Yearly Archives: 2016

We may never know or understand what motivates a person to get into criminal activity. It may be fear, peer pressure, financial issues, or family problems. It may be other reasons that are known only to the individual. What we do know is that sometimes, people who are making criminal choices are working alongside us. We can’t pretend this doesn’t happen just because it’s an uncomfortable topic for some people to think about. The impact of illegal behavior on a workplace can take a number of forms. People may steal from the company, gain access to confidential information and use it for personal gain, exploit customers, or even use their workplace as an operational outpost for their criminal enterprise. Even if people are engaged in criminal activity strictly outside of work, the effects of that entanglement can still greatly impact the environment. That’s why its a priority for employers to carry out the necessary checks (such as a people search) before even considering to employ these kinds of people, this way you may be able to catch them out beforehand as they would have had to legally note down any previous crimes or convictions. Although, this isn’t always the case, and people can start their criminal activity they step foot into the workplace, so you just have to be careful and keep them on record to ensure they’re not let back into the business again.

Signs can include sudden unexplained improvement in socioeconomic status, secretive behavior, bragging about their exploits, co-workers witnessing suspicious transactions, or association with questionable people. These people have zero interest in changing their behavior because they are profiting from it too much. All the advanced communication skills workshops in the world won’t help when dealing with this kind of issue. These individuals don’t honor the spirit or mission of a workplace, they corrode it. If they perceive someone as interfering with their activities, they can turn dangerous or even violent.

We are going to cover options for handling this kind of situation at a later date. For now it is simply important to understand that when someone is causing serious disruption to a workplace, criminal activity may be among the sources of the trouble.

Next week we’re going to deal with perhaps the most complicated category of trouble co-workers / leaders: drama stagers. Until then, be safe and stay strong!

My business has evolved into a part-time ministry. Which as it turns out, is what I really wanted all along. From little on up I’ve been teaching, encouraging, and leading others. Now, as I begin to approach 50, I am settling in to a happy new business model that finally makes me feel like I am fulfilling God’s call for my life. I have no greater priority. My family ranks a very close second, but God always has, and always must, come first.

I decided to shift the business model from teaching live workshops to essentially teaching online through the powerful platforms of FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, as well as my own website www.debhollandlcsw.com. I can have a far greater reach and impact online than go to I can in any other format.

My core message is workplace detoxification. Some of our workplaces are making us sick. Some are killing us. Enough is enough. It is the duty of every leader to ensure a healthy environment for their people. Leaders can’t do that unless they are healthy. So my daily teaching online, in whatever picture, post, or video it comes packaged in, invites people to think about their lives, their choices, their character and grow to a new level. To become a better version of themselves.

Employees need encouragement too. Too many of them are battered daily at work. They’ve tried everything they can think of to improve their situation, but nothing has helped. Yet. My job is to offer new strategies for going over, under, around, or through the logjam holding them back. My passion is to see people free and happy. Life is too short for anything less.

Mental health challenges can be organic or emotional in nature. Severity can range from an acute reaction to life stress to full-blown episodes of illness. Signs can include erratic behavior, unpredictable moods – in technical terms, this is called being an emotional vampire, high levels of conflict with other people, or a loose grip on reality. It is important to distinguish between situational stress that exists due to an external challenge in only one environment, versus problematic behavior that is generated by the individual and is pervasive across environments. We discussed what that looks like last week.

We all face situational stress. Health problems, family issues, money troubles, or other types of difficulties can throw anyone temporarily off their game. It’s possible to have more than one life problem at once and be in a highly stressed state, but again it’s temporary. The trouble is coming from the stressors overwhelming the coping skills or other resources the person has to resolve them. When coping with stress, many people will crumble. However, those who understand their stressors can prepare themselves. When dealing with stressors, some people know their coping method, this can prevent the stress from getting to them. There are multiple ways to deal with stress. One of the most popular methods is to use smoking accessories to consume marijuana. It’s believed that marijuana can reduce stress, allowing people to face these issues and not experience any stress.

