Tag: adam grant

🤓How to Be an Original

On By Cathy NoiceIn Cathy NoiceLeave a comment


 I recently read Adam Grant’s Originals. It’s a thought-provoking book with hundreds of examples of how we can all be more creative and original.  The biggest example that Grant uses is Warby Parker which is an online seller of prescription glasses. Grant commented that he missed the opportunity to invest in Warby Parker because he was skeptical. When something is original there will likely be skepticism.  A big takeaway from the book for me is that you should be able to address the weaknesses first.  That seems like baring your soul before getting any buy in but if you think about it, people relax once you’ve addressed the weaknesses and are more open to listen to the upside or strengths once you’ve acknowledged the weaknesses.

Here are some ideas on how to be Original:

Quantity leads to quality.  Grant says, “It’s widely assumed that there’s a tradeoff between quantity and quality – if you want to do better work, you have to do less of it – but this turns out to be false.  In fact, when it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality.” So, it pays to brainstorm lots of ideas before honing in on one or two to bring to fruition. I think there is a lot to be said for listening to many voices as well.  And when you select those voices, bring in different, varying perspectives.  If there are too many heads in the room nodding in agreement, it’s probably not a very original or creative idea.  Come up with lots of ideas with varying voices and it will be more innovative.  

When someone weighs in with their ideas, they feel heard especially when acknowledged.  It can be so powerful if a coworker or boss says, “So you think we should have pink balloons to acknowledge the cancer survivors.”  It’s so powerful that, even if your idea isn’t selected, the fact that it was acknowledged and/or appreciated, you feel heard and are therefore more on board with whichever direction the group takes.  So, create lots of ideas, acknowledge them and the quality will appear.

Strategic procrastination.  I have to say that I was skeptical of strategic procrastination as I read the book. I have coached hundreds of coaches on how to stop procrastinating.  I can see now that it dovetails nicely with Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks. Burkeman espouses serializing or setting apart 30 minutes a day for focus time and to just start a project knowing that you won’t finish it.  This is what’s so counterintuitive. Why start if you can’t finish? Well, we procrastinate because we can’t finish the 6 annual reviews, we have to write. So, we keep kicking the can down the road for the perfect day to completely begin and finish something.  Burkeman says to just start and acknowledge that you won’t finish.  This to me is strategic procrastination.  

As Grant wrote, “But surprisingly, as I’ve studied originals, I’ve learned that the advantages of acting quickly and being first are often outweighed by the disadvantages. It’s true that the early bird gets the worm, but we can’t forget that the early worm gets caught.” There is also the time between starting something and it’s floating around your unconscious.  So, when you are taking a shower or driving a car or walking the dog, suddenly you come up with the perfect conclusion to the project or how you represent the findings on a chart.  That’s where the magic is.  Your unconscious brain is hard at working pulling memories and diverse topics together to have an ah ha moment.  

So, start but make sure there are gaps to strategically procrastinate.

Exposure and repeating normalizes.  As written by Grant, “The mere exposure effect has been replicated many times—the more familiar a face, letter, number, sound, flavor, brand, or Chinese character becomes, the more we like it.” I think back when I was first planning my cross-country RV trip.  The first few times I spoke it out load (or even in my head), I was intimidated and anxious.  The more I started planning and seeing the path forward, the more doable it was.  When things are repeated and broken into smaller pieces like 350-mile chunks of the United States, it doesn’t seem so intimidating.  Now that I’m out here on the West Coast of the United States and I’ve been living in my RV for a month, it feels normal and completely accessible and certainly less novel.  My perception has changed over time; traveling cross country is status quo.

Common points of reference were shown through Grant’s book as well.  When the concept for Lion King was pitched to Disney it was a dark story.  When someone compared it to Hamlet, suddenly everyone was on board. So, in order to sell your idea, find common points of reference to make it more understandable.

