There is one thing seldom discussed as a powerful purpose for having an EAP employee newsletter authored by an EAP peer. In fact, I seldom mention in it my own promotional literature about Frontline Employee.
This one thing can improve productivity, reduce the risk of violence, reduce complaints to HR, and produce a more positive workplace. The topic is changing and creating more positive attitudes among employees.
There are thousand ways to go with this topic, but your employee
newsletter is a powerful vehicle for delivering this sort of change to your organization.
Don't
forget this topic in your newsletter. I can't think of a more
cost-beneficial reason to have a workforce wellness or employee
newsletter. So, I decided to blog about. And, frankly, this is why I attend to this topic regularly in our content throughout the year.
Insert
purposeful articles on this topic about 7-8 times per year. Doing so
will cause your organization to reap powerful benefits as people think about the content and seek to apply it.
A
positive attitude controls our lives. It enhances our relationships.
And it impacts our productivity, both in quantity and quality. I
discovered this years ago, and it is why I decided to write about this
subject in our employee newsletters about 3-4 times per year.
Did
you know that Stanford researchers are making the case that attitude is
more important than IQ. Yes, this in addition to the whole emotional IQ
discussion. This is good news, and there are a lot of implications for
workplace productivity in this declaration. The good news? Attitude is
easier to change than I.Q. and it has significant financial payoffs.
Start
with helping employees understand “mindset.” Either you have a mindset
that is “fixed” or your mindset is “growth-oriented,” says researcher,
Carol Dweck, Ph.D. A fixed mindset means you’re not very open to change
or willing to adapt to it. You don’t view mistakes as opportunities or
stepping-stones to your success. People with a growth mindset do. Hey,
this is not genetic. This is a learned behavior. Sure, this is also a
habit, but habits are changed to the degree new beliefs are acquired,
and your employee newsletter should therefore target these concepts. (We do. Click here to get three free back issues of Frontline Employee so you can see what I am talking about.)
I will send you Dartmouth College's newsletter. We started writing
Dartmouth's newsletter about ten years ago. They love us. If you need, I
will refer to the EAP Director there for a testimonial.
One
powerful article (try this idea) is helping employees look at Thomas
Edison's attitude—he kept trying hundreds of times (actually about 1000)
before the bulb finally glowed.
Also, help employees look at
the idea of embracing challenges. Also, what does it mean to persist in
the face of setbacks--discuss this idea, too. Help employees plot a path
to mastery of a skill or ability that will advance their career. Help
them see criticism as gift. (There's a biggie.) Learning from criticism
to achieve something more really requires an open mindset. I won't
digress too far, but this whole positivism idea flows over into improved workplace communication -- both more civility in communication and more of it. That's right. When attitudes are poor, some people communicate less.
Pose
the question in the beginning of your article of whether the reader
has an open or closed mindset. You can find a deeper discussion about
this topic if you purchase the book “Mindset: The New Psychology of
Success,” by Carol Dweck, Ph.D. - I quick skim will give you a bunch of
ideas for articles associated with this topic.
