by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Stress Management
People who are happy but have little to no sense of meaning in their lives have the same [inflammatory response] as people who are responding to and enduring chronic adversity. …
Meaning was defined as an orientation to something bigger than the self.
Happiness was defined by feeling good. …
“Empty positive emotions are about as good for you for as adversity,” says Dr. Fredrickson. …
From the evidence of this study, it seems that feeling good is not enough. People need meaning to thrive. In the words of Carl Jung, “The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.” Jung’s wisdom certainly seems to apply to our bodies, if not also to our hearts and our minds.
—Meaning Is Healthier Than Happiness
by Emily Esfahani Smith
The Atlantic Magazine
by Tony Mayo | Communication, Conversation, & Confrontation, For Business Owners, For Salespeople, Sales Techniques
Another good reason to avoid jargon, shibboleths, and technical terms with colleagues and prospects. It makes you sound untrustworthy, even criminal. Listeners naturally wonder, “What are you hiding behind those obscure references, technical terms, and acronyms?” For good reason.
The word jargon originally meant unintelligible noises resembling speech, like the twittering of birds. But early on, jargon became the name of the peculiar speech used by criminal groups.
–Professor Heller-Roazen
Learn to Talk in Beggars’ Cant
The New York Times
See also, Misunderstood Jargon, on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Stress Management
How many times do I need to relearn this fact of life? Last night I tried to correct a troublesome Excel spreadsheet until I gave-up in frustration. This morning, I fixed it in five minutes.
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
–Macbeth (2.2.46-51)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners
We literally see the world the way we want to see it.
But the Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that there is a problem beyond that. Even if you are just the most honest, impartial person that you could be, you would still have a problem — namely, when your knowledge or expertise is imperfect, you really don’t know it. Left to your own devices, you just don’t know it.
We’re not very good at knowing what we don’t know. …
Put simply, people tend to do what they know and fail to do that which they have no conception of. In that way, ignorance profoundly channels the course we take in life. …
People fail to reach their potential as professionals, lovers, parents and people simply because they are not aware of the possible.
–David A. Dunning, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Cornell University
Quoted in
The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but
You’ll Never Know What It Is
The New York Times
by Tony Mayo | Communication, Conversation, & Confrontation, For Business Owners, For Salespeople, Sales Techniques
No sooner did I post my article on the pitfalls of misusing jargon that I found myself in a conversation that was confused and distorted by the use of technical terms without a shared context.
A client mentioned his plan to delegate the task of staying in regular, informal contact with customers between transactions. We naturally agreed that these “keep warm” meetings were a valuable and often overlooked source of repeat business. Since the activity is so valuable for the business, I asked how he was going to track the sales representative’s performance on scheduling and conducting these visits. “I’m not worried about that. Her personality assessment is clearly very high ‘I,’ so I know she will happily do the meetings.”
I told him that puzzled me. The most popular assessment tool is (more…)
by Tony Mayo | Communication, Conversation, & Confrontation, For Business Owners, Sales Techniques
I like this guy.
We speak the same language.
— from many movies, in many variations
Some people hate to talk to mechanics. Most people don’t know what their doctor told them.
No one likes reading the fine print. Computer departments often find it difficult to get support from the business side. The operations people find it impossible to get the technical people to listen. Jargon used with the wrong audience is a big part of the problem.
People want to be included but using jargon cuts both ways. If everyone in a conversation knows the jargon, everyone feels included. Everyone is “in.” The person who does not know the jargon is “out.”
Consider a sales call on a doctor’s office. The salesperson begins to talk about VoIP, SAAS, and generational back-ups. How would the office manager feel if he were a computer
expert? Respected, included, and comfortable. How would the novice feel? Disrespected, incompetent, and uncomfortable, perhaps? The typical reaction of a person feeling that way is to (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Quotes and Aphorisms
To be totally engaged with all my functions, all my faculties, all my capacities in life.
To me that would be success.
–Philosopher Jacob Needleman in
Money And The Meaning Of Life
Fast Company
See also on this blog, Thoroughly Used Up When I Die
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Stress Management
The point at which what we are given is difficult beyond endurance is a point that pierces and refines the soul. And (though this may be hard to believe) it is possible to be so fluid and centered, so filled with trust in the intelligence of the universe, that even the horror can pass through us and eventually be transformed into light.
—Stephen Mitchell
Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Bible Stories
Quoted in Psychology Today, December 1, 1996
A quick and novel technique for integrating difficult moods and experiences is here Resistance is Futile on this blog.
See free, easy Meditation Instructions on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Leadership Development
A transformational leadership style, one that conveys a sense of trust, meaningfulness, and individually challenges employees, contributes to greater employee well-being*
- Leading by example,
- Contributing to a common goal,
- Intellectual stimulation,
- Positive feedback for good performance,
- Recognizing the needs of others, &
- Resolving conflict
–Christine Jacobs, University of Cologne
in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
via Transformational Leadership
Has Positive Effects on Employee Well-Being.
*Psychological well-being includes:
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self-acceptance
-
the establishment of quality ties to other
-
a sense of autonomy in thought and action
-
the ability to manage complex environments to suit personal needs and values
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the pursuit of meaningful goals and a sense of purpose in life
-
continued growth and development as a person
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