Handle Your Stress Better by Knowing What Causes It

No matter how brave, hardworking, and intelligent you may be, there comes a time when stress becomes overwhelming and you get triggered. Triggers are those things that cause you to have a knee-jerk reaction that may or may not be the best response to a given situation.When you are triggered, the emotional part of your brain takes over. You are flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, the same neurotransmitters and hormones that have evolutionarily protected us from threats like bear attacks (freeze, fight, or flight). Your logical brain temporarily shuts down, and you lose the ability to solve problems, make decisions, and think rationally.When this happens, you have been emotionally hijacked, and it is difficult to see things as they really are. You go into protection mode, and until the perceived threat or trigger has dissipated, you will remain there. Over time these reactions can lead to acute anxiety, depression, irritability, fatigue, and other health problems from heart disease to lowered immune response.
Source: HBR June 21, 2017

Click here to see the complete article

The Key to Campbell Soup’s Turnaround? Civility.

Based on our combined experience and research – Doug as the former CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Christine as professor who has researched leadership for 20 years – we’ve observed that the best way to truly win the hearts and minds of people, and generate huge returns for your organization and its stakeholders, is by leading with civility. This means spending a considerable amount of effort acknowledging people’s contributions, listening better, respecting others’ time, and making people feel valued.To some, leading with civility may be intuitive or obvious, but it’s difficult to put into practice. Since we are often being moved along in a perpetual parade of tasks, projects, and problems, emails, texts, and crises, we often lose sight of the people whom we lead.This is unfortunate, since prioritizing civility can lead to big payoffs. It increases performance and creativity; allows for early mistake detection and the initiative to take corrective action; and reduces emotional exhaustion. Most of all, it makes employees feel respected.

Source: HBR Oct 05, 2017

Click here to see the complete article

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high

A new dawn awaits India 

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore