I have a theory about values, leadership, and workforce engagement that is related to a study I read on brain imagining and sacred values. The study, titled, “The Price of Your Soul: Neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values,” was conducted by Gregory Burns, PhD, Director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University. Through the study Burns found that “sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits."  

The study gave participants an option to disavow any of their personal value statements for money. Disavowing a statement meant they could receive as much as $100 by simply agreeing to sign a document stating the opposite of what they said they believed.  The disavowing was interpreted as the value statement not being sacred to the person. Statements that the participants refused to disavow were classified as being personally sacred.   
Brain imaging indicated that scared and non-sacred values activated different areas of the brain. The scared values activated areas associated with right and wrong and the non-sacred values activated areas related to pleasure and rewards. In addition, the researchers found that the amygdala region became activated when a person’s sacred values were challenged.  

The amygdala is the part of the brain that controls our “911” stress alert reactions of fight, flee or freeze when it perceives a threat to our well-being. It is also associated with our emotions, particularly emotions connected to perceived negative experiences, which over time creates a filing cabinet of negative memories. In our modern world people usually don’t react physically by fighting or fleeing, they react emotionally. We fight by arguing or being stubborn; we flee by disengagingmentally and emotionally, which lessens commitment; and we freeze by shutting down our creativity. It is emotional reactions like these with which a leader must contend. Therefore, developing one’s emotional intelligence is critical to effectively counter and minimize these stress responses. Organizations would be wise to establish emotional intelligence as a leadership prerequisite if they want to reap the benefit from higher levels of workforce engagement

   I believe that workforce engagement issues are a result of leaders and organizations not operating from a foundation of sacred values. The Institute for Global Ethics did exhaustive surveying and research in an attempt to identify what core moral and ethical values were held in highest regard by people and communities throughout the world. No matter where they went, they found the same answers: honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness, and compassion. In essence, these are core sacred values.

Applying the brain imaging research from the sacred values study, it would seem that if any of these five core values were in essence disavowed by anyone – in this instance,  a leader – it would activate the “right and wrong” areas in the brains of his or her employees and at the same time activate their amygdale, putting each into either a fight, freeze or flee state of reaction. The result could be a strong feeling on part of an employee to not trust this person and to feel that they have been “wronged,” both of which will negatively impact engagement, commitment, performance, and most importantly, trust.  

Values authenticity is the core issue. Leaders and organizations who – within their heart, head, and gut – are not authentically aligned and committed to these core sacred values will never be able to fully capture the hearts and minds of their workforce nor their stakeholders.  

The Gallup Organization, which has made a science of employee engagement, reported that in the third quarter of 2011, “Seventy-one percent of American workers are ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and are less likely to be productive.” This means that 71% of the country’s workforce is emotionally reacting by fighting, fleeing or freezing.Why? Because they believe that their sacred values are absent or being disavowed. A leader cannot drive workforce engagement if he or she does not authentically hold these five core values as sacred.  

When I’ve had the opportunity to talk, or should I say listen, to employees, these five values are at the core of their concerns and issues, and are the crux of their disengagement:  

•  “I can’t trust what my boss tells me.” (Honesty)
• “They don’t care about how these changes are going to impact my family.” (Compassion)
• “They said they would take care of this issue months ago, but as you can see nothing has changed.” (Responsibility)
•  “Our benefits have been slashed. They even took away our break time, but the executives are still driving a company car.” (Fairness)
•  “What really galls me is that they didn’t even tell us about these changes face to face. We got it in an email.” (Respect)  

 When a leader, or any person for that matter, applies a cost versus benefit assessment to a situation, without regard and consideration of these sacred values, they will run the risk of their decision meeting stiff resistance. The consequences of taking these risks are varied, but one thing for sure is that the integrity of that relationship will be damaged and regaining that level of integrity again will be extremely difficult.  

