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At Ambit, we spend a lot of time reading articles that cover a wide gamut of topics, ranging from zeitgeist to futuristic, and encapsulate them in our weekly ‘Ten Interesting Things’ product. Some of the most fascinating topics covered this week are: Leadership (Team management lessons from a naval captain), Business (When bosses shared their profits; Make your next pitch instantly more compelling by using this one philosopher's framework), Technology (India Inc wakes up to march of the machines) and Productivity (You need to ask yourself this question every day). Here are the ten most interesting pieces that we read this week, ended July 24, 2020- 1) Leadership lessons from Captain Abrashoff [Source: mastersinvest.com]2) A managerial quality that is hard to define but important to possess [Source: The Economist]
In this pandemic, many have taken a lot of tough decisions. Managers, faced with tough calls like which parts of their operations to close, have not been spared. Politicians had to take calls on extending the lockdown. Companies on laying off or cutting salaries. Good judgment is a quality everyone would like to have. But it is remarkably difficult to define precisely, and many people are not sure whether they personally possess it. Sir Andrew Likierman of the London Business School has spent a long time talking to leaders in a wide range of fields, from business and the army to the law and medicine, in an effort to create a framework for understanding judgment.
He suggests that judgment is “the combination of personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to form opinions and take decisions”. Expertise can be useful in making judgments. But it is not the same thing. “Academics have expertise,” Sir Andrew observes. “They don’t necessarily have judgment.” People with judgment know when they are out of their depth in making a decision and typically then seek the advice of someone who has the right background and knowledge. The world is full of people whose lack of judgment brought their careers or personal life crashing down. Many made the common mistake of assuming everything was fine.
As artificial intelligence gets used for more and more routine tasks in the service sector, exercising judgment may be one area where humans retain an edge over machines. This is far from certain, however. What people perceive as good judgment may stem from the ability to spot certain cues in the environment. This ability may be unconscious, just as a dog can catch a Frisbee in mid-air without knowing how to calculate wind speed and air resistance. As machines can be taught, so do humans. In the long run, one of the trickiest aspects of human judgment may be knowing precisely when to let machines take decisions and when to leave it to people.
3) When bosses shared their profits [Source: NY Times]
Businesses should resume their profit-sharing model which has declined since 1980s. That’s what the author of this piece thinks. The original idea for businesses to share profits with workers emerged from the tumultuous period when America shifted from farm to factory. He talks about Sears, Roebuck and Co., one of America’s largest corporations, with 30,000 to 40,000 employees, which announced a major experiment in profit-sharing in 1916. The company would contribute 5% of net earnings, without deduction of dividends to shareholders, into a profit-sharing fund. Sears’s plan was admirably egalitarian. By the 1950s, Sears workers owned a quarter of the company. By 1968, the typical Sears salesman could retire with a nest egg worth well over $1 million in today’s dollars.
Profit-sharing did give workers an incentive to be more productive. It also reduced the need for layoffs during recessions, because payroll costs dropped as profits did. But it subjected workers to the risk that when profits were down, their paychecks would shrink. And if a company went bankrupt, they’d lose all their investments in it. The best profit-sharing plans came in the form of cash bonuses that employees could invest however they wished, on top of predictable base wages. Since 2000, the portion of total national income going to American workers has dropped farther than in other rich nations. A steadily larger portion has gone into corporate profits, which have been reflected in higher share prices. But a buoyant stock market doesn’t help most Americans. The richest 1 percent now own half the value of all shares of stock; the richest 10 percent, 92 percent.
If Amazon’s 840,000 employees owned the same proportion of their employer’s stock as Sears workers did in the 1950s, a quarter of the company, each would now own shares worth an average of about $386,904. According to the author, there are many ways to encourage profit-sharing. During this pandemic, for example, Congress should prohibit the Treasury or the Federal Reserve from bailing out any corporation that doesn’t share its profits with its employees. Sharing the profits with all workers is a logical and necessary first step to making capitalism work for the many, not the few.
4) 5 personality traits that make you mentally tough [Source: Darius Foroux]
The author of this piece came across a 2019 study on professional athletes while he was researching on mental toughness. There were five personality traits that were predictive of success in sports. These traits can work as a guideline for gaining more mental toughness. 1) Ego-Strength: In the study, they define ego as “A measure of one’s capacity to handle setbacks, criticism, and rejection.” So, one shouldn’t suppress ego. If you score high on ego-strength, you’re less affected by failure and setbacks. If you score low, you are affected by failure, criticism, and rejection. And you’ll have a hard time bouncing back.
2) Level-Headedness: Mentally tough athletes remain composed in stress-inducing situations. This is a critical trait of mental toughness. When you’re confronted with a situation that raises your heart rate, you want to avoid an emotional response. No matter what’s the situation, reacting emotionally will only harm you and others. 3) Stress-Tolerance: This trait is about your ability to deal with high stakes. How do you deal with possible negative consequences? Whatever happens, never allow fear of negative consequences cripple you.
4) Energy/Persistence: In the study, they describe this as “A measure of one’s potential to sustain a high level of activity over extended periods.” Think of learning a skill, getting a degree, building a career, writing a book, creating a movie, etc. All that stuff requires energy and persistence. The key is to manage our energy so we can stay active and persistent in overcoming our challenges. 5) Thoroughness: Mental toughness is not only about doing your job, it’s about doing it well. And to succeed at anything in life, you need to be thorough. You don’t get points for doing a sloppy job. Finally, mental toughness is not about outcomes. It’s about challenging yourself and becoming a better—more complete—person.
9) Make your next pitch instantly more compelling by using this one philosopher's framework [Source: entrepreneur.com]
If you want to draft a successful sales pitch, this article is all that you need. Twentieth-century British philosopher Paul Grice shifted the way we think about semantics and language. His maxims for conversation are part of his work on the cooperative principle, which states that when people engage with one another there are unspoken assumptions around how the conversation will unfold. Here’s how you can use Grice’s four maxims to capture anyone’s attention on command.
1) Say what is needed and nothing more: The maxim of quantity states that excess information will ultimately clutter your story or position. Ever check out of a conversation because the person talking keeps going off on tangents? This is why you should be sharpening your elevator pitch all the time. A good rule of thumb for editing is to ask yourself “So what?” at the end of each sentence or story detail. If your language doesn’t actually propel your message forward, leave it out. 2) Back up what you say: Grice’s maxim of quality has two components – Tell the truth, and back up what you say with evidence, preferably scientific in nature. According to this maxim, the natural disposition of a listener is to corroborate your argument in some way; anticipate this skepticism and you’ll do a better job holding someone’s rapt attention.
3) Keep it relevant: Gary Vaynerchuk, a Belarusian-American entrepreneur, points out that while “content is king,” context is God. It’s true; you can barrage your listener with anecdotes or tangents, but will sleek catchphrases and one-liners really add to your conversation or argument in the long run? 4) Stay organized as you speak: Grice’s final maxim asks us to “be perspicuous,” which means to be clear and easy to understand. This maxim refers more to your actual word choices; the more muddled your language, the harder it becomes to follow you. Most people are wired to listen and filter for these maxims automatically. Stay in bounds, keep your message clear and to the point, and you’ll have everything you need to captivate listeners the next time you have an important audience.