“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

William A. Ward

A recent study suggests that there is a statistically significant link between CEO family deaths and the companies’ profitability over a decade¹. These researcher identified 6,753 deaths occuring to CEOs and family members–1,015 corresponded to CEOs, 282 to children, 733 to partners/spouses, 1,364 to in-laws and 3,061 to parents. A link between CEO family deaths and significant economic decline of the company (operating returns on assets) was statistically significant. The biggest effects were cases where the CEO had only a single child and the smallest effects were deaths of in-laws.

Are Leaders Who Spend for Luxury Good for Shareholders?

How does the personal spending of CEOs (real estate in particular) affect the economic performance of a company? Professors David Yermack and Crocker Liu studied major real estate purchases of just about every top executive in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index². They found pretty convincing statistical evidence that the financial performance of companies decreases when CEOs purchase large homes and real estate. They suggest that these purchases are related to “executive entrenchment”and “foreshadowing poor future stock performance.” The good news is that they didn’t find that buying a house near a golf course or the water have a statistically significant impact on financial performance.

Do MBA Professors Make Good Leaders?

Do MBA professors who teach about leadership and organizational development really understand how to manage talent in organizations? Sure, some consult and most publish but are they really a role model for leadership–or should they be?

A new study by Jiang & Murphy analyzed the performance of 215 executives who were former business school professors³. Their results suggested that companies with former business school professors now as executives demonstrated significantly higher financial performance than non-former professors as executives. They didn’t find any differences in company performance between executives who were professors in the highest ranked business schools compared to those in non-ranked schools.

I’m not sure what you can do to prevent family health problems of senior leaders but apparently you can impact the “bottom line” by recruiting relatively lower paid management faculty and putting them up in corporate apartments at least during their first 18 months of on-boarding……Be well…..

Technorati Tags: teaching, MBA, shareholder return, CEO success, Envisia Learning, Envisia Tools, coaching, leadership, talent management, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Bennedsen, M., Perez-Ganzalez, F. & Wolfsenzon, D. (2007) Do CEO’s Matter?
2. Liu, C. & Yermack, D (2007). Where are the shareholder’s mansions? CEO’s home purchases, stock sales and subsequent company performance
3. Jiang, B. & Murphy, P. (2007). Do business school professors make good executive managers?. The Academy of Management Perspectives. 21, 29-50

Title: Government Training

Competencies: leadership, managing change, process improvement skills, financial leadership, interpersonal skills, self-development

Who benefits: high ranking federal employees

Consultant Usage: doubtful

What’s it about? Why are you reading this blog?  It is New Year’s Eve.  Shut it down, go party, be with friends, have fun, be merry, dance into the new year.  But please don’t spend the last day of the year glued to your computer.

There are two days a year when Bloggers get a free pass to go wild and be irresponsible: December 31 and April 1.  Today being December 31, I choose to be totally irrelevant and if I offend anyone, tough hits.  Off I go in my imagination….

We need a better year than this one.  Can’t afford a repeat of the mistakes of the past 12 months.  So let’s get the new bosses off to an appropriate training program and get it right the first time!  (And some transition training for the old bosses.)

There is a training firm in the Washington, D.C. area by the name of Management Concepts.  While their training is generally open to any interested person, the do specialize in training for employees of the federal government.  With the big changes coming up next month, I thought I might match some of their courses to some of the Players on the big scene.  Just trying to be helpful.  So here are my recommendations:

To the new President –- Leading and Managing Change

To the new Secretary of State — Managing Stakeholder Relationships

To the new Secretary of the Treasury — Effectively Managing Financial Resources

To the continuing Secretary of Defense — Interpersonal Skills: Developing Effective Relationships

To the new Director of Homeland Security — Improving Organizational Systems and Processes (especially at airports)

To the old President -– Post-Retirement Work Transition

To the old Vice President — Emotional Intelligence 360-Degree Assessment

Well, that’s all folks.  Happy end of the year holiday season to all of you and thanks for reading this Blog.  Catch you next year.

Technorati Tags: leadership, financial leadership, interpersonal skills, self-development, managing change, transitions, interpersonal skills, 360 degree assessments, retirement, process improvement, stakeholders, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Vacation is what you take when you can’t take what you’ve been taking any longer”

Author Unknown

Most of the executives I coach are pretty stretched individuals. Now and then I get a few who tell me they really “thrive” on stress and don’t really need a vacation or a break from work. These are the same executives who tell me they function well on little sleep.  These are the same “Type A” executives who tend to “give stress” to others.

