Female Brains: Marked for Greatness?

OK, I'll be up front with you and admit it.

As the author of the TSB blog, I am a man, about to make a valiant attempt today to write about and explain ... the unique characteristics and economic advantages of the female brain.

"Have you gone mad man"!

"Do you realize the massive hole your are about to dig for yourself with each subsequent keystroke?"

Crazy as this attempt may sound, or as uniquely unqualified as I may be, recent events dictate this biologically-based uphill battle needs to be fought somewhere.

And today's post is as good a place as any to start.

But, rather than oversimplify this issue in Mars-Venus fashion, we'll explore recent scientific research indicating women are more likely to succeed in a knowledge-based world based on the power of ideas instead of an industrial-based economy focused on production. In other words, whether we like it or not (guys are you listening?), women appear to be a biologically favored in understanding and applying the new language of commerce rapidly emerging in our 21st century Digital Economy. A language focused on the power of collaboration and community rather than one of conflict and confrontation.

We begin with Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen.

Simon is the director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University. He writes, "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy; the male brain is geared for building systems and things. Men lean towards structure and order; women favor making and maintaining connections". In other words, men are at biological level more left-brained analytical, logical and linear while women are able to transfer data between the right and left hemisphere much faster and enjoy greater access to both sides.

In fact, a team researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine, headed by Dr. Joseph T. Lurito, has proven through the use of MRI's, women have four times as many connections between the two sides of the brain. It creates a “Naturally Ambidextrous Brain,” capable of enhanced perceptual speed, fine motor skills, and a higher degree of verbal fluency. Some doctors feel that this may explain why women often recover from strokes more quickly than men, with less damage to speech ability. It may also account for a woman's ability to multi-task at an extremely high level.

At times this ability has been referred to as the “Executive Brain".

In her book, "The Female Brain", Louann Brizendine M.D., reveals neurological explanations why:

- A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000
- A woman remembers fights that a man insists never happened
- A teen girl is so obsessed with her looks and talking on the phone
- Sex thoughts enter a woman's brain once every couple of days but enter a man's brain about once every minute
- A woman knows what people are feeling, while a man can't spot an emotion unless somebody cries or threatens bodily harm

Dr. Brizendine explains this process actually begins at birth. She states, "Girls are born interested in emotional expression. They understand cues and constantly look for approval. Typical boys enjoy wrestling, mock fighting, and rough play with cars, trucks, swords, guns, tend to tend to threaten others, get into more conflict and are less likely to share toys and take turns. Meanwhile, studies show girls take turns twenty times more often than boys, and their pretend play is usually about interactions in nurturing or caregiving relationships".

So what is science telling us?

Especially us guys?

It would appear the evidence is indicating, where men have the gift of being able to focus on one thing at a time and see where it fits into a linear set of clues, women process the same clues as though they were a big puzzle – how does this piece fit in, and where, so that it reveals a “big picture”.

But, as a self-admitted man, my linear path today is leading me directly to my fellow man Mark for the final word on this subject.



Mark Gungor is one of the most sought-after speakers on marriage and family in North America. His take on relationship issues is refreshingly free of both churchy and psychological lingo. His book, "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage®" is about helping couples get it right, get along, have fun, and enjoy a successful relationship. He is also married to Debbie, his high school sweetheart for over 36 years and between the two Gungors and their very different brains, they have two grown children and four grandsons.


"Every brain begins as a female brain. It only becomes male eight weeks after conception, when excess testosterone shrinks the communication center, reduces the hearing cortex, and makes the part of the brain that processes sex twice as large"
LOUANN BRIZENDINE, M.D.



P.S. Once upon a time there was a female brain cell, which by mistake happened to end up in a man’s head. She looked around nervously but it was all empty and quiet.

“Hello?” she cried, but got no answer.

“Is there anyone here?” she cried a little louder–still no answer.

Now the female brain cell started to feel alone and scared and yelled at the top of her voice, “HELLO, IS THERE ANYONE HERE?!”

Then she heard a very faint voice from far, far away ...

