Ways to stay mentally healthy

Former TV actor and popular Indian film star, Sushant Singh Rajput((21 January 1986 – 14 June 2020)), who entertained cinema lovers all across with his innumerable performances sent shock waves across the country with the news of his suicide.The reason behind him taking this extreme step is not clearly known, however, early reports allege that he was suffering from depression for the past 6 months. This incident highlights that important part of keeping fit and healthy is to take care of your own mental health. There are plenty of things you can do to help make sure you keep yourself mentally healthy and come out of depression. 

Stay mentally healthy by following these simple steps

Connect with others and be sociable 

Make an effort to maintain good relationships and talk to people whenever you get the chance. Having friends is important not just for your self-esteem, but also for providing support when you're not feeling too great. Research has found that talking to others for just ten minutes can improve memory and test scores!. You should develop and keep strong relationships with people who will support you. Knowing you are valued by others is important for helping you think more positively. Plus, being more trusting can increase your emotional well-being because as you get better at finding the positive aspects in other people, you become better at recognizing your own. 

Play! Plan something fun!  

Make time every day to enjoy something you really like to do.  Be silly and laugh – laughter can recharge you.

Ask for help

Everyone hits bumps in the road. Ask a friend, co-worker or teacher for help and advice. One of the most important ways to keep yourself mentally healthy is to recognize when you're not feeling good, and to know when to ask for help. There's no shame in asking someone for support if you're feeling low or stressed. Everyone goes through patches where they don't feel as good as they should. 

Take care of yourself and take proper rest

It’s easier to feel happy if your body feels good. Exercise. Enjoy a good breakfast. Drink water, have a healthy snack and eat a balanced diet.  Physical and mental health are tied together. Be good to your body.

Sleep restores both your mind and body.  Aim for 7 hours of sleep at least. Go to bed and get up at a regular time each day. One hour before bedtime turn off your phone and computer. Take some time to relax and wind down from your day. If you have trouble sleeping, only lay in bed for ½ hour then get up and go into another room, or sit in a chair and read a book or watch TV (no computer or phone as the blue light can keep you awake) for a ½ hour, then try to go back to sleep again for a ½ hour.

Exercise

Your body releases stress-relieving and mood-boosting endorphins before and after you work out, which is why exercise is a powerful antidote to stress, anxiety, and depression. Look for small ways to add activity to your day, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator or going on a short walk. To get the most benefit, aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise daily, and try to do it outdoors.

Tell yourself something positive

Research shows that how you think about yourself can have a powerful effect on how you feel. When we perceive our self and our life negatively, we can end up viewing experiences in a way that confirms that notion. Instead, practice using words that promote feelings of self-worth and personal power. For example, instead of saying, "I'm such a loser. I won't get the job because I tanked in the interview," try, "I didn't do as well in the interview as I would have liked, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to get the job."

Think about today

Too often we are thinking about the past or planning for the future instead of living in the present.  Focus on living “in the moment.”  Outside, notice the sun or wind on your face, or feel your feet on the pavement. Inside, feel your body in the chair, or your feet on the floor. Make a real effort to be aware of the world around you today. It is important for your mental health.

Being mindful of the present moment allows us to let go of negative or difficult emotions from past experiences that weigh us down. Start by bringing awareness to routine activities, such as taking a shower, eating lunch, or walking home. 

Give back

Volunteer for a cause or an issue you care about. Help out a co-worker, neighbor, or friend. Find ways to contribute, it can help you feel good about yourself and who you are in the world. Research shows that being helpful to others has a beneficial effect on how you feel about yourself. Being helpful and kind—and valued for what you do—is a great way to build self-esteem. The meaning you find in helping others will enrich and expand your life.

