HBR: Managing Time
You have too much to do and too little time. It’s frustrating and stressful and has a big impact on your success. Although you can’t magically add more hours to the day, you can learn to manage your time—however limited it may be—more carefully and efficiently. This book will quickly teach you the basic steps and tools you can use to take control:
Logging your time
Prioritizing your responsibilities
Developing a plan to reallocate your time to reflect your goals
Managing deadlines
Creating detailed, task-oriented to-do lists
Avoiding interruptions and distractions
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s book on Managing Time.
HBR: The Surprising Power of Questions
Some people shy away from asking questions in professional settings for fear that they seem incompetent. But they have it all wrong! Asking questions can prompt new conversations and uncover new approaches. (They can also demonstrate to others the unique knowledge that you possess.)
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on The Surprising Power of Questions.
HBR: How to Ask Great Questions
Asking questions is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. It can also minimize certain business risks!
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on How to Ask Great Questions.
Career Advice Websites
SmartBrief has dozens of newsletters and articles on leadership and various industries. Their SmartBrief on Your Career newsletter is specifically designed for young professionals like yourselves!
The Muse is a great career advice resource website, with hundreds of articles and several forums.
HBR: Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
Successful people reach their goals not just because of who they are, but because of what they do. Read this quick article with nine concrete steps you can take today to set yourself up for future professional successes.
HBR: Moments of Greatness
When leaders do their best work, they aren't trying to imitate anyone else. To learn how to harness your fundamental state of leadership, take a look at this Harvard Business Review read. Everyone has their own fundamental style, and this article can help you determine yours and unlock the great leadership potential that you already possess.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on Moments of Greatness.
HBR: Managing Oneself
History’s great achievers—a Napoléon, a da Vinci, a Mozart—have always managed themselves. That, in large measure, is what makes them great achievers. But they are rare exceptions, so unusual both in their talents and their accomplishments as to be considered outside the boundaries of ordinary human existence. Now, most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves. We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on Managing Oneself.
NYT: The Secret Ingredient for Success
When we face challenges, our first instinct may not to look inward and self-reflect. I encourage you to read these New York Times articles that share the power of introspective thought, as well as some stories of innovators and industry leaders who use the tool of self-reflection to help them overcome obstacles in their careers and daily lives.
All the best,
Dr. Paul R. Williams
Click here to read the New York Times’ article on No Time to Think.
Click here to read the New York Times’ article on The Secret Ingredient for Success.
HBR: Managing Your Energy
Even if you manage your time well at work, you may still find yourself feeling depleted and out of energy. Take a look at this quick read for some tips on how to best manage your personal energy supply.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on Managing Your Energy.
HBR: The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome
When an employee fails—or even just performs poorly—managers typically do not blame themselves. The employee doesn’t understand the work, a manager might contend. Or the employee isn’t driven to succeed, can’t set priorities, or won’t take direction. Whatever the reason, the problem is assumed to be the employee’s fault—and the employee’s responsibility.
But is it? Sometimes, of course, the answer is yes. Some employees are not up to their assigned tasks and never will be, for lack of knowledge, skill, or simple desire. But sometimes—and we would venture to say often—an employee’s poor performance can be blamed largely on his boss.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s article on The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome.
HBR: Guide to Leading Teams
Dysfunctional teams are maddening—and sadly, they seem to be endemic to organizational life. But as the team leader, you have the power to change things for the better. It’s up to you to get people to work well together and produce results.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Leading Teams.
HBR: Effective Presentations
It takes more than personality and PowerPoint to give an effective presentation. But you can learn how, whether you’re presenting for the first time or you just need a refresher. This book walks you through the basic steps:
Articulating a clear message
Tailoring it to your audience
Organizing your content
Gathering relevant, persuasive data
Choosing the right tools and visual aids
Rehearsing and getting feedback
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s book on Presentations.
HBR: Running Meetings
Running a meeting can be an excellent way to make a decision, gather ideas, or inspire a team—not to mention an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your organizational, motivational, collaborative, and leadership skills. But we often fail to approach meetings with the kind of discipline and attention that they deserve, and so things frequently don’t go as well as they could. This book will help you with the basics so you can make every meeting as productive as possible.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s book on Running Meetings.
HBR: Guide to Managing Up and Across
Managing up and across your company is critical to doing your job well. It’s all about understanding your boss’s and colleagues’ priorities, pressures, and work styles. You need to manage up and across not just because you may have a problem boss, incompetent colleagues, or projects that involve stakeholders flung far and wide. You need to manage up and across, for example, to get your marketing and sales folks to see that your project will help them meet their goals, too; to establish authority with higher-ups so they’ll bless your new product ideas; to secure people’s time for a new team when they’re already feeling overextended.
Managing up and across will help you get the information and resources you need to solve your complex problems, increase your effectiveness, and make your work more enjoyable.
Click here to read the Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Managing Up and Across.