As a mindset coach over the years, I’ve identified common threads in many of the conversations I have. We are often not alone in our struggles, and so many individuals I speak with are facing similar challenges to one another. Challenges that often point back to very common themes related to time, stress, productivity, happiness and fulfillment. This is part of the human experience: this longing for different, for more, for something other than what we have.

These challenges can often be as detrimental to businesses as they are in personal lives. If your employees aren’t happy or are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, businesses can see a decrease in productivity, higher employee turnover and many other issues affecting culture and profitability. The “happiness” and “human” factor of business might sound foo-foo, but it’s actually been proven that well-balanced employees and a healthy culture are better for business success.

The Carnegie Institute of Technology conducted research that showed that 85% of financial success was due to skills in “human engineering” – such as personality, and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. They found that only 15% was due to technical ability.

In short, you can have the most talented employees in the world, but if their mindsets are skewed or their emotional wellbeing is tapped out, your team and your business will suffer.

Fortunately, there is a solution to these challenges. A solution that addresses the individual being – and results in a positive mindset shift for the individual and, ultimately, for the business.

You can wake up your team to the impact of their thinking and equip them to shift it on the spot. When people “see” the connection between what they think, do and experience, they are empowered and inspired to change. My approach is designed to help individuals identify where they are wasting time and energy doing things that don’t matter, creating drama and suffering with little to no impact, or managing things outside of their domain – and take steps to make immediate change.

This is a game changer for people and it doesn’t require exterior alterations. Instead, it’s all about us shifting our mindset, minimizing stress, navigating overwhelming feelings, and worry and restoring energy that can be channeled into things that matter. It helps all of us, as humans, move the needle forward in our lives.

“[The workshop] was motivating and inspiring to everyone and allowed us to challenge our thoughts and think in a different way by the end. I received positive feedback from everyone on how powerful her message was.”
– Kayla Camp, Program Director for Health & Fitness at PetSmart

Last month I was fortunate enough to conduct a workshop for the Health & Fitness group at the PetSmart headquarters in Phoenix. They had recently underwent some company changes that had engagement and morale down. As soon as I walked into the room, there was a palpable buzz. There was an immediate uplift in energy and excitement – this group of individuals was ready for a change. A change in their thinking, a shift in their perspective, and a transformation of their overall wellbeing.

I thought, “this is why I do what I do”.

My life’s work is helping people who feel like “survival” has become a way of life. I help them design a way of living where productivity, balance, fulfillment and thriving all co-exist. Whether they desire to be a stronger leader, have more work/life balance, or follow through on their goals, the work involves powerful mindset shifts, new approaches to old, familiar challenges and tapping into an individual’s innate ability to invent and elevate the quality of their experience.

Are you serious about making a positive emotional shift in your office culture? And equipping your team with tools to increase their ability to thrive in the workplace?

We can work together towards this goal. Here’s what happened when I worked with the team at PetSmart.

Emotional & Mindset Breakthroughs for the PetSmart Team

The team I spoke with at PetSmart was truly amazing. With some structured prompting through the workshop, attendees were able to realize important (and productive) breakthroughs and realizations. A few of them shared these breakthroughs with me during the workshop, and I’d like to share them with you now.

Fear-guided decisions

One participant shared that many of the actions she was taking were dictated by fear. She realized that when it came to her work, she had been hiding, afraid of the next step. With her powerful mindset shift, she now knew that it was time to leap into her next challenge at work.

Controlling the uncontrollable

On the personal side, one woman shared how she had been putting pressure on herself to always be available for her mom and taking responsibility for creating and managing her mother’s happiness. Her mindset shift inspired by our workshop, allowed her to see a new perspective. She realized if she stepped back a bit it would give her mom the much-needed opportunity to get out and connect with others, while allowing her to take better care of her own well-being.

“This was a very positive interruption to my day and to my life. It was extremely enjoyable and valuable session that made a big impact to the way I will think about and spend my energy.” – Marci W., workshop attendee

In my experience in working with clients, it is clear that personal and professional breakthroughs work together to create a happier, more productive and mindful employee.

There’s no such thing as a true separation between home life and work life as they tend to blend into one another. My approach focuses on the whole person in order to get to the root of where the progress needs to take place and where true change can occur. This focus and “unlocking” an individual’s ability to change can positively impact performance, productivity, and overall employee wellbeing and retention.

