Posts Tagged ‘Joy at Work’

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones…

Monday, July 12th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ The other night as I was working late, in comes Matt, the man who cleans our offices. He mentioned that he heard me discuss gossip on a Minneapolis television special. He went on to say that for years he’s been cleaning offices, and that he never ceases to be shocked about how much gossip he hears people spew while he’s cleaning around them. “Don’t they get that as soon as they walk away from that gossip, that they’ll be the next victim?” he asked.

Good point, Matt. People who gossip aren’t discriminating and neither are those who listen to it.

Try a little experiment. Do the opposite. Decide to say something positive about everyone you work around. At the end of the day, see how you feel about yourself. IF someone says something nasty about another, tell them a nice thing about that person and ask them to please go make a direct request of that person they’re complaining about.

Now, THAT makes it all interesting. You get to feel good about YOU, AND you get to teach others around you how to be of excellent character.

Have a hoot spreading the joy…

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.

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Confessions of a Recovering Workplace Gossip

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
© Varina And Jay Patel | Dreamstime.com

© Varina And Jay Patel | Dreamstime.com

So you’ve never gossiped, you say – never talked about a colleague behind her back, never spread a juicy rumor.  Congratulations!  I don’t believe you.

Okay, I suppose it’s possible.  But most of you out there have probably indulged in this bad behavior at some point.  I’m sorry to say there was a time when I did as well.  Then I came to realize how poisonous and destructive workplace gossip is.  Now I spend my time spreading the anti-gossip gospel.

A workplace full of whispered gossip is excruciating.  It is destructive to the soul of your workplace and the souls of the people in it.  They never feel safe, always wondering who is talking behind their backs.

Jack has a problem with Tom. So what does Jack do? He tells Lynne, and Jess, and Steve, and Jim, and Sandy.  Everyone, that is, but Tom.

It gets even better. Jack quickly realizes he can’t trust Lynne, Jess, Steve, Jim, or Sandy. They are the kind of people who welcome gossip, you see, and people who accept gossip tend to be equal-opportunity mudslingers. Soon enough, they’ll be welcoming gossip about Jack.

Okay, now let’s suppose you’ve got the message.  You’ve quit cold turkey on gossiping and backstabbing.  But what do you do when someone ELSE comes to you with gossip?

You can certainly put your fingers in your ears and hum the 1812 Overture while tap dancing.  But that won’t do anything to help Jack out of his own nasty gossiping habit.  And since it’s your watering hole he’s muddying, you have a vested interest in helping him on the road to recovery.

Next time Jack comes to you with complaints about Tom, simply say, “Gee, this sounds serious!  Let’s go talk to Tom directly so you can work this out.” When he looks panic-stricken, underline the point: “Well is this a serious problem or isn’t it?  I can’t do anything to help you solve it – only Tom can do that. So please promise me you’re heading directly there. If it isn’t serious, then what are we talking about?”

This approach may or may not shock Jack into giving up gossip, but it will certainly send a message that YOU are not an available receiver.  It also lets him know that you will not be gossiping behind his back – a positive message in and of itself.

Can’t Fight City Hall

Monday, May 24th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ You can’t fight city hall. Maybe you SHOULD fight city hall. But, there are some fights not worth fighting.

Earl Nightingale said that 85 percent of people who are dismissed from their jobs are fired because they can’t get along with other people.

Getting along means accepting people for who they are. Yes, Joe is arrogant. Yes, Julie is self-consumed. And sure enough, Tom is a perfectionist. All that can be true.

Know that you can ASK other people for other behaviors, but you may have to accept that some people, not you of course, aren’t perfect.

Fixing the blame is a futile process. Fixing the relationship is ALL important.

All people have strengths and weaknesses and if the weaknesses don’t violate the core values of your organization, create chaos or bad client experiences, or disrupt due to lack of appropriate professionalism, you may just need to breathe deeply and navigate around those flaws.

Fight fights worth fighting and find the joy in celebrating the good things your teammates bring to the team.

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:



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School of Hard Knocks

Monday, April 19th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ Did you attend the school of hard knocks? In life, we get one of two things from every encounter. We get the result we wanted OR we get the lesson.

Most people don’t realize that sometimes, IF the lesson sticks, the lesson is far more valuable than the desired result because it allows for a future of guaranteed improvement in results.

One young man was passed over for a promotion. He stormed into his boss’s office shouting, “How could you give Julie that promotion over me? I’ve been here longer! 20 YEARS of experience with this company and no promotion?”

