RETHINKING YOUR WORK

The Top 12 Workplace Myths, as Commonly Misunderstood by All Generations

Val Kinjerski — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:50:34 +0000

Jim Finkelstein and Mary Gavin, authors of Fuse: Making Sense of the New Cogenerational Workplace put this list together over the many years they’ve been in the consulting business. They have found that these myths – shared by all generations – cause most workplace misunderstandings and career catastrophes. I thought that you might enjoy reading the list. They are ordered by how frequently we experience their fallout in our work, from least to most.

12. You have to like your job to be happy.

11. The glass ceiling doesn’t exist any more.

10. The hardest workers get promoted.

9. Everyone has sex with co-workers.

8. Office politics is about backstabbing.

7. Do good work and you’ll do fine.

6. A great résumé will get you hired.

5. It’s better to emulate Donald Trump than to be yourself.

4. Millennials don’t work for the money but for the fulfilment.

3. E-mail is always the most efficient communication method.

2. The generation gap between Boomer bosses and Millennial workers hampers productivity and the pursuit of workplace happiness.

1. You can have it all.

So what do Finkelstein and Gavin suggest?

The most likable people get promoted, not the hardest workers.

Broadcast the work you’re doing, especially to your managers.

Be yourself. Really.

Without visual and auditory cues, people often misinterpret an email’s intent and message.

You cannot have it all. You can have the things you want most only intermittently.

To read the complete article featured by the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/careers-book-excerpts/top-12-workplace-myths-misunderstood-by-all-generations/article2214071/page1/

Want to learn more? Sign up for our monthly newsletter where we will explore spirit at work and its contributing factors in more detail. Read the book Rethinking Your Work and learn how to create spirit at work.

Val Kinjerski, PhD, is a leading authority in the field of employee engagement and on the topic of “spirit at work.” A consultant, agent of change and inspirational speaker, she helps renew employee wellness and increase performance and retention by reigniting employees’ love for their work. Check out her Spirit at Work Program and Inspired Leadership training at www.kaizensolutions.org. Val is the author of Rethinking Your Work and Rethinking Your Work Guidebook. Available now at www.rethinkingyourwork.com.

Is having spirit at work simply following your passion?

Val Kinjerski — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:36:22 +0000

For some of us, spirit at work is about following our passion. For others, following a passion is not enough. We only have to look at the number of nurses, teachers and social workers who leave their chosen field after a few years, disenchanted.

People who follow their passion can also lose their way. Once we lose touch with why we are doing the work we do and how it makes a difference, all the constraints, pressures and lack of resources can feel overwhelming. So how can we expect to feel good about our work, never mind experience spirit at work?

Perhaps you have lost touch with what first drew you to your particular work. Maybe you took your job because you needed work and never took the opportunity to uncover the deeper meaning of what you do each day. You might be at a time in your life where work feels like an unsatisfying burden. Family and personal responsibilities may require you to stay in your current job. Perhaps you retire in a few years and want to leave your work in a good way – feeling good about your organization and your contribution. It doesn’t matter; you get your spirit at work back. And, if you never had it, you can create it.

I have found that there are two ways to get to spirit at work: Discover and follow your passion, or find the deeper meaning in your current work. Do what you love or love what you do. Based on experiences of everyday people who have spirit at work, I have created and tested a process you can follow to bring forth or enhance your spirit at work. What follows are nine ways to foster your spirit at work. Don’t be fooled by their simplicity. These ideas have been tested. Moreover, most of them have empirical support from other fields.

I invite you to join The Power of Spirit at Work, a six-week eCourse starting October 22. How it works: This 18-hour, 6 week eCourse is presented in six parts, one each week. It includes videos, self-assessments, readings, facilitated e-discussions, and, if you are collecting Continuing Education Credits (e.g., this qualifies for 18 Category A credits), a post test. Click on the link for more information and pricing.

Creating Spirit at Work

Val Kinjerski — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:29:39 +0000

How do you feel about your work? Seriously. Do you look forward to work every day? Most days? Even some days? Are you passionate about your work? Do you feel good about the work you do and the contribution you are making? Are you making a difference or are you just making money?

There is more to work than putting in eight, ten or twelve hours a day. Work is much more than meeting deadlines and coming in under budget. And there is definitely more to work than a paycheque and pension. Money isn’t everything and it certainly doesn’t buy the fulfillment many of us are seeking. Yes, we need money to put a roof over our head and food on the table, but once we have that, most of us find we are looking for more. That “more” is an opportunity to make the world a better place. To do meaningful work and make a difference in the lives of others. To feel good about what we are doing. To have spirit at work.

