Change – Pagina 8 – Crisbie Coach

Indian Proverb

If you see all grey, move the elephant!

2019 is almost over and we will want to make a balance of what has been for us the closing year. Our successes, the difficulties we faced, what we would have liked but did not happen, what we would do differently. But is is also the time to think at the coming new year, what we would like to do, new projects, new perspectives. Maybe you could think at a meaningful phrase that you would transform into a mantra to take it with you all along the year, reminding you about the intentions you set but that you may forget.

I have chosen this Indian proverb. I know, the elephant is a big animal, very big indeed, it will be very difficult to move it! But I may look for someone to help me and then with a joint effort we could make it!

What about you? Would you think about choosing a leitmotiv for 2020!

But now let’s celebrate.

Happy New Year!

Seven tips for Winter Time

With the arrival of the winter season, we change our clothes and also our habits would need to change.

These tips are easy to follow and will help you to cope with the coming winter.

Our daily habits contribute to our happiness, well-being and health. That is why it is important to adapt to the season ahead, as it has an impact on our body and our spirit.

Scientific studies have shown that seasonal fluctuations such as daylight, temperature and weather have a significant impact on us. Our mood, our metabolism, our balance and our biological clock change with the changing of the seasons.

Therefore, it is important to changes our habits so to restore the harmony between our body and the environment that surrounds us.

It is not as difficult as it seems. Here are some tips that you may want to follow for your health and well-being this winter.

Walk more, drive less

There is nothing as good as an outdoors walk. Replacing journeys by car with a walk is ideal for taking your dose of fresh air, natural light and exercise. It also saves you from stress caused by the traffic. To benefit from the best of the walk, you could also listen to a guided walking meditation.

2. Take hot baths

Preparing a bath with hot water and jumping into it is the best way to relax during the cold weather. Create an ideal environment, putting bath oils in the water and some of your favourite music.

3. Adopt an evening routine

The winter season corresponds to a natural resting period. As the days get shorter and the exposure to natural light decreases, we feel less dynamic because our body produces less melatonin. To fight against the fatigue and the melancholy of winter, try to sleep eight hours a night and go to bed at about the same time each evening. Do not heat up your bedroom too much to avoid waking up sweaty in the middle of the night.

4. Eat properly

With the lowering of the temperatures comes the time to warm up with delicious and nutritious food. To prepare winter soup with relaxing effect, use warm and healthy ingredients, such as chickpeas, carrots and potatoes.

5. Take care of your skin (especially your hands)

Cold temperatures put a strain on your skin, so it is important to take care of it. To reduce dryness, use a good moisturizing and nourishing cream. In particular, the hands are more exposed to cold and need more attention and protection. To always have soft and well-groomed hands, keep a hand cream with you and use it when you need it.

6. Put your mobile aside

Due to a lower outdoors activity during winter, we are inclined to spend more time on social media. As you know, looking constantly to the mobile (or any other device) is not a good thing. Your mobile forces you to look within yourself and this may cause you a winter depression. Moreover, it disturbs your sleep. From time to time it would be better to put your mobile aside and read a good book.

7. Play games with friends

Sometimes when the evenings are particularly cold, you may want to call your friends to your place to play games. This activity is not only perfect to fight winter melancholy and apparent social isolation but it is also useful to improve your intellectual abilities. A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that playing social games keeps the brain young and active and would protect from senile dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

What about you? Do you have your own winter routine?

Four Tips for Fitting Self-Care Into Your Busy Schedule

No matter how busy you are, it is important that you take a little time for yourself. This is called self-care, and far from the extravagant images the phrase may call to your mind, the practice is about providing you with the energy and stability to live your best life every day. This often consists of the basic needs you may take for granted (and often skip past after a stressful day), like taking breaks and getting enough sleep. The good news is it can be easy to incorporate self-care into your busy life, whether you use a device to track how many steps you take in a day or take a quick nap during your lunch break. Here are some ways you can incorporate self-care into your day in a way that will actually help you when you need it the most.

