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Blog postEarlier this week, I found myself talking with the chief of staff to the chief executive at a large company. The two of them had been on the road together for four consecutive weeks. I asked how that felt. “It’s brutal,” he said. “But it’s typical. My boss essentially has no openings on his schedule for the next three months.” Think about that for a moment: This executive had no times at work when he could just breathe deep and relax for a half hour, nor could he step back after a key meetin
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Blog postRead Time: Our next big bubble? (Part I) here A few weeks ago, I attended a conference for CHRO’s that consistently touched upon the theme of enriching the ‘human era’ in today’s workplace. Why did the wellbeing of the modern professional resonate with the audience? The reasons were made painfully clear: we, as a workforce, are breaking down. Articles like Fortune's 'Is Silicon Valley Bad for Your Health?' reveal that, on average, more than three out of four individuals in high-demand industr
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Blog postIn the last several weeks, I had two radically different experiences spending extended time with leaders at two large, global companies. A long, alcohol-fueled dinner with the first group was a pure downer: dull, rote and devoid of positive energy.
The day with the second — a group of young managers at Google — was utterly exhilarating. After eight hours together, discussing what it takes to be an inspiring leader, the conversation was still going strong.
What accounts for the d -
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Blog postWorking extremely long hours undermines our productivity while putting our health and well-being at risk. Yet one in seven Americans working full-time still spends 50 or more hours at work per week. Here’s how to kick the long work hours habit - once and for all. Unrelenting demands on the job. Mile long to-do lists. Meetings, meetings and more meetings. In today’s high-pressure workplace, when does the work get done? For many working Americans, the answer has been to stretch the work day and w
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Blog postFor two years now, we have been holding regular "community" meetings at our office to give team members an opportunity to check in about how they're doing, not just professionally but also personally. Each person answers several questions beginning with a deceptively simple one: "How are you feeling today?"* The rest of us simply listen.
It was only when we faced a sudden crisis that I finally understood why these meetings had been so important. On a weekend last Oc -
Blog postI had a coaching conversation with an executive from a large bank, Brad, who shared with me the practices he has recently implemented. He chose a particularly unique one that has had such a dramatic impact on his energy and the quality of his life that I thought it was worth sharing. Brad decided that he was going to completely separate his work communication from his personal communication. In order to accomplish this, his first action step before implementing his practice was to purchase a s
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Blog postWhy does Michael Phelps keep returning to a brutal training regimen in the pool, long after he’s achieved every imaginable accolade as a swimmer? Why do men who have earned hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions, work relentlessly to earn even more, long after it could possibly make any material difference in their lives? Why does a substantial group of politicians with no remote chance of being elected president feel compelled to traverse the country campaigning 18 hours a day for more
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Blog post“Great design is a multi-layered relationship between human life and its environment.”
–Naoto Fukasawa Many people believe culture is intangible and cannot be intentionally altered, but in fact, policies and practices can be deliberately designed, tested, and tweaked. As the designer, Robert L. Peters has said, “Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.” Today some of the most forward-looking companies are engaging employees by designing policies and prac -
Blog postEarlier this week, I had a call with the chief executive of a $5 billion company who has traveled four to five days a week for many years. She sounded utterly exhausted. “When times get tough,” she told me, “the only way I’ve ever known is to muscle through. I just can’t do it anymore. I’ve hit bottom. The problem is that I’ve been numb for so long, I’m honestly not sure if I can find my way back to a sane life.” Last week, I led a session in Europe for a senior team at a large multinational c
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Blog postNew research shows that America’s working parents are grumpy. Policies that help employees balance work and home life can make parents happier. Better still, work-life policies fuel the sustainable high performance of all employees and give employers an edge in attracting and retaining top talent. They're especially important for retaining Millennials, many of whom are starting families. Parents are less happy than their childless peers in most wealthy countries, and nowhere is that gap bigger
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Blog postThe central dilemma of a modern leader is to balance apparently conflicting virtues and beliefs without choosing sides between them. Decisiveness, for example, is widely and rightly perceived as crucial to effective leadership. It’s the opposite of uncertainty and insecurity, which are paralyzing. But decisiveness overused eventually congeals into certainty. The balancing opposite is openness. This week, the news program “60 Minutes” ran a segment on a Louisiana prosecutor named Marty Stroud.
