What’s the best way to influence others?
k for advice. Via Adam Grant's excellent Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success: New research shows that advice seeking is a surprisingly effective strategy for exercising influence when we lack authority. In one experiment, researcher Katie Liljenquist had people negotiate the possible sale of commercial property. When the sellers focused on their goal of getting the highest possible price, only 8 percent reached a successful agreement. When the sellers asked the buyers for advice on how to meet their…
2 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
What are the secrets to making better decisions?
bsp; We all make a lot of bad decisions. With careers: Via Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work: An American Bar Association survey found that 44% of lawyers would recommend that a young person not pursue a career in law. A study of 20,000 executive searches found that 40% of senior-level hires “are pushed out, fail or quit within 18 months.” More than half of teachers quit their jobs within four years. In fact, one study in…
3 minutes
How To Get A Raise: A Stanford Professor Explains The Secret
bsp; Jeffrey Pfeffer teaches organizational behavior at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and is the author of the fantastic book "Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't." I interviewed him about how power works, how you can increase your influence in the office, and the mistakes most people make when trying to get ahead. My conversation with Jeffrey was over 45 minutes, so for brevity’s sake I’m only going to post edited highlights here. Subscribers to my free weekly…
3 minutes
5 reasons everything you know about teamwork is wrong
bsp; 1) Teams aren't always a good idea Via Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing ...teams are not automatically better than the sum of their parts. They are often worse. This is termed “collaborative inhibition” or “process loss.”... People have a bias to romanticize the benefits of team productivity, while underestimating just how much time is wasted by teams. According to University of North Carolina professor Bradley Staats, productivity per person can drop 40% even on a small team... In…
3 minutes
Dan Ariely Explains When Your Irrational Behavior Is A Good Thing
bsp; Dan Ariely teaches psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University and is the bestselling author of three books I love: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves Here's one of his TED talks: Dan has an online course called "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior". You can check it out here. He and I spoke about…
5 minutes
What are the six steps to making your ideas contagious?
bsp; In his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Wharton business school professor Jonah Berger lays out the six key elements that make ideas and products catch on: 1) Social Currency: "We Share Things That Make Us Look Good" "Does talking about your product or idea make people look good? Can you find the inner remarkability? Leverage game mechanics? Make people feel like insiders?" 2) Triggers: "Top of Mind, Tip of Tongue" "Consider the context. What cues make people…
2 minutes
Gautam Mukunda of Harvard explains the secret to being a better leader
bsp; We all know leaders can make a difference. But social scientists have done the research and they disagree. For years they've been saying leaders don't matter. Huh? Gautam Mukunda, a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, solved the puzzle. He figured out which leaders do and don't have an impact, why that's the case and what we can learn from them. I interviewed him about leadership and how we can all learn to be…
6 minutes
