EDITION 798
30 DECEMBER 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 overcome your reluctance to negotiate your salary. Negotiating your salary can reap huge long-term benefits. But most of us are reluctant to try. Here are some common excuses and how to overcome them: MORE>>

2.  What was the greatest company of the past decade? You could make a case for Amazon, of course, or Microsoft, or perhaps Apple, Facebook, Uber. Maybe Alibaba or Tencent. There are perfectly compelling cases to be made for all of them. But the winner? It has to be Netflix. Measured since the start of the decade, it was the top performer with an overall gain in the share price of 3,767%. Netflix floated back in 2002, at $15. At its peak last year, the shares were $400. True, Netflix doesn’t make any money; but it has been a very rewarding journey for investors. Financial Times

3.  Who is the new governor of the Bank of England? Andrew Bailey has been named as the next governor of the Bank of England and will take over from Mark Carney on 16 March. Bailey spent the vast majority of his career at the Bank of England, which he joined in 1985, but is currently the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the City watchdog. The Times 

4.  How to deal with horrible bosses. Working under a bully can significantly impact your mental and physical health. There are several ways to fight back, starting with having an honest conversation with the person (and including a colleague for backup). If confrontation is a no-go, research suggests employees who adopt passive-aggressive techniques actually feel less psychological distress and job dissatisfaction. The silver lining? Research also says bad bosses suffer consequences by losing social worth and respect. The Guardian

5.  Avoid burnout before it’s too late. Small changes can make a big difference in avoiding burnout. We advise our mentoring clients that there are three key elements: Knowing your body, personality and reality. First, we recommend getting enough sleep, eating good food and exercising. Secondly, nurture your personality by understanding what restores you and invest in those activities. Thirdly, live the truth of your work - know what you can actually change to improve your situation. MORE>>

6.  How not to kill or lose your team. The best bosses know when less management is better. Getting the balance wrong can mean that team performance and creativity suffer. Get it right, and everybody wins. Recognising that mere involvement as a manager doesn't always translate into good results and knowing when to step back and listen - flatten the hierarchy - are two key steps. When these fail, however, employees should know what they can do to mitigate micromanagement. The Wall Street Journal

7.  Too many meetings can sap your brain. Many of today's employees are awash in a sea of unproductive, unhelpful meetings.  According to the Office for National Statistics, the average worker contends with six hours of meetings a week; managers have to deal with as much as 23 hours a week. This has led to a rise of what we call "meeting recovery syndrome," the extra time we need to recover our brains after meetings so we can focus on actual work. How can we limit this ailment? Hold fewer meetings, minimise the number of attendees we invite to such gatherings and stick to a strict agenda. askten

8.  Burglary rate soars in Boris Johnson's constituency. Boris Johnson’s constituency has the fastest rising rate of burglary in England and Wales. The number of break-ins in Uxbridge and South Ruislip has rocketed by 68% in a year, with 692 burglaries in the 12 months to November 2019 in Uxbridge, up from 412 a year earlier. The Sunday Times

9.  My favourite book of 2019. Traditional management practices, mooted in economics and psychology, have led to a focus on numbers and productivity rather than the people who make the numbers happen. This has resulted in trust in leaders and organisations being at an all-time low. What Philosophy Can Teach You About Being a Better Leader expertly counters this thinking and argues that those leaders who will win in the uncertain and complex world of work are the ones focusing on their workforce and valuing its members as people, rather than just tools within the process. Editor

10. The bottom line. 44% of Britons say they trust the BBC to tell the truth, down seven points since October. 34% say they trust “upmarket newspapers” like The Times and The Guardian, down from 38% in October. 14% say they trust “mid-market” papers like the Daily Mail and the Express, and 7% say they trust tabloids such as The Sun and The Mirror. The Guardian