It seems we are all be asked to work more with less resources in this globally competitive world of ours. Getting away ain’t what it used to be.

Current research shows about 90 percent of U.S. employers offer vacation. Typically in the US employees receive about nine days of paid vacation and six paid holidays, a total of 15 days off per year. Approximately 28 million Americans don’t get any paid vacation or paid holidays. Entrepreneurs and small business owners have heard of the concept of vacations or have watched others experience this personally.

As they say, you really can’t take it with you….unless you travel like I do and see business and family travelers try to stuff oversized bags into airline compartments not made to handle them–much to the annoyance of all of us. Being stretched at work also seems to spill over to stress at home, at least from some new research that is accumulating.

Results of a new study from the University of Maryland confirm what working parents already know — the expanded work week is undermining family life. In a study of over 500 employees in a Fortune 500 company, researchers concluded that long hours at work significantly increase work-family conflict and that this conflict is associated with increases stress and depression (regardless of how flexible an employee’s schedule was or how much help they had at home for child care).

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, some major career paradigm shifts continue to influence the value struggle between employers’ needs and employees’ wants. Job security has been replaced by employability security, organizational loyalty has been replaced by job/task loyalty, and linear career paths have been replaced by alternative career paths. It is no coincidence that when reviewing characteristics of the “Best Companies” in America, we find a shift to those that are indeed “family friendly.”

Vacation Factoids:

• In a 2002 poll by Reston, Virginia based TrueCareers, more than 70% of workers do not think there is a healthy balance between work and their personal lives. More than 50% of the 1,626 respondents reported they are exploring new career opportunities because of the inability to manage both work and family stressors.
• In a comparative survey by Atlanta-based staffing firm Randstad North America, in the year 2000, 54% rated family the most important priority compared to almost 70% in 2002.
• For working professional women it is not unusual stop out of work (“off ramping) to care for children, parents or other family demands. In fact, in a recent study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce published in Harvard Business Review on differences in “off ramping” found that 44% women reported leaving the “fast lane” for “family time” compared with only 12% of men.
• According to a Family and Work Institute study conducted in 2000, over 16% of employees bring work home at least once a week—up from 6% in 1977.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American man today works 100 more hours a year than he did in the 1970s with women working 200 more hours (Cornell University economist Robert Frank) The average woman works 200 more hours.
• The typical American sleeps one to two hours less a night than his or her parents did (two hours or more less sleep than you need significantly effects memory, decision making, mood and psychomotor skills.
• Men are still more likely than women in US companies to work more than 40 hours per week. However, men are more likely than women to not take allotted vacation time. On average, Americans leave at least four days unclaimed annually.
• What makes these work/family issues more striking is that working hours in other countries are flat or even declining. For example, France recently enacted a 35-hour work week and mandatory vacations for all employees. The standard work week in Belgium and Norway is Monday through Friday, 37.5 hours, and cannot exceed 40 hours. The French also are provided 30 days of vacation time, unlimited sick days and full child care.
• According to the International Labor Organization, as of 2000, Americans are working more hours than the Japanese (1,966 hours per year compared to 1,889) and to every European country surveyed.

Keep in mind that in the old days, vacation was often considered a luxury, but in today’s world it seems like it has become a necessity….Hope you have a relaxful end of the year vacation if you can fit it in….Be well….

Technorati Tags: vacation, holidays, work hours, work/life balance, stress, burnout, work hours, sleep, fatigue, Ken Nowack, Envisia, Envisia Learning, Kenneth Nowack

Title: The Best Business Books of 2008

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: you

Consultant Usage: self-development and references

What’s it about? I am declaring today a holiday for everyone who reads business books.  FastCompany.com put together a slide show of the 10 best business books for 2008.  As an avid reader it feels like a present to me, so I am making it a gift to you.  Check it out.  And keep a pen and piece of paper handy so you can write down your favorites. 

I am planning on reading 5 or 6.  Hope you find at least one or two that “speak” to you. 

Enjoy. 

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: innovation, creativity, design, sustainability, technology, advertising and marketing, global business, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“I’m not asleep… but that doesn’t mean I’m awake”

Author Unknown

We all seem to be working longer and harder with health, sleep and mood being affected.

Research by Sylvia Ann-Hewlett and Caroyl Luce show that 62% of high earning individuals work more than 50 hours per week, 35% work more than 60 hours a week and 10% work more than 80 hours¹. Their findings suggest that more than 70% of professionals reported not getting enough sleep.

