When I was speaking in Tajikistan some time ago, I complimented one of my participants on the ‘sleek’ shirt he was wearing. The next day, he brought me a new shirt exactly like the one he was wearing. I later learned that it is a Tajik tradition to give away the item someone likes and compliments you on. We are talking about one of the poorest countries in the world—now that is true richness!

Using your power

The Corporate Sufi believes that everyone is blessed with power. Some use power wisely and some don’t; many never use their power at all.

Imagine that your Creator offered you the power to have anything you wanted and to do whatever you wanted. What would you ask for? What would you do? Stop thinking about it, because the truth is you already have all the power you need to fulfil your wishes.

If you only want to achieve business success, then all your actions will gravitate towards that single goal. If you also want to achieve balance and to journey beyond, your actions will reflect those goals. The path you choose is up to you.

Your potential challenges to implementing this commitment may include:

• Not knowing how to find your innate gift
• Conditioning from childhood that stifles your gift
• Lacking a goal larger than yourself
• Missing a purpose and focus that will engage your gift
• Fearing the thought of leaving the status quo
• Having an inferiority complex or a lack of self-belief
• Worrying about giving of yourself and being taken advantage of
• Being self-centred.

You have been born with an innate gift. It is the one thing that allows you to live up to your highest potential. When you are using your gift, you are the best you can possibly be, free from fear and other constraints, and full of abundance and life. However, many people go through life without realising what their birth-day gift is, and many die without ever having opened it. It seems a terrible waste to go through life without opening your gift.

The Sufi philosophy affirms that we have all been born with a great gift, although most of us never open it because we are distracted and tempted by dazzling toys and the complications of life, which are only temporary. We forget the real purpose of why we are here and what we need to accomplish.

The Corporate philosophy is similar. The more people focus on their natural strengths, the more excitement and joy they find in their work. The more you focus on employees and on building corporate strength, the more productivity is achieved. However, not all organisations recognise or understand how to champion this philosophy in the workplace.

The Corporate Sufi philosophy leverages your inherent talent or strengths—your gift to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

You are a miracle

You are a miracle! A unique, special and precious human being! There is no one like you in the entire world. No one can smile like you, think like you, walk like you, talk like you or serve like you. From billions of people who have come into this world, no one has been like you. You are special, precious and powerful.

My cousin Asheef and his wife, Denise, were blessed with a baby boy recently. Denise, after being pregnant for nine months, underwent a C-section after 30 hours of labour in hospital before the baby was born. My wife, Farzana, my daughter, Sahar, and I went to see mother and child. While holding the baby, I noticed how alert he was, despite being less than a day old. His big eyes and expressions left me marvelling at creation and how a baby comes into being from the mother’s womb…so full of potential even as early as day one on earth!

When you reflect on creation, witness the birth of a child, observe how the day turns into night and night into day or see the seasons changing, you begin to appreciate the miracle of life.

You are a miracle, and you possess enormous power within, but you need to open your innate gift before you shine. William James, the father of modern psychology, said, “The average person rarely achieves but a small portion of his or her potential.” You may be scared to jump into your inner calling—but if you are stuck in the pond, you will never experience the bounty of the water in the ocean.

In Fihi Ma Fihi, Rumi, the Sufi giant, says, “You have a duty to perform. Do anything else, do a number of things, occupy your time fully, and yet, if you do not do this task, all your time will have been wasted.” In other words, you can do hundreds of things, but if you do not do this one thing that you have a duty to do, you have wasted your life. What is this one thing you must do?

Finding your calling

How do you find your true calling and gift? If you feel it is not practical to find and utilise your gift because of outside constraints, then you are ‘dead’ even before you start. Which means you will never find it because you do not believe it is possible. To find your calling, ask yourself these questions:

• What makes you tick?
• What kind of work makes you lose track of time?
• What kind of work would you do if you won a $40-million lottery? How would it change your life?
• What would you dare to do if you knew that you would not fail at it, no matter what?
• Where can you make the most difference?
• On your deathbed, what is the one regret you would have?
• Reflect on your funeral—what would you like people you care about to say about you?

These questions bring a deeper understanding and perspective about what is important to you.

Meditation is one powerful vehicle to connect to your inner self. Through this practice, you gradually gain insight into your innate gifts. Keeping a daily journal heightens your awareness and brings clarity about who you are, not who you think you are. The cause that excites you the most will give you an indication of what you are passionate and care about.

I wrote this as part of my eulogy: “Azim was a loving father, son, husband and human being. He shined his light and inspired others to shine their light. He lived and worked to his full potential and made a positive difference to one and all, especially those who were less advantaged. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Amen.”

By being clear about what you aspire to be, it becomes easier to invite and attract the right circumstances to lead you to it. Looking back from your deathbed also puts things in perspective and attracts attention to your purpose in life and the accompanying gift you were born with.

