Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
In a previous post, I cited Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, the founder and CEO of Decisive, a decision sciences company. She’s studied how people make decisions for years, and has written a book called Problem Solver: Maximizing Your Strengths to Make Better Decisions. She’s developed five decision archetypes (find the descriptions here.) She says that each … Continue reading Your Problem Solving Style May Have Some Blind Spots
Micro is having a moment. Technically, the word means extremely small, too small to see, even. But when tiny gestures add up in the workplace, they can cause a big reaction. There are two micro terms you might have heard about. The first is micro expressions. Micro expressions are facial expressions that occur within a … Continue reading Micro may Signal Something Big
If you’re facing a complicated decision, how do you go about it? As with any other part of your life, you probably have patterns that have been established for years, maybe even since you were a child. Cheryl Strauss Einhorn is the founder and CEO of Decisive, a decision sciences company using her AREA Method decision-making … Continue reading How Do You Decide?
Therese Huston based her book How Women Decide on a premise: “Is a woman’s experience issuing a tough call, a decision with serious stakes, any different from a man’s? I’ve found that when a man faces a hard decision, he only has to think about making a judgment, but when a woman faces a hard … Continue reading Take Charge or Take Care is a False Choice
Therese Huston is the author of How Women Decide, a book that asks – and answers – tough questions about how we view women in the workplace. She wonders whether the perception of women as less decisive than men makes a difference in how women actually make decisions. She’s also interested in the question of … Continue reading Trust Your Intuition? Maybe you should.
Writing for Training Magazine online, Dr. George Watts and Laurie Blazek address a difficult subject that almost no one talks about in professional development: the role ego plays in your leadership style. They don’t pull any punches. “The ego is the psyche’s trickster”, they write. “It’s the wrong-minded attempt to perceive and project yourself as … Continue reading Is Your Ego Getting in your Way?
Speaking up in meetings can be nerve-wracking for many people. Even workers who are not normally shy feel panic at the thought of expressing ideas in front of the boss. One employee of a nonprofit says she can feel her throat close up if she’s called on to express an opinion. Another colleague says, “I’m … Continue reading 5 Ways to Make Your Point More Effectively
Conflict happens on the job. Even people who agree on what must be done can have strong disagreements about methods. When resources are scarce or performance pressure is high, you can easily have conflict that boils over. Mark Gerzon, a mediation expert and author of “Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into Opportunities,” … Continue reading Hot and Cold Conflict in the Office
Think about the last time you made a mistake. Just to make it interesting, make it a pretty big mistake. The kind that gives you a sick feeling in your stomach. The kind that costs you a night’s sleep before you have to tell your boss, or your team, or your spouse that you screwed … Continue reading Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. How Shame is Holding You Back.
Seth Godin writes: “Tugboats don’t usually tug. They push. That’s because pushing is more mechanically efficient than pulling. When we pull, there’s tension and slack in the ropes, and the attachment between the puller and the pushed keeps changing. But the metaphor gets far more interesting when we think about leading instead. One bird at … Continue reading Pushing Doesn’t Work. Pulling is Unreliable. Try Leading Instead.
Your Work, Your Way 