Mystery of Happiness

Happiness and distress are the two sides of life’s coin.  As in a cricket match, everybody wants to win the toss by calling the “Head”, same way, all of us want to be very very happy in our lives all the time but that does not happen.

Life is always confronted with many up and downs, obstacles, miseries, despondency and many other constraints. We have to pass through this vicious cycle and in this way only,  one acquires mental strength to become stronger to lessen the gravity of distress so as to enjoy the happiness in life. The people who are not able to do so, are always in the slough of distress.  Apparently, they seem to be happy, but their countenance will always be hovered with gloom.  If we delve in the root cause of this cycle and if we take this as normal phenomena of life, we will not be perturbed at all.    

A person may have adequate money, wealth and materialistic comfort, but still he will be deluded from the real happiness.  Contrarily, an average and middle class person with a high spiritual quotient and less materialistic comfort may be full of happiness. 

We know that there are different quotients i.e. Intelligent Quotient, Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient.  In the same way, I have come out with a Quotient of Happiness.  As per me, happiness quotient is derived from a mathematical expression of platonic  love / conditional love. If this ratio is greater than one, the person is moving towards self realization and there is no doubt about that.  But, if the ratio is lesser than one, then the person is always living in stress and when the person is always in stress, he cannot enjoy the real happiness. 

To know this, we must understand the difference between platonic love and conditional love.  If we read various sonnets particularly 147 of William Shakespeare, most of them are based on the principle theme of love.  In his sonnet no. 147 which consists of many poems, he has expressed his passionate love which is more like a conditional love for a dark lady, although the literary researchers are still unable to find who is this dark lady.  In the same way, Katherine Fowler Philips (1631-1664), the greatly admired poet of her times has expressed her platonic love in her many sensual poems when she touches the issue of beauties of very many eternal things without delving to the sexual connotation at all. 

Platonic love is nothing to do with materialistic love, physical love or even greediness.  It is only the love without hankering to get anything in return.  In short, it is only to give and in turn, nothing to get and finally is to be engulfed in the environment of happiness.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) is represented by EQ = W x IQ. (Intelligent Quotient)  “W” is the present insight of a person, his ability to give any judgement and his ability to understand others.  This understanding of others is very important to derive happiness in life.  If we fail in these activities, then our lives will be like a dead wood because happiness is a sequence and combination of other’s happiness and its effect to your life.

We can understand others very well, if this emotional quotient is very high and again this can be represented by a mathematical value in binary digit i.e. 0, 1.  “0” represents absence of these qualities, stated above and “1” represents presence of these qualities fully.  If a person is devoid of these qualities, then he is almost an autocrat person.  But, if a person possesses all the above qualities then his emotional quotient may be equal to IQ.  Such persons are truly democratic and the persons who have high grade of emotional quotient, it is seen from the research that they have high spiritual quotient.

We should not misunderstand the spiritual quotient as people who are only sages, monks, and priests.  Even common man can have high spiritual quotient. No sooner we have a maximum spiritual quotient and also have high emotional quotient; we will definitely enjoy the happiness in life.  Needless to say that people with high EQ and SQ, will be always believer of platonic love.  They sacrifice their own comfort and ensure other’s happiness.  They are always ready to extend their co-operation for others benevolence.  This doctrine of platonic love is not easy to be inculcated in one’s character and for that matter, consciousness and automatic nervous systems are to be energized with abundant positivity. For example, if a person is met with an accident and if someone extends his help to the victim even though he is completely an intruder and takes him to the hospital daring all the consequences and ensures his recovery, then he shows his platonic love because in turn, he will not get any return.  There are galore of people who have given their lives to see the smile on other’s face like Mother Teresa, Sister Nivedita etc.  They were always happy.  No one could ever found them in distress.

When we go through this mental process or achieve this higher strata of mental configuration which is known as real waking consciousness, we feel tremendous ray of sunlight passing through our mind and automatically it gives a glow on our face and our body is also getting sensitized with positive energy ultimately taking us to the lap of never ending happiness. This happiness is beyond any expression and it can be only enjoyed blissfully.

If we do more and more this type of work considering the concept of platonic love, happiness will definitely be increased to the highest level.

Power of Positive Thinking

Success in various fronts of social as well as professional life is definite for the people who posses an inherent quality of energizing their thoughts with positivity. They are classified as the people with positive mind frame who do not get provoked and indulged in any sort of mental block. They are like any other human beings. The only difference is that they avoid blaming their luck for their failures and do not concentrate much on their weaknesses. They consider failures as stepping stones to success. 

This is one side of the coin.  The other side is also prevalent.  There are people who always discuss the mistakes committed by them in the past, murmur, curse the environment and situations for their failures. Such attitude expels positivity from their minds which in turn brings abundant failures to them.

Always remember that you can be better than what you are.  You have to have full trust in your ability and intelligence.  Your body is like a highly acclaimed machine and your brain a critical asset. You can definitely accept the challenges of the surroundings with this combination.  To make these all happen, the attitude, a very important factor and a significant personality trait needs to get increased.  It is the attitude that helps you to think in a positive way and the same can create a magic in your life. As per Winston Churchill, “An attitude is a small ingredient, but makes a lot of difference in one’s life.”

Provoking Power of Thoughts: 

Any action is a reflection of thoughts and the thoughts are directed by a positive or a negative approach. You can become a successful person, if you are influenced to induce your thoughts.  The results of researches show that the working patterns of your body and your thoughts are interconnected with each other.  If you are endowed with a positive frame of mind, you will be able to lift your spirit.  Contrarily, if your mind is always hovered with the negative thoughts, you would surely encounter the failures. In my professional life, I come across different types of personalities and I have the privilege to segregate an intellectual lot having haughty nature and ample money and the lot other having less materialistic strength with tremendous positive attitude.  And relying upon my knowledge, I opine that the second lot makes history and always smiles in their lives beatifically.

Take the instance of the environment of your office where all your activities are governed by your mind. Gravity of your acts makes you judge the level of your performance and the performance gets accelerated when the acts are influenced by positive attitude. You are able to produce the output beyond the expected level with the help of a constructive behaviour and the consequence will always be positive.

The success is never a result of feeble efforts. A structured and continuous process of development of various skills and knowledge bestowed with positive thoughts, guarantees right thing to happen. So, to exuberate in life, fill your mind with positive, productive and sensible thoughts. This will bring a noticeable difference in your attitude towards life.     

Soul searching:

Many times, you feel less enthusiastic and ponder into anxieties due to different perceptions which may or may not have relationship with your career, social life or materialistic despondency.  But such behaviour is quite radical. Though your brilliance is doubtlessly unquestionable, the negative thoughts may crop up in your mind just because of the above type of mindset of yours. Negative thoughts as stated above, will destroy your inner energy i.e. positivity and throw you in the shackles of despair.  Nothing is easily achievable unless you toil hard and earn others support, assistance, co-operation and good wishes.

This is just a guide line. But to energize your inner self with the power of positive thoughts, you have to continuously introspect till the time; you recognize its importance. 

Build up yourself:

A normal person of average calibre, possessing several abilities conforming to the prevailing standards, may require investing his overall growth.  To survive in the corporate jungle, you have to continuously upgrade your skills, knowledge and maintain the eagerness. Always concentrate on the jobs you like the most and the jobs you know more about it.  This keenness will only bring more colours to your life and will help your career graph to ascend.  

Plan, follow and improve:

If your planning is perfect and accurate, you will have a success of abundance with extraordinary results.  You have to immensely master the techniques and skills required for the job you are involved into.  Planning is very important and if it is foolproof, the results cannot be haywire.  A person who does not recognize the importance of planning, cannot reach the desired destination.  Here comes the perspective of attitude.  Without right attitude, it is extremely difficult to grab success in life. The success is like a war which is full of mirth and despondency.  If you rush with strong and calculated planning supported by a scientific approach, no one can prevent you by reaching the success. 

It is very essential to concentrate on the strength instead of weakness. No one should mourn about what they do not have; rather an approach is to be laid on what he owns.  Celebrities, all round the world, never give importance to their limitations.  Their attitudinal behaviour always guides them to positive thinking. And this character alone remains benevolent to lead them to success in their lives. Always maintain an attitude of constantly upgrading yourself with the latest developments coming up all around.  By indulging into self development, you will be in a position to improve upon your performance in any field. Also remember that as soon as you are complacent, your development graph will start travelling downward.      

