Productivity Gladiator

In this episode, Maggie Gough, Chief Operating Officer of The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) joins Brian to talk about the right and wrong metrics to measure life balance and wellness.Link for the full page with all the details, the video, and more, for this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/maggie-gough-right-wrong-metrics-to-measure-life-balance-and-wellnessToday’s GuestMAGGIE GOUGHCHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF WELLNESS COUNCIL OF AMERICA (WELCOA)www.welcoa.orgMaggie Gough LinkedInMaggie Gough, Chief Operating Officer of WELCOA recognizes the structure and depth of the corporate wellness industry and the needs of the professionals and employees they support. As the Chief Operating Officer of WELCOA, she ensures that members receive outstanding service and build sustaining connections as a whole community.You can contact Maggie here.***************For Employees—It's important to understand what's in your control and what's out of your control. When you focus on what you can control, your thoughts can empower you and can trigger positive productivity and you’ll feel like you’re moving in a positive direction. Give yourself the freedom to release the things that are outside of our control. This will drastically improve your well-being.—This simple shift in perspective is really helpful: Well Being is NOT a destination that you work towards and reach. Balance is not a destination that you work towards and reach. Well Being and Balance are a light inside yourself, and that light can be amplified or diminished by things both inside and out of your control. Focus on the things you can control that will help amplify your light.—Consider changing the way you view well-being as the things you do which allow you to be responsive and resilient in your work environment, not a list of tasks to do daily to be “perfect”—Self Care is time spent meeting your needs, NOT time spent becoming a better version of yourself. (Self Improvement would be the part about becoming a better version of yourself, and while that’s important, be sure not to lump self care and self improvement together, they’re 2 different things!)—Check in with yourself on your well-being:——Am I spending my time in ways that care for my well-being?——Am I spending my time trying to perfect myself for others or for me?——Am I letting someone else decide how my time should be spent caring for myself?For Front-Line Supervisors & Managers—Managers should NOT look at well-being and life balance as if this was an equation that we can manage.—Do not rate someone else’s life balance or well-being, only the employee can determine their own.—All organizations should be asking the question, in some manner, human to human, how can we better support your well-being?—A Bad Metric for workplace wellness is “participation”. Looking at “how many people got their flu shot.” or “how many people are using the gym benefit” or “how many people are getting 10,000 steps a day” does NOT serve the people in your organization. —Wellness should not be something your employees “need to do” for their job. If wellness means they need to “track this thing” or “report this number” and that’s part of their performance benefit. —Don't be afraid to ask people how to solve a problem together. Collaborate. As a manager, especially in life balance and well being, it’s not your job to “fix it”. A manager’s role is to actively listen, and assist with the individual’s problems that are inside of the organization’s scope and capabilities. Respect & honor the other problems you cannot assist with. —Good metric to use, Cantrell’s Wellness Ladder. Ask yourself and your employee, “If you are looking at a ladder, on 0-10 scale, where do you currently rate your wellness now? Why? Where do you hope to be in 3 years? Do they feel like they are headed up or down? 7-10 - Thriving — wellbeing that is strong, consistent, and progressing. These respondents have positive views of their present life situation (7+) and have positive views of the next five years (8+). They report significantly fewer health problems, fewer sick days, less worry, stress, sadness, anger, and more happiness, enjoyment, interest, and respect.5-6 - Struggling — wellbeing that is moderate or inconsistent. These respondents have moderate views of their present life situation OR moderate OR negative views of their future. They are either struggling in the present, or expect to struggle in the future. They report more daily stress and worry about money than the “thriving” respondents, and more than double the amount of sick days. They are more likely to smoke, and are less likely to eat healthy.0-4 - Suffering — wellbeing that is at high risk. These respondents have poor ratings of their current life situation (4 and below) AND negative views of the next five years (4 and below). They are more likely to report lacking the basics of food and shelter, more likely to have physical pain, a lot of stress, worry, sadness, and anger. They have less access to health insurance and care, and more than double the disease burden, in comparison to “thriving” respondents.—Using an individual’s biometrics to determine their well-being can trigger disordered or unhealthy habits, thus creating toxic narratives between weight and health. The answer is not a simple formula like: “your resting heart rate is elevated, you should drink less coffee.” —As a manager, if you’re feeling burnt out of yourself, hearing somebody else needs is really hard. The more that you can remain in a state of curiosity and asking someone to tell you more, the better it will be in order to hear feedback and more thoroughly understand how you can help. If you need to take a vacation or take a step back, that’s okay too, you have to be in a place in your life where you can show up for yourself AND others. ***About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I teach overworked project managers how to level-up their life balance and pump up their personal productivity through my Productivity Gladiator training system. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

