GREAT PERSONALITIES THAT HAVE FAILED, AND EVENTUALLY SUCCEEDED!

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DO YOU HAVE ISSUES IN YOUR TISSUES

ATTAINING A STATE OF MENTAL CONGRUENCE


Mental Congruence is about balance - inner peace and contentment. Congruence helps prepare us to living a MEANINGFUL life directed by purpose towards destiny. People should not really worry where they are placed in terms of economic productivity - and here i am referring to whether you work for someone or you work for yourself. The objective should be the ability to draw from internal forces to pursue flourishing regardless of the environment. Motivation should be generated internally regardless of the environment.

I know of companies that have put up a lot of money - invested in modern technology and resources just to create an environment perceived to be conducive for employees to flourish - and first of all the very same companies did not have a tool to measure ROI in terms of that investment, and secondly, the workforce perceptions instead dropped a point below where they were initially. What can we learn from this - indeed we can learn that we cannot buy people's happiness. Money cant buy peace! If it is seen to work we now it is only temporary - it cannot replace deeper ISSUES within the TISSUES.

Generally we look good, well dressed, educated, having money with good positions - but inside our tissues we have thorny issues that non of this stuff we seem to have can actually fix. We live under a well constructed mask underpinned by perceived social relevance. Indeed the beginner thinks and believes that this balance is brought about by external means - but the fact is you really get it by first :

1. Being self-aware
2. Being self-accepting
3. Unclinging
4. Contentment
5. Loving

For mastering the above, one needs to start by understanding their personality - and ultimately and gradually develop character strengths. Life on it own is work in progress. In pursuit of challenging the reader towards a more detailed examination of this subject, I have written a lot of articles mental fitness, personality and wellbeing. Of these, the article on  how human beings generally behave focusses on three types of personalities, namely 

1. Original Personality, 
2. Formed Personality and 
3. Available Personality. 

Discussing Original Personality, I stated that though this is a disposition from our birth - which sometimes allows us to live "fakes/masked" life, or turns the perceived unusual to be "normal", we have a CHOICE to use Available Personality to live the life we want. 

To be able to tap into our Available Personality, it is wise to "uncling" from our fascination with our Original Personality. We also need to let go of our fear - we have fears as a result of either our past experiences - whether direct or indirect and also because of our interpretation of life in general. These seem to MEAN more to us than what the reality actually is. The thought of loss or failure has a sense of perceived reality in our lives - we seem to know how it would feel if we were to lose something and as a result we formulate MEANING of what it is to lose, for instance losing a job, losing a relationship etc.

It is true that we tend to cling to so many things simply because of fear of interpreting or experiencing life without them. That is why someone is in a relationship that is not really bringing the desired results - but the thought of living out of it has many connotations that need preparedness - first how will one experience life, secondly social stigmas related to perceptions of that very occurrence.

Formed Personality is exactly that - a personality that we form based on our habits and thoughts of our minds. interestingly those thoughts are usually underpinned by prevailing paradigms at a certain point in time. Formed personality can be either formed by incumbent or learned as a practice or directly resultant from experiences. As i mentioned earlier - our personality is a precursor for our Character - in this instance - someone who has been deeply betrayed before finds it very hard to be honest in any relationship because of their past experiences. As such they form a personality out of that experience. That personality brings MEANING, e.g " The fact that he did not recognise my new dress means he is no longer interested in me - there is someone he is now focussed on - i know this because it happened to me in the past". I dont even want to talk more about relationships - fact is that most of them are in an irretrievable breakdown, or broken down simply because of ISSUES deep in TISSUES.

Available Personality is about freedom - is about boldness to live life free of fear and prejudice - its about living a life full of love. Where there is love there is no doubt. Real love does not have expectations - its all about giving - giving becomes life itself - just like the universe gives. There is no day we are expected to repay the oxygen we have given to us freely - nor do we have to replace or pay back the gravitational force that keeps us balanced on our planet. The universe if giving - that is UNCLINGING.

IF YOU WANT TO GAIN MORE INFORMATION ON CHARACTER, BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, OR ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PLEASE CLICK A RELEVANT LINK ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THIS ARTICLE. 

