Geeta

Every individual can innovate. Innovation simply means having an imaginative mindset that is curious to come up with new ideas. The term innovation is not limited to businesses alone. An innovative mind is continually looking at ways to test and implement ideas, giving rise to certain cognitive and behavioral stimulation.  Most times individuals refrain from exploring new ideas because of the sheer belief that they believe the idea won’t change the world. That is not the right way to look at things. Our ideas don’t necessarily need to have a major impact on our surroundings. What it needs to do is – to be able to satisfy our unmet needs.

Developing an innovative mind needs a shift in your mindset and creating that helps to override anything that is holding you back from stimulating your senses.  This exercise corelates to many phrases you hear in your daily life – ‘think out of the box’, ‘get creative’, ‘explore the unimaginable’. Don’t let these phrases intimidate you or over power your urge to add new skills or try out new activities. If you keep doing the same things, you will have to expect the same results. Change in the outcome, requires a sustainable change in the inputs as well.

Once you have successfully developed your mindset, it then becomes easy to follow your mind in achieving milestones or goals that you set for yourself.  Ticking off goals from your checklist is another way to keep motivating yourself to do more and achieve more. Just like you have KPIs at your workplace or a checklist to run home errands, the time to create your personal list is NOW! You can read more on the three best practices to foster a long-term ‘innovation mindset’ in a remote-first future.

Learn a new language

Start by taking smaller steps. Say for example you have always wanted to learn a new language and completing the entire course seems daunting. Here you can divide the course and set smaller milestones and celebrate achieving them along the way. Slowly, the motivation will keep you at it and give you the push to complete the course.

If you need to up your vocabulary or find creative ways of using the language, I would recommend you start reading books in that language or watch series on OTT platforms with subtitles on. Immersing yourself in the language and continuously exposing yourself helps you improve your vocabulary.  If you are working on your English language skills, I would suggest you get the ‘The Magic of Metaphor’ from my personal favorites to practice your speech giving and articulation skills. You can also find more book recommendations here.

Upgrade your skills

Another daily example is a mundane task at work that you have always felt the need to outsource, because you do not know how to do it. For eg:  you are great at developing sales presentations but always need help with putting your ideas creatively in a PPT format. As much as it is okay to outsource work, you can always decide to upskill and learn the basics of putting your presentation together. Slowly you can keep experimenting with all the options you have available and try to incorporate to see what works and what doesn’t. Google does an excellent job at tutoring and providing skills if you wish to upskill.

Brain Training

Innovation happens from Inside Out. Just like physical fitness is essential for the body, mental fitness is essential for optimum functioning of your brain. Keep it occupied with trying to solve puzzles, exploring new roads during your commute to work. Using your less used hand (For eg: if you are right-handed, using your left hand) also activates your brain cells and works towards developing your memory and memory retention.

You can start with simple activities that do not need you to make drastic changes to your lifestyle suddenly. It is all about the consequence of a changing mindset. This plays a major role in magically finding creative ways around all the barriers created during the journey and subsequently learning to deal with change.

Another interesting tip to note is when you fire new and less used areas of your brains, in small steps it still feels safe and it wires new connection network which is needed to improve our cognitive and problem-solving skills.

We all know that communication is extremely crucial whether it is in your personal life or professional. Effective and clear communication will allow you to create a happy  environment at the workplace as well as at home, help you promote wellness in the workplace  and your personal life, and enable you to better deal with stress as it can avoid a great deal of conflict that more often than not arises from ambiguous, unclear communication.

Communication is most effective when there is shared understanding. Many times we take this for granted. We assume the opposite person would understand an instruction/directive while actually they may require further clarity to deliver as per requirement.

I recall an instance of unclear communication that happened with me, and a common one at that. I asked a colleague to keep a certain report ready however, the following day, the report was not complete and work was still in progress. I questioned the co-worker and he said he took to another assignment presuming this report could wait. It was then that I realized I was not clear and concise in my instruction. I should have been specific with the deadline and stressed on the urgency of the task. This would have also allowed him to either negotiate the deadline or confirm it.

How to create a happy workplace with effective communication?

1. Provide constructive feedback regularly
   Without regular feedback, your team can be left feeling confused, demotivated and unsure about where they’re headed.
   
2. Create and discuss future plans for every team member
   Career advancement is important for every professional so if you want your team to be happy and productive, regularly communicate what prospects they have if they stay with your company.
   
3. Express gratitude, faith and confidence
   Remember to always thank and appreciate your employees when they achieve certain targets and goals. And when they are unable to do so, tell them you have faith in them and the confidence that they can accomplish their goals with a little more uphill struggle.

