I’m sure you’ve heard more than once that you should eat your vegetables. Yeah, yeah, we all know they’re full of vitamins and what not that do a body good. But I’ve tried cauliflower, and cauliflower and I have agreed to never cross paths again.

Still, there are tons of other great vegetables (high-five green beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts!) worth eating because they’re not just good for your physical body—they’re also good for your mind. For you see, researchers have concluded that eating fruit and vegetables is associated with a greater flourishing in daily life.

“Our aim was to determine whether eating fruit and vegetables (FV) is associated with other markers of well-being beyond happiness and life satisfaction,” the researchers wrote in the study‘s abstract. “Towards this aim, we tested whether FV consumption is associated with greater eudaemonic well-being—a state of flourishing characterized by feelings of engagement, meaning, and purpose in life. We also tested associations with two eudaemonic behaviours—curiosity and creativity.”

The researchers had 405 young adults complete an Internet diary for 13 consecutive days, reporting on their consumption of fruit and vegetables and their eudaemonic well-being, curiosity, and creativity.

“Young adults who ate more FV reported higher average eudaemonic well-being, more intense feelings of curiosity, and greater creativity compared with young adults who ate less FV,” the researchers wrote. “On days when young adults ate more FV, they reported greater eudaemonic well-being, curiosity, and creativity compared with days when they ate less FV.”

Sure, the findings are correlational, the researchers said, but “this study provides the first evidence that FV consumption may be related to a broader range of well-being states that signal human flourishing in early adulthood.”

So, while spinach may not make you physically strong, it will at least help you be more creative, which is a strength in itself.

(photo credit: Jon McGovern via photopin cc)

The best way to reduce workplace stress as a manager is to have a good working relationship with employees. That just one of the findings from a recent study by Professors Astrid M. Richardsen and Stig Berge Matthiesen at the BI Norwegian Business School in which four key stress factors were investigated: Time pressures and workload, emotional strain, role stress at work (role conflict between demands from top management and from employees), and role conflict between work and private life.

“Although a clear majority of the managers experience time pressure at work, there are relatively few who have role stress at work, or a role conflict between work and private life,” the researchers said.

To help managers handle workplace stress, Richardsen and Matthiesen suggest 10 strategies.

1. Find out what is creating the stress: Identify the sources of work stress. Knowledge makes it easier to implement stress management measures.

2. More knowledge about stress: Increase the general knowledge of the nature of stress. How do various conditions for stress interact? What can be done about it?

3. Have a healthy lifestyle: Make sure you have sufficient rest and sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet. A healthy mind in a healthy body. There are good reasons why so many managers are keen on their exercise.

4. Learn to rest and relax: Practice the skill of stressing down or relaxing. Muscle relaxation, meditation, and tools that tell you whether your body really is relaxing may help.

5. Manage your time more efficiently: Learn to prioritize work tasks better. Identify the time thieves, and try to get rid of them.

6. Increase your employees’ skills: By increasing the skills of your employees, you yourself will have less stress. You will feel more confident that the jobs you delegate will be done.

7. Establish relationships for support: Do you have someone to ask for help and support when you need it? Is there anyone you can go to with your joys and sorrows? Social support in everyday life is important for managers, too.

8. Plan your career: For managers as for others, a job or work commitment may have a “best before” date. Remaining too long in a job may lead to unnecessary stress or strain.

9. Switch jobs in time: Make the switch while you still have good control of the job and its related stress.

10. Seek outside, professional help if the job becomes too much of a strain: Major work stress can have serious consequences, both for the person suffering it and for his/her surroundings.

(photo credit: bottled_void via photopin cc)

The Arena Management Conference (AMC) takes place this year in Long Beach, California, September 14-16. There are several great educational sessions, including one titled “Sports Bidding/Hosting Process.” It’s a panel discussion moderated by Bredan Buckley, vice president at Columbus Area Sports & Entertainment. The panelists will be Will Hunter, vice president of operations for the PAC-12; Jeff Jarnecke, director of championships and alliances for the NCAA; Ken Kuhl, vice president of event development at the American Airlines Center; Ben Tario, assistant commissioner of football, multimedia, and legal affairs for the ACC; and Sean Saadeh, senior vice president of programming at the Barclays Center.

We spoke with Kuhl to learn more about the bidding process and the session.

How many NCAA championships does the American Airlines Center host annually?

We would hope to host a men’s or women’s event each year but with the way the bid cycles are setup and the other facilities in the region that host various men’s and women’s events as well, a venue is not likely to host an event annually. Through the bidding process, we expect to host a NCAA event every two-to-three years. In addition, we are also bidding on the Big 12 Conference Men and Women’s Championships, so we have to consider that process when we submit bids for NCAA event.

What is the No. 1 priority for the NCAA, in your experience, when it considers where to play its championships and how does AAC meet that need?

First and foremost, I believe the NCAA is looking for a city/area that has the ability to sell tickets to their championship event. Secondly, is there a host organization that has the ability to put on a first-class event and a city that can accommodate the fans? With those two items in place, you will have a successful event.

