“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.”

Edith Wharton

Past studies suggest that while 50% of happiness is due to situational factors like health, relationships, and career, the other 50% is due to genes.

Although there is much debate about genetic “set points” for happiness, we can significantly change and maintain different happiness levels.  For example, Ed Diener and his colleagues analyzed data from a 15 year study on marriage transitions and life satisfaction¹. On average, most people moved toward their baseline level of happiness but interestingly a large number remained at their baseline and others stayed below it.

In our own research on happiness with individuals with the auto-immune disease multiple sclerosis (MS) we have seen significant changes in work and life satisfaction².    We have explored how a comprehensive  12-week “MS Living Well” program that meets for 4 hours over 12 consecutive weeks can modify well-being using our own stress and health risk assessment called StressScan. We use one scale in particular which is called “Psychological Well-Being” and is a global measure of life satisfaction or happiness (it includes aspects of positive affect, engagement and meaning).

This “MS Living Well” program is designed to teach specific coping and stress management skills (as well as other educational, spiritual and physical activiity components) to those clients with MS to facilitate an overall sense of control, physical health and psychological well-being.  We can’t say for certain just how long “happiness” increases but we can say without reservation that participation in this program leads to sharp and statistically meaningful changes.

Well, can entire countries become happier?

According to national survey research from 1981 to 2007 by Ronald Inglehart and his colleagues, happiness levels rose in 45 of the 52 contries ((Ingelhart, R., Foa, R.,Peterson, C. & Welzel, C. (2008).  Development, Freedom and Rising Happiness. Perspectives on PsychologicalScience, 3, 264-285)).  It appears that since 1981, democratization, increasing social tolerance and economic development have increased the extent to which people believe they have more free choice.  This, in turn, seems to lead to higher levels of perceived happiness.  Even the United States shows an upward trend in happiness which is similar to 87% of the countries for which substantial time series data was available.

The research is part of the World Database of Happiness  which has surveyed about 350,000 individuals during the last 26 years³. Together with individualal research on well-being, it appears that people can adapt to changes in their own lives and within their country and likely fluctuate around stable setpoints.  Indeed, our individualand collective happiness appears to be greatly influenced by our beliefs and social systems.

Call me crazy, but I think the happiest people I know all seem to be called “strange” by a lot of us…As Mark Twain said, “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination”….Be well…..

Technorati Tags: emotional optimism, stress, coping, immune suppression, pessimism, hardiness, Envisia learning, Envisia, happiness, multiple sclerosis, psychological well-being, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Lucus, R., et al. (2003).  Reexamining adaptation and the setpointof happiness: Reactions to changes in marital status.  Journalof Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 527-539 [↩]
2. Giesser, B., Coleman, L., Fisher, S., Guttry, M., Herlihy, E., Nonoguch, S., Nowack, D., Roberts, C. & Nowack, K. (2007). Living Well with Multiple Sclerosis: Lessons Learned from a 12-Week Community Based Quality of Life Program. Paper presented at 17  & Science of Conference, March, 2007, San Francisco, CA [↩]
3. Veenhoven, R., World Database of Happiness, Erasmus University Rotterdam [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: none

Competencies: all

Who benefits: you

Consultant Usage: up to you

What’s it about? I thought that before I make a suggestion or two today, I would review with you (okay, with myself with you invited to join in the thinking process) what I am trying to accomplish with these postings. 

The Blog exists as a place for discussions of job competencies common to all organizations that make us successful at work.  Or the absence thereof, makes us less successful.  And often the possession of certain of these competencies helps us outside of work with family, friends, self and other persons of interest. 

My role on the Blog has been to supply you – the dear reader – with reading material or other references that might help you enhance a particular competency.  My dilemma, of sorts, is where to put my effort.  I haven’t counted them all, but I am working with several lists of competencies that must total 50 or more in the aggregate.  Which should I choose each week?

I tend to put more time and energy into competencies that nearly everyone can relate to: self-development being number 1 (let’s not quibble here…I say self-development is a competency), along with career management, and various communication skills.  But there are other competencies much more narrowly focused that also deserve at least occasional attention: technological leadership, cross-functional versatility, strategic problem analysis to name a few.  These competencies are not any less important; there are just fewer people who need to excel in these areas.

So if you are a regular reader, here is a heads up.  Most of the time I will focus on the common competencies that we can all relate to.  But from time to time I will address a specialty area that a smaller number of you may find useful.  If that be the case, skip me for a week and see what seven days brings.

