Tag: work

Posted in communication, life, Personality, success, TED talks

The 4 Practices to Cultivate Wholeheartedness?

Posted on by Nadia K

When you ask people about love, they’ll tell you about heartbreak. When you ask people about belonging, they’ll tell you about how they have been excluded. When you ask people about connection, the stories they’ll tell you are about disconnection.

Interesting, right? We always first recall the negative experiences in life and mute the positive memories.

Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston and the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and Dare to Lead.

In her TED Talk: The power of vulnerability, she outlines the following four life-changing practices that can help us live worthy, wholehearted life, stop recalling only the heartbreak, pain and disconnection, but find the joy and happiness: 

  1. Have a sense of COURAGE – when communicating with others tell the story of who you really are and accept your imperfections.
  2. Practice COMPASSION – treat yourself kindly first and then treat others with compassion.
  3. Develop CONNECTION as a result of authenticity – willingness to let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are.
  4. Embrace VULNERABILITY – give without expecting anything in return, share anything without the fear of being judged, open yourself to people you love, because you are worthy of the same love. If we don’t allow to be vulnerable, we block the joy, gratitude and happiness, and feel worse.
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If you want to learn more how to live with courage an vulnerability, check out Dr. Brown’s book

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Posted in Books, Personality, success, TED talks, Workplace

TED talk: Adam Grant about The Givers & Takers

Posted on by Nadia K

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, who has researched the different personalities of employees and determined that in the office environment, there are three basic kinds of people:

  • Givers, giver_taker_matchers
  • Takers &
  • Matchers

According to the research, the majority of people are Matchers and we all have our moments of giving and taking, but we most probably are inclined to be either a Giver or a Taker.

You can figure out for yourself by acknowledging which of the following two questions you will most often ask yourself when you interact with your colleagues: What can you do for me? or What can I do for you?

Many studies have proven that in order for a company or an organization to prosper, there is a need to have a culture of generosity, where people, willing to teach others are encouraged and the knowledge and skills are safely carried over from person to person, without fear of being judged or laughed at.

In my experience with a company for more than 3-4 years, I have seen a high percentage of turnover of staff, and in many of these cases, the knowledge and wisdom these people possessed were lost for the organization once they left. This lack of learning is not always acknowledged by the company but has a significant impact on the new employees. The newly hired employees inevitably start from scratch and build proficiency, mostly based on own practice and errors, and lack the wisdom of mentors or senior associates.

For making any organization successful, Adam Grant offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share. The three simple steps are:

  1. Protect Givers from burnout – Make sure Givers provide quick tips and don’t just do most of the work themselves.
  2. Encourage help-seeking –  Make it easy and safe to ask for help.
  3. Get the right people on the bus. Keep the wrong people off the bus – having Takers in the team, poisons the atmosphere, where any and all collaboration is difficult. In such an atmosphere, even the Givers are discouraged to help.

Read the Entire Book

16158498If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success and you can order it from your favorite online book store or get it from your neighborhood library, where it is available in multiple formats: printed version, e-book or audiobook.

 The book has been translated into 30 languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune’s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review’s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post’s books every leader should read.

Are you wondering if you are a Giver or a Taker?

Assess yourself. As Adam Grant explains, the assessment is using state-of-the-art methods in organizational psychology. For each question, give the answer that comes naturally to you. Your results will only be as accurate as you are honest—and self-aware.

Posted in Books, life, Personality, success

Book: The Algebra of Happiness by Scott Galloway

Posted on by Nadia K

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This book should be on everybody’s nightstand! It contains so much wisdom and truth, extracted from the author’s experience and knowledge, accumulated through the years and written with a fantastic sense of humor. 

Reading this book made me feel a lot better about myself and my life journey, accomplishments, and my perception of being happy. 

Scott Galloway is the New York Times bestselling author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

HappinessCurve
The curve of Happiness thought the life journey

Just some of Scott Gallaway’s pieces of advice for Living a Happy Life:

  • If you find you are stressed, recognize this is a normal part of the journey and just keep on keeping on.
  • Lack of balance in the twenties and thirties, sweat and work translate into balance later. Get busy while you are young.
  • The definition of “rich” is income greater than your burn rate.
  • In 50s married couples have 3x the assets of their single peers. Why? Sharing expenses, streamlining decisions, buying assets that increase in value instead of things that rust, rot, or depreciate.
  • Career advice: A less sexy job equals more professional fulfillment. A sexy job equals less fulfillment. A boring company equals a good investment. An exciting company equals a bad investment.
  • Serendipity is a function of courage. Nothing wonderful will happen without taking a risk and subjecting yourself to rejection.
  • Drink less, think long term (compound interest), and spend money on social and experiences.
  • Give somebody a good death. Provide comfort to a loved one that is terminally ill.
  • Get the easy stuff right: show up early, have good manners and follow up.
  • Things vs Experiences – Studies show people overestimate the happiness that things will bring them, and underestimate the long-term positive effect of experiences. Invest in experiences over things.

Posted in communication, success, TED talks, Workplace

TED Talk: Julian Treasure of How to Speak to be Heard

Posted on by Nadia K

 

What did I learn from Julian Treasure’s talk?

Seven deadly SINS of speaking. Let’s all try to avoid them!

