Joy@Work Podcast

At the beginning of this series of GuidePosts we noted that the number of people reporting stress, anxiety and depression is massive! The WHO note that mental health issues have increased 13% in the last decade (in 2017) and substance disorders up some 20% and with suicide as the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds - you realise that this is a huge problem. 1 Billion people across the world suffer a mental health problem in 2022! That’s 1 person in 8!!! WHO World Mental Health Report 2022 The increase of substance abuse is evidence that people are trying to cope with their stress, anxiety and depression with the “pleasure” of the dopamine high. This is creating a dopamine imbalance which can lead to addiction and is instead making us chronically unhappy according to Dr Robert Lustig in his excellent book, Hacking of the American Mind. In all our striving in the pursuit of happiness we seem to be paying the price in alcohol and drug abuse, gambling, excess unhealthy food (ice cream, chocolate), smoking and social media “likes”. Meanwhile stress and anxiety are on the rise and incidents of rage make the news daily. And that stress and cortisol increase reward seeking behaviour and decrease reasoning ability! The world isn’t in pursuit of happiness, it’s seeking pleasure to offset the stresses of living… because it’s quicker than actually pursuing happiness and joy! How do you increase happiness and joy in your whole life? I’m so glad that you asked. As I mentioned - taking a dopamine pleasure high route is quicker - especially (ab)using substances. BUT, it’s short lived and within minutes or hours you’ll be after another high due to the increasing dopamine imbalance and addiction. Instead we can deal with chronic unhappiness and gain long term benefits through some simple, deliberate changes to how we go about our every day life. Dr Lustig proposes a solution he calls the 4C’s of Happiness: Connect, Contribute, Cope and Cook. (Check out “Hacking the American Mind”) Connect. Connect with people you like and enjoy. Join your local church, a social group or simply have a conversation. Preferably in person. Make sure that you practice empathy with them - this engages your mirror neurons to feel what they feel, or to “walk in their shoes”. The result is a serotonin boost and a feeling of personal contentment and fulfils your own personal need for belonging and perhaps mattering. Time with pets can also be beneficial and achieve much the same result. PS. Emailing, Facebooking, Insta’ing, Threading or X’ing is NOT connecting. Contribute Give something of yourself: your time, your resources, your skills, your energy and your attention to something larger than yourself. Volunteer at a shelter, help a charity, make or repair something for someone else who needs your help. Giving to others is self-transcendent (spoiler alert! This is a large part of your purpose in this life!) and fulfils your personal need to matter. Cope Three activities that will improve your serotonin receptors in your brain (and hence make you feel happier and better): Sleep, Mindfulness and Exercise. Sleep deprivation increases stress and cortisol and causes depression!. Sleep is so essential for your brain and body and can fill several volumes alone for the essential benefits and much advice. Read Why We Sleep, by Mathew Walker or Claudia Aguirre’s 7 Healthy Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep. PS. Screens KILL sleep!!! And trying to multitask (which you cannot!!) is costing you sleep because it increases stress and cortisol. Mindfulness practice helps you alter your brain waves and calms your mind deliberately. We’ll be using a mindful process in bridging from stress to joy. Exercise regularly. Whatever takes your fancy. I personally recommend walking - even better with some company or a dog. Decent brisk walking is nothing but beneficial. Running is tougher on your body, cycling means dodging pedestrians and cars. And good...

From what we’ve learned so far, we know that to raise performance anywhere, we need to be able to choose to be At Cause. We’ve also learned about the affects of five important neurotransmitters: Dopamine (pleasure), Serotonin (happiness), Cortisol (stress), Adrenaline (fear), Anandamide (Peace and Joy). We need to know about four additional Neurotransmitters in your brain’s “cocktail bar”: Oxytocin (love, trust), Vasopressin (attachment), Endorphins (resilience) and Acetylcholine (focus). Stay with me, because I am coming back to the impact on your leadership and performance improvement @work. Meantime, let’s talk about love: Love, often confused with joy or happiness (and sometimes pleasure) is a combination of two things: Attachment and Attraction: Attachment Attachment is tied to the neurotransmitters Oxytocin and Vasopressin. Oxytocin is known as the “love and trust” chemical. It’s responsible for increasing the bonding between a mother and her new born, and for that trusting relationship bond with a colleague or team member. Vasopressin’s effects are less well understood but it appears to be gender specific. For men, Vasopressin is believed to make men more suspicious, even aggressive, towards novel males. Thus a new male joining the team may be viewed with more suspicion by the other males in the team. In contrast, for women, it appears that Vasopressin makes them friendlier towards novel women. Attraction When you enjoy doing something, you are attracted to it, which makes you feel “happy” with a cascade of Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Serotonin. You can see why feeling attracted to someone or something can easily get confused with fear mixed with pleasure mixed with happiness! Explains a lot that I wish I’d known when puberty struck! It’s also why attraction can also cause a lack of appetite (your digestive tract got shut down in the fear response!) and a loss of sleep (which is affected by Serotonin). Performance Enhancement As you do things well and get into your “zone” or in your “flow”, your performance improves thanks to the additional cascade of Anandamides and Endorphins. Endorphins are your brain’s natural pain killers. They are released to help cope when your body feels pain or stress. You can get a boost of these through exercise or any demanding activity. Performance improvement @work Ok, we’ve got the necessary foundational understanding. When you do something that matters to you, you are attachedto it (Oxytocin and Vasopressin). When you do something that you enjoy, you are attracted to it and just a little fearful (Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Serotonin). Then you get into your zone or flow or your high performancestate (Anandamides and Endorphins). You stay focused on task because the dopamine high mixed with a little fear to make it an exciting challenge triggers Acetylcholine - and signals your Reticular Activating System (RAS) to focus attention on the task at hand. These eight neurochemicals significantly enhance performance and is addictive (scientists prefer to use the word “autotelic”). Hence we experience “flow” in our performance and we will go out of our way to re-experience it. Basically, we increase our own intrinsic motivation and inspiration to continually enhance our own performance! AND there’s more! These chemicals also augment the creative process and pattern recognition. Oxytocin and Vasopressin disregulate your Neo-cortex, widening your self perspective, liberating your mind to new thoughts and feelings. Making us more creative and faster in how we do things! Command and Control leaders should be aware that, in contrast, fear narrows perspective and inhibits performance and increases distress further degrading performance! Which would you choose? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

