Purpose of Exercise: Guide to creating a plan for getting back on track

How to Administer and Use this Exercise to Facilitate Behavior Change: We all know that behavioral change is not easy. A typical behavioral change program should consist of the following: awareness of development areas, motivation, an action plan, and deliberate practice of the new behavior. Even if all these elements and steps are successfully achieved, people are likely to relapse back to old habits at some point. This is an inevitable part of the behavioral change journey!

In order to be prepared and well equipped for relapse, it is important to identify situations that will increase the likelihood of a relapse occurrence. For instance, for many people high stress situations can inhibit people from staying on target with their new behavior and goal. This exercise will help you create a relapse prevention plan to ensure lasting behavioral change.

To download “My Relapse Prevention Plan”, click here. To view the table of contents, preview a free chapter, and order Clueless please go to: http://www.envisialearning.com/clueless_book.

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” -Socrates

Multi-rater or 360-degree feedback is the process in which managers, direct reports, peers, team members, and/or customers provide anonymous feedback to others. Despite being around for decades, it continues to grow in popularity.

Some companies bring 360-degree feedback into their organization for the wrong reasons, such as not wanting to be left behind or wanting to stay up on the latest leadership development trends. While implementing 360-degree feedback program for the wrong reasons could result in doing more harm than good, there are plenty of reasons why you should introduce 360-degree feedback to your organization. Here are 7 primary reasons:

1. Increases self-awareness. It takes more than a single perspective to paint a picture of how a leader is seen by others. By surveying many people, 360-degree feedback provides a fairly accurate snapshot of perceptions from various stakeholders.
2. Encourages self-development. By becoming aware of how their behavior impacts others, leaders can understand what they need to do more, less, or differently in order to reach their maximum potential.
3. Increases organizational effectiveness. 360-degree feedback highlights specific skills and competencies associated with job performance. When this information is used to drive goals that are aligned with the organization’s overall vision, magical things happen.
4. Can foster a culture of trust. When used only for development purposes – not hiring, firing or promotion — 360-degree feedback can increase trust and open the door to further performance discussions.
5. Increases communication within an organization. 360-degree feedback is unique in that it can effectively measure soft-skills. One of the most important softskill there is communication. Leaders often fail to effectively communicate with the people they work with. By becoming aware of specific interpersonal behaviors, feedback results help leaders understand what they need to do to be a better communicator.
6. Clarifies supervisory and/or managerial expectations. Based on the results of the 360-degree assessment, leaders often will collaborate with their supervisors to define expectations, develop goals and set up accountability systems.
7. Initiates individual and team change. People cannot change without first understanding what it is they should be doing differently. A 360-degree assessment is the first step to identifying and understanding what needs to change.

Coach’s Critique:

While there are mixed opinions about the effectiveness of 360-degree feedback, I believe that if it’s conducted correctly, the value can be tremendous.

Many of my clients are reluctant to participate because they believe they will lose credibility in the eyes of the people they work with. I can understand why many of these clients prefer to shy away from wanting to understand the perceptions of others, but doesn’t it seem necessary in an environment that requires them to work with these other people?

Besides, the need to work with others, how are employees ultimately supposed to learn about how they are doing? Often times, my clients are surprised to learn the positive and effects they have had on their organization and on the people that they work with. For example, some learn they need to communicate in a different way to their teams. Others learn that they are doing better than they thought.

All in all, and IF used appropriately, 360-degree feedback assessments are great tools to increase development and behavioral change initiatives in organizations.

Title: Karen and Me

Competencies: managing self, self-development,

Who benefits: each of us individually, poor children in Mexico

Consultant Usage: self-use or sharing with a client

What’s it about? I suspect that after working on this Blog for four years I was due for a mistake.  Well, if you are going to make one, might as well make it BIG!

A few weeks ago I recommended a book to you.  It was not even out but I suggested you pre-order it.  I gave you several sites to review in helping you to make up your mind.

The only problem was … I never did get around to mentioning the book title and giving you the link.  Great, a book review without a book!  Let’s hope I can go another 4 years without a similar error.  Well it is available now and it is as great as advertised!

However it does give me an excellent excuse for today’s post. But before that let me give you the book title, link, and a short summary.  The previously invisible book is Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending.  “If you think money can’t buy happiness, you’re not spending it right.  By the end of this book, readers will ask themselves one simple question whenever they reach for their wallets: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck? Happy Money explains why you can get more happiness for your money by … choosing experiences over stuff, to spending money on others.”