How to deal with stress and How to promote wellness in the workplace using effective communication?

Stress is a contributing cause of depression, anxiety and many other mental health problems. While that may be fairly obvious, stress is also linked with physical health troubles issues like digestive conditions, insomnia, immune system disorders and even heart disease. Given the negative impact stress can have on your physical health, it’s worth paying close attention to any way you can reduce it.

Using the following tips will help you and others around you in dealing with stress and enable you to promote wellness in the workplace and eventually help you remain happy and healthy.

1. Good Communication Reduces and Prevents Stress Inducing Mistakes
   In a business environment, poor communication can cause a lot of stress. Whether it’s you receiving directions or giving directions to someone else, if work related expectations are not communicated effectively, it can lead to mistakes. This will lead to a delay in work and eventually unhappy clients and customers. All of which leads to stress.
   
   When mistakes at work need immediate attention and rectification, it has the team functioning on shorter deadlines with greater pressure. Often a lot of this kind of stress is avoidable if directions and requests were communicated effectively in the first place. With good communication, everyone knows what they are supposed to do and when.
   
   When the information flows from the boss to the team leader to the team to the minions, the last person doesn’t even know why they are doing  what they are told to do. When every member is enrolled in the importance and purpose of the work to be done, and once the work is done, to report back with a check to close the communication loop works wonders in effective communication and efficient work-flow.

2. Explore and express feelings
   Get in touch with your feelings.  Being aware of how you feel – whether it’s anxious, depressed or angry – is the first step to dealing with a stressful problem.  This means taking time out from work and family to be alone. It’s not always possible to avoid stress, but you can learn to cope with it better.  Expressing your feelings can dramatically reduce stress levels and enhance your own sense of well-being

3. Stick to the facts
   When under stress it is easy to distort problems, exaggerate the significance of an event or make sweeping generalizations.  When explaining an issue to someone, always be as specific and objective as you can.

4. Become an engaged listener
   People often focus on what they should say, but effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to communicate.

If dealing with stress through the pandemic and work style evolution has been tough for you, then visit my website to learn about the 5 techniques to reduce stress as well as other informative articles on health & wellness that help you look after your well-being despite being part of a challenging business environment.

As women we are also known for our multi-tasking abilities. You will find it amusing how our resumes are incomplete without the word ‘multi-tasker’. Whether at work or home, we are made to believe that we need this super power to excel in everything we do. As true as it is, we should ensure we are able to work on multiple tasks at a time, while being able to maintain a great balance. At periodic intervals we must also pause to analyse how productive and meaningful each of our tasks have been. Going with the flow is okay, but stop, pause and reflect is a good way to add greater meaning to all you do.

Recently as office, parks, schools have all come into our living rooms and only limited to screens, routines have not only gone for a toss but also interferes with our daily routines. It is okay to feel overwhelmed but what is not okay is to allow it to take a toll on your health. This is when you should setup boundaries and do so efficiently through communications. You can read here to know Has The Pandemic Actually Helped Women Find That Elusive Work-Life Balance?  Effective communications are not limited to just a co-worker or friend. One should freely communicate with family members, children, caregivers etc with an intent to set clear expectations.

Patience is virtue

Work

With daunting deadlines and limited work hours, we are always in a rush and often impatient. Most often than ever we have no patience to completely explain and convey our views and tasks to our colleagues, subordinates and superior. We are always under the assumption that we have clearly communicated and later frown upon when our expectations are not met. It is okay to assume a shared understanding when a rapport is built and you are able to see through each other’s work. Allow creative freedom and be sensitive while giving feedback. Patience plays a very important role as you take time to understand each other an make a genuine effort to convey the right message.

Home

You have had a bad day at work and expect everything at home to go smoothly. This is not possible always. Not everyone at home understands how your day has been at work. You have to understand that children will behave a certain way not knowing what you have gone through. Similar with your spouse or a child’s care giver. Everybody carries their day into the evening and it is advisable to be patient and give each one a fair chance before shouting or being rude for any actions.

Clear Comms

Work

It is very important to put yourself in each team member’s shoes and understand their strengths and weakness and communicate accordingly. For eg, if there is someone who would understand something better visually, put in that effort to make him / her comfortable and explain to them. Your team member will not only acknowledge your efforts but also be extra motivated to give his/ her best.

Be sure on specifying the timeframe you would like to receive the information in. Mentioning vague terms like ‘as soon as possible’, ‘end of day’ not only decreases efficiency but also drives an unclear conversation. These terms mean different to different work cultures and environments and may not steer a clear indication on when it is expected.

