EDITION 766
20 MAY 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 make better decisions. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone practiced a little more rational decision-making. Fortunately, research does show that there are things you can do to help make more accurate and reason-based - and less emotion-based and potentially impulsive - decisions. Here are two simple rules can be particularly helpful: [READ MORE]
    
2. Like wine, leaders’ brains can improve with time. Our brains begin to shrink by the time we hit our 20s, diminishing our ability to learn new things and slowing our reaction times. But such developments force the brain to develop workarounds. This adaptation – called the Scaffolding Theory of Ageing and Cognition – gives older employees an advantage at solving interpersonal and abstract challenges, the kind of problems CEOs often face. What’s the sweet spot age for such qualities? The mid-50s. Seven out of 10 of the top FTSE 100 companies are led by people in that age group. The Times
    
3. The case for keeping an achievement file. Many of us are primed to cast aside the praise we receive and hold onto the criticism instead. But holding onto and internalising positive feedback encourages healthy emotions, improves our relationships and boosts job satisfaction. How do you keep the praise alive? Start collecting it. Create a physical or digital collection of kudos you have received. Revisit that file from time to time, looking for patterns that may help you discover new opportunities. LinkedIn
    
4. Tech giants pledge gender diversity. Alibaba, IBM, Booking.com and Uber have pledged to boost the number of women on their management boards to 30% by 2022. Attending a “Tech for good” summit in Paris, 45 technology companies signed a pledge to improve gender diversity in their executive teams. Worth £184bn to the UK economy according to Tech Nation, consulting firm McKinsey estimates women represent just 15% of management posts within the technology sector. The Telegraph
    
5. London to get ‘world’s first’ hydrogen double-decker buses. London is to become the first city in the world to have hydrogen-powered double-decker buses, which emit only water as exhaust. Transport for London has ordered 20 of the UK-built buses, which cost £500,000 each – more than twice as much as a standard diesel double-decker. Hydrogen-powered buses, which are already running in single-decker form in London, Aberdeen and Brighton, are faster to refuel than electric ones and have a longer range. The Guardian
    
6. Main parties lose majority of support to Brexit protest. A YouGov poll taken in advance of the European elections gave Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party 34% of the vote – more than the Tories and Labour combined. Labour was on 16%, the Lib Dems 15%, the Green Party 11% and the Tories only 10%. Change UK were on 5% and UKIP 3%. In a similar Opinium poll for The Observer, the Brexit Party was again on 34%, while Labour was on 21%, the Lib Dems 12% and the Tories 11%. The Times
    
7. Gender neutral language coming to job ads. In an attempt to boost the number of female applicants to Stem (science, tech, engineering and maths) jobs, the Institute for Apprenticeships is to try using “gender-neutral” language in its job adverts. This will mean removing words deemed masculine, such as “confident” and “decisive”, and replacing them with words such as “kind” and “dependable”. Daily Mail
    
8. Eton to teach pupils to say 'thank you'. Eton College is adding gratitude, kindness and empathy coaching to its curriculum to build its pupils’ “character”. Following a review into what values Eton should be promoting, boys at the £40,700-a-year school are being taught to take a moment each day to acknowledge how others have helped them and what they have to be grateful for. The Independent
    
9. Cocaine use soaring in UK. Cocaine use has more than doubled in five years as purity has hit a record high, according to analysis of Britain’s waste water. Tests found users in London are taking almost 200,000 doses of the drug every day. Concentrations in waste water have risen from 392mg per 1,000 of the population per day in 2011 to 900mg per 1,000. Daily Star
    
10. The bottom line. Wimbledon's first-round losers secure £45k payday. Good week for Wimbledon players, who learned that the tournament’s prize pot has gone up nearly 12% this year, to £38m. Players who are knocked out in the first round will take home £45,000 – four times as much as in 2011. The two winners will each get £2.35m. The Times