Let me give you a personal story to reinforce why I am such a believer in this book.

As you read this I am on a seven week journey.  It is a physical journey that is taking me from New Orleans through San Antonio through parks in New Mexico and Utah, through the adult Disneyland of Las Vegas to the less adult Disneyland of southern California, along the California coast and a prolonged stay involving many friends in the greater Los Angeles area.

But the real journey is spiritual.  I am escorting a young lady named Karen on her first exposure to the United States.  I first met over 5 years ago when she was working her way through high school in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.  While in Mexico I met children who were in even greater poverty, but by any measure Karen was poor.  She had a powerful blend of internal motivation, IQ and EQ that suggested a successful future ahead for her.

Karen at the University of Guadalajara

She had been accepted into the prestigious University of Guadalajara, in the even more prestigious international business and finance department. She did have a scholarship that would help, but was also clear that she was going to have to work her way through school – 60 – 80 hours a week just to make ends meet.

So instead, I “hired” her.  Her job was to write me each week telling what she was learning.  I, in turn, provided her with a monthly stipend that would allow her to devote fulltime to studies.

The results have paid off in many ways.  She became an “A” student and will graduate with honors in December.  She just finished a 5 month study program at USC (the one in Puerto Rico) and as a result has her US student visa.  Today she travels to New Orleans where her US adventure begins.

Before moving to the present day, I want to share one more part of this story.  I began my relationship with Karen as a sponsor.  Over the years it evolved into a more mentoring process.  And somewhere during that mentoring process it evolved even further.  We “adopted” each other.  She lost her dad when she was young.  Now I am her DAD and she is my HIJA (daughter).  It is a very, very special relationship.

Which brings us to now.  She is here as part of the accelerated learning process that will soon allow her to be a leading businesswoman and role model back in Mexico.  In addition to seeing the sights and sites of the US, which will allow her to see the world in a whole different light, she will have a couple more important exposures.

She wants to work in an international environment.  That means she needs to master English. She still has a way to go, so during this 7 week period I have set up a personal tutoring program for her.  She is taking a 5-week Coursera course in English (with me nearby) and I will have her reading Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life? in English, taking notes in Spanish, and then discussing what she learned with me.  (This works great during our long drives.)

And when we reach Los Angeles she will have an opportunity to meet and talk with some of my longtime friends and colleagues from the business world.  She will talk to them about their business lives and interview them for her senior thesis, tentatively entitled “The Role of the Business Consultant – A US Perspective”.

I want to thank Jeanne, Sue, Lee, Terry, Guillermo, Ken, Sandra and poor Andy who doesn’t know it yet, but we will be in his office bugging him.  There are four more I am hoping will find time for her also.  With these folks she will receive an unofficial Master’s Degree.

You can read more how I met Karen here or how she developed in school here.

Now let me conclude by going back to the book Happy Money.  Do you think my spending money on Karen makes me happy?  I vote yes!  Do you think the time Jeanne, Sue, Lee, Terry, Guillermo, Ken, Sandra and poor Andy will invest in Karen will make them happier?  I think yes!

And one more tidbit about Karen.  Does this process affect her in a positive way? Again, I think yes.  I sponsor three more middle school children in Zihuatanejo through a wonderful organization called Niños Adelante.  One of them is parentless and poor beyond comprehension. He has no real support system.  Do you remember the movie “Pay It Forward”?  That is what Karen is doing.  She has “adopted” the young man in the same way I did with her.  They are now “sister” and “brother”.

Should you feel so moved as to sponsor an intelligent child who might not be able to go to school without some help, check out Friends of Niños Adelante to see how you can help. (An all-volunteer organization with all proceeds going directly to the children.)

And finally, please don’t forget to read Happy Money.  You will be, err, happy that you did!

Catch you later.

Here’s a key quote from the report. The term “HPO” refers to a “High Performing Organization” while an “LPO” is a “Low Performing Organization” as defined by their performance on i4cp’s Market Performance Index.

“More than six in 10 HPOs say the use of high-profile stretch assignments for high-potential employees is a significant factor in the success of their high-potential development programs.”

There’s one thing missing from the discussion that I think is important. The fact that we’re talking about “stretch” assignments means that there’s a possibility of something less than success.