YOU MAY ALSO TAKE A FREE CHARACTER SURVEY RIGHT HERE ON THIS PORTAL. 

FINDING BALANCE BETWEEN THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

"AS A MAN THINKETH, SO IS HE." HOW HAVE YOUR THOUGHTS INFLUENCED YOUR FEELINGS?

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 EQ TEST - TRIAL

CONSTRUCTIVE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND THE ROLE OF EQ

Effective leadership, whether in public, private or public benefit organisations will undoubtedly demand a high level of personal and social awareness while at the same time the need for emotional power and management or relationships. Understanding who you are as an individual is critical in understanding social dictates that are forever changing as the universe changes.

Understanding of the role of emotions is fundamental in building constructive relationships from family to organisations. Most organisations do not fail simply because those who are at leadership do not have business acumen or even necessary intelligence - no, they usually fail because of interpersonal meltdown in relationships with stakeholders of that particular organisation. The inability to link social expectations of organisations they work for with their futuristic zeal for success is often cited the most in many corporate failures.

In an effort to help you lead or manage better, we have developed tools based on scientific studies research on both personality and emotional intelligence. This tool is purposed to help you to start thinking about various EQ competencies as they apply to you and how they affect your style of leadership.

The subject of Emotional Intelligence became popular as a result f the work of Daniel Goleman in 1995, and has been widely used to assist in leadership and management development by many organisations. Traditional qualities such as toughness, intelligence, determination which were deemed requisite for leadership were found to be insufficient without functional competencies in EQ. These competencies are listed hereunder:

SELF AWARENESS - The ability to recognise one's own feelings, emotional habits to the environment and how such emotions affect behavior and performance.
Individuals who are self-aware will see themselves the way others see them without massive blind-spots. They will be able to understand their limitations and abilities and even seek and prioritise personal development.

MANAGING SELF - The ability to use deepest emotions to achieve goals. This ability helps the individual to take initiative in a focussed while taking responsibility for one's own actions.

Being able to manage self will help the individual to take calculated risk , save one from hasty regrettable decisions and enable one to regulate their actions.

MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS - It is critical for any leader to be able to understand others, and that understanding is easier when you understand yourself. This ability enables the individual to understand and respond to what others are feeling. It helps the leader to be empathetic to others.

SOCIAL AWARENESS - This is an ability to influence and inspire emotions of others - it is a fundamental competency requirement for successful teamwork and  leadership.

You may try the trial test on the link below.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TEST

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PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING

         PERSONAL FINANCE - INSIGHTS FROM "THE DIMENSIONAL ENTREPRENEUR"

Discipline will help us to understand personal finance. Its more than just money as we know it but will entail such aspects as estate planning, understanding personal risk profiles, investing and creating wealth!

I have seen that money has a "spirit & emotion", it stays with you when it realises you understand it and even treat it with care. However money can be domineering if it realises that you "worship" it. Running after it may just as well render you as a slave to it.

A research that was done some years ago shows that most people at retirement still didn't have a plan how they are going to generate income.

That is a problem then - if your current work and spending mind-set does not allow you to think and know there will be a day when you no longer wake up and go to work to earn money.

You need to start thinking now how you will retire. Let me just share a little on the results of this research:

(Surveillance was on lifestyles of 100 people who retired at age 65)

• 54% were heavily depended (on either relatives and state)
• 36% had to look for alternative employment.
• 5% were deceased
• 4% were OK - at least they had over a million to take care of them on their retirement.
• 1% were wealthy - they had more than $5Million to retire on.

Since this research was done 16 years ago (2001), could you say the situation has changed, are people getting wealthier now or even more poorer?

DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR RETIREMENT? THAT PLAN SHOULD START TO BENEFIT YOU NOW - NOT WHEN YOU RETIRE. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, YOU WILL HAVE WHAT YOU NEED TO SAVE FOR YOUR RETIREMENT.

1. Get Personal Financial Education

2. Create a Financial Game Plan

3. Get a Financial and/or Business Coach

CLICK HERE 

ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT STARTING A BUSINESS - TAKE THIS ENTREPRENEURIAL FITNESS TEST TO SEE JUST HOW PREPARED YOU ARE.  

