Essential Edge

If you’re feeling uneasy about going back to work or starting a new job, you’re not alone. Lots of people feel like this when they return to office life after over a year of working remotely and only seeing their colleagues on screen. It can be weird seeing everyone in person again. If you’re feeling […]

Great leaders understand how to use a variety of leadership styles depending on the circumstance. Hiring somebody with task-specific strengths as opposed to someone who’s just good at everything prepares for their best success. Consequently, in order to be a good leader you have to adjust your style of leadership depending on the situation. The

Imagine this, you’re working away at your desk when all of a sudden your boss asks to meet with you…right now. Thoughts are running rampant in your mind… …your boss has never asked for an unscheduled meeting before, what does this mean? Could this be bad news?  Right now, your mind is your worse enemy,

JP Morgan CEO recently announced that he expects his staff to return to the office and shortly after, Morgan Stanley CEO, James Gorman, also demanded his staff be back in the office by September. But as thought-leader, Adam Grant, says: “Hey leaders trying to cancel all remote work: did you forget we made it work

It’s looking more and more  like business travel won’t be reaching pre-COVID levels anytime soon. Company executives may have noticed that all those expenses associated with business travle in the past may just not be justified anymore. Business travel isn’t going to be going away completely, after all, meeting a big client face-to-face every once

I’ve long come to the realization that the traditional 8 hour work day didn’t really make sense. Even now, I can see the reality is the ability to focus (100%) on a task or project is limited to around four hours. While there aren’t enough studies to prove this (yet), neuroscientists are saying there’s evidence

With technology enabling an “always on” mentality to work, it’s not surprising employee burnout is increasing as well. As companies start to pay more attention to employee well-being and mental health, here’s a summary of some employee burnout signs to look out for: Loss of confidence Changes in socializing at work A general change in

Many executives and professionals feel the anxiety of constantly second guessing your decisions & actions and feeling like an imposter. The root cause for this is usually due to ruminating too much. Ruminating is a type of overthinking that is unproductive. It typically revolves around negative thoughts that don’t lead to anything. Ruminating is dwelling

Via the 21 Hats Morning Report, they report that executives at PricewaterhouseCoopers are worried staff who stay working from home (or a hybrid format) could fall behind in terms of promotions and pay. However, in my view, that could be due to a more “traditional” way of looking at work. If we’re going to transition

Working long hours is killing so many people in a worsening trend that may worsen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working for long hours can be fatal, according to the first global study of 745,000 deaths in 2016. A study by the WHO and the ILO found that most victims of shift work were men,

Workplace stress was already an issue workers of the modern era have to struggle with, add in a pandemic and lockdown restrictions and stress is going to be at an all-time high for many people. Calm shares 4 ways to help manage stress: Give yourself a break (regularly) – break up the stresses of work

If you’re interviewing with a company and you want to know what the company culture is REALLY like, here’s ten questions to help you assess: Tell me about a time a team member changed your mind? Tell me about someone you are proud of.  Do you fully disconnect during holidays and vacations? Describe a recent

“‘I can’t do this anymore,’ I exclaimed as I burst into tears. Like a child who had just put a beloved pet to sleep, I buried my head into my mom’s shoulder and sobbed uncontrollably. But I wasn’t a child. Far from it. I was actually a 22 year old investment banker, sporting my finest

Our favourite psychologist, Adam Grant, shares this great tip on how to elicit feedback: When people hesitate to give honest feedback on an idea, draft, or performance, I ask for a 0-10 score. No one ever says 10. Then I ask how I can get closer to a 10. It motivates them to start coaching

We’ve been talking a lot about working from home since the pandemic started. But could the work week also see a drastic change? Berlin-based company, Awin, not only move to working remotely, but also started experimenting with working only four days per week with no reduction in salary or benefits. The results? Employee engagement, client

Self-care and mental health is even more important now with so many teams and workers working remotely. Even when/if things go back to normal, employee’s overall health and well-being is a key area managers are aware of. Here’s a few tips from Calm to foster a culture of self-care in your workplace: Encourage good habits

As the new remote work environment continues, we’re all learning on the fly as we all adjust to how to do things without always being physically present. Ryan MacInnis, a Product Marketing Lead at LinkedIn, has not visited LinkedIn’s offices since he’s been hired. He shares some interesting anecdotes for any company looking to on-board

I always keep an eye out for interesting use-cases for AI (artificial intelligence) as it’s something that is inevitable. The sooner we can see what’s on the horizon, the better we can plan and adapt to it. eMarketer reports that almost half of US human resource leaders believe will be used to take on more

By now, you might be “Zoomed” out (i.e. tired of Zoom calls), but Zoom calls & meetings aren’t going away soon. If you need to present or lead a Zoom call, here’s some tips on how to be a better speaker on Zoom: Body position: show your torso, not just your face/head Body language: just

One of the biggest SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies in the world, Salesforce, announced that their employees will be permanently allowed to work from home, even after it is safe to do so (whenever that may be…). Even going so far as delcaring the traditional “9 to 5 workday is dead”. Imagine the knock-on effects of this

In the workplace, there’s always got to be that one person who’s completely unreasonable. Either they argue with everyone around them or they simply bully people to follow their view. So, how do you handle unreasonable people? Adam Grant shares this tip: Instead of trying to argue and reason with an unreasonable person, treat it

One complaint I hear from managers, unit heads and senior executives from all over is how hard it is to find good talent & people. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Owner of SpaceX, has an interesting strategy for filtering out liars when interviewing candidates (and it’s backed by science). Musk doesn’t care what school (or

The (former) Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, recently resigned amid a 3rd-party probe that found “scathing” and “blistering” evidence she created a toxi work environment filled with harassment and bullying. If you’re lucky, you’ll never have experienced such a boss or a toxic work environment, but in all likelihood, most people have experienced at

If you’re unlucky, you’ll one-day (if not already) probably encounter working for or with someone who is a narcissist. That can make daily work life miserable for those around them. But if you’re in the unenviable position where you can’t change jobs or remove yourself from working with someone who displays narcissistic behaviour, here’s five

Working in the new normal, means fewer water-cooler conversations, rare face-to-face interactions and just a general feeling of isolation for some people. Not everyone is built to handle the current work environment we’re in during a pandemic. As a manager, not only are you trying to figure how to keep yourself sane, but you’ve also

Happy New Year! 2020 is now behind us, but I’m sure you’re savvy enough to know there’s so much work to be done in the coming days. I thought I’d start the 2021 year by looking back on what we learned from the past year, and what a year it has been: Is WFH the

We often based performance on how well things are going when times are good or when everything is running smoothly. But Farnam Street brings up an excellent point, to best measure performance, it’s how you, your staff, your product and your company perform when it’s bad. “Products and services are only as good as they

Often times, we get promoted to a managerial role without really getting trained in how to manage people. You might be good at your job, but when it comes to managing other people it can involve a completely different skill set than what you’re good at. CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, shares this interesting

We’re big fans of Warren Buffett (our company name is based upon Berkshire Hathaway!), we vibe with a lot of the wisdom he shares. When Warren hires, he doesn’t focus too much on where a candidate went to school or specific skills… …he looks for these three character traits in a candidate: Intelligence Energy Integrity

Whenever the pandemic ends, we’re all going to be tired of hearing the word “Zoom”. Personally, I find majority of meetings to be fruitless & time wasting, I get that most traditional businesses still need to have meetings. Now, with remote meetings, it’s easy to just lose your day to endless amounts of Zoom meetings.

Reading is an activity I regularly talk about/promote here. Because I believe in the motto “Leaders are Readers”. Not only that, but active readers engage their brains more and display more empath towards others. But in today’s digital age where we’re pummelled everyday by devicses, messages, and constant pushing & pulling for our attention, it’s

Whether you’re working from home or working in the office, we’ve traditionally focused on time management to being productive. But, what I’m discovering more and more is it’s not a “time management” issue but more of a “focus” issue. Think about how often you may be distracted at home? E.g. kids, household chores, etc. Or

Here at Ethan Hathaway, it’s a mantra we believe in wholeheartedly, “leaders are readers.” Reading is a BIG element in being the best at whatever you do. This article breaks down how we read and shares some great tips how to read better. Things you may not have thought about when it comes to reading:

With many in the world working remotely, the experience of work has drastically changed. Slack, the internal messaging app for remote teams, recently published an interesting look at how redesigning how we work moving forward (even after a post-pandemic world). They share the five key elements of the remote working experience and created an index

“But the campaign results are a complete disaster…the results support what we said all along…” – that’s what I said to my counterpart in London. His response: “I know, the test was a complete disaster for us too, but the Managing Director doesn’t want to hear that.” I remember hearing that response and being completely

In our sister newsleter, Finance & Money Edge, we brought up the fact HSBC, one of Britain’s largest international banks, has been found to have let a large sum of illicit funds flow through it (again). From past conversations with our Compliance & Risk experts too, it sounds like combatting money laundering hasn’t really been

The U.S. is officially in a recession (since Feb 2020) and the global economy is forecasted to shrink by 5.2%. That’s not good news for the travel industry (and industries that rely on people travelling) – in a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, two thirds of those polled said they