Mental health issues are internal. The pressure comes from inside the person and it shows up in how they deal with just about everything and everyone. They tend to experience the same kinds of problems in all their environments, including work, family, and personal life. This is not to say they are bad people. It is important only in terms of trying to figure out how to deal with the impact on the work environment. If you are dealing with someone with a true mental illness, Get Rid of Skin Tags Home Remedies – Safely Skin Tags Removing Guides. it may be that they aren’t able to respond well to attempts to work towards more acceptable behavior. People under situational stress who are advised about the impact of their behavior/attitude on the team will generally pause and realize the problems are bleeding over into work. They will at least make a good faith effort to get themselves back on track well enough to function in the work environment. They are capable of seeing their behavior accurately, understanding its impact, and then making positive changes. People will true mental illness however, may lack the capacity for that kind of insight, empathy, and behavioral adjustment. These people typically want to do a good job, but have organic issues that make it really tough for them.

There is a lot of good information online about how specific disorders affect people if you are interested in learning more about signs and symptoms. Sites such as Monte Nido raise awareness and obtain help for people suffering from things like anxiety disorders and eating disorders, and there are many other sites that help with other issues. It is important not to try to armchair diagnose someone, but rather to learn to recognise what issues might be present so you can help them have a more successful experience at work. It might also be worth speaking to a company who offer mental health treatment in houston or somewhere local to you to help you with your road to recovery.

Next week we’ll talk about the third category: criminal activity. Until then, be safe and stay strong!

Maturity does two things for you. It provides you with opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t have. Perhaps most importantly, it makes your experience of life a much better one.

Genuinely mature people realize there are powers in the universe much greater than they are. They don’t try to play God, or make themselves a false idol in anyone else’s life. They also realize there is a big world out there, filled with people who think differently than cialisforsalecanada.com they do. They make room for other people and stay humble. They realize it isn’t all about them.

Mature people are easy to spot. They are the ones who are not manipulating, not bullying, and not trying to engineer situations for their own personal gain. They aren’t running around creating chaos and confusion in their endless quest to grab all they can for themselves without giving back. They are stable. They own who they are. They care for others. They honor their roles in life. They have their priorities straight. They make thoughtful decisions that take others into consideration. People are attracted to that sort of calm, mindful living. If you had an opportunity you were looking to share with someone, who would you pick? The person who is running around pleasing themselves, often at the expense of others? Or the person who is clearly making a conscious choice to be a force for good in the world? Immature people never realize how much they missed out on because their presentation of themselves to the world was so poor.

Mature people are also a lot happier. They don’t have less problems in life, they just choose to handle them in the most productive way possible. They live from a values based system that makes their decisions much easier for them. If something is in alignment with their philosophy and goals, they do it. If it’s not, they don’t. They experience less conflict with others because they have made a conscious decision to treat other people well. They avoid drama. They aren’t trying to cover their insecurities or deal with their problems by putting others in a one down position. They tend to be beacons of light. Quality people are attracted to that. Shady people who like to operate in dark corners hate the light and avoid it whenever possible. Eliminating them from your life automatically eliminates a ton of stress.

All of these things provide the mature person with one invaluable treasure: inner peace. When you have that, you have everything.

Tomorrow is the 15 year anniversary of 9/11. I remember the stunned horror of that day like it was yesterday. I’m sure we all do. We remember where we were, who we were with, and what we thought and felt at the time. It was a day that deeply scarred our nation.

But it didn’t crush us. We rose from the ashes to rebuild, reconnect, and recommit to the American way of life that we love. We managed to move on. Every day that we get out of bed and pursue the dreams that our forefathers gave us the opportunity to achieve, is another day that the terrorists didn’t win.

As 15 years have passed, there are some special groups of people who need to be thanked.

For those who lost their lives on 9/11, we still remember. We always will.

For the families of those who lost their lives on 9/11, we still hold you in our hearts. We always will.

For the first responders, the police, the firefighters, the paramedics, the clergy, the disaster relief workers, THANK YOU. You’ve handled emergencies large and small since that fateful day, and we still salute you. We always will.