Having said all that, it would also be useful to me to know if you have a special interest that you would like reading or other references recommendations.  Use the comment section and I will try to address your needs.

Meanwhile, how about I give you a couple of suggestions (a suggestion is less emphatic than a recommendation).  These are suggestions only because the books have just been released and are unread by me, but the authors and publisher are known to publish good stuff!  You can be one of the first on the block to have them…if, of course, they would serve any useful purpose for you. 

Here is one of those common competencies we can all relate to: Your stomach’s churning; you’re hyperventilating — you’re in a badly deteriorating conversation at work.  Maybe you should have read Holly Week’s just released book Failure to Communicate: How Conversations Go Wrong and What You Can Do to Right Them.

Or a more limited category for CEOs and the ilk: Even the best-run companies can get blindsided by disasters they should have anticipated. These predictable surprises range from financial scandals to operational disruptions, from organizational upheavals to product failures.  Perhaps you are ready for a timely new book Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming, and How to Prevent Them by Max H. Bazerman and Michael Watkins.

Both books seem important.  Yet one has broad appeal; the other a more narrow appeal.  So each week I shall scratch my head and try to figure it all out.  Or you can help me and suggest a topic or two.

Catch you next week. 

Technorati Tags: competencies, competency, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”

Robert Frost

So, can you have it all?

In the last Blog I shared an interesting new research study on 9,627 leaders in 33 countries and those who were rated as being more “balanced” significantly predicted career advancement potential¹.

I thought I’d share some of our own research using two assessments of ours that get at these concepts: Our Career Profile Inventory that measures Career Stage, Career Path Preference and Political Style Orientation and our Emotional Intelligence View 360 (EIV360) that has a single item that measures work-life balance.  Here are some interesting findings:

Career Profile Inventory

The Career Profile Inventory is an interesting assessment of values, interests and motives and measures three very different concepts: 1) Career Stage; 2) Career Path Preference; and 3) Political Style Orientation.  The assessment asks respondents to rate a series of questions both in terms of “How Things Are Today” versus “How They Would Like them to Be Ideally” and this “gap analysis” provides some insights about current and future state.

The Career Stage scale is based on the theoretical work of Donald Super and measures four stages that are not linked to age including: Entry (new to position, company or role), Development (self-development stage characterized by professional and personal growth), Balance (a stage focusing on work-life balance and self-fulfillment) and Exploration (stage characterized as a mis-match of skills, abilities and possible conflict resulting in self-reflection and career actions).

We analyzed recent data from 207 leaders in diverse organizations who have recently taken ther Career Profile Inventory.  We found the majority of leaders endorsing that they were in the Development stage (mean 7.29) followed by the Entry stage (mean 6.42), Balance stage (mean 5.85) and Exploration stage (mean 5.13).

When we looked at the “future” state or the stage they preferred to be in, leaders rated Development again as being highest (mean 7.66) but Balance the second most important (mean 6.89).  These results support the interpretation that leaders are certainly interested in career and professional growth but work-life balance is also very important.

Emotional Intelligence View 360 (EIV360)

Our EI assessment is a “view” of the concept of emotional intelligence based on Dan Goleman’s construct (a point of disclosure that I serve as a research member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations).  Our EIV360 measures 17 competencies divided into three major EI areas: 1) Self-Management; 2) Relationship Management; and 3) Communication.

One important question that we ask (1 to 7 frequency scale) in the Adaptability/Stress Tolerance competency is: “Maintains an effective balance between work, family and personal life.”  Both the respondent and his/her manager (or others) also rates this same question as part of the multi-rater feedback process. 

We have recently analyzed and compared self-ratings of leaders in diverse organizations (n=1,456) on this work-life balance item to those of the boss (n=1,579) and found that leaders report less work and life balance (mean 4.82/SD 1.38) than how supervisors perceive them to be (mean 5.45/SD 1.18).  These differences in perception of work-life balance were statistically significant (F(1,3033)= 188.03, p < .01) suggesting bosses have a somewhat inflated impression about just how “balanced” their direct reports actually report being.

Taken together, it does raise the question of whether leaders can have it all and at what cost to their own health and well-being.  There is no doubt that every executive I am currently coaching tells me that their organization is asking them to do more with less and less resources stretching all of them to their upper limits of both time and energy.

