-
Why Being Kind Helps You, Too—Especially Now
In January, Rachel Glyn’s husband of 36 years died of cancer. Two months later, the pandemic and lockdown hit. Alone in her Philadelphia apartment, Ms. Glyn spent her time worrying about the coronavirus, the financial markets and the civil unrest happening a few blocks away. Some days, she says, she wished she would die. “I’ll never have another day that doesn’t stink,” she told herself. Then one morning, Ms. Glyn, who is 66, heard about a local blood drive and thought, “My life isn’t a pathetic mess after all: I have the ability to give.” She walked to a nearby hospital and donated. Afterward, she was “exhilarated,” she says. “It felt wonderful to do something useful for someone,” Ms.
-
Apparently There Are 4 Kinds of Introversion
It’s hard to believe now, but introversion was once a mostly misunderstood personality trait. Now, it’s the subject of countless books and articles and listicles (and, more recently, parodies of listicles). And as more regular, non-scientist types started to talk about introversion, psychologist Jonathan Cheek began to notice something: The way many introverts defined the trait was different from the way he and most of his academic colleagues did. “When you survey a person on the street, asking them to define introversion, what comes up as the prototypical characteristics … are things like thoughtful or introspective,” said Cheek, a psychology professor at Wellesley College.
-
Quarantine Envy Got You Down? You’re Not Alone
When the coronavirus hit France, Leila Slimani, a popular French-Moroccan novelist, and her family left Paris for their country home. Once there, Ms. Slimani began writing a quarantine diary for the newspaper Le Monde. The response, especially from people in teeny Parisian apartments, was so scathing, she apparently abandoned the series. When the billionaire David Geffen posted photos of his mega-yacht on Instagram while he quarantined in the Grenadines, the backlash led him to turn his account private. Quarantine envy: If it’s not a widespread term yet, it should be. Envy, of course, is the joy-devouring emotion of craving what others have.
-
When Things Aren’t OK With a Child’s Mental Health
Last week, to write about the risks of summer — the recurring safety issues of children being out in the sun, or near the water, I talked to safety-minded pediatric emergency room doctors about what was worrying them, as they thought about the children they might be seeing during their shifts over the coming weeks, and I specified that I wasn’t asking about Covid-19 infection — I was asking about other dangers to children, in this summer shadowed by that virus. But among their concerns about drownings and fractures, the emergency room doctors kept bringing up mental health as a worry.
-
Your Performance Feedback Doesn’t Work—Here’s How To Fix It
The ability to provide effective and credible performance feedback is a critical skill for supervisors, managers and leaders. Feedback delivered effectively helps employees elevate their performance, develop new skills, and achieve success for themselves and their organizations. But what if the way we typically approach feedback has been wrong? What if managers are focusing on the wrong part of the performance conversation? Does the way we deliver feedback help or hinder an employee’s motivation to improve? A recent research paper, The Future of Feedback: Motivating Performance Improvement through Future-focused Feedback, by Dr. Jackie Gnepp, President of Humanly Possible, Inc., and Dr.
-
Your In-laws’ History of Drinking Problems Could Lead to Alcohol Issues of Your Own
A new study finds marriage to a spouse who grew up exposed to parental alcohol misuse increases a person’s likelihood of developing a drinking problem. [August 20, 2020]