Our own research with our stress and health assessment called StressScan allows us to also take a look at just how sleep deprived talent today is.  One of the scales is called Sleep/Rest and is measures both quantity and quality of sleep.  In a recent analysis of over 686 leaders, approximately 30% reported receiving less sleep than required because they stayed up too late or had to get up too early.  Almost 30% reported that they had difficulty falling or staying asleep that also resulted in a sleep deficit.  I guess there is nothing like a third or more of our work force coming to work sleep deprived–I just hope these employees aren’t flying my planes, operating my nuclear plants, performing my surgeries or making critical decisions that impact my health and welfare.

Leaders and others know that the sleep-deprived are significantly more moody, miserable and just not much fun to be around. New research from UC Berkeley using MRI technology helps explain why for the first time.

The study is the first to show exactly what areas of the brain are affected by sleep deprivation².

In the UC Berkeley study of 26 young adults, half of the subjects were kept awake for 35 hours straight and the other half were allowed a normal night’s sleep in that same time period. Then all of the subjects were hooked up to an MRI and shown a number of images while the researchers monitored what happened in their brains as each image was shown.

The sleep-deprived subjects had a significant activity in the amygdala (the section of the brain that puts the body on alert to protect itself and control emotions) and simultaneously activity slowed down in the prefrontal cortex, which controls logical reasoning. However, subjects who had gotten a full night of sleep showed normal brain activity.

Americans are among the most sleep-deprived people in the world with 40% of Americans getting less than seven hours of sleep a night, according to a 2005 poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, and 75% reported having some sort of sleep disorder one or two nights a week (http://www.sleepfoundation.org/).

What this means for most people is that a sleepless night or very poor quality of sleep can cause employees to overreact to emotional challenges that they would otherwise be able to tolerate without any trouble. In research from my colleague and friend Dr. Mark Rosekind of Alertness Solutions has shown that just a few hours of sleep less than you need has a significant impact on mood, psychomotor function and memory even if you believe you are functioning at 100%.

So, look out if you have sleep deprived talent and leaders who lack emotional intelligence — their amygdala already is compromised….Be well…

Technorati Tags: insomnia, sleep, fatigue, depression, sleep disorders, fatigue countermeasures, REM, NREM, circadian rhythms, stress, health, job burnout, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Hewlett, A. & Luce, C. (2006). Extreme jobs. The danagerous allure of the 70-hour workweek. Harvard Business Review, December 2006, pp. 1-12
2. Yoo, S., Gujar,N., Hu,P., Jolesz, F., & and Walker, M. (2007). The human emotional brain without sleep — a prefrontal amygdala disconnect. Current Biology. Vol 17, R877-R878, 23 October 2007

Title: Get Rid of the Performance Review!

Competencies: performance management, performance appraisal

Who benefits: managers/supervisors, employees, organization

Consultant Usage: organizational development and human resource development

What’s it about?  One of my least favorite authors has written a short article about one of my least favorite topics.  Oddly, the results are favorable.

The author is arrogant and presumptuous.  The topic is distasteful.  Yet the end result is something I have advocated for over three decades (yes arrogant author, you are far from the first to think of this topic).  

The topic is performance reviews/appraisals.  They don’t work.  Never have.  And at the risk of being labeled “lazy”, let me quote the author who nails it in this provocative paragraph:

“To my way of thinking, a one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional pretense. It’s a negative to corporate performance, an obstacle to straight-talk relationships, and a prime cause of low morale at work. Even the mere knowledge that such an event will take place damages daily communications and teamwork.”

He goes on to list a host of reasons why performance appraisals fail.  Most of his reasoning is valid, although he shows some real sloppiness when writes about “the contemporary performance-reviewing fad called ‘360-degree feedback’.”  Most folks who understand “360-degree feedback” know it works best as a developmental tool, not as an appraisal tool.  And “360” has been around for over 20 years, which is a lot of longevity for a “fad”.

His solution is a good one.  Performance previews.  Sit-downs to discuss the future and the mutual responsibilities both parties.  Focus on the future, which is, after all, the only time zone we can do anything about.  It is also the only place that both parties are likely to get a real mutual agreement.

If you like the concept of the article, there is an excellent book that has been around since 2000 called Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead, which is reasoned, thoughtful, and well researched.  I highly recommend it if you are interested in the topic.

If you read either, would be very interested in your thoughts.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: performance review, performance appraisal, performance management, feedback, coaching, performance previews, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”

Mark Twain

After being laied off, employees were 35% less likley than before to become actively involved or participate in church, community groups, and charitable organizations.  And, not many returned after they found a new position.

