Replace achievements with direction

Replace achievements with a direction you’d like to move in. A healthier, outdoor lifestyle, for example. So, when you think of how to spend a free weekend, travel in the new direction. Or, if you’ve a choice of holiday with friends, choose the more active option, rather than denying yourself altogether.

Replace tasks with goals

Ditch your list of tasks. Think instead of goals. Then, filter each day’s action through the goal. And, filter the goal through the direction.  Is this goal aligned with the general direction in which you want to steer your life, work and relationships? If not, is it even a valid one? Be careful to assess honestly whether some of your goals have been set by others. And, remember, one goal is probably sufficient for January. Small successes breed confidence.

Replace being with doing

Many people talk of wanting to BE a better person. Try DOING intead. It takes alot of effort to BE something you’re not. Work towards being by doing. That way, it is more likely to become a natural inclinication after some weeks of effort. (This will help those of you who really want a list to tick something off!) Again, ensure the doing is aligned to the particular goal you have set yourself. This is a gentle word of warning to those who tend to stray into doing lots but not reaching any particular goal. And, procrastinators will need to filter the doing through the goal, to chop off all that is simply random activity.

Think Direction, Goals and Doing

As the meercats would say, Simples!

Have you set resolutions for 2012? Might you benefit from reshaping them according to these three points? I’d love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. Let me know if you found it helpful.

Image credit: Keith Williamson

According to Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times, pessimism is good for business.  The thinking behind this statement seems to be that pessimists are better prepared to deal with the world as it is rather than how we would like it to be.  I find her suggestion interesting that an organisation should have a mixture of the two types if it is to function with maximum effectiveness.

This notion is not unique to her.  Apparently uber guru Tom Peters recently tweeted his appreciation for a book by Julien K Norem called The Positive Power of Negative Thinking: Using Defensive Pessimism to Harness Anxiety and Perform at Your Peak.  This book is a recent edition to a selection of authors who either warn against the dangers of the positive psychology movement (Barbara Ehrenreich) or positively (!) extol the virtues of pessimism (Roger Scruton).

I find myself conflicted.  On the one hand, I like the idea of using what you are, playing to your own strengths.  So, if you’re an introvert, discover or invent ways to turn this to your advantage.  Likewise if you are a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) in the workplace.  On the other hand, I believe that key business skills such as motivation and resilience are largely due to your ability to initiate ‘growth mindsets’ or positive ‘explanatory styles’ in order to interpret goals and setbacks to yourself.

I suspect that an answer lies in the notion that optimism and pessimism, introversion and extroversion, sensitivity and thick-facedness, are different strategies or tools the skillful businessperson employs as the context requires.  None binds; none defines.

Do you agree?

While out and about in the car last Thursday I was listening to Radio 4 – between REM songs – and I overheard an interview with Catherine Hakim, a researcher in sociology at LSE.  Listen to the chat here.  She was on to discuss and promote her latest book Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital, in which she argues that virtues such as attractiveness and vivaciousness play as large a part in professional success as academic qualifications.

This topic attracts – ba-dum tsh – my attention for a few reasons.  First off, it reminded me of the argument made by advocates of emotional intelligence like me.  We assert that success in life is probably more down to non-academic skills such as motivation, empathy and persuasiveness than anything you learned in school.  Your ability to master these skills increases your emotional capital or the value of your personal brand in the marketplace.  Maybe erotic or sexual capital is another application of the emotional intelligences paradigm.

Also, I’ve been interested in the so-called halo effect for some time.  This is a bias in our brains that makes us judge a person or thing better than it is in one area because it seems to be great in another.  So, for example, we tend to think that beautiful people are smarter or more competent than they really are.  Hakim’s work seems to take advantage of this bias.  But it even applies to products.  Because the iPod is regarded well, people tend to overestimate other Apple products.  (Surely that is heresy?  Yes it is, but don’t call me Shirley…)

Since Hakim explicitly argues that erotic capital is a tool women should wield for career advancement, she has raised some heckles in the sisterhood.  For instance, while Elizabeth Day admits that Hakim’s work is “interesting” and “genuinely thought-provoking” in places, in the end she judges it “fairly offensive”.  Anna North is more forthright, dismissing it as “bullshit”.   Guardian writer Zoe Williams seems proud to have clashed with Hakim over lunch.

