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 – Harnessing the Science of Persuasion
#2 – The Best Leaders in the World Are “Quiet Managers”
#3 – Managing in the Knowledge Economy
#4 – The Coronavirus Effect on Global Economic Sentiment
#5 – Don’t Let Age Get in the Way of Entrepreneurship

Harnessing the Science of Persuasion

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Robert B. Cialdini

Summary: No leader can succeed without mastering the art of persuasion. But there’s hard science in that skill, too, and a large body of psychological research suggests there are six basic laws of winning friends and influencing people. Watching these masters of persuasion work their magic is at once impressive and frustrating. What’s impressive is not just the easy way they use charisma and eloquence to convince others to do as they ask. It’s also how eager those others are to do what’s requested of them as if the persuasion itself were a favor they couldn’t wait to repay.

3 Highlights:

“… Give what you want to receive. People follow the lead of similar others…“

“… Use peer power to influence horizontally, not vertically; e.g., ask an esteemed “old timer” to support your new initiative if other veterans resist…“

“… Don’t assume your expertise is self-evident. Instead, establish your expertise before doing business with new colleagues or partners; e.g., in conversations before an important meeting, describe how you solved a problem similar to the one on the agenda…”

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The Best Leaders in the World Are “Quiet Managers”

Source: Medium
Author: Tim Denning

Summary: Managers are dead. Quiet managers are taking over. It’s a new class of leaders that shakes up everything we’ve always known about leading humans to greatness. They trust you to get the job you’re paid to get done. They measure results and forget timesheets.

3 Highlights:

“… They know if you have to be somewhere for family reasons then you won’t be motivated to work properly. So they’re best off letting you take time off, so you come back to work re-energized…”

“… Quiet managers create the environment for trust to thrive…”

“… Quiet managers are becoming highly valuable resources and getting unfair career advantages as a result. Why? Quiet managers prevent quiet quitting. Work for one. Or become one…”

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Managing in the Knowledge Economy

Source: Harvard Business School
Author: W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

Summary: When employees don’t trust managers to make good decisions or to behave with integrity, their motivation is seriously compromised. Their distrust and its attendant lack of engagement is a huge, unrecognized problem in most organizations. This issue has always mattered, but it matters now more than ever because knowledge-based organizations are totally dependent on the commitment and ideas of their employees. Unfortunately, neither integrity nor good judgment can be magically conferred on all the managers in an organization.

3 Highlights:

“… The fair process reaches into a dimension of human psychology that hasn’t been fully explored in conventional management practice. Yet every company can tap into the voluntary cooperation of its people by building trust through fair processes…”

“… Never has the idea of a fair process been more important for managers than it is today. The fair process turns out to be a powerful management tool for companies struggling to make the transition from a production-based to a knowledge-based economy, in which value creation depends increasingly on ideas and innovation. Fair process profoundly influences attitudes and behaviors critical to high performance…”

“… Fair process responds to a basic human need. All of us, whatever our role in a company, want to be valued as human beings and not as “personnel” or “human assets.” We want others to respect our intelligence. We want our ideas to be taken seriously. And we want to understand the rationale behind specific decisions. People are sensitive to the signals conveyed through a company’s decision-making processes. Such processes can reveal a company’s willingness to trust people and seek their ideas—or they can signal the opposite...”

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The Coronavirus Effect on Global Economic Sentiment

Source: McKinsey
Author: Daniella Seiler, Jeffrey Condon, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Vivien Singer and Sven Smit

Summary: This is a survey ongoing at McKinsey. They have been doing that for a couple of months. In the latest survey, inflation, and geopolitical conflicts remain the top perceived economic risks, while concerns about energy volatility predominate in Europe. In September, respondents in most regions cite inflation as the main risk to growth in their home economies for the second quarter, according to the latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions.

3 Highlights:

“… In all locations but Europe and Greater China, inflation is the most-cited threat to respondents’ economies over the next 12 months…”

“… In Greater China, the COVID-19 pandemic remains the most reported risk, cited by nearly half of respondents for the second quarter in a row…”

“… In Europe, volatile energy prices and inflation are the growth risks cited most often, with geopolitical instability or conflicts a more distant third…”

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Don’t Let Age Get in the Way of Entrepreneurship

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Emma Waldman

Summary: According to a 2018 study of data sets from the U.S. Census Bureau, 42 is the magic age of successful startup founders. Even so, there are exceptions: approximately 10% of founders defied the odds and started thriving companies before turning 29. Based on interviews with five successful founders in their mid-20s to early 30s, there are some consistent takeaways that anyone looking to become a founder — especially in the early stages of their career — can learn from.

3 Highlights:

“… Whether you choose to hide your age on your social platforms or dress to impress with a tailored outfit that screams maturity, your experience is more important…”

“… Passion drives ideas forward. You need it to tell a good story to investors about the problem you are trying to solve — and to find the right investors, who are equally excited about addressing the pain points you care about…”

“… You can’t possibly do everything yourself. To supplement experience or skills gaps, build a diverse team. This might include mentors, advisors, or people who have experience growing companies from the ground up…”

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