Brain-based Boss

We often miss things. We often remember things that never were. We are very reluctant to believe that we miss things or remember things that never were. Memories are less like CCTV footage and more like all of us being directors of reboots / reimaginings of our lives.

In this episode, I look at several pieces of research around the illusion of familiarity and how evolution and experience has shaped us into preferring the safety of the familiar and distrusting the novel. This impacts on people in the workplace - the aversion to change in many and the errors people make in perceiving patterns in randomness. A higher performing workplace culture builds into its processes self-correction and the challenging of assumptions. How can we tweak our workplace cultures to be more like that?

Gladwell drew a lot of attention to the notion of expertise requiring 10,000 hours. In this podcast, I talk about the original researcher, the very narrow application of the theory, and the set of practical steps anyone can apply for themselves and those they lead (as long as you're really keen and passionate about what performance you're trying to improve.).

We might imagine that a tremendously positive workplace envrionment is a productive place to work. Research shows that a totally positive workplace isn't as productive as you might think. There's a place for negativity in proportion. How can we, individually and in teams, see things and behaviours as they actually are and critique them? 

So often we try and teach others or coach others or supervise others in a way that clashes with the way people naturally learn. It's quicker, cheaper, more effective and longer-lasting if we can plug into the way people learn naturally. In this episode, I talk through some techniques to quieten our unhelpful inner mental critics and guide people to leverage the power of their own subconscious minds to practise and learn experientially in a way that sticks and drives purposeful changes in behaviour.

Picture if you will a vertical axis called 'Challenge' and a horizontal axis called 'Skill.' Various combinations of challenge and skill can result in a person being in a state of apathy, worry, control... but what we're aiming for more of is 'FLOW' - a magical (not really magical) state where a high level of skill meets a high level of challenge. Time flies and good things happen.

Extrapolating current trends to ridiculous extremes. Will there be jobs for humans in 2115?

The highly skilled and the highly unskilled have something in common - a poor ability to accurately judge their own skill level. It's just that the skilled judge themselves too low and the unskilled judge themselves too low. Just watch every talent show audition process ever...   For a limited-time promo free copy of my book 'Live Work Love: #Add10QualityYears', check it out at amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R8RW7JK 

A primer on the work of Carol Dweck and how people's behaviour towards effort and mistakes reveal our true mindsets and how those mindsets, unless we choose to change them, can affect our outcomes.

What do first years at West Point Military Academy and New Zealand's high school NCEA participants have in common?

Learn a research-based technique for making decisions that results in better decisions and feeling better about whatever you decide.

Most industrialised countries have a history of poor saving and mucking around with retirement savings schemes. More changes are likely. Would employees, if employers provided support beyond mere money, have the capability to ever become super savers?    

(Office) Space - The Final frontier?   People are not mice wandering through mazes in search and cheese and getting rewards for pushing levers. Having said that, employers can greatly influence the performance of their people by the physical environment they create and provide, both positively and negatively, both intentionally and unintentionally.    

To what extent is executive leasing like leasing a car? Do we ask the same questions before we do it? What are the pro’s and cons? Do we have to pay a penalty if we return it damaged?    

John Manning's research on relative finger length provides some insight into one of the genetic cards we get dealt over which we have no control. How does the difference in length between your ring and index fingers requate to your odds of having a heart attack?

Coaching is a term used a lot. It apparently means different things to different people. I think it has a very specific and quite narrow meaning. That's not to say it can't co-exist productively with other activities such as managing, leading, training, facilitating and mentoring.

Surveys show males and females prefer working for a male boss. Surveys are stupid and misleading. So are PodCast teaser descriptions.

One commentator suggests workplace cultures need to evolve. The problem is – bosses already imagine they have. What are the categories of workplace culture, where are you and where should you be?