During times of great change it is a leader’s job ito provide some firm footing for people, with assurances of what will not keep changing.
Life´s a wave!
Alyce has some interesting thoughts on happiness and what can motivate employees
I would like to start this morning with a quote from John Lennon:
When I was 5 years old, my mother always
told me that happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school, they asked me
what I wanted to be when I grew up. I
wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t
understand the assignment, and I told them
they didn’t understand life.
Are you happy?
I think these words from John Lennon are true for each and every one of us. Who doesn´t want to be happy? But for most of us, we´ve been trying to keep our head above water for so long, that we´ve forgotten how much we love to swim!
Have we fallen into the trap of believing that happiness is a luxury?
Do you subconsciously believe that happiness is reserved for the privileged or only to be had at great…
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What motivates employees?
There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.
Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.
“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.
In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual…
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What motivates employees?
There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.
Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.
“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.
In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual needs and growth potential. Even in formerly creative media jobs, employees are expected to conform to standardized “handbook procedures”. The result: People are becoming emotionally drained and burned out because they feel they are not being appreciated for who they are as human beings with soul needs.
The “Y” generation of employees, those born between 1988-1994, are regarded as sophisticated, tech-savvy and immune to many of the “loyalty” values of their parents. They not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. Which means they are no longer willing to give full loyalty to a company, knowing they could be out on the street with the next recession or the next restructuring wave. They’ve seen mothers or fathers having sacrificed a lot of private happiness for a job, that has in the end left them “burned out”, cynical and bitter.
Of primary importance to the talented Y generation scouting the job market are values such as:
– Does the company go in sync with my own value system?
– Does it offer me room for personal growth, responsibility and honing of my talents?
– Do I feel comfortable and happy with the people around me at the workplace?
– Does it leave me enough time and energy to spend with my loved ones?
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Finding real nourishment
We just had a wonderful workshop on the “Earth” Element. It comes at a good time here in the northern hemisphere with farmers bringing in their harvests. It is a time to reflect on what really nourishes us. It is not only about food.
What hurt or emotion am I still carrying around with me that burdens rather than nurtures me? Isn’t it time to let go?
More importantly: What am I feeding my mind with? My favourite motto is the ancient Zulu concept of Ubuntu. It not only means that we are formed and shaped by the people and the community around us. Ubuntu means taking responsibility for the well-being of all that is around us because it is that which makes us human.
Surround yourself with negative people and you become a negative person. Giving your body the right nutrients on a body and mind level is a major precondition to becoming a person with a happy and positive outlook on life. We are bombarded with electronic media and information from the Internet. What Information really serves and uplifts us? I like using social media like facebook. It is an important means of staying in touch and getting information, but sometimes it can be too much and is energy-sapping. We lose touch grounding, lose touch with reality or lose ourselves in a virtual world.
That is when it is time to find nourishment in nature, opening the senses to the wind on the skin, the smell of earth, the sound of birdsong, feeling the ground underneath ones feet.
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Health risk – artificial sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners, taken by many people as a substitute to sugar, are toxic and a danger to your health!
Just a few days ago Nature magazine issued the results of another study, suggesting that artificial sweeteners may contribute, rather than alleviating obesity-related metabolic conditions.
Quoting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the research finds that differences in gut microbes may explain why some people can handle artificial sweeteners just fine while in an unknown percentage of others the sweeteners lead to diabetes.
Taken together, the data indicate that artificial sweeteners “may contribute to, rather than alleviate, obesity-related metabolic conditions, by altering the composition and function of bacterial populations in the gut,” Cathryn Nagler and Taylor Feehley of the pathology department at the University of Chicago said in a journal commentary.
Obesity and the related health risks including diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure are becoming a global problem because of what we eat and drink. Take this: One fourth of a bottle of ketchup is pure sugar. A spoonful of classic mayonnaise, for example, adds an extra 100 calories and 10 grams of fat to whatever you mix it with.
In addition a lot of people are unaware that their sugar intake can be massive if they have a habit of drinking sodas or so-called “energy drinks”. A classic can of coke contains the equivalent of about ten teaspoons of sugar. A 2007 study revealed that one or more sodas a day increased the risk of obesity by 31 per cent and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 44 per cent. Metabolic syndrome is defined by having at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure or elevated trigloerides.
But that is only part of the problem. German consumer protection organisations have found that up to 70 different types of artificial sweeteners are finding their way into processed foods you buy in the supermarket.
