Watching Your Figure? Your Boss May be.

If you think that your weight is nobody’s business, try telling that to your employer. I have had several clients openly share their criteria on employee selection and performance with an eye on body size. “He is too heavy and I wonder about his energy to meet our work demands,” and “People who are too heavy, this reflects a lack of discipline,” are just a couple of statements I’ve heard reflecting a bias against size in the work place.

In addition to bias, ever soaring health insurance costs are driving more companies to focus on wellness and making employee health a part of their culture. General Mills has made “healthy weight” a cornerstone of a wellness mission statement, launching dozens of fitness programs for its workers. An Atlanta marketing firm launched a “Biggest Loser” style weight-loss contest that has morphed into workouts of up to five hours a day for the most zealous participants. In Indianapolis, one employer proposed $30 fines for overweight workers.

Perhaps the most dramatic move is where several companies have implemented a policy requiring that all employees, and their spouses, must submit to a physical exam at work to qualify for employer-sponsored insurance. Potential employees whose body mass index is too high are not offered positions and current employees are encouraged to hit the exercise mat.

Health care costs are a volatile subject for companies, individuals and political platforms. Double-digit percentage increases from a few years ago are being moderated as employers have passed along more of the bill to workers. But, costs are expected to spike 9 percent in 2008, which is up 5.3 percent from 2007, according to Hewitt Associations Consulting.

Consequently, employers are focusing on reducing the demand for health care by addressing their employee’s health. For a growing number of companies, this means using the workplace as a forum to preach the benefits of eating better, eating less and exercising more.

In my next blog, I will address how employees are responding to these changes.

Office Politics: Playing the Game May be Crucial to Your Success

Office politics exists in every company and is a part of most peoples career whether they like it or not. Managing organizational power and influence can bring out the worst in people and few can escape the fallout.

Although many of us would prefer to not get caught up in office politics, playing the game can have a crucial role in your success. Removing yourself from office politics can make you appear invisible and literally take you out of the loop. Choosing to avoid office politics can cause your accomplishments to be overlooked and diminish your sphere of influence. Unfortunately, the gain for engaging in office politics may out weigh the consequences of not taking on a role in the games people play.

Office politics can become nasty when people are striving for their own personal gain. While self-striving individuals can often find success in organizations, this strategy is one that provides only a short term gain. On the other hand, those who are respectful, diligent and diplomatic can generally build the coalitions and resources needed for successful long term career growth.

Here are some tips to help you engage in office politics and still garner the respect of others:

Treat everyone with respect. It is how you would like to be treated and you never know when disrespectful behavior may come back to bite you.

1. Define how things get done in your organization. Uncover how things get done. How are decisions made? What are the company values and are they acted on? Is the current focus on short-term or long-term objectives? Find an organizational veteran who can help you find these answers.
2. Where is the power? Who are the power players in the organization? Observe and model how they communicate and make decisions. Who do they network with and what kind of initiatives do they support?
3. What is your company’s strategy? Identify what strategic initiatives your company is focusing on and make sure that your skill set is on par with these objectives.
4. Focus on results. Results translate in to recognition and opportunity. More than ever, companies are focused on the bottom line. Productivity trumps everything else.
5. Be humble in tooting your own horn. If you don’t keep others abreast of your progress, you are opting out of office politics. Others will be tooting their own horn and may even take credit for your work.
6. Be a masterful communicator. Being masterful means being adaptive in how you communicate. Learn to adjust your communication to the style of others. Be prepared to support your communication with facts and examples to add credibility.
7. Diversify your alignments. Align too closely with one group one day and you may be gone the next. Communicate with other factions and develop relationships with broad alliances.
8. Clarify that you are in the right place. If you find that your organization is not a good fit for you and the games being played are too rough, don’t be afraid to move on. Some companies promote paranoia, fear, and Machiavellian strategies. In many cases, these games may not be worth playing.

