How emotions affect your work
How emotions affect your work
A Guide to Work Emotions
At work, we rarely discuss our feelings. We are all familiar with the concept of emotion. It's our internal reaction to things: the happy cry we let out when we see a loved one, the gasp we give out when we get bad news or the annoyance we feel when we have to adjust a method at the last minute.
Workplace emotions are rarely expressed in public. While some people like spontaneously singing out loud, this rarely occurs in a productive business meeting. Watching sports on TV allows us to express ourselves more verbally than conversing with coworkers. Fear is discussed with our partners more than with our coworkers.
Dealing with work emotions is more difficult because we are hesitant to acknowledge that they exist, thus we rarely deal with them.
It's important to remember that there are just a few basic emotions.
Love, happiness, and enthusiasm are examples of positive emotions. Negative emotions such as rage, pain, sadness, guilt, and fear are examples of negative emotions. The intensity of everyday emotions and work emotions varies.
There are a few key aspects to consider. Even if we (the "we" in this case refers to the corporate sector) tend to overlook emotions at work, they do exist. People react to events that occur in their environment. We will suffer if we do not pay heed to such reactions.
It's crucial to distinguish between emotion and thought. "I don't feel like this plan is working," it's a phrase that we'll surely hear at some point during the day.
When a person thinks or believes that a particular activity will not succeed, they do not "feel" an intellectual assessment of the plan's viability; instead, they experience an emotion, such as fear, anger, grief, or even guilt, as a result of the plan's failure. The feeling that follows the thoughts is what can derail any growth effort if it is not addressed.
People frequently hide their feelings at work: if they are hurt, they may act erratically, or if they are truly afraid, they may try to put on a bright façade. You should always address the underlying emotion rather than the surface one.
People's emotional responses to continuous development and learning are diverse. As leaders, we must ensure that we do not try to persuade anyone to believe otherwise because rationality rarely solves emotional issues. Instead, let us strive to change feelings through experiences.
Emotion management is a unique problem for continuous improvement. People are more likely to participate when they are experiencing favorable emotions. Leaders must be ready to deal with issues that aren't based on facts or evidence.
If you think this will be a tough administrative shift, reach out to the professionals of #OpenMindAdvisor
Personal and business profitability
Personal and business profitability
How to achieve a financial balance based on personal and business profitability
Talking about profitability is not just talking about a monetary issue since the effects of achieving income or having a profitability that allow establishing a specific lifestyle generates significant effects on the mental balance of human beings.
Beyond simply thinking about covering expenses, generating savings or investment possibilities, profitability generates motivation, inner peace, and a feeling of self-confidence that allows facing the challenges of daily life with the full certainty of having all the tools to overcome any adversity.
In a more theoretical sense, profitability defines the ability, capacity or quality that an investment has to generate a profit, and this ability to generate profit can be quantified using different financial indicators, known as profitability indicators.
In a more practical sense, profitability is the ability to transform any investment into a benefit, from the investment of time, money, or the fact of putting knowledge and skills at the service of others.
Each human being has in their hands the possibility of transforming their financial reality by establishing clear goals and accompanying them with a specific action plan that allows them to achieve their objectives in a given period of time.
There are some techniques to achieve balance in life and achieve profitability.
Establish a financial objective, for this, it is important to define dates or time limits together with a measurement system, so the objectives will be measurable and achievable
Define an action plan, the more specific the plan, the more likely it will be to obtain results.
Create a management and control system for the stated objective
Believing that it is possible to achieve it, the ability of the mind to create what is believed is admirable and this is a fundamental point in the achievement of any objective.
However, educating yourself financially or having the possibility of training with an expert on the subject is of vital importance, since it helps to measure both at a business and personal level the viability of investments and specific actions that must be taken to achieve the objectives. proposed objectives.
To achieve financial balance on a personal level it is important to define very clearly the reason why you want to achieve this balance, this will be the motivating factor to define a clear and measurable action plan over time.
At the business level, it is equally important to establish in the company of the members of the organization, what is the mission or the reason why it is important to have a financial balance since this will give more meaning to the actions that are proposed in addition to involving collaborators in achieving a result that translates into a common good.
The greatest asset of organizations are the people who make it up and through their participation and dedication in their functions, the expected profitability is achieved.
