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 Personal Belief Survey
Welcome to the IHHP Personal Belief Survey! Your responses will help IHHP finalize a new tool for coaching and development.
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Leadership Rewired!TM: Youth Program Launch 
Matt Tod - Director of Youth Programs
We are proud to announce the launch of our Youth Arm - Leadership Rewired: Unlocking Youth Potential and Ensuring Student Success. This customizable program is now being piloted in the school system.
If you are interested in bringing our Emotional Intelligence training to your school through our Leadership Rewired program, or would like to stay informed on research pertaining to children's social and emotional well-being...
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| Which Program fits your needs? |
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New Clients
Our long list of clients is noteworthy. Earning their trust comes from years of excellent support and committed assistance. We are always excited (and humbled) to welcome new corporations and industry segments to our clientele list. Here are some recent additions.
National Association
of Dental Plans
Credit Union Central of
Canada
Canadian Institute for
Plumbing & Heating
Novo Nordisk
Tempo International
Canadian Society of
Training & Development
Ministry of the Attorney
General
NADP (Leadership
Conference 2008)
Arbour Memorial Services
Precor Inc.
Xerox Canada Ltd.
BioMerieux
PCMA
Crowne Plaza Hotels
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IHHP Travels the World
The above list of new additions to our world-wide clientele signifies a growing global need for expertise in the Emotional Intelligence field. The list below illustrates where we've recently been and where we are heading.
Canada
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Sudbury, Alliston, Victoria, Halifax, Winnipeg
Springfield, Richmond, Hanover, Philadelphia, Hunt Valley, Hilton Head, Seattle, Raleigh, Akron, Pittsburgh, New York, Portland, New Orleans, Washington, St. Louis, Phoenix, Nashville
Rome, Italy
Kingston, Jamaica
Brisbane, Australia |
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"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."
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JP's Corner Continued
Amazingly, the rate at which this little boy deposited calcium into his leg bones linked directly to how secure he felt in the world. I think there is a lesson to be learned here - being connected has an effect.
There are several other similar studies but this one about stress dwarfism provides a very clear example of how connection to just one person can cause the 'pharmacy' in our brain to 'dispense' the drug we need in the exact dosage required. I call this the power of one. When people feel connected to another person, their physiology changes. The hippocampus, working in concert with the pre-frontal cortex, has the power to turn off the HPA axis (you will learn about these different parts of the brain in the white paper). This, in turn, helps contain the corrosive effects of cortisol. Alternately, without connections, we have trouble 'turning off' the HPA axis and cortisol.
As a leader, you hold the power to be that 'one connection' who can make the difference for your staff as the economy, and maybe your organization, continues to experience uncertainty. First though, you need to be able to manage stress and uncertainty yourself. How? It's all in our white paper. I think you'll enjoy it. It's a little longer than usual but there's just so much to say ... and nobody ever accused me of being short-winded!
Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry is the President and Co-Founder of IHHP
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Dear Client,
This past Monday Warren Buffet stated that the U.S. economy had 'fallen off a cliff'. People, afraid to lose their jobs, are working harder than ever, leaving them with even less time to deal with the myriad daily pressures of life. We can all agree that life is stressful - however that looks to each of us.
At IHHP we are focusing on stress and how each of us can change our relationship to it - so that it doesn't derail performance (and happiness) but instead helps us get better. In this issue, read about our upcoming webinar and white paper and learn about the important and positive role that stress plays in your life. |
JP's Corner: The New Brain Science of Stress and Sustaining Performance
Several years ago a boy was brought into a NY hospital from an abusive situation in his home (known as a 'parentectomy'; yes, there is a scientific term for everything) for examination. He had, according to the numerous tests employed, perfect health. No parasites, no diseases to speak of. But he wasn't growing. He was off the scale in a negative direction for height and weight. The medical team then tested him for human growth hormone (HGH) and found he had none. Zero! He wasn't growing - not because of ill health, but because of a little known growth disorder called 'psychogenic stress dwarfism.' Essentially, the boy's sense of continuous danger in his environment caused high levels of cortisol in his blood, stopping calcium from being laid down in his bones and significantly diminishing his structure and height.
Why am I telling you about this rare case? First and foremost, it paints a picture of how powerful the hormone cortisol can be on our body and our brain (do not worry; psychogenic stress dwarfism occurs only in deeply disturbing situations such as forced confinement, not the stress we are dealing with today). It points to the powerful effect cortisol can have on our own cellular growth. While this case is clearly extreme, it provides some insight into what happens to our brain when we're exposed to unremitting stress and cortisol, and why we need to learn strategies to manage it. In our new white paper and corresponding webinar, The New Brain Science of Stress and Sustaining Performance, we outline a new approach that will help you use stress, rather than let stress use you. Most people miss the fact that stress must occur for our brain to grow. When we understand the science behind stress, we see that we absolutely need it in order to grow a more robust, connected, adaptable brain.
Read More
(The white paper The New Brain Science of Stress and Sustaining Performance will be emailed to all registrants of the complimentary webinar, and will become available for download from our website after the webinar)
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Bill's Side of the Bridge:
My Relationship with Stress
When you read JP's upcoming white paper (which is amazing), your mind will be full of terms like BDNF, Cortisol, GIB and HPA Axis - it's enough to get one stressed out!
I have the joy of working with JP on a daily basis - and the challenge (I mean "opportunity" for you positive thinkers) of trying to incorporate all the wonderful things he teaches me into my business and personal life. To help you sort through all this incredible new research and the ideas in the white paper, I'm going to summarize what I've learned from JP about my relationship with stress and how I've applied it to help me perform at my best - and enjoy life a lot more:
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Upcoming Complimentary Webinar:
IS STRESS WORKING FOR YOU OR AGAINST YOU?
The New Brain Science of Stress and Sustaining Performance
Research is clear that, for many people, performance diminishes over time. Most blame it on stress. Most happen to be wrong. Performance increases, not decreases, with stress. Most people have a mistaken understanding of, and relationship to, stress. Either they run from it and find themselves in unchallenging jobs - which causes their brain to shrink, literally. Or they don't have the tools to deal with the tension that occurs in important relationships or in the midst of great uncertainty. The result: their performance diminishes, their negative impact increases and their brain, again, actually shrinks.
In this webinar, we will highlight new research that helps us understand how to change our relationship to stress so that we can use it to sustain performance over time and change our brain.
Presented April 2, 2009 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT with Q&A to follow.
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JP's Corner
Continued from Above
When viewed in this light, the current economic situation is not all bad; in fact, a circumstance like this is actually required in order to get us to function at a new level. It acts as a disruption that challenges us to form a different response. It makes us ask ourselves tough but important questions that we wouldn't ordinarily ask when life and business are humming along nicely - questions such as: do I really enjoy my work? Is this the work I was meant to do? As an organization, are we in the right business? Stress challenges us to play at a higher level. A good example is Intel.
What would Intel look like today had it not been undercut on cost in its core market - memory - by the Japanese in the 1970's and 80's? Intel might have stayed in this dwindling market and not moved as boldly into the microprocessor market, which turned out to be far more lucrative. As a coach to Olympic athletes, I insist that they face their most difficult competition whenever possible (with a couple of caveats). It's the only way these competitors will break through their current level of play to attain another level.
And so it is for us. We need to manage stress so that it doesn't shrink our brain and diminish our long term performance, but we also need to use stress to change, and improve, our game.
The case of the child brought to the NY hospital ends better than it starts. He was transferred to a foster home where an interesting thing occurred over the next few months: he became attached to a nurse. Two months later his HGH levels came back to normal. Then his nurse took a vacation. Three days later, his cortisol levels became elevated again; his HGH was re-tested and again found to be at zero. When the nurse returned, his HGH returned to normal levels.
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Course Registration Dates
Three Conversations of Leadership
June 25 in Toronto
Emotional Intelligence for Personal Leadership
March 30 & 31 in Dallas
April 22 & 23 in Toronto
June 9 & 10 in Toronto
June 23 & 24 in New York
Accreditation: EI for Personal Leadership
March 30-April 2 in Dallas
June 9-12 in Toronto
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Bill's Side of the Bridge (Continued from Above)
1) I have a very close relationship with stress, I always will, and that's OK. That is to say, it's alright that I get stressed sometimes. In fact, if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to learn, adapt and perform as well as I do - provided I don't allow my relationship with stress to derail my performance significantly. So, when I feel stressed or anxious, I don't panic or get frustrated anymore (which of course gets one further stressed); instead, I think to myself, "My body and mind are telling me I need to do something differently". Stress and cortisol - thanks for letting me know that!
2) I'm probably assuming things are worse than they are - either in terms of how bad the economy or the business situation is, or in terms of how people are judging me. As JP suggests, I am really careful that my appraisal of the situation is not overly focused on the negative. That doesn't mean I take a Pollyanna-ish view of life; it just means I'm aware that my brain is wired to fill in the blanks with the negative possibilities.
3) I sometimes get caught in the avoidance trap - as much as I want to avoid this truth! When I am feeling stressed or anxious, I can find all the reasons in the world not to do things that are difficult or uncomfortable. This then adds to my stress, because I know I'm avoiding things I should be doing. If I step into the difficult things the way I know I need to, not only are they usually not as bad as I imagined them to be (see point #2), but I feel so much better once I've done them, even if it was hard. This helps me get some of that cortisol out of my system.
4) Apply Tool 1: have a growth invisible belief (GIB). What does that mean? It just means I don't have to defend my mistakes or my shortcomings, and I don't have to beat myself up when things aren't working out. That takes energy - and not the good kind of energy. The reason I don't have to do any of these things is that I know I can change and grow and get better. Mistakes, setbacks and critical feedback are the lifeblood of getting better. If I didn't have any of them, how would I improve and learn? I now have a new relationship with the stress that mistakes and feedback cause me. I now see them a good thing, which amazingly, keeps my brain from releasing more of those stress-inducing chemicals JP talks about.
5) And finally, my favorite tool - Recover. In my 20's and early 30's, I was the guy that worked 10-12 hours a day and never took a break. I'd go home and think about work, even when I was exercising or doing something fun (which of course made it less fun). I now know my brain needs me to take breaks not only to reduce stress, but so that my brain can recover, and allow BDNF, the MiracleGro of the brain, to do its thing: regrow my brain from the breakdown that occurred during the stress (cortisol) phase. Did you follow that logic? It says not working tons of hours will actually lead to greater performance!
This is not to say that hard work is not a key to success, it is of course. It just means that stupid hard work is counterproductive to performance and success. Some things that I do that help me recover when stress is telling me I need to:
- Exercise (sometimes even in the middle of the day!)
- Call a client who I know really appreciates me and our work
- Play a quick game of hide and seek with my daughters
- Have lunch with a friend with whom I laugh a lot with
- Call someone in my office with whom I have a really good connection with
- Stop looking at my e-mail for an hour (OK, 45 minutes)
- Watch 15 minutes of a show that makes me laugh (The Daily Show or Seinfeld reruns work for me)
- Work on something that I really like and am good at, even if it's not one of my high priority "to-do's" that day
- Get something done I've been avoiding - going to the dentist, calling someone who hasn't been returning my calls, recording a Podcast, etc. (this can be one of the most helpful as it builds confidence to do something we have been avoiding)
- Stop and take some deep breaths.
Of course each of you will have your own list of things that help you "recover". It doesn't matter what they are. I have personally experienced how much more effective, positive and even powerful I am when I return from a good session of "recovering." You will too!
This is a time when many of us are facing a lot of stress. If you can recognize the science of stress that we outline in the white paper and this newsletter and change your relationship with it, you will find that not only are you much more effective at sustaining your performance when there is stress - you will also be much more at 'ease' when dealing with it. And couldn't we call use a little more peace in our lives...!Bill Benjamin is the CEO of IHHP.
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The End For Now
It certainly is an interesting and challenging time, and we need to be careful with how the additional stress we each feel affects our work and our relationships. We hope that the articles in this edition of our newsletter, along with the white paper and upcoming webinar, will give you skills and inspiration to navigate these times with a little more grace and ease. |
JP & Bill
Institute for Health and Human Potential
"It's not the big things that send us to the mad house, not the loss of a love, but the shoelace that breaks when there's no time left."
Anonymous
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