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Jim McCarthy

Happy, high-performance teams!

Secrets to Happy, Impactful Teams

Secrets to Happy, Impactful Teams

Photo courtesy of Justine de Gennes on Unsplash

Would you like to be happier at work?
Would you like to boost the performance of your team at work – whether you’re a manager, or an individual contributor?

I hope you find this post useful in addressing those questions…

1). Motivate your team. Do NOT demotivate them ; – )
Sometimes the best thing is knowing what NOT to do…and then focusing on the opposite of that. Here is practical advice on “7 Ways Managers Motivate and Demotivate Employees.”

2). Change your attitude and boost your happiness at work
This is an insightful piece from Harvard Business Review. Quote: “Three of the most common happiness traps—ambition, doing what’s expected of us, and working too hard—seem productive on the surface but are harmful when taken to the extreme.” Read the full story on “Happiness Traps.”

3). Get enough sleep, if you want to be healthier and smarter
I’m a big fan of UC Berkeley’s Dr. Matthew Walker. He notes: “Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain.”
Listen to the entire fascinating interview. 

And if you need more convincing of the importance of sleep, please check out this insightful and well-researched article, “The 21 Health Benefits For Sleeping”.

4). Learn secrets of Silicon Valley teams
I recently conducted a newer, 3-hour version of my workshop “Secrets of Silicon Valley Teams: From Dysfunction to Peak Performance.”

Some of the written feedback:

  • “We covered a lot of what it means to create a great team.”
  • “Smart and clear framework. (Also concise)”
  • “Better than expected. Thought it would be more ‘motivating speaking’ – was actually more relaxed, easy to implement, practical.”
  • “Nice coherence between life and work.”

Learn more about this workshop.

5). Inspiration
“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
Ralph Nader
American political activist

Take care,

Jim

[ I sent this post as my regular newsletter email on November 2, 2017.]

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About Jim McCarthy

Jim McCarthy teaches people how to create their happiness. He is a thought-provoking TEDx speaker and #1 bestselling author of the book Live Each Day: A Surprisingly Simple Guide to Happiness. He has presented his innovative and highly acclaimed “Happiness Keynote” to organizations of all sizes across the U.S. and internationally.

His talks aren’t just inspirational. Audiences take away practical strategies, science-based insights, and daily action plans — because happiness is a skill you can develop. Jim is recognized for his unique perspective — as a Stanford MBA, internet pioneer, and person living with a cancer diagnosis.

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Testimonials

Joe Walowski
VP, Alexa at Amazon

Jim’s session turned out to be a high point of our 2-day event. The team deeply appreciated this focus on their well-being, and many folks commented to me on the power of Jim’s personal story. I’m very happy we did it and I would recommend it to others.

 
Heidi Roizen
Venture Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Jim's Happiness Workshop was a tremendous experience. I highly recommend to others that they do this!

 
Brian Rumao
Chief of Staff to the CEO, LinkedIn

Thoroughly enjoyed Jim McCarthy’s Happiness Workshop, which introduced new, thought-provoking lessons. Already find myself adopting several of the practices every day. Highly recommended to anyone looking for an impactful and self-reflective session.

 
Dave Zinman
Chief Executive Officer at Infolinks, Inc.

Jim is an amazing source of wisdom about sourcing, evaluating, hiring, training, motivating and mentoring teams. He built and ran two very high performance, valuable teams for me while we were at BlueLithium and Yahoo! together. I can’t recommend him strongly enough to companies looking to get more out of their employees.

 
Miriam Rivera
Former Trustee – Stanford University; Co-Founder Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs

The work we did in Jim’s workshop was an unexpected joy. It helped me to feel renewed gratitude for the life I’ve been able to live and that I’m living now.

 
Associate Director and Ph.D.
Leading Pharmaceutical Company

“Jim’s Happiness Workshop not only taught us the many benefits of increasing our happiness levels, but he also shared simple, practical methods that we can use every day to achieve this goal. The feedback after the workshop was overwhelmingly positive, and I highly recommend Jim’s workshop for anyone looking for a transformational experience.”

 
Jorge Morgan
President and CEO, MMG Bank, Panama

Simple, yet powerful. It was the perfect closing for our Panama YPO presidential retreat.

 
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