First, the latest newsletter is available, titled Stressful Bottlenecks.

Second, I've been traveling back and forth to NYC lately, and, as always, I've been getting lost all the time. One would think that if you took the same road over and over that you'd remember it, but I haven't quite gotten it down. The problem is that driving in New York City can put a lot of mental pressure on you. Most of the time, you're more worried about that car or bus diving in front of you without turn signals, or motorcycles suddenly passing between you and another car without your ever even knowing they were coming. It's also finding yourself on the wrong side of a five lane highway, wondering how you're going to make it all the way to the other side because if you don't, you'll end up at least another 30 minutes from where you need to be.

Sometimes in business situations, you find people who are constantly forgetting the simplest things, or things that you've told them more than three or four times. We get frustrated by that sort of thing, but sometimes one has to step back and wonder if the person they're giving this information to is incompetent or just stressed. Stress makes people forget things. Many smart people do bad on tests because their stress levels jump so high.

As a manager or leader, it's up to you to find ways to reduce the stress on your employees, or anyone else you work with. Too much stress means people don't think as well, and react more than act in a proactive manner. And those reactions are usually more out of fear than actually processing information and making a sound choice.

The GPS has just taken a big load off my mind; what load can you take off someone else's mind?