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Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (English Edition)

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Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (English Edition) eBook : Kiyosaki, Robert T.: Amazon.de: Kindle-Shop

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European Elections, Europe's Future and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2023/24 is the fifth edition of our independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union and its member states towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and SDSN Europe.

Citation
Guillaume Lafortune, Grayson Fuller, Adolf Kloke-Lesch, Phoebe Koundouri and Angelo Riccaboni (2024). European Elections, Europe's Future and the SDGs: Europe Sustainable Development Report 2023/24. Paris: SDSN and SDSN Europe and Dublin: Dublin University Press, https://doi.org/10.25546/104407

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Europe Sustainable Development Report 2023/24

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Rankings, interactive maps, country profiles. Track the progress of the European Union and European Countries towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Her First $100K - Money Educator and Speaker

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WARNING: May become financially free, fierce, and Feminist AF by listening

hosted by Tori Dunlap of Her First $100K

Join money expert Tori Dunlap as she guides you on how to make more, spend less, and feel financially confident in a world run by rich white men. Through solo episodes and special guest interviews, you'll walk away with resources to get, save, and grow money to gain financial freedom and kick some patriarchal ass at the same time.

"Tori Dunlap is the voice of financial confidence - and cold hard math - for women."

- CNBC

After successfully saving $100,000 at age 25, I quit my corporate job in marketing to fight for your financial rights.

I've helped over one million badass women make more, spend less, and feel financially confident.

Because having a financial education is a woman's best form of protest. 💪

""Tori's like your meme-queen best friend from college who got her shit together and just wants to help you get yours together too.""

- CATELYN

New episodes every Monday and Friday, starting May 17th. Subscribe and leave us a review so you don't miss out!

Join money expert Tori Dunlap as she teaches you how to make more, spend less, and feel financially confident in a world run by old, rich, white dudes. Through solo episodes and special guest interviews, you'll walk away with resources to get, save, and grow money to gain financial freedom and kick some patriarchal ass at the same time.

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Financial Feminist Podcast - Her First $100K - Money Educator and Speaker

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WARNING: May become financially free, fierce, and Feminist AF by listening New episodes every Monday and Friday, starting May 17th. Subscribe and leave us a review so you don't miss out! Join money expert Tori Dunlap as she teaches you how to make more, spend less, and feel financially confident in a world run by old, rich, white dudes.

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In each of these prescient essays, Nichole Perkins probes the intersections between her Blackness, hailing from the South, her womanhood, and the power of her sexuality.

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In each of these prescient essays, Nichole Perkins probes the intersections between her Blackness, hailing from the South, her womanhood, and the power of her sexuality.

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Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be - Nichole Perkins

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A passionate, magnetic memoir that explores writer and podcast host Nichole Perkins's obsession with pop culture and the challenges of navigating relationships as a Black woman through feminism and Southern mores.

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With a fresh lens, Gutowitz explores the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity in a way that speaks to everyone who's ever gone on a journey of self-discovery.

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With a fresh lens, Gutowitz explores the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity in a way that speaks to everyone who's ever gone on a journey of self-discovery.

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About The Book

Named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 by

"Wickedly funny and heartstoppingly vulnerable...every page twinkles with brilliance." -Refinery29

Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today.

Jill Gutowitz's life-for better and worse-has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There's the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones. The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill's own sexuality. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values-always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us.

Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near-and very queer-future.

About The Author

Jill Gutowitz is a writer from New Jersey. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vulture, and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner and a very small cat.

Raves and Reviews

"Hilarious... Girls Can Kiss Now is going to be one of the most important accessories of 2022." - Glamour, Most Anticipated Books of 2022

"An equal mix of illuminating analysis and laugh-out-loud anecdotes."- T hrillist, 27 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Winter

"Readers who recall where they were - because these iconic moments were lifechanging - when Orange is the New Black debuted or when paparazzi pictures of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson arguing were published will relish re-living their importance with Gutowitz." - Booklist

"Every single sentence glitters, quivers, and shakes with a kind of unhinged lesbian brilliance that is both wickedly funny and deeply self-aware. GIRLS CAN KISS NOW is not only the gayest book of essays I've ever read - it's one of the best." -Gabrielle Korn, author of Everybody (Else) is Perfect

"Snaps, crackles and pops with sharp one-liners and biting wit. But when Gutowitz deftly uses her encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to interrogate her own personal history and relationship to her queerness, her prose reaches a level of depth and tenderness that left me reeling with emotion. 10/10. You must read this book if you're gay, human, or both." -Ryan O'Connell, author of I'm Special and Just by Looking at Him

"You'll certainly be entertained, but there is a certain level of tenderness and care that really makes this book shine." - Buzzfeed

Resources and Downloads

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About The Book Named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 by "Wickedly funny and heartstoppingly vulnerable...every page twinkles with brilliance." -Refinery29 Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today.

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Most of us have known a high performer who is a bully at work or a leader who delivers results but creates a toxic environment. These "toxic rock stars" can ruin the workplace experience for most employees, but they're particularly harmful to women of color. These individuals and the cultures that enable them are key factors driving women of color to leave their workplaces.

Research has shown that toxic cultures cost U.S. companies almost $50 billion per year, and toxic culture was the single biggest predictor of attrition during the first six months of the Great Resignation. In the midst of the fight for talent, at a time when the link between diversity and better business outcomes is finally being understood and when external stakeholders are demanding accountability on diversity metrics, company leaders must look carefully at the wide-ranging impacts of tolerating and rewarding high-performing bullies at the expense of culture, particularly as they impact women of color.

Women of Color Are Saying "Enough Is Enough"

Malia,* whom Deepa interviewed for her recent book, had been a senior leader for 10 years and was one of the only senior women of color at her firm when the executive team asked her to take responsibility for one of the largest accounts in the company's portfolio. She was paired with another account executive at the same level, Frank,* who was white and a decade older.

Things were rocky from the beginning. Within weeks, it became clear to Malia that Frank was a bully. He would yell and berate the staff, make disparaging comments about people of color, and treated Malia as if she was his subordinate, not his equal. Frank made it clear that Malia was "lucky to be working" with him and told her that since he sat on the compensation council, he had the power to determine her next career move and her pay. In fact, Frank often spoke about how he understood the games of office politics and played them better than everyone else around him.

When Malia reached out to other senior women at the company for advice, she learned that Frank had a history of infractions against women and that HR and leadership were well aware of his behavior. Malia couldn't understand why everyone looked the other way, and their advice also shocked her. They told her to keep delivering results and ignore Frank as best she could.

After more than a year of putting up with his behavior and despite being told it would be "career suicide," Malia finally felt she had to report Frank via the formal dispute process - not just for herself, but for the other women and diverse talent around her. It was a hard decision and it took its toll on her mental and physical well-being. After she came forward, the predictions came true. The company's HR team didn't put much effort into reprimanding Frank, but Malia felt the effects anyway. In her performance review, her typically high ratings suffered. She was told she "needed to learn to get along" with others. It was as if she had become the problem for her company, and people seemed to accept how Frank was and gave him a wide berth. For Malia, it was clear she couldn't and wouldn't succeed working at a company that tolerated bullies like Frank. It didn't take long for her to find a new job at a company with a culture that didn't tolerate, much less reward, toxic behavior.

Tragically, Malia's experience is not unique. In the summer and fall of 2021, we conducted research with women of color in professional roles to learn what was working and what wasn't. Through a nationwide survey of more than 1,500 women and a series of intimate salons and interviews, we discussed their lived experiences at work. Again and again, we were told stories of high performers who tarnished the culture and inflicted harm on women. The result? In the vast majority of the cases, the women of color left the company for better opportunities where they knew their talents and skills would be valued. As one woman told us, "My company ignored the bad behavior of the big producer. I got labeled 'noisy' even though he had a lengthy history of complaints on his HR record. What other choice did I have? I left - and good riddance!"

Another woman said, "Our leaders coddle the toxic rock stars and leave the rest of us to suffer the consequences." And another, who had her own "Frank" story, told us, "So many times, the marginalized person who's like, 'Hey, this person is ... racist or sexist' gets dismissed as the one lone wolf and gets labeled as difficult."

Toxic rock star stories aren't unique to women of color, but their impact on them cannot be ignored. Bearing the weight of racism, microaggressions, ignorance, and, in some cases, outright hatred leaves women of color not just burned out, but as many reported to us, traumatized. Our research revealed that women of color are 18% less likely than white women to feel supported by their managers and 19% less likely to feel their skills and experience are valued and leveraged. Seventy percent feel they have to prove themselves over and over again just to be rewarded fairly. Given these challenges, it's no wonder that toxic rock stars are often the last straw for this highly capable, highly desirable talent cohort.

As a senior partner at a global consulting agency said to us after she shared her "Frank" story: "Enough is enough. It's time companies considered the consequences of their actions. Toxic rock stars are a cancer on company culture. Leaving them in a position of power reveals what the company truly values: profits over people."

Why Companies Tolerate Toxic Rock Stars

We help company leaders foster high-performing cultures built on inclusion and belonging where diverse talent, and particularly women of color, want to stay. How to deal with toxic rock stars is a challenge nearly every one of our clients has faced.

At one client company, turnover in the sales division was as high as 48%. The reason? A head of sales who delivered the numbers but who was killing the very culture the new CEO was trying to establish. As the well-meaning CEO explained, "I know he's a problem, but he delivers the results our shareholders want to see. How can I fire him when we have revenue goals we need to meet?"

In an environment where short-term gains are rewarded by Wall Street and investors, CEOs often find themselves challenged by competing demands. Sure, toxic rock stars can and do deliver today. However, the long-term impact of these culture bullies on attrition, employee engagement, productivity, and employer branding can't be ignored.

Part of the challenge stems from the old-school "boys club" mentality, where toxic rock stars are protected at the expense of diverse talent and toxic cultures get reinforced at the expense of the company's reputation and bottom line. But in today's world, leaders are being challenged to change the way they lead, and when they don't - or can't - adapt, they risk their own careers and the success of their companies.

What Leaders Should Do

A recent survey of more than 1,400 global CEOs and board members revealed that the war for talent is a top issue facing companies right now. It's become glaringly clear that losing women of color because you aren't willing to address your toxic rock stars is a recipe for failure in the new world of work. Here are five steps leaders can take to ensure high-performing bullies don't drive away their best employees.

Establish a no-tolerance policy.

No doubt there are behaviors that require immediate dismissal. But too often, employers tolerate toxic rock stars' poor behavior despite repeated reports to management and human resources. If a leader at your company is reported once, investigate. Coaching or extended training may be appropriate if the person simply didn't understand how their actions were harming others. But second, third, and fourth reports with no action send the message to all employees that bad behavior can be trumped by other factors. Companies have to take decisive action and terminate people who create toxic environments.

Look honestly at your culture.

"The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate," as organizational development experts Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker have observed. Leaders must ask themselves what they're tolerating.

Take a good look at your company culture. Do an honest culture survey, conduct focus groups, and have one-on-one conversations with employees at various levels. If you're humble, curious, and empathetic, you'll be surprised at what you'll learn.

Find out what happens when an employee is reported to HR as "toxic." Does HR do a thorough assessment? Or do they dismiss the experiences of the injured party? Do they ignore repeated complaints? And, importantly, do they do this because they believe they're protecting the company? If yes, it's time to start over.

At the very least, get engaged yourself by truly listening to your employees. Conduct a thorough employee experience assessment, engage with your employee resource groups (ERGs), and meet one-on-one with your diverse talent to understand what they need to do their best work. Throughout the process, be humble. It's up to you to set the tone for the kind of culture you want to foster, and it's on you when the culture goes awry.

Establish a better feedback process.

Research conducted by nFormation and Fairygodboss in 2021 found that 60% of women of color feel their companies are not properly prepared to handle racist incidents in the workplace. In our PowHER Redefined research, 97% of respondents said companies must establish better processes to investigate racism and discrimination at work. Debra Soltis, a well-regarded employment attorney in Washington, counsels her clients to always remember that "human resources is not your friend, but is there to protect the company." Reporting inappropriate behavior, whether it's racism, sexism, or even sexual harassment, leaves many women to face the daunting task of having to present claims based on allegations that are undocumented, retaliation that is subtle, and witnesses who are reluctant to speak.

Providing anonymous reporting opportunities using tools such as AllVoices or FaceUp can help employees feel confident they won't be penalized for speaking up. Additionally, offering external HR support and coaching guidance through organizations like HRuprise and Better Up can be an emotional lifeboat for those who are already suffering from a toxic work environment.

Infuse your values into every aspect of your business.

Inclusion and belonging have become core values for numerous companies in the past few years. While this is commendable, if these values aren't reflected in employees' lived experiences, the good intentions become performative and create distrust.

Do a values review to ensure that the core values you tout are embedded into all aspects of the employee lifecycle, from recruiting and hiring to performance management to team interactions to goal setting and more. Conduct an employee survey to understand if the values resonate. Ask the hard questions to understand if leaders and managers are walking the walk. Don't just say what you mean - follow it up with action.

If you see something, say something.

How can leaders - in particular, male leaders - be part of the solution? It starts with courage. Leaders must understand that the bystander effect is strong. People will watch a toxic situation unfold, thinking someone else clearly knows it's wrong or is better equipped to jump in. The result is that a lot of people silently agree that there's a problem but don't actually intervene.

In their book Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace, Professors David Smith and Brad Johnson argue that men play a critical role in disrupting their male colleagues' toxic behavior. They write:

Often there is a reluctance to engage, because men are anxious about what they should be doing, and are afraid to make mistakes. Or they back away because they think it's only a women's issue. But, it's actually a leadership issue, because it affects the whole organization....You have to put some skin in the game. For example, sticking up for a female colleague who has been interrupted in a meeting for the third time, or objecting to a sexist or harassing joke. Men need to be willing to challenge other men. That is the only way we are going to see true change.

The Time Is Now

It's an interesting time to be losing women of color. There's more data than ever that suggests diversity, including in leadership teams, translates into growth and profits. And as the American workforce gets more diverse and we begin to address the changing landscape of the future of work as a result of Covid, there's also growing acceptance that we need new ways of leading. We need leaders who understand core diversity challenges, lead with empathy, and have unique lived experiences.

Women of color can provide this voice and new direction. Don't wait for more trauma to be inflicted on them and more harm to come to your bottom line. It's time to get rid of your toxic rock stars if you want to keep the talent you still have and attract new women of color and other diverse candidates to help you and your company grow and thrive in today's competitive climate.

* Names used in the article have been changed.

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Leaders, Stop Rewarding Toxic Rock Stars

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Research has shown that toxic cultures are extremely costly for companies, and toxic culture was the single biggest predictor of attrition during the first six months of the Great Resignation. "Toxic rock stars," or bullies who evade consequences because they deliver results, can ruin the workplace experience for most employees, but they're particularly harmful to women of color.

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Companies spend millions on antibias training each year. The goal is to create workforces that are more inclusive, and thereby more innovative and more effective. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups outperform homogeneous ones and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and are better at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias prevention programs rarely deliver. And some companies don't invest in them at all. So how can you, as an individual leader, make sure your team is including and making the most of diverse voices? Can one person fix what an entire organization can't?

Although bias itself is devilishly hard to eliminate, it is not as difficult to interrupt. In the decades we've spent researching and advising people on how to build and manage diverse work groups, we've identified ways that managers can counter bias without spending a lot of time-or political capital.

The first step is to understand the four distinct ways bias plays out in everyday work interactions: (1) Prove it again: Some groups have to prove themselves more than others do. (2) Tightrope: A narrower range of behaviors is accepted from some groups than from others. (3) Maternal wall: Women with children see their commitment and competence questioned or face disapproval for being too career focused. (4) Tug-of-war: Disadvantaged groups find themselves pitted against one another because of differing strategies for assimilating-or refusing to do so.

The second step is to recognize when and where these forms of bias arise day-to-day. In the absence of an organizational directive, it's easy to let them go unaddressed. That's a mistake. You can't be a great manager without becoming a bias interrupter. Here's how to do it.

Picking Your People

Bias in hiring has been extensively documented. In one study, "Jamal" needed eight more years of experience than "Greg" to be seen as equally qualified. Another found that men from elite backgrounds were called back for interviews more than 12 times as often as identical candidates from non-elite backgrounds. Other studies have found that women, LGBT+ candidates, people with disabilities, women in headscarves, and older people are less likely to be hired than their peers.