 

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YOUR STORY IS STILL UNFOLDING

This article is wholly dedicated to the word of Dr Eric Maisel, the author of "Life Purpose Boot Camp" and "Coaching the Artist Within".

The subject of Purpose is one of those many people have written and spoken about - and yet many still seek to understand even better. It is a subject that many of us tie to resolutions that we make for ourselves every beginning of every year.  Everyone wants to know what their purpose is and why they exist. Moreso - everyone wants to find and live in their purpose!

In search for value-based ideas on MEANING and PURPOSE, Dr Maisel put up a collection of 20 quotations written by others on the very subject this subject. I have reflected only 15 of these, i encourage you to buy or order his book  - ( Life Purpose Boot Camp ). Reading these quotations might perhaps help you to understand your own PURPOSE and a sense of what is MEANING in life.

1- "Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer" by Joseph Campbell

2- To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

3- "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" by J.K.Rowlings

4 - "Every choice before you represents the universe inviting you to remember who you are and what you want" by Alan Cohen

 5- "Life inst about finding yourself, Life is about creating yourself" by George Bernard Shaw

6- "Life is what we make it. Always has been , always will be." by Grandma Moses

7- "The path to our destination is not always a straight one. Maybe it doesn't matter what road we embark on. Maybe what matters is what we embark" by Barbara Hall

8- "The purpose of life is a life of purpose" by Robert Byrne

9- "Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others leave their future ni someone's hands, but not you" by Jim Rohn

10 - "Each man must look to himself to teach the meaning of life. It is not something discovered:it is something molded" by Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

11- "Its difficult to make people that see that what you have been taught counts for nothing, and that the things worth having are the things you find out for yourself" by Dorothy Sahay

12 - "Life is not discovery of fate, it is continuous creation of future, through choices of thoughts, feelings and actions in the present." by Sanjay Sahay

13 - "And at the end of the day, whats more important? Knowing that a few meaningless figures balanced - or knowing that you were the person you wanted to be?" by Sophie Kinsella

14 - " You will have fewer regrets in life if you start focussing and taking responsibility for where you are and where you want to be." by Deborah Day

15 - True happiness is not attained through self-gratification by through fidelity to a worthy purpose" by Hellen Keller

I hope these collections of quotations have been helpful to you as they have been to myself.

                                                                       REMEMBER

TWO SIDES OF CORPORATE TALENT WAR

                                                

The employee-work contract landscape has been gradually changing over the past few decades. The changes have shifted the balance of power from the hands of employers to the hands of skilled and knowledgeable employees.  This means that corporate leaders and human capital experts need to learn how to build organisations that will foster robust Employee Engagement practices as a conduit that recognises people capital as sensitive and passionate creative contributors to the overall success of the entity. 

In pursuit of relevance, under pressure for talent retention and further to achieve productivity, many organisations have thus tried to seek methods of engaging employees through initiatives like finding out what keeps employees satisfied and happy. That was just again the beginning of another problem, satisfied and happy employees are not necessarily engaged - and any means that confines its outcomes on these alone does not provide a sought panacea for the problem.

Recent studies reveal that employees believe that they can get job with much ease at it would have been before. The job market has become very transparent resulting in those that are on-demand receiving new positions right on the palm of their hand in the digital knowledge era. The tech-space has increased the burden on organisational  leaders who resist change, altering completely the engagement equation. Whereas traditionally teams used to be expected to work in a localised setting for a defined period of hours per day, now digital devices have created convergence creating 24/7 work cycles beyond geographical confines through emails, instant messaging, could conferencing. 

So it is evident - the talent war has two sides to it - and the employees are at the right side of the coin. What is it that companies need to do to retain their best talent? 

I have seen growing interest in East Africa where some of the financial services companies invited me to assist on taking hr metrics forward and understanding predictive analytics for effective human capital planning.  The main issue was preparing for the battle of talent. Research shows that this is a problem all over the world. In one of my articles i focussed on recent studies on engagement surveys in the USA, UK and South Africa. 

The question i want to ask is whether your company is not affected by the talent war? If the answer is yes, perhaps you might want to implement employee engagement strategy that will keep your  company magnetic with high level of productivity and employee loyalty - keeping your peers envying you and wondering what you are doing right!

