Category Archives: Mentoring

To Hold #Women Back, Keep Treating Them Like Men [Opinion] | HBR #business #genderequality #diversity

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Are men and women different? While almost every executive I have ever met, anywhere in the world, says yes, most diversity policies are designed as if the answer were no.

Last week, the Global Head of Diversity of a leading professional services firm told me that she “didn’t want to be treated differently.” That, I answered, is why most professional services firms are still hovering well below the 20% female partner level. As long as men and women are treated exactly the same by organizations, most women will continue to be shut out of senior roles.

And yet for the past 30 years, managers have been taught to do just this: treat men and women exactly the same. That is considered the progressive thing to do. Any suggestion of difference was, and often still is, labelled a bias or a stereotype, especially by many women, eager to demonstrate that they are one of the guys, or the in-group. READ MORE: To Hold Women Back, Keep Treating Them Like Men | HBR.

2 Useful #Writing #Guides from HBR | #email #business

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A Quick Guide to Avoiding Common Writing Errors | Harvard Business Review
You’re looking at an e-mail you just wrote, and you’re not sure whether you have the right word: Do you want affect or effect? Further or farther? Gray or grey? Getting it wrong can make you look bad — people do judge you by the way you write — but you also don’t have all day to look up words. It helps to have an easy reference for the basics, bookmark some resources, and learn how to choose your battles.

The Essential Guide to Crafting a Work Email | Harvard Business Review
You, like me, probably rattle off emails quickly, all day (and sometimes all night) long. And that means the people receiving your emails are doing exactly the same thing. Whether this is good or bad for us, generally speaking, is an open question. But until we all get better at dealing with email overflow, how do you make sure the ones you send get noticed – and for reasons other than an unfortunate Freudian typo?

How Changing Your #Reading #Habits Can Transform Your #Health | Fast Company #books #wellness #psychology

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Reading doesn’t just improve your knowledge, it can help fight depression, make you more confident, empathetic, and a better decision maker. READ MORE: How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health | Fast Company | Business + Innovation.

Why I Write in #PowerPoint | HBR + Book Written Entirely In PowerPoint Aims To Reinvent How Businesses Communicate | FastCompany #business #communication

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When writing business documents (aside from emails), most people turn to word-processing software. That’s not the only option. You can do everything — outlines, drafts, revisions, and even layouts, if you’d like — in PowerPoint or similar presentation programs. That’s what I’ve used to write my books, internal documents, sales collateral, and web copy, for several reasons. READ MORE: Why I Write in PowerPoint | Harvard Business Review

Raise your hand if you like sitting through slide-show presentations. How about reading dense, jargony business documents? These are the staples of modern business communication, and yet they’re enjoyed by precisely no one. Enter Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design. Duarte thinks she can redesign business communication with Slidedocs, a new concept she defines as “a visual document, developed in presentation software, that is intended to be read and referenced instead of projected.” Think of it as a kind of a hybrid between slide-show presentations and prose documents—but one that eliminates the most annoying qualities of each. Duarte’s new book on Slidedocs, which she wrote entirely in PowerPoint, has just been released as a free download on her website. READ MORE: Book Written Entirely In PowerPoint Aims To Reinvent How Businesses Communicate | FastCompany

Using #SocialMedia Without Jeopardizing Your Career | HBR #careers #communications #business

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[E]ven those who have mastered the art of brevity in traditional business communication may have a tough time mastering online communication. Whether it’s email, chat, or a social network, word count isn’t just a matter of style—it’s often a technical requirement. Add to that the expectation that your online voice should sound conversational, engaging, or even funny, and communicating online may be the biggest (and certainly most frequently encountered) writing challenge that we face in business today. Here are some guidelines that can help make those messages productive and satisfying—rather than a liability. READ MORE: Using Social Media Without Jeopardizing Your Career | HBR.

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence #emotionalintelligence #EQ #psychology #softskills

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Volunteering in a public library and changing workplaces from the corporate world to academia and back again over the past five years has exposed me to different organizational cultures. These experiences have provided insight into the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) in your leaders and peers and how workplace culture influences your emotions and behaviour. I am really intrigued by emotional intelligence theory and believe in the value of understanding its application in our personal and work lives (supported by research). We can improve the way we interact with our peers and respond to conflict. Below, I have provided links to insightful articles on this topic for your enjoyment and professional development. I will continue to add articles to this post as I come across them in the news.

For Individuals

For Leaders

Want To Reduce Your Social Anxiety? Just Be Kind | Co.Exist #kindness #socialanxiety

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In my experience volunteering is an especially rewarding act of kindness activity. 

Focusing on other people, and not yourself, helps take the pressure off. READ: Want To Reduce Your Social Anxiety? Just Be Kind | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

What Happens When You Talk About #Salaries @Google | WIRED #women #genderequality #sexism #tech #compensation #pay

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READ IT: What Happens When You Talk About Salaries at Google | WIRED.

Everything Science Knows Right Now About #StandingDesks | Co.Design #treadmilldesks #activedesks #business

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If it wasn’t already clear through common sense, it’s become painfully clear through science that sitting all day is terrible for your health. What’s especially alarming about this evidence is that extra physical activity doesn’t seem to offset the costs of what researchers call “prolonged sedentary time.”

In response some people have turned to active desks—be it a standing workspace or even a treadmill desk—but the research on this recent trend has been too scattered to draw clear conclusions on its benefits (and potential drawbacks). At least until now. A trio of Canada-based researchers has analyzed the strongest 23 active desk studies to draw some conclusions on how standing and treadmill desks impact both physiological health and psychological performance. READ MORE: Everything Science Knows Right Now About Standing Desks | Co.Design | business + design.

30 Tips to Cultivate #SoftSkills in Your #Students | InformED #skills #education

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Preparing students for successful careers is a major part of every educator’s job, but most preservice and professional development programmes don’t cover the skills employers are currently seeking–things like “emergent” leadership, adaptability, humility, and ownership.

At Google, hiring managers don’t care whether a candidate received perfect grades, served as president of the chess club, or even finished university. What they do care about–and what a rapidly increasing number of organisations care about–is soft skills like the ones mentioned above.

We need to be giving students more than a sum of knowledge reflected by a piece of paper. We need to be giving them the tools they need to be resourceful in a socially perceptive way, to innovate not just alone in a lab but with a group of colleagues, and to adapt when new requirements arise. READ MORE: 30 Tips to Cultivate Soft Skills in Your Students | InformED.