I have been reading recently from Creating Your Best Life by Caroline Adams Miller, MAPP and Dr. Miachael B Frisch. They reference a July 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, which explores a Harvard study on weight loss. It shows that more than diet, exercise or sleep habits our friendships may have a larger impact on our propensity to gain weight. The study concluded that if a friend that we are in regular contact with gained weight, there was a 57% chance we would gain weight!
This blog is all about the immeasurable things that make a measurable difference. And, while many would say, “what impact can a friend or a peer have on our ability to achieve a goal?” In the case of weight loss and gain evidently about a 57% impact.
This brings to mind the admonition from Mom (I recently heard this referred to as a Momily. Think Homily). “Be careful who you hang out with.”
So what does this have to do with us as business people?
As business leaders we are leading groups of people. For many of us we spend more time with our working relationships than with our personal relationships. As a result, this group of peers has an impact on each other. We might want to pay attention to that.
Think about the effect a manager has when he or she comes through the front door, and storms directly into their office and closes the door. What goes through your mind? Lay offs? What happened? Who is in trouble? What is the impact of that action on the productivity of the office that day?
What about the colleague who sits in the cubicle and gripes all day in between their work about:
– “Did you see what they did on this account”?
– “I don’t think we’re giving enough resources to that account? “
– “Did you see the way she managed that employee?”
Do you think that might infect the others?
So,…recognizing the effect that our team members have on each other and the effect that our “culture” has on the team what are you doing to create the culture that will deliver your vision??
