An Excerpt from “I Don’t Have a Job. I Have a Higher Calling.”
by Rachel Feintzeig Can a job just be a job? Not anymore. Faced with a cadre of young workers who say they want to make a difference in addition to a paycheck, employers are trying to inject meaning into the daily grind, connecting profit-driven endeavors to grand consequences for mankind. In part, professionals are demanding…
What to Say When a Conversation Heats Up – Adapted from “7 Things to Say When a Conversation Turns Negative”
by Kathleen Kelley Reardon When a conversation turns negative, it’s helpful to have a repertoire of replies at your fingertips. Consider these options: Reframe. Cast the issue in a different light. If someone says, “I don’t want to fight about this,” a useful reframe is, “This is a debate, certainly not a fight.” Rephrase. Rather…
What Great Listeners Actually Do
by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman Chances are you think you’re a good listener. People’s appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills, in that the great bulk of adults think they’re above average. In our experience, most people think good listening comes down to doing three things: Not…
Stop Making Gratitude All About You
by Heidi Grant Halvorson You read a lot these days about research showing that practicing gratitude — making a deliberate point of being grateful for the good things in your life — has all sorts of benefits for happiness and well-being. These articles usually end with a call to start a gratitude journal to reap the full…
The Eyes of Leadership
by Robin Sharma The sad fact is that most people see the worst in others – they see them through the eyes of their own anger, fear and limitation. If someone shows up late for a meeting, they impute a negative intent on that person, saying “they are so rude”. If someone makes a mistake…
Check Yourself Before You Disagree with Senior Management
Adapted from “6 Ways to Disagree with Senior Management” by Priscilla Claman It takes courage to disagree with someone senior to you, but doing it is an important skill, especially if you don’t want the leaders in your organization to think of you as a doormat with nothing to contribute. You want to voice your…
7 Reasons the Best Employees Quit, Even When They Like Their Job
by Lolly Daskal Losing a great employee is a terrible thing. There’s the expense of finding, onboarding, and training a replacement. There’s the uncertainty of how a new employee will work out. There’s the hardship on the rest of your staff until the position can be filled. Sometimes there’s a solid reason–the person was a…
Productivity vs. Paralysis: On Accepting the Reality of Imperfection
by Laura Stack “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice reduces the imperfection.” — Toba Beta, Indonesian author. problem of perfectionism. We can become so tightly focused on getting things “just right,” it’s difficult to let anything go. Of course, there’s always something you can improve, if you just keep nitpicking at it. But at what point…
12 Ways to Spot a High Achiever
by Lou Adler As part of my day job, I run a company that trains recruiters and hiring managers on how to attract, assess and hire top performers using Performance-based Hiring. To overcome the impact of first impressions – the primary cause of most hiring errors – we suggest using the first 20-30 minutes of the…
3 Keys to Finding More Happiness at Work
by Jeff Goins In our world today, we are overwhelmed with promises to quit our jobs and chase our dreams. We are told that we deserve to be happy and that if we buy enough things that it will eventually happen. We are told to work for the weekend and plan that next vacation. But…
Why Is It So Hard For Us To Admit Our Mistakes?
by Karen Firestone Why is it so hard for most of us to say, “I did it”? Many people are afraid of appearing incompetent in front of our colleagues and bosses. But what we sometimes don’t realize is that it is worse to be viewed as a coward incapable of owning up to mistakes or…
Resigning with Class: How to Diplomatically Resign From Your Job
by Randall S. Hansen, PH.D. Are you preparing to resign from your current job? Some job-seekers have a hard time doing so, either because they love the job and their co-workers or because they can’t stand the job and can’t wait to leave. Curious? Then read on. This article is really two articles in one….
Letting Good People Go When It’s Time
by Pat Wadors Let’s say you’re a manager in a company that’s scaling up or gearing up for some other kind of transformation. Your biggest job right now is to lead your team through it all and help everyone adapt. You soon realize that some people are well-suited to the changes that must be made,…
You Really Can Change Your Reputation at Work
by Carolyn O’Hara Do you ever feel that people have the wrong impression of you at work? Maybe you’ve been pegged as arrogant after you advocated for your project or as a pushover after a negotiation gone awry. How can you change others’ perceptions of you? Should you directly address the reputation you want to…
How to Avoid Hiring a Toxic Employee
by Christine Porath Nothing is more costly to an organization’s culture than a toxic employee. Research shows that rudeness is like the common cold — it’s contagious, spreads quickly, and anyone can be a carrier. Dylan Minor, a visiting assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and Michael Housman, chief analytics officer at Cornerstone OnDemand, studied…
Basic Lifestyle Strategies and Tools to Boost Your Productivity
by Dr. Mercola Is your to-do list filled to the brim, leaving important tasks undone at the end of each day? If so, you’re not alone. It’s an all-too-common problem these days, as distractions of all sorts suck up valuable time. Making matters worse, many mistakenly believe that multi-tasking is the way to wring maximum…
What Bosses Should Never Make Employees Do: The 7 Lamest Moves
by Jeff Haden Yeah, you’re in charge. Yeah, it’s your way or the highway. And, yeah, your employees might hate you. As a boss, you have a lot of power. But you need to be smart about how you use it. Here are seven things you need to avoid: 1. You make employees evaluate themselves. 2….
Are You Sure You Want to Be a Manager?
by Joseph Grenny Renowned restaurateur Danny Meyer likes to tell newly promoted supervisors that they have just been given the “gift of fire.” As a boss they now have a new and potent power, but Meyer wants to ensure they understand the appropriate — and inappropriate — uses of this gift. Fire, Meyer explains, can…