Across the nation any number of employers are converting to 10 hour four day work weeks as a way to cut gasoline costs for the work force. This would save 20 percent of the fuel required for travel to and from work, an imaginative and welcome idea! For the most part the work schedule will become Monday through Thursday, with Friday off.

Not everyone will go to four day work weeks in the companies that make this change because some jobs and some responsibilities simply dictate at least five days of service and availability. And, of course, not all employers will make the change. But the big news is that some employers are making the change. This writer can think of no better way to reduce workplace stress. I hope that a trend develops until it becomes the national norm to have every weekend a three day weekend!

The shorter work week with longer working hours on the workdays is not new. This approach, along with flex hours and shared shifts (two people sharing one job) are prac

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American workers are working longer hours (about nine hours to nine and one half hours per day). They are taking less and less of the vacation time to which they are entitled. This trend has been increasing in recent years for any number of reasons. In some cases employees believe that by not using vacation days they are demonstrating commitment and loyalty to their company. Others are creating an emergency cushion of paid leave "in the bank" should they ever need paid leave.

Other employees do not take vacation because they are unwilling to risk having a large workload pile up while they are gone and be waiting for them when they return. Still others cannot afford to go anywhere on vacation and find it boring to stay at home and not go to work.

There are what could be described as "sub trends" that go hand in hand with not using or only partially using vacation days. One such sub trend is that of taking on the vacation a cell phone and  l

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Managers will find it easier to understand employee stress by thinking about food. The cost of energy is linked to the cost of food in several ways. It requires energy to raise food: fuel for tractors, fuel for making fertilizer and fuel for transporting food. When energy costs go up food costs go up. The price of foods made with corn is rising because the market for corn in ethanol gasoline is creating increased demand. Bad weather in the United States and increased need for grain in China is also driving market prices higher for food and grains.

The people who work for you might not be overly interested to know all the reasons why their gasoline, electricity, heating oil, natural gas and food cost more with each passing day. Along with healthcare costs, mortgage rates and college tuition what they really want to know about is how to pay for what they need. They need food every day. When prices rise stress also rises, rapidly.

Gardens can be part of the answer.

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A rule of thumb in stress management is to start with the most immediate stress. Relief needs to be immediate if people are to believe that their efforts are worthwhile. Remember, being under stress can do strange things to anyone's thought process. This is because the rational side of us humans is being pressured by the non rational side that screams, "Make this stop right now".

The temptation is to try the quick fix but when that fails the next temptation is to give up, run away, hide, deny or decide that somebody else needs to perform a rescue. So the quicker an immediate stress gets addressed the easier it becomes for the leader to persuade people that teamwork and planning is worthwhile.

The business manager who leads employees to cope with the high price of gasoline right now has a "natural". The financial stress of higher gasoline is widespread, highly publicized and a big stress producer, even for people who do not drive to work. H

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Leadership in business management is not of epic proportions most of the time. Movies would have us think of business leaders doing heroic and super-human feats of courage. In fact, the very best of business leaders grow right out of the ranks of management, tending to the everyday humdrum gnitty-gritties that make up the bulk of most business days. Good leaders are almost always aware of the stresses being experienced by the people they lead and whose work they manage. What are those stresses these days? How can the business leader be helpful without compromising productivity and profit? Here are a few items to consider. There are many more.

The stress of schedule. Consider: workers have children to be picked up or taken to school and everywhere else. Workers also have spouses, parents, relatives and friends who sometimes need looking after, who sometimes throw parties and do celebrations, who often enough engage in shared projects such as building, painting or rem

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Business managers already know that by preventing or reducing and managing stress they increase worker production as well as worker satisfaction. But did you know that in so doing you also head off the number one trigger for clinical depression?

Dr. Maletic, a researcher in the physiology of brain function recently reported on a significant study underway at Duke University. This research project has identified a number of genes in the brain that, when damaged, set the person up for depression. Of special interest to business managers is the additional finding that just because the genes in question are vulnerable that does not mean the person will become depressed. It appears that it is only with the right degree of environmental triggers that a person will become depressed. The number one environmental trigger? Stress!

What are the three top symptom of depression? They are trouble sleeping, loss of appetite and low energy. So: by reducing stress in the workplace the manager

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Leadership: Art and Science

Leadership is both art and science. It is a science in that specific tasks and functions can be identified and described as constituting leadership. It is an art in that how a person goes about those tasks and functions makes all the difference.

There are at least seven functions of the business leader common to most businesses:

• Identify and communicate the mission, goals and objectives.
• Get agreement from everyone involved that the mission, goals and objectives are worthwhile.
• Determine the needed resources. Don't overreach!
• Identify and find the resources. Almost all new business failures are because the resources were lacking.
• Make a good plan.
• Use the resources wisely.
• Evaluate constantly and make necessary changes. Flex

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  Leader or Manager?

Ted Knight, in his new e-Book titled Leadership: What it is, How it Works and How to Make it Happen, makes the following observations about the difference between leaders and managers. He writes:

"Proverbs 29:18 tells us that where there is no vision the people perish.

Leading is not managing.  Managing is focused on doing things right while leading is doing the right things.  Did you ever hear the expression that someone "led everyone down the trail to the swamp"?  His management was good but without direction.

Recall the joke about the airline pilot who announces over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have good news/bad news.  The good news is the flight is ahead of schedule but the bad news is we don't know where we are!"  Again, managing overtakes leading.

It is almost always best to make decisions at the lowest possible level because it helps to ensure

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Is Consensus the Absence of Leadership?

Margaret Thatcher once said that indeed consensus is the absence of leadership. In the political arena our nation is noting that the choosing of a leader hinges on a presidential candidate managing to achieve a majority of the votes cast. That means a sizable minority, nearly half of the voters, will not be part of a consensus about who should lead. By implication it also means there will be no consensus as to what steps the leader proposes.  For many years this very problem has led to gridlock in Washington.

Business leaders can learn much from what is happening in the political arena. Those who lead the millions of businesses that make up the economy wrestle every day with the challenge of making decisions. There are the everyday decisions about all aspects of the business. There are longer term decisions about company policy: what should it be? And there are overarching decisions about the mission of

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A question frequently asked about executive leadership trainings is why trainings? Aren't executives already knowledgeable and skilled? The answer is that of course executives are knowledgeable and skilled. They did not achieve their positions by being dummies! So why more training?

Reason # 1: new information

In today's world everything changes. Yesterday's knowledge does not apply today. This is true in any number of respects. The tax code, safety regulations, financial reporting, industry research, product development, communication/advertising technologies and health care costs would be examples. In the give and take of trainings new information and red alerts are part of the process. Training keeps the pros on their toes!

Reason #2: skills

When you are good, training helps you to keep getting better. Skills development actually accelerates. The good communicator rapidly be

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