Attitude: can be defined as follows:

A          =          Attribute                      to be positive.

T          =          Try                               to change if the attitude is negative

T          =          Total control                to negate your negative thoughts.

I           =          Instinct                         to use to visualize the positive, even in adversity.

T       =      Think                       to start every thing with positive and constructive                                                      approach.

U         =          Understand                 all your inherent strengths.

D         =          Develop                       your conscious to achieve the best.

E         =         Energize                        your inner self to influence outer self to be always 

                                                             positive.

You have to remember that your attitude as well as the viewpoint of others for you, affect the routine business of the people connected with you in the professional and social life. Your attitude proves to be one of the major success fetching elements in today’s competitive working environment where you have to work as a team. It is tricky for you to overcome the obstacles coming on your way, if you do not own a balanced attitude. Thoughts should be sensitized and strengthened with vision to eradicate negativity from your behaviour. By practicing this hypothesis, mind will be energized gradually to pursue the positive aspects.  This will, at a later stage, become a habit and get transformed into a natural element of your attitude.

Attitudinal behaviour and its impact on career:

Attitudinal behaviour plays a very important role at the start of your professional career. When you appear for an interview, interviewers notice your attitudinal behaviour very subtly because they know that they can train and twist you talents to suit their job requirements but can’t change your attitude to make it adaptable to the work environment. 

You can conquer the obstacles, if you have a positive attitude which emphasize on the brighter aspect of your life.

In my long professional career as a marketing man and as a departmental head, I have been always encouraging on coaching my people and bringing the best out of them. I have noticed that a person having positive attitude and “can do” approach can achieve success even if he is weak in some areas. On the contrary, a person though very brilliant suffers a lot because of his negative attitude. In today’s arena of global competition, companies always in search for the right people who can show immense power of positive attitude in all spheres.

Mostly, all the companies are now conducting psychometric analytical tests to measure the candidates’ attitude and thereby to identify their potentialities for success.  You have to be the master of your mind and not a slave. By doing this, you will be able to control your mind and will be in a position to always concentrate on positive things around you.

Keep away from negative:

Life is full of mysteries of successes and failures.  Everyone has to face this naked truth. Failures quiver a person’s confidence and develop a negative outlook in him which further worsens the situation when everything starts seeming gloomy to him. A famous couplet of “Genesis” in the Bible says that during the creation of the universe, the first thing, God said was “Let there be a light”, as the total universe was under the clutch of darkness. God never said, “Let there be darkness.” In our day to day life, we happen to come across the situations which present dismal pictures before us. If you are calm and quiet, and can maintain a positive frame of mind even in the situation of adversity of life, positivity will grow and enable you to always see only the brighter part of life. I would like to put forward a classic example of positive attitude which many of us know very well. Mr. Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, the eminent scholar, was one day summoned by his mother.  When he reached the river Damodar in the late evening, he, because of heavy flood, could not find any boat to reach other side. Since, he had made up his mind to meet her mother by hook or crook, overlooked the fanatic situation of river, swam the river, reached home late night and touched her mother’s feet.  What a positive attitude he showed!  This example glorifies the significance of struggling against all darkness and negativities of life.

Attitude V/s Success:

Attitude and success, both are hand in gloves. Success is directly proportioned to positive attitude.  You can never dream success without positive attitude.  “Can do” attitude only can transform your actions into reality.  Please keep in mind that there is no shortcut to success; real success is always a long route. Mind boggling efforts, pain-staking work, eradication of negative thoughts and tremendous perseverance are the nuts and bolts to achieve success. In a journey to success, you will come across many circumstantial hurdles like resource crunch, negative criticism, discouragement, etc.; but you need to keep all your positive thoughts intact to sustain the motivation which helps you perform your best.

There is no magic to reach success.  Your whole hearted efforts with brimming confidence bring you success. If you engage yourself in any undertaking, intensify your potentialities and concentrate all your attention on the task undertaken with a constructive approach, you will find your missions completed.

As a marketing coach in my present employment, I impart training to young engineers to help them mould their career. I profusely teach them the fact that they must develop the right attitude to master the fundamental principles of product development and marketing operations.  During the initial six months of their probation period, I make them understand the significance of positive attitude, in absence of which, they may face enormous problems ahead.