Avoid alcohol, smoking and drugs

Drinking and smoking aren't things which we always associate with withdrawal symptoms, but they can cause some which impact on your mental health. When you've had a few drinks you can feel more depressed and anxious the next day, and it can be harder to concentrate. Excessive drinking for prolonged periods can leave you with a thiamine deficiency. Thiamine is important for our brain function and a deficiency can lead to severe memory problems, motor (coordination) problems, confusion and eye problems.  If you smoke, between cigarettes your body and brain go into withdrawal which makes you irritable and anxious.

Sources

https://www.psychologytoday.com/

https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.uk/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Are Digital Organizations Better at Overcoming COVID?

Experts from Harvard Business School's Digital Initiative discuss how technology is helping leading companies gain an edge during the coronavirus pandemic.

Government leaders rushing to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in March gave companies little time to shift to an all-virtual workforce. Ready or not, many businesses had to become more digital.

But true digital transformation takes far more than a Zoom account. Using everything from virtual supply chains and people analytics to artificial intelligence-based models and automated biotechnology research, organizations further along the digital curve are responding differently than those still wondering how to evolve. The digital technology embedded throughout their operations gives them a unique advantage.

With that in mind, we asked faculty associated with Harvard Business School’s Digital Initiative how technology is setting the most successful organizations apart during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s what they said:

Lauren H. Cohen: Leading companies use technology to be more nimble

HBS Professor Lauren Cohen

It pays to be nuanced here. A large portion of the challenges facing businesses are industrywide (and worldwide). For instance, hotels have government-imposed limitations on the services they can offer. These restrictions bind equivalently for the most, and least, technologically advanced hotel in the industry.

That said, technology will be most powerfully utilized during the pandemic by those firms who apply it organization-wide to create more nimble, efficient organizations, more capable of managing the factors of production (e.g., labor, capital, supplier inputs, etc.). These firms will emerge as the long-run winners, and those firms that count their future in decades, instead of months or years.

Lauren H. Cohen is the L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration.

Shane M. Greenstein: Robust infrastructure helps companies scale faster

HBS Professor Shane Greenstein 

To begin, some part of this crisis can’t be solved by technology, no matter how good. Anybody in retail or entertainment or education has a difficult situation to handle. Anybody delivering medical services faces an entirely different and unprecedented set of problems.

For business that remain open, an old canard applies: Nobody notices information technology until something breaks. This crisis required rapid and large reallocation of modern information technology, with particular links to communications. Some of it broke.

The best organizations have had the ability to expand existing capacity because the technology did not break under the strain. They had a robust configuration that enabled new purposes, new software deployments, and new coordinated routines across teams.

The best can use this as an opportunity to experiment and learn where technology can deliver service or enable more flexible work arrangements.

Shane M. Greenstein is the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration and co-chair of the HBS Digital Initiative.

Ayelet Israeli: Technology can’t succeed without ingenuity and adaptability

HBS professor Ayelet Israeli 

I don’t think it’s about technology. I think that leadership, agility, adaptability, compassion, and ingenuity will set the most successful organizations apart. State of the art technology will not be successful in response to a crisis without these additional components.

With them, organizations will figure out how to leverage technology (not necessarily their own) to achieve their goals.

Ayelet Israeli is an assistant professor of business administration.

Ariel D. Stern: For leaders, digital tools expand and enhance services

HBS professor Ariel Stern 

Some of the most successful organizations will use digital technology not only to replace services that were previously provided but to augment and expand their offerings.

Telemedicine is a terrific example of this. Many health care providers have already moved to virtual visits and ramped up new types of services such as remote-patient monitoring using connected digital tools.

Ariel D. Stern (@arieldora) is the Poronui Associate Professor of Business Administration.

David B. Yoffie: Software can ensure stability in turbulence

HBS Professor David Yoffie 

Marc Andreessen famously said about a decade ago that “software is eating the world.” For most technology-intensive companies today, that prediction proved prescient. For software-focused organizations, there should be fewer layoffs and product delays.