Fairness in hiring is only the first step toward achieving diversity, but it's an important one. Here are four simple actions that will yield the best candidates by eliminating artificial advantages:

1. Insist on a diverse pool.

Whether you're working with recruiters or doing the hiring yourself, make it clear from the outset that you want true diversity, not just one female or minority candidate. Research shows that the odds of hiring a woman are 79 times as great if at least two women are in the finalist pool, while the odds of hiring a nonwhite candidate are 194 times as great with at least two finalist minority applicants. For example, when Kori Carew launched the Shook Scholars Institute at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, she designed it to bring a diverse mix of students into the law firm and offered career development and mentoring that prompted many of them to apply for summer associate positions.

2. Establish objective criteria, define "culture fit," and demand accountability.

Implicit biases around culture fit often lead to homogeneity. Too often it comes down to shared backgrounds and interests that out-groups, especially first-generation professionals, won't have. That's why it's important to clarify objective criteria for any open role and to rate all applicants using the same rubric. When one insurance company began hiring in this way, it ended up offering jobs to 46% more minority candidates than before. Even if your organization doesn't mandate this approach, ensure that everyone on your team takes it. Write down the specific qualifications required for a particular position so that everyone can focus on them when reviewing résumés and conducting interviews. For example, when Alicia Powell was managing chief counsel at PNC Bank, she made a point of listing the qualities that would make new team members successful in their roles: proactive in managing risk, self-disciplined, patient, customer focused, and independent. Powell shared this information with the rest of her team and candidates, ensuring that everyone was on the same page. You should hold people accountable in the same way. Waive criteria rarely, and require an explanation for those exceptions; then keep track of long-term waiving trends. Research shows that objective rules tend to be applied rigorously to out-groups but leniently to in-groups.

3. Limit referral hiring.

If your organization is homogeneous, hiring from within or from employees' social networks will only perpetuate that. So reach out to women and minority groups. Google partners with historically black colleges such as Spelman and Florida A&M University and with Hispanic-serving institutions such as New Mexico State and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. As an individual leader, you can work with the same organizations or recruit from similar ones in your industry or local community.

4. Structure interviews with skills-based questions.

Ask every person interviewed the same questions and make sure that each question directly relates to the desired knowledge and skills you've outlined. Rate the answers immediately-that will allow you to compare candidates fairly on a preestablished rubric and prevent favoritism. You should also use skills assessments: Rather than ask "How comfortable are you with Excel?" say "Here's a data set. How would you find out X?" For more-complex skills, such as project management, pose a problem or a task that candidates are likely to encounter on the job and ask them to describe in detail how they would handle it.

Managing Day-to-Day

Even good leaders sometimes fall into bad habits when it comes to the daily management of their teams. Women report doing about 20% more "office housework." on average, than their white male counterparts, whether it's literal housework (arranging for lunch or cleaning up after a meeting), administrative tasks (finding a place to meet or prepping a PowerPoint), emotional labor ("He's upset-can you fix it?"), or undervalued work (mentoring summer interns). This is especially true in high-status, high-stakes workplaces. Women engineers report a "worker bee" expectation at higher rates than white men do, and women of color report it at higher rates than white women do. Meanwhile, glamour work that leads to networking and promotion opportunities, such as project leadership and presentations, goes disproportionately to white men. When the consultancy GapJumpers analyzed the performance reviews of a tech company client, it found that women employees were 42% more likely than their male colleagues to be limited to lower-impact projects; as a result, far fewer of them rose to more-senior roles.

Meetings are another problem area. Research shows that men are more likely than women to dominate the conversation, and that whereas men with expertise tend to be more influential, women with expertise tend to be less so. Our study of lawyers found that half of women report being interrupted in meetings at a higher rate than their male peers are. Another study found that in meetings that included more men than women (a common scenario), women typically participated about 25% less often than their male coworkers did. Double standards and stereotypes play out whenever diverse identities come together. Is a woman "emotional," or a black man "angry," while a white male is "passionate"? We once heard from a woman scientist that she was sharply criticized as "aggressive" when she brought up a flaw in a male colleague's analysis; after that she felt she needed to just "bring in baked goods and be agreeable." A black tech company executive we know told us about a meeting during which she said little while the only other woman, an Asian-American, said a lot. But she later heard that people thought she had "dominated" the conversation while her Asian-American peer had been "very quiet."

Unsure whether this sort of thing is happening on your team? Start tracking assignments and airtime in meetings. Use our free online tools to find out which work done by your group is higher- or lower-profile and who's doing what. For meetings, pay attention: Who's at the table? Who's doing the talking? Is someone taking notes when he or she could be leading the conversation? If you find a problematic dynamic, here are some ways to change it:

1. Set up a rotation for office housework, and don't ask for volunteers.

"I always give these tasks to women because they do them well/volunteer" is a common refrain. This dynamic reflects an environment in which men suffer few consequences for bypassing or doing a poor job on low-value work, while women who do the same are seen as "prima donnas" or incompetent. Particularly when administrative staff is limited, a rotation helps level the playing field and makes it clear that everyone is expected to contribute to office housework. If you ask for volunteers, women and people of color will feel powerful pressure to prove they are "team players" by raising their hands.

2. Mindfully design and assign people to high-value projects.

Sometimes we hear "It's true, I keep giving the plum assignments to a small group-but they're the only ones with the skills to do them!" According to Joyce Norcini, formerly general counsel for Nokia Siemens Networks, if you have only a tight circle of people you trust to handle meaningful work, you're in trouble. Her advice: Reconsider who is capable of doing what these important jobs require; chances are someone not on your usual list is. You may need to move outside your comfort zone and be more involved in the beginning, but having a broader range of trained people will serve you well in the end.

3. Acknowledge the importance of lower-profile contributions.

"Diversity" hires may lag behind their majority-member peers because they're doing extra stuff that doesn't get them extra credit. If your organization truly prioritizes inclusion, then walk your talk. Many bosses who say they value diversity programming and mentorship don't actually take it into account when promotion or comp time becomes available. Integrating these contributions into individual goal setting and evaluating them during performance reviews is a simple start. And don't be afraid to think big: A law partner we know did such a great job running the woman's initiative that the firm begged her to stay on for another year. She said she would if the firm's bosses made her an equity partner. They did.

4. Respond to double standards, stereotyping, "manterruption," "bropriating," and "whipeating."

Pay close attention to the way people on your team talk about their peers and how they behave in group settings. For example, men tend to interrupt women far more often than the other way around; displays of confidence and directness decrease women's influence but increase men's. If a few people are dominating the conversation in a meeting, address it directly. Create and enforce a policy for interruptions. Keep track of those who drown others out and talk with them privately about it, explaining that you think it's important to hear everyone's contributions. Similarly, when you see instances of "bropriating" or "whipeating"-that is, majority-group members taking or being given credit for ideas that women and people of color originally offered-call it out. We know two women on the board of directors of a public company who made a pact: When a man tried to claim one of their ideas, the other would say something like "Yes, I liked Sandra's point, and I'm glad you did too." Once they did this consistently, bropriating stopped.

5. Ask people to weigh in.

Women, people of Asian descent, and first-generation professionals report being brought up with a "modesty mandate" that can lead them to hold back their thoughts or speak in a tentative, deferential way. Counter this by extending an invitation: "Camilla, you have experience with this-what are we missing? Is this the best course of action?"

6. Schedule meetings inclusively.

Business meetings should take place in the office, not at a golf course, a university club, or your favorite concert venue. Otherwise you're giving an artificial advantage to people who feel more comfortable in those settings or whose personal interests overlap with yours. Whenever possible, stick to working hours, or you risk putting caregivers and others with a demanding personal life at a disadvantage. Joan once noticed that no mothers were participating in a faculty appointment process because all the meetings were held at 5:30 PM. When she pointed this out to the person leading them, the problem was fixed immediately. This colleague had a stay-at-home wife and simply hadn't thought about the issue before.

7. Equalize access proactively.

Bosses may meet with some employees more regularly than others, but it's important to make sure this is driven by business demands and team needs rather than by what individuals want or expect. White men may feel more comfortable walking into your office or asking for time. The same may be true of people whose interests you share. When Emily Gould Sullivan, who has led the employment law functions for two Fortune 500 retail companies, realized that she was routinely accepting "walking meeting" invitations from a team member who was, like her, interested in fitness, she made a point of reaching out to others to equalize access.

Developing Your Team

Your job as a manager is not only to get the best performance out of your team but also to encourage the development of each member. That means giving fair performance reviews, equal access to high-potential assignments, and promotions and pay increases to those who have earned them. Unfortunately, as we've noted, some groups need to prove themselves more than others, and a broader range of behaviors is often accepted from white men. For example, our research shows that assertiveness and anger are less likely to be accepted from people of color, and expectations that women will be modest, self-effacing, and nice often affect performance assessments. One study found that 66% of women's reviews contained comments about their personalities, but only 1% of men's reviews did. These double standards can have a real impact on equity outcomes. PayScale found that men of color were 25% less likely than their white peers to get a raise when they asked for one. And gender norms stunt careers for women. PayScale found that when women and men start their careers on the same rung of the professional ladder, by the time they are halfway (aged 30-44), 47% of men are managers or higher, but only 40% of women are. These numbers just worsen over time: Only 3% of the women make it to the C-suite, compared with 8% of the men.

Take these steps to avoid common pitfalls in evaluations and promotions:

1. Clarify evaluation criteria and focus on performance, not potential.

Don't arrive at a rating without thinking about what predetermined benchmarks you've used to get there. Any evaluation should include enough data for a third party to understand the justification for the rating. Be specific. Instead of "She writes well," say "She can write an effective summary judgment motion under a tight deadline."

2. Separate performance from potential and personality from skill sets.

In-groups tend to be judged on their potential and given the benefit of the doubt, whereas out-groups have to show they've nailed it. If your company values potential, it should be assessed separately, with factors clearly outlined for evaluators and employees. Then track whether there's a pattern as to who has "potential." If so, try relying on performance alone for everyone or get even more concrete with what you're measuring. Personality comments are no different; be wary of double standards that affect women and people of color when it comes to showing emotion or being congenial. Policing women into femininity doesn't help anyone, and-as courts have pointed out-it's direct evidence of sex discrimination. If that's not motivation enough, evaluators can miss critical skills by focusing on personality. It's more valuable, and accurate, to say someone is a strong collaborator who can manage projects across multiple departments than to say "She's friendly and gets along with everyone."

3. Level the playing field with respect to self-promotion.

The modesty mandate mentioned above prevents many people in out-groups from writing effective self-evaluations or defending themselves at review time. Counter that by giving everyone you manage the tools to evaluate their own performance. Be clear that it's acceptable, and even expected, to advocate for oneself. A simple two-pager can help overcome the modesty mandate and cue majority men (who tend toward overconfidence) to provide concrete evidence for their claims.

4. Explain how training, promotion, and pay decisions will be made, and follow those rules.

As the chair of her firm's women's initiative, one lawyer we know developed a strategy to ensure that all candidates for promotion were considered fairly. She started with a clear outline of what was needed to advance and then assigned every eligible employee (already anonymized) to one of three groups: green (meets the objective metrics), yellow (is close), and red (doesn't). Then she presented the color-coded list to the rest of the evaluation team. By anonymizing the data and pregrouping the candidates by competencies, she ensured that no one was forgotten or recommended owing to in-group favoritism.

All the evaluators were forced to stick to the predetermined benchmarks, and as a result, they tapped the best candidates. (Those in the yellow category were given advice about how to move up to green.) When it comes to promotions, there may be limits to what you can do as an individual manager, but you should push for transparency on the criteria used. When they are explicit, it's harder to bend the rules for in-group members.

CONCLUSION

Organizational change is crucial, but it doesn't happen overnight. Fortunately, you can begin with all these recommendations today.

A version of this article appeared in the November-December 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams

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Companies spend millions on antibias training each year in hopes of creating more-inclusive-and thereby innovative and effective-workforces. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups perform better and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and excel at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias-prevention programs rarely deliver.

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Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.
Dear Ascend, I am a 25-year-old woman just starting out in veterinary marketing. During my first three years in the workforce, I worked as a certified technician in veterinary medicine, but recently, I decided I wanted more out of my career. While working, I went back to school to complete my bachelor's degree in business. During this time, I also approached my boss and asked if she could help me gain more experience on the business side of the industry. After assisting my hospital with our marketing efforts for about a year, and securing my degree, I was offered a marketing development position. In my new role, I will be working with several hospitals located in the western U.S. on their marketing execution plans. I've worked really hard to get here, but this is also going to be a big job transition. I will be meeting with more senior and executive-level employees in this role. I want to use this position as a starting point to grow and advance into an executive / C-suite position one day. I am seeking any advice that you may have on ways to make myself stand out among the competition in this lower-level position. Thanks for your guidance,
We asked Sally Blount, a Fortune 500 board member and former dean at the Kellogg School of Management, and Paul Leinwand, principal at PwC Strategy and author, to respond.

Dear Future CEO,

You are thinking through a topic we hear about a lot. In fact, in our work and teaching, we often meet young professionals and MBA students who tell us "I want to be a CEO." The exact source of their ambition may not always be clear, but their "I want to lead" mindset certainly is.

When we dig deeper, we find that what many of these aspirants want most is to have impact. They hunger to do work that makes a genuine, tangible difference in the world. Many worry that most jobs (and the ones they may be in today) won't allow them to do so. They see business, then, as a vehicle for impact, and the CEO or some other executive role, as a destination for creating real change.

Two Important Questions

If this longing for impact sounds familiar to you, and if you're someone who aspires to lead an organization in order to do that, let's talk about what it takes. Specifically, what does it take to lead thousands of employees and be outstanding at it?

First, do you have the motivation and focus required for a journey that will likely take decades?

In 2020, the average age of new CEOs and CFOs at the U.S.'s biggest companies was 54 and 48 years old, respectively. Those numbers have increased by five years over the last decade, according to The Wall Street Journal. As the global business environment grows more complex, boards are looking to leaders with more, not less, experience under their belts. Regardless of how long it may take you, motivation and focus will be required to get you through a wide set of challenges, and ultimately, the knowledge that some key factors will be out of your control.

Second, do you have the potential to become a high-impact leader? Do you have the skills that will both distinguish you among your peers and enable you to lead at scale?

Throughout our careers, we've had the opportunity to observe many C-suite leaders at work. Drawing from our combined experiences, we've found ourselves asking: Who do we know who has outsized impact, and how do they lead? That led us to identify three breakthrough pathways that we would argue the most successful C-suite residents tend to leverage.

We encourage you to reflect: In which pathway might your potential leadership impact lie?

1) The Organizational Architect

These leaders know how to build teams and organizational structures, systems, and processes that deliver outstanding results. Creating the right organizational infrastructure is what allows companies to excel in their markets, from innovating new products to creating meaningful customer relationships to building highly digitized supply chains. These leaders understand the fundamental reality that building real advantage is not just about winning today, but building an engine for growth that will last long into the future.

Executives who can "architect" how their organizations deliver are the same people who can reimagine markets and attract exceptional talent - talent drawn by the opportunity to participate in something that will have an impact. These leaders know how to assemble strong players across business functions and give those people the direction, resources, and freedom they need to deliver on challenging goals.

From an early age, people with this type of capability naturally see how things in their organization could run better. They instinctively rethink systems, processes, and reporting structures - even before they have the authority to change anything. And when they do get the opportunity to fix something or build something new, they don't just copy what their organization already does or what competitors are doing. They step back to rethink the problem they are trying to solve and use outside-in thinking to create new ways of working (often supported by data and evidence) that improve business outcomes.

Future CEO, if this is your potential pathway, you'll have a "fixer" mindset and want to find and watch the leaders around you who have that same skill. Watch how they lead people and how they navigate and deliver on making operations stronger in your organization. Similarly, when you are tapped to start leading teams of people, your goal is to learn how to motivate people with diverse skills to do not just what's asked, but to seek deeper solutions that yield true advantage over time. Identifying solutions, clearly explaining your ideas, aligning your team members, and encouraging them to problem-solve in new ways is what leadership is all about. Persuading and motivating others to exceed expectations is a critical skill for this type of leader and one you will want to develop.

2) The Relationship Maven

These leaders are all about cultivating relationships and helping other people flourish. They form genuine relationships with a diverse group of executives, internally and externally, seemingly without effort. People naturally like them - and not just because they're likeable. Instead they tend to have an infectious earnestness that evokes trust and good will, whether it be with customers, partners, suppliers, or good friends. As they progress in their careers and their network of "friends" grows, these leaders instinctively start bringing different people together in rooms to pull off deals and collaborations that get bigger over time - yielding results others have a difficult time replicating.

Leaders with this skill have a natural curiosity about other people, which starts early in their careers. They spark up good conversations every day by asking questions of the many people they meet and listening carefully to the answers. They keep in touch with the people they find most interesting and nurture what becomes a diverse array of connections over time. It's important to distinguish leaders who are skilled at relationship building from those who create value because of the broad networks they command. The type of leader we highlight here does not just have a lot of contacts, but they have a lot of deep ones, based on who they are, not their job status.