Further, many people believe that positive attitude is an inherent element and it is a domain of some particular group of people. But it is not correct. Even, if you are an average qualified person having a mediocre brain, you can learn and practice the positive attitude.  To drive your thought process in a positive direction, you need not be highly qualified or should have an extraordinary brain power.  It is only a matter of consciousness that how you shut the doors of your mind to block negative thoughts. This is the main and important quality which needs to get sharpened for becoming a positive person.  It is true that negative thoughts cannot be completely vanished but they can be, of course, minimized by increasing the layers after layers of positive thoughts and then it will automatically become a habit of your usual life at a later stage.  Once you are habituated to discharge your duties with positive thoughts, the influence of negative thoughts will become insignificant.   

Finally, there are galore of examples of eminent personalities.  A few are Nawab of Pataudi, Ten Zing Norgay, etc.  Pataudi, despite his one eye, with shear grit and determination, he established himself as one of the greatest cricketers in the world. Same is the case with Norgay. He conquered the invincible Mount Everest with a tremendous attitudinal power.

So, think positive, act positive, and no doubt, the outcome will definitely be positive.

Create a habit of reading

There is an importunate relationship between creation of writers and perusing the same by readers. Writer exemplifies his imaginations and gives them a body of words. Readers grasp, chew, swallow and digest all that is served by the writer depending on the intensity of the inscriptions and gravity of the same. A man is always eager to learn from his surroundings.  He does so by observation, conversation, experience, reading and sharing his thoughts with others. From the medieval to the renaissance stage, man has evolved a tremendous inclination for reading.  All have their own ways of reading and mastering their techniques to maximize the benefits of reading.  Reading is a typical habit and people read according to their own style.  Some people read silently and some loudly. 

According to the National Reading Panel, reading skill scatters through various domains which are termed as “phonemic awareness”, “phonics”, “fluency”, “vocabulary” and “reading comprehension.”  Reading habit is a constant practice, and it can be developed by regular reading which is derived from adding of many things.  All the above domains definitely invigorate the readers to read effectively.

Habit of reading:

The habit of reading should be instilled in a person from the childhood so that the habit of reading grows along with his age. The initial stage up to the age six is known as zero stage. This stage is recognized as a pre-reading stage or a reading readiness stage.

Once the zero stage is over, a child enters into an initial reading stage.  This is known as the stage one.  In stage two, which starts from the age of eight onwards, a child is in a position to identify the importance of reading and also confirms his/her willingness for reading habit. This stage is called confirmatory stage. In stage three, the child reads more and more for the purpose of effective learning.  This stage starts normally at the age of ten.  In stage four, when the child leaves this phase and enters into adolescent phase starts developing opinions, expresses, view points, etc.  In the final and fifth stage of reading habit, a person concentrates his attention on a particular subject and forms his own judgment based on the pros and cons of reading materials.

Modus-operandi of reading:

Peoples’ tendency towards reading depends on the quality of reading materials. They devote their attention if the narrations, characters, context and style of the reading materials are lucid. They remain engrossed with the texts. Out of many techniques, the most prominent are the three viz. scanning, skimming and concept making techniques. All these tools, if effectively used can augment a skill of reading considerably.

Anyone who decides to purchase or a hire a book from market or library, he at first sight gives a cursory glance at a book stall. People ascertain the contents meeting their reading taste. Then, they scan the materials and skim the contents using the concept mapping technique. This concept induces the brain to record the information given in the book and understand the interconnectivity of the ideas expressed in the book. The concept mapping technique helps storing information into the brain. A combination of these three tools enhances a desire to read the particular book.

Another popular reading technique is SQRRR which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review. As per this method, whatever you are reading, survey is critical. The survey will raise questions, and the answers thereof will make you to pay for the text.  Readings will further lead you to recall the contents and store it into the memory for further review. Many people take another method of reading which is known as stage-by-stage reading.  In the first stage, the entire contents are scrutinized with some of the portions of the text and are cross checked with rapt attention.  Thereafter an opinion is formed.  If the opinion is positive, the readers focus his attention in depth to the contents and separately concentrate on the introduction, the control portion and the end of the reading material. This stage is known as a previewing stage.  Here, the readers make their judgment and form an analytical view on the worth of the book as far as reading fully is concerned.  If this stage is also positive, a book is to be read thoroughly, contents after contents so as to take the fragrance of the narrated text, style, etc.  When this stage is over, automatically the readers would like to call back their memory to review the contents. This method of reading provokes the readers to form a habit of intensive reading to enhance the skill.

