Recently I spoke with a young friend about "FOMO," the "fear of missing out". Many people of her generation -- she's just turned 29 -- experience it: The sense of missing something important or "better" by virtue of a choice you've made, a text message you've...

Nearly every week a new survey appears showing how stressed out workers are today. The damage is visible in its negative impact upon mental health, increased risk of disease and death, lower worker productivity and a range of other harmful consequences. One

Jim, who's in his early 40s, consulted me about a troubling dilemma. He told me that he's worked on himself for years, both with and without the help of therapists, and that he's "tamed many demons" from the traumas and family dysfunctions he experienced growing up. He's now living a...

Companies are evolving and adapting to ongoing, often unpredictable business challenges today. in the context of teamwork and collaboration needs, leaders and the management cultures they build are rethinking the meaning and impact of power. Several new research studies have examined the impact of power and authority upon the behavior...

A new research study finds that people become more politically liberal following meditation or other spiritually oriented experiences. The findings concerning political orientation can be questioned because of how the researchers constructed the study, but I think they reveal something of broader significance: that meditation and developing one's...

Mobilizing your fear of an opposing political party's agenda and policies has become pretty commonplace in political campaigns, today. Now, some new research sheds light on a previously unrecognized link between fear, its source, and just how it shapes one's political position on polarizing issues. However, I think these findings...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

Michael Shermer's TEDTalk shows that our human tendency to "believe" can lead people to embrace a range of falsehoods, despite evidence to the contrary....

A recent psychotherapy patient, Ms. A., tells me that she's felt lonely throughout her life. Her intimate relationships have been brief; her friends, few. In recent years she's been suffering from one physical ailment after another. Another patient, Mr. B, has an active social life with friends and business associates,...

As I walked through the lobby of my office building the other day following some time off during the holidays, I noticed that the Christmas tree, the assorted little snowmen, the lights and other decorations were still up. I had a flashback to the time, many years ago, when my...

Much of the discussion about gun violence, mental illness and public policy is like looking at the branches of the tree and its trunk. But we don't consider the roots, which fuel how the tree grows. Those roots lie within some of our cultural values and aspirations that we absorb...

As the 78 million baby boomers have segued into midlife, a noticeable shift toward a sense of renewal, new growth and new possibilities has taken root. That's a welcome contrast to the old view of steady, inevitable decline and loss. Yet there's a real danger that can cripple...

Reading about General Petraeus' affair with Paula Broadwell and General Allen's voluminous correspondence with Jill Kelley -- and their ignominious fall from grace -- brings to mind the Egyptian myth, Osiris. He was killed and dismembered, and each of the 14 pieces of his body was...

A few decades ago I asked my father why he had voted for Eisenhower in both the '52 and '56 elections. It puzzled me because my father was a lifelong Roosevelt-New-Dealer Democrat who had founded and led for many years the labor union local at his factory. There,...

"Still Crazy After All These Years"

The title of that old Paul Simon song could easily describe what many people feel about life in their careers and organizations today. Studies and surveys regularly show that the workplace is damaging to many people, physically and mentally. But these reports focus on...

Have you ever wondered why people are persuaded by outright lies during political campaigns? And why lies tend to "stick" even after they're debunked by facts? Some new research sheds light on why this happens, at least in terms of people's thought processes, if not their underlying emotional drives.

It's...

Paul Simon's song "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" may come to mind here, but I'm referring to a different kind of "leaving": Departing from how couples typically relate to each other in day-to-day life -- struggling over power and control while also longing for greater mutuality and...

The 2012 presidential campaign exposes a clash between an older, narrowly focused -- and declining -- view of success, and one that's both broader and steadily rising. It has both social and political implications worth our attention.

The view that Mitt Romney conveys is the older one. It's essentially that...

Like many of us, you might feel that there's a true purpose to your life but you haven't yet found or discovered it, especially when trapped within a life that's unfulfilling or feels out of synch with your true purpose for being. Teachings of Eastern mystics say each of us...

A couple drives to a dinner party in stony silence. Each harbors feelings about a disagreement from earlier that afternoon over a financial matter. Both had shut down after a few minutes rather than expose some deeper concerns each of them had, and that were probably the source of the...

The second of two parts

My previous post described what a green business leadership mindset consists of. I argued personal buy-in among leaders is essential to establish, communicate and enact sustainable and socially responsible practices. Here, I describe how leaders can learn to build that mindset, and how...