Brian P. O’Brien

Focuses on AIDS training in the workplace. Importance of training managers on dealing with AIDS; Needs assessment tools; Assessment of employees' fear of AIDS; Assessment of employees' knowledge of AIDS; Assessment of the business consequences of AIDS.

AIDS Training in the Workplace

On Friday, April 17, ATD hosted a Twitter chat (#ATDleadershipdev). We asked seasoned leadership experts and you, our audience, to chime in around different topics surrounding leadership development.Here are some top tweets with important insights for ways to strengthen your leadership development:How do you help leaders grow in an atypical environment marked by uncertainty and fear?A2: Remind your co-leaders that their gifts are essential. #ATDleadershipdev— Dr. Courtney L. Teague (@CourtneyLTeague) April 17, 2020A2I’m a huge believer in reflection for leader development. I have engaged a cohort on social platform to apply the change curve, reflect and share.#ATDleadershipdev— sandi (@sandimax200) April 17, 2020A2: leaders now face unique pressure to be the stable figure for their teams while navigating an uncharted roadmap. it can help to humanize them outside of their job title and ask what they might need or how they are feeling.#ATDleadershipdev— Niranjani Chidamber Papavaritis (@ATDHealthcare) April 17, 2020What advice do you have for your peers in leadership roles? How do you lead through a crisis when you’ve never done it before?Emphasize every win! People dealing with crisis are consistently questioning themselves. Don’t just tell them it’s ok, show them where they are winning! #ATDLeadershipdev— Paula O'Brien, M.Ed. (@nhpaulao1) April 17, 2020A3.Regardless of the situation the response will involve people. Invest time upfront understanding the people who are looking to you for leadership. #ATDleadershipdev— Rich Neasom (@RAFResilience) April 17, 2020A3: Advice would be remember you are leading by example. Be transparent and remember to always talk with compassion and think with empathy in mind.— Lisa Spinelli (@atdcareerdev) April 17, 2020What do you think the main role of leaders right now is? How do you develop the curiosity and creativity that enables people to harness the fear of the moment into action rather than paralysis?A4:Right now, #leaders need to be present.They don't have to have all the answers, but they do have to have all the support.Allowing people time & space to process what we're going through and approach things differently can lead to more #creativity.#ATDleadershipdev— Avra Bossov (@Avracado) April 17, 2020A4That’s a great question! A leader must embrace this time as one of opportunities. What can be done differently? What can be tried? What can we learn?— sandi (@sandimax200) April 17, 2020A4: leaders can shine light on where there are opportunities for growth, collaboration, and innovation during these times. they can bring people together to work toward a common cause, to brainstorm ideas and solutions as forms of service. #ATDleadershipdev— Niranjani Chidamber Papavaritis (@ATDHealthcare) April 17, 2020For those seeking to develop their leadership, what best practices, tools, and resources are you turning toward?A5:📘Book Recs: "The Infinite Game" by @simonsinek, "Rising Strong" by @BreneBrown, and "The Art of Gathering" by @priyaparker.🙌Best Practices:- Listen.- Be intentional.- Ask questions.- Rinse. (Go wash your hands!)- Repeat. #ATDleadershipdev— Avra Bossov (@Avracado) April 17, 2020A5: Read outside the box! Check in on sports leaders and coaches of your choice, I recommend Why The Best Are The Best as a starting point. #ATDLeadershipdev pic.twitter.com/MvgjGx0sIq— Paula O'Brien, M.Ed. (@nhpaulao1) April 17, 2020How are you embracing the lessons of this crisis and growing your leadership capacity?A6.Joining in with chats like this is a big help to reflection and to consolidate learning. 🤔#ATDleadershipdev— Rich Neasom (@RAFResilience) April 17, 2020A6: increased communication and having genuine conversations, taking the time to connect with others.#ATDleadershipdev— Niranjani Chidamber Papavaritis (@ATDHealthcare) April 17, 2020What’s your biggest piece of advice for talent development professionals right now?A7:Keep doing the amazing work you're doing to help people grow and develop.Remember: we're all doing our best. Let's take care of each other.While there's a lot of unknowns right now, we know that people, community, & growth matter.#talentdevelopment#ATDleadershipdev— Avra Bossov (@Avracado) April 17, 2020A7.Every cloud has a silver lining. This crisis offers opportunities for deeper reflection and new connections. Try and find one “win” from this in your Continued Professional Development quest...#ATDleadershipdev— Rich Neasom (@RAFResilience) April 17, 2020Be flexible on performance levels for the short-term realizing humans ability to perform is diminished when under stress. Let employees know your game plan for ‘when we get through this’... #ATDleadershipdev— Paula O'Brien, M.Ed. (@nhpaulao1) April 17, 2020Want to participate? Join ATD on Friday, April 24 at 12 p.m. ET for a Twitter chat about volunteerism in honor of National Volunteer Week using #ATDvolunteers!

