Career
5 Reasons Not to Quit Your Job (Yet) (via HBR)
- You have a sponsor in your current job that can speak for you.
- Departures in your company may mean new opportunities for you.
- You’re already crushing your goals.
- You’re not ready for the waves of change involved with changing jobs.
- You may be able to negotiate things that are bothering you now that you have more leverage.
You Can Stop Being a Manager Without Sinking Your Career (via HBR)
- This is not a limiting concept; by remaining in a position that doesn’t suit you, it can hurt both you and your team. Try job-crafting.
- It is possible to be in a leadership position and have no direct reports.
- Find ways to lead without authority, almost like having management as an add-on (think mentoring, relationship building) rather than a full-time role.
- Ensure your transition doesn’t impair your current team.
Culture
To Retain Employees, Give Them a Sense of Purpose and Community (via HBR)
- Build a culture of solidarity
- Make personal aspiration a routine part of manager conversations
- Spotlight lived purpose in action
- Double down on social connection for remote workers
- Let employees co-create your workplace experience
- Have flexible policies clearly tied to the business
- Enhance solidarity through ownership of policy
- Design development into everyday experience
- Encourage gestures of kindness and support
- Model vulnerability to make it safe for others
Research: What Makes Employees Feel Empowered to Speak Up? (via HBR)
That they have a choice, and therefore some power/say.
Emotional intelligence
Don’t Let Power Corrupt You (via HBR)
People in positions of power fall into two traps: hubris and self-focus. The solution is to cultivate humility and empathy; this article describes several techniques to do that.
Leadership
How to Help Your Team Get Out of a Lull (via HBR)
“The answer is to set aside “normal” strategies around motivation (goal-setting, incentivizing, tracking the numbers, and pacing for progress with milestones and deadlines) and focus more on managing their team’s energy and understanding the psychological changes their employees have undergone over the past two years.”
Meetings
Five Tips for Dealing with Meeting Overload (via TED)
- Ask yourself whether this should be a meeting. (Maybe it’s a quick text or call instead.) If so, have a purpose statement and title the meeting with an imperative verb.
- Invite the fewest number of people. Stick to 5-8 people for decision making. It’s also okay if you’re not invited.
- Make your meetings shorter.
- Say no to meetings. Is my opinion absolutely vital to the purpose of this meeting? Let the organizer know truthfully why you can’t attend.
- Be ruthless with your time. Block off heads-down time on your calendar.
Project management
Does Your Project Have a Purpose? (via HBR)
Several projects — including the Sydney Opera House — run significantly over time and budget, yet have been long-term benefits. Your project is more likely to succeed if there is a clear purpose. Keep asking “why” (4-7 times) to clearly articulate the purpose.
Self-care
Are You Burned Out? Or Is It Something Else? (via HBR)
- “Further, since burnout is really an organizational issue and is not simply the result of a deficiency in self-care, the interventions to address it are more complex and require strategies beyond the commonly prescribed ‘get more exercise’ or ‘get better sleep.'”
- Some questions to ask that are less about burnout but disengagement… (1) Do I feel I deserve more? (2) Do I believe this is what I signed up for? (3) Do you work to keep up, or work to escape?
- Exhaustion and hypercynicism can lead to burnout.