The Weekly Pulse is my content curation and my highlights from readings, books, podcasts, insights, and everything I discovered during the week.
So, let’s go with some discoveries from the week!
#1 – Managing Your Boss
#2 – How Target Knew a High School Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Parents Did
#3 – How Leaders Can Build Connection in a Disconnected Workplace
Managing Your Boss
Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter
Summary: In this classic HBR article, first published in 1980, Gabarro and Kotter advise readers to devote time and energy to managing their relationships with their bosses. The authors aren’t talking about showering supervisors with flattery; rather, they ask readers to understand that the manager–boss relationship is one of mutual dependence. Bosses need cooperation, reliability, and honesty from their direct reports.
3 Highlights:
“… Too many people, the phrase “managing your boss” may sound unusual or suspicious. Because of the traditional top-down emphasis in most organizations, it is not obvious why you need to manage relationships upward—unless, of course, you would do so for personal or political reasons….“
“… Successfully managing your relationship with your boss requires that you have a good understanding of your supervisor and of yourself, particularly strengths, weaknesses, work styles, and needs…“
“… But we are not referring to political maneuvering or to apple polishing. We are using the term to mean the process of consciously working with your superior to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and the company…”
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How Target Knew a High School Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Parents Did
Source: Time
Author: Keith Wagstaff
Summary: Data Analytics can be crazy. Target has perfected the technique of analyzing consumers’ shopping habits to figure out who’s pregnant. What Target discovered fairly quickly is that it creeped people out that the company knew about their pregnancies in advance based on their choices.
3 Highlights:
“… For all of the constant noise generated by the press, most people don’t really care about their privacy. Don’t get me wrong; they care about the principle of privacy. It certainly feels icky to know that companies are tracking your every move…“
“… So how do you stop companies from knowing everything about you? The short answer is that unless you start living like a survivalist, it’s extremely difficult to completely stay off of…“
“… It was a fact Target had obtained after carefully collecting information about her. The company, like many others, assigns each shopper a unique Guest ID. Every time you buy toilet paper with a credit card, visit its website, fill out a survey, or, really, interact with the retailer in any way, Target assigns this information to that ID…”
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How Leaders Can Build Connection in a Disconnected Workplace
Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Adam Smiley Poswolsky
Summary: For too long, workplace connection has been thought of as something that just happens during the workday, whether via hallway conversations, water-cooler moments, or grabbing coffee. With spontaneous moments of connection more challenging to recreate in a remote or hybrid environment, managers need to take a more proactive approach, especially given how important connection is to retention.
3 Highlights:
“… Whenever possible, create consistent connection rituals that offer praise and appreciation on an ongoing basis…“
“… For human connection and friendship to thrive, we need to take employee health seriously…“
“… In today’s lonely world, human connection is everyone’s job. It’s an essential part of building a great place to work and a more resilient society...”
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