When CNN's Ed Henry was appointed to the Washington bureau and assigned to cover President-elect Barack Obama, his knowledge of things – work life – emerged. I think it was an organic thing. A kind of extra perk of his intuitive journalistic prowess. As I track the major networks including CNN – everytime I hear the "toss" to Ed Henry, I'm delighted with this short-sleeved veteran reporter - live from the beaches of the Hawaiian islands. He's giving us – by mere visual - the notion that covering the prez is a cool job - indeed a demonstration of the best of the work life experience. 

This evening a special treat from Ed Henry which sealed the deal for me in naming him the 2008 work life hero in journalism. He reported on the President-elect's rigorous work-out routine and actively pumped some iron to illustrate the story.I think Mr. Henry truly contributed to the understanding of the need for work life balance in a whole new way tonight. Click here to watch the CNN story.

Keeping a keen eye on Mr. Obama's work life balance became a sidebar to covering stories of national interest.  Last week in my post, Obama's Hawaiian work life strategy,I expressed a tad of envy regarding journalists relegated to Hawaii to track our incoming president.That being said, we know there is work involved, as Washington Post's Philip Rucker pointed out in his Christmas day story, Life's Not Necessarily a Beach for Press Corps.

Getting back to my work life hero in journalism, Ed Henry. The beach-going CNNer not only put his biceps to work, but brought attention to the need for exercise and stress reduction in the name of national interest. Whether you're the prez or a member of the press corps – we all need a little sun and R & R – even if you're living and working in Hawaii for a few weeks.

Keep it up Ed, and enjoy it while you can. It's damn cold here in the northeast!

The heart of New York City is hurting for those in Mumbai. The scope of the tragedy is different, but the pain is no less than what New York City experienced during the September 11th terror attacks. Forbes.com spoke with the Vice Chairman of one of India’s largest banks who echoed that sentiment. Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank told Forbes, “This is India’s 9/11. It’s a great shame.”

As CNN covered the developing story of  the terror attacks in Mumbai, the words, ” This was India’s 9/11,” was repeatedly spoken by commentators, witnesses and news people alike. It’s not just the terror aspect of the tragedy that is upsetting, but the reality that there are a flood of U-S companies and multinational corporations doing business in India.

In our 24/7 high-tech global marketplace we are more interconnected than ever before. That reality makes this tragedy one with no cultural or nationalistic boundries. The deadly events have prompted swift action from some American companies with workers in Mumbai.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Delta Airlines is actively checking with its employees in Mumbai and “working to bring them home safely.”  Dow Jones is reporting that a number of global high-tech companies are scrambling to find their employees and secure their safety. Google, Hewlett Packard, and Microsoft are not reporting any casualties as of this writing.

Next week a contingent of American companies and members of the U-S India Business Council are scheduled to tour India. It’s part of a fact-finding mission regarding nuclear commerce. About 30 companies are looking to do business with India. The tour includes a stop in Mumbai, but that might change in the wake of the terror attacks. You can read more about this in an article on The Hindu News Update Service.

A microscopic look at the security concerns in India is currently underway. Reports that the terrorists were targeting Americans and Brits might give westerners pause before taking a job there. With the ensuing chaos, global companies operating in Mumbai have new concerns. The saftey of their workers.

Such violence is not new to India, but the seemingly protected terrain of Mumbai as India’s financial capital and the home of the Taj Mahal have now become the soft targets of terrorists. Big business already learned that nothing is sacred or spared after 9/11. The deadly events in India are another reminder.

My black berry was on Spitzer overload yesterday afternoon. Press alerts flooded my in-box, I had to silence the ringer. But not before I spoke with a colleague who called from a photo shoot in Berlin, Germany. The demise of New York State Governor Elliot Spitzer was officially global.

"It’s all over CNN. Everyone is talking about it. It’s just too far fetched to comprehend," said my friend Elsie Maio, a corporate branding expert who specializes in helping companies align their behaviors with their values. While the said connection to a prostitution ring was disturbing, the apparent ethical breech of a lawmaker was just as upsetting. Another lesson in the perception of authentic leadership. The Spitzer brand, The Sheriff of Wall Street, has taken a fall.

In January 2007, in Spitzer’s first speech to the New York State Legislature; campaign finance reform topped the agenda. Ethics, reform, transparency; key words. It was the platform upon which he hung his hat, after the gunslinger whittled away at corruption on wall street. He’s not the first, and likely won’t be the last to allegedly defect from walking the talk.

