Ways to Balance Life in the Workplace

As we become more enlightened about our ways to balance mind, body, and spirit in our lives, we are likewise challenged with how to “walk our talk” in the workplace.  What follows are some suggestions that might prove helpful:

1.  Be conscious of the self-fulfilling prophecy:  If you expect something negative to happen, you act unconsciously in a way that is more likely to allow it to occur.  Think positively for that reason!

2.  If you are in a supervisory position, you earn the right to hold others to high standards by holding yourself to high standards.  Keep in mind that balancing your life is a high standard.

3.  When you share a decision with others, share also the reason it was chosen as well as the process you used to arrive at it.  In this way, you will remain in relationship.

4.  Open yourself up to “unrelated” developmental learning activities that may have nothing to do directly with your job, but as you grow through these experiences,  you will almost always improve your job performance positively. Encourage others to expand their horizons in this way.

5.  Understand and appreciate that others may not do things exactly as you would, but that doesn’t make them wrong.  Remember that “you don’t have to make someone else wrong to be right.”

6.  Know that in a well managed workplace, there will be problems—conflicts in communication, for example.  So expect problems to come up.  Instead of trying to deny that they exist, focus on ways to resolve them as an opportunity to increase your organizational effectiveness.

7.  Plan workplace meetings with conscious intent about what you wish to accomplish.  Don’t waste time in routine, unplanned meetings.

8.  Know that according to research on spoken communication, 93% of the message is considered to be based on a person’s nonverbal behavior and inflection and tone.  Therefore, HOW you are communicating is more important than the words that you actually say.  People are in relationship with how you are being rather than what you are saying.

9.  Reward people for doing things right.  People thrive on recognition and praise.  They will be as “great” as you hold them to be!