HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Harvard Bloggers have new books

Competencies: leadership, innovation, talent management, customer service, self-development 

Who benefits: leaders, managers, individual employees

Consultant Usage: organizational consultants, trainers, career counselors

What’s it about? Last week I wrote about the Harvard Bloggers.  In the process I discovered a number of new or recent books some of these authors have published.  Below are listed a few for your consideration.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter: SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good  “Insights on corporate competitiveness in this timely and captivating assessment of what it takes to succeed in the face of rapid technological, cultural and economic change.” (Just released.)

Marshall Goldsmith: Succession: Are You Ready? “In this concise book, Goldsmith offers candid advice on succession from the outgoing executive’s perspective, from choosing and grooming a successor while sidestepping political minefields to handing over responsibility.”(2009)

Peter Merholz, et al,  Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design “To achieve success in today’s ever-changing and unpredictable markets, competitive businesses need to rethink and reframe their strategies across the board. Instead of approaching new product development from the inside out, companies have to begin by looking at the process from the outside in, beginning with the customer experience. It’s a new way of thinking-and working-that can transform companies struggling to adapt to today’s environment into innovative, agile, and commercially successful organizations.” (2008)

Sylvia Ann Hewlett Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success “Despite advances in women’s rights, as well as telecommuting, job sharing and flex-work, the components of corporate advancement have been largely unchanged since the 1950s; according to author and economist Hewlett (Creating a Life), these outdated criteria are decidedly stacked against women: lock step progression, face time, unreasonable hours, flattery and obeisance, golf and strip clubs and male bonding.” (2007)

Stewart D. Friedman: Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life  “Friedman, a former academic and leadership consultant, presents “Total Leadership,” his “four-way” win method that enables a leader to find mutual value at work, at home, in the community, and personally. He explains that his views are not work-life balance, which he considers a zero-sum game.” (2008)

Gina Trapani:  Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better  “Whether youre a Mac or Windows user, there are tricks here for you in this helpful resource. Youll feast on this buffet of new shortcuts to make technology your ally instead of your adversary, so you can spend more time getting things done and less time fiddling with your computer. Youll learn valuable ways to upgrade your life so that you can workand livemore efficiently, such as: empty your e-mail inbox, search the Web in three keystrokes, securely save Web site passwords, automatically back up your files, and many more.” (2008)

There has to be a book in there for you.  Enjoy.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: innovation, customer service, social good, rosabeth moss kanter, marshal goldsmith, stewart d friedman,   peter merholz,   sylvia ann hewlett , succession planning, talent management, change, change management, leadership, total leadership, lifehacker, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

Another addition of leadership and talent management “facts” from all over the world. Some intuitive and some not….what do you think?

1. During the 2009 recession, dating web sites like Match.com and eharmony.com have experienced their greatest membership growth since 9/11 (20%).  No mention if office romances have also increased.

2. US employers expect health care cost increases to hold steady at 6 percent and more plan to adopt consumer directed health plans to control costs in 2009-2010 according to the Annual National Business Group on Healthy/Watson Wyatt Report (2009).  In 2006, health care costs for companies went up 8 percent.

3. The top five industries for involuntary part-time workers include: 1) Retail (860,000); 2) Hotel/Food Service (860,000); Education and Health Services (801,000); Construction (602,000); and Health Care/Social Assistance (469,000).In November 2008,7.3 million individuals were working 35 hours or less per week because of the poor economy–almost double the number in June 2006 according to the US Department of Labor.

4.  According to the National Association of Colleges and Employer’s Outlook 2009 report, the percentage change in hiring expectations of new college grads from August to October 2008 included: Construction (-19.6%), Utilities (-17.6%), Agriculture (-14.2%), Trade (-7.4%), Finance/Insurance (-6.2%), Business services (-3.2%), Manufacturing (.03) and Government (19.8%).

5.  According to a new survey by Proudfoot Consulting, employees in Canada only receive an average of 8 days of training annually only slightly ahead of the UK (7.6 days) and only 55% of Canadian companies regularly assess training needs compared with 84% in Brazil or 83% in India.  Additional survey results suggested that supervisors in Canada only devote 6% of their time to active supervision and training of their staff.

6.  A 2008 Blessing and White paper on coaching surveying over 2,000 managers in 17 countries found that establishing specific goals is the least valuable coaching action but honest dialogue and guided independent work are the most important. 

