2019-11-11_Bloomberg_Businessweek

Career Land

79

CRITIC Bloomberg Pursuits November11, 2019

Sweet as it can be, your working life is no cakewalk.

Hereareninebooks to get you through any stage. By Claire Ballentine

②WHAT

COLORISYOUR

PARACHUTE?

Don’tgetlostin a thicket

ofboringgigs!Richard

Bolles’sbestseller has

beenhelpingjobhunters

for 50 yearsthrough care-

fulself-assessment. What

motivatesandinspires

you?Whatareyou best

at,whatskillsdoyou

have, and which of them

do you most enjoy using?

Tweetable tip: “Figure

out who you are, and

among all your gifts,

which ones you most

love to use. Then (and

only then) you go look-

ing for organizations

that match you. Do not

wait until they announce

they have a vacancy. You

approach them anyway,

not through a résumé but

through a person.”

⑦GOODHABITS,

BADHABITS

Psychologyandbusiness

professorWendyWood

compilesthelatest

researchonself-control

anddelayedgratification

toshowhowourlives are

governedbyrepetitive

taskswe’rebarely aware

of—and the subtle ways

to change them for the

better. P.S.: Willpower isn’t

the problem.

Tweetable tip: “You can

miss a day or two and

not be set back to zero.

Your habit-in-formation

is not so fragile that it

requires perfection. It is

still forming.”

③ RADICAL

CANDOR

Soyou’vefounda nice

little job, maybe been pro-

moted to a nice little man-

agerial role. The only

problem?You—oryour

boss—areoneofthose

nice-but-incompetent

types. Kim Scott, a former

Silicon Valley exec, gives

firsthand stories about

Steve Jobs, Larry Page,

and Sheryl Sandberg to

show how successful

leaders prize bluntness.

Tweetabletip:“Ifnobody

is evermadatyou,you’re

probablynotchallenging

them enough. The key,

as in any relationship, is

how you handle the anger.

Don’t pretend it doesn’t

hurt or say it ‘shouldn’t

hurt.’ Eliminate the phrase

‘don’t take it personally’

from your vocabulary—

it’s insulting.”

With contributions by Chris Rovzar, Bernadette Walker, James Gaddy, and Justin Ocean

②

③

⑥

⑦

⑥GETTINGMORE
Theideathatmorefor
youmeanslessforothers
is a false choice, argues
Stuart Diamond, a lead-
ing expert on negotiation.
Usingexamplesfromthe
2008 Hollywoodwriters
strike,billion-dollar busi-
ness deals, and every-
day parenting challenges,
he spells out why lever-
age is overrated, when to
reframe roadblocks, and
how to build up your bar-
gaining range.
Tweetabletip:“ You
aretheleastimportant
person in the negotiation.
The most important per-
son is them. If you don’t
accept this, you won’t per-
suade many people of
anything.”