Sunday, March 31, 2013
Amanda Palmer - the art of asking
Amanda Palmer - the art of asking
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
boost power through body language
boost-power-through-body-langu.html
Want to Lean In? Try a Power Pose
For women who may be "leaning out," Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's urging to "lean in" requires some behavioral changes and deviations from how many women are expected to or accustomed to behaving. Fortunately, we have the power to do this for ourselves, through tiny tweaks that actually reconfigure our brains in ways that may make us more assertive, confident, relaxed, risk tolerant, and fearless.
Recent experimental psychology from Dana Carney, Pranjal Mehta, Robert Josephs, Jennifer Lerner, Gary Sherman, and our lab at Harvard suggests that the best leaders — both male and female — seem to have relatively high testosterone, which is linked to decreased fear and increased tolerance for risk and desire to compete, and low cortisol, which is linked to decreased anxiety. Effective leadership is associated with hormone levels, and with this hormone profile, leaders are confident and willing to take risks, but not overly threatened or reactive to stressors. Who wouldn't want to work for this kind of leader?
This is not an argument for masculinizing leadership; it is an argument for providing people with the tools that will allow them to bring their strongest, most resilient and confident selves to stressful or uncomfortable situations, like being the only woman in the board room, pitching a new idea, or negotiating for a raise or promotion — the tasks that Sandberg refers to as "sitting at the table" and "speaking your truth."
It turns out these two hormones, testosterone and cortisol, are very touchy, sensitive to social and physical cues and fluctuating a great deal over the course of a single day. As Sandberg mentioned in her book, our research shows that people can change their own hormone levels and behaviors, by "faking it" — by "power posing," or adopting expansive, open nonverbal postures that are strongly associated with power and dominance across the animal kingdom (imagine standing with hands on hips and feet spread, like Wonder Woman). By holding these postures for just two minutes before entering a high-stress situation, people (both men and women) can increase their testosterone by about 20% and decrease their cortisol by about 25% (Want to do the opposite to your hormones? Adopt a low-power pose — wrap your arms around your torso, cross your ankles, lower your chin). Power posing also increases people's tolerance for risk and pain, and their ability to think abstractly. This isn't about what your body language is communicating to others; it's about what your body language is communicating to you: your body language is changing your mind, which changes your behavior, which changes your outcomes.
This simple life hack — standing in a bathroom stall like Wonder Woman before a stressful meeting — has the potential to substantially improve women's ability to lean in - to take risks, face fears and barriers, and to endure the stressors inherent to the kinds of changes Sandberg recommends.
AMY J.C. CUDDY
Amy J.C. Cuddy is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
Work Smarter with Evernote in 2013 by Alexandra Samuel | 1:40 PM December 18, 2012
Look back on 2012 and what do you remember? Probably the biggest, and most recent events. Sure, you remember the details of your meetings last week...and the major accomplishments in your third quarter report...and hey, wasn't that a great restaurant you went to during your August vacation. But what was the name of that restaurant? And what was that book you read while you were on vacation — the one that had inspired you with a new idea for work, if only you could remember it? What happened to that draft memo you started before you went on vacation? And what on earth did you do with the entire month of February?
2012 can be the last year you forget if you make 2013 the year you commit to using a digital notebook like Evernote. Evernote, and others like it, makes it easy for you to capture every conversation, idea, note, draft, business card, white board, and scrap of paper so that you can stop wracking your brain and start searching for, and finding, the information you need, when you need it. Better still, Evernote can help you stay focused on your top priorities by keeping your work organized, and make your work more influential by helping you share it with the colleagues who need it, too. My short ebook, Work Smarter with Evernote, which Harvard Business Review Press released today, can show you how.
What would it mean to work smarter with Evernote in 2013? Here's a month-by-month game plan that just scratches the surface of how such a tool can help you:
January: Focus on your top goals for the year by setting up an Evernote notebook for each of your major projects or areas of responsibility. Move them to the top of your Evernote sidebar where you will see and think about them every day.