7. A recent 2009 survey of 71 learning professionals from a variety of industries (the majority employed 1,000 or more individuals) found that only 25% reported integration between their talent development initiatives.  The most integrated processes were learning and performance management, compensation and performance management and recruiting and compensation.  The primary factors limiting integration included cost (70%) and lack of management buy-in (61%).

8.According to a 2009 survey by Corenet on working at home found that 86% of organizations surveyed in North America had some kind of flexible workspace program (e.g, telecommuting or working remotely) compared to 51% in Europe, 33%in Asia-Pacific regions and 31% in India.

9. According to a 2009 study by Novations, 30% of managers believe that twenty percent of their staff are really the “go to” high performers on a consistent basis supporting the popular Jack Welch 20-70-10 management philosophy popularized several years ago.

10. According to a 2009 AchieveGlobal sutdy called “Leading in Tough Times” 54% of leaders rated their employees’ level of stress as a problem or severe problem and 38% rated poor employee morale as a problem or severe problem,  Approximately 70% reported they motivate their employees through ongoing and positive communications and 49% offer special rewards and recognition for those who perform well.

11. In a new 2009 report by Cogniso called “Knowledge: the New Commodity” large organizations in the U.S., reduced training staff from 5.1 to 3.4 from 2007 to 2008.  Investments in employee training declined 11% from the same years and is expected to drop again this year. 

12. A follow up to a 1982 study found that employees exposed to lead on their jobs showed significant memory loss and cognitive problems later in life  and in workers over 55, the higher bone lead levels predicted poor cognition (Neuropsychology, Vol. 23, No.1, 2009).
I’m glad I sucked on my No. 2 lead pencil only in kindergarten and the first grade….Be well….

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Harvard Voices

Competencies: leadership, finance, innovation, customer service, talent management, career development, information technology, strategic planning, and more

Who benefits: leaders, managers, supervisors, business professionals, students of business, and those engaged in career growth

Consultant Usage: Great place to keep up with the newest trends and hot buttons

What’s it about?  Harvard has blogs.

Harvard has lots and lots of blogs.  By my last count they have 46 regular blog sites, some authors quite well known.  The link above takes you to the page where all blogger are listed.

But I thought I might save you some time and list a few of my favorites along with a brief description and a link to his/her latest posting.  (Note: This posting was written several weeks in advance of publication.  The authors listed below may have updated their Blogs.  You may have to scroll back to find the posting described today.  Or, heck, just read their latest!)

Got to start with my fav, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who writes in her latest post about unemployment, the underemployed, uneasily employed, or overemployed, and what the high-performing companies of the 21st century are doing differently than the good-to-great companies of the 20th century. 

Then there is “The Man”, Marshall Goldsmith, the leadership and personal development guru of renown.  In his September 4 posting Don’t Give Up on Change he discusses five reasons why people give up on their goals. If you are not acquainted with Marshall Goldsmith, his Blog is a great way to meet “The Man.”

There is a short and very interesting posting on using the social media for customer contact (and presumably, customer service) by Peter Merholz (not his most recent posting).  I was not previously acquainted with the name or person; but my interest was piqued when I discovered that he was the person who coined the term “Blog” back in the last century (1999).  I also confess that I am putting this one on the list to make sure my boss Andy is aware of this site! 

Here are some quickies:  Financial Intelligence ,  Winning the Talent War and Having IT Your Way 

My final entry is a category called Conversation Starter, with a number of Harvard Bloggers making occasional posts.  “Behind the breaking business news is often a management idea gone right or wrong.”  That’s where the Conversation Starter comes in. This blog hopes “to shed new light on major events and trends in the business world by helping unearth the bigger ideas at work and discussing how those ideas are shaping our lives every day.”  The latest entry as of this writing is The Disadvantage of Twitter and Facebook (hey Andy, gotta check out this one too!) 

