For those not familiar with the growing popular mud races, Tough Mudder is 10-12 miles with 25 obstacles such as running through waist high mud for a mile, running through gasoline soaked hay stacks on fire, and crawling through water and mud filled pipes. The obstacle that really has me nervous though is the electroshock therapy. Running through live wires, randomly charged, some up to 10,000 volts.

At first I thought I’d just sprint and hope for the best. After watching a few YouTube videos of people completely face planting after getting shocked, my new strategy is to make my boyfriend be my shield and run directly in front of me. Fingers crossed he goes for it.

As crazy as it sounds, the nervousness aside, I am actually quite excited. I love the energy at these events, and while I might not be having a super fun time the whole three plus hours it will take me to finish, the sense of accomplishment at the end is incomparable.

I never did get around to getting a tetanus shot, but don’t worry Mom, the risk paragraph doesn’t list lockjaw as a potential problem. Only broken bones, torn ligaments, concussions, spinal injuries, paralysis, heart attack and death. None of which a shot will prevent. Wish me luck!

So what does this mean for you the employer? It means the battle for top talent is beginning. Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and make an investment in engaging your workforce so you retain the services of the employees you already have. And at the same time, you need to be on the hunt for star talent in search of a change. A stronger more secure economy allows people to reassess their careers and consider all of the different prospects available to them.

For companies with a goal of increasing engagement levels in their workforce, you should ask yourself: What is it about your company that will make people want to join/stay with you? Have you instituted a solid recognition program? Do your employees have the opportunity to develop themselves through internal and external resources? Does each employee feel like they’re doing meaningful work? Do they feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves?

The answers to these questions are what will help you keep your talent home, bring in new additions and allow you to build a fully engaged workforce. One full of confidence that maximizes and improves performance and productivity across the board.

Production
One advantage of change, that’s usually the basis for it to begin with, is an increase in production. It could be the implementation of a new system that streamlines processes or new equipment employees use to be more effective in their roles. But this is also where the con of the situation comes into play. A change in operations can also lead to confusion and cause work stoppages that result in hits on the bottom line. This may be a part of the learning curve that was accounted for when the change was designed, but if not, it can be a challenging time for a company.

Resisters and Embracers
Change scares employees because it’s taking away something familiar and introducing an unknown. Inevitably, this leads to a certain level of resistance from some of your workforce. These are employees that don’t understand why the change is happening and want no part of it. Their opposition can bog down the change process and counteract the companywide efforts being made. The flipside of this is when a welcomed change occurs that’s embraced by the majority of the workforce. This speeds up the acceptance process and allows the change to develop to its full potential so any targeted goals are more easily reached.

The Simple Truth
At one point or another, change is going to find you. It may come from internal sources or from industry pressures, but no matter what, it’s best to take a positive and open-minded approach. It takes a certain level of trust to buy-in to the research and evidence put forth by your company’s leadership team, but when you consider that they’ve brought your brand to its current level of success, it might be a good idea to offer them the benefit of the doubt.

Recent research reinforces what we already know, if we’re honest with ourselves. The Huffington Post cites a study by UC Irvine and the US Army showed lower stress levels in people denied access to email for five days. Those subjects who were able to check email, and were of course checking it repeatedly, had heart rates consistent with being on high alert, all the time.

What if you took a little break from email? Not a cold turkey sort of thing, but just a brief hiatus for the evening. Maybe you could try checking it once after dinner and then not again until the next morning. Possibly you could go an entire weekend without  it.

It can’t be productive to be on high alert all the time. To be able to perform at peak levels, you need a little down time here and there. We all know that, but we don’t always put it into practice.

Paradoxically, it can actually feel more stressful not to check email. But maybe it’s worth a try.

I started thinking about the first job I ever had back when I was in fourth grade. Truly a time I wish I could forget. I painted the lines on soccer fields at the park down the street, which wouldn’t be that bad except that I had to do this at night and quickly while games were being played. I pushed around this rickety thing that would get more paint on my shoes than on the field. Also I learned the importance of the phrase “heads up!” After a few weeks when I had finished the job I learned that the guy who hired me had mysteriously vanished and nobody could get in touch with him. That’s right, he skipped town to evade debts he owed to a fourth grader. He was a classy guy.