"The implied expectation was that Elliot Spitzer would have a certain set of personal values based on the values he imposed on others," said Maio.  "It was assumed that his ethos would be as impeccable as he expected others to be."

What this illustrates, Maio shared, is the unsustainability of taking on a position without the foundation of a true authentic value system at one’s core – from which one behaves. That means taking action from one’s own moral dimension, not just catering to the needs of constituents – or in the case of corporations – shareholders.

"It becomes posturing when it doesn’t come from the heart and soul of who you are," says Maio. "It must be a position that you are committed to," Maio says; both in the public eye and behind closed doors.

The lesson, Maio says: When actions and behaviors do not reflect authentic core values that have been clearly thought-out, contemplated, and committed to – that’s when companies and people get into trouble.

I heard it in the distance. Those feelings that hearken from childhood, emerged. But I was on deadline for a story working from home, so I was technically still working, albeit differently. I fit into the 20 percentile group of people who want to work differently, not less. The stats come from Cali Yost’s 2007 Work+Life Fit Reality Check survey. Yost takes a look at how employees view their worklife flexibility. Just last night it hit me like Santa coming down the chimney shoot with a big bang. I’m a stat. But I’m a happy stat – here’s why.

It was as if I was on the lookout for Santa waiting by my open front door last night with a grin from ear to ear. Twenty-degree winds blew in my face, while I shivered in my barely presentable sweats which often serve as pajamas as I often work till wee hours of the night before rolling into bed. Yet it was only approaching six o’clock.

My wireless phone in my hand, (I was expecting a conference call momentarily) I had the other hand pressing on the screen door handle, only cracking it a bit because it was cold, but readied to push it open, upon arrival. I heard the top of the news hour on CNN, and was listening closely as I was waiting for a particular financial story. My kitty Gema was lingering around the door, wiggling her tail as if chilly and meowing at me to shut the darn door.

And then it happened. the UPS man came across the icy snow drifts on my front lawn like a big brown bear in the night with a big brow package. He approached the door, I flew open the door and he pushed an 80 box into my living room. I thanked him, signed the electronic clipboard and said goodbye.

Before I had a chance to rip open the box – there it was – the sounds of that newscast music signaling the start of the program. I took another look at the box but opted to watch the story. And in perfect timing, my conference call was a few minutes late calling in.

So here I was on my living room floor, in my sweats, opening the box to my new home office chair, while on the phone with a client. It’s a perfect world. I need the flexibility to work a little different than most, but it doesn’t mean I work any less. I’m happy, content, and look forward to sitting in my new chair.

A business associate of mine is ready to jump ship from her company strictly on the grounds that ,"this business is not family friendly, while purporting to be." WorkLife Balance policy is not always what it appears to be on the first look. It’s best to ask a lot of questions and look within the pages of the employee manual . Those perks might be designed primarily to lure in new employees, rather than to retain them in a healthy working environment.

Time for a new workplace or career? For those feeling the need for speed away from their typical routine there’s a great place to check out the companies who are apparently walking the worklife talk.

The combined resources of CNN & Fortune are running a list of America’s Most Admired Companies, and every one of the top ten employ a form of Work Life Balance initiatives. The stats were culled from a survey of corporate rank and file within the respective industries. The findings are based on reputation regarding the following attributes: social awareness, social responsibility, employee management, environmental sustainability, quality of their products and management among others.

On this page you’ll also find:

• Why some companies were knocked off the list. Click here to watch the video. This is a funny montage from film and TV which you’ll get a kick out of.
• The best and worst companies for people management. Click here for those stats.
• Most admired companies broken down by state. Click here to look up your state.

INFOMANIA TIP: I got lost in this site for a while. So put a cap on your surfing time!

Using Meditation as a Tool for Success

It’s no secret that alone-time might yield a more productive worklife. When you make time to recharge, you are bound to have more energy and clarity in your workday. I post a lot about meditation on this blog and the topic has taken more of a foothold recently in some mainstream boardrooms, and certainly in the media.

A time few days ago CNN and Fortune featured the practical benefits of meditation in a segment called Mind Over Business. To the left is a very good friend of mine, Jaya Devi who runs Kashi Atlanta, voted the No.1 yoga studio in Atlanta. She was interviewed for the segment as she’s been teaching the art in its various forms for well over 15 years.

TV is designed for our soundbite nation, so I wanted to offer a little more info on the topic which many are turning to in an effort to bring a little worklife balance into the workplace.

