Are you “Servicing the Stayers” (post by Kirk Weisler)
(I found this message by Paul McGee to be quite worthy of consideration.)
If you had a fleet of a hundred cars but to save costs reduced them by twenty, what would you do with the remaining eighty?
Would you still service the cars and seek to maintain them? Of course you would.
It would be both stupid and short-sighted not to do so. But are organisations doing the same with their staff?
In times of cutbacks, austerity and lay-offs, have organisations decided to ignore the staff that remain and hope they’ll get by without any support?
Research suggests that’s a dangerous thing to do. Work done by Mika Kivimaki and colleagues measured the health of over 800 people before any rumor of downsizing took place, immediately after and then three years later. They then looked at which group of people – stayers, re-employed leavers and unemployed leavers – fared best in terms of health and psychological well-being.
It’s no surprise that the worst affected group were those who were laid off and became long-term unemployed. But here comes the surprise. The next hardest hit group were ‘the stayers’, particularly men, who fared significantly less well than the re-employed leavers.
So what are we doing for ‘the stayers’? What support are they receiving? What help are they being given to develop emotional resilience and the skills required not just to survive change but succeed through it?
In a short-term effort to cut costs, are we treating them like a car that we’ll run into the ground and not bother servicing?
You may save money that way. In the short-term anyway. But what about the emotional costs involved?
And how does such behaviour affect the long-term health and success of the organisation?
People certainly aren’t cars…they are immeasurably more valuable and important…. let’s make sure we have a service plan for our “stayers.” ~ Kirk Out
Teach the kids some manners please!!
Parents and “The Village” need to teach our kids Good MANNERS. We can’t leave it up to our schools to do this.
- Speak instead of being a bump on a log
- Look people in the eye when talking
- Say “Thank-you” w/out being nudged
- Be respectful when addressing an adult by name
- Give your seat up to someone older (w/out being told to do so)
- Take dishes to the kitchen after a meal
- Help to be a host to company (serving coffee, etc…)
- Be conversational, rather than barely answering questions
- Hold the door open for others
- Learn to shake hands (instead of wilted handshake)
- Don’t always talk about yourself
Dumb Ways to Die (post by Kirk Weisler)
Over the weekend Rebecca and I kept hearing our 3 youngest children singing a song together while simultaneously giggling uncontrollably. They were always in the other room and I could never quite make out the words. Later our little Ashlyn climbed in my lap and started singing “So many dumb ways to die.” !!! My immediate thoughts went something like… “What have my kids been watching on the internet?!” Soon our family was gathered by the family computer to see how worried we should be.
We discovered it was only a very clever safety video specifically created to help increase safety in the realm of train tracks. The video is so clever and the song so catchy that it seems to have garnered over 7 million views in just it’s first few days on YouTube. A great lesson in effective communication…and messaging that is “made to stick”.
I hope you enjoy it and are better able to avoid all of the choices that may lead to “Dumb Ways to Die”. I wonder if that means we can die in smart ways? Speaking of smart or smarter things brings me finally to the quote I wished to share with you today from Sir John Templeton who speaking of ‘praise’ said, “We have experienced how wonderful it feels to receive praise and gratitude from others. It is equally wonderful to give praise.”
Give praise…and stay safe!
Kirk OUT
A Sure Way to Shift post by Kirk Weisler
We’ve already looked at the relationship trouble that comes to people who live their lives reacting emotionally to the behavior of other people. These people truly are miserable. They react all day long. They wake up in the morning and begin their day reacting to all the bad news on the radio or on the television, all the crime, all the injustice, all the evidence that they can’t trust people.
Then they react to other people in traffic, flipping people off, getting flipped off, honking as they weave their way to work. Then at the job, the reacting continues. A harsh word, an implied reprimand, a cold e-mail from management, and blood pressure goes up, breath becomes short, the throat constricts, and there is an unpleasant fluttering in the stomach.
Soon the heart races and headaches from behind the eyes, all in the name of reacting. This is the toll taken by the daily habit of reacting. No wonder we end up resenting other people, no wonder we can’t trust anyone. We hold them responsible for all these unpleasant bodily feelings.
What lifts us up when we’re in the depths of reacting is a gentle shift; not a huge change, not a transformation, but a shift. Just like the gentle shift of gears in a finely tuned car. We shift up from reacting to creating. One sure way to shift is to ask ourselves a simple question.
It’s a question first asked by Ralph Waldo Emerson many years ago: “Why should my happiness depend on the thoughts in someone else’s head?”
This question, no matter how we answer it in any given moment, gives us the mental perspective we need to start seeing the possibilities for shifting. As soon as we begin asking ourselves this question, we’re on the right path, because we are leaving the low life of deep negative emotions behind. We’re rising up.
~an excerpt from #11 of Steve Chandler’s 50 Ways to Create Great Relationships.
As Leaders we are working to help Make “Shift” Happen
Kirk Out
Example or Advice post by Kirk Weisler
Not just every father… but every mother, every teacher, and every leaders should remember this very core principle. More than what we say, what we DO, is the best and truest indicator of who and what we are, and who and what we are becoming. ~ Kirk Weisler
How Well You Bounce
Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
Faith in humanity
Faith in humanity: Restored
Post from BuzzFeed
