Many of us have probably seen people in leadership positions who were ineffective or had no idea how others
perceived them. To be self-aware is to know one’s self.
 
In Shawn Murphy’s book, The Optimistic Workplace, he argues that leaders should allow “the human side of business to flourish.” The book and the advice therein are based on extensive interviews with business leaders, 20+ years consulting experience, and academic research. In the book Murphy provides a roadmap for leaders who want to transform or create workplaces where people can grow and have meaningful workplace experiences.
 
So how does one create more positive workplaces and increase employee engagement? In his interviews Murphy found common advice: “Start small and show you care.” The best leaders build quality relationships. To do so means being self-aware, authentic, genuine.  He states, “Without an evolving sense of who you are and an active inquiry into why you believe what you do, you risk reducing your leadership effectiveness” (pp. 168-169).
 
Murphy discusses several characteristics of leaders who are truly good stewards of those they lead:

• Humility: Helps you stay grounded; understand your flaws; pursue success but also the greater good.   
• Honesty: Not only with others but also with yourself.  Fundamental to building trust and credibility. 
• Grit: Stick-to-it-ness, perseverance, motivation to work through challenges to meet long-term goals.
• Resilience: Growing from setbacks, adapting, recovering; is built throughout your life. 
• Vulnerability: “not weakness”, “takes strength to show it”, but showing vulnerability can make relationships stronger 
• Reflection: Take time to think about the interactions in your day; what worked; what did not; what really happened. 
• Sense making: Developing a deeper understanding of the meaning of events around you. True understanding can make your actions more effective.

 
My take-aways:
 
1. Mary Follett wrote in the 1920s that self-awareness was key to effective leadership. I fully agree. The best leaders know themselves – their strengths and their flaws. They are authentic – and many of the best are servant leaders.
 
2. On humility: Jim Collins (Good to Great) characterized Level 5 leaders as being very humble. Humility is a great characteristic in a leader but many great leaders are not humble. I would agree with Murphy, however, that some degree of humility is important for leaders to effect positive climate change at the workplace level.
 
3. On honesty: Being honest with others is the easier part here. Being honest with one’s self might be harder. Feedback from someone who knows you well and whom you value and who values you might be helpful.
 
4. On grit and resilience: If you have grit, you will be resilient, and if you have resilience, you will demonstrate grit. Grit sums up some of life’s most important lesson – as I discussed in a blog in 2014.
 
5. On vulnerability: Everything in its place and time. There are moments where showing that one is vulnerable could strengthen relationships. There are also moments where showing vulnerability might make a situation more difficult to manage. Judgment is important here.
 
6. On reflection and sense making: These go hand-in-hand. In my book, Decoding the Workplace, I argue that reflecting on what goes on around you is key to upping your game. Decoding the Workplace helps leaders and others develop deeper insights into what is happening around them.
 
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Murphy, S. (2015). The optimistic workplace: Creating an environment that energizes everyone. New York: Amacom.
 
Ballard, J. (2015). Decoding the workplace: 50 Keys to understanding people in organizations. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger
 
Image, “Wisdom”, by johnhain. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/wisdom-power-vision-feeling-mind-666135/
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2025. First published, 2015. Updated 2020. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace. “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

I have a rare sleep disorder. In my early 50s I started occasionally having dreams in which an animal would attack me. In my dream I would fight back, kicking and fighting to defeat my foe. Unfortunately I was actually physically fighting and kicking. My body was acting out my dream. To avoid injury to my wife, we got a king-size bed, later pillows down the middle. The frequency steadily increased from perhaps once a month to two or three a week. 
 
Visiting our son and his wife in Mexico City, I was attacked in a dream by a boar-like creature I did not recognize until I saw it the next night in the movie The Two Towers. I was on top of a refrigerator. It was leaping up at me over and over. Finally when it was high enough to hit, I swung with all my might. I don’t know what happened to the creature but the force of my swing pulled me from my bed, crashing me to the floor, waking all in the apartment. Fortunately I was not injured. 
 
