Grow Your Business

Not long ago in America, companies created smoking areas for smokers to enjoy their breaks. Airlines, hotels and restaurants had designated smoking areas to accommodate those who enjoyed lighting up. Before then, people smoked just about anywhere they pleased.

Today airlines (100% there), hotels and restaurants are trending toward being totally smoke free. Want a smoke break? Step outside (until cities begin the ban on smoking in public places). It’s been stunning how the attitude of society spun on this topic so quickly.

Expect to see the same type of societal spin with the obese population in our country.

New research is showing just how costly obesity is to employers throughout the country, with a total annual cost of $73.1 billion, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. With health care costs spiraling out of control, society needs to blame someone – and who is easier to blame than the obese?

Many non-smokers are now hostile in their reaction to being exposed to secondhand smoke and to those who continue to smoke. Overweight children have been ridiculed for generations, but the tipping point is coming soon where American society will share the same derision openly and corporately.

Why corporately? It comes down to one word: Money. Corporations are realizing the profit potential of eliminating this obesity cost. Other countries are also recognizing the need to control heath care costs.

In Japan, being thin isn’t just a desire – it’s the law. The government has set waistline standards and companies administer annual check-ups of employees. Companies are required to reduce the number of overweight employees by 10 percent by 2012 and by 25 percent by 2015. If companies don’t comply, they are hit with high penalties paid into the government coffers for health care for the elderly. It has created a society with a serious focus on weight and health, even though their obesity rate is less than 5 percent. The obesity rate in the United States is nearly 35 percent.

What will this mean in the coming years for our country?

Our Business Wisdom says:

• Obesity will become a significant target of corporations and federal and state governments trying to control health care costs.
• Lawsuits will be won by citizens suing unhealthy food providers. Those providers will also face disincentives for providing unhealthy foods through taxes and penalties from government entities.
• Wellness programs and annual weight checks will become part of corporate employee control, as commonplace as drug testing is now.
• We could see an obese tax on individuals as the government gets more involved in providing health care.
• Society will express its contempt for obese people more vocally, similar to what we have seen with smokers in the last few years. The pressure will be significant and the comments brutal.
• New organizations will start up targeting specific age group obesity issues by creating specific weight reduction programs for corporations.
• Obesity support groups will be commonplace as will as facilities targeting senior wellness.
• Fast food providers will begin to add healthier options to value menus because of the shifting trend toward reducing obesity, the cost of heath care, and the cost of their own unsuccessful lawsuit defenses.

Now is the time to ramp up employer wellness programs as well as communicate the necessity for individuals to work on their personal weight issues before obesity becomes illegal in the United States. I myself have dropped 40 pounds in the last 12 months, although I still have a long way to go before I am in the “legal” or normal range for my height. I know I’d rather do it for myself before I have to lose weight under corporate or government mandate.

We all face adversity, challenging times and tough moments in our lives. Those who succeed have the ability to bounce back from these trying times and elevate their drive to overcome and achieve. Learn how to improve your bounce.

I worked with a fast growing company that had an ex-steelworker for a CFO. Growing up in the rust belt and working in the mills of the late 60′s he developed his management style and approach to employees and life in general: Work hard, play hard and just deal with me being “rough around the edges”.

It was the “rough around the edges” which caused his steel company employer to send him to sensitivity training because of the complaints with his approach. To this day the CFO refers to that as the time he was sent to charm school. When I was hired to work with this new company in developing leadership, I heard this story from him over lunch on the first day I was there. I asked him how charm school worked out. His reply was, “It didn’t do me a G’dam bit of good.” Followed by a hearty laugh. He later confessed he did learn how to better understand how people see things differently and that he needed to have different approaches to managing a workforce, but he was still a man with his rough edges permanently in place, and proud of them.

Focus on Strengths

The old farmerism of “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” also applies to leadership development. You can’t make someone be who they are not. People can modify behavior and learn new techniques and skills to becoming a better leader. The key is setting up the proper expectations and clearly defining the expected outcome. When I coach executives or work on leadership development programs with my clients I concentrate on this piece of leadership wisdom:

People can only change so much

Someone who is not a people person is not going to attend a class and suddenly feel the need to embrace the world and give everyone a hug at the end of the day. These type transformations only happen in the movies, or with celebrities going to rehab (cough, cough) or over decades of therapy. Can someone that is xenophobic learn to appreciate differences in people and modify how to approach them for pinnacle performance results? Absolutely. Just don’t expect it to be accomplished with a completely different personality than the one they currently have. The key is to focus on results and progress toward the desired outcomes.

“You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind gets bored and therefore tired of doing nothing. Get interested in something! Get absolutely enthralled in something! Get out of yourself! Be somebody! Do something. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” Norman Vincent Peale

This quote reminds me how easy it is to get distracted by the 24/7 news cycle, family emergencies (which has broadened to include non-emergencies), social media, bright shiny objects, hobbies, doing “research”, television story lines and juicy co-worker stories. By comparison work can seem dull and boring without the glitz and excitement of these distractions.

Bored with work? Feeling low energy for your tasks you need to accomplish? Ask yourself the follow questions to find your energy for the important things in your life.

How focused am I on getting my important tasks accomplished?

How many distractions to my day are self-imposed?

What are the parts of my career that I do enjoy, that excite me?

Where do I want my career path to take me, and how can I use today to take me there?

Where am I not involved as I should be at work? How am I letting myself down as a result?

So often energy isn’t only impacted by our sleep and eating schedules, it’s dramatically impacted by our excitement for what we are doing. By getting involved mentally in the important things of your career and creating your own excitement about being somebody that makes a difference, you will regain some of the energy loss you are now experiencing.

Focus, catch fire, and feel the driving energy that will make your career grow.