Work occupies an enormous amount of our lives. To be happy, we need to be happy at work. But unless you fall into the job of your dreams, this can be a challenge. It's hard to make sitting at a cubicle all seem fulfilling, and for many employers, employees happiness is a low priority compared to the bottom line.
For these reasons, I was surprised to learn that someone has built a career around happiness at work. Alexander Kjerulf has the gumption to stand in front of large groups of corporate employees and tell them how to be happier. He's also written a book titled Happy Hour is 9 to 5.
When Alex offered to interview with any blogger, I jumped at the chance. Here are the toughest questions I could muster.
Have you ever worked in a cubicle farm, or at any large company as a subordinate? If so, what was your experience?
In fact, I have. My very first job out of university was for Bang & Olufsen which make some of the world's best music systems and TVs. My job was as a software developer, and it was everything you could fear from a big corporation. The offices were an ugly, gray and uninspiring cubicle farmscape. The job was boring, everything mired in endless layers of bureaucracy. Every good idea had to be approved at three different meetings. The mood at the company was unhappy and cynical. Now, don't get me wrong, B & O make great products, and there are good reasons why they run software development the way they do, one of them being that it ensures a very low rate of errors. But I just didn't fit in. I lasted 6 months and then left for a job in a small consulting company where I was employee number 4. That was much more to my liking.
What would you say to someone who finds the work they do, of even the entire industry, to be terribly dull?
Well, you're facing a choice, aren't you? Stay where you are and make it fun or go somewhere else that is more likely to be fun. As long as you stay and accept dull work, you will never realize your full potential. You will never be a productive, creative, successful, fulfilled or happy as you could be if work was fun, energizing and inspiring.
What is the best way to deal with a boss that is just an awful person?
Again, there are two options. You can try to teach your boss a better way. I know many people don't think you can, but with most bosses it IS possible. A friend of mine has just done it. Her Boss' boss was constantly unpleasant, tough and never said a kind word to anyone. People always feared their weekly status meetings with him because he was so strict and always only gave people hell for the problems he saw. My friend went on a successful campaign to change him, and over the course of three months has taught him to appreciate good work, to praise people and to talk nicely.
However, with some bosses it just plain can't be done. As studies have shown, around 2% of the general population have psychopathic tendencies, and in business these people tend to concentrate in management positions. This means that around 5-10% of managers have psychopathic traits. You can't work with these people. They have no empathy and don't care about others. If that is your boss, run, don't walk, away from him. Find a new job inside the company or at another company. Oh, and read Bob Sutton's book, The No Asshole Rule, which describes what companies can do about jerks.
What would you recommend to someone who doesn't like working in an office in front of a computer everyday, but still wants job security and a good salary?
I'd say go for a job that makes you happy. Surprise! Seriously, many people seem to think that there is some built-in contradiction between being happy at work and making good money or having job security. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you love what you do, you're more likely to be very good at it, meaning you're more likely to make good money and be secure in your job. I know many people who were miserable in their jobs - and then lost them in a downsizing round.
How can someone break the monotony of working in an office and going through the same routine day after day?
There are about a million ways. One of my favorites is Random Acts of Workplace Kindness. Do something nice for a co-worker, for your team, for your department or for your employees. Bring someone a cup of coffee without them asking. Pass out candy at a meeting. Compliment people on their work. Ask people about their weekend. Anything that creates a fun mood and a real connection between people.
What is the hardest part of standing in front of a large group of employees and telling them they should be happy at work?
Hmmm... Tricky question. I love doing it so much that there are no hard parts about it. The hardest part is probably knowing that if I come in and do a bad job, I risk giving "happiness at work" a bad reputation at this company. Happiness at work will become something silly that people ridicule, rahter than something important that people work together to create. I'm very conscious of this responsibility, and try to do my very best every time.
Taken from Pickthebrain.com
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
An Olympic Lesson in Motivation
The saying goes: The expert in anything was once a beginner in everything. Truer words were never spoken. But this isn't what we see. This isn't what we feel when we watch these Olympians. It isn't what we think when we watch any expert or great success. We see the finished product, shining brightly in designer packaging. We see triumph and achievement, not training. We see the riches, not the rags. And this, as much as anything else, is why motivation - that inner drive that carries us toward all we desire - continues to escape us.
Today that comes to an end. Today I will open your eyes to a new way of viewing the changes you wish to carry out and the challenges that are attempting to stop you.
The Olympians we admire might possess unique physical talent and natural gifts, but that inner fire that compels them forward is within us all. It's time to set it free.
Authors Don't Write Books
Whether it's a friend who lost 40 pounds or a track star streaking across the screen, our eyes can only see what is in front of us. And more often than not, that picture of success is daunting. It's overwhelming, to see ourselves reaching those heights. No, it's more than that. It's unbelievable.
When we view success at its peak, we feel separated from it. We see ourselves as incapable of doing something similar.
