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Taha is a law school graduate whose research about, and experience with, successful living (attending seminar by Colin McKenchnie and Associates- Making the Workplace Productive, Profitable and Pleasurable, and reading The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, A New Earth Awakening Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle, and Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth) culminated in the creation of a process to optimize employee productivity. Taha grew up in a health conscious environment. His parents opted for a vegetarian, non-synthetic food diet when he was young and his father and mother practiced Yoga and meditation with him. These practices stuck with Taha, and he used them to optimize academic, athletic and workplace success.
Taha has observed public and private employees from the perspective of employee and employer. His credentials include a National Exercise & Sport Trainers’ Association (“NESTA”), Dr. John Spencer Ellis Certification in Sport Yoga and Pilates. Further, he is a nationally certified coach through the American Sport Education Program. Taha is also a NCAA Champion; this experience provided him unique insight into constructive competitiveness and human nature. Over the past few years he has put his expertise to work serving as a coach for Johnson Ranch Racquet in Roseville, teaching multi-discipline courses, including Fitness 360; a program he invented to optimize physical wellness using the mind. He also served as a Pilates and Yoga instructor for 24 Hour Fitness in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Sacramento California.
Personal Statement
I have worked 20 years in the workforce, in both public and private entities, on both the employer and employee side of the workforce. The employer side, included the Office of Collective Bargaining, working with contracts that govern employee / employer relationships. I hold a Juris Doctorate, which provides structure to my observations and insights because I understand the rules governing workplace relationships. I observed employees using enormous amounts of sick leave, seeming to ritually rely on it to continue working. Some never use vacation, but then find themselves missing numerous days due to illness. I saw people suffering from mental fatigue, depression, obesity, and living with other life threatening ailments resulting from their mishandling of work. All of these issues translate into diminished productivity, needless fatigue and a less joyful work environment. Mental Advantage focuses on strategies resulting in more motivation, higher retention, greater productivity, and best work products.
My passion for this endeavor comes from my upbringing, which fostered a heightened consciousness of the human condition, eco-consciousness and humanitarianism. I graduated from Grinnell College with a concentration in Environmental Studies, and my focus in law school was on environmental preservation and sustainability. These sensitivities, and knowledge of relationships are embodied in the program. I was raised vegetarian and practiced meditation and yoga throughout childhood. During this journey I was impacted by discourse about how humans can best serve society. The result is a strong belief in personal responsibility.
I believe once employees become conscious of their talents’ connection to an organization’s overall purpose, and a routine is adopted that creates consistent mental proactivity; then happiness, productivity and health grows. All good and bad things start in the mind. Consequently, I adopt a statement at the core of this discourse:
Employees must become active architects of the mental food they digest, so they become masterful controllers of their energy and feelings moment to moment. “Those who have habits to control their attention can control their lives.”’ David Brookes, The Social Animal.
Why is this important? Time is our most important resource. We spend the majority of our time living in a workplace; so improving how we feel and make others feel while working, is worthwhile. When the focus is fun and health, rather than retribution, deterrence, fear and economics, more happiness, health and productivity will emerge.
Further, countless studies have shown that when the workplace is a comfortable, and a fun place, employees do their best work. This is exemplified by companies like Google, ranked in Forbes Magazine as the number one employer in the nation; and Zappos, an online shoe and clothing shop that consciously promotes happiness in its company culture, and public organizations revisiting how to improve their workplace culture. In an article entitled “The New Workplace,” at Business Week.com, and numerous others articles there are discussions of changes that impact making the workplace successful. They all have in common a focus on fun.
It has been shown that fun and success are synonymous. The articles speak about attending to the culture of the company, as a means of increasing success in reaching company goals. “Mental Advantage Organizations: Enhanced Goal Gain,” takes this workplace concept a step further than just changing the environment; it allows you to actually help create positive change in the employee that manifest in:
- Improved moral and communication,
- Improved thinking and mental capacity,
- Enhanced energy and positive competitive zest,
- Improved work product,
- Enhanced productivity
- Greater profitability.