Happiness

How to Turn a Bad Day Around

/ Yves / Leave a comment

Nice post on Harvard Business Review linked with The Happiness Advantage (people who start off happy are more likely to succeed; people who start off unhappy are more likely to fail). Reminder to self: ask Santa Claus to deliver me that book.

Bottom line on how to turn a bad day around:

Do:

    • Think of three things that you’re grateful for
    • Consider what you’ve already accomplished even if it’s minor
    • Reflect on what triggers your bad days and which tactics help to turn them around

Don’t:

    • Believe that you are a victim of your circumstances—you choose whether to be negative or positive
    • Hunker down at your desk—change scenery and take a few deep breaths
    • Set unrealistic expectations for your day

Have a Herculean weekend!

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The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship

/ Yves / 1 Comment

Good article by John Rampton

“Every entrepreneur will experience the real price of entrepreneurship at some point in his startup career. If you haven’t yet, you will. It’s hard. It’s something I’ve had to deal with several times since quitting my job years back. The real psychological price of entrepreneurship can be too much for some to take.”

Read all about it on http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244159

Boss vs leader

/ Yves / 1 Comment

bossversusleaderOn a daily basis I hear people complain about their direct “bosses” or bosses that influence their lives indirectly (bad politicians, lousy bankers, selfish managers…) . Don’t complain, don’t get depressed, act! Otherwise you have the characteristics of a boss too. We don’t need bosses and we should fight them with all the powers we have. Be a leader of the life you want and don’t let anybody tell you it can’t be done!

I’ve worked for bosses and with leaders. I recognize bosses in 5 milliseconds, and they feel that Smile The relationship with bosses were extremely short as I have a tendency to confront them into a “them or me”-situation. The leaders are friends for life. I can only advice you to challenge the bosses keeping your own strengths in mind. Don’t step into their ballgame, because they are great at it. They will try to scare you, but always remember they are more scared than you. They are very good at hiding it. Their worst nightmare is you discover their incompetence and that they will lose their power. That’s the last thing a leader thinks about. So don’t be scared of bosses, be scared of being unhappy for the rest of your days.

Should we be patient and let bosses become leaders? A few years ago I would have said yes. Back then I showed too much patience hoping some bosses would “become” leaders. Today, with all the experiences of the past entrepreneurial years, I would say no. I don’t think people can change from being narcissistic to altruistic, because that’s the core characteristic of a true leader. At least, I haven’t found examples yet.

So, let’s fight those bosses as they don’t deserve to lead you. You deserve a great leader to help you achieve your dream. It’s your job to find him or her. You deserve to lead your own life in the right direction. You have my mental support and the support of all Herculeans out there.

Have  Herculean one!

Employer Branding is the new black

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Improving your Employer Branding is one of the key benefits of Hercules Trophy. Hercules Trophy is not just another teambuilding. It’s an inter-company team competition. Emotional connection, the first crucial phase to start building a team is only one of the many results of Hercules Trophy.

A strong employer brand = more highly engaged employees = better service to clients = more satisfied clients = more business and more referrals = bigger bottom line.

For the past 14 years I can easily say which companies have a strong employer brand and which haven’t. Just observe the teams at a Hercules Trophy and you’ll know. Some employees are proud to represent their brand, others really don’t want to go the extra mile. By the way, these things can change year after year.

I like the Performance-Happiness Matrix of Charles D. Kerms.

I also bumped into this very interesting blogpost by SocialTalent on the LinkedIn Talent Connect Conference of last month. What’s emerging over the last 12 months (no surprise here, really) is that the employer brand is equally as important to the hiring organisation as their consumer brand. “Employer branding is the new black”, said LinkedIn. When they analysed the goals and marketing spend of 3,028 companies from around the world, the evidence was clearly pointing to a shift in priorities and results-based marketing decisions in branding their companies for hiring, not just selling.

Your performance is only as good as your people. You need to attract the right ones, and then the brand develops from the inside out. Building the company’s reputation as a great place to work serves both your talent acquisition strategy and your client sales strategy.

In Belgium we have closed a partnership with Vacature|Référence to become Title Sponsor. Why? Because they totally get the Employer Branding power of Hercules Trophy. HR Magazine and Federgon are also proud partners. Our customers get it too. That’s why 200 teams subscribed in only 4 days time and we haven’t even started yet. Seen these brand new reference cases of Adecco, Deloitte or DHL?