Take a book, for instance.
Seeing a novel on a shelf leads to the same conclusion in the minds of anyone posed with the question: 'Oh, I could never write a book.' The view is all wrong. The reason? Authors don't write books.
What do Authors Write?
Authors don't write books; authors write words.
This is one of the most important ideas to understand. I know it sounds simple, but it separates those who progress from those who wish and wait.
We've already said that most see the finished product and feel overwhelmed by the prospect of achieving the same goal. If this occurred only when watching an Olympic athlete, there would be little issue. But that's not how it works. We get that same sense of inability when viewing any worthwhile achievement. Losing weight, finding a new career, starting a business or new relationship, overcoming personal debt - these are outcomes millions wish to pursue but don't believe they can achieve.
They can't see past the finished product.
To get motivated, to truly ignite your drive, you must see your goals as achievable. You must believe in yourself and your abilities. You must see success, not as a matter of unattainable greatness, but merely as a matter of time.
Losing weight begins with a single decision. Finding the job you love begins with a single Google search. And starting a new relationship begins with a single look.
The world is built upon blocks, not one massive stone. One step, one movement, one decision, one action. These are the things that feed success. These are the things that you can do today.
Taken from motivation123.com
Today that comes to an end. Today I will open your eyes to a new way of viewing the changes you wish to carry out and the challenges that are attempting to stop you.
The Olympians we admire might possess unique physical talent and natural gifts, but that inner fire that compels them forward is within us all. It's time to set it free.
Authors Don't Write Books
Whether it's a friend who lost 40 pounds or a track star streaking across the screen, our eyes can only see what is in front of us. And more often than not, that picture of success is daunting. It's overwhelming, to see ourselves reaching those heights. No, it's more than that. It's unbelievable.
When we view success at its peak, we feel separated from it. We see ourselves as incapable of doing something similar.
Take a book, for instance.
Seeing a novel on a shelf leads to the same conclusion in the minds of anyone posed with the question: 'Oh, I could never write a book.' The view is all wrong. The reason? Authors don't write books.
What do Authors Write?
Authors don't write books; authors write words.
This is one of the most important ideas to understand. I know it sounds simple, but it separates those who progress from those who wish and wait.
We've already said that most see the finished product and feel overwhelmed by the prospect of achieving the same goal. If this occurred only when watching an Olympic athlete, there would be little issue. But that's not how it works. We get that same sense of inability when viewing any worthwhile achievement. Losing weight, finding a new career, starting a business or new relationship, overcoming personal debt - these are outcomes millions wish to pursue but don't believe they can achieve.
They can't see past the finished product.
To get motivated, to truly ignite your drive, you must see your goals as achievable. You must believe in yourself and your abilities. You must see success, not as a matter of unattainable greatness, but merely as a matter of time.
Losing weight begins with a single decision. Finding the job you love begins with a single Google search. And starting a new relationship begins with a single look.
The world is built upon blocks, not one massive stone. One step, one movement, one decision, one action. These are the things that feed success. These are the things that you can do today.
Taken from motivation123.com
Monday, March 28, 2011
33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity
Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve problems. When a problem is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows you to begin making progress towards a solution even though you can't visualize the entire path from your starting point.
Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a mountain, but there's no trail to follow. An example of a heuristic would be: Head directly towards the peak until you reach an obstacle you can't cross. Whenever you reach such an obstacle, follow it around to the right until you're able to head towards the peak once again. This isn't the most intelligent or comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will work just fine, and you'll eventually reach the peak.
Heuristics don't guarantee you'll find the optimal solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at all. But they do a good job of solving certain types of problems to be useful. Their strength is that they break the deadlock of indecision and get you into action. As you take action you begin to explore the solution space, which deepens your understanding of the problem. As you gain knowledge about the problem, you can make course corrections along the way, gradually improving your chances of finding a solution. If you try to solve a problem you don't initially know how to solve, you'll often figure out a solution as you go, one you never could have imagined until you started moving. This is especially true with creative work such as software development. Often you don't even know exactly what you're trying to build until you start building it.
Heuristics have many practical applications, and one of my favorite areas of application is personal productivity. Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help us get things done more efficiently. Here are some of my favorites:
Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a mountain, but there's no trail to follow. An example of a heuristic would be: Head directly towards the peak until you reach an obstacle you can't cross. Whenever you reach such an obstacle, follow it around to the right until you're able to head towards the peak once again. This isn't the most intelligent or comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will work just fine, and you'll eventually reach the peak.
Heuristics don't guarantee you'll find the optimal solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at all. But they do a good job of solving certain types of problems to be useful. Their strength is that they break the deadlock of indecision and get you into action. As you take action you begin to explore the solution space, which deepens your understanding of the problem. As you gain knowledge about the problem, you can make course corrections along the way, gradually improving your chances of finding a solution. If you try to solve a problem you don't initially know how to solve, you'll often figure out a solution as you go, one you never could have imagined until you started moving. This is especially true with creative work such as software development. Often you don't even know exactly what you're trying to build until you start building it.