Regardless of your choices in life, you will face adversity, trauma, threats, difficulties, trials and tribulations - such as family or relationship issues, health problems, financial concerns, or workplace stressors. Everybody does. Nobody likes it, nobody wants to, but everybody does. How you respond to those challenges makes all the difference in the world! Where is your Locus of Control - “At Cause” or “At Effect”? When you choose to be “At Cause” for your life, your focus is on choosing your actions and this increase your Circles of Power and Influence expanding them into your Circle of Concern. You have an Internal Locus of Control - that is, you believe that you have control over external forces in your life. When you are “At Effect” of others or circumstances, your focus is on factors outside your inner circles, your Concerns gain ground, shrinking your Circles of Power and Influence. You have an External Locus of Control - that is you believe that external forces beyond your control have control over your life. When you are “At Effect” you are more likely to experience anxiety, which gives you the illusion of control over others or over external events. This bears repeating: When you are anxious or you worry, this gives you the illusion of control over others or external events! Congratulations, your anxiety and worry about something beyond your control just reinforced and perpetuated your need to be anxious and worry! On the other hand, when you choose to be “At Cause” you are reinforcing your stress resilience. Remember The “Shortcut” and The “High Road”? You’ll notice that I say that you "are At Effect versus you “choose to be At Cause”. That’s because your default is to be At Effect. It’s not a conscious, thought through, choice. It’s unconscious and automatic. Choosing to be At Cause is a conscious, considered, deliberate choice you make. As our brain senses information about the challenge ahead, you’ll recall what we learned in Fear, Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Your Brain that stimuli from the outside world first take “The Shortcut” either directly to the amygdala (smells and touch) or via the Thalamus to the amygdala (sights and sounds). That is: your brain is already reacting and responding to the threat of the challenge ahead! Meantime, some information takes the “High Road” through the cortex and your thinking brain can choose to change or reinforce the threat response. Milliseconds after your brain and body have started to react and respond, this is your moment of choice! This is the moment you can choose to be “At Cause”. How does this help me? How do I stop worrying, anxiety and distress? Let me be clear, there isn’t a magic pill that does this (no matter what Big Pharma tries to tell you) but we do have access to a simple solution. Before that though, let’s recognise two common enemies we all have in the (conscious) mind. Two Enemies of Being “At Cause” And allies of remaining “At Effect” People, most often, spend much of their time and energy worrying or concerned about the challenges that they cannot control, which cause them to feel anxious or stressed. The first enemy is “If only…” If only I had the [skills, money, strength, power, connections, knowledge, fortitude, faith] I would have… If only … my parents had… I could have… If only I … were a different race, gender, nationality, person … I should have… If only I … had studied harder, taken that job, not taken that job, gotten married, not gotten married, had kids, not had kids… “If only” pines over the past. The second enemy is “What if…” What if… I fail, succeed, look stupid … “What if…” frets about the future. The problem of these two enemies is that they give you the illusion of control over others or external events! That is, you think that worrying about something makes a difference! "Your mind would rather fret about the future or pine over the past so that it can cling onto its own illusion of control." But...

It’s not all doom and gloom in the brain! There’s the positive aspects of Eustress and on the flip side of fear, anxiety and depression, we can feel Pleasure, Happiness and Joy! If you ask, most people will tell you that their goal in life is to be happy. Indeed the United States Declaration of Independence considers the “Pursuit of Happiness” to be an unalienable right. But there’s a problem. When most people think about happiness, they’re really thinking about what gives them pleasure and having more of those things. These are by definition, temporal - Aristotle referred to this as Hedonia, which is happiness as pleasure. Eudainomia, on the other hand is happiness as personal Fulfilment. Let’s begin with a quick reminder about the six essential human needs and then examining the important differences between the three states: Pleasure, Happiness and Joy. Six Essential Human Needs Recap Everyone shares six essential human needs that drive our behaviour to satisfy those needs. When those needs are not being met or they are threatened, our fear, stress and anxiety response kick in. The more basic the need, usually, the more pressing our response. For example, freedom needs were being threatened across the globe throughout the COVID pandemic by well-intentioned authorities. At first your response, like most people, was accepting such limitations on your freedom as justified and “for the greater good” (notice how they appealed to your need to belong and transcend and care for others!) As the weeks and months passed with further restrictions imposed, your freeze, flight or fight response kicked in. Some of you kept your heads down and stayed quiet until the danger passed. Others, with the means, ran off to other countries with fewer restrictions. Others fought against the restrictions risking arrest, fines and worse. In a moment, we’ll also see how those more basic needs are the key areas of our hedonic pleasures in life. We’ll also see how our higher needs are areas of Eudainomic happiness and joy. Pleasure Pleasure is visceral when we enjoy taking something from outside of ourselves, like taking pleasure in eating, having a good massage or receiving an encouraging message from a friend. Pleasure is short-lived and is experienced alone. Pleasure can be addictive and may also be achieved through the use of substances. Pleasure is tied to the neurotransmitter dopamine which fires motivation and desire. The dopamine pathway includes five areas of receptors in your brain: Happiness Happiness is ethereal, circumstantial, outward expression and usually involves us giving or serving others, like volunteering to help a charity, organising community events, giving money to someone in need. Happiness is longer term and experienced in social groups Happiness is not addictive and cannot be achieved through the use of substances. Happiness is tied to the neurotransmitter Serotonin which regulates your mood and general well-being. The serotonin pathways touch at least 14 receptor areas in the brain: Joy Joy is an ethereal state of mind. It is a choice you make in spite of your circumstances, often manifest as encouraging, giving and serving others. As a choice, joy is always available to you that overflows to your social groups. It may be addictive and similar feelings may be achieved through the use of substances (though only for self and not for others). Joy is linked to the neurotransmitters Serotonin (as happiness) and Anandamide - an endocannaboid fatty acid which binds to the cannabis (CB1) receptors of the brain. These receptors are throughout the brain in the Cortex, Cerebellum, Hippocampus and Basal Ganglia and throughout the body. The Timeline of Pleasure, Happiness and Joy As I was researching this, I began to notice a difference in tense people use when considering each facet of these phenomena. The event(s) is now and in the future, I am choosing to respond appropriately now #😲 Insight: Pleasure,...

