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Your Career: The Single Best Way To Speed Up Your Job Search…Again & Again, People make the Same Mistake: They Underestimate the Value of Human Relationships

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Again and again, people make the same mistake: they underestimate the value of human relationships. This is true when you are looking for a job, and – for most – it remains true after you find a new position.

resume-mistakes-11

Instead of looking for a job, look for people with whom you would like to work.

For most of us, that means people with whom we have interests, habits, or attitudes in common. Personally, I’m drawn to people who break or ignore rules. When I was one of the original partners of the consulting firm Peppers and Rogers Group, we used to joke that we were all unemployable. In truth, we had all worked successfully many places, but we liked being on the cutting edge and challenging conventional wisdom.

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By the way, I never applied for a job as partner; I simply sent an email to one of the partners along with a strategy statement I had written based on their ideas. Ten days later, I was a partner in their firm. My motivating factor was that I was drawn to Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, two highly innovative authors with whom I wanted to work.

To me, job descriptions are little more than clues. They tell you a bit about a company and its current needs, but they don’t represent the sum total of opportunities at a firm.

When I worked at WGBH, Boston’s public television station, I escaped an entry level job by writing a job description and giving it to my boss’s boss’s boss. Two weeks later, he tossed a job description on my desk and asked if I’d be interested in the position; it was my draft with a new title and a few words changed here and there. (I took the job.)

There are two reasons that gambit worked. First, I had already built a relationship with him. Second, I took the initiative rather than rotting away in a dead-end job.

Most people slow down their job search and limit their opportunities by being reactive. If you are simply applying for jobs and submitting resumes to companies, you are probably in for a very long slog.

But if you use social media and weak connections to find interesting people, the reverse is true; you can speed up your job search.

I say weak connections because most business and career opportunities arise through weak connections… friends of friends of friends, or someone you met once four years ago.

Farm your interests and past for such connections. Look for people who attended the same school as you, grew up in the same state, or played the same sport. If you like programming or glass blowing, find others who do, too.

It is not enough to find people with just one interest in common; look for people with whom you share two or more interests. These are the people who will lead you to a great job.
For example, if you simply look for someone who also likes glass blowing, it is unlikely that person will lead you to a viable job. But if you look for healthcare administrators who also are glass blowers, the odds are pretty good such a person can lead you to a solid healthcare position. You will be able to quickly establish a relationship.

By focusing on people rather than positions, you put human connections first. In doing so, you acknowledge the way the world really works. Very few workplace decisions are based solely on objective facts. Most are strongly influenced by human relationships. People act based on interactions with others they like, trust and respect. That’s true whether someone is hiring a new employee or deciding whom to promote.

Here’s the bottom line: to speed up your job search, don’t look for a job. Look for people with whom you want to work.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter and speaker.

Forbes.com | March 20, 2015 | Bruce Kasanoff

Your Career: Is College Still Worth It?… Less Than 40% of Hiring Managers Felt that Recent Graduates Were Ready for Jobs in Their Fields of Study

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Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Sir Richard Branson. These are some of the world’s most illustrious college dropouts. Of course, they’re also outliers – extraordinary individuals who probably didn’t need college to be successful in the first place. For most people, though, common wisdom says that a college degree is practically a requirement for a good career. But with rising tuition costs and an entire generation of graduates burdened by crushing debt, the ROI on college is shrinking.

CollegeGraduateFocus

The High Cost of Higher Education

First, let’s weigh the overall opportunity cost of skipping college. College isn’t just a degree; there are friends, alumni connections, and the fabled “college experience.” There’s no doubt these are valuable, but the Internet has helped us build global communities for the last 25 years. Do we need to be on a campus to form these bonds?

Now, consider the cost of going to college. You risk taking on serious debt. You potentially take longer to develop the vital skills to be competitive in the world. You lose four years of building professional experience — and four years of earning money instead becomes four years of spending money.

The average cost of attending a top four-year college is rapidly approaching a quarter of a million dollars, and last year’s graduating class is the most indebted ever. The average 2014 graduate with student loans will have to pay back around $33,000. Even after adjusting for inflation, that’s nearly double the amount from only 20 years ago. As costs rise and median wages fall, how will the 40 million Americans with student debt repay what they owe?

 

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College should prepare students for careers that ignite their passion and build upon their natural talents. Instead, graduates are chasing jobs based on debt-repayment.

To make matters worse, less than 40% of hiring managers felt that recent graduates were ready for jobs in their fields of study, citing a lack of key skills like leadership, organization and personal finance. While university administrators largely felt they were sending skilled graduates out into the workforce, employers disagreed.

Sign On, Log In, Drop Out

If the average college graduate is both indebted and unprepared for work, isn’t it time to consider other options? As the Gig Economy grows, innovative gig entrepreneurs are choosing to gain valuable skills through practice, coupled with on-demand peer-to-peer learning via sites like Skill Share and General Assembly. Young people used to leave school to take on apprenticeships. They got their hands dirty (sometimes literally) and learned a trade. This isn’t a new idea, but it might be a better one than we give it credit for.

Success doesn’t depend on education alone; it can also be won through innovation and entrepreneurship.

“You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.” — Michael Dell

Peter Thiel and Seth Godin are high profile advocates of eschewing the academic route in favor of practical experience. Every year, the Thiel Fellowship grants 20-25 young adults $100,000 each to drop out of school and pursue their interests.

I’m not challenging the potential value of a college education; I’m just suggesting that we need to reevaluate the assumption that it’s the best path for everyone.

Learn to Work and Work to Learn

I graduated with a law degree and landed a job with a top firm, but it left me unfulfilled and uninspired. It was only when I sold my first software product that I realized that my dream was to run my own business. It was that experience – not my education – that set me on the right path.

The Gig Economy lets people build real-world business skills, even if they’re fresh out of high school. Decide which of your talents you are passionate about pursuing and then start building a business around them. Or reach out to startups, and engage with the kind of people you want to emulate.

Nintendo started off by making playing cards. Wells Fargo used to operate the Pony Express. Just like large companies adapt to new markets and new technology, you can learn as your customers’ needs change. Lifelong learning and continuous education are the new norm, so why not start now? With the rise of on-demand education, college campuses might even be in danger of becoming obsolete.