To increase the effectiveness of reading, following suggestions should be considered.

1.         To give importance to quality reading. Quality reading will enhance the reading skill.

2.         Reading is a structured method. You need to decide as to what to read and what to skip, depending on your interest, time, inclination and commitment.

3.         Always keep a dictionary handy.  If you are not able to recognize a particular word, you should immediately rely upon a dictionary for solution.

4.         Do not gobble the words of the text. In that case, you will not be in a position to enjoy the pleasure of reading and derive its meaning.

5.         If you are a fast reader with a speed of 200 to 300 words per minute, you may stick to the same, but without deteriorating the quality aspect of the reading.

6.         You must be sure of the reason of your reading.  If you indulge in the clueless reading, it cannot be classified as a quality reading.

7.         Always concentrate on the subject and its contents and context of the materials.

8.         You have to stick to 3 “Ws” before you undertake reading.  These are “why”, “what” and “when”. The combination of these three “Ws” will decide the quality of the reading.

9.         Make a habit of reading of exceptional kind of books instead of particular type of reading.

10.     If you are not able to retrieve the meaning of the contents of the material, revisit the same later on, but do not exert pressure on your mind. Excessive pressure will jeopardize the concept of quality reading.

11.     Your reading schedule is to be set in such a manner that it coincides with your ability of grasping the text.

12.     If you find a certain portion of the reading uninteresting, leave it, and stop reading it for the time being.  A volatile mind will not be able to digest the meaning of the text material.

13.     While reading, underline the important phrases, narrations, words, dialogues, etc.

14.     Develop the habit of converting the texts in your own words.  This will enable you to read fast.

15.     You can eliminate the prologue portion of the text, and after reading, you can scribble the main theme of the material in your journal so that the reading becomes easy.

16.     It may happen that you generate your own thoughts during the process of reading and if so, the same can be entered in your journal and it will help you to recall the reading.

17.     Do not insist upon reading auxiliary verbs, conjunction, prepositions, and definite / indefinite articles to easily understand the meaning of the text.

18.     Practice the habit of keeping colour pencils, so that the relevant portions of the text pre-decided by you can be color-codified.

19.     Try to visualize the written text into a pictorial form for easy understanding.

20.     Spare some amount of time each day for reading. This will be ultimately become your habit throughout the life.

21.     Try to read the words, sentences, paragraphs in one go because that will make you focus more on the text.

22.     Do not stick to any specific reading materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, study materials, etc.  Let it take its own course of action as far as reading is concerned.

Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is a measure of how happy employees are with their job and working environment. Keeping morale high among workers can be of tremendous benefit to any company as happy workers will be more likely to produce more, take fewer days off and stay loyal to the company. There are many factors that affect improvement of employee satisfaction, which, wise employers would do well to implement. Many companies will have mandatory surveys or face-to-face meetings with their employees to get information about their satisfaction level.

The rising turnout of the employees, a state of employee’s lackluster loyalty and a job hopping tendency are the bottlenecks in the growth of any company.  HR management is in dilemma as to how to reduce the attrition rate and this is a top priority in the list its agenda. It is imperative to improve the level of employee satisfaction as no one likes to get pinched when their employees leave the organization, and particularly when they join competitors. By continuous monitoring, HR management can trace out the loyalty factor in employees which is directly connected with their satisfaction, and by any chance, if they are not content, scrutinizing reasons thereof is to be taken up. Employee loyalty and employee satisfaction are the most profound factors in any organization.

Employee loyalty:

It is seen that a business turnover and tenure of employees’ services are directly related with each other, but the employee loyalty goes below or vice versa.  Now, if this situation is analysed on the basis of employee’s productivity, length of his services, his overall performance and the attitudinal pattern of his behaviour, the probable attrition rate can be predicted and depending on the scenario, corrective actions can be taken well before the peak time.