The post Sufism at work: Discover your innate gift appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Yet, one of the most striking findings from this study was that the men with short bursts of activity as part of their routine work had significantly lower death rates from heart disease. These were the dock workers who loaded cargo as new ships came in and out of port. This is the type of regular activity that was built in to a wide variety of jobs just 50 years ago.

The high cost of increasing efficiency

Back then, jobs requiring moderate physical activity accounted for about half of the labour market. Today, only 20 per cent of jobs require real activity. This transformational shift mirrors increases in diabetes and obesity rates. You can now accomplish countless tasks with the click of a mouse and a few keystrokes. While this increases efficiency, it comes at the expense of our physical health.

This epidemic of inactivity spans the globe. From the United States to India and China, technology—from computers to washing machines—minimises the need for manual labour, and our health suffers as a result. The way we cook, clean, work and make products no longer requires strenuous activity.

Because of these seismic shifts in activity levels, you now have to find ways to infuse deliberate movement into your day. If you work in a traditional office setting, it is in your company’s best interest to ensure you get some activity during the workday.

Emerging research suggests companies that provide employees with time to exercise, even during working hours, do not lose any business. In fact, this research shows how you could be more productive if your organisation gives you time to exercise during the workday. Even if you end up working fewer hours in a week, the trade-off is a net positive for you and your organisation. Other studies find that employees see significant increase in overall earnings as their activity levels rise.

The good news is that many employers are taking notice. A friend of mine recently lost 50 pounds. When I asked him how he did it, he gave nearly all the credit to the encouragement he received from his colleagues and programmes his employer offered.

Even if your peer group at work is not very active, consider what you can do to start a positive trend. Find a few moments each day when you can walk briskly. Do a few push-ups or spot jogging or anything else to break up a 10-hour span of limited activity. Ask a colleague to do a walking meeting instead of sitting on uncomfortable chairs.

The late Steve Jobs was famous for requiring colleagues and clients to go on walking meetings around his neighbourhood. When a reporter asked him why he did that, Jobs said that he could think better when he walked. If nothing else, make sure you get up several times a day and move around your workspace. Sedentary work can make you fat, sick and tired. Building movement into your daily routine will provide a buffer against today’s sedentary lifestyle. As a leading public health researcher put it, “In many ways we’ve engineered physical activity out of our lives, so we’ve got to find ways to put it back into our lives.”

The dangers of desktop dining

Early in my career, having lunch with a group of friends from work was one of the best parts of my day. Some days we would all go out to eat, but most of the time, we grabbed lunch in the cafeteria. Either way, it provided a mental break from what I was working on and forced me to get up and move around. Most importantly, it was quality social time with my friends.

However, as the demands of my job increased over the next couple of years, my lunchtime pattern changed. On most days, I considered myself too busy for an extended lunch and opted to eat at my desk. This allowed me to devour my food as quickly as possible, usually hunched over my keyboard reading emails. By eating at my desk I got lunch ‘out of the way’ in about five minutes, compared to the 50 minutes it took to eat with my friends.

I justified eating at my desk by telling myself it made me more productive. In hindsight, desktop dining had the opposite effect. It was bad for my relationships with colleagues, I had less physical energy, I was less satisfied with my job at the end of the workday and had fewer ideas to contribute.

When I have a busy day, I still eat at my desk. But I can now see how it is a trap because I eat more at my desk than I do when I am paying attention. By sitting and eating at my desk, I also miss an opportunity to engage in some sort of mid-day activity.

According to various studies, roughly two-thirds of workers eat lunch at their desks. And a majority don’t take time for regular breaks during the workday. This can result in trouble focussing and less time for creative thought. So to prevent that, use lunch as a natural stopping point in the middle of a busy day. Take a short walk; get outside for some fresh air. Or find somewhere to eat with a few friends at work. Use your lunch-break as a reminder to exercise and make it an energising social time.

Working while intoxicated

Sleep less, achieve less. It’s really that simple. According to a study from Harvard Medical School, lack of sleep costs the American economy $63 billion a year in lost productivity alone. In the words of one of the lead researchers, “Americans are not missing work because of insomnia. They are still going to their jobs but they’re accomplishing less because they’re tired. In an information-based economy, it’s difficult to find a condition that has a greater effect on productivity.”

Sleep-deprived driving can be just as hazardous as drunk driving; 75 per cent of the time when a truck driver runs someone off the road, driver fatigue is a prominent factor. According to one scientist who has studied this extensively, four hours of sleep loss produces as much impairment as drinking a six-pack of beer. A whole night of sleep loss is equivalent to a staggering blood alcohol level of 0.19 per cent. That’s double most legal limits.