It’s not that there’s no merit in the college experience, but higher education can insulate students from the real world as much as it prepares them. And you can seek out the equivalent, or better, connections and social experiences in the outside world. Before you devote four years and tens of thousands of dollars to a piece of paper, remember that the real value in life is pursuing your passions and discovering what truly drives you.

I understand that stepping off the traditional path can be scary, but, as I’ve said before, it’s important to make a habit of exposing yourself to new and unpredictable opportunities. After all, taking the scarier path might be the best preparation for the uncertainty of the real-world.

And if you eventually do decide to go the traditional college route, your experience as an entrepreneur will make you a savvier consumer of the education you’re purchasing.

Do you think college is still worth it? Let me know on Twitter @michakaufman

 

Forbes.com |  March 20, 2015 | Micha Kaufman

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michakaufman/2015/03/20/is-college-still-worth-it/

Strategy: The 7 Most Important Lessons from 30 years of Best-Selling Business Books…Wouldn’t it be Nice to Have an Overview of Their Best Advice? We Thought so, Too.

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Each year brings with it scores of new business books filled with secrets.  Become a better leader! Start a million dollar company!  Be your best at work! they tell you, We’ll show you how!

Even if you maxed out on vacation days, it would be impossible to read them all. But wouldn’t it be nice to have an overview of their best advice?  We thought so, too.

Page19 was started by the people behind Blinkist, which transforms great nonfiction books into 12-minute reads that reveal their key insights.

In combing through more than 100 of the last 3 decades’ best business books for an article we wrote for Forbes, we realized something:

Even though the books offer up original anecdotes and framing techniques, there are a few tried-and-true principles that emerge time and time again.

We’ve compiled the 7 most common and enduring of them for you here.

1. Find your why

Before you do anything, it’s important you’ve established your personal “why.” Not only will this simple activity get you on the right track, but it’ll keep you there, too.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective PeopleIn “Built to Last,” Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras sleuth out why visionary companies like Disney and Johnson & Johnson stay stable when the waters get rough.

One critical thing these companies had in common was that they had a higher purpose for their existence than merely chasing profits.

The “why” is key at a personal level, too. Daniel Pink’s “Drive” references an experiment in which psychologists asked university students about their aims in life.

Some had extrinsic profit goals like wealth, while others specified more intrinsic goals, such as personal development or helping others.

Years later, the students with profit goals were no closer to contentment, but those with intrinsic goals were happier.

Lesson learned: Stop what you’re doing and figure out the why that drives you. It will help you set and meet meaningful goals, organize better, and even feel happier.

Where we found it: “Start With Why” – Simon Sinek, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – Stephen R. Covey, “The Everything Store” – Brad Stone, “The Magic of Thinking Big” – David Schwartz.

 

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2. Make the “work,” whatever it is, come first

Once you know what you want to achieve, you’ve got to put in the work to get there. In “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” Cal Newport encourages cultivating a change in attitude that puts focus on the quality of your work rather than the outcome.

By becoming a servant of the work, you naturally acquire the “rare and valuable skills,” that make you stand out. In fact, it’s these very same skills whose importance Seth Godin emphasizes in “Linchpin.”

A linchpin, Godin explains, finds the niche into which she can pour her expertise, passion, and emotional labor to become irreplaceable within her sphere.

But make no mistake: becoming a linchpin takes practice – roughly 10,000 hours of it, if you ask Malcolm Gladwell. The good news is this: if you’re journeying toward a why about which you feel passionate and focusing on creating great work, those 10,000 hours will feel remarkably un-sloggy.

Lesson learned: Suit up, buckle down, and focus on the quality of the work you do. By investing in the work rather than the outcome, you’ll hone your skills and accrue the hours of practice needed to become indispensable.

Where we found it: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” – Cal Newport, “Linchpin” and “Purple Cow” – Seth Godin, “Mastery” – Robert Greene, “Outliers” – Malcolm Gladwell.

built to lastAmazon

3. Plan. Do. Repeat.

As you put in those 10,000 hours, you’ll need to do some planning – and a bit of recalibrating, too.

David Allen counsels in “Getting Things Done” that having a trusted system to organize your work and reviewing it regularly will help you stay on track and committed.

This frees you to create concrete action plans that move your project forward. But as you review your plans, you might find something unexpected: as a result of the work you’ve done, what you thought was your next step may no longer apply. And that’s okay.

Progress doesn’t always mean sticking to a rigid plan – sometimes, it means rewriting it. Built to Last teaches that visionary companies preserve their “why” while relentlessly stimulating progress and improvements, some of which look rather unexpected.

Lesson learned: Find an organizational system that works for you and use it to drive and revise your action plan.

Where we found it: “Getting Things Done” – David Allen, “Built to Last” – Jerry I. Porras and James C. Collins, “The War of Art” – Steven Pressfield.

4. Forget about “efficient.”

With all of the advice out there on lifehacking, the imperative to be efficient is strong. But one of the most surprising – and potentially game changing – pieces of advice that many great business books espouse is that being effective will get your farther than mere efficiency ever will.

Tim Ferriss’s classic “The 4-Hour Work Week” counsels divesting yourself of clutter and irrelevant tasks to make the most time for meaningful work. Instead of small tasks like trivial emails or things someone who’s not you could do just as well, focus on activities that are unique to your talents and will advance your goals.

The same advice is echoed in “The 80/20 Principle”: if used correctly, 20% of the effort gets you 80% of the results. Working effectively on important goals will always bring you farther than checking off tiny “to-dos” will.

Lesson learned: Focus on doing the right things, not lots of them.

Where we found it: “The 80/20 Principle” – Richard Koch, “The 4-Hour Work Week” – Tim Ferriss, “Focus” – Daniel Goleman, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – Stephen R. Covey.

Made to Stick book coverAmazon

5. Tell a good story.

Today, everybody has to be a salesperson. Even if you don’t interact with clients, convincing others by telling a good story is part of every job. Given the facts, it’s important that you learn to tell stories and sell your ideas to others.

