Productivity – balancing consistency and intensity

We’ve always been told that the harder we work the more successful we’d be. However, the definition of what success is and how we achieve it changing, and one of the ideas now being considered is whether working consistently gets the same results of working longer and harder - but without the burnout.

It’s younger members of the workforce who are driving this, by recognising that you can achieve goals without having to compromise your own physical and mental wellbeing. That being consistent, even for short periods each day, can be as important as intensity in achieving longer term goals. In terms of productivity, it’s a relationship that varies depending on the individual and the context.

Finding the right balance is the key. Consistency is often associated with establishing habits and routines. It helps create a stable and predictable work environment, making it easier to plan and manage tasks. Regular, small efforts over time can lead to significant progress. An overemphasis on consistency alone though may lead to a lack of innovation or the ability to tackle big challenges that require bursts of intense effort.

Intensity, or focused and concentrated effort meanwhile can be highly effective for tasks that require deep concentration or creative problem-solving. It can lead to quick progress and breakthroughs, especially for complex or challenging projects. But relying solely on intensity can lead to burnout if sustained for long periods and may also make it challenging to maintain a consistent level of productivity over the long term.

Combining consistency and intensity can provide a solid foundation for productivity. This might include setting regular work hours, creating a dedicated workspace, consistently prioritising tasks, identifying key tasks or projects that require intense focus and dedicating specific periods of time maybe through time blocking techniques. It’s also important to recognise the importance of rest and recovery. Balancing intense work periods with breaks and time away from work can help prevent burnout and maintain long-term productivity.

Ultimately, the right balance between consistency and intensity will depend on individual preferences, the nature of their work, and personal circumstances. Experimenting with different approaches and being adaptable to changing needs can help you find the most effective productivity strategy for yourself and also ensure you stay physically and mentally healthy.

The egoless leader?

Can you imagine your organisation with egoless leaders? Would it be a more pleasant, less confrontational work environment with better, more open communication? Would employees feel comfortable talking about what gets in the way of them doing their job? Would employee engagement improve because they feel their leader cares about them? Would it increase productivity, improve morale, and improve word of mouth from employees and customers?

Egoless leadership is an approach to leadership and management that minimises personal ego and encourages a collaborative and team-oriented work environment. It’s a concept of management that was made popular by Douglas McGregor in the 1960’s, and it aligns with the principles of humanistic management, of fostering a positive and inclusive organisational culture, that improves employee engagement and satisfaction. It also promotes innovation and creativity within teams and recognises that leadership is not about asserting authority but about enabling and supporting others to reach their full potential.

It's a concept that also understands that a successful leader can have contradictory traits (some leaders strike a balance between egoless leadership and assertiveness depending on the needs of their team and organisation), the art being to find a balance between any potential tensions that might occur between them.

Egoless leaders have a clear vision, build on and use the capability of their team, welcome input from stakeholders, and look for new opportunities to grow or do better. Their personality characteristics drive organisational culture and has a direct impact not only on their performance but also on broader engagement and team operations. They put the needs of the organisation ahead of their own, and act in a way that serves the business first.

Whilst it may not be suitable for all organisations or situations, egoless leadership can have real benefits. Although leaders need to have self-confidence and a belief in their abilities, they also need the ability to strike a balance and to avoid having an inflated ego. In today’s workplace, are humility, empathy, adaptability, collaboration and the well-being of the team and organisation more important than a leader’s ego?

Balance or Fluidity? Integrating our professional and work lives.

We’re all aware of the importance of having a good work life balance but is it really the best way of ensuring our wellbeing?  Is work/life fluidity the key to a better blend of our work and personal lives?

Nowadays, we’re all encouraged to have a good work-life balance to ensure our mental and physical wellbeing. Whilst this looks different for everyone, it generally means finding a balance between the demands of our work and personal life to ensure a greater sense of well-being. By having a clear and firm boundary between our work and personal lives and by seeing them as completely separate entities we can devote our attention to them at any given time. In reality though, our work and personal lives are linked in many ways and trying to separate them can be difficult and often counterproductive.

