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Source: Michael Hyatt, Full Focus
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication
Why Savoring Is Linked to Happiness?
Consciously savoring the good things in life is important because neuroscience research suggests that our brains have a negative bias. Negative things tend to stand out in our minds, while positive things tend to be easily dismissed or forgotten.
Considering this, it’s perhaps not surprising that savoring — or being good at taking in good things — is linked to increased well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, and decreased depression.
4 Ways to Savor Joy
Much like the practice of mindfulness, this type of savoring involves being present in the current moment and aware of sensory information. But unlike mindfulness, which emphasizes detached observation, in-the-moment savoring involves actively seeking out and soaking in positive emotions.
Try it out: Try selecting a few specific moments or events over the next week that you plan to savor.
Another way to elevate your positive experiences is through your non-verbal behaviors and expressions. We typically think of our physical reactions as simply the result of our emotions (for example, we smile because we feel happy).
However, science suggests the chain reaction goes both ways — smiling actually makes us feel happier while hunching our shoulders and crossing our arms can make us feel more upset.
Try it out: This holiday season, try intentionally laughing, smiling, hugging, exchanging high fives, jumping for joy, and doing the happy dance to amplify your happy moments.
We all have the ability to “time travel” within our minds to a more positive moment — whether it’s sometime in the past or in our anticipated future. Studies show that vividly reminiscing over positive experiences and eagerly anticipating future joyful occasions can boost your happiness levels, both in the moment and over time.
Try it out: Think about a time when you felt so happy, you thought you would burst. Remember how you felt in that moment (Giddy? Grateful? Excited?). Replay the event in your mind as if you were reliving it.
While the first 3 savoring strategies can be done solo, this last one requires connecting with other people. Research suggests that sharing positive events with others is a great way to further amplify and savor the good things in your life. This strategy works best when you share with someone you’re close to and when that someone is likely to mirror back your positive emotions.
This creates an upward spiral of positivity. In fact, some research suggests involving others in your savoring can not only increase the positive impact of events but can also boost your mental and physical resilience.
Try it out: Do some savoring with others this holiday season by taking the time to connect with people who are important to you.
Source: CCL
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication
Similar to trust, appreciation is relationship-based — each interaction with someone strengthens or weakens that invisible connection. The more we feel appreciated, the stronger those bonds become, and the more tension they can withstand when something challenges it. Consequently, knowing how to build and maintain relationships where people feel appreciated is a foundational skill — one that’s important to learn from the very early stages of your career.
While appreciation is something you can express, it’s also something you can show through your actions and behaviors. If you – as a manager or an individual contributor — want to build the kind of relationships where people feel valued, communication flows, and great work gets done, it’s important to expand your understanding of appreciation beyond verbal expressions and learn to show people you value them as well.
To feel a sense of belonging, people must know that others care that they are there. Sure, we all get paid to show up to our jobs every day. But the reality is that our peers and direct reports could choose to work elsewhere. Letting someone know their presence is having an impact on you or the organization can make a big difference. Managers and individual contributors alike can share this appreciation with the following actions:
Creating a psychologically safe environment where people openly share ideas and speak up when there is a problem is everyone’s job. Managers and individual contributors alike need to show colleagues that their input is welcome and celebrated.
Leaders can role model how to treat one another by actively seeking and amplifying other people’s ideas, and individual contributors can do the same with their peers. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Managers
Individual Contributor
Our jobs should help us live our best lives, not take them over. For our employees to feel appreciated, they need to know that we understand their passions, priorities, and responsibilities outside of work.
People need leaders who respect boundaries and role model self care, and coworkers who nurture a culture of support. Here are a few ideas.
Managers
Individual Contributor
One of the main reasons employees give for leaving jobs is a lack of development opportunities. While many people think development is about promotions and attending trainings, it’s also about being around people who challenge us — managers that take time to understand and support our career goals, and coworkers who help us learn and grow. Give the following a try.
Managers
Individual Contributor
Source: Christopher Littlefield, Harvard Business Review
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication
Employees are sensitive creatures, and one of the quickest things they pick up on is whether or not their boss trusts them.
Trust is a critical element for a healthy workgroup and company. Without it, morale and productivity suffer, good employees leave and the rumor mill works overtime.
What does a failure to display trust look like? Micromanaging and a lack of willingness to delegate are two of the most common traits.
Other behaviors that make employees feel as if you don’t trust them include:
Here are seven tips for how to squelch your trust-busting tendencies.
1. Establish a Personal Connection
Great leaders make time to get to know their team and what each employee needs to perform well. This doesn’t have to be time-consuming. All it requires is a stop by someone’s desk to ask, “How’s it going? Do you have any questions about that new task you’ve been assigned?”
