Ease Your Aching Back

Wow, finally a company that "gets" the physiological differences between men and women. I have been painfully aware of these differences as a rider - there really should be separate designs for saddles! but I digress.

I just learned that Keilhauer has a chair called the Sguig that is designed to ease our aching backs because its ergonomic design is based on the different sitting styles and pelvic structures of men and women...and all thanks to a woman. Here's the story as told in BusinessWeek,

"Jackie Maze was bouncing on an exercise ball in a Pilates studio in Toronto in 1998 when, as she says, "something just clicked." Maze is a vice-president of marketing at Keilhauer, a Toronto-based furniture company, and that aha! moment led, eight years later, to the "Sguig," a seat based on the same principle as the exercise ball...Maze took her observations from the fitness studio to the cubicle, where it's rather important to stay alert and comfortable. Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work, according to the American Chiropractic Association.

To test her idea, Keilhauer paired up with EOOS, an Austrian design firm, and researchers at the Technical University of Vienna, who conducted ergonomic research and wired up a series of ball-like prototypes and other more standard front- and back-tilting chairs. "We monitored and graphed people's movements over the course of the day," said Mike Keilhauer. "Those that could move around, did, and their bodies felt less beat up at the end of a day of active sitting."

The early movement studies uncovered something unexpected: Men and women sit differently...Women perched, sitting on the edge of their seats, arching their backs, while men tended to slouch, relying more on the backrest. Differences in pelvic rotation between men and women contributed to these different postures. The consequence: Women felt more upper back pain, and men experienced lower back pain."

Funny, just this morning I asked a massage therapist if he would do a targeted session on my upper back...and as I write this post, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. Maybe waiting for the Sguig is why I haven't yet bought a new chair for my office.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

ForbesWoman Online Mag

Today I had a few minutes to revisit JournalWomen and was disappointed to see that it is a mere shadow of its former self.

That's why I was pleased to have an alternative. Forbes has rebranded an earlier venture to create its new ForbesWoman site. It has a pretty good blend of the usual content that sells advertising space (e.g. dress for success) and content that helps women succeed. (UPDATE: You can subscribe to alerts from Forbes Woman at the bottom of this page.)

For example, a recent article on Indra Nooyi. I am a real fan of Indra's and have written quite a bit about her in my upcoming book. Her generous spirit is reflected in the article.

Or this slide show on Sharpening Your Leadership Skills.

Thank you, Forbes Woman. May you get the blend right, attract a large following and help women...

...Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Captainship versus Leadership?

As I explain in my forthcoming book, there are WAY too many people who casually (and mistakenly) use the word leader as a synonym for executive and/or CEO. This causes many problems, e.g. if you use the words interchangeably, you lump together CEOs who create viable, healthy companies with those who've run their companies into bankruptcy. This could be easily avoided by using a prescriptive definition of leadership like mine (Leadership is using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others.) to determine which CEOs or executives are worthy of being called a leader.

If you want to blithely continue to call any Tom, Dick or CEO a leader regardless of the outcomes they product or the tactics they use to produce them, may I suggest the term "captainship" to describe the leadership ideal. Wonder why I make this suggestion? Think Captain Chesley Sullenberger of US Airways flight 1549 and Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama.

What is it about these captains that make their actions worthy lessons in leadership? The saga of the Maersk Alabama and Captain Richard Phillips lead me to compare his actions with those of CEOs at the helms of American businesses. By offering himself as a hostage, Phillips put his:

• Staff ahead of himself - think crew members. (How many CEOs have done that since the 2007 start of this economic crisis?)
• Customers ahead of himself - think of the food aid for Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda that the Maersk Alabam was carrying. (How many CEOs have done that since the 2007 start of this economic crisis?)
• Shareholders ahead of himself - think the owners of the Maersk. (How many CEOs have done that since the 2007 start of this economic crisis?)

I've already written about important leadership lessons from Captain Sullenberger and crew's landing of flight 1549. They include:

• Don't look for the hero, look for the heroic in everyone...
  
• When the economic engine fails, there's still energy for a safe landing...
  
• and more here.

I'm not really in favor of using captainship in lieu of leadership...I'd prefer that people think carefully about who they describe as leaders and use the words executive or CEO instead of leader to describe people at the top of organizations. Unless, that is, the CEO or executives are:

• acting ethically out of personal greatness to
  
• produce real and sustainable outcomes,
• by engaging the greatness in others.

Then they are worthy of being called leaders!

Lead On!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.