Your 2016 Step-by-Step Job Search Guide By Liz Ryan.

 

 If you're job-hunting full-time now, here's a step-by-step guide to organize your job search activities.
If you want a new job and you're working now, resist the urge to start throwing resumes all over the place and applying for every job you see. I understand completely why every other available job might look better to you right now than the job you've already got, but you have to keep in mind that what you're selling to employers is your resume.
If you get a new job quickly but you hate that job nearly as much as you hate your current job, you're going to end up with a string of short-term jobs on your resume.
If your resume gets damaged with a long string of going-nowhere jobs, that will hurt your efforts to get a good job that deserves you. If you can separate yourself emotionally from the job you don't like, the one you have now, to focus on your job search and give it time, you're likely to have more success than you'll have with a desperation job search.
Here are the steps to getting a job that deserves your talents.

1. Look back.

Get a journal and write in it. Write about your life so far. Write about what you like to do and know you're good at. Your career history doesn't limit you in your job search nearly as much as most of us have been led to believe.
You can't practice medicine or law whenever you feel like it, but you can make a lot of other career changes without going back to school. You have to see the connection between your new, chosen career path and your old one before anyone else will see it.
Once that connection is clear and once you abandon the broken Black Hole of automated recruiting portals, your job search will get a lot easier!

2. Look forward.

Look forward at the rest of your career. What are your long-term life and career goals? The right job for you will be a job that moves you closer to your goals. Don't take a new job because it's ten minutes closer to your house or pays slightly more than your current job. Set your sights higher than that!

3. Decide what kind of job you want next.

As you think about your next job, focus on what you love to and what you know you're good at. Those factors are just as important as having worked in a particular job title before.
You can "pitch" your past experience to highlight the most relevant-to-your-new-manager things you've done at each job, and that's how successful career-changers get a hiring managers' attention even when they haven't worked in a particular industry or function already.

4. Brand yourself for the specific jobs you want -- not for every job you could perform.

Good branding is very specific. It doesn't say "I'm a Jack of all trades and I can do everything!" because no one believes that, and besides, no hiring manager has that kind of Business Pain.
Hiring managers are looking for people who can solve their problems, and business problems are specific. Brand yourself as a particular kind of Pain-Solver, and not a general utility person.
When you have a clear idea of the sorts of jobs you want to focus on in your job search, write a paragraph about your job search focus, and be specific!
Here's how Joseph wrote about his job search. This paragraph is just for him -- it's not going to appear on his resume.
I'm looking for a job where I can use my mechanical skills and project-management experience to run fairly large projects that have a lot riding on them, financially and otherwise. The job could be in manufacturing, construction, maybe in the auto industry or in technology.
It will be an office job but one with a 'blue-collar' or hands-on operational component and it will be a job where I manage a team or help teams to succeed. The title for my new job could be Project Manager, Operations Manager, Warehouse Manager, Inventory manager, etc.

5. Write your Human-Voiced Resume.

A Human-Voiced Resume is a resume that sounds like you're talking. It has a conversational tone. It brings your personality across more powerfully on the page (or screen) than a traditional, boring resume does. You'll find articles about Human-Voiced Resumes at the end of this article.

6. Learn about Pain Letters.

A Pain Letter is a new-millennium answer to a cover letter. It's called a Pain Letter because it talks about the problem, or Business Pain, your hiring manager (a/k/a your next boss) is likely to be facing. Read about Pain Letters at the links at the end of this story!

7. Establish a target salary range for your job search.

What will your salary requirement be as you hit the job search trail? That's an important element to nail down in advance! Use Salary and Payscale to figure out what your target jobs pay in your region.

8. Choose your job search channels.

Here are the most effective job-search channels (means of approach) I know:

• The direct approach to hiring managers (sending each of your target hiring managers your Pain Letter and your Human-Voiced Resume, through the mail) called the Whole Person Job Search
• If your target positions are often filled by third-party search folks and if your background is likewise headhunter-friendly, then recruiters may be a great job-search channel for you
• Networking is a terrific job-search channel for everyone, and
• Finally, consulting on your own is a fantastic way to get a new job, particularly if you're not working now.

9. Make a Target Employer List.

You don't have to restrict your job search to responses to published job ads. You can contact any hiring manager you want!
I recommend that you split your available job-search time in thirds and devote one-third of it to networking, one-third to creating responses to posted job ads and the last one-third to outreach to hiring managers who don't have job ads posted.
Even when you respond to a job ad, you'll reach out to your hiring manager directly instead of through an automated recruiting system.

10. Identify your hiring manager in each employer on your list.

Here's how to do that! There are more resources for locating your hiring manager at the end of this piece.

11. Customize your Human-Voiced Resume for each opportunity you pursue.

The key to your successful Whole Person Job Search is that you can't sound like a robot. You have to sound like yourself.
If your Pain Letter and your Human-Voiced Resume don't grab your hiring manager's attention the instant he or she slides them out of the envelope, they're either going in the trash or back to HR.
That's not what you want! Dare to speak to your hiring manager like a human, the way I'm talking to you now. Customize your HVR every time you use it.

12. Write a Pain Letter for each opportunity, and send it out with your HVR.

You'll see Pain Letter links at the end of this story. You'll research your target employers online and think about each of your hiring managers' most likely Business Pain points. What is keeping your possible next boss up at night? Whatever it is, that's what you'll talk about in your Pain Letter!

13. Activate your network.

Get everyone you know involved in your job search, unless it's a stealth job search in which case the less said to all but your best friends, the better! If you're a full-time job seeker, you have no restrictions on the number of people who can join your job-search referral network. Get out there, have some coffees and lunches and get the word out!

14. Get a consulting business card.

Every working person, job-seeker and student should have a consulting business card these days because we all work for ourselves now. Grab a consulting business card for very little money at Vistaprint or an office supply store and step into your new consulting persona. You're a consultant now, not a job-seeker!

15. Keep track of your job search activity.

Use a spreadsheet or a phone app to track your job Celebrate every Pain Letter you send out with a little treat for yourself. You deserve it!

16. Stick with it!

A job search is a project, and it's not a weekend project like cleaning out your garage. It may take weeks or months. There are lots of factors involved, some of which you can control and others you can't.
You can feel great about your job search if you're moving forward a little bit more every day and stepping out of your comfort zone. That's the most important part of your job search, and the only way to grow new muscles!
KINGSMITH.

How Body Language Trumps IQ By Travis Bradberry.

When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust, but social psychologist Amy Cuddy knows first-hand how attitude can outweigh IQ.
In Cuddy’s new book, Presence, she recounts a car crash she suffered at the age of 19. Brain damage from the crash took 30 points from Cuddy’s IQ. Before the crash she had an IQ near genius levels; her post-crash IQ was just average.
As someone who had always built her identity around her intelligence, the significant dip in Cuddy’s IQ left her feeling powerless and unconfident. Despite her brain damage, she slowly made her way through college and even got accepted into the graduate program at Princeton.
Once at Princeton, Cuddy struggled until she discovered that it was her lack of confidence that was holding her back, not her lack of brainpower. This was especially true during difficult conversations, presentations, and other high-pressure, highly important moments.
This discovery led Cuddy, now a Harvard psychologist, to devote her studies to the impact body language has on your confidence, influence, and, ultimately, success. Her biggest findings center on the powerful effects of positive body language. Positive body language includes things like appropriate eye contact, active engagement/listening, and targeted gestures that accentuate the message you’re trying to convey. Studies show that people who use positive body language are more likable, competent, persuasive, and emotionally intelligent.
Here’s how it works:
Positive body language changes your attitude. Cuddy found that consciously adjusting your body language to make it more positive improves your attitude because it has a powerful impact on your hormones.
It increases testosterone. When you think of testosterone, it’s easy to focus on sports and competition, but testosterone’s importance covers much more than athletics. Whether you are a man or a woman, testosterone improves your confidence and causes other people to see you as more trustworthy and positive. Research shows that positive body language increases your testosterone levels by 20%.
It decreases cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that impedes performance and creates negative health effects over the long term. Decreasing cortisol levels minimizes stress and enables you to think more clearly, particularly in difficult and challenging situations. Research shows that positive body language decreases cortisol levels by 25%.
It creates a powerful combination. While a decrease in cortisol or an increase in testosterone is great on its own, the two together are a powerful combination that is typically seen among people in positions of power. This combination creates the confidence and clarity of mind that are ideal for dealing with tight deadlines, tough decisions, and massive volumes of work. People who are naturally high in testosterone and low in cortisol are known to thrive under pressure. Of course, you can use positive body language to make yourself this way even if it doesn’t happen naturally.
It makes you more likeable. In a Tufts University study, subjects watched soundless clips of physicians interacting with their patients. Just by observing the physicians’ body language, subjects were able to guess which physicians ended up getting sued by their patients. Body language is a huge factor in how you’re perceived and can be more important than your tone of voice or even what you say. Learning to use positive body language will make people like you and trust you more.
It conveys competence. In a study conducted at Princeton, researchers found that a one-second clip of candidates for senator or governor was enough for people to accurately predict which candidate was elected. While this may not increase your faith in the voting process, it does show that perception of competence has a strong foundation in body language.
It’s a powerful tool in negotiation (even virtually). There’s no question that body language plays a huge role in your ability to persuade others to your way of thinking. Researchers studying the phenomenon in virtual communication found that body language in video conferencing played an important role in the outcome of negotiations.
It improves your emotional intelligence. Your ability to effectively communicate your emotions and ideas is central to your emotional intelligence. People whose body language is negative have a destructive, contagious effect on those around them. Working to improve your body language has a profound effect on your emotional intelligence.

