Welcome to In the Loop: Brought to you by Circe!
On the agenda today: Welcome Note | Bits + Bobs | Meet the Founders | Why We Sleep
WELCOME TO IN THE LOOP!
We're so happy you're here!
With In the Loop, we will be bringing you the tips, tricks, news, and connections that add value to your career. We'll share interesting links, member highlights, answer questions, and deep dive into the trends and forces that can shape and impact your work life. Most importantly, our community is what makes us. That means we want to hear from you: your questions, your insight, what's inspiring you, what you need help with, and basically everything in between. Drop us a line at info@circeapp.me to get in touch!
BITS AND BOBS
- We all know that leadership style matters. So why do we enable narcissistic leaders and how can we spot them? FastCompany has a look.
- What does a successful salary negotiation look like? Ask a Manager shows us an amazing example!
- Since we're introducing ourselves, did you know that we're on LinkedIn and Instagram? Make sure to follow along!
- While Equal Pay Day came a little earlier this year (March 15th to be exact), for Black women the benchmark more closely resembles where it was in the 1960s: The US will be waiting until September 21 this year to "celebrate" Black women making the same amount as their male counterparts the year before.
Meet the Founders
We're looking forward to building meaningful connections here at Circe. By introducing you to users and experts, we hope to inspire you, connect you, and help you grow your Circle. For our first highlight, we'd like to introduce you to the Founders of Circe: Bobbi-Jo and Jade!
Bobbi-Jo and Jade met at Harvard University in 2005, forming a friendship that blossomed into career hype women and business partners.
| Find out more about the founders of Circe here! |
Deep Dive: Sleep and why it matters
In 2011, one of our co-founders, Jade, lived across the hall from a doctor studying sleep at Stanford. They discussed sleep apnea and heart health, and observations on the growing adoption of iPhones in Silicon Valley. His work sounded fascinating, almost avant garde. It launched Jade’s private sleep experiment, which escalated a year later when her endocrine system fell apart from stress and quality sleep went with it.
Seven years ago Jade presented “How to Improve Our Sleep” to coworkers. Her private research she demurely shared in a glass-encased conference room because she felt wrecked by sleep issues and her 4 am witching hour was often riddled by thoughts of work. At Circe, we are not sleep experts, but we have tried, read and listened to all the things from actual sleep experts.
TLDR: Sleep is critical to our health, creativity and productivity. The best investment you can make in yourself this fall is to experiment with ways you can optimize how you sleep. We say “experiment” because sleep optimization is a personal journey, best fueled and tested with guidance from existing sleep expertise. You will know what tools best match your body, lifestyle, and career.
We curated for you our favorite sleep tips from personal experimentation and Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep:
Daily Habits:
- Sunlight exposure: wake up with sunlight in the morning, and seek 30 minutes of sun exposure each day
- Caffeine, Stimulants: Avoid within 8 hours of going to sleep
- Naps: take them, and before 3 pm
- Exercise: do it regularly, but avoid within a few hours of sleep
Nightly Habits:
- Schedule: set an alarm to go to sleep with your devices
- Minimize alcohol, large meals and fluids close to bedtime
- Create bedtime relaxation rituals: warm bath (raises your body temp), reading, listening to music
- Bedroom hygiene: make the space dark, cool, and gadget free
Share with us your favorite sleep hacks, hygiene and habits. What works well for you?
I'm worried that I'm being under-utilized. How do I frame that conversation with my CEO?
I have a big meeting with my CEO to discuss my career future, and concerns about being under-utilized. What are a few tips in how to navigate that conversation and what to focus on?
First of all, congrats on having a direct line and rapport with the CEO. Assuming you have previously addressed these concerns with your manager, here’s how we recommend you approach this with your CEO:
Know your audience and set a shared goal: how will this conversation help your CEO and help you? Set the stage: state by your commitment to the company and its success. Remember, CEOs are busy: remind them what you were hired to do.
Next explain your concern about being under-utilized and what you have previously tried to do about it. Be brief on this point. The CEO will not want to rehash what (or who) didn’t work to solve this sooner. Describe the vision and impact you could have if you were given the space to solve an existing company goal or challenge. Be as tangible as you possibly can. For example, “If we deployed resources differently, we could impact our growth rate and drive about $9 million more in revenue. In my prior role, I led a 25% increase in sales team utilization which translated into $12 million in growth year over year.”
Finally, make your ask directly. Ask for the CEO’s thoughts on your idea, which will give you insight into how they think, what influences their decision-making and help you adapt a plan. Identify at least one specific request of how they can support you in being better leveraged and utilized at the company. We recommend you address this at the end, after you’ve laid the groundwork, painted a picture of what you could do if better utilized, and after you have taken in their perspective.
| Have a question for our experts? Drop us a line! |
Book of the Week
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker We LOVE recommending books that have helped shape the way we work, live, and thrive. This week, we're featuring a book that revolutionized our relationship with sleep: Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker. We've already touched on a few tips we gained from this book earlier in this dispatch, why not check the whole thing out for yourself?
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On the agenda today: Hope is the thing with feathers | Dealing with a Micromanager | Think Again BITS AND BOBS An incident from 2017 reminds us of the power in allyship: 95% of the workforce of the Woolwich Ferry were set to strike after a female member of staff made a formal complaint of sexual harassment. "Men felt worse about themselves when their partners succeeded than when their partners failed." Whew. Okay, this is the last link that, at times, might make you want to rip out your...
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