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Blog postSusan is a clinical Social Worker who is the Director of a residential center that specializes in the treatment of children who have been the victims of abuse or other crimes. Susan attended a recent session of our program, PeopleFuel. During the ritual building exercise, she became overwhelmed and began to cry. She explained to the group that she is so totally inundated that she found it impossible to even find the first step to getting her life back under control. She is a full-time working
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Blog postMeet Robert, a managing director at a leading investment bank. Robert is financially successful, has three thriving children, and is greatly admired professionally. He devotes a significant amount of his personal time to mentoring and recruiting new talent. And he is a loving father. He coaches his children’s little league teams and takes them out for breakfast every Saturday morning. He’s also a dutiful son, spending the rest of his free time caring for his ailing father. All around, Robert
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Blog postMeet Clare. She is the number one salesperson in the Northeast for a software systems company. She is a single mother of three children, 15, 11, and 9. Clare is a woman on the go! She has to travel a great deal for her job, and when she is home, she is constantly running, balancing the demands of her career with the needs of her three children. She often feels that she is moving at such a fast pace that she loses sight of who she wants to be and how she can contribute to the world at large.
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Blog postWho doesn’t love the Final Five? The USA women’s gymnastics team’s discipline, incredible skill, determination, and friendly attitudes make them lovable across the globe. But what struck me the most during the women’s all-around final was Aly Raisman’s quick shift in focus from a not-so-stellar performance on uneven bars to an outstanding performance on beam. The end result: she won her first silver medal in an individual event. NBC’s coverage showed one of the US coaches chiding Raisman on
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Blog postMany people regard innovation as one magical moment of insight, but in actuality, it’s methodology, not magic, that turns vision into reality. In fact, no matter how incredible an insight, game-changing ideas will almost always be squashed at companies without processes in place for moving new ideas forward. This systemic failure to adopt new ideas can be traced back to competing commitments—conscious or unconscious obligations that rival our stated goals. In the business environment, where we
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Blog postFrom 2007 to 2009, the value of real estate owned by U.S. households fell by a staggering amount: approximately $6 trillion. Michael Burry, the eccentric, "MD turned financial genius" who served as the central character in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short, was one of the very few who predicted the subprime mortgage crisis would occur. It may now seem obvious that over 15% of the mortgage market would default, but to those in the midst of it—the millions of Americans who could suddenly affo
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Blog postRecently, I was talking about spiritual energy with Audrey, one of my coaching clients. Two of her deepest values were “safety” and “honesty”. She felt that she was not living these values as fully as she could when she engaged in office gossip, or complaining to co-workers about others’ behavior. She implemented a ritual that targeted living her values more fully. She decided to try and stop talking negatively about people behind their backs. The first step in her process was to reflect on h
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Blog postThink about the best boss you’ve ever had.
What adjectives could be used to describe that person? My colleagues at The Energy Project have asked this question to thousands of people and hear the same responses over and over: Encouraging Positive Smart Inspiring Visionary Decisive Kind Fair Calm Supportive It turns out these qualities translate specifically to the well-recorded behaviors of the best creative leaders: Encouraging, positive, and smart. The best leaders create a safe -
Blog postA few Fridays ago I was struck by news that thrust me into a state of survival. I reacted as any ambitious, rational person would - I went to work. I did everything I could to ‘fix’ the problem. The result was I ended up working more than half the weekend. I thought this would allow me to start the week ahead of the curve, that I was more prepared to confront any unexpected distractions or challenges that should come my way. I was wrong. By Tuesday afternoon I was irritated, tired, and overwh
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Blog postOne afternoon a few years ago, a colleague of mine who wasn't then a parent remarked how I must be counting the minutes until I left work and reunited with my young children. "That must be your favorite part of the day." I gave her a blank stare that may have cast doubt on my humanity. Since then, I’ve been conducting a straw poll, asking fellow parents at pick-up whether this is indeed the most arduous part of the day for them, too. Without exception or hesitation, they always say yes
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Blog postMeet Amhed, a brilliant engineer in his thirties who works for a prestigious high tech firm. He loves his career but spent the first year with his new boss repeatedly struggling with a trigger (a consistent, strong negative response). The trigger occurs whenever he submits a report, consisting of codes and programs, to his boss, because she always returns it to him completely covered with her comments. These excessive comments make him feel that she thinks his work is sub-par, leaving him agita
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Blog postHands up: Do you ever leave work feeling anxious, stressed, and wound up from the day? You try to “relax” before you walk in the front door to meet your family—but to no avail. You enter your home to greet your family, but a part of you isn’t there.
