I started by asking this question: What was the worst thing anyone has ever done to you? I asked them to write this down and capture some words or phrases that described how they felt.  Some folks had to go back to their childhood but just about everyone recalled fairly vividly this event in their lives. I asked the CEOs to share this with the group.  Several key themes emerged from this simple 15 minute exercise.

First, no one was immune from such an experience. Second, the experiences varied broadly and something that might be considered trivial to someone might very well be very traumatic to another.  And finally, what made the experience so hurtful was that at the time in occurred, there seemed to be few tools or skills or people or places around to help them process it.  In other words, there was no change management.

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This should be a terrifying statistic for any manager or leader. If this is not the #1 Human Capital issue of 2011 (and potentially 2012), I can’t imagine what would be. I wrote about this a year ago, when the number was around 45% and warned of workplace burnout and fatigue. Keep in mind that those presently employed were not let go during the downsizing or right-sizing recession over the past two years. These were folks that organizations had decided to retain for their skills, local knowledge, and relationships. Eighty-four percent of these folks want to leave your organization.

I can throw out a laundry list of the consequences of this workplace reshuffling, but the greatest risk is the loss of intellectual capital that it takes an employee to acquire. How things get done in an organization, who to know, when to execute on certain tasks, what people need to hear, and the power of networks – all this is at risk of leaving your organizations.

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When we have a conversation with someone, we make the mistake of talking to the person we see right in front of us, as opposed to the person who came to that specific point in time in front of you from somewhere else. Just minutes prior to your conversation, that person could have had a really bad call/email/message. Or perhaps the negative event occurred the day before, or the week/month/year before.

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However, memory is fallible when stress levels and emotional temperatures of that situation rise. Physiologically speaking, during these times, the amygdala releases hormones in our body that entirely disable or partially disable our cognitive functions, the area of the brain where our memory exists. What I am saying is that our memories are not so much the enemy of learning, but the enemy of high performance.

High performance is performing at high levels most of the time, not just when things are going well. In fact, high performance is often attributed to great work in times of stress. This is a cornerstone of many leadership models as well. So my counsel this week is to take inventory of the tools, knowledge, and resources that you use to perform at a high level. Then, label which ones are in your memory and which you can access from someplace or someone else. Put a caution on the former list and figure out ways that you can access such information during times of stress. Your memory will actually be your enemy is these high stress times and your ability to execute tasks at a high levels of performance is greatly compromised.

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A few months before she had come into office, a vendor had been collaborating with the company to build a technology (a chip) for one of their core products. When the technology was done (late 2007), the CIO and the executive team decided not to pursue it saying “they did not need it.”  After all, they were doing very well, selling products and making money. The frustrated vendor went to the competitor and sold it to them. This happened, incidentally, right after my client—the new CEO—came on board.

A few months ago, after two years of losses, the company decided to purchase its competitor’s product—literally from a public store at the mall—and dissect it, only to learn that the technology they turned down (the chip) was in fact the one the competitor was using. The CEO wanted to hold accountable the people who were responsible for (1) turning away the technology, and (2) for taking so long to figure out the reason behind the losses. This seems like a classic business school case study, only it just happened and it is still unraveling.

Because the CEO was new and the “culprits” were incumbents, the CEO became the convenient scapegoat. The executive who made the decision to turn down the technology was just announced as the new CEO and his first order of business was to put a core team in place to help them get out of the slump. Who was on that core team of executives? All the same incumbents that created the situation.

What is the lesson here?  I’d welcome your thoughts…

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I’ll let you determine the merits of this type of leadership style but what I’d like to discuss is why fear is such a powerful tool. First, it is the most powerful “chemical” in your body. Fear will almost always trump other emotions like love, anger, or joy. From a cognitive perspective, fear can either slow down or completely shut down rational thought, causing us to respond in a very instinctive (fight or flight) way.  Fear is created when a threat is stimulated, whether real or perceived. What exactly is being threatened varies constantly within you (i.e., what is threatening to you today might not be tomorrow) and among people (i.e., what is threatening to one person might not be to another).

