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Every fall, I anticipate the winter holidays with almost childlike joy. I look forward to familiar traditions with friends and family, eggnog in my coffee, and the sense that everyone is feeling a little lighter and more connected. At the same time, I feel anxious and annoyed by the manufactured sense of urgency around gift giving: the endless searching and second-guessing shaped by advertisers, retailers, and cultural expectations. Dont get me wrong, I mostly love givingand, yes, receivinggifts during the holidays. But as a researcher who studies consumer psychology, I see how those same forces, amplified by constant buying opportunities and frictionless online payments, make us especially vulnerable and often unwise this time of year. Buying behavior, including gift giving, doesnt just reflect needs and wants but also our values. Frequently, the values we talk about are more akin to aspirational ideals. Our actual values are revealed in the seemingly inconsequential choices we make day after dayincluding shopping. The cumulative effects of our spending behaviors carry enormous implications for society, the environment, and everyones well-beingfrom the purchaser and recipient to people working throughout the supply chain. This makes consumer behavior an especially important place to apply the emerging social science research on wisdom. While wisdom is defined in different ways, it can be understood as seeing decisions through a broader, values-informed perspective and acting in ways that promote well-being. Over the past decade, consumer psychology researcher David Mick and I have studied what that means when it comes to consumption. Consumer wisdom? you may wonder. Isnt that an oxymoron? But there are vast differences in how we consumeand as our research shows, this can lead to very different effects on individual well-being. Defining consumer wisdom Building on some of Davids earlier work, I began my own research on consumer wisdom in the summer of 2015, interviewing dozens of people across the U.S. whom others in their communities had identified as models of wisdom. Previous research guided me to settings where I could easily find people who represented different aspects of wisdom: practicality on farms in upstate New York; environmental stewardship in Portland, Oregon; and community values in Tidewater, Virginia. I didnt use the term wisdom, though. It can be intimidating, and people often define it narrowly. Instead, I spoke with people whose peers described them as exemplary decision-makerspeople leading lives that considered both the present and the future, and who balanced their needs with others needs. From those conversations, David and I developed a theory of consumer wisdom. With the help of a third coauthor, Kelly Haws, we validated this framework through national surveys with thousands of participants, creating the consumer wisdom scale. The scale shows how consumer wisdom is not some lofty ideal but a set of practical habits. Some are about managing money. Some are about goals and personal philosophy, and others are about broader impact. We have found that six dimensions capture the vast majority of what we would call consumer wisdom: Responsibility: managing resources to support a rewarding yet realistic lifestyle. Purpose: prioritizing spending that supports personal growth, health, and relationships. Perspective: drawing on past experiences and anticipating future consequences. Reasoning: seeking and applying reliable, relevant information; filtering out the noise of advertising and pop culture. Flexibility: being open to alternatives such as borrowing, renting, or buying used. Sustainability: spending in ways that support the buyers social or environmental goals and values. These are not abstract traits. They are everyday ways of aligning your spending with your goals, resources, and values. Importantly, people with higher scores on the scale report greater life satisfaction, as well as better health, financial security, and sense of meaning in life. These results hold even after accounting for known determinants of well-being, such as job satisfaction and supportive relationships. In other words, consumer wisdom makes a distinctive and underappreciated contribution to well-being. Putting it into practice These six dimensions offer a different lens on holiday normsone that can reframe how to think about gifts. Interestingly, the English word gift traces back to the Old Norse rune gyfu, which means generosity. Its a reminder that true giving is not about checking boxes on referral, revenue-generating gift guides or yielding to slick promotions or fads. Generosity is about focusing on another persons well-being and our relationship with them. From the perspective of consumer wisdom, that means asking what will genuinely contribute to the recipients life. One of the most important dimensions of consumer wisdom is purpose: the idea that thoughtful spending can nurture personal growth, health, enjoyment, and a sense of connection. Out with trendy gadgets, fast fashion, and clutter-creating décor or knickknacksthings that feel exciting in the moment but are quickly forgotten. In with quality headphones, a shared cooking class, a board game, and a workshop or tools to support a hobbygifts that can spark growth, joy and deeper connection. In my ongoing research, people have described wise gifts as those that define value from the recipients perspectivegifts that stay meaningful and useful over time. The wisest gifts, respondents say, also affirm the recipients identity, showing that the giver truly understands and values them. Wiser consumption is learnable, measurable, and consequential. By choosing gifts that reflect purpose and the original spirit of gyfutrue generositywe can make the holidays less stressful. More importantly, we can make them more meaningful: strengthening relationships in ways that bring joy long after. Michael Luchs is a JS Mack professor of business at William & Mary. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Underperformance usually shows up in the guise of missed deadlines, low-quality work, or a bad attitude. This gets spotted sometimes, but not always, by a leader who then has to make a choice: when and how to tackle the underperformance. However, the problem can be exacerbated by acting too quickly: there is often a fierce desire within leaders to jump to action. They want to stop the badness, stop the ripples, and solve the situation as quickly as possible. But often, this means that they make assumptions about what is causing the underperformance and how to solve it without taking a little time to explore the real reasons behind the poor performance. The problem can also be exacerbated by acting too slowly: underperformance has a nasty habit of rippling out. Whether it creates a sense among colleagues that this low standard is acceptable, or whether it means that team members get annoyed that this individual is getting away with it (and therefore reduce their own efforts to create a sense of parity), it all ends in the same place: more underperformance and a potential impact on the workplace culture. I developed SOLVE, a leadership problem-solving model, to deal with exactly these sorts of problems: ones that need solving but arent as easy as jumping straight to action. Causes need establishing, options need considering, context needs to be taken into account. In the case of underperformance, the five stages of the SOLVE model would work like this: S State the ProblemTry to express, in 12 sentences, what the problem appears to be and the impact its having. Try to be precise about the behaviour causing concern: “Theyre regularly late with deliverables and hesitant to give their opinion in meetings, which reduces their impact and makes our team look unprepared.” O Open the BoxHere, leaders dig into the problem more deeply, trying to work out why this situation is occurring. I encourage them to do a bit of research, and in this case, research should absolutely include talking to the team member in question to find out whats going on. In the case of underperformance, I would investigate the following areas: Has their workload increased recently, either because youve given them more tasks, or someone else has without your awareness? Are they being asked to do work at a higher level than before? You might not perceive this in the same way they do, so its worth asking them the question. Has anything changed in their personal life? In some country and company cultures, its not appropriate to ask this outright, but there is no harm in a catch-up asking them how things are going in general and seeing if they bring anything up. Are they still finding their work interesting? Has anything changed that may have put their values out of line with the companys or vice versa? Has the level of clarity over whats expected of them changed? If the companys strategy has changed, youre a new manager, or they are working across two projects, they may simply be confused as to what to prioritize and why. L Lay Out Your SolutionBased on what youve discovered, you can now create a workable response. It might be offering clearer priorities, adjusting scope, or helping them to see the value of their work again. Leaders should think hard about what fits the context and the individual. With these very messy leadership problems, there is no such thing as a universal solutionthink about how your organizations size, industry, and status affect which solutions would work. If its a team issue, what impact does your function, size, and sub-culture have? And with regard to the individual involved, how does their background, personality, and experience affect your approach? V Venture ForthHere, leaders start to put their actions into practice while looking out for problems along the way, ready to pivot. It may be that, as the underperformer starts to roll out actions to improve their performance, more factors reveal themselves as being important to take into account. For example, a leader I worked with recently thought that the solution to team disengagement was to increase rewards. However, the very mention of rewards led one team member to start to gripe about how this company thinks you can pay off anyone. It emerged that, even though the team member hadnt previously said it, their disengagement was as a result of feeling bored with the work, rather than feeling unrewarded. The leader focused instead on providing work that team member perceived as more interesting, and their engagement rapidly improved. E Elevate Your LearningThis is about using the new skills and knowledge youve gleaned to generate further positive impacts. For example, if youve learned more about how to help team members manage their workload, can you share this with other leaders who have overstretched teams? I believe, and have seen through my work, that the SOLVE model can make a meaningful difference in handling underperformance (as well as plenty of other types of leadership problems). Leaders I work with on staff underperformance benefit from the encouragement that they should slow down, lay the situation out clearly, and then pick a solution that properly fits their context. They also appreciate being shown, through the Elevate stage, how to make sure that the time theyve taken solving this problem hasnt gone to waste. They have developed skills and approaches that will continue to help them and others in the future. The SOLVE framework allowed one leader I recently worked with to break down precisely why their sub-teams were underperforming, looking at the issue on an individual basis, and come up with targeted solutions. Importantly, they were also able to use their skills to help other leadership teams across the firm, multiplying the impact that their careful handling of underperformance had for their firm. I recommend, if you are keen to deal with an underperformance issue, to work through the five stages and see the positive impact that they can have on your team and, therefore, your leadership.