Enhance Your Fitness with a Tracker
Many who lead busy lives believe that there just isn’t enough time in the day to exercise. The reality is you can squeeze it into your schedule, and you should. Exercise can make you feel more relaxed and less stressed, and it can provide an energy boost to help you get through your day. If you don’t know which workout to try, start by adding more walks into your schedule. Take a stroll through your neighborhood after dinner, or park farther away from the supermarket. Be creative and look for more ways to walk and take the stairs instead of driving or riding the elevator.
Make the Most of Break Time
Breaks are critical for your emotional health throughout a work day, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a portion of the time you have to accomplish your tasks each day. Instead, use the time you already have set aside as a time to do double duty. Most people take the time, whether it is a quick 15 minutes or an extensive hour, to have a healthy lunch in the middle of their day. You can take this one step further by using your lunch break as a break in the larger sense of the word. Do not take a work project to the deli with you, and don’t bring back a sandwich to eat while you make the finishing touches on a report. Instead, use your lunch break as a time to distance yourself from work and clear your mind.
Use Your Breaks to Evaluate Your Workload
Your daily breaks can also help set you up in the right position to be healthier in a well-rounded kind of way. Taking breaks from the constant stream of work can give you an opportunity to go over your current workload in a more analytical way. For instance, if you feel like you never have enough time to spend time with family or friends, or even to take care of yourself, you may need to practice saying “no” more frequently at work. Saying “no” is not intrinsically a bad thing, in fact, it can be very healthy, as turning down projects means you are self-aware enough to understand you cannot take on any more projects without sacrificing your health. If you constantly feel stressed, there is a chance you are trying to do too much.
Support the health of your gut
Finally, when you cook your meals each day, you can make them even better for you by focusing on the health of your gut. Gut flora, the bacteria that live inside your digestive system, are critical for maintaining healthy levels in your body. You can help keep them healthy and support good bacteria by eating (or abstaining from) certain food or by including certain supplements into your diet. Bacillus coagulans, for instance, support intestinal health, while
saccharomyces boulardii protect against harmful microbes.

By making the most of your break time and regulating the amount of work you take on each week, you can help take care of yourself without even changing your schedule.

The Challenges of Communicating Across Cultures

I live and work in an real multicultural environment.

The city where I live is Brussels that hosts about 150 different nationalities. The place I work with is the European Commission where all the 28 European Union nationalities are represented.

Sometimes it is difficult to communicate to each other, as you have to pay much attention to other’s sensitivity, emotions and feelings.

Day after day, I learned that each culture has their own approach to communication.

I found a very interesting the book of the anthropologist Edward Hall, Beyond Culture. He identified the importance of context in communication and raised the attention on the “invisible” type of communication, by which groups of people understand and interpret the world.

The framework proposed by Hall for approaching intercultural communication is high-context and low-context cultures, which refer to the values cultures place on indirect and direct communication.

It is important to note that no culture is completely high-context or low-context, since all societies contain at least some parts that are both high and low. For example, the United States is a low-context culture while doing business, but during family gatherings tend to be high-context.

Let us see now the main features of the two cultural types.

High-Context Cultures

A high-context culture relies on implicit communication and nonverbal cues. In high-context communication, a message cannot be understood without a great deal of background information. Asian, African, Arab, central European and Latin American cultures are generally considered to be high-context cultures.

With people belonging mainly to high-context cultures, you may encounter the following:

Misunderstanding when exchanging information
Impression of a lack of information
Large amount of information is provided in a non-verbal manner, e.g. gestures, pauses, facial expressions
Emphasis on long term relationships and loyalty
Unwritten rules that are taken for granted but can easily be missed.

Low-Context Cultures

A low-context culture relies on explicit communication. In low-context communication, more of the information in a message is spelled out and defined. Cultures like the Germans, Scandinavians, Americans and Australians are generally considered to be low-context cultures.