On the personal side, that’s where coaching can ride to the rescue, helping people learn from the failure and move on to the next challenge. It’s important for the person to understand that something less than success, including outright failure isn’t a knockout blow.

That can only happen if it’s the truth. So the people doing the talent review need to be careful. Successful careers include assignments that don’t work out and projects that don’t achieve objectives. The key in talent evaluation is to analyze the “whys” more than just the outcomes.

High profile stretch assignments are great leadership development vehicles. Development should happen whether the assignment is a success or not.

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

Mark Twain

Feedback seems to be pretty important at work–particularly from one’s boss.

What do you think leads to the most disengagement in talent?

1. Little or no feedback

2. Negative feedback

3. Positive feedback

Positive and Negative Feedback

Recent research suggests that feeling emotional hurt, being given critical feedback from your boss, having your ideas rejected by other respected colleagues, being made fun of, or being verbally abused all seem to have the same negative impact on our health.

It seems that emotional pain and physical pain both follow the same neuro pathways in our brain and can both lead to the same outcomes of depression, immune suppression and fatigue. In a nifty study by Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues at UCLA, she was able to use the latest technology  called functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to peer into the inner workings of our brain while a team was involved in a social exercise designed to provoke feelings of social isolation and rejection.

She studied what part of the brain was activated while a group of subjects played a computer game with other individuals they did not know. She created two possibilities of being rejected–either actively or passively (she told them they could not continue because of some technical problems). Comparison of fMRI brain activity in the active exclusion group versus inclusion conditions revealed greater activity in the part of the brain that is associated with physical pain (anterior cingulate cortex). Additionally, the subjects who were rejected also reported feeling psychological distress based on self-report measures¹.

Four additional studies show that recall of past socially painful situations elicits greater pain than reliving a past physically painful event and has greater negative impact on cognitively demanding tasks².

So, we know pretty convincingly that negative feedback certainly can be not only harmful to your health but likely to be highly disengaging due to the “sting” we feel whether we consciously associate it with physical pain. And, some evidence also supports the idea that being socially rejected is equally damaging to us.

Positive Versus Negative Feedback Ratios

Individuals

When we use 360-degree feedback assessments we always include at least 1-2 open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire asking raters about perceived strengths to leverage and behaviors the leader can do more, less or differently to become even more effective.  Smither and Walker (2004) analyzed the impact of upward feedback ratings as well as narrative comments over a one-year period for 176 managers³.

They found that those who received a small number of unfavorable behaviorally based comments improved more than other managers but those who received a large number (relative to positive comments) significantly declined in performance more than other managers.  This is the only study I know of that has found that qualitative feedback in 360 interventions might actually be disengaging and demoralizing to participants if the ratio of positive to negative feedback is low.

Teams

Over the years we have run developmental assessment centers that always have at least one leaderless group exercise.  We can easily observe the differences between groups that appear to function effectively from those who don’t based on the communications and interpersonal behavior of the group members–not how smart any individual is or the collective experience or technical expertise of the members.

Recent studies have established that teams with positive to negative interaction ratios greater than 3 to 1 are significantly more productive than teams that do not reach this ratio (Things can worsen if the ratio goes higher than 13 to 1).   Marcial  Losada brought 60 management teams into a simulated board room where they could hold actual meetings⁴. Behind mirrors, researchers observed and coded every statement made by each individual on three scales: 1.Positive statements (support, optimism, appreciation) versus negative statements (disapproval, sarcasm, cynicism). 2.Self-focused statements (refer to the person speaking, the group present, or the company) versus other-focused statements (references to a person or group not part of the company). 3.Inquiry (questions aimed at exploring an idea) versus advocacy (arguments in favor of their own point of view).

Losada also measured something he called connectivity or how attuned or responsive the team members were to each other.  Finally he gathered data on three dependent variables: profitability, customer satisfaction, and evaluations by superiors, peers and subordinates. In the study, positive to negative ratio (P/N) was measured by counting the instances of positive feedback (e.g. “that is a good idea”) vs. negative feedback (e.g. “this is not what I expected; I am disappointed”).

Overall, high performance teams had a P/N ratio of 5.6, medium performance teams a P/N of 1.9 and low performance teams a P/N of 0.36 (more negative than positive feedback and interactions).
No Feedback and Engagement

Gallup organization asked a random sample of 1,003 employees in the U.S how much they agreed with two statements: 1) My supervisor focuses on my strengths/positive characteristics and 2) My supervisor focuses on my weaknesses or negative characteristics. They were also asked whether they were engaged, not engaged or actively disengaged with their work and jobs.

Employees who did not agree with either statement were characterized as “ignored” in their analyses.

The findings suggest that no feedback might actually do more harm than negative or positive feedback.

• Positive Feedback: In the group that reported their bosses gave them positive feedback in the form of focusing on what they did well (i.e., their strengths), only 1% were actively disengaged and 61% reported being fully engaged.
• Negative Feedback: In the group that reported that their bosses tended to focus on the negative and provide ongoing critical feedback to them, 22% reported being actively disengaged and 45% reported being engaged.
• No Feedback: In the group that reported being largely ignored by their bosses (no positive or negative feedback), 40% reported being actively disengaged and only 2% reported being engaged.

Interestingly, the most disengaged group of employees reported to bosses who seemed to ignore them and provide little or not feedback at all.

The findings of these studies are not surprising in suggesting the intuitive power of defining and leveraging the strengths of talent nor in warming us about the obvious dangers of negative feedback as causing social stress and perceptions of bullying at work.

It would appear that in the case of feedback, less is more is actually not recommended and might have the most negative impact of all followed by a large ratio of negative to positive feedback based on research on groups and teams.

So, go and find that high potential talent today in your organization and tell them something positive or at least something constructive so they can continue to really shine….Be well….

1. Eisenberger, N., Lieberman, M. and Williams, K. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292
2. Chen, Z., Williams, K., Fitness, J. & Newton, N. (2008). When hurt will not heal. Psychological Science, 19, 789-795
3. Smither, J. & Walker, A.G. (2004). Are the characteristics of narrative comments related to improvement in multirater feedback ratings over time? Personnel Psychology, 89, 575-581
4. Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2004). The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model. American Behavioral Scientist, 47, 740–765

Quote of the Week: ”The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.” Robert E. Lee

Humor Break (with apologies to Mark Twain):

Bev: Al, do you think honesty is the best policy?

Al: Sure, when there is money in it.

Stat of the Week: According to a series of new studies just published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, women are more inclined to be ethical than men (3.56 versus 4.97 on a 1-to-7 scale, on average in one of several studies). In its simplest form, the key study suggests women are much less likely to put profit ahead of ethics. Another of the studies suggest that dealing with the question of and pressures applied may keep some women from going the business route.

Action Tip: Hint to recruiters and senior managers: attract, retain, and promote more women now!

Self-Development Corner: Free online university courses beginning next week –  Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The 1st Step in Entrepreneurship (May 20, 6 weeks, University of Maryland); Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations (May 20, 10 weeks, University of British Columbia).

For our many readers in healthcare, Interprofessional Healthcare Informatics (May 20,  10 weeks, University of Minnesota); Rationing and Allocating Scarce Medical Resources (May 20, 7 weeks, University of Pennsylvania).

From the NY Times: Online Hiring Tools Are Changing Recruiting Techniques

“While still relying on candidate referrals from current employees, companies are embracing LinkedIn and a variety of subscription services for a more broad approach at attracting qualified candidates.”

From Right Management: Research Finds Increase in Talent Poaching

“Organizations have made strenuous efforts to hold onto their best people. But new data from our latest body of research tells us that competitive pressures have grown more acute and top talent is being targeted more than ever before. In fact, nearly two out of three employers now complain that other companies seek to hire away their organization’s leaders compared with just 42% last year, according to our study of over 200 CEOs and senior human resource professionals.”

From China Gorman: Getting Onboarding Right: Another Reminder That It’s Not Rocket Science

“The Aberdeen Group published Onboarding 2013: A New Look at New Hires last month and author Madeline Laurano provides data that might help organizations become more effective in retaining the youngest of their workforce.”

From Dan McCarthy: After the Talent Review…Now What?

“Here are 20 suggestions for what to do after a talent review. These are not all sequential – some are, and some are menu items to pick and choose:”

From Derek Irvine: Retaining Top Talent Is More Than Just Telling Employees “Thank You”

“That’s the power of strategic, social recognition done right – it’s the fastest, most cost effective way to impact employee engagement and retention. Indeed, some of our clients have realized double digit increases in engagement and retention in months, not years.”

Title: Getting to the Medical Truth

Competency: managing self

Who benefits: those in need of medical care

Consultant Usage: limited

What’s it about? Today’s post is short. It will be extremely important to a few readers, potentially important to a few others and will be seen as of limited use to many of you. So I am just going to get to point.

When you have medical talks with your doctor, they will often lie to you. They do it primarily because they are altruistic people … or they are in a hurry. When they don’t know or aren’t sure, they tend to give you or yours the benefit of the doubt. They say things like “20%” when they mean “5%”. In their minds these numbers are similar enough. But you may have to make a decision based on that number. And it could be a bad decision just because you don’t have the right information.

Dr. Peter Ubel is a physician and a behavioral scientist at Duke University. He is extremely concerned about patient/doctor relationships and how patients and doctors communicate and make decisions.

It is much more complicated than it seems as he describes in his book Critical Decisions: How You and Your Doctor Can Make the Right Medical Choices Together.

I want to keep focused on what is important about this book. So here are the three critical points: (1) It offers specific advice to doctors on how to communicate honestly with patients; (2) It tells all of us how doctors think; and (3) it teaches patients how to ask the right questions.

If those points are of importance to you, read the book.

You can also get more (and free) readings from Dr. Ubel on his Blog: Peter Ubel on Health, Well-Being, Bioethics, and Behavioral Economics. There is an especially interesting post on why getting your appendix taken out can cost between $2,000 and $180,000 (not a typo).

Finally, there is another recently released book that has received much praise on Amazon: When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests. I haven’t read it, but I am impressed with the passionate support it has received by readers/reviewers. The common theme seems to be “How to take charge of your health and take an active role when consulting with a doctor.”

Catch you later. 

I almost said that. I was chatting with a young friend. I wasn’t thinking about how tough it was, walking in my bare feet through the snow to school, uphill both ways. I was thinking about coaching, or rather the lack of it in my day.

My friend was kvetching about the difficulty of working some coaching sessions into her already jam-packed schedule. It’s hard, but gosh, at least coaching was available.

“When I was your age …”

Yep, I thought that, too. When I was her age there really was no coaching as we know it.

If you got coaching back then, it came from a mentor or from a good friend. A lot of that was very helpful, but face it, it wasn’t coaching the way we know it today.

I don’t ever remember filling out any kind of assessment instrument during my corporate period. If you wanted 360 feedback, you had to figure out how to get it yourself. And there was a bigger problem.

“Fast Trackers” like me were not supposed to need help. Asking for it was not a sign that you wanted to get better, it was a message that you weren’t very good, maybe not good enough to get promoted.

If you did decide you wanted coaching, there was no one to call. There were therapists for behavioral issues and consultants for business, but hardly anyone brought those two worlds together.

Today things are decidedly different and better. Coaching is considered a key part of the mix for any talent development program. i4cp recommends coaching as one of “Five Steps to Accelerate High-Potential Employees’ Launch Toward Leadership.” They recommend both professional coaching and coaching by line managers.

On the professional side, there are all kinds of people hanging out their coaching shingle. People like Mary Jo Asmus, an executive coach with real executive experience, choose to seek certification to master coaching skills. And books like Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It by Sandra Mashihi and Kenneth Nowack can help professionals and also working managers do a better job of coaching.

The fact is that good coaching can be a great learning accelerator and it’s readily available. That’s one way that things are way better today than when I was coming up.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary. 

Mark Twain

Have you ever experienced leaders who seem to lose it during meetings or tense interactions with others–emotions spewing out of them like hot lava leaving an active Mount St. Helens? Or, dealing with those analytical, controlled and “closed” leaders who are always appear to be emotionally constipated?

Feelings expressed or feelings repressed……

Which one do think is most damaging to your health?

Those Who Feel and Express….

Two types of studies tend to illustrate how expression of some emotions in leaders might have serious long term consequences for health.

Anger/Hostility

First, Ed Suarez, Ph.D. at Duke University illustrated an association between anger, hostility and a very important inflammatory marker of cardiovascular disease called C-reactive protein (others have found the same outcome with homocysteine). In his study of 123 healthy non-smoking men and women he found that anger and hostility were significantly associated with higher levels of C-reactive protein while controlling for other factors¹.

This study adds to the growing recognition that practicing “sign language” when being cut off on the freeway may not exactly be the best way to react to social and interpersonal challenges if you want to live long. Indeed, expressing anger seems to increase the inflammatory stress response which can have some negative long term health consequences.

Type D Personality

Second, Johan Denollet, Ph.D. has studied a very interesting personality type he calls “Type D” for many years. “Type D” personality types are identified based on their high scores of negative emotions (e.g., worry and anxiety) and low scores on social inhibition, or being insecure socially and lacking assertiveness.

In just one of his many studies, Denollet followed 319 individuals for five years and tracked cardiovascular events that developed. Individuals high in “Type D” were four times more likely to suffer a second heart attack than “non-D Types”².

However, recent research using different statistical analyses that were not utilized in the initial studies do not tend to support the earlier claims that Type D personality is an independent risk factor at least equivalent in importance to the other “conventional” coronary heart disease predictor factors³.  Despite this recent negative finding, the authors still suggest that expressed anxiety and depression may play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

Emotional Expressive Writing

The interest in the relationship between expressive writing and health has grown in the last few years. The first study was published in 1986. By 1996, approximately 20 studies had been published. By 2009, over 200 have been published in English language journals.

Although many studies have examined psychological and physical health outcomes, an increasing number have explored writing’s effects on a wide variety of outcomes including:

• Attitude change
• Creativity
• Working memory
• Motivation,
• Life satisfaction
• School performance
• Health‐related behaviors

Current research suggest that writing sessions greater than 15 minutes were more potent than writing sessions less than 15 minutes⁴.

Although several variations on the expressive writing method have been tested, none have been found to be consistently superior to the original trauma writing or other methods that encourage the participants’ freely choosing their writing topic.  Just getting your feelings out in writing seem to be equally powerful whether you accentuate the positive or negative aspects of them.

Those Who Keep Emotions In….

What about those of us who don’t express feelings such as anxiety and anger? These individuals also appear to be at risk to get sick and equally vulnerable to cardiovascular disease and even cancer⁵.

My friend and true “data shaman” Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. at the University of Arizona School of Medicine was one of the first to explore the relationship between those who work so hard to present themselves (and others) in an overly posive light and health. These “repressive copers” don’t report being anxious at all–in fact, they report just the opposite. Individuals who utilize repressive coping tend to work hard to create very favorable and positive impressions to others (high impression management) and report little or no worry, anger and anxiety (low negative affect).

In fact, those of us who tend to “repress” emotions appear to be at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and even breast cancer⁶.

Apparently, the energy to repress emotions is physiological taxing to ourselves but seems to give most others in our lives a break! Some preliminary research using 360 degree feedback also suggests these leaders might actually be prone to “over estimating” their strengths and working endlessly to self-promote themselves to others. These self-enhancing leaders might not only be high risk to derail because of inaccuracy about their skills, knowledge and abilities but they might also be prone to getting sick.

A very new meta-analytic study of over 22 studies revealed significant associations between repressive coping, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, especially hypertension⁷. For repressors, the risk of a cancer diagnosis is increased by 51% in over 10 published studies included in this review but it is important to note that this association was evident only following the diagnosis (i.e., this type of coping might be a consequence and not a cause of cancer).

Emotional Expression–What Do We Know?

We can make at least three conclusions about expressing or holding in emotions:

1. Expressing negative emotions seems to be pretty strongly associated with negative long term health consequences.
2. It’s not the negativity of the emotions, per se that is the problem, but how leaders cope with these emotions.
3. It seems more important to feel good, than having a goal of merely feeling good.

How are you feeling at this point?

At least expressing how you feel might make you better…..Be well….

1. Suarez, E. (2004). C-Reactive Protein Is Associated With Psychological Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease in Apparently Healthy Adults. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66:684-691
2. Denollet J, Vaes J, Brutsaert DL. Inadequate response to treatment in coronary heart disease: adverse effects of Type D personality and younger age on 5-year prognosis and quality of life. Circulation 2000; 102:630–5
3. James C Coyne, Tiny Jaarsma, Marie-Louise Luttik, Eric van Sonderen, Dirk J van Veldhuisen and Robbert Sanderman, (2011). Lack of Prognostic Value of Type D Personality for Mortality in a Large Sample of Heart Failure Patients, Psychosomatic Medicine, 73, 7, 557-562
4. Chung, C. K., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Variations in the spacing of expressive writing sessions. British Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 15-21
5. Schwartz, G. (1990). The psychobiology of repression and health. In J. Singer (Ed.), Repression and dissociation (pp. 405-434). Chicago: University of Chicago Press
6. McKenna, C., Zevon, M., Corn, B., & Rounds, J. (1999). Psychosocial factors and the development of breast cancer: A meta-analysis. Health Psychology. Volume 18(5) 520-531
7. Mund, M. & Mitte, K. (2012).  The cost of repression: A meta-analysis on the relation between repressive coping and somatic diseases.  Health Psychology, 31, 640-649

Quote of the Week: “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin

Humor Break:

Bev: Al, it says here in this article that when you give a public speech you should follow the “4-S Rule.” What’s that?

Al: Stand up. Speak out. Shut up. Sit Down.

Stat of the Week: Today you get a bonus. Two articles on communication for the price of …free. First, Five Presentation Mistakes Everyone Makes. Read this article only if you have ever sat through a truly boring presentation. Or if you have ever given a public talk and afterwards someone said to you “Oh, that was a very, err, interesting presentation”. Second, 5 more tips aimed at better writing skills: Don’t Anesthetize Your Colleagues with Bad Writing

Action Tip: Most of us could do with better speaking and writing skills. We tend to underutilize the former and way overestimate our skills in the latter. For those who are interested in an honest evaluation of their writing skills, read the newly published HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. It is an easy read (as one would hope considering the subject matter and title). And, as the author warns, don’t let your writing be a career derailer.

Self-Development Corner: Coming up next week on Coursera, the free online university: Most appropriately for this week’s post (and a terrific class if you have a teen at home): Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (May 13, 5 weeks, Mt. San Jacinto College); or if you are old enough to remember the “good old days” and you want a touch of nostalgia, History of Rock, Part One (May 13, 7 weeks, University of Rochester).

También, para nuestros lectores en México, el resto de Latinoamérica, España y otros hablantes de español, Continuidad y desarrollo de la empresa familiar (May 13, 6 weeks, Tecnológico de Monterrey).

From Charlotte Hughes: Do You Need To Redesign Your Leadership Development Program?

“Change isn’t always welcome, but it is necessary. Especially in this time of frequent and fast-paced changes in the market and economy, smart organizations recognize that improving programs and processes to better align with change is critical. For leaders in the development and leadership space, this very well may mean a redesign of a company’s leadership development program. If you are pondering such a move, then one or more of the following is likely true:”

From Mel Kleiman: 10 Top Tips, Tools & Techniques to Attract & Recruit Top Talent

“I cannot tell you what each applicant wants most because only the applicant knows that, but I can tell you how to find out what applicants value most: Ask them what they want or expect from their jobs.”

From DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence: Why Super Human-Capital Manufacturers Outperform Their Peers

“World-class manufacturing is impossible without word-class talent. Yet 70 percent of U.S. manufacturers aren’t anywhere near having world-class human-capital management. That’s one of the findings of a new study DDI has just published in partnership with The MPI Group.”

From Max Nisen: Big data in the workplace

“Hiring decisions have always been limited to a few imperfect factors, including what appears on a resume and what impression a candidate gives off in an informal interview.  That’s all changing.”

Carnivals and Such

Leadership Development Carnival hosted by Karin Hurt

Carnival of HR hosted by Robert Tanner at Management Journey

Title: How Long do You Want to Live?

Competencies: managing self, self-development, exercise/physical activity, sleep/rest, stress management, eating/nutrition, psychological well-being

Who benefits: anyone interested in personal health and longevity

Consultant Usage: wellness advocates and coaches

What’s it about? I have been collecting health tips from books and articles. I especially like reading them in lieu of exercise, after a sleepless night, while eating some cheesecake ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.

Some of these tips are general; others specific. Some aren’t new, one is a bit off-the-wall. But hey, if you want to live a long life, consider some of these:

A Mediterranean diet with olive oil and nuts (the kind you eat) is as good as drugs when it comes to preventing heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiovascular disease says The New England Journal of Medicine, as reported in the New York Times.

Time Magazine recently interviewed some Harvard Medical School doctors for their advice on healthy living. At least one piece of advice was unexpected and likely to be ignored by every friend I have. Guess which one:

Doctor #1 – “Trick yourself into exercise.” Treadmill and TV is his personal solution.

Doctor #2 – “Make mental health a priority.” She has a group of friends that email each other every Friday night and report on their successes for the week.

Doctor #3 – “Avoid smart phones.” Doc doesn’t own one. Says they pull him in 10 directions at once – his personality requires him to look at every message – and it drives him crazy. He adds that going crazy is bad for your health.

Doctor #4 – “Seek and share joy.” Relationships, personal fulfillments and optimism are good prescriptions for good health.

This Blog reader Lilia has her own personal Blog, Fit Foods For Thought, that is unique. It is a running commentary on food and personal growth. It is an opportunity to look into another person’s introspection. Check out her latest post “Beauty Foods”.

And finally, this thought. Why be healthy? Why be fit? The answer is likely to be something like “I want to live a long and healthy life.” Well guess what? Living a healthy life style and modern medicine is making that more and more possible. Be careful what you ask for. Living a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long life may not always be the best option. With longevity comes some other very interesting questions that are dealt with by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner in his book Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality.

Catch you later.

I spent an awful lot of time standing in front of a pinball machine, feeding it nickels, flipping the flippers, watching the ball, and listening to the score ring up. Scores on most machines reached astronomical levels, but pinball wasn’t about the score as much as getting to play again.

That was the big payoff: you got to play again. That’s the Pinball Principle. If you win, you get to play again. I think it’s a great way to think about talent development.

In pinball you get to play again when you win. In talent development you should get to move on to a bigger challenge. You get to move on based on your performance, not potential.

You can use the most sophisticated tests and apply savvy analysis to guessing who the winners will be in the talent development game. We call them “high potentials.” But in the end, potential is just a guess. As Harold Geneen used to say: “Only performance is reality.”

People grow and develop by meeting challenges. So give them challenges. Give the ones who do well the opportunity to move on to bigger challenges.

The Pinball Principle is all about moving from guessing potential to gauging performance. Do it as soon as you can.

“Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.”

Satchel Paige

Our own research suggests that 40% to 60% of all employees express a moderately high level of stress on the job. Our work and non-work lives are very permeable with most of us taking work stress home and home stress to our job¹.

How many of you in committed relationships have really two partners: 1) Your significant other and 2) His or her computer or mobile phone? Today, it is increasingly difficult to “get away” whether at home, during our weekends or even on a holiday.

All of this adds up to increased risk for a variety of adverse psychological and physical health outcomes. It is generally accepted that “recovery activities” (psychological detachment, relaxation, and challenging off-the-job experiences providing opportunities for learning and success) might help energy, mood and performance the following day.

A recent study by Sonnentag and colleagues at the University of Konstanz focusing on 166 public administration employees tested what techniques are actually associated with job-stress recovery². Their results from daily survey data analyzed over the course of one week revealed the following:

• Inability to detach psychologically from work (refraining from working on job tasks or cognitively thinking about issues, problems or challenges) was associated with significantly higher fatigue and negative affect (anxiety, anger, distress) the next day
• Active relaxation activities during the evening was only significantly associated with morning serenity (a state of feeling calm, relaxed and at ease)
• Involvement with challenging off-job experiences providing opportunities for learning and success during the evening was significantly associated with positive activation the next morning (a state of high positive feelings and high arousal such as feeling active, strong, and confident)
• Getting adequate quality and quantity of sleep the night before demonstrated significant associations with morning serenity and positive affect and less fatigue

As Sonnentag points out, these results might sound like a lot of effort to tell us what we already know. But taken together, they really suggest that most of us need to do a better job of separating behaviorally and cognitively the concept of “leaving the office.”

Her study though does point out that if you want to avoid fatigue and negative affect you need to separate mentally from work but if your goal is to achieve greater relaxation and positive affect the next day it’s best to engage in activities after work and in the evening that you find interesting, challenging and exciting. And sleep quality/quantity was the strongest predictor of all outcomes so getting our zzzz’s at night really makes sense.

Wise companies should take a look at this study if they truly value the employees they hire and want to keep maximally productive. Organizations today are asking more from all of us with less resources being made available–a quick formula for not being able to switch off from work.

Guess I will take a break and get back to work in my home office to clean up a few things left over from my work day….Be well….

1. Nowack, K. (2006). Optimising Employee Resilience: Coaching to Help Individuals Modify Lifestyle. Stress News, International Journal of Stress Management, Volume 18, 9-12
2. Sonntag, S., Binnewies, & Moja, E. (2008). Did you have a nice evening? A day-level study on recovery experiences, sleep and affect. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 674-684