10 Ways to Re-inspire yourself at Work

Are you feeling tired at work? Perhaps a little bored? We all need to reboot and renew ourselves occasionally.  Here are 10 different ways to locate that spark again.

1. Use self assessment instruments to learn more about your style, motivations and values.

Building your self awareness and exploring your motivations and your life themes can help to build your sense of value at work and will offer insights into how you can use your strengths for greater impact. We recommend using Harrison Assessments.

2. Read one book a month on topics related to self growth and development.

Be inspired by the thoughts and experiences of others.

What happens when we distrust our behavioural traits?

A small note today on our behavioural traits that might be holding us back in some way, compromising our ability to be successful in life and in our career. We are all a collection of traits that define our behaviour – in fact, Harrison Assessments lists 175 different traits. Each person is a unique collection of traits, and each trait is either expressed strongly, expressed well, or under expressed. Today, let’s quickly explore those under expressed traits that can compromise our ability to be successful in our relationships, careers and other parts of life.

Change Management

A reminder to be structured and strategic about all change initiatives, and in all phases of the change — initiation, planning, motivation, implementation and maintenance.

Focus on Performance.

Good Behaviour, Bad Behaviour

I have had some conversations this week around good vs bad behaviour in the workplace. Outside of commonly agreed bad behaviour or illegal/unethical behaviour, determining “bad behaviour” can be quite subjective – determined by formal and informal workplace culture. When a manager asks me to work with a staff member to make sure that they “behave well” in the workplace, I know that all of us are in for a challenge!

At the deepest level, “behaving well” is intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated. External motivation is based on what you do rather than who you are. For example, people highly motivated by recognition, strong or capable leadership and management, stability in their career, are externally motivated. People that are more internally motivated

Good Reads

There have been some interesting reads on the internet this week. Here are a couple worth your time.

Culture Change

• Have you ever wondered how much more productive it is to engage people in the change process? About 5 times, according to research mentioned in this article.
  The article contains 3 great questions that fed information to one CEO:

Embarking on a Culture Change Initiative? 3 Keys to Success

Culture can be defined as the set of beliefs and behaviours of an organisation’s workforce. It is created from the messages that are received about how people are expected to behave. Cultures bind people together through shared goals, beliefs, approaches, routines, needs and values. Peer pressure helps behavioural norms develop over time, and these are influenced by the type of work performed, organisational history, successes and failures, physical conditions, the workplace environment and the demands of external entities such as customers, stakeholders, economic conditions etc. But the strongest influence on cultural norms are the senior leaders and managers within an organisation. It is the messages and the behaviours of this group that is most influential in shaping the culture of an organisation.

What we have been reading

There have been some interesting reads on the internet this month. Here are a couple worth your time.

Managing Clever People

• A short reminder that creative, clever people can be fun to work with and inspirational. However, managers often see them as their greatest challenge, wanting them to conform to the “normal’ workplace culture.