In this episode, Haysing Han, founder of H. Manifest joins Brian to talk about the ways productivity should create capacity to advance your life & career. If you only give 110% to your tasks, without any capacity left to network, or meet with a mentor, then you’ll only ever get more tasks instead of advancement.Link for the full page with all the details of this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/haysing-han-productivity-should-create-capacity-to-advance-your-life-careerToday’s GuestHaysing HanFounder of H.Manifest Inc.hmanifest.com/instagram.com/haysing_hanfacebook.com/haysing.han.2Haysing Han is a certified high-performance coach with 25 years of corporate experience. She was also a research and analytics consultant for top two things in Canada and United Airlines in the US. You can learn more about Haysing and book a free call with her here.***************For EmployeesMost people rate themselves as really high on productivity because they complete their work. But if you are known to be an effective and productive person, does that just mean that you’re given more work? Or that you’re also leveling up?Many people may not be able to tell the difference between you giving your 80% and your 110% at all of the tasks that are assigned to you. But if you work with a mentor and people who can help advance your career it may result in more meaningful work, not just more of the same work.Clarity and alignment between the way you’re spending your time with the direction you want to go professionally in your career is big! Reflect for a moment, do you have that? If you showed your calendar to someone, would you be able to point to where you’re putting time and effort into your own advancement?What do you really want?Can you visualize it? Can you dream about it? Would that income do exactly what you want to do?What are you going to do to make it more meaningful for you?You have to be crystal clear about what you want to avoid having years go by and feeling the burnout or like you didn’t go anywhere.****************************************For Front-Line Supervisors & ManagersA high performing manager doesn’t just focus on the tasks. They recognize the “long game” for each of the people under them, and help with the clarity and progress toward that. In terms of leadership, how are you going to grow your team. Thinking you’re just going to keep everyone where they are, and avoid change, will not move you in a positive direction. A manager’s role is often to help their team to think differently. Supporting the creation of a working life balance as a whole person, not just for the hours they are at work. A manager’s role is to actively have the conversation about personal development objective. So then they actually feel like they have permission to set aside an hour or two hours every day to grow in a new skill set. Most importantly, managers should take a look around, if your team has been the same faces for years, and you have motivated people who want to grow and advance, this is a problem, and you’re the main person who can help or hinder solving that.

Full Episode Link: https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/workr-beeing-49-tips-to-manage-stress-in-a-hectic-work-environmentTODAY’S GUESTSDR. KATINA SAWYER & DR. PATRICIA GRABAREKCO-FOUNDERS OF WORKR BEEINGhttps://workrbeeing.com/instagram.com/workrbeeing/ facebook.com/workrbeeing/ Community:  https://workrbeeing.memberful.com/join On the show we found out that Katina and Patricia are friends from grad school. They created Workr Beeing to talk about the science behind workplace wellness and work-life balance. They both have a Ph.D’s in industrial & organizational psychology so you can say they're “experts” in how people function and behave at work. They provide science backed resources and information to make better and more positive work environments. The funny part, it all started when they were several drinks in at a wedding! Workr Beeing is different, according to Katina and Patricia, because they are “nerds about data”, and the science and research behind these trends. They summarize what exists in the scientific literature in, what they hope is, a fun and exciting way. You can read their bios here. 49 TIPS & TACTICS TO MANAGE STRESS IN A HECTIC WORK ENVIRONMENTFOR EMPLOYEESBe able to name your own signs of stress, and learn to recognize them sooner. When you're in the moment of feeling stressed, all other things start to sort of fade away and you get very hyper focused on the thing that's stressing you out. When you get stressed you feel a spike in your negative emotions so you become more anxious & you start to think more negatively than positively. When that happens you go into a fight or flight type mode. Your heart rate might spike. Your