My Holland, Author at EQuest Asia

How to Increase Employee Engagement

Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology, Wellbeing, Workplace Culture / My Holland

Organizations are now placing more emphasis on employee engagement. Hiring policies today reflect this growing trend. Companies are seeking candidates who not only possess the required skills but have the potential to be highly engaged employees. Companies are also looking inward. They are exploring ways to achieve better employee engagement in the workplace. Below are three suggestions on how you can attain this. Create an Environment for Belongingness A high salary is no longer sufficient to encourage employees to be highly engaged. Many people feel that their employment is only secure as long as their employers view their jobs as necessary. You can’t blame people when they think this way. Employees who dedicated years of their lives to an organization may suddenly lose their jobs because of downsizing or cost-cutting. Fortunately, more companies are beginning to see the benefits of creating an environment where people can feel they belong. They are bringing back the old idea that employees who share their vision are part of a family instead of an organization. Senior officers, department heads and managers are shifting to a leadership style that emphasizes “we” instead of “us” or ”them.” It’s wise if you do the same. Often, praise or an expression of affirmation is all that it takes to make an employee feel valued by your company. If you’re a leader, treat your subordinates as partners who are working with you to achieve shared goals. Unless told otherwise, keep everyone in the loop on the latest news or updates. Recognize effort beyond expectations. Finally, give credit where credit is due. Inspect the areas where your employees work. Are these areas well lit and ventilated? Are the chairs comfortable and desks big enough? Do your employees have the proper tools and equipment to do their work? People won’t feel valued if they work in poor conditions. Employees who feel they belong and appreciated are more liy to become highly engaged in their work. Coming to work no longer feels like a burden. When they are a part of something bigger, they’re bound to be excited every day they go to work. Encourage Creativity and Innovation Organizations claim they encourage employees to think outside the box. Not everyone practices what they preach. Many leaders become insecure when their subordinates come up with better ideas. Instead of encouraging creativity, they stifle it. But if you feel secure in your position, always ask your employees for their opinions and ideas. If there are better ways to perform tasks, it helps everyone in the organization. New ideas save time and also improve the bottom line. Make it a practice to listen to any new idea. Don’t dismiss it immediately if it hasn’t been tried yet. Be receptive and make comments later after you’ve made a proper study. Build Personal Relationships Get to know your employees better. Spend time with them at cafes, bars and restaurants. In a relaxed environment, you can find out what motivates them and what they enjoy doing. Who knows, you might even discover hidden skills which can be applied at work. Also, when they are comfortable with you, they’re likely to be more honest. Keep in mind you should be honest with them too. Foster friendships at your workplace. If employees work with people they see as friends, they’re more committed to the team and the organization. They’re bound to strive harder and become more engaging because they want to help their friends. You know this is true as you would always choose to work with people you call friends. Conscientiously apply the steps above and soon, you will see an improvement in your organization. What was once perhaps a group of indifferent people will now be replaced by highly engaged friends. To learn more about our upcoming trainings, programs, and events, click here.

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“Do Women Make Good Leaders?”

Emotional Intelligence, Engagement, Goals, Leadership, Motivation, Positivity, Productivity / My Holland

Women are often underestimated in the world of business. Some countries mark the month of March as National Women’s History Month. The UN celebrates the International Women’s Day every 8th of March where the said day recognises and celebrates the achievement of women. So what better way to mark this day than by discussing a popular debate topic – do women make good leaders? At the lowest levels of workplaces across the globe, over half of employees are women, but as you move up the organisational ladder, the number of women drop off dramatically. In fact, at the very top of the tree, as few as 4% of organisation leaders are female. There are lots of discussions and claims out there about the way in which leadership between men and women differs. Traditionally, women are nurturing, empathetic and emotional. How do these traits and qualities translate into the world of business and leadership? Do they set us back or do they drive us forward? One Harvard Business Review (HBR) survey looked at 16 key competencies that make a good leader (including taking initiative, developing others and inspiring/motivating colleagues). The 7,280 results from the public and private sector companies proved the usual stereotypes – women rank higher than men in the so-called ‘nurturing’ competencies, such as building relationships. No surprises there. But what was also interesting, was that women also excelled outside of the traditional ‘female’ strengths. Women were rated higher than men in 12 of the 16 competencies, and were rated overall better leaders by their peers. When it comes to two of the traits – taking initiative and driving for results – men are often assumed to be better at these, but it was women who topped the poll. With the exception of the ‘ability to develop a strategic perspective, ’ in which men trumped women, women are highly regarded in leadership roles, because – not in spite – of their emotional and empathetic tendencies. Women are often underestimated in the world of business. They can face sexism in the workplace, but also a lack of self-belief. Tradition places men at the top of organisational structures, but the tide is changing … slowly but surely. Studies like this, and many more, prove that people within business rate women as strong leaders. Having the respect of those you work with is half the battle. Qualities such as being emotional are not viewed as negative traits by them, but as a positive in forging relationships with colleagues and more importantly, driving and achieving results. Let’s hope that not only the businesses out there take note of this, but women themselves. We need to have self-confidence to be able to go for the big jobs without fear of rejection or inferiority. Our traditionally ‘female’ traits do not have to be a barrier to success – they can be our reasons for success.