Both “The Tipping Point” and Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” hold that any idea can be expressed in a way that is impactful and memorable, or “sticky.”

Luckily, there’s a psychology to telling stories in a compelling way: by learning to listen to your audience’s stories, when you frame your vision for them, you are better able to tap into their needs and desires – a surefire way gather their support. Once you learn to do it (and you can learn this skill. Even Steve Jobs had to!), you can sell anything to anyone.

Lesson learned: Learn the right way to tell a story. Once you get a handle on how to bring people to your vision, you’ll have more manpower to advance your why, too.

Where we found it: “The Tipping Point” – Malcolm Gladwell, “Made to Stick” – Chip & Dan Heath, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” – Carmine Gallo, “Influence” – Robert Cialdini, “You Can Negotiate Anything” – Herb Cohen, “The Story Factor” – Annette Simmons, “Contagious” – Jonah Berger.

6. Change your expectations about creativity.

Creativity doesn’t work the way you think it does. If you want to come up with something entirely new, you’ll need to sally boldly forth and be a little adventurous with what you try.

Steven Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From” suggests that creative ideas arise from a process similar to evolution, which makes their arrival as unpredictable as it is exciting.

“Creativity Inc.” underscores the same principle and stresses determination, too: keep on trying and allow creative ideas to arrive of their own accord as a result of experimentation.

By keeping an open mind and treating each new challenge as your laboratory rather than your checklist, the ideas will eventually come.

Lesson Learned: Creative ideas are like cats. They might not come when called, but if you’re patient and keep the door open for opportunity, they’ll saunter in and find their way to your lap when they’re ready.

Where we found it: “Where Good Ideas Come From” – Steven Johnson, “Weird Ideas That Work” – Robert I. Sutton, “Creativity Inc”. – Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace.

thinking fast and slowAmazon

7. You’re irrational, and that’s okay.

“Business.” It sounds as serious and logical as neckties and walnut paneling. When it comes down to it, though, business is about people, and people are spectacularly irrational – even you.

Your rational side might be able to make a decision about what’s best for you, such as nixing sugar or kicking your smoking habit, the irrational self who favors cookies, Marlboros can derail you.

So, as you journey toward your why, things might not go as you planned: others will interfere, and even your own irrationality can hold you back every now and then.

But if you accept these truths as part of your project and remember to have fun and commit to righting your course after, irrationality can prove refreshing and exciting rather than world-ending.

Lesson Learned: Accept your inherent irrationality and that of others. Plan to see it, bear it, and recalibrate to offset it.

Where we found it: “Predictably Irrational” – Dan Ariely, “Fooled by Randomness” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” – Daniel Kahneman

The full books will give you more perspective on everything you learned here, but if you need a little inspiration on where to start, come check out our 12-minute summaries of key insights from all of the books mentioned here on Blinkist.

 

Businessinsider.com | March 19, 2015 | CAITLIN SCHILLER, BLINKIST

 https://www.blinkist.com/page19/smarter-7-minutes#ixzz3UrnUykgw

Strategy: 23 Super-Successful People Share the Best Advice they Ever Received…The Path to Success isn’t Always Straight. There are Often Bumps/Turns/Forks in the Road

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The path to success isn’t always straight. There are often bumps and turns and forks in the road. But a little bit of guidance can help you find your way.  In fact, many of the most successful leaders are where they are today because they took advice from people they trusted.

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Here we’ve compiled some of the best tips that executives have shared throughout the years.

Aimee Groth and Kim Bhasin contributed to an earlier version of this article.

 

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Berkshire Hathaway board of directors member Thomas Murphy told him:

“Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow — you don’t give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow.”

From a 2010 interview with Yahoo!

 

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Marissa Mayer, president and CEO, Yahoo!

Marissa Mayer, president and CEO, Yahoo!

Jemal Countess/Getty Images

“My friend Andre said to me, ‘You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great.‘ I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.”

From a 2011 interview with the Social Times

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

“My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.”

From an interview with The Good Entrepreneur

Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy’s

Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy's

AP

Gene Ross, the man who recruited Lundgren at Bullock, told him:

“You’re not going to do this forever. There’s a finite amount of time you’re going to be doing this. Do this really, really well. And if you do this really, really well, everybody will see that, and they’ll move you onto the next thing. And you do that well, and then you’ll move.”

From a 2009 interview with The New York Times

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

His boss at Goldman during the 1980s told him:

“First, it’s good to solicit your people’s opinions before you give them yours. And second, your people will be very influenced by how you carry yourself under stress.”

From a 2009 interview with CNNMoney

Maureen Chiquet, Global CEO, Chanel

Maureen Chiquet, Global CEO, Chanel

AP

Mickey Drexler, CEO of Gap at the time, told Chiquet:

“I’m going to give you some important advice. You’re a terrific merchant. But you’ve gotta learn to listen!“

From a 2008 blog post at Harvard Business Review

Shafqat Islam, CEO and cofounder, Newscred

Shafqat Islam, CEO and cofounder, Newscred

NewsCred

“If you’re not getting told ‘no’ enough times a day, you’re probably not doing it right or you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough.

“I think that’s a good piece of advice for anyone building a company because you hear ‘no’ so many times and I think that’s normal, I think that’s a good thing, that means you’re trying to do something that’s disruptive, that’s groundbreaking.”

From a 2012 interview with Business Insider

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Google via Google+

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.”

From Katie Couric’s book “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” excerpted by The Daily Beast

Tory Burch, cofounder and CEO, Tory Burch

Tory Burch, cofounder and CEO, Tory Burch

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

“When I started my company, many people said I shouldn’t launch it as a retail concept because it was too big a risk. They told me to launch as a wholesaler to test the waters — because that was the traditional way.

“But Glen Senk, [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][then] CEO of Urban Outfitters and a mentor of mine … told me to follow my instincts and take the risk. I wanted to create a new way of looking at retail.”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

Justin Sullivan / Getty

“As a child, I can’t recall a day that went by without my dad telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. He said it so often, I stopped hearing it. Along with lines like ‘eat your vegetables,’ I just assumed it was one of those bromides that parents repeated endlessly to their kids.

