resilience – Dutra Associates

How are Your Teams Feeling Right Now? Measure the Emotional Culture

April 1, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

A lot of different elements underlie organizational success. You’ve got to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right product and with the right people. But even with the best of these, a great workplace culture truly matters. Do you know the emotional culture in your organization?

Eventually competitors can come along and replicate your best practices, strategies, and processes. As Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines, once famously said, “All airlines have airplanes.”

According to Kelleher, “We’ve never had layoffs. We could have made more money if we furloughed people. But we don’t do that. And we honor them constantly. Our people know that if they are sick, we will take care of them. If there are occasions of grief or joy, we will be there with them. They know that we value them as people, not just cogs in a machine.”

So consequently, culture matters.

Culture is defined many ways. One of the more commercial ways of thinking about it is this. Culture is the degree of alignment between strategy and the way employees think and behave.

In 2016, HBR ran an article titled Manage Your Emotional Culture. The article talks about and distinguishes between Cognitive Culture and Emotional Culture. It goes on to talk about the fact that emotional culture is rarely managed as deliberately as cognitive culture and that it’s often not managed at all. It gives some great examples of how much companies suffer as a result. Employees who should be showing compassion (in health care, for example,) become callous and indifferent. Teams that would benefit from joy and pride instead tolerate a culture of anger. People who lack a healthy amount of fear (say, in security firms or investment banks) act recklessly. The effects can be especially damaging during times of upheaval, such as organizational restructurings, financial downturns and, as we all have experienced, global pandemics.

WHERE TO START IN UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONAL CULTURE?

To discuss and understand the concept of emotional intelligence and emotional culture, first we need to look at the underlying science of emotions. Why do we react the way we do and how does others’ behavior impact us the way it does?

We all experience a wide range of pleasant and unpleasant feelings at work as we interact with colleagues, customers, suppliers, and others. These feelings influence our decisions, behavior, and performance.

Pleasant feelings have a ‘broaden and build’ effect causing us to think more broadly, engage more deeply, and perform better.

Unpleasant emotions tend to have a ‘narrow and limiting’ effect, causing us to be more closed-minded, less engaging, and poorer at performing. Collectively, these emotions impact the bottom-line for better or worse.

Let’s start with the positive/pleasant emotions. Think about your experiences in the workplace for a moment. When people feel relaxed at work, they tend to be solution focused. When they feel valued, they often promote the brand. When they feel cared for by the company, they go above and beyond in the level of discretionary effort they put towards the company. Finally, employees that are empowered are often the hardest working and innovative team members.

Conversely, let’s look at negative or unpleasant emotions. When people feel anxious, they are more likely to be reactive. When stressed, we can become aggressive. It’s human nature. When an employee feels fearful, they can sometimes blame others. Finally, when people feel disempowered, they can assume lack of responsibility and ownership for their work. We’ve all been there.

Research shows that people in high performing organizations experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions than those in low performing organizations. (Boedker et al. 2011)

So, why aren’t more organizations working to focus on understanding how their people are feeling and managing their EMOTIONAL CULTURE?

DO YOU KNOW HOW YOUR PEOPLE ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW?

Emotional culture surveys are the most direct and impactful way to measure emotional culture because they measure three distinct things to help identify whether or not emotions experienced need to shift. They measure:

Experienced emotions
Expected emotions
Ideal or desirable levels of emotions

When you understand how your people are feeling, how they’d ideally like to feel and where the gaps are – you can do something about it. It allows you to more easily understand where the differences are – so you can be informed in making decisions for your L&D, training and development of your teams, and workplace culture. You can continue to strive to be a great place to work.

We’d like to give you the opportunity to do so by experiencing The Emotional Culture Index from Genos International.

The Emotional Culture Index is designed to measure three dimensions of emotions at work.

Current state – How often your people experience certain feelings at work.
Expected state – How often your people think it’s fair and reasonable to experience these feelings at work given the nature and context of your workplace.
Ideal state – How often your people think they should ideally experience these feelings in your workplace to be effective.

It also allows participants to share confidential free text responses on key areas. You can customize the survey by department, team, region, or a particular demographic or group.

It takes only a few minutes to complete. You will receive a complimentary report with its findings and can discuss the results privately with me, a Genos Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner.