The wise boss said, “Bob, you’ve had one year of experience 20 times. Bob, you just don’t learn from your mistakes.”

What a sad story. Learning to put your mistakes and failures in proper perspective is the key to personal and professional growth. Mistakes are rarely fatal but a person’s attitude about those mistakes could very well be.

Soul searching after each mistake is important to glean the lesson and putting habits in place so it won’t happen again…even MORE important.

Let mistakes be your treasure of discovery.

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:



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choose ‘save link as…’ to save the file to your computer.

Practice Reverse Paranoia

Monday, April 12th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ People do things for all kinds of reasons. Those reasons are their reasons and sometimes we guess incorrectly about what their intention was. For example…

Your kid isn’t home on curfew so you assume:

A.) He’s in a car accident.
B.) He’s blowing off curfew.
C.) He’s dead.

Now, each of these is a bit extreme. When he arrives home, you find out that he ran out of gas and his cell phone battery was dead, and you feel a little silly.

The same thing happens in the workplace.

When someone walks right by you without giving you a warm fuzzy, you may assume:

A.) She is angry at you because you told the boss she missed a deadline.
B.) She is planning to get you fired!
C.) She hates you, she’s always hated you, and she’s running a campaign in the lunchroom to get everyone else to hate you.

In reality, you may find out in fact, she was late for a meeting and you flatter yourself—she wasn’t thinking of you at all!

Obviously making up the worst in your mind is not only destructive to your own sanity, but very counterproductive for your team.

Instead, practice reverse paranoia. Assume everyone loves you and is there to support you every day. IF there is a pattern to the contrary, deal with facts and approach that relationship issue head on.

Now, won’t THAT make you skip and hop a little 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:



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choose ‘save link as…’ to save the file to your computer.

Love on Wheels

Monday, March 29th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ Are YOU love on wheels? Now, I KNOW you’re a little concerned, when you heard the title, about where this title is going. So, let’s just get started.

We’ve all met that person who is simply, “love on wheels.” He constantly shows he cares. She always goes above and beyond. He sees the possibilities in you. She sees you blew it and affirms
you with a, “I know you’ll get this. Don’t you give up.”

Love is a word that isn’t used much in business and I suspect business would go better if it was. When we choose to always do the loving thing, spread the joy, build up our team members, provide tough love at the appropriate times, we know that not only will our business go well, but life will go well too.

Know that every one of us is called to a higher place of going beyond transactions, to being transformative for our team members and our families.

Set the intention to think of yourself as “love on wheels”—going gracefully through life spreading
your pixie dust on those around you and making the world a better place.

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.

Seven Secrets of a “Thank God It’s Monday” Workplace

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
© Vgstudio | Dreamstime.com

© Vgstudio | Dreamstime.com

What accounts for the difference between “Oh crap, it’s Monday” and “Thank God it’s Monday”?  It all boils down to seven habits that can change everything about the culture of your workplace:

1. Show up fully and commit with all your heart
At work, we think of home.  At home, we think of work.  Time to stop that.  The first step toward a TGIM workplace is being present and accounted for at work.  Thinking about being elsewhere leads to resenting where you are. 

While you are at work, commit to work with all your heart.  This is what I call throwing your heart over the bar—committing 100 percent to the moment and task before you.
 
2. Communicate clearly
Use powerful and positive language about what you will do and the attitude you expect from others.  If a TGIM workplace is your goal, take the time to make your communications clear on every level.

3. Go beyond the job description
Going beyond the job description happens when you pitch in and help others at work without expecting reward. Willingly share the load. If you’re caught up on your tasks, help someone else who is crunching for a deadline.  Instead of an extra burden, you actually feel more a part of things than ever.

4. Don’t tolerate dysfunctional behaviors
Establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person’s back, then give each other permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. Create a trusting and open environment and watch the dysfunction ebb away.

5. Clean up your messes
Relationships are built on trust. Without that foundation, there is no basis for a relationship.  We breach the trust each time we don’t do what we said we would do.  But here’s the thing—that breach can be healed quickly IF you come back and clean up the mess.  Acknowledge that the results are not okay, then make a commitment to put things right and prevent a recurrence.

6. Live a life of profound service
Once you place yourself in the service of those around you—your family, your colleagues, your customers—every moment becomes imbued with purpose and significance, and you feel GOOD. 
As you drive to work, begin thinking about how the work you do is serving others, contributing to their success and happiness.  This is the essence of true service, and the key to a workplace that draws you happily back, Monday after Monday after Monday.

