Darya Sinusoid, Author at Shortform Books

How to Take Control of Your Thoughts

How often do you think about the past, future, something that isn’t helping you with the task at hand? Are you in control of your thoughts, or are they taking you on a ride? Many of us spend unnecessary time and energy in repetitive and unproductive thoughts, fantasizing or worrying about the future or ruminating about the past. As a result, we often lose sight of what is happening in our immediate awareness. To prevent this from happening, take control of your thoughts by practicing being present in the moment. Here is how staying present can help you assume control

The 5 Ways to Repair Your Business Reputation

What perception do customers have of your business? Has there been any incident that put a stain on your reputation? What were the consequences? Your business reputation is what people think about your business based on their personal experience and what they heard from others, whether it’s true or not. A good reputation helps you attract new customers and retain existing customers. A bad reputation can wreak havoc on your business, turning away both customers and employees. In this article, we’ll tackle how to manage your company’s reputation in good times and bad.

The 2 Steps to Assuming Personal Accountability

How do you understand personal accountability? What does it really take to assume ownership of your life and hold yourself accountable for its outcomes? Personal accountability means understanding that you control your own fate. To hold yourself accountable, you have to become comfortable examining the part you play (through action or inaction) in getting into or remaining in negative situations. There are two steps to this: 1) face the facts, or evaluate problems without flinching from difficult realities, and 2) Admit your role by being honest about how your actions affected the problem. We’ll discuss both of these principles below.

How to Encourage Collaboration in the Workplace

Why is it important to encourage collaboration in the workplace? What can you, as a leader, do to foster collaborative relationships amongst your team members? The success of your project and your leadership depends on a sense of shared creation and shared responsibility. Consistently, research shows that leaders who cultivate collaborative relationships in their teams are viewed as highly effective and inspire the highest levels of engagement. To encourage collaboration in the workplace, follow these four practices:

The Spread of Neoliberalism in Argentina

How did Argentina become a neoliberal economy? How did neoliberalism affected the country’s economy? Argentina’s implementation of neoliberalism was rather brutal and horrific, much like earlier in Chile. The results were just as brutal: runaway inflation, soaring unemployment, starvation, and disease. Here is how Argentina adopted neoliberalism.

How to Practice Mindfulness in Relationships

Why is it important to be present in a relationship? How can a lack of presence sabotage your relationship? When you are not present in a relationship, it’s very easy to misconstrue actions and situations and become reactionary, even explosive. Sooner or later, your lack of presence will poison the relationship to the point where it can no longer be mended. Practicing mindfulness in relationships is a two-step process: 1) first, accept yourself, and 2) second, foster non-judgmental communication with your partner. We’ll discuss both of these principles below.

The Consequences of a Lack of Accountability at Work

Does your team have accountability issues? How can a lack of accountability harm your business in the long run? Not every leader understands nor is willing to hold their people accountable for their actions or lack thereof. As a result, many organizations run into harmful issues which require time, resources, and change to resolve—but to leave them unresolved is to ensure that your company never achieves its full potential. There are three issues that stem from a lack of accountability: employee development, communication, and individual motivation. Learn more about each one below.

A Leader’s Guide to Challenging the Status Quo

Why is it important to challenge the status quo? What can you, as a leader, do to make sure your organization is keeping up with the times and always improving? People in organizations get used to doing things a certain way and are often reluctant to change their habits, defaulting to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. Even if they know a procedure could be better, they’ll often resist changing it simply because it’s easier to carry on as usual. However, challenging the status quo is your job, as a leader. To challenge the status quo, always stay

Kouzes and Posner: The Leadership Challenge

What is Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge about? What are the five principles of exemplary leadership? The Leadership Challenge is a field guide for becoming the kind of leader that other people want to follow. International bestselling authors and longtime research partners James Kouzes and Barry Posner have compiled thousands of case studies and millions of responses to surveys over the course of decades and used them to distill leadership into five overall principles. Below is a brief overview of the book.

Poland’s Shock Therapy: Did It Work as Intended?

Who instituted Poland’s shock therapy? How did the shock therapy affect the Polish economy? In Poland, shock therapy was implemented on the advice of Jeffrey Sachs who was working as an advisor for the Solidarity party. The Solidarity was reluctant to institute policies that went directly against the worker-centric economy they’d promised to create. But the economy was in a critical state, so they went ahead with Sachs’s proposal in exchange for foreign aid. In this article, we’ll take a look at Poland’s shock therapy, and what happened in its aftermath.