It will be interesting to see if the research suggesting the work-life balance has some advantages will continue to hold true for both men and women.  As Gloria Steinem once commented, “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine a marriage and a career”….Be well…

Technorati Tags: selecting talent, stress, StressScan, emotional intelligence, emotional intelligence view 360, career profile inventory, work life balance, balance, career success, leadership, talent development, executive coaching, performance, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, envisia, deliberate practice, career success

1. Lyness, K. & Judiesch, M. (2008).  Can a manager have a life and a career?  International and Multisource Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Career Advancement Potential.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 789-805 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

“God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.”  Isak Dinesen (pseudonym for Danish author Karen Blixen)

Title: The Last Lecture

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: anyone who can read or watch TV

Consultant Usage: coaching, stories for trainers

What’s it about? My daughter gave me this book for Father’s Day.  Many of you know that it is a best seller about an award winning professor, Randy Pausch, at Carnegie Mellon University who learns that he is dying and has 3-6 months of good health left.  In what may be the ultimate coincidence, he receives an invitation from the University to deliver a presentation in their “Last Lecture” series (disclosure, the name of the series had recently changed but the intent remained the same). 

He delivered that lecture.  It was called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and it wasn’t about dying.  It was all about living.

This posting is longer than usual because I have lots to say about this book.  I will even make it easy for you to stop reading after the next paragraph, but if you have the time, I encourage you to read on.

There are a number of reasons not to read this book.  It doesn’t fit the stereotype of a “last lecture”.  It is about an extended family you don’t know and will never meet.  There isn’t anything of real importance in the book that you haven’t already read or heard some other place in your life.  The book is riddled with clichés.

I love this book.  It spoke volumes to me both professionally and personally.  And it is a book small in size and only 203 pages.

Three chapter headings give you a pretty good idea where this book is going: “Adventures…and Lessons Learned”; “Enabling the Dreams of Others”; and “It’s About How to Live Your Life”.

Here are some professional tidbits I took away from the book:

On Leadership: Captain Kirk makes a great role model.  He wasn’t the brightest dude on the Enterprise.  But he surrounded himself with great talent, delegated and trusted them to do their jobs, was passionate about his work, set the vision, and spoke the truth even if it was a bit harsh.  (He also points out, much to my delight, that the Star Trek communicator devise that let him talk to the people back on the ship is today known as the cell phone!)

On Feedback: Everyone needs a “Dutch Uncle”, someone who will tell them the truth.  Without feedback you are going to be limited in what you can accomplish in life.  If you don’t have a Dutch Uncle or good mentor, 360 Degree Feedback is the modern technology to fill this void.

On Brick Walls: Brick walls are what you sometimes run into when trying to achieve your goals.  Brick walls are Mother Nature’s way of finding out just how determined you are to reach your goal(s).  You can let the brick wall stop you or you can chip away at the bricks until you have a hole big enough to let you through.  Your choice.

On Time Management: He has a list of things on how to manage time.  Nothing new on the list; but oh those stories he tells to support his list makes you smile or even laugh out loud (especially the one about the pregnant woman!).

On Coaching Others: Tell the truth, but say it so they can hear it.  (He writes this after admitting that he is a “recovering jerk”.)

On Whining: Complaining does not work as a strategy.

On Team Building: A simple list that any of us can do.

On Clichés: He deliberately uses them because they make great teaching points.  It is the stories behind the clichés that make them important (and he has some great stories). 

Here are two personal takeaways from this book.  They are far more than than tidbits.  I have saved the best for last:

On dying and fun: “I’m dying and I’m having fun.  And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left.  Because there’s no other way to play it.”

On enabling others: He became a teacher (professor) so he could help others achieve their potential.  The moral of these chapters is that we are not whole until we give back to other people and the world we live in.  His words made me tingle for a very special reason.  In another month I embark on a journey to southern Mexico to live and teach in a community of poor children.  I think Randy Pausch would approve.

Randy stopped having fun on July 25th, 2008.  His last request was not to be sad or have pity for him – it was to get on with putting and keeping fun in your life.

 The 75-minute video version of The Last Lecture can be found at http://www.thelastlecture.com/. 

Technorati Tags: the last lecture, randy pausch, dutch uncle, captain kirk, enabling others, fun, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein

Perceptions of stress at work are quite high with several studies and our own research with our stress/health assessment StressScan suggesting that 20% to 65% of all employees rate their jobs as being very or extremely challenging ((Nowack, K. (2006). Optimising Employee Resilience. Coaching to Help Individuals Modify Lifestyle. Stress News, International Journal of Stress Management, Volume 18, 9-12)).

A 2002 survey by TrueCareers found that 70 percent of employees do not think there is a healthy balance between their work and their personal life.  Of the 1,626 respondents, slightly more than half (51 percent), reported that they were considering looking for a new job as a result of difficulties juggling both their personal and professional responsibilities.

