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I suppose it makes sense that getting the support of your supervisor would make you a better worker. But a new study says that it's critical to employee well-being and workforce readiness, according to newswise.com. Also, not surprisingly, fewer women than men report opportunities to develop skills needed for career growth. Nearly half of American workers are concerned about the changing nature of work, and although most report that they have the skills they need to perform their current job well, those without supervisor support for career development are more likely to distrust their employer and plan on leaving within the next year, according to a new survey released by the American Psychological Association, newswise.com reports. “Employee growth and development is a key element of a psychologically healthy workplace, but it’s often overlooked in employers’ workplace well-being efforts,” says David Ballard, PsyD, MBA, head of APA’s Center for Organizational Excellenc...

Recently I commented on a piece at smartplanet.com that talked about how 40% of us think we're in the top 5%. But what about that top 5%?  What do they think? According to a new article at smartplanet.com, the same researcher who gave us the 40% number now says that those people don't think they're very smart at all. Say what?   Cornell University psychology professor David Dunning says, "By far it is more common to find people overestimating rather than underestimating themselves, but a minority of the time it is certainly possible for people to slip into perceptions of 'impostorship.' They do so mostly for the same reasons that people overestimate: Life provides no answer sheets objectively telling people how well they are doing. They have to infer it, and they can make mistakes." Writes Alyson Windsor, "I found this article fascinating because many of my smart and successful friends and colleagues seem to have the opposite problem. The...

There once was something called EQ, or emotional intelligence -- how you get along with  people, or adapt to changing circumstances.  It went away for a while, but now it's back. Financial Post writer Ray Williams makes the case that "employers are better off looking for employees with a  high emotional quotient (EQ) than intelligence quotient (IQ)," according to smartplanet.com. That's because  organizations often overlook this quality, preferring to view instead either education or  skills as predictors of success, Williams says at smartplanet.com. But organizations underestimate the value and importance of empathy, consideration and even just listening, say experts.  I've worked at companies where executives blew through employees and never quite succeeded in the end.  Williams wraps up his piece with this thought: "The qualities most likely to succeed in today's fast-changing economy -- in which people will likely go through multiple car...

So you make your son practice the violin for two hours every day after school.  Your daughter takes tennis lessons four times a week.  And you've done the Iron Man twice but still can't run a mile faster than nine minutes. A new study has found, alas, that you can practice all you want, but if you don't have it, you'll never be the next Nadal.   Or even the next Djokovic.  "Some people are really just naturals who have the capacity to make the leap from good to great," writes David Worthington at smartplanet.com. "The evidence is quite clear that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice," Michigan State psychology professor Zach Hambrick said in a  press release . Hambrick found, studying chess players and musicians, that rigorous practice only accounted for a third of skill level differences, while innate ability, age and intelligence helped people mak...