“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts.  Facts can obscure the truth.”

Maya Angelou

The leadership and talent management “facts” just keep coming. In fact (no pun intended), thanks to some readers, I now have even more to share with you!  

1. Hay Group, a global management consulting firm in a recent study discovered that among 75 key components “trust and confidence in top leadership” was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction.

2. A recent survey of more than 300 small businesses conducted by the management consulting firm Six Disciplines Corporation found that the number one characteristic setting apart high and low performing companies was the strength of the senior leadership.  The second most common trait shared by successful small businesses was the ability to attract and retain quality talent and keep those working satisfied.

3. Data from the 2006 market study “High Potential Leadership Selection and Development” Institute of Executive Development and RHR International Question #5 revealed: “Which of the following characteristics/abilities do you think are most important for your organization’s future leaders to posses?  1) Strategic Thinking/Ability to Develop Others 50%; 2) Business Acumen/Knowledge 38%; 3) Ability to Manage Organizational Change/Relationship Building 29%; 4) Cross Cultural/Cross National Understanding 18%; and 6) Ability to manage the performance of others 17%.

4. More than half of global executives wish they could start over in a different career according to a recent 2007 survey by search firm Korn/Ferry.  People define their work as a job, career or calling—we are lucky if what we wind up doing is truly our “calling.”

5. According to RHR International, 40% to 60% of high level corporate executives brought in from outside a company will fail within 2 years based on their 2006 analysis of clients.  Those who do fail most often derail quickly sometime between 7 to 9 months in the job.

6. Last year there were 28,058 executive turnovers including board members and executives from CEO down to VP a 68% increase over 2006 according to Liberum Research analysis of North American public companies—of those 44% of the positions were filled from outside the company.

7. At large companies, chief financial officers are turning over at a rate of 22% a year according to Russell Reynolds Associates because CFOs are under extreme pressure in the regime of Sarbanes-Oxley and they are the face of the company to Wall Street.

8. In a recent Gallup Management Journal, 59% of employees in the US reported “not being engaged” and 14% were “actively disengaged” which Gallup describes as “undermining what their engaged coworkers accomplish.”

9. ISR 2007 research study reported that five of the largest Asia-Pacific economies including Australia, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were included in the study of more than 3,000 “top talent”.  The study revealed that the region is full of “talent at risk” staff and Malaysia has the largest proportion (47%) of employees that define themselves as either disillusioned or actively disengaged.  Singapore ranked second with 40% followed by the other countries above 30%.

10. In recent Gallup survey, 80% of British workers reported that they lack commitment to their jobs with 25% being disengaged compared to only 12% in France. In Singapore, 17% of the talent reported being “actively disengaged” at work.

10. ISR also found that 88% of at-risk staff in China indicated they would leave their current positions while 92% of Australians and 95% of Singapore’s talent at risk planned to leave.

11. 81% of executives consider employee retention an important business priority compared to 41% in 2007 (Annual emploee turnoversurvey of more than 600 organizations TalentKeepers Inc.

12. According to a recent 2008 survey of 16,237 U.S. workers by Marietta, Ga.-based consultancy Leadership IQ, 47% of high performers are actively looking for new jobs, by posting and submitting their resumes and even going to interviews. Compare that to only 18 percent of identified low performers who say they are looking for new jobs, and 25 percent of middle performers who are actively searching, according to the findings.

All in all, emotions and attitudes might be more important than “facts”….Be well….

Technorati Tags: talent management, succession planning, coaching, executive coaching, executive development, surveys, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Managing personal, professional and organizational change

Competencies: change management, self-development

Who benefits: individuals, managers and leaders, organizational consultants

Consultant Usage: coaching, training, intrapersonal reflection

What’s it about? I am writing this posting from Mexico, beachside, and I am not as current with recent events as I might be stateside.  But I heard a rumor that there are some big changes coming in the United States come January.  I have friends who are extremely happy about recent events leading to this change.  I have other friends who are not. 

Since change is in the air whether you wanted it or not, I thought this week’s topic ought to be about – you guessed it – change.

If you are interested in change personally, one of my favorite and inspiring authors, Bill Bridges has updated his well-known book with an Audio CD of the same name: Managing Transitions, 2nd Edition: Making the Most of Change.  He calls this CD “Your coach in a box”.  It is all about the human side of organizational change.  I suppose it is aimed slightly more at managers and leaders, but I have always found his work to be intrapersonally satisfying.  If you are an organizational consultant and have not read or heard of his work, this is a must read or listen.

If you prefer to make it real personal, try his 2001 book, The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments.

One of the best books on organizational change I ever read was the 1996 bestselling book Leading Change by John Kotter.  Still a good read if you ask me.  But I would like to stress his follow-up and just published book that expands on the first crucial step in his earlier formula: A Sense of Urgency.  It is about creating a sense of urgency to get people to actually see and feel the need for change. No urgency, no change!  Given the state of the world, the economy, the business impacts, it is a timely book.

And let me close with an oldie but goodie, my friend Terry Paulson (an oldie but goodie) wrote They Shoot Managers, Don’t They?: Managing Yourself and Leading Others in a Changing World  back in 1991.  It is filled with pithy advice that is just as good today as it was back then.  And it has a good dose of humor that may be just what is needed these days.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: transitions, change, change management, managing change, managing self, managing others, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”

W.C. Fields

Not succeeding at some things in life is one or our great “stretch lessons” for all of us.  If you are a leader you can expect to fail a lot.

It has been estimated that 50% just flat out don’t succeed in their leadership role. Lack of success on a task, in a relationship or achieving important goals can really shape our sense of ourselves and how confident we are.

Self-confidence on the surface seems to be both a pretty easy concept to understand and one that would appear to be a strong factor predicting work/life success, emotional health and psychological well-being.  Self-esteem seems to be one of the “core self-evaluations” along with self-efficacy, sense of control, and emotional stability that appears to have a growing association with significant work and life outcomes¹.

People who have high self-esteem and are confident are actually more likely to fail in life because they are also more likely to take risks and pursue new opportunities.  It is true that such individuals might also set unachievable goals or even try to persist long after it is apparent that they can’t succeed.  In fact, those with high self-esteem take even greater risks, particularly under stress, that increase the likelihood of failure which is often called a “fatal flaw” for many derailed leaders and visionary entrepreneurs².

Current research suggests that self-esteem is actually very complicated and hard to measure. In fact, there appears to be three unique types:

• Stable Self-Esteem (True self-confidence)
• Defensive Self-Esteem (Self-deceptive confidence)
• Unstable Self-Esteem (Self-doubting and situational confidence)

Recent research suggests that people with “stable” self-confidence view failure as a challenge and those with either “unstable” or “defensive” self-confidence see it as a threat because failure feedback is very likely to trigger strong and persistent self-doubt.  These individuals appear to exhibit the lowest task engagement as a way to “save face” and to soften any potential failure. Interestingly, self-esteem is a major concept behind hardy and stress resistant individuals–those who truly believe in themselves are more insulated from the negative impact of negative work and life events and even unplanned changes and loss we all face.

Researchers can define and measure “unstable” self-confidence. These individuals are simply asked to report their level of general confidence in life over a short period of time and the differences are then calculated to determine the change in scores over the two time periods. When scores vary a lot over the two time periods it is apparent that self-confidence fluctuates and positive self-feelings are vulnerable to situational variables (e.g., whom I am dealing with or the type of task I am trying to accomplish).  In “unstable” self-confidence the facade of being confident appear to be a defense against underlying negative feelings about one’s self. Despite outward expressions of being confident, these individuals are actually full of self-doubt.

Individuals who express “defensive confidence” work really hard to convinced themselves, and others, that they come across without self-doubt. These individuals tend to score very high on measures of self-deception (social desirability) and expend tremendous energy try to create a set of positive impressions to themselves and others.  These individuals appear to possess an approach to coping called “repressive coping.” 

“Unstable” confidence might have some advantages in the short term to protect fragile egos and avoid the emotional reactions of loss, hurt and anger that goes with failure.  However, those expressing “defensive” confidence might actually be at risk for getting sick.  A growing body of research literature has convincingly shown that individuals high in defensiveness are more likely to experience increased cardiovascular risks, cancer proneness and other negative health conditions³.

Research on people who fail give us some insight about “lessons learned” that fall into three categories:

1. A stronger identification and recognition of core personal values
2. Reduction of true self-doubt about one’s ability to cope with work/life challenges (enhanced hardiness)
3. Enhanced commitment to developing signature strengths and competencies

We can all grow and learn from failure as a way to build our sense of confidence in ourselves.  Those of us who display a “positive explanatory style” of failure (it’s not just due to my own lack of ability, it’s not likely to be something to happen again, and it’s just one situation or event that isn’t really characteristic of my life) tend to rebound faster and in a healthier way. 

By truly acknowledging and moving through our emotions as we face life challenges and spending time on self-reflection of our unrealistic fears of failure we can help to build stronger self-confidence in all aspects of life.

So, just how confident are you?  As Mark Twain said, “Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others”….Be well….

Technorati Tags: emotional intelligence, competent jerks, stress, job burnout, leadership, heart disease, talent management, engagement, productivity, bad bosses, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Judge, T. A., & Bono, J. E. (2001b). Relationship of core self-evaluations, self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability—with job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 80–92 [↩]
2. Newton,N., Khanna, C. & Thompson, J. (2008).  Workplace failure: Mastering the last taboo.  Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60, 227-245 [↩]
3. Schwartz, G.E., Schwartz, J.I., Nowack, K.M., & Eichling, P.S. (1993). The hardiness and the negative affectivity confound as a function of a defensive coping style. University of Arizona and Canyon Ranch. Unpublished manuscript [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Psychometrics in Coaching

Competency: coaching

Who benefits: professional coaches and organizational consultants

Consultant Usage: various assessment tools for coaching

What’s it about? A psychologist tells his patient “I have completed my diagnosis and have determined that you are a psychoceramic.” “What in the world is a pyschoceramic” asks the patient?  The psychologist replies: “A crackpot.”

Groan if you must, but I have been waiting years to write that joke.  If you are not a professional coach or organizational consultant, I suggest you stop here.  Smile and get back to your work.  Today’s post is for those of you who make a living from coaching or consulting.

Personal disclosure: I am paid a miniscule amount intermittently by Envisia Learning who hosts this Blog site.  One of the principles has an article which appears in this book (and a mighty fine article it is, boss).

Psychometrics in Coaching: Using Psychological and Psychometric Tools for Development (2008) explains a variety of models and concepts for practitioners and how to use them in coaching practices.

Besides being a new book, it is an important book.  Coaching is more and more being recognized as an important profession and in need of professional standards.  Just saying you are coach and being a good listener does not make one a professional coach.  If you are not up on assessment instruments and good at using them as feedback in your practice, you are not coaching at a high professional level. 

There are 35 contributors, many of the names you are likely familiar with.  I urge you to have this valuable resource in your tool kit.  You can order the book from the original publishers in the United Kingdom, Kogan Page, Ltd. or from our friends in the USA at Amazon.com.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: psychometrics, assessments, feedback, coaching, tools for development, Association for Coaching, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”

Franklin B. Jones

I think we need to do a “360″ on 360 feedback¹.

How would you like to be diagnosed with a new illness and have your doctor tell you that the latest wonder drug has shown in over 33% of the cases to actually worsen the condition? Well….

What would you think if I told you that earlier research (Taylor & Brown 1988) suggests a triad of “positive illusions” which include: 1) People inflate the perceptions of themselves and their skills; 2) People exaggerate their perceived control over life events; and 3) People express unrealistic optimism about their future. Interestingly, most individuals report being less prone to each of these positive illusions even after they are told about them (Pronin, Gilovich & Ross, 2004).

What would you think if I shared with you that a meta-analysis of over over 3,000 studies (607 effect sizes, 23,633 observations) on performance feedback found that although there was a significant effect for feedback interventions (d=.41), one third of all studies showed performance declines².

What would you think If I told you that although feedback does result in significant performance improvement based on a meta-analysis of 26 longitudinal studies, effect sizes are relatively small suggesting that “zebras don’t easily lose their stripes” Smither et al. (2005).

What would you think If I told you that based on twin studies 33% of the variance in holding leadership roles is due to genetic factors (Arvery, Zhang, Avolio & Kreuger, 2007) and findings from numerous studies of personality show that genetic effects account for approximately 50% of the variance in five factor domains (Bouchard & Loehlin, 2001).

What would you think if I shared with you that professor Leanne Atwater and colleagues at Arizona State University found that improvement following an upward feedback intervention only resulted for 50% of the supervisors who received it³.

What would you think if I shared with you that a recent meta-analysis of 26 longitudinal studies indicate significant but small effect sizes suggesting that is unrealistic to expect large performance improvement after people receive 360-degree feedback⁴.

What would you think if I share with you that Watson Wyatt’s 2001 Human Capital Index, an ongoing study of the linkages between HR practices and shareholder value at 750 publicly traded US companies found that 360-degree feedback programs were associated with a 10.6 percent decrease in shareholder value⁵.

What would you think if I shared with you that Self-ratings are weakly correlated with other rater perspectives⁶.

What would you think if I shared with you that bosses, direct reports and peers overlap only modestly on how they view an individual⁷.

Finally, what would you think if I told you that a recent survey by Rasmussen Reports (2006) found that “92% of those surveyed in a national poll of 1,854 U.S. workers reported they are an “excellent” or “good” boss.” Unfortunately, only 67% rated their managers favorably and 10% said their boss performed poorly.

As Bill Cosby said, “A word to the wise isn’t necessary. It’s the stupid ones who need all the advice”…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: multi-rater feedback, 360 feedback, feedback interventions, coaching, behavior change, ken nowack, nowack, kenneth nowack, evisia learning, Talent Accelerator, 360

1. Nowack, K. (2007). Why 360 Feedback Doesn’t Work. Talent Management, 4 (8), p 12 [↩]
2. Kluger, A. & DeNisi (1996). The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, meta-analysis and preliminary feedback theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 254-285 [↩]
3. Atwater,L., Waldman, D., & Cartier. (2000). An upward feedback field experiment. Supervisor’s cynicism, follow-up and commitment to subordinates. Personnel Psychology, 53, 275-297 [↩]
4. Smither, J., London, M., & Reilly, R. (2005). Does performance improve following multisource feedback? A theoretical model, meta-analysis and review of empirical findings. Personnel Psychology, 58, 33-66 [↩]
5. Pfau, B. & Kay I. (2002). Does 360 degree feedback negatively affect company performance? HR Magazine, Volume 47 (6), June 2002 [↩]
6. Nowack, K. (1992). Self-assessment and rater-assessment as a dimension of management development. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 3, 141-153 [↩]
7. Harris, M. & Schaubroeck, J. (1988). A meta-analysis of self-supervisor, self-peer and peer-supervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 41, 43-62 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Time Management

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: individuals, coaches, organizational consultants

Consultant Usage: coaching, training, consulting for organizational effectiveness

What’s it about? I had the pleasure recently of coaching a young woman who has exceptional technical skills along with an extraordinary set of skills we attribute to high emotional intelligence.  Her bosses, direct reports and peers sing her praises.  So what is the issue here?  She struggles to find time to do everything on her plate. 

With a little probing I discovered she didn’t even know where the plate was.  She was receiving lots of professional development opportunities, but nowhere in the mix was the obvious: If you are going to give someone lots to do, give them some time management skills to be more effective doing their increased workload.

So today’s posting is dedicated to all of you out there who are feeling time challenged and want some insight.

Surprisingly, Harvard is the place to start.  With all the “high level stuff” coming out of Harvard Business School and its publishing arm, they produce some good rubber-meets-the-road publications for managing time.

Harvard Business Essentials: Time Management (2005) focuses on personal productivity such as goal setting, prioritizing, and delegating.

If you are a leader at any level and haven’t done so, you must read William Oncken’s HBR Classic, Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey.  I read this article early in my career and it is still one of the best articles I have ever read.  The newer reprints have additional information.

McGraw-Hill Publishing has a book and booklet worth a look.  The more comprehensive of the two and the one I prefer is Getting Organized at Work: 24 Lessons for Setting Goals, Establishing Priorities, and Managing Your Time (2008).   It covers all the basics in the way I would want them covered.  If you don’t have time for the book, there is a booklet Time Management 24 Techniques to Make Each Minute Count at Work (2007) that may be worthy of a look.

If you are more in the mood for a training class or two, a two-day introductory course is offered all the time and almost everywhere (which tells me a lot of people are looking for time management skills) by the American Management Association.  The course is simply titled Time Management and it is described as getting more of the right things done.

“Is your work managing you or are you managing your work?”  That is the introduction to a more sophisticated program that focuses a lot on how to get energized and focus your energy on what is really important.  Getting Things Done: A Path to Personal Productivity is developed from a book of the same name.  David Allen is the author and the instructor.

Finally, a course highly recommended to me by a trusted colleague: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, again a course developed from a book.  The author and presenter is Marshall Goldsmith.  His credentials are long and impressive.  His book is has been a best seller.  This course is designed for people who see themselves getting promoted.  The focus is on developing successful work habits.

So there are but a few of your many options.  Remember, “I don’t have enough time” is an excuse.  We all have the same amount time.  We each have all there is.  It is about how well we use it.  So what is the best use of your time right now?

(Note to my new friend: Stop reading this posting and get back to working on your “A’s”!  )

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: managing time, managing energy, time management, monkey management, goal setting, prioritizing, delegating, delegation, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

Albert Einstein

It’s no secret that leaders have inflated views of their skills and competence–we’ve known this for a long time as it’s a consistent finding in all 360-degree feedback research¹.  What is simply amazing is the gap between self-perception and reality.

The prevalence of self-enhancement is not hotly debated but there is controversy on whether it is adaptive or maladaptive which has implications for understanding and interpreting multi-rater feedback.  If self-enhancement means seeing one’s self more positively than others, then the outcomes (performance, health, career and life success) are frequently more favorable but if it is defined as having higher self-ratings than others who provide feedback, then the outcomes are frequently less than favorable.

In general, leaders seem to perceive that they basically “walk on water” while others who have a pretty fair grasp of what leaders really do experience them more as “passing water.”  At least that’s what some recent surveys tend to suggest.

It has been estimated that 65%-75% of the employees in any given organization report that the worst aspect of their job is their immediate boss. In fact, estimates of the base rate for managerial incompetence in corporate life range from 30% to 75% with the average level of poor leadership hovering at about 50%².

A recent 2007 global survey (Executive Quiz March 2007) of executives and leaders by Korn/Ferry involving respondents from over 70 countries revealed that only 27% thought their boss was peforming the job better than they could! In this survey, 11% rated the performance of their current boss as “poor”, 14% rated it as “below average” and 23% rated it as “average” (42% did perceive their manager as either performing “above average” or “excellent”).

In another recent 2006 national survey of of 1,854 U.S. by Rasmussen reports, 92% of leaders surveyed rated themselves to be “excellent” or “good” as a manager.  Self confidence is fine you say but only 67% of direct reports agreed and at least 10% rated their bosses as actually performing poorly. 

In practice mental health professionals tend to diagnose thoughts and beliefs as “delusional” when they appear unusual, create strong psychological distress, or become an obsession–even when there is compelling evidence to the contrary. This “no clue” gene can be found in both male and female leaders but does seem to be more pronounced as leaders move up the corporate hierachy. One way of defining an aspect of “emotional intelligence” is the accurate awareness and insight of one’s own skills, strengths and impact on others.

Over the years of giving 360-feedback reports to executives, I can’t tell you how many “over-estimators” (those who self-ratings were significantly elevated relative to others) tend to shoot the messenger, critque the assessment itself or explain away the more critical results by suggesting that the raters are the problem!  Indeed, even at my best as an executive coach I have always seen my role as being a very “imperfect mirror” for the leader to increase their self-awareness.  In general, these “over-estimators” seem to be the highest risk for some derailment at some time during their leadership careers.

I bet you didn’t know that in another recent poll that 80% of all drivers in the United States rate their driving skills as above average?  So, please let me know when you are out on the road will you?…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: self-ratings, distortion, self-awareness, multi-rater feedback, 360 feedback, self-insight, emotional intelligence,   kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Self-enhancement, Envisia Learning. leadership development, multi-rater feedback, self-ratings, emotional intelligence

1. Nowack, K. (1992). Self-assessment and rater-assessment as a dimension of management development. Human Resources Development Quarterly, 3, 141-155 [↩]
2. Hogan, R. & Kaiser, R. (2005).  What we know about leadership. Review of General Psychology. 9 (2), 169-180 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Your Next Job

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: individuals searching for new job opportunities, coaches

Consultant Usage: coaches, internal outplacement consultants

What’s it about? “May you live in interesting times.”  This ancient proverb is meant as a curse.  We may now be living in interesting times.  Just read the business pages…or most days the front page…of your newspaper or Blog equivalent. 

Some of you readers are going to be job seekers in the near future.  Maybe changing jobs wasn’t in your plans, but the economy suggests a large shake out.  Today’s posting is Job Search 101 for the inexperienced job seeker.  If you are already well acquainted with the topic, skip the rest of this posting and come back next week.  

If you are just starting to think about a job change, time to also think about a career change.  The standard in field is What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-Changers (2008).  The book has been around as long as I have been doing work related to job seeking and career changes.  It is updated each year.  Many career development professionals refer to it as the bible of career development.  Can’t go wrong starting with this book.

Another popular best-seller in this genre is Knock ‘em Dead, 2008: The Ultimate Job Search Guide (2007).  The author has been around 20 years offering career advice to help you along.

The author and founder of Monster.com offers up Monster Careers: How to Land the Job of Your Life (2004) . He is particularly resourceful in offering up what he calls the “new basics of the job search”.  He also suggests a model for the serious job searcher that he calls the F.A.M.E. attitude.  I liked the model; but if you want to know what it stands for, you have to look it up!

Speaking of the Internet, while I want to go on record as saying it is easy to get seduced by thinking that the Internet can be your one-stop shopping center, there are certainly opportunities aplenty.  So if the Internet is your thing, keep my caveat in mind, but take a look at Guide to Internet Job Searching 2008-2009  (2008).

I am going to close with three books I know little about, but they win big time points for great titles.  The first of three comes with great reviews by users and professionals and is filled with personal stories, which appeals to me: Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job (2005).

Then there are my real title winners: Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk and On to Your Future (2006) and Career Coward’s Guide to Changing Careers: Sensible Strategies for Overcoming Job Search Fears (2007).

Well, if you are in need, this should get you started.  I wish you success.

Catch you next week. 

Technorati Tags: job search, career, career development, resumes, job interviews, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.”

Oscar Wilde

In a new study, 61.3% of the public and 20.2% of professionals believe that a miracle can a save person in a persistent vegetative state and 57.4% of the public said divine intervention can save a person when doctors think treatment just isn’t going to work, compared with just 19.5% of trauma professionalst according to Lenworth Jacobs, M.D., of Hartford Hospital and colleagues.¹.

For the study, Jacobs and his colleagues conducted a random-digit-dialing telephone survey of 1,006 Americans over the age of 18 (margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points). They also surveyed a convenience sample of medical personnel involved in trauma care, including medical directors of trauma units, trauma nurses, and emergency services personnel.

Well, the power of belief is truly amazing: 

In a study of 256 patients with chronic arm pain (rating of at least 3 on a 10-point pain scale), 133 were treated with sugar pills (one a day for 8 weeks) and the other with fake acupuncture (twice a week for 6 weeks).

In the study, 25% of the acupuncture group experienced side effects including 19 who felt pain; 31% of the pill group experienced dizziness, restlessness, nausea, dry mouth and fatigue.  After 10 weeks, the pill group reported significant decreases in pain (average 1.50 points) and after 8 weeks those receiving fake acupuncture reported a drop of 2.64 points.

The fake acupuncture had greater effects than the placebo pill on self-reported pain².

I’ve become a bit more interested in the association between spirituality and religiosity with health³. I’ve wondered about the relationship between being prayed for and recovery from illness.

Last year, a study including 1,802 patients in six hospitals by Benson and his colleagues⁴ failed to show any impact of remote prayer although there has been some criticism of the study design (e.g., 45% of those invited to participate elected not to be part of the study, intercessors were not allowed to pray their own prayers and it was impossible to limit prayers for those in the “control” group.  One interesting finding was that those who knew they were being prayed for) did worse than the other two groups. 

Finally, at a very recent press conference, a pair of Bigfoot hunters reported they had found the creature’s body in a wooded area of Georgia (it’s apparently big and they have physical evidence). 

No word on what trauma professionals would say about this…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: envisa learning, placebo, bigfoot, divine intervention, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Jacobs LM et al. “Trauma Death: Views of the Public and Trauma Professionals on Death and Dying From Injuries.” Arch Surg. 2008; 143(8): 730-735 [↩]
2. Kaptchuk, et al., 2006.  Sham device v inter pill: Randomised controlled trial of two placebo treatments. British Medical Journal [↩]
3. Giesser, B., Coleman, L., Fisher, S., Guttry, M., Herlihy, E., Nonoguch, S., Nowack, D., Roberts, C. & Nowack, K. (2005). Living Well: An integrative approach to wellness with multiple sclerosis. Paper presented at Annual Conference of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Board/American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR), Chicago, Illinois. UCLA Department of Neurology and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter [↩]
4. Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW Jr, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. 151(4):934-42 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Positive Leadership

Competencies: leadership, self-development

Who benefits: project leads, team leaders, supervisors, managers, executives

Consultant Usage: general education, coaching education, referrals, training materials

What’s it about? I have been coming across the term “positive leadership” in my never ending search for material for my postings.  I decided to delve a bit deeper.

My ramblings seemed to pick up a trail blazed a few weeks ago by my colleague Ken Nowack in his posting of “Where is the Happiest Place on Earth (Hint: It Isn’t Disneyland)?”.  Happier work places tend to be healthier and more productive work places. 

There already exist a branch of psychology call positive psychology.  I realize that this not new to some of you dear readers; but it is new to me and it is kind of fun to report on my research journey.  I found the Journal of Positive Psychology.  That lead to an interesting looking book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (2008) by Sonja Lyubomirsky and her equally interesting website (although, in fairness and hopefully this doesn’t make anyone unhappy, the website could use some serious editing). 

That led to an Amazon Best Seller, Stumbling on Happiness (2007 paperback edition), by Harvard Professor of Psychology Daniel Gilbert.  Wow!  All this stuff is starting to make me feel good all over!!

Jumping forward a bit, this led to new stuff on organizational happiness and the title of this week’s posting.  There is Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance by Kim Cameron (2007).  The book claims “a new leadership field of the same name, Positive Leadership presents a concise, accessible and practical guide to strategies that can help leaders reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and positively deviant performance.”  Positive deviant behavior!  You gotta love that!

Her leadership book is based upon Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline (2003), which she coauthored.  The book description says POS establishes a new field of study in the organizational sciences and which examines a variety of positive dynamics in businesses and organizations that give rise to extraordinary outcomes.

From this beginning come new courses, such as Positive Leadership: Creating Spectacular Organizational Success and Positive Leadership: Building Extraordinary Personal Leadership Capabilities  from the University of Michigan and Positive Leadership: Leveraging Strengths to Optimize Performance from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

Or if one course isn’t enough, you can go positively giddy and and pursue a Master of Science in Positive Organizational Development from Case Western Reserve University.

So if you are in the pursuit of happiness, click on some of the above links and see where they take you.  I did and loved the journey. 

Hope it makes you happy!  Catch you later.

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