When I walk through the door, my children fire a list of demands before I even have my shoes off. I’ve heard from many executives I work with that they use their commute home to catch up on phone calls or emails and literally work up until -
Blog postOur core emotional need is to feel secure and valued. Events that threaten this security seem intolerable, so much so that we become preoccupied, squandering our energy trying to restore our sense of value. It is as if we are drowning, desperately trying to get our head above water. It has been life-changing for me to consider the notion that holding people’s value is at the heart of every interaction. When my son was eleven, I had a profound experience that reinforced how powerful this phenom
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Blog post“Do you feel passionately committed to what you do?” This is one of the questions on The Energy Audit, a 20-question quiz that we give to all of our clients to determine how well they’re managing their energy. The question sparked an interesting and heartfelt discussion during a session I facilitated recently. One young woman in this session has been so successful in her company that she has been identified as a “high potential” and has been placed on a special track for future leaders. After
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Blog postCarol is a partner at a prestigious law firm. She works more than 60 hours a week, not including time on the weekend. Carol came to us for coaching because she felt completely out of control. She couldn’t find time to get her hair cut, let alone work out regularly, cook a meal, or see her friends. The time she spent with her husband and two teenage children was catch-as-catch-can and largely transactional. Carol’s husband and children frequently had to compete with her smartphone for attentio
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Blog postWe perform better when our most pressing needs are met. That is common sense, and it is also supported by a raft of research. Even so, it’s far easier to treat people like machines, without worrying about how they’re feeling. When I ask business leaders whether they believe that their employees perform better when they are happier, healthier and more fulfilled, the answer is always yes. When I then ask if they systematically invest in making their employees happier, healthier and more fulfille
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Blog postIf the process of turning a new idea into reality at your corporation feels easy, you’re pretty much alone. For the majority of us, implementing an innovative idea at a corporation is akin to running a marathon, with no end in sight. In fact, the innovation process is so difficult that even after being patented, 98 percent of ideas never make it to market.1 Yet some people stand out for creating and implementing idea after idea. Working at The Energy Project, I have learned that the mindset
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Blog postWe’d failed. The executive who'd attended our kickoff presentation had rejected even our most basic premise. What he did manage to do, though, as we discovered after returning for a fresh meeting several weeks later, was recite a joke my colleague had told. She didn't even remember telling it (it was about a consultant and a dog), but for whatever reason, it had stuck. That joke— which was immaterial, from our perspective, to the learning goals of the session—had somehow cracked our client’s b
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Blog postDear Burned Out,
I left our discussion last night feeling a great sense of concern and to be honest, wishing that I could offer something more profound in terms of relief. I struggle at times with a certain level of paradox with regard to our work. I understand that the challenges you and others face with regard to demand are significant and daunting and that the “solutions” we offer sometimes seem simplistic in comparison. I was reflecting on this after we spoke and I have a fe -
Blog postLike you, I admire people who are effortlessly smooth in uncomfortable situations. And like you, I can be cool under pressure and warm easily to others—some of the time. I’m not like that much of the time, though. Truthfully, I’ve felt awkward most of my life—and maybe you have, too. In fact, being able to tolerate awkwardness might be just as good a skill as avoiding or overcoming it. Here’s why embracing awkwardness can help us through tricky situations at work—and how to do it. Awkward Mom
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Blog postJoe is a senior executive who oversees marketing for a multibillion-dollar business. On a typical workday last year, you would have frequently observed a red-faced Joe yelling at his team, slamming doors when he didn't get the response he wanted, or hanging up his phone when he became angry or overwhelmed. It's fair to say that Joe's team feared him more than they respected him. Do you work for someone like Joe? Is there someone in your organization like him? Are you that person? The Ration
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Blog postMillennials are entitled, pampered, creative, and idealistic. As co-workers, they are both impressive and irritating—and as performers, high-achieving but frustratingly needy. So goes the cliché. How true is it? The Energy Project has worked closely with millennials since its inception—both as participants in our learning programs and later as an increasing percentage of our staff. We’ve learned quite a bit about the millennial mindset and orientation. In writing this piece, I’ll also spe
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Blog postNo sooner had I sat down to write this article than I felt myself dawdling. First, I checked to make sure I had no new emails. Then, I looked at my phone to see if anyone had sent me a message. Next, I remembered that the office heater was leaking, and decided I needed to call the plumber immediately. Even after endless hours studying the research on attention, and creating and delivering programs to help clients increase their ability to focus, I was finding myself stuck in the mindless loop
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Blog postThis week I got a call from my son's school, informing me that he'd thrown a chair. He's four years old. He hadn’t hurt anyone, and he's never done a thing like this before. He was chastened, but his father and I were alarmed. By the end of the day, we had also grown curious as to what had inspired the incident. It turned out that our son had been drawing when his teacher tried to get him to transition to another, more tactical task. What was so upsetting about putting down the crayons? On t