Future CEO, if this is your potential pathway, people have probably told you that you're a "people person." Perhaps, your family members rib you about making friends with anyone. The key point is to build on this skill by taking careful notes about the interesting people you meet, and finding ways to add value reciprocally over time. That continued investment can result in an incredibly rich network of contacts as you gather hundreds of people into your orbit - each of whom will take your call, offer a candid opinion or make a connection, and, someday, agree to work in heroic ways on a special project on your behalf.

3) The Passion Player

These leaders are all about purpose. They start with, "What are we going to accomplish - and why?" That might mean solving the large-scale issues others haven't, such as global social problems, or bringing new solutions to big existing challenges, like high-impact medical technologies. And while some of these leaders evangelize a self-generated vision, others find their motivation in bringing someone else's idea to life or in igniting energy in a vibrant mission-based organization. The exact source of their passion is not what distinguishes them - it's their infectious energy and compelling conversation about "why we are here" that draws people toward them.

These leaders believe that accomplishing something significant is what matters, and they use that belief to recruit and motivate others to their cause. They are often deep experts in a particular area, bringing tremendous business knowledge and/or strategic thinking to a particular topic, that helps make the story behind their passion compelling to a broad array of stakeholders. Given their deep sense of purpose, passion players often take risks than other leaders might not, perhaps starting a new venture or forging a unique high-stakes path within an existing organization.

Future CEO, like the other pathways, not everyone has the drive and skills needed to lead in this way. But if you hunger for purpose - perhaps more than you seek titles, money or other things - and you enjoy pulling others into conversations about meaning, this might be your pathway. If so, you'll want to start identifying purpose-driven leaders around you and in the popular press, reading their books, and watching their speeches and videos. Notice how they frame problems and tell stories. Start practicing some of their communications patterns in your own conversations to see what reactions you can evoke in people. Also, become more conscious of who in your network feels as strongly about purpose as you do. Reach out, take advantage of opportunities to help them give voice to their dreams and aspirations. See if you can become known as someone who helps others "think big," and recognize that we all have, independent of level or position, great opportunity to infuse purpose into everything we do.

What Does This Mean For You?

Given these three potential pathways for leading people at scale - which one might be a potential fit for you? In which direction might your natural abilities be developed toward leadership impact? While identifying and working on potential weaknesses that could derail a career is always important, leadership that compels others to follow, especially at scale, draws strength from strength - it taps into the leader's innate capabilities. The goal is to find where that potential might lay in you.

One point before we close: While aspiring to be a CEO or C-suite leader is a worthy goal, it isn't wise to work only for a destination, especially one that is both elusive and may not be fully within your control. The best leaders we know are people who have created impact wherever they went, starting small and gradually getting bigger. Then, somewhere along the way, they got noticed for their commitment to excellence and impact - not their ambition. And while we really appreciate this question, please know that organizations are counting on all of us to have impact today. There are simply too many challenges that need leadership at all levels.

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There are three breakthrough pathways that the most successful C-suite residents tend to leverage. Being a "fixer." From an early age, people with this type of capability naturally see how things in their organization could run better. They instinctively rethink systems, processes, and reporting structures - even before they have the authority to change anything.

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For anyone who doubted, the data is in. The Great Resignation is real and it's happening. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that during the months of April, May, and June 2021 a total of 11.5 million workers quit their jobs. And it's not over. According to Gallup research, 48 percent of employees are actively looking to make a change, and according to Personio research, nearly 1:4 will do so in the next six months. Those looking for new opportunities will find ripe opportunities; in June the U.S. hit an all-time high of 10.1 million job openings.

What does this all mean to your organization? You are likely juggling two pressing needs: hiring to backfill people who have left and hiring new people to support business growth. The scarcity is real - too few people for too many jobs. The imbalance of this supply-demand highlights more than ever that productivity is about people.

The best way to stabilize your business is to stem the tsunami of attrition and increase your retention. In the frantic need to hire more people, the group we often forget to attend to are the folks who stay - those showing up day-in and day-out shouldering the work that needs to get done. Think about what these people - the ones who are here, working for and with you - need now. The short answer is they need to be seen for who they are and what they are contributing. It's your job as the leader to make sure they're getting the recognition they deserve.

And we get it: As employers, leaders, managers, and HR professionals, you've been dealing with a lot of uncertainty and change. You have a lot on your plate. Not having the right people in the right quantities in the right seats to get the work done creates a hamster-wheel effect - you keep running, faster and faster, exhausted with forces outside your control. So let's control what you can control, and that is you. If you want to stem the rate of turnover in your organization or team, you must look inside yourself and decide what is possible. So, let's stick our finger in that proverbial hamster wheel and make it stop for a minute. Let's pause and see what is possible, what you can do to make a difference.

Here are four steps leaders can take now to best navigate the Great Resignation:

1. Be aware of your impact.

As leaders, people are watching you all the time whether you realize it or not. So, pause and consider how you are showing up in both your words and your actions. Let's say your company is experiencing record YTD turnover of 25% and hiring is falling 60% below target (real scenarios in far too many companies). Your people are worried and stressed. How do you message the realities of these pain points to your people? Are you aware of how your own concerns and frustrations are experienced by others? Are you unintentionally adding to their fear and uncertainty? When you become aware of your impact, you can control it and steer it in the right direction.

2. Focus on potential and possibility.

On the flip side, let's say your organization has 75% retention and you have attracted and welcomed a large number of new people to the organization. Consider what outcome you want to create out of this uniquely disruptive time. This is a time to be grounded in pragmatism blended with possibility, gratitude, and recognition of what your people, old and new, are going through. Get curious and ask:

What do you envision as the best possible outcome for this situation?

What excites you about that?

What does that give you/the team/the organization?

When you communicate to your people in this way, the impact is one of potential and possibility instead of fear and uncertainty.

3. Make it okay to leave.

Speaking about communication, let's look at one other area where you may be creating an unintended impact - how you and others in the organization treat people when they leave.

In far too many companies, when an employee gives notice the reaction is akin to an emotional breakup - you've been left and you feel rejected. This triggers some not great behavior like a tendency to make the person leaving "wrong" and doubt their trustworthiness or integrity - even though that was not the case before they gave notice. There is a penchant to dismiss their presence and devalue their contribution. Think deeply about what this type of behavior signals to the departing employee and remember, those that remain and are watching.

An alternative is to approach these transitions with gratitude. It's helpful to realize the era of lifelong employment is over and with rare exception, your employees are with your organization as a pit stop on their career journey. They've contributed and hopefully, they've learned some new things. They are not the same person they were when they joined and the same goes for you and for the organization. What would it be like to pause when a resignation occurs and give voice to these things from both sides of the relationship? What would be created if you paused to acknowledge how both sides of the relationship have grown and evolved? Rather than viewing a resignation as a rejection of the relationship, what could be possible if you began to view it as an inflection point in its evolution?

The talent pool is tight, and careers are long. End this phase of your time together with appreciation.

4. Give your employees the respect and attention they deserve

The marketplace for talent has shifted. You need to think of your employees like customers and put thoughtful attention into retaining them. This is the first step to slow attrition and regain your growth curve. And this does not happen when they feel ignored in the fever to hire new people or underappreciated for the effort they make to keep business moving forward. You cannot take your people for granted and expect them to stay - healthy relationships do not work that way. Here are three steps:

Re-recruit them.

Consider what conversations would be like if you were recruiting them to your company.

Spend time to understand their motivations and ambitions. With so much new hiring happening, identify where opportunities might exist inside the organization (even if it is outside of your team) to help them fulfill unrealized dreams and ambitions.

Help them see and claim the positive impact they are making in the organization. Acknowledge not just what they are doing, but why it matters. Let them know what you appreciate about how they are showing up during difficult times. People want to know they are making a difference.

Don't stop. These are not one-time conversations. You can't just wade in, have a talk, and think all is good. This should be the primary focus of each manager and leader in your company.

Reward them.

This may ignite the need for a systemic look at how and what is recognized and rewarded in your organization. Now may be the time to challenge the status quo if what you are seeing from your people and hearing from the talent marketplace is misaligned to your company's current reality. This is not just about paying people more - research tells us the motivational effect of pay raises is short-lived. Just as important is how you recognize and value the contributions and impact of your people.

Think about the DNA of your organization. If the old ways of doing things no longer serve the organization and its people, figure out what does.

Be willing to let go of the past ... it's gone.

Play the long game here. Be sure your company's compensation philosophy is clear and understood by all. (That starts with you.) Make sure accountability is in place so that those current employees are not shorted when new people are hired.

Equity starts in how you value contribution. You may not be the only one in your organization to fix the myriad of issues linked to recognition and rewarding your people, but you can lead. You can give voice to the issues and advocate for accountability.

Engage them.

Businesses are hurting and at the root of that pain for many today is a shortage of people to do the work. Your existing people feel that pain as they extend themselves to pick-up extra shifts to provide coverage, listen to customer complaints when they are helpless to fix the real issue, or witness one more colleague call it "quits" when their tipping point is reached. So, be bold and engage your people in helping you solve problems.

Ask for their help. This requires courage because admitting that you do not know all the answers is vulnerable work. It takes strength and confidence to appreciate that outcomes are better when more ideas are included, when fuller representation is present and diverse perspectives are heard.

Give them agency to help mitigate the day-to-day concerns they are faced with. Create space for them to step up, participate and inform the way forward. This sends the crucial message that they are trusted and valued.

Focus on the desired outcome. Actively seek the insights of diverse voices and points of view into what will help achieve it, especially insights and ideas different than your own. Remain open to being surprised and delighted.

Daring to be vulnerable and to not to know it all paves the path to creating deeper engagement and loyalty from all your stakeholders: teammates, peers, colleagues, and direct reports. You lead the way by opening the door.

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With So Many People Quitting, Don't Overlook Those Who Stay

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The marketplace for talent has shifted. You need to think of your employees like customers and put thoughtful attention into retaining them. This is the first step to slow attrition and regain your growth curve. And this does not happen when they feel ignored in the fever to hire new people or underappreciated for the effort they make to keep business moving forward.

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Cindy Solomon: 5 tips for dealing with meeting overload

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Could this meeting have been an email? The phenomenon of "calendar creep," where meetings completely take over your work days, is wasting time, energy and productivity -- but you can take back control. Leadership expert Cindy Solomon shares her five tips for clearing up your schedule and getting your calendar to work for you, not against you.

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James Rhee: The value of kindness at work

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Kindness can go a long way when it comes to reshaping a business. Having saved a fashion company from the brink of bankruptcy, entrepreneur James Rhee shares the value of investing in a culture of compassion at work -- and shows why we should all lead with our hearts.

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Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Disrupt Equity. Learn more about investment opportunities by visiting our website.
If you ask any investor what the most reliable, intelligent methods of building wealth are, there's a good chance that investing in real estate will be on that list. Indeed, millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide are using real estate investments to increase their wealth and diversify their portfolios (real estate has, historically, been relatively recession-resistant).
Passive Vs. Active Real Estate Investing
However, the time constraints that most people face today - careers, families and social lives all vying for our attention - leave little room for the average individual to search for excellent real estate properties, work with the lender to arrange the financing, lease tenants, handle maintenance requests and more.

Passive real estate investing can create the ability for individuals to invest in real estate without the stress or time constraint of operating the real estate property. This short guide will give you all the essential information you'll need to get started as a passive real estate investor.

There are two types of real estate investing: active and passive.

When you think of a real estate investor, you might picture someone that owns rental properties, manages their tenants, collects rental income, handles maintenance requests, so on and so forth. This example is someone that is an active investor.

By contrast, passive real estate investing is where the investor doesn't work in any of their investments. When you buy Apple stock, you don't automatically work for Apple. Stocks are a passive investment. Similarly, you can purchase real estate in the same way (more on this below).

Therefore, active investing means you actively work in your investment. Passive investing means you contribute capital but minimal to no work other than finding the right opportunity.

Nowadays, investing passively is as simple as joining a real estate syndication. Real estate syndications are groups of real estate investors who partner to make a more significant real estate purchase than they could individually. For example, a 350-unit apartment building might be hundreds of millions of dollars. Either one person could buy that, or a syndicator could bring passive investors together to create a syndicate, and then each take a proportional percentage of the profits.

Syndications have two types of partners: general and limited. General partners are the ones that put together the deal, and limited partners are the passive investors. They invest capital upfront and receive regular payments on their investment.
Potential Drawbacks
When it comes to passive real estate investing, the main benefit, of course, is that you don't have to work anywhere near as much (you do, of course, have to find the investment deals, though). A passive investor can write a check and enjoy the investment returns, which can be pretty substantial for real estate deals.

Another benefit is that you do not have to be an expert on real estate. However, investing actively would require you to thoroughly understand the market and how to identify which deals are good and which ones won't make money. That's hard to do, especially if you have a full-time job. With passive investing, you don't need to be an expert in real estate - all you need to do is find a quality investment opportunity from the right investment team that does.
The Process
Passive real estate investing may not be right for every investor. When you opt-in for passive real estate investing, you lose a lot of the control of the management of the investment in terms of how the renovations are done, rental policies, the hiring process, etc. If you have the knowledge, skill set and time to acquire and manage real estate properties actively, it may be in your interest to be an active real estate investor rather than a passive one. If you're interested in actively syndicating your own real estate deal, we recommend checking out our full guide: How to Syndicate a Real Estate Deal.

Additionally, passive real estate investing through a real estate syndication can have a financial barrier to entry that may not be right for everyone. In real estate syndications, the minimum investment can be as high as $25,000, which may not be right for an investor just starting off.

If syndication is of interest to you, take a look at our guide, How to Find the Best Real Estate Syndication Companies (and Deals), for more insight into where to look to find reputable, trustworthy groups in the industry. Once you find a real estate syndication company that you like, know and trust, here's the process you would go through as a passive investor:

* You'll receive information from the syndication team about an investment opportunity.

* After reviewing this information, you'll typically visit the offering page with the investor documents (PPM, company agreement and "reserve" your spot in the real estate project).

* Once you've submitted your documents, you'll receive the instructions to wire your funds.

* Upon closing of the deal, you'll receive quarterly or monthly updates and financials on the project. You'll also receive regular distributions, which are your share of the profits.

* At the end of the year, all limited partners receive a K1 to file with their taxes to take advantage of the tax advantages of real estate such as depreciation.

As you can see, the most challenging aspect of being a passive real estate investor is choosing a qualified investment team. With that, and after signing and funding, a passive real estate investor will have little involvement.

In summary, if you are looking to earn a decent return on your money without putting the effort into property ownership, a passive real estate investment may be right for you.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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Council Post: Build Wealth With This Guide To Passive Real Estate Investment

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Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Disrupt Equity. Learn more about investment opportunities by visiting our website . If you ask any investor what the most reliable, intelligent methods of building wealth are, there's a good chance that investing in real estate will be on that list. Indeed, millions of people in the U.S.

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Real estate visionary, President & CEO at ABI Multifamily, and Co-founder of Neighborhood Ventures real estate crowdfunding company. Understand there is no secret club.
I've worked in commercial real estate my entire 30-year-plus career, and I believe this industry has seen a huge change in the past three years. Until recently, the people primarily buying and selling commercial real estate properties were what I call the "country club crowd" - wealthy individuals who made their fortunes investing in projects, selling for a profit, then repeating. But today, a number of factors seem to have drawn the interest of investors of all ages.

Getting started with investing isn't always easy, however. Below are some of my investing tips for those who are new to the game:
Consider the pros and cons of investing with others.
I can't tell you how many people I've met who think there is some secret insiders club of real estate investors. From successful executives to a man I met a few weeks ago when his bike got a flat tire, there seems to be a common misconception that you have to know someone in the business or spend a fortune on seminars and webinars to learn how to invest in real estate. That's simply not true.

