Tuesday, January 26, 2010
In Part One of this two-part series I introduced the topic of overcoming anxiety, shared my battle, put forth a partial list of well-known people who fought an anxiety disorder at some point and their life, and sought to provide motivation for taking steps to conquer it. I also mentioned that, according to some studies, highly intelligent people (execs, successful entrepreneurs, consultants, gifted creatives, etc.) are seven times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. If you missed it, you can find it here.
I’m going to now dive right in and summarize Dr. Stan Hibbs three step solution to overcoming anxiety. It’s what he taught me, and he’s put it in written form in his book Anxiety Gone.
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Saturday, January 23, 2010
Psychologists will tell you that a key motivator in life is fear. All people, especially leaders, must manage their behavior daily in dozens of different situations.
Much of our behavior, particularly our anxieties, are driven by conditioned responses. I’m not going to attempt to delve into the details of how they interrelate, but suffice it to say we respond to stimuli in such a way that our brains develop a pattern that make some of our actions almost reflexive in nature.
This is why most of us hate going to the dentist: While “George” was having a cavity filled by his dentist, the drill hit a nerve a couple of times that had not been dulled by anesthetic. Each time he cringed in pain. Our poor George now gets anxious each time he sees the dentist). Though this topic strays from my usual subjects, I am writing about it primarily for four reasons:
1. Everyone experiences anxiety and how we handle it will influence our level of personal and professional fulfillment.
2. Having dealt with it in somewhat of an extreme sense – I’ll share more about what happened in my story below – I’ve invested quite a bit of time learning strategies for handling it.
3. Highly intelligent people (read many execs, consultants, successful entrepreneurs, and gifted creatives) are by some estimates seven times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder than a person of average intelligence.
4. We lead from our character and skills. That which makes one a more capable person makes him a better leader and businessperson.
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Saturday, January 16, 2010
Like you most likely, I’ve kept myself fairly abreast of what is happening with the host and schedule changes at the Tonight Show. When NBC began the dual Conan/Leno comedy experiment seven months ago, out of curiosity I checked the ratings about every month and read a few commentaries from entertainment industry pundits on how it was fairing.
Though I’m no late show connoisseur – I watched Leno occasionally and Conan less – there are a number of lessons for leaders in this whole thing, and I’m going to highlight one: When you’re losing it’s easy to get impatient. Continue Reading
Friday, January 8, 2010
As a fairly young, 30-year-old employer I make workplace mistakes. In fact, quite often. But having worked in several company environments and at differing levels at this point I have the basics pretty well down.
Based on lessons I’ve learned the hard way and from my experience managing workplace teams for close to a decade, below is my list of the top eight mistakes young employees make. If you’re just starting out in business, this is what I wish someone had told me when I was in your position. If you’re new to managing a team or have young team members, consider this a roadmap to some negatives you probably will have to deal with.
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Friday, January 1, 2010
Societies and their individuals tend to place value judgments on things that are value neutral, at times carelessly ascribing positive value to something without virtue and negative value to that which is not faulty.
Last night, while we spent some needed time together, my wife shared how she struggled with the idea of how “simple” she was. We started talking about simplicity versus complexity and the value of each in its place. It struck me how clearly Brandi placed a strong intrinsic negative value on simplicity.
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