The Empowering Leader

Enjoy this video preview from the FranklinCovey training session: Leadership: Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results.


Emma Braddon, featured in this video is an inspiring and empowering leader who truly makes a difference!

New Job

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go....

Starting a new job is always interesting.

It's sort of like starting at a new school. You ask yourself...will I fit in? Will they like me? Will I do a good job? Will they be glad they hired me?

Once you get past your sudden trip back into 7th grade obsession with being liked and step back into adulthood it's really ok. You remember that you are a grown up with adult children and a husband who loves you. You have friends and people liked you at your last job. You were great at your last job, so it is likely that you will do well in your next one.

The next step is learning the new job...one day at a time! The learning curve has begun. Adapting to the new role is going to be an interesting ride.

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

Blink; The Power of Thinking of Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell is New York Times Bestseller. Gladwell was named as Time Magazine's 100 Most Influencial people in 2005 and is a writer for New Yorker magazine . Blink is a book that combines neuroscience and psychology, making it appeal to all sorts of audiences.

"Malcolm Gladwell's fascinating treatise on snap judgments is sure to inspire a following....The writer is in top form in Blink and the reading here is a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, Blink brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves, ideas that you'll have a hard time getting out of your head, you'll itch to share with all of your friends." ~ Farhad Manjoo, Salon

Malcolm Gladwell:
What is Blink about?
It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good

Gladwell's book takes a look at first impressions and how we can use those to become successful decision makers.

It's time for me to explore his other books. I think that The Tipping Point is next.

Napping

“No day is so bad it can’t be fixed with a nap.”
~ Carrie P. Snow

This is a quote that begins an article on the benefrits of napping on the Riran Project site.

The article goes on to say that we only need as much sleep as the brain will allow. A power nap of 20 minutes can refresh our brains.

A good night's sleep and a refreshing nap can give you many benefits:

1. Less stress and added relaxation, including decreased stress hormone levels.
2. Increased alertness and productivity. A 20-minute nap in the afternoon will "do more for your stamina than sleeping another 20 minutes in the morning."
3. Improved memory and learning. "It looks like napping may protect brain circuits from overuse until those neurons can consolidate what’s been learned about a procedure."
4. Good for the heart. "may reduce the risk of death from heart disease, particularly in young healthy men, say researchers. It is known that countries where siestas are common tend to have lower levels of heart disease."
5. Increased cognitive functioning."In a recent study, researchers at NASA showed that a 30-minute power nap increased cognitive faculties by approximately 40 percent!"
6. Get motivated to exercise."You’re guaranteed to run longer, faster, more efficiently and mindfully when your body has it’s required amount of zzzz’s."
7. Boost your creativity. "People tend to be more imaginative after a good night’s sleep. Other experts agree that taking a nap or stepping away from a problem or project refreshes the mind and could lead to better ideas later."

8. Make up for midnight tossing and turning. "Some of the most recent research suggests that a bad night’s sleep can stress the body as well as the mind."  
9. Protect yourself from sleepiness. "Naps are clearly useful for some people, including shift workers, students, and anyone doing long-haul work, such as pilots on transcontinental runs."
10. Better health. "Napping in general benefits heart functioning, hormonal maintenance, and cell repair."

Getting the perfect nap

•The first consideration is psychological: Recognize that you’re not being lazy; napping will make you more productive and more alert after you wake up.
•Try to nap in the morning or just after lunch; human circadian rhythms make late afternoons a more likely time to fall into deep (slow-wave) sleep, which will leave you groggy.
•Avoid consuming large quantities of caffeine as well as foods that are heavy in fat and sugar, which meddle with a person’s ability to fall asleep.
•Instead, in the hour or two before your nap time, eat foods high in calcium and protein, which promote sleep.
•Find a clean, quiet place where passersby and phones won’t disturb you.
•Try to darken your nap zone, or wear an eyeshade. Darkness stimulates melatonin, the sleep- inducing hormone.
•Remember that body temperature drops when you fall asleep. Raise the room temperature or use a blanket.
•Once you are relaxed and in position to fall asleep, set your alarm for the desired duration (see below).

How long is a good nap?

•THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds. Sleep studies haven’t yet concluded whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone’s shoulder on the train.

•THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes. Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.

•THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes. Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.

•THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutes. Includes the benefits of the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names).

•THE LAZY MAN’S NAP: 50 to 90 minutes. Includes slow-wave plus REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and muscles.

I had a nap this afternoon. It was wonderful.

Read the whole article on the Ririan Project site, here.

Leadership

"A good leader takes more than their fare share of the blame and gives more than their share of the credit." ~ Arnold Glasnow

The Walk, Richard Paul Evans

I recently listened to The Walk, as an audio book while travelling.

The Walk is the story of a man, Alan Christofferson, whose wife becomes very ill and in the process of caring for her he loses his home and his business, and her. With nothing to live for, Alan chooses life, but without any direction he decides to go for a walk. His walk isn't a few blocks, instead he sets out to walk across the United States.

When I told someone about the book, his walk across the country made them think of Forrest Gump. While both men set out on their journies after they lose the woman they love, it is still a very different story.

The book tells the story of is the main character's struggle to find himself after he has suffered such incredible losses. His journey leads him to discover many interesting people and in his quest to understand himself, he learns a lot about himself. The story has somewhat of a spiritual flair, but it doesn't get moralistic. For that I was grateful.

In some ways, this book is like a 'self-help' book, that does teach a lesson, however. It didn't inspire me to examine my life or to change my way of thinking. It was, however, interesting enough to keep me entertained and awake during a long drive...across my province.

Influence

"To the world, you may be just one person; but to one person, you may be the world." ~ Josephine Billings