When I met the man with a flat tire, he, like many, had the impression you had to be in a special club to find an opportunity for a rental property. In reality, you do not need to spend thousands to learn how to invest in real estate. I believe you just have to do it.
Do your research, and proceed with caution.
Scarcity and rising prices have spurred on a sharing economy. Apps have been created that let people share cars, swimming pools and parking spaces. You can even buy fractions of stocks. So, it only makes sense that this sharing economy now extends to vacation homes and investment properties. Technology has created efficient ways to not only buy a piece of an investment but also to track that investment from purchase to sale and payout. Through these shared investments, each investor has partial ownership and shares in the profits and benefits. Real estate partnerships; fractional ownership or co-ownership; real estate investment trusts and real estate crowdfunding are a few methods of shared real estate investments that I've found are gaining traction. (Full disclosure: My company, Neighborhood Ventures, provides real estate crowdfunding solutions.)
Get official documents drafted.
Of course, when you invest with others, keep in mind that the person you're working with will make or break your experience. From my perspective, it's better to have a great person finding mediocre deals than finding great deals with someone who isn't trustworthy, hardworking or focused. It can be difficult to be a partner. Partnering in any way has its challenges, and the breakups can be very difficult. Remember: It's harder to unravel things than put them together.
Start small, and stay within your budget.
I always tell people new to real estate investing to be careful about how you spend your money to become educated. I assure you, it does not have to be too complicated. That said, you must do your own homework. Don't take someone's word if they tell you an investment property is a good deal. Look at sales and rent numbers, drive around the neighborhood, talk to people in the area. If something looks too good to be true, figure out why it hasn't been purchased already. The more you understand your rent or neighborhood, the better you will be able to run that property.
The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.
If you do partner with anybody in any way, spend the money to get official documents drafted by a recommended real estate attorney. Finally, as a multifamily broker with decades of experience, I've seen firsthand the importance of leveraging the research, insight and assistance that can be found from experts in your area.

Don't bite off more than you can chew. Start small either with a single-family rental or duplex, or you can go in with a few friends on a joint investment. The key is to grow your investments at a pace your budget can handle. As you begin to reap the rewards, your investments and projects can scale accordingly.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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medicare advantage open enrollment period

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Council Post: Five Tips For Getting Started As A Real Estate Investor

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Real estate visionary, President & CEO at ABI Multifamily , and Co-founder of Neighborhood Ventures real estate crowdfunding company. Understand there is no secret club. I've worked in commercial real estate my entire 30-year-plus career, and I believe this industry has seen a huge change in the past three years.

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June 9th: I am in a hotel room in NYC: I am nervously staring at the screen of my small, rose gold colored computer. Thankfully, the WiFi is working well, − which is always an unknown at a hotel. In one hour, an irrevocable auction online will start. Truthfully, I have no idea what will happen.

It all started in April this year, when I wrote an article sharing the idea that real estate is the perfect asset to convert into a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). This led to a life-changing collaboration with other innovative individuals, united to build something transformative.

I argued at the time that the reason a real estate property was the perfect candidate for an NFT was that it already behaves like a digital asset in many way s. NFTing one provides numerous benefits, such as instantaneous settlement, and a simplified overall transaction process - exactly what young people who grew up with smart phones desire. Real estate transactions are long, tedious and archaic. I was hoping to show it was possible to change.

We have already seen a new generation of home buyers looking for other solutions beyond the status quo. Unaccustomed to the costly and lengthy, drawn-out process of home-buying, with its reliance on outdated methods of transacting business and multiple middlemen, they are demanding a transparent, "one-click" process that is quick, efficient, and reflective of the era they live in. They'd rather not buy a home than get into a hideous process.

After the article was published, I received many inquiries from real estate investors, agents, homebuyers, venture capitalists and coders asking how they could get involved. I was convinced that consumers were ready for this innovation, just like they were ready to buy art on blockchain. So I decided that it was time to discover how to NFT a property.

We've been working on this for years but there were remaining challenges that we needed to solve:

Creating the actual NFT

Wrapping the NFT within the U.S. legal framework

Inventing the "know your customer" process since most art NFT transactions are anonymous

We solved the NFT creation issues by switching the property ownership from individual ownership to a US-based legal entity. Doing so enabled us to simply transfer ownership of the entity via NFT, which automatically transferred ownership to the property. And, as an added benefit, because the entity held the property title, there was no need to record the title again in the county − saving significant time and money.

Then we developed a protocol that would transfer an asset from one wallet to another, collect personal names, and complete simple background checks − all of which ensured the transaction's integrity.

Having all challenges resolved, we found the perfect property to NFT - a studio apartment, that was owned by a US-based legal entity. It was also the first cryptocurrency property purchased via smart contracts in 2017. Purchased by Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch and Arrington Capital, the NFT included the apartment and a piece of art by a famous local street artist Chizz.

With the NFT created, we scheduled a 24-hour auction on June 9th, 2021. While I was at first worried that we wouldn't have bidders, over 40 bids were placed in Ethereum cryptocurrency. The winner was a first-time home-buyer − a millenial from Silicon Valley. After a stressful 24 hours plus six, 15-min extensions, sitting in the same hotel, ordering room service to not skip a minute from the online miracle, I was relieved − it was all successful. Technology worked. People wanted this asset.

The new NFT owner was thrilled with the process − it took only 22 minutes to transfer ownership − a far cry from his experience trying to buy a home in the Bay Area, a process he found far too complicated, so he never did. I learned about his experience after he kindly agreed to have a zoom call after the sale. He shared his plans to rent out the apartment as a historical one, and told me that he had been ready to pay double the price for this asset.

NFT or not, Millenials and Gen Z are already purchasing high-value assets such as expensive avatars, or automobiles online. They expect the same ease and transparency when buying real estate. However, higher levels of security and more data integrity are necessary to circumvent wire and other forms of cyber fraud common in such transactions. Real estate settlement on an immutable blockchain using NFT technology could very well be the solution these new generations demand.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, speaking at the Milken Institute's 2021 Global Conference, said that settlement on blockchain is applicable in many industries including real estate for "any transaction that requires someone to commute the trust between the transaction" [ participants].

People who will help consumers to NFT their homes could be entitled to royalty fees paid to their digital wallets automatically. These "NFT Miners" (similar to cryptocurrency miners) can receive small royalties for every future purchase as compensation for putting all of the data and the property to make it transferable (title report, inspection reports, disclosures ect).

Can the NFT revolutionize the real estate industry? I say absolutely! We are not just seeing interest rise amongst younger buyers and sellers and tech-savvy crypto enthusiasts who want to diversify their portfolios.

Agents and brokers who are also interested in setting themselves apart from the competition are actively learning and engaging in the crypto/NFT/blockchain space. Here's what Mauricio Umansky, CEO at The Agency shared with me when I asked his opinion about real estate NFTs at the recent Inman Real Estate Connect Conference, "As clients become more educated about NFTs, there is growing interest in creating NFT real estate with real property. Changes in technology always align with changes in the real estate industry and at the minimum, this is a novel marketing tool to reach an audience interested in the metaverse. On the other hand, it can revolutionize our concept of real estate commodity and what clients will come to expect in a transaction. I believe NFTs will bring significant change to our industry."
Once it is possible to NFT an property, the NFT will become collateral in the crypto world which unlocks crypto-enabled mortgages, where crypto holders would be able to participate in liquidity pools to secure peer-to-peer decentralized lending marketplaces for real estate similar to the current popular defi lending protocols for cryptocurrencies. NFT, DeFi, crypto title insurance protocols, and crypto appraisal solutions will create a full cycle for the new age of liquid real estate. At the end of the day, the concept of homeownership is a social consensus just like the NFT art.

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June 9th: I am in a hotel room in NYC: I am nervously staring at the screen of my small, rose gold colored computer. Thankfully, the WiFi is working well, − which is always an unknown at a hotel. In one hour, an irrevocable auction online will start.

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For many years, people dreaded the emergence of artificial intelligence and new technologies. Those who grew up before the iPhone and internet felt that their jobs would be put into jeopardy.

The pandemic made even the most fervent Luddites change their attitude toward robotics, AI and technology. While sheltering at home, riding out the Covid-19 outbreak, they turned to online shopping on Amazon, ordering food deliveries via DoorDash and having others shop for food with the Instacart app. If a person needed to venture outside, and didn't want to risk going on public transportation, they requested an Uber or Lyft car.

Now that we've become accustomed and dependent upon tech platforms for most of our activities, we don't want to turn back. There is nearly an app for all aspects of our lives. Instant information and results are what we want.

Just as there is an Uber app, a driver is needed-at least until we have autonomous driverless cars. In many industries, AI will start the process and a person will be around to help. Car salespersons, real estate agents and clerks at department stores will supplement the initial interaction between AI and the customer.

If you think about it, most any sector can offer a better experience with the introduction of technology. Real estate is a great example of how AI, chatbots and tech can make the renting of an apartment a better experience. If you've rented before, you know how irritating it can be.

Two young entrepreneurs, Shiv Gettu and Kendrick Bradley, saw a need in the real estate rental market. Bradley left his engineering job to work at a property management company to learn the space, as a leasing agent. He noticed that there was a lack of technologies to support real estate sales teams. Roommates, Gettu and Bradley, while both working full-time jobs, set out to build a hospitality property company. It grew to $2 million in revenue in nine months.

However, when Covid-19 hit in 2020, Gettu and Bradley's company had long-term lease commitments, and with business and leisure travel at a standstill, were running out of runway and needed to get their properties leased. The cofounders quickly turned the company into a virtual leasing office powered by AI to automate the conversion process, and that grew to become Zuma, launching today with a $6.7 million seed round in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Their idea is to change the way apartments are rented. If you've ever shopped for a new apartment, you may have run into a hardened, tough-talking real estate agent. They schlep you around to apartments that are "amazing, beautiful and priced at a bargain price." When you actually see the property, you think a mistake was made, since they're not amazing, beautiful nor a bargain. After being shown five more apartments, you call it quits, as you've lost trust in the agent's judgement and feel pushed into something you don't want.

The next outing, you're supposed to meet the building's property manager, who can't be found. An hour later, you spot him fixing something on the premises and gruffly orders you to follow him to see the apartment. His phone keeps ringing with tenants calling. You politely leave, and he doesn't notice or seem to care.

Consider how different this would be if the process was started online. You can send a text inquiring about an apartment listing. The AI will send a blueprint, the rental prices, amount of money required for deposit and the their terms of the lease. The texts can offer rich graphics, photos and videos highlighting the place. This could all be done from the comfort of your home. It's less running around and a more productive use of time.

Automation also benefits the property owners. Consider a multifamily building with a property manager. If there is an interested renter who wants to make a quick decision, but it's a night or weekend, this lead will go unanswered. The prospect will go elsewhere.

Zuma's dynamic AI platform automates lead qualifications, engagement, follow-ups, demo and appointment scheduling. The platform, called Kelsey, is an "AI-powered sales assistant that answers complex questions in minutes, to qualify, nurture and convert leads to customers."

"Kelsey understands which conversation tone, architecture and patterns are most successful at converting leads to sales, and converses with all inbound leads via text message within minutes to keep prospects engaged." A human will step in to supplement Kelsey.

Connie Chan, general partner at lead investor Andreessen Horowitz, said, "Zuma's blend between human support and AI creates a magical conversation experience for prospective customers that drastically increases conversion."

The guys are working toward growing their business in the multifamily and related real estate sector. Ultimately, they plan to use their concept to apply to other industries. It's amazing to see that the pandemic has created a boom in entrepreneurialism and shown how AI and tech, along with the human touch, can both improve the lives of people and build new innovative businesses.

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Two Young Roommates Are Building An Artificial Intelligence Real Estate Empire

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For many years, people dreaded the emergence of artificial intelligence and new technologies. Those who grew up before the iPhone and internet felt that their jobs would be put into jeopardy. The pandemic made even the most fervent Luddites change their attitude toward robotics, AI and technology.

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How To Invest In Real Estate: A Beginner’s Guide | FortuneBuilders

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Real estate investing can be seem intimidating, but getting started is simpler than you think! Learn how to invest in real estate in FortuneBuilders’ guide for beginners.

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Idea in Brief

Over the past three decades, the U.S. financial sector has grown much faster than the overall economy. Along the way, it has seen big gains in employment and compensation. But the financial sector exists to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by this standard its performance has been mixed.

The sector's growth has been beneficial to U.S. corporations, which enjoy ready access to the deepest capital markets in the world, but there are also problems. First, the financial system is less stable than it was 30 years ago. Second, the financial sector has steered trillions of dollars into residential real estate and away from other, more productive investments. Third, the cost of professional investment management is simply too high. Fixing these flaws will require changes in regulation but also private-sector discipline and innovation.

The U.S. financial sector's share of GDP grew from less than 5% in 1980 to more than 8% in 2007-the largest share in any advanced economy except Switzerland. With this growth came big increases in financial sector employment and compensation. The industry was transformed from a sleepy old boys' club to a dynamic business that attracts the best and the brightest.

It is tempting, then, to declare the industry a roaring success. But the financial sector exists to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by this standard its performance has been mixed. The sector's growth has been beneficial for some, particularly U.S. corporations, which enjoy ready access to the deepest capital markets in the world. At the same time, the industry has evolved in several unhealthy ways, which have had negative consequences for the U.S. economy.

There are three main problems. First, the financial system is less stable than it was 30 years ago. The recent crisis was in part the consequence of a shift from traditional deposit-based banking to a market-based system, without adequate regulatory adjustments. Second, the financial sector-in combination with generous government subsidies-has steered trillions of dollars into residential real estate and away from other, more productive investments. Third, the cost of professional investment management, which has been growing as a share of GDP, is simply too high. Excessive investment fees have important implications not only for household savings but also for the allocation of the country's talent: Finance will continue to attract the best and the brightest as long as the rewards are so high.

Successes

The key functions of a financial system are to facilitate household and corporate saving, to allocate those funds to their most productive use, to manage and distribute risk, and to facilitate payments. The financial sector is working well when it performs those functions at a low cost and makes the rest of the economy better off. Recent research has shown that economies with well-developed financial systems grow reliably faster than those in which finance plays a smaller role. In general, finance does serve a crucial economic purpose.

In the United States, the system appears to be working well for corporations, which enjoy easy access to debt and equity markets. The development in recent decades of institutional venture capital and private equity, along with the growth of professional money management, has helped improve the allocation of capital. Venture capital, in particular, has fostered a vibrant entrepreneurial sector that has transformed industries such as information technology and communications and has helped create new ones, such as online retailing and biotechnology. Venture-capital-backed entrepreneurs have also put pressure on existing firms to adapt their business models and to innovate.

Venture capital could not have thrived without stock market investors willing to purchase the shares of risky young firms. Their investments were made possible, in part, by the rise of professional money managers, who are in a better position than individual investors to assess the prospects of these newcomers. Ironically, 30 years ago a major concern was whether the increased emphasis on shareholder value would lead to an excessive focus on short-term profits. But the development of U.S. capital markets since then suggests the opposite: The percentage of firms that go public with negative earnings has jumped dramatically, demonstrating the willingness of the U.S. capital markets to bet on new ideas. This willingness is reflected in the growing amount of money the private sector has poured into R&D-an indication that the financial sector is steering capital toward long-run investments.

None of this is to say that venture capital and public equity markets have functioned perfectly. Venture capital has on average failed to deliver acceptable risk-adjusted returns for investors, and public equity markets seem to go through periods of euphoria and fear. But the same markets that overfunded internet and telecom start-ups during the late 1990s also identified and nurtured Google.

Forty years ago, the U.S. government and private industry made roughly equal contributions to R&D.

Now private industry funds approximately four times as much R&D as the government-an indication that the financial sector is steering capital toward new ideas.

Private equity and hedge funds have at times played an important role in helping to unlock value trapped in large, underperforming conglomerates. They can work to align management and shareholder interests, fostering an environment in which well-run firms get capital and poorly run firms are shut down or acquired. This is healthy. However, private equity is not without problems. Like venture capital, it is subject to boom-and-bust cycles that undermine its value; transactions can often be motivated by tax considerations rather than true economic value creation; and the average returns to private equity investors have generally not been enough to compensate them for the risk they bear.

Failures-and How to Address Them

Despite the successes outlined above, the U.S. financial system has had difficulties managing and distributing risk, allocating capital, and facilitating low-cost savings. It has been prone to crisis, has diverted too much capital toward housing, and has been beset by what appear to be excessive investing costs.

Financial instability.

Until the recent crisis, the period after the Great Depression was one of unprecedented stability in the U.S. financial system-achieved in large part by regulatory oversight, deposit insurance, and the Federal Reserve's "lender of last resort" capabilities. However, beginning in the 1980s, fundamental changes in the architecture of the financial system put it at risk. With lax oversight and a regulatory regime that was ill-suited to the new architecture, the system eventually came crashing down. Without extraordinary support from the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve, the financial crisis would have been even worse. Three years later, economic growth is anemic and unemployment remains high.

What changes made the financial system so vulnerable? As is now well known, part of the answer is the growth of securitization. This was fueled by significant flaws in the credit ratings process, which resulted in a breakdown in the quality of securitized loans. But securitization was part of a more fundamental transformation in which the critical functions of banking were provided by players other than traditional deposit-taking banks.

The growth of nonbank financial firms and investment vehicles-from Wall Street broker-dealers to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, insurance companies, hedge funds, and money market mutual funds-created a "shadow" banking system, so called because it serves the same basic functions as the traditional deposit-taking system. Like banks, financial organizations in this system collectively transform short-term savings into long-term loans to households and firms-what economists call maturity transformation.

