Tag Archives: Work

Curiosity: A laboratory to the inquiring mind

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Merriam Webster defines curiosity as a desire to know, an inquisitive interest in others’ concerns, an interest leading to inquiry and intellectual curiosity.

Curiosity is the desire to learn, to understand new things, and to know how they work. As children, we are naturally curious, born with the impulse to seek new information and experiences. As we age and gain more experience, we become less reliant on curiosity for answers and more reliant on knowledge. Curiosity gives way to comfort and certainty. Curiosity can be seen manifesting itself in geniuses, because they are inherently always curious, leading to the discoveries attributed to them. Curiosity is not only important for those with high IQs, but successful people across all walks of life often display a good measure of curiosity. Curiosity is the expression of the urge to learn and acquire facts and knowledge. It widens the mind and opens it to different opinions, different lifestyles and different topics.

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Curiosity can manifest in many ways, as the desire to read the gossip columns or watch reality shows on TV, or as the desire to know about people and their lives. It can also manifest as the desire to accumulate knowledge about science, geography or other topics, or as the urge to know how to fix things. Curious people ask questions, read and explore. They are active about seeking information or experience, and are willing to meet challenges and to broaden their horizons. They are not shy to ask questions and delve deeply into the topic that interests them.

Curiosity throughout adulthood requires approaching experiences with the open-mindedness and naivete of a child. Buddhists call this the Beginner’s Mind. Curiosity pushes people toward uncertainty and allows them to approach it with a positive attitude. Empathy, creativity, innovation, and the ability to learn quickly all spring from curiosity. Curiosity lacks an agenda or desire to drive a specific outcome, which means it can open you up to experiences you never thought were possible. This is how ground-breaking discoveries are made, markets are disrupted, and barriers are overcome.

While curiosity comes naturally to some, many adults must develop it, and just like any other skill or habit, it takes practice. According to experts, to live a curiosity-driven life, an individual must commit to being vigilant about looking for what’s piquing their curiosity and to follow what is interesting to a person, even if that interest is faint at first. Curiosity is not only linked to success because it leads to creativity and discoveries, it also helps to develop meaningful relationships that enrich personal and professional lives. When curiosity leads conversations, it opens up possibilities, letting people establish deeper, more meaningful relationships because the interactions then moves towards discovering others, rather than using them to fulfil an agenda.

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But why is curiosity so important? Here are some reasons

Curiosity makes your mind active instead of passive. Curious people always ask questions and search for answers. Their minds are always active. Since the mind is like a muscle that becomes stronger through continual exercise, mental exercise caused by curiosity makes the mind stronger and stronger.

Curiosity makes the mind observant of new ideas. When an individual is curious about something, their mind expects and anticipates new ideas related to the subject. When the ideas come they will recognise them and without curiosity, the ideas may pass right in front of them and yet they miss them because their mind is not prepared to recognise them.

Curiosity opens up new worlds and possibilities. By being curious, an individual will be able to see new worlds and possibilities that are normally not visible, which are hidden behind the surface of normal life, and it takes a curious mind to look beneath the surface and discover them.

Curiosity brings excitement to life. The lives of curious people are far from boring and are neither dull nor routine with new things always on the horizon that attracts the curious person’s attention. Instead of being bored, curious people have an adventurous life. Curiosity is important for excelling in any job and doing it better because it allows an individual to ask questions, learn from others, and look for ways to do their job better. The minds of curious people are active, they want to know and to understand which puts them in a better position to learn a job and do it better and more creatively, unlike a person who lacks curiosity. When curious people fail, they analyse their failure, because they are keen on knowing the reasons, to do better the next time, increasing future successes.

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So how do we build this muscle?

Keep an open mind: An open mind is essential to have a curious mind. Be open to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Some things you know and believe might be wrong, and one should be prepared to accept this possibility and change their minds.

Don’t take things at face value: If one just accepts the world as it is without trying to dig deeper, they will certainly lose the holy curiosity. Never take things at face value and try to dig deeper beneath the surface of what is around them.

Ask questions relentlessly: A sure way to dig deeper beneath the surface is asking questions. The five Ws and one H of Who, Why, When, What, Where and How are the best friends of curious people.

Don’t label something as boring: Whenever one labels something as boring, they close one more door of possibilities. Curious people are unlikely to call something boring. Instead, they always see it as a door to an exciting new world. Even if they don’t yet have time to explore it, they will leave the door open to be visited another time.

See learning as something fun: If one sees learning as a burden, there’s no way they will want to dig deeper into anything, and will just make the burden heavier. But if they think of learning as something fun, they will naturally want to dig deeper. So the lesson here is to look at life through the glasses of fun and excitement and enjoy the learning process.

Have diversity in your reading: Don’t spend too much time in just one world; take a look at other worlds, it will introduce an individual to the possibilities and excitement of the other worlds which may spark their interest to explore them further. One easy way to do this is by reading diverse genres and topics. The easiest way to do this is to pick a book or magazine on a new subject and let it feed the mind with the excitement of a new world.

