Asking questions allows people to learn the basics, create a connection, unlock new growth and create an opportunity for innovation, according to industry experts. "Asking the right questions has helped me unlock insights that would have taken years to learn, open doors I wouldn't even know exist, and so much more," says Commaful CEO Sydney Liu.
Some leaders are good at managing up, which obscures the awful ways they're treating their reports, writes Marlene Chism. Chism offers three areas for executives to monitor, both for the well-being of their organizations and to avoid legal liability.
5 Ways to Hire Like It’s 2021 We dug deep to learn what job seekers want from an employer for 2021. While there are more candidates seeking work, there's also more competition among businesses for the most qualified people. Get the leading edge with this free guide.
Ice-breakers can help meeting participants connect with each other and improve the rest of the time together, writes Elizabeth Doty. "Your goal here is just to spark the group's interest; if people start diving into detailed problem-solving, you may need to gently intervene to keep things on track," she writes.
The pandemic has decimated the numbers of women in the US workforce, with 5.4 million jobs lost among women since February, the number of working mothers unemployed tripling that of working fathers and jobs held by women accounting for the entirety of December's 140,000 losses, Emma Hinchliffe and Maria Aspan write. "We've lost so much ground. It's astronomical," says C. Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
The Congressional Budget Office expects economic growth to reach an annual rate of 4.6% this year, the quickest pace since 1999. However, CBO projections also indicate it will take until 2024 before the number of people employed reaches the pre-pandemic level.
No plan is immune from surprises, and so being prepared for all possible scenarios is wise even when you are hopeful for the best outcome. Such preparation can help us handle adversity, learn from experience and regroup for new possibilities.
Instead of setting giant resolutions for 2021, therapist Hanna Stensby recommends a different approach that offers smaller accomplishments along the way and uses self-reflection to attain more meaningful goals. Journaling, mindfulness practice sessions, a new skill and a focus on happiness can improve confidence, productivity and growth.
Formally trained or especially gifted dogs can learn a new word for an object after hearing it only four times, suggesting that some dogs learn language similarly to a 2- or 3-year-old, says Adam Miklosi, co-author of a study in Scientific Reports. A border collie and a Yorkshire terrier demonstrated the skill in an exclusion-based task and a playful scenario, but the dogs were not able to tell the difference between two newly named toys.