Investigators from UCLA and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor conducted the study based on 4,373 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study¹. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) has tracked a group of 1957 Wisconsin high school graduates for more than 45 years, gathering detailed information on their IQs, education, careers, psychological well-being, family and social lives.  

Social connection and support, both work-related and home/family/friend plays a prominent role as protective factor for many health related variables.  It’s a very challenging variable to really study as it can involve many aspects such as the source of received support, type of support (emotional or instrumental), enacted or received, utility of the support system and overall satisfaction with support received.

In our own research on the importance of social support and health using our Social Support scale from our StressScan assessment, we have found that change in one’s support network can impact both physical health and psychological well-being including our immune system ². 

We have tried to carefully construct a measure of social support within StressScan that measures 3 very unique aspects of this complicated concept:

• Availability of support from five different sources (boss/supervisor, others at work, spouse/partner, family members/relatives, friends)
• Use of the network system (either provided or received)
• Satisfaction with each in meeting your needs (informational, instrumental, emotional

We also assess the source of support because your use and satisfaction with each may be quite different:

• Immediate boss or supervisor
• Other colleagues or people at work
• Spouse, partner, lover or significant other
• Family members or relatives
• Friends

A high score on this scale suggests a global evaluation of having an adequate support network that you utilize and feel a sense of satisfaction with it.

It would appear that losing a job can not only be a career set back but also impact involvement and social connectiveness which, in turn, can impact our physical health and well-being.

Want to find out about your own social support network?  Contact us for a free trial of StressScan at support@envisialearning.com   Be well…..

Technorati Tags: StressScan, talent development, executive coaching, performance, layoff, social support, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, envisia, deliberate practice

1. Brand, Jennie E. and Sarah A. Burgard. Forthcoming: Social Forces (2008). Effects of Job Displacement on Social Participation: Findings over the Life Course of a Cohort of Joiners
2. Schwartz, G.E., Schwartz, J.I., Nowack, K.M., & Eichling, P.S. (1992). Changes in perceived stress and social support over time are related to changes in immune function. University of Arizona and Canyon Ranch. Unpublished manuscript

Title: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Competencies: self-development, career development, coaching, talent management

Who benefits: motivated individuals, manager/supervisors who coach, professional coaches

Consultant Usage: excellent resource for professional coaches or talent management consultants

What’s it about?  It is never too early to make New Year’s resolution.  Especially if you don’t plan to keep it.  Get it out of the way early.   And according to USA Today, the average New Year’s resolution lasts about 3 days, so why wait to make that all important resolution?

In keeping with the general theme of change that I have been writing about for the past couple of months, let me suggest a personal change resolution.   With all the changes happening in the outside world (economy, political, environment…), how about preparing yourself to change with the times?  If I were still an active full-time employee or consultant, I would in a heartbeat.  I would do anything I could to maximize my flexibility in these times of uncertainty. 

I would take the advice of two friends.  One says “position yourself for opportunity”.  The other recommends a specific public program on dealing with the intrapersonal side of change.  Today I am passing that program on to you for your consideration and as a possible New Year’s resolution. 

The program is What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.  The presenter is Marshall Goldsmith.  The course is based on his book of the same name.  Can’t make the course, at least read the book.  The program will only be offered three times next year (the late year one will be in November or December in San Francisco – the date may not have been announced yet).

You can check out Dr. Goldsmith at his website.   It is quite impressive. 

Or you can settle for my summary: The Economist calls him one of the most credible leaders in the modern era of leadership; Forbes calls him one of the five most respected executive coaches in the world; Wall Street Journal calls him one of the 10 best executive educators; and Business Week calls him one of the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development.  The book mentioned above is one of the all time best sellers in the business category. 

His goal in the course is to get you to change.  He wants you to understand what is getting in your way to moving closer to your ultimate goals.  He wants you to identify the poor work habits and unconscious behaviors that currently keep you in place.  Then, and only then, he wants you to develop a positive, long-range strategy to get you to your destination.  Others do the same thing, but apparently no one does it better. 

If you know you can’t get to his program, or your organization is being short-sighted and not investing in people during this downturn, you can catch Dr. Goldsmith on a You-Tube video courtesy of the good folks at Google.

If I could only go to one program next year, this is the one I would go to.

