For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.
In today’s email:
Learning defeats failure
Foster belonging
Effective from home
Physiological sigh
Stephanie Shirley’s career wisdom
ON YOUR CAREER
Learning defeats failure
Kobe Bryant said, “The story continues. If you fail on Monday, the only way it’s a failure is if you decide to not progress from that. To me, that’s why failure is not existent. If I fail today, I’m going to learn something from that failure. I’m going to try again.”
Learning from our failures liberates us. We can grow and move forward.
Learning permits us to be bolder and keep taking smart risk.
There’s nothing truly to be afraid of, when you think about it, because I’ve failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I’m OK.
COMMUNICATION
Belonging
We can communicate to our colleagues that they belong. We can remember their stories, celebrate their successes, and support their failures.
Most colleagues will reciprocate. And increase our sense of belonging.
Belonging is the feeling that you are valued, that you have a role, and that you are accepted for who you are. It is essential to unlock the full potential of individuals and teams.
PRODUCTIVITY
Effective from home
I’m typing this newsletter on a Sunday morning from my house. It’s sunny, peaceful, and the flowers that I recently planted seem to have survived. Tomorrow, I’ll work in a city office surrounded by noisy colleagues. Both workspaces can be productive for me. My preference is the city because I feed off the energy of working face-to-face.
We’re fortunate if we have the flexibility to work from home. Many vocations don’t. Having done hybrid work for 20 years, here are 5 things that help me be effective working from home:
Working outside in natural light elevates my mood
Choose tasks that require deep thinking and defend time for this
Use the early morning for hardest tasks
Be super-responsive to colleagues and clients outside deep thinking time
Embrace broader life - it’s great to integrate life admin and fun things in a conscientious work week
This edition’s final article is on the entrepreneur Stephanie Shirley, a pioneer of WFH.
By allowing our programmers… to perform their duties when and where they pleased, I had surrendered a significant part of the control that employers traditionally exercise. The result? … unrivalled productivity.
1 MINUTE TO LOWER STRESS
Physiological sigh
Dr Andrew Huberman said the fastest way to lower stress is the physiological sigh.
How to do it:
Inhale deeply through the nose, filling the lungs.
Without exhaling, take a second, quick inhale through the nose.
Exhale slowly and fully through the mouth until the lungs are empty.
Repeat 1-3 times as useful.
Why it works:
The double inhale maximizes oxygen exchange, while the long exhale stimulates the vagus nerve, promoting calmness.
When to use it:
Before a significant meeting.
When you feel pressure from multiple competing tasks.
Anytime you just want to relax.
Just breathe and reclaim your soul.
CAREER WISDOM
Stephanie Shirley
I love reading about early tech industry founders. The ones who impress me the most were trailblazers for their industry and society…
Stephanie Shirley (1933 — ) was born in Dortmund, Germany and came to England as a child refugee in 1939. She began her career as a mathematician and computer programmer and worked at the Post Office Research Station. While working full-time, Shirley completed an honours degree in mathematics from the University of London.
In 1962, with £6 capital, Shirley founded the software consultancy Freelance Programmers. In early years, she adopted the name “Steve” in professional correspondence to overcome any reluctance to engage women. Shirley promoted remote and flexible work which provided more opportunities for female programmers.
Shirley grew the company into a major player in the UK tech industry. Clients included British Airways and the London Stock Exchange. She later moved into philanthropy, focusing on IT, science, and autism-related causes. Shirley was awarded a DBE for services to the IT industry and philanthropy. Some of her career wisdom:
We waste too much time being afraid, when what we should really fear is wasting time.
We were doing something pioneering, and when you do that you can’t expect to be understood at the time.
If you don’t fit in, then you’re probably doing the right thing.