| It's November 30, 2020 - Welcome!
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Hi ,
Short week, right? But back at it today! I hope you had a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving in your small circle of friends or just your family. I was on a Zoom call or two, stuck with my wife and step-son, and ate well.
I posted a new article last week on finding improvement on the edges, and a podcast/vlog this morning which is an invitation to you to help me choose a new theme song for the show. Would love it if you checked it out and left me a comment!
Soundtrack for this week's issue: Elton John's second album, simply titled Elton John. (Spotify link) It was a breakthrough, unlike his first album Empty Sky, and included the hit "Your Song," and the future
concert staple "Take Me to the Pilot." Much of the rest of the album is not that familiar to most fans, I would guess, but this is a dynamite if somewhat laidback album. The album was nominated for Album of the Year, but didn't take the prize
(that went deservedly so to Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water").
These troubled times, with such great uncertainty and so much work done at a distance, certainly calls for us to handle our own emotions and to show empathy. Some tips:
- Employees who are the most frazzled can be helped greatly when their boss shows them empathic concern. This might take a one-on-one conversation, ideally about the other person – how they are doing, what they hope for these days, and, perhaps, how you can help
them.
- Emotionally intelligent leaders inspire others to give their best. They can surface and help settle conflicts effectively. Tellingly, they see themselves as coaches and mentors for those who report to them – a performance review, for example, does not mean a harsh
judgment, but rather an opportunity to give realistic feedback while offering ways for the person to improve.
- Remember leadership in crisis starts with managing your own emotions. When psychologist Sigal Barsade, now at Wharton, was at the Yale School of Management she did a series of studies showing that when a team leader was in a positive, upbeat mood, members of the
team caught that mood and performance went up. When the leader was downbeat, that mood spread on the team, too, and performance went down.
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Mathematical art
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I have a soft spot for curiosities — unusual artifacts, either born or made. In fact, I have a whole wall of them in my studio. I recently added some weird mathematical shapes that could only exist because either they were grown biologically, or 3D printed. These lightweight nylon 3D artifacts are created by mathematician Henry Segerman, and sold in his Shapeways Shop. They are stunning, with bold, simple complexity, like the shells of creatures from alien planets. For art, they are reasonably priced.
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A little here, a little there and it can add up.
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From the 11-Year+ TradeshowGuy Blog Archives
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