I suspect in reality that there’s something to it, probably as a subset of social intelligence.  At any rate, read what the lady herself has to say before you dismiss it as so much post-feminist femme fatale.

Have you got erotic capital?  It can be just as valuable as a university degree—especially for women

Erotic Capital in the European Sociological Review

For a more balanced evaluation read:

Catherine Hakim: She’s counting up erotic capital by Kaye Spicer.  Subheading:  ‘The academic with a knack for upsetting feminists has done it again, claiming that sex appeal is as important as brains’.  Also try Erotic Capital by Celia Walden.  ‘Meet the woman who defined the definitive professional must-have of our generation: Dr Catherine Hakim.’

So do women use feminine wiles to their advantage  at work?  My wife says yes.  Do you agree?

I will either find a way or make one.

In his mind, the answer to an obstacle in the path and the lack of means to overcome it was not to retreat, surrender, or wail.  How can we imbibe some of his grit?

1. Quit moaning and do something productive toward your goal instead.
2. Stop agonising over the negative comments of idiots.
3. Spend less time with those whose vocabularly is frequented by can’t.
4. Avoid following others.  Become an inventor.  And, get the news out there.
5. Don’t give up at the first failure.
6. Take advice from experienced people, but don’t be afraid to ignore it.
7. Trust your gut.

I’m a fan of jumping in at the deep end.

Image credit: antmoose.

Series 7 is under way.  The first episode on the current series was shown on 10 May.  Catch up on the first two episodes of The Apprentice.  Then, come back and join the debate here.

Allegedly, the Alan Sugar’s apprentices have been selected from the country’s top minds and sharpest entrepreneurial figures.  And, what do we get?  Read on.

Spoiler Alert: the first two episodes, including who got fired, are discussed below.  And, you can read more on BBC – The Apprentice.

Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit, when there are footsteps on the moon.

Surely, we think, they’re joking. I think the less drivel-spouting contestants may be able to survive the barrage of drivel by adopting some of Sarcastics Anonymous.  It’s a simple strategy (oh no, there’s another buzz-word!).

Either that, or I volunteer to run a five-minute workshop, to help contestants understand the concept of a metaphor.

Edward, who was fired in episode 1, seemed a likeable-enough guy, yet his mouth seemed to run away with him.  I counted three instances of the following phrase, within as many minutes.

You’ve just got to roll with the punches.

And, in defence of his action throughout that week’s task…

Not only am I the youngest in the team, I’m the shortest…

The others up for firing in the episode remained strangely controlled, revealing only the briefest of smirks.

His failure?  It came down to an inability to express himself clearly or succinctly.  Lord Sugar is known for curtailing pontificators, mercilessly.

Alex was fired in episode 2.  I blame the Welsh  sideburns – that’s all I have to say on the matter.

Most bizarre moment

Edna’s gloves distracted from what she was trying to say throughout her pitch.

Star of the show so far: Jim Eastwood

At Sensei Towers, our money is on the man from Cookstown, Jim Eastwood.  He’s referred to variously on the hilarious Apprentice Twitter streams as SoupMan, or as Allen prefers, JediJim.  Follow the brutal – but entertaining – live tweeting on The Apprentice.

Noobs may find the following useful:

PM Project manager.

“Group hug!”          Let’s indulge in some corporate bonding for the cameras.

OK, guys, let’s strategise We need to figure out what the heck we’re doing before the car reaches the market stall. Oh, we’re here.

Roll with the punches. Keep your chin up, even when you know you’ve in way over your head.

Are you following?  If so, have you formed any opinions yet on who might win?  Or, who might be fired next?  Answers on a comment below.

Image credit: jamescronin.