Practice focused thinking
Concentration is a skill that requires practice. Adopt a hobby that will help you focus, like playing chess or practicing yoga.
Year: 2011
8 tips for holiday gift-giving at work
Perfume? Too personal. Coffee maker? Too expensive (unless it’s a group gift). The rules for gift-giving at work, in those offices that swap presents, are fairly straightforward. Here’s advice from experts:
Be a good listener
If a co-worker confides in you, recognize that she might only need to vent. Don’t offer advice unless asked. You can always answer, “I don’t believe I’m the best person to offer you advice on this subject.”
Incompetent, credit-grabbing suck-up paints me as a troublemaker
Question: “After joining a start-up company with only four employees, I developed a very bad relationship with one of them. This woman is incompetent and tries to steal other people’s ideas. She tells new employees about our past conflicts in order to turn them against me. She also sucks up to our manager by always being very agreeable with him. Whenever we have an argument, she plays the victim and cries in his office. Because he believes her, I’m now seen as the troublemaker on the team. How do I put a stop to her manipulative behavior?” —Treated Unfairly
Set the stage for brainstorming sessions
Defer judgment … The more ideas the better … Bosses, don’t hijack the discussion. These are among the top rules of a productive brainstorming session. Before a team even begins the meeting, though, be sure to set up the room for maximum effectiveness:
Set positive goals
When you declare an ambitious goal, state it in positive terms. Example: Replace “I want to stop losing my temper” with “I want to develop more patience.”
Look for what you can’t see
During World War II, the British Air Ministry tried to figure out why they’d had so many bomber losses. Engineers looked at every bullet hole on every bomber and decided to add armor plating to the areas with the most holes. It didn’t work. Enter Abraham Wald, a mathematician.
Shrink your “to read” pile
If your “later” piles or files keep mounting, set a time on your schedule each day or once a week to go through them.
Why ‘and’ is better than ‘but’
Use “and” instead of “but,” advises Joan Burge of Office Dynamics. Why? Using “but” sets up a negative that can make people defensive and less likely to listen.
Act as if your job depended on it
If your only choices were to tackle the dreaded assignment or lose the job, you’d do it. While you may not be fired for not completing the filing today, your career will suffer if you continually slack off. Make every task a do-it or lose-it proposition.