“It wasn’t until decades later that I fully appreciated the importance of those words and the impact they had on me.”

From a 2012 post at LinkedIn

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

Reuters

Ursula Burns’ most powerful advice, which she relates to employees, comes from her mother:

“Stuff happens to you, and then there’s stuff that you happen to.”

“Stuff that happens to you, please, let’s talk about it for five minutes, and you can cry, and let’s go through that, the healing process, but then it’s kind of done. I can’t hear about that two years from now.”

From a 2010 interview with the New York Times

 

Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO, Likeable Local

Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO, Likeable Local

Dave Kerpen / Twitter

Several weeks into his first job as a salesperson for Radio Disney — where he was “failing miserably,” Kerpen’s mentor Peggy Iafrate said:

“How well are you listening to what your prospects have to say? How many questions are you asking them to better understand them? How are you showing them that you care about them more than you care about selling them?

“Remember this one thing: Shut up and listen.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

 

 

Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post

TED

“Whenever I’d complain or was upset about something in my own life, my mother had the same advice: ‘Darling, just change the channel. You are in control of the clicker. Don’t replay the bad, scary movie.’

“We don’t have to wait until we move or change jobs to change our lives. Nor do we have to wait for large-scale, upstream change. We can initiate change right now. There are endless starting points.”

 From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Brian Chesky, CEO and cofounder, Airbnb

Brian Chesky, CEO and cofounder, Airbnb

Chris Weeks/Getty

When Airbnb was going through Paul Graham’s Y Combinator program, the legendary programmer and startup mentor told Chesky:

“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.”

From a 2013 interview with Pando Daily

Bill Gates, cofounder and chairman, Microsoft

Bill Gates, cofounder and chairman, Microsoft

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

“I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from Warren [Buffett]. I’d say one of the most interesting is how he keeps things simple.

“You look at his calendar, it’s pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then it’s something he’ll choose to invest in. He picks the things that he’s got a model of, a model that really is predictive and that’s going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics — it’s so amazing that he can do that. It’s a special form of genius.”

From a 2009 interview with CNBC

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Reuters / Mike Segar

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

When Sandberg was thinking she wouldn’t accept an offer to be Google’s general manager, Eric Schmidt told her, “Stop being an idiot; all that matters is growth.”

Source: All Things D

Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup

Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup

AP

Steve Ross, the former CEO of Time Warner, told him:

“Just remember, it’s a small business and a long life. You’re going to see all these people again.“

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors Company

Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors Company

Daniel Roland/Stringer/Getty Images

“The best advice I ever received came from my parents, who encouraged me to work hard and pursue my early love of math. This was great advice for two reasons.

“First, it led me to do something I really loved. In my experience, in work and in life, there are lots of smart, talented people out there. But talent alone is never enough. One of the things that distinguishes those who truly make a difference is passion and hard work. There is truth in the expression that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And the passion that drives hard work comes from doing something you really love.

“The second reason this was great advice is that it steered me toward a career in engineering at a time when few women were pursuing work in science, technology, engineering or math – fields that, collectively, we now call STEM.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO, PIMCO

Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO, PIMCO

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

“I remember asking my father, ‘Why do we need four newspapers?’ He said to me, ‘Unless you read different points of view, your mind will eventually close, and you’ll become a prisoner to a certain point of view that you’ll never question.'”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Kenneth Burdick, president and COO, WellCare Health Plans

Kenneth Burdick, president and COO, WellCare Health Plans

HACR

Burdick received this message from various successful people he has met:

“Surround yourself with good people. And part of that is surrounding yourself with people who think differently than you. Surrounding yourself with people who have different experiences than you. In business, it’s all about the team.”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder, Rent The Runway

Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder, Rent The Runway

Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

Jennifer Hyman is on the left.

“Just do it. There’s no benefit to saying, ‘I’m just doing this because it will get me to this new place,’ or ‘I’m just going to go into this analyst program because it will prep me for X.’

“If you’re passionate about something, go for it, because people are great at what they love and when they’re the happiest.”

From a 2011 interview with The Huffington Post

Maynard Webb, chairman, Yahoo!

Maynard Webb, chairman, Yahoo!

Getty Images/Bloomberg

“I reflected back to a conversation I had with my dear friend Gay Hendricks, who was a trusted advisor and one of my coaches at eBay. Some years before, when I was thinking about leaving eBay, he offered some sage advice: ‘Your 50s are a decade of creativity or stagnation — so be searching for what you are intended to do.‘

“Gay certainly was a case study of that advice. He was running an organization that helped people have better lives, had written dozens of books with his wife and even appeared on Oprah. Now at 69 years old, he has started writing detective novels and is producing his first movie. Amazing.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Ben Silbermann, cofounder, Pinterest

Ben Silbermann, cofounder, Pinterest

Flickr/Victor Ng

“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. …

“Every company carves its own path, and [founders] are under pressure to make their startups look like the last successful company everyone remembers.”

From a panel discussion at SXSW 2012

 

Forbes.com | March 19, 2015 | 

 http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-executives-share-the-best-advice-they-ever-received-2015-3?op=1#ixzz3UrgD856t

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Leadership:How New Leaders Can Keep Their Nerve & Avoid Distractions…Managers Who Think they are Fully Prepared & Equipped to Take on Top Jobs can Come Unstuck when They Finally Land the Role

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Countless books and articles have been written about what might be termed “the grander aspects” of leadership – the need to have a vision, the ability to decide on and execute a strategy, the importance of communication, the crucial role of motivation and such like – but rather less attention is paid to the “nuts and bolts” of being a leader.

laughing-leader-4

 

While it is understandable that management thinkers should focus on ideas of leadership, managers themselves need to realise that what seem like little things can assume great importance and have a significant effect on their ability to pull off those great ideas. Quite simply, even managers who think they are fully prepared and equipped to take on top jobs can come unstuck when they finally land the role.