Heuristics have many practical applications, and one of my favorite areas of application is personal productivity. Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help us get things done more efficiently. Here are some of my favorites:
- Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it. If it doesn't need to be done, get it off your to do list.
- Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it's too easy to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you'll do; then do it.
- Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
- Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
- No-comm zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where you must concentrate. Schedule light, interruptible tasks for your open-comm periods and more challenging projects for your no-comm periods.
- Mini-milestones. When you begin a task, identify the target you must reach before you can stop working. For example, when working on a book, you could decide not to get up until you've written at least 1000 words. Hit your target no matter what.
- Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task. Don't worry about how far you get. Just put in the time.
- Batching. Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk, and knock them off in a single session.
- Early bird. Get up early in the morning, like at 5 AM, and go straight to work on your most important task. You can often get more done before 8 AM than most people do in a day.
- Cone of silence. Take a laptop with no network or WiFi access, and go to a place where you can work flat out without distractions, such as a library, park, coffee house, or your own back yard. Leave your comm gadgets behind.
- Tempo. Deliberately pick up the pace, and try to move a little faster than usual. Speak faster. Walk faster. Type faster. Read faster. Go home sooner.
- Relaxify. Reduce stress by cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace.
- Agendas. Provide clear written agendas to meeting participants in advance. This greatly improves meeting focus and efficiency. You can use it for phone calls too.
- Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort. Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don't overengineer the non-critical 80%.
- Ready-fire-aim. Bust procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the action isn't perfectly planned. You can always adjust the course along the way.
- Minuteman. Once you have the information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision. Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear choice. Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.
- Deadline. Set a deadline for task completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on track.
- Promise. Tell others of your commitments, since they'll help hold you accountable.
- Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show up on time. Arrive early.
- Gap reading. Use reading to fill in those periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line, or while the coffee is brewing. If you're a male, you can even read an article while shaving (preferably with an electric razor). That's 365 articles a year.
- Resonance. Visualize your goal as already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make it real in your mind, and you'll soon see it in your reality.
- Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent rewards for achievement. See a movie, book a professional massage, or spend a day at an amusement park.
- Quad 2. Separate the truly important tasks from the merely urgent. Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical exercise, writing a book, and finding a relationship partner.
- Continuum. At the end of your workday, identify the first task you'll work on the next day, and set out the materials in advance. The next day begin working on that task immediately.
- Slice and dice. Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing just one of those tasks.
- Single-handling. Once you begin a task, stick with it until it's 100% complete. Don't switch tasks in the middle. When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
- Randomize. Pick a totally random piece of a larger project, and complete it. Pay one random bill. Make one phone call. Write page 42 of your book.
- Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism by completing your task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing you need never share the results with anyone. Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a hideously dysfunctional website, or create a business plan that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy. With a truly horrendous first draft, there's nowhere to go but up.
- 30 days. Identify a new habit you'd like to form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days. A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one.
- Delegate. Convince someone else to do it for you.
- Cross-pollenation. Sign up for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group. You'll often encounter ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.
- Intuition. Go with your gut instinct. It's probably right.
- Optimization. Identify the processes you use most often, and write them down step-by-step. Refactor them on paper for greater efficiency. Then implement and test your improved processes. Sometimes we just can't see what's right in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.
Taken from stevepavalina.com Written by Steve Pavlina.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
My Uncomfortable Secret to Motivation
A five-letter word is my secret.
As you probably know, routine casts a trance-like power with devastating impact. As a result, it is an absolute necessity to break free of its grasp. If you can't find a way out of this vicious pattern and into a new set of thoughts, feelings, and actions, you have no hope of changing or improving your life.
Consider this five-letter word my guaranteed release.
Working with remarkable speed, it personally shakes me out of autopilot, delivers an eye-opening wake-up call, and motivates me with more force than anything I know.
Not bad for a five-letter word.
My hope - and assumption - is that it will have the same positive effect on you.
The Word, My Release
I know a time will come when I'll no longer be able to act on the things I want, the things I've dreamed about experiencing and things I've always wished to become. I will have to let them go. I will have to let go of all those exciting ideas I tossed about in my mind, all the goals carefully constructed while daydreaming. They will have to be put to rest, once and for all. And I will never experience them.
Never.
This is a frightening thought for me. It is startling, can be gut-wrenching, and tip-toes toward terrifying. But it's also something else. And it's here, on the other side of the coin, that I find my secret.
The Flip-Side of the Word
Coming to grips with reality can be scary.
So much so, that most men and women choose the other door. They hide from the truth and tuck their dreams into the fairytale 'someday.'
'I'll do it someday...someday.'