A different way of bringing our work and personal lives together is through work/life fluidity. Instead of having hard boundaries between our work and personal lives, it acknowledges the connection between the two and finds ways to make their different aspects complement and enhance each other. Instead of putting our work and lives into different compartments, we embrace the way they overlap and interconnect and recognise that our needs and responsibilities change constantly. This means we can adapt to the changing nature of our world and allow our work and personal lives to support one another.

That’s not to say though that work life fluidity is a better option than "work-life balance”. Whilst some people may prefer a more traditional work structure with clear boundaries, others may thrive in a more fluid and flexible environment. The key is to find a balance through open communication that meets the needs of both the individual and the organisation. One that ensures work expectations are met, but also promotes overall well-being and aligns the individual's personal and professional goals with their specific circumstances.

Is FOOP affecting your authenticity?

New research from Reed shows that 32% of the 2,000 British workers surveyed didn’t feel they could be their true selves at work, with 19% regularly adopting a workplace persona depending on who they talked to or the situation they were in. This inability to be authentic could be down to FOOP, the fear of offending people.

FOOP can lead to people becoming afraid of saying or doing something that might be deemed socially unacceptable, offensive, or politically incorrect and leads to them censoring their thoughts, opinions, and behaviours to avoid any possible backlash, criticism, or social consequences. This leads to a reluctance to engage in open discussions, and a general atmosphere of caution in social interactions which impacts on both personal and professional relationships, stifles creativity, diversity of thought, and genuine conversations.

The extent to which individuals feel this fear can vary depending on cultural context, societal norms, personal values, and the specific subject being discussed and whilst some individuals might genuinely feel this fear, others may use it as a way to dismiss criticism or avoid accountability for their words or actions.

Finding the balance between expressing yourself and being respectful of others' feelings and perspectives can be complex. In any workplace, there is always the potential to offend others, intentionally or unintentionally. Offending people can lead to awkward or uncomfortable situations and damaged relationships but there may be situations where expressing your opinions or standing up for yourself is essential. In these situations, the ability to deal with the aftermath in a constructive and empathetic way is essential to maintaining healthy relationships with colleagues and minimising the potential for negative consequences.

Some argue that there has been an increase in online platforms and social media, which has magnified the impact of public scrutiny and led to a heightened fear of offending others. Others contend that these discussions have been happening for years and are not a new phenomenon. Whatever the reason, the ability to express yourself in an authentic way, rather than dedicating mental effort to hide your true self means you’re going to be far happier in your job and life.

Let your body show you the way

Ellen Meredith is an energy healer, conscious channel, and medical intuitive who have helped over ten thousand clients and students worldwide. Ellen helps her clients engage with the body’s energies to activate healing. Ellen feels we are being forced by our own inner nature and the awakening happening all over the planet and the conflicts were running into. There are a lot of changes and people are shifting in what they want to do and how they want to do it. We are being forced to go inward and reevaluate and ask ‘What’s my part? What do I want to choose moment by moment? What do I want to do with this life?’ Beyond that there is a rising yearning to know ourselves in a deeper way. It's a very exciting awakening or time of change but it also means letting go of a lot of habits and ways of thinking and being social that don't work anymore.

Energy medicine uses energy to heal. We are all made of and fueled by energy and, under the surface of our awareness our body, mind and spirit are constantly communicating using energy. This communication is a language literally something we can learn to participate in and speak. It influences our health and wellbeing and what happens around us to a certain extent by learning to speak the lingo. Ellen’s latest book is about activating the inner guidance system that's built into the body mind and spirit and accessing inner knowing learning how to navigate change using energy tools. The body communicates using chemistry and energy and your energy influences your chemistry but your chemistry doesn't necessarily influence your energy. It’s an emerging field but one that's been around 1000s of years in the guise of acupuncture, yoga or tai chi. There are lots of different practices and traditions that have used the energy communications of the body.