Bringing It All Together

We often think of body language as the result of our attitude or how we feel. This is true, but psychologists have also shown that the reverse is true: changing your body language changes your attitude.
KINGSMITH.

Things Science Says Will Make You Much Happier By Travis Bradberry

It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with happiness. After all, the “pursuit of happiness” is even enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. But happiness is fleeting. How can we find it and keep it alive?
Psychologists at the University of California have discovered some fascinating things about happiness that could change your life.
Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky is a psychology professor at the Riverside campus who is known among her peers as “the queen of happiness.” She began studying happiness as a grad student and never stopped, devoting her career to the subject.
One of her main discoveries is that we all have a happiness “set point.” When extremely positive or negative events happen—such as buying a bigger house or losing a job—they temporarily increase or decrease our happiness, but we eventually drift back to our set point.
The breakthrough in Dr. Lyubomirsky’s research is that you can make yourself happier—permanently. Lyubomirsky and others have found that our genetic set point is responsible for only about 50% of our happiness, life circumstances affect about 10%, and a whopping 40% is completely up to us. The large portion of your happiness that you control is determined by your habits, attitude, and outlook on life.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." -Aristotle

Even when you accomplish something great, that high won’t last. It won’t make you happy on its own; you have to work to make and keep yourself happy.
Your happiness, or lack thereof, is rooted in your habits. Permanently adopting new habits—especially those that involve intangibles, such as how you see the world—is hard, but breaking the habits that make you unhappy is much easier.
There are numerous bad habits that tend to make us unhappy. Eradicating these bad habits can move your happiness set point in short order.
Immunity to awe. Amazing things happen around you every day if you only know where to look. Technology has exposed us to so much and made the world so much smaller. Yet, there’s a downside that isn’t spoken of much: exposure raises the bar on what it takes to be awestricken. And that’s a shame, because few things are as uplifting as experiencing true awe. True awe is humbling. It reminds us that we’re not the center of the universe. Awe is also inspiring and full of wonder, underscoring the richness of life and our ability to both contribute to it and be captivated by it. It’s hard to be happy when you just shrug your shoulders every time you see something new.
Isolating yourself. Isolating yourself from social contact is a pretty common response to feeling unhappy, but there’s a large body of research that says it’s the worst thing you can do. This is a huge mistake, as socializing, even when you don’t enjoy it, is great for your mood. We all have those days when we just want to pull the covers over our heads and refuse to talk to anybody, but the moment this becomes a tendency, it destroys your mood. Recognize that when unhappiness is making you antisocial, you need to force yourself to get out there and mingle. You’ll notice the difference right away.
Blaming. We need to feel in control of our lives in order to be happy, which is why blaming is so incompatible with happiness. When you blame other people or circumstances for the bad things that happen to you, you’ve decided that you have no control over your life, which is terrible for your mood.
Controlling. It’s hard to be happy without feeling in control of your life, but you can take this too far in the other direction by making yourself unhappy through trying to control too much. This is especially true with people. The only person you can control in your life is you. When you feel that nagging desire to dictate other people’s behavior, this will inevitably blow up in your face and make you unhappy. Even if you can control someone in the short term, it usually requires pressure in the form of force or fear, and treating people this way won’t leave you feeling good about yourself.
Criticizing. Judging other people and speaking poorly of them is a lot like overindulging in a decadent dessert; it feels good while you’re doing it, but afterwards, you feel guilty and sick. Sociopaths find real pleasure in being mean. For the rest of us, criticizing other people (even privately or to ourselves) is just a bad habit that’s intended to make us feel better about ourselves. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It just creates a spiral of negativity.
Complaining. Complaining is troubling, as well as the attitude that precedes it. Complaining is a self-reinforcing behavior. By constantly talking—and therefore thinking—about how bad things are, you reaffirm your negative beliefs. While talking about what bothers you can help you feel better, there’s a fine line between complaining being therapeutic and it fueling unhappiness. Beyond making you unhappy, complaining drives other people away.
Impressing. People will like your clothes, your car, and your fancy job, but that doesn’t mean they like you. Trying to impress other people is a source of unhappiness, because it doesn’t get to the source of what makes you happy—finding people who like you and accept you for who you are. All the things you acquire in the quest to impress people won’t make you happy either. There’s an ocean of research that shows that material things don’t make you happy. When you make a habit of chasing things, you are likely to become unhappy because, beyond the disappointment you experience once you get them, you discover that you’ve gained them at the expense of the real things that can make you happy, such as friends, family, and taking good care of yourself.
Negativity. Life won’t always go the way you want it to, but when it comes down to it, you have the same 24 hours in the day as everyone else. Happy people make their time count. Instead of complaining about how things could have been or should have been, they reflect on everything they have to be grateful for. Then they find the best solution available to the problem, tackle it, and move on. Nothing fuels unhappiness quite like pessimism. The problem with a pessimistic attitude, apart from the damage it does to your mood, is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you expect bad things, you’re more likely to get bad things. Pessimistic thoughts are hard to shake off until you recognize how illogical they are. Force yourself to look at the facts, and you’ll see that things are not nearly as bad as they seem.
Hanging around negative people. Complainers and negative people are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spirals. You can avoid getting drawn in only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: If a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with negative people. A great way to set limits is to ask them how they intend to fix their problems. The complainer will then either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.
You should strive to surround yourself with people who inspire you, people who make you want to be better, and you probably do. But what about the people who drag you down? Why do you allow them to be a part of your life? Anyone who makes you feel worthless, anxious, or uninspired is wasting your time and, quite possibly, making you more like them. Life is too short to associate with people like this. Cut them loose.
Comparing your own life to the lives people portray on social media. The Happiness Research Institute conducted the Facebook Experiment to find out how our social media habits affect our happiness. Half of the study’s participants kept using Facebook as they normally would, while the other half stayed off Facebook for a week. The results were striking. At the end of the week, the participants who stayed off Facebook reported a significantly higher degree of satisfaction with their lives and lower levels of sadness and loneliness. The researchers also concluded that people on Facebook were 55% more likely to feel stress as a result.
The thing to remember about Facebook and social media in general is that they rarely represent reality. Social media provides an airbrushed, color-enhanced look at the lives people want to portray. I’m not suggesting that you give up social media; just take it sparingly and with a grain of salt.
Neglecting to set goals. Having goals gives you hope and the ability to look forward to a better future, and working towards those goals makes you feel good about yourself and your abilities. It’s important to set goals that are challenging, specific (and measurable), and driven by your personal values. Without goals, instead of learning and improving yourself, you just plod along wondering why things never change.
Giving in to fear. Fear is nothing more than a lingering emotion that’s fueled by your imagination. Danger is real. It’s the uncomfortable rush of adrenaline you get when you almost step in front of a bus. Fear is a choice. Happy people know this better than anyone does, so they flip fear on its head. They are addicted to the euphoric feeling they get from conquering their fears.
When all is said and done, you will lament the chances you didn’t take far more than you will your failures. Don’t be afraid to take risks. I often hear people say, “What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? Will it kill you?” Yet, death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you. The worst thing that can happen to you is allowing yourself to die inside while you’re still alive.
Leaving the present. Like fear, the past and the future are products of your mind. No amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future. Happy people know this, so they focus on living in the present moment. It’s impossible to reach your full potential if you’re constantly somewhere else, unable to fully embrace the reality (good or bad) of the very moment. To live in the moment, you must do two things:
1) Accept your past. If you don’t make peace with your past, it will never leave you and it will create your future. Happy people know that the only good reason to look at the past is to see how far you’ve come.
2) Accept the uncertainty of the future, and don’t place unnecessary expectations upon yourself. Worry has no place in the here and now. As Mark Twain once said,

“Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.”