A sigh of relief follows and it's back to the safe and comfy routine. No need to face fears, no need to rise to challenges, no need to take action. That will all happen someday - but not today.
If only this were true. It is not.
Here is the truth: Someday eventually meets the edge of the cliff. Someday eventually runs out. Someday eventually turns into never.
Frightening? Perhaps. But it's also your way out. It's also your release from the routine that strangles your hopes and dreams. By focusing intently - and I mean intently - on 'never,' in regard to your lifelong wishes and wants, you will be shocked out of your pattern of procrastination and jolted into a new mindset.
You'll have the motivation you need to stop hesitating because you know, without question, if you keep it up, you'll never experience the life you've been waiting for all these years.
Without action, talk is only noise. Below is what I do in particular to get the most out of this five-letter word. It's something you can do, anytime and any place, to dismantle procrastination and ignite your inner drive.
Action Steps - Short and Sweet
Think of something you want. Not a lip-service dream, but something you truly desire, something either for yourself or for someone else.
Our results have shown that people imagine themselves experiencing the joys of progress or success when asked to think of a goal.
This time I want you to do the opposite.
I want you to imagine, vividly, that your idea, your chosen dream or goal, cannot happen. No matter what you do, you'll never get it. Never. Never.
If you do it right, you'll feel anxious, like you have to get up out of your seat right now and do something before time runs out. This is the power of 'never.'
Don't hide from the truth. Let it smack you in the face and punch you in the gut. Only then can it snap you out of the routine and drive you into action. Only then can it change your life.
If you don't do something now, you may never do it then.
Never hide, never avoid, never run from 'never.' Use it as a fire to place beneath your greatest ideas and accept it as a truth that can set you free.
Embrace...'never.'
Taken from Motivation123.com
As you probably know, routine casts a trance-like power with devastating impact. As a result, it is an absolute necessity to break free of its grasp. If you can't find a way out of this vicious pattern and into a new set of thoughts, feelings, and actions, you have no hope of changing or improving your life.
Consider this five-letter word my guaranteed release.
Working with remarkable speed, it personally shakes me out of autopilot, delivers an eye-opening wake-up call, and motivates me with more force than anything I know.
Not bad for a five-letter word.
My hope - and assumption - is that it will have the same positive effect on you.
The Word, My Release
I know a time will come when I'll no longer be able to act on the things I want, the things I've dreamed about experiencing and things I've always wished to become. I will have to let them go. I will have to let go of all those exciting ideas I tossed about in my mind, all the goals carefully constructed while daydreaming. They will have to be put to rest, once and for all. And I will never experience them.
Never.
This is a frightening thought for me. It is startling, can be gut-wrenching, and tip-toes toward terrifying. But it's also something else. And it's here, on the other side of the coin, that I find my secret.
The Flip-Side of the Word
Coming to grips with reality can be scary.
So much so, that most men and women choose the other door. They hide from the truth and tuck their dreams into the fairytale 'someday.'
'I'll do it someday...someday.'
A sigh of relief follows and it's back to the safe and comfy routine. No need to face fears, no need to rise to challenges, no need to take action. That will all happen someday - but not today.
If only this were true. It is not.
Here is the truth: Someday eventually meets the edge of the cliff. Someday eventually runs out. Someday eventually turns into never.
Frightening? Perhaps. But it's also your way out. It's also your release from the routine that strangles your hopes and dreams. By focusing intently - and I mean intently - on 'never,' in regard to your lifelong wishes and wants, you will be shocked out of your pattern of procrastination and jolted into a new mindset.
You'll have the motivation you need to stop hesitating because you know, without question, if you keep it up, you'll never experience the life you've been waiting for all these years.
Without action, talk is only noise. Below is what I do in particular to get the most out of this five-letter word. It's something you can do, anytime and any place, to dismantle procrastination and ignite your inner drive.
Action Steps - Short and Sweet
Think of something you want. Not a lip-service dream, but something you truly desire, something either for yourself or for someone else.
Our results have shown that people imagine themselves experiencing the joys of progress or success when asked to think of a goal.
This time I want you to do the opposite.
I want you to imagine, vividly, that your idea, your chosen dream or goal, cannot happen. No matter what you do, you'll never get it. Never. Never.
If you do it right, you'll feel anxious, like you have to get up out of your seat right now and do something before time runs out. This is the power of 'never.'
Don't hide from the truth. Let it smack you in the face and punch you in the gut. Only then can it snap you out of the routine and drive you into action. Only then can it change your life.
If you don't do something now, you may never do it then.
Never hide, never avoid, never run from 'never.' Use it as a fire to place beneath your greatest ideas and accept it as a truth that can set you free.
Embrace...'never.'
Taken from Motivation123.com
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Science of Motivation
What motivates you?
While there are thousands, millions, maybe billions of answers to that question, a growing body of research, some of it dating back 50 years, shows two things that don't motivate us very well - the promise of rewards and the threat of punishment.
