The Olympic athletes will be jumping, swimming, throwing, hurdling, vaulting and much much more.  In fact, by the time we see these ‘race-ready’ athletes you would agree that they make it look so easy.  But what skills and characteristics are necessary to become a top athlete and can we relate these to our own lives?  To discuss this in more detail, we’ve highlighted 9 top traits that the majority of athletes possess and what Wilma had in abundance in order to elevate her to stardom.

1. Social support -  In sport a healthy network is essential. From helping with technique, overcoming challenges and nutritional tips, as the saying goes there is no ‘I’ in TEAM.
   
   
2. Long term focus - Athletes are not thinking about the short term.  In fact those that were questioned following the delay to the 2020 Japanese games had no reservations continuing with training for an extra year or even more.
   
   
3. Delegation - This is about realistic...

From the film, The Karate Kid (1984), Mr Myagi said if you walk on one side of the road, safe,  walk on the other side of the road, safe,  but if you walk in the middle of the road sooner or later you get squished just like a grape.  Now let’s imagine that working from home was one side of the road and working in the office was the other, we don’t want to become the grape!  So let’s consider, how will hybrid working work?

For some, working from home had significant advantages. Whether it was saving commuting time as well as money, getting more done with less distractions or even keeping on top of the washing pile.  But with this new-found-freedom there was also more pressure to be organised and committed to getting the work done. 

From surveying hundreds of employees, working from home was not great for everyone. Some had young children that required attention and others didn’t have suitable desk areas to create a work...

When we mention equations there are often a lot of raised eyebrows in the audience, however, occasionally an equation comes along that is helpful with our day-to-day life and worth taking note of:

DISAPPOINTMENT = EXPECTATIONS - REALITY

If you throw around a few variables we get an idea of how this equation works. Let’s presume that for most people the aim is to minimise disappointment. This is best achieved when we strive to minimise our expectations. If our expectations match our current reality then our disappointment score would be zero. Furthermore if our reality was actually a lot better than we were expecting then disappointment decreases its hold on our existence. The main time we get submerged in large amounts of disappointment is when we are expecting something to go one way but for some reason or another, we find that in reality, this didn’t happen.  

Now, this doesn’t mean that we should always expect the worst. It’s important to...

The definition of resilience is sometimes hard to pin down. It is often thought of as the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity but as you will see, it is not that simple.

Does one think that an individual who goes through a trauma and returns to work the next day is more resilient than the individual who goes through a similar trauma, suffers with PTSD and has 6 months of therapy but then returns back to work? Both individuals have bounced back, but one took a little longer, and that’s fine. The question is whether we can maximise our ‘springiness’  when it comes to bouncing back.

Two important days are recognised in June that are relevant to this discussion. The first of which occurs in the USA on June 4th is ‘National Hug Your Cat’ day and the second is June 8th, which is ‘International Best friends day’. While they add a little chuckle as we search for a feline friend to cuddle the important point is that friendships are...

21 Employee Wellbeing Questions and Answers for 2021

We’re championing #MentalHealthAwarenessYear, to sustain our focus to become happier, healthier and more productive.

We’ve gathered the 21 most commonly asked employee wellbeing questions asked by HR Directors, wellbeing leads and business owners and will be answering one a week.

Question 1 - How can I make sure that colleagues are not overworking to help reduce stress levels?

When we worked in an office there was a natural divide between home and work. Whether you love or hate the office commute, it created a natural separation. Then, as we all worked from home, the lines between home-life and work-life were blurred. 

Were we working from home or sleeping in the office? Many worked longer days and responded to late-night emails. There was simply no obvious ‘Trumpian’ way to “build the wall!”

Job insecurity increased as people were furloughed, reducing costs to protect the...

The IQ test, or intelligence quotient, was first invented in 1904 and was for many years widely regarded as the measure of how successful a person will become in the future.  However, more recently researchers have worked towards understanding the emotional quotient  (EQ) and its effect on our future successes and failures.   

The notion was that in general, those with higher IQ’s are successful and tend to earn a better salary, however that doesn't paint the entire picture.  

Emotional intelligence is a composite of multiple skills. From understanding your emotions 'self awareness', being able to manage your emotions 'self regulation',  wanting to change 'motivation', being able to 'empathise' with others, and ultimately improving your 'social skills'. 

This unique combination of attributes, when considered together, provides for a well-rounded individual that is able to manage and lead at the highest level. ...

This week we recognise Mental Health Awareness once again and as we attempt to push Covid-19 into the rear-view mirror of our lives we ask, how do we get back on the road to making a full recovery?

We all recognise that while we initially thought the disruption to our lives was going to be a steep hill, it soon emerged that it was more like climbing Everest. However, with that in mind what steps can we apply to support our mental health as we journey into the next chapter of life after lockdown.  

Zubin & Spring (1977) suggested 4 main factors that make us susceptible to suffering with poor mental health.  These were: 1) Genetics, 2) Childhood experiences, 3) Environment, 4) Lifestyle factors.    

Obviously as you go through that list it is obvious that you aren’t able to alter your genetics or your childhood and thus you’re only able to control your environment and your lifestyle factors.

So what can we do about lifestyle factors?

We often get told that mindfulness is a hard skill to learn, especially when trying to combat stress.  And yes, we completely agree.  In times of high stress it's really difficult to commit to learning a new skill to cope and deal with that stress. 

Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and needed a filling in your tooth.  You go to the dentist and say: “What brushing and flossing can I do to sort this out?”  

The dentist looks at you puzzled and replies “the brushing and flossing is designed to help you avoid needing a filling rather than fixing one”

The point here is that healthy habits are designed to keep you well. Instead, humans have a tendency to de-prioritise healthy habits until something is broken. 

In the example of mindfulness the research shows that mindfulness practices help to calm our mind, ease stress and anxiety and over time literally change the size and shape of certain areas of our brain...

Throughout our day we make 1000’s of decisions both consciously and subconsciously. When it comes to understanding willpower we have things that we would like to be doing and things that we definitely want to stop doing. In terms of willpower we can divide these into ‘will’-power challenges and ‘won’t’-power challenges.   For example, if you want to limit eating junk food or stop watching so much TV, these would be termed won’t-power challenges.  On the other hand if you want to exercise or floss your teeth everyday these would be will-power challenges.  

So the first step in your willpower success is to divide these mentally into things that you want to be doing and things that you want to stop doing.  With this list divided appropriately, you can then start the process towards change.

Willpower is a muscle:  If you think of willpower as a muscle the more willpower press-ups you do the...

So we’ve all made it through the first quarter of 2021 and can see the sunrise of a new world balance, emerging between homelife and worklife. In that regard, we have to start planning new routines as the old ones fall away….

For some, lockdown was a significant challenge and for others it was a blessing. However, as there are glimmers in the distance of the office-cogs starting to rotate, how do we maintain some of the great work that you have put in and avoid falling back into old habits?

Previously, we discussed that habits were formed by 3 R’s - Reminder, Routine and Reward.  This habit formation principle is at the foundation of every established willpower challenge in your life.  Each is likely to have a reminder for you to do something (or not do something) and once accomplished some type of reward. 

So for those of you who are concerned with a new working routine and considering the possibility of hybrid working (half at home and half in the...