Be Present: Don’t enter a conversation with the mind somewhere else or be focused on where you want the conversation to go. Be aware of thoughts drifting, and bring them back to the present, staying fully engaged with the person in front of you. Look at each interaction as an opportunity to learn something fascinating.

Give: Give others your full attention, give them an authenticity and give them time. When one shifts their focus from what they can get from a person to what they can give them, their relationship shifts from transactional to genuine.

Check Your Ego: A person’s ego can destroy curiosity because it fears insecurity. Curiosity requires embracing and exploring the unknown, which triggers insecurity. Don’t worry about how others will react to a person. Curiosity drives one to discover, not impress.

I will leave you to search more about this immensely interesting subject and allow you to flex your curiosity muscle with these TED Talks.

Unconscious Bias

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No matter how much we might not want to admit it, unconscious biases influence a vast majority of our decisions. This is due to the fact that our brains can consciously process 40 pieces of information per second, while we unconsciously process 11 million pieces. So, in order to keep up with all of the stimuli around us, we create mental shortcuts that ostensibly make decision-making easier. Unfortunately, many of these shortcuts do more harm than good. A Yale study found that when given the choice between two similar candidates, one from each sex, college faculty preferred hiring male candidates who they perceived to be more competent and worthy of commanding higher salaries. It didn’t matter whether faculty members were male or female; all were biased against women applicants.

Implicit biases or implicit stereotypes are the pre-reflective attributions of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out groups. They are thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Individuals’ perceptions and behaviours can be influenced by the implicit stereotypes they hold, even if they are sometimes unaware, they hold such stereotypes.

Unconscious or implicit bias is an aspect of implicit social cognition, the phenomenon that perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes can operate prior to conscious intention or endorsement. This bias was first defined by psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald in 1995 and its existence is supported by a variety of scientific articles in psychological literature.

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Unconscious biases are thought to be the product of associations learned through past experiences and can be activated by the environment and operate prior to a person’s intentional, conscious endorsement. For example, a person may unwittingly form a bias towards people of a certain race or country because of an unpleasant experience in the past, but the source of association may be misidentified, or even unknown. Here, the unconscious bias may manifest itself as someone being rude to a person of that race or country without actually understanding the reason behind the response. Unconscious bias can persist even when an individual rejects the bias explicitly. These biases can be both positive and negative, and influence the vast majority of our decisions by affecting our behaviour.

Unconscious bias offers a new explanation for why, despite equalities apparently being enshrined in law, society still looks so unfair. Many studies have confirmed the power of racial biases to shape everyday decisions in almost every aspect of life. Neuroscientists have uncovered brain regions involved in racial and gender stereotyping and shown that such stereotypes begin to form early in childhood. Recent work found that the brain responds more strongly to information about ethnic groups who are portrayed unfavourably, suggesting that the negative depiction of minorities in the media can fuel bias. Scientists believe that stereotypes in general serve a purpose because clustering people into groups with expected traits help us navigate the world without being overwhelmed by information. The downside is that the potential for prejudice is hard-wired into human cognition. The evidence is overwhelming that unconscious bias seeps into decisions that affect recruitment, access to healthcare and outcomes in criminal justice in ways that can disadvantage people from ethnic minorities. However, at the individual level, the extent to which such biases are internalised and acted on varies widely and in complex ways. Life experience, such as dating outside your racial group or having a boss from a minority group, can strongly protect against holding negative stereotypes. And there is dispute about the extent to which such biases are truly unconscious.

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There are many kinds of unconscious biases we use in our daily lives. Some of the common biases we encounter commonly include the gender bias which is more prevalent in office culture than one may like to admit and occurs when certain traits such as assertiveness or confidence are seen as negative in one gender, and positive in another. A negative gender bias usually leans to the side of women, which can cause the female employees of an office to feel less appreciated and less engaged. Companies that are influenced by gender bias can miss out on many opportunities because of this. The horn or halo effect is one of the most common examples of unconscious bias and occurs when someone’s performance or character is generalised based on just one trait or event. If the trait is a positive one, it’s called the halo effect, and if it’s a negative one, it’s called the horn effect. The similarity bias essentially states that we like working with people similar to us. This could be graduates from specific schools, people who have worked at certain companies, and more. A less common example of unconscious bias, the right-hand bias refers to aspects of the workplace being designed specifically for right-handed people. A well-known example of this was when YouTube first launched the video-upload feature for their app, 5-10% of videos were uploaded upside down. They had failed to take into account that left-handed people would hold their phones differently than right-handed people. This bias can make life more difficult for some people. Another common example of unconscious bias is confirmation bias which exists not only at work, but in everyday life as well. Confirmation bias occurs when we make a decision about something, then actively look for information that supports that decision, while also overlooking any opposing facts and viewpoints. Age bias occurs when assigning tasks to people based on their age. A common example would be a tech-heavy project – the unconscious bias may cause a manager to assume that a younger person would be more apt to handle this job as opposed to an older one. In this case, assuming ones experience or proficiency is based entirely on an opinion that isn’t backed up on fact is a perfect example of unconscious bias. After all, many older people are technologically savvy, so it would be unfair to assume they wouldn’t be right for the job.

