Challenged or Threatened? Busy or Productive? Getting Commitment. Econ Recon: July Employment Report

“The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”

Bobby Knight
Hall of Fame College Basketball Coach

Challenged or Threatened?

Don’t you marvel at the performance of Olympic athletes and their ability to deliver the goods at crunch time? Most of us have heard someone comment “I couldn’t stand the pressure” (or said it ourselves). A new body of research is challenging the idea that above a certain level of stress almost anyone will “break under pressure.” Some scientists are concluding that it is not just the level of stress, or even the type of stress, but how the stress is thought about that determines either positive (increased brain function, better health, longer life) or negative effects (reduced brain function, poorer health and earlier death). Check out the two page article “What makes us stronger” in the July 23rd edition of The Economist. Are you thinking about stress the right way? Are your people?

How Busy You Are You?

While on the topic of stress, who do you know who isn’t feeling stressed by the pace of modern life? I recently came across this three-year-old Harvard Business Review article from contributor Meredith Fineman who has a different take on all this. Her admonition: Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are. Are you productive, or just busy? How about your people?

Silence Means Agreement (or Disagreement)

Every leader has experienced it. A decision is made at a meeting only to be sabotaged directly or indirectly afterward by a person or persons who failed to voice their concern or disagreement at the meeting. One way to avoid this is to institute a “Silence Means Agreement” policy at all your meetings. This short HBR article will show you how to implement, and enforce, this simple and effective rule.

Another equally effective technique is to enforce a “Silence Means Disagreement” rule. In either case people are required to speak up to generate that “healthy conflict” that makes for better decisions, and then to genuinely commit to successful implementation of the chosen direction.

What techniques are you using to get people to either agree and commit, or disagree and commit anyway?

Econ Recon: A recovery worthy of the name?

Stock market at new highs…another strong employment report. Does it really mean we’ll finally get a recovery worthy of the name? Economist Brian Wesbury unpacks the latest numbers in his blog entry “July Employment.”