Let's Be Fruit Friends

Wow, I just realized many months have passed since my last post… and during this period my stomach and I have been happy, and I have exercised leadership in many ways at work and at home (especially at home with my 13-month old daughter). My apologies!

I want to share about the Wellness Days my employer is offering in Switzerland as part of a corporate Wellness program. When I joined the company in my home country almost 13 years ago we were offered fruits and sandwiches every day – we didn’t need to eat breakfast at home, we could have a healthy and balanced breakfast in the office. How convenient! This lasted a few years, then the first cost cuts came in and the fruits and sandwiches were replaced by vending machines that also included these plus yogurts, cookies and other less healthy snacks. We were entitled to an item at choice per day and the rest we would have to pay – fair enough, and still very convenient.

Then when I relocated to Geneva and here I found again fruit baskets distributed in the office every day. I really felt good about having fruit for free again because it meant my employer cared for its employees. Some years ago the cost reduction measures also hit Switzerland and that was the end of the daily free fruits. Later the company launched a global program aiming at promoting wellness to the employees and the Swiss directors decided to launch the program in the form of Wellness Days. The big launch was celebrated with free healthy breakfast composed of free fruits, freshly squeezed juices, cereals and yogurts, many workshops and awareness sessions during the day and free healthy desert at lunch. What a nice initiative!

I became fan of the Wellness Days. They happen now once a month in all company offices in the country, are announced through emails entitled “Let’s be Fruit Friends” and are celebrated with free fruit baskets. I am not always in the office, but I try to be on the Wellness Days, not so much for the gratuity of fruits but for what it means – the company cares for its employees and wants them to be well and healthy. And healthy employees tend to be happier and more loyal employees, so the Wellness program and days are definitely a great leadership initiative!

I am curious to learn if there are other organizations focused on employees’ well-being, running any sort of wellness program and offering free healthy snacks. You tell me, dear reader…

Are women’s stomachs happier than men’s?

This week I had an amazing experience – I joined the W.I.N. Conference 2011 in Rome together with close to 1000 women and half dozen men coming from Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. It is a conference about leadership exercised by women and this year’s theme was “Creating History”. I was amazed with the talents that all those women, and men, possess in different fields of expertise regardless of origin, race and age, and very much inspired by their individual stories and personal and professional paths. I was also very surprised with how much keeping a happy stomach meant to all these women, that were there to develop their leadership skills, and how it influenced their humor, concentration, performance and ultimately the evaluation of the event.

The ladies I met and talked to in the coffee breaks and during lunch and dinner shared my dissatisfaction with the food and beverages offered in this year’s W.I.N. Conference. All meals served at the venue where the event was hosted were far from the tasty Italian cooking. The wine was of poor quality and certainly did not represent the extraordinary wine industry of the country. Coffee was also not good – it came from several vending machines placed in the two underground levels occupied by the event, and not even at breakfast we could enjoy a true Italian cappuccino or espresso. Water bottles were scarce and I am convinced that if it weren’t for drinks and ice-creams offered by two sponsor companies, everyone’s stomach would be deeply unhappy. What a disappointment… The organization of the W.I.N. Conference has undervalued the importance of food and beverages to the success of their event.

Considering the participants of the conference were in majority women, I am lead to believing that a happy stomach is indeed important to women and, although I didn’t have the feedback from any of the few men in the event on this subject, a recent conversation leads to me thinking there may indeed be a gender specificity. My husband and I were invited to friends’ house for Sunday brunch and we talked about how much women – at least I and my (girl) friend – enjoy trying new restaurants, tasting good food and cooking good meals. The men reported that was not important at all and they just eat out to keep us – women – happy. However they admitted they like eating a good steak, but don’t care if they eat something else and care even less about the restaurant where they eat it. I wonder if, unconsciously, men just don’t want to admit that food makes them more or less happy and eventually impacts their performance.

I look forward to my readers sharing their opinions and helping shed light on this subject.

Eat well, be happy!