Don’t Blur the Lines of Office Communication

One of the best parts of my job is being able visit clients at their home office(s). I can’t help but pay close attention to the dynamics of each business setting and make note of the communication and politics that governs operations. One of the most frequent challenges I see is the blurring of personal and professional conduct in the work environment. Although I am the first person to advocate the benefits of social interest and the need to be friendly at work, it is important to remember that business is business and friendship is friendship. Many workers fail to realize that what they say can have as much impact on their professional image as their successes and failures.

Being transparent in the work place can be a sign of confidence and emotional maturity, but verbal diarrhea can be a career killer. Here are some suggestions of topics that are best avoided in work place discussions:

1. Gossip. Gossip always comes around and nobody likes to be gossiped about. If someone is sharing gossip with you, what are likely saying about you when you are not around?
2. Intimate Personal Details. By its very definition, intimate, means private. This shared information may also be used against you some day.
3. Politics & Religion. Throughout history most wars have been fought over differences in politics and religion. Enough said.
4. Wild Parties and Hangovers: There is nothing wrong with having fun, but people will and do judge things like reliability and professionalism.
5. Passive Complaints About Work (on and off-line). Complaining drags down both you and others. Show maturity and deal with complaints directly.
6. Salary Information. Discussions about salary create division and demonstrate an inability to remain confidential.
7. Speaking Badly of Others. There is nothing positive that comes from speaking badly of others accept to assure that others will speak badly of you.
8. What You’ve Spent. Just like sex, religion and politics, discussions about money can give people the wrong impression.
9. Racial and Off Color Remarks. Even if someone shares your humor, someone else likely won’t. Don’t take the risk.
10. Office Romance: I believe that it is wise to not get your honey, where you make your money.

Thoughtful Warriors

In 2006 General David Petraeus drafted a “guidance” manual for conducting counterinsurgency in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus had gained a painful sense of how under prepared the US forces had been to take on this unconventional foe, and how high the price had been, in blood and money, of having to devise tactics on the fly.

Petraeus seized on an opportunity to think -- about how the war has been waged and how it should have been and set out to distill those lessons and others that could have been learned -- but weren't -- in Vietnam, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere into a new Army field manual for counterinsurgency warfare, or COIN, the first such doctrine for soldiers in the field in 20 years.

Counterinsurgency warfare is, as the Petraeus draft describes it, "war at the graduate level," where every unit commander must be a kind of "strategic lieutenant" calibrating the right balance between soldiers' killing power and the exercise of restraint that can turn potential enemies into allies.

Success in fighting insurgents requires an artful balancing of raw military might with ground-level smarts -- it does no good to take the territory but lose the support of the people who live there. "The doctrine is crucial and much needed. Guys in the field are clamoring for it. It recognizes that counterinsurgency is now the norm. This is a new mind-set -- the Army is really changing," says Major Sean Davis.

“You can’t kill your way out of an insurgency,” says Patraeus. So, his new approach is focused on building relationships and winning over the Iraqi people, including insurgents. “Walk… Stop by, don’t drive by,” says Petraeus. He has moved soldiers out of their megabases and into small outposts deep inside once alien and hostile neighborhoods. Although this strategy is counter intuitive to the old school of soldiering, this approach is showing signs of success.

Part of this new strategy is to give officers greater leeway to make decisions than their predecessors. Petraeus says, “There is not only a tolerance for initiative and independent action, there is encouragement.”

His approach is a good example of flexible adaptive leadership in the midst of an entrenched, rigid organization, the military. In his guidance manual Petraeus emphasizes the need for leadership and soldiers to develop relationships within the Iraqi community. His approach of getting soldiers out from behind fortified walls is not unlike the need for emotionally intelligent corporate leaderships need to get out from the ivory tower. Create alliances, distinguish between reconcilables and irreconcilables, while moving towards reconciliation and understanding. If our military can embrace and find success with this strategy so can our organizational leaders and their teams.

Super Heroes Who Needs One?

I was being interviewed yesterday by Amy Otto on Atlanta Busness Radio and was asked about"Super Heroes and Who Needs One?" She was referring to a topic that a colleague at Trove presents, but the whole idea got me thinking. On the show we discussed how every super hero has a defining moment that sets the tone and direction of their life. In many cases a defining moment even changes the whole course of ones life. The death of Bruce Wayne's parents set the course of Batman's fight against evil and Peter Parkers loss of his uncle Ben did the same for Spiderman, "with great power, comes great responsibility."

