Weekly Pulse by William Meller | Week 44, 2022

The Weekly Pulse is my content curation and my highlights from readings, books, podcasts, insights, and everything I discovered during the week.
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 – Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups
#2 – Redesigning the Post-Pandemic Workplace
#3 – 8 Outrageous Tips That Will Save You Time
#4 – What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team
#5 – Leadership That Gets Results

Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff

Summary: The concept of emotional intelligence had a real impact. The only problem is that so far emotional intelligence has been viewed only as an individual competency when the reality is that most work in organizations is done by teams. And if managers have one pressing need today, it’s to find ways to make teams work better.

3 Highlights:

“… A team can have everything going for it—the brightest and most qualified people, access to resources, a clear mission—but still fail because it lacks group emotional intelligence. We’ve seen many situations in which a team is so enamored of its solution that it is caught completely by surprise when others in the company don’t share its enthusiasm…“

“… Groups are most creative when their members collaborate unreservedly. People stop holding back when there is mutual trust, rooted in emotionally intelligent interactions…“

“… Inevitably, a team member will indulge in behavior that crosses the line, and the team must feel comfortable calling the foul…” 

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Redesigning the Post-Pandemic Workplace

Source: MIT Sloan Management Review
Author: Gerald C. Kane, Rich Nanda, Anh Phillips, and Jonathan Copulsky

Summary: The world has experienced widespread disruption over the past year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the successful development and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, the timeline for when the so-called next normal will arrive is clearer. Work as we know it is forever changed by COVID-19. Now is the time for managers to envision the office that employees will return to.

3 Highlights:

“… If people have the option to work from home, it seems likely that they will use this time to engage either in individual-focused work or in remote meetings. When employees decide to make the effort to come into the office, it will be to engage in the types of tasks that require in-person interactions…” 

“… Rethinking the workplace also opens up new opportunities for rethinking the workforce and, ultimately, work itself. When your organization is not limited to a colocated workplace, the idea of whom you can include in the workforce expands…” 

“… While digital tools create opportunities to work in new ways, organizations should also look further into the future and consider how these tools might be applied to support changes in employee behavior as work is automated. Managers also must continue to rethink how they manage performance as more employees adopt a hybrid model with both remote and colocated work…” 

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8 Outrageous Tips That Will Save You Time

Source: Untethered Mind by Alex Mathers
Author: Alex Mathers

Summary: You’re not alone if you seem to waste time each day, even if you’re ambitious and want to get lots done. Many of us could use some refreshing ideas on how to make the most of our time. You’re holding the things you think you need to get done in your head all at once. This overwhelms you. But it’s in the mind. In reality, all we ever have is the one thing right in front of us. So pay attention to the delicious beauty of the present moment.

3 Highlights:

“… Be assertive in all that you do. Throw yourself into everything with a disgusting level of gusto. Do more. Stop succumbing to weakness even if it’s hard…” 

“… To optimize your mind means understanding you can’t do anything about the stuff you can’t control…” 

“… Few things save time more effectively than making yourself accountable. This means creating a strong, internal emotional pull to complete things. We can be accountable to ourselves by writing down our goals for example...” 

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What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team

Source: New York Times
Author: Charles Duhigg

Summary: After looking at over a hundred groups for more than a year, Project Aristotle researchers concluded that understanding and influencing group norms were the keys to improving Google’s teams. But Rozovsky, now a lead researcher, needed to figure out which norms mattered most. Google’s research had identified dozens of behaviors that seemed important, except that sometimes the norms of one effective team contrasted sharply with those of another equally successful group. 

3 Highlights:

“… The technology industry is not just one of the fastest-growing parts of our economy; it is also increasingly the world’s dominant commercial culture. And at the core of Silicon Valley are certain self-mythologies and dictums: Everything is different now, data reigns supreme, today’s winners deserve to triumph because they are cleareyed enough to discard yesterday’s conventional wisdom and search out the disruptive and the new…” 

“… However, establishing psychological safety is, by its very nature, somewhat messy and difficult to implement. You can tell people to take turns during a conversation and to listen to one another more. You can instruct employees to be sensitive to how their colleagues feel and to notice when someone seems upset…” 

“… We had lots of data, but there was nothing showing that a mix of specific personality types or skills or backgrounds made any difference. The ‘‘who’’ part of the equation didn’t seem to matter…” 

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Leadership That Gets Results

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Daniel Goleman

Summary: New research suggests that the most effective executives use a collection of distinct leadership styles—each in the right measure, at just the right time. Such flexibility is tough to put into action, but it pays off in performance. And better yet, it can be learned. The research indicates that leaders who get the best results don’t rely on just one leadership style; they use most of the styles in any given week.

3 Highlights:

“… Managers often fail to appreciate how profoundly the organizational climate can influence financial results. It can account for nearly a third of financial performance…” 

“… Organizational climate, in turn, is influenced by leadership style—by the way, that managers motivate direct reports, gather and use information, make decisions, manage change initiatives, and handle crises…” 

“… There are six basic leadership styles. Each derives from different emotional intelligence competencies, works best in particular situations, and affects the organizational climate in different ways…” 

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