By Kathy Archer

​Employees in a toxic environment are often unwell. The culture they work in contributes to their ill health and in fact, exacerbates it. You may know a workplace like this all too well! I certainly have been through it.
 
If you are struggling with physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health, my guess is you take every one of your sick days. Your physical illnesses, like another “cold,” may be just a coverup for the emotional and mental difficulties that you face daily. But you don’t really care. What you want is out. You just don’t know how to do that.

 
When I was working in a toxic environment, I felt like I was being targeted by a couple of people. Each day I’d walk in and wait to be verbally attacked, raked over the coals or stared down at a meeting. Each night I’d leave the office and barely make it to the safety of my car before I was in tears. I ended up on anti-depressants and took two weeks off before deciding to come back to work. Let me tell you; it took every ounce of willpower in me to return to work.
 
One of the contributing factors in toxic cultures is that many individuals dread going to work every day. They don’t feel safe. In fact, employees in a toxic environment feel “on alert” all day, ready to attack the next crisis or put out the next fire. In toxic cultures, people are stuck in fight, flight or freeze mode all day. As the adrenaline rushes through their bodies, they never relax long enough to release it all. This heightened arousal state leads to more sickness.
 
When I returned to work, I also began to work out with lunchtime trips to Curves. The physical exercise helped to release much of that built up adrenaline. The change in my body, both weight loss and muscle building boosted my confidence. That combined with support and mentoring helped me to impact the culture I worked in and boost my mood without the use of medication. But it took time, a commitment and a ton of prayer! I write about how you too can develop your confidence in my book Mastering Confidence: Awaken your leadership potential by awakening your inner guidance system.
 
The thing is, cultures can change. In our work, we help leaders move their workplace culture from toxic or tolerable to a magnetic culture. In a magnetic culture, employees are drawn to it because they are engaged with the work and the team, they feel they matter, know they are doing work that is meaningful and trust it’s ok to be curious.
 
What’s more, health and wellness in a magnetic culture take a holistic focus. It includes all facets of health including emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual. Now doesn’t that sound like a place you want to be a part of? 

Next steps
To keep evolving towards building your Magnetic Workplace, ensure you are engaging with your team. Use the 12 ways to increase employee engagement in under 3 minutes a day as a starting point. Don't forget to challenge yourself to try out each of the 12 strategies.
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When you grab that download, we will continue to send you tips to help you create that engagement. For more information about working with us, please contact us here. ​

Are You Engaged at Work?
Have you ever been so engaged in a conversation you've lost track of time? Has that ever happened at work? People who have this type of experience tell us they are committed to their teams, enjoy their work, and absolutely want to be on the job. In short, they’re engaged.

Research consistently tells us these people represent the minority of today’s workforce. Of a typical group of employees, less than 30% are actively engaged in the work that they do. The other 70% are working in environments we define as tolerable or, worse yet, toxic. 

The Engaged 30%
We’ve come to learn some interesting facts about engaged, magnetic workplaces. These are just a few examples:

• magnetic work environments are ones where front-line workers and supervisors believe in the words and actions of senior leadership.
• engaged employees outperform those who are not by more than 200%.
• magnetic workplaces are ones where individuals have been properly oriented to their positions and the organization.
• engaged employees who use their strengths, skills, and abilities every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive, and 15% less likely to leave their jobs.

 
My Story of Complete Engagement
Magnetic workplaces are ones that draw people to them; they’re ones that people can’t wait to get to and they are ones where people don’t need others to motivate them.

I remember an experience that was truly magnetic for me. A group of people who knew one another but had never worked together met to develop a unique, innovative proposal in the midst of one of the most economically trying times in our history. But we created a brand new program that was offered funding while the same funder was making deep cuts to other areas. How did we do it?

• We were a passionate group of people who respected one another for their dedication to the work we were doing.
• We had open, curious conversations, where everyone wholeheartedly shared their hopes for the future as well as their best ideas for making it happen.
• We knew the project we were working on had the power to change lives!
• Everyone knew that they had an important role to play; that everything they did mattered to the final product.