These same sacred values are at the heart of the issues that are polarizing and creating conflict in this country and around the world and thwarting people from finding solutions to their most pressing problems: 

• Income inequality (Fairness, Compassion)
• Foreclosures (Responsibility, Fairness)
• Government (Honesty, Responsibility, Fairness)
• Politics (Respect)
• Healthcare and Social Policy (Compassion, Responsibility)   

  In some situations a leaders’ inauthentic behavior is unintended due to a lack of sensitivity and awareness, but in many cases leaders willfully choose to disavow sacred values because they value the reward more (bonuses). These value lapses – intended or unintended – have led to the rise of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and to the overthrow of regimes in the Middle East. People need and must feel that their leaders hold these five scared values authentically, not superficially, or else they will disengage and react by fighting, fleeing or freezing. And as tensions increase due the real and perceived disavowal of these sacred values, the potential for humans to react physically as well as emotionally also rises, as we’ve seen throughout the Middle East.

    Leaders from all sectors of our society must develop a deeper understanding and sensitivity of how these core sacred values dynamically hold relationships, teams, organizations, and countries together, all be it sometimes in a chaotic way. When organizational and political leaders focus on and subscribe to the perspective of cost versus benefit, there undoubtedly will be tension and that tension will give rise to conflict and disengagement.

In his book Moral Courage, Rushworth Kidder states, “Successful organizations must require moral courage in their leaders and then work assiduously that it is rarely needed.” I agree, but more importantly leaders must take on the hard work – the work of authentically committing to these sacred core values and then modeling moral courage when they are challenged. To create a highly engaged workforce leaders and organizations would be better served to first look in-ward and to evaluate the depth of their commitment to these core sacred values.  
    
Authenticity and Moral Courage are two of the Seven Hallmarks of Relationship–Centered Leadership. If you have an interest in building workforce engagement and becoming a high-performing leader, we invite you to explore the Relationship–Centered Leadership program.  For more information on this program download a description from the Free Downloads tab

Can you remember the last time you felt guilty? What was it like – did it move you to do something? Most likely it did; guilt is a powerful  emotion! You might have felt guilty about breaking your commitment to a diet by eating a piece of chocolate cake or because you completely forgot about a lunch date with a friend.  We’ve also witnessed the emotion on display in the public apologies we’ve heard from leaders who have broken a trust.  Common wisdom views guilt as a negative emotion because we experience it when our behavior causes others to feel discomfort or pain.  That is why we adopt various coping mechanisms to relieve ourselves of the feeling. Denial: “I did nothing wrong.” Projection: “It’s his fault I behaved so badly.” And a lack of emotional and social intelligence can conspire in minimizing and blinding us to the critical learning that it is designed to provide. Guilt is a chemical messenger on a mission to let you know that you may have crossed a boundary. Don’t shoot the messenger!

 I recently read two articles with two very different perspectives on guilt. In the Week in Review section of the New York Times on January 2, 2011 the feature headline read, “It’s the day after New Year’s – broken your resolution yet? No guilt necessary.”  The message is that guilt is an emotion to be avoided and there are things you can do to avoid this uncomfortable feeling. The second article was in the January issue of Harvard Business Review, Guilt-Ridden People Make Great Leaders. The article reviews research which shows that guilt has a positive correlation with leaders’ performance and perceived capability. “People who are prone to guilt tend to work harder and perform better than people who are not guilt-prone, and are perceived to be more capable leaders.”

Is it possible then that guilt is neither a negative nor a positive emotion, but rather, serves a higher purpose, to help you become a better person?

The research project, headed by Francis Flynn PhD, and conducted at a Fortune 500 firm, found that people who are prone to guilt received higher performance ratings from their bosses. Related studies found that this characteristic was associated with higher levels of organizational commitment and peers’ perception that these individuals were stronger leaders.

In fact, Flynn’s work indicates that, “employees who have guilty tendencies could be the best thing that ever happened to your organization.”

