The secret to success Have a workplace rival

The secret to success Have a workplace rivalThe secret to success Have a workplace rivalDaniel McGinn is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review and the author of Psyched Up How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed (Portfolio, 2017), from which this article is adapted.Even a century later, it remains a landmark study. Norman Triplett, a graduate student at Indiana University, was looking at data from a set of 1897 bicycle races when he observed how bicyclists speed varied depending on whether they were riding alone against the clock, alongside a pacer who rides at a prescribed speed, or in an actual head-to-head race.As Triplett analyzed the data, he noticed that riders competing against another racer cycled significantly faster.He explored various potential causes before concluding the effect was psychological. The bodily presence of another rider is a stimulus to the racer in arousing the competitive instinct, Triplett wrote.To test the theory, Triplett created a contraption that resembled two side-by-side fishing reels. He had 40 schoolchildren compete in reeling contests, against each other and against the clock. The results showed how competition makes people perform better.This insight is no revelation to anyone who watches sports. (Recall Michael Phelps staring down his opponent prior to a race at the 2016 Rio Olympics.) But its a phenomenon we also can use to perform better in environments beyond athletics. Consider the workplace. Recent research co-authored by Harvard Business School professor Dylan Minor showed that who a person sits next to at work can have significant effects on productivity. Other research has shown that working with a frenemy can be a source of motivation. Working alongside them will make you work harder to prove yourself, say researchers Shimul Melwani and Naomi Rothman.Gavin Kilduff, an associate professor of management at New York University, has been fascinated by such rivalries since he was a child, when he noticed himself competing mora intently at video games or basketball against friends. That makes sense. Research by Kilduff and others has shown that rivals tend to share similar attributes and characteristics, be evenly matched, and play each other frequently. (For instance, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are both 6-feet, 9-inches, attended Midwestern public universities, entered the NBA the same year, and led the Celtics and Laker during one of basketballs greatest rivalries.) In a 2014 study, Kilduff found people felt mora motivated and performed better against someone they considered a rival he also found that recreational runners ran faster when a rival was also in the race.Companies routinely create rivalries to motivate individuals at work. Sales managers often use leaderboards or competitions for prizes such as luxury travel to encourage sales reps to outperform colleagues. Many companies use forced-curve performance evaluation systems, in which only a limited number of wor kers can receive a high ranking, which implicitly creates competition among co-workers. (Lately these systems have been criticized for hurting collaboration, and some companies are moving away from them.)Some CEOs view rivalry as a powerful dynamic to motivate not just individual employees, but an entire workforce. Since arriving at T-Mobile in 2012, CEO John Legere has gained attention by incessantly taunting and trash-talking Verizon and ATT, which he calls dumb and dumber. In 2013 he started a Twitter account, and over the next three years he tweeted 17,500 times, with many of his missives criticizing these rivals. Legere attributes the approach to his athletic background. I grew up as a competitive runner, and I like rivalries. Its just part of who I am, he says. I like winning, but I enjoy it even more when Im making someone else lose. Legere sees zupflmmeling a villain as an essential part of business leadership, and one thats helped motivate his workforce. Its worked at T-Mob ile Since Legere took over, subscribers have jumped from 33.3 million to 66 million, and its stock price has quadrupled.Other successful leaders dislike the rivalry model. Consider Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. There are companies out there where they wake up in the morning, and they organize their internal thoughts by who the competition is, and how theyre going to beat the competition, Bezos told me in an interview. That can be a very effective strategy, but its not the only one. The people who tend to do really well at Amazon have more of an explorers mentality. Theyre waking up in the morning thinking What can we invent for customers? Both models can work, and you do see both models out there, but if you have to pick one of those two, I prefer the customer obsession to the competitor obsession. One reason The rivalry model becomes harder to sustain when a company becomes dominant, as Amazon has become.Legere points out that a rivalry strategy neednt always focus on an actual enemy . A CEO might anoint an idea such as waste, defects, complacency, or bureaucracy as the enemy, and attack with a ferocity that animates employees.For an individual performer- someone whos about to argue a case before a jury, pitch a business idea to a venture capitalist, or make a sales call to a huge potential client- there are a variety of techniques that can put you in the right mindset before a make-or-break moment. In the right circumstances, focusing on a rival as a motivating force can be one to consider.Adapted from PSYCHED UP How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed by Daniel McGinn, to be published on June 6, 2017 by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright 2017 by Daniel McGinn

