Read More“Thank you for sharing these helpful tips about taking breaks. Somehow, I was already taking a walk, reading and eating during my breaks. I intend to continue doing them. However, I may explore listening music which I rarely do. Sometimes, one feels a sense of guilt when one takes a break. It is reassuring to know that it is beneficial.”
Breaking often to get more done may seem counterintuitive. I mean, who would think that that taking additional breaks would help you be more productive? Especially when you’re so busy as it is, and your to-do list is packed with things that must get done.
But hear me out. Because even if you pride yourself in your work ethic and your ability to concentrate for prolonged periods, your brain, your mind and your to-do list will thank me.
There are many reasons that we should be taking regular work breaks. Here are some of them.
Read MoreAs a leader, you know that leadership offers great opportunities to guide and inspire others, to set the agenda and see it to fruition. However, it also can place us in compromised situations, where we feel as if we have lost control of the situation around us and need to engage in damage control. There are even times when we step into a leadership role that did not previously exist in order to address a need, a problem or a concern, oftentimes a pressing one at that. Such was the case of Matthias, the elderly priest who assumed an expanded leadership role at a time of great national duress in order to save his nation and the Torah that they treasured.
In this article, I will aim to distill leadership lessons from within the broader historical context, lessons that we can apply within our own lines of work and our lives in general.
1. Understand the objective - For most of our nation's history, we have lived in exile (either in the literal sense or in our homeland under foreign subjugation). While in exile, we enjoyed varying levels of freedoms and autonomy, but were generally content to subvert ourselves to our host nation so long as we were given the freedom to live religiously as Jews.
Matthias and his sons had no interest in attacking the Seleucid forces. They had fled to Modiin, a small hamlet on the outskirts of Jerusalem, because they knew that it would give them a better opportunity to live a Torah-observant lifestyle than in the now-Hellenized capital. Knowing what was of primary importance to them is what drove their decision to relocate as well as all of their subsequent ones.
Read MoreMentoring programs typically fail because one or more positive ingredients listed above are missing. Without question, the mentor’s head has to be fully in the game. When I first began as a head of school, I was assigned an experienced mentor from a different school on the other side of the country. He agreed to help me as a favor, and, predictably, as the school year progressed and his schedule became increasingly more filled, our time together dwindled to the point that the relationship had practically ended on its own.
In addition, a mentor has to be able to earn the protégé’s trust. That is not as simple as it sounds. In addition to demonstrating capacity, effective mentors find ways to make their protégés genuinely feel that they have the mentor’s best interests in mind.
One great way by which to build such trust is to think in abundance. Abundance theory sees the world as offering infinite possibilities. It suggests that not only is there plenty to go around (the opposite of scarcity thinking) but it also posits that my helping others will help me, in terms of sharpening my skillset and building increased capacity and demand within the field.
Read MoreWhen I was growing up, there was one advertisement that would consistently grab your attention. In it, U.S. Army personnel were up super early, engaged in all sorts of high-energy training and action tasks. The tagline was, “we do more by 9 AM than most people do all day.”
While I never joined the Armed Forces, intuitively my little brain knew that they were on to something.
That’s because if you want to get more done, you need to start your day early.
Read MoreFor many, selfie taking is the product of being alone. Lead researcher Dr Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, of the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, said: ‘Not only do individuals who become obsessed with taking selfies tend to feel that their personal lives and psychological well-being are damaged, but they may feel that relationship qualities with others are also impaired.
NIDA researchers also found that a vast majority of those studied spent more than 50 per cent of their spare time on either their mobile phone or scouring the internet. Moreover, experts believe that both men and women who have lonely personalities tend to take more selfies for approval from other people.
Read MoreMentorship is a relationship that is created between an experienced professional and a less experienced mentee or protege. Its primary purpose is to build a support system that allows for the natural exchange of ideas, a forum for constructive advice, and a recipe for success.
Superior mentors possess most if not all of the following qualities:
All leaders need to communicate clearly and openly. But strong communication is particularly important for those who lead understaffed teams. And great communication starts with great listening. In your conversations, focus mainly on listening rather than speaking. This will open up the communication lines and deepen trust.
You may think that you are communicating well. I did, too. But the only way to know for sure is to ask. Start with this simple question: Overall, how would you rate my/our internal communication?
Read MoreYou’ve seen it many times. The bickering. The lack of healthy communication. Folks sitting quietly at their desks, hoping to stay under the radar and not be burdened with more work, let alone someone else’s work. Other folks prioritizing their wants and needs over those of the team.
Territorialism. Silos.
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