MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors

Whether you are a manager or an individual contributor in a workplace, showing those around you that you appreciate them can have massive– and reciprocal– benefits. Here are techniques for doing so:

1. Show your appreciation for people’s presence: Sure, everyone is being paid to be there. Nonetheless, letting someone know their presence is having an impact on you or the organization can make a big difference. Greet them when they arrive, express regret if they are ill or forced to spend time out of the office. If they are staying late or going above and beyond, acknowledge that you value the effort.
2. Show your appreciation of peoples’s ideas and contributions: Managers and individual contributors alike should show colleagues that their input is valued. Managers should nurture a culture of sharing ideas by asking for employee input in each staff meeting, and championing those who contribute.
3. Show your appreciation of people’s lives outside of work: Work should never be the only thing in your life or the lives of those on your team. Take an interest in people’s interests and activities outside of the workplace, and then take pains to respect the boundaries between the two– avoid sending emails or requests after hours, and remember how the conditions of your coworker’s lives might make certain work commitments harder than they are for you.
4. Show your appreciation of people’s need for growth and development: One of the main reasons employees give for leaving jobs is a lack of development opportunities. Give peers and reports alike reasons to stay by taking an interest in their path forward– and then seek out or create chances to develop the key stills or have the experiences that advance them on their desired path.

You don’t have to incorporate all of these actions at once to make your direct reports and colleagues feel appreciated. Start small by weaving a few into your daily routine—over time, they’ll become second nature.

This article’s three writers conducted a survey of 485 of articles related to the future of work. Based on questions & conclusions formed from the survey of those articles, they then polled 570 experts from tech, economics, and writing/journalism about their views of the future. Specifically, they asked these experts to name the year that specific projections would finally become reality.

Here are their findings:

Further polling leads to a conversation about how three distinct groups (tech entrepreneurs, economists, and authors/journalists) relate to each other as they predict the future.

Tech entrepreneurs tended to be radical optimists about the future, while economists were more skeptical & cautious. Authors and journalists held more pessimistic attitudes. Importantly, these three groups were unshakably convinced that their predictions about the future of work were right and that the others were wrong — and even preposterous.

Why There Are Differences in Beliefs About the Future of Work: Groups tend to take in information from shared or similar sources, which insulates it from other perspectives. Being open to other group’s perspectives is important; embracing uncertainty and competing scenarios is in fact essential to long-term strategic planning.

The Future Is What We Make It: The article’s writers believe their study shows that the future is not yet set in stone, and that it is impossible to determine who is right about the future of work. The question is not, “What will the future of work be like?” but rather, “What do we want the future to be like?” This reframes the future-of-work question as an arena for values, politics, ideology, and imagination, instead of a set of trends that can objectively be predicted.

The article ends on a resonant note: it is important to be attentive to and active in discussion about the future of work. This ensures that the future of work will unfold within a social and democratic dialogue. Remember: the future is what we make it.

Rising through the ranks in the professional world can too often be viewed through the prism of “years of experience” or earned credentials. This is a misconception. The best credential for climbing the ladder is demonstrated leadership, which can be performed by any member of the team regardless of rank.

Becoming an influential leader begins with shifting your perspective and mindset. You can adopt a wider vision for your company or teams’ future, and then making colleagues believe in and work towards that vision. Here are three steps to doing so:

1. Devote time to daily growth: You have to help yourself before you can help others. Seek out mentorship, and ask questions of those who have achieved what you want to achieve. Actively learn outside of work, and study psychology to understand human the forces that inform group motivation, safety, and cooperation.
2. Discover and embrace your personal strengths: While it can be productive to attack your perceived weaknesses, building influence can be better advanced by discovering and developing your innate strengths. These strengths are what set you apart from others. By highlighting these strengths, superiors will know how and when to trust you to add value in those specific areas. This trust will make you feel empowered and valued.
3. Improve your ability to connect with people: Not all leaders need to be charismatic public speakers, but they do need to be adept interpersonal connectors. This often involves direct, clear communication and– in turn– active and intentional listening. Communicating in a way that feels accessible and relatable to others will ultimately increase your ability to influence. To do this, be as vulnerable and authentic with others as you can. In listening, be as empathetic as possible.

As you build these qualities, your influence will grow and your career trajectory will improve. By focusing on personal growth, embracing your unique strengths, and forging deeper connections, you will shorten the path to reaching your goals.

Advances in technology and increases in the severity of global problems have elevated the importance of inquiry as a hard skill. Asking the smartest possible question can offer pathways to innovative, unforeseen solutions. So how do we sharpen our inquiry skills?

It is a leader’s job is to flush out information, insights, and alternatives, unearthing critical questions the team has overlooked. The greatest problems can arise from leaving the most important questions unasked.

Thus, these researchers analyzed their survey of business executives and found that strategic questions can be grouped into five leading classifications. Each unlocks a different aspect of the decision-making process. Together they can help you tackle key issues that are all too easy to miss. These 5 types of inquiry are:

1. Investigative: Good leaders begin by clarifying their purpose and identifying what they need to learn; often using successive “Why?” questions to uncover deeper insights. Additionally, driving at “How?” can help groups move beyond generic solutions.
2. Speculative: Speculative questions, such as “What if…?” and “What else…?”, enable leaders to reframe problems and explore creative solutions. The global design company IDEO uses the prompt “How might we…?” to overcome limiting assumptions and foster innovative problem-solving.
3. Productive: Productive questions, such as, “How can we get this done done?” aid in evaluating the available capability, talent, time, and other resources. These questions drive the discussions in which action is explored and execution plans are honed.
4. Interpretive: Interpretive, or “sensemaking” questions, enable action by continually redefining the core issue or probing deeper into the problem at hand. They follow up on investigative, speculative, and productive questions to draw out new conclusions, such as considering the impact of trends, exploring opportunities, and understanding the implications for scaling up.
5. Subjective: The final category of questions addresses allows us to take reservations, frustrations, tensions, and hidden agendas that can derail decision-making into account. You have to emphasize the emotional aspects of a decision. Neglecting to do so can cause well-crafted solutions to be undermined by subjective reactions, despite solid analysis and plans.

By pinpointing strengths and weaknesses in your question-asking and considering the five types of questions outlined above, you will be more empowered to ask better questions- and create an atmosphere of smarter strategic inquiry.