Marcus Agius is a former investment banker who chaired Barclays Bank and the former UK airports operator BAA and has for the past year been chairman of PA Consulting. He says that many people appointed to chief executive or chairman positions fail to appreciate “how very different it is to run the whole show rather than just a bit of it”.

A key part of this is understanding that, while he or she may be in overall charge, the CEO or chairman does not actually run anything. Those reporting directly to them do the running. Allied to this is the realisation that, while it is possible to know most of everything when you are running a division, it is impossible when you are in charge of a whole big business. “That’s worrying, because you worry about what you don’t know,” says Agius. “One of the new things you have to learn is how to keep your nerve! How to resist the temptation to interfere.”

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Another perspective on this area is provided by Kevin Kaiser, Michael Pich and I.J Schecter in their recent book, Becoming A Top Manager (Jossey-Bass). They warn managers to beware of their expertise. By this they mean that executives spend most of their careers being promoted on the basis of their perceived functional knowledge. This obviously gives them confidence, but, they say, “it may also prevent proper appreciation of the relevance of other areas in the company”.

This is a problem because a general manager is supposed to be just that – a person who looks at the whole business – and not somebody who is stuck in a comfort zone based on their own experience and abilities. Worse, expertise in a particular business function “may simply strengthen incorrect presumptions” and close minds to the willingness to take account of new information or insights, say Kaiser and Co.

Delegation plays an important part in helping new managers deal with the realities of a bigger, more complex business than they have been used to. Agius acknowledges that this can be difficult for the simple reason that the typical CEO has a certain degree of confidence, even arrogance, and is therefore likely to take the view that nobody is likely to do what needs to be done better than them. But John Adair, a highly respected writer on leadership, believes that delegation is vital. “Delegating can save you time and develop your staff. You should delegate as much as you can,” he writes in John Adair’s 100 Greatest Ideas For Effective Leadership and Management(Capstone/Wiley).

At the same time, the leader cannot just rely on divisional directors to tell him or her what is going on. There needs to be a means of them being alerted to potential problems. The actual mechanism can differ – some CEOs have chiefs of staff, others rely on their finance director, still others have long-serving personal assistants. Indeed, Agius says that a good and trusted PA can make a huge difference to a leader’s effectiveness through minimising disruption and stress. Conversely, managers who get through a lot of PAs can “get in a muddle” and never seem to be as efficient, he adds.

One of the key ways in which an effective PA can help a new leader settle into the role is through diary management. On being appointed to the top job, the leader will inevitably have a lot of calls on his or her time. While the leaders themselves will need to learn to be ruthless about which meetings they need to attend and which calls they need to take, the experienced PA can be invaluable in managing the mechanics of this activity and – via their relationships with other PAs – in ensuring smooth and effective communications with other executives.

Leaders themselves can help with this, however, by managing their time as well as the business and the people working for them. Adair says that a leader needs to be certain that he or she can define their business role and know what amounts to a successful outcome; that they can spend time thinking and planning for themselves and others; that they have a clear understanding of their business purpose and that they know the balance they wish to achieve between business and private commitments.

But, given the intense demands that are a characteristic of the typical general manager’s life, the importance of time management cannot be overstated. Adair reminds readers of the view of the late management guru Peter Druckerthat only when we manage time can we manage anything. This is true, of course, of any manager, but it is especially true for those at the very top of the organization. Adair, and indeed various other self-help experts, offer valuable advice on such areas as handling meetings, avoiding receiving too much paper and travelling. In the end, though, it comes down to priorities and ensuring energy goes into effort that – to coin a phrase – really makes a difference.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for a new general manager is to focus on being effective rather than busy. The problem with rushing around is that, while it looks like the individual concerned is justifying their pay cheque, they are really not in control and so are unable to carve out the time necessary for reflection and making sense of what is going on around them.

 

Forbes.com | March 19, 2015 | Roger Trapp

Strategy: 9 Rules of Office Politics you Have to Understand to Get Ahead…Women are More Likely than Men to Avoid the Politics & Believe That If they Focus on Their Performance & Work Hard

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There isn’t any topic about the workplace that brings up more anger and frustration than office politics.  “It’s just not fair!” is what I hear over and over again when addressing this topic in presentations and workshops. Women especially find this an emotional issue.

house of cards season 2 frank underwood

Why? Because women are more likely than men to avoid the politics and believe that if they focus on their performance and work hard, they will get ahead. This avoidance, however, sets them up to be blindsided.

Unaware of the politics at play, they are often passed over for promotions and not given the resources they need to succeed. They become disillusioned and angry.

The reality, which is sometimes hard to come to terms with, is that it takes political savvy to get ahead and stay ahead.

1. You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere.

It is not uncommon for people to voice their annoyance with the politics in their company and department and seek another position to solve this problem. They make a move only to find out that politics exists everywhere. In some instances, the politics may not be obvious, but it exists in every department and every company. In fact, whenever there is more than one person, there is politics!

Think about going out for dinner with a group of friends. Who sits next to whom? Who shares the gossip with whom? In sharing this gossip, are they hoping to gain favor and influence? Are they seeking to be accepted and liked? They are perhaps using this information for “political” influence with their friends.

Have you visited your children’s classroom and observed the dynamics? Aren’t there politics at play there as well? Children seeking favor with the teacher or other students is a common behavior. They learn at an early age what it takes to have power and influence and what it takes to succeed.

The fact is you can’t escape politics. It’s everywhere and you need to deal with it at some level in order to thrive in the workplace.

 

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2. The unwritten rules often rule.

The people who try to diligently follow the rules are often very frustrated. Yes, every company has a company handbook with the formal policies, but it is the unwritten rules that are important. What’s frustrating about this fact is that these rules are not obvious. It takes both focus and intention to discover what the rules are before you break one of them by mistake.

In fact, some unwritten rules are sacred and you need to know what they are or you can step on a landmine that will sabotage your career. If you’re lucky, when you join a new company or department, a trusted colleague will fill you in as to what the real rules are.

Once you accept the fact that there are unwritten rules, you can make it your intention to uncover them. The rules often differ depending on your boss, department, and team. Therefore, you must be cognizant of your surroundings to understand how to play the game and how to win the game.

