Let’s get right to it.

Here are five articles that have me thinking…

How to Handle Underperformers on a Team You Inherit

Ron Ashkenas. Harvard Business Review

Key Quote: “You have to prioritize the team achieving its goals and everyone performing at the required level. But in order to do this, you have to set your team members up for success. This means understanding each person’s individual style, personality, and capabilities — and what they need to be successful.” Read the rest here. 

Fearing Change Is a Waste of Time and Energy

Patrick Allan. Lifehacker

Key Quote: “Fear isn’t always a bad thing. It keeps us safe, it keeps us healthy, and it often makes us feel more alive. But there are bad kinds of fear that slowly suck away our happiness with stress and discomfort. The fear of change is one of them.” Read the rest here. 

Feeling Overextended? Try This Simple Strategy to Reclaim Your Calendar

Eil Pasricha. Heleo

Key Quote: “When you keep saying yes to things, guess what happens? You slowly end up with more options, choices, and invitations than you can actually accept. This transition happens to many of us.” Read the rest here. 

5 Questions to Help Your Employees Find Their Inner Purpose

Kristi Hedges. Harvard Business Review

Key Quote: “What workers really need, to feel engaged in and satisfied by their jobs, is an inner sense of purpose. As Deloitte found in a 2016 study, people feel loyal to companies that support their own career and life ambitions — in other words, what’s meaningful to them.” Read the rest here. 

Technology is Impairing Our Ability to be Alone, Research Shows. Here’s How to Reap the Benefits of Solitude

Emily Esfahani Smith. The Washington Post

Key Quote: “We need to be content with being alone with our own thoughts. That’s because the only way we can come to understand who we are and think through the critical decisions about our lives is through the self-examination that occurs in solitude.” Read the rest here.