P.S. Today I baked a pear pie that I am sure kept my husband’s stomach happy considering that he ate more than half. I could also reconcile with my stomach since yesterday evening thanks to my home cooked meals. J

Happiness@Work

When I had the idea to start this blog and hopefully one day write a book with its content, I hadn’t heard that much about happiness in the workplace. Things have changed since then and being happy at work is increasingly important both to employees and to employers. With a quick search in Google I found several books and web sites about this specific topic. I have read the book “Happiness at work” from Dr. S. Rao (will tell more about it some other day) and I learned this week it has also become a science based on data collected over several years.

I received an intriguing message through LinkedIn – it was an invitation to a conference and cocktail called “Science of Happiness@Work”. After reading about the company organizing the event and the speaker, I decided to go with my husband and asked to bring the baby since we had no one who could watch her.

This conference was very timely to me – on one side it gave me new content for my blog; on the other, it helped me understand better the efforts in place in the company I work for to improve employee engagement and the initiatives launched in my organization both worldwide and in Europe.

The lead speaker, Jessica Pryce-Jones, wrote the book “Happiness at work – maximizing your psychological capital for success” (we were given a free copy!) and defined the concept as “a mindset which enables action to maximize performance and achieve potential.” She and her team developed the “performance-happiness model” based on 5 C’s: Contribution, Conviction, Culture, Commitment and Confidence. Contribution measures the effort at work; Conviction is the short-term motivation both in good and bad times whereas Commitment is long-term motivation; Culture measures the feeling of fit at work; and Confidence is the belief in one’s own abilities. Individuals and teams possess these elements in specific doses that lead to being more or less happy at work. Other important elements of the performance-happiness model are Trust and Pride in the organization and Recognition for achievements.

In the study conducted by the author and her associates, most respondents chose “listen” as key word to define great leadership. And when asked to define achievement, people put the words life, happy, respected on top of the list.

The study concluded that the happiest employees or group of employees are those who score higher than the average in all 5 C´s as well as in Trust, Price and Recognition. Scoring lower in one or more of the elements, means there is unbalance and the individual or the team are not happy at work. So something must be done to fix this.

When asked the difference between engagement and happiness at work, the author said that with the engagement concept we cannot tell what do next and how to drive organizational change. I am not knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree with this statement but it would have been interesting to watch a debate around it.

During the conference, the table groups did some exercises and the one I had more fun with was to classify words as “we can control”, “we can influence” and “we cannot control”. The words were: challenges, self-control, resilience, objectives, culture, strategy, confidence, and potential. Our group only got to half of the words and all were put under “we can influence”. According to the author, to be happy at work we need to understand what we can and cannot control and what we can influence, and then focus on what can influence and control to increase happiness in our work life.

The conference ended with a short introduction to the consulting services of the company that promoted the event. As usual, there are no free lunches and someone had to pay for the cocktail that followed.

Beyond the interest of the topic, the event offered a great opportunity to network. Most participants work in HR or have some influence in organization and business development. I met very interesting people some of them who worked several years ago in the same company as me. Emma was the second most interesting topic of the evening and everyone congratulated us for bringing the baby. My stomach also got happy – the event was held in one of the best hotels in Geneva and we were served very good wine and appetizers.

Dear reader, are you happy at work? To help you answer, join the Synchronicity iOpener survey in www.synchronicity.ch and get a free report by mail.

Happy stomachs make great moms

A year ago my husband and I were enjoying a week holiday in Croatia and celebrating the greatest news ever –we were expecting a baby!!! We were super happy!!! And I wasn’t hit by any tough pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness. Handling the changes in my body over nine months –hormones, belly growth, weigh gain– was not difficult at all. In fact the toughest challenge was changing my eating and drinking habits. The list of things to cut off was not long but it was meaningful -no wine, no rare meat, no raw fish so no sushi or sashimi, no fresh or raw milk cheese, no foie gras, no tea or coffee… And all these things used to make my stomach so happy. I had no choice but learning to be happy eating what was good for the little human being growing inside me and balance the trade-off with some sweets and desserts that I used to easilly cut from my diet.

