Tea at Trianon: Being A Warm Person

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, November 5, 2018

Being A Warm Person

Popularity vs competence? From Forbes:

What effect do warmth and competence have on your career? Historically, being considered a warm person hasn’t been an attribute that senior leaders strove to develop. More emphasis was placed on being competent. Books and articles published in past decades that have described effective management have emphasized the importance of business acumen, technical knowledge, being results driven, taking initiative, and strategic thinking. However, competence alone is career limiting.

In a previous article, I shared Zenger Folkman’s research on how these two competencies effect women and senior leadership. In this article, I will share our research on how warmth and competence influence high potential ratings and employee engagement. Our data for this analysis comes from 360-degree assessments with feedback from managers, peers, direct reports, and others with whom the person has had extensive contact. We utilized a global database of over 70,000 leaders and performed a factor analysis that forced the data into two factors. (Read more.)