Survey These are the best states for a summer road trip

Survey These are the best states for a summer road tripSurvey These are the best states for a summer road tripSummer is officially here, and new research shows that some states are a lot better than others for road trips. Who came out on top in WalletHubsbest and worst list Wyoming.The company analyzed 50 states in terms of safety, costs, and activities, and further in terms of 31 factors, giving each state a total score out of 100. The company also used information from the U.S. Census Bureau, among many other sources.The best states for summer 2018 road tripsHere are the states that topped the list (with their overall score)1) Wyoming (total score 58.75)2)North Carolina (total score 56.24)3) Minnesota (total score 56.13)4) Texas (total score 55.46)5) Florida (total score 54.62)6) Louisiana (total score 54.40)7) Washington (total score 53.74)8) New York (total score 53.72)9) Utah (total score 53.44)10) Colorado (total score 53.06)Ones to avoid?Wondering about the end of the list? T hese five states finished at the bottom46) New Mexico (total score 45.28)47) Hawaii (total score 40.70)48) Delaware (total score 40.51)49) Connecticut (total score 38.62)50) Rhode Island (total score 38.58)How the states stack up against each otherHow to cut down on the spending during your summer road tripGabriella M. Petrick, Ph.D., a lecturer at Boston Universitys School of Hospitality Administration, weighed in, saying that using this could help lower costsA cooler One way to save money when traveling on the highways and byways of the US is to have a cooler filled not only with water and your favorite drinks, but also stocking it with fresh fruits and other snacks. As someone who has crisscrossed the US, this not only saves money by shopping in local grocery stores, but also allows for more headful choices, Petrick told the site. While many gas-station convenience stores have healthier options, picking up local strawberries or peaches from farm stands or farmers markets also all ow you to participate in the local food culture.But whether you hop in a car or on a plane for your summer vacation this year, taking time off from work can be a great way to recharge with your friends and family.

Think Like a Pilot to Learn From Mistakes at Work - The Muse

Think Like a Pilot to Learn From Mistakes at Work - The MuseThink Like a Pilot to Learn From Mistakes at Work When Ofir Paldi entered the prestigious Israeli Air Force Flight Academy at age 18, he received instructions that surprised him. All anyone seemed to want him to talk about were the mistakes he was making. Youre in a very competitive place. You have the biggest motivation to succeed and all you want to do all the time is to be the best and impress everyone around you, he says. And day by day the only thing you are expected to do is to speak about the mistakes you made.After each flight, theyd debrief, covering what they learned, what they couldve done better (and would try to do better next time), and what they did well that they wanted to remember to do again. You can sit down100 pilots together in one room- its the place with the fruchtwein ego in the world- and you can still speak about your mistakes and you see everybody stand up to share, he says, from the youngest pilot all the way up to the commander. You can sit down100 pilots together in one room- its the place with the most ego in the world- and you can still speak about your mistakes and you see everybody stand up.Ofir PaldiWhen he left the air force after almost nine years as a pilot he became an entrepreneur, and his current business, Shamaym, was inspired by the kind of training he received there. The company, which recently relocated from Tel Aviv to Boston, works with organizations to implement a debriefing-based learning model. To put it simply, they help teams adopt a culture where its not only okay but also imperative to think and talk about mistakes in order to make everyone- and the organization- better. Most people want to learn, in theory, but you always have another meeting and another task and another email, and we just dont find the time to stop and reflect, Paldi says. However, he insists that if pilots in uber high-stress roles can admit to errors to improve their performance , anyone can.You dont have to hire Shamaym to learn how to learn from your mistakes. Heres how you can use this approach to grow in your role and career. Bonus You get to pretend to be a pilot in the process. Photo of Ofir Paldi, former pilot and founder and CEO of Shamaym, courtesy of Ofir Paldi. Step 1 Take Personal Responsibility for Your LearningTheres a lot that changes when you make the transition from student to employee. Perhaps first and foremost, its no longer anyones explicit or sole job to teach you. You may have supportive bosses or kind mentors who show you the ropes and help you grow, but your day-to-day learning is mostly in your own hands. Paldi stresses that one of the main tenets of the approach hes borrowed from the air force is taking personal responsibility. When you finish a task, you are the one whos responsible to learn from it, and you cant wait or think that someone will come and teach you, he says.When you finish a task, you are the one whos responsible t o learn from it, and you cant wait or think that someone will come and teach you.Ofir PaldiThats why you can only debrief yourself. When you go over what went well and what didnt, focus on what you did and what mistakes you made, not what your boss, co-workers, clients, or anyone else did. As we spoke on the phone, Paldi used our interview as an example to drive the point home. Lets just say that you didnt get all the information you needed from the call. So you can never speak about me and why didnt you learn from me, he says. You always look at yourself- what I, Stav, could have done better in this call or the preparation for this call in order to get more information.You cant easily change what other people are doing, but you can change what youre doing. Step 2 Figure Out What Your Flights AreIn order to put the debriefing strategy into practice, you have to figure out which recurring and important task you want to focus on. In the air force, its pretty obvious flights. Paldi and the other pilots he trained with would go through their mistakes and successes after each flight. While you probably do your job at a lower altitude, you surely have duties you repeat frequently that are central to your role. Consider those your flights. For example, a reporters flights might be conducting interviews, writing articles, fact-checking, and going through revision processes with their editors, while someone in sales might consider their flights to be making client calls, creating pitch decks, giving presentations, and shepherding deals through contracts to close. Everyones flights will be different. Figure out what yours are and pick one type to start with that you want to work on improving. Step 3 Conduct Short and Simple DebriefsStart debriefing with yourself after each flight. Spend just a few minutes each time asking yourself What went well? What didnt go as well as it could or should have? What can I do better the next time around? Pick out the two or three main t hings that you think you can improve or that you totally nailed and want to repeat. If youre trying to hold yourself accountable, consider keeping a log of your debriefs and referring to it before each flight. And if you work in an environment where youre discussing and setting growth goals with your manager, try incorporating what youre discovering in your debriefs into this formal conversation to help keep yourself on track. The most important thing here is not to wait until something goes horribly wrong to start debriefing. Make it part of your routine even when things are chugging along pretty smoothly. That way, you make learning a habit and youll be able to improve and grow incrementally and consistently. You could potentially even avoid a terrible snafu in the first place, but even if it happens, by the time it does youll be well-versed in the practice of picking apart what went wrong and ensuring you do better the next time. Step 4 Decide What Youll Repeat or Do Differently (and Be Specific)Paldis biggest tip about those quick debriefing, or learning, sessions is to be extremely specific and extract actionable takeaways. In our human nature, when we learn something we say, Okay, well do better or well do it differently, Paldi says. But its not enough. In our human nature, when we learn something we say, Okay, well do better or well do it differently. But its not enough.Ofir PaldiGoing back to the example of our interview, it wouldnt be enough for me to conclude that I didnt get enough background information. Instead, Id have to come up with the specific questions I should have asked to try to get the material I was missing. You dont have to be a pilot to work like one. Just remember that it can take time to get comfortable being so brutally honest (with yourself or others) about the mistakes youre making. Paldi admits it took a couple of months before he was able to debrief the way his air force instructors wanted him to.Even if at the beginning its a little bit hard, I think that one of the biggest advantages you can take to the business world is your ability to...constantly learn and improve by yourself and maximize your potential, Paldi says. Because its a competitive world out there, its an intense world. No one will be there to do it for you, so your competitive advantage would be if you could do it by yourself.