March 2024 - Page 7 of 8

Don’t Ignore This Surprising Warning Sign Of Depression (M)

Discover the surprising trait that could signal a higher risk of depression.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks. View all posts by Jeremy Dean

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PERMA – 5 Elements to Thrive

Positive psychology isn’t happy talk.

Positive psychology concerns itself with things that cause people to flourish.

I couldn’t list the 5 elements necessary to thrive during a coaching conversation yesterday (PERMA). I decided a refresher was necessary. Everyone who cares about the success of others needs to understand PERMA.

Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, championed the positive psychology movement in 1998. Seligman learned there are 5 elements necessary for people to thrive.

Positive emotion.
Engagement.
good Relationships.
Meaning.
Accomplishment.

PERMA:

#1. Positive emotion:

To thrive you need hope, happiness, joy, satisfaction. I love that the champion of positive psychology says his happiness setpoint is on the low side.

Whether you’re naturally upbeat or not, you can impact the way you feel with behaviors. Choose to act your way into feeling instead of feel your way into acting.

Tip: Practice gratitude to impact positive emotion.

#2. Engagement.

To flourish you need to voluntarily do things that challenge you. Things that capture your attention. It’s called FLOW.

Application:

Discuss the concept of challenge with team members. What challenges you? What level of challenge do you typically feel at work? How challenging does this new project feel to you? (Too much challenge overwhelms. Too little causes boredom.)

#3. good Relationships.

How connected are you with friends, family, and co-workers?

Create an environment where results and relationships go hand in hand.

#4. Meaning.

People who thrive feel they are doing things that matter. How are you participating in something bigger than yourself?

#5. Accomplishment.

How can you help people win today?

What does personal progress look like today?

Conclusion:

PERMA is usually top of mind for me. Yesterday I realized I had lost touch with it. I thought you might enjoy a refresher as well.

What aspect of PERMA is most relevant to you today? To your team?

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8 Easy Tricks to Have the Perfect Call Center Resume

It’s not easy to set your resume apart from your competition. Most job applicants get rejected in the first round of application screening, and only 2 to 3% of applicants receive an interview call.

So what changes can you make to your resume to increase your chances of getting a call center job?

There are a few key pieces hiring managers want to see to help you get past the first round—whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a complete newbie.

Since call centers are entry-level roles, there are typically thousands of resumes that recruiters have to sift through.

As a result, they only spend a few seconds reviewing each, giving you limited time to catch their attention and show them that you’re an ideal candidate for the position.

This means you can’t waste time with a ton of introductory fluff. You need to instantly communicate that you’re a solid candidate.

You don’t need to build a ton of rapport or get them to like you—you only need the hiring manager to think, “This is a real candidate with real experience, we should interview them.”

1. Write a straightforward and relevant profile summary

The hiring manager is going to skip straight past your name and contact details and get right to the good stuff: your profile summary.

This is why you need to make sure you quickly describe what makes you a suitable fit.

Get any call center or customer support experience that you have at the very top of the resume. Skip personal introductions, because the hiring manager is going to skip that anyway. Give them exactly what they’re looking for: relevant experience.

If you don’t have direct experience, get the closest thing that you do have. And you can leave recent jobs off if they’re not relevant.

What Your Dreams Say About Your Mental Health (M)

The purpose of dreams may be partly to prepare us for anxiety-provoking situations in waking life.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

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4 Dimensions of Office Politics that Matter Most

You probably think backstabbers and manipulators when someone brings up politics. If unethical office politics turn your stomach, good.

Don’t be naive about office politics. (AI generated image.)

The back alleys of organizational life are filled with hateful backstabbing and self-serving manipulation. Don’t play there.

Office politics exist wherever people work. The larger an organization the more politics matter.

You can’t thrive in organizations by putting your head down, doing your work and ignoring other people.

Ethical office politics:

Build good will.
Foster collaboration.
Add value to others.
Let others help you.

4 dimensions of ethical office politics:

#1. Build relationships that serve your team.

Your team depends on others. They need resources and opportunities to shine. Constant collisions with other team leaders hinder your team’s ability to thrive.

Serve colleagues when you have opportunity.
Show up to help.
Don’t be afraid to seek advice from ethical leaders.

#2. Build relationships that serve higher ups.

Don’t be the person who always shows up saying, “I need something.” You lose when you bring problems every time you talk to the boss.

Make life easier for the boss, ethically. Don’t sell your soul to the devil. And don’t cut corners or lie for your manager.

Find ways to row-with instead of rowing against.

#3. Build relationships that serve organizational mission.

Relationships help you add value. Where is the energy? Go there if you can. Who’s in the thick of things? Find ways to connect with them.

Know unofficial power players. Understand unofficial networks.

#4. Build relationships that develop your potential.

Connect with people who can enrich your life and career. Don’t be needy. Don’t manipulate. Earn opportunities with high performance and strong relationships.

