No Is The New Yes
News You Can Use: 10/2/2019
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
- Team Productivity: Striking a Balance Between Being a Boss and Friend
“All strong relationships are built on honesty,” writes Tamara Luzajic for Humanity. “And just like a good friend would tell you when you are doing something wrong no matter how much it hurts, a good manager will use open communication to help employees become better at what they do.”
“Honesty is one of the best principles you can use to establish a healthy balance between caring your employees and leading them professionally,” adds Luzajic. “The closer you get to someone on a personal level, the harder it becomes to give them honest feedback as employees.”
Additionally, build trust with each of your employees. For example, grant them autonomy and flexible schedules. Trust in your employee builds resilience — shows you rely on them enough to work where, when, and however they prefer. As a result, this will create a more positive and productive culture.
And, if someone needs to take a day off because they’re attending to a sick family member, don’t freak out on them. Give them the day off without penalizing them.
- The hackable technology that worries even a legendary con man
- How is Meritocracy Damaging Our Economy?
Interesting podcast about how high-achieving workers are stuck on a treadmill that they can’t get off of. If you are reading this blog, this probably hits home. Not a bad way to spend 30 minutes.
https://beta.prx.org/stories/291960
Thanks LJP! - For millennials, unlimited vacation isn’t always a perk
But unlimited vacation policies can be a Trojan horse, particularly for young people who are newer to the workforce and less likely to take time off in the first place. On the surface, the offer seems generous, even altruistic; it implies employers trust their employees and encourage work-life balance. In practice, however, “unlimited vacation” is a misnomer. Employees often take fewer vacation days if their company has an unlimited policy, since there’s no framework for how many days they can—or should—take off.
Managers can decline to approve time off, especially if there’s an implicit assumption that nobody can take more than two to three weeks of vacation per year. And when they leave the company, employees can’t cash out on the paid time off that they have accrued (which is required by law in a number of states). For workers in their twenties who are more likely to job hop and let vacation time go unused, that can mean foregoing a sizable chunk of cash.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90398810/for-millennials-unlimited-vacation-isnt-always-a-perk
News You Can Use: 1/6/2016
- Are you over scheduling? (Let me answer that… Yes you are)
http://www.fastcompany.com/3054966/are-you-overscheduling - It’s a New Year and a New Start. How About a New Job?
If you’ve been working for the same company for several years, are you really certain that you enjoy the work? Or have you been consumed by a hefty paycheck? Changing jobs gives you the ability to not only discover your real passion but also allows you to start making money by doing something that you actually enjoy doing for a living.
- 10 habits to be better at your job this year
4. BE THE PERSON EVERYONE ADMIRES
From the sought-after industry leader to the person who’s unanimously approved for the promotion, people with great reputations seem to have an easier time at success. But their status doesn’t happen overnight or by chance. The first step in being that person everyone admires is to do what you say you’re going to do. “You can have a reputation of being friendly or nice, but if you don’t get it over the finish line, your reputation will suffer,” says Grace Killelea, CEO and founder of the women’s leadership program Half the Sky - Why adversity is good for your career
STAY HUNGRY
A benefit of starting out a lower rung is that it instills you with a drive to succeed. This, certainly, is the case of Enio Ohmaye. Previously a senior scientist at Apple, he’s now an executive at EF Learning. But he’s never forgotten the summer he spent as a busboy in Monticello, New York. He lived in a ramshackle house and was berated by the wealthy people he served. Now at the top, he is still attentive to the experience of people at the bottom: “When I interview people,” he says, “I afterwards often ask the receptionist how those people treated them.” - How to Stay Calm When You Know You’ll Be Stressed
You’re not at your best when you’re stressed. In fact, your brain has evolved over millennia to release cortisol in stressful situations, inhibiting rational, logical thinking but potentially helping you survive, say, being attacked by a lion. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin thinks there’s a way to avoid making critical mistakes in stressful situations, when your thinking becomes clouded — the pre-mortem. “We all are going to fail now and then,” he says. “The idea is to think ahead to what those failures might be