Very far away ...

“We’re down here.”


http://www.seamlessbrand.com/

Motorvationally Speaking: "Love in a Bag"

"It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being"
HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Lee is a man who believes in his company and his product.

So much so, that when called to the stage to accept an award at a business gala with a black tie audience of 500 plus, Lee marches up carrying a bag of dog food.

But, not just any dog food ...

Lee calls it "love in a bag"!

This former marine biologist, also believes in people. About 50% of a full time staff of 40, has been with the company for a decade or more 9 years or more.

Today on TSB, we get inside scoops from Atlantic Canada's only pet food manufacturer, Fredericton's Lee Corey of Corey Feed Mills.



"Motorvationally Speaking", on CHCD TV, is a weekly, internet-based show focused on people who embrace the power of positive thinking. The guests may not always be famous, but they are always enlightening, and each one of them has an interesting story to tell. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome as we aim to inspire, educate and motorvate.

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive"
GILDA RADNER


http://www.seamlessbrand.com/

Branded Networking

"There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am,' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are”
FREDERICK COLLINS


What ranks as the undisputed, most under-appreciated and under-utilized business and career-building skill?

Could it be the skill that allowed Mary to help her son and his flaky friends transform a fledgling company from a small player in the Pacific Northwest into a global mega-corporation that touches us each day?

Mary was the kind of woman who thought nothing of jumping in to help worthwhile causes. She took on volunteer roles with the Children's Hospital Foundation, the Seattle Symphony, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and many other nonprofit organizations. In the mid-seventies, she became the first woman to serve as president of the United Way of King County, working her way up to the national board before becoming the first woman to lead the United Way of America. While she served on that executive committee, Mary struck up a friendship with a powerful CEO, who happened to mention one day his company was shopping for a vendor’ specifically one that could provide an operating system to power its first personal computer.

And that’s how the introduction was arranged for Mary’s 24-year old boy, to meet the powers-that-be at IBM. A few weeks later, IBM took a chance by hiring Bill’s company to supply MS-DOS, a boost that eventually made his form the world's largest software company for personal computers.

Business historians agree, the IBM deal is what launched Microsoft into the corporate stratosphere, which transpired to a large degree, from the genuine, focused-on-others networking skills displayed by Bill's mom, Mary Gates. It wasn't a blockbuster ad campaign or a fancy schmancy brochure that helped Bill get his foot in the IBM door.

Or should we say Window?

Typically, a referral generates 80% more results than a cold call while about 75% of people get their jobs through networking. However, this subject hardly warrants a mention in most books about business leadership or sales development. MBA courses barely touch this topic with a 39-and-a-half foot pole. Today, many companies and careers sputter and stall by failing to plug into connectors and rainmakers like Mary, who build and maintain relationships, vital to business and professional success.

Is it because networking gets a bad rap?

Could it be some folks confuse networking with:

a) Schmoozing?
b) Pitching products or services?
c) Canned "infomercials"?
d) Hunting down leads?
e) All of the above?

Although Mary has since passed on, she exemplified this clarifying definition of networking which is:

“Discovering what you can do for someone else to build meaningful, long-term business and social connections”

Has the practice of networking changed since Mary’s heyday?

Yes and no.

It may come as no surprise that people still like to do business with people they like, know and trust, however, the methods used to build and nurture those key relationships has changed dramatically. Now, more than ever, effective networking requires an element of “branding” for anyone serious about capitalizing on Word-of-Mouth … and Word-of-Mouse. Think of it as two business disciplines – networking and branding – converging as one.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet “The Branded Networker”.

And few personify this concept better these days than Jeffrey.

Long ago, Jeffrey built an award-winning, hall-of-fame career based on what Mary Gates demonstrated decades ago. In other words, he discovered what he could do for someone else to build meaningful, long-term business and social connections.

And Jeffrey Gitomer is still doing it today.

But, differently.



Jeffrey Gitomer has written one of the better reads about business networking, entitled "The Little Black Book of Connections".

Here are some of the highlights.

