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Good Boss in Dark Times, Finding Change Makers, Red Dye #40, the November Project

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Business

Being a Good Boss in Dark Times

There seem to be more and more major acts of violence each day. These events can take a huge emotional toll on each of us and none of us are able to leave those emotions at home. As leaders, we need to get better at being a good boss when we or the people on our teams are going through dark times. Here are a few ways to do that, from a great article in HBR.

Bring Your Emotions to Work – Suppressing emotions leads to a host of stress related issues. Bring your emotions to work so your team will be more willing to bring theirs.
Be Imperfect – Showing our imperfections leads to vulnerability based trust – a key in great teams. Don’t be afraid to be open, honest and not totally right all the time.
Fuel Your Resolve for Good Behavior – Most of these acts of violence are some form of hate. How can you go further in making sure your workplace is an accepting and open place for all people?
Don’t Be All Business – This is true all of the time, but especially when people are dealing with difficult situations and emotions. Make the time to discuss the hard, non-work, stuff and you will be a stronger, more cohesive team.

Do You Need Talent Management or Change Makers?

Talk to any senior executive and you’ll hear that they struggle to get the “right” talent. The problem is not better “talent management”, but the inability to rise up talent that can break through the cultural norms of your workplace. You need these change makers if you want anything other than the status quo.

Organizations are tribal. They reward those who follow the party line and make bosses look (and feel) better. Leaders are biased to raise up people through the talent pipeline that get along well with others and make them “feel” better. This simply leads to more of the same performance.

Instead, leaders should seek out change makers that have the skills and the willingness to do what it takes reach the organizations’ objectives. These people are often not the ones that “fit in” to your existing culture.

If you need change, don’t continue to hire and promote the same people. It just doesn’t work.

Health

Red Dye #40

If you have not read any of Daniel Amen’s stuff, you should. He is an MD and board certified psychiatrist. The interesting thing about his work is his use of brain scans to diagnose and treat brain health issues. Actually seeing the brain scan of drug addict or someone who has a brain trauma really brings home the damage we can do to our noggins!

This article goes into the damage that can be caused to our brains from artificial food dyes. In particular, Red Dye #40 which is in everything from BBQ sauce to Maraschino Cherries. It can be particularly bad for kids ADHD.

Here is a brain scan of a 15 year old before and after Red Dye #40 exposure. He was treated by Dr. Amen after his parents noticed that his behavior became aggressive and hostile after he ate or drank anything that was bright red. Very interesting article here.

The key point is to listen to your body and beware of what you eat. A lot of our problems are created by the food and drinks we consume.

I’m a bit worried about what my brain would look like on Diet Mountain Dew….

Life, Fun Whatever!

Shame Yourself Into Shape

There are a lot of “cult-like” fitness groups these days (think CrossFit or SoulCycle), but November Project is unlike anything I’ve seen before. For starters, no one gets paid. Nobody pays to join the workout and nobody is paid to lead it. Everyone is greeted with hugs when they arrive (sweaty hugs?) and practically no one misses a workout.

Why? That’s where the shame comes in. In November Project speak, if you commit to coming to a workout, you’ve made a “verbal” and no one backs out of a verbal. If you do, you will be publicly shamed on the internet. Fellow team members take great pleasure in letting you know just what you missed out on.

NP was started in 2011 when a couple of athletes starting meeting up for early morning workouts and sent out a tweet to see if anyone wanted to join in. From that humble beginning, NP has spread to 29 cities.

Anybody ready to start one in Valdosta? I’ll verbal! (click the image below to learn more)