So, it makes me think about what defining moments I have had in my life and how have they shaped who I am? And also, do I need a super hero? I managed to minimize damage and survive a serious sky-diving accident at 10,000 feet and miraculously escaped another sky-diving disaster when a failed parachute finally openned. In these incidences I expereinced both the calm of surrender knowing that there was nothing else I could do, and the absolute fight to not give up and do everything to survive. Now, if these occurrences haven't defined some aspect of my life, then few things probably could.

Although I forget it some days, the lessons I've learned from coming close to death is to appreciate each day and live it with enthusiasm. I think that each day we should do something to sharpen our sword, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. In life you never know when you may need to respond quickly to ones own needs or the needs of others. If your sword is dull, you are of little use to yourself or others. A sharpened sword is of benefit to many.

I don't feel that I need a super hero, but I know that a little help from above can come in handy.
What is your defining moment and how has it shaped you? Have you met your super hero?

Situational Leadership and Missed Opportunity

We can elect a commander or manager, but they are not a leader until their appointment is ratified in the hearts and minds of those working under them and by those who voted to put them in office. Sometimes it is a situation or crisis where leaders are made. Prior to 9/11, Rudy Giuliani was being run out of New York on a rail. Instead, the terrorist attacks presented him with a golden opportunity to lead. He responded with courage, conviction and quick action, while simultaneously resurrecting his political career.

Like many leaders who lack the innate ability to lead, Sonny Perdue, the Governor of Georgia, is squandering a golden opportunity to take bold action and guide his state through crisis. Georgia’s drought and ongoing water wars with Alabama, Florida and now Tennessee have presented Gov. Perdue with incredible opportunities to lead his citizenry and create a legacy for him and the state of Georgia.

Instead, Gov. Perdue is giving us a lesson in failed leadership and the qualities it takes to effectively lead in times of crisis. Although there are many qualities for effective leadership, I want to highlight four qualities were our head of state is lacking:

1. Curiosity: The world is a big, complicated and inter-connected place. Effective leaders learn to seek the ideas of others outside their inner circle. Failing to listen and share ideas with others is a sign of arrogance and/or apathy. Gov. Perdue must be willing to step outside of his comfort zone in addressing Georgia’s water conservancy issues for the long-haul.

2. Creativity: I leader must be willing to go out on a limb and do something different. I will agree that praying for rain on the State Capital stairs is different, but it may lack the long term factual resolution needed to solve our need for water planning and conservancy.

3. Communication: Ineffective leaders tend to communicate in sound bites or not at all. If in a time of crisis, a leader spends their time convincing us that things aren’t as bad as they seem, then there is a problem. Gov. Perdue, not unlike many current political leaders, struggles in facing reality and telling the truth about the effects of our states growth, lack of civil planning, and lack of sufficient resources for effective water management. The end result is an inability to develop and present a reasonable solution.

4. Competence: In order to lead, you must know what you are doing, and more importantly, surround yourself with people who know what they are doing. A leader has to be a problem solver and Gov. Perdue’s initiative to make Georgia a great “Fishing State,” does not begin to scratch the surface of needs in the state of Georgia.

Manage the Journey of Change

It is not uncommon for businesses going through organizational change to experience a great deal of seismic shift. Fear of change often creates paralysis or a "fight or flight" response from workers. Employees concerned about change may lock down and resist, while others will become more vocal and divisive. Some of these responses are normal and should be expected as groups going through change, experience a change in their team dynamics. The re-forming and norming of groups, will inevitably lead to a phase of storming. How an organization manages this storm will determine the succes of organizational change.

I find that it is not change itself the employees fear, but more precisely, it is the journey from here to there that causes problems. Employees are more receptive to change when they understand the challenges, risks, safety nets and expected pace for change. When centered in the eye-of-the-storm, leaders often become too focused on the task and less focused on the effect. As a leader of organizational change, don't forget to account for the effects of change or you may find little support for your initiatives.