February: Create a notebook that gathers up any news clippings or blog posts that reflect your company's recent achievements, along with performance reviews and email kudos. It's your happy space!
March: If you're still having trouble letting go of that paper notebook, don't give up on the benefits of having everything searchable and in one place. Use your smartphone to snap photos of your handwritten notes, and add those photos to Evernote. Evernote's optical character recognition will make them searchable.
April: File your taxes in record time by saving all your online receipts to a single Evernote notebook. You'll find that notebook useful when it's time to file expense claims, too.
May: Going to a big conference or trade show? Save a PDF of the conference program to Evernote so you'll have it handy, or use the Evernote web clipper (install it in your web browser) to clip descriptions of the sessions you'd like to attend. Snap photos of the business cards you collect and store them in a notebook, take notes during conference sessions on your tablet. Tag it all with the name of the conference for easy reference.
June: Mid-year review time. Write a quick recap of your top achievements this quarter by scanning through your notebooks and tagging "deliverables" or "highlights" and then having them ready to go with your manager.
July: Make the most of the summer slow-down by queuing up some blog posts or finally drafting that white paper. If you've set up an Evernote notebook called "ideas," you'll have lots of inspiration stored up to get you started.
August: Recharge with a vacation that makes the most of every minute. Compile a personal guide book for your travel destination by clipping restaurant reviews, suggested itineraries, maps and other resources to a vacation notebook. On your smartphone or tablet, set it to be an offline notebook so it's accessible even when you have no signal.
September: Once the school year starts, you're back to the joys of juggling work with family logistics. Create an Evernote notebook named for each of your kids, and use it to store school announcements, report cards and notes on meetings with teachers or doctors. You can get birthday party invitations or school messages directly to Evernote by forwarding them to your unique Evernote email address.
October: Starting a new project? Set up a new notebook with the name of your client and use it to save all your meeting notes, client and team contact info, document outlines and web clippings of relevant background info. Share the notebook with the rest of the project team so you can collaborate on your research process and share your work in progress.
November: Give thanks to your direct reports with a personal email highlighting each of their major achievements. It's easy to get specific when you have a notebook for each person on your team, which you use to file notes on your conversations, summaries of their performance reviews, and copies of their major deliverables.
December: You're ready when the word goes out that there's some leftover budget. Your Evernote wishlist notebook is full of project ideas in need of funding, and your potential hires notebook has clippings from the LinkedIn profiles of everyone you'd make a FTE if only you had the money to grab them.
How do you want to use Evernote to work smarter in 2013? Let us know in the comment thread below, or by tweeting your ideas with the hashtag #WSWE. We'll share our favorites in a future blog post.
12 motivational quotes
At the start of every year, I create a list of quotes to guide and inspire me for the next 12 months. Here are the quotes I've selected for 2013:
- "Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."
Napoleon Hill - "The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear."
Brian Tracy - "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."
Dale Carnegie - "Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats."
Og Mandino - "A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."
Tony Robbins - "If you can't control your anger, you are as helpless as a city without walls waiting to be attacked."
The Book of Proverbs - A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves."
Harvey Mackay - "Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience."
Jack Vance - "Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live."
Jim Rohn - "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."
Zig Ziglar - "The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying."
Tom Hopkins - "You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself."
Seth Godin
Stop doing these 10 things to be happier
http://lifehacker.com/5991218/want-to-be-happier-stop-doing-these-10-things-right-now?popular=true
Want to Be Happier? Stop Doing These 10 Things Right Now
Happiness—in your business life and your personal life—is often a matter of subtraction, not addition. Consider, for example, what happens when you stop doing the following things.
Blaming
People make mistakes. Employees don't meet your expectations. Vendors don't deliver on time. So you blame them for your problems. But you're also to blame. Maybe you didn't provide enough training. Maybe you didn't build in enough of a buffer. Maybe you asked too much, too soon.
Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn't masochistic, it's empowering—because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time. And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier.
Impressing
No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all "things." People may like your things—but that doesn't mean they like you. Sure, superficially they might seem to, but superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship that is not based on substance is not a real relationship.
Genuine relationships make you happier, and you'll only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.
Clinging
When you're afraid or insecure, you hold on tightly to what you know, even if what you know isn't particularly good for you. An absence of fear or insecurity isn't happiness: It's just an absence of fear or insecurity.
Holding on to what you think you need won't make you happier; letting go so you can reach for and try to earn what you want will. Even if you don't succeed in earning what you want, the act of trying alone will make you feel better about yourself.
Interrupting
Interrupting isn't just rude. When you interrupt someone, what you're really saying is, "I'm not listening to you so I can understand what you're saying; I'm listening to you so I can decide what I want to say."
Want people to like you? Listen to what they say. Focus on what they say. Ask questions to make sure you understand what they say. They'll love you for it—and you'll love how that makes you feel.
Whining
Your words have power, especially over you. Whining about your problems makes you feel worse, not better. If something is wrong, don't waste time complaining. Put that effort into making the situation better. Unless you want to whine about it forever, eventually you'll have to do that. So why waste time? Fix it now.
Don't talk about what's wrong. Talk about how you'll make things better, even if that conversation is only with yourself. And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don't just be the shoulder they cry on. Friends don't let friends whine—friends help friends make their lives better.
Controlling
Yeah, you're the boss. Yeah, you're the titan of industry. Yeah, you're the small tail that wags a huge dog. Still, the only thing you really control is you. If you find yourself trying hard to control other people, you've decided that you, your goals, your dreams, or even just your opinions are more important than theirs.
Plus, control is short term at best, because it often requires force, or fear, or authority, or some form of pressure—none of those let you feel good about yourself. Find people who want to go where you're going. They'll work harder, have more fun, and create better business and personal relationships. And all of you will be happier.
Criticizing
Yeah, you're more educated. Yeah, you're more experienced. Yeah, you've been around more blocks and climbed more mountains and slayed more dragons. That doesn't make you smarter, or better, or more insightful. That just makes you you: unique, matchless, one of a kind, but in the end, just you. Just like everyone else—including your employees.
Everyone is different: not better, not worse, just different. Appreciate the differences instead of the shortcomings and you'll see people—and yourself—in a better light.
Preaching
Criticizing has a brother. His name is Preaching. They share the same father: Judging. The higher you rise and the more you accomplish, the more likely you are to think you know everything—and to tell people everything you think you know.
When you speak with more finality than foundation, people may hear you but they don't listen. Few things are sadder and leave you feeling less happy.
Dwelling
The past is valuable. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others. Then let it go. Easier said than done? It depends on your focus. When something bad happens to you, see that as a chance to learn something you didn't know. When another person makes a mistake, see that as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.
The past is just training; it doesn't define you. Think about what went wrong, but only in terms of how you will make sure that, next time, you and the people around you will know how to make sure it goes right.
Fearing
We're all afraid: of what might or might not happen, of what we can't change, or what we won't be able to do, or how other people might perceive us. So it's easier to hesitate, to wait for the right moment, to decide we need to think a little longer or do some more research or explore a few more alternatives.
Meanwhile days, weeks, months, and even years pass us by. And so do our dreams. Don't let your fears hold you back. Whatever you've been planning, whatever you've imagined, whatever you've dreamed of, get started on it today. If you want to start a business, take the first step. If you want to change careers, take the first step. If you want to expand or enter a new market or offer new products or services, take the first step. Put your fears aside and get started. Do something. Do anything. Otherwise, today is gone. Once tomorrow comes, today is lost forever.
Today is the most precious asset you own—and is the one thing you should truly fear wasting
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
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