 HARNESSING CHANGE AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES

Whereas the concept of Employee Engagement is rapidly being recognised by business leaders as an effective method towards attainment of peak performance, there have been notable research-based evidence that those companies who thought they were implementing employee engagement had different interpretations of what it actually is. If it is not well understood - as much as CHANGE  may be understood and seen but the results will not provide the desired outcome. 

It is now well established through research that an engaged workforce contributes to the success of the organisation.  All performance-driven organisations that  have implemented employee engagement programmes  reported to have seen employees working willingly at their optimum  and as a result gained advantage in achieving efficient, high quality services. 

Employee Engagement is not employee satisfaction and any survey that measure satisfaction will not provide the information as to what engagement levels an organisation has. Engagement in any organisation is concerned with the levels of  emotional commitment, enthusiasm and connectedness of the individual with the organisation they are involved with . 

It is critical for organisations to set a clear context with regard to recognition of the workforce contribution to organisational goals on a daily basis - and how employees are valued. HR leaders need to strive to ensure that a culture of engagement is embedded across all the organisational sectors/departments. The key success is translating clear messages to all workforce in terms of what they actually contribute to the successful delivery of final organisational/department  strategic outcomes. The following three things have to take place:

1. HR and Business Leaders need to understand new thinking on the concept of employee engagement
2. Organisations need to keep in touch with the employee perceptions, thinking and use feedback for consistent adjustment of people practices
3. Implement use of predictive analytics and tools in line with core business strategic directions. 

In pursuit to assist organisations  with a simple yet robust model of employee engagement, based on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs,  I have developed a 5-FactorEE tool to give you a general understanding of whether your employees are engaged or not and to transform your organisation to be an attractive and employer of choice in your industry. 

CHANGING YOUR MIND FOR POSITIVE IMPACT

                              CHECK OUT THE MIND POWER VIDEO PRESENTATION

The mind is critical in all we do - if we want to stay on course - we need to teach our mind how to help us stay committed. For us to achieve that we have to unlearn certain things and allow new thinking.  In the previous article we learned that Changed Thinking leads to Changed Beliefs. That is the first important step  - changing beliefs.

In this article i will give a step by step process of  what you can expect and work towards once you have achieved the first step.

STEP ONE - Changed Thinking leads to Changed Beliefs
Refer to previous article on this subject.

STEP TWO - Charged Beliefs leads to Changed Expectations
Upon development of  clear vision and understanding what your purpose is, what you are about - this will help you to shift your expectations. What you expect in life will be all about what you want to archieve - and a clear roadmap will help you towards those expectations. You need to also have spiritual connectedness - your belief in the superiority of God in your life will help shape your vision and expectations.

STEP THREE - Changed Expectations leads to Changed Attitudes
Your attitudes define your  self-predisposition and life focus.  It merely denotes your habit of attention. Consistent application of attitude creates a basis of the content of your character.
Development of a good attitude will take the following critical steps:

1. Identification of what you need to change about yourself
2. Identification of what right thinking would be that would give a good emotional habit.
3. Associate with people who are positive
4. Intend to create affirmations and plans that will keep you happy/positive about self and life in general

STEP FOUR - Changed Attitudes leads to Changed Actions
Once your attitude start changing, simultaneously your actions will start changing too. The actions we portray are the exhibit of what fruit we are able to produce. These actions are also a reflection of our thinking and state of mind.

STEP FIVE - Changed Actions leads to Changed Habits
Since actions are the things we practically do, when we do these repeatedly they become habits. Obviously when we do things we behave - that means these become natural behaviours. That is why for some people punctuality is a habit - they just cant be late for any meeting. They value time and it comes naturally because of practise. Others do not struggle to forgive - it comes naturally for them to forgive because they have practised it.

STEP SIX - Changed Habits leads to Creation of New Character
Remember that your character cannot be indicative of only one observable behavior aspect - but is a combination of a lot of actions and activities with a historical background that have a potential to determine future actions. Consistent repetition of habits will influence your sub-conscious mind such that the habit comes naturally. Remember - all habits are learned - so we can plan and purpose to learn new good habits that enable us to flourish and this we can do by unlearning bad habits that constrain us.