Ways to Strengthen Your Leadership Development

At the CIMBA Leadership Labs, we have observed that almost any development intervention benefits from both mindfulness practice and computer-based brain training to enhance self-regulation. In concert, mindfulness and enhanced self-regulation ability also serve to influence an individual’s self-awareness.Interestingly, with regard to the latter, virtually all literature discussing the brain and behavior prescriptively asserts self-awareness (in one form or another) as a "solution" to the particular malady it addresses—something with which we are in general agreement.Recent research on mindfulness Our understanding of the importance of mindfulness practice continues to grow, with recent research demonstrating its positive affect on decision making (Hafenbrack et al., 2013), creativity (Colzato et al., 2012), emotion regulation (Teper et al., 2013), and self-regulation (Tang et al., 2014). Collectively, these findings raise the possibility that mindfulness interventions produce specific plasticity-related alterations in brain function and structure. Successfully navigating a social transition means efficiently and effectively reading and comprehending social cues (see Olsson et al., 2013). To this end, supported interventions that enhance empathetic accuracy and related neural activity are likely to prove beneficial to individuals in leadership positions. Consequently, it is not surprising that mindfulness practices that emphasize the cultivation of positive affect, such as compassion and kindness, have received increased empirical attention. In fact, Hofmann et al. (2011) concluded that mindfulness interventions oriented toward enhancing the positive emotions of compassion and kindness do increase positive affect and decrease negative affect. Two additional 2013 studies provide further support for this notion, one promoting the benefits of a secularized analytical compassion meditation program, cognitive-based compassion training (Mascaro et al., 2013) and the other a compassion mindfulness practice led by an experienced instructor (Klimecki et al., 2013). In addition to better understanding their emotions and emotions of others through mindfulness practice, leaders need the self-discipline to generate results. Tang et al. (2014) found that mindfulness meditation is effective in improving brain function related to executive attention. Although the study focused on the use of the mindful meditation technique, Integrated Body-Mind Training (IBMT), a powerful technique introduced to CIMBA by Tang several years ago, several other forms of mindfulness also have been shown to enhance self-regulation (Davidson & McEwen, 2012).  Mindfulness practice supported by technologyThe body of research supportive of mindfulness continues to grow impressively. Several major companies now offer the opportunity for employees to participate in a variety of programs. At CIMBA, we have found that the use of physiological measurement instruments, such as a Fitbit or heart rate monitor, can have an impact on mindfulness by raising an individual's awareness of his or her body's physical and mental responses to stimuli, something referred to as "interoception." In addition, physiological measurement instruments can be used to assist novices through the "It doesn't work for me" phase. As illustrated in the figure below, physiological data collected during an individual's practice can be compared to data where the practice—in this case, an awareness of breath exercise intended to assist with mindfulness—was performed correctly. This data also can be used to assure an individual's coach—personal development coaching being an integral aspect of the CIMBA Leadership Labs’ leadership system—that the coachees’ time is being spent productively. Without this type of technological assistance, coaches would have to rely on either self-report data or observed behavior change to have any idea of the effectiveness of the mindfulness intervention. At the CIMBA Leadership Labs, we have additionally developed software to allow an individual to compare mindfulness sessions and his or her physiological reactions to other stressful or emotional events, working with a coach all the while in an effort to improve his or her response to such events. The heart rate monitor delivers a physiological assessment of stress using heart rate variability. As illustrated in the figure below, the data from a variety of sessions—for example, after a stressful day, during a stressful encounter, and after a period of exercise or relaxation—provide insights into both the effectiveness of a mindfulness "moment" and the events in our day-to-day lives that create stress.ReferencesHafenbrack, A. C., Kinias, Z., & Barsade, S. G. (2013). Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias. Psychological Science, 25 (2), 369-376Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: The impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 3.Teper, R., Segal, Z. V., & Inzlicht, M. (2013). Inside the mindful mind: How mindfulness enhances emotion regulation through improvements in executive control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(6), 449-454.Tang, Y. Y., Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2014). Meditation improves self‐regulation over the life span. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1307(1), 104-111.Olsson, A., Carmona, S., Downey, G., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2013). Learning biases underlying individual differences in sensitivity to social rejection. Emotion, 13(4), 616-621.Hofmann, S. G., Grossman, P., & Hinton, D. E. (2011). Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventions. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(7), 1126-1132.Mascaro, J. S., Rilling, J. K., Negi, L. T., & Raison, C. L. (2013). Compassion meditation enhances empathic accuracy and related neural activity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 48-55.Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Lamm, C., & Singer, T. (2013). Functional neural plasticity and associated changes in positive affect after compassion training. Cerebral Cortex, 23(7), 1552-1561.Davidson, R. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2012). Social influences on neuroplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being. Nature neuroscience, 15(5), 689-695.www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-s-exkorn/mindfulness-practice\\\_b\\\_4763160.html

Brian P. O’Brien

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