Fear, stress and anxiety increase when we believe or perceive that our power, influence or control are diminished or threatened by challenges beyond our control. Fear, stress and anxiety are reactions (not illness). We have shifted our locus of control from us… to ”them”. The similarities and differences between these reactions. Internally, your reaction to fear, stress, anxiety and depression are similar yet with key difference in triggers, affects and timeframe. Fear is an intense, biological response to immediate externalthreat and a danger to your safety. Your response is usually intense, physical and very short term. It’s usually unsafe, negative and unpleasant. During the event time dilates, you see more, feel more. By the time you think about it, the trigger is in the past and you may then experience the euphoria of relief and survival. “Adrenaline junkies” thrive on that “high” and deliberately seek such challenges. Stress is your brain’s response to, mostly externally triggered challenge, change, demand or threat that may trigger a physical response but mostly psychological and short term. It can be positive and helpful (eustress) or negative and unpleasant (distress). Both eustress and distress are of the moment, they are in the present. Eustress fires you up 🔥, distress shuts you down 🔐. Eustress motivates, distress demotivates. While anxiety is the result of internal tensions creating fear about your ability to perform or address a future challenge. Your response may be physical discomfort, but mostly mental (such as humiliation or rejection) and can be very long term if left untreated. Depression is an experience where you feel low most of the time and you have also lost interest in things you usually enjoy. You may also have changes in your sleep, appetite, feel guilty, de-motivated and generally withdraw from others. What Happens in Your Brain: In the brain: fear, stress and anxiety each have specific triggers for an individual, and each have certain reactions. Between trigger and reaction, a lot of what goes on in the brain is remarkably similar. It’s worth reminding ourselves that a challenge we consider fearful, someone else may consider a little stressful or even pleasurable! One simple example I experience regularly. I have a dog, she’s a sweet, but nervous rescue dog about the size of a Labrador. Some people find her adorable, others consider her to be very frightening. On the other hand, some people find snakes to be interesting and pleasant, whereas I run from them - even video or images of them! Six stimuli Remember, Your brain’s #1 job is to keep you “not dead”. You are constantly scanning your environment for any threat that might compromise that situation. Which can be anything that is deemed to threaten your circle of power. Scanning for threats are your five senses - and these have two routes into the brain: Visual and auditory stimuli (sight and sounds) go to the Thalamus in the brain. You can think of the Thalamus as the reception lobby of an office where incoming visitors are screened and sent to the appropriate office. If the sight or sound is threatening - the amygdalae are signalled. Olfactory and Tactile stimuli have direct access straight to the Amygdalae! That is smells and touch go straight to the amygdalae. That’s why you recoil immediately from bad smells or unpleasant touch. Fractionally later from something you see or hear. Yes five senses, but six stimuli. When they pick up a threat, the information takes one of two routes in your brain: Route 1 - The Shortcut Smell, taste and touch stimuli bypass the Thalamus reception desk and gain immediate access to the Amygdala. (This is why smells can evoke such powerful responses!) The amygdalae informs other brain structures to respond to the perceived threat: * Your Hypothalamus and Pituitary gland trigger your adrenal glands to boost your stress hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. * Too much cortisol short-circuits...

We know that choosing joy means higher performance, more happiness, less stress, less anxiety, better results, greater health. And we know that choosing joy is simple. So why do we all find it so dang difficult?!? In large part, it’s about another need we, or rather our brain has; to feel that we have control. But, we have established that you cannot control what happens outside - you may be able to influence it or concerned about it, but you cannot control it. You only control your own thoughts and your own actions. Sorry, you CAN only control your thoughts and your actions. It’s your choice. You can influence others and some things outside but you do not control them. So, I’m borrowing and adapting from Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Imagine 3 circles: Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. * The inner circle is our circle of power and contains all the things that you know that (on your better days) you can control. In this inner circle, you have the full power of choice. These include your own thoughts, the words you use, the actions you take. You also have control over your emotions, your effort and your own self-care. * The middle circle are things over which you have influence, limited control and less power. These are things that you can directly influence. These include your health, your family, home, job, finances and friends. * The outer circle is our circle of concern. Things and people that matter to you but over whom you have much less influence and even less power. The further from your inner circle, the less influence you have. These might include the weather, world events and politics, accident or injury or illness. Also other’s perceptions and their actions. When you perceive or believe that external events or people threaten your circle of influence or your circle of power you are focused on things that you cannot control. And when you choose (or allow yourself to) focus on what you cannot control, your Circle of Influence contracts! You have chosen to have an external locus of control. In contrast, when you choose to focus on what you can control, your Circle of Influence expands. You have chosen an internal locus of control. A third, and more profitable focus is on the Spirit within and a God who is still on His throne and in control of everything (a fourth outer ring) and then we humble ourself to the finished work of Christ knowing that “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Rom 8:28 Fear, stress, anxiety and depression can increase when we believe or perceive that our power, influence or control are diminished or threatened by challenges beyond our control. Fear, stress and anxiety are reactions (not illness). We have shifted our locus of control from us… to ”them”. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. Stephen Covey Six Essential Human Needs - SPACES Recap It’s not just about any threat to your circle of power, it’s what you perceive is being threatened and how important that need is to you! You’ll recall that we all share six essential needs. These are the key things we wish to influence. When we perceive that our circle of power is being threatened, our influence to have our own needs fulfilled diminishes. The more fundamental the need, for example something life threatening, the greater our fear response to the threat. And, we should all be acutely aware that the more fundamental the need for us, the easier it is for someone else to influence our response both positively and negatively. The advertising industry is successful precisely because it plays on our more fundamental needs and fears. For example, your need to eat food is most often associated with pleasure and price in advertisements. New cars are associated with prestige or significance (a higher need for mattering or significance) but...