NEXT STEPS

As we enter the work of AI, automation and machine led learning, our ability to feel and be human is what makes us unique. We encourage you to take this opportunity to uncover your emotional culture. Please contact Sherry Dutra at sherry@dutraassociates.com to find out more about this limited time offer.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Building Workforce Resilience

November 30, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

While people may love the work they do, many people today are suffering as they don’t know how to deal with the associated stress of a demanding job and environment. Add to that the personal and professional ramifications of a world-wide pandemic and the levels of stress and anxiety have only escalated over the past 20 months.

Never before has it been more important to focus on building the resilience of our workforce at every level. Resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to adapt to stress and adversity. Your level of resilience is defined as your capacity to bounce back from a negative experience to your normal state of functioning. Resilience is not an ability or trait you either have or don’t have, everyone is resilient and can improve their level of resilience. It is typically enhanced by engaging in activities or techniques that help facilitate good physical and mental health. Highly resilient people are able to effectively balance unpleasant and pleasant emotions and make effective responses to them.

Traditionally, organizations have placed more emphasis on physical health versus mental health or well-being in the workplace. As our work environments transform, employees and leaders now face the most demanding environments and roles, which is resulting in a significant increase in anxiety and work-related stress issues.

According to a pre-pandemic article in Harvard Business Review, burnout “costs the U.S. more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical, legal and insurance costs.”¹ Those numbers are trending upward amidst the upheaval that COVID has introduced to our lives.

The studies have shown that no matter the type or level of job, anxiety and stress touches all industries and roles, every socioeconomic status, as well as every race and ethnicity.

Genos International, a leading provider of emotional intelligence assessments reacted to this by creating The Science of Well-Being Program. This program equips employees with the tools and techniques to help them build higher levels of resilience and well-being in the workplace.

The powerful 4 session virtual program (90 min – 2 hours each session) is designed to help employees at all levels improve their mental, physical, social and environmental well-being. The Science of Well-Being is built on the science of behavior change and healthy habit formation. Rolled out across your workforce, this program will result in lower levels of stress and stress-related leave claims, lower levels of absenteeism and higher levels of productivity and employee engagement.

Steps to becoming more resilient:

Look at ‘how you are seen to show up at work’ – a review of your emotional intelligence behaviors.

Every attendee completes a Genos Leadership Assessment. They complete a self-assessment of their EI behaviors, then they select individuals they’d like to receive feedback from. Instead of receiving a numerical or unactionable response like “You’re EI/EQ level is 52,” the Genos assessment is unique in that it measures how you are seen to show up at work and how important your raters deem these particular behaviors to be for your position. They gather input on six emotionally intelligent behaviors:

Self-Awareness
Awareness of Others
Authenticity
Emotional Reasoning
Self-Management
Positive Influence (non-leadership roles) or Inspiring Performance (leadership roles)

Each attendee receives a customized workbook for the program that includes their assessment results, along with a development tips workbook to help them develop key EI behaviors.

Take part in The Science of Well-Being Program facilitated by, Sherry Dutra, a Genos Certified Practitioner.

The course dives into the neuroscience of emotions along with the effects of pleasant and unpleasant emotions on us. Studying emotional intelligence helps participants understand and interpret their own EI Assessment results and how to hone in to key areas for development. The program then goes through techniques and strategies to develop higher levels of personal resilience.

Develop an action plan to boost resilience in multiple areas of your life

Attendees work through strategies for this in four areas: mental, physical, social, and environmental. Then they dive into powerful models for developing resilience in each of these areas.

Developing the levels of resilience for your workforce can be truly life changing for themselves and everyone around them. With the Genos facilitator, each person documents insights and builds an action plan to take back to their lives and workplace so they can start having a more positive impact immediately. It’s a comprehensive and enjoyable program to experience. Let me know if you’d like to learn more.

If you’re interested in hosting The Science of Well-Being Program in your organization, please contact Sherry@DutraAssociates.com.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

¹Peart, Natalia. “Making Work Less Stressful and More Engaging for Your Employees.” hbr.org, 5 Nov. 2019, hbr.org/2019/11/making-work-less-stressful-and-more-engaging-for-your-employees.com. Accessed 30 Nov. 2021.

