Showing results by author "Michelle Gielan" in All Categories

In this five-part series, US happiness expert and positive psychologist Michelle Gielan and British journalist and author Oliver Burkeman explore ways to become truly happier, backed up by scientific evidence. Bringing their own unique and counter-balanced personalities to proceedings they ask questions such as: what is happiness? Can we make ourselves happier? And why is everyone talking about mindfulness? Michelle and Oliver tackle these questions with the help of some of the world’s leading experts on the subjects and at the end of each episode, Michelle leads the listener through a quick and easy practical exercise that has been shown to increase happiness. Listeners will be left with a genuine takeaway from each episode and encouraged to explore the topics further and take their own steps towards a happier life.

Over the past three years, we have partnered with the US Travel Association to more clearly understand the relationship between well-being and taking time off from work. Our hypothesis has been that without recovery periods, our ability to continue performing at high levels diminishes significantly. This is in direct conflict with the common misconception that the longer you persevere at work, the more successful you will become.

The most forward-looking companies are willing to take risks to achieve greatness. Most leaders give lip service to this idea, but few actually do it. We have worked with banks willing to take on toxic assets (again) and hedge funds willing to take a $100 million gamble on a failing company. But their leaders would still be terrified to ask their employees to stop working for two minutes a day to watch their breath go in and out.

All of us constantly broadcast information to others, even when we don't say a word. Sales professionals broadcast to potential clients in a way that wins new business. Managers broadcast to their teams about projects. Colleagues broadcast to one another about available resources. The messages we choose to broadcast shape others' beliefs in the potential for success and their ability to create positive change.

As constant travelers and parents of a 2-year-old, we sometimes fantasize about how much work we can do when one of us gets on a plane, undistracted by phones, friends, and Finding Nemo. We race to get all our ground work done: packing, going through TSA, doing a last-minute work call, calling each other, then boarding the plane. Then, when we try to have that amazing work session in flight, we get nothing done.