You're Biased! Now, before you go off in a huff and rant against my assertion do, please, let me explain. Everyone has biases. Actually, you have to or else your brain would drain all of your energy. Power and Purpose The purpose of this guide is to allow you to be aware of your own biases and those of others - NOT TO FIX THEM! - That is NOT your job. Your awareness will enable you to re-frame your communications and be prepared to challenge unwarranted assumptions or faulty thinking - with love and kindness. The power of your payoff when you put this into action will be to listen much more deeply and effectively and communicate with empathy and clarity for mutual understanding. Key questions to be considering as you read, watch or listen to this AdvantEdge Coaching Guide: * What is the ONE thing you will stop doing, start doing or change how you behave or act that will have the greatest impact on your leadership performance from your learning here? * What is the single, tiniest step you can take immediately that will begin that improvement and by when? What is Prejudice? Prejudice is one example of cognitive bias that is most often a preconceived, unfavourable opinion about another person or group. Indeed this is known as the “In-Group” or “Out-Group” Bias. It enables you to judge another person almost instantly based on very limited data. Which is very efficient but often seriously flawed. Yet, we all have them. Blame your parents, upbringing, society, politicians, culture, race, language, tv, Hollywood, the Interweb, FaceBook... whatever you like, you still have biases. Some biases are potentially helping you make better, quicker decisions, others could be, and almost certainly are, undermining your true power and potential. But I’m not biased! You already know that everyone else you meet is biased right? (That’s your confirmation bias kicking in by the way.) Especially those people who disagree with you or have a different political or religious viewpoint. So are you and everyone else is too because your brain HAS to be biased. Your brain hates ambiguity and uncertainty! And, it is willing to take short cuts to remove it from the situation. If there's insufficient information to go on you will use whatever is available and unconsciously fill in the blanks from your memories and beliefs until you recognise a pattern and come (jump) to an internal representation. It’s one way that your brain saves you precious energy and stress and saves time making decisions. If we were to allow our brains to take in all the available information, process it, evaluate it objectively and make a decision. Well, that speeding vehicle would have wiped out your life already. OK, maybe it’s not so drastic, but your brain sees uncertainty as a threat and triggers your threat response biasing decisions toward habit and modulating our propensity to take risks (do something new and untested). A Quick brain primer (so that you don’t use your biases and fill in your own wrong answers). Your brain is programmed to minimise effort and save energy. In his fabulous book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman shows that your brain works using two different systems, 1 and 2 (yeah, terrific names ;-)). System 1 is fast thinking - mostly unconscious, prone to biases and errors and can be exploited by others to influence your responses and choices. System 2 is slower thinking but more reliable and it is supposed to monitor System 1 but often it doesn't bother when it's feeling a bit "lazy" or it's overloaded. Your brain is programmed to minimise effort and System 2 requires more effort and energy, hence, System 1 runs the show by default. And therein lies the problem. Top Ten Cognitive Biases The list of cognitive biases that have been identified is incredibly long and grows monthly.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases and I've come across 10 repeatedly in my coaching with leaders that could really use your conscious...

Now that we know Why Joy@Work Matters, it’s time to let you know about a battle going on in your brain. Imagine a battlefield with two opposing sides. Only one side doesn’t realise that it’s in a battle! The enemy is steadily picking them off one by one and there’s no retaliation. Just acceptance. 🎶 Que sera sera 🎶. “Life is difficult!” “What do you expect me to do?” “They’re bigger, more important, smarter, slimmer, richer, stronger, prettier, older, younger, senior, more talented, more experienced, better connected, luckier…” Did I miss yours? Add it to the list. In my experience, there are two types of leader who struggle the most in this battle: 1. Those who (secretly) believe they are not good enough - the Imposters 2. Those who need to be recognised as significant and important - the Egomaniacs Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The Imposters These are people who, often secretly, think they are somehow lacking but don’t want anyone else to know it. Instead they have to be seen as invulnerable. Stoic, “stiff upper lip and all that chaps”. Whatever you do, don’t let your emotions show. In that lies weakness and when people see that I’m weak, they’ll attack and destroy me. Inside they’re ashamed to be living a lie and, afraid to empathise, don’t open up to deep relationships or dare to ask for what they truly desire and struggle for worthiness. They desperately want to be liked by others for who they are, but dare not show who they are because they don’t like themselves very much. Instead they allow the enemy to chip away and wear them down thinking that they “deserve it for not being good enough”. The Egomaniacs These are people whose ego makes them over-estimate their own abilities and worth, and under-estimate the effort and skill required to achieve their goals. They feel superior to and better than others. And they need to be recognised for their significant greatness. Ego is the outsized sense of self-importance. It is the toxic force that makes real teamwork, empathy, vulnerability and artistry impossible. Ego Is The Enemy - Ryan Holiday. The enemy simply has to “poke the bear” and the egomaniac inflicts damage to themselves and bullies and blames everyone else and their own team. Some Imposters protect themselves by becoming Egomaniacs: And its easy to flip from one to the other in six steps as Brene Brown shares in Dare to Lead about the armour we use to protect our vulnerability. Here’s six pieces of armour from Imposter (“I’m not good enough”) to Egomaniac (“I’m better than them”): 1. I’m really not good enough. [Imposter Syndrome] 2. But if I’m open and honest about this, people will think less of me or even use it against me. [Shame] 3. No way am I going to be honest about this. No-one else does… why should I? They’re not honest about anything and they’ve plenty of issues. [Accusation] 4. It’s their issues and shortcomings that make me act this way. [Blame] 5. It’s their fault. And they’re blaming me! [Anger] 6. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m actually better than them. [Superiority] - My Ego is stroked [Egomaniac] You cannot change what you do not confront! You cannot control what happens outside. You only control your own thoughts and your own actions. Sorry, you CAN only control your thoughts and your actions. It’s your choice. You can influence others and some things outside but you do not control them. It’s time for you to become a thought warrior. It’s time for you to dare to have Joy@Work. When you dare to have Joy@Work you’ll feel vulnerable and focus your attention on helping and recognising others. When you have Joy@Work you will feel vulnerable Many leaders ask me to help their teams trust each other and improve collaboration. They know it’s hugely beneficial and profitable for that to be the case. But they fear being vulnerable to their team because the team isn’t trusted by the leader - so why would they...