Shifting Your Relationship with Stress

October 11, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Change is inevitable – after all, nothing really stays the same. But in today’s challenging times, it seems like we’re on “uncertainty” overload, never knowing what will happen from one moment to the next.

With uncertainty comes stress and confusion, and while most of us would be quick to say that we want less stress and more certainty in our lives, what we really want is less of a stress reaction to what life throws our way.

We can’t choose what happens to us – but we can choose our responses to the situations we encounter. Let’s take a look at five different responses that people have to stressful situations. As you read, you may want to think of a recent stressful event or news that you may have received, and see what your reaction to that event can teach you about how you habitually respond. You may have one type of response at work, and another at home, or you may react differently depending on who else is involved.

The first and all too common response to stressful events is to suffer and be a victim to it. People who respond this way don’t take action. Things happen TO them – and though they may complain and be generally miserable about it, they don’t take any steps to do anything. They allow life to control them, instead of the other way around. This way of responding is certainly not recommended, and eventually, it will take its toll on one’s physical and mental health.

The second type of response is to accept the situation. Someone with this response may say “so what,” or perhaps get some perspective on the situation by asking if it will matter in a year – or a week – or even in a day.

The third way to respond is to actually take steps to change the situation – taking action to bring it to resolution (or at least move toward resolution). This is a very powerful response, and one that many effective leaders employ.

The fourth way to respond is to avoid the situation. People responding this way make a decision not to get involved in a situation that they don’t see as concerning them, or upon which they can’t make an impact.

The fifth and final way that people generally respond to stress is to alter the experience of the situation. When we look at a situation differently, the experience itself changes. Changing perceptions is probably the most challenging of the responses, because we tend to be stuck in our own interpretations and assumptions about what’s happening, but it is also perhaps the most powerful of all.

It’s your world, and you can create it as you wish. Remember, what one person sees as stressful, another person barely notices, or sees as exciting and full of opportunity. How are you going to choose today?

Why the Best Leaders Develop Mindfulness

June 29, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

What have Google, Samsung, Aetna, SAP, and P&G all got in common? All of these world-class organizations recognize that one of the fastest growing segments of our working population is burnt out leaders. They responded to this by implementing mindfulness leadership programs to help their leaders not only excel in work, but in their personal lives as well.

Decades of solid research show a direct connection between mindfulness and emotional intelligence in leaders and the bottom-line results they achieve. Being good at ‘what you do’ is no longer enough…you must also be resilient enough to effectively manage your emotions, reactions, and decisions in challenging business situations – and to help the people you manage, or work with, to do the same.

Great leaders are always searching for ways to take their leadership practices to the next level. Mindfulness has been the source of much focus over the last number of years and organizations worldwide are now realizing that sometimes there is more to a successful leader than meets the eye.

Developing emotional intelligence and mindfulness can truly transform the impact and ability of a leader. Following the Genos Leadership Model:

When you develop self-awareness, you become an Aware Leader. Aware leaders understand the impact that their behaviors have on others. They are consistent in what they say and do, and they demonstrate awareness of their mood and emotions.
Developing awareness of others allows you to become a more Empathetic Leader. Empathetic leaders make team members feel appreciated and adjust their style so that it fits well with others. They acknowledge the views of others and balance achieving results with others’ needs.
Working on authenticity creates more Genuine Leaders. Genuine leaders honor commitments and promises, they are open and honest about mistakes, and they facilitate robust and open debate.
Leaders high in emotional reasoning make Expansive decisions as a leader. Expansive leaders consult others in decision making, they make ethical decisions taking the bigger picture into account.
Leaders that work to develop self-management are Resilient Leaders. Resilient Leaders manage their emotions well in difficult situations. They strive to improve their own performance, and they learn from their mistakes.
Effective leaders that inspire performance become Empowering Leaders. Empowering leaders provide constructive feedback, maintain a positive work environment, and facilitate team member development and career advancement.

Do you or the leaders in your organization need to develop the above behaviors? They can do so by participating in the Genos Mindful Leader Program facilitated
by Dutra Associates, LLC, a Genos Certified Practitioner.