A compelling economic logic underlies shadow banking: Risks can be shared across the system instead of concentrated in individual banks. But the financial crisis revealed at least three significant weaknesses of shadow banking and the broader financial system.

First, the amount of capital that regulators required the shadow banking system to hold against securitized credit risk was lower than the amount banks were required to hold. As a result, financial activity shifted from banks to shadow banks in a form of regulatory arbitrage. And when low-quality securitized loans began to go bad, there was insufficient capital to absorb the losses.

Second, the entities involved in shadow banking were tightly connected to one another and to the traditional banking sector. Those links created considerable risks that were poorly understood before the crisis.

Third, the shadow banking system turned out to be vulnerable to the same kind of bank runs that plagued traditional banks prior to the establishment of deposit insurance. Creditors could run on a moment's notice by, for example, refusing to roll over short-term loans. Without the supports offered to the traditional banking sector, even relatively small losses could bring shadow banking to a standstill.

We face many challenges in stabilizing the financial system. Significantly increasing capital requirements, which regulators have agreed to do, would go a long way in that regard. Limiting the extent to which financial firms can fund long-term assets with short-term liabilities-thereby decreasing the risk of bank runs-would also help protect the system. And placing stronger safeguards on the largest financial institutions would be an important measure to promote stability. Whatever is done, regulatory treatment should be consistent across the traditional banking and shadow banking sectors. Making this work will require approaches beyond those in the standard regulatory tool kit.

Top executives of financial services firms often say that nobody could have predicted the magnitude of the crisis and that nobody will be able to predict the source of the next one. It's impossible to know if that is true, but it strengthens the case for increased capital and liquidity requirements.

Housing finance.

The United States has been an outlier in its support of homeownership, through both government policy and private-sector activities. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration implicitly or explicitly guaranteed more than half of all outstanding home mortgages in the years before the financial crisis (and the percentage has only gone up since). The government also subsidizes homeownership through the mortgage-interest deduction-a benefit extended by only a handful of countries. And the private sector was an eager and increasingly careless mortgage lender. The subsequent crisis was the culmination of decades of rising mortgage-credit availability.

The excess allocation of capital toward housing diverted resources from potentially more productive uses. Moreover, subsidies and easy credit drove up the demand for residential real estate, most likely increasing prices in coastal cities with limited housing supply and leading to overbuilding in other areas. When home values appreciated, households borrowed against their equity to finance consumption. Rising house prices put a damper on homeownership rates, reduced household savings rates, and left households vulnerable to economic adversity. The current debt burden on underwater homeowners is stifling U.S. economic recovery.

The leading proposals for housing finance reform-supported by a coalition of the financial services industry, the real estate industry, and consumer advocates-focus on keeping mortgage credit cheap and available and call for government to play a critical role in achieving that goal. We think this focus is misplaced. The long-term goal of housing finance reform should be to promote financial stability and the proper allocation of capital. In their book This Time Is Different, Carmen Reinhart of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University show that real-estate-related crises, which often have their roots in an excess supply of credit, are common and do lasting damage to the banking sector and economic growth. Housing policy should therefore seek to reduce volatility in the credit supply and protect the financial system from shocks to the housing sector. [insert ref="callout-02″]

How can this goal be achieved while weaning the housing market off government subsidies? The industry should focus on designing securities that deliver the fundamental promise of securitization-enhanced liquidity and diversification of risk-and not on those that arbitrage gaps in regulation. Once the government steps back from guaranteeing most new mortgage credit, private securitization of mortgage credit can and should return. As we discussed above, regulations must recognize that securitized mortgage credit performs some of the same functions as deposit-based banking and is prone to some of the same risks. The details of how to regulate housing finance remain to be worked out, but reorienting the discussion to ensuring financial stability will go a long way toward better serving U.S. households and economic competitiveness.

Investment costs.

The asset management and securities industry grew from 0.4% of GDP in 1980 to 1.9% in 2006. This reflects growth in financial assets and in the share of those assets that are managed professionally. It also reflects the industry's high fees.

The sector's ability to maintain those fees despite fierce competition to manage assets is partly due to consumers' lack of financial sophistication. Fees are assessed on the basis of a fund's overall performance rather than on relative risk-adjusted performance. This means that if the market as a whole rises, equity managers garner higher fees-even if a passive index fund would have done just as well. Decades of studies have produced little evidence that equity fund managers outperform market indexes with similar risk, even before fees.

Mutual fund fees have been falling over time, but high-fee vehicles such as hedge funds have been gaining market share. As a result, the total fee for equity management as a percentage of market capitalization has remained approximately constant, at 0.8% of assets under management, according to Dartmouth's Kenneth French. In their efforts to beat the market, money managers make decisions and dig up information that leads to more accurate pricing of stocks. Is 0.8% a reasonable rate for society to pay for that service? It seems high in light of the technological progress of the past several years: Despite increasing computer speed and advances in information technology, the financial sector is about as productive, per unit of managed funds, as it was 30 years ago.

Equity management firms and their employees have profited handsomely from the run-up in stock values since 1980. In fact, we estimate that a big part of the increase in the financial sector's share of GDP can be explained simply by the increase in stock prices from 1980 to 2006. There is no reason to believe that high-priced stocks are more costly to manage. Many investors do not appreciate how quickly fees add up: Owing to compounding, overpayments of 80 basis points per year for 30 years equals about 21% of current wealth.

High investment fees affect U.S. competitiveness chiefly by distorting the allocation of talent. Among employed 2008 graduates of Harvard College, 28% went into financial services, compared with about 6% from 1969 to 1973. The industry's attraction is not difficult to understand: According to a study by Thomas Philippon of New York University and Ariell Reshef of the University of Virginia, in 1980 a financial services employee typically earned about the same wages as his counterpart in other industries; by 2006 he was earning 70% more. The channeling of talent to finance can be justified if the high wages and profits reflect value added to the rest of the economy. But if investment fees are too high, then finance is inefficiently draining talent from other industries, hampering overall productivity growth. Imagine if Bill Gates or Steve Jobs had left college to start a hedge fund.

Among employed 2008 graduates of Harvard College, 28% went into financial services, compared with about 6% from 1969 to 1973.

In 1980 a financial services employee typically earned about the same wages as his counterpart in other industries; by 2006 he was earning 70% more.

One area in which costs have come down is trading in equity markets, where commissions and bid-ask spreads are much lower than they were 30 years ago. But institutional investors, corporations, and financial firms pay high costs to trade in many over-the-counter markets for corporate bonds and derivatives, where prices are quoted by individual brokers and getting information can be expensive. This gives brokers a degree of pricing power, allowing them to command higher spreads from trading. The problem is transparency. Studies of the corporate and municipal bond markets have shown that market opacity increases trading costs. Price reporting systems for corporate bonds and exchanges and clearinghouses for derivatives should therefore lower costs.

Investment costs are unlikely to fall overnight. Nevertheless, they can be reduced by making fees more visible so that financial firms can better compete on them. For most households, asset management should be a utility-low cost and reliable. But in retirement accounts, for example, management fees are sometimes hard to identify. We should also demand accountability and transparency from companies that select retirement funds for their employees. It should not be acceptable, for instance, to offer employees an index fund with annual fees of 1% when an identical product is available at one-fifth of the cost. The broad principle underlying both proposals is that asset managers should compete on the true value of the services they provide.

Pension funds and endowments can be an important voice in this discussion. These investors pay low fees for the active management of public equities but very high ones for private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds. The evidence suggests that those vehicles have, on the whole, delivered only modest risk-adjusted returns to investors. Active investing is difficult, and talented managers should be paid for their performance. But investors should be paid for skill, not luck.In a recent competitiveness survey of HBS alumni, respondents listed the capital markets as an enduring strength of the U.S. economy. Yet aspects of the financial sector have distorted the allocation of talent and capital and have left the economy vulnerable to crisis. In the end, the financial sector should be judged not on its profitability and size but on how well it promotes a healthy, more competitive economy over the long term.

A version of this article appeared in the March 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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Idea in Brief Over the past three decades, the U.S. financial sector has grown much faster than the overall economy. Along the way, it has seen big gains in employment and compensation. But the financial sector exists to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by this standard its performance has been mixed.

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We live in unequal times. The causes and consequences of widening disparities in income and wealth have become a defining debate of our age. Researchers have made major inroads into documenting trends in either income or wealth inequality in the United States, but we still know little about how the two evolve together - an important question to understand the causes of wealth inequality.

We do know that asset prices have been a key determinant of inequality in postwar America, based on our recent research. Although income inequality has been on the rise for decades, wealth inequality hadn't changed much until more recently. Why not?

Our research demonstrates that wealthier and less-wealthy people own different types of assets: the middle class has a higher share of its wealth in housing, whereas the rich own more stock. An important consequence of this finding is that housing booms lead to wealth gains for leveraged middle-class households and tend to decrease wealth inequality. Stock market booms primarily boost the wealth at the top of the wealth distribution where portfolios are dominated by listed and unlisted business equity, thereby, increasing wealth inequality. The existence of these different portfolios means that wealth inequality is essentially a race between the housing market and the stock market. Over extended periods in postwar American history, that race has been the predominant driver of shifts in the U.S. distribution of wealth.

Our research required substantial preparatory work because data to study this question over the long run did not exist. We overcame this challenge by compiling the Historical Survey of Consumer Finances (HSCF) - new data for long-run inequality research in the United States.

With the dataset in hand, we first documented that investment portfolios differ systematically along the wealth distribution. While the portfolios of rich households are dominated by corporate and non-corporate equity, the portfolio of a typical middle-class household is highly concentrated in residential real estate and, at the same time, highly leveraged. These portfolio differences are very persistent over time.

This pattern implies that asset price changes shape the wealth distribution and can decouple trends in income and wealth inequality for extended periods of time. When asset prices rise, wealth grows even without savings by households, and hence, can compensate for the effects that low income growth and declining savings rates have on wealth accumulation. We document that such a decoupling existed for the four decades before the Financial Crisis. During that time, the middle class rapidly lost ground to the top 10% with respect to income but, by and large, maintained its wealth share thanks to substantial gains in housing wealth. While incomes of the top 10% more than doubled since 1971, the incomes of middle-class households increased by less than 40% and incomes in the bottom 50% stagnated in real terms. When it comes to wealth, the picture is different. For the bottom 50%, wealth doubled between 1971 and 2007 despite zero income growth. For the middle class and the top 10%, wealth grew at approximately the same rate, rising by a factor of 2.5 resulting in a decoupling of income and wealth inequality for 40 years.

For the bottom 90%, asset price changes were particularly important, accounting for the dominant part of their wealth growth before the start of the global crisis in 2008. We estimate that between 1971 and 2007, the bottom 50% had wealth growth of 97% purely because of asset price changes - essentially their wealth doubled before taking into account any saving. The upper half of the distribution registered wealth gains of roughly 60% because of rising asset prices. Politically, it's conceivable that these large wealth gains for the middle- and lower-middle class helped to dispel discontent about stagnant incomes for some time.

Then the financial crisis happened. When house prices collapsed in 2008, the value of middle-class households' portfolios dropped substantially, while the quick rebound in stock markets boosted wealth at the top. Due to their heavy investment in equities, the top 10% wealthiest households were the main beneficiary from the stock market boom while being at the same time relatively less affected by the drop in residential real estate prices. The consequence of substantial wealth losses at the bottom and in the middle of the distribution coupled with wealth gains at the top produced the largest spike in wealth inequality in postwar American history. And without housing prices keeping Americans' wealth growing, the rising inequality that had been happening in income for decades was suddenly much more noticeable.

Our research also studies the racial divide in wealth. When it comes to the financial situations of households in the U.S., race remains a major dividing line. The HSCF data provide a new perspective on the long-run evolution of racial wealth inequality, which had been uncharted territory until now, as long-run data were simply not available.

Racial disparities in income today are as big as they were in the pre-civil rights era. In 1950, the income of the median white household was about twice as high as the income of the median black household. In 2016, black household income is still only half of the income of white households. The racial wealth gap is even wider than the income gap and is still as large as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. The median black household has less than 15% of the wealth of the median white household. The financial crisis has hit black households particularly hard and has undone the little progress that had been made in reducing the racial wealth gap during the 2000s. The overall summary is bleak. We document that over seven decades, next to no progress has been made in closing the black-white income gap. The racial wealth gap is persistent and a stark fact of postwar America. The typical black household remains poorer than 80% of white households.

Changes in American wealth inequality over the last 70 years were dominated by a race between the stock market and the housing market. Our results suggest that asset price dynamics and portfolio allocation should enter the center stage for the future research on the sources and dynamics of wealth inequality. And the financial crisis should be considered a definitive moment in the rise of wealth inequality within America.

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Research: How the Financial Crisis Drastically Increased Wealth Inequality in the U.S.

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We live in unequal times. The causes and consequences of widening disparities in income and wealth have become a defining debate of our age. Researchers have made major inroads into documenting trends in either income or wealth inequality in the United States, but we still know little about how the two evolve together - an important question to understand the causes of wealth inequality.

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The inspiring, life-changing bestseller by the author of LEADERS EAT LAST and TOGETHER IS BETTER.

In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who've watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY -- the third most popular TED video of all time.

Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

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Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

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Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action | Sinek, Simon | ISBN: 8580001042060 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon.

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I have cried tears, the book is so emotional!

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4 Secrets to Having an American English Accent: Advanced Pronunciation Lesson

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Learn English with our free online listening, grammar, vocabulary and reading activities. Practise your English and get ready for your Cambridge English exam.

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Video Transcript
Oh hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish. If you're a regular mmmEnglish student you know that I don't prioritise perfection. I'm more focused on building confidence and self-belief and regular English practice.

So when it comes to your accent, let's focus on clear communication, not the perfect English accent but clear communication that makes it easy to understand you, to help you feel more confident when you're speaking to others and to fit in.

So if reducing your accent and speaking clearly is something that you're interested in doing, then stick around because I've got six tips to help you do that.

One of the coolest things about accents is that there are and one of the best ways that you can meet English speakers with different accents from all around the world is to be part of an online language school like Lingoda.

And with the next Lingoda Language Sprint right around the corner, well not only is this a great opportunity for you to improve your speaking and your listening skills in just three months but Lingoda are also offering a chance to get a one hundred per cent refund as well.

Now if you haven't heard me talk about it before, the Lingoda Language Sprint is a challenge. Lingoda are inspiring their students to level up their knowledge, their speaking skills and their grammar awareness in just ninety days.

Now I participated in the Sprint when it was called a marathon last year and it was one of the best things that I ever did. I was taking Spanish classes.

So there are two ways to join. You've got the choice to sign up for the Super Sprint which is thirty classes a month for three months and if you complete the Super Sprint, you're going to get a one hundred per cent refund.

But alternatively, you can also join the Regular Sprint, which is just fifteen classes a month for three months. Now if you complete that you're gonna get a fifty per cent refund.

To find out more about how the Sprint works then check out this video that I made up here. I'm also going to talk about if it's really possible to get that refund.

So to join the next Sprint, make sure you use the link in the description below. Sign up by June 15th, pay the deposit, secure your spot. Plus if you use that code down there, you'll get a ten euro discount off your deposit. Good luck!

So what's so bad about an accent? Absolutely nothing.

If you can communicate your message clearly, then there is no reason to change it. Your accent helps to create character and intrigue and you know it helps to tell your story. However, if your accent is a barrier to someone understanding you or it stops you from creating a meaningful connection with someone well, we've got a problem right?

So reducing or limiting your accent is probably going to help you to feel more successful during conversations and to help you to get more confidence and to speak more which is important. That's the most important thing.

So to help you to improve your accent and speak more clearly, I've got some tips that I'm sharing with you right now.

1. Choose your accent

The first one is to choose your accent. Now usually my advice is to listen to as many different English speakers as you can, both native and non-native English speakers. This is essential to help you develop really strong listening and comprehension skills.

However, when it comes to changing your accent and practising your pronunciation, with this type of practice you know, it's better to choose a specific accent to focus on so that you can really pick out the most unique features of that accent and try and copy them.

And the simplest way to do this is to choose an English speaker who you like the sound of when they speak, you like listening to.

So find out where their accent is from and learn some of the key features of that particular English accent.

So if you want to learn an Australian accent like mine, then you would focus on pronunciation features like the flap T sound, you know when a T is between two vowels and it ends up sounding more like a D like in water, bottle, little.

You might also look at schwa endings, you know in words that end in -ER but the sound is not pronounced like mother and weather.

And also I just want to take a moment to say that in no way does this have to be a native English speaker who you're copying. If there's someone who you admire who's a native of your first language but when they speak English, they speak clearly and confidently, by all means copy their English accents.