7.  Celebrate
Every project consists of little steps, little victories along the way.  Recognize and celebrate them in ways large and small.  Build a system of celebrations and rewards—quarterly, weekly, daily—and follow through like your company’s life depends on it.  Because (psst) it does.

Acquire these seven habits and spread them through your workplace, then be sure to notice the first Monday your hand reaches for the alarm—and you smile.

Getting Back that First-Day Feeling

Friday, January 15th, 2010
© Sodimages | Dreamstime.com

© Sodimages | Dreamstime.com

Remember your very first day on the job?  Your shoes had a shine like the tiles on the Space Shuttle and the crease in your slacks could have diced celery.  The air was somehow fresher, the birds chirpier.  You had been hired.  You’d been given a chance to excel, a chance to make a difference.

Now contrast that with this morning.

Most people who signed up for the Big Game end up making one compromise after another until they’ve resigned themselves to mediocrity.  It’s darned hard to keep that first-day buzz going. 

BUT…there’s no reason you can’t choose to recover a good measure of that first-day feeling, that striving for excellence, and put it to good use in the service of everyone whose lives you touch on a daily basis.

It’s all about making the choice to do it.

Have you ever met a two-year-old who wasn’t enthusiastic?  We come prepackaged with it.  And then…

What happens to us?

What happens is that we make a choice.  Some of us choose to make the effort to stay in touch with our inner enthusiasm.  Others find reasons to lose touch with it—boredom, responsibilities, challenges, fatigue.

But here’s the problem:  Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of all success.  Without it, nothing great happens.  If you choose to lose touch with your inner enthusiasm, you are choosing mediocrity.  It’s really that simple.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons to curb your enthusiasm.  But there are just as many reasons to find it again—to celebrate your incredible good fortune, and in the process, to make that fortune even better.

Start with the fact that you’re not dead yet, that you were born at all, that you have a job, and that compared to a lot of folks, you have a pretty darn good job.

Now take a close look at the circumstances of this good job you have.  Write down your five biggest complaints and spin them into positives.  For example, “My boss micromanages me” can be reframed as “My boss cares enough about me to step into my work when I need help.”
If you’ve truly committed to finding your first-day buzz again, you should be an awful lot closer to it now than you were ten minutes ago. 

All this rethinking and reframing has removed a HUGE energy drain from your life—one you were probably unaware of.  It takes massive amounts of energy to continually reinforce your own sense of victimhood.  Excellence is MUCH less expensive.  Now that you feel lucky instead, what on Earth are you going to do with all that energy?

How about playing the Big Game you signed up for?

What you’ve just filled yourself up with is a lion’s share of this precious thing called the human spirit, and the human spirit will not invest in mediocrity.  So play the meaningful, bighearted game you always dreamed of playing, and leave the mediocrity to others.

Deciding on Joy

Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Credit:  Yuri_arcurs|Dreamstime.com

Credit: Dreamstime.com

Some things are easy to fake. Interest, for example. Just nod randomly and say “Hmm, ya don’t say” every ten seconds while your sister describes every detail of her new all-goose-fat diet. Works like a charm. (The random nodding, not the diet.)

But enthusiasm—well, that’s another thing entirely. Enthusiasm is a really hard thing to fake.

That doesn’t mean it’s something you simply have or don’t have. It isn’t magically granted to some and not others. We’ve all spent some time being wildly joyful. Have you ever met a two-year-old who wasn’t?

Joyful enthusiasm is part of our original factory packaging. That two-year-old loves to get presents, sure, but she’d be just as happy playing with the wrapping paper for hours.

So then—what happens to us? We make a choice, that’s what. Some of us choose to continue to be in touch with our childlike enthusiasm, while others allow it to wither and go dormant.

Bad idea. Enthusiasm is as essential to life as food, water, and hot artichoke dip. (Hey, you’ve got your essentials, I’ve got mine.)

Enthusiasm is also the essence of success. Without it, all is mediocrity. Nothing great happens. That’s why one of the keys to a truly engaged and motivated workplace is enthusiasm. (more…)

Woohoo! Thank God Its Monday Hit #1 Overall

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Thank you to everyone for all the help of spreading the word about Thank God It’s Monday. It hit number 1 overall as of all books sold! It is experiencing the second week as the number one business book and it’s also sold out in the U.K. and made the best seller list in Canada as well.

Pinch me!!!

Again, thank you to everyone who have sent the massive amount of emails saying you’ve bought 10 plus copies for all your friends. Now THAT is a commitment to a healthy workplace.

Thank you for being a part of this movement.

Only a few days left until Monday!!!

Cheers,

Roxanne