If you’re interested in hosting a Mindful Leader Program in your organization, please contact Sherry Dutra at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com or call 603.595.1588.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

Emotional Intelligence in Hiring – What You Need to Know

January 8, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

The case for emotional intelligence is clear. Successful organizations all over the world are now incorporating EI into the development of their people and their leaders. There’s also a wide variety of research and articles on the importance of hiring FOR emotional intelligence. But in all those blogs and pieces of content, authors don’t talk about HOW to hire for EI.

When we understand our own emotions and the emotions of others – it’s a win-win situation. Our relationships grow, we become more resilient, and able to handle stress more effectively. Far too many employees lack basic self- awareness and social skills and too often, people aren’t aware of how their moods and emotions are impacting others in the workplace.

According to Harvard Business Review, “One of the reasons we see far too little emotional intelligence in the workplace is that we don’t hire for it. We hire for pedigree. We look for where someone went to school, high grades and test scores, technical skills, and certifications, not whether they build great teams or get along with others. And how smart we think someone is matters a lot, so we hire for intellect.”

The World Economic Forum lists emotional intelligence as the 6th most important job skill required for success at work by 2020. WorkSafe Victoria have also observed that more mental injuries get caused in workplaces now than physical injuries; and levels of EI positively correlate with levels of resilience and negatively correlate with levels of occupational stress. In other words, people with high EI feel less stressed and are more resilient at work. Organizations that are focused on emotional intelligence in their talent management strategies are taking the right steps to ensuring healthy and happy workplaces and teams.

Measuring emotional intelligence should be added to talent management and hiring processes, not to replace other strategies but to strengthen an existing process.

Yes, you still need a comprehensive hiring plan, but what’s now clear to business leaders everywhere is that EI skills and behaviors are as important as your intellect, experience and background in determining success at work and in life.

The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report

Emotional Intelligence: a set of skills that help us better perceive, understand and manage emotions in ourselves and in others.

Collectively, being more emotionally intelligent allows us to make more intelligent responses to, and use of, our emotions. These skills are just as important as intellect (IQ) in determining success at work and in life. Emotions influence, both productively and unproductively, our decisions, behavior and performance.

Published psychometric studies have shown that scores on the Genos Selection Assessment meaningfully correlate with a number of important workplace variables. The higher people score on the Genos assessment, the higher they tend to also score on measures of:

Workplace performance
Leadership effectiveness
Sales and customer service
Resilience
Team work effectiveness
Employee Engagement

Here’s how it works:

The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report is the best measure of how often a candidate demonstrates emotional intelligence in the workplace. The report allows hiring managers to utilize EI measures as an additional means to avoiding bad hires.

The Genos Selection model comprises a set of seven emotionally intelligent competencies. These competencies represent skills and behaviors, based on underlying abilities and experiences, that are measurable and observable. The Genos model captures the workplace skills and behaviors that manifest from emotional intelligence abilities.

Users first experience a high-level overview of the candidate’s total EI score along with a deeper dive into each behavior and its results.
Interview questions and an interview evaluation guide then allows the hiring manager to dig deeper into the EI of the individual.
Wrap up the process by using the summary section to help combine assessment and interview results allowing you to present recommendations to a client or HR decision maker.

The information presented in this report should be combined and weighted with other sources of information to determine the candidate’s suitability or lack thereof for employment. Emotional intelligence is one of many factors related to success in the workplace. If you’d like to learn more about this innovative new emotional intelligence selection tool, please call Sherry Dutra at 603.595.1588 or email her at Sherry@DutraAssociates.

Game changing for hiring, life changing for your new hires.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

Developing These Six Behaviors Will Help You Become a Better Leader

December 2, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

There is an abundance of research on the impact emotions have on an individuals’ performance in the workplace. It shows that people often perform their worst when they experience unproductive feelings, such as feeling frustrated, concerned, stressed, inadequate, and fearful.

Research also shows that people perform their best when they feel involved in purposeful work that develops who they are… and when they feel valued, cared for, consulted, respected, informed and understood.

So, how can developing your leadership help ensure your people feel and perform their best?

Leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance, supporting others to do their best, and to do their work effectively and efficiently. One of the most robust, consistent findings in the area of social sciences is that there is a direct link between the way people feel and the way people perform. As such, leaders need to be skilled at identifying, understanding and influencing emotion within themselves and others in order to inspire performance.

