"Assisting employers achieve organisational goals
through the development of employees"

What is a team?

1. People working together with the same goal
2. People with the same attitude
3. People not afraid to express themselves to each other
4. People willing to take a chance to achieve results
5. People who follow and lead as required by the team
6. People willing to step up for the team
7. A team has challenges not problems
8. No challenge is too big when you have the knowledge that it can be shared with the team
9. People knowing when to listen and when to act
10. Individuals make up a team

• Are we looking for problems in order to criticise or to resolve them?
• Are we looking for negatives to make us look good or to help? 
• Are our thoughts feeding doubt or energising confidence?
• Are we constantly finding ways to disagree or to agree?

 
These are just some of the questions a wondering mind may ask. How each individual team member answers these questions determines whether the team jells or clashes. From these questions conflicts arise internally in the individual and then are expressed externally by: stress, distress, tension, being non-productive, constantly looking for excuses, doubt, fear and negative attitudes. It is extremely hard to resolve these internal issues when we do not know why and how they were triggered. They could have been triggered intellectually, emotionally, physically or even spiritually.

As a manager you are expected to manage people, and some employers assume that the manager will be mindful of all 4 states. As understanding one’s staff is a must to be a pro active leader. This is a big ask for someone not only expected to manage the organisational goals, policies, direction, budgets, schedules, deadlines but also all the different attributes of individuals.

In a perfect world staff should not bring their extra baggage to work but we must remember we are emotional beings. Empowering employees with knowledge about how to deal with their personal issues is the start of a professional career.  Employees learn to appreciate the differences between a professional and personal life. From the understanding of differing attitudes, conflicts are minimised and staff become aware that they have choices. We show them how to act upon these choices.

Employees enjoy responsibilities. This is one component of fulfilment in life. To take responsibility for one’s attitude, emotions, thoughts and physical well being is the ultimate empowerment.

We promote and develop individual strengths.

At Azure we nurture individuals’ strengths. We all have our own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. At Azure we actively encourage individuals to identify and develop their strengths and minimise weaknesses so they can competently participate in the workplace.

Minimising excuses.

At Azure we believe that excuses are stumbling blocks to a productive workplace. Everyday we can all create excuses for avoiding a task. By changing our mindset we can reduce this tendency and thus create a more positive and functional workplace.

At Azure we create winning attitudes.

Everything we do in life is done with attitude. Whether we approach situations with a positive, negative or indifferent attitude is up to us.

In a workplace we need to assess which is the most prominent attitude, for example when most people are positive the mood affects the rest of the team. The ultimate goal for a workplace is to achieve a positive attitude most of the time.

We create unity within the workforce by uniting the strengths of individuals.

One of the threats to a productive workplace is fear and doubt. Azure has developed a series of strategies to combat doubt and fear and turn these into confidence and excitement.

We create clarity of thinking.

We are constantly thinking but the question is “What are we thinking?”. At Azure we believe this question is paramount and we endeavour to answer this in our courses. We give participants the tools to moderate their thinking i.e. to switch off at sleep time and to focus thinking so as to be more productive in the workplace. Being able to think with clarity in times of stress will promote a healthy working environment.

We promote the importance of an open mind.

We can create a good workforce but it can not be great unless open mindedness is part of the general attitude. An open mind is open to new opportunities and new ways to combat internal/external issues. Being open minded promotes forward thinking and being receptive to new ideas and working methods.

Proactive Vs Reactive Mindset.

A proactive mind set looks for ways to deal with challenges; this empowers the individual and helps the company grow. On the other hand a reactive (non proactive) mind set dwells on a problem creating a bigger issue.

We offer tools for self motivation.

Team motivation is great but it comes from external sources, so it can lose some impact on the individual. Azure prides itself on teaching individuals to motivate themselves thus empowering the individual. Motivation is required when you are working independently with doubt and fear as a companion, this is when motivational techniques are tested and if applied correctly can overcome any negative situation.

Promoting Job Satisfaction.

At Azure we believe the key to a healthy work environment is to create happy employees who feel connected to the company and each other.  We help companies empower their workforce by promoting a positive outlook for employees, developing strengths and minimising weaknesses. As we spend a third of our life at work we need to ensure that this is a satisfying aspect of our lives.

We make staff aware of stress and how to combat distress.

What is the difference between stress and distress?

Stress is evident in all aspects of our lives and in some circumstances stress is positive. Stress can spur us on in a competitive situation and can push us to achieve. Stress is a survival mechanism and essential in our lives, we just need to learn how to deal and balance stress.

Distress is when we are no longer functioning productively due to unresolved stress related issues. If we ignore stress signals and allow stress to go unresolved we accumulate a backlog of negative emotions which can erupt in either physical or emotional episodes, for example illness or constantly feeling frustrated.

Azure helps participants identify the difference between stress and distress and provides tools to deal with daily stress before it develops into distress.