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“Creating Successful Leaders”

October 30, 2013 What Makes You Tick? Brain Science and Fulfilling Work

Deep within all of us beats a primal desire to contribute something of value to this world and to stand out as a positive person in the eyes of others. Great managers make this happen.

It’s always nice to find authors who base their ideas in good research. The quote above comes from the book Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People, and its author, Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., does just that.

It turns out–surprise–that happy workers are better workers, but what makes this book interesting is the way it explains the brain science behind why this is true.

Although it is primarily directed at managers, its insight applies to all of us regardless of our position. One of the book’s main themes is that the human brain is wired to work hard, and we are fulfilled when we are fully engaged in our work. Even so, Hallowell points to several common pitfalls people encounter even in work they enjoy. Examples of this are feeling disconnected from peers, feeling overworked, and being afraid to take risks.

The formula for what Hallowell calls “shining”–excelling in your work and feeling fulfilled–is a concise, five step process:

1. Select-choosing the right job

2. Connect-interacting face-to-face with peers on a daily basis

3. Play-having room to experiment and get creative in your position

4. Grapple and grow-being challenged, but not overwhelmed

5. Shine-when all the above steps come together, you find real excitement in your work

Many clients come to me feeling unsure about whether they’re in the right job. Although we’re often able to work together to make positive changes within the job itself, there are cases where clients would do better to fill a different role. But you can’t know what job is best for you until you know your own strengths, and this is where Insights comes in. I’ve helped numerous people “re-calibrate” themselves by helping them fully appreciate the unique strengths they bring to their teams. Once you get that big ball rolling, the rest follows. You connect more easily with your peers. You feel comfortable in your ability to experiment, or “play.” You’re confident in your ability to take on challenges. And you find fulfillment in your job, as it is based on something you’re good at doing, and like doing. But it all starts with being in tune with yourself.

Reference

Hallowell, Edward M., MD, Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2011.

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October 23, 2013 On Organization: Let’s Learn From The Chefs

“Type A” people are too often misunderstood as overly strict and tightly wound when it comes to organization. Actually, we can learn from the type A’s out there. Their strict adherence to systems of organization may seem strange to a “go-with-the-flow” type of person, but they pay such close attention to sticking to the systems not to be weirdos, but to make things easier on themselves.

A timeless philosophy from the culinary tradition epitomizes the power of a well-organized work space:

Mise en place.

It’s French, and it translates roughly to “everything in its place.”

Going the extra mile in preparation for tasks helps you. It makes you work faster. It minimizes stress. It gives you free time. Imagine you’re a chef and all the things at your desk are different ingredients. Putting all the things in their place makes work flow beautifully, which is what mise en place is all about.

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October 16, 2013 How Do You Decide What To Decide?

Decisions bombard us every minute of every hour of our day. They come in all types: some are so trivial and daily–like choosing what to wear or eat–that we hardly notice them, while other types of decisions can make life pretty stressful. Still others appear trivial at first, but turn out to be deceivingly tricky. How to word an email, for instance, seems small but can be extremely difficult.

So the question inevitably comes along: How do we make decisions, and how do we know that our decisions are good at the time that we make them?

Understanding a bit of psychology helps us answer these questions. We know, for example, that gut decisions are generally not good decisions, because they are fueled by our emotions, which as we know, can shift in a heartbeat. Tony Swartz, CEO of The Energy Project, writes that “Our first challenge is resist being reactive. Many of our worst decisions occur after we’ve been triggered–meaning that something or someone pushes us into negative emotion and we react instinctively, fueled by our stress hormones, in a state of fight or flight.”

Any decision we make under this kind of fight or flight stress is only concerned with resolving the present issue and disregards future consequences. You can see why this usually doesn’t work out. A shortsighted perspective yields rash decisions that cause more stress in the long run.

This isn’t to say that decisions should be completely divorced from your feelings. Some decisions that make the most logical sense aren’t always the best decisions to make. Sometimes irrational decisions yield the greatest benefits (see my post on taking risks). So I know that our feelings are deeply tied to how we choose, as they should be. However, I do want to caution you to take a step back when you have the urge to make an impulsive decision. If it’s a decision you should make, that feeling will stay with you, and therefore you can sit on it for a day.

This is because good decisions are based on how you’ll benefit from them in the long run . Of course, what you wear today is not a very world-shattering decision, but you can view your little decisions as components of larger patterns. What you tend to wear, or how you tend to eat, compose a larger lifestyle you create for yourself. And because all the aspects of your lifestyle are connected, you can always trace your larger decisions back to the small ones.

In summary:

1. Good Decisions aren’t based on reactions. Decisions should be thorough, and to be thorough you need perspective, which leads to point 2…

2. Good Decisions are made when you have a healthy view of yourself and your surroundings.

3. Good Decisions follow your deepest convictions. What values do you hold to? Where do you see yourself a few years down the line? What are your dreams? These questions help guide you to making the decisions that give you the life you want to have.

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