Bringing It All Together

We can’t control our genes, and we can’t control all of our circumstances, but we can rid ourselves of habits that serve no purpose other than to make us miserable.
What makes you happy? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
KINGSMITH.

3 Questions- How to Know When to Grab Your Resume and RUN! By Ken Schmitt

Congratulations, you’ve landed an interview. You’ve read the company’s latest press release and you are prepared for any question they throw your way: Workplace conflict? You’re an expert. Professional strengths and weaknesses? You’ve got an alphabetized list at the ready. Where do you see yourself in five years? Moving up their corporate ladder, of course. If you could be a superhero, who would you be and why? Batman, obviously- great suit, awesome car.
No matter how prepared you are, however, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that you are on the defensive during an interview, having to be ready to fire back the perfect answers to any of a thousand questions they may ask. Ultimately, leaving the power in their hands.
It’s time to put some of the interview power back in your hands!
A good company creates a successful interview process which includes well thought-out questions that allow you the opportunity to demonstrate who you are as a professional, rather than produce canned answers you found on Google. But let’s not forget, that while they are interviewing you, you are also interviewing them. At the end of the interview, you want to feel confident that this a role where you can feel successful in and that they have demonstrated they are a company you would like to work for. Their answers to a few of your questions, will immediately tell you if they are the right fit for you or if you should walk out the door.
3 “Must Ask” Questions That Will Tell You if the Job Sucks

1. What do you like about working for this company? It’s not difficult to boast about the things you love, whether it’s your grandchildren or your favorite restaurant. The same should be true about the company you work for. If the interviewer hesitates or struggles to find a handful of things that make the company special, he is sending a very clear message. In addition, pay close attention to word choice. Telling a candidate that you “like the corporate gym” is very different than explaining that “the gym is one of many ways in which the company strives to take care of its staff and listens to employee’s requests.”
2. What job qualifications do you think I am missing? This might sound like an odd question. Instinct tells you to avoid shining a light on any of the ways you are not qualified for the job. However, we encourage you to be bold as this questions serves two purposes. First, looks (i.e. job descriptions) can be deceiving. It is not unheard of that as an interview progresses, you come to realize that the role differs from the one you applied for. Asking them to identify the qualifications you are missing will help you make that determination. Secondly, you will have a sense of how the interview is going. Quickly you will realize one of two things: You do not have the qualifications they are looking for, or you are not clearly communicating or demonstrating that you have those qualifications. If the former is the case, you’ll be glad to know this role is not for you. If the latter is true, you can shift your game, allowing you to redirect their understanding of your experience and highlight examples of those qualifications.
3. What are the top 3 things you’d like me to accomplish in this role? When asked, candidates have told us repeatedly that one of the things they want to know before considering an offer is what are they expected to accomplish and how will those goals be measured. No one wants to find out in the first few weeks that they’ve been hired to save a sinking ship. (Unless of course, you’re a turnaround artist and that was clearly outlined as the reason you were hired.) Additionally, it is very frustrating to realize the goals you have been working toward are not the ones the company considers valuable, yet failed to communicate to you. Attaining even a general picture of the goals and strategies you are expected to implement allows you to determine if this is a company with reasonable expectations and whether or not you are the right person to meet those expectations. It also allows you the opportunity for follow up questions to gauge what infrastructure and measurables they already have in place to help you reach those goals.

The burden of responsibility for a successful interview lies equally on the shoulders of the interviewer and the interviewee. Translation: Candidates hold much more power than they realize. Acting as an offensive player instead of solely a defensive one provides hints as to the direction the interview is going and presents the opportunity for you to learn just as much about the company as the company is trying to learn about you.
KINGSMITH.

Don’t Be Easy By James Alltucher.

I have to give a talk next week at Microsoft. I said, “I have to prepare it. But it will be easy”.
She made a joke, “Don’t be easy.”
But she’s right: If you are going to give of yourself, don’t be easy. Don’t make your words slutty.
Make it painful to get those words out. I have to dip the words in struggle. Make them marinate.
Sometimes we get into a routine. Things are easy. Life is easy.
When I sold my first company, life was a little too easy for me. The problem with easy is that you can spend “easy.” But when things are difficult, you have to earn back the life you spent.
I’m often afraid when things are good. What if things get bad? What if I go from good to bad? Again!
I wish I could not think about it. Not shake. Not say curses out loud when I don’t mean to. “Why did you just say that? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I lie. Maybe 200 times a year I have that conversation.
Graham Greene says that we live life fully until we are twenty years old. Then the rest of our lives we re-tell that story in one form or other.
We re-tell it in our stories, in our emotional wounds, in how we treat others, in how we live our lives.
But I don’t think it ends at 20. It keeps going. New wounds.
Life is good. Can I just relax? I think of the businesses I’ve started. Some (most) have failed. The friends I’ve made. Some (most) I no longer speak to.
The children I helped make. They are growing past me.
The businesses I have yet to start. I hope they do well, given what I now know. But we’ll see.
The books I have yet to write. I feel I need to improve. To get better. To keep exercising my creativity so I can say something new.
Relationships I have. They never seem easy. Tortured by my own insecurities mixed with everyone else’s. My own open wounds, bleeding into the open wounds of everyone else.
Don’t be easy. Don’t let it be easy or else it’s been said before.
I am telling myself that now. Ask something new every day and I will have the fuel to say something new.
But, for once, I wish things were easy. Maybe even relaxing. From experience, though, I know it’s good if I never get my wish.
KINGSMITH.

One Simple Way to Develop Vision By Rita J King.

Visionary entrepreneurs, artists and notable figures are often perceived and described as geniuses. But are they? What they have, undeniably, is more vision than other people. Can you develop more vision? Yes.
A lot of posts promise that there's a simple trick to doing something complicated. In this instance, however, it's true.

Developing vision is pretty straightforward. It's not about seeing. It's about seeking.

To illustrate the point, let's think about this experiment involving six photographers who were each asked to photograph the same man. Each photographer is told something different about their subject. He's an ex-con. He's a lifesaving hero. He's a self-made millionaire. He's a psychic. Then the man, who is tall and bald, comes into the room. Each portrait from each shoot is radically different from the others. Why? Weren't they all seeing the same subject?
No. They weren't. They were seeing the narrowly focused lie that had been planted in their imaginations before the man was even real. That's right. Everything they'd been told about him was a lie. He's not a psychic? No. He barely knows how to spell the word.
The photographers reported having an "intense" experience with their subject. They only thought they were having an intense experience. In fact, these experiences were extremely shallow. Despite the camera and the intention of capturing a Vision of the subject, they all lacked curiosity. They didn't even attempt to uncover a deeper truth. Let's say for a moment that he really was a self-made millionaire. What does that mean? What does that say about him as a person? How did he make his millions? Wouldn't a visionary portrait be different if his success from an entrepreneur came from the creation of a product or service that saved people's lives instead of diminishing them?
You might think, well, this is an experiment, real life doesn't work that way. Think again. Maria Konnikova's book, The Confidence Game, shows that we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to getting conned. Most people want to believe what they're told, and with good reason. Being cynical is time consuming. This illustrated guide to cognitive biases shows how we fool ourselves constantly, making decisions based on false assumptions.
When we rely on what we've been told, we can't reasonably expect to generate a clear vision.

The simple trick is curiosity. Ask questions.