Dealing with people belonging mainly to low-context cultures, you may find the following:

All meaning is explicitly provided in the message itself
Extensive background information and explanations are provided verbally to avoid misunderstandings
People tend to have short-term relationships
People follow rules and standards closely.

To avoid “diplomatic incidents”, I try to pay much attention to my interlocutor languages and “imitate” them using the technique of the mirror, namely, repeating the body language, the type of words they use, how they overall handle the conversation.

What about you? Which culture do you think you belong to? Which technique do you use to better communicate across cultures?

Best Friends at Work: 3 Ideas

Do you have a best friend at work? And if you’re the boss, do you think most of your employees would be able to name a co-worker they consider a close friend?
Surveys carried out in the US show the following findings:

84% of respondents said a job can’t truly be great unless they have great co-workers.
67% said they have at least one co-worker who they consider a close
friend.
Those who said they have close friends at work are more than twice
as likely to also say they look forward to going to work than colleagues who don’t.
41 % said they’d left a job because they didn’t like the culture.
36 % said they’d take a pay cut for a more ideal workplace culture.

Gallup.com wrote in January 2018 that their research had repeatedly shown a concrete link between having a best friend at work and the amount of effort employees expend in their job.
When employees possess a deep sense of affiliation with their team members, they are driven to take positive actions that benefit the business — actions they may not otherwise even consider if they did not have strong relationships with their co-workers.

Yale University professors Emma Seppälä and Marissa King wrote in Harvard Business Review in August 2017: “People who have a best friend at work are not only more likely to be happier and healthier, they are also seven times as likely to be engaged in their job. What’s more, employees who report having friends at work have higher levels of productivity, retention, and job satisfaction than those who do not.”

It is interesting to look at that last item above (no. 5) about what would prompt employees to take a pay cut: a workplace that better approaches their ideal, which seems to include more friendships.

It suggests that fostering a culture where employees truly feel like they are working in a culture among friends, might get the kind of loyalty money cannot buy.

Organizations can and should be focusing on how they can build a culture of friendship and inclusion. It is not about forcing employees to be friends. Rather, it’s to create a culture where friendships can naturally develop.

Here are three ideas for fostering and supporting friendships within organisations:

Promote open communication;
Encourage people to get to know one another;
Support social activities.

Would you give it a try?

Empower Your Staff: Let Them Take Decisions

In the mid-2000's the business man Brian Robertson wanted his business to increase by making the decision making processe more efficient. In was then that the concept of holacracy emerged for the first time in the United States.

According to Robertson, the only solution to work more efficiently would be promoting autonomy and reducing the number of parties involved in decision making. In a holacracy system, every business task / mission establishes a team that is free to make the decisions relating to their goals. On condition, of course, to remain consistent with the general objectives of the company.

What does it really mean working in a holacratic environment? First, giving back the sense of ownership and responsibility to the collaborators. To do this, you can organize groups of a few people; let’s say a maximum of ten people that work in a completely autonomous way. Each group would make concrete decisions for the group itself, without any control or hierarchical validation.

For topics of strategic importance, the debates will take place at the management level and all employees will participate. The votes counts the same. Young graduates in their first work experience count in the same way as senior employees. All groups may receive a budget to finance their various proposals and initiatives. This allows decisions to be taken quickly and by collective intelligence.

This type of horizontal organization tries to adapt to the needs and expectations of the new generations. In recent years, young jobseekers require companies to offer flexibility, autonomy, responsibility and above all a sense of utility. The concepts of nonsense job (bullshit job) and brown-out are more and more increasing.

Holacracy, by putting the person at the first place, seems to respond to these problems because it makes them aware of their importance within a team. Empowering people gives motivation, engagement, and therefore more effectiveness.

Obviously, you will not always agree within a team. However, this also represents a benefit, because the purpose of holacracy is not to eliminate the differences, but it is rather to encourage everyone to take the floor and to express their doubts. The group can analyse all the options and possible contradictions immediately. The group itself, after having overcome all possible misunderstandings, will find the solution. Of course, you need to be able to put aside your ego, as the common project will have the priority.

The Wonderful Rooster: a Fable from Africa

It was about sunset, the time when the sky gets orange-coloured. Close to a little river, an old man next to death called his son and told him: “Listen my sweet creature, I will leave soon this world to re-join my ancestors. As a legacy, you will receive this wonderful rooster that made my father’s fortune as well as mine. It can secure your wealth too. Thanks to it you will have a happy life, lack nothing and also help the poorest. It is not a common rooster. For generations, it has been handed over from father to son. You will watch over it with great care from now on”. Then he died. The son organised the funeral and he invited relatives and friends.

The mourning period passed, the young man decided to participate with his rooster to fighting tournaments and for many years the rooster won all the fights, giving his owner luck and consideration. All the kings wanted that rooster, but the man did not want to get rid of it even though they would pay gold. He became powerful and rich and built a huge palace, where many servants worked. He also gave work to those who could not make their living. He built up schools where children could learn many disciplines.

His success aroused much jealousy and one of his neighbour, envious of his happiness, decided to make his life harder. She had the idea of giving her corn to the rooster. She fed it so much that it became so fat that after some time it could barely walk.

It was at that point that the cruel woman went to visit her neighbour and told him: “Your rooster stole my corn and I have nothing left to eat”.

The young man, embarrassed, replied: “Dear friend, calm down, I will pay you for your corn!”

She reacted angrily saying: “No, no, no! I want my corn back, the corn that your rooster has eaten. Kill it and give me back my corn.”

The atmosphere was tense, full of electricity, like when a storm is about to break out. The woman was full of anger, blinded by greed, and adamant. The young man offered her all his wealth, his palace, his gold, his diamonds and jewels but the woman did not change her mind. She considered her decision non-negotiable. The problem was brought before the Jury of Wise Men, and they listened to the discussion. Jealous as they all were, the members of the Jury condemned to death the poor rooster that was sleeping in the garden with a full stomach. They went there, they got it and they killed it.

The corn grains were returned to the woman. The young man suffered from this injustice and perished very fast. Struck by grief, he was devastated and became sadder day after day. He buried secretly the body of his rooster behind his palace and, wounded in the depths of his soul, he locked himself up for a long time in his palace. One day, in the place where the roosted was buried, a mango with beautiful fruits was born. The envious neighbour, who was greedy and bold, went to ask the young man one of the mango fruit. The man did not refuse but the woman called also his son and wanted him to eat those tasty fruits too. They took a lot of fruits instead of some, as she had asked.

The next day, at sunrise, the woman’s son went back to the mango tree and started to eat as many mangoes as he could, without asking permission to the owner. He climbed up the tree, chose the more mature ones and ate them. The tree owner saw her neighbour’s son up on a branch tree eating his mango fruits. He chewed and let the kernels and the peels fall on the ground, indifferent to his presence. Suddenly a mango, fell off from his hands and hit the owner’s head. Furious and thirsty for revenge, the man called for justice and gathered the village people and the Jury together.

As soon as they gathered, he declared threatening: ”Whoever ate my mangoes, must return them to me!”, All the presents approved, also the Jury. The culprit’s mother appeared completely breathless and said to the owner: “ I will give you back your fruits”. But he remembered the unfair death of his rooster and replied: “ Oh woman, since your justice was good for the past, it will be good again today. I claim back the fruits that your child has eaten”.

The Jury of Wise Men decided that the man was entitled to ask for fair justice. Crying and pleading with her neighbour, the woman offered him all her possessions in exchange for her son’s life. Though, according to the decision, the boy had to suffer the same fate as the poor rooster.

However, the man declared that he was ready to forgive all the past wickedness. Then, he went back to his palace, leaving his neighbour’s son alive.

Shocked by all the confusion, spared by fate but ashamed, the woman realised that her son owed his life to that man. She then pleaded with heaven to free her from her jealously and her past misdeeds. Destiny had given her a painful lesson and she finally understood that envy destroys those who feed it.

The Process of Decision Making

It may be difficult to take a decision, both private and business related. There are many options that you need to take into account.

First, you start with the assessment of your purpose, by asking yourself: is it worth? Does it serve your dream? Or vision, if it is business related?

To get a clearer dream or vision, you can use the five whys technique that will connect you with your highest purpose and then you will be able to act accordingly in your everyday life.

The five whys technique works like this: take something that it is hard for you to decide. I take as example going to the gym. We all know that going to the gym regularly is healthy, but often it is easier going out for a drink, or sitting on your couch.

The first question would be: Why should I need to go to the gym? The answer might be because I will feel healthier.

Second question: Why feeling healthier is important to me? Because, I will get more energy.

Third question: Why having more energy is important to me? Because I can do more things and I can do them better.

Fourth question: Why would I need to do more and better things? Because I will achieve faster important results.

Fifth question: Why is it important achieving results faster? Because I will approach faster to my ultimate goal.

Now that your decisive goal is clear, you can ask yourself: What will happen if I do not take that decision? What impact will it have on my life, if I decide to go that way? What is holding me back? Do I have the personal competencies to take that decision? Can I make a risks and benefits analysis? Do I have the financial resources?

Decision-making involves a range of personal talents from creativity to intuition, enthusiasm and courage, determination and persistence. You do not need to have them all; you can always ask me to help you out!

Are You Ready for the Job of the Future?

Nowadays, we see that a lot of jobs no longer exist in the market, or they are about to disappear. If they will not disappear, they will change tremendously.

In the future, there will be more people that are self-employed then employees. Flexibility and life-long training will be more and more needed as it will be necessary to switch from a competence to another one, depending on the project or job.

Besides your own professional network, you will need to develop a professional identity. The more it will be clear and coherent, the more your competencies will be noted.

To build a professional branding, you need to act on two levels:

Professional: knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA);
Personal: values, purpose of life, engagement, without speaking about your private life unless it has implications on your job or project.

Whether you are an employee or a self-employed, the future belongs to those who train themselves not only with the new technologies, but also strengthening their own abilities to act in diverse and complex situations.

By participating in training courses, managing a new project, starting a new job you may learn new KSA. Try to anticipate trends or find a niche to develop.

Working with the uncertainty of the future (temporary contracts, fixed-term contracts, and self-employment) will mean not only knowing how to manage your own finance between one salary and another, but also a certain inner anxiety caused by your vision of the future, your personal identity and the reflection on your values. You will therefore need to develop your intuition, learn or improve project management and quickly direct your experiences, transforming them into added value for others.

In summary, to be able to work in the future you need to learn regularly and to develop great resilience, so that you will be able to influence your environment, the organisation you will be working for and even the society, through the development of:

1. a strong professional identity;

2. appropriate meaning and values;

3. continuing training.

You don’t know where to start from? Send me an email and we will look at it together!

Stay Away From Crabs = Stay Away From Negative People

If you put a crab in a bucket, it can run away, but if you put together a group of crabs in a bucket, none of them can escape, because as soon as one will start climbing, another will reach it, grab it and pull it down!

That’s why you should never hang out with crabs inside of the same bucket. If you want to change your life, change your relationships!

Some people are like those crabs. They push you down, while others pull you up.

That’s why changing your relationships is so important for you, if you want to be successful.

Try to spend more time with successful people caring for you, those who give you excellent advice are those who bring you up. Don’t go with crabs, those that try to pull you down.

After spending more time with successful people, you will learn a lot and you will become like them. They are contagious!

Keeping away from crabs, protects your reality.