Everyone will say I don't have any energy today. It’s a rare person who says there is no such thing as energy. What’s really going on is a blowback. We’ve been in a long period of outside in thinking where we look outside ourselves for authority. We want science to tell us the truth, we want religion to tell us the truth, we want external forces to validate our truth. We live in a culture that says our objective reality is more real than our subjective reality. That's out of balance. What’s shifting now is the rising awareness that there is a role to be played by inner knowing and inner awareness and the choices that come from within us or from our own experience rather than from statistics about what’s a good life, how you should live or what’s healthy. Something that's healthy for me might not be healthy for you.

All of us have been socialised to think that the outside in reality is more true, more accurate, more correct than something that arises from our own experiences and knowing. We are out of balance and need to activate our ability to access out own inner wisdom because right now we are in an age where technology are enabled us to her everyone’s opinion. We are bombarded by group things such as social media so if we don't have access to our inner wisdom, our inner knowing and our inner truth moment by moment, then we are at the mercy of charismatic but not very balanced people. There is a big move on the planet of authoritarian government and people wanting to turn to authorities who will tell them what the right thing is but there is also a counter move to say no, we need people power, we need to wake up and jointly make these choices and decisions for our own mutual benefit.

Energy medicine has lots of tools for shifting the dynamic of energy that makes us up. It's a very healing thing. Our culture helps us believe that if we have a headache we can get rid of it with a pill but we have trouble in believing that doing something like a yoga pose will also get rid of the same headache. It has to do with our culture and how we are raised. Energy medicine has lots of activities and tools that influence the energetic exchanges of the body and between the mind, body and spirit. We can learn what’s needed, by letting the body show us what’s needed.

Symptoms are your body speaking to you and telling you that it needs something. We all have to learn how the body communicates and how to respond appropriately but we are pretty clueless about that. If we are tired we think we’d better have a stimulant such as coffee but adding coffee to fatigue doesn't address why – are you fatigued because you’re not loving what you’re doing, because you’re doing too much, because you’ve used up your available energy or because you’re really bored? We have to be able to understand these communications so we can find out what we need and make adjustments to live a healthier more receptive life.

Ellen comes from a background of creative writing and feels we don't always need something that's always calming. Sometimes we need to create something big and bold that runs the whole gamut of possibilities. It isn’t always about applying the same technique when you feel bad, it’s about attuning to what your body, mind and spirit is asking and making different choices moment by moment. We make micro choices all day long. Do I pick up my phone or look out the window? Do I grab something quick to eat or consider what my body really needs at this moment? We need to be awake and aware to get more precise about what we need and listen to the things our body is asking for throughout the day to make us more effective, efficient and passionate in each thing we do.

 You can find out more about Ellen at  http://www.ellenmeredith.com.  

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Ellen’s books are Your Body Will Show You the Way and The Language Your Body Speaks. 

Mastering the nine pillars of resilience

Dr Stephen Sideroff started his career as a research looking at a learning and memory. He then moved into clinical work where he quickly realised stress was a major modulator of how people felt. They could be feeling really good but as soon as the amount of stress in their life increased, their coping abilities become strained and they began to develop different kinds of symptoms. He realised that if he helped people deal with stress it would help in all areas of their lives.

Dr Sideroff feels that people have a lot of ambivalence about managing stress because not all stress is bad and also because many of our successes are accompanied by stress. Because of this he switched to a more positive concept of resilience that he finds people are more attuned to.  As a result he developed his own nine pillar model of resilience. Stephen’s nine pillars encompass three different areas:

1. Relationships

a. Relationship with self. This is the foundation of all the other pillars. How you relate to yourself. Do you come from a place of love, acceptance and compassion or from a place of judgement, criticism and negativity.

b. Relationship with others. Do you have good boundaries. Can you make good choices in who you choose as people to relate to. If you have no choice eg a boss or colleague can you maintain good boundaries so you don't absorb negative or conflictual energy.

c. Relationship with something greater. This includes spirituality and having meaning in life. Having purpose or giving service, something that connects you to the larger community.

