One of the critical issues facing organizations today is safety….not just safety in the workplace but safety in all facets of our personal lives. After all, if people get injured at home, it affects their on-the-job performance, as well as medical costs. No matter how hard we may try, you can’t order safety. It’s a culture we have to create and each person has to feel it personally. A US Navy destroyer is an inherently dangerous place and no Captain, no matter how good he or she thinks they are, can order safety. In the year prior to taking command of USS Benfold, 31 sailors out of a workforce of 310 were involved in some type of injury producing mishap. The first afternoon after I took command of the ship, one of my sailors was involved in a DUI off base after going to a bar after work. The very night I took command of the ship, one of my sailors was severely beaten in a mugging because he walked out the wrong gate of the base after sunset in one of the worst parts of town. It was a newly reporting sailor who didn’t know that you don’t go to that part of town after sunset. That fact wasn’t included in our welcome aboard program for newly reporting personnel. Are all of these connected? Absolutely!!! It speaks to the culture that we try to create. You can never have a great organization if your top priority is not the safety of your people. The one thing that drove me throughout my entire tenure was that I never wanted to write the parents of any of my sailors and tell them that their son or daughter wasn’t coming home because of something we did or something we failed to do. When I looked at safety on the ship, I assumed my sailors wanted to be safe and so everything I looked at was whether our processes facilitated a safe culture. We implemented a program whereby every week, I would focus on one of the 24 divisions. I would inspect their work spaces for safety and other hazards. I would observe sailors doing their maintenance and quizzing them on the safety precautions. I reviewed their safety training program and participated in seminars with them. During these events they could ask questions about anything they weren’t sure about. I wanted them to understand that the concept of safety was portable to their families and personal lives, as well. We trained on the dangers of drinking and driving and if they were drinking, they could call a local cab company to give them a free ride home which was then paid for out of our morale fund (and not taxpayers money). By the way, we also tried to create a culture of respect whereby sailors didn’t have to go home after work and blow off steam and drink to excess. Any sailor could stop any process if they thought safety was being impaired. Any sailor had a direct line to me if they thought their chain of command wasn’t sufficiently concerned or didn’t see what they were seeing. Every sailor knew that I felt their safety was a top priority of mine and not just lip service. The result? My last year in command, there were two minor incidents; down from 31 incidents two years prior. Was I satisfied? No!!! Two is two too many. But we never missed an opportunity to try and drive that culture of excellence and safety. They go hand in hand.

So you’ve decided that you’re going to do a training evaluation, and, yikes, it is your first one! First, answer these questions: Will the evaluation be used in deciding whether or not to move forward with training? Why is the evaluation being done; that is, what decisions does the company want to make during the evaluation? Who are the key stakeholders who should receive evaluation reports? What do they want from the evaluation? What elements of a evaluation will provide the data to aid in the decisions that you and/or stakeholders want to make? When is the information needed? What resources are available to conduct the evaluation? Can a Steering Committee be formed to aid with the evaluation? Will internal resources be used or will you employ external evaluation resources? Is funding available? What projects will be delayed or not done if the evaluation is implemented? What existing evaluation practices are in place? Can they be leveraged and used in the evaluation? Will this evaluation replace some of these practices? The answers to the questions attempt to get at the purpose of the evaluation and what is prompting it. Implementing your first training evaluation can be a bit intimidating, but, as with any effort, it gets easier and quicker as you do it. First, you need a plan of action—the Evaluation Plan. The key to a successful training evaluation is in the planning. Often, evaluation planning is ignored in favor of getting on with the evaluation work. However, many people fail to realize the value of an evaluation plan in saving time and money and preventing problems. Coming up in this series of posts: Questions training evaluation answer Elements in an Evaluation Plan Evaluation deliverables Evaluation schedule Performing the evaluation Training evaluation and continuous improvement Training evaluation organizational readiness As always, I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this topic.