Guilt prone individuals are more likely to be:

* Harder Workers
* Better Leaders
* More Altruistic and willing to help others
* Higher Performers
* More committed to their employers
* Able to see the big picture

When I read this study I couldn’t help but think about the recent financial debacle, and although it would be unfair to paint all the wizards of Wall Street with the same brush, it would appear they could use a few more leaders with a conscience.  I also reflected on the recent push by some business schools to have students sign an ethics pledge, which was not met with great enthusiasm. I recall one student quoted who said that he felt insulted by the request. Yet we know that the more the financial stakes increase, the more likely that guilt and ethics will take a secondary position.

Emotional and Social Intelligence: Guilt and Empathy

“Even more complex social emotions like shame, embarrassment, guilt and pride are attached to mirror neuron system found in the insula of the brain.”

                                     ~   Jeremy Rifkin, The Empathic Civilization

By the age of four or five children understand social expectations and are capable of experiencing a sense of guilt from hurting another child. This maturation process is critical in the development of empathy. By the ages of ten to twelve children can think abstractly and their sense of guilt is also abstracted. It is at this age that they internalize a sense of social guilt and anguish over failures to live up to moral standards of society.  What we know is that human beings are wired to have the emotional and social capacity to experience a full range of feelings, which is meant to help us survive and to live socially, morally and ethically.  The responsibility of parents, leaders, citizens and institutions is to assist in this development and to promote social and business expectations and standards that inspire us to reach our human potential; and to not encourage the philosophy popularized by Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street, “…greed, for the lack of a better word, is good.”

 It seems to me that we are witnessing an increase of denial, projection and suppression of the two emotions that are meant to keep our social and moral compass pointed in the right direction and to keep us connected  - guilt and empathy. We see examples of this not only in the business arena, but also in the social relationships of our youth. Almost weekly I see stories of bullying taking place in the halls of our schools and on the Internet with some resulting in tragic outcomes.

My deep concern is that we are in a cycle of polarization and isolation, which blocks the development of our emotional and social intelligence as well as our ability to feel and learn from guilt and express empathy. In the January/February issue of The Atlantic, in an article titled, The Rise of The New Global Elite, author Chrystia Freeland describes the growing divide between the wealthy elite and the rest of the world’s population. The following quote from the article shows the dangers of how isolation disconnects and inhibits one’s facility to feel guilt, take appropriate responsibility and to express empathy. “When I asked one of Wall Street’s most successful investment-bank CEOs if he felt guilty for his firm’s role in creating the financial crisis, he told me with evident sincerity that he did not. The real culprit, he explained, was his feckless cousin, who owned three cars and a home he could not afford.”

Fortunately, our brains don’t lose their capacity to experience these vital emotions. However, we must be cautious, very cautious that we don’t create the circumstances in which our isolation and polarization become immense gulfs, and that our brains perceive that the pain to bridge these gulfs would be so harsh that we choose to use projection and denial to protect ourselves from feeling our guilt and therefore our ability to empathize.

One way for leaders and organizations to create healthy and productive workplaces is to focus on the development of emotional and social intelligence and to make sure that moral and ethical behavior is expected and recognized. And you might want to consider asking two questions, “When was the last time I allowed myself to feel guilt and what did I do about it,?” and when considering someone for a promotion or a new hire, “Tell me, when was the last time you felt guilty about something and what did you do about it?”

The Seven Rituals of Renewal ™  are behavior choices that will change your life, and by incorporating these Rituals into your day you will notice a decrease in your stress level, which will give you more energy, focus, and a positive outlook.  You might be saying to yourself, “I’m already to busy; I can’t fit one more thing into my day!” Well, what’s the alternative?  Is it to continue your day of “hurry and worry” and eventually wear yourself down to the point where you don’t have the physical, mental and emotional energy to enjoy life!  Recent studies indicate that most people waste about 2.9 hours a day.  
The healthy and resilient alternative to “hurry and worry” is to build a practice of these Seven Rituals. There is one practice for each letter of the word renewal, and the beauty of this practice is that all seven will take about 60 minutes, which you can schedule throughout the day, and still have 1.9 hours to waste!  