Emotionally intelligent leadership is about leaders intelligently using emotions to facilitate high performance in themselves and others.

How, then, do leaders develop the skills to do this effectively? In the virtual Emotionally Intelligent Leader program, participants first engage in a personal Genos EI Leadership Assessment, in order to understand “how they are showing up at work.”

Participants will improve their understanding of emotions and emotional intelligence. They will also explore and practice tools and techniques for applying emotional intelligence in leadership and creating conditions for others to achieve high performance.

In the program, participants will:

explore the neuroscience of emotions and emotional intelligence,
examine tools and techniques for effectively asking for, and responding to, feedback,
explore techniques for developing self and other awareness,
examine how we can use reactive and proactive techniques to build our resilience and effectively manage strong emotions,
explore an approach for facilitating engagement discussions with staff members, and
explore techniques for applying EI in leadership and creating high performance in others.

The material for the program is based on the Genos Emotional Intelligence Leadership Model.

The Genos model of emotionally intelligent leadership has been developed from over a decade of research work examining how effective leaders use emotional intelligence abilities in their leadership of others.

The model comprises six emotionally intelligent workplace competencies. These competencies represent skills and behaviors based on underlying abilities and experiences that are measurable, observable, and critical to successful job performance.

The six Genos EI Competencies are:

Self-Awareness
Awareness of Others
Authenticity
Emotional Reasoning
Self-Management
Inspiring Performance

Self-awareness is about being aware of the behaviors you demonstrate, your strengths and limitations, and the impact you have on others. Leaders high in this skill are often said to be present rather than disconnected with who they are. Self-awareness is important in leadership because:

a leader’s behavior can positively or negatively impact the performance and engagement of colleagues
leaders need to know their strengths and limitations in order to continuously improve and maintain success
leaders’ interpretation of events at work is both made by, and limited by, their intelligence, personality, values and beliefs.
In order to objectively evaluate events, leaders must know how they interpret the world and how this helps and limits them.

Awareness of others is about noticing and acknowledging others, ensuring others feel valued, and adjusting your leadership style to best fit with others. Leaders high in this skill are often described as empathetic rather than insensitive to others and their feelings. Awareness of others is important in leadership because:

leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance, and the way others feel is directly linked to the way they perform
awareness of others is necessary in order to take effective steps to influence and facilitate others’ performance
to bring out the best in people, leaders need to adjust their leadership style to best fit with the people and situation they are leading.

Authenticity is about openly and effectively expressing yourself, honoring commitments and encouraging this behavior in others. It involves appropriately expressing specific feelings at work, such as happiness and frustration, providing feedback to colleagues about the way you feel, and expressing emotions at the right time, to the right degree and to the right people. Leaders high in this skill are often described as genuine, whereas leaders low in this skill are often described as untrustworthy. Authenticity is important in leadership because:

it helps leaders create understanding, openness and feelings of trust in others
leaders who are guarded, avoid conflict, or are inappropriately blunt about the way they feel can create mistrust, artificial harmony and misunderstandings with those around them
leaders need their people to be open with them. If, as a leader, you do not role-model this behavior, your direct reports will be guarded with you.

Emotional reasoning is the skill of using emotional information (from yourself and others) and combining it with other facts and information when decision-making. Leaders high in this skill make expansive decisions, whereas leaders who are low in this skill often make more limited decisions based on facts and technical data only. Emotional reasoning is important in leadership because:

feelings and emotions contain important information, for example, if a colleague is demonstrating frustration or stress, these feelings provide insight that they are going to be less open and supportive of new ideas and information
the workplace is becoming more complex and fast-paced; this requires quick, solid decision-making where all the facts and technical data are not available (gut feel and intuition are important in these environments)
people are influenced by emotion; if you fail to consider how people are likely to feel and react to decisions made, you may not achieve the appropriate buy-in or support for your decisions.

Self-management is about managing your own mood and emotions, time and behavior, and continuously improving yourself. This emotionally intelligent leadership competency is particularly important. Leaders high in this skill are often described as resilient rather than temperamental in the workplace. The modern workplace is one of high work demands and stress, which can cause negative emotions and outcomes. Self-management is important in leadership because:

a leader’s mood can be very infectious and can, therefore, be a powerful force in the workplace; one that can be both productive and unproductive
this skill helps leaders be resilient and manage high work demands and stress
to achieve, maintain and enhance success, leaders need to pay conscious attention to the way they manage time, how they behave and to continuously improve how they lead others.