If unconscious biases aren’t kept in check, organisations and the employees that power them might let these biases influence their decisions in a way that holds them back. These biases do not have to be permanent and while it is impossible to completely eradicate these biases, we can take steps to reduce the chance that our decisions are less influenced by these biases. So, what can we do to counter these biases, especially in a work environment?

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Learn what unconscious biases are. The first step of limiting the impact unconscious biases have is making sure everyone is aware that they exist. Assess which biases are most likely to affect you as an individual by taking tests like the Harvard’s Implicit Association Test to figure out which individual perceptions are most likely to be governed by unconscious biases. Armed with that information, one can take proactive steps to address them on a personal basis. Figure out where biases are likely to affect the organisation as biases tend to affect who gets hired, promoted, get raises and who gets what kind of work, among other things. By knowing where bias is most likely to creep in, management can take steps to ensure that biases are considered when important decisions are made in those areas. In order to make sure that unconscious biases don’t adversely impact hiring decisions, some big changes with respect to hiring would need to be made. Have diversity especially in upper management to have more minority voices so that everyone is represented and multiple viewpoints and voices heard. Encourage employees to speak up about biases because the more people are involved in a decision and the more transparent the decision-making process is, the less likely an organisation will be to be affected by unconscious biases. Creating a culture that encourages open dialogue will go a long way in making sure that when employees realise a decision might have been influenced by unconscious biases, they won’t be afraid to speak up and set the record straight. Hold employees accountable because actions speak louder than words. While someone should not be punished for making a decision influenced by unconscious biases, a track should be kept if such decisions are being made because of such biases. If data reveals bias, someone may need to intervene.

There are. If they aren’t addressed, they can be detrimental to a company. By recognizing them and actively working towards reducing their impact, you can ensure unconscious biases don’t negatively affect your decisions.

All of us are affected by unconscious biases and there are many examples of unconscious bias prevalent in the workplace. The sooner this reality is realised and proactive steps taken to actively working towards reducing their impact and overcome the biases, individuals and organisations become stronger and don’t let such unconscious biases negatively affect decisions.

So which unconscious bias are you guilty of harbouring? I’d love to hear in the comments.

Adaptability: The Simple Secret to Success and Survival

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Today’s world is fraught with risk and uncertainty, of risk and unstability. You just have to look at 2020 to see what I am talking about. Our world is constantly changing and we can’t remain as we were, because if we do, we run the risk of losing out.

According to the Cambridge English dictionary, Adaptability is an ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions. What this means is that you need to change or be willing to change yourself so as to adapt yourself to the different situations you will come across in life.

So why is adaptability so important today? I believe it is a life skill that if not innate, should be learnt and fast so that as an individual you are agile and are able to tackle any issues or problems in your life, be it at work or in your personal life. Actually we are constantly adapting. The easiest example I can think is in the kitchen. Sometimes you don’t have all the ingredients at hand while cooking, so we substitute ingredients, adapting in the process.

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Adaptability is not just about changing something or adjusting to a situation. It encompasses being able to effect changes in a course of action with smoothness and timeliness, without any major setbacks. For as long as there are many uncontrollable factors in our environment such as laws and economic factors, it is necessary to acquire this skill. It is one of the key skills or factors that keep many multinational companies running and the reason why some professionals are always in demand. This skill is important because as new technology evolves, employers are looking for employees who can demonstrate strong adaptability skills and become company leaders.

Adaptability in the workplace means being able to change in order to become successful. In the work environment, adaptability is a soft skill that refers to the ability to rapidly learn new skills and behaviours in response to evolving circumstances. Employers typically look for adaptability when hiring new staff, and the skill is increasingly included in job descriptions due to its importance for growth and development within a role. Someone who demonstrates adaptability in the workplace is flexible and is able to respond effectively to their working conditions, even in situations where things do not go as planned. They typically work well on their own and with team members. The need for adaptability in the workplace – to learn and unlearn – is crucial to future success.

People in leadership positions are often expected to manage unusual situations without explicit instruction. Therefore, an adaptable leader must be able to resolve problems in a fast-paced environment and trust their judgment when making tough decisions. However, at the same time, still recognising that what worked before may not necessarily work every time. So adaptability is a critical leadership skill and potential leaders need to be adaptable and flexible at all times to succeed.

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How important can being adaptable be? Well, the short answer is very, as it’s a skill that has no bounds in the ways it can be applied in the workplace. Being adaptable means working without boundaries, and being open to finding diverse and unexpected solutions to problems and challenges in the workplace. Without limitations on thinking and actions, challenges become something not to dread, but to seize and enjoy working through. An adaptable person gets to engage a variety of people with diverse skills to get the job done and builds broad networks of highly engaged and capable people. An adaptable person also becomes a better leader because such people know that change is inevitable and don’t shy from it and remain positive in the face of adversity, keeping their teams and employees focused and motivated through tough or lacklustre periods. Those who are adaptable and willing to change or shake up conventional ways of doing things will remain relevant throughout their working lives because they’re comfortable experimenting. Workplaces are changing faster than ever before, and if you’re not willing to constantly adapt, then expect to be left behind.