 
Next steps
To keep evolving towards building your Magnetic Workplace, ensure you are engaging with your team. Use the 12 ways to increase employee engagement in under 3 minutes a day as a starting point. Don't forget to challenge yourself to try out each of the 12 strategies.
​
When you grab that download, we will continue to send you tips to help you create that engagement. For more information about working with us, please contact us here. 

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​Imagine sitting down with your team, 6 months from now.

You are happy with the direction that your organization is going. As you look around, you notice:

• People are more engaged with each other.
• They focus on each other’s strengths as well as their own.
• Team members come to one another’s aid to get work done
• There is evidence of a growth mindset in team members.

You suddenly realize, you’ve done it! You’ve created a culture that embraces change, adaptability and takes more risks. Not single-handedly of course. However, as you’ve done “the work,” people on the team have increased their emotional intelligence. There is greater openness, trust and cohesiveness. Your organization has become a magnetic workplace.

Are you concerned it's not possible in your workplace?
Perhaps you are wondering how you can get to that point in the next six months. What needs to happen to get you from where you are now to where you want to be?

Oh but it is!
Instantly, your mind is searching for options, answers, new ways of addressing old challenges, something that you haven’t already tried.

You know that yesterday’s solutions won’t do. You’ve become openly, intentionally curious about what could be. Now, imagine helping all of your team members to embrace their inherent curiosity - and doing so in an intentional manner. Consider what will be different in your organization if everyone is openly curious, willing to explore and be patient with others as they are doing the same. That is the kind of environment that breeds magnetic cultures.

​It is intentional curiosity that creates cultures that flourish.

You need to get intentionally curious
​Curiosity is the lifeblood that moves you along the continuum from toxic to magnetic workplaces. Instead of indifference, curiosity is shown when people care about your thoughts and ideas. They are responsive to what you are saying and feeling. Your co-workers are genuinely interested in what you’ve got to say. They may not agree with everything, but they give you their attention and respect and hear you out.

​Most think of curiosity as a desire to learn or know about someone or something. This definition falls short of what is needed to pull people and teams along the continuum from toxic to tolerable to magnetic workplaces. Curiosity is critical in a magnetic environment. It is not a casual act that is thrown in for fun.
So why not just all be more curious?
Becoming intentionally curious sounds simple enough right? It’s kind of like believing communication with others should be easy. After all, we all have the ability to speak and listen and yet we often end up in conflict with one another. Communication should be easy … shouldn’t it? And, of course, it’s not. Getting intentionally curious is equally difficult.

Notice that we’ve used the word intentional in front of curiosity several times. That’s because this kind of curiosity is purposeful and directed.

​Intentional curiosity is a process.
Here is how you can get more intentionally curious
​Practicing intentional curiosity is not asking a single question. Intentional curiosity happens over time, between people and teams. As people ask questions, search and inquire, the depth and breadth of what they are exploring expands.

Curiosity helps to develop stronger relationships: When you get to know someone better, whether you like them or not, you have more respect for them and have an easier time working with them. More than understanding how things work and what we can do to make them work better, intentional curiosity centers on relationships.

​However, this is where it gets tricky!
Make it real for your workplace
Think back to a time when you were curious and acting on your curiosity backfired. Many of us have held back on sharing our ideas because it felt risky to put our idea into the group. Or we’ve not volunteered to take on a new role because we weren’t sure what to expect. Let's be honest. It often feels safer to stick with what we know.

It feels safer to stay inside our comfort zones. We know what to expect and know how to handle things. Even if it’s not comfortable, we tolerate it, because it is what we know.

Heads up: It will be a bit uncomfortable
Any time we are asked to stretch outside of that zone, we get scared. It is in our DNA to respond with a fight, flight or freeze mentality. It’s hardwired into our body. It is this innate self-preservation that makes us resist being intentionally curious.

​But…..Curiosity helps to develop stronger relationships. It’s these stronger relationships that develop stronger teams, magnetic teams.
3 steps for creating a magnetic workplace
​So, how do you practice intentional curiosity?

1. You recognize intentional curiosity is a journey, and you commit to beginning that journey today
2. You recognize intentional curiosity is critical and you are willing to embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty needed to engage in it with others.
3. You recognize that leadership is required for creating a curious culture and you choose to be the catalyst for developing that kind of culture even when it’s hard, scary and uncomfortable, regardless of your title.

Are you ready to go on a journey to create a magnetic workplace?
These are not 3 easy steps, but we have faith in your ability to make life better for yourself and the people you work with.

Remember when you were dreaming about this ideal earlier? We talked about what would be different 6 months from now. Ultimately, to get there, your goal will be to gain a commitment from everyone on your team or at least almost everyone. When you do that, you’ll get to that vision 6 months from now.

What's your next step?
​​Now that you've read this, what will you do about it? We'd love to hear from you. What step are you going to take for taking responsibility for creating an engaged workplace?

Make a note below.

Are you one of the engaged or disengaged people at work?
​Have you ever felt as excited as Alex to go to work? Do you have employees or co-workers that are that eager to be at work? If you’re like us, you’ve rarely heard Alex’s story of someone so engaged in their job. That’s because, in most organizations, employees don’t want to be there. The “technical” term for that is disengagement. Let us explain.

The engagement research is clear
For the most part, workers are dissatisfied with their jobs, feeling under-appreciated and not working in their areas of strength most of the time. The majority – 55% to be exact – are simply putting in the time required to claim their pay cheque.

Worse, 17% of any given workforce is actively disengaged from their work. That means that only 28% of an average team is actively engaged in their work.

Think about that. Only three out of 10 members on a team are actively engaged in the work of their organization. Are you one of the three?

Engaged people enjoy their work. 
We spend A LOT of time at work. Do you know how much time?

Assuming a 40 hour work week, eight hours of sleep per night and a conservative two hours per day for getting ready for work as well as commuting to and from work, we spend 45% of our waking hours in service to the businesses and organizations we work in. That’s a significant chunk of our life on a weekly basis. Surely we want that time to be at least somewhat enjoyable?

However, the reality is for most people, that the majority of our time at work is not enjoyable. For many, it is bearable at best and painful at worst.
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Engaged people create engaged workplaces
Organizations, through their people, are responsible for creating workplace cultures that draw people to them. This type of workplace, a magnetic workplace, takes time and effort to create. That’s probably why you are reading this blog because you want to do that.

Again, we all know that workplaces are rarely magnetic – spaces where people, like Alex, can’t wait to go. In fact, in many instances, workplaces are barely tolerated by the employees who work there. There are exceptions to this generalization – Wegmans Food Markets, Atlassian, Google, WL Gore and Kimpton Hotels are a few examples – but they are the exceptions.
Engagement starts with one person - that could be you!
But wait a minute. What if your organization could grow that 3 to a 5 or 7. Imagine that the majority of your employees are actually engaged, enthusiastic, hopeful. When you take responsibility for creating an environment like that, here’s what would happen, you’d create a magnetic work environment, and the results would be astounding.
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The reasons why you need to take responsibility for creating an engaged workplace
If you took responsibility for creating an engaged workplace, we predict you will notice these 4 powerful results:

1. Skilled and capable people will stay around longer
2. People will find meaning in their work
3. People and organizations will start to question how they can make the world a better place to live.
4. ​Your productivity and profits will increase.

The 4 ways you can take responsibility for creating engagement
You may be thinking that this is going to be difficult. It doesn’t have to be, but it will take effort and time. How do you exchange a barely tolerable workplace for one where people are drawn to it? You make the shift by realizing that the change begins with you. To be a catalyst for change, you need to be the one to take the first step and do as Gandhi suggests, be the change you wish to see in your organization. That happens when:

1. You move in the direction of what you want
2. You get intentionally curious
3. You allow yourself to be vulnerable
4. You become more self-aware

In our work with organizations and the people in them, we’ve discovered that these core concepts are crucial if you want to establish and maintain a magnetic workplace. In fact, we’ve made this our life’s work.

Learn more about how you can take responsibility for creating a magnetic workplace
At this point, you are probably interested in learning more. Click each of the links to continue exploring.

1. Movement
2. Curious
3. Vulnerability
4. Self-awareness​