A genius is, after all, a person who relentlessly approaches the world with fresh eyes, not to see it, but to seek it, and in so doing, to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing story of what it means to be human. They have an additional quality that can't be achieved through vision alone, but we will get to that in another post.
Background
This post is part of an ongoing series exploring the Glyphs of the Imagination Age, a system for navigating this critical transitional period that we're in. I created the concept and practice around it after working with senior leadership teams around the world for many years. I noticed that across industries, leaders all have the same problem as they attempt to leave the Industrial Era ideas behind and enter the Intelligence Era. In the Industrial Era, an engine either worked or it didn't. If it didn't, you fixed it. At the end of the day, workers went home. Things were tangible and pretty easy to understand.
In the Intelligence Era, work products include intangible things like code and data analytics that are much harder to understand and manage, and the work day never quite seems to end, does it? Working faster is a relic of the Industrial Era. Instead, we need to work smarter. The imagination is the brain's way of charting a path from among nebulous options and moving forward despite uncertainty. So I called the system the Imagination Age. It includes 26 core concepts, each represented by a Glyph (in the illustration above, you will see the Glyph for Vision. I've written about the Unknown and Serendipity so far).
The framework is customized to different companies and teams, but the core ideas behind each Glyph remain consistent, and that's what I've been exploring in these posts. Thanks for reading!
KINGSMITH.

Critical Things Ridiculously Successful People Do Before 8 AM By Travis Bradberry.

Starbucks continues to grow relentlessly, with CEO Howard Schulz just announcing plans to open 500 new stores a year over the next five years. Much of this growth will happen in China, where Schulz is undeterred by the recent economic slowdown.
While many factors contribute to Starbucks’ immunity to economic trends, most are driven by Schulz. Starbucks’ massive size hasn’t stopped him from realizing his vision of creating a company that’s about much more than making money selling coffee; Schulz is committed to selling an experience and a lifestyle, both of which are inspired by a trip to Italy as a child, where he was drawn to the cafe scene.
Schultz is fiercely loyal to his values. When asked how he balances his values with strategic thinking, he said,

"Unfortunately, we live in a sea of mediocrity in all walks of life. We live amid a fracturing of civility. Everywhere we go as consumers, we’re getting people who don’t want to reach into our hearts or know who we are; they want to reach into our wallets and get some money. The only way we can succeed and sustain growth is linked to the basic elements of one cup of coffee, one customer, and one barista at a time."

Schultz views company strategy and his personal values as one and the same. To this end, he has put massive amounts of money into healthcare for Starbucks’ employees (even those who are part time), into free college education for all employees, and into campaigning for human rights.
Schultz's loyalty to his personal values starts every morning at 4:30 a.m. He rises early to make time for his employees, his family, and himself. He starts his morning by sending motivational e-mails to his employees, and then he exercises by taking his dogs for a walk, before disconnecting from technology to eat breakfast and drink French Press coffee with his wife.
Few of us have hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in our values, but we can all develop the same discipline that Schulz demonstrates each morning—and it isn’t just a morning thing; it pays dividends all day long. Research shows that early risers are more proactive than night owls, they’re more agreeable and conscientious, and they’re happier than people who sleep in.
There are many ways to utilize the early morning hours effectively, but some of the best ideas come from ultra-successful people like Schultz. Here are eight of my favorites.
Drink lemon water. Drinking lemon water as soon as you wake up spikes your energy levels physically and mentally. By improving nutrient absorption in your stomach, it gives you a steady, natural energy buzz that lasts the length of the day. You need to drink it first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach) to ensure full absorption. You should also wait 15–30 minutes after drinking it before eating (perfect time to squeeze in some exercise). Lemons are chock full of nutrients, such as potassium, vitamin C, and antioxidants. If you weigh less than 150 pounds, drink the juice of half a lemon (a full lemon if you’re over 150 pounds). Don’t drink the juice without water because it’s hard on your teeth.
Exercise. It’s not just Schultz who exercises early in the morning; Richard Branson, Tim Cook, and Disney’s Bob Iger all wake up well before 6:00 a.m. to get their bodies moving. While their ungodly wake-up hours and exercise routines may seem crazy, research supports the extra effort. A study conducted at the Eastern Ontario Research Institute found that people who exercised twice a week for 10 weeks felt more competent socially, academically, and athletically. A second study conducted by researchers at the University of Bristol found that people who exercised daily had more energy and a more positive outlook, which are both critical for getting things done. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. Exercising first thing in the morning ensures that you’ll have the time for it, and it improves your self-control and energy levels over the course of the entire day.
Disconnect. While Schultz starts his day with a motivational e-mail to his employees, after this, he disconnects and dedicates his time to exercise and family. When you wake up and dive straight into e-mails, texts, and Facebook, you are far more likely to lose focus, and your morning succumbs to the wants and needs of other people. It’s much healthier to take those precious first moments of the day to do something relaxing, which sets a calm, positive tone for your day.
Eat a healthy breakfast. Eating anything at all for breakfast puts you ahead of a lot of people. People who eat breakfast are less likely to be obese, they have more stable blood-sugar levels, and they tend to be less hungry over the course of the day. And these are just the statistics for people who eat any breakfast. When you eat a healthy breakfast, the doors to a productive day swing wide open. A healthy breakfast gives you energy, improves your short-term memory, and helps you to concentrate more intensely and for longer periods.
Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation has become increasingly popular among highly successful CEOs. Its growth in the business world is largely due to the huge dividends it pays in productivity and overall well-being. Research shows that mindfulness fights off stress by reversing the fight-or-flight response, improves your ability to focus, boosts creativity, and increases your emotional intelligence.
Set goals for the day. Benjamin Franklin was obsessive about planning his days. Each morning, he would wake up at 4:00 a.m. and meticulously piece together a schedule. There’s a clear message to take from Franklin’s habit: prudent goal setting pays dividends. When you plan out your day as carefully as possible, your chances of successfully accomplishing your goals skyrocket. I like to set my daily goals after my mindfulness practice, because the added calm and clarity help me to set effective, specific goals.
Make certain your goals are realistic. There’s no point in setting goals if they aren’t realistic. Take the time to ensure that your schedule for the day is doable by assigning times to your to-do list. A good rule of thumb is to make your day as top heavy as possible. Think about the things that have the ability to advance your career, no matter how daunting the tasks, and schedule them first. When you complete difficult tasks first, you carry positive energy and a feeling of accomplishment into the rest of your day.
Vague goals such as “I want to finish writing my article” are counter-productive, because they fail to include the “how” of things. The same goal re-phrased in a more functional way would read something like this: “I am going to finish my article by writing each of the three sections, spending no more than an hour on each section.” Now, you have more than simply something you want to achieve—you have a way to achieve it.
Finally, say no. No is a powerful word, which will protect your precious mornings. When it’s time to say no, avoid phrases such as “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments, and your morning time is an important commitment. Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco showed that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression.

Bringing It All Together

Developing a successful morning routine is essential. While the above strategies are tried and true, you should build upon them with other activities that work for you.

What are some other morning strategies that work for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
KINGSMITH.

Go Be Happy By Bill Marriott.

Go. Be. Happy. - Marriott on the Move
At the start of any new year, there always seems to be a lot of talk about living a better life. People are in pursuit of overall happiness. Lately a lot has been written about this, with books on the bestseller list.

After 83 years, I have some thoughts about how I achieve overall happiness. I have four priorities: My faith, my family, my health and my work. If any of those gets out of whack for any length of time, it can impact my overall happiness…and the happiness of those around me!

For me, my faith has been an important guiding principle in my life. I’ve learned a lot about leadership, empathy and listening through my roles in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. When making decisions, I remember that putting people first and treating people with respect is the priority.

It’s a core value of our company. People shouldn’t waste any energy asking themselves if they “fit in” or not. Everybody belongs, as long as they are willing to work hard and serve our guests. It takes a diverse group of people to solve problems creatively and make our company great.

My family brings me joy. As they say, “work to live, not live to work.” It’s easier for me to say this now that I’ve stepped down as CEO. Today, in my role as Executive Chairman, I have just a little more time to “stop and smell the roses” (including more time for one of my favorite exercises, Pilates. See below.)

I remember what it was like to be CEO and still be a family man. I didn’t always knock it out of the park, but I sure tried. When I was in town, I made it a priority to join my wife and family for dinner at 6:30 p.m. I took the time to listen to what was on their minds, and help my kids with their homework.
To be honest, I didn’t always have this balanced approach. During the height of my career, in the late 1980s, I suffered a few heart attacks and even had open heart surgery. It really scared me and it put things in perspective. The doctor told me that if I didn’t make changes in my life he’d be seeing me again in a few months. That’s when I began a firm commitment to a balanced diet and exercise.