In the middle of the pregnancy I experienced some complications that put me in bed rest until term with weekly doctor appointments in the maternity located in the city center. We discovered a very nice pastry shop in front of the maternity building and my husband and I started eating breakfast there every day we were seeing the doctor. Of course it wasn’t a healthy breakfast, rather one with a latte -with doctor’s permission- and a cake called “Berlin’s ball” filled with pastry cream (“crème pâtissière” in French), and it was all I needed to start the day with some happiness followed by wonderful news on how the baby was doing. I remember going back home always with a smiley face – both my stomach and my heart were happy!!

Emma was born on the 10^th of January and a new phase began that still required paying special attention to what I ate and drank for the sake of breastfeeding –for the quality of the milk and to avoid potential sickness that could only be healed through antibiotics and other harmful drugs. Sometimes I tasted wine and I could drink a coffee a day but it was so controlled that I couldn’t really feel pleasure with it and often felt a little guilty.

Last month Emma decided she had enough of my milk and my breasts and we transitioned to formula milk. So my diet could go back to normal and what meant the most to me was being free from restrictions –I finally can eat and drink again whatever I want. You can’t imagine how good it felt to drink red wine or champagne without feeling guilty… However I still impose myself some restrictions, reducing the quantity of sweet and fat food and drinks, to lose the few extra kilos left from the pregnancy.

In addition to my stomach’s happiness, my brain is happy for I went back to work a month ago and I really feel good about it. I realized how much I missed seeing people and talking to people, addressing business challenges and executing on strategy and objectives. When I am at work I feel motivated and focused, and when I am with my family -husband and daughter- I feel very happy and concentrate on them only.

Who thinks the stomach has no influence in happiness should talk to pregnant women. And who thinks work doesn’t bring happiness to women’s lives should talk to working moms. J

It is all about Happiness

Christmas and New Year season is when we most often use words such as happy, merry, joyful, and many others, to express our best wishes to family, friends, colleagues and even to strangers.

It is also the time of the year we delight our senses with special culinary treats and drinks that make our stomachs happy. No matter our age, wealth, origin, religion; we are all entitled to at least a better meal in this time of the year and to collect memorable experiences with other people that contribute to our present and future happiness.

And is there a better way to end a year and start a new one than feeling happy in both your heart and stomach?

Leadership behaviors in professional cooking

Few months ago I wrote about the “Top Chef” reality show from a French TV channel. The first French emission of a similar show called “MasterChef” just ended last week and I didn’t miss a single broadcast (and couldn’t resist eating dark chocolate while watching the show, which made my stomach happy :-)).

The most important difference between the two contests was the candidates’ experience – while “Top Chef” targeted professionals, people who were already working in a restaurant or having a professional activity linked to cooking, “MasterChef” targeted amateur cooks who loved cooking so much they wanted to change their lives and become professional Chefs. In both reality shows the candidates were assigned leadership roles to prove their competencies in leading a team in the kitchen. The rules of the game stated that in some challenges the team leader of the team scoring less was given immunity from an eliminatory test the team members had to go through consisting of each one voting on someone else to leave the contest. And there were two different leadership behaviors observed in “MasterChef” that I can’t forget.

There was a case where the team lead asked the jury to have his immunity withdrawn - as a leader he felt fully responsible for the team poor results, and so his wish was granted. The team members appreciated very much their leader’s gesture, admired him even more and voted so that he wouldn’t have to leave the show (unfortunately someone else did).

In a similar situation, another candidate and team leader also assumed responsibility for the results that were thought to be bad, and when asked by the jury if she was happy with the results and what could have been done better she defended herself and indirectly blamed one of the team members. This happened before the results were announced and her team did better and actually won the challenge. If they had lost, I presume the team reaction to her attitude and action wouldn’t have been as nice as in the previous case, and she might have been penalized to leave the show. I doubt someone can see this lady as a “Chef” in the sense of being a leader in the kitchen. However, she is very talented and, in the end, she won the title of first “MasterChef” in France. And considering her path and evolution in the contest compared to others, I was actually happy she won… but that’s out of subject.