The Alchemy of the Seven Rituals of Renewal is that each one has the capacity to have a positive affect on your body chemistry, which in turn has a beneficial impact on your mental, emotional and physical being.   When you practice the A of Appreciation you will stimulate the production of a hormone called oxytocin, which has a mitigating effect on the stress hormones, particularly cortisol. Oxytocin can reduce hyper-vigilance, which cortisol is responsible for, and give you a sense of calmness.

Seven Rituals of Renewal™

R: Take 10-15 minutes each day to Reflect. No special topic or requirements other than to turn off all electronic gear, sit quite without any interruptions. Take yourself off the grid; be quite and reflect. 

E: Get some Exercise everyday. This doesn’t have to be at a fitness center; just do something that gets your body moving e.g. park your car a distance form your office, take a short walk during lunch, or take the stairs instead of the elevator. 10 minutes is great. This is not a weight reduction and muscle building routine; its about getting oxygen into you body and brain.

N: Select and eat one thing that is Nutritious everyday; select a piece of fruit or unsalted almonds instead of chips or candy. You’ll feel good about your decision and they’re good for you! Many people report that they don’t eat breakfast or take lunch; use this ritual as a healthy snack in the morning or mid-afternoon.

E: Engage with someone you love every day. It’s best face to face, but phone or one of those video phone services will suffice occasionally; make sure the engagement is about the love not about a TV program. Call a child or grandchild; your goal is to feel the love! Once again take yourself off the grid. 

W: Take time to experience some Wackiness in you day. Find something that will give you a good round of laughter, the more the better. It’s not as hard as you might think. Just think about laughing and you might crack a smile and begin to laugh. You actually may find yourself laughing about nothing and enjoying it!  However, the absolute best is whenever you are in the company of young kids and they start laughing about something goofy, just let yourself enjoy and join in! 

A: Spend a moment in Appreciation. Think about all that you have to appreciate. Each day find something in your life that deserves your appreciation. I know, when we’re stressed we only notice what’s stressing us, and that’s exactly why you need to stop and appreciate that you have oxygen to breathe!  

L: is for Letting Go. It’s amazing how much negative stuff we acquire from the time we get up in the morning to the time we retire. Anger, regrets, disappointments are just a few. Forgive, forget and move-on. There are so many more important things to use our limited energy on. There is a saying, “It’s not worth sticky palettes!” You know, the things in our blood that get thick and stick together when were stressed. 

The amazing thing about each of these rituals is that each one has the power to change your entire being and when you incorporate al seven on daily basis they can change your life. The decision is yours, continue the hurry – worry game and reduce your health, effectiveness and joy in work and life or start right now to practice the Seven Rituals of Renewal™ and experience the best of you. 

The Renewal Group can assist you in changing your life with our four one-hour Seven Rituals of Renewal coaching program. Our commitment and belief is that this program will improve your well-being, and continued daily practice will have a significant benefit to your health and satisfaction with life and work.

Stress is a form of terrorism that infiltrates and attacks our hearts and minds and the effectiveness of our organizations.  It’s an assassin waiting to strike at our Resiliency. Unfortunately the full significance and seriousness of stress is misunderstood and under valued. We use the word indiscriminately, and can’t seem to connect the dots. We stress equally over the inconvenience of a hangnail, and the fear of a global financial meltdown. And like the terror attacks we can’t seem to connect the dots until we suffer a major setback, such as a heart attack. As our lives have become increasing complicated, our ability to assign an appropriate level of threat to a stressor has decreased, leaving us increasingly vulnerable. 


Since it’s inception the Advisory Threat System has been at yellow and above, and our lives and organizations have been in lock step with the system.
We cannot solve the issues of Homeland Security, although it might be healthy for our country to be continuously at yellow or above, it is not sustainable to live our lives’ at an elevated level of stress. If we consciously and or unconsciously continue to live at yellow or above we have become our worst fears – we are the terrorists.

