Bias
3 Workplace Biases that Derail Mid-Career Women (via HBR)
- Unfair assumptions — typically around being a parent or women being capable leaders
- Unhelpful attention — the competence vs. likeability double bind
- Unequal access — mid- to senior-level leaders can be cliquish
Collaboration
High-Performing Teams Don’t Leave Relationships to Chance (via HBR)
People are not cogs in a machine selling their labor; they have personalities, hobbies, etc. It’s a win-win to build relationships with your coworkers. Start by finding commonalities between people, highlighting shared goals, and embrace healthy conflict.
Communication
In a Crisis, Great Leaders Prioritize Listening (via HBR)
“Perspective-taking is a critical skill in crisis management. The more eyes you have on the situation, the less likely it is that you will remain entrenched in your own thinking or anchored to one solution or plan. And the more people you can turn to for counsel as the crisis develops, the easier it will be to shift course and adapt as exigencies dictate.”
Managing people
Do You Tell Your Employees You Appreciate Them? (via HBR)
- Not everybody wants to be singled out with the spotlight on them, but most people want to be recognized for their work.
- Be specific. Have it come from their manager. Recognize outcomes as well as the things that were in that person’s control which they handled well.
- Ask how they’d like to be recognized; note cards go a long way as well. Be timely.
- Set a reminder to make sure you’re taking the time to recognize others.
When Quiet Quitting Is Worse Than the Real Thing (via HBR)
- Quiet quitting = only doing things that are on your core job description
- The problem is that it’s impractical to create a job description that accurately captures all aspects.
- There are upsides to doing a little extra — increased social capital, wellbeing, and career success. The reason people may be quiet quitting is because they don’t feel there’s a balance of give/take.
- Some solutions…periodically revisit the core job tasks, listen to what people need then invest in that, move away from “hustle” culture toward one of job crafting.
Process
Be good-argument-driven, not data-driven (via SWLW)
This post has several examples where people try to use data to prove success, but fail to consider several important aspects. Observations and theories can be just as valuable. There are places where data-driven metrics are totally the right way to go, so this isn’t a binary decision.
How to use TRELLO for Getting Things Done (GTD) in 2022 (via LinkedIn)
This video is an example of how you can implement GTD using Trello. I liked the idea of treating the lists (vertical swimlanes) as projects rather than states. It also makes some good cases for the automation feature, Butler. Other parts of the implementation are somewhat clunky, or only work with simple/trivial examples or when just starting out.
Technology
AI Isn’t Ready to Make Unsupervised Decisions (via HBR)
“The bottom line is, AI is based on algorithms that responds to models and data, and often misses the big picture and most times can’t analyze the decision with reasoning behind it. It isn’t ready to assume human qualities that emphasize empathy, ethics, and morality.” The article lists some common instances where AI made some critical errors.