Playing ChessFlickr / Gábor

3. The rules are constantly changing.

Another challenge to office politics is that the rules are always changing. Just when you’ve figured out what rules are sacred to your boss, he/she changes the rules and what was acceptable yesterday will not help you move forward tomorrow. New leadership comes in and things shift.

People adapt to these changes and what they once considered to be important is no longer valid. It’s a full-time job staying abreast of people’s rules and the importance they attach to their rules at different points in time.

4. People who get promoted aren’t the most qualified.

This can be the most frustrating fact of all. For when you work hard and then witness other people less qualified than you getting promotions, it doesn’t seem fair. It seems that these people pay more attention to the politics than they do their jobs, so you feel justified in being upset.

In reality, however, the people who have developed their political and social capital along with great performance will always come out on top. For they have mastered how to work the system, and they have aligned themselves with people in the organization who have power and influence.

5. All decisions are influenced by politics.

Politics influences all decisions; whether it’s access to scarce resources, promotions, special bonuses and incentives, or raises. There are most certainly policies and procedures in every company but if you track how decisions are made, you will recognize that they are often influenced by politics.

Some people get special attention because they happen to be in favor with decision makers and influencers. These people are plugged into the power sources and benefit from it.

If you want to know who the people are who have influence and power, take the time to track how decisions are made. You will soon see that decision makers have a network of influencers that they consult. These informal networks of influencers have tremendous power.

golf driving rangeCindy Hughes/Shutterstock

6. There are informal networks within the company that have power and influence over all decisions.

The power and influence isn’t always determined by the organizational chart. There are informal networks, sometimes referred to as the Old Boys Club, that have the ear of senior management. They don’t necessarily occupy the top of the organizational chart, but don’t be fooled.

They still have a great deal of power over decisions that impact the direction of the company and your career. These decisions are most often made in informal settings outside the office, over drinks after work or on the golf course. That’s when the brainstorming and discussion takes place that results in major decisions.

7. The informal power networks are extremely difficult to penetrate (especially for women).

Women have traditionally been excluded from these informal networks. This fact makes it more difficult for women to impact the decision-making process. Typically, they aren’t invited to the informal meeting before the meeting or the meeting after the meeting where key decisions are made. This is certainly frustrating if you’re an outsider to these networks, because it means you can only react to decisions and not be proactive in the process.

8. There are constant shifts in power and influence.

One thing we know for sure is that change is constant. Over the course of my corporate career, I lost count of the number of mergers and acquisitions my companies endured. Each time, there was a change in leadership and direction.

Senior leaders come and go and the culture changes, the rules change, and as a result, the power and influence shifts. People gain and lose favor and the dynamics are always in flux. Yes, it’s frustrating to keep track of all this, but it’s necessary for you to survive and thrive in a politically charged environment.

9. Politics can make or break your career.

This is, of course, the most frustrating fact of all, especially for those people who believe in a meritocracy. Many of us believe that we will be rewarded for our hard work and talent. After all, we succeeded in school because of our diligence. But the rules in the workplace are different. It’s not a true meritocracy. It’s not a level playing field.

In order to be successful, you need to not only do the hard work, perhaps even extra work, but also create visibility and credibility for yourself. Otherwise, you run the risk of remaining invisible in a crowded and competitive environment.

Politics is all about relationships. It’s critical to build and nurture relationships with people who can positively impact your career. You need to build a power network by identifying and aligning yourself with those with power and influence. You also must be aware that politics rules and there are constant changes in the workplace dynamics that can trip you up if you aren’t aware of them.

The facts about office politics may be very frustrating, but they must be understood for your success. Embrace the politics, whatever they are, and pay special attention to the reality of your workplace. How are decisions made? Who influences those decisions? What are the unwritten rules? What does it take to get promoted?

Your performance and your political savvy are the key to getting ahead and staying ahead.

Want to know how savvy you are about what it takes to get ahead? Take this challenge on The Politics of Promotion.

Interested in learning how to navigate office politics? Check out my book, “The Politics of Promotion: How High Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead.”

 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniemarcus/2015/01/19/the-9-most-frustrating-facts-about-office-politics/#ixzz3UlnFbH3f

Leadership: Managers Need to Make Time for Face Time…Heavy Travel Schedules often Interfere with Necessary Interaction with Subordinates

/in /by

Alan Buckelew, chief operations officer of Carnival Corp., moved to Shanghai last September so he could help the world’s biggest cruise-ship company expand in China. He still supervises five executives at its Miami headquarters.

Directions Man

A heavy workload forced Mr. Buckelew to conduct year-end performance reviews for three of those deputies via videoconference—but he wasn’t happy about it.

“A review is probably the one time when you want to be physically present,” Mr. Buckelew says. He says he apologized to them about his Miami absence, and vows to evaluate every lieutenant face-to-face this year.

As businesses expect more senior leaders to both manage more far-flung teams and spend more time with distant clients, face time has become a precious commodity—and a source of professional agita. Technologies like videoconferencing and enterprise social networks claim to enable true connection over great distances, but the reality is often is far from perfect.

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When it comes down to it, there is still no good substitute for being in the same room with a direct report or a high-level boss, many executives say. Yet there is little consensus about how much face time it takes to manage effectively.

“Few executives can deliver business results quickly and engage their people at the same time,’’ says Matt Paese, vice president of succession management and C-suite services for leadership consultants Development Dimensions International. “But increasingly, our corporate clients try to hire or grow ones who can,” because they recognize “they can’t sustain business growth without a healthy culture.”

Hands-off leadership carries career risks. Take, for example, Louis Chenevert, who abruptly relinquished command of conglomerateUnited Technologies Corp. in November 2014 amid criticism that he was too detached from his top team.

Traveling frequently for work can leave employees without adequate feedback or a boss wondering whether you manage well, suggests Bruce Tulgan, author and chief executive of Rainmaker Thinking Inc., a management researchand training firm. “You have to be there to problem-solve.”

Ramesh Tainwala, CEO of luggage maker Samonite International S.A., says that after advancing into the top job in October, he quickly replaced its head of Latin America because the man ran the region from Denver and spent only 40 days a year in Latin America. (Samsonite previously had been based in Denver.)