While declining demand will remain challenging for everyone, social distancing can be achieved because disperse teams can build and distribute software from remote locations around the world. The massive productivity losses that are afflicting most companies today should be relatively modest in organizations that build and manage their businesses around software.

David B. Yoffie is the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration.

Source: Harvard Business School 11 Jun,2020

Stay Motivated When Feedback Is Scarce

While many of us have worked remotely for years (myself included), for many people, the shift to working while physically distanced from colleagues and managers requires some getting used to. Benefits like wearing pajama bottoms to work and going for a mid-day run can be mitigated by the costs to your motivation, self-confidence, and self-esteem when you no longer hear “you aced it!” from your boss on the walk back from a client meeting, or when you can’t get a high-five in the coffee room from a teammate — or even a smile from the receptionist on your way to the elevator.

Reduced feedback, diminished external encouragement, and decreased interpersonal interaction don’t just take an emotional toll; they can take a toll on our work outcomes as well. As Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, says in his TED Talk, “When we make progress and get better at something, it is inherently motivating. In order for people to make progress, they have to get feedback and information on how they’re doing.” And, for many newly remote workers, that’s just not happening often enough — if at all.

And while many leaders are taking steps to improve their remote feedback skills, we each need to take responsibility for developing our own reserves of confidence and motivation to keep us moving forward. “Effective self-motivation is one of the main things that distinguishes high-achieving professionals from everyone else,” professor Ayelet Fishbach writes in her article, “How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It.”

Here are three strategies you can use to boost your own motivation and confidence:

Challenge your catastrophic thinking

In my book, coauthored with Sophie Riegel, Overcoming Overthinking: 36 Ways to Tame Anxiety for Work, School, and Life, we highlighted two ways of thinking that are the hallmark of catastrophic thinking: overestimating unlikely probabilities and overestimating devastating consequences. In the absence of regular feedback, we can start to make up stories that undermine our self-confidence and security. That can happen in the best of times — and right now is not the best of times.

When you start to think to yourself, “I’m not hearing much from my boss…am I about to be furloughed — or fired?” you need to challenge yourself with more rational thinking (even if being furloughed or fired is a possibility).

The first step is to name your catastrophic thinking for what it is and the impact it makes. When your mind starts to wander down those dark alleys, say to yourself (out loud if it helps), “I am having catastrophic thoughts, and these don’t serve me at all.” Or, “I am making up a terrible story, and that’s all it is — a story.” Or “These thoughts make me feel anxious and I can change them.”

The second step is to remind yourself that even if the worst-case scenario should happen, you have the resources you need to deal with it. Take a few minutes to list all of the inner resources you have available (your resilience, determination, sense of humor, and so on) as well as the external resources you have available (your family, your friends, your network) that you could lean into if and when you need to.

The third step is to find the core of truth in your catastrophic thinking that needs real attention from you. If you’re constantly worrying that you’re going to be fired, ask yourself what’s actually going on at work (limited feedback, for example) that’s raising your level of anxiety. In The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence, security expert Gavin de Becker writes that we have an intuitive sense of when we are in danger — but that being afraid all the time doesn’t actually protect us from danger.

What does? Making a concrete, actual plan to address what’s worrying you — or let it go.

Draw from your “portfolio of selves”

According to Blake Ashforth, a leading expert on identity at Arizona State University, in his book, Role Transitions in Organizational Life: An Identity-Based Perspective, our sense of self is largely rooted in how other people perceive us. This is what makes limited feedback and fewer kudos so challenging for many of us. In the absence of hearing, “I really value your creative input” or even “we couldn’t have won this pitch without you!” we tend to question who we are and the value we bring. “Am I really a team player,” you may think to yourself, “if I’m not hearing much from my team?”

For each person we engage with — a colleague, a boss, a friend, a child — we have a different “self” who shows up. As Ashforth writes, “A particular role calls forth a particular self, such that the individual is actually a portfolio of selves.” This portfolio of selves allows us to be the person we need to be at a particular moment to feel better, and even to rise to meet a particular challenge or tricky situation.