Inspiring performance is about facilitating high performance in others through problem solving, promoting, recognizing and supporting others’ work. An individual’s performance can be managed with key performance indicators. This is important, however, research has shown that this “compliance” style often fails to drive discretionary effort and high performance. Leaders who combine this with a more inspiring style often empower others to perform above and beyond what is expected of them. Inspiring performance is important in leadership because:

leadership is fundamentally about facilitating the performance of others,
managing performance with rules and key performance indicators usually produces an “expected” result rather than an “unexpected” high-performance result
people often learn and develop more with this type of leadership style, resulting in continuous enhancements to performance year on year.

Strong leadership has never been more important as we navigate the impact of COVID-19. If you’d like to learn how you can bring this virtual program to your organization to support your leaders in becoming more emotionally intelligent, contact me at 603.595.1588 or via email at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com.

Adapted with permission by Genos International EU

When Was the Last Time You Took a Break?

November 4, 2019 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Are you experiencing overwhelm, stress, even burnout in your professional or executive role? These are all the frequent unfortunate side effects of a world that seemingly can never be turned off along with a persistent drive for greater productivity. Harvard researcher and psychologist, Shelley Carson stated, “If you are stuck on a problem…a distraction may provide the break you need to disengage from a fixation on the ineffective solution.” We’ve all heard that sometimes people find that they get their best ideas in the shower. Since we don’t have to give too much thought to how we go about our daily shower, it frees the mind up to work on other things. So, taking a break can actually improve your productivity. And, sometimes, we need more than just a 10-minute break when we’ve let the drive to get things done go on for too long.

As a case in point, I recently found myself feeling fatigued, foggy and a bit stressed after a non-stop month. How in the world did this happen? I’m usually so conscious of giving myself a break. Yet, due to two weekend commitments to teach, a weekend with an out-of-town family event, along with working normal work weeks, nearly a month went by without a day off. No wonder that my energy level had plummeted and I couldn’t think straight!

Slipping away from our practices to give ourselves time off during hectic times can happen to all of us. Sometimes, it may be necessary to take a few days away to rest and recharge when we let ourselves get beyond a certain point. Recognizing that I’d passed that point, I took a Friday afternoon off, spent the weekend enjoying time with my significant other, and put my feet up and watched a movie. The focus of attention was on completely non-work-related things. By the end of the weekend, I felt like myself again – rested, focused and ready to be fully engaged. What I noticed the following week was a higher level of productivity, by far, than in previous weeks. Does this scenario sound familiar to you?

So, what to do? Ideally, we stay consistent with taking time off each week and doing those activities that replenish our energy, whatever they may be. Additionally, we look for those moments within each day to insert a brief break. Doing so also contributes to our productivity and creativity. Rachael O’Meara, the author of “Pause: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break” suggests 4 practices to consider. They include 1) standing and taking 10 deep breaths 2) taking a digital break – no devices for a set period of time each day 3) taking a walk to change your environment, and 4) creating one-minute of mindfulness while eating or brushing your teeth. These are very simple strategies that, practiced daily, will support our ability to keep our energy up, and allow us to accomplish far more than if we keep trying to power through what’s on our plate.

If you recognize that you’re not feeling rested and renewed, please join me in recommitting to incorporating breaks into each day and week. Doing so will positively affect every aspect of your life.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business growth and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Building A Truly Meaningful Retirement

October 25, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

A retirement coach began her workshop by holding up a $20 bill and asking the group, “Who would like to have this money?”

As audience members raised their hands, the coach said, “I’m going to give this money to one of you,” but then began to crumple the bill up. “Who still wants it?” she asked. All the hands remained in the air.

“Well,” she continued, “what if I do this?” She dropped the bill on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with her shoe. She picked up the bill, now crumpled and dirty, and asked again, “Anyone still want it?” All the hands went back into the air.

“So, why do you still want it?” she asked the audience. One participant responded, “Because it’s still worth $20.”

The coach continued, “That’s exactly it! This simple activity offers new and future retirees a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was never worth less than $20.”

