This a fascinating article on peak experiences that help us thrive. So many leaders I work with have helping their people thrive and grow as their purpose. There are six key themes in the article for life - here's how they can apply at work. Leaders can help people:
When it comes to staying healthy, science shows that social connection is as important as diet and exercise… The Harvard Study of Adult Development has been minutely tracking the lives of some 724 original participants (and some of their descendants) since 1938. One of its biggest takeaways is that the greatest predictor of health and happiness isn’t a factor like cholesterol levels or blood pressure. It is the strength of a person’s social ties. But social fitness, one of the study’s directors said, is just like physical fitness: You must work at it. Harvard-trained social scientist and author Kasey Killam has a framework for doing so, calling it the 5-3-1 rule. At a minimum:
Framing things positively has enormous advantages… and there is one negative word you should consider banishing for good… If you ask someone at Disney what time the park closes, they don’t exactly tell you. What they say is that “the park is open until 10 PM.” This is an example of what Debra Jasper, CEO of Mindset Digital, refers to as “positive priming.” And she thinks it should be applied to virtually every interaction. “Start with what you can do, not what you can’t,” she advises. If a client asks if you can meet at 2 PM Tuesday, they do not care or want to hear that you are busy. Instead counter with when you can meet: “I can make Wednesday morning work.” Or, instead of saying, “I can’t get that to you until Friday,” try, “I can get that to you on Friday.” Above all, Jasper says, there is a word you might want to banish from your vocabulary. That word is unfortunately. If you look up synonyms for “unfortunate” you get words like “grievous”, “dreadful”, and “disagreeable.” Is this really the tone you want to set? The next time you are tempted to begin a communication with “Unfortunately, I can’t…”, pause and rethink. How can you frame this communication positively? Hint: Start with the words, “I can.” How often do you find yourself using the word “unfortunately” and what could be your substitute? A great share from the Glasers
Listening is a key leadership - and relationship skill - and one we are often not good at. Caroline Fleck has recently published a book, Validation, which outlines some of the key tools and techniques to actively listen. Leila Rosenberg summarised the key findings from the book as being.
This is a great post by the Glasers on an issue so many people have a problem with. One of the key elements of leadership is the ability to prioritise actions that improve the future, even when you are busy tactically now. Without doing this things never improve! So many of us are focused on doing mode — achieving goals and checking items off to-do lists. But better relationships, bigger-picture strategies, and creative thinking all depend on pausing and entering into spacious mode. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Megan Reitz of Oxford University’s Said Business School, and John Higgins, director of research at The Right Conversation, share their research-based tips for making it easier and safer to occasionally switch modes.