1. Are you the Tortoise or the Hare?
The science and sport of networking is not for the fast-buck, impatient entrepreneur or salesperson. If that’s you don’t even bother discovering Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections.

2. The Rule of the MORE!
The more people are attracted to you, the more solid connections you will make. But why would anyone be attracted to you? What have you done for your most powerful connections lately? Or are these the people you call on just to suck their blood every once in a while?

3. Be Genuine
Take a sincere interest in another person first. Learn about them. Don’t just qualify them. In other words, ditch your own agenda. Focus on connecting not extracting.

4. Who and What is on This Year’s List?
The only difference between where you are right now and where you will be next year at the same time are the people you meet and the books you are going to read. So who do you absolutely have to make a connection with over the next 12 months and which books jump to the top of your must-read list?

5. Confidence is a Self-Inflicted Quality
Biggest barrier in your fear of making connections with someone new is your mental state. Fear will manifest itself in the form of procrastination. But the more we expand our comfort zones the more we increase the size of our opportunity zone.

6. Networking is NOT Optional.
You do business between 9 and 5. You build your business before and after regular business hours.

6.5 Joining Organizations is also NOT Optional
It’s an imperative if you seek to make powerful connections. Don’t just join but instead find ways to sink your teeth into a cause or a project and actively participate.

Mary Gates and Jeffrey Gitomer operate from different ends of the networking spectrum, but do share a common approach when it comes to this vital business and social skill. Both found it within themselves to begin with putting other people first, focusing their efforts on what they could do to help others along the way. Mary and Jeffrey were not only joiners - they were doers.

Even though she passed on in 1994, many still reap the benefits of what Mary brought to the networking table.



To honor his late mother, a grateful son ponied up $10 million to get the endowment program started at the University of Washington, and help hundreds of others pursue their dreams.

Cynics and skeptics can say what they want.

But, I have a hunch Bill just wanted to do something meaningful.


“Your mother taught you everything you need to know about connecting before you were 10 years old: make friends, play nice, tell the truth, take a bath, do your homework”
JEFFREY GITOMER

P.S. ... "The Branded Networker" returns to the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce with a sold-out seminar scheduled for tomorrow afternoon prior to the monthly "Business After Five" mixer.


www.seamlessbrand.com

Buying Truth and Lies

Ever wonder how a slice of lime became an intrinsic part of the Corona experience?

Or how branding can impact your customers - both internal and external - on a neuroscientific level?

Perhaps, you have heard that half of any advertising budget is wasted, but you never know which half. Well, now you can, thanks to a Danish brand consultant, who took a brave and expensive leap to figure out why we buy — or don't.

TIME Magazine has named author/speaker Martin Lindstrom as one of the world's 100 most influential people, due to his work on science and marketing.

You are about to see why.



Martin founded his own advertising agency at the age of 12 and his rapid career rise has made him one of today's most respected branding gurus in the world. After twenty years of hands-on experience, Lindstrom has conceived a revolutionary set of principles that transform marketing strategies into positive business results. He rejects fuddy-duddy marketing rules that viewed branding as an art form composed of vague commercials and awareness messages. Instead, Martin's unique vision is scientific and process-based, making branding the driver of sales and profits, and consequently the centerpiece of any business.

What would be the impact of those principles on your brand?


"Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand"DAVID OGILVY

http://www.seamlessbrand.com/

Zoned Out on Comfort

It is 4:48 a.m.

Upon waking, a question reappears out of the brain fog.

"So, what gets YOU out of bed in the morning"

Good question.

Been asking it a lot lately. And am still OK with the answer.

But, rather than explain it in a self-indulgent, pontificating fashion, I would prefer to demonstrate through real-life situations and let you figure it out.

So, here goes.

If you're in the habit of listening to what people actually say, you will start to notice the more a phrase is casually tossed around, the less effective it becomes, reducing the potential impact it has. One of the best examples is the well-worn platitude to "think outside the box", which has been squawked and parroted so often, it now serves as verbal evidence of a boxed-in thinker.