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“Eight Best Tips for Career Women”

Engagement, Goals, Happiness, Leadership, Motivation, Positivity / My Holland

It doesn’t matter in what field you may be pursuing your career – the arts, public service, the sciences, business management, information technology, math, engineering or any other male-dominated fields – these following tips should help strengthen your resolve to succeed in your professional life: Never say “You can’t do it.” Take a risk. The noted director of widely popular Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Ellen Stofan says she took a risk when offered her first management job. She didn’t think she was equipped to handle it but took on the job anyway and discovered she had the skills to make a success of it. Always have a plan B – If plan A doesn’t work, plan B or even plan C should give you another crack at making it work. Decide and concentrate on who you’re going to be and what you will contribute. Remember that your career is a path. You will have to think about the decisions you will have to make as part of traversing this path leading towards your development as a person and as a professional. Take note of how you spend your time – Log it down and note the big time-users and work out how you can reduce these so you can put in more time into those activities that increase your income, boost your well-being and strengthen your impact. Find ways to delegate or drop the other unnecessary stuff. Have a mindset anchored on growth – Angela Duckworth, author of GRIT; THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE says, in essence, that having a growth mindset is important. It’s critical to have a hopeful, optimistic way of viewing your experiences and constantly looking to see what you can learn even during the bad times. Never stop learning. Develop your talent – It’s not a question of either you have it or you don’t. With practice and determination, you can develop a special talent you’re interested in. The trick is to work hard and practice to improve in something that has captured your heart. Learn how to communicate effectively – The Vice President and Global Head Honcho of Diversity and Inclusion for Lockheed, Martin, Rainia Washington say communication is one of her “3 C’s” for career success. Nothing beats having great skills in written and oral communications. Her other “2 C’s” are courage and character. It won’t hurt too to get some expert coaching when you can. Seize the opportunity when it comes up – Taking advantage of opportunities is key to every career woman’s growth and success. In the course of your work, identify the tasks or assignments that promise promotions, then ask for those. You will have to go beyond simply performing in your current position. You have got to show your potential. These are 8 important, tried, and tested tips, that have boosted women’s career in various fields. Try them and don’t worry too much about what your officemates may say, or even about not being liked. Not all successful women are liked.

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“Why you, as a manager, need to develop Emotional Intelligence?”

Brain, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Workplace Culture / My Holland

