The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Am I going to work on that personal project I’ve been talking about for months, or am I going to watch hours of Youtube and decide I deserve a no-floss day before falling asleep? In social psychology we’ve learned that the best guess for how many hours you will spend studying for an exam does not come from you, but rather from your good friend. Weirdly, our friends see us more objectively than we see ourselves. They see us simply– without considering our motivations, our hopes and dreams, our deep fears! They just see what we actually do… Our data is…
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What the quiet person on your team is thinking
Meetings are for talking and can become dominated by a few louder voices. As a manager trying to run an efficient meeting, it’s normal to take at face value what is being said. Unfortunately, social dynamics and culture can make communication more complicated than meets the eye. In many Western organizations, people who express their opinions the most are often rewarded. There is nothing particularly wrong with this, but if you want to engage and empower the diverse members of your team, it’s valuable to understand those who are speaking less. What does silence mean? What is the quiet person on your team thinking? They don’t feel that it is…
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5 Ways to Run a More Effective Meeting
We’ve all been in meetings that could have been an email… What is the value of a meeting if it can be easily replaced by a written notice? Yes, it is important to discern between sending an email or calling a meeting, but leaders often grievously underestimate the value of meetings and the steps it takes to have a successful one. When it’s the right time for one, here are 5 tips to run an actually effective meeting. 1. Prep! Lay the groundwork. Many leaders are confident of their ability to improvise, and we all know how little time there is in a day to commit to preparation. How much…