As adults, we place a value on every moment in our lives. When it comes to optional education, not compulsory education, we do what we MUST do first - in our jobs, in our lives. This leaves little time for anything else. eLearning and distance learning, unless prescribed, is only accessed when we need to learn something (argument for just-in-time learning). Even when prescribed, as designers, we have very little time to MOTIVATE the learner before they disengage because of perceived lack of value (how will it help me in my work? in my daily life? Oh - this is humourous - I’m going to go through it because it’s fun…). If you are creating a page turner - a ‘PowerPoint on steroids’ - you can be sure that people will disengage quickly unless they need to learn the information or have to click through the course to get credit. Distance education is only as good at the people you have creating it, and often, the money you wish to spend on it. Ben Franklin said, "Penny-wise, pound foolish." This applies to eLearning as well. If you decide on a product completely created in China (sorry China, right now it’s really, very bad), you get what you pay for.  eLearning with a rapid authoring tool by an SME who knows nothing about adult education often falls into the same category. It’s no different than having someone who is a terribly bad facilitator teaching an instructor-led. We’ve all had those. There’s no value in them and we find the time spent  to be excruciating. My advice is to leave eLearning and distance learning to the experts - those who understand the demographics of your learners and how they learn.  Be willing to let go the concept of ‘it must be serious and dry or it’s not learning’ and be driven to spend a little money because as my father used to say, ‘Nothing’s for nothing, kid.’ Oh and just when you think people do not like to learn online - look at social media tools, Google, wikipedia, etc. etc. People crave knowlege - they just don’t like to watch something dull that reads like a PowerPoint. When will we learn? It’s right there to harvest….

It’s that time of year. The air is turning crisper, and football is creeping into conversations. Many managers and leaders worry that football is a workplace distraction. And it’s a natural concern. When you see people’s phones and computers loaded up with NFL information instead of the most pressing business projects, it can be alarming.However, if you are worried about your employees doing their jobs, that is the problem - not football. When used effectively, fantasy football can be a uniting activity that creates more positive energy and commitment than without.Try these three ways to use fantasy football as a culture enhancer: Support a company-wide fantasy football league.Don’t fight the football frenzy. It is a large force out there. Sited in a Forbes article from last year, around 33 million people participate annually in fantasy football. It can be a fun activity for anyone in the company.At Fierce, the league adds value. Fantasy football is a grassroots effort by individuals in the company who want to make it happen. There are no defined company resources allocated besides our office space. However, fiercelings can make the case if there are other desired budgets or resources. People look forward to this time of year, and ultimately, it adds energy and fun camaraderie in the office. Insert the topic into conversations.Fantasy football can bridge different departments and titles. It gives a common interest and topic of conversation. I encourage you to talk about the status of the league or leagues in scheduled meetings and events, when appropriate.At our Fierce sales and marketing meetings, people talk about the league and what lessons they are learning as the season goes on. This is a great way to learn something new about football and your colleagues.Encourage respect and learning.The reality is that some people have zero interest in fantasy football, or football for that matter. Football is an opportunity to show respect to people with all levels of participation. It is important that you do not favor people in any way. Encourage others to talk about their interests as well - who knows what that will bring. Perhaps a company-wide chess tournament? A marathon of black and white films?The point is, when people feel cared for and listened to - they care about their work and the people around them on a deeper level. So tell me, does your company have a fantasy league? How does it help or hinder your workplace?The post 3 Tips to Use Fantasy Football as a Culture Enhancer - Not Distractor appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Most people reserve their brains for the workplace and their hearts for the home, but there is much to be said for online training experiences that build an emotional connection with your corporate learners. In this article, I’ll share 7 tips to help you engage your employees through emotional learning. How To Engage Employees Through Emotional Learning: 7 Tips For eLearning Professionals One of the most significant challenges facing corporate eLearning developers is how to get their learners hooked. They need to be engaged, focused on the task at-hand, and excited about their online training in order for it to be truly successful. All of this can be easier said than done, however, unless you can get them emotionally involved. In this article, I’ll be offering 7 tips to engage and inspire employees by tapping into their emotions. 