Smile - and the whole world smiles with you!
Smile is a very powerful tool. One of the simplest things to raise the mood around you. If you do not believe me, try. For one day at work or home, smile to everyone. For sure you will notice the change. I remember when I moved from Finland to Australia, the biggest change was the […]
The notorious list maker
Some time ago my beloved friend turned 40 and wanted to have a great party at her home. I flew in few days earlier to help her getting ready. To be honest, she did not need help, more in the lines of we both needed an overdue catch up before anyone else arrived. The reason […]
Holidays!
Happy New Year for all the readers! Hope you have had a great time celebrating the new start and possible some time off to relax. People in different countries have very different holiday cultures. In some countries, employees take few weeks off annually. Some have over six weeks of holiday time. How this is divided […]
Are you performing?
You are sitting in your managers office with sweaty hands and wait until they get to the point. And you wait. And wait. Eventually you understand that they do not get into the point. You are disappointed and relieved at the same time. At least it was not bad news. But you are left with […]
When they disagree...
When you are in a leadership position, the most difficult aspect in almost any job is people management. Many people say they are good at leadership and when I ask them where they base their claim, they say they are good at delegating tasks and giving orders. Once, I thought the same way. Then I […]
Looks IS important!
Scientists in companies often work with marketing departments to provide them scientific results. It is very simple, give them results and graphs and explain what they mean and when they have made them look appealing, pretty and simple to non-scientists, they run the draft through to check that scientific integrity is maintained. One day I […]
Safety net
Imagine yourself in a circus, watching an acrobat balancing in a trapeze. People are amazed by the daredevil stunts he is pulling, seemingly effortlessly. Every time he makes a jump, you gasp a little, even if you know that he has a safety net below the trapeze, catching him if he falls. Then he does […]
Post-it notes
A scientist, Spencer Silver was working in the lab of a large company and his job was to invent super strong glue. He did a lot of experiments, but he failed really majorly and only he could come up with, was a very weak one and the objects that were supposed to be stuck to […]
Use all 10 of them
I started to write a book a while ago. A bit later my family started to comment how loudly I type. I never realized it, but when I started to listen to myself, I had to admit they were correct. Also, my index fingers started to become very sore, even though I did not use […]
The best way out is always through
Most of us have been in hard situations at work or elsewhere, and getting out of the situation has been lengthy, painful and tedious. We might have been trying to avoid the situation by not thinking about it or using other avoidance mechanisms. To notice later that they do not help, on the contrary, they […]