What's the proper place of heels in an office's dress code?
Many offices around Australia have dress codes that require formal business attire to be worn. For women, this can potentially mean wearing high heels. Yet while heels are a part of what society deems classy footwear for a woman, the downsides of them - like poor balance and potential health complications - mean some women prefer not to wear them.
While a company can legally require a certain standard of dress be worn in their place of business (formal business attire, for example), enforcing specific gendered items of clothing could be considered discriminatory under Australian law.
Law partner Kerryn Tredwell told The Sydney Morning Herald that discrimination in Australia requires that an employee be treated less favourably than a member of the opposite sex as a result of the attire requirement. Given the potentially negative health consequences that can result from larger heels (aggravated foot pain and postural problems are common, for example) an argument could be made that high heels do amount to less favourable treatment. On the other hand, a business that mandated heels for their female staff could argue that it isn't less favourable treatment because there's no equivalent for men and differences in attire for men and women are widely accepted in society.
Whether you like wearing heels or not, it's important to know your rights around potential workplace discrimination. The choice to wear heels or not should be yours to make, alone.
How to learn from failure
EAs that want to get the best for their Executives should always be striving to push the limits of their abilities, but doing so involves inevitable failure. A lack of failure suggests you aren't pushing the boat out as far as you could be, that you're too cautious and are not taking an appropriate amount of risk.
The author John Maxwell has seven principles for learning from failure, or as he calls it 'failing forward'.
1. Don't take it personally - never let failure reflect poorly on your self esteem. Letting external events dictate your confidence levels is a recipe for further failure.
2. Don't blame others - accept when you've made mistake and own your failures.
3. Recognise failure as temporary - couching failure as a character defect instead of a temporary setback is only going to lower your confidence for taking future risks.
4. Have realistic expectations - setting your expectations too far beyond your abilities is liable to disenchant you when you're unable to meet your mark.
5. Focus on strengths - you shouldn't ignore your weaknesses, but you're better off focusing on building on and expanding your strengths.
6. Realise success can take time - don't be disheartened if your first attempts fail. The key to winning in the long term is getting back up when you fall.
7. Bounce back - when it comes to failure, having a short memory is an upside. Take the time to reflect and learn your lesson, but then move on and continue on your journey.
How to boost your fluid intelligence
Did you know that intelligence can be trained and improved? Scientific support for 'brain-training' services like Lumosity is limited. Playing those games makes you better at them, but there is no general transfer to other areas of intelligence; like a gym exercise that doesn't improve your strength, just your abilities on that exercise. But recent science has uncovered an exercise that does demonstrate improvements in other activities.
It's called the dual N-back test. The task involves splitting your attention, watching for both visual and auditory stimuli and reporting when it arrives. Those that have done it have demonstrated increased performance in other cognitive exercises that are totally unrelated. This indicates that any improvements can't be put down to experience - they are the result of legitimate gains in brain power.
The intelligence the dual N-back task increases is the fluid kind. Intelligence can be divided into two parts: crystallised and fluid. Crystallised intelligence refers to the pre-existing knowledge in your possession whereas fluid intelligence is your ability to learn new information and use existing information in creative new ways. It was previously thought that fluid intelligence was unable to be improved, and that the only change it underwent was its slow diminishment with age. But the dual-N back test has cast massive doubt on this conclusion. No commercial products have been developed on this discovery yet, but the future for brain training looks bright.
Learning to say 'no'
The opportunity cost of agreeing to every task that's asked of you is immense, as saying yes to one thing implicitly involves saying no to a number of others. EAs need to be adept at saying no, as it's necessary for proper time management and achieving the tasks that are most important. Here are three tips for helping you say no when you need to.
1. Be clear on your priorities
Often the reason we say yes to a request that we're not aware enough of our priorities and the amount of work we have to do. When someone asks the question, we rack our brains as quickly as possible to think about whether we have the room, but sometimes we forget and take on too much. Having your priorities and work scheduled out as explicitly as possible can help with this problem.
2. Don't be afraid to explain why
Explaining why you're unable to do a task (and offering a solution as to who could) is a good way to be firm in your decision while also not coming off as overly aggressive. Simply saying no without offering any explanation can seem to those making the request as a very demanding move.
3. Don't assume your perceptions are correct
A study from Columbia university showed that people are often poor judges of how assertive they come across to other people. The researchers found that participants that were seen as showing an appropriate amount of assertiveness judged themselves to be overly-assertive. So don't worry that you're being too strong - it may just be inaccurate self-perception at work
How to reply to an email from 'that' person
Imagine you have just received an email from someone in the office with whom you have a difficult time getting on with. For whatever reason, you always seem to clash, and the distaste you have for each other appears mutual.
"I've looked through the draft you sent through and I think it needs significant work. I'll come and talk to you in person about it later today."
Given the characteristics of your relationship, it's quite possible an email like this could be taken as a little hostile and confrontational. How, then, do you craft your response in a way that avoids inflaming further tensions?
The psychologist and business coach Liane Davey recommends a mental trick to employ - imagine the email came instead from someone in the office you get along well with. Doing this removes the (however accurate) negative bias with which you interpret this colleagues words. Imagining it coming from a friend takes some of the bite out. The language is curt, for sure, but coming from a friend this could just be a sign that they respect you and your time and don't feel they have to sugar coat words. When you see it coming from the disliked colleague, you're more likely to assume it's out of rudeness or a show of superiority.
The reason for this is simple - it helps the both of you move forward. When you each assume the worst about each other, there is no room for things to get better, no way to get out of the negative spiral you're both contributing to. While it might involve swallowing some pride, it's a good way to help relationships on their way to healing.
How to talk to absolutely anyone
For those more introverted and shy, having a conversation with someone you're not completely comfortable with can be a nerve-wracking experience. You become flustered, your brain a haze of fog and your brow an ever-expanding ocean of sweat. Thankfully, there are strategies you can use to make things a little easier
1. Comment on a shared experience
While talking about the weather gets a bad rap for being a poor conversation for small talk, there's a reason why it's so cliched - because it works! Conversation is driven by sharing - when you don't know anything (or very little) about a person, you do know of at least one thing you currently have in common - the environment you're in.
It doesn't have to be the weather - it can be something like the traffic or a song currently playing on the radio. Anything that you're both currently experiencing will do.
2. Ask for their opinion
Everybody has an opinion - no matter the subject, you should always be able to get an interesting response out of someone by asking "So, what do you think of X?" While it's advisable to steer clear of controversial topics like politics and religion, asking someone their opinion is sure to get the conversation ball rolling.
3. Get an update on their life
If you've talked to the person before, ask them for an update on something you know they do. "Bill, how is your painting going, last we spoke you said you were working on a new project?" People are always happy to talk about things they're passionate about.