7 Mental Models Which Help You Thrive Better In Your Career
- Rashmi Sharma
- Jun 28, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 26, 2024
Reading across disciplines is one of the best ways to improve our understanding of the world & life that I know of. At times, while reading we may not be able to understand the value of a particular piece, but it comes back in the future to help connect the dots.
In this issue, am sharing 7 mental models which when applied, have the power to shift your career to the next level. Have also shared some tools to help you apply these at the end.
1. Find work that feels like play: Naval Ravikant
To figure this start with a thought experiment: What would you choose to do if you won a lottery and didn’t have to earn a living to make ends meet? Let your imagination run wild. You have all the money in the world. What would you do after 3 years when the novelty of being wealthy/ famous/ powerful has been normalized due to Hedonic adaptation. (Hedonic adaptation is our tendency to quickly return to our previous level of happiness despite major positive or negative life events).
Read more about finding work that feels like play.
2. Learn how to make decisions: Barack Obama
When I ask business leaders, what is that one skill they would like to develop in their team leaders, decion making is always one of the top 3 skills. If that is any consolation, Barack Obama also struggles with it.
“In just a few short weeks on the job, I had already realized that because every tough decision came down to a probability, then certainty was an impossibility — which could leave me encumbered by the sense that I could never get it quite right. So rather than let myself get paralyzed in the quest for a perfect solution, or succumb to the temptation to just go with my gut every time, I created a sound decision-making process — one where I really listened to the experts, followed the facts, considered my goals and weighed all of that against my principles. Then, no matter how things turned out, I would at least know I had done my level best with the information in front of me.Even in situations where you have to act relatively quickly, as was frequently the case during the financial crisis, it helps to build in time to let your thoughts marinate.It’s not always clean and straightforward. But as my mother would say to me, “The world is complicated, Bar. That’s why it’s interesting.”
3. Expand your luck surface area: Jason Roberts
Luck Surface Area is the amount of action you take around your passion combined with the number of people you communicate your passion to.
We can hack serendipity and make ourselves lucky. Instead of being subject to the whims and fancies of luck, we can create our destiny.
Jason Roberts formalized the concept into the equation:
L = D * T, where L is luck, D is doing and T is telling people about it.
Read about expanding your luck.
4. Know when to transition: Utkarsh Amitabh
Timing is everything. Whether it is moving on from a project, a role, a company, a career path, you don’t want to overstay your welcome. Successful career transitions are a product of deliberate planning which helps you assess the right time.
Read on the right way to make a big career transition.
5. Have 'Fierce Conversations': Susan Scott
Success in life largely comes down to the number of difficult conversations one is willing to have.
Susan Scott’s amazing book ‘Fierce Conversations’ is the bible on how to navigate it.
I got introduced to this during my time in Singapore in 2019 where I was incubating a start up, and finding the right co-founder, product idea all within a span of 3 months. This book was recommended to have critical conversations with your team because there was a high need for speed. So dilly-dallying on a crucial conversation was not an option. Have been a fan ever since!
The simplest definition of a fierce conversation is one in which you come out from behind yourself, into the conversation, and make it real. You know you are having a fierce conversation when:
You are speaking in your real voice.
You are speaking to the heart of the matter.
You are really asking and really listening.
You are enriching the relationship.
You are different when the conversation is over.
6. Become a constructive contrarian: Yuriy Boykiv
Have a healthy skepticism of “experts” when making decisions.
Philip Tetlock tested the accuracy of the forecasts of experts in a range of different fields. Surprisingly, the experts were incredibly bad at predicting the future. The higher their list of accomplishments, the worse they did!
Tetlock did find a small subset of experts who were better than chance at predicting the future, whom he would later call super-forecasters.
What made them better at predicting outcomes in complex situations???
The super-forecasters were much less likely to have a single, overarching theory of the world. They were dabblers, with a range of smaller theories, interests, and hobbies. In a sense, they had more diversity in their own minds. With passion economy becoming more mainstream and viable, we are seeing many contrarians thrive. The world and systems are no longer bound by the tight boundaries the so-called experts recommended. So if you have been wondering if you want to spend 20% of your time chasing a contrarian idea, do it!
7. Build networks that last: Herminia I. & Mark H.
At work, more than ever it is about matrix relationships & collaboration, hinging on relationships.
A relationship can either be one of these 4 combinations: Lose-lose, Lose-win, Win-lose, Win-win. If you and your stakeholders at work, have anything except “win-win”, the outcome for you will be compromised.
Are you thinking of how to make it win-win for your boss, CEO, mentor and even your partner?
Reflection & Practical Tools
Practical ‘doing’ tips to increase your luck surface area
The regret minimization tool for decision making
Fierce Conversations: This prezi tool takes you live through the 7 steps to have a fierce conversation.
A specific tool for preparing for a conversations with people who report into you
Milestones & Changes Coming Up
This is milestone month for me - not only because I turned 40, but also because I completed ONE year of doing this newsletter bi-monthly. 24 issues!
Time to make some changes on what’s next.
To make space for doing some deep work on this topic, am now planning to make this a monthly issue - sent on the first weekend of every month starting March 2022.
This will allow me to more space to have deeper conversations on this topic, research more and come up with more valuable insights.
Coming up also, is a podcast which I spent some time recording earlier. These are conversations I had with other leaders on the topics of wellbeing, performance, success and life - things we don’t usually get to speak at our team offisites and social dinner parties. It’s under production and would be released soon. Will keep you posted.
Until then,
Keep Thriving!
Rashmi
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