Heidi Hanna,  The Sharp Solution

Gallup just released its 2013 State of the American Workplace Report and by most accounts it’s a rough commentary on employee engagement. Two-thirds of the roughly 100 million Americans who have full-time jobs are either actively disengaged as described in the report as, “employees, who have bosses from hell that make them miserable, roam the halls spreading discontent.” Or they are not engaged, “They’re just kind of present, but not inspired by their work or their managers,” according to Gallup CEO Jim Clinton.

Gallup estimates that those disenchanted workers cost the U.S. roughly $450 billion to $55o billion a year. Among the concerns in the cross hairs of the bean counters: turnover, absenteeism and lost productivity.

There’s a lot to be said as we deconstruct the report, but in the meantime there are some solutions out there to combat the disenchantment in the workplace and help employees enter a realm of optimal performance.

In this Work & Well-Being Update on Google Hangouts, I discuss the problem of stress at work with Heidi Hanna PhD, author of The Sharp Solution, A Brain-Based Approach for Optimal Performance. (Wiley 2013).

Hanna, the Founder of Synergy Programs, shares her own story about stress in a very vulnerable way along with a down-to-earth approach to better manage stress and energy. With her background in psychology and nutrition, her insights are easy to digest. Hanna is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress. I greatly enjoyed our exchange as she is a fount of information and clearly has a big heart to help others.

How do you boost your energy toward optimal performance at work? Please share and continue the conversation at @JudyMartn8. And check out my recent post on the Work/Stress connection: Work, Stress, Bliss Manifesto where I also talk about Arianna Huffington’s latest project The #ThirdMetric. For more on employee well-being and wellness head to my recent Forbes.com post: Linking Employee Wellness, Morale and the Bottom-Line.