The number of people worldwide reporting feeling stress or anxiety is massive! 80% of US workers say they experience stress on the job (American Inst of Stress). (70% according to APA). Covid added to the problems with a spike in anxiety (37% up from 8% pre-Covid!) and depression (30% up from 6%!) according to the World Economic Forum. One positive thing about Covid though has been that employers and Governments are beginning to take mental health a lot more seriously. Though many fall back on the health systems who seem intent on flawed idea of medicating people out of the problems rather than dealing with the root causes. In this AdvantEdge Guide Series, we’re taking a rather special approach to the issues by looking at the flip side of fear, stress and anxiety in the brain, by comparing and contrasting these with Happiness and Joy in the brain. One side raises performance, the other inhibits it. Why Joy@Work? Every one of us has this war going on inside our minds. Only one side doesn’t realise that it’s in a war! Within Joy@Work lies the bedrock of wisdom and insight into the art and neuroscience that underpins your journey as a leader. This invaluable resource is your AdvantEDGE to begin Winning the War in Your Brain. * Encourage you to Understand the war that’s ongoing * Develop and Equip you for the battle * Guide you to transcend the limitations holding you back, and * Empower you to UnStuck your true potential for unparalleled joy and fulfillment in both your personal and professional life. With this incredible knowledge, you will forge a path towards building a thriving and successful organisation, with collaborative, high-performing teams comprising of engaged, joyful employees. This powerful AdvantEdge Coaching Series has been refined and developed and is the basis for helping many clients to have Joy@Work, improve their own performance and that of their teams and businesses. Throughout 2023, we’ll be making this powerful AdvantEdge 11 part series available by Podcast, Text and Video. This series has 11 parts and we intend to publish in order a new part each month. The working links below (in red) are available to you now. If you want access to them all now, that’s great and you can sign up for AdvantEdge Coaching here. Subscribe now to Joy@Work! And be first to receive new GuidePosts, Podcasts and Video. Winning the War in Your Brain - AdvantEdge Guide Series: * We’ll begin with why Joy@Work matters and then I’m going to share something that has discouraged far too many people from even thinking that they can do this. I trust that this will encourage you to know that you, me and everyone else on this planet - we all doubt we deserve to be joyful and that’s a lie from the pit of hell. * Why Joy@Work Matters - Live * Do You Dare To Have Joy@Work? - Live * Then we need to understand that you, me and everyone else are biased and prejudiced! That is we each have our own set of lenses through which we see and interpret the world around us, and how these lenses may alter our perception. Understanding our own biases and how to mitigate any negative impact is essential for personal development progress. * Pride and Prejudice - Live * Then we’ll develop your understanding of the circles of power, influence and concern so that you can easily assess what challenge is within your power to change or affect, what matters to you and what is beyond the reasonable possibility of your control. * Understanding Your Circles of Power, Influence and Concern - Live * We’ll then develop your knowledge about fear, stress and anxiety in the brain and compare and contrast these with Joy, pleasure and happiness in the brain. * Fear, Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Your Brain - Live * Joy, Happiness and Pleasure in Your Brain - Live * Next, we’ll guide your understanding of how we respond to challenges choosing to be “At Cause” for our life or “At Effect” of others, events and the challenges we face. * Choosing to...

This GuidePost talks about how we are always in pursuit of happiness. But happiness is based on chance and not something that can be constantly achieved. Pleasure is also temporary and not something that should be constantly strived for. Instead, we should focus on having joy, which is more internal and based on making peace with your self. To have Joy@Work, we should focus on leveraging our talents and doing something purposeful for others. Although it will take time and effort, the benefits will be worth it in the end. This GuidePost answers the following questions: 1. What is the problem with the pursuit of happiness? 2. What are the benefits of aiming for joy instead of happiness? 3. What does research show about the benefits of being happy at work? 4. What did the Energy Project find were the benefits of going beyond engagement? 5. What is the most underutilised way to increase productivity, engagement, and performance? 6. What are the three things that bring joy in the workplace? 7. How can you have joy@work? Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Seeking Pleasure, Finding Joy When you ask people what they want in life, the No 1. answer is “Happiness”. But, there’s a problem with the pursuit of happiness found in the root of the word which is “hap”. Which is the same “hap” in perhaps, haphazard, happenstance and happen. It means luck, chance or fortune and to have happiness means it has to happen to you. And another problem, when many people think about happiness they’re really thinking about what gives them pleasure and having more of those things. Pleasure is extrinsic, visceral and temporary. Joy, on the other hand is more consistent and cultivated internally. Joy comes when you make peace with who you are, why and how. Whereas, happiness is externally triggered and based on other people, places, things, events and thoughts. Aiming for joy is far more beneficial and less transitory. So how can you have Joy@Work Imagine that someone created a green pill that adds years to your life; it reduces the risk of having a heart attack or stroke; cuts your risk of Alzheimer's disease by more than fifty percent; helps you relax during the day and sleep better at night; it doubles your chances of staying drug and alcohol free after treatment; activates your natural killer cells; diminishes your inflammatory cells; increase your good cholesterol (HDL); and it repairs your DNA. What if this imaginary green pill reduced hospitalisation so much that it put a big dent in the national health crisis? Oh, and as a special bonus, it gives you better sex. The company that made that green pill would be worth gazillions right? The green pill's inventors would win Nobel Prizes and have institutes named for them. But it's not a green pill. It's the Resilience of fulfilling Your Purpose. And it's free. And you get side effects. More friends. Greater happiness. Deeper engagement in life. And better sex. Now imagine a red pill that makes your work almost effortless, yet simultaneously fulfilling. Every moment at work you are in the zone. You're flowing and your performance is so good, and your productivity increases and you are more engaged with your work and with your colleagues. The company who made that red pill would be worth even more gazillions and businesses would be clamouring for their workers to take this magnificent drug so they could profit even more and keep staff happily employed and engaged for years to come at higher wages with shorter working hours and greater productivity. Well those red pills would be flying off the shelves faster than an speeding bullet. But it's not a red pill. It's leveraging your Talent. And it's also free. Now, what if you take both the green pill and the red pill? What if you were joyful at work, found deep pleasure in doing what you do and it felt effortless and your job was meaningful for you? I've worked with so many people...