1. Put your corporate audience in charge. Let your corporate learners take control of their own online training experience by choosing when, how, and what they learn. Give them a clear idea of what they need to complete by the training deadline, but then allow them to take it from there. Of course, you can offer them support when they need it, but giving them the opportunity to work autonomously empowers them to learn and boosts their confidence. 2. Use mistakes as learning tools. Mistakes often have a negative connotation. However, if you know how to truly analyze and reflect upon mistakes, they hold the power to transform learning behaviors. If an employee makes a mistake during the online training course, then draw their attention to it and offer input on how they can improve. Constructively criticize corporate learners without making them feel as though they failed the task. This automatically triggers their brain to absorb the correct information and commit it to memory. More importantly, it makes them aware of the fact that you care about their success, and that they are free to take risks that can lead to professional growth. 3. Encourage learner reflection. At the end of every online training activity or module, give your employees ample time to reflect upon their eLearning experience. Allow them to absorb what they have learned and to determine how they can improve moving forward. This time for self-reflection also gives them the chance to focus on their emotions, such as how they felt about the online training experience, and determine how they can use their newly-found information in the real world. When they can see how the training will benefit them on-the-job, they will understand the true value of their eLearning experience and be more willing to actively participate. 4. Honor negative emotions, rather than hiding them. Let’s be perfectly honest; some employees aren’t particularly fond of compliance training or taking the time to learn about new product updates. There are also certain employees, particularly over-achievers, who tend to beat themselves up when they cannot master a topic in a timely manner. This is when it’s crucial to honor negative emotions by encouraging your corporate learners to analyze why they are feeling this way, as well as how they can channel their energy into a positive endeavor. For example, you can ask them to reflect upon why they don’t want to participate in the online training course, then work together to formulate a training strategy that works for them or stress the benefits of taking the eLearning course. 5. Challenge learners’ opinions. Think about the last time someone told you that your opinion was wrong or that they disagreed with your viewpoint. Despite the fact that an opinion cannot be "wrong", as it’s all a matter of personal perspective, when someone challenges our assumptions this typically evokes a strong emotional response. It makes us question the knowledge that we already have stored in our long-term memory banks, and to reassess our way of thinking about that particular topic. So, why not tap into these strong emotions by contradicting popular opinion or making a bold statement. For example, you can question a common work practice or turn a popular belief on its head. This not only grabs their attention, but gets their mental gears turning and prompts them to consider alternate approaches to work related challenges and tasks. 6. Praise is the key to persistence. Ultimately, every member of your corporate learning audience wants to improve themselves in some way. Even those who may seem more reluctant to participate still have an inherent desire to be better at what they do or, at the very least, improve their work practices in order to climb the corporate ladder. This is where praise comes into play. If you praise your learners when praise is due, this will fuel their motivation and make them more emotionally connected to the online training experience. Though it’s important to provide constructive criticism to fix incorrect learning behaviors, giving them the praise they need can strengthen favorable behaviors. 7. Let them know that they make a difference. Employees can often lose sight of the fact that they make a difference in the workplace. The job duties that they carry out on a daily basis make the company more successful, thereby increasing their own professional success. Emphasize the fact that online training will give them the ability to become not only better employees, but more confident and self-fulfilled individuals. Stress the fact that their contribution to the organization truly matters, and that you appreciate they are taking the time to develop their skills and knowledge base. If they know that you respect their participation and acknowledge their efforts, they are going to be more engaged and emotionally connected to the online training experience. Conclusion With these tips and tricks, you can transform any online training course into an emotionally-centered, highly effective online training experience for your corporate audience. Even compliance training can become exciting and engaging if you add emotional learning to the equation. Interested in learning more about motivating your corporate learners? Read the article How To Create A Motivational eLearning Experience: 6 Tips For eLearning Professionals to discover 6 top tips to create a motivational eLearning experience for every member of your corporate audience. The post 7 Tips To Engage Employees Through Emotional Learning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Servant leadership seems like an oxymoron. Are you serving? Or are you leading? Managers who practice servant leadership are doing both. The Robert F. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership describes the servant-leader as someone who "shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible." Although this leadership philosophy dates back to around 500 BCE, it has only recently become commonplace. According to the book The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle by James C. Hunter, "servant leadership is emerging on a grand scale in many parts of the world. The evidence of this is that many of the most admired and successful organizations on the planet are now practicing the disciplines of servant leadership." The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. is one of the many organizations that exercises servant leadership. The following list of DO’s & DON’Ts presents the basic principles and benefits of servant leadership and shares a little of The Ritz-Carlton perspective. DO recognize the qualities needed to be a servant-leader. In the book Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership, authors James W. Sipe and Don M. Frick define a servant-leader as "a person of character that puts people first." Servant-leaders are focused on nurturing and coaching employees. Their role is to help others develop and grow. Herve Humler, President and Chief Operations Officer at The Ritz-Carlton, expressed this concept when he said: "My friends are the 40,000 Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton. I want them to succeed, and I want to make sure they have the tools to succeed." Servant-leaders express humility, and recognize and value the contributions of others. Servant-leaders are also people of high moral character. General Norman Schwarzkopf wisely stated: "By far the single most important ingredient of leadership is your character. You will find that 99 percent of all leadership failures in this country in the past one hundred years were not failures in competence. They were failures in character." Servant-leaders must express qualities such as integrity, strength, empathy, humility and appreciation. DON’T be concerned that servant leadership will make you less authoritative. Leaders may be worried they will lose a sense of authority and power if they become servant-leaders. Adam Grant addresses this point in his book Give and Take. He writes: "Research suggests that there are two fundamental paths to influence: dominance and prestige. When we establish dominance, we gain influence because others see us as strong, powerful, and authoritative. When we earn prestige, we become influential because others respect and admire us." Leaders who are givers and show genuine care for employees build prestige, which "has more lasting value" according to Grant. Bob Kharazmi, Global Officer, Worldwide Operations at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., explains it this way: "If you don’t create relationships with your team, then you are using formal authority. When you have a relationship and there is trust, then you have moral authority." He continues, "formal authority gets the job done to some degree, but it does not get the job 100% done. Moral authority gets the job 100% done. I practice moral authority because if I have relationships, then I have earned trust and then I only need to say something once." DO expect servant leadership to increase loyalty and employee engagement. According to the Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership, "Leaders who are seen as persons of character are more likely to generate loyalty, creativity, and productivity among company employees." Servant-leaders must walk their talk. Their actions need to align with their character. They must also ensure that their actions are helpful and not indulgent or enabling. In the book Turn the Ship Around!, the author, Captain David Marquet, asserts that "Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior….What it does mean is to give them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond their specific job." When employees see their leaders empowering, supporting and genuinely caring for them, they will naturally become more trusting and loyal toward their leaders. The Employee Promise at The Ritz-Carlton states that, "Our Ladies and Gentlemen are the most important resource in our service commitment to our guests." Employees who feel valued for their service are more likely to be engaged. DON’T forget about empowerment and trust. Trust is one of the advantages of servant leadership. The Scrumban [R]evolution claims that, "Servant Leaders engender trust, which catalyzes higher levels of worker engagement, the offering of the workers’ discretionary effort and ideas, and greater speed in change and innovation." Trust also makes empowerment possible. As Stephen R. Covey notes in the foreword to the seminal book Servant Leadership, "The only way you get empowerment is through high-trust cultures and an empowerment philosophy that turns bosses into servants and coaches, and structures and systems into nurturing institutionalized servant processes." Empowered employees are better equipped to handle problem-resolution, and they feel a greater sense of ownership and accountability. Covey also says that only those organizations that "align their systems, structure and management styles to support the empowerment of their people…will survive and thrive as market leaders." DO see the relationship between servant leadership and organizational culture. If an organization’s culture isn’t dedicated to service and prioritizes profits over people, then servant leadership will not work. Servant leadership and culture have a symbiotic relationship: An organization with a culture of service will foster leadership committed to service, and servant-leaders need a culture devoted to service in order to succeed. DON’T be surprised that servant leadership