Today on TSB we tackle "comfort zones".

For the sake of clarity, Wikipedia defines a "comfort zone" this way:

"The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk"

But, wait!

There's more!!!

A person's personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish. A comfort zone is a type of mental conditioning that causes a person to create and operate mental boundaries. Such boundaries create an unfounded sense of security. Like inertia, a person who has established a comfort zone in a particular axis of his or her life, will tend to stay within that zone without stepping outside of it.

But what good is theory unless you take action to support it?

Last week, about ten people were invited to take center stage at an upcoming national conference with an invitation to speak before the entire delegation - an audience of about 150 people. In each conversation, the person being invited responded in knee jerk fashion with phrases that sounded like:

"I'm going to have to say no to that one. I'm just not that comfortable with the idea of public speaking, especially before such a large group. I know it's a good idea to step out of my comfort zone, but I think I'll pass this time".

Whether speaking to a class or engaging in one-on-one conversation, asking if it's a good idea to step out of comfort zones will routinely generate unanimous agreement to the affirmative. It's a slam-dunk, just like it makes sense to think beyond the borders of a certain, four-sided geometric shape. In other words, escaping comfort zones makes good sense theoretically, but just don't ask me to do it.

That's why it's always refreshing to wake up and find an e-mail from one of the few people you run across who will say yes.

And actually turning "knowing" into "doing":

Hi Gair,

Well I have been thinking about it and I am scared to death at the thought but will give it a shot!

I really don't know where to even start with this process though? I am generally not great at memorizing lines or scripts and I am a bit of a slow reader. Always have been. I like to speak off the cuff and roll with the punches bu I don't think that will work for this task.

Where do we get started and how do we proceed?

Thanks

Rod

By taking the first major step out of his comfort zone Rod is making a decision to raise his anxiety level, engendering a stress response, the result of which is an enhanced level of concentration and focus. Or put another way, Rod is scared shitless, but will look the bastard called F.E.A.R.* in the eye and do it anyway as he takes his game up a notch.

This is a well-worn path dreamers and achievers have followed for centuries, and each time it begins with a daring first step while embracing the wisdom of uncertainty.

What do you think will happen to Rod as a result of his decision? How would you react if you were in that audience, knowing that he is anything but comfortable and as he approaches the stage, will be feeling more nervous than a chicken running into Colonel Sanders? Will Rod die falling from the nest or soar even higher? Will he fall flat or stand even taller?

But, enough about Rod.

What about you?

What's on your mind as you wake up these days?

Is there a challenge before you that demands a decision this week or this month? It could be anything ranging from career choices to personal relationships, diet, exercise, finances, travel, etc. Will it be enough of a challenge to make your body quiver, as it forces you to stretch your wings and leave the cozy comfort of the "zone"? Deep down, in a place that you know well, how can you expect to become what you want to be by staying where you are?

If you’re afraid to venture out, take comfort in knowing all winners were once filled with doubt.

Which way will you turn?


"Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition"
ALAN ALDA

p.s. ... *F.E.A.R. = False Expectation About Risk.

p.s.s ...Just remember, it's supposed to be hard.



p.s.s.s. ... Does "The Answer" actually have one on this issue?



www.seamlessbrand.com

100 Years of Glory

"To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high"

The words have been lifted from John McRae's poem entitled "In Flanders Field".

Since 1952, those words have lifted:

A team.
A province.
A nation of hockey worshippers.

Living up to those words has been an honor, privilege and a responsibility for thousands of players since they were hung on a dressing room wall in 1952, first at a shrine called the Forum, and now at a facility titled the Bell Centre.

In Montreal, those words, matched with the faces and ghosts of legends, have inspired the Canadiens to become one of the most successful sports franchises on the planet. The "Habs" rank right up there with other iconic teams such as the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Lakers, Manchester United and Green Bay Packers.

Given what the players have to live up to, their fans expect nothing less than success.



