Give strokes – help people to do their best

Having good personal relations means feeling good about yourself and getting along with others. The efforts made by the individual towards good relations determine the psychological environment in the department and the company. In an Employeeship company, all employees assume responsibility for the internal and external relations of the department and the company. All employees make a wholehearted and goal-directed effort to create a climate in which everyone finds inspiration and wants to do their best.

In Claus Møller’s books:” My Life Tree – a different book about personal development”,” Be a Double Bagger – bring out the best in yourself and others”, and” Heart Work – bring your heart to work” you will find inspiration, methods and tools to get on well with yourself and others.

People’s self-esteem determines whether they feel good about themselves and get along with other people. Your self-esteem is determined by the amount of recognition your brain registers. Recognition – in its broadest sense – is also called strokes. Strokes are vitally important to the quality of the psychological environment.

Strokes can be defined as: “Any kind of attention people can show”.

Strokes are the most powerful means we human beings have at our disposal to develop or destroy our own self-esteem or that of others. It is essential to your wellbeing that you receive strokes. If you do not receive enough strokes, you will feel bad about yourself, you will behave inappropriately, become a loser, or in the worst case, become seriously ill – both mentally and physically.

The way in which you exchange strokes with others determines what kind of relationships you have. Strokes can be positive or negative. Your self-esteem is determined by the amount of positive and negative strokes that you receive.

Positive strokes increase your self-esteem and make you happy. Positive strokes may be any kind of positive recognition, attention, praise, appreciation, pleasure, pride, and admiration.

Negative strokes make you upset and disappointed, and make you feel inadequate. Negative strokes may take the form of criticism, reprimands, scorn, ridicule, distrust, and ingratitude.

The best thing a person can receive is positive strokes. The worst thing a person can receive is not negative strokes – but zero strokes. Nothing has a more destructive effect on someone’s self-esteem and sense of wellbeing then zero strokes. Lack of strokes has a dramatic effect on people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

When people don’t get enough positive strokes, they try, consciously or subconsciously, to get negative strokes. This reaction is natural because, in spite of everything, negative strokes are better than no strokes at all.

Conflicts at work and at home, high personnel turnover, high absenteeism, lack of commitment and poor quality are often a direct result of a lack of attention.