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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.~ John Quincy Adams

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  • Bosses Don’t Encourage Curiosity as Much as They Think They Do

    Bosses Don’t Encourage Curiosity as Much as They Think They Do

    October 12, 2018 Written by Ashley Hamer

    We’re not too big to admit that “curiosity” has become something of a buzzword these days. Search for the term on a job board, and you’ll find thousands of postings for everything from a senior data scientist (“We welcome your adaptability, your curiosity, and your passion”) to a marketing intern (“must have intellectual curiosity”). Buzzword or not, it’s hard to see the downside of encouraging a healthy sense of curiosity. But according to recent research highlighted in Harvard Business Review, employees don’t feel as free to be curious as their bosses think they do — but there are ways to fix that.

    Ask Questions, Get Answers

    There’s a good reason curiosity is having a moment in the workplace: It makes people better at their jobs. When you’re curious about a subject, you learn and remember more, thanks to the fact that your brain treats the new knowledge as a reward instead of a requirement. A curious mindset also makes you less prone to bias and stereotyping because, according to Harvard Business School’s Francesca Gino, it leads you to look for alternative theories for what you think you know. That helps you make smarter decisions.

    Curiosity also makes you better at receiving feedback. In a study published last year in the Academy of Management Journal, Spencer Harrison of INSEAD and Karyn Dossinger of Suffolk University demonstrated a real-world example of the benefits of curiosity. They recruited 39 graphic designers who submitted designs to a website’s weekly T-shirt competition for a cash prize. This particular site gave competitors the option to submit their early drafts to an online workshop where they could get feedback from their peers, make revisions, and get more feedback until they were ready to submit their final design. The researchers found that participants who scored higher on a measure of curiosity asked more open questions, which lead to more feedback, which, in turn, these curious participants were more likely to implement in their following drafts. Accepting feedback is huge in the workplace, and a sense of curiosity can help.

    Clearly, it’s in a company’s best interest to foster a culture of curiosity. Many do — or at least think they do. But do they really?

    C-Suite Killed the Curiosity

    To find out, Harrison teamed up with Erin Pinkus and Jon Cohen of SurveyMonkeyto survey more than 23,000 people: 16,000 mid- and lower-level employees, and more than 1,500 so-called C-level executives (named for the Cs in their titles, like CEO and CFO). Eighty-three percent of those higher-up executives said that curiosity is encouraged “a great deal” or “a good amount” at their company, but only 52 percent of lower-level employees said the same. Likewise, 49 percent of C-level executives agreed with the statement “Being curious leads to earning more money,” whereas a whopping 81 percent of employees thought curiosity had no bearing on the money they make.

    While those in charge think they’re encouraging everyone to engage their curiosity, it doesn’t seem to be happening. That makes a certain amount of sense: You can’t be fast and efficient if you’re always asking questions, and besides, it’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. But research shows that curiosity is essential for a business to perform at its highest level, and employees just don’t feel curious. What’s a company to do?

    Harrison suggested a fix: acknowledge that everyone is curious in some area of their life — if it’s not at work, it might be in a favorite hobby or side project — and encourage employees to bring those interests to work. By identifying with their curious side at the office, employees are more likely to let that curiosity bleed over into their work responsibilities.

    Gino has some other helpful tips from her own research. She says managers should set a good example by being curious themselves by asking questions with a sincere interest in the answers and admitting when they don’t know something — a scary prospect when you want to look competent and in charge, but Gino assures us that asking questions makes people appear more competent, not less. Finally, give employees time to explore their interests. It’s hard to be curious with your boss breathing down your neck.

     

     

  • HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FAILED AT SOMETHING IN LIFE?

    HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FAILED AT SOMETHING IN LIFE?

    Most of us spend our entire lives trying to avoid mucking up. But unless you’ve never had any dreams or goals or really any sort of ambitions at all, chances are you’ve failed at something at least once in your life. And it’s also just as likely that your “failure” laid the foundation for your subsequent or ultimate success.

    By nearly every measure, in fact, failure is a learning experience and a stepping stone toward growth. It’s why NASA astronaut Charles Camarda believes that the tragedy of the Columbia space shuttle — which broke apart above Texas in February 2003 — has provided both current and future engineers with a motto to live by: “Where there is failure, there is knowledge and understanding that doesn’t come with success,” reported Anna Haislip for Colorado Daily.

    Failures are only failures when you don’t learn from that experience. Medicine is an art, not a hard-and-fast science, so experience plays a role. The other thing is, we’re dealing with human life. Someone’s body, their mother, father, wife, husband — that’s where the big emotional factor comes in. That’s why we can take unexpected results very hard. It’s mentally straining because we’re dealing with human life, which is irreplaceable.

    To find out just how vital failure is in the context of succeeding in life, I asked a bunch of people who know its importance intimately.