“Unless you are in the field with your people, it’s difficult for you to manage it,” he adds.

The new head of Latin America is based in Chile, but is almost constantly on the road. Mr. Tainwala told him, “You need to be traveling 20 to 25 days a month” in the new role.

Mr. Tainwala himself travels 25 days a month for Samsonite from his base in Hong Kong. Since becoming CEO last fall, he has held four face-to-face sessions with his senior management team, stationed in four regions world-wide. An April 13 session in Mansfield, Mass., will be his third far from Hong Kong.

“A conference call cannot substitute for face-to-face interactions,” Mr. Tainwala continues. “When we meet in person, we almost hear each other’s thoughts.”

Yet a distant boss with a sudden yen for face time may encounter resistance from subordinates. That happened to a senior manager at an environmental consulting firm in 2012.

The manager realized she had been too hands-off with her team, missing meetings due to conflicting client demands, she told Mr. Tulgan of Rainmaker Thinking after attending his seminar about being a highly engaged boss. She soon scheduled half-hour sessions with each team member.

Several staffers bristled at the sudden outreach, complaining that she was micromanaging them, according to Mr. Tulgan. She convened a meeting to explain how her increased engagement could be helpful. “I want you to help me help you,” she said. Her team adjusted over time, and that helped her land a higher-level role at a larger rival early last year, Mr. Tulgan says.

Even when the team is nearby, isolated bosses must find ways to appear present. When Rick Russell managed 1,100 people as chief commercial officer of Sunovian Pharmaceuticals Inc., a small drug maker in Marlborough, Mass., his dozen deputies occupied the second floor at headquarters. He toiled behind closed doors in the executive suite two floors above.

After a 2012 employee survey concluded that people felt walled off from their leaders, he decided to make himself more visible. He created a second-floor satellite office surrounded by glass on three sides. Dubbed his “fishbowl,” he worked from the office nearly every Friday, with a deliberately light schedule and no executive assistant.

Wary colleagues gradually grew comfortable about dropping by, Mr. Russell recalls. The chief medical officer adopted the satellite-office idea, too.

The next year’s poll showed Sunovian employees’ trust for the top brass improved significantly.

“Fostering close ties with your lieutenants is the stuff that gets results,” says Mr. Russell, now CEO of Greer Laboratories Inc., a midsize biologics concern. “You have to rally the troops. You can’t do it from a memo.”

Mel Berning, chief revenue officer at A+E Networks in New York, takes a different approach. He travels two weeks a month for the cable network. While at headquarters, he says he tries to avoid “antiseptic” formal meetings and calls with his six direct reports.

Instead, he breezes into somebody’s office at 8:30 a.m. “You have a conversation that is less hurried and less guarded,” Mr. Berning notes. “Face-to-face encounters are so much more revealing than a text or an email.”

Inhi Cho Suh, a unit vice president at International Business Machines Corp. who manages a far-flung team, says being reachable at odd hours helps her stay involved.

During a West Coast business trip last year, she rose at 4 a.m. to join a conference call with East Coast team members as they struggled to launch an important new service. IBM unveiled the cloud-computing service in October.

Ms. Suh works hard to decide when she must deal face to face with lieutenants. For an urgent decision, she occasionally alters her schedule to meet them in person.

“It’s not about being available all the time,” observes Ms. Suh, who is on the road 40% of the time. “You have to be available when they need you.”

—Kathy Chu contributed to this article.

Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com

 

WSJ.com | March 17, 2015 | JOANN S. LUBLIN

 

Strategy: The Algorithm That Tells the Boss Who Might Quit…Wal-Mart, Credit Suisse Crunch Data to see Which Workers are Likely to Leave or Stay

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Employers want to know who has one foot out the door. As turnover becomes a bigger worry—and expense—in a tightening labor market, companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,Credit Suisse Group AG and Box Inc. are analyzing a vast array of data points to determine who is likely to leave a post.

The idea, say people who run analytics teams, is to give managers early warning so they can take action before employees jump ship.

Corporate data crunchers play with dozens of factors, which may include job tenure, geography, performance reviews, employee surveys, communication patterns and even personality tests to identify flight risks, a term human-resources departments sometimes use for people likely to leave.

The data often reveal a complex picture of what motivates workers to stay—and what causes them to look elsewhere.

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At Box, for example, a worker’s pay or relationship with his boss matters far less than how connected the worker feels to his team, according to an analysis from human-resources analytics firm Culture Amp. At Credit Suisse, managers’ performance and team size turn out to be surprisingly powerful influences, with a spike in attrition among employees working on large teams with low-rated managers.

Human-resources software company Ultimate Software Group Inc.assigns clients’ employees, and even its own workers, individual “retention predictor” numbers, similar to a credit score, to indicate the likelihood that a worker will leave.

As the employment picture improves, companies are focusing more on retaining workers, largely because replacing them is costly. The median cost of turnover for most jobs is about 21% of an employee’s annual salary, according to the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank.And it can cost, on average, some $3,341 to hire a new employee, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

William Wolf, Credit Suisse’s global head of talent acquisition and development, says a one-point reduction in unwanted attrition rates saves the bank $75 million to $100 million a year.

No single piece of data predicts whether an employee will stay or go, though many employers wish it were so. Data scientists create models to predict which workers might leave a company in the near future, combining a range of variables and testing the predictions over time. They might refine the calculations depending on which variables are most predictive for a given company or group of employees.

“One of the things that people want to find is that one nugget, that key thing that correlates with someone leaving, but it is never that simple,” says Thomas Daglis, a data scientist at Ultimate Software.

ENLARGE

Employers may not mind that some employees are at risk of leaving, though companies stress that they are using the data to find ways to improve retention, and not nudge people out.

Those caveats aside, data scientists who study retention say they have found some meaningful correlations.

VoloMetrix Inc., which examines HR data as well as anonymized employee email and calendar data, found that it could predict flight risk up to a year in advance for employees who were spending less time interacting with certain colleagues or attending events beyond required meetings. And Ultimate Software found a correlation between a client’s employees who waived their benefits coverage and those who left the company.