“In retirement, losing the career identity you spent a lifetime creating, and facing new and unknown circumstances, can at times make you feel crumpled up or ground into the dirt. But work is what you do, not who you are. Therefore, leaving it all behind doesn’t affect your true value.”

In order to avoid feeling lost or broken-hearted in retirement, ask yourself:
•Who am I when I’m not at work?
•What aspects of work are going to be the most difficult for me to replace?
•If I was suddenly faced with a financial hardship or troubling medical condition, who would I turn to? Who would get the first phone call? Who has been there in the past?

The worth of our lives comes not from what we do or what we have, but in who we are!

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are always priceless … especially to those who love you for who you are and what you stand for.

It’s a simple reminder that a truly meaningful retirement is built by not only preparing financially, but also by planning for the mental and emotional aspects as well.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Ready or Not, Here It Comes…Your Retirement

July 3, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Retirement, or what I prefer to call ReIgnitement™, requires planning. And, while many have focused attention on financial planning for retirement, few have considered the non-financial aspects of this life transition. Transitions of any type can create stress in your life, even if the change is something that you have been looking forward to. When that transition arrives, you can react to the changes that arise such as loss of identity, work relationships, or purpose. Or, by taking a planful approach, you can prepare yourself to respond effectively to the transition and ease the way.

In this third of a series of three blogs focused on retirement, I want to provide you with a simple tool to help you gauge your readiness for this transition. If you’re roughly 5 – 7 years from retirement, or know someone who is, please use this tool or share it with another to get a quick read on your readiness. If you’re already retired, you can use this tool to pinpoint those areas that might need some attention.

Click here for the Retirement Readiness Wheel. The 8 sections you’ll address include the following:

Clarity of Identity, Purpose
Health
Leisure/Travel
Home/Residence, Location
Marriage/Significant Other
Work/Business, Volunteering
Financial Resources
Optimism About Aging

As you review and rate each section, take a moment to determine what that section means to you. Then, to determine your readiness, circle your level of satisfaction with each of the 8 sections on a scale of 1 – 7 (1 = least satisfied, 7 = most satisfied). Go with the first response that comes to mind as you review each part of the wheel. That tends to be the one that is most indicative of the way you truly feel.

Once you’ve rated each section, draw a line connecting each of the numbers around the circle. What kind of wheel do you have? How smooth and balanced does it feel? How bumpy might a ride on that wheel be?

If you discover that one or more areas of your ReIgnitement™ could use some tweaking and you’re not sure where to begin, a coach can help. I invite you to explore my profile as well as those of my colleagues on the Retirement Coaches Association website to find a coach who is right for you. We help our clients think about and prepare for retirement like never before.

If you haven’t already downloaded the Retirement Readiness Wheel, click on the link to do so.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Transformational Presence Series: Part Two – Becoming Mindful

January 22, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

What does becoming mindful mean to you? We hear so much now about mindfulness and know that it is being practiced by an ever widening array of people including doctors, dancers, business executives, athletes, students, parents, professionals, etc. For good reason. Both science and experience have shown the positive impact of becoming more mindful on all aspects of our lives, both at work and at home. Definitions of mindfulness vary but all seem to coalesce around similar themes. Mindful magazine defines mindfulness as “being fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us”.

This ability to be present with whatever is happening right now, rather than fretting about the past or worrying about the future is one key to navigating a complex world. To develop Transformational Presence, starting a practice of becoming mindful provides an excellent foundation. To get you started, I invite you to listen to my recording of the Becoming Mindful exercise. In less than 5 minutes, you’ll have an opportunity to be still, take a pause, and listen and notice in a new way.

Come back to this as often as you can. The more that you practice, the easier it will become and the more benefit you will derive from it. It can be helpful, especially in the beginning, to do this exercise several times per day – perhaps in the morning, at mid-day, and again in the evening. Create consistency in your practice from day to day. Over time, you will begin to notice that your ability to stay present, to respond rather than react, and to sense into what wants to happen next will expand.

Consider experimenting with using this mindfulness practice in conjunction with The Three Questions from Part One of this series. Notice how the quality of your responses starts to change as you become more present and centered.

Please click below to listen to the Becoming Mindful exercise and I invite you to share your progress in the Comments section.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World and here for Part One – The Three Questions.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.