Weekly Nuggs - #10??: Holidays, toxicity and math

This week we have a real mix-tape of content [SoFresh vibes for 90s kids]. For tips on leveling up holidays, rethinking your personal P&L and features of a toxic culture [let's hope they're not too familiar], we have it all coming in hot.

Remember kindness is in fashion, you should try it on

Until next nugg ??

JMUM

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To read ??: Taking a holiday to catch up on work

This title sounds miserable, but promise has some good take-aways. Kevin Ackhurst Head of Sales JAPAC from HubSpot shares lessons on how to best take a vacation padded with some home days before and after traveling. For someone about to take a vacation (hello Tulum), the no-meeting day before and after a break is a vibe and to learn it has productivity and team empowerment benefits - I'm into it. Kevin's tips include a pre and post holiday meeting free days to catch up, disconnect and empower your team. This poses the broader question, should we be doing this more often? Alternatively you could use Anna Buber-Farovich 's tactic, post holiday deleting all emails and telling people to resend only if urgent #bossgoals.

To listen ?? : Kindness, math and the power of goodwill

The concept of Impact Investing is equal parts intriguing as it is foreign in how we define a businesses valuation. James Rhee , ex-investment banker, now impact founder, talks through how we need to solve the net income riddle in corporate America:

We're here to maximize shareholder equity, yet we categorize people as a labour expense...

He challenges us to focus less on growth and more on the balance sheet - what do we own? what assets are important to you? His observation is on point: 'We're all so desperate for, but afraid of kindness'; why is something that is valued at home [kindness and love], bad at work? He talks through the concept of goodwill being only defined by money, the gap between the company balance sheet valuation and what is paid. Why is no one changing the narrative around how we describe success? Instead of revenue, growth and income statement items, how are you deploying kindness to unlock different vectors of capital - some argue the most important, social capital.

To read ??: Why every leader needs to worry about a toxic culture

Toxic is a phrase often used as a gut reaction, not validated by data...until now! This MITSloan research piece by Donald and Charles Sull [also featured on Brene Brown pod ] uncovers The Toxic Five Culture Attributes that contributed most to employee attrition during the Great Resignation. Toxic Cultures are, in order of negative impact [not a list you want to score high in]: (1) Disrespectful, (2) Non-inclusive, (3) Unethical, (4) Cutthroat, (5) Abusive. Seven of the 20 most powerful predictors of a negative culture related to how well [or not] a company encouraged representation of diverse groups. So if you're still waiting for a reason to invest time in creating a more inclusive environment, here's your lightbulb moment??.