Another poignant situation seen in the organization is that an employee remains frequently absent from his duties when he is not that much loyal to the firm. He transgresses rules of the company and stays cynical in his behaviour. His work style shows lack of commitment.

Employee Satisfaction:

When it comes to job satisfaction, it is very essential and significant to measure the attitude and not the behaviour of employees. HR management is to have a strict vigil on the reactions and conduct of employees. This is by far the easiest way to explore enthusiasm level among employees. Let me take a pragmatic view on this narration. Assume that you are a departmental head, and after your periodical visit of the department, you find that your employees are fully involved in their jobs and when you interact with them, you notice that some are charged, some are extraordinarily energized and alert about maintaining deadline and there are other who are in the mood of sauntering or inactive. From your above observations, you can assess the level of dissatisfaction of some of the employees which makes them inactive and you can also make out the reasons behind such attitude of them.  At the same time, you have also to find out the level of loyalty among the people who are charged and capable to deliver the output. This is very much important because it is not necessary that good players are always loyal to the organization. 

Right action to enter employee satisfaction:

The best ways to maintain employee satisfaction is to make employees feel like part of a family or team. Holding office events, such as parties or group outings, can help build close bonds among them. The ex-gratia payment and bonus can increase employee satisfaction and should be given when possible. Yet money cannot solve all morale issues and if a company cannot improve their overall environment, a bonus or ex-gratia payment will be quickly forgotten.

Employees may be satisfied with the office environment, and easily get along with their colleagues but such employees may not be necessarily loyal. On the contrary, loyal employees may not have job satisfaction or may not freely mix up with their colleagues.

But, it is fact that a higher degree of job satisfaction brings desolation to employees and a high satisfaction level leads to enhancement of loyalty. This loyalty factor develops a psychological and emotional attachment of employees towards the company. The main purpose to find out the reason of manpower attrition is to plug the loopholes and to enhance contentment level among employees. The procedure is very easy to say than done. A manager or a supervisor has to tacitly find out the reasons of disloyalty among the employees and pinpoint the root cause thereof whether it is a disparity in remuneration package or a tremendous work pressure or a vulnerable game played against him to blame him for different issues or a non congenial working condition or an unnecessary harassment. Such analysis will make the manager aware of the causes of leaving of a particular employee, and by asking an appropriate remedial action, attrition can be avoided.  This type of analysis and corrective measures are very essential from strategic point of view for enhancement of employee satisfaction.

Avoid burnout

Burnout is a state of wreckage, emotional apathy and depression due to protracted levels of high strains, usually related to superfluous work environment or domestic demands. People who feel a lack of control over their environment, who have unclear expectations placed on them, who receive little recognition, lack social support are at the highest risk of burnout. In other words, anyone who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk of burnout   

Burnout is a common phenomenon in today’s corporate world. Every employee irrespective of tenure or position undergoes this situation. In order to achieve targeted corporate goals and to sustain business growth, all employees are required to deliver their best. Their day to day assignments demanding the best performance pull them into tremendous anxiety and the pressure is built up.  A cyclic phenomenon goes on and on. Time bound critical tasks cast fatigue, boredom and exhaustion on the employees which further rebound depression on them.  These are all classic manifestations of burnout. Now, one has to understand how burnout evolves at workplace. Even after best efforts, if you fail to produce desired results, or your accomplishments achieved through maximum pains and talents are not well recognized by your superiors may pull you to resentment and frustration. This will be having a direct bearing on your psychophysics and can cause hypertension and lastly weaken your defense mechanism. On the contrary, it is also seen that the people who are well acclaimed by their bosses for their accomplishments do not encounter burnout.

Symptoms of Burnout

Signs of burnout do not appear spontaneously, but grow gradually. Jadedness, lack of concentration and pushback at workplace are the symptoms of burnout. Once you are engulfed with them, you seem to be helpless and weary; lose interest in work, and your personal relationship with others is endangered.  Sometimes, burnout becomes so serious that one loses interest in life.  Because of exhaustion, one loses courage to return to a normal lifestyle. However, it is also seen that burnout can’t encircle those who, by their grit and determination, have earlier shown immense results in their assignments. But, consciously or unconsciously they invite burnout through the endeavours they put in to achieve targeted goals. Thereafter they are found to be caught up in a situation where their professional life is imbalanced; they are also found to whine and find nukes in their ability.