There are nearly 40 more blogs to choose from.  So I strongly recommend you go to the top of this page and click on the general site link to see who or what you like.  Reading them regularly is an easy way to stay current in your areas of interest.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: leadership, finance, innovation, customer service, talent management, career development, information technology, strategic planning, rosabeth moss kanter, marshall goldsmith, peter merholz bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

Paul Gauguin

Ajax is now a little over 6 months old on his journey to become a guide dog for the blind.  We are working hard every day with him to focus on basic commands and to socialize him to the world around him.  A tough command at his age is “stay.”  This command is an important one for him to learn and a challenging one at this time as he wants to “wander” and continue when we take him out for a walk.  “Staying” is something he will need to master in order for him to be a successful guide dog for the blind.

Top talent in organizations today also have to be encouraged to “stay” as it’s a major loss when these “A Players” depart voluntarily.  Recently, Salary.com Inc. released results from its fourth annual 2008/2009 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey.  Some of their major findings are pretty interesting:

• 35% of all employees are at dissatisfied with their jobs.
• Approximately 65% of employees admitted to passively or actively looking for a new job (employers believe the figure is 37%)
• Employers overestimate the degree of extremely satisfied employees nearly 2 to 1.

It’s pretty typical that when talent informs us they are moving on to another position we conduct an “exit” interview to try to understand their motives and receive feedback about what they liked or disliked about the organization.  My good colleague and friend, Dr. Bev Kaye (author of the best selling book “Love em or Lose em”) has coined the term “Stay Interview” to focus on those in the organization that you can’t afford to leave.

The “Stay Interview” is an approach to use only with your “A players” to uncover their “signature strengths” and motives that will, when properly matched with job assignments and opportunities, facilitate their engagement and commitment to the organization.

USING THE STAY INTERVIEW TO FACILITATE ENGAGEMENT OF YOUR TALENT

The first thing you really need to do is determine who your “keepers” really are.  Think about those high performing talent that have future potential to grow and contribute to the organization’s success.  If they chose to leave tomorrow, the “hole” they leave behind would be a deep one to fill or replace their talent and skills.

Once they are identified, just follow the steps below to help these high performers become even better over time:

Here are some other “stay” interview type of questions to identify what keeps your talent engaged and committed to the organization as well. Examples might include:

“What about your job is energizing?” 
“What is draining?”
“If you won the lottery and resigned what, if anything would you miss about your job or the company?”
“What was one thing about a prior job you loved? 
“What can I do to keep you?”
“What might entice you to leave?” 

So, what are you waiting for?  Schedule an appointment and conduct a “stay interview” with your top talent.  You might just find that these individuals appreciate the interest and time and think twice about looking elsewhere, particularly when the economy turns around.

At least for Ajax, we hope his “stay” with us is only short enough to enable him to be a gift for someone who will see the world through his eyes…Be well…..

Technorati Tags: guide dogs, seeing eye dogs, Guide Dogs of America, leadership, executive coaching, performance, layoff, social support, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, envisia, deliberate practice

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Public Programs and Publications

Competency: various

Who benefits: participants in their presentations and readers of their publications

Consultant Usage: networking

What’s it about? I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the public workshops, seminars, and recent publications involving my friends.

Guess I should start with my boss, Ken Nowack.  Kissing-up has its place and he has lots of public appearances and a publication of worthiness.  He is presenting Why Women Lead Differently Than Men tomorrow and Performance Coaching: Retaining and Engaging Talent on Friday.  But unless you are already in Barcelona, Spain and speak fluent Catalan, this piece of knowledge won’t do you much good.

I am happy to report that he will be making presentations closer to home and with a little more lead time: He will be presenting Resilience: Leading Talent During Times of Stress and Uncertainty in Toronto, Canada on October 22 and Leadership Differences in Men and Women in Los Angeles, USA on November 19.

He has a article coming out entitled “Leveraging 360-Feedback to Facilitate Successful Behavioral Change” (this link will take you to a short abstract) in a new book: Consulting Psychology: Practice and Research, scheduled for release in 2010.

For our readers in the United Kingdom, my good buddy Matt Pocock and his colleagues at Consulting Tools are offering a variety of course over the next 6 months including multiple offerings of the two-day Facet5 Accreditation, which accredits users in the use of the Facet5 Psychometric Tool and its application to key areas of management development and specific human resource issues.   Available dates include Oct 14-15, Dec 09-10, Feb 16-17, Apr 14-15, all in London.

