ve posted a ton of research about how conscientiousness may be the most important personality trait out there. What's conscientiousness? Having your act together. Neat and tidy. Organized and on time. Success, health, happy marriages -- they're all tied to it. Which can be really depressing because, frankly, I'm not all that conscientious. But this begs the question: are there benefits to not being conscientious? Yes, as a matter of fact, there are. My Spaghetti Abilities Are Unstoppable Peter Skillman created a design exercise called…
% of what a team does ends up as "process loss." It's overhead that wouldn't exist if everything could be done by one person. Wasted effort. Obviously, many projects require teams. But how can you create, manage or be part of a team that is more efficient? I discussed the research behind great teams with Po Bronson, New York Times bestselling author of Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing. Here are 4 things that can make a big difference in…
at does volumes of research say you can learn from wildly successful people? To Build A Better Career, First Build A Better You It might sound fluffy but research shows how people feel about themselves has a huge effect on success. Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: For most people studied, the first step toward improving their job performance had nothing to do with the job itself but instead with improving how they felt about themselves. In fact, for eight…
is year I resolve to... Hold on a second. Let's not join the lemmings who screw this up every year. 88% of people fail to achieve their New Year's Resolutions. There is a ton of science on this subject so if we want to do New Year's Resolutions, let's do them right. First, Stop Fantasizing Do fantasies give you the energy to achieve your goals? Nope. Fantasies steal the energy you need to achieve your goals: Positive fantasies allow people to mentally…
ve posted a great deal on working with difficult people and how to make people like you. What new research and expert advice can we use to better deal with difficult people? The Feedback Sandwich Doesn't Work -- This Does Nobody likes delivering bad news. Stanford's Jeffrey Pfeffer recommends having someone else do it whenever possible. But what about when it's unavoidable? Don't do the old "feedback sandwich" of positive comment, negative comment, positive comment. Research shows it's better to be…
€™ve posted a lot about becoming the best in your field. Looking back, what are the most successful methods for getting there? 10,000 Hours Let's get the most famous one out of the way first: Hard work pays off. Malcolm Gladwell popularized the theory in Outliers: approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at something can turn you into an expert. Via Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined: ...the most elite violinists accumulated about the same number of hours of deliberate practice (about 7,410 hours) by…
rvard Business Review recently released a book of their top Management Tips. Here are the ones I felt were the most insightful and actionable. Get Through Your To-Do List Via Management Tips From Harvard Business Review: Self-discipline is hard. Try these three tips to make your work more efficient every day: Get three things done before noon. Statistics show that the team ahead at halftime is more likely to win the game. Enjoy your lunch knowing that you accomplished at least three tasks…
bsp; Know The Power Of Feelings Leaders who just focus on results don't do nearly as well as those that also pay attention to relationships. Via Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect: Zenger found that if employees rated a manager as very high on "focus on results" (that is, one's ability to get things done effectively), there was only a small (14 percent) chance that the manager would be rated among the top 10 percent of leaders overall. However,…
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