How to Lead in Times of Crisis
Leadership coach and author Lolly Daskal on how to lead in times of crisis: Most leaders believe they’re prepared to lead through a crisis. But after working with hundreds of executives as a leadership coach, I’ve found that many of them don’t fully understand what crisis leadership entails. Faced with an actual crisis playing out […]
The Gift of Understanding
American psychologist Carl Rogers writes On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy (1954,) When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified, or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance provides illumination […]
How Productive Failure Leads to Better Learning
Lifehacker’s Courtney Seiter on positioning a task with a learning mindset: Doing things you suck at can still be enjoyable. Doing things you enjoy, can often lead to not sucking at them. Life is long, sucking is temporary. It harder and harder to be okay with risking failure.
Simplicity of Design, Complexity of Data
Edward Tufte in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (2001,) Good design has two key elements. Graphical elegance is often found in simplicity of design and complexity of data. Visually attractive graphics also gather power from content and interpretations beyond the immediate display of some numbers. The best graphics are about the useful and important, […]
The Scientist-Practitioner Divide
Much has been written about the scientist-practitioner divide in occupational and organizational psychology: Practitioners and researchers have often held stereotypical views of each other, with practitioners viewing researchers as interested only in methodological rigor whilst failing to concern themselves with anything in the real world, and researchers damning practitioners for embracing the latest fads, regardless […]
Fear as Our Most Enduring Relationship
Zen Buddhist priest Karen Maezen Miller writes in Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life (2010,) Fear is our first and, if we’re not careful, our last love. It is our most enduring relationship. It never leaves our side. It tells us where to go, what to wear, what to say, and what […]
Deep Acceptance
Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield writes in A Path with Heart: a Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (1993): To bow to the fact of life’s sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the […]
Discipline, Hard Work, and Practice … Like Playing Golf
A Charlie Munger quote from Poor Charlie’s Almanack, If you’re going to be an investor, you’re going to make some investments where you don’t have all the experience you need. But if you keep trying to get a little better over time, you’ll start to make investments that are virtually certain to have a good […]
Binged on Buybacks Then, Seeking Bailouts Now
Dealbook (The New York Times) column’s readers throw in their two cents on the debate on share buybacks in the context of businesses requesting government bailouts during the current COVID-19 epidemic: “What is the point in saving cash for a rainy day when the government is going to bail you out anyway?” “Part of the […]
Empty Fantasies
American Zen teacher Joko Beck in Nothing Special: Most of our difficulties, our hopes, and our worries are empty fantasies. Nothing has ever existed except this moment. That’s all there is. That’s all we are. Yet most human beings spend 50 to 90 percent or more of their time in their imagination, living in fantasy. […]