Better to think of happier times, like the time I went to my first sleepover. Never mind that I forgot to bring a sleeping bag like everyone else; I did, however, remembered to bring my pillow. I will say that I was a little nervous at first because I didn’t know some of the kids at my best friend’s house. Pretty soon we built some sweet forts made out of furniture and blankets and watched a movie called Surf Ninjas, which is exactly what it sounds like. Of course no sleepover is complete without practicing the ancient tradition of pretending like the carpet is lava and climbing around on all the remaining furniture not being used for forts. You could search the whole wide world and never find anything as fun as that game.

My first day of school was just as terrifying as the next kid’s. Full of wonder and questions like where do I go, when can I eat, who are these people, and are you my mom? The cubby situation (where you put your bookbag and coat) was always confusing as was the disciplinary system of changing different colored cards under your name to reflect how well you were behaving. The main thing I remember about my first day was nap time. I think we can all agree that it was awesome. I had a Batman towel that I would lie down on and pretend to be doing whatever Batman was doing, on the towel he was jumping through a wall of glass, and naturally this would lead to me getting in trouble wherein I would have to change my card. I would fall asleep and I would always be the last to wake up with the entire class surrounding me, which is a terrifying way to wake up. However to this day I’m still great friends with so many people who were in that class, even though I make sure to sleep with one eye open now.

In retrospect, so many of my firsts are driven by nerves and a sense of wonder all rolled into one. They might seem overwhelming at first, but then you realize how great things are. So in a way a lot of these times are like my first week at Tribe, filled with the excitement of whatever happens next. Except for that guy who hired me to paint the lines on the soccer fields. He’s probably somewhere out there scamming another fourth grader.

Carol Graham is one of the leading researchers in the new science of happiness. Her two books,”Happiness Around the World,” and “The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being,” explore both the potential and the challenges of this research.

Why are so many poor people happy and rich people unhappy? Graham’s research reveals the paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires and she offers possible reasons why that occurs. Of course, innate differences in individual happiness levels could have something to do with this. So for those of us interested in corporate culture, we might ask ourselves if, at any given company, some employees will be happy no matter what, and others will always be complaining curmudgeons.

Misery seems to love company as well. Poor people are happier if the people around them are poor. Obese people are happier if they are surrounded by others with weight issues. Do people miserable in their jobs feel a higher sense of well-being if all their co-workers are miserable too? Or does this explain why working long hours to meet a tough deadline tends to pull people together?

Uncertainty is very bad for happiness. Graham’s research indicates that people are actually more likely to report happiness in an environment of negative certainty than when they’re dealing with uncertainty.

This finding is possibly the most important in terms of the internal brand. Employees as a group tend to dislike change and to get nervous when they don’t know what’s going on. When the company doesn’t do a good job of sharing information about the change, employees will often jump to their own conclusions which can be more dire than the reality.

This is why effective communications are so important in change management. When employees are made aware of an upcoming change and are given the information necessary to understand what it means, both for the company and for them as individuals, the foundation is laid for a successful change.

And possibly that could even increase the happiness levels of the internal brand.

Refresh Industry Competitiveness
One way of boosting employee confidence is by communicating to your workforce that the brand is thriving. Let everyone know that your products or services are better than your competitors and your company has nowhere to go but up. A growing company is one that’ll need people to help its engine run. This will provide employees with a sense of security because they’ll feel like they’re a necessary component in a company that’s making moves and building momentum in its industry.

Provide a Level of Reassurance
Let everyone know that change brings opportunity. This may sound like the rotating spin cycle of a company trying to portray a glass half-full mentality, but more often than not it’s true. Your employees need to know they have the ability to flourish and succeed in your current work environment and that their dedication will be rewarded in the form of a stronger company in the future.

