Summer words of wisdom

This summer, Live Well Be Well and Healthy Workforce promoted the Go KP Summer Games Team Challenge which encouraged teams of at least four to move more together. For the first time, we had three MAS teams place nationally at #1 and one team place #2! The top five MAS teams were recognized in the region with onsite Summer Games Ceremonies complete with music from the Olympics to present their medals. In addition, teams were treated to a healthy lunch and shared some of their winning secrets with the Live Well Be Well and Healthy Workforce teams. See the winning team photos below and learn about how the top MAS teams did it!

1^st Place: Rock the Plank (Regional Office)

1^st Place: NOVA Kaizen (mixed NOVA Service Area team)

1^st Place: Team Daffodil (Towson)

2^nd Place: Marlow Walkers (Marlow Heights)

3^rd Place: Track and The City (Garrett Building A)

4^th Place: DMX (Garrett Building A)

5^th Place: Our Long National Nightmare (Regional Office)

Winning Secrets

To start, all winning team captains did some ‘scouting’ to identify individuals that were committed to consistent, active participation, and enthusiastic about the opportunity to be part of a top performing team. Iris, team member of the one of the top KPMAS and national teams, Rock the Plank, had a motto of “stop making excuses and just do it”.  This team was a mixed group of employees that work remotely at least two days per week with 4 of the team members being 100% remote.

In addition to being more active, the teams reported that the challenge brought them closer together. Some teams were friends to start with while others had not met until the day of the ceremony. Either way, they exchanged personal phone numbers and developed new relationships with each other to further support the social aspect of the challenge to foster a workplace culture of health. Track and the City invited other competing teams to join their daily walks around Garrett. They also create their own challenges regularly such as “no eating out challenges” and “abs challenges” to keep themselves motivated all year long. Regional Office’s Our Long National Nightmare participates in an annual walk from Germantown Metro Station to Regional Office, arriving at work about 6 a.m.! Two team members on Rock the Plank team have lost 50 pounds each as a result of their ongoing participation in GoKP challenges over multiple years!

Keeping each other motivated was a critical factor to their success – all teams implemented consistent reminders to ensure that their teammates were logging their activity daily.  Examples of these techniques included using the chat feature through the Go KP platform, Outlook and Skype for quick reminders, and walking together as a team. They also took advantage of the bonus points to boost their overall team scores, in which all the teams believed the bonus points were very doable and simple to implement.

During the ceremony, teams were asked to give their advice to teams seeking to be on top next year. The winning teams shared the following ‘words of wisdom’:

• Be consistent – people tend to start and stop when trying to increase activity, but it’s important to make your daily lives as active as possible. Be intentional about scheduling activity into your day just like everything else.
• If you see a teammate is not logging activity, reach out to encourage and offer support. It’s critical to hold each teammate accountable.
• Take advantage of the challenge – it’s a win-win – the challenge makes it fun to be active as a team and you get added benefits for participating by relieving stress and connecting in a unique way with your colleagues.
• Join all challenges that are available to you as an employee, as well as creating your own and inviting team members on Go KP.
• Have a realistic goal but make it a s stretch yourself and your team. You could set a goal to be a #1 team or to do a little bit better than last year – whatever works for the group!
• Use the device connection feature to connect your FitBit to the platform so you don’t have to remember to log.

I hope this newsletter finds you surviving and thriving through these tumultuous times on Mother Earth.  There are enormous energies and solar activities hitting the planet and this is creating all kinds of physical symptoms in our bodies, as well as weather anamolies for us to experience.  I would remind you to take time to  turn off your technology and go into nature, find time to be still and quiet and make meditation a daily practice.  This is an important time to go deep within, to get to know yourself, know your feelings and trust your heart.  If you can witness the drama without becoming swept away with all the negative emotions, you'll be able to stay balanced and help others.  But above all, remain true to yourself. Remember that you are a source of great Light and the task is not to identify with the personality or egoic nature, but with the the true Being that resides within. 

Audre has once again created a beautiful and enlightening newsletter for you to read.  I hope you'll take the time to read it.  And as always, we welcome your comments and insights.  

Embracing our humanity with love,

Cynthia and The WOTE Folk

Monday's Summer Words of Wisdom

Happy Memorial Day Monday! Let's all be thankful for those who have served our country today.  
I stumbled across this little list, and thought it would great to share, whether you are a mom or not.  With the unofficial start of Summer here, I know that this is something I need to read and remember.  I have never enjoyed wearing a bathing suit since I had kids, and I know as women, we do far too much comparing to each other, and worrying about how we look.   
I want to print this list out and put it on my bathroom mirror (don't worry Josh, I won't) but I think for many of us, these are words we need to read every so often.   You are all beautiful, no matter what you think, so rock that bathing suit ALL summer long ladies!

Have a fabulous day, and remember, you do you!
xo

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Congratulations, you made it. You are a 2013 Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst. You might feel like you just crossed the finish line. But the race hasn’t even started yet.

Most banks hire the majority of their first year analysts from the intern pool. They’ve proven themselves. They’re likely to accept the offer. And it saves HR a shitload of time and money.

Don’t worry if you don’t make the cut. You ‘ve been vetted and hired by Goldman fucking Sachs. Even if this is your last dance here, there are plenty of Vineyard Vines wearing, New Canaan commuting, Morgan Stanley name-dropping ‘rainmakers’ waiting to pick you up and dust you off. Not making the cut at Goldman is like being traded by the Yankees. You’ll still probably make millions, but it’s just not the same.

So here are 20 tips to help you with your journey:

1. If your boss smokes, smoke.
2. If your boss is Indian or Pakistani, learn the rules of cricket. He probably also smokes, so see #1. But be careful, if he doesn’t, he’s a vegetarian yogi.
3. Don’t wear Hermes ties, ever. You have to earn it.
4. Buy a decent suit or 3, but no cuffed or pleated pants. And don’t wear a tie unless you might get taken to a meeting. No one likes that kind of kiss-ass.
5. Learn how to tie a double Windsor; just make sure the knot’s not too fat.
6. Keep your shoes shiny, but don’t let anyone see you having your shoes shined. You have to earn it.
7. If you went to a decent boarding school, subtly find out if anyone who matters went to the same school. Boom, he’s your rabbi. At this point, no one cares about college credentials; it’s a given.
8. As it relates to fellow interns, make no mistake about it – it’s war:
   • Let’s be clear. It’s impossible to compete with female interns. And it’s not cool. So don’t bother trying.
   • When a fellow intern leaves his desk, change his screen (or screens) to rolex.com, porsche.com, or morganstanley.com.
   • Come up with dismissive nicknames for fellow interns (Chico, Bud Fox, Fredo, Bubba, etc.). Hope that it catches on.
   • When a fellow intern leaves his computer unlocked at the end of the evening, change the signature on his Email settings. Using white font, add any variety of obscene words. No one will see it…except for IT and HR.
9. Don’t be too cool to do the coffee runs. It shows confidence. Just don’t fuck it up. If you can’t be trusted with coffee, how can you sell bonds or manage risk.
10. Call Bloomberg and have them give you a tutorial on functions. It’s free. And most EDs and above are still using functions and short cuts from 5+ years ago. It’s an easy way to impress them. And many of the Bloomberg chicks are hot.
11. Leave a jacket on the back of your chair at all times. While you are at it, keep a tie in your drawer. Zegna is a good choice.
12. Ask the secretary for the travel schedules of the senior members of your group for the week ahead. She’s dumb enough to think you are being proactive. But now you know when you can sleep in, hit the gym, or beat the traffic to Southampton.
13. Never tell racist jokes. Always repeat racist jokes in the proper company and be sure to credit ‘the other intern’ who told you.
14. Don’t offer to buy drinks when out with your seniors; you can’t afford them and it won’t score any points.
15. Don’t brag about being a decent golfer. This should be a given.
16. Bang a (female) intern, and tell the Associates and above about it. If they haven’t ever done it, they sure as hell always wanted to. They’ll respect you for it. And you’ll always be the guy that banged her first, before she ends up marrying that dickhead PMD in Emerging Markets.
17. An MDs jokes are always funny. Period. And if you are at the receiving end of a joke, you better laugh with us. If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will. This is Wall Street; there is no such thing as ‘bullying’.
18. Acknowledge the quotes from Caddyshack or Fletch, but don’t make any yourself. You have to earn it. So don’t initiate the fist bump that comes with ‘Charge it to the Underhills’.
19. This might be the most important one. It’s okay to make a mistake or ask a question. But don’t ever ask the same question or make the same mistake twice. If you do, just know that the world needs ditchdiggers too.
20. Don’t talk in the fucking elevators…or at a bar.