Why a Little Bit of Stress is Good For You

• By Shana Lebowitz
• April 23, 2013
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Greatist is the fastest-growing fitness, health and happiness media start-up. Check out  more wellness news at Greatist.com.

There are times when I think I’d be much happier if I could spend the rest of my life lounging on the sands of the Mediterranean, having someone fan me with palm fronds while feeding me superfood grapes. In other words, life would be better without any stress. Or would it?

According to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, a little stress may not be so bad for us after all. While chronic stress may be harmful, acute (short-term) stress may actually boost our cognitive function. The findings are supported by other research suggesting a little bit o’ stress may have beneficial effects for our brains and bodies. The key, of course, is knowing when we’re too harried for our own good.

What's the Deal?

Before we get into the science, let’s be clear that most of the research in this area involves rats, not humans, so it’s not entirely clear that the findings apply to people. For a while now, researchers have suspected that the effect of stress on the (rat) brain is like ...

Change Management vs. Change Leadership: What’s the Difference?

• By Victoria Grady
• April 23, 2013
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Organizational change is widespread in the federal government and requires both change leaders and change managers to be successful.  Unfortunately, the terms change management and change leadership are often used synonymously. The lack of distinction can muddle your strategy and increase the likelihood your change initiative will fail.  

So what should you do?

1. Define them: Start with the definitions. 

According to GAO, change management is defined as:

Activities involved in (1) defining and instilling new values, attitudes, norms, and behaviors within an organization that support new ways of doing work and overcome resistance to change; (2) building consensus among customers and stakeholders on specific changes designed to better meet their needs; and (3) planning, testing, and implementing all aspects of the transition from one organizational structure or business process to another. 

On the other hand, a comprehensive definition of change leadership is more elusive. Here, combining definitions from management expert John Kotter and BusinessDictionary.com, is a more succinct take on what it means: Change leadership (1) concerns the driving forces, visions and processes that fuel large scale transformation or (2) is a “style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates the vision to guide ...

NIH Shines a Bright Light on Cocaine Addiction

• By Dr. Francis Collins
• April 23, 2013
• comments

Wow—there is a lot of exciting brain research in progress, and this week is no exception. A team here at NIH, collaborating with scientists at the University of California in San Francisco, delivered harmless pulses of laser light to the brains of cocaine-addicted rats, blocking their desire for the narcotic.

If that sounds a bit way out, I can assure you the approach is based on some very solid evidence suggesting that people—and rats—are more vulnerable to addiction when a region of their brain in the prefrontal cortex isn’t functioning properly. Brain imaging studies show that rat and human addicts have less activity in the region compared with healthy individuals; and chronic cocaine use makes the problem of low activity even worse. The prefrontal cortex is critical for decision-making, impulse control, and behavior; it helps you weigh the negative consequences of drug use.

Addiction is an enormous public health issue. Currently, 1.4 million Americans are addicted to cocaine—and no treatment has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, making it one of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s top research priorities.

So let me first say that nerve cells, or ...

6 Characteristics the Best Mentors Have in Common

• By Sam Nayman
• April 22, 2013
• comments

If your career is a vehicle, then great mentors are your GPS. Mentors help you locate your destination and determine the most efficient route. They help you steer clear of danger and develop the confidence to embark on the journey. They show you how to enjoy the ride and navigate uncharted territory—all the while helpfully getting you back on track when you lose your way.

But where, you’re probably asking, do I find a “great mentor?” Great mentors are everywhere and in most every organization. Below are a few ways to test if you’ve found one of the good ones. The best mentors, those most able to guide you on your journey, posses the six characteristics below:

1^st Characteristic: Admirable

Purpose: Help you locate your destination and chart a route.

Test: Do you admire this person and his/her work? Does his/her career align with your interests?

2^nd Characteristic: Reflective

Purpose: Help you determine the most efficient route and steer clear of danger.

Test: Has this person reflected on and examined how his or her career has unfolded? Can they enhance your level of self-awareness through their own?

3^rd Characteristic: Respectful

Purpose: Help ...

How the Rise of Telework Is Changing Our Cities

• By Emily Badger
• April 22, 2013
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Technology has blurred the walls of the workplace in at least two dramatic ways. People who once worked inside the clear confines of a cubicle, inside an office, within an office tower in a commercial district, can now work from nearly anywhere. And because the spatial distinction has been disappearing between work and home (and everywhere in between), neat divisions in time are now eroding, too.

Even if you do still have an actual office where you commute every day, you have probably experienced how these lines have softened simultaneously: You've walked out of your building and into the subway, pulled out your phone, and gone right back to triaging email.

These sweeping shifts in where and when work takes place have been brought about by much more than just the Internet. Credit the portable laptop and the smartphone, WiFi and fiber optic infrastructure, computer security from VPNs, high-quality teleconferencing and the cloud. As for your computer itself? "It’s just a shell," says Adam Stoltz, a real estate workplace strategist based in Washington. "It’s the thing that enables me to get to the data."

We normally talk about all of this as a revolution in technology, or ...