Everyone can all benefit from adaptability but, in an ever-changing world, it is particularly crucial for leaders. Leadership roles become more complex as you progress through an organisation, requiring more subtle influencing and persuading skills. Additionally, as a leader’s seniority increases, they must learn to empower, delegate, form strategic alliances and let go of some of the skills that enabled them to perform effectively in previous roles.

Adaptability skills are skill sets that encompass a person’s ability to adjust to changes in their environment. Being adaptable in your career can mean you are able to respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies and other processes at work. Being adaptable also means possessing soft skills like interpersonal, communication, creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

As a soft skill, adaptability requires a number of other soft skills in order to be applied successfully. You must be able to learn quickly and put that learning into practice. Additionally, you must be able to recollect what you’ve discovered, so you can identify trends and make decisions accordingly. So what constitutes an adaptability skill?

An ability to learn: People with adaptability skills are never discouraged by failure. For them, failure is just a part of learning. These people are always learning and willing to take risks, as long as it means that they can develop personally and professionally. Skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, research, show continuous Improvement, have an attention to detail, be observant and have a great memory.

Persistence: People who adapt well rarely feel the pressure to quit. Every challenge is exciting, and remaining dedicated to their job means pushing through even when things get hard. Likewise, they are able to stay positive and encourage their team members to stay focused during difficult times. Skills that are emblematic of persistence include resilience, positivity, tolerance to stress, motivation and being able to manage expectations.

Resourcefulness: Often the goal is clear, but the path to get there is not. The traditional way of conducting business may not be possible or effective, because there may not be sufficient funding or staffing. That’s where adaptability can be an asset. An adaptable person will be able to source new resources and techniques that less-adaptable colleagues haven’t considered. An adaptable person will show resourcefulness by demonstrating skills like the ability to notice patterns, be creative and innovative, a problem solver, show initiative and curiosity and budget well.

Curiosity: An adaptable person doesn’t get scared by anything different. If anything, it makes them more curious and they want to investigate it further. They are not afraid of ideas, suggestions, or constructive criticism and often demonstrate open-mindedness, investigation, positivity, active listening, nonverbal communication skills and diversity.

Other skills that showcase adaptability include leadership, integrity, determination, team building, analytical, inductive and deductive reasoning, project management and team work, empathy, resource, conflict and time management, problem solving, strategic thinking and being able to conceptualise, flexibility and commitment, being proactive and open and having excellent negotiation, oral and written communication skills.

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Being adaptable can depend on how effectively you communicate with your teammates and managers.

Adaptability is a natural skill, but it can be developed and mastered as well. Here are some tips to help improve this skill:

Observe and monitor changes in the environment: People do not see the need for a change until they notice changes in the environment. Adaptability must not be easy, but timely as well. Always make a conscious effort to monitor trends, values and attitudes and compare present observations with past ones and find out what has changed.

Develop a growth mindset: Being adaptable also means being willing to learn and try new things. Developing a growth mindset can positively influence the ability to take on new challenges, find new opportunities to develop knowledge and contribute to new projects. The willingness and motivation to keep improving skills can also show potential and current employer a commitment to professional growth.

Be willing to learn: Observation alone is not enough. If the result of observations suggests a need to learn something new, do not hesitate to do so. While people can learn some things on their own when furnished with appropriate educational resources, others may require tutorials from specialists. Don’t decline to use the services of a professional tutor if necessary.

Avoid procrastination: Don’t just be willing to learn. Take the necessary course of action. Remember that adaptations are more effective when the action is taken earlier.

Acknowledge the fact that changes are bound to occur: Though it is difficult to let go of norms, it is people who matter, not an individual.

Set goals for one’s self: Another method that can help develop adaptability skills might be to set personal goals to improve those aspects of the skillset that are felt to be lacking so the individual can improve their overall ability to adapt to changes in the workplace.

Ask for feedback: As people develop throughout their your career, they might think about requesting feedback or constructive criticism from managers to help them improve on their weaker skills. Positive and constructive feedback can be beneficial for setting goals and achieving success in their career.

Learn to acknowledge and accept change: It can also be highly beneficial to accept change as it occurs. Learning to acknowledge changes in their career can help prepare and adapt to differing circumstances. Additionally, learning how to be willing to accept change can be an effective step toward recognising when adjustments need to be made to make transitions smoother.

Other than the above, some additional tips to help adaptability skills in the workplace include asking for clarifications from peers and superiors to help better process transitions when there are changes to processes, procedures or operational practices. Offer to request for opportunities to work on tasks that may be new or offer to take on responsibilities that require creative approaches. If sharing your ideas with colleagues is something that causes anxiety, set a goal to contribute to team meetings and collaborations. Try getting all aspects of work organised like documents, paperwork, projects and other work information, so everything is prepared in case there are transitions within a job.

An individual can also highlight adaptability skills on resumes or cover letters by showing concrete examples of successes due to these skills. During an interview, highlight adaptability skills by providing the interviewer with examples of how these were applied in past roles and use past experiences and achievements to help answer the interviewer’s questions in a way that shows adaptability.

Being someone who is adaptable is a skill that will stand in good stead all your life, whether in the personal or professional life. Learning how to adapt to change is a soft skill that will not only make the individual a top candidate when applying for roles, but one that has the capacity to give them a renewed optimism about work. It’s a brilliant life skill that has great application in both personal and professional life, so if an individual does not yet have those skills, its time to start implementing these tips to strengthen the adaptability skills today.

Toxic Workplaces

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Stress is an inevitable part of our lives, especially in our workplaces. But sometimes a workplace that is overly stressful turns toxic. A toxic workplace is a workplace that is marked by significant drama and infighting, where personal battles often harm productivity. Toxic workplaces are often considered the result of toxic employers and/or toxic employees who are motivated by personal gain such as power, money, fame or special status, use unethical, mean-spirited and sometimes illegal means to manipulate and annoy those around them; and whose motives are to maintain or increase power, money or special status or divert attention away from their performance shortfalls and misdeeds. Toxic workers do not recognize a duty to the organization for which they work or their co-workers in terms of ethics or professional conduct toward others. Toxic workers define relationships with co-workers, not by organizational structure but by co-workers they favour and those they do not like or trust.

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A toxic work environment is also defined as an environment that negatively impacts the viability of an organization. An organization can be considered toxic if it is ineffective as well as destructive to its employees. Studies have found that toxic workplace environments are a leading cause of workplace violence such as violent acts, including physical assaults and threats of assault, directed toward persons at work or on duty. Studies on this issue include verbal violence including threats, verbal abuse, hostility, harassment, and the like can cause significant psychological trauma and stress, even if no physical injury takes place. Verbal assaults and hostility can also escalate to physical violence. Not only in the workplace, these disruptions can show up in any number of physical symptoms like sleepless nights, feeling constantly vigilant, sweaty palms, and a racing heartbeat, but a toxic work environment has loads of negative health impacts which can affect personal life by damaging pretty much your whole life from self esteem to even friendships.

This phenomenon harms both the company and the other employees, including those who are not direct targets. Co-workers are distracted by drama, gossip and by choosing sides in the ongoing animosity and can translate into lost productivity. While employees are distracted by this activity, they cannot devote time and attention to the achievement of business goals. Positively motivated and ethical employees may try to speak up to a toxic employee but this can make them a target. Managers of toxic employees can feel intimidated by a toxic employee and try to appease the employee in an effort to avoid confrontation. Over time, positively motivated employees drift away from the workplace and may begin to view management as inept and ineffective. This can result in poor job performance as they begin to feel less valued, therefore less loyal to the company. Fellow employees may begin to experience physical symptoms from the stress and worry over whether they or someone they care about in the work place may be targeted. This can even develop into a clinical depression requiring treatment.

I know only too well what a toxic workplace can do to you. I worked in such organisations not once, but twice! Both times, I needed a job and took up the offer, even though my gut was screaming at me not to. Both times, as early as week two in the job, I had started planning on how to get out. I hated waking up on Monday knowing that I had to go to work and even before I entered the organisation’s premises on Monday morning, I was looking forward to that Friday evening. The first was not as bad as the second one and even today, quite a few years after I have left that organisation, when I think of my time there, I start getting agitated and it’s taken me years to get to a point where I can consciously stop thinking of my time there and how I was bullied.

So how do you know if you are in a toxic work environment? Read on…

Lack of and Bad Communication: Communication skills are probably the number one sill needed in the workplace, but insufficient, confusing, or scattered communication is the culprit of so many problems there. Both verbal and non-verbal communication from the employee, supervisor and employer is possibly the root cause of negativity in an organisation. You work hard for something and there’s no recognition or worse, feedback about your task. You also don’t get the necessary information to do your job so you are set up for failure even before you start. Another communication fail is the passive-aggressive talk, both from the superior and your peers and the fact that people don’t want to listen to what you have to say.

Poor Leadership: Most people don’t leave jobs, they leave bad bosses and this point reiterates that old adage. Bad leadership can seep into every fiber of an organization, and it often does. Sometimes bad bosses are products of bad bosses, they don’t know any better and think this is how bosses should be. Such bosses make work a living hell. Bad bosses come in various forms: the micromanager who wants to know every minute what you do and constantly checks, corrects and undermines you, the blamer who wants all the credit but manages to pass down to his reportees all the mistakes, or maybe the boss who does not respect your personal space and is the one who sends emails or calls you on your weekends or holidays, expecting you to drop everything to run to him.

Workplace Cliques: A clique is a group of people in a setting who stick together all the time. At most workplaces, there are cliques all the time, but when these cliques exclude specific individuals outside their tichtly-knit circle, it ruins the workplace culture. In workplaces which are multi-cultural, when cliques speak in a language known only to them in front of others, it could be detrimental to the atmosphere and prove alientating to the person being shunned. I have seen cliques in every organisation I worked in, but the one in one of the toxic workplace I was at was extremely bad. They would speak over me (even when I was sitting right in front of them) and speak in a specific language even though co-workers were from various nationalities and spoke many language, with English being the common denominator, go off to lunches without ever inviting me, even on my first day of work and speak of shared experiences which I was obviously excluded from. They were also constantly chatting on messaging platforms and sometimes would look at me and snigger which clearly showed they were gossiping about me. I have no idea if they would continue to be friends after leaving the organisation because I did’nt want to be in touch with anyone from there after I moved on, so I have no idea.

Unmotivated Coworkers: In a toxic work environment, it’s quite easy to see that most people there are unmotivated. They are in that organisation only for the salary they are paid. They have no interest in doing anything more than absolutely necessary to earn their daily bread and not get fired. There is an air of gloom and a lack of motivation around you with people preferring to see the glass as half empty instead of half full. In such cases, it’s a few who bear the biggest burdens and this would lead to a burnout sooner or later and then you also become one of them, plodding along with zero interest in life.

Employee Sickness: Unmotivated employees in toxic workplaces lead to employee burnout, fatigue, and illness due to high levels of stress that wreak havoc on our bodies. If people are calling in sick or worse, are working sick, that’s a good sign of a toxic work environment.

High Employee Turnover: A sure sign that you are in a toxic place is the employee turnover rate. When people don’t seem to stay in an organisation, that definitely means something is seriously wrong there. Conversely, if employees are constantly being laid off or fired, this can be a sign of a few other toxic elements lack of direction, organisation disorganisation, bad leadershop or little opportunity within the organisation.

Work Life Imbalance: I call this imbalance because in a toxic work environment, there is no concept of any life, it’s all about work. In such organisations, you are expected to be working or on call 24/7/365. Your managers have no concept of personal space and think even if they send you an email with work at midnight, they expect the work to have been completed first thing in the morning. You deserve to have a full life outside of work. You should be able to leave an email unread after dinner on a Tuesday or be able to make your dentist appointment without feeling guilty. These places also frown upon taking holidays, especially if it is more than a few days. I remember hearing comments in another workplace (which was not toxic) when I first applied for a month-long holiday to go back to India. They were shocked I would take such a long break, but what they didn’t realise was that I had not taken any leave at all the whole preceeding year because I was saving up all my leave just so I could take a longish break to go and meet my parents. Once I explained this and shared my point of view, it was understood and I never had any comments about my leave as long as I worked there.

Lack of Movement: When there’s no forward growth in your career in the organisation and you seem to be stagnant in where you are, it’s probably because the environment does not allow for employees to grow and flourish. If your workplace doesn’t seem to offer any mobility, learning opportunities, or mentorship, they are likely not invested in the growth of their employees. Once you’ve recognised that you have nowhere to grow, it might be time for change.

Burnt Out Feeling: Burnout is more than a buzzword you may have heard around workplace jargon. Workplace burnout is recognized by the World Health Organization as a legitimate medical diagnosis. Burnout can be a surefire sign of a toxic work environment, or at least a work environment that doesn’t “work” for you. There are three types of burnout: Frenetic Burnout which is experienced by employees who put a ton of energy into their work in the hopes that the output will be rewarding. After a sustained period of dedicated work, the frenetic worker does not find positive outcomes. When someone has Underchallenged Burnout, the employee feels underchallenged and bored at work. Being unable to find any satisfaction in a job, the underchallenged employees find themselves in a lowered mood. When the employee is resigned about their work after experiencing consistent work stress over a long period of time, he is experiencing Worn-out Burnout. Having experienced negligible rewards, the worn-out employee feels disillusioned and uninspired by the job at hand.

Listen to your Intuition: We rarely listen to our intuition, preferring to listening to our head instead. I know this from past experience when instead of listening to my intuition, I went with what logic was telling me and paid the price for it. Most times, when we are in bad situations or we will be entering situations which are not to our best interests, our intuition screams at us to get away, but we don’t listen. In such cases, our intuition is right more than wrong and when you are faced with a fight between your head and your heart, listen to your heart, you will be thankful soon.

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Now that we know how to identify a toxic workplace, what strategies can we put in place to handle it? The best solution is of course to move out and get a new job, but since this sometimes takes time and you need a job while you look for one, you just can’t walk away from such an environment immediately. We need to develop ways and means to handle the dysfunctional workplace you are in until the time you can press send on that resignation letter to your manager.

When you are at work, keep reminding yourself that you are not a reflection of your current surroundings.  Placing positive and uplifting quotes on the wall of your office or cubicle that will help keep your spirits lifted can be very helpful in these circumstances.  Also, taking time out each workday to take a short walk by yourself is a great way to detach and allow for positive self-talk to remind yourself of the qualities you possess that make you amazing.  Find ways to remind yourself of who you truly are.

Find people who feel the same way you do. Develop friendships with people who feel the same way as you. The hope is that you’ll watch each other’s back and will share any news with the group.