Supply Career Alternatives
Mechanisms should be in place to equip employees with the experience or training to allow them to stretch their skills and take on different roles. Perhaps a corporate change is going to see the elimination of certain positions in the company. An employee that knows they’re capable of moving into a different department will be much more secure and confident in their future with the organization. They’ll know they provide an ongoing value that will allow them to have a meaningful lifelong career and not just a “job for now” that eventually sends them back to the job boards again.

Whichever type you are, you can benefit from a dose of the other. If you’re the kind of person who has to research any decision exhaustively, poring over data or customer reviews, soliciting opinions from friends, family, coworkers and complete strangers, running the many possible scenarios through your head over and over, then you’re the ideal poster child for major decisions.

That deliberate and thorough style is excellent for deciding whether or not to try an experimental heart procedure. Or if you’re looking for a mortgage, hiring a nanny, or thinking about quitting your job to start your own company, taking your time is well advised. When you’re preparing an important presentation for your management team, by all means think it through.

But learn to make a snap decision on which sandwich to order. You doubtless have more important topics that need your attention more than deciding whether to have the turkey on multi-grain or an onion roll. Likewise, when you’re making a more minor work decision, like whether to hold the meeting in your office or the conference room; if you should send a package by regular mail or overnight service; or which item to put first on the agenda.

In short, learn to take your time with decisions that have long-lasting impact, high risk or great cost. And be quick about it when the decision is not going to change your life, one way or the other.

For many, many decisions, there’s more than one right answer. Just pick one, and move on to the next thing you need to get done.

Apparently, we aren’t the only ones. The celebration of Cinco de Mayo is just as popular in America as it is in Mexico. The funny part is, most Americans don’t even know the significance of Cinco de Mayo or why they are celebrating.

Below you will find facts on Mexico and the real meaning of Cinco de Mayo!

• Mexican community celebrates more then 365 festivals each year. Cinco de mayo is one of them.
• Did you know Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
• Around 28.3 million of U.S. residents were of Mexican origin in 2006. These residents constituted 9 percent of the nation’s total population and 64 percent of the Hispanic population.
• Approximately 630,000 of Mexican-Americans are U.S. military veterans.
• The Maya in Central Mexico were the first people known to harvest and use the peanut.
• Pineapple and papayas grew wild in Mexico, and were introduced to the rest of the world by Spanish explorers.
• Around the 1860s, three American travelers began exporting resin from the Zapote Blanco tree in Mexico after they noticed that it hardened when exposed to air. The men found a way to turn it into a waxy substance, added flavors and sweeteners, and sold it in small balls for a penny apiece — calling it Adam’s Chewing Gum from New York. Today, Americans chew seven times more gum than the rest of the world.
• Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, is where the Mexican Hat Dance, sombreros and mariachi music are believed to have originated.
• The vanilla bean comes from an orchid plant discovered by Mexican Indians (they used it to add flavor to their cocoa and corn drinks.) The world’s largest crop of vanilla beans still comes from Mexico.

For more trivia and fun facts on Cinco de Mayo, visit: http://www.purpletrail.com/partytrail/holiday_parties/cinco_de_mayo/cinco-de-mayo-trivia-facts

It’s an organic cycle that begins with engaged employees building strong word-of-mouth, both in person and online. This can enrich recruitment efforts by building a desire to work for that employer. After all, what’s a better indicator of the company than a happy employee who wants to tell you all about it?

The work doesn’t stop once someone has been hired. Once employed, it is important to have a successful on-boarding program, active recognition programs in place and meaningful work at the company. This helps create even more engaged employees – and the cycle repeats itself, over and over, person by person.

Google is a perfect example for Talent Magnetism®. Everyone knows that they treat their employees like royalty; free gourmet food, on-site laundry, celebrity visitors. It is no wonder they have applicants clamoring at their doors for a much-coveted spot within the company. Google can afford to be picky and only pick the best of the best that will easily transition into their company.

For more information and case studies on Tribe’s work with Talent Magnetism® and how we can potentially help you, visit http://www.tribeinc.com/case-studies.html