Also coming up in the London area between November and March of next year are the following courses: Audition Accreditation (an opportunity for recruiters to receive free training in Audition covering how to create best-fit role templates, using a template to predict candidate success in the role and use of Audition for interviewing); How to assess and change Emotional Intelligence; 360-degree Feedback Design & Implementation; Thinking Styles; and Using Assessment tools for team development.

For additional information on the dates and content, go to the Consulting Tools website http://www.consultingtools.co.uk/events.shtml or contact Matt by email: mpocock@consultingtools.com

Long time friend Dave Jamison is presenting Use of Self during the annual Organizational Development Network Conference from October 18 – 21 in Seattle.

Dave also has a couple of chapters in recent books: “The Practice of OD” in The Handbook of Organization Development and “Front-End Work: Effectively Engaging With the Client System” in Practicing Organization Development and Change.

Long time colleagues Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe are doing Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Train-the-Trainer October 26-30, 2009, at beautiful Lake Arrowhead, CA

And as a reminder, I gave a “two-thumbs up” review of their (along with Jorge Cherbosque) new book Emotional Intelligence for Managing Results in a Diverse World. They also have a CD “Diversit Tool Kit” which provides over 100 reproducible training activities for diversity along with detailed directions for conducting and facilitating the exercises.  

For further information go to their website http://gardenswartzrowe.com/home.html or contact them at  leeanita@aol.com.   

My friend Bev Kaye is a career juggler.  I get tired just reading about what all she is doing.  It would take a whole posting to let you know all she is up to, so to keep my editors happy, let me just summarize some of the highlights:

She has presentations going at the Chief Learning Officer Symposium (Sept. 28-30) in Colorado Springs, CO ; the Human Resource Planning Society (October 25 – 27) in Chicago, IL; and, the American Society for Training and Development Chapter Leadership Conference (Oct. 30-31) in Washington, D.C..

Bev also is a prolific writer.  Two recent articles of interest are “PREVENTING PAYROLL DEFICIT: CALCULATING THE COST OF DISENGAGEMENT”  and “Whose Values? Yours or Mine”

Space does not permit, but there are several other recent articles available upon request (along with any other inquiries) through Ann Jordan, email: Ann.Jordan@careersystemsintl.com and you also might want to take a moment and visit Bev’s website: www.CareerSystemsIntl.com

Last, but absolutely not least my long, long time friend and queen of happiness and optimism, BJ Gallagher.  She writes to tell me “Just as President Obama is offering an Economic Stimulus Package to help pull America out of the recession, I am offering an ‘Inspirational Stimulus Package’ with my new books. People need financial assistance, for sure – but they also need emotional, psychological, and spiritual assistance. That’s what I give them in my books.”

So check out her six new books…published over a six month period – how do people do that? – at her website: www.bjgallagher.com.  And by the way, BJ donates 10% of the profits to non-profit support groups.

Well, that’s it for this week.  As you can see, I have a bunch of very busy friends.  They are the best of the best in their respective areas of expertise, so check them out!

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: nowack, kenneth nowack, matt pocock, david jamison, lee gardenswartz, anita rowe, beverly kaye, bj gallagher, 360 degree feedback, talent management, stress management, interviewing skills, career development, inspirational stimulus package, disengagement, cost of disengagement, emotional intelligence, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Learn to see, and then you’ll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision.”

Carolos Casteneda

I just got back from a short work and play weekend in Denver and had a chance to bring along Ajax, our guide dog puppy in training for the blind.  We are doing everything we can to socialize him and expose him to new experiences to facilitate his leadership development.  What an adventure for him as he took his first plane ride (right under our seats), rode on multiple buses, went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game (his favorite S.F. Giants team was crushed) and went for a hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  So many people keep asking “how is he doing” and “do you think he will pass?”  It’s so hard to predict leadership success and perhaps easier to really predict who is not likely to succeed.

To stimulate research on the topic of poor leadership, Robert Hogan in 1990 suggested that the base rate of leadership incompetence was between 60% and 75%. Other research has confirmed that approximately one out of two executive leaders fail in corporate America. These leaders seem to consistently lack emotional intelligence, be overly controlling, poor at delegation and problem solving and untrustworthy.  Leaders may be made but clearly finding the ones that are born with “leadership set points” would appear to maximize the success of organizations.

Based on several recent surveys (e.g., Abderdeen Group and Rocket-Hire), the utilization of assessment tools for pre-employment selection and promotion is approximately 60% to 70% across all industries with some projections of increased use in the next 12 months of about 14%. 