   
Of the individuals who report a negative balance between their work and personal life, 43% reported working too many hours as the major contributor.  Over 36% also reported that worrying about work when not on the job added to work-life imbalance.

It seems pretty obvious that involvement in non-work roles and responsibilities (the “balanced worker”) would have less time to devote to work increasing the likelihood of promotions to those who are work and not family focused.

In a new study using self-ratings, manager and peer ratings of 9,627 leaders in 33 countries found that managers who were rated higher in work-life balance were rated higher in career advancement potential than were workaholics¹.  This trend was particularly pronounced in women in high egalitarian cultures (men are not expected to be the sole breadwinner and women are not expected to be the sole caregiver of children).  This study did not answer the question of whether more balanced managers who were perceived more likely to advance actually did (this would require a longitudinal study).

What makes this study so interesting is the size and number of countries included.  The most consistent finding of this study is surprising in light of the common impression that a single focus on work above family, hobbies and outside activities would seem to be a good predictor for potential advancement.  This study certainly challenges the prevailing viewpoint on work-life balance and is the one of the most comprehensive studies to suggest that balance might actually be related to positive career outcomes for men and women leaders.

Hey, none of us has enough time but it’s weird to remember that all of us has all that exists….Be well…..

Technorati Tags: stress, burnout, selecting talent, work life balance, balance, career success, leadership, talent development, executive coaching, performance, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, envisia, deliberate practice

1. Lyness, K. & Judiesch, M. (2008).  Can a manager have a life and a career?  International and Multisource Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Career Advancement Potential.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 789-805 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: The Manager’s Conflict Resolution Handbook

Competency: conflict management

Who benefits: supervisors, managers, employees

Consultant Usage: handout for training classes, coaching others

What’s it about?  This booklet showed up in the mail about two weeks ago, a day or two after co-coaching a friend of mine who is having a terrible time with her boss.  This would have been a great give away to her. 

I remember thinking during and after the co-coaching sessions about “how high the emotions are”, “there is more here than just the issue being discussed” and “look at her body language”.  All three of my thoughts are central issues discussed in the booklet.

Let me be clear about this booklet.  It not a research-based, conclusions-reached study with credentials dripping from each page.  It is a simple booklet giving some practical suggestions on how to manage difficult situations.  Will the suggestions work?  Maybe.  Possibly.  But the booklet opens the door for positive outcome where none seemingly exists. 

I admit to being conflict aversive.  My three main tactics are (1) ignore, (2) run, and/or (3) hide.  But I know these tactics don’t serve me well.  And like me, many of us sometimes need simple reminders of what do in difficult situations: First do this, then do that.  This booklet serves that purpose very well.

There are a couple of really helpful tips for me.  There is a short chapter on what to do when you are confronted with a highly emotional response.  There is also a page devoted to why you should NEVER try to resolve a conflict by email.  Hmmm, and I thought that was my most clever avoidance tactic.

One thing that put me off a little bit about this booklet is the title suggests the content is for managers.  Clearly, the way it is written, a majority of the booklet is for anyone in an organization. 

If you are one who likes simple booklets on single work-issue topics, similar material can be found at http://www.cornerstoneleadership.com/Scripts/default.asp.

You know, if I really want to do a good deed today, I need to stop writing now and take this booklet over to my friend’s office.  I hope I am not too late.

Catch you next week.

Technorati Tags: managing conflict, conflict management, managing confrontations, assertiveness, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around.”

Bill Waterson

We all know that bad moods catch like colds at work and can affect both individual and team performance¹.

As Daniel Goleman states in his book Social Intelligence, leadership really boils down to a series of social exchanges.  In our own previously published research, we have duplicated what others have also shown–interpersonally ineffective bosses create more dissatisfaction with employees, increase stress and enhance the likelihood that turnover will be high².

New research tends to suggest that bosses with the highest intake of omega-3 fatty acids had the most gray matter in key brain areas associated with mood–fatheads may actually cause positive emotional contagion conducive to enhanced morale and performance.

In a study of 106 healthy volunteers, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that participants who had lower blood levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids were more likely to report mild or moderate symptoms of depression, a more negative outlook on life and be more impulsive. Those with higher blood levels of omega-3s were found to be more agreeable(easier to deal with interpersonally).