Causes of Burnout

v  High pitched targets set by superiors which are next to impossible to achieve.

v  Irrelevant assignments poured into your basket because of your image as a brilliant performer and a doer.

v  Extra ordinary work pressure

v  Ambiguity about roles and responsibilities.

v  Continuous & frequent reshuffling of goals within a short period.

v  Conflict management policies and overlapping function

As an act of precaution, a manager should make out the early sign of burnout to his staff and address to it so that the employees are not put into unwanted situation. He should counsel the employees and reduce the burden of work pressure.  In this way, employees’ confidence is regained and his enlivenment towards the work is intact, and thus he helps the respective employee to overcome the beginning of burnout situation.

Preventing burnout

If you recognize the warning signs of imminent burnout, remember that it will only get worsen if you leave it alone. But if you take steps to get the life back into balance, you can prevent burnout from becoming a full-blown breakdown.

Burnout prevention tips

• Start the day with relaxes. Rather jumping out of bed as soon as you wake up, spend at least fifteen minutes meditating, writing in your journal, doing gentle stretches, or reading something that inspires you.

• Adopt healthy eating, exercising, and sleeping habits. When you eat right, engage in regular physical activity, and get plenty of rest, you have the energy and resilience to deal with life’s hassles and demands. 

• Set boundaries. Don’t overextend yourself. Learn how to say “no” to requests which you cannot comply with. If you find this difficult, remind yourself that saying “no” allows you to say “yes” to the things that you truly want to do.

• Take a daily break from technology. Set a time each day when you completely disconnect. Put away your laptop, turn off your phone, and stop checking email.

• Nourish your creative side. Creativity is a powerful antidote to burnout. Try something new, start a fun project, or resume a favorite hobby. Choose activities that have nothing to do with work.

• Learn how to manage stress. When you’re on the road to burnout, you may feel helpless. But you have a lot more control over stress than you may think. Learning how to manage stress can help you regain your balance.

Recovering from burnout

Sometimes it’s too late to prevent burnout – you’re already past the breaking point. If that’s the case, it’s important to take your burnout very seriously. Trying to push through the exhaustion and continue as you have been, will only cause further emotional and physical damage.

While the tips for preventing burnout are still helpful at this stage, recovery requires additional strategies as detailed below.

Strategy #1: Slow down

When you’ve reached the end stage of burnout, adjusting your attitude or looking after your health isn’t going to solve the problem. You need to force yourself to slow down or take a break. Cut back whatever commitments and activities you can. Give yourself time to rest, reflect, and heal.

Strategy #2: Get support

When you’re burned out, the natural tendency is to protect what little energy you have left by isolating yourself. But your friends and family are more important than ever during difficult times. Turn to your loved ones for support. Simply sharing your feelings with another person can relieve some of the burden.

Strategy #3: Reevaluate your goals and priorities

Burnout is an undeniable sign that something important in your life is not working. Take time to think about your hopes, goals, and dreams. Are you neglecting something that is truly important to you? Burnout can be an opportunity to rediscover what really makes you happy and to change course accordingly. 

Coping with job burnout

The most effective way to combat job burnout is to quit doing what you’re doing and do something else, whether that means changing jobs or changing careers. But if that isn’t an option for you, there are still things you can do to improve your situation, or at least your state of mind.

In order to avoid job burnout, it’s important to reduce and manage stress at work. Start by identifying what factors are stressful. Then you can take steps to deal with the problem, either by changing your work environment or changing the way you deal with the stressor.

• Actively address problems. Take a proactive approach to the issues in your workplace. You’ll feel less helpless if you assert yourself and express your needs. If you don’t have the authority or resources to solve the problem, talk to a superior.

• Clarify your job description. Ask your superior for an updated description of your job duties and responsibilities. Point out the things that you’re expected to do which is not part of your job description and gain a little leverage by showing that you’ve been putting in work over and above the parameters of your job.

• Ask for new duties. If you’ve been doing the same work for a long time, ask to try something new: a different grade level, a different sales territory, a different machine.

• Take time off. If burnout seems inevitable, take a complete break from work. Go on vacation, use up your sick days, ask for a temporary leave-of-absence—anything to remove yourself from the situation. Use the time away to recharge your batteries and take perspective.

