If you’re a regular WorkPuzzle reader, you may remember us talking about “perception of fit.” We’ve covered this topic numerous times because researchers have demonstrated it’s the number one factor that causes individuals to change careers.
The principle behind this research is simple: When individuals perceive (ie. mostly feelings) they are a fit in your organization, they start to rationalize or talk themselves into all the other reasons necessary to make a change. Continue reading
Last week, I shared a theory developed by Victor Frankl that differentiates “happiness” (that is short lived) with “meaningful life” (that is lasting and transcends life’s circumstances).
Frankl demonstrated the single-minded pursuit of happiness without meaning is a dismal dead end.
While at some level we all acknowledge the truth in Frank’s findings, its remarkable how difficult it is to apply this principle in our day-to-day lives—especially when it comes to recruiting top talent and retaining our best agents. Continue reading
Having practiced as a psychologist for over 26 years, it is clear to me that most of us have been sold a lie; a lie that is growing in its number of dedicated believers; a lie that will likely increase the chances that our children and grandchildren will experience even higher levels of depression and anxiety.
Put simply, the lie is that happiness comes as a result of increasing and sustaining as much personal pleasure as possible.
The aging of the agent workforce is a demographic reality that many real estate leaders list as one of their top strategic concerns.
Since the average age of real estate agents in most markets is now over 55-years-old, the focus of many hiring managers is to seek out younger agents as new hires. Younger agents are the most desirable replacements to those who are retiring because they have the most long-term potential (ie. hire them young and keep them around for as many years as possible).
This all sounds good, but how does this approach stack up to some of the latest research on millennial generation hiring? This topic was recently addressed by Derek Thompson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, and the results may surprise you. Continue reading
In the last WorkPuzzle, I introduced you to the work of Dr. Walter Mischel and the famous Marshmallow test. The defining connection between the character trait of delaying gratification and the long-term success of those who possess this trait was the take-away from Part 1 of the discussion.
Assuming this connection does exist (there is now a large body of research supporting this suggestion) it certainly begs the question:
How does a person increase their ability to exercise self-control?
A few weeks ago, a book written by renowned psychologist Walter Mischel was published reflecting on what Angela Duckworth (famous for her “grit” research) called the single most important experiment in social science history.
The experiment is commonly called “the marshmallow test,” and it was originally conducted at Stanford University in 1970. If you’re completely unfamiliar with this experiment, you may want to read a quick summary before reading the rest of this article (or for more fun, watch Stephen Colbert’s interview).
For those of you who are familiar (but may not remember all the details), the test involved asking young children to delay gratification of a treat for 15 minutes in order to double the size of the reward. Those children who were able to show self- control in the experiment tended to have better life outcomes (later in life), as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, career growth, marital stability, and several other measures of success and flourishing. Continue reading
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