How has the bidding process changed over the last five years, and how do you see it evolving?

The use of the NCAA portal has greatly changed the way the bidding process works. It certainly cuts down on the size of the bid document that you have to submit to the NCAA for a specific event. I see the process changing dramatically with the proposed changes that are being discussed currently with the big five conferences and the NCAA.

What’s the No. 1 thing you’d like for attendees to take away from the session?

You have to have a great working relationship/partnership with your sports commission or CVB. With either of these entities looking for events to bring to the city, you have a great opportunity to increase your event bookings and garner some great national publicity for your venue.

Interesting in attending AMC? Registration is open.

Your fighting words are doing more than boosting employees—they’re causing them to be unethical, too.

A Brigham Young University (BYU) business study found that bosses who motivate with violent words or phrases end up influencing their employees to play dirty.

“Business executives use violent language all the time,” said David Wood, BYU professor of accounting and one of two BYU authors on the paper. “They say, ‘We’re going to kill the competition,’ or ‘We’re going to war.’ This study shows they should think twice about what they’re saying.”

In a twist, though, the study also found that when an employee’s own manager used violent rhetoric, the employee was less likely to make unethical choices.

Wood and his colleague conducted two experiments with 269 participants. For the first experiment, half the participants were showed this message:

To this end, I am declaring war on the competition in an effort to increase our market share. I want you to fight for every customer and do whatever it takes to win this battle. To motivate you to fight for this cause, I will be rewarding the top ten sales associates, and a guest, an all-expense paid vacation to Hawaii.

The other half of the participants were shown the same message but with “war,” “fight,” and “battle” replaced by “all-out-effort,” “compete,” and “competition.”

The researchers then asked the participants how likely they were to engage in unethical behavior—specifically, posting fake, negative reviews online about a competitor’s product. They discovered that when the violent rhetoric was from a competing CEO, employees were more likely to post the fake, negative reviews.

“What’s disconcerting is that people don’t think they’re being unethical in these situations,” Wood said. “You can’t just say, ‘OK people, you need to be better now, don’t be bad,’ because they don’t think they’re being bad.”

A second experiment involving email and bending internal sales policies came to the same conclusion as the first experiment.

“There has been a lot of research on the effects of violence and violent media on aggressive behavior,” said Josh Gubler, a BYU political science professor. “This research shows it goes further: It affects your willingness to lie and to cheat and to bend moral rules. There are serious implications for CEOs.”

(Image: BYU/Mark A. Philbrick)

The International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Commercial Facilities Sector-Specific Agency, and the U.S. Sports Leagues Subsector Council have agreed to collaborate in order to help keep venues safe and up-to-date with the latest safety and security education and best practices. This valuable collaboration will result in shared expertise, content review, and aligned standards.

“As the co-chair of the subsector council, I am appreciative of the support and input we expect to receive out of this collaboration, and I’m excited by the opportunity to work more closely with IAVM,” said Michael Rodriguez, director of security for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. “We initially approached them because we feel they represent the entire venue management industry both here in the U.S. and worldwide, and because of their work to ensure the safety of every guest at events.”

Jeff Miller—also co-chair of the Sports Leagues Subsector Council, chief security officer, and vice president, NFL—added, “We have a long-standing partnership with DHS that will only be enhanced by aligning with the IAVM. Our collective goal is to continue to collaborate in ways that will help us to better secure our venues and protect our fans.”

Venues that play host to sporting events and professional teams are working more closely together than ever before, and this collaboration will get all stakeholders sitting at the same table and on the same page. Sharing information and best habits is crucial to the safety and security of guests visiting venues for sporting events, and this partnership will ensure IAVM members that this topic is at the forefront of IAVM’s continual support and education of venue managers worldwide.

“The Department of Homeland Security is committed to continuing to working with sports venues, teams, and leagues to help keep the millions of Americans who attend sporting events each year safe,” said Caitlin Durkovich, DHS assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. “This is a shared responsibility and requires strong partnership with government and the private sector. We look forward working with the IAVM to strengthen these partnerships in the coming year.”

One specific benefit of the closer engagement includes training venue managers at the annual IAVM Academy for Venue Safety and Security (AVSS).

“As part of an ongoing initiative to broaden IAVM’s collaboration with key industry organizations, on behalf of the Academy for Venue Safety and Security and the AVSS faculty we see the continued engagement by IAVM through the DHS Commercial Facilities Sector-Specific Agency, the Public Assembly Subsector Council, and the Sports Leagues Subsector Council as a positive step for cooperation on projects that benefit our industry,” said Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center and AVSS Dean.

“We are excited to be working more closely with the DHS and the Sports League Subsector Council,” said IAVM President and CEO Vicki Hawarden, CMP. “This collaboration can only strengthen the quality and relevance of our safety and security education, and I believe our members will be a useful resource for the council as it goes about its mission of keeping sporting events safe for all guests.”