Stress is a Disease:
We cannot rid our lives and organizations of stress; in fact, we need certain levels of stress to be productive.  We need to educate ourselves about the different types of stress, acute and chronic, and learn ways of managing both types to prevent our lives and organizations from becoming drained of vitality, creativity, and the resiliency required to be effective and successful in these stressful times. 
Stress is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual disease that is a major contributing factor to increased healthcare utilization and costs, illness and disease and lost productivity: personally, professionally, organizationally and nationally.
The following points highlight the enormity of the problem and its costs:
* Princeton Survey Research study, three-quarters of employees believe that there is more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.

* A Northwestern National Life study found that one in four employees viewed their jobs as the No. 1 source of stress in their lives.

* Gallup reports 80 percent of employees suffer from job stress with nearly 40 percent reporting that they need help in managing their stress.

* Job stress costs American businesses hundreds of billions of dollars a year in employee burnout, turnover, higher absenteeism, lower production and increased health care costs.

* The American Psychological Association estimates that 60 percent of all absences are due to stress-related issues, costing U.S. companies more than $57 billion a year.

* Heart disease is the second largest killer next to cancer. It is estimated that some 80 million Americans exhibit some of the symptoms that will lead to heart disease. The six contributing factors to heart disease are Diet, Exercise, Stress/Sleep, Lifestyle and The Environment. A recent study found that women with stressful jobs have a 40% higher risk of major coronary problems than women with less job strain.

Our current worrisome and stressful social and economic climate is compounding the risks to our health and performance; just worrying about losing a job can increase your coronary risks. These findings should be a call to raise the national Stress Threat Level to RED; alerting leaders to the dangers stress poses to their ability to reduce costs, increase productivity, and remain competitive.   A stressful organizational climate is a petri dish for breeding illness, accidents, disengaged employees, inferior customer service, and unproductive team and organizational behavior. And like many infectious diseases it is pervasive and has no boundaries. It is a factor in poor school performance, abusive and violent behavior, and relationship discord.
Stress and the Brain: The Amydala is our 911 Call Center


Stress is personal. How one interprets a situation, will determine how they feel and how they react; yet, our brains stress response mechanism is basically identical. The paradox of stress is that the parts of our brain responsible for igniting the stress response, by releasing the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol, and driving emotions such as fear, the amydalae, think they are doing us a service! And when we need to take immediate action to avoid a threat it does; however, there is a down side.


 Our brain’s stress response mechanism is designed to handle acute stress. These stressors are usually perceived as immediate threats to our physical, psychological, and emotional well-being, and they are time limited.  An example of an acute stressor is what you might experience when an 18-wheeler wants your lane, and doesn’t ask for permission to take it – Stress Level RED! If you’ve been in this situation or can imagine it, you may have noticed an increase in your heart rate, and a few other physical and emotional changes; the critical factor is that it provides you with the focus, energy, and ability to immediately blow your horn, and move into the breakdown lane. This almost instantaneous response, sometimes referred to as Hijacking, allowed you to survive this threat! Within a few minutes your body begins to return to “normal”, but your eyes and ears stay finely attuned to all the other 18-wheeler threats still on the road.  When you encounter the next 18-wheeler you may notice a bit of tension until you are safely back into your lane.   Your amydalae will remain hyper-vigilant (Level Yellow) scanning for all additional potential threats, as well as retain this stressful incident for future reference. And this is the problem – we remain on hyper-vigilant mode. We are constantly at threat levels yellow, orange, or red, which cause us to exaggerate every other stressor we encounter.


In stressful work climates, employees are on constant alert, which reduces their creativity, increases tension, frustration and fatigue - adding a negative overlay to all situations, which increases the chances of numerous Amygdala Hijackings.