Of those using pre-employment assessments across job levels, the most popular approaches continue to be evaluation of work history, candidate interviews, skill and aptitude tests, and personality inventories.  Which approach to measuring key aspects of potential talent’s knowledge, experience and competence actually do a good job of predicting future success and performance? The table below summarizes a large number of recent meta-analytic research studies in the industrial/organizational psychology literature across diverse industries, job levels and different measures of job performance and success.

The numbers in the column are called validity coefficients and they can range from 0 (no association with performance outcomes) to 1.0 (perfect association).  This table is based on very diverse industries for leadership positions across all levels using a wide variety of specific measures of success, salary, promotion, and performance in mind.  In the industrial/organizational literature, it is not unusual to find that most assessments today are only modest at actually predicting future success of leaders in any industry—regardless of how it is defined and measured.  The use of two or more of these pre-employment and selection methods doesn’t dramatically increase predictive validity but relying on only approach may lead to erroneous hires and selection decisions (e.g., relying only on personality inventory results or interviews).

Any of these methods can be used for selecting talent as long as they are based on a systematic job analysis summarizing relevant knowledge, skills and abilities required for successful performance.  There are many ways to establish validation of a pre-employment assessment with the most common methods used including content validation (showing a link between the job requirements and the content of an assessment) and criterion related validation (showing a statistical relationship between the assessment and some measure of performance) methods.

What We Know About Selecting Successful Leaders in the Future

A number of practical and important observations can be made by looking at the relative average predictive validities (correlation coefficients) ranging from the highest (.54 for work samples) to the lowest (.01 for age). 

• No specific assessment approach is statistically very strong in predicting success or performance although work sample simulations, cognitive ability tests for entry positions and more structured interviews are the strongest and practially very useful.
• The standard “mutual seduction” interview is probably only modest at predicting future performance.  Predictive validity increases as interviews become more structured, based on a comprehensive review of the position requirements and based either on specific situations that can be reliably evaluated or behavioral samples from the past.
• Interests are quite poor at telling us much about future performance or competence (just watch the television show American Idol and you can see this in action). However, interests are strong predictors of job satisfaction and turnover so it is important to get a sense of what will maximally engage talent.
• Although reference checks have legal restrictions that minimize their usefulness, in concept they should be pretty revealing if you can get information to be shared by previous colleagues, peers and employers given the predictive power of peer and supervisory ratings.
• Minimize stereotypes about the value of talent with particular educational backgrounds and age—both are virtually useless for making predictions about future leadership success.
• Those who demonstrate cognitive ability seem to learn more rapidly and assimilate information.  Cognitive ability tests are known for potential adverse impact and are often viewed more negatively by prospective candidates.  At higher levels there is a compression of mathematical-logical intelligence making these type of assessments less useful (predictive).
• It’s not how smart you are but how you are smart.  Interpersonal competence, self-awareness and social awareness (ingredients of emotional intelligence) are probably better predictors of who won’t succeed than who will.  Be careful about overstated claims about the predictive power of emotional intelligence on job performance.
• “Show me” assessments or simulations appear to be universally strong predictors of leadership success.  These types of measures have been incorporated into assessment centers with strong predictive validity and little or no adverse impact.  Because they are designed around the job in question, candidates also respond much better than to pre-employment approaches that don’t appear to be immediately relevant to the position (e.g., intelligence tests, personality inventories).
• Personality measures are only modest predictors of job success with two “universal” or generalizable factors typically found to have the strongest association with job performance across diverse settings: conscientiousness (driven, dependable, organized, achievement oriented, responsible) and emotional stability (self-confident, even tempered, adaptable, resilient, emotionally well adjusted).
• When job performance depends on leading and influencing–sales and managerial positions–extraversion is a significant personality predictor and for customer service oriented positions interpersonal factors (agreeableness) appears most strongly associated with performance and success.
• In positions requiring creativity and innovation, a personality factor often referred to as “openness to experience” is quite predictive.

There isn’t much argument that selecting and promoting the best leadership talent is a strategic competitive advantage.  However, what approach to use for “human handicapping” is an important decision when companies, large and small, begin to introduce specific assessment methods for pre-employment hiring and promotional decisional making.  Most are significantly better than chance and some are certainly better at increasing the odds of predicting high performers.

As for Ajax becoming a guide dog for the blind–I want to believe….Be well…

Technorati Tags: leadership development, personnel selection, interviews, work sample simulations, emotional intelligence, personality assessments, Envisia learning, performance, derailment, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment

Competencies: stress management, psychological well-being

Who benefits: good advice for everyone

Consultant Usage: executive coaches, employee wellness consultants

What’s it about? Do I have your undivided attention?  Chances are I don’t.  You are probably skimming this while trying to focus on what lies ahead today or tomorrow.  A quick read and move on?

It is so darn hard to stay in the here and now, in the moment.  I was suitably embarrassed just this morning while having a conversation with someone I genuinely like. He said with a smile “You haven’t heard a word I have said, have you?”  And I hadn’t.  And he was talking about one of my favorite subjects.

I have these lapses.  On the up side, at least I am aware enough to know they happen from time to time…although, of course, I am not often aware at the moment I am having one.  Got that?

Oh well, if you are still with me, let me refer you to an absolutely delightful and helpful article: The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment.

It begins with a telephone booth in the middle of the desert and a sign that says “Talk to God”.  If that doesn’t grab you, nothing will.

The article goes on to offer six steps to living better in the moment.  For those of you who see the irony, that is also six steps less than a 12-step program.  That’s a savings of 50%!

Now focus very carefully and follow this instruction: “Click on the  link at the top of the page now.”

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: living in the now, breathing, meditation, focus, mindfulness, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.” 

Jennifer Yane

Guide dog puppies need to have their leaders provide support, love and guidance as they grow to help them manage new stressors each day.  Our guide dog puppy in training, Ajax, is a curious dog with an interest in seeing what happens in new situations.  This trait is both desirable but can be a problem if the consequence of his actions “spook” him and it results in a lowered level of prudent risk taking. 

Great leaders seem to be able to create the right psychologically stimulating climate and environment for talent to take risks and sometimes even fail.  However, they are also able to provide the support, mentoring and guidance that builds confidence that they can handle adversity and challenge with a sense of dignity and control to try new things again. 

Leaders seem to be play a critical role in moderating the impact of perceived stress on the job with performance and even health.  Great leaders enable and empower and weak leaders seem to facilitate disengagement, negativity and loss of self-esteem.

Our own research suggests that perceptions of stress are often quite high with 40 per cent to 60 per cent of all employees  reporting very high levels caused by both work and family challenges¹.  We have additional data to suggest that leaders who lack emotional intelligence seem to significantly impact talent retention, engagement and perceived stress².

So, what can leaders do today to help talent manage the “white waters” of high workload, spillover into family, ambiguity about job security, uncertainties about the world economy and competition in the market?

1. Conduct “Stay Interviews” (from career guru Bev Kaye, Ph.D.) with high performance talent.
2. Utilize project management, communication, and social networking technology (e.g., Basecamp, GoToMeeting, Campfire, Windows Live Sync, Twitter, Backpack, Momentor www.momentor.com) to enhance productivity and reduce workload, and minimize some stress associated with commuting.
3. Utilize and refer to employee assistance programs (EAP). If you don’t have a strong EAP, consider purchasing a wellness content provider like LifeHub (www.lifehub.com) that contains information on career development, parenting, elder care, financial planning, emotional stress/health, lifestyle management (sleep, eating/nutrition, physical activity), wellness activities and health articles.
4. Encourage vacations (In a 9-year follow up of over 12,000 employees more frequent vacations exerted a direct positive effect on mortality (Gump & Matthews, 2000).  Take em or lose em (i.e., years off your life if you follow these famous University of Pittsburgh stress and health experts).
5. Use a “balanced scorecard” and constructively confront “slackers”….Emphasize getting things done along as well as how you get things done when you evaluate talent.
6. Support individual volunteering and team based community projects.  You learn a lot about your self and even more about others when you volunteer.  Instrumental support seems to lift the emotions of employees and provide a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, particularly during stressful times.
7. Tell talent to go home at night (confront workaholism to minimize burnout and negative “spill over” effects). Turn off your server, save energy, turn off the lights in your office after hours and don’t send emails in the evenings to anyone on your staff.
8. Hold weekly team “route rap” sessions to “check and connect” to allow some anxiety and stress to dissipate through discussion and sharing.
9. Focus more on Leader Development (don’t promote competent jerks; improve promotion & selection systems of leaders at all levels; make talent retention part of executive compensation).  Remember, your greatest contribution of work stress is likely to be your leaders anyway.
10. Increase use of employee involvement (implement more self-managed work teams; increase opportunities for participative decision-making).  Participative leadership results in both greater “buy in” to group decisions  as well as a greater sense of confidence in the solutions and actions taken.
11. Provide more work-life balance options (provide and support telecommuting, flextime, and childcare services).  Two observations:  First, they actually save money for the organization and second, they tend to enhance talent commitment to stay with the organization.

I think I will alleviate some of my work stress and take Ajax out for a walk and practicing some new tasks he has to master to become a great guide dog in the future.  It will give me a chance to get some fresh air and some dedicated time for him to reinforce some important new behaviors he has to master…. Be well…..

Technorati Tags: StressScan, health stressors, financial stressors, stress, health, job burnout, hassles, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Nowack, K. (2007). Using Wellness Coaching as a Talent Management Tool. Selection & Development Review, Volume 23, No. 5, pp. 8-11 [↩]
2. Nowack, K. (2006). Emotional intelligence: Leaders Make a Difference. HR Trends, 17, 40-42 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Competencies: marketing, sales, customer service, communication skills, judgment, decision-making, performance management, self-development

Who benefits: this book has a general appeal

Consultant Usage: excellent background for career counselors, financial consultants, executive coaches

What’s it about? This is the last book on my summer reading list.  Like the other three reviewed here in the past few months, it is about how we go about making decisions.  It is about how we pay lip service to rational decision making, and then make judgments and decisions that are anything but rational. 

On a personal note, these books have been like comfort food (without the weight gain).  I have been drawn to them for a reason I don’t yet completely understand.  Part of it is a frustration I have with some people around me and what I read and watch in the media that defies anything rational.  (e.g., there is a guy I know who has filed for bankruptcy several  times and when I am around him all he wants to talk about how the federal government has it all wrong with its economic policies.  How can he become a fiscal expert when he can’t balance his own checkbook?  There is something irrational going on.)

Of course maybe these books are mirrors for me to personally reflect upon.  I am certainly a big fan of introspection.  This book and the others I have read this summer have certainly given me a lot to think about.

Perhaps that should be my lead into reviewing this book.  It will give you a lot to think about.  It is a very short book. I read it in less than 4 hours with no difficultly.  It is well written with a nice blend of unusual and important topics, research supporting the conclusions of the book, and extremely interesting stories. 

Having said that, it has been very difficult for me to break this book into an easy to read description.   I can say the book is loosely constructed around four main ideas: diagnosis bias, loss aversion, value attribution, and commitment and how these factors move us toward or away from the decisions we make.  And none of these factors are rational.  But trying to summarize them seems too much for this simple Blog.

So let me tease you instead by saying that those four factors will explain such a potpourri of topics as:

• Why in the 1950’s doctors performing open-heart surgery would pour asbestos into the open heart,
• Why NASA sent the ill-fated Challenger into space knowing there was a problem with the O-rings,
• Why the reduction of a few cents on the price of eggs cause a small increase in the purchase of eggs while a similar rise of a few cents causes a large decrease in the purchase of eggs,
• Why a senior pilot who also was the man in charge of the KLM Airlines safety program single handedly caused possibly the worst airplane disaster in history,
• Why consumers will take flat rate subscriptions even if it means more money,
• Why no one paid any attention to Joshua Bell giving a free performance in a Washington D.C. subway plaza using a $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius violin,
• For those of you in HR, why face-to-face employment interviews may be worse than a waste of time,
• Why the Pygmalion effect still works,
• Why money doesn’t motivate (okay, you are a modern person, you already knew that one)
• For those of you in sales and marketing, why we put our trust in the good hands of a Gecko and a Duck
• And finally, for you Sports fans, why the Portland Trailblazers passed over Michael Jordan and two other future hall-of-fame players for a very average player with a short career.

These are just some of the stories that make this book attractive.  The insights you can gain from these tales can have wide application in the work world.  I recommend this book with enthusiasm.

Catch you later. 

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