Interaction with people

Turnover of manpower is very usual in any organization.  Employees do not leave their organizations, but they leave their managers. Because of various reasons, they become restless, feel suffocated and show apathy towards their job responsibilities. Their performance level goes down. Frequent admonished treatment given to them by their managers creates resentment to them, which causes them to leave the organization.  This can be a circumstance even with an academically bright person.  Managers need to find out the reason of attrition. They have to find out the reasons as to why employees are not able to meet the expectations, to accept the changes and to understand the work assignment allotted to them. If these issues are not dealt with properly on regular basis, there is a chance that you as a manager do not know your employees in depth.  Employees leave organizations for many reasons. Some of them are listed below:

1.  Highly stressful job responsibilities

2.  Employees give utmost importance to the nature of their jobs, but the managers feel that they are only interested in augmenting their career.

So, the employees vent their anger feebly, and ultimately decide to part away with the organization. Even after a complete involvement, they cannot meet with their managers’ expectations, and this situation demoralizes their spirits and ignites them to detach from the present employment. Precisely, this is a state that needs an utmost attention of managers to study and understand the concerns and perspectives of employees. It will help a manager to identify exactly the employees’ strengths and weaknesses, and he can strengthen himself to take corrective actions for development of employees and thus bring the organization to a tremendous path of productivity. 

To build an everlasting relationship with your employees, to ensure right implementation of change management and to concentrate on retention management, talent management, performance management, team consensus, etc., you need to know your employees in depth by associating yourself with all their endeavours and taking care of the probabilities of their development. The more you believe and practice the above, the more you will able to build up trust and relationship management with your employees.  All this is possible, only when you spend your quality time with them regularly and recognize their desires and expectations.

You can convince your employees for better performance, achievement of target, only if you know them closely and understand their abilities.  How best and to what extent you know your employees is the matter of high importance. It requires tremendous efforts, perseverance and spending of a considerable time to know the aspirations of your employees. Though it is a big task, it is worth exercising for the prosperity of the organization. 

Knowing your employees requires various processes which are as follows: 

1)      Introduction at equal interval of time.

2)      To encourage them to divulge the facts and figures.

3)      To focus your attention to the message and not on the words spoken by your employees.

4)      Avoidance of anxiety and harsh reaction for their outspokenness and also while they present truth. 

5)      Do not interrupt while they express their views on sensitive issues, which otherwise looks to be unpleasant for you.

Next step to be followed by you is to verify the central message enunciated by them from their colleagues, peers, mentors to come to the conclusion about the efficacy of their uttering. You have to assess your employees by passing them through behavioural trainings and assessment tests. You also need to observe their ability of social reworking and a talent of interacting with others.

One important aspect is that knowing your employees does not mean to identify their strengths, weaknesses, abilities and their decision making power for the growth of the organization. It is to establish a heart to heart relationship with them by involving yourself in the matters of their personal concerns, sharing joyous moment with them and rendering your help in their distress. In short, it is to address to their needs with a human touch.

When you deal with your people, you have to ensure maintaining their dignity.  You should not indulge into hurting their feelings; however, at the same time, you need to maintain a limit with regard to your behavioural impact on them. You should not express disbelief and suspicion for their acts. This will help them develop a bonding relationship with you so that they feel immense pleasure in your company. By any element of your behaviour, they should not feel anxiety or discomfort. Adequate care is to be taken for their development and they should be kept free from fear or insecurity with regard to unwanted gossip and politics in the office. You have to be friendly with your employees and try to know their personal grievances only in order to extend the help to them. While showing the congeniality, you must maintain confidentiality for their personal matters. You must be aware of the fact that a small negligence from your part may make their personal issues a public one which may hit their moral harshly. They, instead of taking you as a friend, will consider you as envy. Advise your people as and when you feel they require so, and remember that timely help to your people will bring you closer to their hearts. Remember that a heart touching relationship sustains for a longer period.

Success of an organization squarely depends on a harmonious relationship prevailed between employees and employers. It is possible only when you mingle with them freely and unconditionally. And therefore, it is desired to allot your precious time to your employees so that you can know them fully, and it will ultimately prove beneficial to everyone concerned.