Category:
E-Commerce
As soon as ChatGPT launched, Odyssey Gohain saw the writing on the wall. The now 27-year-old was working as a marketer in Amsterdam at the time, looking to move into a more senior role when the powerful AI tool started replacing individual tasks, then team membersincluding an older colleague whose career Gohain idolized. I thought maybe in three, four years, I’ll be in her place. And then she got laid off, says Gohain, who was let go soon after herself. After moving back home with her parents in 2023, Gohain started an independent marketing business as a solopreneur. Two years later, she is still earning less than at her previous role, but says the transition has offered other benefits. After that [career] roadblock, I was really struggling to figure out my next step. It felt like I was staring at a blank wall, she says. Now there is more stability. Even though there is not a lot of money in it, there is a confidence that I will get there. Things felt harder before. Ironically, the very technology that threatened Gohains career in the traditional workforce is proving to be a game changer in her new independent venture of assisting startups with their organic marketing strategy. I actually made a few sales through ChatGPT, she says, explaining that the AI platform has come to replace online search. People are searching for my niche on ChatGPT, and I have been seeing a lot of traffic come from it. As young people struggle to kick-start or grow their careers in a stagnant job market, and as the barriers to entry for entrepreneurship continue to plummet, thanks to technology (ironically, the same tech thats turning the workforce on its head), many are taking the leap into solopreneurship. A New Generation With a New Definition of Career Success In a recent survey of 2,300 Americans ages 18 to 34 that was conducted by Citizens, a Rhode Island-based financial institution, only a quarter expressed interest in climbing the corporate ladder. Instead, 67% respondents said they have pursued an entrepreneurial ventureof which more than a third identified as solopreneurs rather than employers or gig workers. There’s a complete redefinition of careers happening among young people, says Mark Valentino, head of business banking at Citizens. They’re redefining what career success looks like, what life success looks like. And they’re stating it in a manner that is more about adventure, flexibility, sustainability, and a quality of life that is goodbut that is not necessarily so tied to monetary success. Valentino explains that values like flexibility, meaning, and work-life balance are often more attainable as an independent business owner than as a traditional employee, especially in the current job market. The barriers to starting a business today are also the lowest they’ve ever been, he says, suggesting one can now register a business and develop a business plan in a matter of minutes online. There’s a little bit of a steer away from traditional corporate America in this generation as well, and theres been more economic barriers in their way, like the cost of college. Economic necessity drives solopreneurship That lack of financial independence is, ironically, also making it easier to start a business, Valentino says, as many are living at home for longer. The fact that they’re staying in the nest a little bit longer than previous generations gives them a little bit of freedom to take more risks, he says. If you are somebody who does have a little bit of support, or can live at home a little bit longer, you can take a little bit of a chance on becoming a solopreneur. According to a recent study conducted by payroll and HR solutions provider Gusto, Gen Z solopreneurs earn, on average, less than $10,000 during their first year, which is 73% less than those who are traditionally employed. By year five, however, average earnings exceed $60,000, or 28% more than their corporate counterparts. After five years, theyre able to really start taking advantage of the financial freedom that solopreneurship offers, says Gusto economist Nich Tremper. They’re able to take their skills to market in a way that allows them to really set their own price. That, he says, is an appealing prospect for a generation that is experiencing significant wage stagnation. People who are just starting out in their careers are dependent on early wage growth and gains to set the course for their overall earning potential later in life, and they do that by moving around to different jobs or getting promotions at their current job, Tremper explains. In a frozen labor market, solopreneurship is an opportunity for people to get that next boost in their income. Its about more than money Like the Citizens survey, however, Gustos data also suggests that this generation is motivated by more than money. According to the survey, 88% of Gen Z solopreneurs were motivated by the opportunity to set their own schedule, compared with 70% among all solopreneurs. Furthermore, 68% wanted to be their own boss, 41% reported being unsatisfied with their current or former job, and 40% said they took the leap to have a positive impact on their community. They really want to define what work means for them, Tremper says. The labor market is pretty frozen, so theyre going out and starting their own thing.
Category:
E-Commerce
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