Leadership Excellence - March 2012 - page 7

neurological networks and endocrine
systems that enable our body and mind
to heal itself—to renew.
If you are not aware of how much of
this annoying stress—and how many
moments of renewal—you experience
each day, take these two inventories:
Stress Inventory
Review your activities of last week.
If you were so stressed
you can’t remem-
ber anything that happened
, give yourself
a score of 100). For each
Activity/Time
listed, count each moment or event on
a day that aroused tension, stress, or
had one of the
four conditions
.
• Waking up, did you think of what
you had to do, a problem, or trouble?
• Difficulty getting ready for the day
• Traffic or delays in getting to work
• A subordinate, colleague, or client
who frustrated you or caused a problem
• Delays or obstacles to an activity
• Pressure surrounding a report, task,
project, performance goal, or deadline
• Having to work later than planned
• Traffic or delays in getting home
• Conversations, phone calls, or emails
that aroused any of the stressors
Now, total the number and calculate
your
Stress Score
for the week: _______
Renewal Inventory
Review your activities of last week.
If you can’t remember anything, give
yourself a score of 0 to reflect that
you
likely didn’t experience any renewal
). For
each
Activity/Time
, count moments or
events, lasting
15 minutes or more
, char-
acterized by 1) a sense of inner peace
and calm; 2) a feeling of excitement and
eagerness in anticipating an activity or
the future; 3) a sense of being in the
present, not thinking about the past or
future; 4) a pause or time out from
what you were doing or feeling.
• Meditation or prayer
Positive Renewal
L
EADERSHIP IS HARD
,
BUT CAN BE VERY
rewarding. Stress is a part of our
lives and essential to our survival and
adaptation. But if stress becomes
chron-
ic
, it causes rifts in our awareness, and
eventually erodes our cognitive, per-
ceptual, and emotional openness and
performance. Fortunately, the human
body and mind have a built mechanism
for renewal in the experiences of
hope
,
mindfulness
,
compassion
and
playfulness
.
For many of us in leadership, our
lives—and work—are full, perhaps too
full. We’re involved in many relation-
ships and activities that use our energy
and demand our attention. These
arouse stress, perhaps not
acute stress
(causing us to
pull our hair out
), but
milder stress
that creeps up on us in fre-
quent doses, resulting in a
chronic con-
dition
. While we need stress to function
and adapt, too much of it causes our
body to defend itself by closing down.
We become cognitively, perceptually,
and emotionally impaired.
Participating in an event or activity,
or merely
thinking
about it, can arouse
this low-level, yet potent, stress—if any
of
four conditions
are present: 1) the
outcome or activity is important to
you; 2) the outcome or consequence is
uncertain; 3) you are being observed or
evaluated; 4) you anticipate any of
these conditions; someone or some-
thing angered or upset you. Leaders
have an extra dose of
power stress
that
comes from being responsible for peo-
ple, organizations, or outcomes.
While we’re expanding our respon-
sibilities and being promoted into big-
ger and bigger jobs and roles, stress
builds—but we aren’t given equal time
or adequate preparation in practices
that reverse its chronic effects. We are
not taught how to renew. Our bodies,
minds, hearts, and spirits
can
rebuild
themselves, but they might not. The
difference is our
intentionality
in using
activity and experience to invoke the
• Yoga, tai chi, or martial arts practice
• A loving moment with your spouse,
partner, or significant other
• Playing with your spouse, partner, or
significant other
• Doing something for another person
to help him or her
• Coaching or mentoring someone
(formally or informally)
• Helping a friend with a compassion-
ate approach (not trying to
fix
them)
• Modest exercise that you do
regularly
• Thinking about values or purpose
• Talking with others about your
shared values or purpose
Now, total the number and
calculate
your Renewal Score
: _______.
Calculate your
Renewal Ratio
by
dividing your
Renewal Score
by your
Stress Score,
(as follows):
Renewal Ratio
_______ =
Renewal
Score
_______ /
Stress Score
_______.
If your
Renewal Ratio
is greater than
1, you may be experiencing the benefit
of periodic renewal moments to reverse
the damage from chronic stress. Now
spread the joy to others! If your
Renewal
Ratio
is less than 1, you may be experi-
encing more chronic stress than renew-
al. Engage in recommended pursuits!
Reflect on one thing you could do
each day to change the balance
(you
might work on these plans for renewal
with another person or personal coach).
Build these conversations about renew-
al into your relationships; without
intentionality, renewal will be unsus-
tainable. Stress will happen, but renew-
al will only occur if you
make
it happen.
Four experiences contribute to build-
ing closer, more productive resonant
relationships: hope, mindfulness, com-
passion, and playfulness.
These experi-
ences also invoke the renewal processes
in the body. Without periodic doses of
renewal, even those of us with effective,
resonant relationships will be reduced
to unsustainable performance, and inef-
fectiveness. We simply burn up.
In
Leadership Deep Dive
, we work with
executives who wrestle with this issue
and seek ways to escape this down-
ward spiral. Although
natural
, this slide
is not
inevitable
. We can, with support
from others, including coaches, reorient
our work and lives to engage in suffi-
cient renewal each day to keep our-
selves excited, effective, and engaged.
The challenge remains maintaining
intentionality in our
daily dose of renewal
to enjoy a healthier life and to sustain or
increase our effectiveness at work.
LE
Richard E. Boyatzis is Distinguished Professor of OB and
Melvin Smith is Assoc. Professor of OB, Executive Education,
Case Western University. Visit
ACTION: Engage in positive renewal.
6
M a r c h 2 0 1 2
w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
LEADERSHIP
RENEWAL
C a n y o u e v e n k e e p g o i n g ?
by Richard E. Boyatzis and Melvin Smith
1,2,3,4,5,6 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,...22
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