Concluding that it is teamwork, it is not a matter only of a financial department; On the contrary, one of the fundamental pillars in any planning aimed at obtaining business profitability is the participation of all members of the organization.
Remember that balance is not a state of permanent imperturbability, on a financial level this represents constant changes, ups and downs, which requires a constant commitment, dedication, and above all an emotional management that allows us to go through different moments and keep alive the illusion of obtaining the expected profitability both on a personal and business level.
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Ivone Medina
Commercial Strategy Consultant at Open Mind Advisor.
7 time management suggestions
"Never let anyone own your time." Said Lou Gerstner, a former CEO of IBM. It's a simple and apparent idea, yet it sounds fantastic.
Whenever I have lost control of my time throughout my life, I have become stressed or unproductive. Reflecting on this and focussing on the development of leadership skills, I discovered that planning and sticking to a routine has a significant impact on how I feel and my sense of control over my life, particularly, of course, control around my time.
When I advise leaders and successful people, I find the following keys to be common:
1. Create a routine
Regardless of the occupation in which you find yourself, have a routine, distribute the time in specific activities and follow the plan. This will ensure that you are taking charge of all those things that are important in your life, in this way include on your agenda activities not only like work, but also allow yourself to rest, get personal and professional development, and even take the family time you need. All of this is part of creating successful routines for your life.
Your routine may alter over time, but establishing a schedule can help you maintain order in your life. If you're developing a business and need to find, code, and hire clients, set aside time to prioritize and isolate each activity.
A calendar application can be your tool today.
2. Reuniones grupales y llamadas
A very useful suggestion shared by busy people is planning group meetings in blocks and dedicating specific days of the week or month for it, as well as answering calls or attending urgent matters. Separate space in your agenda to answer calls or resolve urgent so it doesn´t interrupt all your activities of the day.
Do the same with online meetings. In this way, you will not only be creating a portion of time for meetings, but you will also be creating other blocks of time in which you can do important work.
There are many applications that allow you to order these types of activities in your agenda, for example, there is a function in Google Calendar called Appointments. It allows you to reserve an amount of time and then divide it into parts, you can reserve three hours of external meetings and then divide them into three meetings, one hour each. Or I can reserve an hour of calls and divide it into six calls of 10 minutes each. There are also several specific tools, such as doodle, that offer similar services.
Another alternative that makes managing your time easier is to create bit.ly links for different blocks of time. You can have a link for your external meetings, another link for internal meetings, and another for calls. You can then share these links so people can book time with you.
3. Prioritize your strategic activities and delegate
One of the most essential aspects of organizing your schedule is determining which activities are truly vital, which are merely routine, and which are emergencies. What decreases managers' efficiency, in my view, is that they become engrossed in operations, and the weight of their responsibilities pulls them away from their firms' or work areas' strategic vision.
Making sure that the actions that resolve and guarantee that the plan is moving forward are on the agendas is part of being clear about what is essential. That will ensure that your end aim is met; urgent and last-minute tasks will always exist, and we must ensure that they decide whether or not to postpone the most critical ones, because many operations can be outsourced flawlessly.
How to recognize which are the important activities?
- Planning strategic coordination of activities.
- Finding moments to delegate.
- Risk prevention activities.
- Detecting new opportunities.
- Times of reflection and creation of new ideas.
4. Optimize time for your different types of meetings
The times of meetings vary according to the number of topics and the quality of decisions to be made, having defined the times and ensuring compliance with them is essential for managing your time. Meetings between 30 and 45 minutes are the most effective, the same happens with phone calls, if you try not to invest more than 10 minutes you can have an estimate of how many calls you can make within the spaces to be determined for it.
On the other hand, introductory lunch, dinner, or coffee meetings require additional time for your travel, so I suggest these types of meetings only in cases where people know each other well enough to make this space fun and productive.
I have been able to observe this type of practice in technology executives and it has been incredibly effective in minimizing the exchange of emails and saving time.
This of course will not work with everyone, because some people may find this type of invitation impersonal or ignore it, it is important then, to take into account the culture of the company with which you implement this type of application and to share and validate with which of your audiences you can share these tools. In any case, if you do not feel comfortable sending the link to someone, you can use your own spaces for appointments, suggest some meeting times, and then reserve the specific space on your computer.
These are some types of meetings and the suggestion about the time to dedicate to them:
- A 30-minute office meeting to meet someone or catch up
- A 45-minute meeting outside the office. Reserve time for the journey to mobilize.
