Stress, resilience and expatriates

I recently revisited the research and data around stress at work.  With my colleague Susan MacDonald from Psychology At Work, we designed and delivered a workshop for one of our clients presenting strategies to build resilience and stress management capabilities at individual, team and organizational levels. 

We all know the messages that tough times can make us stronger, but the key fact that remains with me from reviewing the research is how damaging chronic stress can be at a physical, mental and financial level for individuals and for organizations.

We all know about the risk of heart attacks, strokes and depression but did you know that being in a state of chronic stress can impact right down to a genetic level re-writing our most basic

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On queuing, deodorant and cultural intelligence

In January, just as I was preparing to leave on my camping / kayaking holiday, the Federal Parliament representative for Brisbane, Julie Gambera made some statements about migrant assistance and in particular that migrants need to better adapt to Australia. Her initial recommendations were that employers who sponsor migrants into Australia on temporary visas (such as the 457) should be required to provide mandatory cultural awareness training.    

She gave examples of what the cultural awareness training could include and specified teaching migrants to “wear deodorant and wait patiently in queues”.  To be fair it appears

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Distance Learning - the parent of e-learning

I recently took part in a webinar on e-learning strategies with Gihan Perera. He helps business leaders with their e-marketing and e-learning strategies and is the author of my favourite resources in this area.  Gihan drew an analogy between e-learning and distance learning, something that has been happening in Australia for decades.  Suddenly all my own experiences of distance education came flooding back.  

These included the joys and frustrations of combining the role of mum and teacher; of opening assignments and writing reports to a school system thousands of miles away.  Those memories helped me look with fresh eyes at the learning systems I am building to support expats as their organisations move them around the globe.  

The things I valued most in distance education are the things I want to build into my e-learning systems.

Many of you know that in the mid 90s, I moved with my husband and young family to Hefei in Anhui province in China.

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Home visits - reconnecting can be bitter-sweet

Recently I went home. 

I’ve lived here in Sydney for almost 15 years and it is my home now, but my old home is in New Zealand where my family and early memories live.  Where I fell in love, got married and had my first baby.  Pleasant Point, Timaru, Christchurch and Wellington all say “you’re home” to me whenever I come back to them. 

It was a great holiday full of family, fun, food and rugby.  And leaving at the end was sad. 

For many expats or migrants home visits can be a bitter sweet experience. 

The desire to reconnect with a long list of people, loved family members, special old friends and business colleagues can mean

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Are your expatriates flourishing?

‘Flourish’ – it’s such a great term, and it creates such a vivid picture of well-being! 

Martin Seligman thought so because Flourish is the title he has given to his latest book where he refines his model of positive psychology.  In the new model the focus is not centered on happiness but on well-being.  Happiness has been relegated to one of five elements that contribute to well-being and flourishing.

So what are the five elements? And based on my experience and observations, how do I believe an overseas assignment may impact on them?

Seligman’s five pillars which, he says, support flourishing are; positive emotions (the happiness part), engagement, strong relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.

So, do expats generally experience more happiness/Positive emotions?

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