EDITION 792
18 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 become a better learner at work. Research has found that learning agility - the ability to grow and to use new strategies - is a good indicator of whether someone can be a high performer. Learning-agile employees are able to jettison skills and ideas that are no longer relevant and learn new ones that are. To cultivate learning agility in yourself, try: MORE>> 

2. The best UK cities to live and work. Oxford and Reading have been voted the top cities in the UK in which to live and work, according to a study by accounting giant PWC and think-tank Demos. The study ranked UK cities using a range of criteria, including availability of jobs, health, housing affordability and work-life balance. Due to its very high cost of living, London slipped to 16th place on the list – one place lower than its position last year. Bradford in West Yorkshire was named the "most improved", largely due to a significant fall in the local unemployment rate. Evening Standard

3. The most-loathed office-email phrases have been revealed. The conversation features the likes of "per my last email", "just checking in" and "moving forward". The phrase "thanks in advance" was also hailed as one of the worst offenders, with some commenters suggesting it translates as: "I'm already thanking you for doing me this favour, even though you haven't yet agreed to it." Signing off with 'Love', 'Thx', 'Take care', 'Looking forward to hearing from you', 'Yours truly', 'Respectfully', 'Have a blessed day' and 'Sent from my iPhone' were voted the worst ways to sign off a professional email. Daily Mail

4. UK employment falls by 58,000. The number of people in employment in Britain fell by 58,000 in the three months to September – the steepest quarterly decline since 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS said a recent spate of store chain closures was partly responsible, with thousands of retail staff suddenly finding themselves out of work. The data also revealed a slight slowdown in wage growth, with average weekly pay (before tax) sitting at £470. The news comes amidst recent reports of the country’s slowest economic growth rate in nearly a decade. The Times

5. Got goals? How to stick to them. Whether you are trying to change your diet or looking to finish that report, sticking to challenging goals is no simple feat. Temptations have a way of sneaking up on us. But a remarkably simple, effective way to steer clear of distractions: Plan for them in advance, and come up with concrete actions you will take if and when they arise. Such planning allows us to ease whatever fears we may have of being thrown off course. Need ideas on how more effective? Let’s go…! MORE>>

6. The key to speaking persuasively. If you’re looking to persuade others to your cause, consider raising your speaking voice just a bit. Even better, try raising and lowering the volume of your voice as you speak. Such moves convey confidence, and that in turn ups your persuasiveness, according to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. While it won’t make a lousy argument miraculously better, the findings emphasise that paralanguage - how we deliver our messages - is often much more important than we realise. New York Times

7. When meetings are a form of therapy. While few important decisions are made at long meetings, they can sometimes serve as a form of therapy, new data from Sweden's Malmö University reveals. Lengthy meetings can give workers a chance to complain and be acknowledged by their colleagues, according to the study’s author. To make meetings more effective, avoid ones that involve both managers and staff, and don’t book them for one or two hours in advance as they'll expand to fill the allotted time. Daily Mail

8. Whisper it quietly: poll finds Brits are shy people. More than half of Britons view themselves as shy, with 10% saying they are “very shy”, according to a new YouGov survey. And those figures rose to 49% and 17% respectively among people aged between 16 and 24. An expert said the findings “highlight how normal it is for people to feel social anxiety or not feel at ease”. The Times

9. Being an influencer pays off. The earning potential of social media influencers has soared in recent years amid growing popularity, according to a new report. Marketing firm Izea examined negotiated rates across sponsored content on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and found that the average cost of a sponsored post on Instagram jumped from £104 in 2014 to £1,276 in 2019, with a 44% rise from 2018 to 2019 alone. A survey by toymaker Lego found that one-third of children between 8 and 12 aspire to be either a vlogger or a YouTuber. The Independent

10. The bottom line. Tories lose their lead over Labour, according to an aggregate of all polls. The Conservatives have an 11-point lead, down from 11 points last week, with Johnson’s party on 39 per cent and Labour on 28 per cent. The Liberal Democrats are up five to 16 per cent. The Brexit Party has an 8 per cent share, the SNP has 4 and The Green Party are on 3 per cent. BBC