    THE MAN WHO LITERALLY TEACHES PEOPLE TO PICK THEMSELVES UP OFF THE FLOOR

    William Trillo, boxing coach: I speak to fighters often about failure. In a sport that’s all about, “What have you done for me lately?” boxers think a loss is a death sentence. But a loss can be more beneficial than just taking a bunch of easy fights.

    The problem is that everyone in this day and age is so fixated on that zero. Floyd Mayweather has lived or died with that zero. He says he’s the best ever, but to keep that zero, he’s taken on less than the best talent out there. He’s shied away from putting that zero on the line. Maybe had he lost once, he might be more willing to embrace other fights because that mark of perfection will be gone. But because he’s so protective of that goose egg, he hasn’t always taken the best fights being offered.

    Once you get out of a guys head that a loss isn’t a death sentence and it can help further his career, the ones who embrace that go on to have a better career. It’s a sense of relief because they’re not as afraid of the loss and they’re willing to do more than they would otherwise. They’re going to be more aware not to let that happen again. There’s greater clarity in their self-reflection. In the end, they got the loss, they took it like a man, they’re still here and they’re ready to fight on. The loss didn’t destroy them.

    THE WOMAN FOR WHOM EVERY FAILURE HAS BEEN A VITAL LESSON FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

    Carmel Johnston, Mars simulation commander: I feel like everything is a lesson one way or another, so failure really isn’t possible. There were many times that we tried something that didn’t work as planned, but that doesn’t mean it was a failure. So whether you get what you expected or something different, you can always learn something from the outcome.

    THE WOMAN WHO HELPS PEOPLE UNDERSTAND JUST HOW IMPORTANT THEIR FAILURES ARE

    Amy Kim, clinical psychologist: A lot of people define failures that aren’t really failures. I’m hesitant to call anything a failure because everything is an opportunity to learn and grow. For example, a relationship that doesn’t work out isn’t a failure. Two people got together, they tried to make it work and it didn’t work out. That’s not a failure.

    Still, I do think that having that experience — which some may categorize as a failure — allows you to take what you’ve learned and move forward. Let’s say you didn’t know you could trust someone, but after your last relationship, now at least you know that’s possible. Having an experience about really feeling connected and understood means that’s possible in the future based on direct experience.

    Not doing things out fear will keep you limited. People who are afraid of making decisions out fear of failure will be paralyzed, which is why failure — and again, I hate to call it that! — is necessary for growth. Challenges push you to grow, they teach you new things about yourself and they make your life richer. A life without failures means you’re not doing a whole lot.

  • It’s All About First Impressions!

    It’s All About First Impressions!

    Don’t Worry, You Made a Better First Impression Than You Think

    Meeting someone new can be nerve-wracking. The possibilities, good and bad, feel endless. What if they don’t laugh at your jokes? What if they’re secretly a psychopath? What if you’re a psychopath and they’re the first person to figure it out? Well, great news: You actually make a better first impression than you think.

    The Science of Meeting New People

    In a new study, researchers tried to figure out how well people could judge their own first impressions. To that end, they compared the first impression Person A perceived themselves to make on Person B — also known as their “meta-perception” of the interaction — with Person B’s actual first impression.

    The researchers found that when two strangers met, they both thought that they liked the other person more than the other person liked them — which, of course, isn’t possible. They also consistently underestimated how much the other person liked them.
    People’s tendency to believe they’re making a worse first impression than they really are — termed “the liking gap” by one of the study’s authors — was surprisingly persistent. It existed for women and men equally and continued beyond a pair’s first conversation. In fact, it’s not totally clear when and how (or even if) a relationship transcends this gap and becomes a source of comfort and security.

    Why the “Liking Gap” Exists

    In a way, the “liking gap” falls neatly in line with another robust psychological finding: We see others differently than we see ourselves. It’s common to believe we understand other people on a deeper level than they can possibly understand us; this is called asymmetric perception. In a similar vein, we often see ourselves as better than our peers, and better than we really are. In fact, psychology researchers are so used to the fact that almost everyone thinks they’re above average — dubbed the above-average effect — that they have to account for that to avoid skewing their studies.
    Meeting new people, though, is one case where the typical person believes they’re worse than other people. This isn’t how asymmetric perception usually manifests. One theory as to why we refuse to perceive our own charm, advanced by one of the study’s co-authors, is that we’re “self-protectively pessimistic” about social interaction. To avoid disappointment, we default to assuming new relationships are going badly, often ignoring clear signals to the contrary (conveyed through body language, tone of voice, and other behaviors). This protects us in certain ways, it’s true, but it can also keep us from forming new relationships.
    On the plus side, though, observers were able to gauge much more accurately than the participants whether a first meeting was going well. So it’s not that first impressions are difficult to assess, exactly — we’re just bad at assessing the ones we make. Our meta-perceptions are skewed against us. But perhaps by knowing that, we can check in with our new acquaintances and become a little more comfortable taking social risks. You’re more charming than you think.
  • Set a time limit on negativity.

    Set a time limit on negativity.