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I’ve read several studies that are suggesting anywhere from 20 to 40% of high potential employees who presently have jobs are looking to change in another organization. Reasons vary from traditional ones like compensation, roles, and work/life balance, to unhappiness over how things were handled in the recession time period. Competing organizations with the help of recruiters have begun poaching each others’ talent, and as one recruiter shared with me last week, “they want the best of what is out there, and are really willing to pay top dollar for it.”

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Creativity, at its core, is a reflection of a deep sense of self-awareness. It is the notion that something is wrong with the present tool or process that makes for the desire to search for an alternative. Fear, which is the strongest of all of the basic core emotions, is the enemy of creativity.  Workplaces are inherently a place of fear – our guards are up, we’re protective of what we say, who we say it to, especially when it comes to changing the status quo where someone, and in many cases, it is someone you actually know, may be responsible for that status quo- for creating it and sustaining it. There is additional “white noise” that we call carry that is an impediment to innovation.  What happened at home, last week, the last time we tried to change something and failed, who is watching, etc. Managing this white noise, is a skill directly correlated to higher states of EQ.

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It is somewhat ironic that economists, who are stereotypically tilted towards the left-brain, were the first to tell us 1) that a recession is mostly an emotional experience and 2) that the technical definitions of a recession are often too complex to decipher. I applaud the economists for continuing to state this fact.

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This, as you can imagine, is music to my ears and what was melodic was the fact that they are starting so early, when adults in the workplace are still debating whether EQ even exists. I have two very young children and everyday, I make it a point to ask my son, Hunter (4) and daughter, Lexi (6) if they were “happy” or “sad” — and what happened to make them feel that way during the course of the day. I also ask them if there were others in their classes that were “happy or sad” trying to use very simple emotions to build empathy and recognition of behaviors associated with emotions. I often also asked them to make “sad” faces, “happy” faces, “fun” faces, “laughing” faces, etc… and it’s a pleasure watching them formulate their facial and non verbal expression of these emotions. All I am trying to do is to make them emotionally literate, as it is abundantly clear, we are an emotionally illiterate society and culture.

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• Most collegiate curricula has not changed over the past 30 years, whereas the professional workplace has changed dramatically.
• Academia  requires you to major… with no focus on industry.  Yet the real world cares about the industry focus with your major being secondary.
• Students are being taught by academics, many of whom have never worked in an industry or workplace.

As students and parents of students who are paying the equivalent of a modest home for a college degree, I believe it is time to challenge academia. You are a customer. It is the job of the service provider, the colleges and universities, to prepare you or your child for the workplace.  If the content (curriculum) is outdated and in many cases irrelevant, the modality of learning is outdated, the people providing the services are outdated, how can you possibly expect yourself or your child to be ready for the changing 21st Century? You would never accept this kind of service from any other place. Outside your home, spending on your child’s college tuition is the second largest investment you will make. Why not demand more? Why not demand for:

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Don’t worry – I am not getting into the health care debate here.  Instead, I am putting on my Talent Management hat and asking, What is the impact of this to the workforce and workplace? We already have a good sense of how the workplace is evolving to more virtual and transient models almost entirely enabled by some form of technology.  Studies have shown higher levels of discomfort by baby boomers with technology than younger generations for obvious reasons… the younger generations grew up with technology (Digitial Natives) as opposed the Digital Immigrants that the baby boomers are. The baby boomers also come with significantly higher overhead than youger employees and couple that with the  desire of baby boomers to not want to work full-time …. all leads to following plausible conclusions:

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Trigger stimulants are emotional triggers that can stimulate and alter the state of both your own as well as others’ emotional state. We already use them… but the object is to use them proactively, especially when we need to. This is part of self-regulation and empathy on the EQ scale, and it is also part of just good awareness.  We can use trigger stimulants daily in our conversations, meetings, activities, etc.

As an example, what if your child was upset about something and as their parent, you took them to their favorite restaurant to dilute their emotional state? Would this help? We don’t know for sure, but it certainly is the right thing to do and chances are high that it will indeed help even if its short-lived. Being at the favorite restaurant is a trigger stimulant – you know it will evoke a positive response.