For families of all those first responders, THANK YOU TOO. We know you live with the daily uncertainty about whether or not your loved one will return to you. We appreciate the sacrifice you make too. We always will.

For our military, Army, Navy, Air Force, at that site Marines, Coast Guard, and all the students at our military academies, THANK YOU. You step into the breach so we don’t have to. You voluntarily and honorably take up the fight so the rest of us can go about our day and sleep well at night knowing you’re watching over us. You willingly go over there so we can stay right here. You give up so much. It is impossible to describe in words how much this means to our country, to our communities, to me. I stand in awe of you. We support you. We always will.

For our military families, THANK YOU TOO. You tend to home and hearth while your loved one is far from home. You watch every newscast with a measure of apprehension and the dread of a late night knock at the door. The rest of us would crumble under the stress you push through every day. We support you too. We always will.

America has gone through a lot these last 15 years. Economic downturns, strife at home, violence in our streets, and a hundred other forms of turmoil. Yet one thread remains. No matter what happens, individually and collectively, we get up the next day and take a step forward. No matter how painful, no matter how confusing, no matter how uncertain, we take that next step. Then another. And another. Until one day we look up and realize, we’ve made some real progress here. We’ve overcome, transformed bad things into something productive, come together in ways we hadn’t before. The United States isn’t just a place. It’s us. We are America. We are strong. We arise. We always will.

Leadership is a spiritual responsibility. It is a leader’s sacred duty to watch over those under their command. Leaders will be held accountable for how those serving under them fared. Too many leaders conduct themselves in defiance of that fact. They exploit their position for their own personal gain. They steal from their stakeholders. They conceal the truth. They abuse their people. They create toxic workplaces as malignant as an aggressive metastatic cancer.

Our workforce is suffering under Cialis 80 mg dosage and other easy methods to sexually arouse a man. these bloated ticks masquerading as leaders. They use all of the resources at their disposal in their never ending quest to gorge their own bellies. They are parasites who cause disease in their host employees and organizations. These kinds of leaders appoint themselves as God over their people and they act accordingly. Big mistake.

How do leaders go so far astray? Denial and dysfunction. Or in more clinical terms, maladaptive patterns of believing and behaving. Typically, these leaders display an incredible level of arrogance and ignorance. They believe that they have attained an exalted status. They believe the team is there to serve them. They believe the organization is their own personal treasury of resources. They think that because they haven’t been caught they never will be caught. They think that if they surround themselves with those who fear them, owe them, or are as dysfunctional as they are, they insulate themselves from accountability. Their mindset is so wrong it warps their behavior.

Compounding that is another classic mistake bad leaders make: not doing their own work. I’m not talking about the required tasks of their particular job. I’m talking about the work it takes to mature and evolve as a person. To grow beyond previous boundaries. To become a healthier version of themselves. Bad leaders scoff and laugh at such a notion. They stand on their grandiose delusion that the world is the way they want it to be because they say so. What they don’t realize is that what they are standing on is a thin, transparent piece of glass the rest of us can see right through. Inevitably, the weight of the leader’s transgressions will shatter that glass and they will plummet down.

Bad leaders behaving badly takes an enormous toll on their employee’s lives. Rather than being protected by the ones in charge of watching out for them, far too many employees suffer as a direct result of the leader’s behavior. They battle problems with their health, family, and finances. Their view of themselves and the world around them grows dim. Their inner light begins to flicker and in some cases, goes out. What a massive loss of human potential. What a legacy of hardship for families to bear. What a grave spiritual consequence for any leader to bear.

Leaders, how do you pass your spiritual tests? How do you honor the position of tremendous responsibility that you have been graced with? First, you submit to God’s authority. If you can’t, why should your people submit to you? Second, you do your own work. Just like no one can do your sit-ups for you, no one except for you can untangle the Gordian’s knot of your emotional baggage. We all have it. Stop pretending you don’t and set about the work of dealing with it. Root out and heal the dysfunction. If you grew up in an alcoholic or addicted family, that affected you. Same thing for abusive or neglectful families. Same thing for families with a parent who had a mental illness. Or a parent who was absent. Or a hundred other ways that a rough beginning presents itself. Unless you have dealt with whatever dysfunction existed in your early life, those issues are still impacting you. In the worst cases, they’re haunting you by driving behavior that were you fully aware of it, you most certainly would not choose.

Surrounding yourself with people as dysfunctional as you isn’t going to cut it. All that does is create a shared illusion of invincibility that will inevitably crash itself headlong into the rocks of reality. The system you work in is just one system. Even if your whole enterprise shares the illusion, there is still an outside world that doesn’t. Man’s laws and God’s laws still apply. The day of accountability will arrive. Bad leaders will have to take responsibility for not only their poor choices, but for the damage those decisions caused their people.

Finally, after leaders have submitted to God as their proper authority and have done their own work to mature, they pass their spiritual tests by creating a culture of vitality. It’s the only truly sustainable culture for any organization. The workplace environment must be physically and emotionally safe. No abuse or exploitation of any kind. It must also be run in a healthy way, not like an addicted or abusive family. The worst leaders replicate the dynamics that existed in their childhood living room. They either are or act like the addict, coalescing everyone around them to protect them from the consequences of their choices. Anyone who plays their prescribed role gets favored. Anyone who calls out the craziness for what it is gets shunned or abused. The entire system is built around concealing the activities of the addict and creating a false image the rest of the world buys in to. When a workplace environment is based on a sick family system, that becomes its sole focus and eventually it implodes. Only a healthy culture can survive, thrive, and allow each of its individual members to flourish. Only healthy cultures realize the full potential of the mission that they are tasked with accomplishing. Only healthy leaders can create healthy workplaces. Leaders, pass your tests!

One of the most critical questions you can ask about your workplace gets right to the heart of the matter. Is the problem individual a person of essentially good character who occasionally makes mistakes? Or are they an essentially flawed character who only occasionally manages not to mess things up? The answer to that question dictates your strategy.

If the issues are with someone who is essentially of good character, then there is a lot of hope for a complete resolution. Using your best interpersonal skills will go a long way towards resolving the issues. But if the person is of poor character, especially if they have a malicious intent towards others, you are in a highly concerning situation because the only thing that matters to people like that is advancing their own agenda. They are willing to sacrifice you and everything that matters to you in pursuit of their own agenda. Even the most advanced communication and conflict resolution skills do not work with them. Entirely different strategies are called for. Using healthy skills actually makes us more vulnerable to these individuals, because they exploit our personal code of honor of treating people well and fairly. The sole goal with these people is to contain their behavior in such a way that it stops harming us.

True resolution of problems with ill-intentioned people is not possible, because solving issues is not their point. The conflict itself is the point. These folks continually try to bait others into interactions they can use to their advantage. If you engage, you lose. These people do some of the worst damage to people’s minds, hearts, and souls. They destroy trust in life and other people because they instigate tremendous amounts of conflict, then blame the other person for it. They toy with people for the sport of it and leave a lot of destruction in their wake.

For example, if your co-worker or leader has a good track record of treating people well, doing their own job to the best of their ability, and taking accountability for the occasional mistakes they do make, then there’s a high likelihood they will genuinely try to resolve problems when they are brought to their attention. Conversely, your co-worker or leader may have a history of being a jerk to people, doing their own job marginally, not taking responsibility and blaming others for pretty much everything. With that kind of track record, that’s not a person who is going to be interested in hearing about, let alone resolving, conflict. You have to look at what is most consistent about them over time.

If you have a generally good and trustworthy co-worker or leader, give them the benefit of the doubt and do your best to work with them to resolve anything that comes up. They’ll appreciate your honesty even healthymanviagra.com if it’s hard for them to hear, because they have a demonstrated interest in having a healthy, productive workplace. If you have a co-worker or leader who typically acts disrespectfully and doesn’t seem to care, then it’s a mistake to think they will take whatever specific issue you are bringing up seriously. It is not your responsibility to trust those who have proven they can’t be trusted.

Next up, the five categories of troubled co-workers and leaders. Until then, stay strong and take good care of yourself. You’re worth it!

