Quote of the week
With local body elections coming up, I was reminded of: The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winton Churchill
Psychology has identified three mindsets shared by people who actually follow through on their goals — Quartz
In my professional life, I work with schools to help struggling students re-engage with academics. One major focus is addressing students’ mindsets. According to the Chicago Consortium on School Reform (along with many other educational experts), three concepts influence whether students will persist when things get rough at school:
- The belief that hard work can and will lead to improvement
- Confidence that you, and people like you, belong in school and that it is a place where you can thrive
- The belief that what you are doing is valuable and relevant to your goals
How to Tackle Your Toughest Decisions
Every manager makes tough calls—it comes with the job. And the toughest calls come in the gray areas—situations where you and your team have worked hard to gather the facts and done the best analysis you can, but you still don’t know what to do. It’s easy to become paralyzed in the face of such challenges. Yet as a leader, you have to make a decision and move forward. Your judgment becomes critical.
The Two Minutes It Takes To Read This Will Improve Your Writing Forever — An Idea For You — Medium
You’re busy, so I’ll keep this quick. Following are the simplest tips I can give you to easily — and forever — improve the quality of your writing.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey All Use the 5-Hour Rule | Observer
In the article “Malcolm Gladwell Got Us Wrong,” the researchers behind the 10,000-Hour Rule set the record straight: Different fields require different amounts of deliberate practice in order for someone to become world-class.
If 10,000 hours isn’t an absolute rule that applies across fields, what does it really take to become world class in the world of work?
To Hold Someone Accountable, First Define What Accountable Means
At the end of a meeting, most leaders know that they should recap next steps and determine who is accountable for each. As prescribed in the commonly used responsibility models — RACI, RAPID, and the others — accountability should fall to one (and only one) person per item, even if the work involved requires input and contributions from others. Unfortunately, over the years we’ve spent advising organizations, we’ve found that the word “accountable” can mean different things to different people.