In today’s uncertain and turbulent times we are experiencing numerous acute stressors, “My computer won’t boot as fast as I want it to.” compounded and complicated with chronic stress. The difference is that chronic stress is stress we experience over a prolonged period, and our perception is that we have minimal or no control over it, e.g. an unsatisfactory job or a stressful work climate.  Chronic Stress creates a constant level of strain, which has an eroding and corroding effect on our well-being and performance. This is double trouble; the combination of chronic and acute stress reduces and constricts our personal, professional and organizational health and effectiveness. 
Stop Acute Stressors from becoming Chronic:

In most cases an acute stressor will come to an end. Remaining optimistic and keeping things in perspective helps acute stressors dissipate and end in a timely manner.  Be cautious not to convert an acute stressor into a chronic stressor.   Here’s an example. During a meeting you perceive a colleague’s comments about a proposal you have made to be inappropriately sarcastic. You react rudely, you’re short and dismissive – maybe you even yell at the person. This exchange sets off the stress response in both of you.  Hopefully, sooner than later, you recognize that you were Hijacked and your behavior was not productive for the relationship and the team.  By offering an authentic apology for your reaction, you can begin to lower the threat level from yellow to blue or green, and bring the stressful situation to a conclusion. If you keep the threat level at yellow or above, you and your colleague may carry this stressful baggage into every other situation increasing the chances that another reaction will occur.  What should have been an acute stressor can linger and turn into a chronic negative relationship, which doesn’t serve either of you well.This is not unusual, most people have stories similar to this situation, and it frequently happens when people carry stress home with them and respond to a loved one with their pent up stress from the workday.

Commit to Address your Chronic Stress:
Chronic stressors require more thought and effort to deal with. If you’re in a job or relationship that is not meeting your expectations, it’s very hard to just quit and move on. You may need the job for income and health insurance.  And although the relationship has features that are not meeting your needs, there may be many aspects that are. In both cases take time to reflect on want you want and then take action that provides you with a sense of moving towards a resolution. Take small steps and focus on aspects that you have control over. By taking small steps towards a resolution you will reduce your stress, feel more hopeful and will benefit from an increase in energy to address the problem more fully.


In the job scenario you can start looking for another job or explore how you may move within your organization to another position that better meets your interests and strengths. In both situations outside assistance or counseling from a friend, mentor or professional can help you find perspective and suggest a process that will help to move the job and the relationship situations in a positive direction.

Three Steps that are helpful in Addressing Chronic Stress:

* Take time to reflect on the situation. What is it that you want? Be as clear as possible.
* Ask yourself, “What am I contributing to the situation?” and commit to changing your behavior first.
* Most Chronic stressors require a process of taking small steps. Identify pro-active, positive steps that you can take. Be patient, but be active in the process of moving in the direction of a resolution. 

 If you chose not to address your personal and organizational chronic and acute stress you are risking your health, performance and satisfaction with work and life. Most of all, you are eroding your resiliency at a time when everyone needs his or her resiliency to be at its peak. However, the dangers of untreated stress are far more significant than one might realize.

Stress s a symptom and a transmission factor to a communicable disease that is preventing individuals and organizations from achieving their highest potential; we call it Chronic Human Wasting Disease™. CHMW is an infectious disease that strikes at the heart of individual, team and organizational performance. It subverts and steals the essence of human and organizational effectiveness and success – intrinsic motivation and potential. If CHWD is not treated, it will eventually destroy what you need and value most, your human resources and their potential.
The Renewal Group is your source for preventing and treating the causes and consequences of stress, which is one important step in preventing Chronic Human Wasting Disease™. If you believe that people are your most important asset, and if you are committed to achieving a healthy and effective organization where people thrive and their potential and performance flourishes contact us for a consultation.

“The brain is lazy. It changes only when it has to. And the conditions that consistently force the brain to rewire itself are when it confronts something novel.” This unflattering statement about our brains comes from the book, Iconoclast, by Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist.   Recently my lazy brain got energized when I was listening to a radio series titled, No Place Like Home, on Bob Edward’s Weekend. What got its (my) attention was that it isn’t only novelty that opens our brains up to rewiring; it’s also adversity.

