This week’s articles and TED Talks/podcasts centers thematically on health, well-being, care for ourselves and others and optimal steps to maintain resilience. This is the first of a couple of health and care-related themed newsletters that will be forthcoming this month. There is also some great reading regarding the shelf-life of our current management theories and asking what’s next as well as a fairly comprehensive and current study about the future of work. And the Blog section contains pieces as varied as they are interesting with gold to mine in each of them.
As always, happy reading and listening!
Articles
Helping Your Team Heal. “The pandemic is one season in our lives; it will end. It will be remembered as an extraordinarily difficult time. But the slow process of returning to a new normal—of naming our grief, helping one another reach acceptance, and finding meaning—will continue. For leaders that moment will be an opportunity.”
Growth After Trauma. “So be patient as you work through and facilitate the process of posttraumatic growth…Growth can’t be forced, and it can’t be rushed.However, when you and others are ready, it is worth the effort. Let’s make sure that we derive something positive from this time of struggle. The possibilities for personal and collective growth should not be squandered.”
To Take Care of Others, Start by Taking Care of Yourself. “We still have a long, hard path to get through this pandemic. But doing our best to manage the toll it takes on our mental and emotional health will make it easier to ride out the coming ups and downs…All of us need emotional first responders. Take good care of yourself. Because we need you.”
In Stressful Times, Make Stress Work for You. “Research shows we can actually use stress to improve our health and well-being. Here’s how.”
Are Our Management Theories Outdated? “If efficiency is the aim of instrumentalism, freedom is the aim of existentialism. Deepening our humanity, in business, politics, and every other field, requires an equal devotion to both. The day that freedom is as central as efficiency to its practice, we might declare management dead and welcome it to a new life.”
The Implications of Working Without An Office. “The pandemic has proved how true the adage ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ is. In April and May, numerous leaders (particularly of real estate companies) declared that we must ‘get people back to work.’ But the reality is that people have been working quite successfully, from home. We propose that organizations can and should build on their success thus far.”
How to Curate Your Digital Persona. “Understanding how our online profiles get created and used by others — as well as how we can access and modify them — is part of building a successful career.”
The Fine Line Between Helpful and Harmful Authenticity. “When we express ourselves, let’s not forget to think of others.”
TED Talks/Podcasts
TEDxChristchurch: 3 Secrets of Resilient People. “Everyone experiences loss, but how do you cope with the tough moments that follow? Resilience researcher Lucy Hone shares three hard-won strategies for developing the capacity to brave adversity overcome struggle and face whatever may come head-on with fortitude and grace.”
TEDMED 2020: The Courage To Live With Radical Uncertainty. “When your future is uncertain, how do you keep moving forward? In this courageous talk, oncologist and cancer survivor Shekinah Elmore shares how she embraced life after a rare genetic diagnosis — and explains why she believes doctors have a duty to help their patients learn to live with radical uncertainty.”
No Stupid Questions: How Do You Handle Criticism? “Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio, and Angela Duckworth, author of Grit, have spent decades exploring the weird and wonderful ways in which humans behave — Dubner as a journalist and writer, Duckworth as an academic and researcher — and the two have been asking each other interesting questions ever since they became friends years ago.”
Blog Posts
Ryan Holiday: If You’re Not Seeking Out Challenges, How Are You Going to Get Better? “Jump into the colder pool. Have the tougher conversation. Walk instead of drive. Take ownership where you can. Choose the more difficult option. Seek out the challenge. Lean into it…When you have two choices, choose the one that challenges you the most.”
Tracy Writes: Reflections on Being a Female Founder. “I want to see a world where men and women, who make up equal halves of humanity, also make up equal halves of leadership. When that happens, I wholeheartedly believe that the entire world will benefit. We owe it to our sons and daughters to work hard to get there.”
Seth Godin: Undoing the toxic myth of exclusion and scarcity. “When people deprive others of education and opportunity, they’re not helping themselves, they’re depriving themselves of the benefits that would come from what others would end up contributing. We don’t benefit from treating others poorly, we pay for it.”
Arts, Music & Culture Corner
David Sedaris, Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go. “With two books in the works but all plans on hold, the writer is pacing New York City and destroying his Fitbit friends.”
The Chicks Are Done Caring What People Think. “The trio formerly known as the Dixie Chicks is returning with its first album in 14 years, at peace with an industry that’s never made nice.”
The Walkman, Forty Years On. “The gadget that taught the world to socially distance.”
Reflections
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
— Søren Kierkegaard
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” — Lena Horne