“One of the coping strategies is to think about yourself as having multiple identities,” author and Wharton professor Adam Grant contends in his podcast, WorkLife. While you may not be hearing from your boss right now about your “team player” self, you can boost your self-confidence by thinking about all of the positive, helpful, contributing “selves” you are to the people around you.

So, if you’re feeling insecure about yourself as a team player, for example, because you’re feeling unnoticed by your boss, you can boost your self-confidence by thinking about all of the positive, helpful, contributing “selves” you are to the people around you. Think about at least 5 other people in your life who hold you in high regard. Write down their names and how they see you — for example, “My colleague Wendy sees me as a reliable advisor”; “My client Sam sees me as a strategic thinker.”

Leverage our reciprocity bias

In Robert B. Cialdini’s timeless book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he cites “reciprocity” as the first principle of persuasion. In other words, we are wired to treat other people as they have treated us. This drives us to return favors (or slights) and treat others well (or poorly). It’s also what motivates us to pay back debts (or not — if that’s what the other person has done to us).

 

When it comes to getting more positive feedback, a boost of cheerleading, or even a friendly check in, our best bet may be to give it to get it. Each week, reach out to a few of your colleagues, managers, direct reports, and even clients and vendors to share a positive observation about them, let them know that you’re thinking of them, remind them about that they impact they have on you, and even share that you miss seeing them. And then, be ready to receive all of that back in return.

As Malcolm Forbes said, “A little reciprocity goes a long way.”

Of course, while you wait for reciprocal kudos to come your way, you may want to simply ask directly for what you need. Saying to your manager or teammate, “I know that this isn’t business as usual, but I realize that I still want and value your feedback. It feels especially important to me now that we’re working together in a different way. Can we set aside 5-10 minutes in our next scheduled meeting to share some feedback with me?” (And be prepared to share your feedback as well.)

Working remotely may reduce our physical and emotional proximity, but it doesn’t have to undermine our motivation, confidence, and self-esteem.

Source: HBR 02 June, 2020

 

Why Women Are the Future of B2B Sales

Although women make up just over half of the college-educated workforce, they hold less than one third of B2B sales jobs. According to 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, women are underrepresented in B2B sales in most industries, including wholesale and manufacturing (27%) and financial services (30%).

Yet research shows that women salespeople often outperform men. A 2019 study by incentive solution provider Xactly reported that 86% of women achieved quota, compared to 78% of men. The B2B sales landscape has been shifting in ways that favor women in sales roles. We think the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to a step change in this trend.

The Changing Sales Environment Favors Women

Research by our consulting firm, ZS, shows women succeed in sales by excelling at different capabilities than men. The research looked at performance of 500+ salespeople across several industries, including financial services, industrial services, and health care. The assessment used a framework we developed that identifies seven capabilities that differentiate high-performing salespeople from average-performing salespeople.

Both high-performing women and high-performing men used all seven capabilities to some extent. But high-performing women were more likely to emphasize connecting, shaping solutions, and collaborating, while high-performing men relied more on improving and driving outcomes. For analyzing and influencing, there was no measurable difference between the genders.

Today’s digitally savvy, self-sufficient, and more informed buyers have new expectations of salespeople. Buyers expect salespeople to add value beyond what digital tools provide. To do this, salespeople need capabilities for collaborating with customers and shaping solutions. These capabilities, focused on addressing customer needs, have become more important for sales success than persuasion capabilities, such as influencing customers and driving outcomes. And this plays to women’s strengths.

Covid-19 has put the deep freeze on many industries. As we emerge from the pandemic and commerce thrives again, the shift to remote selling using video and digital channels will have lasting impact on sales. This will boost the power of women, as capabilities at which women excel align perfectly with the morphing world of sales and the evolving needs of customers.