Public speaking is one of the top fears of many people – in fact, it’s been rated as the number one fear for some. But why is that? Is it really the act of standing in front of a group of people and talking that’s the problem? Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. It turns out that the real fear behind public speaking isn’t the speaking itself, but rather the fear of public humiliation. We’re all concerned about what other people think of us and being put in the spotlight can be a scary thing. We’re concerned about whether we’ll make a fool of ourselves or look out of place. We worry that people will laugh at us, ridicule us, or even outright make fun of us. This fear of looking “stupid” or “silly” is what really stands in the way of many people. And, because we fear this, we can quickly become overwhelmed with performance anxiety. Now, any time we need to perform in front of anyone else, anxiety sets in. Performance Anxiety is the fear or stress you experience before, during and after a performing any specific task. Public speaking is one example, but it could be as simple as brushing your teeth or getting out of your bed or a chair. Or it could be your boss asking you a question for which you haven’t got the answer - it’s not necessarily that you don’t know the answer, but in the pressure of the moment…. Poof! It’s gone. Or maybe the factual answer is not the correct answer? Any time that you feel pressured to perform or feel the need to meet an expectation, performance anxiety can take centre stage - your mouth dry, head aching, nauseated, shortness of breath, uncontrollable shaking, racing heart, loss of concentration and feeling overwhelmed… heck, you only need to add incredible intense chest pain and you were off to A&E and the cardiac ward! Performance anxiety is not fun! It’s an equal opportunities affliction caring nothing for age, gender, experience, fitness or race. And fortunately, it’s all in the mind. If only there was a way to interrupt our anxious thinking and overcome performance anxiety… If you ever suffer from a little or a lot of performance anxiety, here’s four simple mind hacks I’ve learned from people who always appeared to be calm, cool and super-confident. And anyone can do all of them as easily as you can breathe, laugh, pose for a picture or dance. I didn’t say that you could do them all well, but easy for sure 😃. Before we get into this, a little medical disclaimer - the information presented in this article is not medical advice and should not be used to replace the advice of a qualified medical professional. Please consult your doctor to discuss any medical issues or treatments you may be considering. First up is the easiest of all and something you’ve been doing since birth: Breathing. Only, you probably don’t breathe well at all (few people do!) Breathe! Instead, deliberately breathe in through your nose for 4, hold for 4 and breathe out sharply through your mouth for 4. And do it 4 times! This reduces your stress hormones, especially Cortisol, and triggers your vagus nerve and your Parasympathetic Nervous System and helps calm you down. Easy peasy, right? Ready for something a little more tricky? Have a Laugh! No really. Laugh out loud. Start making the sound of laughter and just keep at it. Of course you can watch the crazy, funny videos on YouTube or TikTok or wherever, or listen to a joke. Whatever tickles your fancy. Or just laugh like the laughing policeman song: The Laughing Policeman - Charles Jolly / Penrose It takes a while but I know that you feel way better already. That’s the dopamine rush that’s making you feel good. And any time you witness someone performing in any capacity who kicks off with a joke… they usually think it’s to warm up the audience, which it can do (but it can backfire badly!), it’s really to warm themselves up. Ready for a little challenge? Pose! This is an astounding trick to play on...

We all want an inspirational leader. Someone to look up to, to give us hope and direction. A leader who engages us as individuals and treats us well. But most of all makes us want to be better. But what if that leader is you?!? And today, You’re just not feeling up for it? Welcome to this Joy@Work AdvantEdge Guide to Find Your Mojo Again by harnessing the power of your inner chemistry. Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And today you're feeling a bit blah. Everything's sort of "meh" and you'd like to just hang in there for the time being and let Future Self take responsibility for that. We all go through phases in life when our mood is uplifting, positive, dynamic and we feel like we could conquer the world. And then there's that "meh" moment, when everything is a little bland, and what would be really really nice is if someone else would just take charge and be the one to inspire and engage and buck us up. To choose to switch your drive and motivation on so that you can inspire others, we're going to delve into the neuroscience of how your brain works, learn what drives you (and everybody else) and then we're going to take charge of the chemistry cocktail bar inside your brain. The Neuroscience of your Get Up and Go (aka your MOJO) Your brain is not your best friend when it comes to feeling positive, enthusiastic and inspired. In fact, neuroscientific evidence shows that our brains are hard-wired to make us feel mentally crappy most of the time. Let me geek out with some acronyms for a moment - it's interesting stuff. Briefly, your brain is survival focussed and it is controlled by the Sympathetic Nervous System (the SNS) and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPPA). Both the SNS and HPAA are reactive systems. That is, they register any (and every) possible threat and fire you up chemically to respond. This is fantastically useful in keeping you safe but it has the rather unpleasant side effect of making you feel anxious, stressed, disappointed and generally low spirited. Today's living environment for most of us, especially in urban areas means that both your SNS and HPAA are fired up much of the time in response to the daily challenges you face on your daily commute, in noisy, crowded offices, surrounded by beeping devices and with a boss imposing impossible deadlines... Modern life is taking a large toll on your peace of mind. Yet, you have another system available to you called the ParaSympathetic Nervous System (PSNS). And when your PSNS takes charge you feel great: calm, relaxed, chill, tranquil, clear-headed, and well, happy. Yes, the name of the Sympathetic Nervous System is a little misleading in our modern understanding of the word "sympathetic", but it is the system that makes you feel stressed or basically, crappy. OK, so a quick summary, your brain automagically, or rather, unconsciously, reacts to environmental stimuli through your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and/or your Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPAA) to prepare you to deal with any threats. Once the threat passes, or you choose to consciously engage it, your ParaSympathetic System (PSNS) switches on to calm you down and get back to other important stuff like digesting your food, maintaining homeostasis, slowing your heart rate and so on. Just make a note that you can choose to consciously trigger the PSNS. I'll be back to this at the end. Before that though, let's remember what actually drives you. i.e. what gets you getting up and going? As you know, we all have six foundational drivers that are at the heart of practical neuroscience. Of course, your brain is an incredibly complex organ and variations of human behaviour are an endless ocean of subtle differences. But we can identify six neuro-scientifically founded basic needs of human beings and how these influence our motivational behaviours and how we interact with the world around us. As human beings, we have...

Abraham Maslow proposed a sixth level in his renowned five level hierarchy of human needs, which behavioural neuroscience has since confirmed. These levels explain the essential drivers of our behaviours, reactions and reactions. We all have six foundational drivers that are at the heart of practical neuroscience. Of course, your brain is an incredibly complex organ and variations of human behaviour are an endless ocean of subtle differences. But we can identify six neuro-scientifically founded basic needs of human beings and how these influence our motivational behaviours and how we interact with the world around us. As human beings, we have developed to use the environment to its best and allow for reproduction and the furtherment of our species: our survival and growth. For leaders to be successful, they should first ensure that their own needs are met, and then understand and help their team members meet their needs. To do this, a leader needs to understand that their team members have 6 essential needs easily remembered with the SPACES acronym - Survival, Pleasure, Attachment, Control, Esteem and Service. Each of these needs must be fulfilled in order for an individual to reach their fullest potential. Leaders should strive to provide their teams with meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and an environment of trust, collaboration and respect. Only by understanding and meeting the essential needs of their team members, a leader can develop a successful and productive team. SPACES - The Six Needs We All Share * Physical Survival! Our physiological needs of hunger, thirst, sleep and sex. * Maximising Pleasure and avoiding pain to feel safer and more secure. * Growing Attachment, so that we have a better sense of belonging. * Increasing our Control.Which helps satisfy our need to matter. * Boosting our Self-Esteem: Which helps satisfy our need for self-actualisation. * Being of Service to others. We are only truly satisfied when we help other people. Each of these stimulates different neuronal circuits and will activate different regions in the brain. Let me briefly share a little more about each of these needs and then we'll examine how we can consciously and deliberately affect them and hence, our FEELING of drive, inspiration and engagement. You can easily remember this using the SPACES acronym. Why you need this You need to be able to help your team fill their own power cell and ignite their destiny. Every team member has different needs and motivations and it’s the job of the leader to understand and meet those needs through different strategies. They need to feel accepted, respected and that their ideas matter. Leaders should be mindful to include emotional intelligence in their leadership strategy. They should be cognisant of the emotional needs and psychological dynamics of their team and give team members the space to express their feelings. Leaders should use empowering language and be mindful of their team’s limits. Each team member should have meaningful work and have opportunities for growth. Leaders should also be conscious of what their team members value and strive to provide them with those things. It is also the leader’s job to foster a team environment where team members can collaborate, solve problems and grow together. Leaders should recognise the importance of building trust and rapport within the team, and ensure that all team members are treated fairly and equally. Finally, leading a team requires understanding the different needs of each team member. A great leader is someone who has the ability to empathise and be compassionate with each team member and see things from their perspective. By doing this, the leader can help each individual in the team realize their full potential, and maximise the collective potential of the whole team. The Sixth Level - Why It’s So Important Abraham Maslow wanted to add a sixth level to his renowned five level hierarchy of human needs....

In this AdvantEdge Guide we’ll discuss how establishing Command Intent is a more specific way of setting goals than SMART goals, as it has an embedded purpose. It involves imagining a successful future in each of five areas of life (your Rocket Ship for Life), and focusing on the senses of sight, feel, smell, taste, and sound to create a captivating and rich picture. For teams, the unit in charge of military simulations for NATO recommends asking themselves "if I do nothing else tomorrow, I must ____, so that ____". AdvantEdge Coaching can help to further equip and empower individuals to reach their Command Intent goals. Why do we need a Rocket Ship for Life? The Rocket Ship for Life came about because I used to suffer from a major problem. Basically, I was easily distracted. Teachers’ could rarely get, let alone keep, my attention. I’d start a new project only to quickly get bored or frustrated and move onto the next shiny object. If ADHD had been popular back then, perhaps, I could have gotten myself medicated for it! Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. It wasn’t because I lacked goals. I had much that I wanted to achieve in my career. But, for some strange reason, I was always looking for something. I couldn’t get or keep focus long enough to stick with it and finish. The big issue it turned out was not lack of clear goals, not an inability to focus it was that there were gaps in what I was trying to achieve. There was no balance. What many have badly described as work/life balance - but what I prefer to call work/life integration. It’s where you identify your desired intent in the five key areas of your life as the drivers of the things that you do every day, steered by your values and aligned to your overall purpose or mission in this life. If you ask most people what they want from life, they’ll tell you a variation of “to be happy and successful”. What the Bible calls “Good Success” in Joshua 1:8. Some people think that more money will make them happy. The problem is money is a great servant but a lousy master. And so what if you achieve great success at work if you spend all your time at work and neglect your family and health? As I mentioned, we have identified five key areas in life that, when attended to fully, will bring you real happiness and success as you fulfil them. What are the five key areas? These five key areas are like the engines of a rocket ship that you ride towards your life purpose. Your values are the way you steer and choose which paths you are following. The five areas that we’ve uncovered through our research are: 1. Family and Relationships 2. Health and Wellbeing 3. Spiritual Fulfilment 4. Personal Development 5. Work and Career As you can imagine, like most people, I’d paid great attention to Work and Career and found it increasingly difficult to keep steering straight. I was working 80 plus hours each week (this was in the days when I was in the hotel and restaurant business) with no breaks, rarely a weekend off and scant holidays. I got away with it health wise for a good few years, but it shouldn’t have surprised me when my body rebelled and finally got me to pay a lot more attention to my health and wellbeing when my heart threw a hissy fit on July 4th 2014 at 11:33! When you neglect an engine, it’s always going to be much more difficult to keep going towards your purpose, and very easy to get blown off course. It’s why your life and work are “off-balance.” In the many years I have been coaching, fewer than 20% have anything remotely resembling “balance”. And they’ve usually been coached before or have had their own health or personal life crisis. There’s many a successful person in the boardroom whose family life is in shambles. Why these five areas and is one more important than the others? As you think about each one you’ll realise that if you stop feeding one of these areas and consider the repercussions in...

