The science of optimism
In this post I’m exploring optimism – the benefits and how to get them. My daughter reeled off a string of things that have gone well for her recently and it got me thinking about the genetic and learned aspects of optimism. The work of psychologist Martin Seligman and others have shown an optimistic thinking style can be learned, although it requires long-term sustained effort. My daughter could equally have been the stimulus for a post on gratitude, something I’ve covered... Read More
Personality at Work
Nicky Dulieu (CEO of Hobbs) has called on women to be more authentic at work. Market research by her business found that one in three women prefer a male to a female boss because women ‘lack personality.’ I read it with a balanced view of humanity and thought ‘yes, yes, we must let our personality shine’ on the one hand and on the other, ‘oh no, that’ll be some poor so and so’s downfall!’ No matter how ballsy you are I expect there have been times you’ve stuffed... Read More
Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ Digested chapter by chapter
My first thoughts are “It’s slimmer than I thought it would be. How much of this did Sheryl write? How much effort did she really put in?” And then I ask myself ‘Why does it bother me that she didn’t do the actual bashing at the keyboard?’ (Because I DID slave away at a keyboard for several months whilst writing mine. So what?). Let’s get beyond that because she’s a good woman doing something positive. I’ve heard her speak at... Read More
Women at The Top
Hilary Devey is back in the media today (18/3/13) and so I re-publish this post that was first published on 7th September 2012. My back is up after three minutes of Hilary Devey on the BBC’s two-parter “Women at the Top” (whaaaaaat? I’m screeching in a restrained, forehead wrinkling kind of way when she makes a throw away comment about women not wanting the top jobs enough or some such) so I press pause and take Hanif Kureishi’s Intimacy to bed with me. I go via the... Read More
Loved for saying no?
In a column last month (“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should“) I suggested that capable, busy women like you need to be picky about the way you spend your time. I offered the mantra ‘just because you can doesn’t mean you should’ which caused Christine to get on the blower to delve into my ideas on how to say no – one of the mantra’s necessary and implicit skills – for her latest feature in a Gulf magazine. So here’s how to say no and be... Read More
Female Partners at the Big Four
** New content added to this page 31/1/14** Just as I find it odd John Humphreys talking with detachment on the Today programme about BBC misdemeanours – as though this ‘BBC’ is something distant and not his employer - I find myself wondering whether professional consulting firms like KPMG have forgotten what is happening in their own organisation when they publish insight papers such as Female CFOs in Singapore (how Singapore seems to be doing better than other countries... Read More
Bananarama Psychology for Job Satisfaction
They were wearing sloppy jumpers, bearing midriffs and shaking their maracas telling us ‘it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that do it’ and by golly they were right. I’ve been delving a little deeper into the psychology of strength use at work this month and in this post I’m helping you tap into your under-used strengths in the workplace as a route to greater flourishing. Tambourines at the ready, let’s go. Years ago I read a post on an excellent psychology blog... Read More
Senior Civil Servant Job-Share
Picture courtesy of The Guardian website Once the preserve of women at the lower end of a company’s org’chart, job-sharing is now happening in the upper echelons of management. At least it is if you know where to look or more importantly if you know how to ask. I wonder if that appeals to you or your colleagues? If it does, read on and please forward this month’s working motherhood musing to those bright minds. Last month I heard from Isobel, a senior civil servant in her... Read More