Consider the traditionally male-dominated industry of financial investment sales. Technology makes customers (investors) less reliant on financial advisors for many needs. “Robo-advisor” computer algorithms can analyze investments and make portfolio recommendations. Investors can execute their own financial transactions online. Yet even highly self-sufficient investors are likely to turn to advisors for help with longer-term financial and estate planning needs. Decisions about these issues are complex and emotional. Advisors create value by listening, empathizing, and sharing perspective to facilitate agreement among family members. The capabilities at which women excel — connecting, shaping solutions, and collaborating — have become increasingly important for success in a financial advisor role.

The skills of women are also becoming more relevant in the fast-growing, once male-dominated field of high-tech sales. Increasing proportions of business technology sales are subscription-based (such as SaaS products) or consumption-based (such as cloud services), rather than one-time purchases. Most value comes not with the initial sale, but rather over time as customers benefit from the purchase and expand purchasing. The trend has created growth in the number of customer success managers (CSMs) — salespeople who encourage customer loyalty and retention by helping customers realize ongoing value. CSMs succeed by connecting, collaborating and shaping solutions; once again, these are capabilities that are women’s strengths. Although women hold only a quarter of high-tech sales jobs, career data sources report that at least 50% and as high as 70% of CSMs are women. And as of April 2020, women were leading global customer success teams at some major tech companies, including Oracle and Salesforce.

Accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis, salespeople are traveling less and relying more on video and other digital communication channels. The shift to less travel aligns with the needs of both men and women who want to balance career and family needs.

Further, as more women take on business buying roles, female salespeople can build stronger relationships with the changing customer base.

Boosting the Number of Women in Sales

Future sales success for many companies in the rebounding economy will hinge on attracting and retaining more women for sales roles. In traditionally male-dominated industries, this can require eliminating the perception of sales as an old boys’ club and creating a more female-friendly culture. Several programs are helping sales organizations attract and retain more women. Programs like these have helped our consulting firm, ZS, attract and retain more female professionals.

Diversity-focused recruiting. Many companies are making gender diversity an explicit goal of sales recruiting, committing to specific objectives for sourcing, selecting and attracting women. Companies are reaching out to sources of female job applicants, such as professional associations for women in sales. They are making job descriptions more attractive to women by toning down masculine language, for example, replacing words like “aggressive” and “compete” with gender-neutral language such as “customer-focused” and “succeed.” Job descriptions are also emphasizing problem-solving over client entertainment responsibilities. And by including more women sales leaders on job candidate interview panels, companies are getting diverse perspective about candidates’ qualifications while reinforcing a female-friendly culture that attracts women applicants.

Female mentorship programs. A financial service firm fostered community among women in its male-dominated sales organization by matching each new female salesperson with a female mentor in the sales organization. Mentors helped salespeople get acclimated and answered questions about topics females were reluctant to discuss with male colleagues (e.g. traveling alone, having dinner with male clients, maternity leave). The firm also hosted “lunch and learn” sessions where female salespeople talked openly about challenges and solutions. Women built relationships with others they looked up to and felt comfortable confiding in.

Better coaching. Companies are taking steps to improve coaching of female salespeople, especially by male mentors. This requires breaking down stigmas for male-female mentorship relationships and ensuring women get the same objective feedback their male colleagues would.

More promotions for women. In the Xactly insights study, female-led sales teams had roughly equal numbers of men and women, while male-led teams were more than three-quarters men. Promoting more women to sales management and leadership roles is a clear path to attracting and retaining more female salespeople. A good way to develop female leaders is to champion women for stretch roles and responsibilities that test and develop their managerial skills.

Gender diversity in sales is not just about social justice. In today’s world, it is about increased performance. The solutions here are a start, but there is more work to be done. One key challenge is addressing the perception that sales requires comfort with risk, such as rejection and income uncertainty, which discourages some women from pursuing sales careers. As customer expectations of salespeople continue to evolve, attracting and retaining more women for sales roles will be a key to future sales force success.

Source: HBR 28 May,2020