I’m sure glad that I did. Because if I hadn’t, I’d have missed seeing the company I love grow from one to more than 4,200 hotels. I’d have missed celebrating my 60-year anniversary with the love of my life, Donna. I’d have missed meeting my 15 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, with more on the way (pictured above).

It’s a long-term commitment to live a happy life. I am so proud of our company’s focus on employee wellbeing and happiness through our global TakeCare program. It takes some discipline, and it isn’t always easy. But it yields big dividends.
KINGSMITH.

Avoid These Relationships Like the Plague By Travis Bradberry.

At work or elsewhere, most everyone has experienced a relationship that turned toxic. If you have, you know they’re a major drain on your energy, productivity, and happiness.
In a new study from Georgetown University, 98% of people reported experiencing toxic behavior at work. The study found that toxic relationships negatively influence employees and their organizations in nine notable ways:

1. 80% lost work time worrying about the incidents.
2. 78% said that their commitment to the organization declined.
3. 66% said that their performance declined.
4. 63% lost work time avoiding the offender.
5. 47% intentionally decreased the time spent at work.
6. 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work.
7. 25% admitted to taking their frustration out on customers.
8. 12% said that they left their job because of it.
9. 48% intentionally decreased their work effort.

While the turnover from toxic relationships is costly, the real cost is the lost productivity and emotional distress experienced by people who are stuck in these relationships.
We may not be able to control the toxicity of other people, but we can control how we respond to them, and this has the power to alter the course of a relationship. Before a toxic relationship can be neutralized, you must intimately understand what’s making it toxic in the first place. Toxic relationships develop when one person’s needs are no longer met or someone or something is interfering with the ability to maintain a healthy and productive relationship.
Recognizing and understanding toxicity enables you to develop effective strategies to thwart future toxic interactions. What follows are the most common types of toxic relationships and strategies to help you overcome them.

Relationships that are passive aggressive.

This type takes many forms in the workplace, from the manager who gives you the cold shoulder to the colleague who cc’s e-mails to your boss. One of the most common forms of passive aggression is a drastic reduction of effort. Passive aggressive types have great difficulty receiving feedback, and this can lead them to leave work early or not to work as hard. Passive aggression is deadly in the workplace, where opinions and feelings need to be placed on the table in order for progress to continue.
When you find someone behaving passive aggressively toward you, you need to take it upon yourself to communicate the problem. Passive aggressive types typically act the way they do because they’re trying to avoid the issue at hand. If you can’t bring yourself to open up a line of communication, you may find yourself joining in the mind games. Just remember, passive aggressive types tend to be sensitive and to avoid conflict, so when you do bring something up, make sure to do so as constructively and harmoniously as possible.

Relationships that lack forgiveness and trust.

It’s inevitable that you’re going to make mistakes at work. Some people get so fixated on other people’s mistakes that it seems as if they believe they don’t make mistakes themselves. You’ll find that these people hold grudges, are constantly afraid that other people are going to do them harm, and may even begin nudging you out of important projects. If you’re not careful, this can stifle upward career movement by removing important opportunities for growth.
The frustrating thing about this type of relationship is that it takes one mistake to lose hundreds of “trust points” but hundreds of perfect actions to get one trust point back. To win back their trust, it’s crucial that you pay extra-close attention to detail and that you’re not frazzled by the fact that they will constantly be looking for mistakes. You have to use every ounce of patience while you dig yourself out of the subjective hole you’re in. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Relationships that are one-sided.

Relationships are supposed to be mutually beneficial. They have a natural give and take. In the workplace, this applies to relationships with people who report to you (they should be getting things done for you and you should be teaching them) as well as with people you report to (you should be learning from them, but also contributing). These relationships grow toxic when one person begins to give a disproportionate amount, or one person only wants to take. It could be a manager who has to guide an employee through every excruciating detail, or a colleague who finds herself doing all the work.
If possible, the best thing to do with this type is to stop giving. Unfortunately this isn’t always possible. When it isn’t, you need to have a frank conversation with the other party in order to recalibrate the relationship.

Relationships that are idealistic.

Idealistic relationships are those where we begin to hold people in too high a regard. When you think your colleague walks on water, the relationship becomes toxic because you don’t have the boundaries you need in a healthy working relationship. For instance, you might overlook a mistake that needs attention, or do work that violates your moral compass because you assume your colleague is in the right.
This loss of boundaries is extremely toxic to you, and you have the power to set the relationship straight. No matter how close you may be with someone, or how great you think her work may be, you need to remain objective. If you’re the one people are idealizing, you need to speak up and insist that they treat you the same way they treat everyone else.

Relationships that are punitive.

Punitive relationships are those where one person punishes the other for behavior that doesn’t align directly with their expectations. The major issue with punitive types is that their instinct is to punish, without adequate communication, feedback, and understanding. This belittling approach creates conflict and bad feelings.
To survive a punitive type, you must choose your battles wisely. Your voice won’t be heard if you dive right in to every conflict. They’ll just label you as someone who is too sensitive.

Relationships built on lies.

These types get so caught up in looking good that they lose track of what’s fact and what’s fiction. Then the lies pile up until they’re the foundation of the relationship. People who won’t give you straight answers don’t deserve your trust. After all, if they’re willing to lie to you, how can you ever really depend on them?
When you remove trust from any relationship, you don’t have a relationship at all. Building a relationship on lies is no different than building a house on a pile of sand. The best thing you can do is to count your losses and move on.

How To Protect Yourself From A Toxic Person

Toxic people drive you crazy because their behavior is so irrational. Make no mistake about it—their behavior truly goes against reason, so why do you allow yourself to respond to them emotionally and get sucked into the mix?
The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control. One of their greatest gifts is the ability to identify toxic people and keep them at bay.
The more irrational and off-base someone is, the easier it should be for you to remove yourself from their traps. Quit trying to beat them at their own game. Distance yourself from them emotionally, and approach your interactions with them like they’re a science project (or you’re their shrink if you prefer that analogy). You don’t need to respond to the emotional chaos—only the facts.
Maintaining an emotional distance requires awareness. You can’t stop someone from pushing your buttons if you don’t recognize when it’s happening. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in situations where you’ll need to regroup and choose the best way forward. This is fine, and you shouldn’t be afraid to buy yourself some time to do so.
Most people feel as though because they work or live with someone, they have no way to control the chaos. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Once you’ve identified a toxic person, you’ll begin to find their behavior more predictable and easier to understand. This will equip you to think rationally about when and where you have to put up with them and when and where you don’t. You can establish boundaries, but you’ll have to do so consciously and proactively. If you let things happen naturally, you’re bound to find yourself constantly embroiled in difficult conversations. If you set boundaries and decide when and where you’ll engage a difficult person, you can control much of the chaos. The only trick is to stick to your guns and keep boundaries in place when the person tries to cross them, which they will.

Bringing It All Together

There are many different types of toxic relationships in the workplace. When you find yourself embroiled in one, it’s worth the effort to evaluate things carefully and develop a course of action that will save your sanity and better your career.
Have you experienced any of these types of toxic relationships? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
KINGSMITH.

Would you invest a billion dollars in Kanye? By Lynne Everatte

"I'm this generation's Disney", Kanye tweeted, conjuring visions of Dope Shitneyland where you can get on Kanye's Taylor Swift Shake It Off, the only ride in history that insults you while it tries to throw you off. His latest album The Life of Pablo, in which Kanye is either referring to himself either as Pablo Picasso, the prophet Paul, or Pablo Cruise during its Love will Find a Way period, has garnered mixed reviews. Some say it's a brilliant scattershot blast on artistic boundaries, some say it's messy evidence of a self-indulgent artist coming apart at the seams, and others say it's both.

I don't like this. It has to be a perfect cube shape.