Comparisons were made by analyzing levels of omega-3 fatty acids in participants’ blood and comparing that data to the participants’ scores on three accepted tests for depression, impulsiveness and personality. The amount of omega-3 circulating in blood reflects dietary intake of the fatty acid. The study did not require participants to make changes in their normal diet habits³.

Conklin and her colleagues interviewed 55 healthy adult participants to determine their average intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Grey matter volume was evaluated using high-resolution structural MRI. The researchers presenting at the American Psychosomatic Society’s Annual Meeting reported that participants who had high levels of long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intake had higher volumes of gray matter in areas of the brain associated with emotional arousal and mood regulation (bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, the right amygdala and the right hippocampus).

For those nutritionally challenged, omega-3 is a polunsaturated fat that is important to overall health.  The best sources come from cold water fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna and herring.  You can also find it in plants in walnuts, crushed flaxseeds, and canola, soybeand and flaxseed oils. For those who don’t like to eat fish, a fish oil supplement can be an easy way to get this brain-stimulating nutrient.

The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests two to three meals of fatty fish a week to increase the two components of omega-3 fatty acid molecules (EPA: eicosapentaenoic acid which helps alleviate inflammation and prevent clotting and DHA: docosahexaenoic acid which contributes to retinal and brain maintenance and growth.

Recent research from UCLA Professor Fernando Gomez Pinilla also supports the strong influence of omega-3 intake and mental health⁴.

So, maybe leaders who are “fatheads” and have levels of emega-3 in their gray matter might actually garner better results from their talent by being more agreeable and having a positive mood.

I’m sure some new research soon will come out and  make me eat my words…But for now, Be well…..

Technorati Tags: omega-3, mood depression, fish oil, diet, gray matter, fmri, stress, health, job burnout, mood, job performance, mental health, neuroplasticity, leadership, Envisia, Envsia Learning, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Sy, T. (2005).  The contagious leader: Impact of the leader’s mood of group members, group affective tone and group process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 295-305 [↩]
2. Nowack, K. (2006). Emotional intelligence: Leaders Make a Difference. HR Trends, 17, 40-42 [↩]
3. Conklin, S. (2007).  High w-6 and Low w-3 fatty acids are associated with depressive symptoms and neuroticism.  Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 932-934 [↩]
4. Gomez-Pinilla, F. (2007).  The influences of diet and exercise on mental health through hormesis.  Ageing Research Review [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Harvard Business Review (HBR – September 2008)

Competencies: self-development, career management, communication, interpersonal effectiveness, interpersonal sensitivity/empathy, adaptability/stress tolerance, visionary leadership, financial leadership, technological leadership, strategic problem analysis, depth of industry knowledge,

Who benefits: employees, managers and supervisors, executives

Consultant Usage: career consultants, organizational consultants, leadership trainers and consultants, executive coaches

What’s it about? Check out the September issue of HBR.  It’s got something for everyone in this issue.

If you are actively managing your career and have noticed that businesses big and small are having a bit of a rough go of it right now, then How to Protect Your Job in a Recession will have appeal.  I love the author’s lead-in: “Your company has a plan to survive hard times.  Do you?”  The article is filled with survival tips for employees of all levels in companies contemplating job cuts.

If you are a supervisor or manager, in a position of leadership, a leadership consultant or trainer, then Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership written by well-known and highly respected authors Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatizis is for you. 

Biology was never a strong suit during school hours, but I found the “why” behind why followers literally mirror their leaders to be interesting intellectually and intriguing in terms of practical application.  If you do go to this article, make sure to read the sidebars: “Do Women Have Stronger Social Circuits”, “Are You A Socially Intelligent Leader”, and “The Chemistry of Stress”.  

There is also an attached video of an interview with Daniel Goleman.

And if you are the big boss… or consult with the big boss, then by all means check out Seven Ways to Fail Big.  The authors write about the “inexcusable business failures of the past 25 years.”  Apparently if Ignorance is Bliss, a lot of American executives are very happy people! 

I am afraid I had a very cynical smile reading this article of failed strategic thinking.  During my working years inside four Fortune 100 companies, I saw all seven “sins” committed.  And not coincidently, all four have been acquired by other companies (and a couple those in turn acquired a second time as the new companies weren’t any smarter than the ones they bought). 

There is also an attached downloadable audio slideshow about how to avoid failure.

If you do read any of these articles, let me know what you think.  Until next week….

Technorati Tags: career, career management, job cuts, career plan, career planning, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, biology of empathy, social circuits, social neuroscience, mirror neurons, social skills, daniel goleman, richard boyatizis, business failures, business strategies, strategic planning, avoidable fiascoes, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley