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Don Draper may have considered the first levels of Maslow sufficient when he delivered his most memorable clapback. Image credit Reddit u/dog_visual However, real-world evidence demonstrates that emotional needs can be more primary than base needs, such as income safety. Provide meaning first In the timeless book, Man's Search for Meaning , Viktor Frankl asserted that meaning in life is a pre-requisite for survival. During his time in a concentration camp, Frankl witnessed

Anger can't be banished, but through an understanding of ancient Greek and Buddhist philosophy, it can be understood, learned from, and controlled. Be Stoic about it The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, represented anger as solely of one's own creation in his journal now titled Reflections . Your anger isn't a product of the thing that happened; it's a product of your opinion of what happened . Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed—and you haven'

It may not be coincidence that public speaking is often cited as the biggest human fear, yet communication skills are one of the most highly desired skills for employers . Fortunately, much like we all can be good artists through very little effort , we can also significantly improve written and verbal present ation skills with a few small changes. One idea only People don't have the capacity to recall much information . To combat this, give your audience focus and clarity wi

Summary Successful adaptation requires two traits: mutation and selection. When executives develop too much confidence in a top-down perspective, they may over-bias selection , which can result in an over-allocation of "Taylorized" components and specialists vs. generalist resources who excel at mutation . Executive over-confidence is often derived from observer bias, which is prejudice in their subjective interpretation of information—as demonstrated by an over-emphasis on l

We all know that different tools should be used for different jobs—a hammer is great for driving a wedge; a saw for cutting things into pieces. But when it comes to communication tools, it seems there's very little understanding of when to use Teams / Slack vs. email vs. shared documentation vs. a call or meeting. In the void of established best practices, "synchronous" tools—such as Teams or Slack—have grown in relative usage because they optimize the user experience for the

For lifelong or complex goals, look to babies and toddlers, not the SMART framework. The SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) isn't impractical; it's just meant for a different kind of goal: Use SMART for task optimization or components of a larger goal — like improving efficiency within an existing process Avoid SMART for complex, long-term mastery — like learning a language, hitting your annual goal, or becoming an expert When you're tryi

Product management can be famously difficult to explain. Some PMs describe themselves as the “CEO of a company-within-a-company", but they may actually be perceived as more of a Chandler Bing — a complete vocational unknown, which may lead to one expressing their job function more directly : Source: quickmeme.com Without proper definition, it's difficult to have evaluation criteria for PM benchmarks. So here are four PM pillars—explained by nine unexpected voices— that can be

What it is that PMs actually do around here No one cares enough to convey Charlie's emotional state but the question is valid. While impressive, the answer is as lame as doing this stunt in two-thirds of a tuxedo. Align with your stakeholders & team on which one will not be prioritized of: good, cheap, or fast Align with your designer that design is extremely valuable but—unfortunately—must often be compromised in the short term Original source , updated to reflect software d