Blog | cortexconsulting

Do You Need to Increase Your Happiness Quotient?

Kirsten McKenna

Oct 16, 2019
3 min

Do You Need to Increase Your Happiness Quotient?

One of my favourite responsibilities as a parent is dropping my son off at pre-school. School drop-off used to pull at my heartstrings as the parental guilt sunk in when I left him behind confused and uncertain...but now he genuinely thrives in the environment and I attribute it to both inclusivity and laughter. When we arrive, he has a crew of little mates who give him THE BEST welcome ~ it eases him into the transition and is a bucket-filler for both of us. Then, when I'm l

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Positive Psychology: Building Mental Wealth

Kirsten McKenna

Oct 3, 2019
2 min

Positive Psychology: Building Mental Wealth

In the early 90's psychologist and professor Dr. Martin Seligman highlighted that the state of psychology was 'not good enough'. As a diseased state model, psychology appeared transfixed with mental illness, ignoring the third tenet of psychology which focuses on the positive side of human thinking, feeling and behaving. The neglect to improve normal lives, make relatively untroubled people happy, more fulfilled and more productive was conspicuously obvious. In the rush to re

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Burnout in Healthcare: A Dual Systems Approach

Kirsten McKenna

Jul 24, 2019
4 min

Burnout in Healthcare: A Dual Systems Approach

Alarming statistics across Australian healthcare highlight the need to improve physician and nursing well-being. 85% of doctors have reported experiencing a mental health issue over the past 12 months [1], with 1/3 of doctors experiencing burnout at some stage in their career [2]. More than 50% of Australian nurses feel that work-related stress has affected their health,[3] in addition to negatively impacting their performance. Research also reveals that the prevalence f

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Are You Too Busy? How to Avoid the Perils of Burnout?

Kirsten McKenna

Nov 28, 2018
4 min

Are You Too Busy? How to Avoid the Perils of Burnout?

As a consultant, I work across a number of industries ranging from education to finance and med-tech, and oddly enough most people regardless of industry, are all facing similar challenges. Constant change, threats to autonomy, a whole lot of uncertainty and ambiguity, combined with a relentless volume of work and responsibilities. All of this equates to experiencing a tremendous amount of stress and very little (if any) balance. What can you do to manage all of the challenge

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Positive Emotions in a Negative World

Kirsten McKenna

Oct 31, 2018
3 min

Positive Emotions in a Negative World

Watching the news these days is a recipe for worry and anxiety and in extreme cases major depressive disorder. My son calls it 'bad news' whenever it's tuned in, and he's only 4. So what impact is it having on his world view? Television stations have focused all the more on ending their news casts with positive stories, in the hope that their audience will be left with at least one positive emotion, and will subsequently return again to watch the following day. Unfortunately,

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Motivation: Success Drivers Part 1

Kirsten McKenna

Feb 7, 2018
3 min

Motivation: Success Drivers Part 1

Have you ever sat down to determine what your personal motivators are? Have you considered what it is that drives you? That element that encourages you to set and pursue your goals? How do you stay motivated or keep others motivated ~ particularly when the going gets tough or when your efforts seem fruitless? Motivation means "to move" and essentially refers to what leads us to take action. Whilst subjective and variable in context, motivation also varies in both nature and f

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5 Steps to Positively Engage Your Organisation

Kirsten McKenna

Aug 30, 2016
3 min

5 Steps to Positively Engage Your Organisation

There seems to be a great deal of discussion centred around employee engagement of late, likely stimulated by the publication of the Gallop report indicating that a mere 13% of employees are ‘engaged’ globally. Whilst organisations attempt to address this issue through surveys and project teams, there are many other courses of action that could be undertaken, with strong evidence supporting the high impact outcomes they propose. Workplace engagement has been defined as: "when

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Well-Being in Leadership: Positive Psychology in the Workplace

Kirsten McKenna

Aug 16, 2016
4 min

Well-Being in Leadership: Positive Psychology in the Workplace

"You can't solve todays problems with yesterdays solutions" Barbara Fredrickson The notion of positive psychology in business is a concept that has garnered mixed reception. If all leaders understood that at its core, positive psychology focuses on strengths and establishes resources within human capital so that resilience, performance and overall well-being are maximised, more of them would definitely subscribe to the paradigms within. To define well-being in leadership and

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