palms might start to get sweaty. You might start to have racing thoughts. If you can catch yourself earlier in the stress process, like when you’re at a 3 or 4 on a 1-10 scale, you can start to deescalate sooner. If it takes you until you get to be a 10 out of 10 before you notice, then it’s a much harder and longer trip to bring yourself back down to a 1. To deescalate you can try:Breathing Exercises (app on your phone)Body scans (mental exercise)Mindfulness Exercises (Have an app ready and loaded with your favorite 2 min meditation)Nature MeditationsQuick Guided MeditationsRemove yourself from the situation physically for a few minutes (take a quick walk)Quick workout during the day (try to hit your max heart-rate, like the moment from “Rocky” where you’re completely out of breath, even if it’s just a quick sprint during a walk.)Know your long term symptoms of stress, like chronic stress. For some people it’s chronic and persistent, you can’t isolate it to one stressful moment or event. What does that feel like in your body? Some activities that can help you cope and fill your cup back up are:Mastery - Master a new skill or topic. Work on a project, like a house projectTake lessons on learning another languageTry cooking a new dish in the kitchenDo an activity where your brain is completely focused on the present moment. This causes it to leave behind the thing that’s stressing you out, and eases some of the stress from it. Something where you can focus ONLY on the present. This is why vegging out, or TV, are NOT very effective for many people.DO NOT scroll social media. Social Media is shown by research to NOT reduce stressHanging with friends who make you laughRemove notifications that will pull you back into stress. (Example: out with friends laughing and a work email notification goes off, you look at your phone, and you’re sucked RIGHT BACK INTO stress.).Clarify your “disconnected” hours. For most people work is not 24/7/365. There are off times, be clear about those and eliminate or limit notifications that can get through to only true emergencies. Balance means you need to be “off” sometimes, not “on” all the time. Journaling helps to get the stuff out of your head. Have you ever tried “writing morning pages”?If ideas or stress are spinning before bed, write it down. Keep a paper/pen or device next to you in bed and if a thought is swirling and won’t let you relax, write it down. The act of writing it down will help your brain let it go, because your brain knows it written down and won’t be forgotten, so it doesn’t need to be “front of mind” anymore.FOR FRONT-LINE SUPERVISORS & MANAGERSNow for front-line supervisors and managers, besides all the above recommendations, we added on these specifically for those who are managing others. What can you do for the people under you?  Individualization of your support is important.Know the type of support that each person needs. If you know their personal stressors, they’re easier to accommodate. 3 examples:If an employee has childcare issues, being aware of scheduling meetings (if possible) to not interfere with that.If an employee has a health condition, be aware of that in your planning, and/or the support you offer them.If your employees favorite extracurricular activity is after work on Wednesdays, then don’t schedule a meeting to conflict with that unless there truly is no other choice and it’s an emergency.Understand that while their work-life and personal lives are separate, it’s still the same person, and one affects the other. Be open to the stressors in all forms. (Example: Don’t ignore the fact that they’re pregnant, ask for updates on how the pregnancy is going periodically, and if there’s anything you can do to support. Even if you can’t offer what they ask, decline nicely, it will still mean a lot that you asked.)Role Modeling good practices yourselfIf you say to disconnect on the weekend, but you send emails on the weekend, that can be a stressor. SCHEDULE SEND emails you’re sending to arrive Monday morning instead.Don’t highlight and reward only the behaviors that are unhealthy workaholic behaviors. Examples: “Judy get’s this award because she worked so hard that she had her baby at work.” “Johnny is sending emails on nights and weekends, he really shows his dedication to the job”. When you’re on vacation, unplug completely. If you check your emails, your staff will think they need to.Share some of your life outside of work with your team. If you have hobbies, that makes it safe for your employees to have hobbies.Set AND SHARE priorities. There’s always going to be plenty to do, so the constant addition of more urgent things, and an environment where everything is urgent and must be done right away, there’s no sense of prioritization, and people won’t know how to manage their own time and stress. In short, don’t be an “Everything is always on fire” boss!Let employees have a say if you can. As the boss, you know you can ultimately decide, but it’s helpful to involve the employees when you can. Share the things that are coming and see who is interested in adding more.Allow your employees to disagree with you. Let them tell you what can or cannot be done without the fear of getting fired the first time they do. Build psychological safety with your team.Model that behavior up too. If your boss adds more to your team’s plate, go to your boss and ask for priorities, for the sake of your whole team. Don’t be afraid to ask the question of your employees because you’re afraid of finding out “the bad news”. If that’s how you’re feeling as a supervisor, it’s probably even more important that you do. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.Support your employees fitness, sleep, & diet.If you’re buying lunch, buy a healthy lunch.Talk about finding healthy meal items you’ve tried. Even if you’ve failed, such as trying a meal service that didn’t work, drawing attention to it may help others to pay attention to it too. If you ask your employees about their sleep, it helps employees to notice and focus on it.If you ask your employees about fitness, it may help them to start to think about it too.Normalizing talking about something that happened outside of work. Remember what happens outside of work affects employees at work, so if there’s a challenging situation happening, it’s helpful for employees to feel safe to share that with you, their supervisor.WHAT ABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF AN HR ACTION OR TERMINATIONSome managers are afraid to talk about stress with employees that are underperforming or that are under a potential HR action. What do you do there?Depends on the type of personnel action:If the employee is just not meeting deadlines, conversations with them about their wellbeing will not ultimately affect the outcome of the personnel action.If they may not be right for the role, sometimes having these kinds of conversations will help the employee realize that this isn’t the right role for them, and they may select themselves out of this role, which is the best outcome for everyone involved.Being interested in the person’s wellbeing will often deescalate and destress the situation, but that doesn’t need to affect or change the final action you are ultimately going to take. You can be kind, and be strong at the same time.Managers often try to “fill in the gaps themselves” and come up with their guess or hypothesis about why someone is underperforming. All of that “guessing” doesn’t actually help, and often creates more stress. Often the best approach is to ask, “Hey what’s been going on with you lately?” or “How are you doing really?” or “I noticed XX happened, that’s not like you, what’s up?”About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made for employees to improve their productivity, improve their life balance, and live their best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. Thanks for checking out Productivity Gladiator! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

Your workload just tripled, what do you do? How do you handle it? Perhaps someone on your team leaves for another job, or someone gets pulled for another project, or maybe a new initiative starts. All the sudden you find yourself with two to three times the work you had before. What can you do to help manage all that extra work? How do you handle all that overwhelm? How does your work life balance not take a hit? Even a 10% increase in workload will warrant looking at some of these tactics. Often people pick up “a little more work” and do things like skip lunch or stay an hour late. It’s the approach of absorbing the extra and continuing to do the same thing you’ve always done, just more of it. Don’t! This cuts into your work-life balance and causes burnout. I urge you to use these tactics for all situations where workload increases over 10% to help maintain your sanity. On the show, Brian spoke with Andrew Lawless, a high performance coach, and the founder of The Consultant Profit System. Andrew coaches people to go from $100K to $1Mil a year. That’s a 10x increase in work. Clearly in those circumstances, “What got you here won’t get you there” and you need to change your processes during that much growth. Brian and Andrew shared more than 41 tips and tactics to handle this overwhelm. To see the full list, visit the episode page here:Links from the episode:Gary Keller wrote a book called “The One ThingAddiction To Social Media: Fix It With Apps And Tech HacksDistraction Free Youtube - No recommended videos appear, just the ONE you’re watching.Freedom - Blocks all distractions across all devices, currently one of the market leaders in this area.Turbocharge Your Focus & Productivity Through Music'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: Cut Email Down To Minutes-A-Day Through Batching And Notification Changes'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: 4d Approach To Processing Your InboxEmail Management Hacks: Deep Dive On Snoozing Emails To Come Back LaterEmail Management Hacks: 2 Email Rules To Cut Your Inbox Down By More Than HalfKolbe-a and Kolbe-B testsHere’s a Youtube video which helps explain the Eisenhower matrix and how to use it.  See the full list of all 41 solutions on the episode’s page:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/andrew-lawless-your-workload-tripled-what-do-you-do

In this episode Brian and Paul dive into work-life balance, looking at it through the lens of what you CAN control as an employee and as a supervisor., setting aside the things that are out of your control like company culture and policies. Moving past the helpless feeling of “there’s nothing I can do”.The full detail on this episode, the guest, links from the episode, as well as Productivity Gladiator, can be found on the website: www.ProductivityGladiator.com/the-show

The full detail on this episode, as well as Productivity Gladiator can be found at the website: www.ProductivityGladiator.com