Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
In a previous post, I introduced the Smalley Personality quiz, a quick take on personality types in the workplace. The types are categorized as animals: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, and Beaver. Otters tend to be energetic, optimistic, and enthusiastic, especially about new, shiny ideas. They’re team players and the team cheerleaders. Beavers, on the other … Continue reading Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
Nancy Pulciano is a producer and the CEO of Silent Crowd, a clothing company based in San Diego. She’s a manager with experience in Hollywood as a producer and in the action sports and restaurant industries, so she knows a thing or two about managing creative, diverse, and sometimes difficult personalities. Writing for Rolling Stone … Continue reading When Too Many Otters is a Bad Thing
Jeff DeGraff Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today, says that somewhere along the way, ambition turned from a virtue to a vice. “Once a cornerstone of the American ethos—synonymous with self-reliance, upward mobility, and personal agency—ambition is now more often associated with selfishness, power-hunger, or hollow striving. We’re suspicious of those who want too much, push … Continue reading The Case for Ambition
American-Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first wrote about the five stages of grief in the 1960s. They were designed to help people cope with loss by giving them a checklist of human reactions to terrible things. First shock and disbelief (this can’t be happening to me), then anger (I don’t deserve this), then bargaining (if I … Continue reading Acceptance is Your Leadership Superpower
Pamela Meyer thinks you’re a liar. It’s nothing personal; she thinks we’re all liars. And the science bears her out. Her 2011 TED Talk “How to Spot a Liar” has been viewed over 23 million times. She says studies have shown that strangers tell 3 lies to each other, on average, within the first 10 … Continue reading You’re a Liar. It’s OK; I am, too.
Perfectionism can be a power for good; it can also make the perfectionist and everyone around them miserable. That’s according to Katherine Morgan Schafler, who has written The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power. In it, she frees up perfectionists to lean into their perfectionism as long as it’s working … Continue reading The Intense Perfectionist
Scott Mautz is a popular speaker, trainer, and LinkedIn Learning instructor. He’s a former senior executive of Procter & Gamble, where he ran several of the company’s largest multi-billion-dollar businesses. He is the author of ”The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors.” Writing for CNBC online, he says that … Continue reading Get the Respect You Deserve
A recent study by Workhuman has revealed that managers are more likely to be guilty of faking productivity—or fauxductivity—in the workplace than their employees. (Cue the disbelief from the cubicle farm.) The 3Q Global Human Workplace Index survey reached out to 3,000 managers in the UK, U.S., and Ireland. The drop in actual – as … Continue reading Have you ever been guilty of Fauxductivity? This post is for you.
Arthur Brooks, writing for The Atlantic, says that compliments are an important part of how we communicate with each other. They’re a big part of the positive remarks that boost the self-esteem of the receiver and keep work and personal relationships warm and productive. Relationship experts gauge the future success of couples by the ratio … Continue reading Compliments that Matter. BTW, I love your shirt.
Writing for Inc. Magazine online, workforce performance expert Henna Pryor made up a term that is not only poetic, but useful for any leader. She says “birdsong leadership” is a way to make your employees feel safer and become more productive. She writes, “I was listening to the birds on my back porch last week … Continue reading Lead Like a Bird