Another example for an improper brief is while you shoot out a message on a group chat on WhatsApp saying you want some research statistics on the recent government policies for starting up new business with a hours’ time.  Your team will get you their respective information and present it. Some will get the industry wrong; some will get the country wrong; some will not know how recent you need the information from. That is why it is very important to structure your brief in a clear and concise manner and get everyone to repeat what their understanding of the brief is. This will help in getting not only the relevant information but also saves a lot of time going back and forth.

Home

Similar considerations to make while at home. Children often are playful and don’t necessarily adhere to timelines, specially if they are vague. Set clear timelines and routines in order to help your kids settle into their day in your absence. Setting routines help a lot. Once you are back home, they know exactly when it is time to play with mom and when she needs a bit of her own space. What also helps here is a clear rewards system, while you enjoy your me-time to unwind and re-energize. You can look up for some exercises to do in your free time here.

In all of the above, communication plays a clear role and leaves you with a happy family and motivated team members. What’s more important is that the happy surrounding will leave you with a happier self which is crucial to begin the next day with positive and renewed energy.  

Most people feel perplexed when it comes to striking a balance between their personal and professional lives. The entire process relies on an individual’s goal setting and time management game. If one knows what they want in life, and how to manage time in a way that it catalyses the process of achieving what they want, the next steps of maintaining the perfect work life balance become easier. It is  because you’re focused,  more organized and better prepared in dealing with stress and other challenges.

I strongly believe that goals are the fuel that drive your ambition and teach you to pursue your dreams. Read this blog on the importance of work-life balance to understand why you need to create a balance before I go on to ‘how’.

Having a definite set of goals not only allows you to manage your time efficiently but also helps you to prioritize your work in such a way that you meet your targets. And when you learn to prioritise, you will find that maintaining work-life balance becomes easier.

Now although the term work–life balance is widely employed, an agreed definition of this term has proved elusive. So what really is work-life balance?

In your professional life, you obviously ought to dedicate time to your work, building skills and qualities that support your career development, networking and learning. In your personal life, you have to spare time for yourself, your family, friends and your hobbies. You also need to devote time to society. Like, how do you plan to give back to the community? – Because after all, we’re all social creatures. I strongly believe in the value system and believe it is the root of our tree of life. Let me give you an example here – children learn from us and as a mother, I have the power to inculcate kindness and show them the joy of giving.

I often get them to participate in a clothes collection drive where my children and their friends put together a package of pre-loved clothes that can be used by kids at an orphanage. This act allows them to feel compassion and the sheer happiness that comes from giving. Now things like these can take a lot of time (learning how to manage time is more important than you can imagine), energy and effort from you and certainly but it’s well worth it. And it’s much stronger and impactful than any textbooks.

So once you have the roots in place – like holding on to values such as empathy, compassion, being truthful, helpful, respectful and kind, you can start building your goals and targets in all the different spheres of life. And it is target-setting that will teach you how to manage time effectively and eventually enable you to strike a balance between your work and personal life.

To begin, rate the various aspects of your life in order of importance and then chalk out a plan on how to manage time in accordance with that so you can give a little of yourself to every fragment of your life. Here are some time management tips that, according to me, are highly effective and can teach you how to manage time successfully.

1. Start each day with a plan: Spend the first 30 minutes of each day, determining how you will spend the rest of it. Make a to-do list on your phone or use the old-fashioned pen and paper list. Your plan should prioritize action items and estimate how long each item will take you.
2. Shut out the distractions: One hugely problematic result of 24/7 connectivity is the constant receptivity to distractions. Perhaps you’re finally getting somewhere on that report you’ve been putting off. But then you receive a Facebook notification, and, oh look, somebody’s friending you! Many of us have come to believe that by blocking these distractions we are missing out on something important. That is rarely the case. Whatever you’re missing will be waiting for you when your work assignments are finished.
3. Make note of where your time is going: Do you have any idea how much of your day is spent on tea/coffee breaks? Now that we’re all working from home, we have the liberty to indulge in a quick nap or a longer-than-usual coffee break. Keep track of  all the unimportant activities you do during the time meant for more important things and strike t
4. Learn to delegate: If you want to have a life beyond work, don’t insist on doing everything yourself. With time, I’ve come to realize that a lot of us hate letting go of control. Maybe we believe that if we want something done right, we have to do it ourselves. But guide your subordinates and learn the art of delegation. Delegating takes getting used to but it has many advantages for managers and their employees alike. Remember that delegation is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of leadership.

You must know that none of what I’m saying is easy. We are slaves of habits, and easily fall back into the usual routine that keeps us feeling overwhelmed. But it is ever so important to take time off to slot all the different important aspects of your life because that goes a great way in helping with creating the right work life balance.

If you have been scuffling with setting the right goals, managing your time and maintaining work-life balance, or are facing any other issues that you believe may be hindering your growth, visit my website to book a coaching session with me. The session will offer you guidance on how to break vocational barriers and grow exponentially on the professional front.

During the course of my career as an ontological and wellness coach, I have come across a few people who don’t really believe in target setting. Perhaps, they are intimidated by the term ‘target setting’ because it can send your brain into a frenzy. It may make one feel overwhelmed about the goals they have to achieve, so they would rather choose to have no set goals and or direction and just go with the flow.

Now this is a natural reaction. Everyone loves to progress; however, we tend to procrastinate where there is fear of failure and the fear of being judged by others. We constantly reel under the apprehensions of ‘what will people think of us?’ or ‘will they laugh at us?’ But it’s so important to first understand and accept that nobody really focuses on these aspects because they’re all involved in their own lives dealing with their own trials and tribulations.

The next important factor is to ensure you have a set of goals and targets and to achieve them you must be ready to reinvent yourself! Become a new, improved version of yourself – call it the smart version 2.0 of you, if you must. This process will entail a great deal of self-discipline, self-confidence and self-belief. If you want to progress and move into leadership roles, possessing these qualities is utterly crucial. Self-discipline plays an important role in leadership development because many forms of personal development require self-discipline. It is instrumental in enabling you to sharpen your willpower and decision making skills along with building several other leadership qualities.

Along with self-discipline, there are several other things you can do to become a smarter version of yourself. Read them in this very insightful piece here.

Setting targets gives you a sense of control. Personally, I would always like to take that pause, take a step back, audit and amend. As you turn to the new, smarter version of yourself, audit your life, audit your habits, analyze how to manage time effectively, how to deal with stress, what is working well, where you can find better opportunities and where you failed. After all failure can be described as an opportunity to learn from and do better. It certainly is a tough lesson and it can come with a big cost, but the brighter side of it is you learn not to make the same mistakes again and the clever part is to accept, understand, move on and embrace change. Of course, dealing with change also takes a lot of effort. But if it’s the right kind of change, it keeps you in that positive space and this positive space is needed for not only progressing in life, trying out new things, or experimenting in life, it also helps you in facing your fears and in dealing with stress. I think it is the best success formula.

Setting targets also gives you a sense of direction. If you do not start with a target or a goal in mind, how do you know where you’re heading? It’s like having a roadmap to your journey. Make sure you make the journey worthwhile and fulfilling because you can be stressed and anxious and still achieve your targets and be deemed as being successful but if you lead a stressful, unhappy life it will definitely affect your lifestyle and your physical and mental well-being.

So if you want to be a smarter version of you, my take would be, to start with a focus a goal in mind. And for that much like you happily do the appraisals that your organization plans for you, do a 360-degree appraisal of yourself. Do it for your professional life, for your personal life, understand how to manage time and how to deal with stress. Rate yourself on a scale from 0 to 10, on where you stand in terms of your eating habits, your physical fitness, how good or bad you are at dealing with problems, dealing with stress and dealing with change. Evaluate what Zen steps or mindfulness activities you are following, rate your relationship with your family – your children, your spouse, your parents, and the people around you – your colleagues, friends, et al. I strongly believe taking time off to introspect will help you form these targets and once you have a target in mind, you can focus on the path ahead. Furthermore, in this path when you construct failures as opportunities, fears as an excitement to try something new, you become more enthusiastic in life, and you suddenly start feeling confident. Honestly, this has nothing to do with you having achieved your targets in real, it just becomes a part of how you are and how you feel – your outlook towards life, work and challenges changes – and that is how you become a new, 2.0 version of yourself.

Once you fixate your mind on transforming yourself into a better, smarter version of yourself, you can grab a read on ‘How to invest one hour of your time to create a successful you’ on my website. This resource will teach you how to use one hour every day to help you manage your energy for the day and bring back the zest in your life.

Stress and Chaotic Work Life

At some point in time, you would all have felt the pressure of an upcoming office deadline after an already chaotic day. Teamwork is challenged further with work-from-home and the resultant break in effective communication with your colleagues. The blurred and stretchable work time does not make it any easy. A little pressure is normal, but if it persists, it can wreak havoc psychologically and physiologically. I say this because one takes stress for granted, becoming a good habit. The result, however, affects your physical health and mental wellness. Your body does give signals which you often tend to ignore, again because of habit.

Owing to the excessive pressure and demands you bring on yourself, stress and mental fatigue have become a growing concern in organizations today. How do you define extreme pressure? How do you handle stress? Have you noticed your body crying for help sometimes? Can you relate it to stress?

Stress is Not Always Negative

Stress can also bring out the best in you. It helps you be alert and achieve in life. However, in most cases, when you think you cannot control stress at work and home, it eventually leads to lifestyle diseases. Some lifestyle diseases are elevated blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, sleep disorder, and maybe niggling problems like prolonged headaches for no apparent reason. It can even impair cognitive ability, affecting your overall efficiency.

Anyone who’s worked themselves to the point of burnout will relate to these symptoms, as I did at one point. I was getting headaches lasting for two to three days, my blood pressure was high, and my digestive system went for a full toss. But I was in denial. How can this happen to me, being a super achiever, organized, calm, and focused at work? Do you see the irony? I couldn’t connect nor listen to my body.

Lifestyle Diseases

When you live 24/7 in stress, it starts eating into your physical health and body and affects your mental health. Let me introduce you to some lifestyle diseases. It starts right from unhealthy eating habits. Maybe sugar or caffeine abuse. You can see a possible weight gain. You may suffer from PCOD and other period-related issues. Early signs of diabetes, uncontrolled blood pressure, heart issues, migraine, common cold, aches and pains, fatigue, sleep disorder, lack of enthusiasm, digestive problems, food intolerances, thyroid issues, and autoimmune diseases like Arthritis and Cancer, to state a few. The good news is they are reversible, subject to how you handle stress. I have the following website to further validate the claim and for your reading pleasure.

https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2014/stress-and-disease.html

Women Work Twice as Hard

It may be debatable, but I believe women have to work twice as hard as men in several aspects of life, ranging from personal to professional, to sustain themselves in a world full of competition and stress. Women wear multiple hats and have to acquire the skill to juggle them successfully. You want to be seen as strong and confident but often undervalue yourself, costing your self-esteem. It can lead to resentment and a sense of helplessness.

Step Back, and Magic Happens

Once you learn to step back, pause and introspect, magic happens. Women adopt certain behaviours due to conditioning over generations. When you were young, your mothers unconsciously led you to believe that you must maintain a demure image and not argue, fight or talk too loud. Some types of jobs were not considered a good fit. You grow up accepting many ‘inequalities’ or have to work hard and fight against such ‘norms.’

Using Your Unique Strength

Although men have different qualities than women, both important and useful, you bring your unique attributes to work, to this world, society, and your family. Learn to focus on and use your strengths and accept what is not yours.

You can be fantastic nurturers, being emotionally stronger. You are likely to have better focus and attention to detail, an excellent manager skill to possess. It helps to be aware, accept, and focus on your uniqueness and derive your strength rather than complain or live in resentment.

How to Live the Change

Now that you recognize the problems and pitfalls, you want to change. But the how part is challenging. Often, all it takes is physically taking a step back, inhaling a deep breath, and exhaling it out slowly. Sounds easy, yet it is potent. These few seconds are enough to allow your brain to move from its default 24/7 ‘stress’ mode to open a ‘creative’ window. All the solutions are within you, right there in the creative side of your brain. This method of stepping back and observing yourself is a practical first step.

What Other Tools Help Access Your Creative Side?

You will need to slow down at times. Slow down the pace of your talk, the speed of your walk. Slow down and give yourself some ‘Me Time and Me Space’ once in a while. Acknowledge your effort now and then. If you don’t pace yourself, take a pause, validate yourselves, how can you add value to others, be it in your personal or professional life?

Friends add significant value to your life. Share your feelings not only with your spouse, share with your friends as well.  You can even bitch a little and laugh our heads off.  Like I always say, learn to let go, to forgive. Forgiveness is only complete when you forgive and forget. It allows the enormous burden off our shoulders.

Looking for Positive Aspects

Looking for and focusing on even the slightest positive aspect in your spouse, your children and appreciating them is also a great team-building tool, a step forward to building that solid trust. All these steps help in your confidence building, define your boundary better, and make it easier to say ‘No’ when needed. It boosts your self-esteem, your image, and self-worth. Since stress is not going to disappear, it helps you handle stress with ease.

The more you exercise these mindfulness practices, the more you will access your creative brain and find that perfect balance. It helps you choose, from resentment and stress to happiness and excitement, seeking opportunities in challenges.  As a result, you blossom into a strong, confident woman with abundant energy, sharing that happiness while nurturing others while you find success in whatever you seek. Coming back to lifestyle diseases, it is at this point reversal starts to happen, towards a healthy body and healthy mind.

I recommend the simple stress-buster activities in my 5 Daily Exercises for Women guide available on the resources page on my website. Visit the link to download it for free now!