It seems counter-intuitive, since after all we take it for granted that we need incentives to do work. It's the basis for whole economic systems, for crying out loud! And yet, the research is abundantly clear: once a reasonable standard of living is achieved, rewards and punishment not only don't motivate us to do more, better, or faster, they often demotivate us.
One classic example of this is a study involving lawyers asked to provide legal services for low income persons. One group was asked to do so for a low fee, $10 or $20 an hour, while the other was asked to do so for free. Interestingly, the subjects asked to provide services for a fraction of their typical rate were unwilling to do so, while those asked to do so for free were overwhelmingly willing. By offering a small fee, the subjects were actually less motivated, since they could only think of the work in relation to their normal, much larger fees. The other subjects were not pushed to think about their work as an economic transaction (in which the fee was nothing) and so were able to imagine other ways in which the work itself was its own reward.
Rewards force us to consider our work in a limited way, even work that we might gain great satisfaction from doing without the promise of reward. In fact, offering incentives can limit not only one's perception of the work but one's ability to even do the work. Consider the "candle problem" (watch author Dan Pink's TED talk on the candle problem on YouTube for more information). Subjects are seated at a table against a wall, given a candle, some matches, and a box of tacks, and told to work out a way to burn the candle without getting wax on the table. In one study, one group was offered money for figuring the puzzle out, while the other wasn't - and the subjects who were not offered any reward did remarkably better.
(The solution, by the way, is to empty the box of tacks and set the candle up inside the box - most people ignore the box at first, because they see it only as a holder for the tacks and not as part of the equipment available to them. People working for a reward have a much harder time making the creative leap to seeing the box as part of the puzzle than people who are not being incentivized except by the pleasure of solving the puzzle itself.)
I should clarify here: it should be clear by now that it's not rewards in the abstract that demotivate us, it's rewards that are external to the task at hand. We are actually very easily motivated by any sort of challenging work, which is why so many of our hobbies involve complex problem-solving (working on motorcycles, woodworking, gourmet cooking, reading mysteries, sailing, training pets, collecting rare things, fantasy sports, and so on). But when someone else offers us money (or some other reward) to complete the same problems, it gets shunted into the category of "work" and our creativity shuts down.
The trick to motivation, then, is to find the intrinsic reward in our work and to enjoy it. Note that this doesn't mean that nobody should ever accept money for anything - before our drive for mastery and personal challenge lies our drive to survive! But there's a reason why so many painters are willing to suffer for their art while so few people are willing to become hobby investment bankers - one kind of work has its own intrinsic motivation while the other, except for a very rare few of us, does not.
Knowing all that, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself motivated.
While there are thousands, millions, maybe billions of answers to that question, a growing body of research, some of it dating back 50 years, shows two things that don't motivate us very well - the promise of rewards and the threat of punishment.
It seems counter-intuitive, since after all we take it for granted that we need incentives to do work. It's the basis for whole economic systems, for crying out loud! And yet, the research is abundantly clear: once a reasonable standard of living is achieved, rewards and punishment not only don't motivate us to do more, better, or faster, they often demotivate us.
One classic example of this is a study involving lawyers asked to provide legal services for low income persons. One group was asked to do so for a low fee, $10 or $20 an hour, while the other was asked to do so for free. Interestingly, the subjects asked to provide services for a fraction of their typical rate were unwilling to do so, while those asked to do so for free were overwhelmingly willing. By offering a small fee, the subjects were actually less motivated, since they could only think of the work in relation to their normal, much larger fees. The other subjects were not pushed to think about their work as an economic transaction (in which the fee was nothing) and so were able to imagine other ways in which the work itself was its own reward.
Rewards force us to consider our work in a limited way, even work that we might gain great satisfaction from doing without the promise of reward. In fact, offering incentives can limit not only one's perception of the work but one's ability to even do the work. Consider the "candle problem" (watch author Dan Pink's TED talk on the candle problem on YouTube for more information). Subjects are seated at a table against a wall, given a candle, some matches, and a box of tacks, and told to work out a way to burn the candle without getting wax on the table. In one study, one group was offered money for figuring the puzzle out, while the other wasn't - and the subjects who were not offered any reward did remarkably better.
(The solution, by the way, is to empty the box of tacks and set the candle up inside the box - most people ignore the box at first, because they see it only as a holder for the tacks and not as part of the equipment available to them. People working for a reward have a much harder time making the creative leap to seeing the box as part of the puzzle than people who are not being incentivized except by the pleasure of solving the puzzle itself.)
I should clarify here: it should be clear by now that it's not rewards in the abstract that demotivate us, it's rewards that are external to the task at hand. We are actually very easily motivated by any sort of challenging work, which is why so many of our hobbies involve complex problem-solving (working on motorcycles, woodworking, gourmet cooking, reading mysteries, sailing, training pets, collecting rare things, fantasy sports, and so on). But when someone else offers us money (or some other reward) to complete the same problems, it gets shunted into the category of "work" and our creativity shuts down.