We are having a great problem in telling our teenage son to avoid bringing home a certain “energy drink”. The food industry is very much aware that they have to catch consumers at a young age, making them dependent on the “sweet taste”. I see only a solution in effective health legislation, limiting the sugar content and artificial sweeteners in food.
Obesity is caused when the body has a higher energy intake than it can utilise. An athlete doing a daily run of about 30 kilometres would have no problem getting rid of the excess calories. The problem is that most of us have desk-bound jobs and too little exercise.
So what can be an immediate solution? Just try and replace the sodas with good water for a couple of weeks and see how much weight you lose. You can spice up the water with lemon, spices, apple chips or mint leaves – really tasty!
Try and do more of your own cooking with fresh produce from your own region. There is a saying that you are what you eat. Your mood and how you feel in your body is determined largely by what food you eat.
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Jamie Oliver: McDonalds Hamburger unfit for human consumption
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has won his long-fought battle against McDonalds, proving that their hamburgers are unfit for human consumption with the fatty parts of the beef “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger.
The story has received little coverage in the mainstream media. Consumers appear bored or numbed by the numerous stories on food scandals in recent years. Or, we really seem to be going into denial as to how much the fast-food industry is destroying our health.
As I mentioned in my previous blog. What we eat is not only destroying our planet but also our health. There is more than enough evidence that the artificial substances in processed foods is responsible for much of the modern diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and probably Alzheimer.
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Are our eating habits destroying the planet?
Some months ago we decided to get our own chickens, as part of a long-term project to make us more self-sufficient. We chose the French Marans because they are renowned for being especially disease-resistant. The dark-brown eggs are of a high organic quality.
Our five hens provide us an ample supply of eggs for our four-member family and have the freedom to roam around the property as they please. Its what I see as our small protest against the poultry industry. We were therefore aghast to learn that all private owners of poultry in our region here in northwestern Germany have been ordered to vaccinate their chickens against Newcastle disease, which broke out at a mass animal farm of 24,000 chickens in Norrkoeping, Sweden.
The only vaccination available is for 1,000 and more hens and has to be carried out by a registered vet every three months at a cost of around 75 EUR (97 U.S. Dollars) minimum. Meanwhile I have learned that severe vaccination rules apply for pigs and other farm animals. Several organic farmers, who started innovative projects to revive rare farm animal species, have been forced to give up their ventures because of the prohibitive compulsory vaccination costs.
The reason I’m mentioning this small example is that animal diseases, stemming from intensive mass animal farming is out of control worldwide. We’ve had food scandal after food scandal and nothing seems to change. A generation from now will ask us: “How could you have been so stupid and left us with this mess?”
The way we live, and especially our choice of foods, is not only destroying our health and quality of life but rapidly destroying our planet. According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), our diets and, specifically, the meat in them cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and the like to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry. (Scientific American)
There is a chain reaction starting from depletion of water resources, pollution from animal waste, loss of habitat to grazing lands and destruction of biodiversity on many levels.
I’m not a proponent of a purely vegetarian diet. But I think we should radically cut down our meat consumption for the reasons mentioned and boycott food coming from the mass animal farm industry.
Yesterday I attended a most inspiring lecture by the Gyalwang Drukpa in Hamburg. He is the head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Buddhist Order, founder of the Live to Love foundation and was awarded the United Nations Milennium Development Goals Award. The topic of the talk was “Mindfulness and Happiness”. He highlighted the importance of individual responsibility in taking concrete action to save our world for the next generation. Volunteering action such as planting trees or becoming more mindful on the ways we can contribute positively to the wider world is a key to living a happy, fulfilled life.
Most people go into resistance or denial when told to change their lifestyle habits or being preached at with a pointed finger. The Gyalwang Drukpa has a different approach. He sees “compassion” as an individual process of understanding that comes from the heart and then translates itself into positive action, into a deep understanding to the needs of the wider world and all living beings.
Looking at the Biblical quotation “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Mark 12:30-31) this translates into developing a deep sense of compassion for oneself within the unity of humanity and our world of which we are an intrinsic part of.
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The Best Leaders Are Insatiable Learners
It is a social problem that finds growing expression in both business organisations and governments: The political and economic elite is unable to deal with the changes around us because it is trapped in fixed attitudes and habits.
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9 Habits That Lead to Terrible Decisions
Good decisions are based a lot on networking with the right type of people, who have the right information.
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