According to Jaya Devi, about half of her classes which offer yoga and meditation are filled with those in the professional set who work in a typical business office environment. Meditating is not just for those who have a spiritual practice. In fact, most courses that are given in the corporate arena tend to take a more secular approach. Here are links to two of my recent posts on the topic:

Taking an Office Break to Meditate

Exploring Spirituality in the Workplace

I’d like to hear your thoughts on meditating in the workplace. What works? What doesn’t? Is breathwork a better word for it? Meantime, please check out my CD which features breathing exercises to break the mind and bring about clarity. Click the link for further information.

PRACTICAL CHAOS: Reflections on Resilience

For more information on my work head to JudyMartinSpeaks.com

My curiosity was piqued by John McKenna’s blog post, Does Most Leadership Suck – The Challenge. He tagged me (thank you) with the challenge to discuss why, as he puts it, most leadership sucks.

I can’t say that I agree with that statement merely on the premise that it’s hard to quantify. such One is left to their own inner discussion about leadership based on numerous points of reference including:

1. Individual experience as company rank and file
2. Individual experience as company brass
3. How easily one succumbs to the influence of media
4. What they read in the trade pubs
5. Which leadership book of the week is getting the most press

The initial cold response to the leadership question is that we need to discuss not leadership principles, but the human beings that make up the leadership and what drives them as individuals. We need to ask them these questions:

1. What are the ethical and moral values by which you govern?
2. Is the work you do aligned with your purpose as an individual?
3. Is your work meaningful to the collective group of individuals who make up your company?
4. Is there a particular leadership model you use and is it successful?
5. How do you gauge a successful leader; by the bottom-line, employee retention, employee engagement scores, employee loyalty?

Leadership is a journey of adhering to – and living out – certain principles. It’s about whether an individual can align these principles with the day-to-day activities of running a business in a profit-first culture. I would say that is the greatest challenge. I suppose we have to delve further into the minds of the leaders to learn more about how they think – without being attached to the desire for definitive pearls of wisdom. But alas if they come – wouldn’t we be happy we asked? Still,I suppose we’re likely to hear a lot of the same stuff – so I can understand John’s cynicism.

Coincidentally, CNN/Money in conjunction with Fortune Magazine has just posted an opportunity for career or leadership pundits which sounds too good to be true. They’ve opened the floodgates to the mind of former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina. You can post questions to her and she’ll be answering some of them in the October 29th issue of Fortune.

Fiorina made history as the first female to head up a Fortune 20 Company. Her leadership skills during her six years at H-P’s helm have been scrutinized across the unforgiving internet since her ouster in 2005. But don’t you just wonder what really happened there?

The higher you are, the bigger the target you are as a leader. That idea alone gives us a lot to think about when we cast a generic stone in the direction of leadership.

For some interesting insight into the minds of some cutting-edge thinkers in this field, head to my WorkLife Monitor Podcasts which run on this blog, and at JudyMartinSpeaks.com. I’ve got a bunch in the hopper with some extraordinary people in the coming months.

An interesting formula for an alleged 4-hour work week can be found in an article by Timothy Ferris in today’s Fortune Small Business feature on CNN.COM. In it, he says he applied the time management wisdom of Economist Vilfredo Pareto.

Pareto created the highly scrutinized formula demonstrating that 80 percent of the income in society is produced and owned by 20 percent of the population. Translated into marketing lingo, 80 percent of your business will likely come from 20 percent of your customers. The principle is known as Pareto’s law. The concept has been tossed around in discussion for years.

In Ferris’ article he explains how he applied this principle to his own business, the risks he took to do so, the sacrifices he had to make with regard to customer service in some cases, and how these decisions were emotional ones.

It struck me that he said he "had to make simple but emotionally difficut decisions,"  but he didn’t go into detail about why they were emotional. In essence, he created and administered a more productive way of doing business. But other than the obvious business choices, I wonder what thought went into his process? It made me think about where our consciousness is when making business decisions within the constructs of "time management" principles.

What is the consciousness of "time management?" By design, time management is about stealth planning and execution. But what is the deeper process and value of time management?

I think what is left out of the traditional time management principle is the value of conscious contemplation of how we use our time, and then the deeper value of what pearls of wisdom might come about when making decisions from a deeper place within ourselves. If we were to take a few moments every day to contemplate how we use our time, and how our decisions are impacting those around us and society in general, the process might guide us in an entirely new business direction.

In fact, we might make more time for ourselves by just stopping, identifying some of the issues that are holding us back or within a restrictive mode of operation, and then releasing the inhibiting behaviors, processes, or even relationships that don’t allow for a better flow in business. Inner contemplation can save us time by identifying what is not working below the surface of our every day activities, and provide a new slate to work from.