Managing Executive Health: Personal and Corporate Strategies for Sustained Success

Description

The health of managers, executives, and business leaders has a massive impact on the performance and prospects of modern organizations. If health problems are not tackled, people become less productive, less effective, and more destructive. It is clear that business leaders and human resource professionals cannot afford to ignore the impact of work-related health issues on company performance. Yet even acknowledging this fact still leaves us with a choice over how to proceed. Should we try to minimize those risks that typically lead to health problems or seek to strengthen executive health? While recognising that identifying health risks is the first step in any preventive health program, Managing Executive Health argues for a positive approach, which emphasizes physical vigour, psychological well-being, spiritual vitality, and ethical integrity. Key issues are illustrated throughout with case studies of high-profile figures from the worlds of business and politics.

James Campbell Quick is John and Judy Goolsby Distinguished Professor and founding Director of Goolsby Leadership Academy at the University of Texas at Arlington. Professor Quick has over 100 publications in 10 languages and is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Society, and the American Institute of Stress (AIS). Cary L. Cooper is Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health and Pro-Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at Lancaster University. He is the author of over 100 books, Editor-in-Chief of the The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management and the editor of Who's Who in the Management Sciences. Professor Cooper was awarded a CBE for his contribution to organizational health. Joanne H. Gavin is Assistant Professor of Management at Marist College. She has published in many leading journals and has co-authored chapters in International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, and Psychology Builds a Healthy World. Jonathan D. Quick is a family physician and public health management specialist. He is President and CEO of Management Sciences for Health, an international group dedicated to closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health.

Advance praise : 'Our research shows that almost 100% of executives, managers and professionals become dissonant within themselves and with others due to the ravages of chronic stress. The sad fact is that most never recover and doom themselves to less effective, less sustainable performance - not to mention a less exciting life. Most books about executive health and stress make you feel guilty and worry - this one creates hope. Read it, it could save your life!' Richard Boyatzis, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Case Western Reserve University. Co-author of the international best seller, Primal Leadership (with Dan Goleman and Annie McKee), Resonant Leadership (with Annie McKee), and the recently published Becoming a Resonant Leader (with Annie McKee and Fran Johnston) 'According the EU Lisbon Strategy, what Europe needs for health and development of its population is 'more and better jobs.' Optimal executive health is absolutely essential for achieving this. I know of no better text to promote such a development than the one now prepared by Quick et al. It should be compulsory reading in every business school and board room, worldwide.' Lennart Levi, MD, PhD, MP, Emeritus Professor of Psychosocial Occupational Health , Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 'This book is long overdue. Managing Executive Health convincingly builds a well documented case for the authors' contention that physical health and psychological well-being form the necessary base from which sustained high performance can be successfully realized.' Jim Loehr, Ed.D., CEO, Human Performance Institute, and best-selling co-author of The Power of Full Engagement 'A comprehensive analysis of the pitfalls and stresses associated with leadership and why current conditions are contributing to an increase in these problems and their adverse fiscal and health effects. This concise volume contains numerous useful suggestions on how to prevent or minimize such complications so that executives can learn how to become more productive and less self destructive.' Paul J. Rosch, M.D. F.A.C.P., President, The American Institute of Stress; Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, New York Medical College; Honorary Vice President, International Stress Management Association