How workshop attendees’ benefit from the three key pillars covered in my workshop

Breakthroughs happen when attendees are introduced to the idea that their thought-process and their emotional experience can be changed by making internal shifts in perspective. Too often, professionals feel powerless to change. The following pillars are vital in equipping the individual with insight as to where they have full control to shift their experience.

Pillar 1: Challenge your thinking

Don’t believe everything you think – this is the one thing we can control and often don’t. Ignoring this or embracing it has huge negative or positive impact on our quality and experience of everyday life. Embrace it and begin to see the incredible changes you can make.

WORKSHOP: This is an interactive exercise we go through together during the workshop.

Pillar 2: Do different

It’s critical you get out of auto-pilot. Instead of trying to cram more in a day, eliminate the places where you are leaking time and energy. Where are you spending time thinking/worrying/doing things that are outside your domain of responsibility? I help attendees embrace this concept and dig into their daily routines to identify opportunities to shift.

WORKSHOP: This is an interactive exercise that includes a partner share. It often evokes lots of lively engagement from the group.

Pillar 3: Change your focus, align your actions

Did you know that the more time and energy you spend focused on achieving something, the more likely you’ll get it? So if you’re focused on how you don’t have enough time – you will always be stuck in a world where time is an issue, where you just can’t seem to get enough done. We need to change that focus. How do we shift focus and energy from what we don’t want or don’t have – like enough time – to what we do want? Once the shift occurs, implementing the steps to ensure your actions align with your bigger goals.

WORKSHOP: This is an interactive exercise that includes a partner share and an opportunity to share and inspire others.

Ultimately, the ‘aha moment’ I instill in workshop attendees is that it’s not about doing more, it’s about doing DIFFERENT.

Some feedback I received on my workshop really hit on the core of why I built my approach around these pillars:

“Interrupt your life! This workshop is fantastic. It helps you to think differently, challenge yourself to change. It starts with your mind. Give up what you can’t control and you will find you can do so much more and live fully.”
– Workshop Attendee

Impacting business culture & profitability by equipping professionals with emotional intelligence

The way we see ourselves can directly limit how we interact with others and how we take on new challenges in the workplace. It’s common for some employees to say ‘yes’ to everything and therefore take on too much and become stressed.

ComPsych Corporation, the world’s largest provider of employee assistance programs, released their 2017 StressPulseSM survey revealing that nearly 60% of employees categorized themselves as high-stress. As a result of this stress, 36% lost one more more hours per day in productivity.

This ultimately impacts the employee, team members and the company in a negative way. These habits can be difficult to change, however, because they are afraid they will lose respect or perhaps, a future promotion, if they say no.

In order to address these habits – that seem productive but ultimately hurt the bottom line – I lay out a framework that empowers individuals to elevate their communications and set clear boundaries.

When you set clear boundaries, you take better care of yourself and are able to communicate more clearly about your capabilities and needs. The exciting thing is that rather than having a negative impact, this new perspective and self-awareness helps the team become more effective at work, increases respect throughout the team, and improves workplace positivity.  Win, win, win!

Self-awareness and self-control are key to positive work culture

Being aware and able to understand your own thinking and where it may get in your way (or the way of others) is key to powerful workplace communication and teamwork.

By leveraging the tools and tactics presented in my workshop, teams can better understand their automatic responses to things, and update those responses to make better choices that align with our bigger goals.

Self-awareness and emotional intelligence builds personal resiliency. My workshop helps improve individuals’ ability to work under often stressful or changing environments. By quieting some of the internal dialogue, individuals are allowed to be more present and engaged with the task at hand – thus, increasing personal fulfillment AND productivity on the job.

It’s my mission to drive positive team change by impacting individual thinking

I love to empower people with tools they can use across all areas of their life. I love to show people the blind spots and unexpected places where they are losing energy and giving away power to their circumstances. I love to show people how to shift their focus to what they CAN control, and as a result watch their energy move to where they have the power to shift their experience.

These personal tools impact their engagement at work, how they communicate, how they show up at work, their relationships, and more.

It’s my goal for participants to walk away with insight, awareness and motivation. The motivation to shift from being a passive observer in their daily life to a powerful participant. They’ll take away a few simple but key steps they can begin right away in order to take a new course of action with positive results.

Together, we can make a difference in how your teams approach their work and their lives.

If you are interested in having me present to your team, email me at [email protected] or download my speaker kit at https://carlareevesst.wpengine.com/speaking/

Resources:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3047455/why-emotionally-intelligent-people-are-more-successful

https://www.compsych.com/press-room/press-article?nodeId=37b20f13-6b88-400e-9852-0f1028bd1ec1