Another week with more lessons in life to share. My last article touched on the multigenerational workforce. This blog features another new phrase to me which is micro-aggressions.

The US Surgeon General has updated the phrase ´work-life balance´ to ´work-life harmony´...

This is in keeping with the work I have undertaken for many years to help individuals reverse serious illness and disease and how to improve relationships.

Consuming high quality nutrition, taking appropriate exercise, and following whichever health guru speaks to you is a good start. However, unless your emotional health and mental fitness is in the right balance, sure as eggs are eggs, you will not achieve optimal health nor recover so well as individuals who understand the crucial lesson of balance.

Those who follow me will know that I am always banging on about BALANCE

Balance within our life is essential to keep us sane, happy and healthy, no matter where you live or work or your culture and environment.

I´ve developed a rather special way to measure balance which I call the DISCPlus Life Currency Indicator™. More about this in the links below.

Why we get ourselves into trouble

In my experience, difficulty arises in the workplace when the multigenerational workforce has different opinions, beliefs and individual values.

I was brought up in the 1960s when the time and motion study of Frederick Winslow Taylor was in full flow. Taylor is considered by some as the patron saint of the shovel .

My early employment involved working as an administrator within a factory that made kitchen and bedroom furniture. I was a woman in a man´s world (a theme that followed me for many years) and I frequently needed to visit the factory floor to establish what was holding up the production of an order. £000s was often at stake for the contractors on whose behalf I was enquiring.

Little did I realise at the time that I was learning some valuable life lessons on how to develop relationships.

One of my co-workers (let´s call him Roy), was an objectionable man who was always criticising, eye-rolling and making snide comments under his breath ( I learned this week that behaviour is called micro-aggressions). Roy was especially miffed when I managed to unlock a production challenge where he had failed.

I confess that I did use my femininity on the factory floor and was aware of how I was perceived as being different to the other members of the contract team.

What was difference between us?

It was the way in which I interacted with the factory workers. I highly respected their skill and their age - most were old enough to be my father, mother, and even grandmother or grandfather. They had old-fashioned values and beliefs. They called a spade a spade (refer to Taylor) and didn´t beat around the bush to say what they meant, and they meant what they said. They also had a sense of humour that I appreciated. We got on fine. Everyone was happy (mostly).

Contrast my approach to the way that Roy went stomping about, shouting, ranting and raving and telling them how lazy and stupid they were on the factory floor. I could go on but am sure you get the picture......

What has this story to do with Life Harmony?

Roy carried his anger wherever he went. At work, at home, it was always with him.

Some years later, I was saddened to learn that he experienced a fatal stroke brought on by high blood pressure.

To contribute effectively in harmony with the challenges faced by the modern workplace, we all need to acknowledge how we treat others with respect, kindness and empathy in the appropriate measures.

Having our own house in order is a good place to start, before we go about causing (unintentional in most cases) harm to others.

Being aware of how our body language and the words we use can have a huge effect on all of our relationships whether at work or in our private lives is soooooo important.

Being aware of this topic and catching ourselves before we speak, or about to make a gesture which may offend, will help.

As a direct, resilient individual I have learned much about this from the school of hard knocks.

My whole life has been full of interesting twists and turns. I am often asked... "How can you be so positive through such adversity that would have broken many individuals?"

In search of ways to explain how I appear to sail through life and always find the positives in every lesson, I came across the concept of Positive Intelligence through the work of top coach and best selling author Shirzad Chamine.

His work is very helpful for those who would like to learn how our behaviour is perceived by others and also how we regularly sabotage ourselves and consequently our relationships.

Shirzad states that "your mind is your best friend. But is can also be your worst enemy" I recommend taking the time to discover your own saboteurs and sign up to the positive intelligence (PQ) training programme.

Back to my early days.....

What role did I move into following the work I undertook in the kitchen industry?

I started my own kitchen business, grew it with my second husband to nearly £2Million turnover in a recession, and lived happily ever after.

Actually that´s not quite what happened. We had a tremendous business for nearly 7 years until the alcohol and domestic abuse was too much for me to bear. I left with my daughter, we were homeless and there began another chapter where I embarked upon an MBA and became CEO of a law firm!

Teaching and guiding teams on how our behaviour affects our own health and wellbeing has become an over riding passion in my life.

Today, the CEO and COO level roles I enjoyed within the professional services environment (the next chapter following the kitchen business) provides a real life backdrop and enables me to support law firms and accountancy practices to develop high performing teams. I have a unique approach to behaviour profiling and living live in harmony.

Senior Lawyers and Accountants who work within a high pressure environment full of extreme deadlines at times, consult me regularly. I guide them on how to encourage and maintain high levels of commitment, morale and productivity alongside improving the overall health and wellbeing of the individuals in their firms and practices.

This work appeals to the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) agenda and shows remarkably positive results for the firms who work with me.

One of my projects improved morale from 11% to 76%. Imagine how that improved bottom line results?!

The unique combination of my personal life experiences, business and health industry credentials now provides the professional services sector with the refreshing, strong and effective DISCPlus Team Programme™

Please book a call with me to explore if the programme is suitable for your firm or practice and if you would like to add your firm or practice to my waiting list.https://calendly.com/elainegodley

Elaine Godley MBA, O.A. Dip (Psych) is a DISC behaviour specialist, award winning Health and Wellbeing Mentor. A former CEO, COO and business mentor who beat cancer four times including stage IV when in 2015 she was given less than 12 months to live https://linktr.ee/ElaineGodley