What do you do when go to the situation you’re facing overwhelms the resources you have to deal with it? First, you decide not to feel bad about yourself. All of us, at one point or another, have found ourselves in the middle of a mess. Sometimes we’ve made our own mistakes or poor choices. Other times we encounter dysfunctional people who specialize in making messes for others.  Regardless of whose fault it was, what matters is that there is a way out of the mess for you. You deserve to live a happy, healthy life. Free from abuse, oppression, or bondages that limit your future. God created you to serve a special purpose that only you can fulfill. For Him. For the rest of us. That sacred opportunity and duty that you have is priceless. Don’t let anyone rob you of it. Realizing that you’re worth the work it takes to turn your life around is the key to your success.

The next vitally important step is to fully face the reality of the situation. Square your shoulders, lift up your head, and look your situation right in the eye. Stare it down if you have to. Don’t flinch or cower. You’ve got what it takes to deal with the truth. Remember that even if something was your fault, you’ve decided to make a change and move forward now. That’s an honorable choice.

Next, figure out where you want to go. What have you learned from the situation? How can you improve? Even if you’re the one who made poor choices, how can you bring good out of the situation, for yourself or others? It’s never too late to do the next right thing.

Finally, find a reason to hope. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Most of us can recognize when we’re in a mess and come up with a plan to move beyond it. Hope is the vitally important bridge between where we are and what comes next. Maybe the odds are stacked against you, or you face a formidable foe. Acknowledge that, then find a reason to hope anyway. Hope gives you strength for the journey. Hope gives you the ability to make better decisions. Hope gives you courage. Be strong. Be smart. Be brave. You got this.

Today we are continuing our series on toxic workplaces. We can’t possibly solve something we don’t understand. Bad leaders create a lot of confusion about what is really going on in an organization. That dynamic is sometimes very deliberate. Some leaders operate in the shadows, making shady deals, telling lies, and pitting people against each other. If a leader can cause chaos among the troops, it diverts attention from anyone realizing that the root of the problem is the leader. This kind of work environment is exhausting and exasperating to deal with. Healthy people in these environments, who see the truth and speak up against the drama, often experience immense pressure to conform to the leader’s warped spin on reality. They are made to feel abnormal for being healthy. This has a corrosive effect on the individual, the team, the organization, and the stakeholders. Stepping back from the dynamics is essential to recognize where the problems are actually coming from. Everyone has experience of working in a chaotic office at some point in their professional life. It’s the sort of place where they refuse to get with the times and fail to use Filecenter document management software due to their archaic views on how an office should be run.

There are three sources of trouble at work: co-workers, leaders, or the system. In the interest of our own growth and maturity, it helps to take a look at whether or not we are playing any kind of contributing role to the problems, but for now we’re going to talk about when the problem is someone else. The popular theory that both individuals in a conflict are always at fault is false. Sometimes issues really are the handiwork of just one person, and those around them are victims of either circumstance or opportunity. While some offices and workplaces may not suffer from the actions of certain individuals, the office itself may be outdated and not conducive to productivity. A makeover of sorts, including new office monster furniture and supplies, may be in order to revitalize an office and make it practical and well-equipped for the modern age.

Co-workers. Our co-workers are a huge part of our lives. We spend significant time with them and their impact on us is inescapable. Our worst experiences are those in which our co-workers come to work unable or unwilling to do their part to create a healthy, productive work environment, and rob the rest of us from having that critically important foundation for a good work life. Dysfunctional people will cause disruption in the work environment to one degree or another.

Leaders. Impaired leaders destroy people, environments, and missions. Impaired leaders force their people to carry at least part of the leader’s burdens. This derails the missions and generates immense resentment among healthy people who are stuck with extra duties as well as having to tend to the emotional wreckage left in the impaired leader’s wake. read more at Leadership also magnifies flaws. Leaders have to be mature enough to become their best selves and bring their A game to the workplace everyday.

The system. Sometimes the problem is not difficult co-workers or leaders, but a system that is inherently predisposed to allow problems to arise and flourish. Examples include systems that greatly constrain or prohibit consequences for bad behavior, good old boys (or girls) clubs, a hierarchy that diffuses accountability to the point of irrelevance, or control that lies outside the organization. If the organization utilizes misconduct of any kind as a justified means to an end, that is a systemic toxic culture, bigger than just the everyday immediate environment you work in. Similarly, if the leadership is focused on hoarding power and resources for their personal benefit, rather than a shared vision to fulfill the mission of the organization, that is also a systemic toxic cultures. Those are only a couple of examples.

Next week we’ll talk about the #1 question to answer when you are faced with a bad work situation.

Today we are going to begin a series of blogs that will serve as an online workshop you can benefit from in the comfort of your own home. We will start with written blogs and add video blogs as we go along. I also offer a workbook that expands on the mini-teachings the blogs will provide. https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Toxic-Workplace-Workbook-Holland/dp/1530498961/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474201170&sr=8-2&keywords=taming+the+toxic+workplace

I created this material to help employees learn how to deal effectively with the impact bad workplaces are having on their lives. My goal is to give you new strategies for dealing with whatever nonsense you are facing at work, and help you get your life back. Whether it be new ideas for better Hr Compliance implementation across the business, or ways to call out inappropriate behavior in the workplace that may be harder to spot than the usual suspects. Regardless of what position you hold in your organization, if you have someone above you, next to you, or under you who is robbing you of safety and health, what you’ll learn can make a vital and perhaps even life-saving difference.

Everyone deserves a safe, healthy, productive work environment. Yet too many of today’s organizations aren’t even thinking about safety or health as an organizational objective. Too many of today’s leaders are untrained, dysfunctional, or otherwise compromised. Chaotic workplaces where there is no clear authority structure can lead to dangerous consequences. Some people even experience accidents in the workplace because of these sorts of environments. You might want to look for some injury law attorneys if you’ve had an accident at work that wasn’t your fault. Some employee’s personal issues can invade the workplace and wreak havoc, they might not realize themselves leaving boxes or potential trip hazards out for people to injure themselves on. Serious problems arise from compromised co-workers too. It creates a cycle of destruction in which one person’s dysfunction feeds the needs of another’s dysfunction until the mission is a distant memory and the bottom line lies in tattered ruins. With it comes the very real carnage of people’s shattered self-worth, family life, careers, and dreams. Not only that, but it can lead to an increasing array of accidents and injuries, usually needing the intervention of a legal team such as lamber goodnow to help put right, or at least on the path to mending. When a workplace reaches this state it is an entirely unacceptable state of affairs, and I am on a mission to change it. We must transform our workplaces from toxic cesspools of despair to places of victory. We all must be willing to change. While some offices and workplaces may not be dangerous, they may still be outdated and not conducive to productivity. A makeover of sorts, including new office monster furniture and supplies, may be in order to revitalize an office and make it practical and well-equipped for the modern age.

Weak leaders allow problems ranging from aggravating to dangerous, to run unchecked. They abdicate responsibility, refuse to listen, live in denial, and cover up misconduct. They leave people to fend for themselves, without the ability or authority to resolve problems. They send their best employees to workshops about how to deal with difficult people, rather than demanding accountability from the difficult people themselves. These kinds of leaders go to hire guest speakers to conduct what amounts to pep rallies to distract people from the reality of the problems they face. They will do team building activities to give the appearance of caring. They coerce employees into pretending with them that nothing is wrong. All of it is designed to restore the leader’s emotional comfort. It’s never about the team. It’s always about the leader. Some leaders are lazy and too emotionally stunted in their own growth to deal with the tough stuff. They will manipulate people and engineer situations for their own advantage, at the expense of the team. Those types of leaders do massive damage to their employee’s health and lives. Those profoundly negative impacts rarely make the news, but they fundamentally alter the course of people’s futures.

This series of blogs is going to teach you how to systematically work through a comprehensive assessment of the problems and their impact on you, and then shift into strategies for solving those problems and mitigating the damage. Even if you think your situation is so unique or so toxic that no one could possibly understand and nothing can help, hang in there. There is hope.