When was the last time you were so absorbed in your work, your art, or whatever gives your life meaning that you hardly wanted to stop? Maybe you were writing, painting, or speaking. Maybe you were simply moving through a workday, fully engaged and enjoying...
For more than 25 years, I've had the privilege of bringing people together to learn, grow, and create healthier workplaces and lives. When I founded Canada's Health Work & Wellness Conference, I had the opportunity to welcome internationally recognized experts from around the world and...
Not long ago, I was working with a leader who came to me frustrated and discouraged. His team was stuck. Performance was lagging & tension was high. I’m sure we’ve all been in these situations where the impulse is to push harder, faster, and to...
How many times have you heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? Sure, adversity can build strength—(believe me!)—but learning the hard way isn’t the only way. We can also get stronger in a more enjoyable way—by choosing something we care about and practicing...
When I launched the very first Health Work & Wellness Conference, I wasn’t trying to become an event professional—I was solving a need. At the time, I was managing Workplace Wellness for an organization of 10,000 employees, and there wasn’t a single conference in Canada...
In my first management job, years ago, I reported to a director who used to call me at 5:30 p.m. and say, “This is your job, not your life, go home now!” That was abnormal, even back then. As Brigid Schulte, in HBR article, You...
Firmly ingrained in our culture is this expectation that we need to work ourselves to a point of exhaustion and burnout. The pressure is there both internally and externally to constantly prove our self-worth. The unconscious belief is that being busy all the time and...
In a recent yoga class, the instructor asked, “Is your practice in line with your energy today?” In other words, was I pushing too hard, or not hard enough? I was low energy that day. Tired. It was good advice because it’s easy to push yourself too...
I’ve been talking with a lot of workplace groups lately about this one leadership skill. It is the ability to overcome the negativity bias we all have, and thereby increase our positive emotion. Why? Because as the ratio of positive to negative emotions increases beyond 3:1,...
“The most important determinant of people’s work experience is the culture of the organization. People’s most immediate culture is their team.” Dr. Michael West, Europe’s leading expert on healthcare leadership Most people I talk to say their organization’s culture could use some work. Some might even use...