How much is your success dependent on those around you?
u'd think that doing thousands of heart surgeries would make you better at them. Not necessarily. Surgeons only got better at their home hospital: the one where they knew the team best and developed strong working relationships. Via Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success: When Huckman and Pisano examined the data, they discovered a remarkable pattern. Overall, the surgeons didn't get better with practice. They only got better at the specific hospital where they practiced. For every procedure they…
3 minutes
To Help Others The Right Way, Do These 5 Things
ve posted a number of times about how helping others makes you happier. But I know this leaves some people scratching their heads: How much should I help others? How often? Will I be exploited? Will I end up resenting people I love if they don't reciprocate? We all know selfless givers who are taken advantage of and taken for granted. Nobody wants to feel like a sucker. So this simple thing doesn't seem so simple -- and it feels…
3 minutes
Interview – Harvard/MIT Lecturer Olivia Fox Cabane teaches you how to be more charismatic
ivia Fox Cabane is the author of The Charisma Myth. She's lectured on the subject at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Google and the United Nations. I spoke with her about how charisma works, the science behind it and how anyone can become more influential. For brevity’s sake I’m only going to post edited highlights here. Subscribers to my free weekly newsletter get access to extended interviews. Join here. ——————————————— How does charisma work? Eric: In The Charisma Myth you break down charisma into presence, power,…
4 minutes
6 ways to prevent your relationship from boring you to death:
bsp; 1) Realize a slowdown is normal You can't expect it to stay like it was during those first few torrid months. No one can sprint for miles. A downshifting is natural, so don't let some slowing down make you think there are deeper relationship problems. Via The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn't, What Shouldn't Make You Happy, but Does: ...the heightened passion and chemical attraction evident at the beginning of a love affair have…
4 minutes
When it comes to relationships, is it better to trust your gut?
mothy Wilson, author of Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change, has a piece in the New York Times covering research showing that feeling beats thinking when it comes to relationship predictions: It might seem that the people who thought about the specifics would be best at figuring out how they really felt, and that their satisfaction ratings would thus do the best job of predicting the outcome of their relationships. In fact, we found the reverse. It was the…
3 minutes
What do great workplaces, making friends, networking, dealing with kidnappers and being happy all have in common?
l are done well by focusing on other people: Get out of your head and into theirs. Great Work Environments Bob Sutton reviewed Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company and called out “Dave Packard’s 11 Simple Rules” as guidelines for building an excellent work environment. What was #1? 1. Think first of the other fellow. This is THE foundation — the first requisite — for getting along with others. And it is the one truly difficult accomplishment you must…
3 minutes
Silicon Valley’s Best Networker Teaches You His Secrets
might be surprising that I know Adam Rifkin. What's not surprising is that Adam Rifkin knows me -- because Adam knows everybody. In 2011 Fortune Magazine declared him the best networker in Silicon Valley. Adam is also one of the nicest, most sincere people I've ever met. He's currently CEO of his latest startup, Pandawhale. I talked to Adam about his thoughts on networking and how to get better at it. For brevity’s sake I’m only going to post…
4 minutes
Checklist: Are you doing these 5 things to be more charismatic?
arisma makes a difference. It doesn't just make us like people more, charismatic leaders bring out our best and make us do better work. Via The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism: Research shows that those following charismatic leaders perform better, experience their work as more meaningful, and have more trust in their leaders than those following effective but noncharismatic leaders. As Wharton School business professor Robert House notes, charismatic leaders “cause followers to…
4 minutes