Who is likely to get mentored by top people? Someone who raises their hand to participate or the person who keeps their head down.

How can leaders engage in office politics ethically?

What warnings can you to this topic?

Still curious:

10 Ways to Deal with Two-Faced Backstabbers

12 Strategies for Navigating Office Politics

Five Ways to Master Office Politics (From 2011)

You Can’t Sit Out Office Politics (hbr.org)

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The Simple Trick for Limitless Call Forwarding

When you’re so fed up with playing phone tag that you’re finally going to do something about it, call forwarding is one of the best things you can do. With this feature activated, you can redirect calls from any landline or mobile phone to another number—so you’ll never have to miss an important call when you’re away or using a different phone again.

While many people think call forwarding is only for businesses, this handy feature is available to anyone with a landline or mobile phone. Of course, sometimes there is a catch, which is that certain systems still require you to punch in a number manually to forward each call.

However, there’s also a workaround. Namely, if you decide to make your public phone number a virtual one, then you can simply automate everything and even change your number whenever you want.

This is fairly easy to do with a virtual number, but if you don’t have one just yet, you can start by testing out how to forward calls the old-fashioned way.

Old-School Dial *72

If you ever worked at a reception desk, you might already know that most landlines can forward calls. This process can vary depending on your service provider and location, but for calls in North America, it probably looks something like this:

To activate call forwarding, simply dial *72, followed by the number you’re intending to forward calls to.

Although this method is pretty easy, it can be a hassle if you need to change the forwarding number frequently. For example, if you have an office landline that you want to forward to a cell number but you’re not at your office (or your office is closed), you’ve already run out of luck.

To make matters worse, it might be the case that your…

Dementia And Death Linked To This Widespread Vitamin Deficiency (M)

Blood levels of this vitamin should be routinely monitored as deficiency is linked to dementia and early death.

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Do This to Energize Teams

You believe the path you’re on leads to Oz. Perhaps it does. But it might lead to flying monkeys that tear your team apart.

Sincerity isn’t enough to energize teams.

Sincerity isn’t skill.

You can be sincere and do stupid things. You can work to energize your team and end up draining them.

Do this to energize teams:

You say something sincere like, “I’m worried we won’t reach our goal.” The team thinks you don’t believe in them.

Teams perform poorly when leaders don’t have confidence in them.

Fearful leaders unintentionally tear down teams.

Listen to fear. Speak with courage.

Courage doesn’t minimize challenges.

Courage and fear co-exist. Novices pretend hard things are easy. Don’t pretend a rocky path is smooth. But don’t wring your hands in fear either.

Courage says:

“The hill is steep. I believe we can make it.”
“This challenge is going to take the best we got.”
“We’ve done hard things before. This might be the hardest one yet. I’m calling you to bring your best.”

If you don’t believe you can win, quit so you can fight another day.

If you believe you can win, don’t say, “I’m worried we’re going to lose.”

Believe they will rise. Courage energizes teams.

Listen to fear. Speak with love.

Fear seeks to protect itself. Love seeks to advantage others.

Energize teams by seeking their best interests.

Listen to fear. Turn to the mission.

Fear is a “don’t want” emotion. When you’re fearful, turn toward a positive goal.

Energize teams by turning to “do want”.

Project:

List your fears and use them to identify future-facing goals. Acknowledge what you don’t want. Focus on what you want.

What might leaders do that unintentionally drains teams?

What energizes teams?

Still curious:

12 Questions Guaranteed to Energize People

5 Energizing Conversation Starters for One-on-Ones

6 Ways to Energize Your Team

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Call Center Agents Only Need One Thing to Stay Motivated

There are plenty of motivational call center tips out there that sound great on the surface but don’t actually do anything for your team.

It’s like putting up a cheesy (and completely ignorable) poster in your office that says, “Take the next step. Build your legacy. Change lives today. What are you waiting for? Your future starts now!”

Still, even the most popular tricks like spot bonuses, employee-of-the-month honors, and other workplace incentives can lose their appeal after a while—and generic call center advice like “Use better tools” doesn’t really provide anything concrete to help you move the needle.

The truth is, there’s only one thing that matters if you want a motivated team: winning.

In other words, a winning team is a motivated team—and vice versa.

Why a Winning Team Is All the Motivation Your Call Center Needs

There’s nothing more motivating for call center agents than being on a team that works together, hits positive milestones on a regular basis, and makes everyone feel like their work is truly accomplishing something.

Alright, fine, maybe a massive salary increase would be more motivating—but assuming agent compensation is fair and commensurate enough to render money a nonfactor in this equation, being on a team that consistently provides a sense of purpose and accomplishment is probably the strongest driver of workplace productivity.

In other words, people like to feel that they’re contributing to meeting goals, that they’re learning something every day, and that they’re working towards a better future.

Thus, if you’re able to create this sense of winning in your team, that’s when the day-to-day tasks stop feeling like work all of the time and instead start to feel like a journey everyone is on together.