  1. Gossip
  2. Judging
  3. Negativity
  4. Complaining
  5. Excuses
  6. Exaggeration/ lying
  7. Dogmatism

♠ ♠ ♠

Four elements which will improve the speech to be more powerful and important for the audience:

  1. Honesty = being true to what you say, being straight and clear
  2. Authenticity = just being yourself
  3. Integrity = being your word,actually doing what you say, and being somebody people can trust
  4. Love = wishing people well

♠ ♠ ♠

Six tools which will increase the power of speaking if used in the right way:

  1. Register – speak with deep lower voice if you want to project power and with authority;
  2. Timbre – the way the voice feels (people prefer voices which are rich, smooth and warm);
  3. Prosody – the patterns of stress and intonation in speaking;
  4. Pace – how quickly we speak;
  5. Pitch – high or low
  6. Volume –

 

Posted in success, TED talks, Workplace

TED Talk: Richard St. John About the Secrets of Success

Posted on by Nadia K

Presenting two brief, but insightful and inspirational talks by the success analyst Richard St. John

Here are the 8 secrets of SUCCESS:

  1. Have PASSION and LOVE what you do.
  2. WORK hard and have FUN while you work.
  3. Be GOOD in what you do and PRACTICE, practice, practice.
  4. FOCUS on ONE thing.
  5. PUSH yourself mentally and physically.
  6. SERVE others something of VALUE.
  7. Have IDEAS.
  8. PERSIST through failure, criticism, rejection, assholes and pressure.

 

Thank you, Richard St. John, for being successful and reveal the 8-traits to be great!

… and here is my next good read …

8 to Be Great: The 8-Traits That Lead to Great Success

Posted in Books, Personality, TED talks

TED Talk: Susan Cain about The Quiet in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Posted on by Nadia K

Susan Cain is a former corporate lawyer and negotiations consultant — and a self-described introvert. At least one-third of the people we know are introverts, notes Cain in her book QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Although our culture undervalues them dramatically, introverts have made some of the great contributions to society — from Chopin’s nocturnes to the invention of the personal computer to Ghandi’s transformative leadership.

One remarkable book everyone should read!

Quiet Quotes

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers — of persistence, concentration, and insight — to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.”

♥ ♥ ♥

“So stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don’t let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don’t force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way.”

♥ ♥ ♥

“Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths. You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.”

♥ ♥ ♥

“Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can. This does not mean aping extroverts; ideas can be shared quietly, they can be communicated in writing, they can be packaged into highly produced lectures, they can be advanced by allies. The trick for introverts is to honor their own styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.” ― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Posted in Books, Management, success, Workplace

The 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

Posted on by Nadia K

 

  • Rule #1 – “You’re the driver of your bus”  – We are each responsible for the direction of our lives. And the direction of our lives is 81107shaped by each day. If we are complacent in our lives we let others drive for us. Have you ever felt out of control? Well, it’s time to take charge and drive your own bus.
  • Rule #2 – “Desire, Vision, and Focus Move Your Bus in the Right Direction” – You have to want it! You have to have a vision, have an compelling reason to keep you moving and the focus to keep to it. Each action must be in the direction of your goal and you must have the persistence to overcome the obstacles that can easily get you off track.
  • Rule #3 – “Fuel Your Ride with Positive Energy” – Positive energy is the fuel that allows you to overcome the obstacles. Positive energy is high octane fuel and negative energy is gas from the bottom of last years can. Positive energy builds momentum and a negative attitude seems to find roadblocks and excuses.
  • Rule #4 – “Invite People on Your Bus and Share Your Vision for the Road Ahead” – Associating with people who push you forward is one of the smartest things you can do. You are either moving forward or moving back. If the people you work with or associate with are stagnant, then you need to break free. If you don’t you’re wearing an invisible rubber belt, eventually you will snap back to the pack and lose your momentum. Having negative, going nowhere friends is like having a weekly weight watchers meeting at The Country Buffet.
  • Rule #7 – “Enthusiasm Attracts More Passengers and Energizes Them During the Ride” – People want to associate with a winner. In professiona land college  sports it seems that the same teams are at or near the top year after year. Players recognize a good culture and want to be a part of it. The same can be said of work teams and companies. It’s not all about the money.
  • Rule #8 – “Love Your Passengers” – You can’t fake it. In order to lead people or attract people to your cause you have to care for them. And not in an ambivalent way. You must really be tied to the well being of your team. Love cannot be selfish. As a leader you must want the best for your team members. Back to sports: time and time again you see a team of superior athletes being beat by a true team made up of individuals who would do anything for their team and teammates. The trick is to cultivate that love.
  • Rule #10 – “Have Fun and Enjoy the Ride” – When work is fun you don’t get tired. Do you ever remember getting tired when you were playing as a kid? I don’t either. It never even came to mind. The same is true when you are energized by doing work that matters with people you like.

The Energy Bus By: Jon Gordon

 

 

Posted in TED talks, Workplace

TED Talk: Scott Dinsmore about How to Find a Work You’ll Enjoy

Posted on by Nadia K

“… Of the people I’d sit down with for lunch, 80 percent would quit their job within two months.” 

“Why are you doing the work that you’re doing?” And so often their answer would be, “Well, because somebody told me I’m supposed to.” And I realized that so many people around us are climbing their way up this ladder that someone tells them to climb, and it ends up being leaned up against the wrong wall, or no wall at all.” says Scott Dinsmore. 

 

Posted in Personality, TED talks

TED Talk: Emilie Wapnick about “Multipotentialites”

Posted on by Nadia K

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Emilie Wapnick talks about the kind of people she calls “multipotentialites”. See if you ‘ll find a “multipotentialite” in you?

“…embrace your many passions. Follow your curiosity down those rabbit holes. Explore your intersections. Embracing our inner wiring leads to a happier, more authentic life.”

Very inspiring talk!