The trick to motivation, then, is to find the intrinsic reward in our work and to enjoy it. Note that this doesn't mean that nobody should ever accept money for anything - before our drive for mastery and personal challenge lies our drive to survive! But there's a reason why so many painters are willing to suffer for their art while so few people are willing to become hobby investment bankers - one kind of work has its own intrinsic motivation while the other, except for a very rare few of us, does not.
Knowing all that, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself motivated.
- Have a mission. Perhaps the singles most motivating factor in our lives is the sense we are fulfilling a greater purpose. That's why lawyers will do for free what they won't do for cheap - the sense that they're contributing to something greater than themselves. A lot of people have taken a page from the corporate world and written a short, one- or at most two-sentence mission statement, against which their actions can be evaluated. If your mission is, for example, "to make the world a better place" (which is maybe too vague to be all that effective, but it'll do for illustration purposes) then knowing that some task is helping to make the world better can be very motivating, indeed!
- Measure improvement. While work that engages with the rest of the world can be very intrinsically rewarding and thus very motivating, so too can work that makes us better people. Personal growth is an important motivating factor. But most of us take little time to determine just what constitutes being "better" - we set goals like "be more moral," "spend more time with family," or "do my job better" but those aren't very powerful motivators because they are not concrete. This is the idea behind S.M.A.R.T. goals, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Set goals whose progress you can measure - according to whatever metric matters most to you! - and keep track of your progress.
- Make learning a primary goal. An important part of personal growth is achieving or moving towards mastery - of a body of knowledge, of a tool or system, of a particular task. Work that helps us move closer to mastery is generally rewarding in its own right. But it's not always clear what, if anything, we're learning. So I'd like to borrow an idea from marketing "guru" Seth Godin. Godin advises readers of business books, to "Decide, before you start, that you're going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you're reading, find the three things and do it." This can apply to just about anything: ask yourself, as you start a new project or a new job or anything else, "What three things am I going to learn from doing this?" This will put you in a mastery frame of mind so that you're aware of the learning you're doing as you move through your various tasks.
- Examine your life. Alan Webber, the founder of Fast Company, keeps two lists in his pocket on index cards. One is the list of things that get him up in the morning, the other of things that keep him awake at night. Ask yourself what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what keeps you up at night. If your answers are positive things, you're in pretty good shape - but if they're not, you're begging for a motivation problem. When you get out of bed eager to tackle the challenges of the day, and lay awake at night dreaming up new challenges, new projects, and new directions to take your life in, motivation comes pretty easily!
- Separate work from rewards. This is a tough one, because we often battle procrastination by depriving ourselves of something positive and promising ourselves we can have it once we've gotten some work done. The problem is that it paints the work we're doing as something undesirable, something we wouldn't do unless we had that grand latte, trip to the mall, or afternoon swim as a reward. In his classic, The Now Habit, Neil Fiore suggests that procrastination comes not from the nature of the work but from our relationship with it - work we see as drudgery that we have to do in order to get something we want is ripe for procrastination. Instead, he suggests we change the very language we use to talk about our work, emphasizing that we choose to work on a task or project. Work we choose to do - like hobbies - rarely suffers from motivation problems!
With all that we've discovered about what motivates people, it will be interesting to see how businesses, who have until now depended on perks, stock options, and other bonuses to increase motivation, will adapt. It's become clear that, while rewards and punishments might have increased productivity on the factory floor, it actually hinders the kind of knowledge work that makes up the vast bulk of our economy these days. Already a few companies are experimenting, quite successfully, with ways of helping employees to discover intrinsic rewards of their own work - Google's 20% time, which gives engineers one day a week to work on whatever project they choose and which has resulted in products crucial to the company as Gmail, AdSense, and Google News, is one prominent example - most managers remain convinced that their employees will never do work without the promise of a reward or the threat of punishment.
Which is kind of a sad commentary on all of our lives, isn't it?
Taken from Lifehack.com Written by Dustin Wax
Friday, March 25, 2011
Women Who Display Masculine Traits - and Know When Not to - Get More Promotions than Men
In the business world, women who are aggressive, assertive, and confident but who can turn these traits on and off depending on the social circumstances get more promotions than either men or other women, according to a recent study coming out of Stanford Graduate School of Business, by Olivia O'Neill and Charles O'Reilly.