This radio series was about the aftermath of Katrina and how the city is rewiring itself to move forward with even greater resiliency. Tim Williamson, co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village was discussing his organization’s mission to help identify and support local entrepreneurs to build a varied and thriving business climate in New Orleans. Tim was asked, “New Orleans has its ways – is it open to new ideas?” His response was a textbook description and metaphor of how brains work and the process of building resiliency on micro/individual and macro/community levels. His response and I’m paraphrasing, was that indeed, New Orleans was a city of closed networks and it was difficult for anyone or anything new to break-in or through. What Katrina (adversity) did was fracture these networks, providing the opportunity for new ideas and ways to take hold. This process was assisted by thousands of volunteers, celebrities, and outsiders (novelty) coming in with compassion and new ideas and ways of doing things.  At a time of need the people and community of New Orleans was more open than at any other time.

We could all benefit from being more resilient than we are, particularly in these stressful times. One obstacle that prevents us from developing and strengthening our resiliency is that our brains:
 ·     Are lazy and like routine
·      Avoid discomfort
·      And thrives on familiarity and predictability

Our brain’s preferences can be traps to building and strengthening one’s resiliency. Most of what prevents us from being resilient is a set of hardwired brain patterns and habits that have developed over years. Berns says, “That novelty equals learning and learning means physical rewiring of the brain.” The same is true for adversity. When we experience adversity it is an OPPORTUNITY for learning. The question is, “Are you open to learning?” Are you curious enough to push your brain to explore or will you follow your brains preference for being a couch potato? The evidence is conclusive; our brains are capable of rewiring. There are amazing examples of stroke victims not accepting a victim’s role and rewiring their brains, with effort and perseverance, so that physical capacities initially lost were re-learned and rewired to other regions of the brain.

In another profile segment of, No Place Like Home, Paul Baricos of the Hollygrove Market and Farm shares an uplifting story of how one acre of urban land in the heart of New Orleans has become a thriving center of community where folks learn and share urban farming techniques. The center brings people together to learn, gain strength and courage in a community of common values.  

In his description of how this came about he says, “The storm created an opportunity – it forced people to do it themselves. We had to go through a self-assessment. What kind of life do we want?” Once again you can see the process of confronting an adverse situation, learning from it and transforming it into an opportunity to be more self-sufficient and resilient.

These same principles, concepts and actions that the people of New Orleans are employing to rebuild a thriving and resilient city are the identical steps you can take personally, professionally, organizationally and in your communities to strengthen your resiliency in these turbulent times.

Key Principles of rewiring your brain to be Resilient:
Purpose: What is my purpose and meaning for being? What do I want out of life and what do I want to leave as my legacy? From an organizational perspective, the key is does our purpose speak to the needs of employees as well as to executive and customer needs?

Self-Assessment: What is preventing me from pursuing my purpose and experiencing the best of others and myself? Organizations must assess what are preventing employees from being engaged and believing that they make a difference.

Commitment to Change: Can I commit to be open and to challenge my own point view?  It is important to commit to be a learner and to let go of the “I’m the knower role?”This is essential for leaders and managers also. To motivate people to use their creativity, to be innovative and to engage in their work,a leader needs to listen and to be open to new ideas.

Practice: Altering and changing a habit isn’t easy. To rewire, one has to practice, practice and practice being the person/leader you want to be. Not the old way, the new resilient way! Organizational execution isn’t magic; it’s a function of training, practice and continuous supportive feedback. 

Continuous Reflection: Am I focusing on what is most important? Am I moving towards my purpose? What have I learned and what is working and what is not and why?

Be Curious: The world is fascinating place. Don’t let your lazy, couch potato brain keep you from exploring it. Take yourself for a walk outside your comfort zone; even tiny steps can be insightful and energizing.  There are two sides to a coin and at least that many to every issue. Make a point to see the other side of the coin.

