If you were to create a mash-up profile of corporate America's most senior executives, it would unsurprisingly look something like this: A white man in his 50s with an MBA who has switched jobs every four years.
Still, a new study published this week in the Harvard Business Review, which provides a snapshot over time of the demographics and career trajectories of Fortune 100 executives, shows how much the boardroom is definitely changing...Read more in the Washington Post. (Thanks, Jordan)
Enter f.lux, a little piece of software that will (literally) change the way you look at your computer screen at night.
Here’s the gist: As the sun sets around you, f.lux will slowly change the coloring of your computer screen, turning the blue tones in the light more orange. Why does this matter? The blue light coming from your computer screen looks great during the day because it mimics natural sunlight. But at night when you’re relying on artificial light, it can be harsh on the eyes (and, as some research indicates, even disrupt your sleep cycle).Read more in the Daily Muse.
The positive affect of saying NO on your personal life
Do not fear the NO. ... The creative process is handicapped when you are playing dodge ball with bullshit you wish you had never committed to.
Trust your gut, your brain will thank you.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life …Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.- Steve Jobs.... Saying NO is not the equivalent of flipping a giant middle finger. It’s quite the opposite. It shows you have a vision, a plan, and an opinion.
The long hours and pervasive crisis atmosphere that characterize most foreign-policy workplaces aren't signs that Very Important Work is being done by Very Important People -- they're just signs of poor management. Good managers, whether they supervise air-traffic controllers, auto workers, or the National Security Staff, recognize that human beings function best when they work in humane and flexible conditions....
Do people in bad relationships escape to the relative sanctity of the office and devote more time to work, as has been hypothesized? Just the opposite, says a team led by Dana Unger of the University of Mannheim in Germany. People put more time in at work when their intimate relationships are going well, cutting back in order to invest in their relationships when things aren’t smooth at home, the researchers found in a diary study of 154 dual-earner couples. A healthy relationship at home gives people emotional, cognitive, and physical vigor, which allows them to put in more hours at work.Read more in HBR Daily Stat.
... The partnership comes during a renewed national conversation about women and work, spurred in part by the success of Ms. Sandberg’s book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s possible presidential campaign. Its message has the potential to reach a wide area of society, through Getty’s 2.4 million customers who pull from its library of 150 million images.
There is an appetite for the images: The three most-searched terms in Getty’s image database are “women,” “business” and “family.”
“One of the quickest ways to make people think differently about something is to change the visuals around it,” said Cindy Gallop, who started the United States branch of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the advertising agency. “The thing about these images is they work on an unconscious level to reinforce what people think people should be like.”Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, +Julia Chou)
You might have uttered the title of this post before — I know I did when I tried to quit smoking. And when I considered giving up meat, cheese, sugar, and more.
Quitting something can seem incredibly hard, so much so that we don’t even want to put ourselves through the suffering.
Have you tried giving up alcohol? Marijuana? Biting your nails? Complaining? Cigarettes? Junk food?
I can confirm that it’s hard to quit an addiction, but there are several things that stand in our way:
- The physical addiction — this is hard but it only lasts a few days. Fortunately, I can tell you that if you really put your mind to it, you can do anything hard for a few days.
- The reliance on it as a coping mechanism — this is a problem because we’re so used to using the addiction as a crutch when we’re stressed or sad or things are difficult or we need to socialize. Fortunately, there are plenty of other healthier ways to cope.
- You don’t believe you can do it. This is the worst one, because if you give in to this obstacle, the other two are not conquerable. Fortunately, this one is entirely self-caused, and so the solution is entirely within our hands.
Being able to manage energy is core to being a Centered Leader, but how many of us have been guilty of checking email on our phones just before going to bed? According to new research coming out of Michigan State University, people who monitored their smart phones for business purposes after 9 p.m. (as distinct from computers or laptops) were more tired and less engaged at work the following day.
The researchers had a couple of theories that could explain the phenomenon. The first revolves around "ego depletion" - we only have so much attention we're capable of giving and need alone-time to recharge. Missing that crucial rest period in the evening results in less focus and more lethargy the next day.
Their other hypothesis is that smartphones disrupt sleep. Many of us sleep with them next to our heads, so when they buzz or light up with new messages, they defer our dreams and REM cycles. Lack of sleep also contributes to lower glucose levels and metabolic rates in the brain's prefrontal cortex, an area linked to self-control.
So tonight, turn your phone off early, you'll feel better in the morning!Read more in FastCo. (Thanks, Grace)
... It turns out that for all their diversity, the strikingly successful groups in America today share three traits that, together, propel success. The first is a superiority complex — a deep-seated belief in their exceptionality. The second appears to be the opposite — insecurity, a feeling that you or what you’ve done is not good enough. The third is impulse control.Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, +John Griffin and Kevin)
"It’s not a pipeline problem. It’s about loneliness, competition and deeply rooted barriers." Read more in the NYT .