The research suggests that for women to be successful they must simultaneously present themselves as self-confident and dominant while tempering these qualities with displays of communal characteristics. "Women may have a ways to go, but their ability to be flexible in how they behave is leading to some extraordinary results. Some women are starting to go very high in the managerial ranks using this strategic approach," concludes Olivia O'Neill, PhD '05, assistant professor of management at George Mason University who coauthored the article with Charles O'Reilly, Frank E Buck professor of human resources management and organization behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Using comprehensive interview, survey, and observational data from 132 business school graduates over 8 years, the researchers found that certain women high in "masculine traits" - defined as aggressiveness, assertiveness, and confidence - were also able to "self-monitor" their behavior. "These women were able to be chameleons, to fit into their environment by assessing social situations and adapting their actions accordingly," explains O'Neill.
Masculine women who were high self-monitors did quite well professionally, according to the study. They received 1.5 times more promotions than masculine men, and about two times as many promotions as feminine men, regardless of whether the men were high or low self-monitors. They also received 3 times as many promotions as masculine women who were low self-monitors, affirming that masculine behavior alone does not garner success.
"The interesting thing here is that being able to regulate one's masculine behavior does not simply put women on par with men, it gives them even more of an advantage," notes O'Neill. "This shows that for women who do want success at the managerial level, the paths are there."
The study also showed that self-monitoring masculine women received 1.5 times as many promotions as feminine women, regardless of whether those women were high or low self-monitors. "There is no evidence that 'acting like a lady' does anything except make women more well liked," O'Neill said. "Women with ultra-feminine traits, in fact, are still seen as less competent in traditional managerial settings."
The effect of managing "masculine" traits is significant, say the researchers, since it can have a noticeable effect on success early in women's careers. Even small differences in success rates at the beginning of one's career have large long-term effects. They postulate that as more and more women understand and adopt the behavior pattern they describe, the lower percentages of women currently in the upper managerial ranks could reverse out over time. The study resolves the conundrum that has plagued women in the business arena: To be successful, you must be assertive and confident, but if you are aggressive as a woman you are sometimes punished for behaving in ways that are contrary to the feminine stereotype. Such negative response to assertive women has been labeled the "backlash effect."
The paper follows upon an earlier study by O'Neill and O'Reilly, using the same data set, in which they determined that learned behavior patterns - not biological sex - may be the greatest determinant of workplace success as measured by salary and promotion.
Taken from www.gsb.stanford.edu Written by Marguertite Rigoglioso
The research suggests that for women to be successful they must simultaneously present themselves as self-confident and dominant while tempering these qualities with displays of communal characteristics. "Women may have a ways to go, but their ability to be flexible in how they behave is leading to some extraordinary results. Some women are starting to go very high in the managerial ranks using this strategic approach," concludes Olivia O'Neill, PhD '05, assistant professor of management at George Mason University who coauthored the article with Charles O'Reilly, Frank E Buck professor of human resources management and organization behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Using comprehensive interview, survey, and observational data from 132 business school graduates over 8 years, the researchers found that certain women high in "masculine traits" - defined as aggressiveness, assertiveness, and confidence - were also able to "self-monitor" their behavior. "These women were able to be chameleons, to fit into their environment by assessing social situations and adapting their actions accordingly," explains O'Neill.
Masculine women who were high self-monitors did quite well professionally, according to the study. They received 1.5 times more promotions than masculine men, and about two times as many promotions as feminine men, regardless of whether the men were high or low self-monitors. They also received 3 times as many promotions as masculine women who were low self-monitors, affirming that masculine behavior alone does not garner success.
"The interesting thing here is that being able to regulate one's masculine behavior does not simply put women on par with men, it gives them even more of an advantage," notes O'Neill. "This shows that for women who do want success at the managerial level, the paths are there."
The study also showed that self-monitoring masculine women received 1.5 times as many promotions as feminine women, regardless of whether those women were high or low self-monitors. "There is no evidence that 'acting like a lady' does anything except make women more well liked," O'Neill said. "Women with ultra-feminine traits, in fact, are still seen as less competent in traditional managerial settings."
The effect of managing "masculine" traits is significant, say the researchers, since it can have a noticeable effect on success early in women's careers. Even small differences in success rates at the beginning of one's career have large long-term effects. They postulate that as more and more women understand and adopt the behavior pattern they describe, the lower percentages of women currently in the upper managerial ranks could reverse out over time. The study resolves the conundrum that has plagued women in the business arena: To be successful, you must be assertive and confident, but if you are aggressive as a woman you are sometimes punished for behaving in ways that are contrary to the feminine stereotype. Such negative response to assertive women has been labeled the "backlash effect."
The paper follows upon an earlier study by O'Neill and O'Reilly, using the same data set, in which they determined that learned behavior patterns - not biological sex - may be the greatest determinant of workplace success as measured by salary and promotion.