The big challenge for employers is what, exactly, to do with the information. Some aren’t sure how to approach employees at risk of leaving.

“Our goal is to never say the only reason we are coming to talk to you is because an algorithm told us to do so,” says John Callery, director of people analytics at AOL Inc., which recently started working with workforce analytics firm Visier Inc. on a program to help predict attrition down to the individual employee. Mr. Callery says it is too early to tell whether AOL’s retention figures will improve, or by how much, since it takes at least a year to test a predictive model.

For the past three years, Credit Suisse has studied what happens to employees over time, including raises, promotions and life transitions, to predict whether they will choose to stay or leave the bank in the subsequent year. Changing jobs makes people “sticky,” or likely to stay on, says Mr. Wolf, who oversees the bank’s people analytics team. Yet as recently as five years ago, fewer than half of open jobs at the bank were posted, and most went to outsiders.

About a year and a half ago, the bank launched a global effort allowing its workers to raise their hands for internal moves. Credit Suisse recruiters now post 80% of open jobs, and cold-call employees when jobs open up.

‘Our goal is to never say the only reason we are coming to talk to you is because an algorithm told us to do so.’

—John Callery, AOL’s director of people analytics

After observing that some who volunteered to be considered for internal moves ended up leaving for jobs elsewhere, bank recruiters began using attrition probability estimates in deciding which employees to target when positions opened up.

Some 300 people have been promoted through the internal program; many of those people, Mr. Wolf says, might have left otherwise. “We believe we’ve saved a number of them from taking jobs at other banks.”

Credit Suisse also used analytics to investigate why women with certain job titles left the company at higher rates than men, and determined that transitions—whether a promotion or a personal milestone, such as a maternity leave—increased the probability of a woman deciding to leave.

To kindle closeness among team members, and help forestall attrition, Box has encouraged managers to throw more social events, recognize team-based work and hold more mentoring meetings between senior leaders and newer employees. Since workers were more likely to leave if they didn’t see clear career opportunities at the company, it has sought to improve at pointing out career possibilities for individual workers and encouraging “stretch” assignments.

Semiconductor maker Micron Technology Inc. is using data in its efforts to reduce turnover among first-year employees, who have about a 20% world-wide attrition rate, largely driven by manufacturing personnel.

Among its early findings, Micron discovered that workers were more likely to leave if they felt their job hadn’t been accurately described when they were hired, so the company is trying to create clearer job descriptions. Micron also found that people who relocated for a job were more likely to leave, but it isn’t sure why.

“It’s very delicate how you approach things,” says Timothy Long, the company’s director of workforce analytics and systems. “The idea is to determine, what can we do to get [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][people] to stay?”

Companies also are trying to predict when workers might leave their positions, but not necessarily the company. Wal-Mart is trying to determine in advance which employees are likely to get promoted so that it can line up replacements more quickly. The company says it promotes some 160,000 to 170,000 people a year.

“If we can tell three months in advance [that a position is going to be open], we can start hiring and training people. You don’t want the jobs vacant for that long a time,” says Elpida Ormanidou, Wal-Mart’s vice president of global people analytics.

Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.comand Nikki Waller at Nikki.Waller@wsj.com

WSJ.com | March 13, 2015 | 

RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN and
NIKKI WALLER

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Strategy: Here’s a Simple Exercise that Can Help you Think Through any Big Decision…It’s Respecting my Natural Inclination to Think Through the Worst that Could Happen

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Anxiety gets a bad rap. We often talk about it as something that needs to be “cured.” But according to “Anxiety Toolkit” author and psychologist Alice Boyes, that’s over-simplifying.  With a little mental finesse, anxiety can be an ally.

Bad Employee

Boyes herself uses a simple thinking exercise to put her anxious nature to good use.

“I make myself think of the worst that could happen and the best that could happen,” she tells Business Insider. “Instead of just automatically assuming that something will have a negative outcome, I’ve trained my brain to see the possibility that it might have a positive one.”

It’s a thinking exercise that dates back 2,300 years ago to the Stoic philosophers of Ancient Greece.

“It’s respecting my natural inclination to think through the worst that could happen,” Boyes says.

Imagining the worst helps her prepare. Channeling a tendency toward anxiety can be super helpful in the case of travel, she says, since she always has backup plans. For example, if a bus doesn’t come and she needs to get somewhere, she’s going to have already looked up the alternative route.

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And imagining the best helps her see options she would have otherwise skipped.

“When I started my therapy practice, I contacted some magazine editors and said, ‘Hey, I’m available if you need comments for your stories,'” she recalls. “I was thinking they would think, ‘Who is this little person contacting us?’ But it actually led to writing for magazines.”

After writing for magazines like Psychology Today, Boyes found that one of her key skills was translating the principles of therapy into advice people could use in their everyday lives. But she never would have had that realization unless she would have imagined positive outcomes — and ignored that voice in her head that said: Why am I doing this? This is silly.

By thinking through the best and worst outcomes, you work with your emotional tendencies in a constructive way:

• If you’re a naturally anxious person, it will make use of the tendency to plan while training you to imagine more positive outcomes.

• If you’re a naturally optimistic person, it will make use of that dreaminess while keeping you prepared for what might happen. 

It’s about making use of all of both styles.

“All of these emotions have a positive role in people’s lives,” Boyes says.

Strategy: The Shocking Differences in Basic Body Language Around the World…The Body Speaks Volumes. But what it Says Depends on the Culture you’re In.

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The body speaks volumes.  But what it says depends on the culture you’re in. Facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms, and degree of eye contact vary greatly across countries.

playmobil-lego-handshake-hand-shake

For example, “Arms, which are used little by Nordics during conversation, are an indispensable element in one’s communicative weaponry in Italy, Spain, and South America,” writes Richard Lewis in “When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures.”

The cultural differences in body language are vast — there are entire books dedicated exclusively to hand gestures — but we’ve selected a few to create a simple, body-language etiquette guide that highlights some surprising differences, thanks to information from Lewis’ book and the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA):

Body Language Infographic_02