Sometimes I get emotional over fonts. ~Kanye West agonizing over merchandise stands and fonts

Before we reject Kanye out of hand, there is ample evidence to suggest there is something Jobsian in his obsessive perfectionism, and that his ideas, divorced from his lavish spending habits that try in vain to keep up with the Kardashians, are often good investments.
His albums have sold over 32 million copies, his songs have been downloaded over 100 million times and he has won 21 Grammies (his goal is 100). He began his career as a record producer, a talent that enables him to create artistic soundscapes that his rivals can't match. Kanye West was a college dropout who received a scholarship to attend Chicago's American Academy of Art. At first his middle class background, that included an adoring mother with a doctorate in English, made it difficult for him to break into rap.
The critically acclaimed College Dropout was the breakout album that enabled Kanye West to found a record label, GOOD Music, that has afforded him the creative freedom to explore music's most exciting frontiers. Not content to rule the music world, he has branched out into fashion and last week at Madison Square Garden, debuted both his new album and his third Yeezy sportswear collection for the post-apocalyptic season.

In 2015, six of the ten most expensive sneakers on eBay were Kanye creations. If you had invested in Kanye's Yeezy Triple Black rather than the S&P 500 index, your ROI would be a 436% versus -1%.


Perhaps Kanye West's greatest success is as a master of contradictions. He is developing a video game where the goal is to help his mother get to highest gates of heaven, yet his lyrics often pass through the lowest gates of misogynistic hell. His boasts make Donald Trump look like a paragon of modesty, yet people who work with him often say he's "very very humble". Whoever Kanye West is, he's nobody's idea of corporate, and admits that meetings with executives leave him "crying all the time".
From an analytical perspective Kanye looks like a good investment, but as a socially responsible investor, I can't invest in him. His misogyny goes far beyond addressing women with the rap salutation Yo, B*tches. He is the Picasso of misogyny, disassembling women and putting them back together as abstractions of vulgar fragments. I can't listen to his music anymore, and wouldn't give him a penny. But I do wish him luck.

I believe that I'm gonna be the head of the first trillion dollar company. ~Kanye West

A Kanyean post-script.
What would a story about hip-hop be without a Martin Shkreli cameo? Apparently pharma boy was fleeced out of $15 million because he thought he could pull another Wu-Tang Clan and get exclusive rights to Kanye's The Life of Pablo.
See all the good Kanye can do in the world?
KINGSMITH.

The Three Levels Of Love By Avi Z Liran

Love plays an important role in all religions and traditions. If I were to ask you to stand on one foot and explain exactly what your religion says about love, do you think you could do it? During the time of King Herod around the beginning of the Common Era (d. 10-20 C. E.) guess what happened?
The first level of love: A certain heathen came before Hillel, a virtuous, patient and compassionate rabbi and the president of the Sanhedrin and said: “Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Hillel’s answer to him was,

What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it. ( Talmud Shabbat 31a)

This basic level of love means that one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated. But this prohibitive form is not enough. It does not say what should be a good way to treat the other.
The second level of love is mentioned in Leviticus 19:18:

“ Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.”

Better than the first level but still presumptuous. Level two of love can be a deadly trap for relationships in our personal and professional life. There are two assumptions. The first one is that "I love myself". This is a good assumption provided that it means healthy self esteem and not narcissism. The second assumption that what I love is what makes the other person feel loved does not work all the time. An extreme example is food allergies. If one loves seafood and the other person has food allergy, serving seafood can be lethal. One man's meat is another man's poison. When we “Assume” we make an “Ass (of) You and Me”.
The third level of love is

“Thy shall love the other in the way the other feels loved” ~ Avi Liran.

I have learnt this lesson the hard way in my relationships. My eureka moment came when I read the book “The Five Love Languages” by Gary D. Chapman. Before that I had loved with all my heart with my own particular love language without suspecting that my partner’s primary love languages were different. My primary love language is “Words of affirmation”. Since my childhood my parents made it a point to celebrate my achievements and praise me for good job done. That increased my confidence and made me do more of the same. But what if my partner was raised in a different culture where achieving is expected and only when you are not doing well then you get attention? I thought I was loving but my partner did not feel loved. Her love language was quality time and I was a workaholic. We both tried hard to please each other with our personal specific love languages and felt unloved at the same time.
A few years ago a professional speaker mentioned to me that before he had proposed to his second wife, he decided to learn the lesson from his past relationships. He took her for dinner. As they were sitting in the bar he opened a notebook and asked her to share her expectations from her future husband. She had plenty to say and he filled a full page. One of the things she mentioned was that her forthcoming husband must bring her a flower every day. At that point he felt that she was very high maintenance. But ever since then, he has brought her a flower every day and when he travels he takes photos of flowers and sends them to her every day. After he had finished, she took the notebook and asked him what his expectations of his future wife would be: What he said, did not take a full page:

“Good sex, good food, and keep a lot of beer on ice.”

When two people establish a new relationship, it is like planting two seeds in the same pot. Relationships flourish when you nurture them and garden that pot. Different plants require a different mixture of light, sun, temperature, humidity, and fertilizer, but every relationship requires the gardeners to weed the land and cultivate it allowing the plants to grow towards each-other so they will not grow apart.
In conclusion: Do you know what makes your lover, partner, family and work members feel loved and appreciated? When was the last time you took a vacation with your partner to share your lists of how you feel loved? When was the last time you asked your peers, employees and bosses what makes them feel like they belong and happier to work with you?

Wishing you a happy Valentine Day

KINGSMITH.

Where does greatness come from? By Daniel Levitin

Music as a case study

Some people have a biological predisposition toward particular professions. Genes can make us tall (think basketball) or lightweight (think jockey); give us the proper ratio between slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers for sprinting versus long distance running. This applies to musicianship as well. There may also be a cluster of genes that work together to create the component skills that one must have to become a successful musician: good eye-hand coordination, muscle control, motor control, tenacity, patience, memory for certain kinds of structures and patterns, a sense of rhythm and timing. To be a good musician, one must have these things. Some of these, and related skills, are involved in becoming a great anything, especially determination, self-confidence, and patience.
We know that, on average, successful people have had many more failures than unsuccessful people. This seems counterintuitive. How could successful people have failed more often than everyone else? Failure is unavoidable and sometimes happens randomly. It’s what you do after the failure that is important. Successful people have a stick-to-it-iveness. They don’t quit. From the president of FedEx to the novelist Jerzy Kosiński, from van Gogh to Bill Clinton to Fleetwood Mac, successful people have had many, many failures, but they learn from them and keep going. This quality might be partly innate, but environmental factors must also play a role.
The best guess that scientists currently have about the role of genes and the environment in complex cognitive behaviors is that each is responsible for about fifty percent of the story. Genes may transmit a propensity to be patient, to have good eye-hand coordination, or to be passionate, but certain life events—life events in the broadest sense, meaning not just your conscious experiences and memories, but the food you ate and the food your mother ate while you were in her womb—can influence whether a genetic propensity will be realized or not.
Early life traumas, such as the loss of a parent, or physical and emotional abuse, are only the obvious examples of environmental influences causing a genetic predisposition to become either heightened or suppressed. Because of this interaction, we can only make predictions about human behavior at the level of a population, not an individual. In other words, if you know that someone has a genetic predisposition toward criminal behavior, you can’t make any predictions about whether he will end up in jail in the next five years. On the other hand, knowing that a hundred people have this predisposition, we can predict that some percentage of them will probably wind up in jail; we simply don’t know which ones. And some will never get into any trouble at all.
The same applies to musical genes we may find someday. All we can say is that a group of people with those genes is more likely to produce expert musicians, but we cannot know which individuals will become the experts. This, however, assumes that we’ll be able to identify the genetic correlates of musical expertise, and that we can agree on what constitutes musical expertise. Musical expertise has to be about more than strict technique. Music listening and enjoyment, musical memory, and how engaged with music a person is are also aspects of a musical mind and a musical personality. We should take as inclusive an approach as possible without identifying musicality, so as not to exclude those who, while musical in the broad sense, are perhaps not so in a narrow, technical sense. Many of our greatest musical minds weren’t considered experts in a technical sense. Irving Berlin, one of the most successful composers of the twentieth century, was a lousy instrumentalist and could barely play the piano.
Even among the elite, top-tier musicians, there is more to being a musician than having excellent technique. Both Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz are widely regarded as two of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, but they made mistakes—little technical mistakes—surprisingly often. A wrong note, a rushed note, a note that wasn’t fingered properly. But as one critic wrote, “Rubinstein makes mistakes on some of his records, but I’ll take those interpretations that are filled with passion over the twenty-two-year-old technical wizard who can play the notes, but can’t convey the meaning.”
What most of us turn to music for is an emotional experience. We aren’t studying the performance for wrong notes, and so long as they don’t jar us out of our reverie, most of us don’t notice them. So much of the research on musical expertise has looked for accomplishment in the wrong place, in the facility of fingers rather than the expressiveness of emotion.
Even the most uptight and analytic among us expect to be moved by Shakespeare and Bach. We can marvel at the craft these geniuses have mastered, a facility with language or with notes, but ultimately that facility must be brought into service for a different type of communication. Jazz fans, for example, are especially demanding of their post-big-band-era heroes, starting with the Miles Davis/John Coltrane/Bill Evans era. We say of lesser jazz musicians who appear detached from their true selves and from emotion that their playing is nothing more than “shucking and jiving,” attempts to please the audience through musical obsequies rather than through soul.
The pianist Alfred Brendel says he doesn’t think about notes when he’s onstage; he thinks about creating an experience. Stevie Wonder told me that when he’s performing, he tries to get into the same frame of mind and “frame of heart” that he was in when he wrote the song; he tries to capture the same feelings and sentiment, and that helps him to deliver the performance. What this means in terms of how he sings or plays differently is something no one knows. From a neuroscientific perspective, though, this makes perfect sense. Remembering music involves setting the neurons that were originally active in the perception of a piece of music back to their original state—reactivating their particular pattern of connectivity, and getting the firing rates as close as possible to their original levels.
If music serves to convey feelings through the interaction of physical gestures and sound, the musician needs his brain state to match the emotional state he is trying to express. Although the studies haven’t been performed yet, I’m willing to bet that when B.B. King was playing the blues and when he was feeling the blues, the neural signatures were very similar. And as listeners, there is every reason to believe that some of our brain states will match those of the musicians we are listening to. In what is a recurring theme of your brain on music, even those of us who lack explicit training in music theory and performance have musical brains, and are expert listeners.
KINGSMITH.