PS: if you are of the mindset that you are okay, it is all them others out there who need to change, Dr. Goldsmith is presenting The Manager as Coach: Promoting High Performance in 8 locations (including Los Angeles) in the US and Europe next year.  But be warned, the first 25% of his program is devoted to changing you.  In the end, it all comes back to YOU, doesn’t it?

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: intrapersonal skills, change, managing self, career development, career, careers, leadership, coaching, the manager as coach, executive coaching, Marshall Goldsmith, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness”

Richard Carlson

News alert (in case you might have not known already) — Work-related stress can be a direct cause of clinical depression and anxiety among employees.

In our own personal stress and health assessment called StressScan we measure the hard driving, competitive and achievement oriented Type A behavior as one of the major scales. The majority of working professionals composing our extensive norm group (62.7%) report they tend to be hard driving and competitive at work and play and 49.4% report they feel hurried and pressured for time all of the time or most of the time. Finally, 44.4% report that their activites and schedule push them to be as busy and active as possible stretching them to their limits of their energy and capacity most or all the time.

A recent finding in Psychological Medicine finding comes from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has followed a group of 1000 children born in 1972-73 in Dunedin, New Zealand throughout their lives. The study subjects have been assessed at the ages of 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 26, and most recently at the age of 32, in 2004-05.

The study included 406 women and 485 men. All were asked at age 32 about their perceptions of work stress. In general, men reported higher psychological job demands, lower social support, and higher physical job demands than women.

High psychological job demands, such as long hours, heavy workload, or poor relations with one’s boss, were found to be significantly associated with clinical depression, anxiety, or both in both women and men.

It was found that women who reported high psychological job demands (using a standard approach to measuring work load and decisional control over things on the job), such as working long hours, working under pressure or without clear direction, were 75 per cent more likely to suffer from clinical depression or general anxiety disorder than women who reported the lowest level of psychological job demands.

Men with high psychological job demands were 80 per cent more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety disorders than men with lower demands. Men with low levels of social support at work were also found to be at increased risk of depression, anxiety or both.

This study shows that high levels of workplace stress may be an important contributor to common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety. These disorders certainly contribute directly to employer costs for medical claims, absenteeis, presenteeism and disability.

It’s seems so easy to just suggest individually based remedies to help employees cope more effectively with stress on the job. However, a recent review of stress management interventions suggests that inidivudally based approaches, without targeting the organization, are unlikely to have sustain impact over time¹.

Looking for a place to start?

In his book Primal Leadership, Dan Goleman states “Roughly 50 to 70 percent of how employees perceive their organizational climate can be traced to the actions of one person: the leader. More than anyone else, the boss, creates the conditions that determine people’s ability to work well.”

If that doesn’t work, there is always the Serenity Prayer….Be well….

Technorati Tags: stress, burnout, job demands, anxiety, depression, workload, pressure, ken nowack, envisia, kenneth nowack, StressScan, Envisia Learining 

1. Nowack, K. (2000). Occupational stress management: Effective or not?. In P. Schnall, K. Belkie, P. Landensbergis, & D. Baker (Eds.), Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, Hanley and Belfus, Inc., Philadelphia, PA., Vol 15, No. 1, pp. 231-233

Title: Leadership Transitions Version 3.0

Competencies: self development, leadership, numerous managerial competencies

Who benefits: leaders in transition

Consultant Usage: coaching/training tool

What’s it about? In less than six weeks the US will have a new President.  The changing of the guard, the transition, is likely to be unlike any we in the US have seen before.  Then what happens?

I think it goes without saying that the first 100 days will be crucial.  Fans and detractors will be watching intently. 

Quite possibly the new President might benefit from a new interactive CD-ROM from those good folks at Harvard.  A lot of people could benefit from this CD-ROM…like all the new folks stepping in to replace those folks who have brought us the current recession. 

There is no time like now to get it right…for presidents, executives, and other leaders at all levels stepping into new positions. 

This CD-ROM outlines a number of pitfalls to beware of, strategies to avoid them, assessments to prepare the leader for the new position.  And most importantly, it offers tips and tools for setting clear priorities; building teams; working with a new boss; creating lasting relationships and a host of other needed leadership skills.

This may be the worst analogy in history, but to me being a new leader is like getting on a train about to pull out of the station.  Either you get on successfully or you take a hard fall. 

Personally, if I were moving into a new leadership position in the near future, I would not like to risk the fall.  I would invest in this CD-Rom.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: leadership, the new leader, leadership skills, leadership pitfalls, leadership techniques, leadership assessments, leadership tools, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley