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How pandas help you win at work
PLUS: Double task, sometimes
Good Morning. For the next 5 minutes, your career is the most important thing.
In today’s email:
SWOT your job to drive your career
Oxytocin is the wonder chemical to build relationships
Men and women are poor multitaskers. Double tasking can work
Pandas to the rescue when work is stressful
Collaboration is a winning strategy
ON YOUR CAREER
SWOT your job
Effective leaders do more than work in their business – they work on their business. Many leaders use a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to drive business strategy and success.
We also need to work on our careers. Completing a SWOT analysis on your job helps drive your career strategy and success. Ideally, you will have had regular feedback from your manager, but don’t let its absence hold you back. Consider doing a SWOT analysis once per quarter. Check how you are tracking compared with your goals. What strengths can you leverage, what weaknesses can you improve? Working on your career helps future proof it.
Strengths in my job What strengths can I leverage more now? e.g. make more sales calls because I have a high conversion rate | Weaknesses in my job What weaknesses do I want to improve now? e.g. be more patient with customers who have a problem |
Opportunities in my job What opportunities in my job enthuse me? e.g. learn more product to cross-sell | Threats in my job What risks in my job worry me? e.g. need to learn AI tools otherwise I might become redundant |
COMMUNICATION
Bonding with oxytocin
We can initiate a positive feedback loop, or virtuous circle, with a colleague. It could be by our act of generosity. It could be by our expression of friendliness, trust, or warmth. When we behave positively to a colleague, they can experience a release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone in our body that promotes social bonding and predisposes us to trust others. The oxytocin in our colleague encourages them to reciprocate our positive behaviour. This positive feedback loop can strengthen with our colleague and could extend across decades. A powerful career has positive feedback loops with many colleagues.
If you want to go deeper, look at Paul Zak’s The Moral Molecule
PRODUCTIVITY
Double task, sometimes
Source: NewQuest/GIPHY
Both women and men are poor multitaskers when they try to combine two complex tasks. We cannot accurately listen to a customer while reading emails or performing financial calculations. Our distraction will be revealed in our voice. Multitasking often leads to parts of a task being repeated – a true waste of time and energy. We can, however, successfully double task by combining a complex task with a simple or autopilot task. We can have a meeting while walking or we can listen to a podcast while driving in good conditions. Hybrid work means we could fold washing while listening to a colleague on the telephone. Double tasking works, sometimes.
1 MINUTE TO LOWER STRESS
Look at pics of cute animals
Source: Modimeena/GIPHY
Looking at reels or clips of cute animals can supply us with a burst of feel-good oxytocin. Twenty-seconds can be enough. More pandas, less stress.
GET SMARTER
Collaboration is a winning strategy
Collaboration with our colleagues is a winning, long-term career strategy. Colleagues involve us in interesting projects when they know we are natural collaborators. People want to work for leaders who are collaborative. Collective endeavour is needed to deliver valuable, complex work and compete with other businesses. Some competition between colleagues can be healthy and fun, nudging team members to reach higher standards. The overall spirit though is best to be one of collaboration. And you get to extend collaboration any workday you choose.
If you found this useful, we would love for you to send this to a friend.