- A 10-minute call to resolve or contribute to someone who needs you.
- A 15-minute Daily Scrum - Ideal for startups or teams that require administrative management.
- A 30-minute weekly staff meeting
Regardless of the meetings you have, organize them into blocks based on your calendar. Adjust the block in coherence with your demand if you believe a certain sort of meeting requires more or less time.
5. Set aside time to check your email
This is the most important recommendation in this entire publication. Email can become the owner of your time if you don't know how to manage it. To take ownership of your email, avoid checking it all the time. You can do it by programming a daily space to respond to issues that are urgent and depends on you so that other important processes advance and another space that can be weekly or twice a week to evacuate emails that require deep analysis or additional work from you to give an answer.
It is absolutely essential.
6. Plan to exercise and also get some family time
Unless you put it on your schedule, it won't be done. That applies to exercise and the time you spend with your family.
Activities such as exercise, meditation, spiritual practices, and any other activity that increase your well-being, are the ones that you need to take care of the most and do not allow work to leave you without these spaces.
The same applies to planning our time with family and other important people. If you are a workaholic, you will end up taking time away from your family unless you reserve it in advance and train yourself to quickly disconnect.
For many executives today, it has become clear that these spaces are forceful and make a difference in the happiness and effectiveness of work
7. Realistically manage your time
We dedicate a lot to thinking and reflecting on whether we can do more with the time we have, with the speed we have in work activities, many say they want days with more hours, however, today's leaders who learn to manage their time are definitely happier, and more effective.
We don't need more time, we just need to manage it better, and being realistic about the things we can do within the time we have and working to improve our productivity within the same time is what makes the difference from great leaders.
Taking ownership of my time and planning my days and weeks made me a happier and more productive human being. Hope this post helps you get there too.
I'd love to hear your productivity tips. How do you manage your time? How do you manage your calendar? What tools do you use? Share in the comment section!
Omaira Giraldo Soto.
Happiness Manager at Open Mind Advisor.
Results management system: A new-normal for education
While we are all aware of the tight anticipation and anxiety that surrounds the release of test or exam results. This uncomfortable situation does not appear to be improving in the middle of "the new normal."
We've had to make huge strides in online instructional technologies and approaches, but the teaching atmosphere appears to be deteriorating.
The negative impact of going "online" is not confined to the emotional and mental costs it imposes on the educational environment; it is a bad outcome of a system that seeks to enhance society via knowledge.
These effects are not limited to students. Close relatives and educators are also victims of this culture.
- Educators without knowledge of technological tools are forced to focus on test results as the primary goal of teaching.
- Family members must take a practical stance towards education.
- While the focus of educational platforms remains to produce good results rather than enriching students' thinking through superlative teaching and a focus on developing their curiosity for the world.
Results in the management system for students are not the only solution to all these problems. Yet, robust results management systems for students have been showing the beginning of the revolution that our educational culture needs.
A student’s results management system makes exam results part of the process, not the goal!
Students are now pushed to focus their studies, on examinations rather than building strong information processing skills or cultivating a healthy curiosity about the world around them.
In practice, we won't be able to do away with examinations altogether, at least not without a major shift in how we think about education. A results management system permits tests to be regarded as another stage in the learning process, one that helps us recall how far we've gone and how far we still have to go.
Allows continuous improvement by students
We begin to use tests to their full potential when we perceive them as another stage in learning. Test scores are more than a measure of how much content a student has absorbed. It's also a good place to start for students who want to focus their studies more.
The management systems allows students to regularly analyze their progress while still feeling defined by a grade by sharing the outcomes of each class: the assignment, the project, the pop quiz, the planned test, or the final exam. This enables pupils to make more quick judgments and to adjust their route in real-time if they feel they are deviating from the course.
Builds a healthier testing culture
Using a results management system, educators can provide tailored feedback to their students regularly.
While we would prefer participants to grow up in a culture where their self-worth is not determined by their test scores, the world may take a while to catch up.
Teachers must be the catalyst for this change. Because a results management system ensures complete secrecy, sharing tailored feedback helps teachers to interact more with family members and students.
This is the first step in building a path to better learning and a healthier attitude toward testing. The second step is to contact us to plan an improvement in your results management processes
Omaira Giraldo Soto.
Happiness Manager at Open Mind Advisor.