| | Pregame
Speech (February 2006)Thoughts, stories, examples
and ideas on challenging your team to perform at their highest level possible.
The
Mouse Trap
By Author Unknown
A mouse looked through the crack in
the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
What food might
this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was
a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There
is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The
chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can
tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot
be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There
is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig
sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing
I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The
mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There
is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry
for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to
the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That
very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap
catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness,
she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake
bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned
home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken
soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with
her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The
farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral;
the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't
concern you, remember - when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are
all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another
and make an extra effort to encourage and help
one another.
QUOTES
for YOUR MONTH:
"Help
someone who can't return the favor." Author Unknown
"The more
I help others to succeed, the more I succeed." Ray Kroc
"It
is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely
try to help another without helping himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Never
look down on anybody unless you helping him up." Jesse Jackson
"One
kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark
of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too
poor to be of service. Think of this and act." Hannah More
"Look
up and not down. Look forward and not back. Look out and not in, and lend a hand."
Edward
Everett Hale
Happiness
Cures Stress
We have all heard that 'laughter is the best medicine',
'smiling is contagious', and that 'happiness heals stress'...but does happiness
really have such a big influence on our productivity, wellbeing and stress levels?
In a word...Yes!
A new study suggests that 'People who are happier
in their daily lives have healthier levels of key body chemicals than those who
muster few positive feelings. This means happier people may have healthier hearts
and cardiovascular systems, possibly cutting their risk of diseases like diabetes'
[1]
What's more, research has also found that when you are feeling happy,
your cortisol levels are lower (high cortisol levels are often associated with
high stress levels) and your blood levels of fibrinogen (This molecule makes blood
"sticky" and is vital in the clotting process, but high concentrations
can signal future coronary heart disease problems) is also lower. [1]
Staff
who are consistently unhappy are hindering their own productivity, reducing their
working stamina, and creating stress for themselves.
Is your workforce
happy?
Think about your own work, what percentage of your working day
do you feel 'happy'? I am not talking about jumping around bursting with joy as
if you won the lottery, but I simply mean how much of your day do you enjoy compared
to 'get through' or 'put up with'? Julian
Kalmar, from the 'Happiness Formula' [2], found that over a billion (1,000,000,000)
people
in this world aren't as happy as they could be? That staggering number has nothing
to do with living in a third-world country either.
Here's the reason...
Do you remember your parents teaching you the methods for creating happiness?
What about all those hours your teachers spent teaching you the precise actions
needed to become happy? Doesn't sound familiar, does it?
The irony of
education is that it was meant to give you tools for living well, yet no one taught
us happiness skills. We spent years in school studying subjects we ended up never
using, yet not one minute was spent learning the methods for creating happiness.
The very skill we could use every day of our lives isn't even taught!
What
an incredible oversight!
On average, we spend about one-third of our lives
at work. De-prioritising feeling happy at work and focusing solely on getting
the work done will leave people feeling resentful, changing jobs, burnout out,
or worse - they will stay, but only be half as productive as they could be.
So, how do you bring more happiness to work?
Here is my take on one
method...
Every Saturday I take my 2 year old (Zack) and 4 year old (Raphael)
boys shopping at a busy
fruit market. My boys both wanted to touch all the
different fruit and help put things into the trolley (even the stuff we didn't
need) and I was trying to fulfil my shopping list. With a bag in one hand, I try
to direct Raphael, with my other hand, to grab a few tomatoes, whilst trying to
stop Zack (who is in the trolley) from standing on the watermelon.
At
that moment, as Zack is trying to make fruit punch, an elderly man walks up to
me and decides to tell me all about his morning. He doesn't seem to notice that
I am trying to co-ordinate two boys and shopping. He tells me that he has been
married for over 60 years and that his wife, who is 92, is waiting for him to
return so he can cook her breakfast...and then he went on to tell me how much
he loves his wifeand that they have 5 great grandchildren...and on he went.
I was so busy trying to coordinate my shopping and kids that I almost missed
what this man was saying to me...I almost didn't missed this fleeting moment to
connect with this man. So I gathered the kids, and put my agenda on hold for a
few minutes, and just listened to him.
It really made his day that someone
stopped and listened. You could see the happiness in his face as his detailed
the day ahead of him and the glory years behind him. I haven't seen him around
for a few weeks now. How
many moments have you missed to experience some happiness, connect with someone,
share a laugh, or talk about a win you've had?
ACTION
STEPS: 1.
Catch those moments with the colleagues, clients and customers each day. Happiness
can come in small unexpected opportunities.
Jeremy Samuel, from www.thelaughingcompany.com,
believes that "A quiet revolution has been taking place over the past few
decades. Serious psychologists are now talking about the power of "positive
psychology" to help people build happier, more authentic lives. Best selling
books are emerging on the power of intention and our ability to create the life
we desire. Some enlightened companies have even begun to train their executives
and staff in using humour"
We need to 'loosen up' a little more and
bring more natural joy and happiness into our work by not taking ourselves so
seriously. Be open to finding pockets of joy by allowing ourselves to
indulge
in fun activities.
Life is not just serious work.
There needs to be
more.
Loosen up and find pockets of joy in other aspects on your life.
2.
Small Wins - Big Success
Everyone likes to win, and feel the joy of succeeding
at something. Chunk down your day's activities into smaller 'tasks' that you can
feel some sense of accomplishment with.
Reward yourself, and your team,
for their small wins - not just the big ones.
More happiness comes when
you get a sense that you are achieving and moving forward in your life.
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