The reason why it's important to choose one English accent to focus on is so that you can get the repetition that you need you know, to keep hearing those sounds again, to emulate them and to copy them and produce those sounds yourself.

So ideally you'll find someone or even a couple of people with a similar accent that you have regular access to, a regular access to their voice you know. Maybe they have a podcast, maybe they have a YouTube channel.

Whatever it is, as long as they've got lots of content and that it's interesting content that you like listening to, you may as well make your pronunciation practice enjoyable right?

If you're still wondering how to choose the right English the one that's right for you, well think about your personality, you know, are you quite serious and quite professional? Or do you want to sound really cool and chilled out and approachable?

All of these things influence the accent that's right for you but also the people that you are listening to and that you are trying to copy right?

So I'm curious, which English accent do you like the most?

Which one would you most like to use yourself or which English speaker would you most like to sound like? Is there someone who you listen to regularly or you know someone that you watch on YouTube that you would like to sound like? Let me know in the comments.

2. Watch and listen (as much as you can!)

So you want to watch and listen to that accent as much as you can. Like I said, find a person that you admire, that you've got lots of access to so that you can copy them.

It's just like you learnt your own accent from your parents. If you surround yourself with regular sounds, you will naturally start to use them yourself when you speak in English.

I taught kids when I was in Vietnam and some of them could bust out the most amazing American accent and slang words amazing American accent and slang words and expressions all because they spent so much time watching cartoons and movies with American accents in them.

This is exactly the same concept.

Another really great option is listening to audiobooks which are read by an author who has an accent that you like.

So Stephen Fry is awesome for received pronunciation, for sort of formal British pronunciation. I'm listening to Michelle Obama read her book Becoming on Audible at the moment and that's also a lovely accent to emulate. Trevor Noah is also a good one if you quite like jokes and humour.

So I've added links to books narrated by those people in the description below. You can listen to the samples of audiobooks on Audible. Find an accent that you like and grab that book for free.

It's a really great resource for finding the accent that you want to copy yourself. So the idea is you watch and you listen to as much of that person as you can or that accent as you can.

And the great thing is you're going to be learning new words, new slang, humour.

All of this is really, really helpful, right?

But you'll also be training your brain to recognise and associate those sounds with words as you hear them so that you can start using them yourself as you speak.

3. Practise imitation

Up next, of course, it's practise imitation. So English has a rhythm right it follows a stress and tonal patterns that are probably quite different to those used in your native language and this can have a huge impact on your communication in English.

If you're speaking English and you're applying the stress and the rhythm from your native language, it can be pretty distracting for other English speakers who are trying to listen to you.

So softening that a little is a really, really good idea and this relates to syllable stress in individual words, it relates to sentence stress, to tone, to pause.

So becoming familiar with all of these things by imitating a native speaker as they speak, it's going to help you to learn and understand and experience the rhythm of English and help you to use it more yourself.

And if there are words that you use in your native And if there are words that you use in your native language that are also used in English as well, then pay close attention to the English pronunciation of those words because it's probably a little different to what you're used to you know.

Words like burger or other foods especially. Words with common endings like action or community, countries and city names you know, they can be pretty similar between languages but it would be a good idea to practise the correct English pronunciation especially names that you are using often yourself right?

4. Say everything out loud

The more that you actually say, the better because you can read about English pronunciation, you can listen to English speakers as much as you like.

I mean you can listen to me talking in this video as much as you like but if you can't get the muscles in your mouth moving and working in the way that you need them to. It's pointless you know and you don't even need someone to speak with to do this, you can do it yourself, you can talk to yourself in the mirror and the shower.

It literally doesn't matter but if you build a habit around moving and working those muscles, it's gonna have an impact. The more that you practise saying English words, the better.

So reading out loud is a really good daily practice, singing songs is awesome as well. Simply just getting your mouth muscles moving and comfortable and doing all of the things that they need to do to make English sounds correctly, right?

Just do it as much as you can. And as a hint, just make sure that you're going back to that podcast or back to that YouTube channel or that audiobook re-listening to the accent so that you can make your own adjustments to your pronunciation if you need to.

5. Take every opportunity to talk

Right my fifth tip is to take every opportunity that you have to talk, you know, you don't improve your accent by thinking about it.

So what opportunities do you have to actually put it into practice in real live situations?

If you go ahead with the Lingoda Sprint, then you're going to be getting regular speaking practice every day.

But what other opportunities do you have? Take them. Use them to practise. And I say this especially if you are shy and you're uncomfortable about speaking in English, you know maybe you hesitate before you speak and sometimes you miss those opportunities.

So try and speak up, take every opportunity that comes your way.

Don't just go to class, you know, ask questions, be the first person to put up your hand and answer. Don't sit in silence. Students who take those opportunities to improve are going to do it the fastest right?

So try to put your fears and your worries and your doubts aside and speak.

Get into the habit of practising.

6. Record yourself (and listen critically)

And lastly, record yourself and listen critically.

I've talked about the importance of choosing a single accent that you would like and to listen to it and then to take every opportunity to speak out loud either yourself or when you're talking to people, get those muscles working and practise speaking.

But how do you know if you're actually improving or how do you know if your accent is changing? Or how can you tell what you need to improve or get better at? You record yourself.

Now it's possibly one of the most awkward, uncomfortable things that you'll ever have to do. Listen to yourself speaking in a second language on a recording.

Never mind I promise you, you'll get over it and improving your accent is way more important.

Now remember way back in step number one, I talked about paying attention to the unique features of the accent that you want to use. Well can you hear those features in your own recording?

If you compare the recording to the accent that you're trying to copy, what sounds different? You know and what do you need to change to make it sound more natural or more like that accent?

Changing your accent is not something that you can do overnight. Alright it takes practice and it takes repetition. So making it part of your daily practice, ten or fifteen minutes a day is going to produce some significant results if you create that habit and you do it for six months or for a year.

In fact, keep a recording of you now at the start of this journey and then record again at six months and twelve months and track the progress that you're making.

Track the change over time, you know, it's something that you've got to commit to just a little bit every day over time and I promise you that if you get to the end of that period of time and you compare a recording to one that you took twelve months earlier, you'll be blown away by the progress that you've made.

You won't notice this change from one day to the next but you're definitely going to surprise yourself if you compare that recording to one that you took a year earlier.

So my friend that is it for today, I hope that you've enjoyed this lesson.

Now you've probably been practising with one of my imitation lessons before. They are a really great way to practise my pronunciation and natural expression but it's also going to teach you a method that you can use if you want to imitate and copy someone else.

So check it out if you haven't already and hit that subscribe button . I will see you in the next lesson. Bye for now!

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6 Ways To Change Your English Accent | Fix & Speak Clearly! | mmmEnglish

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Video Transcript Oh hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish. If you're a regular mmmEnglish student you know that I don't prioritise perfection. I'm more focused on building confidence and self-belief and regular English practice.

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Video Transcript
SectioWell hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish! Today, I've asked a good friend of mine to join me for a tongue twister challenge! And you might just recognise her! Just in case you missed it, yesterday, November the eleventh, was International Tongue Twister Day. Yep, there is an official day to twist your tongue and focus on some challenging English sounds.

So Gabby and I decided that we'd like to celebrate this fine day with you by challenging each other and you to complete some tricky tongue twisters. Now you may recognise Gabby from the amazing Go Natural English Youtube channel. If you do know her, make sure you say hi in the comments below. She'll be down there saying hi too.

Gabby is an American English teacher and since I'm an Australian English teacher, you might hear some differences in our pronunciation during this lesson. Most notably, you'll hear a little difference in vowel sounds and the /r/ consonant sound, particularly when it's at the end of words. So see if you can recognise some of those differences. You might need to listen carefully.

So in this video, I'll be challenging Gabby to some tongue twisters. And they're pretty tricky ones too! But Gabby challenged me to some of her favourite tongue twisters, and you can watch that video on her channel. I'll link to it at the end of the lesson. So don't go anywhere!

Now even though tongue twisters are short sentences, they repeat the same or very similar sounds over and over again - like an intense gym workout for your tongue! Repetition will help your tongue to feel more comfortable with these strange English sounds. And it will also help you to reduce your accent a little and pronounce words more quickly. And lastly, tongue twisters are ridiculously fun! I guarantee that you'll be laughing at Gabby and me during this lesson. And you'll probably be laughing at yourself too and that's fine!

Emma: So Gabby, I hereby challenge you to say my tongue twisters as fast as you can.

Gabby: Emma, I hereby accept your tongue twister challenge!

Emma: Are you ready?

Gabby: Yes! I think I'm ready!

Emma: Okay! Let's do this.

#1 How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

It's tricky, right? So one of the most challenging parts about this tongue twister is the repeated /kr/ and /kl/ consonant clusters. Many of you have trouble hearing and producing the different sounds for /r/ and /l/ consonants. And when these sounds are pushed together with the /k/ sound, it's even more of a challenge.

So if you're having trouble with this part, then pause the video for a minute and practise the sounds a few times.
Clam. Clean. Cram. Cream.
Try it one more time yourself. Are you ready?

Okay Gabby, number two. And this one's a little tricky!

#2 Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.

Gabby: I can't remember it! This one is really hard! Woo! I think I memorised it!

That one's hard! So I said earlier that we use tongue twisters to practise difficult sounds again and again to try and improve them. So can you guess which combination of sounds we were practising here? The /ks/ consonant cluster.
Six. Hicks. Bricks. Picks. Sticks.
And also, the short /ɪ/ sound. So try to focus on the short /ɪ/ and avoid the long /ɪ/ sound. It's not 'peeks' and 'steeks' but 'picks' and 'sticks'. Okay?

If you need to pause and practise some of these words on their own first, then please do - that's a great strategy. Now if you're ready, it's your turn to try.

#3 Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared wrongly in a rural brewery.

Gabby: One more time, even faster! Oh yeah!

This one is so hard! ' Rural brewery ' - it's a tongue twister on its own, isn't it? The challenge is the /r/ consonant sound so if you need to spend a few minutes getting your tongue warmed up and ready for that sound, then do it! So the tip of your tongue should not be touching anything at all and it should be raised up a little in the middle and pulling back in your mouth.

Now, you're lucky that neither Gabby or myself speak with a British English accent because this word is really hard to say in an English accent. Ready? Practise with me!

That's the /u/ vowel sound. So the second syllable is unstressed and it's lower in pitch.

Now, 'brewery'. So the middle syllable here is really soft so if you're having a lot of trouble pronouncing this word then I've got a trick for you! Try ' brew-ry' It's close enough and it's a little easier to say.

Now there's a noticeable difference in the way that Gabby and I pronounce this word, 'warrior'. Can you hear the difference in that stressed syllable there? That /ɒ/ sound. The first syllable. And that's actually the same sound that you'll hear in this male name, 'Roger'. And in 'wrongly', as well.

So where I pronounce this vowel sound as Gabby uses more of an R sound. Roger. Wrongly. And did you also notice the different pronunciation at the end of the name, 'Roger'?

Standard American English pronunciation pronounces the /r/ sound at the end after the vowel sound, and you'll hear Gabby say that.

But standard British English and Australian English, we don't pronounce that sound.

So this is a really noticeable pronunciation difference between our accents.

Well thanks Gabby! I picked some really tricky tongue twisters there for you.

Gabby: Thank you so much Emma! I enjoyed your challenge, those were really tricky tongue twisters! Happy International Tongue Twister Day to everyone!

And how did you go? Was one of those tongue twisters particularly difficult for you? Tell me which one was the hardest in the comments. I think that the second one was probably the most difficult for me.

And have you got any other tongue twisters of your own that you practise with? If you do, share them in the comments. I want you to see if you can get my tongue twisted to celebrate International Tongue Twister Day.

Now don't forget to head straight over to the Go Natural English YouTube channel to practise some more tongue twisters but over there, Gabby is challenging me.

Don't forget to subscribe here at mmmEnglish and over at Go Natural English and for more pronunciation practice, why don't you check out these lessons right here? And I'll see you in there!

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Tongue Twister Pronunciation Challenge 😝 with Go Natural English! | mmmEnglish

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Video Transcript SectioWell hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish! Today, I've asked a good friend of mine to join me for a tongue twister challenge! And you might just recognise her! Just in case you missed it, yesterday, November the eleventh, was International Tongue Twister Day.

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Quizlet Set 2

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Vocaroo is a quick and easy way to share voice messages over the interwebs.

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#9 Cuteaway from the audio book "Becoming"

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Vocaroo is a quick and easy way to share voice messages over the interwebs.

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#7 Are online language courses as effective as f2f courses?

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Vocaroo is a quick and easy way to share voice messages over the interwebs.

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Vocaroo is a quick and easy way to share voice messages over the interwebs.

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THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Times / Guardian / Telegraph / i News / The New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / Marie Claire

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In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office.

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This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

'What is unexpected in A Promised Land is the former president's candour' David Olusoga, Observer

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THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Times / Guardian / Telegraph / i News / The New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / Marie Claire A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who

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'THE BEAUTY MYTH' FOR THE INSTAGRAM GENERATION

Women Don't Owe You Pretty is the ultimate book for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy.

Through Florence's story you will learn how to protect your energy, discover that you are the love of your own life, and realise that today is a wonderful day to dump them.

Florence Given is here to remind you that you owe men nothing, least of all pretty.

WARNING: CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT (AND A LOAD OF UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS).

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Florence Given

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'THE BEAUTY MYTH' FOR THE INSTAGRAM GENERATION Women Don't Owe You Pretty is the ultimate book for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy. Through Florence's story you will learn how to protect your energy, discover that you are the love of your own life, and realise that today is a wonderful day to dump them.

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"There is no man I admire more than Nelson Mandela. Rick Stengel's wise and moving book captures the Nelson Mandela I have been privileged to know. But reading Mandela's Way gave me new insights and inspiration. I am confident it will give the same gifts to others. I was inspired anew, and I know others will be too."
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"Here is the wisdom of the world's greatest moral leader brilliantly distilled by a wonderful writer. From the time they spent working closely together on Mandela's memoirs, Rick Stengel draws fifteen big life lessons plus hundreds of smaller insights, while also giving us an intimate and astonishingly honest look at this inspiring human being."
-Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Einstein

" Mandela's Way is an electrically exciting, direct, and vivid way of making greatness tangible, human and complex. Richard Stengel has honed all the elegance and lucidity of thirty years of brilliant cultural and political writing into a book to illuminate, to inspire-and to endure."
-Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and The Lady and the Monk

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Mandela's Way by Richard Stengel: 9780525573579 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"There is no man I admire more than Nelson Mandela. Rick Sten­gel's wise and moving book captures the Nelson Mandela I have been privileged to know. But reading Mandela's Way gave me new insights and inspiration. I am confident it will give the same gifts to others.

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Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice

Richard Reed

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Beschreibung

Adventures in advice with some of the world's most remarkable people.

President Bill Clinton, Clare Balding, Stephen Fry, Dame Judi Dench, James Corden, Margaret Atwood, Sir David Attenborough, Annie Lennox, Andy Murray, Joanna Lumley, Anthony Bourdain, Marina Abramovic, Sir Richard Branson, Sandi Toksvig, Jude Law, Nicola Sturgeon, Harry Belafonte, Olivia Colman, Simon Cowell, Martha Lane-Fox, Mario Testino, Esther Perel, Bear Grylls, Diana Athill, Mike Bloomberg, Ruby Wax, Alain de Botton, Jo Malone, Heston Blumenthal, Ruthie Rogers, Nitin Sawhney, Katie Piper, Richard Curtis, Shami Chakrabarti, and Michael McIntyre are just some of the many inspiring people who appear in Richard Reed's fascinating book.

In each case Richard asked them to share with him some of their hard-earned wisdom and insights into life and how to make the most of it.

If I Could Tell You Just One Thing... is not only packed with great advice but is also an enormously entertaining, brilliantly written and stunningly designed book. Each of the encounters is complemented by a pen and ink portrait by the award-winning British artist, Samuel Kerr. The resulting book is a treasure trove for readers of all ages and interests and a perfect gift book for just about anyone.

Scanning through the delightfully illustrated pages, I found so many wonderful pearls of wisdom from remarkable game-changers, from Stephen Fry to Andy Murray, Sir David Attenborough to Martha Lane Fox . . . If you're looking for inspiration or useful life lessons, I recommend you pick up a copy RICHARD BRANSON

Reed, Richard
Richard Reed studied geography at St. John's College, Cambridge before starting a career in advertising. A few years later he and two friends left their jobs to found Innocent Drinks. Starting from a market stall, today Innocent produces more than a million smoothies a day and sells them in 17 countries across Europe. Reed is the founder of Art Everywhere and co-founder of the Innocent Foundation and JamJar Investments. He also presented the BBC Three series Be Your Own Boss. This is his first book.

weiterlesen

Einband

gebundene Ausgabe

Seitenzahl

368

Erscheinungsdatum

03.11.2016

Sprache

Englisch

ISBN

978-1-78211-922-7

Verlag

Canongate Books Ltd.