2. Balance and Mastery

a.    Physical balance and mastery. This is usually what people refer to when they talk about stress management.  Being able to relax readily, getting a good night’s sleep and being able to keep your nervous system in a place of balance.

b. Cognitive balance and mastery. This is about having a positive outlook and expectations. It doesn't mean you ignore dangers but once you've planned for them and handled them you switch into a more positive frame of reference.

c. Emotional balance and mastery.  Are you able to notice feelings that arise in your body and do you handle them appropriately so that you can let them move through and out of your body and not carry any excess emotional baggage

3. How we engage in the world

a.    Presence. People usually refer to being aware of your surroundings and being present in the moment. Stephen looks at two directions of presence. One is what I’m receiving and being aware of my environment and the second is my presence. What is the energy I project out to the world and that includes facial expression, posture etc.

b.    Flexibility. Am I able to make adjustments based on current circumstances. This has been very important over the last couple of years as paths of success have been blocked because of the pandemic. Are we able to make adjustments so that we can still get satisfied. Are we able to have different perspectives and also see those of other people. It’s about flexibility on many levels.

c.     The ability to get things done. We’re able to go out into the world. We have courage, persistence and perseverance so we can be successful in life. When we are successful it increases our sense of agency and self-confidence and then we experience stresses less impactfully.

One of the things about resilience is that it takes challenges to become more resilience. Challenges are resilience fuel. Dr Sideroff found his challenges in relationships, moves to different locations and jobs as well as challenges in the jobs forced him to challenge himself and become more resilient. He worked for fifteen years as an apprentice to a shaman which showed him a whole different way of viewing the world. It was in those years that he broke through some of his own defenses. He feels we can’t stay just on the surface of life.  The wounding is what breaks us open and causes us to reach deeply inside ourselves. All of this was what shaped him and how he approaches resilience.

Dr Sideroff has used biofeedback in and research biofeedback for many years. Biofeedback is a way of monitoring some aspects of your physiology and feeding that back to the person you’re working with or yourself. When you make an adjustment physiologically you get immediate feedback letting you know of your success so its an optimum conditioning or learning model that helps us tune in better to our bodies so we get into a better place of physiological balance.

Neurofeedback monitors brainwave patterns so you are able to get more directfully to the origins of physiological control For example, Dr Sideroff participated in a research study where they went into a drug treatment facility where they did a series of neurofeedback sessions. The first stage was to help people become more present by enhancing their access to prefrontal cortex and the cortex in general so it helped with attentional issues and being able to focus. They then shifted into another neurofeedback approach called Alfa Beta. This creates a deep state, a beta state in which memories can come up. Trauma can also come up but in the context of a very calm state so it’s a way of helping someone move through their trauma and be able to let go of it. It had tremendous success in the research study where there was twice as much abstinence two years post treatment as in the control group and 77% after three years.  This helped to put this kind of neurofeedback model into a number of drip drug treatment centres.

Resilience is a lens that brings together many schools of thoughts into a more tangible set of circumstances. Right now Dr Sideroff feels it is very important for people to learn resilience. We are all faced with huge challenges in the world. The complexity of life right now and with the pandemic and war in Ukraine makes it really challenging people all over the world. Resilience is a fluid kind of concept because it’s always about the best way of being in the present moment.

The future is evolving so quickly in comparison to the last twenty years. We are moving to adaptability and the reinvention of the future for ourselves.  There are some factors that interfere with our adaptability. If we adapt very well to our childhood environment that adaption can get locked so we carry the same type of adaption into adulthood.  If we have difficulty adapting to the adult environment it may be because we carry the lessons of our childhood into adulthood. If we grow up in a very dangerous childhood environment where we are always on the lookout for danger as an adult we keep our stress response activated much more that it needs to be. The lessons of childhood very frequently get in the way of fully adapting as an adult.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.

You can find out more or take Dr Sideroff’s resilience challenge or download a relaxation visulisation exercise at drstephensideroff.com  

A resilience assessment booklet is available by emailing sideroff@ucla.edu