In the national bestseller Flow, University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggests two key factors determine our overall happiness:

• Our relations with other people
• How we experience our work

You can improve both areas by bringing humor to work each day.

Harvard Business Review (September 2003) reports that executives with a sense of humor climb the corporate ladder more quickly and earn more money than their counterparts.

A good laugh reduces blood pressure, increases heart rate, massages internal organs and reduces the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. It boosts blood flow to your brain, which means you learn more, forget less and feed your curiosity.

While the advantages of a good sense of humor at work are many, there is a dark side that can backfire. How can you be funny without being a jerk?

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• Humor and Creativity
• Humor and Managing Change
• Motivation and Morale
• Humor Strengthens Teams
• The Dark Side of Humor
• How to Add Humor at Work

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Almost everyone keeps a “to-do” list. We begin the New Year with resolutions to start new regimes to make us healthier, wealthier, and, hopefully, wiser.

What’s needed is a “to-stop” list of bad habits, when it comes to communicating and interacting with our peers, colleagues, direct reports and even family members.

The following list of bad habits is from Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. These bad habits can easily be turned into good ones. Which habits are you engaging in, and which would be hardest for you to stop?

Habits That Hold You Back

The most common bad leadership habits aren’t personality flaws. They’re challenges in interpersonal behavior — the egregious annoyances that make the workplace substantially more noxious than necessary. These faults do not occur in isolation; they involve one person interacting with another.

They are bad habits in communications. And as such, they can easily be stopped.

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•    20 Habits
•    Information Compulsion
•    How to Break a Bad Habit
•    How to Change
•    Action Steps

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Anyone with workplace experience knows men and women process information and communicate differently. Dealing with gender differences can prove challenging, especially for managers and leaders.

Regardless of which industry you’re in or the position you fill, male and female coworkers can experience a shared event and come away with different emotional stories.

We seem to be hardwired this way. Now that neuroscience is becoming more sophisticated, with tools like brain imaging, what are we learning about the gender divide?

Here are the key findings:

1. Emotions are useful. They make the brain pay attention.
2. Men and women process certain emotions differently.
3. These distinctions are a product of complex interactions between nature and nurture.

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•    Brain Differences
•    Small Talk
•    Giving Orders
•    Asking Questions
•    Mental Disorders
•    ”She’s So Emotional…”

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“Leaders are almost by definition people who change minds.”  —Howard E. Gardner, Leading Minds

There is a lack of trust in senior management, according to a survey by the human-resource firm Watson Wyatt:

• Only 49 percent of employees have trust and confidence in their senior managers.
• Just 55 percent say senior leaders behave consistently with core values.
• Only 53 percent believe senior management has made the right changes to stay competitive.

Clearly, much is going wrong in the workplace. Some 40 percent of surveyed executives doubt their leaders have credible plans to address the economic crisis. Certainly, this lack of confidence harms an organization’s ability to move forward.

In light of these problems, middle managers have unprecedented opportunities to become more proactive by stepping forward and offering course corrections — and they should act with deliberate speed. Good times allow organizations to ride out challenges, but today’s tough financial climate won’t permit a wait-and-see approach.

When strong leadership doesn’t come from above, it’s up to the organization itself — in particular, the people in the middle — to launch a rescue operation.

“Leading up requires great courage and determination,” says Michael Useem, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the seminal book Leading Up: Managing Your Boss So You Both Win. “We might fear how our superior will respond, we might doubt our right to lead up, but we all carry a responsibility to do what we can when it will make a difference.”

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• Emerging from the Middle
• 3 Questions to Ask
• The View from Above
• What’s Needed to Lead Up?
• Assertive Diplomacy
• Challenge Ideas, Not People
• Push Back
• Dealing with a Jerk Boss
• Bounce Back

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Even with a solid foundation of good moral values, no one is immune to making unethical choices.

Ethical slips and traps are rampant, from telling white lies that protect a friend, to ignoring a gut feeling and following orders when we know better.

Not a month goes by without some highly publicized ethical scandal. Be it tax evasion, executive pay excesses, sexual dalliances and outright fraud, many individuals are simply unable to resist temptation.

Does this make the perpetrators corrupt sociopaths?

Sometimes, but usually not.

They’re often leaders and pillars of the community, and their actions leave us shaking our heads and wondering what were they thinking.

The sad truth? No one is immune. Cheating isn’t limited to those in positions of power. While power is certainly fraught with opportunities and temptations, each of us faces daily choices that involve doing the right — or wrong — thing.

Only when a CEO, politician, celebrity or sports legend gets caught does the problem rise to front-page news. Just ask Tiger Woods.

But the same ethical traps lie in your path. Even the little guys transgress. Often, people feel an urge to cheat — a strange pull to try to get away with something. Sometimes it’s small; other times it’s scandalous. Sometimes it matters; other times it goes unnoticed.

What exactly happens inside our heads when we choose to violate our ethical standards? Do we lose sight of what’s right? Do we take the easy way out? Are we driven to win at any price? Are we attracted to our “dark side”?

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• The Brain Science of Traps
• Four Basic Tribal Drives
• The Ethical Stage
  
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• Primary Traps
• A Study of Business Ethics
• 12  Questions for Examining the Ethics of a Business Decision

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As knowledge workers in the 21st century, our success depends on having a healthy, functioning brain. What can leading neuroscientists teach us about stress, effective coping skills and peak performance in the workplace?

While you cannot completely eliminate stress, you can make it work for you to improve your brain’s ability to function. Your choices — and how you respond to stress — can make you smarter, stronger and wiser.

The Mind-Body Connection

Most people know that when they exercise, they feel better — but they cannot explain the connection. They assume they’re burning off stress, reducing muscle tension or boosting endorphins, all of which are true.

There’s more to it than that. The real reason you feel better lies in basic physiology: When you get your blood pumping, your brain functions at its best.

Today’s technology-driven tasks put us in front of a computer screen most of the day. It’s hard to remember that our bodies and brains were built to move. Our brains need physical activity and stimulation. We need to exert more energy than “keyboard calisthenics” allows.

Stress – It’s Everywhere

In a recession, with increased job stress, there’s no getting away from a nerve-wracking environment. Either you’re unemployed and struggling to cope, or you’re employed and doing the job of more than one person.

How can we harness the power of stress to our advantage?

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This is a brief synopsis of a 1000-word article suitable for coach’ newsletters. It is available for purchase with full reprint rights, which means you may put your name on it and use it in your newsletters, blogs or other marketing materials. You may also modify it and add your personal experiences and perspectives.

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•    Stress – It’s Everywhere
•    Word Stress
•    Stress Inoculation
•    How Stress Affects the Brain
•    The Wisdom of Stress

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