impacts profits. Organizations that practice servant leadership tend to put people before profits. If you are a for-profit organization it may seem foolish to value people over profits. However, choosing to make people your top priority has a surprising result. "Ironically, the practice of putting people before profits makes an organization even more profitable," according to the Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership. The book also asserts that "organizations that say ‘people are our most important asset’ and mean it, have a significant competitive advantage." Each year The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. identifies five priorities known as the Key Success Factors. Customers and employees are always the top priorities and financial performance is always the fifth priority. For many decades, The Ritz-Carlton has successfully practiced service leadership and continues to embrace a mindset of service that includes our customers, our employees, our communities and the world. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post DO’s & DON’Ts of Servant Leadership appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Relationships are the currency of business. As a salespeople, it’s our job is to leverage relationships to collaborate, strategize, and ultimately reach a solution that best fits our clients’ goals. But being successful is about more than knowing a client’s business, analyzing their needs, or having solutions ready at our fingertips. It’s about understanding that how we ‘show up’ with this wealth of knowledge directly influences the direction of our ongoing relationships and interactions. Whether a veteran account manager or a rookie, we all need to be mindful of how we communicate, especially with those who are critical to the success of our business. Here are 4 tips that I keep front of mind when engaging clients: BREATHE By taking a few mindful breaths before picking up the phone or entering the room, I become more focused, less anxious, and have a stronger ability to actively listen. It’s a simple—and yet critical—technique to support a relaxed and healthy voice and also helps to establish the level of energy that I plan to bring to the conversation. REALLY LISTEN Strong client relationships are built on trust, and trust begins with being present in the moment and fully hearing the client’s needs, context, situation, and history. After being genuinely curious and asking strategic questions, I try to stop talking and listen with intent. HAVE EMPATHY We’ve all heard the old saying, "You can’t understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes." I think most of us have good intentions—but when up against a deadline or a quota it’s easy to skip the empathy and jump to problem solving—to check the box and move onto the next ‘To Do’. To make a meaningful impact on the day-to-day lives of clients, I try to stop and consider what may be occurring on their end, take the time to ask the right questions, and above all, ensure they know they’ve been heard. BE MINDFUL OF TONE Whether meeting with a client in person or speaking with them on the phone, tone influences the energy in the conversation and impacts the way our clients perceive the dialog.  Ensuring that tone is congruent with a message is critical, otherwise we risk coming across as disingenuous or even disrespectful. Prior to speaking with a client, I think through the purpose of the message (to excite, warn, etc.) and focus on my purpose during delivery.  For instance when meeting someone for the first time, I find that if I try to be my best authentic self (with a smile, if appropriate), a tone of warmth and compassion is inherently applied to the words exiting my mouth. At the end of the day, I remember this:  In each interaction with a client, I have the opportunity to deposit emotional currency into the bank of our relationship, by being fully present and mindfully authentic. What other aspects do you stay mindful of when speaking with clients? What are your most effective presence tactics? The post How Sales Presence Impacts Clients appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesClaim It until You Make ItThe Employee Engagement EquationHow to Influence Without Authority 

The myth-busting team is back to bust myths and chew some gum. And we’re all out of chewing gum. This week we’ll examine 6 common myths about mobile learning, beginning with… 1. Mobile Learning is all about being mobile Names don’t always tell the whole story (if they did we wouldn’t need books and movies — we’d just ask for the names of the characters). While "mobile learning" seems to be about doing eLearning while being mobile (e.g. while commuting to work on a train), that’s not really required. People can (and do) engage in mobile learning from their sofa at home, from the beach, at a cafe and generally everywhere. The "mobile" in mobile learning is more about the devices that you access your eLearning content with than about where you do it or whether you’re on the go while doing it. Which brings us to our next myth: 2. Mobile learning is merely using a smartphone to do eLearning That’s sort of correct (although the smartphone can also be a tablet or even some future wearable device), but again it doesn’t tell the whole story. While you’ll indeed use a smaller mobile device to do mobile learning, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be doing the same kind of eLearning that you’d do using your laptop. The smaller screen, (possibly) slower connection and touch based interaction, call for a different approach to the amount of eLearning content you show and how you present it. Then there’s