Invent

Workplace Wellbeing

Trust your workmates & managers? Open to new worlds

Trust is a very special commodity.

Yet we live in a world full of low-trust & suspicion. The emerging streams of newsfeed fill our waking lives with examples of discrepancies, dishonesty, ulterior motives, not- so-hidden agendas, personal gains, neglectful practice & backhanders which feeds us with low-trust.  So who can we trust? And how? I was always told that there’s no such thing as automatic trust, you have to earn it!

Getting savvy to our own psychological trusting makeup helps us to see through the mist & smokescreens of good relating with others. Personal relationships, romantic relationships, work relationships all demand a level of receptivity & scrutiny from our trust monitor. Our radar of previous hurts, childhood wounds, experiences of having our trust broken is on the look- out for indicators & first whiff of something fishy, our self-preservation armour clunks into place. We are full of so many downloaded mis-trust messages in our psychological inner world – “don’t talk to strangers”, “be careful, the world is not a safe place”,  “ people are only nice to you because they want something”

Dr Stephen Covey (famous for his 7 habits of highly effective people) says in his book Smart Trust, that there is a high cost to maintaining our worldview of blind trust (gullibility) or distrust (suspicion) – we get hurt, burned and more importantly, we close off the spontaneity, magic, joy & energy in our lives & relationships.

to trust is to take a risk, and risks are to be taken wisely. But to trust is also to open new worlds

 Fernando Flores former finance minister of Chile

To learn to trust is a delightful journey, getting wise to the range of components within us to help us make decisions. Here’s how..

  1.  Change your internal downloaded landscape-behaviours, programming, attitudes
  2. Learn to trust yourself : decision making, discernment, credibility, competence, gut-feeling
  3.  Act with integrity – walk your talk/new attitude, demonstrate trustworthiness
  4.  Expect trust, extend trust to others -allow yourself to be vulnerable, authentic in your communications

 Building relationships, you build trust, when trust is present, magic & new energy emerges, then anything can happen

Pamela Harland

Who is the most trusted person in your team – why? Which leader in your company do you have most trust in – why? Find out how to increase the trust in your team. Find out how to create a high-trust environment at work.

See wellbeing at work seminars page.

TRUST IS CONTAGIOUS, TAKE A LEAP OF TRUST TODAY

Pamela Harland, Wellbeing Consultant holds wellbeing seminars at work for team trust building & provides wellbeing mentoring sessions for professionals.

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Compassion Fatigue – An occupational hazzard?

16 March 2012

Have you lost your joie de vive? Do you find yourself getting drained listening to others’ crisis &
personal issues? Yes I know sometimes life is tough & we have our own issues to deal with too!

As a line manager do you find your internal empathy is running a bit dry? Are you sufficiently
emotionally robust to handle co-workers’ grief, traumas, life-dramas, over-sensitivities, anger outbursts etc?

Maybe you are suffering from compassion fatigue otherwise known as ‘vicarious traumatisation‘.

Here’s a handy fact sheet on compassion fatigue

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Some of the symptoms:

Becoming serious, morose, cynical, deepened sadness, increased sensitivity, thinking too much about
other’s problems, soul sadness, irritability & low tolerance, intrusive dreams, sleepless nights, lethargy,
taking work problems home, kicking the dog, shouting at the children……

Understanding why….

In the therapeutic world we attend supervision sessions to make sure we are working ethically.
However, what can often get unnoticed in the exploration of client issues, is sufficient self-care. I
have found from working with many middle-managers in EAP counselling & critical incident debriefing
sessions, that the boundaries can often get blurred in a professional line-management type
relationships leading to an emotional overload. Having a heart-to-heart discussion is certainly more
commendable rather than just monitoring KPI’s & work targets. However, many managers just don’t
know how to support their staff emotionally, without getting submerged, drowning in others’issues! Or
having to shut down emotionally & be non-connected, focused on work issues.

WHAT TO DO… read on

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Is work making us mentally ill ?

Friday 24 Feb 2012

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most.  As you let your light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same, Liberated from your fear, your presence liberates others.  Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech 1994

Looking at our emotional health at work, I was intrigued by a recent UK study by Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD)

on supporting mental health in the workplace.  In 2011, they commissioned YouGov to survey over 2000 employees to identify their experiences & attitudes about the degree of mental health at work. 26% reported mental health difficulties, with women higher than men. Rates were also higher in the 35 to 44 year age group.

CIPD also cite the CAUSES of mental health problems

15% of those surveyed say the cause was problems at work, 20% report cause was their personal lives & 65% report a combination of the both. Gender differences were shown here too with women more likely to say cause was due to personal reasons whereas men more likely to say work was the cause of their poor mental health.    This study shows that work can be causing undue  mental health problems which creates implications for organisations in their legislative duty of care to staff.

Also a recent article on Stuff

showed the mounting costs of mental illness on organisations, estimating the cost to organisations in the region of NZ$2000 per employee a year in terms off  sickness absence, reduced productivity at work and replacing staff who leave their jobs because of mental ill health.

 So why is work becoming such a source of difficult mental health?

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Developing Inner Super-Vision at Work

 

Have you ever wondered why it is that some work interactions and events can trigger big emotional responses such as over-reactions, misunderstandings, injustices, defensiveness or emotional shut down, retaliations?

From my client work through EAP schemes over the years I am amazed at the amount of bullying that exists in organisations – hierarchical, horizontal, group peer pressure & so on. I wonder why it is becoming so common place when we all have  the right to a nurturing and supportive organisational culture instead of one which is harmful & anxious.

I found December’s HRINZ meeting with Laura Crawshaw, Boss Whispering Institute – Intervening With Abrasive Leaders, very interesting in its perspective of providing group feedback to the ‘bully’ focused on interpersonal behaviour that causes emotional distress in coworkers sufficient to disrupt the organisational functioning, without the need for formal investigations & defences. see http://www.bosswhispering.com/

For coworkers who find themselves in a difficult relationship environment or victim mode, there is a better way to be – develop the inner super-visor.

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