Back home, I was catching up on my reading. The New York Times Magazine, January 7, 2003. When I started reading “When the Brain Disrupts the Night”, I immediately recognized the article was describing and discussing my disorder! And there was a medication over 90% effective!  I made an appointment with my physician and he prescribed it: clonazepam. The frequency of my REM behavior disorder dreams dropped to two to four a year!!! 
Dr. Carlos Schenck and his colleagues (1986) at a Minneapolis medical center were first to identify and describe REM behavior disorder. Normally when we dream, our muscles are paralyzed. However in this disorder, this is not always the case. These disorder dreams are usually violent. For me animals attack, though a few times it has been a person or people. I punch and kick. Once a bear attacked me and I fought back until I awoke standing in our bedroom punching a standing fan.  

Why this blog: My guess is that there are people reading this blog who may have undiagnosed REM Behavior Disorder or know people who might. When I have shared this with graduate students, I found this to be the case. More often it is a husband or dad. In some cases partners started sleeping in different rooms for safety. For some people REM behavior disorder may be an early indication of a neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s. REM behavior disorder is physiological, not psychological. If you think you may have REM behavior disorder, talk with your physician. If you know someone whom you think may have the disorder, suggest they talk to their's. I am not a medical doctor. As a patient I have found one pill at bedtime and my disorder is controlled. 

Schenck, C.H., Bundlie, S.R., Ettinger, M.G., & Mahowald, M.W. (1986). Chronic behavioral disorders of human REM sleep: A new category of parasomnia. Sleep, 9(2), 293–308.
 
Image by satheeshsankaran from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/tiger-wildlife-animal-predator-8692808/
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2025. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace. “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

I read the news today, oh boy. Everywhere writers, newscasters, pundits, and especially one multi-billionaire are talking about efficiency. As a consultant and management professor I find this very interesting. In Business 101 we teach the two “e’s”. I am only reading and seeing discussion of one “e”. Where are the discussions about effectiveness? 
 
Efficiency is about making the best use of your resources. Getting more from your existing resources or perhaps getting the same results with less resources. Reusing rocket boosters is a great way for a space company to improve efficiency. Unfortunately for many organization improving efficiency often takes the form of saving money by eliminating positions, firing people. In the best organizations people are viewed as assets, not costs. Firing people is usually not the best strategy to reduce costs. However it is often the first. 
 
A job does not just exist in some position description. A job is a position a person inhabits and makes their own. For most over time, people find ways to simplify tasks to be performed. They learn to whom to talk to get information, to get things done. This is called tacit knowledge, knowledge that is only developed on the job. In eliminating a person from a position, you have a good chance of losing that tacit knowledge that made that person more effective -- for example, better at providing good customer service. 
 
Effectiveness is about achieving results intended, accomplishing the goals that have been set. You can be very effective but not efficient. You can be very efficient but not effective. The key to great organizational performance is to be both efficient and effective. In the efficiency initiatives now playing out in the media, I would like to see discussions of effectiveness. 
 
The key to improving both efficiency and effectiveness is something often lost in organizations – accountability. Elliott Jaques (pronounced Jacks) argued that bureaucracy is actually a good form of organization. The problem is that it is rarely implemented correctly. Why? The failure to hold managers at each level accountable. Managers are responsible for the outcomes their people produce but also for developing their people. 
 
How will the efficiency measures we read and hear about each day now affect the effectiveness of the organizations impacted?

"Rocket Launch, Night" by SpaceX-Imagery. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/rocket-launch-night-countdown-693214/​
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2025. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

My annual blog about the importance of reading books, modified from my previous January blogs. 
 
Have you ever asked, “What are you reading?” or “Are you reading anything interesting?” The answers may give  ideas on what you might like to read or insights into a friend, colleague, or new acquaintance. My experience is the best leaders always have a book they are reading. Reading is essential to lifelong learning.

What role do books play in your life? In your learning? My guess is that for many, we just don’t have enough time. For me this past year making time to read was difficult. But making time to read books is important. I usually have several books in my study that I am working through. On long trips I enjoy audiobooks. I have friends who like audiobooks best. The audio version of my book Decoding the Workplace is the most popular format.
 
A couple years ago I read the book Surrender by Bono, a memoir. Several people recommended I listen to the audiobook so I did. The audiobook includes music and sound effects and other audio features. I loved it. Perhaps too much. I listened to it three times while driving in my car. If you have any interest in Bono, U2, or making things happen at the highest levels of societies, it’s a must. 

Another book I kept returned to in 2024 was Science of Life After Death, a Springer Brief in Psychology by Alexander Moreira-Almeida and colleagues. This short volume (80 pages) summarizes the best available evidence for our survival beyond death. And yes, there is scientific evidence. 

My favorite film director is Stanley Kubrick. It should be no surprise that one of my most engrossing reads this year was Kubrick: An Odyssey by Robert Kolter and Nathan Adams. I am still working on this one. Great insights, new understandings of what Kubrick was trying to do, his creative innovations and contributions to the art of movie-making. I read about each film. Then watch the film with a greater understanding. 
 
Last I should mention a delightful children’s book recommended by a friend, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (1954). Thoroughly enjoyed though I rarely like mushrooms. 

As we begin 2025, here are a few of the books that are on my reading list:

• The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
• I.Asimov by Isaac Asimov
• A Chaotic Life: The Memoirs of Stanley Krippner, Pioneering Humanistic Psychologist (3 Volumes) by Stanley Krippner
• Time Expansion Experiences by Steve Taylor
• Winning Essays 2023: Proof of Survival of Human Consciousness Beyond Permanent Bodily Death (5 Volumes) by The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies

How do you nurture book reading in those who do not enjoy reading? As leaders, we lead by example. We talk about books we are reading, we share stories, we talk about how books have affected our lives. I'm often asked what book influenced me the most as a manager and consultant. Easy to answer: Peter Drucker's Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. I came across this book as a young manager when I was first building consulting capabilities in my teams. I have returned to it for knowledge, wisdom, and ideas throughout my careers.  

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them," Mark Twain. 

Or as the comedian Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”   
 
What are you reading?
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 Image, my photo. 
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2025. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018.  The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Stress is a normal part of most workplaces. A little stress can be good but stress can easily become dysfunctional and cost time, money, and energy. Estimates for the annual cost of dysfunctional stress in U.S. organizations range as high as $300 billion. Managers play a big role in determining the amount of stress is in the workplace. If you are a manager,  how well do you help reduce stress in the workplace? Or do you unnecessarily increase stress in the workplace? Here are six questions for managers to reflect on.  

1.  Do I inadvertently support stress-inducing norms? Every workplace has formal and informal rules. Some informal rules or norms become well established even though they may be dysfunctional. 

• Do employees work long hours beyond what is really necessary? 
• How long is the workday really? 
• Is time off for vacations encouraged or seen as behavior of those less loyal?

2. Do I consider the potential negative impact of my behaviors on others? Some managers behave inconsistently such that employees are not sure what to expect. A manager gives instructions on Monday, changes them on Wednesday, and changes them again on Friday. Others assign work to be done at the last minute and expect immediate results.

3. What information do I provide to my employees? Often managers tell employees what employees need to know but not necessarily what employees want to know. They may not need to know the context of a decision but where that context can be provided, it may be helpful. It is also good to avoid surprises. As soon as possible, stop rumors, especially those that may have a negative impact.

4. Am I really a good listener or do I just think that I am? I am continually surprised by the number of managers who think they are great listeners but aren’t. 

• Can you actively listen? 
• What is going on in your mind when someone is talking with you? 
• Are you thinking about answers to questions or formulating questions, or are you truly listening to the words, emotions, and body language of the other. 
• Worse yet, are you multi-tasking, for example, working on your computer? 

One key to helping employees manage workplace stress is recognizing it. Actively listening helps.

5. Do I support my employees? Easy to answer “sure” but do you?

• How easy is it for employees to come to you with requests or questions?
• How often do you ask, “Is there anything where you need my help?”
• Do you know your direct reports well enough to know what rewards they value the most?
• Can you identify recent actions on your part that demonstrate you support your people?

6. Am I a good role model? The leader sets the example. 

• Do you stay in the office until your boss is gone? 
• Do you manage your stress? Do you take time to exercise? 
• Do you meditate, do yoga, or engage in other activities that reduce your stress?Do you encourage use of any company policies that encourage wellness?

Stress impacts the bottom-line through health care costs and lost productivity. If you are a manager, assess your impact on stress in the workplace and adjust as best you can. For those not in managerial positions, think about your supervisors. How would you size them up on these questions? 

Modified from my original article published online, September 2, 2015, in the American Management Association's Playbook and modified from my blog 3/11/2019. © John Ballard, PhD,  2024. All rights reserved.

Image, "stress-management", by Mohamed Hassan. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/angry-businesswoman-conflict-3233158/
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Does the age of a leader affect our perceptions of that leader’s effectiveness? Are there differences in how we view older leaders versus younger leaders?  Age and leadership is a subject not often surfaced except occasionally around U.S. presidential elections. To consider age in personnel actions is usually discriminatory. But how do we, admittedly or not, think about leaders and age?

Spisak, Grabo, Arvey, and van Vugt addressed this question in The Leadership Quarterly in 2014. They discussed two functions of leadership that may be seen as age-related: exploration and exploitation. 

• Exploration strategies encourage “risk-taking and innovation to remain adaptive and competitive in changing environments” (p. 806). 
• Exploitation strategies “create stability and minimize negative costs associated with uncertainty by refinement and execution of preexisting systems” (p. 806). 

The authors argued that groups need both. Exploration requires searching the dynamics of the environment whereas exploitation is about stability and finding best practices.

In three interesting experiments, the researchers examined preferences for leadership in different business-related situations. The participants were undergraduates at VU University Amsterdam. Participants were given scenarios and shown faces of older and younger people. In two of the experiments researchers used software to morph young faces to older faces.  Spisak et al. designed each experiment to assess preferences for change leadership versus stability as associated with older and younger faces.  

Across all three experiments the results supported their hypothesis: 

• “Younger leadership is preferred when followers are looking for a leader in times of exploratory change” (p. 812).
•   “When followers are focused on the need for stable exploitation. they look to older leaders.” (p. 812).

My take-aways:

1.  Spisak et al. used an evolutionary perspective to suggest human groups have developed these preferences from our experiences over history – a preference for youth when new opportunities and exploration are needed, a preference for older leadership when things are going well and incremental change is fine. The authors argued these are not stereotypes.

2.  Regardless of theoretical orientation, their results point to possible biases in how we think about leaders, both on the large stage and in organizations. Do we really prefer younger leaders where change is imperative? Are we inclined toward older workers where things are going well and change is not imperative? Spisak et al.’s participants (university undergraduates) may limit how much we can conclude from their report. Even so they raise interesting questions about how we may view  age and leadership in different situations. 


Spisak, B. R., Grabo, A. E., Arvey, R. D., & van Vugt, M. (2014). The age of exploration and exploitation: Younger-looking leaders endorsed for change and older-looking leaders endorsed for stability. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5), 805-816.

Image of "businessman" by PaliGraficas. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/vectors/elegant-businessman-manager-3176410/

Image of "strong man" by TheAZShow. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/man-strong-man-masculine-serious-8308094/
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Modified from my blog 10/21/2014. © John Ballard, PhD,  2024. All rights reserved.
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