Do you remember group work at school? A teacher asked you to form a team, so you invited all your best friends to make the task as joyful as it could be. Obviously, you thought that working with your best buddies would be the best idea. However, once you started working on that project with …
Should we talk about politics at work?
There are a couple of topics which you are discouraged from talking about at work. Typically, those are related to politics, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. It’s advisable to steer clear of them, especially if you work in a highly diverse environment with people who come from different parts of the world. You can sometimes …
It’s not me, it’s you! Why do people blame others for their failures?
Although we’d like to think we’re always rational and accurate in our attributions, we tend to distort certain situations to make ourselves feel better. It’s pleasurable to paint yourself in a positive light and it’s pretty hard to admit to a mistake. Especially when your reputation or, dare I say, your salary, is on the …
How to tell your teammate that his work is sloppy?
You consider yourself a hard worker. You’re responsible at work. Everything you do is high-quality, meticulous and very neat. When you have a task to complete, you are fully committed to finishing it even before the deadline. When someone asks you to prepare a report, you verify it a couple of times, checking whether your …
Team building that really works
Team building can sound scary to a lot of people. It’s typically associated with meeting your coworkers in order to do mundane or ridiculous stuff, like singing a song or holding each other’s hands. Something that is meant to be fun but that some of you will consider a nightmare. Something that is meant to …
Reasons why team building fails
Team building exercises are one of the most commonly used group-development ventures in many organizations. However, not everyone is convinced of their value. Some people actually question whether those indoor or outdoor activities even work at all. Most of us tend to just assume they are in fact quite powerful, but now it’s to time …
Are 1-hour meetings always necessary?
When scheduling a meeting, most people spend very little time thinking about its length. Statistically, it looks like plenty of meetings are scheduled for 1 hour precisely. But why? Do we really always need 1 hour, not for instance 45 or 50 minutes? Probably not. I believe that the length of 1 hour or 30 …
Delivering negative feedback. The one that really works
One study conducted by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman found that 74% of employees who received negative feedback already knew there was a problem. It shows that employees are not blind to their weaknesses. Perhaps they are just not sure how to improve their skills or they don’t realize how their problem affects the rest …
Why is it hard for introverts to talk to others?
We tend to divide people into introverts and extroverts. At a first glance, we’re inclined to label shy and quiet people as introverts and the talkative and charming ones as extroverts. In reality, the distinction between these two types of personalities is not so clear-cut. In her book entitled The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted …
Is it better to offer a salary range or a single number during negotiations?
You’re invited to an interview. You sit in a room with a recruiter discussing your opportunities, skills and needs. A few words about a potential project and then it happens. The moment you were dreading is here. You hear the question, the one that is quite cumbersome for many candidates. Your mind is filled with …