One of the most essential traits of effective managers is having emotional intelligence. It is what gives them the ability to motivate people and have a good understanding of the value of connecting with others. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you, yourself might be involved in, but as a company manager, you need to get to know your people. It’s a tough job. It’s tough because there are so many complexities, even idiosyncrasies and personal traits for every individual. In the final analysis, no two persons are really exactly alike. Everyday Triggers. Simple everyday triggers can prompt you to be mad, glad, sad or happy. This is because, over time, we cognitively develop prompters that allow us to feel a certain way about things and events. 6 pm on a Friday can make you feel excited and anticipating. It’s your poker night with the boys! You cry watching some silly late, late soap opera about a forlorn love affair. These emotions and triggers are examples of what make us rare and unique personalities, but it’s also what makes your job as a top honcho pretty darn hard. You must possess enough emotional intelligence to acquire an understanding of the guys who must follow your lead. When you don’t have this, your people would tend to feel disengaged at work. In essence what this says is that if company leaders are not doing a good job at leading, it’s almost a sure thing, they lack the emotional intelligence to motivate their teams and push them to achieving top performance. Here’s What Can Happen When Managers Lack Empathy Or Emotional Intelligence. The worst thing about these managers without empathy is that they’re mostly unaware of it. It’s a sort of a behavioral pattern where they can’t see beyond their own biases and beliefs. As such, people who work with them become not only discouraged, they also get to feel like they’re living in hell! Pretty soon, they’d be dragging their feet going to work. Sure, there are many ways and styles of leadership, but one that doesn’t appreciate the values of working as a team will always bring down a company’s productivity. There is today a continuing low level of job satisfaction among companies This is true surprisingly even among those employees who receive fat paychecks. Reason? Their leaders lack emotional intelligence and are therefore unable to empathize with their people. So, How Do You Develop Your Emotional Intelligence? There is no magic pill for this. Slowly but surely, get to know the guys in your team. Try to get insights and understanding of what’s going on and why these guys respond to orders and decisions in a certain way. The more you get to know about them, the clearer you’ll see their true motivations and how you can help make them better. Naturally, it will depend finally whether or not a person would want to change their bad habits and become a good potential leader, so really, you’ll need to get a feel for your people and hear them out. It can only be good for your organization. Don’t dilly-dally. Start developing your emotional intelligence now!

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“Brainwriting: The best alternative to brainstorming”

Brain, Workplace Culture / My Holland

For countless years, brainstorming was the big buzzword among large, progressive corporations and business organizations around the world. It’s been so ingrained in our working processes and systems, everybody but everybody was into it. Call in some members of the staff, put them in a room with a whiteboard and pentel pens, center on a problem or an issue and creative solutions will flow like the giant waterfalls of Niagara, right? Wrong. As it turned out in recent years, the professed effectiveness of brainstorming doesn’t come anywhere close to its popularity, such that today, management gurus regard it as highly overrated, pure folly and a waste of time. What The Research Says In a research study conducted by the 3M company, it found that people working in teams or groups as in brainstorming sessions come up with thirty to forty percent (30-40%) less ideas than those individually working and their ideas tended to be of poorer quality. Why is this? What happens? “Anchoring” : During a brainstorming session there is this thing that crops up known as “anchoring”. This is where earlier ideas are likely to influence the rest of the discussions. Norms and limitations get to be established as to what good solutions might be. This then inhibits the expression of new or different ideas and which consequently engenders the nemesis of creative thought: Groupthink. Pressure Of Conformity : Because brainstorming is biased towards early ideas, it favors less the creative ones because of a phenomenon known as “Pressure of conformity”. As the brainstorming session goes on, the team members, wanting to make a good impression will often come up with the most obvious solutions. Everybody in the team then ends up centering on those ideas, leaving the potentially better ones unexpressed and unexplored. “Brainwriting” : Write First, Talk Second As suggested by leading professors, Leigh Thompson and Loran Nordgren from the Kellogg School of Management in the U.S., an effective alternative to brainstorming could be “Brainwriting”. The whole idea is anchored on the principle that the process that generates ideas should be separate from the discussions. In other words, write first, talk second. Not like brainstorming, brainwriting is effective in generating ideas when performed in complete solitude. Backing this up is a finding in a related research study that says brainwriting generates 20% more ideas and 42% more original ideas than those groups who did their brainstorming the traditional way. The Reason Brainwriting Works. It works because when people think without outside influence or stimuli, their thought processes are not encumbered by any kind of judgment. There’s no pressure to conform, no fear of sounding and looking inane or being ridiculed. It’s a simple process of having everyone quietly write down their ideas and anonymously submit these. The whole team then discusses all the ideas in a systematic manner. And so the next time your organization starts to plan out a brainstorming session, bring out the idea of “brainwriting”. If it’s new creative ideas and solutions you’d be looking for, it’ll make sense to try this new creative approach.

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My Holland

How to Increase Employee Engagement

“Do Women Make Good Leaders?”

“Eight Best Tips for Career Women”

“Why you, as a manager, need to develop Emotional Intelligence?”

“Brainwriting: The best alternative to brainstorming”

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