the fact that people view mobile learning in a more casual fashion (compared to the ceremonial and purposeful sitting behind a desk to complete some eLearning course module), which also calls for a lighter touch. With these things in mind, we can say that to do justice to mobile learning you don’t just deliver eLearning content as is to mobile devices. Rather, you adapt it for them. 3. Mobile learning is not really learning There’s this idea (well, myth) that you can’t properly do eLearning on a small screen and that mobile phones and short learning sessions are not adequate for teaching purposes. This is wrong in at least two ways. First of all, have you checked smartphones lately? Information density, especially on the flagship models with "retina" (Hi-DPI) displays, rivals our office monitors of yore. And screen sizes are only getting bigger. Depending on your target demographic you could pack a lot of material on a single, small screen. Then again, you probably shouldn’t. See, eLearning is not about the density of transmitted information, but about how well that information is absorbed by your learners (see also our previous point about mobile learning needing material that works well with the medium). There are several mobile learning guidelines and tricks that you can use to allow your learners to benefit from mobile learning, letting you use the small screen and the short focused sessions to their advantage. 4. You have to have a native mobile app While there are several excellent native mobile learning applications out there, you don’t have to offer one to your learners. Merely giving them web-based access to your mobile learning portal is perfectly adequate. In fact, unless you’re going to create something really special, that needs to talk to the phone sensors and take full advantage of its capabilities, there’s no reason to go native. Mobile browsers, while not as full featured or fast as their desktop counterparts, are still quite capable and mature, and should be able to cover all of your mobile courses’ needs. As for monetization, a web page allows you to use your existing subscription scheme, without giving a 30% cut to Apple (as is the case with subscriptions and purchases paid through the App Store). And of course your web page will work just as well on Android, Windows Phone and whatever platform appears in the future. 5. Mobile learning needs special infrastructure Not really. If you have an existing LMS that serves your eLearning portal, it should be able to cope with mobile users just fine without further expenses. As long as you serve your mobile learning courses as web pages, you don’t need any special hardware, software or further expenses to cater to mobile devices. You can either serve your existing courses with a responsive, mobile friendly theme that will make them presentable in smaller screens, repurpose your desktop-focused content by formatting it for mobile devices, or even create entirely new courses with mobile learners in mind. 6. It’s an either / or proposition There is no rule saying that you or your learners have to be fully committed to mobile learning. Of course you could offer mobile only courses, but you could just as easily allow your students to access their courses from both their desktop and their phones. You could also use mobile learning as a complementary side-channel to your desktop learning offering; just something to keep your learners occupied while outside and bored that gives them bite sized chunks of information taken from your full course material. Mobile learning, in the end, is what you make of it, and this also depends on what the needs of your learners are (obviously, e.g. teenagers learning a foreign language will have different schedules and mobile use habits compared to enterprise employees completing a certification course). So here we you have it. Half a dozen myths busted. The myth-busting team shall take a rest now, but watch this spot, as we’ll be back with more eLearning-related myths to bust next week. The post 6 myths about mobile learning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Did you notice that Goldman Sachs (of all companies!) has just forbidden its interns from working after midnight? Seems like their HR people, if not the pooh-bahs, have just suffered an attack of political correctness aka social responsibility. So even if one of their starting interns wants to work his version of overtime (like into the wee hours), s/he won’t be allowed. OK as a married man myself with kids I understand the tradeoffs. Sometimes the HR people have got to stop you killing yourself for the sake of your family and kids. I get it. But is everyone even a workaholic anyway? Maybe I am revealing a gross lack of observational skills, but in my work experience what I have observed is that the people who have lacked the most in the work-life balance have usually been the ones who made the biggest breakthroughs and contributions to their companies and professions. They were usually the innovators. Did you ever hear of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk telling their employees to slack off for the sake of their families? What do you think would have happened to their products, companies and shareholders if they had? Remember Malcolm Gladwell and his 10,000 hour rule (from his book "Outliers")? That was what he calculates you need to put in workwise to make a breakthrough in any field. Do you think the Beatles would have succeeded if they had all decided that they would do the 10,000 hours over their lifetimes instead of just a couple of years? Would we have had the Merseybeat if they had chosen just to take it easy? Nope, you wanna