GRANTED: A better way to self-promote and the most effective way to motivate others

September 2015

GRANTED is one year old! I can think of no better way to celebrate than with a round of great articles. This month, learn how (not) to brag and how (not) to motivate people:

1. How to Promote Yourself Without Being a Jerk
Instead of highlighting how you're better than others, emphasize how you're better than your own past. Have you noticed the dramatic improvement in the quality of this newsletter over the last year?

2. Rethinking Work
Barry Schwartz takes a meaningful look at why we’ve lost meaning in work, and where we can find it.

3. What Does How You Talk Have to Do With How You Get Ahead?
Do you end your statements with a question mark? Uptalk, writes Caroline Winter, predicts more success for women but less for men. Fascinating?

4. It Pays to Give Thanks at the Office
What’s the most sustainable motivator at work? Janice Kaplan makes a compelling case that it may be appreciation: the sense of being valued by others.

5. Science Isn't Broken; It's Just Hard
A longer-but-worthwhile read from Christie Aschwanden, complete with a neat interactive demo on the "problem" of replicability in science and why it's easier to get a result than an answer. See also Lisa Feldman Barrett’s op-ed on why “failure to replicate is not a bug. It is a feature.”

6. A Simple Way to Stay Healthier: Be Generous
Continuing with the theme of "doing good can be good for you," Terri Yablonsky Stat details the physical and psychological benefits of donating time and money. Slacktivists, beware: even just thinking about giving can have a measurably positive effect.
 

From My Desk:

7. 7 New Books to Read This Fall
Here are my recommendations for exciting, data-driven books on work and psychology. Topics covered: presence, equality, forecasting, friends and foes, leadership, bravery, and happiness. And Grumpy, Sneezy, and Stealthy.

8. Friends at Work? Not So Much
Why don't Americans make friends at work like they used to—and like other countries do? Here's my take on why we’re underestimating the impact of workplace friendships on our happiness and effectiveness, and how to reduce the transactional nature of office interactions.

Thank you for reading—whether this is your first or twelfth time, I hope you found something that quenched your thirst for cool data about people and organizations. See you next month?
 
Cheers,
Adam

Adam Grant, Ph.D.
Wharton professor and author of GIVE AND TAKE