In my previous article/ blog I presented Salvatore Maddi’s, Hardiness Belief’s of Commitment, Challenge and Control. They clearly show up in the words and actions of the people interviewed for the program, No Place Like Home: 

Commitment: “What kind of life do we want?”

Challenge: “The storm created an opportunity.”

Control: “It forced people to do it themselves.”

The 3 Cs are the cornerstones of resiliency. Everyday the world presents us with enormous challenges and opportunities.  Change is a constant and the speed and force of change will only intensify. Are you prepared physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to experience it through resilient eyes or will you let your Lazy Brain accept the role of couch potato and victim? “What kind of life do you want?”  It’s your choice.

Can Oxytocin help you be a more influential leader and a higher performing Organization?

Yes it can, but lets be clear, we are discussing a naturally occurring hormone, not the pain-killing drug Oxycontin! And for those of you who have been in my workshops, you know that I’m an advocate for relationship –centered approaches to leadership for a number of important reasons; one is that these approaches mix oxytocin into the equation.

My point of reference on oxytocin is Paul Zak, a neuroeconomist, who has conducted fascinating research on the affects and impact of oxytocin on human relationships and how relationships impact organizations, economies and countries.

We know that oxytocin is the hormone responsible for human’s experiencing appreciation, empathy, generosity and other feelings that help to build strong bonds between human beings. Most of all, it is the substance that contributes to building trust.

Here are a few points from the research that demonstrate the power of oxytocin:

 · In studies where people’s oxytocin is stimulated they become significantly more generous, even with their own money. Zak’s studies indicate that oxytocin infused people donated 48% more to charitable organizations than the placebo group.

 · Increased levels of oxytocin decrease the stress hormones cortisol and ACTH. Is stress having a negative affect on you or your workforce? Why not implement oxytocin stimulating initiatives to counter the effects.

 · Countries with higher levels of trust have higher income levels, more stable governments and increased economic activity. Could this finding also apply to an organization? Why not invest in educating leaders in your organization on how to be oxytocin catalysts.

· People with developed social networks are sick less often and live longer. Connecting with people and maintaining positive relationships is an oxytocin function. Do lost workdays impact your organizations performance and costs? Why not let oxytocin help you reduce both.

By connecting the dots you can begin to see how oxytocin can help anyone be more influential and productive: parents, teachers, doctors, politicians and leaders, as well as organizations. Here’s an example: 

Train supervisors to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and ways they can reduce stress in the work place by focusing on oxytocin-increasing initiatives? The ROI’s could be significant. Here are just a few:

 · A safer environment – less accidents

· Employees willing to give more of their discretionary effort

· Higher levels of creativity and innovation

· Fewer work absences

· More loyalty and commitment

· Less resistance to change

· Healthier employees

In the July/August issue of Fast Company Magazine Paul Zak’s work is featured in an article entitled, Doctor Love, . In the article there are a few provocative statements that merit serious consideration:

“One day, a company might be better off asking not what its margins are, but what its trust factor is.” Brian Singh, Zinc Research

 “The speed with which social media can affect a company’s “trust factor” may lead to a new focus - a focus on your current customers. If they have a positive interaction with customer service, or love your product, they’ll tell other people and do your marketing for you, which will attract new customers.” Richard Laermer, RLM Public Relations.

 And finally the reporter, Adam Penenberg concludes, “In a world of social networks, then, this much seems clear: Companies that can connect with us and raise our oxytocin levels should prosper. Those that can’t won’t.”

 In conclusion, ozytocin can help you be a more effective and influential person, parent and leader. By developing your authentic relationship – centered approaches to your people interactions, you will be using the alchemy of oxytocin to assist you in building higher levels of trust, appreciation, generosity and engagement – all the things that make life and work worth participating in.

 You can begin to use the power of oxytocin today: Active Appreciation