Quiet Strength: A Book by Tony Dungy (Indianapolis Colts’ Coach)

In Tony Dungy’s book, Quiet Strength, he describes his philosophy for managing life, especially work. We look favorably on most anything that relates to sports, so this new book by Dungy caught our attention. The book is an autobiography written by the first African-American coach to lead his team to a win in the Super Bowl. In the book, Dungy sets forth a list of responsibilities that he uses with his players. We feel that these responsibilities can also serve as a basic guide for workplace managers accountable for mentoring their employees:

• Be a pro.
• Act like a champion.
• Respond to adversity; do not react to it.
• Be on time. Being late means either it is not important to you or you cannot be relied upon.
• Execute. Do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.
• Take ownership.
• Do whatever it takes; no excuses, no explanations.

While, of course, the game of football and professional athletes are Dungy’s frame of reference, we think his basics will serve equally well in the more common workplace.

It's all about engagement

While there is now a growing concern, and even refutation, of the annual rating of college and universities by U.S. News and World Report, we’d like to comment on a corollary to their “Best Colleges” rankings – another listing of colleges and universities that is not being criticized by the colleges themselves. A number of colleges and universities are now using the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The purpose of the survey is to assist educational institutions in determining “how and where they can improve the undergraduate experience on campus.” There are now 257 colleges and universities using this survey, including at least five in the Philadelphia region: Chestnut Hill College, Gwynedd Mercy, Temple, Ursinus, and Widener. According to the NSSE, taking part in certain activities (i.e., performing community service or tutoring other students) during college boosts students’ performance in many areas, such as thinking critically, solving real world problems, and working effectively with others. The NSSE is extensive in its measurements, and one of the primary issues being derived from it is the concern that too many students seem to not be engaged in their studies or preparation for their futures. To see how individual colleges are addressing this apathy, the NSSE considers five “benchmarks,” which can be used to compare the college’s effort against national averages for institutions of the same type. The benchmarks are:

• level of academic challenge
• active and collaborative learning
• student-faculty interaction
• enriching educational experiences
• supportive campus environment

CEC Associates’ interest in the topic is that there is, clearly, a direct correlation between the engagement of many young people in schools and new hires in the workplace. Prior to our awareness of the NSSE, we shared a brief book review through email with our readership on the same topic. The name of that book is Motivating the “What’s In It For Me?” Workforce (written by Cam Marston, John Wiley and Sons, 2007). The focus of that book is that effective management currently requires an awareness of generational differences and knowledge of the strategies needed to address those differences. That book includes a useful tool for managers confronted with generational issues. There is a “Quiz: Generational Voices, Who Am I?” that can be used to classify employees as “Mature, Boomer, Xer, or Millennial” as a guide to developing specific management strategies based on generational differences. Another resource for those interested in the generational reality of being engaged is the research by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success & Failure. Csikszentmihalyi takes a more positive approach by reporting, for example, on the results of his research regarding the “reasons for engagement.” By identifying the positive reasons, managers have still another approach to motivating employees. Is there, in fact, a troubling apathy in the workplace that is rooted in generational factors?

Stress is going around

If, as we learned recently, maple syrup trees are stressed and bees are stressed, is it any wonder that Americans are feeling more stressed, too? In a press statement on October 24, 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) released the findings of their latest survey on this topic. A summary of the report points out that one third of Americans are extremely stressed, and nearly half of Americans (48 percent) reported that their stress has increased over the past five years. Stress in America continues to rise and has become a major health problem. A key factor in the increased stress level is the workplace. The survey showed that 52 percent of employees reported they considered or made a career decision (looking for a new job, declining a promotion, leaving a job, etc.) based on workplace stress. Leading sources of stress in the workplace include: - heavy workload (45%) - low salaries (44%) - lack of opportunities (40%) - uncertain job expectations (40%) - long hours (39%) And what do the APA findings mean for employers? They mean that employers, small, medium, and large, would profit significantly by conducting stress management programs designed to identify and address workplace stress. Exemplary disability management programs have, from the beginning, recognized the need to pay attention to workplace stress and formalize ways to achieve stress reduction among employees. Formal stress abatement programs in the workplace have been shown to be effective in reducing stress, and it is reasonable to pay attention to this reality. Jerry Kramer, an all-star right tackle for the Green Bay Packers, wrote in 1967 with Dick Schaap, three books about his experiences, especially as they related to the great Green Bay coach, Vince Lombardi. Kramer reported that someone once asked him if Lombardi had ulcers (code in those days for a high stress level). The answer was “No, Coach Lombardi doesn’t have ulcers, but he is a carrier.”