STEVEN HOWARD

steven@calienteleadership.com

760-835-7870

---

Palm Springs — “Too many decisions are made by leaders and employees impacted by stress, overloaded brains, and constant interruptions… 

Leaders and managers need to learn to become first-responders, not first-reactors, when facing stressful and difficult workplace situations” …

 notes award-winning author Steven Howard.

---

Decision-making is a fundamental component of every leader’s daily life, both professionally and personally. Every day we make dozens, even hundreds, of decisions. Unfortunately, stress and other factors often lead good leaders to make bad decisions.

The daily juggling of data, reports, email, meetings, decisions, and way too much information makes it difficult to cope and results in leaders running on autopilot. We see these zoned out and inattentive leaders struggling to lead their teams and team members, as well as themselves.

Many leaders are so consumed with firefighting activities that few realize these fires have been caused by the bad decisions and choices they have made. Thus the cycle of stress-induced poor decision making is perpetuated by the stress of correcting unanticipated results from previous poor decisions.

No wonder so many leaders operate in a “mind full” mode. This is not good. A more effective method is to make decisions in a “mindful” mode. Fortunately, this is a skill that can be learned, ingrained, and practiced.

Mindfulness has been proven to be a skillful method for stress reduction and all of the many associated ills and problems that result from accumulated stress. Additionally, stress reduction through mindfulness practices is a proven leadership performance advantage that comes with the side benefits of greater happiness, health, and well-being.

---

---

Leadership Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness is no longer just a New Age buzzword with no relevance to the rough and tumble world of business and leadership.

Rather, this centuries-old practice of paying purposeful attention in the present moment without judgment is now being used by an ever-growing list of corporate leaders from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.

Based on his award-winning book, Better Decisions Better Thinking Better Outcomes, leadership author Steven Howard created a one-day workshop to help leaders and managers respond, rather than react, to workplace situations and stress.  Called Better Decision Making: Shifting From Mind Full to Mindful Leadership Skills, the foundation of the workshop is the importance of improving short-term and long-term brain health, combined with steps on how to prevent emotional hijacking of the decision-making process.

“Many of our leaders and managers have been requesting mindful leadership training,” notes Ms. Angela DeSarro, Director IT Workforce Development, at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Recently trained as a certified facilitator of the program, she adds, “I was particularly impressed with how the workshop combines neurological research, easy-to-use mindfulness techniques, and important brain health information into a highly informative and engaging one-day workshop.”

---

---

In this workshop leaders and managers will learn:

How stress leads to poor thinking and bad decisions.

How the brain and body communicate during conflict and stress.

How mindfulness can impact thoughts, reactions, and behaviors.

How to use mindfulness to make better decisions.

How to use mindfulness to reduce unconscious bias in decision making.

How to easily shift into mindfulness at work or home with practical techniques and tips.

The benefits of mindfulness on your attention, memory, people skills, and personal health.

A range of methods for improving brain health.

Why mindfulness produces better results than so-called brain training activities.

---

Steven Howard is currently certifying workshop facilitators across the country to deliver the Better Decision Making: From a Mind Full to a Mindful Leader workshop in organizations and public programs.

I am on a mission to reduce the rapid increase in Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and stroke in this country.

Current projections call for a 60% increase in Alzheimer’s, dementia, and stroke by 2030. So in 12 years over 10 million people in the U.S. — and over 76 million worldwide — will be struggling with these mental wellness issues.

The financial and emotional costs to families and caregivers, especially adult children with aging parents, is humungous. 10% of adults aged 60-69 whose parents are alive already serve as parental caregivers, as do 12% of adults 70+.

There is no excuse for allowing a 60% increase in the number of people suffering from dementia. Especially when this is postponable — perhaps even preventable —through a handful of common sense steps and actions.

My new book, Better Decisions Better Thinking Better Outcomes, has a range of strategies that I would love to share with your audience. These tips and techniques will help your listeners regain control of their decision-making processes and prevent the emotional hijackings that lead to regrettable decisions, comments, and actions.

I would be thrilled to be your guest and to promote our conversation to my 1600 Twitter followers and 2000+ LinkedIn Connections.

Topics we could discuss are:

• Is the workplace contributing to the increase of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease?
• You write that stress and our overloaded brains are two of the underlying causes creating negative conflict, tension, and drama in the workplace. Could you please elaborate on this?
• How does stress and overloaded brains impact the decisions people make?
• The book has a section on brain myths. What are a few of the brain myths you were surprised to discover in your research?
• What are the overall steps we should be taking to build and maintain the health of our brains?
• The book title intrigues me. Most people would think that better thinking leads to better decisions and then better outcomes. But you focus on how better decisions lead to better thinking and then better outcomes. How is this so?
• What prompted you to write this book?

The media page for my book is at: http://www.calienteleadership.com/better-decisions-better-thinking-better-outcomes-media-press-kit/ and I can provide you with a range of background materials including:

• Author’s profile (I am the author of 20 non-fiction books)
• Why I wrote this book
• Suggested Questions + Topics
• Book launch press release
• List of Endorsements and Praise for the book

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Steven Howard

760-835-7870

Key topics:

How stress leads to poor decision making.

The impact and benefits of mindfulness for leaders.

Steps for reducing stress.

Techniques for shifting into mindfulness at work and elsewhere.

Brain facts and myths

Tips for improving brain health

Mindfulness techniques that can be used at work and elsewhere

Mindfulness meditation techniques that can be used at work and elsewhere.

Additionally, Better Decisions. Better Thinking. Better Outcomes. delves into some of the latest neuroscience research on the steps that all of us can take to protect our brains and manage the health of our brains well into our elderly years.

Unfortunately, we are entering an era when increasing dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke are going to hit individuals, families, and society hard. Current estimates predict the United States will see a 60% increase in Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia by 2030 from today’s already staggering levels.

Fortunately, using the techniques and tips in this book, such an increase is preventable. But only if the right actions are taken now, by you, your family members, your work colleagues, and everyone else.

By helping ourselves, and one another, take the proper steps to enhance brain health, we can reduce the financial costs to society – and the brutal emotional costs to families – of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

This book shares some of the new scientific research that shows how mindfulness, stress relief and management techniques, meditation, and better dietary habits could slow and even postpone the debilitating effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

You will also learn about new neuroscientific studies showing that neuroplasticity — the ability to grow neuronal connectivity across the brain — can continue well into our 70s.

The techniques described in this book will help you make better decisions and improve your thinking prowess.

They will also result in you becoming a less stressed and far healthier person.

Those are four great outcomes that will benefit you immediately, and for years to come.