make incredible breakthroughs; you gotta make "sacrifices" (more on this later). And, although it’s not politically correct to say so, so does your family. It’s just the nature of things. Ask anyone who has achieved great things and see if they tell you anything different. And that doesn’t just mean business. How about art? Ask Van Gogh. He went crazy of course, but look at his art. Do you think we remember him just because he lived in Paris and liked to spend his leisure time drinking with his pals? Or the poet Rimbaud. Francis Crick of DNA fame. In fact anyone who ever achieved something really great. And not just for themselves; for their company, country, mankind. And for these people who strived mightily, was it really a sacrifice? Of course not! In the vast majority of cases they were doing it for themselves! For them it wasn’t work, it was fun! In the great debate about work-life balance, for them this wasn’t work, it was life! Just like normal people get their hots on from watching their kids play soccer or going shopping with the wife to and kids, workaholics get theirs through working 24/7 on things that they too are passionate about; in their cases things that can change the world, or their company instead of giving their family the benefit of their presence. We might not like to talk about that aspect but that doesn’t make it any the less true. Those breakthrough types are having their own kind of fun; but in their case it has huge social, not family achievement as its aim. When Big Brother mandates that we all strive for work-life balance, we are descending yet another level in the gradual depreciation of human achievement. It’s up there with grade inflation and declining school scores for math and reading. The mommy state is now telling us that we shouldn’t work too hard achieve because it might make some people - yes, families, kids and spouses - unhappy. But what about society advancing? Doesn’t that matter? What about all those families who have unhappy and unfulfilled lives with a breadwinner who leans mightily on the life side - say an alcoholic - and who doesn’t give a s**t for them anyway? Maybe that doesn’t ever happen?? Most people are normal anyway. That means most people, without any prodding by anyone, will go heavily for the life rather than the work, at least if they have half a choice. The vast majority of people aren’t going to have the disproportionate societal impact that the workaholics have. Those people are relatively rare. Wouldn’t we need more of them, not less? I do think most people should aim for work-life balance, as they probably already do from my observations on full restaurants on the weekend. That’s how we keep PTAs going, kids coached for soccer and raise funds for rowing clubs. But why try to rip the heart out of the overachievers who make the biggest breakthroughs and work the hardest for things they believe in? Surely that doesn’t make any sense? Everyone is talking about innovation and how we need more of it. The work-life drive seems custom-designed to reduce or even eliminate it. You can’t have your cake and eat it. Yet the fashion is to reduce outstanding efforts and hope the rest takes care of itself. I don’t think it’s an accident that Goldman Sachs made this inane ruling given that they are now visibly well after their peak and on the slippery downslope to mediocrity. The bureaucrats have taken over and we clearly shouldn’t expect that company to do anything of any significance any more. That one-time innovator now looks more like a government department than a meat-eating corporate mover and shaker. How about copying the FAA which still doesn’t have a modern functioning computer system after billions of dollars have been totally wasted. Looks like it could use a lot more work and a lot less life, right? As T. S. Elliott wrote: "That’s the way the world ends; not with a bang but a whimper". When the world’s end happens, we’ll obviously all be on our permanent vacation.  Read More

Yesterday, was National Read a Book Day. So I have to ask…did you read a book?           Shared in 6 Science-Backed Reasons To Go Read A Book Right Now, the Journal of Neurology found that those who engaged in mentally stimulating activities, such as reading, earlier and later on in life experienced slower memory decline compared to those who didn’t. In particular, people who exercised their minds later in life had a 32 percent lower rate of mental decline compared to their peers with average mental activity.I don’t know about you, but those facts definitely strike me as a reason to pick up a book. Lowering my memory decline over time is definitely something I want to sign up for.On top of that, reading gives you more space to go deeper into yourself and reflect on your own interpretations. Reading solicits a different kind of mental engagement compared to watching television or browsing social media.My boyfriend, Eric, and I recently started reading books with and to each other instead of flipping on Netflix or staring at our phones at night. It has been a very fun way for us to reflect on story lines and talk deeply about topics that come up for us. We recently read Girl on a Train by Paula Walkins, and throughout our dinners, we would conspire about what would happen next to the characters.Perhaps you can try a similar experiment with your partner, a family member, or a friend. This week’s tip is to choose read a new book. There are so many great books out there. And a shameless plug, if you haven’t read Fierce Conversations and Fierce Leadership, maybe you should pick one up.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Read a New Book appeared first on Fierce, Inc..