Do something after work that can help relieve stress. Go to the gym, do home repairs, or learn a new skill. The key is to make sure you’re living a fulfilling life outside of work to combat the drama of your 9 to 5.

Practice detachment, especially psychological detachment meaning you avoid work and work-related thoughts outside of your working hours. You can do this by taking holidays, both short and long, making time for family and friends, take up some new hobby and exercise.

Create lists to keep yourself busy. A list can help you stay focused on your tasks instead of the toxic atmosphere and gives you a reason to keep going every day.

Document everything you do. Save emails and write down comments and decisions from meetings, phone calls, and every person who interacts with you. If you need to file a complaint, you will need the evidence to back your claim.

I am a  huge believer that every situation is a learning opportunity. This too can be one. Most often our strongest personal growth comes from living through our most difficult situations.  When you are working in a toxic environment, try to pay close attention to the lessons you can take away from the experience.  Perhaps you can learn the qualities in a leader that you never want to emulate or maybe management mistakes that you would not want to repeat if the opportunity for management ever comes your way.   In every bad situation there is something you can learn that will help you become a better person, so focus on each lesson you are learning.

Another way to handle the stress of a toxic work environment is by practicing relaxation during non-work time. When people try to relax, they often report feeling healthier and suffering less from stress and exhaustion. Relaxation can be a significant moderator of the relationship between negative work thoughts and insomnia symptoms. Activities like meditation, yoga, exercising, taking a nice long walk with some music or podcast, or even volunterring and spending time with family and friends will help you relax.

Plan your exit strategy. It is possible that things could improve at your job, in which case it might make sense to stay. However, while waiting it out, begin your search for a new job. This will help you stay positive when things get rough. If you needed to leave yesterday, consider a bridge job that will keep you active while you find something in line with your career.

Resilience: The ability to pick yourself up after a fall

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Resilience is defined as “The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; or toughness”. But what exactly is resilience and why is this word so important today? In today’s post, let’s try to unpack what it means to be resilient and what you can do to cultivate this trait yourself and inculcate it in the young people in your lives.

Life is not a smooth path that you coast through without any setbacks. Life will thow you curveballs from time to time, some more serious than others from everyday challenges to perhaps a serious life-threatening illness or the death of a loved one. Every such change affetcs people in different ways, with each incident bringing with itself a unique set of thoughts, emotions and uncertainties. But in most cases, most of us generally adapt to these twists and turns in our lives, some better than others, in most part because we are resilient.

Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. As much as resilience involves “bouncing back” from these difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth. While these adverse events, much like rough river waters, are certainly painful and difficult, they don’t have to determine the outcome of your life. There are many aspects of your life you can control, modify and grow with. That’s the role of resilience. Becoming more resilient not only helps you get through difficult circumstances, it also empowers you to grow and even improve your life along the way.

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Being resilient doesn’t mean that someone won’t experience difficulty or distress. People who have suffered major adversity or trauma in their lives commonly experience emotional pain and stress. In fact, the road to resilience is likely to involve considerable emotional distress. While certain factors might make some individuals more resilient than others, resilience isn’t necessarily a personality trait that only some people possess. On the contrary, resilience involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn and develop. The ability to learn resilience is one reason research has shown that resilience is ordinary, not extraordinary. Like building a muscle, increasing your resilience takes time and intentionality.

Nowhere else but in the workplace is resilience needed more than ever. Our fast-paced work culture results in people working hard, meeting tight deadlines, managing work relationships and staying constantly connected through mobile devices. But this pace can lead to stress and burnout and navigating through these challenges requires skills and strategies that can be developed. Resilience is a key strategy that helps employees tackle stress, a competitive job market, workplace conflicts, and address challenges on the job. Improving resilience is important because employees identify work as the number one stressor in their lives.

When employees are resilient, they are able to handle work stress better, have greater job satisfaction, work happiness, organisational commitment and employee engagement. Increased resilience also contributes to improved self-esteem, a sense of control over life events, a sense of purpose in life and improved employee interpersonal relationships and increased productivity.

For employers, to foster resilience amongst your employees, allow autonomy whenever possible and let individuals do their jobs. Reward employees for good work and allow them to have flexible schedules so they can work at a pace and time that work best for them. Also, employers need to be more reasonable about work expectationsand be more vigilent about policies on work expectations and work hours. Lastly, employers need to provide access to services and support needed to maintain good physical and mental health.

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So how can you learn to be more resilient. By focusing on core components, which include connections, wellness, healthy thinking and meaning, you can empower yourself to withstand and learn from difficult and traumatic experiences. To increase your capacity for resilience to weather and grow from the difficulties, use these strategies.

Build your connections and prioritise relationships. Connecting with empathetic and understanding people can remind you that you’re not alone in the midst of difficulties. Focus on finding trustworthy and compassionate individuals who validate your feelings, which will support the skill of resilience. Do not isolate yourself when you are in a situation which causes you pain or trauma, instead accept the help and support of those who love and care for you and connect with them in a genuine way. Along with one-to-one connections, some people find that being active in groups provides them with a sense of support, purpose and joy.