These two examples of leadership applied to professional cooking can be found every day in other environments, namely in the corporate world. The way someone in a leadership role reacts to bad and good team results tells much about own leadership style. I have witnessed leaders’ behaviors that weren’t observed continually and thus appear to me as less genuine. The opposite also holds true and I have watched admirable leadership behaviors consistent over time.

I want to close this topic with another example. Several years ago I was part of a team pursuing a large and strategic deal. Despite our hard work we lost the deal and felt very frustrated. The news came out on a Friday and the following Monday we had our team’s weekly sales meeting. I was afraid that our manager would start analyzing the deal to get some learning out and we could end up with defensive and offensive discussions between the deal pursuit team members, the rest of the sales team and the manager. None of this happened. The manager actually had a complete different behavior – he thanked the team responsible for the deal for the hard work and offered each individual a symbolic appreciation gift. I will never forget this leader action and enjoy sharing this story to illustrate leadership behaviors.

How about you, dear reader, what is your experience with reactions to bad results from a leader and/or team member perspective? Please share your stories!!

A happy day, a happy stomach, a happy leader

Wikipedia defines Happiness as “a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy” and to be happy “is to experience happiness: a feeling of contentment or joy”. According to author and professor Daniel Gilbert, happiness refers to subjective emotional experiences that can be described as enjoyable or pleasurable, and feeling happy is a subjective state. In his book “Stumbling on Happiness”, Daniel Gilbert questions if we can compare the happiness one gets from eating a slice of banana-cream pie with the happiness one gets from eating coconut-cream pie. And he answers we can’t and different people experience different levels of happiness from eating each type of pie.

I find professor Gilbert’s analysis quite interesting. I conclude that what makes me happy, what makes my stomach happy is likely to be substantially different to what makes others and their stomachs happy. I believe that everyone wants to be happy and that a happy stomach can contribute to a broader emotional state of happiness. And if we are happy, we can perform better at all levels in our lives, we can be better leaders. So I am now more curious to learn what makes leaders’ stomachs happy, what makes them as human beings happy.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday and I had a wonderful day. I fell asleep smiling… I was feeling very happy! Why? For several reasons not just one and making my stomach happy surely contributed to such happy day. Today I felt inspired and motivated to write this post.

All day long I received many phone calls, emails, sms, email messages and wall posts on facebook from friends and family that remembered me and wanted to wish me a great, happy day. We had sunshine in Geneva and a temperature of 23oC – it almost felt like summer.

I chose to spend the day with my husband. He planned the day, I let myself be led by him and I felt good about it. We visited some wine cellars in Geneva canton – luckily yesterday it was the annual open day when local wine producers organize wine tasting events in some cases combined with food and music. We both felt happy for tasting and getting more familiar with the wine from the region, and for making some surprising discoveries. We also visited friends living nearby the cellars and met their new born baby and this was also a great joy.

My husband had also planned a surprise for dinner. He knows how much I enjoy good food. He knows what makes my stomach happy and how that contributes to my happiness as a whole. So he booked a table at the 2-start Michelin restaurant “Le Floris”. The location was astonishing – we were facing Lake Geneva and watched a beautiful sunset with the sun reflecting on the water. It is amazing how nature and its natural beauty contribute immensely to one’s happiness, at least to mine. We enjoyed some silent moments just watching the sunset and I felt incredibly happy. We chose the menu “Plaisir” (pleasure) and we weren’t deceived. When the food arrived, starting with small delicious appetizers, all senses were continually and increasingly ignited. I admit my stomach could have felt happier with a different meat course, but the desserts that followed made my stomach smile again. I won’t tell more about the menu so you can experience it yourself if you wish to try this restaurant one day.
The whole day was a wonderful experience! My stomach was happy, I was happy! I felt really blessed and thanked my husband and God.

Dear reader,

Tell me, what makes your stomach happy?
· What is your favorite meal?
· What is your favorite restaurant?
· You must have a favorite drink. What is it? Wine, champagne, whisky, fruit juice, water … And when, at what moment(s) do you enjoy most a glass of your favorite drink?
How does being or feeling happy influence you as a leader?