STEP SEVEN - Changing Life and Character is a Process - but YES you CAN - check your Character Strengths on this link as your journey begins. CLICK RIGHT HERE!

ATTRACTIVE AND ENGAGING WORKPLACES IN 2017

TRANSFORMING WORK ENVIRONMENTS TO ATTRACT AND KEEP BEST TALENT THROUGH EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee Engagement is concerned with the level of emotional preparedness and commitment an individual has towards organisational objectives, mission and vision, and how they see and interpret these factors in their own personal lives within the organisation and outside. In other words, employee engagement is about how motivated and inspired your employees are - to what extent do they espouse, believe and live shared corporate values.

Maslow Needs Test

Different studies often show that organisations with high levels of employee engagement achieve high levels of satisfied customers and productivity than those organisations who do not do anything about employee engagement. It is often easy to work towards set target and meet score cards for those managers who take employee engagement seriously. 

Intentional corporate investment in employee engagement initiatives will turn your workforce to be more efficient and effective with a unified focus on organisational goals. They will take heightened pride in their company and become organisational ambassadors, creating positive perceptions about their organisation in their industry and beyond. 

A recent study on Employee Engagement in South Africa further shows that an engaged workforce:

•        “Is emotionally and functionally connected to their organisation”
•        “Is positively and proactively contributing to its success”
•        “become innovative and problem solvers”
•         “Contribute massively towards increases in productivity and profitability of their companies.

In that study, a comparison was made  with the current situation in the UK and US with regard to levels of employee engagement. The study reports the following:

• UK – only 33% of the workforce felt they were actively engaged in their  organisations. The study further found that 20 million workers in the UK were not delivering to their full capacity, and 64% felt that they could do better if they were given a chance by their organisations. It is further estimated that the annual cost of disengaged employees to  the UK economy is $64.8 billion.
• USA – This study reports that approximately 100 million people hold full time jobs in the US. Only 30% are reported to be actively engaged and inspired about their jobs. 50% are disengaged and  20% are not engaged.
• SA – Only, only 9% are highly engaged and inspired of their jobs (See Maslow Engagement Diagram above) and a further 46% accounts for those almost engaged to the engaged workforce – but not necessarily inspired about their jobs.The remainder (45%) of the workforce is totally either not engaged or disengaged.

If this is the situation then it is a great concern - considering the potential effects this has on the economy.  It is further important to know that 85% of employees in South Africa believe their motivation and performance would be higher if their worked for organisations that view engagement as of prime importance.

GENERAL EFFECTS OF ENGAGEMENT ON EMPLOYEES

•  Highly engaged employees – See themselves and the organisational leadership as one. They view the organisation as a place to learn, grow and be effective. They take pride in their organisation and are inspired. They also view their organisation as a best company to work for – they are organisational ambassadors!
•  Engaged employees – They realise the impact they make to the organisation – they love their organisation but are not necessarily proud of it.  They feel that the company is a place to make them attractive prospects/candidates to other organisations. They doubt growth potentials within the organisation  - generally, they are not convinced of a stable future in the organisation.
• Almost engaged employees – they are trying to ascertain if they are treated as “really” belonging to the organisation. They are still trying to find themselves in the organisation. They do want to be part of the organisation but they are not sure how their managers in particular and the organisational leadership in general views them – as such they don’t really love the organisation and are certainly not proud of it.
• Disengaged employees – These employees are concerned about their job security. They probably were at Almost Engaged and something happened with organisational culture that changed their perceptions. Right now they don’t know where the organisation is going – they don’t know anything about the organisational goals and are not even sure whether targets are met or not. Communication between them and organisational leadership is not effective at all.
• Not engaged employees - Almost similar as above in 4 except that they were never engaged before. They are only here for their pay cheque  - period. They really don’t care about the organisation, its customers and its leadership.

Let me leave you with 5 key questions to ponder:

1. Based on the research findings reported in this discussion, where do you think your organisation is? Are your employees engaged or not?
2. How will your organisation attract and retain the best talent in 2017 going forward?
3. What will happen when your best talent leave?
4. Does your organisation focus on Profits, Processes and People equally?
5. Have you put employee engagement as one of your initiatives to enhance productivity in 2017?