Maße (L/B/H)

22,1/15,8/3,5 cm

Gewicht

545 g

Abbildungen

Black and white illustrations throughout

Illustrator

Samuel Kerr

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Richard Reed Buch (gebundene Ausgabe, Englisch) Buch (gebundene Ausgabe, Englisch) Versandfertig innerhalb 48 Stunden, Kostenlose Lieferung ab 30 € Einkaufswert , Versandkostenfrei für Bonuscard-Kunden Versandfertig innerhalb 48 Stunden Kostenlose Lieferung ab 30 € Einkaufswert Versandkostenfrei für Bonuscard-Kunden Buch (gebundene Ausgabe, Englisch) Taschenbuch ab € 9,99 Accordion öffnen gebundene Ausgabe ab € 12,99 Accordion öffnen eBook (ePUB) € 12,40 Accordion öffnen Adventures in advice with some of the world's most remarkable people.

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Dialogue within Lufthansa Group with CEO Carsten Spohr

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Vocaroo is a quick and easy way to share voice messages over the interwebs.

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David Burkus: Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid | TED Talk

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How much do you get paid? How does it compare to the people you work with? You should know, and so should they, says management researcher David Burkus. In this talk, Burkus questions our cultural assumptions around keeping salaries secret and makes a compelling case for why sharing them could benef…

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Charmian Gooch: My wish: To launch a new era of openness in business

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Anonymous companies protect corrupt individuals - from notorious drug cartel leaders to nefarious arms dealers - behind a shroud of mystery that makes it almost impossible to find and hold them responsible. But anti-corruption activist Charmian Gooch hopes to change all that.

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Why I don't drink cow milk anymore

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More than 18 years ago, we co-authored a Harvard Business Review article entitled " Dear White Boss... . " It was a fictional letter from a Black manager to an anonymous white executive. The letter was based on our years researching, interviewing, and working with Black leaders, as well as personal experiences. We described how the challenge of inequity based on racial, gender or other differences was debilitating for both people of color and the broader organization.

Fast forward to 2020, and we're in a new global conversation about racial justice. Inequity and systemic racism are on the corporate agenda in a whole new way. And, unfortunately, our letter is still as relevant as ever.

Little has improved over the past 18 years. The responses we've heard to the re-sharing of "Dear White Boss..." only confirm the continued existence and expanded impact of what we call miasma - the unseen attitudes, perspectives, and actions that create barriers for African Americans and others experienced in the workplace and beyond.

Most organizations have failed to "walk the talk" in delivering on long-held promises to further diversity and inclusion. This lack of progress has fueled discontent and disengagement. As a result, what we see and hear from Black America is that "WE ARE NOT OKAY." We African Americans. We people of color. We women. We in the LGBTQ community. We global colleagues, and more. We are not okay. And even if you don't identify with one of these groups, many of your clients and customers certainly do, and they are not okay, and neither is your organization.

In a world that is increasingly complex, stagnant thinking and holding on to the remnants of yesterday's power will neither serve companies today nor in the fast approaching future. So, what can organizations do to accelerate their efforts to drive greater inclusivity and reap the associated benefits while also ensuring success for the future? In reflecting on what has and hasn't changed since we penned "Dear White Boss..." we suggest the following areas of renewed focus to elevate and accelerate your organization's talent management and inclusivity efforts:

Build trust by changing your high-potential leadership assessment criteria and basing it on future capabilities, not past performance.

Exhibit transparency across these processes.

Reinforce leader accountability at every level of the organization.

Change How You Assess and Identify High-Potential Leaders

In the current environment of social and economic disruption, companies generally regard DEI initiatives as timely and necessary responses to correct for longstanding inequities and biases. However, recent research from McKinsey reports that while our country's workforce continues to become more diverse at lower and mid-range levels, this demographic shift does not tend to be the case the higher you go in the organization, including on the board of directors. At these levels, women and people of color are systematically screened out, as the McKinsey report and other research shows.

So, our first recommendation comes with an important distinction - start talent assessment at the top of the organization. This will send a clear message that the organization is changing how it creates opportunities for underrepresented groups to occupy roles for which they are qualified.

There's evidence for this in Breaking Through: the Making of Minorities in Corporate America, the seminal 1999 work from David Thomas and John Gabarro. In it, they conclude: "Even when recognized as outstanding performers with comfortable boss and peer relationships, opportunities for minorities to be tapped for accelerated paths may be hindered by the structure of decision making and racial/gender composition of the decision maker."

For too long, organizational leaders have said the right things but their actions - their willingness to examine and change their own behaviors has been lackluster at best and disingenuous at worst. Tepid support for DEI change frequently results in impressive slogans and comfortable images of smiling employees from underrepresented groups, but little real progress. Further, employees of color and others from underrepresented groups recognize shallow organizational commitments to diversity, and they may deeply distrust their leadership on these issues. Consequently, any DEI initiative must begin with honing or building organizational and leadership trust.

Companies can rebuild this trust by developing a diverse leadership pipeline strategy. This starts with using objective and relevant assessment data and casting a wider net for talent at every level of the organization. Why is this important? Primarily, because it is a widely accepted practice for individuals identified as "HiPos" by their organizations to be afforded differential privileges and access to company executives, developmental experiences, unique roles, and other opportunities capable of catapulting their promotability, wealth potential, and long-term viability. These privileges have a significant impact on career advancement - as observed by Thomas and Gabarro some 20 years ago - and reveals how flawed the system is and how it is in need of deep and immediate change.

Based on our combined nearly 50 years of experience designing, developing, and administering manager and senior leader assessments combined with our work in development experiences, we know first-hand how useful these tools are when leveraged appropriately. We see assessment tools as critical as identifying new, diverse talent within an organization. Often, a perceived lack of success is not because the employee has performed poorly, but because they have not been given the opportunity to learn the requisite skills or they have not been accurately assessed. In such cases, diverse groups often find themselves last in line to receive opportunities to develop those records of success.

The long-held belief that past behavior is the best predictor of future success is also particularly questionable given the dynamics of the 21st-century workplace and the fact that past experience may be unintentionally excluding certain groups who have not had the same access to opportunities as their majority cohorts. Further, in many cases, organizations may be assessing for skills which may have little relevance in the future. Therefore, while companies cannot completely ignore past performance in the assessment process, at the very least they should explore alternative ways to predict future performance that is not so reliant on past experiences or potentially biased criteria.

Measure What Matters Most for Your Organization's Transformation

We see PepsiCo as an example of this kind of forward-looking talent management approach. In a recent HBR article, PepsiCo's former CEO described the importance of aligning and assessing talent with the business strategy as an essential component of their transformative agenda to "future-proof" the company. As a result, PepsiCo (which is also a client of Keith's company, APTMetrics) has successfully moved beyond using performance to measure and identify potential by recognizing that those assessments are often a judgment call managers and human resource professionals make and are primarily reflective of what makes the candidate successful in their current role instead of illuminating what will exemplify success for the individual in the future - typically in roles two-to-three levels higher in the organization with representative challenges and complexities.

In order to better predict future behavior in a less-biased way, companies need to essentially create that future, immerse candidates into it, and evaluate how they respond to future-oriented leadership challenges. This does require drawing on the right thinkers, thought leaders, and data to essentially build a virtual organization as it will exist three-to-five years out. While this task may seem daunting, most organizations already perform some form of visioning activity or scenario planning as part of each strategic cycle. Whether consulting professional industry strategists, economists, or other credible resources relevant to the industry, organizations imagine the most important factors to be leveraged and identify strategic business, cultural and talent priorities.

Another recent HBR article, " Learning from the Future," highlights potential challenges of over-reliance on past experience as the primary predictor of future potential. The article argues the futility of looking back in time for clues about the future, especially at a period when the present and associated challenges exhibit so little resemblance to the past and while the anticipated future is increasingly evolving to a truly volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. What's more, some practitioners may see the primary objections to such a future-focused assessment perspective coming from others who believe women and people of color may actually have an advantage in such circumstances, forged from years of operating under VUCA-like conditions in an environment where they may not be fully embraced or treated equitably.

Technology will also increasingly enable organizations to build contextually rich, multimedia simulations that can measure an almost limitless array of attributes. Done properly, this approach may serve to build confidence in diverse candidates by mitigating the potential for unconscious bias of assessors who might be affected by race, gender or other physical manifestations of difference.

Show Your Work and Hold Leaders Accountable

After your organization has laid the foundation for an equitable, inclusive, and future-focused talent assessment program, it will be critical to understand and communicate how the newly designed assessment initiatives are impacting the bottom line of the organization. To fully realize and effectively highlight the business value of your HiPo efforts, you have to tie the program's solutions to valued organizational outcomes and build metrics that "speak the language" of the stakeholders and decision makers.

One way to accomplish this is to make senior stakeholders accountable for tracking data to see where disparities are occurring. And, to that end, organizations may want to audit the current makeup, selection processes, and recent trends for boards, executive teams, and HiPos across all managerial levels to identify practices that inhibit objectivity, equity, and accountability. Only then can organizations be in a position to truly exhibit the courage necessary to drive true transformation. Once disparities are illuminated and a more concerted strategic talent plan is created and communicated, leaders can set targets to make changes and commit to regular reviews at each cycle to review data to determine if the changes driving different behaviors and results.

Given the high stakes of any HiPo assessment program, organizational stakeholders will expect evidence that demonstrates that the program is meeting its design objectives and contributing in a measurable way to strategic success. Consequently, organizations need to be transparent about their objectives. This means they must uphold transparency and objectivity across human resource and talent management practices from the C-suite to the frontline worker.

Beyond the financial metrics, recent research from global industry analyst Josh Bersin indicates that when companies commit to diverse talent practices, they are 3.8 times more likely to be able to coach people for improved performance, 3.6 times more able to deal with personnel performance problems, and 2.9 times more likely to identify and build successful leaders. While future-forward predictive analytics may prove a critical aspect of creating an inclusive and engaged workforce, organizations also must be honest as they audit and evaluate their own organizational culture and practices. Executives, in particular, must strive to understand and synthesize DEI perspectives as an integral aspect of their organization's strategy. Swiftly changing national views on equity, increasing diversity of clients and customers, shifting workforce demographics and a broadened global marketplace, frankly, all point to the need for a novel and more thoughtful approach and greater accountability around issues of difference.

Finally, and perhaps most important, organizations themselves need to hold leaders accountable for meeting DEI goals and demonstrating inclusive behavior. Beyond actively leading in an inclusive way, leaders must ensure that mid-level and frontline managers are committed to expanding their own diverse understanding and ensuring those who report to them are also working in an inclusive manner. As with other critical initiatives, inclusion metrics should be a critical part of everyone's performance appraisal and metrics, and organizations should ensure clear guidance and expectations, the alignment with company values and purpose, inherent benefits for the company and each employee, and pointedly address consequence for failure to adhere to requirements.

While these efforts to increase organizational inclusion are clearly imperative for those who have been largely excluded from full participation in all aspects of organizational life, the overall benefit of inclusion and engagement goes far beyond people who are different. Inclusion is deeply connected with organizational success and viability and, as such, important to every member of the organizational community and all those with whom they interact.

In Conclusion

Confronting the inextricably linked issues of workplace diversity, inclusivity, and bias - wherever your business may be right now - takes strong, diverse leadership and commitment. As leaders, facing your own biases, understanding how you are influencing the system, and understanding the criticality and impact of your actions is crucial if change is going to occur.

To achieve this goal, leaders have to be unflinchingly honest and personally and professionally courageous. It will be the only way in which we can seize this moment and work toward developing a better, stronger and more prosperous workforce capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. And so that we won't be having this same conversation in another 18 years.

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What Has - and Hasn't - Changed Since "Dear White Boss..."

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More than 18 years ago, we co-authored a Harvard Business Review article entitled " Dear White Boss... . " It was a fictional letter from a Black manager to an anonymous white executive. The letter was based on our years researching, interviewing, and working with Black leaders, as well as personal experiences.

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How reverse mentorship can help create better leaders

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Employee diversity and inclusive leadership are goals for most organizations today, but how do we get there? Try a “reverse mentorship” program, which sets up junior team members to guide senior staff. Here are 6 tips to make reverse mentorship work, from executive coach and personal development advocate Patrice Gordon.

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David Epstein: Why specializing early doesn't always mean career success

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A head start doesn't always ... well, help you get ahead. With examples from sports, technology and economics, journalist David Epstein shares how specializing in a particular skill too early in life may undermine your long-term development -- and explains the benefits of a "sampling period" where you try new things and focus on building a range of skills.

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Fast fashion industry H&M

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Practicing Pronunciation

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Thoughts about the own Corona situation

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Setting boundaries

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New Years resolution 2021

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Quizlet Set 1

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The security system for this website has been triggered. Completing the challenge below proves you are a human and gives you temporary access.

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Celeste Headlee: 10 ways to have a better conversation | TED Talk

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When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations -- and that most of us don’t converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. “Go out, talk to people, listen to people,” she says. “And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”

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# 1 Listening to a live podcast with Paypal CEO

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# 1 Listening to a live podcast with Paypal CEO

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# 2 Listening to a live podcast from Female Lead

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# 3 Listening to a live podcast from Female Lead

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# 3 Listening to a live podcast from Female Lead

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Interview with Bobbi Brown

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It's a tough moment for big decisions. Think more about what you'll want in three years - and not just three months, when we'll still be shut in.

Credit... Robert Neubecker

Home has become work and school for millions of people. Many residences needed to somehow shift overnight to accommodate two workplaces and multiple classrooms because of the coronavirus.

With schools and businesses signaling that these conditions will extend at least through the spring, it's no surprise there is a stampede of people seeking more space. But when so many are acting on instinct, the best move may well be to slow down and ask some counterintuitive questions.

Try this one on for size: Should the house you're thinking of as a starter home be your forever home instead?

This is a tricky subject, like many of the biggest questions in personal finance, because of the complex stew of money and feelings that are involved.

First, the money. A home is an asset with a value that could make up a substantial proportion of your net worth. Hopefully, that value grows over time. And right now, with mortgage rates at record lows, it's tempting to go as big as possible.

But there are other things you could do with any extra money that you might otherwise put toward a bigger or better home. That incremental amount could go into retirement savings instead, or a 529 college savings plan. Or you could give it away to people who don't have the luxury of contemplating these sorts of trade-offs.

The case for staying small need not be some scolding ode to parsimony. A more modest home can leave more money in the budget for travel, expensive hobbies, or a getaway abode by a lake or mountain. Living smaller also helps the environment.

Now, those emotions. Spending more for a bigger dwelling doesn't make sense unless there is a high psychic return on the extra space. But if you've never lived bigger, it's hard to predict how much happier it will make you. And how do you weigh that qualitative return against quantitative trade-offs rendered in dollar figures?

There are some facts to keep in mind.

Ever since the collapse in the housing market during the last big recession, the idea that your house is not, in fact, an investment vehicle has become common. Wise as this is, it doesn't change the fact that a home is still an asset. And you should think hard about how any such asset might appreciate (or not) over time.

So much of any growth will depend on where you live, and too many of these kinds of conversations are framed around places like the San Francisco Bay Area, parts of Brooklyn or gentrifying areas where there have been enormous gains in property values.

Nationally, however, the numbers aren't so steep. Data from CoreLogic's home-price index shows that over the past 20 years, the average increase for single-family homes priced at 125 percent or more of the median home price in their region is just 3.4 percent annually. For homes at the 75 to 100 percent level, the gain has been 4.3 percent.

Consider maintenance costs, too. A newer home - say, less than five years old - might require just 1 percent of the purchase price in annual expenses, said John Bodrozic, a co-founder of HomeZada, a tool that helps owners keep track of costs and improvements. But if your home is 25 years old or more, 4 percent is a better estimate. If history is any judge, putting money into stocks over periods measured in decades should yield a better return.

Good professionals really can help determine what "return" ought to mean to you, though. Joe Chappius, a financial planner in Buffalo, suggested one basic strategy: Consult a few elders.

Find someone you trust who traded up 10 years ago, Mr. Chappius said. Very few of his clients who did so now think it was the best financial decision they ever made. More often, they have two rooms they rarely use.

A financial pro can also help you prioritize, including getting you and your spouse, if you have one, to agree on goals and dreams - and what's worth sacrificing in the present to achieve all of the former and reach for some of the latter.

Once that baseline is set, they have specialized software that can make talking about the financial trade-offs easier. Mr. Chappius and Jeff Wolniewicz, partners in the firm Complete Wealth, walked me through their process this week using numbers that are typical for their home-seeking (or home-reaching) clients.

For any given trading-up transaction, a client might need to move $1,000 more per month to the housing budget. What might that mean right now? Perhaps it's just a severe reduction in travel or eating out. But if money is already pretty tight, it could mean that no saving for a child's college can even begin - and a $500 slug of monthly savings can ultimately pay for well over half of the cost of a state school.

Or trading up could require a reduction in retirement savings that might extend your time in the work force. For people who love what they do, perhaps that's no problem. But how prepared are you to decide that now?

"We're using the numbers to bring things back to a values-based conversation," Mr. Wolniewicz said.

There may be a compromise solution if you're craving more space. An addition to your home might be possible - and cheaper than a move. Ditto an interior renovation that allows for more people to be more productive without interruption.

"The thing about Covid is that it's hopefully a short period, but it really puts a very fine point on the need for flexible spaces that can do double duty," said Sarah Susanka, who has been preaching that gospel ever since 1998, when her book " The Not So Big House " came out. "It's an acoustical issue."

Danika Waddell, a financial planner in Seattle, suggested another framing question: What might you regret if you stay small?

Get granular here and think beyond the pandemic, if you possibly can.

Is your love of hospitality and large gatherings one that you would act on frequently? Hosting Sunday supper each week in a newly oversized great room can bring joy beyond measure. But maybe you're just letting your desire to host a few holidays each year dictate your feelings about a six-figure real estate decision.

If you're a parent, are you fine with your house not being the place where the gang gathers? (Or would you actually rather not have teenagers hooking up in the basement guest room or smoking pot in the yard?)

And when relatives come to visit, will you regret having to put them up in a hotel? Maybe not! But if you want them around for an entire season each year, for many years to come, the bigger house could make sense if you are certain.

"The people who are generally the most happy are the ones who avoid the more, more, more and understand what is enough for them," Mr. Wolniewicz said. "That takes courage, to stand firm on what your enough is, especially if it's in contrast to what the world says you should want more of."

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Make Your First Home Your Last: The Case for Not Moving Up

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It's a tough moment for big decisions. Think more about what you'll want in three years - and not just three months, when we'll still be shut in. Home has become work and school for millions of people. Many residences needed to somehow shift overnight to accommodate two workplaces and multiple classrooms because of the coronavirus.

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Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Season 1

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"Big Little Lies" - Official Trailer Season 1

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“I hate networking.” It’s a familiar refrain. But in today’s world, networking is a necessity—and fortunately, an aversion to it can be overcome. Drawing on laboratory experiments and on studies at a large law firm, the authors have identified four strategies that can help people become more excited…

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Recently updated research shows that women in leadership positions are perceived as being every bit as effective as men. In an analysis of thousands of 360-degree assessments, women were rated as excelling in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results, and displaying high integrity and honesty. In fact, they were thought to be more effective in 84% of the competencies that we most frequently measure. Men were rated as being better on two capabilities: "develops strategic perspective" and "technical or professional expertise." However, a different analysis of the same data showed that when women are asked to assess themselves, they are not as generous in their ratings. In fact, they have lower scores than men on confidence ratings, especially when they're under 25. At age 40, the confidence ratings merge. Men gain just 8.5 percentile points in confidence from age 25 to their 60+ years. Women, on the other hand, gain 29 percentile points. Women make highly competent leaders, according to those who work most closely with them - and what's holding them back is not lack of capability but a dearth of opportunity.

For the first time in history, a major political party in the United States has several women who have declared their candidacy to be their party's presidential nominee. But TV pundits have been questioning whether, despite the progress indicated by the huge influx of women elected into Congress last fall, the U.S. is ever going to elect a woman to the country's highest leadership position.

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Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills

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Recently updated research shows that women in leadership positions are perceived as being every bit as effective as men. In an analysis of thousands of 360-degree assessments, women were rated as excelling in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results, and displaying high integrity and honesty.

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Credit... Jeremy Leung

It's an extremely difficult debt to discharge, and only a few hundred people a year even try. Here are the stories of some who succeeded - mostly.

With two mortgages, three children and $83,000 in student loan debt, the financial strain finally became too much for George A. Johnson and Melanie Raney-Johnson.

New bills kept piling up: The couple had to buy another car when Mr. Johnson wrecked one in a snowstorm, but their insurance didn't fully pay off the totaled vehicle. Old debts never seemed to get any smaller, either: A mortgage modification they spent months working on fell through when the bank lost their paperwork.

And their student debt, an albatross born of aspiration, grew heavier each month.

Bankruptcy was the only way out.

"It was not an easy decision," Ms. Raney-Johnson said of filing for bankruptcy in 2011. "It was a feeling of despair, for sure."

Bankruptcy gives over 700,000 debtors a fresh start every year. Bills for credit cards and medical expenses can be wiped away by a few strokes of a judge's pen, and debts that don't vanish are reduced.

But student loan debts don't go away as easily. For decades, politicians have slowly made them harder to discharge, while differing standards in courts across the country mean a debtor's chances can depend on where he or she lives.

The few debtors who attempt it are subjected to a morality play unlike anything else in the world of personal finance: so-called adversary proceedings, where they must lay themselves bare in court as opposing lawyers question how much they pay for lunch or give to their church.

The Johnsons tried anyway. They had borrowed about $45,000 for Mr. Johnson's degree in sociology at the University of St. Mary in Kansas and Ms. Raney-Johnson's pursuit of a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis. Unable to pay, they had received permission to put off their payments, but their balance nearly doubled as interest charges continued to pile up.

Mr. Johnson lost his job after they filed for bankruptcy and, unable to afford a lawyer, Ms. Raney-Johnson prepared their case. She remembers how she felt when they arrived at the Robert J. Dole Federal Courthouse in Kansas City, Kan., on a sunny September day seven years ago.

"My heart was beating, and I was sweating," said Ms. Raney-Johnson, now in her mid-40s and a billing supervisor for a federal agency.

In 2015, the year the Johnsons got their ruling, 884,956 personal bankruptcy cases flowed through the courts. Only 674 sought to discharge student debt, according to a recent analysis by Jason Iuliano, assistant law professor at Villanova University.

The New York Times reviewed dozens of cases in which a judge issued a published opinion - the Bankruptcy Class of 2015 - to understand the pains and payoffs five years later. Some debtors are on a better course. But for others, the struggles never went away - or came back after they thought they were free.

Bankruptcy begins with debt, and student loans are the second-biggest form of household debt in the United States. More than 43 million borrowers hold over $1.6 trillion in student loans, a sum that has more than tripled in 13 years. It exceeds what Americans owe on credit cards or auto loans and trails only mortgages.

Sixty-two percent of students who graduated from nonprofit colleges in 2019 had student loan debt, according to an Institute for College Access & Success analysis. Their average balance was $28,950 - not including borrowing by their parents.

Many struggle mightily to pay: Before the government's coronavirus relief efforts paused federal student loan payments, 7.7 million borrowers were in default and nearly two million others were seriously behind.

The solution has been a public-policy patch job.

About eight million additional borrowers use income-driven repayment plans, which can be challenging to enter. And while the plans lower payments, borrowers accrue interest on the unpaid difference. The debt is eventually forgiven - usually after 20 or 25 years - but the forgiven amount is taxable income.

A related program forgives the federal student loan debts of public-service workers, tax free, after 10 years, but it has been deeply troubled. Borrowers have made payments for years only to learn they were in the wrong kind of payment plan. It got so bad that Congress had to create a separate pot of money to try to fix it.

The election could give momentum to a change: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. - who supported a 2005 law that made private student loans harder to discharge - has vowed to change the loan rule back if elected. But few Republicans have voiced support for a plan to change bankruptcy rules. A House bill has one Republican co-sponsor, Representative John Katko of New York, but the Senate's version, led by Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, has only Democratic support.

All the student debt poses a problem. Its weight, experts say, has macroeconomic effects, dragging on homeownership and small-business formation. But the fallout goes beyond simple economics.

There is also a mental toll.

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Noelle DeLaet said she had sent out hundreds of résumés but couldn't get a better-paying job. Credit... Terry Ratzlaff for The New York Times

Noelle DeLaet earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2008 - the teeth of the Great Recession. She tacked on another year for a degree in English to make herself more attractive to employers. Perhaps in publishing, she thought.

She left school with $110,000 in debt: roughly $27,000 from the federal government and the rest in private loans co-signed by her mother. The $810 monthly bill, set to climb when the payment plan on one private loan expired, soon overwhelmed her.

Ms. DeLaet, now 34, landed in the child welfare field as a foster care review specialist in Lincoln, Neb. - rewarding, but not lucrative. She sent out hundreds of résumés for better-paying jobs and pleaded with her lenders to reduce her payments. Soon, the creditors started in on her mother and put her on the verge of bankruptcy, too.

Ms. DeLaet's breaking point came in May 2012 when she ran up against the $4,000 limit on her credit card while trying to buy a burrito at a Mexican grocery. She felt so helpless at times that she considered suicide.

"I looked all over Google for some sort of support group for others going through this," Ms. DeLaet said. "I felt like there was no way out."

A photograph from Ms. DeLaet's high school graduation. Her debt started piling up shortly after.

When Ms. DeLaet squared off in court against her student-loan creditors, they quibbled with the $12 she spent each month on recycling. She should have tried harder for a promotion, they argued. Or moved somewhere else for more money.

Judge Thomas L. Saladino bristled at that idea. In his opinion, he wrote that she lived in the state's second-largest city, "as good a place as any to seek a better-paying job."

The judge discharged about $119,000 in private loans, and an additional $23,000 was forgiven by one of her lenders. But her $27,000 in federal loans stuck: She's paying those back through an income-driven repayment plan costing about $260 a month. Because she works at a nonprofit, her debt should eventually disappear via the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

For Ms. DeLaet, the process was worth it: She has married her boyfriend, had two children and bought a home. Her mother is an "amazing" grandmother, she said, although they still cannot discuss the past.

"It is an untouchable subject," she said.

The transformation in the bankruptcy rules began in 1976, with unfounded rumors.

A handful of legislators claimed to have heard about a parade of young doctors and lawyers who were trying to game the system and shed their debts while embarking on lucrative careers. The lawmakers toughened the rules, largely preventing borrowers from seeking a discharge within five years of graduation. The rules only got tougher over the next three decades.

Borrowers must show that their student loans are an "undue hardship" - a standard interpreted differently, depending on where you live. Some judicial circuits, including those in Nebraska, where Ms. DeLaet filed, have the judge review a "totality of the circumstances" for the debtor and make a decision.

Other jurisdictions employ a less flexible standard, the Brunner test, named for the case that established it. Judges must answer three questions affirmatively to discharge the debt. First, has the debtor made a good-faith effort to repay the loans? Second, is the debtor unable to maintain a minimal standard of living while making the payments? And, finally, is the debtor's situation likely to persist?

But even jurisdictions that use the Brunner test apply it differently. Some require the judge to find that the borrowers have a "certainty of hopelessness" in paying off their debt. Other jurisdictions do not.

Here, the Johnsons may have benefited from geographic good fortune.

Lawyers for the Educational Credit Management Corporation - a nonprofit that collects defaulted loans on behalf of the federal government - examined how the Johnsons spent their $2,100 monthly income.

Every expense was scrutinized, including Ms. Raney-Johnson's $35 monthly union dues, her $100 retirement contribution and $215 to repay loans from her retirement plan. None, the nonprofit's lawyers argued, were necessary to maintain a "minimal standard of living."

In his opinion - written more than a year after hearing arguments - Judge Robert D. Berger disagreed. He wrote that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which covers Kansas, had shifted from the most rigid interpretation of the three-part test, which he described as "an unfortunate relic."

Judge Berger wasn't sure how the Johnsons were subsisting at all based on their income, and he said courts shouldn't rely on "unfounded optimism" about a debtor's future.

"It is disconsonant with public policy and bankruptcy's fresh start to leave debtors in virtual lifetime servitude to student loans," he wrote.

The judge discharged their student loans: $83,000 in debt, wiped away.

"I was ecstatic," Ms. Raney-Johnson said of the moment she received the decision letter. "I probably said some curse words."

Their good fortune didn't last.

Pam Monroe saw education as a way to obtain independence she hadn't had before. Credit... Joseph Rushmore for The New York Times

Opposing lawyers - whether they work for the federal government or for private lenders - are tenacious. Their approach can feel like bullying, if not humiliation.

When Pamela Monroe went to an Arkansas bankruptcy court in 2015, she was 57 with a student-loan balance of about $56,000. She was working in the fragrance section of a Dillard's department store, and her lunch habits - like $6.10 at Taco Bell and $12.72 at Olive Garden - were a focus of intense interest.

Eating out, Ms. Monroe testified, was her primary form of recreation and a midday necessity: Co-workers would sometimes steal colleagues' lunches from the break room.

"They laughed about that when I told them," she said. "I felt at that moment like I was a cornered animal and they were poking sticks at me."

Ms. Monroe said she had spent her life making choices that others seemed to dictate - marrying two years out of high school and becoming a mother, as her parents seemed to want. After two divorces, she reached for higher education in a bid for independence.

She graduated from the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith with a communications degree and pursued a master's in speech language pathology. She didn't finish that program, leaving her with the debt but not the advanced degree. And she couldn't seem to break out of low-paying work.

"I would have loved to pay them back," Ms. Monroe said. "But I never could, because nobody ever saw any value in me."

Ms. Monroe cupping a rose near her retirement community. "Nobody ever saw any value in me," she said. Credit... Joseph Rushmore for The New York Times

Judge Ben Barry found Ms. Monroe's restaurant spending excessive, but noted that she had changed jobs frequently seeking higher pay. Her income, he wrote in his opinion, about doubled between 2010 and 2015, to over $26,000.

But even a reduced budget he outlined would not leave her enough money to make her student loan payments, so he discharged just over half of her student loans.

She would most likely have been paying that off until she was in her 80s. But last year, Ms. Monroe, now 63 and dealing with osteoarthritis and other health problems, received a disability discharge for the rest of her debt.

Now all she wants to do is live out her days in her $510-a-month apartment in a retirement community. "It has a sprinkler system and an elevator, very safe," she said.

But she hasn't stopped thinking about the way the system and its actors - like the lawyer on the opposite side in her case - seemed to render judgment on her life choices.

"I didn't do anything wrong," she said. "I was just living, but I got in trouble for eating."

In 2016, the Johnsons learned their loan discharge was being appealed by lawyers for Educational Credit Management Corporation.

Paradoxically, they were worse off because their financial situation had improved: Ms. Raney-Johnson earned a promotion, and Mr. Johnson, now in his mid-40s like his wife, found a stable government job. A year after discharging their loans, Judge Berger concluded that the couple could now "easily" maintain a minimal standard of living and reinstated their debt - which had ballooned even more because of interest charges.

Preparing to send their own children to college, the Johnsons requested another forbearance. Their balance continues to grow: It's roughly $104,000 today.

Ms. Raney-Johnson took the final class she needed for her biology degree over the summer. But the debt was already piling up for the next generation. Their oldest, a college sophomore, expects to owe about $45,000 when she graduates. Their middle child, a high school senior, is looking at colleges now. Ms. Raney-Johnson said she and her husband - who are putting about $5,000 a year toward their daughter's tuition - would try to remain in forbearance for now.

In August, they received a notice about an income-driven repayment plan, which would start out costing about $550 a month. From there, the cost depends on many factors, including job changes, raises and eligibility for forgiveness programs. If they're able to get into the public service program, the debt could go away a decade after they start paying. If not, the bills could continue coming for about 20 years - right around the time the Johnsons will be trying to retire.

The experience, Ms. Raney-Johnson said, has been "disheartening." She and her husband had run up against opposition that could keep going with little regard for time or expense, knowing that they couldn't.

"It feels like getting screwed over by someone with a lot more power and money," she said.

Susan Beachy contributed research.

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For Millions Deep in Student Loan Debt, Bankruptcy Is No Easy Fix

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It's an extremely difficult debt to discharge, and only a few hundred people a year even try. Here are the stories of some who succeeded - mostly. With two mortgages, three children and $83,000 in student loan debt, the financial strain finally became too much for George A. Johnson and Melanie Raney-Johnson.

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Opinion | The Losses We Share (Published 2020)

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Perhaps the path to healing begins with three simple words: Are you OK?

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Meryl Streep Isn't on Our List of Greatest Actors. Here's Why.

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The Times's co-chief film critics explain their rationale for some surprising inclusions, and exclusions, on their list of the greatest actors of the 21st century (so far). Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

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Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don't underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice - a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives - the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

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Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over.