Thinking Citizen Blog — Lessons of a Career in Finance (III) — Physiology, Maximizing Your Next Bonus, Listening

Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day

Today’s topic — Lessons of a Career in Finance (III) — Physiology, Maximizing your next bonus, Listening

What have been the big lessons in your work life? Today, the third in this series. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DECISION MAKING

1. What is the right thing to do? What is the most important thing to say?

2. A good test is whether or not you feel like throwing up at the mere thought of it because doing or saying that thing might make you look like an idiot or even worse embarrass your boss.

3. This is why when I set up my own company I had a large sign in the conference room: EMBARRASS ME!

MAXIMIZING YOUR NEXT BONUS VERSUS DOING YOUR JOB

1. Bosses often think you are smart when you agree with them.

2. But every time you let political considerations influence your analysis or recommendations, you become more and more a politician, and less and less a true analyst.

3. How you do what you do becomes who you are.

EVERY PERSON HAS SOMETHING TO TEACH YOU

1. The more you listen, the more you learn.

2. If you’re not nice to others, they won’t talk to you.

3. Have a standard, polite way of ending conversations with people who talk too much. Click here for the last three years of posts arranged by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN — Please share:

a.) the coolest thing you learned this week related to business, economics, finance.

b.) the coolest thing you learned in your life related to business, economics, finance.

c.) anything at all related to business, economics, finance.

d.) anything at all