Unlocking the secret code of leadership? Don Ledingham

McKinsey and Company recently published an article in their quarterly business magazine entitled: Decoding Leadership: What Really Matters
Let me say from the outset that I’m an enthusiastic reader of the McKinsey Quarterly and I think they generally have some important things to say about the world of leadership development and its impact upon business success – albeit that their perspectives often lack a subtlety as they seek to generalise their findings to suit all circumstances.
However, the lack of a question mark at the end of the title of their article perhaps says everything about why I had such a negative gut response to the article in question.
‘Decoding Leadership’ –implies that it is possible to reduce leadership to its very essence, and through careful analyses of the data unlock its secret. It implies that but for the lack of more powerful algorithms we would surely be able to reveal the code - and in so doing programme a generation of leaders who will avoid the mistakes of their predecessors
In the space of less than 1000 words the authors set out to determine the kind of leadership behaviours that organisations should be encouraging and building into their leadership development programmes.
The sheer weight of the data is used as a blunt instrument to bludgeon the reader into accepting the validity of their conclusions. 189,000 people in 81 diverse organisations surely trumps any other research and justify the assertions contained within the article.
Yet dig a little further into the piece and we begin to unearth some troubling uncertainties:
“We’re not saying that the centuries-old debate about what distinguishes great leaders is over or that context is unimportant.”
“Experience shows that different business situations often require different styles of leadership.”
The added inter-changeability of the terms ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ doesn’t help to dispel concerns that all is not as certain as the title suggested. Add to that the authors' assertion that earlier in the article they had indicated they were referring ‘frontline leaders’, only to become a much broader reference to all leaders later in the piece.
For the record, their research revealed four distinct leadership traits to be the most prevalent in high quality leadership teams, namely: solving problems effectively; operating with strong results orientation; seeking different perspectives; and, supporting others.
I have no argument about the importance of any of these traits – however, I do have a problem as soon as we begin to suggest that there is a hierarchy of behaviours, which should form the core of a leadership development programme.
My first concern is from my perspective as a former teacher and school principal, for I used to despair when I saw teachers ‘teaching to the middle’. These were individuals who saw it to be their job to ‘fit the child to the syllabus', whereas great teachers saw it to be their job to make the ‘syllabus fit the child’ by taking into account every child’s own needs, strengths and requirements. Leaders are no different – we need to build programmes around the individual’s needs – not around the top four traits (what if I was already very competent in those aspects?)
Secondly, I recall attending a lecture on leadership given by an eminent leadership guru who was making assertions about the characteristics necessary to be a successful leader, and was in the process of listing those in an order of priority on their PowerPoint presentation.
As they were revealed I found myself having a powerful physiological response. My breathing got shallower, my heart rate increased and I felt tightness in my chest. But no, it wasn’t a heart attack - it was that the idea of a singular template of leadership flew in the face of everything that I had come to believe, i.e. there are as many ways to lead effectively, as there are leaders.
To suggest that there was a hierarchy of assets that you must have to be a successful leader, immediately excluded some of the most outstanding leaders I had encountered throughout my career.
My third concern, relates to the complete failure to reinforce the fact that no leadership behaviour exists in isolation from any other, for example, 'solving problems effectively' (trait 1) is inextricably linked to 'being able to seek different perspectives' (trait 4). We really risk creating exceptionally poor leadership development programmes if we break up the behaviours into discrete chunks – which might be easier to ‘teach’ but which lack any connection to the holistic world in which they are to be implemented.
Finally, and this is perhaps my greatest concern, is that there is no mention of the underlying value system that will underpin and connect these discrete behaviours. Without being embedded in such a clear context we run the risk of creating leadership automatons – who simply ‘select and play’ the leadership behaviours they have been programmed to display.
My own work with a pitifully small number of senior leaders (in comparison to the immensity of the McKinsey bulk) – would suggest that high quality leadership takes many forms. Even a brief analysis of some of history’s greatest leaders would throw up individuals who didn’t, or even couldn’t, demonstrate some of the key traits identified in the McKinsey article - think of Steve Jobs and how he did or didn’t support people around him; or Winston Churchill who only saw things from his own perspective. I’ve encountered great leaders whose key assets were completely contrary to those in the article, assets such as the capacity to inspire, imagination, and intuition come to mind.
So come on McKinsey and Company; let’s avoid the temptation to reduce everything to a simplistic formula just because your vast databanks can be manipulated in such a way as to make it possible. I thought better of you.
KINGSMITH.

Be My Valentine? Five Tips to Know if Your Relationship is Doomed…or Destined By Joseph Grenny.

For decades people have suggested that relationships typically fail because of a loss of chemistry, a lack of common interests, or irreconcilable differences. The assumption has been that problems with sex, politics, money or religion are the fatal blow. At first blush, this makes sense because these topics matter a great deal to us. In truth, the extent to which two people disagree on key topics doesn’t predict relationship success. All couples disagree about a whole host of issues, and yet, not every relationship is tortured.
So, what does affect the quality of a relationship? It’s not that you disagree, it’s how you disagree. According to a study my colleagues and I conducted, couples who argue effectively are 10 times more likely to have a happy relationship than those who struggle to discuss disagreements. Ten times! Think about it. You can dramatically improve the quality of most any relationship not by eliminating differences – but by learning to discuss them in a healthier way.
When caught up in a heated discussion, the words you choose, the tone you take, the tactics you employ are more important to your relationship than the content of the argument itself. If you know how to say it, you can say almost anything to almost anybody. And you can do it in a way that actually strengthens your relationship.
Here are ten signs you are headed disaster. Any of the following patterns is toxic to a relationship. The good news is, if you can see it you can fix it. Improving the way you show up during crucial conversations can inoculate a relationship against any of these communication viruses.
Do one or both of you:

• Shy away from talking about some very sensitive topics?
• Push too hard or become argumentative when worrying you won’t be heard or get your way?
• Understate your real opinions in order to avoid provoking – or in the name of “being nice”?
• Spend more time talking than listening?
• Try to out talk the other person – using debate tactics or verbal skill to win the point?
• Harbor resentment for more than a day before bringing them up?
• Give in to the other person – then blame them later for letting you do so?
• Use time, alcohol or avoidance to deal with emotions rather than genuinely expressing them?
• Say things about the other person to friends that you would never say in his or her presence?
• Blame the other person for the way you feel?

Each of the ten questions is an example of what gums up communication and connection.
Again—the good news is that skills for speaking your mind and helping others do the same can be learned. Here are five tips for effectively holding crucial conversations with your significant other. According to our study, those who skillfully use these tips are 44 percent happier with their relationship than those who don’t.