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Many leadership and management schools of thought talk about this at length – helping others be at their best is, of course, a major leadership competency.  Let me invite you to take an emotional perspective on this. Just as we discussed taking your emotional temperature, is it not possible to take someone else’s emotional temperature? Sure it is. Try it. At your next meeting, look at someone, anyone, in your presence. Based on their verbals and non-verbals, can you guesstimate their emotional temperature? Is it Low, Medium or High? Sure you can. You already do it.

For example, and for illustrative purposes I will exaggerate this, if the person in question is paying attention to you, asking questions, taking notes, and seems highly present and engaged, it’s safe to assume that their emotional temperature is in a very good state (Low) and that the meeting with them will likely be very productive. Conversely, if the person is not engaged, abrasive, not paying attention, or disengaged, then chances are that they will not be at their best.  Having the ability to emotionally recognize the emotional state of others is what empathy is (similar to your own self-awareness).

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Take this example, for instance. You have a meeting with your peers at 9AM this morning and there were some fireworks. You don’t feel good and the conflict is on your mind, but the rest of the day is packed with meetings and calls. How will you prevent your performance from being impacted by that 9AM meeting?

First, make no mistake; as smart as you are and as talented as you are, your body is already in an emotional hangover from that 9AM meeting. Yes, you can be functional and yes, you will put your game face on and try your best to ignore the impact of the 9AM meeting, but you will not be able to be at your best. Realizing this is key. At this point, it is OK to acknowledge you’re “emotionally hungover” to yourself.

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“I liked Dr. Justice’s advice to take a personal emotional reading once a day. Instead of once a day, I have tried to apply this concept multiple times a day so that I won’t hinder positive conversations\meetings that I participate in. I also find the advice good for ascertaining the emotional barometer of people I interact with so that I will know how to respond and/or proceed in a conversation.”

I realized that taking an emotional temperature is not something I have discussed in this blog, though I regularly recommend it as a simple action item in speeches and coaching sessions.

Through the course of our day, and especially if the day involves interaction with other folks, our emotional temperature changes. Some people and some meetings or calls make us “feel good” while others cause some level of anxiety.  Most of us go through these events for days and weeks without appreciating these experiences for the impact they have on us — both while they are occuring and then for the rest of the day.

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Last week I spoke at two conferences across the US. I got to meet many folks in the human capital space – both from the industry as well as consultants, coaches, and trainers. I spoke about Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and why now–during this decade–and in the context of all the changes I wrote about last year (recession, globalization, tech, and generations), EQ is the right competency to focus on. One of the more frequently asked questions I get is whether we can actually increase our EQ.

The answer is an unequivocal YES. Unlike your IQ or personality traits that get defined early and then remain relatively stable throughout your life, we can not only grow our EQ, but we can actually accelerate that growth. Is it possible to be 30 years old and have the emotional maturity of a 40 year old? Of course it is. We all know people like that. You yourself may have been accused of being “mature for your age” at one point or another. Can this accelerated growth be orchestrated? Yes and in fact, it is already happening.

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I spoke at 2 events last week and was struck by how much dialogue/questions arose once I introduced the concept of emotional hangovers. What is an emotional hangover? Think of a traditional hangover after a night of drinking – the next day, we feel a headache, we are dehydrated, and we are tired. It is not a stretch to assume that our ability to perform at our best during this hangover period is compromised.

Now juxtapose this with an emotional hangover. Some negative experience has occurred in the broad spectrum of negative experiences — from a negative experience such as your pen not working this morning (a relatively minor event) to something more traumatic as the death of a loved one. Clearly, some negative experiences have more impact than others, but ALL change the composition of our chemical/physiological construct. The emotional condition you feel after this negative experience is what I am calling an emotional hangover. Similar to a traditional hangover, our ability to perform our best is compromised during an emotional hangover. The challenge with the latter is that the symptoms are not as dramatic, and not as noticeable, as with a traditional hangover. In an emotional hangover, symptoms include lack of focus, anxiety, tension in the body, and the like. Some negative experiences are so powerful (i.e., emotional abuse as a child) that the emotional hangover can last a lifetime (i.e., Post Traumatic Stress Disorders).

This week I wanted to draw your attention to your emotional hangovers. How many of these do you have each day? Have many do you have from last week, last year, or ten years ago? Do you honestly believe that you are at your best in this state? While most of us are certainly functional during an emotional hangover … we are not at our best. This baggage we carry, like a traditional hangover, is incredibly debilitating. Take the time to monitor your emotional hangovers this year, from your reaction to simple negative experiences each day or more substantive ones. It is the ignorance of this state that leads to stress and the accumulation of them that leads to unhealthy relationships, sub par performance, and unfulfilled lives. Next week, I’ll share some specifics of how to manage these emotional hangovers.

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Years ago, I went to my boss and shared with him a serious problem we were having with our business. It was the kind of problem that comes with growth and success. I was literally stunned by his initial reaction. My boss said to me, “This is the kind of problem we want to have… I call it a High Class Problem.” He then proceeded to tell me that one of the best ways to be highly engaged and excited about your work is to solve high class problems.

High class problems are problems that occur because you solved most of the initial problems. High class problems are the problems of success. As we start 2010, both a new year and a new decade, I want you to think about what kinds of high class problems might exist in your business. Over the past three weeks, I have posted all kinds of videos to demonstrate the capacity of our curiosity, courage, and efforts. We are truly capable of performing miracles ourselves (as opposed to waiting for them to occur through some random act of circumstance). Solving high class problems will not only help your business, but also get you motivated. Granted, they will lead to more high class problems and that’s what all high performers want.

One more thing… the problem you solve does not have to be YOUR high class problem. You can find high class problems anywhere — in another business unit, in your partnerships with others, in your community, and perhaps in your personal life. In fact, I need to make a confession… the most pride I have ever felt in a professional environment was when I launched an internal community service project for an organization I used to work for. It was not my problem nor was it in my business, but it was a problem for the organization. I created a plan and offered it to the leadership team. They bought it. Today, many years later, that organization still uses that program. Learn to find and solve high class problems. It will do wonders for your confidence and sense of direction in 2010 and beyond.

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This morning on the way to work, I heard a financial analyst describe the how the European Currency — the Euro — came to be. Granted, the explanation was overly simplified but the Europeans actually were inspired by the United States. They noted how a company in the State of Texas could do business with another in the State of California, for example, using the same currency, without having to worry about travel visas or political policies of either state. They marveled at how this model within the fifty US states drove, in part, the great collaboration and business success we experience.

Though it is hard to imagine how countries from all continents could ever realize such a model of a single currency and free-flowing workforce, it is not hard to imagine how geographical barriers have already been eliminated in how we work and do business.  If I need help with my non-functioning laptop at an odd hour, I often will be routed to an 24/7 operation in India. If I need help with a specific project and the best person happens to be in New Zealand, I can simply contract the person and connect via email, web video, or other collaborative technology, and get it done.

In the new movie, Avatar, arguably the most expensive movie ever made, the director worked with teams from several countries who each had the best technology or skill set to bring together a unique movie that blended avatars and real human beings.  There is no reason why any project or task at hand should not have a barrier-free model. Why should employers limit their productivity and output based solely on just the employees they employ? It is conceivable that project teams will soon involve both internal members and external members – the criteria for membership being function-based, not geography or cost or place of employment.

Leaders and managers need to prepare to be resourceful … and break down traditional barriers in all that they do. If one has a million dollar budget for a  initiative due in six months, the leader should explore the skills required for the success of that project and based on that, explore any and all ways to achieve it … just like the director of Avatar did.  If I am in sales and have a target to hit, why should I be limited to my own sales force, or my own network? Based on my target and all the activities involved in a sales cycle,  can’t I hire others to perform certain functions and optimize my time and that of my sales staff? It’s not just about giving people the right tools, like we have the past few decades — it’s about accessing resources and tools without ever having to buy them to meet specific goals.  In this regard, huge operating overheads can be eliminated and productivity can soar — who does not want that? It’s already being done … are you ready?

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