Psychologists have long noticed what’s sometimes been called the “labor illusion:” when it comes to judging other people’s work, we might say we’re focused only on whether they did the job quickly and well—but really we want to feel they wore themselves out for us. The behavioral economist Dan Ariely tells the story of a locksmith, […]
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little […]
You’ve done the hard part. You studied hard, decided which industry to explore, created an impressive resume, interviewed for various roles and finally landed the internship! Oh wait. That wasn’t the hard part – that was just the beginning. Now that you’ve got the gig, you have to perform. That means knocking out your daily duties […]
The measure of the executive, Peter F. Drucker reminds us, is the ability to “get the right things done.” This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold […]
Richard Petty, a psychology professor at Ohio State University has spent decades studying confidence. He defines confidence as, “The stuff that turns thoughts into actions. Why? Because confidence first turns our thoughts into judgements about what we are capable of, and then transforms those judgements into actions. Action is confidence’s essential ingredient because confidence is […]
For more than three decades, Zig Ziglar, one of the great motivators of our age, traveled the world, encouraging, uplifting, and inspiring audiences. His groundbreaking best seller, See You at the Top, remains an authentic American classic. Its basic premise-that you can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get […]
What motivates us to do great work? It’s an age-old question. But the age-old answers – rewards, recognition, money, stability – no longer seem to suffice. As we’ve shifted to a knowledge-based economy, it turns out that what drives us has shifted, too. Recent research reveals that when creative thinking is part and parcel of […]
In Thrive, Arianna Huffington makes an impassioned and compelling case for the need to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world. Arianna Huffington’s personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye — the result of a fall brought on by exhaustion and […]
It’s an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. With the rise of two-income families, extreme jobs, and 24/7 connectivity, life is so frenzied we can barely find time to breathe. We tell ourselves we’d like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of […]
These days, work-life balance can seem like an impossible feat. Technology makes workers accessible around the clock. Fears of job loss incentive longer hours. In fact, a whopping 94% of working professionals reported working more than 50 hours per week and nearly half said they worked more than 65 hours per week in a Harvard Business […]