Alana

Since 2014, World Emoji Day is celebrated every year on July 17.

Japanese artist, Shigetaka Kurita, created the first pixelated colour emoji in 1999. These little illustrations paved the way for different types of emoji that were later recognised by Unicode - an international computer encoding standard, enabling them to be enjoyed across different platforms.

All relationships need boundaries, especially those in managerial positions. We believe that being close with our employees is ideal, however, it's actually best if we keep a bit of distance and establish firm boundaries with them.

A good manager should want rapport and respect, not a best friend.

Highly successful leaders sometimes struggle to communicate with people that they know well. This error is not prevalent while talking to strangers, and is called the Closeness-Communication Bias, and is due to an illusion of insight while communicating with friends or close colleagues.

There are certain strategies that leaders and managers can apply to improve their communication effectiveness.

• When we speak negatively of other people, the same trait is subconsciously associated with us, something known as Spontaneous Trait Transference.
• Instead of gossiping (negative talk), one can try gushing (talking about positive qualities and stuff) and let those things be associated with themselves automatically.
• Speaking genuinely and praising others vividly (in a natural, real way) does wonders to one’s charisma.

• Be direct by avoiding the feedback"sanwich"(which can dilute the message and sounds insincere);
• Don't let criticism accumulate: schedule weekly check-ins with your team, so feedback becomes part of the regular routine;
• Don't make it personal: Stick to the facts, and avoid making assumptions;
• Offer praise, but keep it separate from criticism;
• If you think the feedback will be difficult to hear, consider giving the person space to process the information.

Richard Drew invented The Scotch transparent tape while working as a lab tech at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, which was then manufacturing sandpaper.

• Drew first invented masking tape. Drew would deliver sandpaper samples to auto manufacturers, who used it for the painting process. Workers needed to mask off part of the car, often using glued-on newspaper or butcher paper. But it was difficult to get off and often resulted in a sticky mess.
• Drew promised a solution. He spent two years developing a tape until the company executive told him to get back to his regular job. Drew kept doing tape experiments on his own time.
• In 1930, he received a patent for his masking tape. In the same year, he also invented his waterproof transparent tape, taking advantage of newly developed cellophane.

96% of talent professionals agreed that employee experience is very important, to the point of becoming mission-critical.

Whether you’re a leader overseeing a 500-person organization or a manager with a team of two, we all need to find ways to create experiences to connect more deeply and humanly with our teams..

She is the world's first successful suffragette. Her work and petitioning of New Zealand's parliament is the reason that the nation became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote.

After New Zealand embraced universal suffrage in 1893, Sheppard inspired successful suffrage movements in other parts of the world.

A critical task of a leader is communication. It is better to err on the side of communicating more frequently than under-communicating because leaders thought everyone knows what is expected of them. During a crisis, under-communicating can be disastrous.

The content of the communication is equally important.

Large corporations seem to lose their ability to innovate, something that they could do when they were small and nimble.

These big companies buy smaller companies, who are innovative despite struggling and being low on resources and finances.

Innovation, it seems, requires constraints and struggle.