It’s easy to lose touch with your team when you’re constantly caught up in the hustle and bustle. But if you don’t pay attention to current projects and the challenges your employees are facing, you can’t provide the support they need to keep efficiency and productivity humming. And if you’re aloof most of the time, your team won’t feel comfortable coming to you when they need help.
In addition, demonstrate that you care about your team members as human beings, not just employees. Keep up with their personal lives. If someone has a death in the family or a sick dog, extend a simple expression of concern or maybe offer them some extra time off to show that you care. This can help build mutual trust and loyalty between you and your employees.
2. Show Humility
No one wants to work for a know-it-all or someone who can’t admit when they’ve made a mistake.
If you find yourself falling into that habit, remember, you’re a business leader, not a god. No one expects you to know everything. In reality, the ability to admit a mistake or ask for help demonstrates strength.
Even better, acknowledge your team’s expertise by asking your employees for their opinions and implementing their recommendations as often as possible.
3. Connect the Dots for People
Facilitation builds trust because you’re helping team members make alliances in other departments and broaden their skills.
Simply ask, “Is there anything you need to do your job better?” You’re likely to find many opportunities to help your employees.
For instance, Jenny needs help finding the right person to help her resolve an issue she’s having with your company’s accounting software. You introduce her to Max, your company’s accounting software wiz. This simple gesture shows Jenny that you’ve got her back. It shows that you want to see her succeed. This can go a long way in helping you build trust.
4. Make room for mistakes
We all make mistakes. Some are small – such as a misplaced file – and some are cringe-worthy. Your employees will appreciate it if you quickly debrief them on the small mistakes and treat those as growth opportunities on the way to better performance.
Conversation starters may include:
Rarely will someone make a mistake so huge that it affects the business and becomes worthy of heavy-handed involvement from you. But when a big problem happens, remember that it’s usually not one person’s fault, but a series of missteps and broken processes.
Treating employees’ mistakes as a business problem rather than a personal failure signals to your team that they can trust you to react appropriately when things go wrong.
5. Ditch the micromanagement
It can be tempting to think you know the best way to perform a task. In reality, people perform better when they’re allowed to get a job done in their own way.
Other ways to throw off the shackles of micromanagement include:
In addition to making employees feel like you trust them, empowering team members encourages them to use their creativity to get the job done.
6. Demonstrate trust logistically
It seems simple, but the lines of communication must be open in order to build trust. This doesn’t have to be complicated. A few logistics are all you need.
First, it’s hard to trust a manager you rarely see or speak with. Make yourself available by leaving your office door open as much as possible. Walk the shop floor, greeting people, asking questions and offering help.
One caveat: You have to “manage by walking around” regularly. If you only talk to employees when something is wrong, they’re likely to fear your sudden presence in their midst rather than trust your being there.
Sharing meals brings people together, so host regular employee get-togethers. A monthly team lunch to celebrate that month’s birthdays can be an excellent time to find out what’s really going on in your team members’ professional and personal lives.
7. Share success and give credit
Nothing undermines trust faster than a boss who hogs credit for a job well done. Don’t be that manager or employees will stop sharing their good ideas.
In staff meetings, ask everyone to share a success story or something they feel good about. Publicly recognize when one or more team members resolve a long-standing issue, land a new client or find a way to reduce costs.
Praise is both highly motivating to employees and free. All it takes is a bit of thought on your part.
Trust runs both ways
Source: Insperisty Staff, 2023
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication
The best leaders are masters at delegation. Why? They know how to empower their teams to get work done. But it’s not only about getting work done or knowing how to share tasks in the best way. It’s also about creating an environment where employees are proud of their work and can call it their own. These are the critical pieces to learning how to delegate work effectively.
In short, delegating is allocating the right work to the right people. Delegating work is about sharing a task and decision-making responsibilities to increase others’ commitment, accelerate results, and build capability.
The delegating leadership style, one of the four leadership styles covered in the situational leadership model, is about managers sharing authority and responsibility with their employees.
The reluctance of leaders to delegate carries a steep cost. As leaders take on more work, they get overwhelmed and stressed. They may even burn out completely and quit. 70% of leaders surveyed under the age of 35 report feeling used up at the end of every day, with rates even higher among women and minorities.
At the same time, their team is likely also frustrated. They don’t feel like they’re contributing enough, nor do they have the authority to do their work as they see fit. They’ll likely end up disengaged or start polishing up their resumes for another role.
Delegation has to go beyond simply assigning a task. It has to be done thoughtfully, with the right balance of direction from the leader.
Here’s what to consider before you delegate work:
If the leader is struggling to answer these questions, then they should re-evaluate if the task should actually be delegated.
Source: DDI, 2023
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication