EDITION 791
11 November 2019

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1.  How to counteract a negative relationship. Everyone wants to feel respected by their line manager, but over half of employees say they don’t. What do you do if you’re in that unfortunate majority? Try these three things: READ MORE>>

2.  Why we’re bad at meeting deadlines. Very few of us are strangers to missed deadlines. And no, it’s not all due to laziness or procrastination. Instead, we should chalk this up to the planning fallacy, the notion that many of us are terrible at estimating how much time we need to complete a project. We often set deadlines by adding up the time it should take to complete individual tasks, rather than looking at the big, unpredictable picture. One way to avoid this? Look to the past. Using previous project completion times as a guide, even when circumstances are different, can help you get a sense of the time you truly need to finish the job. BBC

3.  No desire to retire. More than half of UK adults plan to work at least part-time once they have retired. On average, people plan to retire from their primary jobs at the age of 66, but Office for National Statistics [ONS] data shows the proportion of people employed at the age of 70 or above has doubled in the past decade. The ONS found that 45% of people expecting to work into their 70s, with 9% planning to work into their 80s or beyond. The research also revealed that people with higher incomes are more likely to plan to work into their retirements. BBC

4.  Sick note Britain. The number of sick days taken by UK workers rocketed to 141.5 million last year, with mental health among the top reasons given for absence. According to the Office for National Statistics, we took 4.4 days off per worker, up from a record low of 4.1 days in 2017. Public Health England estimates that the combined cost of worklessness and sickness absence amounts to around £100bn annually - or around 5% of GDP. Experts are urging companies to focus on employee wellbeing for increased productivity. You are welcome to join me "live and online" for the wellbeing lesson of 10/10, our acclaimed leadership development and mentoring programme. READ MORE>>

5.  How to deal with negative feedback. Our brains are primed to throw away praise and focus on criticism, even when it’s mean-spirited or undeserved. According to the University of Texas, this comes thanks to avoidance motivation, our tendency to pay special attention to signs of danger, reports the University This quality must have come in handy to our evolutionary ancestors, who needed to stave off predators. But today, avoidance motivation can send us into negative spirals. What to do with these demons? Write how you feel about them. Putting these things on paper allows you to satisfy your urge to be vigilant, and then move on. Fast Company

6.  My dream job is? What do you want to be when you grow up? The age-old question has garnered a new response from young people: a social-media influencer. More than 86% of 13-to-38-year-olds would try “influencing,” citing interest in getting paid to promote products on social media. Key motivations differed across age groups: Millennials were drawn to money and flexible hours, while Generation Z was primarily motivated by making a difference. Both generations trust influencers over celebrities and athletes, fuelling rapid growth in the influencer economy. The Times

7.  The 9-5 is becoming 24/7. The concept of a 9-to-5 workday seems almost quaint today for young workers. Most are shifting their lives in accordance with individual schedules that are rarely completely within their individual control. Adjusting to 24-7 schedules is increasingly common. Less than 35% of workers aged between 23 and 29 work a standard 9am to 5pm day. The demands of the 24-7 world is challenging personal relationships, the research found, with the majority using apps to schedule time with family or partners. The Conversation

8.  Any amount of running reduces early death risk. Just a gentle jog each week is enough to cut the risk of dying early, according to new research led by an Australian university that contradicts previous studies. Researchers from Melbourne-based Victoria University collated data from 14 studies covering a total of 230,000 people who were tracked for up to 35 years and found a 27% lower risk of early death from any cause among those who ran compared with those who never did. The Guardian

9.  Collins picks ‘climate strike’ as word of the year. The phrase “climate strike” has been picked by Collins Dictionary as its word of the year, beating other buzz-terms including “non-binary”, “influencer”, “double down”, “deepfake” and “hopepunk”. Climate strike was used on average 100 times more this year than in 2018, the lexicographers say. Their 2018 choice was “single-use”. The Independent

10.  The bottom line. As election campaigning began last week, the Tories appeared to have a commanding poll lead. An International survey gave the party a 36% share of the vote, with Labour on 28%, the Lib Dems on 14% and the Brexit Party on 12%. A YouGov poll put the Tories on 38%, Labour on 25%, the Lib Dems on 16%, and the Brexit Party on 11%. A separate YouGov poll found that 65% of Britons are not clear what Labour’s policy on Brexit is. The Sunday Telegraph