1. Get curious. Encourage your significant other to share his or her concerns first. If you are open to hearing your significant other’s point of view, he or she will be more open to yours. One of the best ways to dramatically improve communication is to simply show genuine interest in the concerns of others. When they feel deeply understood, they have more space in themselves to understand you.
2. Manage your thoughts. Soften your judgments by asking yourself why a reasonable, rational and decent person would do what your significant other is doing. Remember: It is never about you. No matter what they are doing or saying—hear it as clues about them and not an attack on you—even if they present it as such.
3. Affirm before you complain. Don’t start by diving into the issue. Establish emotional safety by letting your significant other know you respect and care about him or her.
4. Start with the facts. When you begin discussing the issue, strip out accusatory, judgmental and inflammatory language. This is harder than it sounds. You feel like saying, “You’re a flake!” when what you should say is, “Three out of the last five times you picked me up you were more than thirty minutes late.”
5. Be tentative but honest. Having laid out the facts, tell your significant other why you’re concerned. But don’t do it as an accusation, share it as an opinion. Saying, “I don’t think that builder will do a good job” leaves room for dialogue. Saying, “He’s no good” misstates your opinion as a fact.

          KINGSMITH.

5 Ways to Increase your Personal Impact at Work By Juliette Jenner.

I am increasingly aware of my personal ‘bandwidth’ limitations as I balance running a growing business and being a wife and mom.
With our finite energy and resources, demands from home and work and a longing for balance, we need to get smarter! There is no room for anything less than real impact: meetings, presentations and conversations need to be effective and lead to action.
That’s why my focus is on how to communicate with maximum impact in your environment. Be clear, strategic and effective.
Here are a few tips to get you off on the right foot….
Janet is well-prepared manager. She is a capable, knowledgeable expert, but when it comes down to it, she just doesn’t have the personal impact she needs at work to deliver the results she knows are possible. Key stakeholders don’t listen to her, they don’t take her seriously enough and they are quick to dismiss her value. She is losing confidence and feeling frustrated.

1. Learn to be Composed Under Pressure:
   The ability to self-regulate and maintain your composure when people disagree with you, ignore or undermine what you have to say is vital. You can’t wait for your environment to feel safe and relaxed before you can manage yourself- you need to be able to stay calm and hold your ground when things get tough. Janet needs to learn to manage her nerves, especially in front of senior people.
2. Power Your Voice:
   Janet tends to feel small and lose her voice when she needs to speak to a high stakes audience. Speaking well and showing up with presence is a key factor to having clout. In fact, with all the preparation in the world, if you can’t deliver your message with power and confidence its hard to have impact. Speaking with a strong and articulate voice, sending all the right non-verbal ‘power cues’ and commanding the space allows you to deliver your message with credibility
3. Learn to Think on Your Feet:
   Despite her preparation, Janet finds herself going blank, stumbling on her words or coming up with a great answer ten minutes too late. No matter how prepared you are, you can never predict the outcome of a communication. You need to handle uncertainty and imperfect conditions in the moment: a key person arrives late, someone hostile is present, someone throws you a curve-ball. Unpredictability is more the rule than the exception and it pays to be ready to improvise. Thinking on your feet is a game-changing skill and gives you the confidence and power to make your mark.
4. Know Your Audience:
   If you want to have impact, you need to be relevant to your audience. Being knowledgeable is only the starting point. Positioning your information in a way that is compelling and relevant to your audience requires strategic thought. The more you can align your message with what most concerns them, the greater your possible impact. Your audience, whether in a presentation or meeting, is a collective of power. Who does it consist of? What is their agenda? Are they hostile? Do you have credibility with them already or not? For example, Janet needs to get project buy in from Manbo. She needs to understand who they are and what they need before she can plan how best to leverage her information to them.
5. Focus on the Relationship with your Audience:
   Speaking is an assertive act, well likened to an act of leadership. Speak to your audience, not at them. Pay close attention to them and have the confidence to place your relationship with them as a key priority while you speak. A massive hurdle for Janet is that she struggles to do this in front of senior people and starts to express her ideas with low status and doubt. This destroys her relationship with them and undermines her value. No matter how powerful or senior your audience is, while you speak your job is to lead and command the space. In fact, to have impact, the more powerful your audience is, the more powerful you need to be. The best way you can build a relationship and serve them is to rise to the moment and lead.           KINGSMITH.

Is my salary my worth? Olivia Barrow.

My name is Olivia Barrow, and I have career envy.
What’s career envy? It’s kind of like entree envy -- you read the menu, you think about your past experiences, and you pick your order, but as soon as the food comes, you want whatever your partner is having.

It’s not that your entree isn’t also delicious, but when you actually got to see the two steaming in front of you side-by-side on the table, there’s this sinking feeling you can’t shake that you made the wrong choice.
Maybe this sounds like a “grass is greener” feeling, but I think there’s more to it.
When I was in high school, my parents encouraged me to pursue whatever career I wanted, but in their limited experience, engineering was the best. They both have master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

They wanted me to get a degree that could immediately land me a job, and ideally a good-paying job, and they knew I was smart enough to excel in engineering. I gritted my teeth through all A’s in AP Physics, Calculus I and Calculus II, and -- aside from the inevitable satisfaction of getting a good grade and overcoming adversity -- I hated every minute.
So, instead of becoming an engineer, I pursued a career in writing, after learning that the public university 15 minutes down the road from my parents’ house was one of the top four schools in the country for journalism.
I always tell people that the writing sucked me in, but the reporting made me stay. In print journalism, you don’t get the chance to write anything memorable unless you do a lot of legwork -- networking, poring over documents, scanning meeting agendas, finding sources, coordinating interviews, attending events and asking the right questions. Then, just maybe, you’ll have enough time to put together a story that you can feel proud of, but so much of the time, writing feels like an afterthought.
This is one of the main reasons why I blog on LinkedIn. Because even after a full day as a newspaper reporter, writing and publishing stories, I often don’t feel like I’ve actually “written” anything.
Both reporting and writing are extremely challenging, and mastering them requires 100 percent of my intelligence. It’s not for lack of mental stimulation that I’m left imagining alternate-universe career paths for myself.
Disclaimer: I’m six months into my new beat, it’s the deep doldrums of winter here in Milwaukee, and I’m starting to hit a wall, both in my professional and social life. So perhaps that’s coloring this post, and fueling my wandering career aspirations.
Fifteen minutes in the other direction from my parents house growing up, was another public university with many engineering programs ranking among the top 10. I don’t think my parents know this, but I contemplated becoming an engineer all throughout high school. It nagged at me constantly. I assumed I’d finally put those thoughts to bed when I chose UNC’s School of Journalism, but it turns out that three and a half years of making less than half of what I could be making as an engineer, with the same amount of education at the exact same cost, leaves me with some questions.
I have no student loans and I save aggressively, so financially I’m better off than 90 percent of my peers, even many engineers. But I can’t help it. I still value myself by. my. salary. When I’m at the top of my game as a journalist, I can see the direct impact my job has on people’s lives, helping them to grow their business and plan for the future. But it doesn’t help.
I constantly face the question: Do I like journalism enough to justify earning so far below my potential?
I ask a lot of experienced executives to tell me the hardest business decision they’ve ever made. The answer comes in different words, but the gist is often: “Leaving a career that you’re really good at in search of one you’ll really love.” They don’t usually say, “Leaving a career you love for one that pays the bills.” Conclusion? Maybe this is a stretch, but I think the kind of successful, inspiring people who end up with a Milwaukee Business Journal reporter dogging them with trite questions didn’t get to that point by chasing a higher salary for the money’s sake.
I’m not ready to leave journalism. I came to Wisconsin intending to give this beat my all for four years, with an open slate after that. Three-and-a-half more years feels like an eternity when you’re 24, but I know in 10 years it will feel as much a blip as my three years at UNC. So I’m working on viewing this period as analogous to my stint in college: a dedicated time to drink richly of every opportunity afforded me as a reporter -- to glean as much career advice, life advice and practical knowledge from the dozens of brilliant entrepreneurs that I meet in any given month, the successful executives I interview and the awe-inspiring women who mentor me, whether through regular calls or over an occasional drink.
KINGSMITH.