I think realizing that being creative doesn’t mean you have to be first with an idea is very powerful.  I’ve had lots of thoughts in the past that if I wasn’t the first to do something, then I was last.  Being later to the party with an idea is actually an advantage. How will you be more creative?

5 Secrets to Managing Up

On By Cathy NoiceIn Cathy NoiceLeave a comment

I’ve been a leadership coach for over ten years.  Most of my clients are either middle managers or high potentials and one of the biggest issues clients bring to me is how to manage up.  Managing up can be described as a method of career development that’s based on consciously working for the mutual benefit of yourself and your boss.  It can be a struggle for newly promoted managers or newly acquired managers or individual contributors looking for a leg up on the next project or promotion.  Interacting with your boss can be fraught with insecurity and vulnerabilities.  On one hand you want to be confident and knowledgeable, but you also don’t want to step on any toes or overreach. You want to be persuasive but not overbearing.  It’s a delicate balance.

Here are my five go to tools for managing up:

Power Pose

Ever since I read Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence, and viewed her Ted Talk on the power pose, I have suggested it to my students taking the SHRM-SCP exam, my clients applying for a new position and to my clients who are headed into a managing up conversation with their boss.  Basically, the mind follows what the body says.  If you stand like Wonder Woman or Superman (think hands confidently on your hips, shoulders back, feet shoulder width apart and head held high) for two minutes, your brain starts to follow what your body is telling it, i.e., you are a bad@$$. I have personally done this before a first date, in a bathroom stall before a job interview, and right before a public speaking engagement.   It’s been proven that your cortisol (stress hormone) goes down and your testosterone increases.  Increases in testosterone helps improve mood and health in both men and women.  Before you head into that uncomfortable conversation on getting on that plum project, try the power pose.

What would it take?

Over thirty years ago, I wanted to get a promotion to a General Manager position for the restaurant chain I was working for at the time. I knew it was between me and a guy named Randy. Randy had more longevity with the company and we both had recently been through a management development course. I set up a meeting with my boss’ boss and said “What would it take for me to be the next General Manager?” He suggested a few things like learning the inventory system so I could handle month end on my own.  Inside of three months, I was promoted over Randy.  I firmly believe that if I hadn’t asked “What would it take?” I never would have gotten that promotion. From reading the book “How Women Rise”, I know that women can assume that their boss knows about their hard work, merits and aspirations.  By asking, “What would it take?” you are clearly putting a stake in the ground of what you want and asking for support in getting there.

Third person

Talking about yourself in the third person can help control your nerves before having a one-on-one with your boss.  It’s easy when we use self-talk in the first person to trash your self-esteem.  “I can’t believe I’m late again, I’m an idiot!” “Ugh, I’m never going to get that promotion, I’m not good enough.” When I switch to the third person, I’m more careful, positive and respectful as if I’m talking to a good friend. ” Cathy, you’ve got this.” It’s also helpful in keeping rumination at bay.  It puts distance between you and your objective and calms your nerves.

Excited and Curious

I’ve learned to rephrase anxiety or concerns into excitement or curiosity.  It’s a way to reframe from disempowering thoughts like “I’m too nervous to talk to my boss about the widget project” to empowering thoughts like “I’m excited to talk to my boss about the widget project.” I change my self-narrative from “I’m afraid to move to a new town” to “I’m curious to move to a new town.” The use of the language we use in our head can be either debilitating or empowering.  I try to use empowering ones.

A few strong points

I recently read Think Again by Adam Grant. In the book he takes a look at Harish Natarajan who has won three dozen debate tournaments.  One of the key takeaways from Natarajan was to focus in on just a few solid points to persuade your audience, in this case, your boss. Before reading the book, I could barrage my boss with twelve reasons why we should add a new benefit for our employees.  It turns out that if there is weakness in a single reason, it causes collateral damage to the rest. The audience (your boss) focuses on the one weakness.  If you base your rationale on one or two solid reasons versus eleven good reasons and one weak reason, the solid reasons win out.  It’s quality versus quantity.  Focus on one or two strong points when having the managing up conversation.

It’s ironic that most of these secrets are about managing yourself and your own mindset instead of managing your boss or your boss’ boss. Heading into a conversation with your boss is more of an inside game on controlling your clarity of thought and emotions through your own self talk. What are your secrets to managing up?

Gender bias at work. Who is making the coffee in your office?

On By Cathy NoiceIn Workplace NavigatorLeave a comment

In every office I have worked in, it’s always a woman making the coffee. At every meeting, it’s been a woman keeping the notes, all the guys beg off (if they are even asked) because their handwriting is supposedly illegible. It’s also a woman who is watering the plants, refilling the printer paper and making sure there are donuts for the morning meeting. I have been a part of the problem as well; I’ve made thousands of pots of coffee and ordered cake for the retirement party for years. In an article by Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg for the New York Times called Madam CEO, Get Me a Coffee, “This is the sad reality in workplaces around the world: Women help more but benefit less from it. In keeping with deeply held gender stereotypes, we expect men to be ambitious and results-oriented, and women to be nurturing and communal.” So while I’m making coffee and taking notes, some guy is getting the promotion. Yep! Gender bias at work. Who is making the coffee in your office?

In an article by Dana Wise in HR Magazine called Bringing Bias into the Light, it turns out that some of this gender bias is unconscious. I might be the breadwinner in my family and my husband may be the one who makes the coffee but when I recently took the Implicit Association Test (IAT) on Gender – Career, I discover I have a moderate bias towards men being associated with the workplace and with women being associated with family and the home. Me! My mother was the only person who worked outside the home on my street in the mid-sixties and my father dutifully did the dishes every night but regardless, I subconsciously associate men with the workplace.

So here are some ideas on how to make work a more even playing field with opportunities for everyone to change:

1. Discover. Take the IAT and discover if you have a bias. Odds are that you have a least a slight bias because the overwhelming majority of assessment takers did. You can’t know that you have a bias unless you find out where you are on the continuum. I tested into the largest cohort (32%) with a moderate bias. Now that I am aware of it, I can look at more objective data like scoring applicants on years of experience, certificates held and level of education. You don’t know what you don’t know.

2. Equalize. Make sure tasks in your workplace are handled equally by both genders. In the Times article they suggest “Assigning communal tasks evenly rather than relying on volunteers can also ensure that support work is shared, noticed and valued.” So ask Joe to make the coffee on Tuesdays or have the minutes be taken on a rotating basis. I actually knew a Vice President who did this with his team and one of his managers was responsible for setting up the minutes and agenda on a rotating basis (two male managers and one female manager). Share the load.

3. Public. Make sure that the efforts are public. In the article, “studies demonstrate that men are more likely to contribute with visible behaviors — like showing up at optional meetings — while women engage more privately in time-consuming activities like assisting others and mentoring colleagues.” This can be especially difficult for women. We are much more comfortable going behind the scenes and making it look easy. So guys out there? Make sure your female co-worker is being acknowledged publicly for pulling that project off. Make it public.

4. First. Women need to put themselves first. I can remember reading in Sheryl Sanberg’s book “Lean In”, that women will advocate for everyone else but themselves. So become an advocate for yourself. Sometimes I think it’s a great idea to imagine that you advocating for yourself fresh out of college. It’s easier if you think about yourself in the third person. I can ask for a raise for my twenty year old self but not for my middle aged self. According to Grant, “numerous studies show that women (and men) achieve the highest performance and experience the lowest burnout when they prioritize their own needs along with the needs of others.” This means that the women out there need to put themselves first, if not equal to everyone else. So don’t wait to be the last to grab a cookie from the plate, grab it first.

I have to say that as I write this, I asked both of my children to take the IAT (it’s free by the way). I am curious to see how both my son and daughter measure up on the Gender – Career assessment. I really hope that I have been an example of a hard working career minded women and that, on some level, it has seeped into my children’s subconscious mind. I’m guessing that it’s difficult to move gender bias in just one generation.