Foster wellness and take care of your body. Self-care is not just a popular buzzword, but is also a legitimate practice for mental health and building resilience. I say this because stress is just as much physical as it is emotional. Promoting positive lifestyle factors like proper nutrition, ample sleep, hydration and regular exercise can strengthen your body to adapt to stress and reduce the toll of emotions like anxiety or depression.

Practice mindfulness. I can’t stress this strategy enough. Mindful journaling, yoga, meditation and prayer can help people build connections and restore hope, which can then prime you to deal with situations that require resilience. When you journal, meditate, or pray, ruminate on the positive aspects of your life and recall the things you’re grateful for, even during personal trials. At the same time, avoid negative outlets. It may be tempting to mask your pain with alcohol, drugs or other substances, but that’s like putting a bandage on a deep wound. Focus instead on giving your body the resources to manage stress, rather than seeking to eliminate the feeling of stress altogether.

Find some purpose in life and help others. When you help others by volunteering, you gather a sense of purpose, foster self-worth, connect with other people and tangibly help others, all of which can empower you to grow in resilience. During these hard times, learn to be proactive and know that it is helpful to acknowledge and accept your emotions, but it’s also important to help you foster self-discovery by asking yourself, “What can I do about a problem in my life?” If the problems seem too big to tackle, break them down into manageable pieces. Move toward your goals and develop some realistic goals and do something regularly, even if it seems like a small accomplishment, that enables you to move toward the things you want to accomplish. Instead of focusing on tasks that seem unachievable, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I know I can accomplish today that helps me move in the direction I want to go?” Look for opportunities for self-discovery. People often find that they have grown in some respect as a result of a struggle. It is seen that after a tragedy or hardship, people have reported better relationships and a greater sense of strength, even while feeling vulnerable which can increase their sense of self-worth and heighten their appreciation for life.

Compartmentalise your cognitive load. We receive more than 11 million bits of information every second, but our brains can only effectively process about 40 bits of information. So though we can’t decrease what we receive, we can compartmenalise our tasks to optimise how we can process this information. We should be more deliberate about how and what we compartmentalise and this is useful when you consider that switching from one type of task to another reduces productivity by as much as 40%. Creating dedicated times of the day to do specific types of work may create the best set of conditions to process information and make quality decisions while decreasing cognitive load and strain.

Take detachment breaks. Throughout the workday, it’s important to pay attention to the peaks and valleys of energy and productivity that we all experience, what health psychologists call our ultradian or hourly as opposed to our circadian or daily rhythms. Mental focus, clarity and energy cycles are typically 90-120 minutes long, so it is useful to step away from our work for even a few minutes to reset energy and attention. Research suggests that balancing work activity with even a brief time for detaching from those activities can promote greater energy, mental clarity, creativity and focus, ultimately growing our capacity for resilience throughout the course of the workday. The long-term payoff is that we preserve energy and prevent burnout over the course of days, weeks and months.

Embrace healthy thoughts and keep things in perspective. How you think can play a significant part in how you feel, and how resilient you are when faced with obstacles. I feel that those with a positive mindset overcome obstacles faster and better than those who see a glass as half empty. Try to identify areas of irrational thinking, such as a tendency to catastrophise difficulties or assume the world is out to get you, and adopt a more balanced and realistic thinking pattern. You may not be able to change a highly stressful event, but you can change how you interpret and respond to it. Accept change and also accept that change is a part of life. Certain goals or ideals may no longer be attainable as a result of adverse situations in your life. Accepting circumstances that cannot be changed can help you focus on circumstances that you can alter. You should also maintain a hopeful outlook in life. I know it’s hard to be positive when life isn’t going your way, but an optimistic outlook empowers you to expect that good things will happen to you. Visualisation is a good way to to see what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear. Along the way, note any subtle ways in which you start to feel better as you deal with difficult situations. And most important in this step is to learn from your past. By looking back at who or what was helpful in previous times of distress, you may discover how you can respond effectively to new difficult situations. Remind yourself of where you’ve been able to find strength and ask yourself what you’ve learned from those experiences.

Cultivate compassion. One of the most overlooked aspects of the resilience skill set is the ability to cultivate compassion; both self-compassion and compassion for others. According to some research, compassion increases positive emotions, creates positive work relationships, and increases cooperation and collaboration and such practices increase happiness and well-being and decrease stress.

Getting help when you need it is crucial in building your resilience. For most people, using their own resources and the strategies mentioned above may be enough to build their resilience, but there at times and individuals for whom and when this may not be enough. In such cases, reach out to a licensed mental health professional who can assist you in developing an appropriate strategy for moving forward in life. It is important to get professional help if you feel like you are unable to function as well as you would like or perform basic activities of daily living as a result of a traumatic or other stressful life experience.

The important thing is to remember you’re not alone on the journey. While you may not be able to control all of your circumstances, you can grow by focusing on the aspects of life’s challenges you can manage with the support of loved ones and trusted professionals.

Here are some interesting Ted Talks about resilience and how we can learn from some super resilient people!