Working on little sleep is not much better. There is a reason why surgeons and pilots now have mandated periods of rest before they are allowed to operate or fly an airplane. In 2010, an Air India 737 crashed, killing 158 people. When investigators listened to the data recorder, what they heard was “heavy nasal snoring” in the cockpit. This is just one example; hundreds are killed every year by people who get too little sleep.

If you care about the quality of your work and interactions with your peers, give sleep the priority it deserves. To make this possible, your work needs to be satisfying. Poor sleep quality is nearly twice as common among those who are least satisfied with their jobs. Even if you are not in your dream job today, it’s up to you to make sure work is not keeping you up every night. Any job is likely to cause a sleepless night on occasion. But I’m amazed by how many people go through weeks, months, or years of dealing with poor sleep due to work stress or job dissatisfaction.

It’s hard to imagine that any job is worth the damage it does to your health over time.

Excerpted from Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes by Tom Rath [© 2013 by Tom Rath]

This was first published in the November 2014 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Most often companies pay high salaries to ensure that their star players don’t leave them, but what they don’t realise is that more money is just a temporary distraction and many employees don’t stay longer even if you do give them a raise. Internal evaluation as well the exit interviews conducted in organisations with high attrition rates show that offices with good work culture go a long way in keeping their employees happy. Needless to say, a happy workforce has an increased productivity, which is what most managers aim for.

So what can you as a manager do to ensure that people enjoy working for you and continue to give you their best? You need to keep in mind that these people spend a major part of their day working for you; so you need to create an environment that keeps them satisfied. Let’s look at some simple things you could easily adopt in your workplace to make sure your employees stay motivated:

Awards

Most companies have an annual award distribution, if not monthly or quarterly. Change the name of the award from the boring ‘Employee of the Year/Quarter/Month’ to something that would mean more in your business context and recognises the person’s individual skills. Also you could have an award ceremony for members of the team to promote their soft-skills like their friendliness, innovation, dependability, etc. However, ensure that the names of the awards do not hurt sentiments.

Soul satisfying work

Tie up with an NGO in your area and give your employees the chance to work for the community. But when you schedule something like this, make sure that you do not take away a holiday from your employees as it is the only time they get to spend with the families. Many of your employees might already be working with NGOs and organisations, so give them a space where they can discuss their experiences like on an internal blog or a bulletin board where they can put up pictures or share anecdotes. If you have a CSR initiative in place and an employee does something commendable, put them on a pedestal instead of letting the management take all the credit. This would boost the morale of your employees like nothing else will.

Potluck lunch

Set aside one day of the month where the management as well as the employees meets for lunch. Potluck lunches are a way for people to learn about the customs of their colleagues through their food. You as a manager need to take care that this doesn’t turn into another boring meeting. So initiate conversations if the need arises, since the employees might find it awkward to discuss unofficial things when the boss is around. Plan the lunch on a day when your employees are not tied up with meetings and deadlines, so they are not in a rush to get back to their work. Also plan some activities to do during this time.

Silly games

Conduct games like balloon bursting, bingo, or sessions where your staff could bellow songs or do other fun activities. These ridiculous games are good as they get people laughing more. The general air in the office tends to improve and the employees feel refreshed, especially if such sessions are conducted in the middle of a normal working day.

Creative contests

These bring out the artist in your employee. Since all your employees may not be good at the same thing, there is no point in conducting a swimming contest when there are fishes as well as cows present. Pick something that more people would be able to attempt. You could probably pick a theme and ask them to use that as a basis and do something that they like. For example, you could pick a particular festival as the theme, so the poet can write, the artist can draw, whereas the caricaturist can do a sketch and the actor can perform—all on the same theme.

Decorate workstations

A happy and cheerful workplace that has their favourite quotes, their favourite pictures and artwork by their children would make your employee combat stress better. Is there a better stress buster than the smiling faces of your children? Encourage people to personalise their workstations as best as they can.

Family gathering

Once a year invite the family members of all your employees to the office or conduct a family picnic. Get the families of employees to get to know and befriend each other. This might seem trivial, but it brings relief to the family to know what kind of people their family member spends most of their day with. When people bond at these events it helps the families know that there is a colleague or manager looking out for their loved one.

Group therapy

Conduct fun exercises and activities that lighten up the mood in the office and get your people to come together and mingle with each other. Sessions of laughter yoga have been proven to reduce the stress in individuals and also make people loosen up to their surroundings. People adapt better when they know they can loosen up and be themselves. Make sure to appreciate individuality in your people and never criticise people for the way they are unless it has a direct impact on their productivity.

Besides activities, there are things like one-on-one time, listening to their problems and coming up with solutions, getting them cake and some snacks to celebrate their birthday or asking about their family, all these little gestures show that you care about them.

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