It was on this day in 1909, when the hockey world witnessed the birth of the Montreal Canadiens at Montreal’s Windsor Hotel thanks to businessman J. Ambrose O’Brien. On January 5, 1910, almost a month after the team was founded, the Canadiens took to the ice for the first time and wasted no time endearing themselves to the hometown crowd. Three thousand fans watched as the Canadiens posted a thrilling 7-6 victory over the Cobalt Silver Kings at Jubilee Arena.

A century later, millions will be watching as the Montreal Canadiens 100th anniversary celebration culminates with the team’s Centennial Game against the Boston Bruins tonight at the Bell Centre. The Centennial celebrations have included:

- Commemorative dollar coins from the Royal Canadian Mint.
- Commemorative stamps issued by Canada Post.
- Canadiens Monopoly.
- Centennial jersey nights when the Habs wear historic sweaters of the past.
- "Centennial Plaza" outside of the Bell Centre.
- Concert by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
- Canadiens movie, "Pour toujours, les Canadiens"!

But, no matter how much the Habs try and live up their towering history, the storied franchise is still struggling to recapture its past Stanley Cup glory. As they face off against the Bruins tonight at the Bell Centre, many still long for titles seemingly left behind with the closing of the Forum.



The ubiquitous relics, rituals and symbols linked to this 100-year old hockey team have created a brand that borders on religion. Canadiens worshippers have long told stories of the ghosts of players past that reside in the Forum - and Bell Centre - rafters, and the many miracles performed by Morenz, the "Rocket", Beliveau, Plante, Savard, Lafleur, Dryden, Shutt, Gainey, Roy and others.

In most North American cities, hockey is played and watched for fun.

In Montreal, the Canadiens exert a near spiritual influence.

Echoed in words and deeds from the past.


"My parents gave me a pair of skates when I was three, maybe four years old – everyone had a sheet of ice in their yard back then – so my friends and I started skating, then we started listening [to the radio], then we started dreaming, and eventually we started maybe seeing ourselves in that Canadiens jersey”
JEAN BELIVEAU

http://www.seamlessbrand.com/

The Don of Leadership

You might be forgiven for thinking "another day, another leadership book".

Understandable, in this day and age of information overload.

But, Don has taken this study to new heights with "High Altitude Leadership".

Imagine how different the study of leadership looks when viewed through the lens of "death zones" that exist on top of the world's tallest mountains. Bone-chilling and heart-stopping places where even the slightest mistakes are usually fatal.

Don could never have imagined it either.

After beginning his career as a scientist and engineer, he accepted an offer he couldn't refuse and became a management consultant after realizing most leadership and management theories fail to work. Drawing on alternative tactics such as anthropology and evolutionary genetics, Don's controversial approach to leadership flies in the face of what most of us have been taught.

Be prepared, however, for anything but easy, cut and paste, microwave solutions when you begin to absorb the depth of what Don Schmincke shares and the implications his theories hold for your business and brand.



Every day, companies struggle to vercome behavioural issues such as selfishness, arrogance, lone heroism, cowardice and comfort. Would it surprise you to know similar issues surface at the peaks of our planet's most dangerous mountains?

High Altitude Leadership is an unconventional, sometimes white-knuckle read that might have you start to lead in a different direction. It matters not whether you’re heading a Fortune 500 company, military forces, a small business, crime syndicate, government department, volunteer group, street gang or trying to raise your kids.

Why?

Because, the principles Don Schmincke shares from the study of more than 6,000 years of human behaviour won't change.

Are you prepared to invest the time to deconstruct the challenge of what it takes to be a top notch leader? Ready to embrace an approach that will have you re-examine your core beliefs about leaders and the teams they lead?

The choice is simple.

Graze in the crowded pastures of conventional leadership wisdom and the ordinary results that brings ...

Or dare to make an exhausting, exhilarating climb towards extraordinary, less traveled higher altitudes.


"I`d gotten to know quite a few mafiosi, and all of them told me they loved the picture because I had played the Godfather with dignity. Even today I can`t pay a check in Little Italy"
MARLON BRANDO


http://www.seamlessbrand.com/