Posted in News at 2:31 am on 03.05.10 by Joshua Seldman
For a great read on leadership in difficult times, check out the current BusinessWeek article “How Four Rookie CEO’s Handled the Great Recession”
The article highlights one of our clients’ leaders, Jim Kennedy from T. Rowe Price, and their collective success through one of the most demanding periods of recent memory. Based on his work with Jim, Marty Seldman commented on how using many of the principles in Executive Stamina, Jim and many of the leaders at T. Rowe Price were able to strengthen their company and at the same time balance their personal live. As many of our clients know, it is actually this balance that allows them to have success.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
“T. Rowe Price’s Kennedy prides himself on balancing the demands of office and home. But over the second weekend of September 2008, as Lehman Brothers was crumbling to dust, he worked the phones from his Baltimore headquarters, trying to ease investor concerns about his own firm. Family, church, and gym all had to wait. “I think God might forgive me for missing Mass that one day,” says Kennedy, 56.”
“Kennedy made time for his personal life throughout the challenging months. He got married last year, for the second time, and kept up regular golf games with his new wife, Maureen. He also swam laps three times a week. Periodic checkups with his executive coach, Marty Seldman, helped Kennedy keep perspective on his life and career. “If leaders look like they are unraveling, it can create a vicious cycle of more fear and more stress in the company,” says Seldman. “Jim stayed calm and confident.”
Looking back, Kennedy sounds as grateful to have safeguarded his own health as much as his company’s. “For some CEOs, this would shorten their careers pretty dramatically,” he says. “Others will learn from this and be impacted for the rest of their lives.”
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Posted in Tips at 12:59 am on 03.26.09 by Joshua Seldman
A question that often comes up is how can today’s top employees and leaders increase their performance and effectiveness and at the same time maintain their health and emotional well being? For today’s busy leaders and ambitious employee’s the answer is simple: time-effective fitness. In this four part post we’ll clearly outline how busy and stressed executives can use fitness to have the time, energy and productivity necessary to reach their career goals, while maintaining health and avoiding costly trade-offs in their personal lives. For a long time fitness was a nice to do for executives when time allowed for it in their schedule. In today’s corporate climate, executives are more stressed, with more complex responsibilities, and more pressure to have them done than ever before. For many this means that the time available for fitness is rare if not gone altogether, as are the associated benefits, such as reduced stress, clear thinking, healthy attitude, and having energy to perform at your best throughout the day. To get these benefits back, you must make fitness work into your schedule so it is time-effective. To determine whether your fitness plan is time-effective for you, there are two questions you have to ask.
1) Will this workout or fitness plan add to the time I have available in the future, increase my energy and increase my productivity?
2) Will this workout or fitness plan give me the greatest results in the shortest amount of time needed?
In order to answer a resounding YES to these two questions, your workouts and fitness plan must consist of four components, the first of which I am covering today in this post. The following three will be included in posts later this week.
Focused on Aerobic Conditioning
The heart and lungs are what give you the energy, stamina, stress relief, and endurance you need to be effective through-out the work day. As opposed to lifting weights and other exercise which are important, by focusing your workouts on aerobic exercise you specifically gain the benefits most likely to give you what you need most. Here is a list of the benefits of aerobic exercise:
• Increased Energy and Stamina
• Better Health
• Stress Management
• Mood Elation
• Clear Thinking
• Improved Sleep
• Improved Decision-Making Capabilities
• Improved Image and Impact
• Company benefits through increased productivity with lower heath care costs and reduced absenteeism
Depending on your current level of fitness, you will receive these benefits by completing at least 3 aerobic workouts a week for 20-30 minutes each time, with the eventual goal being 5 aerobic workouts a week, each 20-30 minutes long. Since this eventual goal can take months or longer to achieve, it is essential to know that many executives begin receiving some if not all of these benefits after the first week.
In the upcoming components you will learn how to make these workouts even more powerful and effective by including key principles and tips like intervals, however right now it should be clear that the benefits to your future time, energy, and productivity listed above make these workouts a time-effective investment. This is the first of the four components that are the foundation of the principle in Executive Stamina that fitness is a key resource in the success of today’s top executives.
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Posted in News at 1:11 am on 06.20.08 by Joshua Seldman
“Executive Stamina is a brilliant how-to book. It will help anyone maximize his or her full career potential and live a more balanced, integrated life . . . priceless.”
–Michael White, CEO, PepsiCo International, and Vice Chairman, PepsiCo
Executive Stamina By Executive Coach Marty Seldman And Fitness Expert Joshua Seldman Provides Holistic Approach To Career And Life Success
Aligning personal goals with career goals has never been more difficult than it is today. As technology shrinks the world and businesses compete on a global level, executive workloads have increased dramatically. People feel they must stay connected 24/7, making it nearly impossible to get away from the office. Although working round-the-clock may seem like the road to career success, for most people, it’s actually a recipe for career disaster and personal disappointment.
In EXECUTIVE STAMINA (Wiley, May 2008), executive coach Marty Seldman and fitness expert Joshua Seldman tackle this problem head-on, providing a holistic approach to help executives maximize their career potential, maintain their physical health, and align their actions with their core values. Focusing on fitness, nutrition, time and stress management, and building positive relationships, EXECUTIVE STAMINA is the key to increasing effectiveness at work, while enhancing personal happiness and fulfillment.
A clinical psychologist, Marty Seldman has coached executives at companies like Disney, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, and General Electric for more than twenty years. He has carefully tracked their progress and includes case studies from his work in the book. His son Joshua Seldman, a champion endurance athlete and trainer, has contributed a scientifically based nutrition and exercise program to EXECUTIVE STAMINA to help executives stay physically fit and achieve peak performance in all areas of their lives.
The book is divided into five parts:
Work/Life Alignment – Using exercises and answering questions, readers identify what is truly important to them. They then analyze their current schedules to determine whether the way they spend their time is aligned with their top priorities and values. The authors also show readers how to identify their career “sweet spot,” the work that satisfies them the most.
Health And Wellness – In this section, readers learn to establish fitness, nutrition, and stress management systems necessary to sustain energy, enthusiasm, and focus. The authors include complete guidelines for integrating healthy practices into one’s daily life at work, at home, and on the road.
Job Performance And Business Results – This section focuses on staying in control while minimizing distractions and unnecessary stress. Readers learn how to make the best use of their time, identifying high payoff activities that maximize success.
Career Management – Career progression is not just about doing the best job possible. It’s also about understanding how the system works. What are the competencies needed for growth? Who decides which executives will get promoted? Why is networking and selfpromotion important? This section teaches key skills to maximize career progression, and includes an in-depth discussion of the most common mistakes that can derail careers.
Maintaining Positive Relationships – A successful business career can present challenges to personal relationships – and personal relationships can present challenges to a business career. Yet having strong relationships with family and friends is a key to overall happiness. This section includes practices to help executives maintain meaningful relationships, despite hectic workloads.
Combining the wisdom and methodology of the very best executive coaching with the cutting edge training techniques of world-class athletes, EXECUTIVE STAMINA will help executives at all levels and in all industries fulfill their potential at work and in life. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize “progressive change” and “improvement not perfection,” making it easy for anyone to take the first steps towards life-enhancing change.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Marty Seldman, Ph.D. is one of the world’s most experienced and successful executive coaches and is president of Seldman Executive Development Programs (www.seldman.com). He is the co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success as well as the author of Super Selling Through Self-Talk: The Ultimate Edge In Sales Success. As an organizational consultant, Dr. Seldman specializes in team building, conflict resolution, feedback systems, and skills and workshops in building and maintaining trust. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Temple University.
Joshua Seldman is a highly respected cycling and fitness coach and a successful endurance athlete. During his professional athletic career, he was a twelve-hour and twentyfour- hour solo mountain bike champion. He was also a lead coach for Carmichael Training Systems and Lance Armstrong’s Tour of Hope cross-country ride. He received his B.S. in exercise physiology, specializing in sports psychology from the University of Florida.
EXECUTIVE STAMINA
How to Optimize Time, Energy, and Productivity to Achieve Peak Performance
By Marty Seldman, Ph.D. and Joshua Seldman
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: May 2008
Price: $24.95 / hardcover
Interview contact: lori@wesmanpr.com
ISBN: 978-0-470-22290-4
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