    Oh soooooo true! Thanks for sharing!

    Dr. Andrea Dinardo's avatarThriving Under Pressure

    Time is in such short supply. The sooner we appreciate its value, the better life becomes.

    When I was a kid my mom set the egg timer for almost everything we did; whether it was how long we spent doing our homework, weeding the garden, watching television, or complaining about life’s challenges.

    It helped us to understand that nothing lasts forever – good or bad.

    This was especially important when we felt helpless over things we did not have control over, including chores we  did not want to do.

    Setting time limits also taught us to respect how our words and actions impact ourselves and others.

    Full disclosure: My mom is a psychologist too.

    Your time. Your life.

    To this day I set a timer on the stove.

    A simple, yet effective way to motivate myself through tedious tasks and become more mindful of time itself.

    The timer principle can also…

    View original post 146 more words

  • 5 Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re Ready to Change Careers

    5 Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re Ready to Change Careers

    Ready to change careers?

    By Sharlyn Lauby | 

    According to a study from LinkedIn, young professionals today change jobs more than their older counterparts. Now, that statistic alone shouldn’t be a surprise or a concern. People change jobs all the time. It’s a natural part of our professional lives and shouldn’t be viewed as a failure.

    The same goes for careers. Many individuals find their passion in a profession they did not initially study in school. For instance, television chef Alton Brown was a cinematographer before starting the Peabody Award winning show Good Eats. So it’s normal to think that, throughout the course of our professional lives, we might be presented with opportunities we didn’t know previously existed. And we want to explore or take advantage of those opportunities.

    The important part is understanding the reason for the change and having a plan. Jenifer Krueger, senior employee relations consultant with Colonial Life, suggests asking yourself a few questions to help guide decision making.

    “Choosing a new career, whether it’s drastic or just a minor shift, can seem overwhelming because there are so many options and you may not know what you’re qualified to do. Here are a few sample questions to ask yourself when getting started:

    • If I could choose one person to trade jobs with, I’d choose _____.
    • I’ve always wondered what it would be like to do _____.
    • If I had the right education or skill set, I’d definitely try ____, because ____.
    • My co-workers and friends always say I’m good at _____.
    • The thing I love most about my current job is _____, because _____.
    • If my boss would let me, I’d do more of ______, because _____.

    Then look for some common themes and what gets you excited. Share the results with a friend or mentor because they’ll have an objective eye. Also, there are valuable online assessment tools that can help you work through an inventory of current skills or validate a budding interest.”

    Once you’ve asked yourself some hard questions and have identified the direction you’d like to take your career, the planning isn’t over. On some level, it’s just started. Now is the time to find out some of the details about the new career path you’ve chosen.

    Research professional organizations that represent the profession. These sites can provide valuable articles, videos, blogs, etc. that give insight into the challenges facing the profession today and in the future. They can also have competency models, like this one from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), that outline the skills for success.

    Network with individuals in your new chosen profession. Find out both the positives and negatives about the job. These conversations can validate your understanding. You might also hear some things that you didn’t expect. This will give you an opportunity to process the information. And be sure to learn your future career path in this new field.

    Job shadow someone in that profession. If you work for an organization that has the new career you’re looking for – like marketing or accounting – maybe you can spend the day with a person who currently works in that profession. Think of it as a “Day in the Life” type activity. Every job has a few routine tasks that we forget are part of the job. Job shadowing can show us those smaller tasks that make up the whole job.

    After getting the details about your new career path, consider updating your resume to highlight your transferrable knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Those are the KSAs that you have right now that are also necessary for your new career. These skills create the bridge between your current job and your new career. And that bridge is what you need to start building before speaking with your manager.

    Krueger gives us some advice before having a conversation with management about a career change. “It’s not uncommon in today’s workforce for employees to feel they’re in the wrong job. Companies are trying to make do with fewer people and employees often find they’re put in situations where they’re over-qualified, under-qualified or even unqualified for their duties. If you find yourself in any of these situations, it might be time to have a conversation with your boss to find a more suitable position. Feeling prepared is the best way to calm nerves, so take time to sort through the situation before approaching your boss.

    In most cases bosses will gain more respect for you for taking charge of your own career path. In preparation, consider the following helpful tips:

    • Be prepared with a detailed plan. Have ideas on what you want and a direction on how to get there.
    • Know the key points you want to make and stay focused and on point. Have your points written down and rehearse them.
    • Schedule the meeting at a convenient time for your boss and set up a 30-minute meeting.
    • Figure out how any proposed changes will improve the business, such as greater productivity or increased employee morale. Sure, your ultimate goal is to enhance your career, but it can also have a positive impact on the company’s business.
    • This should be a two-way conversation between two professionals with a common goal. Make sure you listen and adjust your pitch accordingly.

    Changing careers doesn’t have to be a disappointing or overwhelming decision. In fact, it can be one of the best things that ever happened to you. But it does involve planning and preparation.