🥰Kindness is Contagious, Pass It Along!

Psssst…I have a few more copies of Brad Aronson’s book, Human Kind, to give away. It’s filled with examples and actions you can take to incrementally add kindness to the world. If you didn’t see last week’s issue, be sure to check it out. If you’d like to get one of the last free copies, email me with your snail mail address, and I’ll send it your way. When we run out, here’s a link to order the book, audiobook, or Kindle version.

🦋 Curated Shares to Inspire Your “Better”

• Are you the 2nd in command for your business? Typical titles are COO, Head of Operations, Ops Director. If you hold this role, you KNOW how much responsibilities can vary from company to company and how vital communications are for your success. So imagine how thrilled I was for the operations leads out there when I learned about Diane Mentzer’s free course to help you strategize, organize, and most importantly, align with THE boss. It’s delivered via email, structured in bite-size bits with tools that can be quickly and easily integrated into current strategies and systems. Total win/win. You’re going to love Diane’s style and be amazed at how much you’ll learn. It’s about a 2-hour time commitment in total so if this resonates, here’s the link to get going. 

• Stop thanking ChatGPT…OMG when you think you’re doing a good thing and it’s the opposite! Thanks to Arthur Ganem for sharing this article in Entrepreneur about not saying things like “Please” and “Thank You” to ChatGPT (and other GenAI bots) because it eats up electricity. Like, tons of electricity! Live and learn. 

• 🌞 Do Good Shout Out to Foster Love! Foster Love improves the lives of kids in foster care by providing new bicycles, college supplies, and “sweet cases” to thousands of foster youth across the U.S. This is such a creative charity. Teams of people (including companies) can host events where they build and create kits and boxes. It’s a unique team-builder that also gives back! Check them out: Foster Love.

• Americans are simply not socializing anywhere near as much as they did pre-Covid, but the downward trend started well before 2020. Please read this brilliant, chock-full-of-interesting-info Substack post, and tell me what your thoughts are for helping people re-connect in person. I’ve got some ideas, let’s talk! 

• Natalie Lorenzo shared this spot-on article by Alli Kushner that wisely advises us to stop being martyrs at work. Tips include: trading perfectionism for mostly getting it right most of the time and celebrating boundaries out loud (e.g., “It’s 4:30, I’m heading out at 5:00”). Audit your behavior—are you constantly over-exerting yourself without regard to the benefit? Cut it out! There’s a lot more in here, I hope you find time to read it and share it with people who’ll benefit.

• For women, it turns out working in a small business might be a more rewarding path to senior management than Corporate America. ADP has the data that tells the story. Thanks Lynne Goldman for sharing this.

• Hmm, ADHD can be nudged into entrepreneurship. “Many of the traits that get pathologized in school or corporate life, such as impulsivity, hyperfocus, risk tolerance, and non-linear thinking, are the same ones that make ADHDers natural entrepreneurs.” That’s just one of several points made in this Fast Company piece about what draws people with ADHD into entrepreneurship—3x more so than starting a business appeals to their neurotypical peers. (Scroll down, it’s not the top story on the page.)

• Thanks to Claudia Metcalf for turning me onto One Thing Better. The author, Jason Feifer, is the Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur. In each issue, he shares thoughts for more productive communication. This week, he shows us how to apply a strategy from world-renowned negotiator Chistopher Voss. (I feel like I’m a serial name dropper here 😂.)
  Here’s the tip: when you are going back and forth with someone and you don’t seem to be advancing the ball, say, “It seems like you’ve got a reason for saying that.” Then listen carefully to unearth the real issue ’cause it normally isn’t what you thought you were talking about…

• Deep read on a topic near and dear to me: conscious capitalism, also called business for good. Much of the piece is about what led up to companies committing to do better, what was authentic, and where we go from here. Enjoy.

⏳Until Next Time…

Whew, okay, that’s a lot of sharing! I had fun writing this, as always. I hope Niki’s Notes has been helpful for finding and optimizing your best self.

Ciao for now,

Niki