Taken from www.gsb.stanford.edu Written by Marguertite Rigoglioso
Thursday, March 24, 2011
How to Increase Your Willpower
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt
This quote embodies everything I know about willpower. It displays what we as people are capable of when we are pushed to the nth degree. While this quote is indeed powerful, most of us still don't understand how to increase our willpower. Whenever we perceive even a little step in the wrong direction, it becomes the end of the world. Such thinking cannot yield good results. Remember that you have to always...I can not stress this enough. No matter how long it takes and how beaten you may feel, you must try and try again. You'll never know how much you can handle if you don't put your limits to a test. How many times does it take for a baby to stand up before he or she finally does? How long do great athletes, actors, writers, composers, first-time mothers and fathers practice before they finally get it right? How much heartache do you have to feel until you finally feel true love? You will never know if you do not try. The very act of trying itself increases your willpower because it instills in your mind that you can do it; that you can succeed.
Eliminate negative influences
Who has not felt the sting or hurt when someone you thought supported you, in fact, actually didn't? You are not the first one to be criticized. People deconstructively criticize what they do not understand. If you come from a long line of farmers and you have big dreams to be a "hot-shot lawyer," expect some backlash. If your friends are all planning to work in the same field, but you choose another, I bet you dollars to donuts that at least a few of them will look down on you. Cut them loose if you have to. There is no way a negative influence has ever made a person successful (except in defiance of that said influence). Listen only to constructive criticism that help you learn and grow as a person.
Seek out those who you resonate with
You may think you have achieved great willpower, but nothing can push it ever higher than surrounding yourself with those who are similar to you. In times of sheer doubt, they can fish you out of your pit of despair. When you achieve the little goals, they will revel with you in your glory. When they are down for the count, it will be your job to push them back up. What you can accomplish alone will be amplified when you put great minds together. To have someone always there to drive you forward makes you feel as if you've promised them to endure what lies ahead.
Realize defeat, but never accept it
Those who know defeat are the ones that have the most willpower. After their long line of defeats they will always say, "but the day I was about to quit, I decided to try one more time..." There will always be days when defeat rears it's head, but that doesn't mean you should accept it. Even when it seems as if you are making no headway, stop and think about how far you've come. The effort you put in beforehand has made you who you are now. Learn from your defeats, but act immediately afterwards to redeem yourself.
It has been said that confidence cannot be faked; that you must fake it until you make it. This is not the case in willpower. You cannot fake effort or will. All the hardships, all of the constant forward trudging: it's all real. As long as you keep acting positively, you can be sure to achieve anything you put your mind to.
Give up. Quit. Can't. These words should not exist in your vocabulary.
Taken from Pickthebrain.com Written by John Anyasor.
This quote embodies everything I know about willpower. It displays what we as people are capable of when we are pushed to the nth degree. While this quote is indeed powerful, most of us still don't understand how to increase our willpower. Whenever we perceive even a little step in the wrong direction, it becomes the end of the world. Such thinking cannot yield good results. Remember that you have to always...I can not stress this enough. No matter how long it takes and how beaten you may feel, you must try and try again. You'll never know how much you can handle if you don't put your limits to a test. How many times does it take for a baby to stand up before he or she finally does? How long do great athletes, actors, writers, composers, first-time mothers and fathers practice before they finally get it right? How much heartache do you have to feel until you finally feel true love? You will never know if you do not try. The very act of trying itself increases your willpower because it instills in your mind that you can do it; that you can succeed.
Eliminate negative influences
Who has not felt the sting or hurt when someone you thought supported you, in fact, actually didn't? You are not the first one to be criticized. People deconstructively criticize what they do not understand. If you come from a long line of farmers and you have big dreams to be a "hot-shot lawyer," expect some backlash. If your friends are all planning to work in the same field, but you choose another, I bet you dollars to donuts that at least a few of them will look down on you. Cut them loose if you have to. There is no way a negative influence has ever made a person successful (except in defiance of that said influence). Listen only to constructive criticism that help you learn and grow as a person.
Seek out those who you resonate with
You may think you have achieved great willpower, but nothing can push it ever higher than surrounding yourself with those who are similar to you. In times of sheer doubt, they can fish you out of your pit of despair. When you achieve the little goals, they will revel with you in your glory. When they are down for the count, it will be your job to push them back up. What you can accomplish alone will be amplified when you put great minds together. To have someone always there to drive you forward makes you feel as if you've promised them to endure what lies ahead.
Realize defeat, but never accept it
Those who know defeat are the ones that have the most willpower. After their long line of defeats they will always say, "but the day I was about to quit, I decided to try one more time..." There will always be days when defeat rears it's head, but that doesn't mean you should accept it. Even when it seems as if you are making no headway, stop and think about how far you've come. The effort you put in beforehand has made you who you are now. Learn from your defeats, but act immediately afterwards to redeem yourself.
It has been said that confidence cannot be faked; that you must fake it until you make it. This is not the case in willpower. You cannot fake effort or will. All the hardships, all of the constant forward trudging: it's all real. As long as you keep acting positively, you can be sure to achieve anything you put your mind to.
Give up. Quit. Can't. These words should not exist in your vocabulary.
Taken from Pickthebrain.com Written by John Anyasor.
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