Stress, Speaking, Timeless Skills, Toxic

Issue No 44

This is a bumper issue. We have more than the usual number of stories because so much has happened this week. The big news of the week was that I shifted to a new home. It put everything in a state of chaos. I discovered stuff I never knew I had. I misplaced stuff I always had. I tried to junk a lot of stuff but could not. “Will do it once I settle down in the new home.”

The first story we explore was triggered by my move or should I say, the stress I experienced because of the move. Before I talk about that, may I request you to subscribe to this weekly newsletter of ideas by hitting the subscribe button below.

1. Does moving home count as a stressor

Did it cause me stress? Heck yes. So I decided to look up the work of psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe who studied stress. They had a list of 43 life events that cause varying degrees of stress. Each event, called a Life Change Unit (LCU), had a different "weight" for stress. Death of a spouse was seen to be the most stressful life event. You can take a test to find out how stressed you are.

Take the test

Does moving home get termed officially as a stressful event? Find out

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2. The art of public speaking

Talking about stress in public brings out one of the greatest fears people experienced - Public Speaking. This is rated to be among the top fears of people. Leaders have no choice but to be good at it. You need to be good at it too.

Actually everyone has to be good at it.

If you are a leader you are constantly communicating with different people on different topics across different platforms to get different kinds of impact. Think of the various platforms you use every day to communicate with friends, family, colleagues, strangers etc. So what are some tips and hacks you can use to get better at public speaking?

How much of your face should be visible on a Zoom call to maximise your impact? What are some tips to be better at public speaking? Should you write down your speech? The sketchnote below is a partial one. The rest of the sketchnote features tips on how to be better at public speaking when you are on camera. The link is here

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3. Five timeless skills for the job market

I graduated from XLRI —short for Xavier Labour Relations Institute—with a post-graduate diploma in personnel management and industrial relations.

Can you find me in that pic? I could not.

The institute is now called Xavier School of Management and the course is called ‘human resource management’. I also got a degree in law but several labour laws have changed in India since then. In school, I read about nine planets in our solar system. Today, even that is not true. Talk about the shrinking shelf life of knowledge.

Since I started off in personnel management, the field itself morphed into what is called human resources. Now, the term to describe it is ‘talent management’. My last employer—Wipro—is now known more as an IT-service provider than for consumer goods. Some of my previous employers, such as Microsoft, are now trillion-dollar firms while some other ex-employers have lost their sheen.

The last role I held—chief learning officer— did not exist when I was a fresher. In 2020, the pandemic revealed that our homes can double up as the office of even a Fortune 500 company. When we look back, we can appreciate how many things have changed.

What can be some timeless skills that employers will value in a world where we compete with machines and algorithms. Readers Digest invited me to write about “timeless skills”. I thought of five timeless skills. These are the five I picked.

Which of these is the hardest to build?

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4. Being a content creator in 2021

Ryan Kaji is one of the most popular YouTube creators in the world, with a main channel that’s drawn 29 million subscribers interested in watching the 9-year-old open new toys, exercise, or do crafting projects. He sold stuff worth $250 million and made $30 million for himself. And he has been the highest grosser on YouTube since he was seven.

As per Bloomberg (read more)

In total, products bearing Ryan’s World branding generated more than $250 million in sales in 2020, according to Chris Williams, whose company PocketWatch Inc. handles the family’s licensing business outside YouTube. The Kajis’ share of those sales represented from 60% to 70% of the $30 million of their annual revenue—making it the first year their licensing business has surpassed their YouTube ad revenue.

Being a content creator is becoming a popular career choice. Here are ten content writing opportunities that people could consider.

This is a great time to be a content creator given the incredible number of platforms, apps, audience and opportunities. Here are some tips in case you are considering creating content. Get started. Start a newsletter or a YouTube channel or your own website. When you start making millions, remember it was me who egged you on.

Many people will tell you the bright side of being a content writer. Here are ten reasons that should tell you that it is not without its challenges. I find it is the most energising kind of work I do. So I love it. But you should know that there is a dark side to content creation too.

Read more

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5. Toxic workplaces

You may know that I host a Clubhouse chat every Monday at 7pm. It is moderated by Achal Khanna, Debu Mishra and yours truly. We started speaking about Toxic Workplaces.

Alexander Alonso, the Chief Knowledge Officer from SHRM was one of the people who spoke. He talked about $57 BILLION lost in US alone because of staff turnover. The cause? A toxic manager. Two big ideas I took away from the chat:

1. Organisations often look indulgently at a top performer or a high potential superstar who is toxic. That is a mistake. The impact on the team is much higher than what you imagine.

2. Startups are often as guilty of being toxic workplaces. They do not invest in an HR leader who has stature. Many Founders believe that HR is about running payroll and hiring. So they decide to run HR themselves. It is like you saying you don’t need an orthodontist because you know how to brush your teeth.

   The sketchnote covers the key ideas. What in your view is the main cause for a toxic workplace?

Want to join us? Mark your calendar for 7:00pm IST on Monday. Use this link https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/PGepzvqb

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6. The future of ownership

Gucci has created #digital#sneakers that you can try on using augmented reality and "wear" in photographs for social media.

Think about what that does to the concept of #ownership. You don’t need to buy something to own it. You have photographic evidence that you have posted on  #socialmedia. People think you own the sneaker, but you don’t. Much like you don’t own the castle you captured during a video game.

That change is profound. It changes what it means to own a pair of sneakers. But then sneakers have always been at the helm of social trends. Think of ‘sneakerheads’. They drive a BILLION dollar sneaker resale market.

There are three sisters who have a 6,000-pair sneaker collection that includes thousands of Nike Air Force 1s, Air Jordans and several rare prototypes of sneakers designed for elite athletes and A-list celebrities. It is worth more than $2 million. Serious (Read this). Why am I so excited about sneakers and virtual sneakers?

The power of intangibles

I believe the movement of Intangibles becoming more powerful (Dreamers and Unicorns identifies five shifts that you should watch out for) than tangibles is going to cut across many more aspects of our lives. That will cut across many other facets of our life.

Read about this

If you are a subscriber, you are reading this newsletter on 29th March 2021. Here’s wishing you a bright and colourful Holi. Show me some love and tap the heart at the bottom of the screen.

If you are not a subscriber, just tap the button below to join.

Till we meet next Monday at 9:00am, stay curious and stay connected.

@AbhijitBhaduri