Last week I worked late and got home to find two messages on my phone service about my cat. It seems some good cat loving Samaritan saw my cat Finnigan outside my condo and thought it was lost. Finnigan has the weird tendency to follow strangers who pass in front of the building. The good Samaritan checked his tags and got the number of the vet and Finnigan ended up there for the night. So the next morning at 7:30 I had to drive about 10 kms to get him. My office is close to home and the drive is fairly easy with usually light traffic.

However, traffice this morning through the suburb streets was awful. Not only was their a large volume of cars but the abundant street repairs was causing road havoc. This indicated to me  one of the causes for high levels of stress at work. It starts with the drive (or maybe at breakfast) and continues and builds throughout the day. What makes me say this?  I recently read an article in Les Affaires  that in Quebec 2 out of 5 employees claim high stress levels for the most part of their workday. According to the article which took it’s news from the Quebec Institute of Statistics, the main causes for the stress in 46% of employees is a low use of their competencies followed by a 41% expressing weak decision making authority and 40% saying they feel strong psychological pressure.

I find this amazing because when I think about how much time and money is invested in education and training it does not make sense not to be fully utilizing this wealth of knowledge and talent. why would organizations invest so much time and money in hiring good people if they are not being given the opportunity to  fully contribute?

I see this as a result of poor leadership. If leaders are under-utilizing their staff members it means they are not delegating enough responsibility and if people are afraid to make decisions, it is probably because they are being too highly supervised and controlled. Furthermore, if staff members feel pressured, it is probably due to their boss pushing them too had with inadequate feedback and recognition. Also throw in some nasty comments from others as well and you end up on meds.

The reason leaders cause this situation is because there is too much focus in getting things done and not enough on developing people. Leaders have been inadequately trained in people skills and do not know themselves and others well. and rather than take the lime for explore and understand themselves, they reset to behaving like everyone else. This is the safe way to play the game of life and be seen as nomal and accepted.

The only way to be different and live life more fully is to take risks and grow, This involves asking questions and working had on oneself The three brain synergy leaning method I am working on with my partner Fritz Glaus is the ideal solution for both self and leadership development as it provides an easy way to understand your true nature and how that affects you as a leader. Without that knowledge one cannot properly apply the leadership techniques that most popular training programs teach and claim are the answers to self improvement. I know this is true because I have taught several different courses over the lasts 15 years and none compare with the three brain synergy approach that we will soon be making public on our new website and e-learning training program. I will elaborate more soon.

Stephen