Spirit at work is present in people who are passionate about and energized by their work. These are the people who would continue to work even if they won a lottery, because to them, work is an opportunity to make a contribution. Spirit at work is something that is inside each person. Accessing it is an inside job.

This blog is about spirit at work: What it is and how we can foster it. Any yes, we can foster it.

Starting October 22, I am offering The Power of Spirit at Work, a six-week eCourse. This 18-hour, 6 week eCourse is presented in six parts, one each week. It includes videos, self-assessments, readings, facilitated e-discussions, and, if you are collecting Continuing Education Credits (e.g., this qualifies for 18 Category A credits), a post test. Click here for more information and pricing.

Because I have been tardy in getting this newsletter out (those darn competing priorities) I have decided to extend the early bird rate. That is already in addition to the already reduced introductory fee – something we have decided to do for each new course.

Employee Engagement in 2011

Val Kinjerski — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:25:01 +0000

To fully achieve the benefits of a more engaged organization, the entire workforce needs to be accountable for their piece of the ‘engagement equation’. Each individual is accountable for his or her own engagement. Supervisors and managers have a role to coach team members to higher levels of engagement and manage his or her own engagement. And executives set the tone and create the culture fosters engagement. While employee engagement starts with the leader, everyone in the organization shares responsibility.

Not surprising, employee engagement continues to be a top priority in 2011. BlessingWhite is one of many organizations researching global employee engagement. I thought you might be interested in the key findings from their 2011 Employee Engagement Report.

31% are Engaged, 17% are Disengaged and the rest fall in between.
There is a strong correlation between engagement levels and age, role/level, and tenure in the organization.
More employees are looking for new opportunities outside their organization than in 2008.
Engaged employees plan to stay for what they give; the Disengaged stay for what they get.
Employees worldwide view opportunities to apply their talents, career development and training as top drivers of job satisfaction.
Trust in executives appears to have more than twice the impact on engagement levels than trust in immediate managers does.
Managers are not necessarily doing the things that matter most. The actions most correlated with high engagement are not always the ones that receive the most favorable ratings.
Executives appear to struggle with key leadership behaviors, especially what’s required to create a high-performance culture.
Engagement surveys without visible follow-up action may actually decrease engagement levels, suggesting that organizations think twice before flipping the switch on measurement without 100% commitment for action planning based on the results.

So what do you make of these findings? Where do you fit in the engagement equation? And what are you doing to fulfill your part?

Similar to BlessingWhite, we find that the creation of spirit at work – that sense that we are fully engaged and inspired by our work – is a shared responsibility between the employee and employer. It is when each individual takes responsibility and the organization as a whole does its part that the magic and the results become evident.

What makes social workers happy and what keeps them in the field?

Val Kinjerski — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:06:29 +0000

Social workers experience higher than average levels of attrition, stress and burnout than other helping professions such as nursing and teaching. Whereas 6 per cent of American nurses and 8 per cent of teachers left their occupations in any given year from 1992 to 2001, the figure was 15 per cent among social workers. Researchers at the University of Calgary suspect similar findings in Canada.

Common issues faced by social workers include scope of practice, perceived freedom and flexibility, work-life balance, support mechanisms in their workplaces, the physical workspace itself, as well as their relationships with clients and colleagues, including supervisors.

“Social workers, by their very nature, care about people,” says John Graham, a U of C social work professor. “People in human services . . . suffer from high caseloads (and) need the support to do their jobs.”

Given this concern, Graham, along with PhD Candidates Andrea Newberry and Micheal Shier teamed up to investigate what made social workers happy and what kept them in the field. This positive and affirmative approach is in high contrast to the traditional problem-based approach such as studying sources of stress and burnout.

Surveys were sent to 2500 social workers in Alberta. Of the 700 returned, the researchers completed in-depth interviews and job shadowing with the 13 “happiest” social workers.

The happiest social workers reported higher levels of fulfilment in areas such as flexible work schedules, better work-life balance and a stronger sense of engagement. Having a high degree of freedom built into their jobs gave them the flexibility to manage the demands of their jobs with their personal lives including the opportunity for “self-care.” This behind-the-scene support made a big difference and enabled them to do their jobs well.

“We’re much better at helping others when we’ve learned to find satisfaction and happiness in what we do, and to develop organizational cultures that reinforce these principles,” says Graham.

Their findings have implications for a variety of career fields. Our experience and research tells us that when employees get to the heart of what matters about their work, when they feel like they are making a difference, and they feel like they are part of a community, employee spirit at work –that sense that we are fully engaged and fulfilled by our work – increases. When employers create the conditions to foster spirit at work, the effects can only multiply.

We have demonstrated that not only can you increase spirit at work, as it increases so too does personal well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Client service and productivity goes up. And absenteeism and turnover goes down.