Planners’ Picks
A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning
This week covers mental health, team development, and hybrid work resources, along with self-leadership development.
||| Resources on Mental Health |||
How to Take a Guilt-Free Mental Health Day & Make the Most of It
It seems that we all can agree that if you’re not feeling well, you should stay home from work. If your nose is running, you have a fever or severe cough, calling in sick for work is a no-brainer. But why do we only allow ourselves time off for those types of “sick” and not others?
Mental health is just as important as physical health, and according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five adults experience mental illness each year. Untreated mental illness can lead to worsening symptoms, risk of cardiovascular disease and even brain damage. So, it’s not only vital to take control of your mental health in the form of a day off, but it’s important to allow yourself the chance to catch your breath, says Leah Masonick, Life Purpose and Career Coach.
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-guilt-free-mental-health-day/
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
Are you Experiencing Compassion Fatigue?
As supervisors continue to help those on their team challenged by the impact of COVID-19 on their work, they should watch for signs of their own distress or burnout. Originally tagged to psychologists and other mental health professionals, the issue of compassion fatigue is now spreading to the business sectors of the world due to recent stresses of the pandemic. This is especially true for leaders and managers of others; We are commonly painting a bright picture for those in our care, while keeping our own feelings inside and not addressing them.
https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/compassion-fatigue#
15 Writing Prompts to Calm Your Mind
Between the stresses of work and the busyness of everyday life, finding calm can be difficult. But writing—particularly expressive writing, which is personal and emotional—can help, acting as a way to clear your mind and process experiences. The key is having a framework to structure your thoughts that still allows you the freedom of creativity. That’s where writing prompts come in.
Here are fifteen writing prompts that promote relaxation and calm, as well as explanations on why they work.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-prompts-to-calm-your-mind/
||| Resources on Work Culture & Team Development |||
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work
It is important to feel happy and content in everyday life with whatever path one has chosen. So, selecting a job or career must only make us proud! Make a call based on choosing a career and also what makes one satisfied and worth all the hard work and sacrifice. However, to understand if a job or a career is the right fit, it mainly depends on one’s stage of life.
We are always reminded of how important it is to have a stable income to run our lives. Nonetheless, somewhere between choosing the right course to study and searching for the right job, makes one overlook their ‘inner calling’. Most people settle for a job and ignore their passion.
https://sunstrategic.com/blog/pleasure-in-the-job-puts-perfection-in-the-work-aristotle/
“Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain
3 Ways to Create a Work Culture that Brings Out the Best in People
Do you remember that day in November 2018 when 20,000 employees walked out of Google to protest over the handling of sexual harassment claims at the company? The protest was dramatic, headline-grabbing and done as a clear signal that employees would no longer check their identities and values at the workplace door. It was also the exception rather than the rule. While certainly brave, Google employees felt safe enough to organize without fear of reprisals. Even if they did lose their jobs, they’d still be highly employable somewhere else. Not everyone has that luxury, and not everyone feels OK about speaking up at work.
But let’s be honest: All of us have checked out at some point in our careers, haven’t we? When we feel psychologically unsafe or unvalued, we protest quietly and often unconsciously. Maybe we stop trying as hard at work. Or maybe we act in ways that subtly undermine leadership or act against our organization’s objectives just a little bit. We become disengaged or actively disengaged — at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars a year to the global economy.
So if you’re a leader and want to avoid walkouts or checkouts before they become issues at your organization, there are three things you can do.
https://ideas.ted.com/3-ways-to-create-work-company-culture-brings-out-best-in-people/
||| Resources on Hybrid and Remote Work |||
4 Ways to Make Hybrid Teams Feel Valued
Remember how it felt when someone looked you in the eye, gave you a firm handshake and said with feeling, “Thank you so much”?
In today’s digital workplace, we can do the same thing — what I like to call “value visibly” — by being attentive and aware of other people and clearly communicating “I hear you” and “I understand you” using digital cues and signals.
https://ideas.ted.com/4-ways-to-make-people-feel-valued-at-work-hybrid-remote-team/
“The gifts of caring, attention, affection, appreciation, and love are some of the most precious gifts you can give, and they don’t cost you anything.” — Deepak Chopra
It’s Time for Leaders to Get Real About Hybrid
Employers are ready to get back to significant in-person presence. Employees aren’t. The disconnect is deeper than most employers believe, and a spike in attrition and disengagement may be imminent.
The return to the workplace is a chance to create a new, more effective operating model that works for companies and people navigating a world of increasing uncertainty. There is, however, one big catch: employers must confront the broadening disconnect between how they and their employees see the future. Employees don’t know what they want and are reevaluating their relationships with work.
||| Resources on Self-Leadership Development |||
Simon Sinek: How to Start Being More Vulnerable
Good leaders do not wear brave faces all the time. Being truly vulnerable takes more strength, and the first step we should take toward vulnerability is committing to honesty.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know—Address Your Gaps In Leadership
Here is an article Rich Gassen wrote on Linkedin two years ago about minding your gaps in leadership, based on the book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. This article was shared on campus through the Servant Leader group and also the HR CoP website after it was published, and gives you a nice laundry list of possible caveats to your style of leading others.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-dont-know-what-discover-your-gaps-leadership-so-can-rich-gassen/
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Author Talks: Susan McPherson on Building Meaningful Relationships
Susan McPherson offers a road map to unlocking a more meaningful life and enduring relationships. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Raju Narisetti chats with Susan about her new book, The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Business Relationships (McGraw-Hill, March 2021). The corporate-social-responsibility expert offers practical steps to build real and meaningful networking contacts by tapping into humanity and learning to be more intentional and authentic. An edited version of the conversation follows.