It's that time of year -- when family members, morning talk show hosts and co-workers grill you with impunity about how, precisely, you're going to fix yourself. There are plenty of contenders for your New Year's Resolution list -- perhaps some you attempted last year but abandoned. How do you prioritize? And which ones will actually make you money and advance your career this year? Here are four ideas.
1. Upgrade your autonomy. Specialists in the uber-trendy field of positive psychology have identified the #1 barrier to your happiness (the cultivation of which is surely a worthy New Year's goal). The culprit? Lack of autonomy (as anyone with a micromanaging boss can tell you). This year, find ways to flex your mojo by choosing, to the extent possible, when and how to do your work. Two good strategies are lobbying for more flexibility in your schedule (as with Best Buy's "Results Only Work Environment"), or, at minimum, aiming to reduce the number of soul-sucking meetings you're subjected to (check out these tips for reasons to cancel meetings and some positive alternatives you can suggest).
2. Take more lunches. Networking maven Keith Ferrazzi famously instructed us to "Never Eat Alone" (the title of his excellent 2005 book) as a way to build connections. The advice becomes even more urgent, however, when coupled with research from Stanford University business school professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, who investigates how executives cultivate power. As he notes in a recent Harvard Business Review blog, "If you're in a position to bring together unrelated groups of individuals who benefit from being in contact with each other, that's a form of power." In short, the path to success is becoming a "broker" who fills holes, transmits information and cultivates connections.
3. Lose weight. You didn't think I'd leave off this perennial favorite, did you? Unfortunately, this advice applies only to the ladies out there, as you'll see in this Wall Street Journal piece. For male execs, corpulence correlates with high pay -- up to the point of obesity, when their salaries start getting docked. For women, shedding pounds can be lucrative: if you weigh 25 pounds below average, you'll bring in over $15,500 more than your "normal" peers and nearly $30,000 more than overweight women. (I'm officially noting my socio-political revulsion, but I'm sure the researchers are right.)
4. Spend more time with your family. And alas, this one's just for the gents. This interesting Harvard Magazine profile of Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy discusses her research into perceived warmth and competence on the job. Mothers, it turns out, are seen as nicer and less competent in the workplace, Cuddy reports, while "fathers experience the 'fatherhood bonus.' They're viewed as nicer than men without kids, but equally, if not more, competent. They're seen as heroic: a breadwinner who goes to his kid's soccer game once in a while." So dads: time to hit the stands and start cheering. And moms: even if you're not supposed to see your family, there's always the gym (see #3 and my mortification at our sexist society).
Want to turbocharge your adherence to these simple (but hard to maintain) resolutions? You can always try stickk.com, a website created with the principles of behavioral economics in mind. Since people hate losing money even more than they hate exercising/quitting smoking/you name it, they can make a public pledge (often backed with cash) to keep up their resolutions. Fail at your tasks? The bucks head to your choice of a snide friend, your favorite charity, or an "anti-charity" - i.e., a cause you despise.
Whatever it takes this year, think carefully about your resolutions and how you can leverage them to improve your life and your career in 2011.
What's on your list of goals?
Dorie Clark is a marketing strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. Read her blog, listen to her podcasts or follow her on Twitter.
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http://www.astonishinglifestyle.com/whos-your-boss.html
Management promised work, upward progress for employees fitting in, employees accepted lower wages, performing in prescribed ways, sticking around. Longevity was a sign of good employer-employee relations; turnover was a dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply in the 21 century economy. Businesses, universities, public institutions can no longer guarantee careers, even if they want to. Managements paralyzed themselves with a strategy of “success brings successes” rather than “successes bring failure’ and are now forced to break implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by management that future can be controlled.
Jettisoned employees are however finding that hard won knowledge, skills, earned while loyal are no longer desired in 21st century employment markets.
What contract can employers, employees make with each other?
Job is a shared partnership.
• Employers, employees face financial conditions together; longevity of partnership depends on how well customers, constituencies needs are met.
• Neither management nor employee has future obligation to the other.
• Organizations train people.
• Employees create security they really need – skills, knowledge that creates employability in 21st century economies
• The management-employee loyalty partnership can be dissolved without either party
They hatch in the stomach, allowing those who take them to shed pounds without exercising or dieting in the Xiamen, China.
But swallowing the worms is extremely dangerous - and definitely not to be recommended for those wanting to shed the pounds in the New Year.
With jobs shortages across the country, women in China are under pressure to appear thin if they are to have any chance of landing a role.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1342985/Female-Chinese-students-resort-eating-roundworm-eggs-ensure-look-job-interviews.html