More Research Supports LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY...

A new survey from Salary.com suggests that workers who are emotionally disengaged from their work are less productive. Which is exactly the point I made in my first book LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY (the research in support of this point was overwhelming when LEADING PEOPLE was published ... and continues to grow.

The survey, as reported in Reuters, found:

"... about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day.

it then went on to say:

The reasons why people wasted time were varied with nearly 18 percent of respondents questioned by e-mail in June and July said boredom and not having enough to do was the main reason.

The second most popular reason for wasting time was having too long hours (13.9 percent), being underpaid (11.8 percent), and a lack of challenging work (11.1 percent).

Leaders who are serious about building their bottom line will take note: emotional engaged employees are always better for the bottom line. Always.

As a leader, what have you done today to build emotional engagement?

We are family ... part II

Previously, I wrote about the National Geographic article that described research showing how humans came from one source. Now Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology recently announced genetic research conducted that suggests human came from a single point in Africa. The article, by Ben Hirschler reported in Reuters on July 19th, 2007, continues and says,

The genetic evidence has always strongly supported the single origin theory, and now results from a study of more than 6,000 skulls held around the world in academic collections supports this case.
"We have combined our genetic data with new measurements of a large sample of skulls to show definitively that modern humans originated from a single area in Sub-Saharan Africa," said Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology.

Research continues to show that we are ... literally ... biologically related to each other. The person down the street and the person around the globe are all distant relatives. Every leader should think on this.

All things Harry ...

As this weekend is the release of the 7th and final Harry Potter book, you can read about my blog on Harry Potter and Emotional Intelligence.

Enjoy the book.

Mindful Empiricism...

A new meta-study released today reports the difficulty in drawing conclusions about the efficacy of meditation practices, inlcluding mindfulness.

With the headline of "Meditation Won't Boost Health: Study," the media immediately gets it wrong. Scientific research cannot say something "can't" be done; good research reports that there is no strong connection between two factors.

The meta-study, conducted by Maria Ospina and Kenneth Bond of the University of Alberta/Capital Health Evidence-based Practice Centre, in Edmonton reviewed a number of studies into meditation and took other researchers to task for essentially designing flawed studies.

Personally, I am convinced of the importance of meditation training. While it certainly is not a magical cure-all, I am certain that once meditation is studied under rigorous scientific conditions, it's impact will be validated.

I applaud the Evidence-based Practice Centre for pushing the boundaries of scientific studies forward!

Fascinating discussion of plagiarism

As an author and coach/teacher, I am following with keen interest the current discussion on plagiarism.

I just came across this fascinating article by Malcolm Gladwell about plagiarism from the New Yorker. The article is from 2004, but still very relevant. Use YouTube to listen to the various songs when he gets to the discussion about plagiarism and music.

This is relevant for leaders as Mr. Gladwell opens up the discussion about looking at something seemingly as cut-and-dried as plagiarism.

Great stuff!

Tim

Generational Decoding Resource

Want to know who Buddy Rich is? Do you know the words to the "Oscar Meyer Wiener" jingle? Curious about what band Michael Stipe is in?

Baby boomers. Generation X. Generation Y. Millenials.Today there are more generations in the the workforce than ever before. Trouble is, different generations have completely different points of reference. Important generational icons for one age group might be completely unknown to another.

The answer? Use Wikipedia.

An on-line open-source encyclopedia, wikipedia is an excellent resource for explaining all things cultural. As an open-source encyclopedia, wikipedia is open to input from everyone (including you!), so I would suggest caution in believing the specific facts that are given in any particular entry.

While perhaps not the best tool for research, wikipedia can quickly give you specific answers to cultural minutia that you hear around the water cooler.

BOTTOM LINE: Great leaders stay open to learning about what is important to each of the generations they work with.


answers:

a. Buddy Rich was a famous big-band and jazz drummer.
b. "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener, for that is what I'd truly like to be ..."
c. R.E.M.

Mindfulness Works!

In an article from Live Science, researchers have discovered empirical evidence to support meditation and other mindfulness practices.

The article by Melinda Wenner describes new reseach completed at UCLA that,

"Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.” "

According to the article, the study's lead author, UCLA psychologist Matt Lieberman describes the study in these words:

“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science. "

Read the full article here:
http://www.livescience.com/health/070629_naming_emotions.html


BOTTOM LINE: Superior Leaders Practice Mindfulness.