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Blog postOne evening early this summer, I opened a book and found myself reading the same paragraph over and over, a half dozen times before concluding that it was hopeless to continue. I simply couldn’t marshal the necessary focus. I was horrified. All my life, reading books has been a deep and consistent source of pleasure, learning and solace. Now the books I regularly purchased were piling up ever higher on my bedside table, staring at me in silent rebuke. Instead of reading them, I was spending t
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Blog postHow do you drive sustainably high performance in an era of relentlessly rising demand? Understandably, this question keeps countless leaders and managers up at night. It is also a challenge for any of us who feel compelled to become ever more accomplished without sacrificing excellence or our well-being. The typical solution – put in more hours – won’t work anymore. The vast majority of salaried employees are already doing that, and many of them are paying a price that they are finding less a
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Blog postLast Sunday morning, my 19-month-old grandson, Jonah, was scheduled to be the ring bearer at his aunt’s wedding. It was a tall order for a toddler to walk down the aisle carrying a ring successfully, especially since the ceremony was scheduled to start an hour later than Jonah’s usual morning nap. I could see him beginning to fray. When the wedding procession began, Jonah was in it, but coming down the aisle, he was in the arms of his father, Phil, and alongside his mother, Kate. Jonah is a bu
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Blog postThe central dilemma of a modern leader is to balance apparently conflicting virtues and beliefs without choosing sides between them. Decisiveness, for example, is widely and rightly perceived as crucial to effective leadership. It’s the opposite of uncertainty and insecurity, which are paralyzing. But decisiveness overused eventually congeals into certainty. The balancing opposite is openness. This week, the news program “60 Minutes” ran a segment on a Louisiana prosecutor named Marty Stroud.
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Blog postWe perform better when our most pressing needs are met. That is common sense, and it is also supported by a raft of research. Even so, it’s far easier to treat people like machines, without worrying about how they’re feeling. When I ask business leaders whether they believe that their employees perform better when they are happier, healthier and more fulfilled, the answer is always yes. When I then ask if they systematically invest in making their employees happier, healthier and more fulfille
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Blog postEarlier this week, I flew from New York to Boston and took off a full day to see a doctor about a medical condition I have. I went to these lengths because I understood him to be perhaps the world’s expert in this particular syndrome. Obviously, his reputation influenced my decision to see him, but what ultimately affected me as much as his technical knowledge was the way he treated me, meaning his human skills. I knew he was incredibly busy – it took two months to get an appointment – but he
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Blog postDear Jeff Bezos, I spend my days working with the leaders of large companies to help them build cultures of sustainable high performance. My focus is on what it takes to unleash the best in people by better meeting their core needs – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. The most consistent and pernicious obstacles I run up against at our client companies are the twin toxins of fear and fatigue. You have built an extraordinary company, in large part by obsessively taking care of custome
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Blog postIt is nearly 11:30 p.m., and I’m lying in bed, way overtired. I ought to turn out the lights, but instead, my laptop is perched on my stomach. I have just finished reading email from earlier in the day. Now, I am surfing aimlessly, reading the latest news updates about Donald Trump and Bill Cosby, looking over sales on Gilt, watching videos on YouTube and perusing LinkedIn invitations from people I don’t know. “Why don’t you go to bed?” my wife asks. “You need to wake up early.” “I’m not tir
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Blog postI was in the middle of writing a column on Thursday about workaholism and overwork when Jeb Bush serendipitously appeared to set me straight. Americans don’t work too much or too compulsively, he told The New Hampshire Union Leader. Rather, they don’t work enough. “People need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families,” Mr. Bush said during an interview with the paper’s editorial board. Mr. Bush’s statement brought back memories of the time in 2
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Blog postAs I was reading Ashlee Vance’s “Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” I was alternately awed and disheartened, almost exactly the same ambivalence I felt after reading Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs” and Brad Stone’s “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.” The three leaders are arguably the most extraordinary business visionaries of our times. Each of them has introduced unique products that changed – or in Mr. Musk’s case, have huge potential to ch
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Blog postWhen I met Lynne Doughtie this week, I was struck by how different it felt sitting with her than with any male chief executive I had met over the years. Six weeks ago, Ms. Doughtie was elected United States chairwoman and chief executive of KPMG. When she takes over the role on July 1, she will become the first woman to serve in both of those roles for a Big Four accounting firm. Cathy Engelbert was chosen as chief executive of Deloitte in February. In my short time with Ms. Doughtie, I found
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Blog postEarlier this week, I had a call with the chief executive of a $5 billion company who has traveled four to five days a week for many years. She sounded utterly exhausted. “When times get tough,” she told me, “the only way I’ve ever known is to muscle through. I just can’t do it anymore. I’ve hit bottom. The problem is that I’ve been numb for so long, I’m honestly not sure if I can find my way back to a sane life.” Last week, I led a session in Europe for a senior team at a large multinational c
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