be done to assist the person—and drop a mention of how long it has gone on and how difficult it is to work well in the presence of such displays.

If you have offered personal concern AND attempted to get help at a higher level and no improvement is made, it’s time to call in that mutual contract, that unspoken but rock-solid agreement to bring our higher, stronger selves to work.  Let the person know gently but firmly that something’s gotta give, that she MUST take advantage of offers of help, that the situation is impacting the work and attitudes of those around her.

If no improvement is forthcoming, it is incumbent on you to return to management with a stronger insistence that something be done.