A change focused neuroscience approach for genuine results in your leadership, work and life that truly Empowers! All AdvantEdge Coaching is based on our unique and powerful AdvantEDGE leadership development process based on Neuroscience Research in how people learn, change and develop: EDGE stands for Encourage, Develop, Guide and Empower. It’s based on my post-grad research s. EDGE isn’t a silver bullet or a magic pill that gets instant results but based upon the latest neuroscience and social cognitive psychology research, EDGE is like a recipe for a pragmatic change focused approach to help clients realise genuine, sustainable results in leadership, work and life. EDGE isn't only a model for coaching. You can use EDGE in any communication situation where you want to empower change or influence others. We will use the EDGE development model in all our GuidePosts, and, as well as explaining the EDGE model we’ll also clarify two other critically important aspects that enable us to help you get those results: That is, 1. to clarify what coaching is (and what it is not!) and 2. how AdvantEDGE coaching truly empowers you to sustain your results. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

The Purpose of this AdvantEdge Guide is to help you make better, informed decisions as you consider coaching to develop yourself or your team and organisation. There’s a lot of very convincing marketing out there that coaching is a panacea for all that ails business and organisation. Your Payoff will be you can understand for yourself, if coaching is suitable for you, and what type or style of coaching might best suit your needs. You’ll also challenge some of the common assumptions that you may have been making. The truth is, coaching is not for everybody, and there are very good reasons. Here’s the top 10 I hear from clients, in reverse order and coming in at number 10, but still a biggie: For the Full AdvantEdge Guide, all the links mentioned in the podcast and easy access to the (free!) resources mentioned, please go to the AdvantEdge Coaching System Website here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

It's not that there is this thing called the “Great Resignation” where an unprecedented 44% of people intend to quit their jobs this year. (58% in Singapore!) It's not that there is a for CEO’s and leaders of many organisations who want their staff back in the office and are finding that impossible. Some, like Elon Musk, even after threatening to fire them all. And it's not really about greed for more money, though when you get approached and offered a 20% pay hike for crossing the street, it is a temptation. It's not even that it's your best and brightest talent who are abandoning ship first. Even though they are the first to be hunted and poached. It’s a lot more systemic than the headline numbers suggest. The devil, as they say, is in the details. During covid we all learned to keep our distance from people because they might just be a tad toxic. We avoided buildings and gatherings and events and restaurants, all so we wouldn’t accidentally meet someone toxic. After 2 plus years we’re tired of avoiding people. And yet, there's one place many still want to avoid going, and that's their workplace. The underlying problem? It's considered a toxic workplace. And not because there's covid lurking in dark corners but because there are loud and proud managers who think that disrespecting staff is a motivational weapon, that inequity is unavoidable and diversity is a fad. They seem to think that inclusion is exclusive and ethics are a matter of political expediency. If your talent are quitting for more pay, it's because someone else is willing to pay them more and dangling a glimmer of hope that this new place won't be toxic, or at least, not as toxic as the current place. But there is something that leaders and managers can do. And if you want to plug your talent drain, you might want to listen up to this : READ THE FULL GUIDE HERE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

The purpose of this guide is to help you align your leadership so that you use your power to most effectively and joyfully achieve what truly matters to you and your team and organisation. The power of your payoff when you put this into action will be people will look to you for leadership and direction to help them grow as (seemingly effortlessly) as you. https://My.joyatwork.coach/5qleadership

Imagine that your needs are like a discharged battery that you are able to charge through your life activities. When the bottom cell is sufficiently filled, the next cell can be charged. All human beings have 6 essential needs, or power cells. Though, some people have faulty power packs - with a corrupted sixth cell that has been taken over by a leaky fifth cell. That is, they care less about other people because their self-esteem is so overfilled they hold others in total contempt - because they matter less than me! Beware overfilling any one cell: Gluttony and Obesity with an overfilled Cell 1, Excessive risk taking for Cell 2. And many have a leaky battery, where their own needs never get filled. What does this mean for you as a Leader? Every leader needs to understand: 1. Your own needs need to be met BEFORE you have enough to give others, and 2. Whilst things may look OK on the surface - people tend to hide their emotional needs fearing that they are the only ones who have them. By this, you’ll be better able to ask the right questions and better positioned to serve others and help them fulfil their real needs. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

This is Part 3 of a four part series asking the question: "Are you In Control" or "Controlling"? In this edition os the AdvantEdge Joy@Work Podcast, we're learning how wee can break free from the "Controlling" cycle and get "In Control". Stress, worry, and perfromance anxiety can be crippling your life. It's not always easy to break free of the spiral of anxiety but there is a simple solution for most people that does not involve medication or therapy. It's so shockingly simple that many people scoff at the idea. But the thing is, it works. It's how your brain works and this is a simple technique that you can employ immediately to break your brain out of the Controlling cycle and give your Frontal Lobes a chance to oput the breaks on and stop your stinkin' thinkin. When you understand what is happening in your brain you'll see why it works, and, I absolutely guarantee, you can do this. This is not like getting your body fit by going to the gym 6 times a week or training to run a marathon. It's even easier than going to the toilet and takes about the same amount of time. In fact, you can even do this whilst doing your toilet business. In fact, that's a particularly excellent time to practice. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach