According to the author and psychologist Robert Cialdini, people resort to ‘fixed-action patterns’ in this fast-paced world, and authority plays a huge factor in the science of influence and persuasion. People listen to and trust an authority figure, as they are too busy to study everything in detail.
Word of mouth also works in the same way, as if someone is trusted by the people in our circle, we also tend to trust that person.

The Principle Of Authority

Leadership

Pick a field where you can easily leverage your strength. Ask yourself if you see yourself doing this particular work till you retire, picking an industry that you really love and enjoy, instead of trying to be an expert in multiple fields unrelated to one another.

How To Be An Authority: Pick Your Field

Creating something of value, like a painting, app, or book puts you in the category of an ‘author’ or a ‘creator’ automatically.
A book, even a self-published one, is an ideal stamp of authority and builds credibility to your other work like public speaking or blogging.

How To Be An Authority: Publish Your Important Ideas

Helping others and showcasing their success stories creates a synergy effect, and helps one succeed in the long run. Ask people to be featured on your blog/site/podcast and collect their testimonials. It creates a body of work that other people (like clients of book publishers) can check and determine if you are the best person for the task.
We need to build value by demonstrating the benefits of our product or service.

How To Be An Authority: Help Other People

Associate yourself with brands, trusted people, publications and online authority figures to build social proof. Focus on getting ‘logos’ to create instant persuasion or influence. Getting published in an authoritative source is not easy, but can build credibility that will last.
People hire credible, authoritative people, mostly deciding by checking the body of work, associations and testimonials. Make sure your profile is authoritative, and that you deserve it.

How To Be An Authority: Associate With Brands

Authority means that you're respected by other people. When you have authority, others will listen to what you have to say.

Career

Every expert or thought leader knows that authority is crucial. Without it, no one would ever listen to us.

Robert Cialdini, a professor of marketing, business, and psychology, famously wrote about the principle of authority, in his book <a dir="ltr" href="https://amzn.to/3sIg1fY" rel="noreferrer noopener">Influence </a>. He found that, because of the fast pace of the modern world, people have resorted to “fixed-action patterns.”

When it comes to the science of influence and persuasion, authority means that you’re respected by other people. When you have authority, others will listen to what you have to say. You will be trusted.

Since people are too busy to study everything in detail or weigh all the pros and cons before making a purchase, they rely on the simplified idea of authority. If someone is trusted by our peers, we also instantly trust them.

It’s no wonder that people are eager to appear authoritative in their fields. It’s the #1 way to get people to listen to you. So how do you become an authority in your field? Here are 4 steps that I’ve followed.

In <a dir="ltr" href="https://amzn.to/38ealT9" rel="noreferrer noopener">Managing Oneself </a>, Peter Drucker talks about the importance of knowing and leveraging your strength: “One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all.”

So let’s get the most important part of authority out of the way: If you want to become an authority in your field, you must be among the best in your field. And yes, YOU, can also become one of the best in your field. Why not?

But you have the highest odds of succeeding by picking a field that’s a good fit with your strengths. Authority is all about domain specificity.

Ask yourself: “Can I see myself in this field until the day I retire?”

The point here is to focus on an industry you really love. It takes time to master a skill. For example, I’ve been writing about <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/stoic-path-to-wealth/">investing </a>and <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/personal-finance-guide/">wealth building </a>more lately. But what most people don’t know is that I bought my first stocks in 2007, and I’ve been investing ever since.

This stuff takes time! So pick an industry that you enjoy the most. You can also pick a handful of related fields, but I would avoid trying to be an expert in multiple unrelated areas.

Step 2: Publish your most important ideas

I can’t think of many thought leaders or experts who don’t have a book or who haven’t created something of value. The point is that someone who is “the author of” or “the creator of” instantly has more authority than someone who does not have that.

It sounds superficial and silly, but this is how people look at us. You’re either an expert who has a book, or you’re one of the millions of people who try to be an expert.

That’s why it’s important to be strategic about your career. When I started, I made sure to follow the principle of authority. Before I started blogging, I self-published a book with my most important ideas at the time.

It was something that helped me to stand out compared to other bloggers. And it was also something that was valuable to readers.

If you’re serious about being seen as an authority, <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/book-business/">you need a book </a>. I’ve tried to find ways around it. But until now, I haven’t found another powerful method for building authority.

Step 3: Help other people and show their success stories

By showing others that you can give them value, you’re demonstrating the benefit of investing their attention, time, and money in your product/service. This helps you to succeed in the long run.

I’ve talked about how <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/happiness-usefulness/" rel="noreferrer noopener">value is the most important thing </a>in every business or profession. So if you’ve been making a difference in other peoples’ lives already, then you can ask them to be featured on your site.

Collect their testimonials. Angle them towards the specific challenges you’ve helped them overcome.

When new people discover your work, they can easily see what problems you can help them with. This makes your testimonials targeted—which helps your potential clients/customers easily determine that you’re the best fit for their needs.

The quickest road to authority is to associate yourself with trusted people or publications. If you’re a business writer who’s published in Business Insider, it offers <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/create-an-online-course/" rel="noreferrer noopener">social proof </a>beyond just publishing on your blog or social media.

When you’re building authority, focus on getting “logos.” It means that you want to put the effort into getting published in respected media outlets. This sounds sleazy, but it’s a sign of credibility.

Getting published in authoritative sources is easier said than done. There are tons of people who pitch to these big publications every day. And you’re competing with all of them. If you want to learn more about that, check out <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/pitch-emails/" rel="noreferrer noopener">this article with 3 tips for writing pitches </a>.

Many people are always on the lookout for <a dir="ltr" href="https://dariusforoux.com/focus-on-your-skills/" rel="noreferrer noopener">the latest tactics or “hacks” </a>to get more authority. But as you can see, all the stuff I shared with you in this article actually takes a lot of time and effort.

But it pays off. Let me ask you this: Let’s say you want to hire a marketing consultant to grow your business. Would you hire Joe Schmo who just has a website without any content or testimonials? Or would you hire a person who has published a book about marketing, has an active blog, and has multiple testimonials?

The choice is easy. Authority is ultimately a decision-shortcut for our audience or customers. If someone wants to hire you, they don’t have to actually hire you to know what you’re about.

They can simply look at what other people say about you. And if other people support your work, that means you’re an authority!

If you want to be someone who is respected, do things that others respect. Too often, we want to become an authority without deserving it. Sure, we all need to start somewhere. But the idea is to do something worthy of authority.

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How You Can Become An Authority In Your Field - Darius Foroux

The goal of listening is to make the other person feel heard. Listening is understanding where emotions come from, and it is not always rational. It is based on experiences and perspectives. We all have biases and blind spots. That makes it essential to have uncomfortable conversations with the different races in your company. Vulnerability is the best way to start these conversations to determine if you do things right or wrong. Ask them to help you get it right if you have made mistakes.&nbsp;

How to listen and learn from Black Lives Matter

Too many leaders are trying to lead by email. We need humanity more than well-articulated emails. Call your employees and ask them how they are doing. Take the time to listen to them. Treat them like friends. They should feel heard at the end of the call. If it is a larger company, check in on your leaders, and lean on them to check in on their teams.

Why you can't lead over email

Check out the highlights from Inc.'s Real Talk: Business Reboot streaming event, in which the best-selling author shares strategies to lead your team into the new normal.

How This Founder Cuts Distractions During Quarantine

Modern Fertility founder Afton Vechery has made some concessions to a difficult situation, but not when it comes to productivity.

For Modern Fertility's Afton Vechery , the biggest adjustment to <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/cameron-albert-deitch/remote-work-advice-best-practices.html">going remote during the coronavirus crisis </a>has been minor but symbolic: "I've had to switch from contacts to glasses because of all the screen time and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/sophie-downes/virtual-meeting-remote-work-from-home-zoom-productivity-empathy.html">video calls </a>," she says.<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/lindsay-blakely/modern-fertility-hormone-blood-test-pregnancy-30-under-30-2019.html">Vechery co-founded her home-fertility-test startup </a>, which has $22 million in funding, in 2017. While many now have plenty of time on their hands for, well, fertility, Vechery is busier than ever. Here's how she stays productive.

The alarm clock buzzes at 6:30 a.m. "A lot of founders have these amazing morning productivity hacks, like meditation," says Vechery. "For me, the single greatest motivating factor is to just be doing something I love. And so, uh, that translates to emails in bed when I wake up." After that, Vechery typically bikes to work. During the crisis, she's swapped her commute for an early-morning ride to the top of San Francisco's Twin Peaks. It doubles as me time. "It's really helpful to understand what's going to bubble up from your subconscious when you're not being stimulated sitting in front of a computer," she says.

Vechery's days in quarantine include more one-on-one meetings than they did before, but that's the cost of keeping information flowing. Modern Fertility has implemented daily meetings at which employees can check on current and upcoming projects. And the staff has organized optional virtual lunches and happy hours, which Vechery will drop into when she can. Whether at home or in the office, she and co-founder Carly Leahy generally eat dinner while working and wrap up around 9 p.m.--though they encourage staffers to leave earlier.

Vechery relies on an app called Captio, which lets the founder email a note to herself with one click. But you won't find the Captio icon on her iPhone's home screen, which is clear of everything but three apps: Calendar, Clock, and Notes. Manually searching for apps lets Vechery ignore distracting notifications. "As a founder, there's constantly something else you could be doing," she says. "But when you have space to think through what you're working on, you're a better leader."

When she makes time for a TV show, Vechery starts with the season finale and views the episodes in reverse order. The strange habit helps prevent the urge to binge. "I have an incredibly addictive personality," she says. "So this is better for everyone." Vechery also unwinds by playing the trumpet. "It's a total break from everything else in life," she says. "It lets you process your thoughts in a really different way."

Simon Sinek on How to Lead Through Crisis and Change

<ul><li>Develop relationships with your team members: that way both of you are more willing to listen. </li><li>Don’t put it off.</li><li>Choose a private and safe place.</li><li>Plan what you’re going to say, according to the person you are talking to.</li><li>Be factual and objective.&nbsp;</li><li>Wait for the other person to talk next. When you’ve said your piece, shut up.&nbsp;</li><li>Don’t end the session until you’ve agreed on 3 things:&nbsp;&nbsp;what will change, when it will change and how both of you will know that it’s changed.</li></ul>

The Art of Confrontation

When you become a boss you become someone responsible for the performance of a group. In that instant, you become the designated confronter. Some people will behave poorly. Some will underperform. Someone needs to confront them about it and you're it. Others may choose to, but it's your job.

Three Star Leadership | Wally Bock | Leadership and the Art of Confrontation

Most managers do not make use of feedback as a way to be helpful to the employee or even the organization. According to a study, only a quarter of employees agree that the feedback helps them perform better.
The decentralized, remote and agile nature of modern organizations is changing how people work, and most prefer autonomy and creative solutions, rather than walking the path the manager tells them to.

When Feedback Is Not Helpful

Organizations require managers to get employees work on multiple projects, multiple deadlines, while removing the barriers and managing interpersonal and communication challenges. 
Even more than the bottom line, effective management is often how the customer, team, employee or vendor are feeling about their interactions and actions.

The Changing Nature Of Work

The traditional method of feedback, the one-way, isolated, episodic interaction in which the manager politely uses the sandwich approach to focus on past mistakes is not working any more.
An interactive two-way communication is key, in which genuine, sincere and meaningful conversation is evident and is heard both ways. If there is a script to be followed at all times, then there is a problem, but if difficult conversations start to look easy due to frequent, human conversations, then a two-way street has been established.

Feedback: The Old Way Is Not Working

When the employee experiences bitter feedback related to the past which is useless to the current scenario, it creates an atmosphere of distrust. Managers need to be adaptive and coach the employee in real-time, focusing on the future, and not on the past.
Great managers paint a vision of the upcoming goal, and how to succeed in achieving the same, while clearing the obstacles the employee will eventually face.

Turn Feedback Into Coaching

Leaders need to set up learning and development programs for managers to act in a way leaders do, making sure that they:
<ol>
<li>Learn more about employees and their issues.</li>
<li>Ask questions.</li>
<li>Listen actively.</li>
<li>Encourage ideas at all times.</li>
<li>Play to the employees strengths.</li>
</ol>

Managers Need To Become Leaders

Do you have to give tough feedback to an employee this week? Read this article first to get it right.

<ul><li>Few managers give feedback that is helpful to employees </li><li>Managers need to shift from past-focused feedback to future-oriented coaching </li><li>Great coaching conversations are a two-way street </li> </ul>

The six most dreaded words for any employee: Can I give you some feedback?

Gallup has found that only 26% of employees strongly agree that the feedback they receive helps them do better work.

Clearly, feedback isn't working the way it should.

When most organizations had hierarchical, top-down, command-and-control structures as their primary decision-making method, feedback was paramount. Information mostly needed to cascade downward in an organization, and the primary role of managers was to hold people accountable.

Today, as leaders know, the workplace is radically different. Modern organizations are more decentralized, matrixed and agile. Employees have greater autonomy and are required to be creative in how work gets done.

This means managers can't just give employees feedback about what they did "right" or "wrong." They must listen, ask questions, gain context and create a two-way dialogue.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/321074/perks-and-challenges-of-management.aspx">The practice of management </a>is far too complex for a simple rubric to transform how employees perform and develop. And there has never been a one-page checklist that can turn a bad manager into a good one.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1595622241/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5D2YCbAY90XF4?utm_source=link_wwwv9&amp;utm_campaign=item_257582&amp;utm_medium=copy">Effective management </a>requires managers to help employees prioritize multiple projects, shift deadlines, remove barriers and manage interpersonal challenges. There's hardly ever a single "perfect answer" to modern business problems.

In many professional situations, a successful outcome is based on emotional factors:

<ul><li>how a customer feels after interacting with you </li><li>how a team feels about a new initiative </li><li>how a vendor feels about partnering with you </li> </ul>

"Feedback" rarely makes sense in these situations. What you really want is an <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238064/re-engineering-performance-management.aspx">open, honest, two-way dialogue that strengthens relationships rather than one-way instruction </a>and criticism.

To put it simply, traditional feedback is one direction (manager to employee), episodic (i.e., infrequent and isolated) and focused on past mistakes that can't be fixed.

Coaching conversations, on the other hand, are about now and what's next . Coaching conversations put the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/home/en-us/cliftonstrengths-for-organizations?_ga=2.225011674.1743973183.1557761089-1327671512.1461159048&amp;utm_source=link_wwwv9&amp;utm_campaign=item_257582&amp;utm_medium=copy">employee's strengths and future potential </a>at the center, in an ongoing, middle-of-the-action dialogue.

Effective management requires managers to help employees prioritize multiple projects, shift deadlines, remove barriers and manage interpersonal challenges. There's hardly ever a single perfect answer to modern business problems.

Imagine the best manager you've ever had. More than likely, they were great at having meaningful conversations -- where you felt like you were heard and understood.

They may have delivered difficult messages or pushed you harder than you were used to, but somehow it didn't feel bad. They didn't always follow a script or a rubric. They adapted their approach to what you needed in the moment.

That's the power of individualized conversations. An employee feels known, understood, heard and appreciated -- even when the topic of discussion isn't pleasant. <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238064/re-engineering-performance-management.aspx">Great managers build performance conversations around an employee's unique strengths </a>, so that the dialogue is naturally positive and constructive.

Leaders need to understand that these skills don't come naturally to most managers. They need to be taught, ideally in a role-play or real-life environment, and developed over time.

Like a good coach, great managers are always thinking about the next play, the next game and the next win.

They keep conversations focused on the future. What can we do to improve our chances of success next time? What would it look like to exceed our expectations? How can we prepare for the future?

Great managers are achievement-oriented and focused on developing their teams.

That's not to say managers should stop giving feedback all together. There's no doubt that reflecting on past performance and discussing how it went is important -- it facilitates learning.

The problem is employees typically experience feedback as criticism that is delivered far too long after the fact. Feedback is helpful when it's immediate and constructive. And even then, feedback alone does not translate to great coaching.

Improving feedback -- how you tell people about your observations and opinions -- is a low bar. It captures a small sliver of the picture.

Often, managers don't adequately observe performance or have enough expertise to tell employees how work should actually be done. Great managers take their coaching to the next level by observing, listening and proactively anticipating topics that will be useful to employees in the future.

They paint a vision for the future -- a portrait of success -- and establish ongoing dialogue with employees that helps them comfortably discuss issues they encounter along the way.

Like a good coach, great managers are always thinking about the next play, the next game and the next win. They keep conversations focused on the future.

Great Coaching Conversations Are a Busy, Two-Way Street

Employees often feel like feedback "happens" to them. While well-intended, it's an event that tends to feel critical and condemning. And worse<a dir="ltr" href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-02773-003?utm_source=link_wwwv9&amp;utm_campaign=item_257582&amp;utm_medium=copy">, research shows that it only improves performance about one-third of the time </a>, while actually making it worse one-third of the time.

Great coaching conversations are a two-way street. Employees should feel encouraged to share their perspective, ask questions and bring issues to their manager. And it should be a busy two-way street. <a dir="ltr" href="https://courses.gallup.com/workplace/five-conversations-that-drive-performance.html">Frequent, meaningful conversations are key to fostering collaboration and engaged performance </a>.

Great coaches inspire you to achieve more than you thought you could. They do exponentially more than just tell you what to do. They teach you to own your performance, do what's best for the organization and be a great partner.

By opening the door to great conversations, difficult conversations become easier, too. Important issues are no longer a surprise -- you can see them coming and hopefully do something about them before they become a problem.

Imagine trying to have a really tough conversation before that busy, two-way street has been established. Addressing sensitive topics like diversity and inclusion, pay, promotion, or under-performance are all going to feel scary if you haven't already built up some understanding and trust with your teammate.

Addressing sensitive topics like diversity and inclusion, pay, promotion, or under-performance are all going to feel scary if you haven't already built up some understanding and trust with your teammate.

Learn From the Best Manager You've Ever Had (or Wish You Had)

Great managers inspire independence and ownership in pursuit of high performance. That only comes through frequent, open-ended conversations where people feel like their honest opinions will be valued and respected.

Managers today may not be the experts in every situation, but they can shape conversations and deliver support in a way that leads to continual improvement.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1595622241/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5D2YCbAY90XF4?utm_source=link_wwwv9&amp;utm_campaign=item_257582&amp;utm_medium=copy">Leaders can take the initiative here </a>. They can change the expectations for how collaboration happens and how work gets done in their organizations. They can set up learning and development programs that teach these coaching skills to their top managers.

And leaders can model these behaviors themselves:

<ul><li>Learn more about your employees. </li><li>Ask questions. </li><li>Listen. </li><li>Encourage them to bring their best ideas. </li><li>Help them play to their strengths. </li> </ul>

Do this consistently and you'll become the great partner they want to talk to.

Feedback Is Not Enough

Alexandria, with its Great Library, was marked as the intellectual capital of the world.
During the third century BCE, the Musaeum, an educational and research institution, was built in Alexandria. The Great Library was one part of the Musaeum and may have held around 700,000 scrolls (equivalent to over 100,000 printed books.)

Alexandria during the third and second centuries BCE

Self Improvement

History

Alexandria was founded in 331BCE by the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great. Alexander left Egypt a few months later, leaving his viceroy Cleomenes in charge.
Alexander passed away in 323 BCE, and one of his deputies, Macedonian general Ptolemy Lagides, took control of Egypt. Ptolemy executed Cleomenes and declared himself pharaoh. He started the Ptolemaic dynasty and made Alexandria his capital in 305 BCE.

The start of the city Alexandria

The city&#39;s population grew to around 300,000 people. It remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, as well as Roman and Byzantine Egypt, for almost a thousand years.
Alexandria was designed by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes, using a Hippodamian gridiron street plan. The city was cosmopolitan and diverse. It consisted of Greeks, Jew, and Egyptian Arabs.

Alexandria: A cosmopolitan city

The Musaeum, or &quot;shrine of the Muses,&quot; from where we get the word museum, included a lengthy roofed walkway and a large communal dining hall, where scholars dined and shared ideas. The scholars were salaried employees, received free room and board, and paid no taxes.
The Musaeum contained exhibit halls, private study rooms, lecture halls, residential quarters for scholars, and theatres. The Great Library held shelves upon shelves of papyrus scrolls and was envisioned as a universal library that would contain all the world&#39;s written knowledge.

The Musaeum and Library of Alexandria

The idea of a universal library proved to be a game-changer. Alexandria inspired other cities to create rival &quot;universal libraries,&quot; such as the Library of Pergamum in today&#39;s Turkey.
The Great Library&#39;s main structure was likely burned in 48BCE when Ptolemy XIII laid a siege against his wife and co-ruler Cleopatra and her lover, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. The smaller library building in the Serapeum temple, which was added when the first library ran out of space, may have survived until the 4th century when the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I ordered all pagan temples to be destroyed.

Alexandria pioneered the universal library

Today marks the eighth installment in a series of articles by HumanProgress.org called <a dir="ltr" href="https://humanprogress.org/content?cid=105">Centers of Progress </a>. Where does progress happen? The story of civilization is, in many ways, the story of the city. It is the city that has helped to create and define the modern world. This bi-weekly column will give a short overview of urban centers that were the sites of pivotal advances in culture, economics, politics, technology, etc.

Our eighth Center of Progress is Alexandria during the third and second centuries BCE, when the Great Library marked the city as, arguably, the intellectual capital of the world. During the third century BCE, an educational and research institution called the Musaeum (literally, “shrine of the Muses”), from which we get the word museum , was built in Alexandria. The Great Library of Alexandria was one part of the Musaeum. While estimates vary widely, the library may have held around 700,000 scrolls, the equivalent of more than 100,000 printed books. The amalgamation of so much written knowledge in one place represented a breakthrough in the way that humanity stored and distributed information.

For people today, who have grown up with unparalleled access to information thanks to the internet, it is difficult to comprehend a world where information is out of reach. But throughout much of history, knowledge often went unwritten. Even when written down, information was typically scattered in different places or otherwise inaccessible.

In the Great Library of Alexandria, much of humanity’s collective knowledge of subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, could be accessed in a single place. Among the writings that you could browse in the library were histories, philosophical treatises, literary works of poetry and prose, and the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pinakes">Pinakes </a> —believed to be the world’s first library catalog. Philosophers and scholars flocked to the city, attracted by its library’s vast compendium of information and the city’s reputation as an intellectual center.

Alexandria was founded in 331 BCE, by the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great, who was in the midst of conquering the Persian Empire. Alexander drove out the Persian invaders who had deposed the last indigenous king of ancient Egypt just over a decade prior. Alexander departed from Egypt a few months after founding Alexandria, leaving his viceroy Cleomenes in charge.

After Alexander passed away in 323 BCE, one of his deputies, a Macedonian general by the name of Ptolemy Lagides, took control of Egypt. Ptolemy executed Cleomenes and declared himself pharaoh. He started what came to be known as the Ptolemaic dynasty and made Alexandria his capital in 305 BCE. The Ptolemy family, despite a seemingly <a dir="ltr" href="https://thorax.bmj.com/content/58/3/281.3">hereditary </a>tendency toward morbid obesity and lethargy, managed to stay in power until 30 BCE.

The city’s population rapidly grew to around 300,000 people. Alexandria became a key center of Hellenistic civilization. It remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, as well as Roman and Byzantine Egypt, for almost a millennium (until the Muslim conquest of Egypt overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate in 641 CE). Alexandria was also the largest city in the ancient world, until Rome eventually grew even larger.

Today, Alexandria is the second-largest city in Egypt. It is a major economic center and the most populous city on the Mediterranean Sea. It has a population of over 5 million people. Alexandria is thus also the sixth-largest city in the Arab world and the ninth-largest city in Africa. Due to its historical importance, it is a well-frequented tourist destination. It is also a major industrial center due to its pipelines of natural gas and oil from the Suez.

If you were to sail to Alexandria during the time of its famed library, you would have been struck by the towering sight of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Hellenic Alexandria was home to one of the most impressive and famous sites in antiquity, the Pharos or the great lighthouse, which was constructed in the 3rd century BCE. Standing at least 330 feet high (and possibly higher), the Pharos was taller than the Statue of Liberty (305 feet) and Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue (125 feet). For many centuries, the Pharos remained among the tallest man-made structures in the world. At the top of the lighthouse’s tower, a fire, which was likely kept burning with oil rather than wood, lit the way for ships that were entering Alexandria’s harbor.

Sailing nearer, you would have seen the city of Alexandria emerge on an isthmus opposite the small island on which the Pharos stood. You would have viewed the city’s classical architecture laid out among the orderly parallel lines of the city’s streets. Alexandria was designed by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes, using a Hippodamian gridiron street plan. After docking at the harbor and setting foot in the city itself, you would have observed a wide variety of people, with the three most common ethnicities being Greeks, Jews, and Egyptian Arabs.

In other words, the city was cosmopolitan and diverse. In the city’s southwest was the Rhakotis—a settlement predating Alexandria that had been absorbed into the city. It was mainly inhabited by Arabs. Some of the city’s Arab residents may have continued to wear the Egyptian kilts, tunics and dresses that had been common before Alexander the Great’s conquest and Ptolemaic rule. However, many urban Arabs adopted the wearing of Hellenized clothing as a social marker of status. The Jewish quarter in the city’s northeast was home to one of the largest urban Jewish communities in the world at the time. During the city’s golden age, Alexandria was tolerant of religious differences. Notable Jewish Alexandrians included the historian Artapanus of Alexandria, Demetrius the Chronographer, and the playwright known as Ezekiel the Tragedian.

The Brucheum was the wealthy Greek or Royal quarter of Alexandria, and it was there that the city’s grandest architecture could be found. Most people there would have worn Greek garments such as the himation and chiton, or highly Hellenized versions of traditional Egyptian clothing. In the Brucheum you would have seen magnificent temples to the Greeks' deities—prominently Poseidon, the god of the sea. Alexandria was, after all, a coastal city dependent on maritime trade. The Brucheum also contained a theater, and you could have seen theatergoers milling about it, discussing the latest plays. Alexandria had a thriving arts scene. The city was famous for its professional <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255408">entertainers </a>, “a combination of mime and dancer,” as well as its poets and playwrights.

Within the royal palace’s grounds in the Brucheum, you would have found the Musaeum and the Library—two beautifully decorated edifices in a campus of architecturally intricate buildings and flowering gardens. The Musaeum building included a lengthy roofed walkway and a large communal dining hall, where scholars dined and exchanged thoughts. The Musaeum also contained exhibit halls (from which we derive the modern sense of “museum”), private study rooms, lecture halls, residential quarters for scholars, and theaters for live performances. The Great Library consisted of shelves upon shelves of papyrus scrolls.

The Musaeum was most likely founded by the first Ptolemy king, Ptolemy Soter I, who is thought to have entrusted the creation of the Musaeum and the Great Library to Demetrius of Phaleron—a former Athenian politician, who had fallen from power in his home city-state, and sought refuge at Ptolemy’s court. A letter surviving from the 2nd century BCE <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Alexandria">reveals </a>that the new institution was envisioned as a universal library that would encompass all of the world’s written knowledge:

“Demetrius…had at his disposal a large budget in order to collect, if possible, all the books in the world…to the best of his ability, he carried out the king’s objective.”

The library soon compiled the whole corpus of Greek literature, including the “books of Aristotle,” along with various texts in other languages such as Egyptian. The Musaeum’s scholars produced many new works to add to the shelves.

The Musaeum was a research institution with over a thousand scholars living and working in the complex at any given time. The Museaum’s scholars were salaried employees, who were motivated, in part, by monetary incentives. On top of their salaries, for example, they received free room and board, and paid no taxes. Their expertise spanned a range of disciplines. One room in the Musaeum was dedicated to the study of anatomy; another area was dedicated to astronomy, and so on. A famous medical school was also established at the Musaeum, where Galen would study centuries later. Papyrus scrolls in the Great Library likely <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3991212/">chronicled </a>everything from mental disorders to intestinal diseases, from surgery and bone-setting to dentistry and even the making of false teeth.

It was thanks to the Great Library that the scholars of the Musaeum were able to achieve so much. The library marked Alexandria as the world capital of information, attracting many of the brightest minds of the day. In Alexandria, the astronomer Aristarchus (c. 310 BCE-c. 230 BCE) theorized that the earth revolves around the sun. He did so 1800 years before Copernicus. The physician Herophilus (325 BCE-255 BCE) first identified the brain as the organ that controls the movement of the body. The Egyptian priest Manetho (early 3rd century BCE) chronicled Egypt’s pharaohs and organized Egyptian history into dynasties still used by historians today. The poet Callimachus (c. 305 BCE-c. 240 BCE) detailed the texts in the library, which were organized by subject and author, thus creating the first library catalog and becoming the father of library science.

The inventor and mathematician Archimedes (287 BCE-212 BCE) studied in Alexandria and may also have taught there. While taking a bath, Archimedes realized that displaced water could be used to measure the volume of an object. He is said to have shouted Eureka! (Greek for “I have found it!”), leapt from a bathtub without bothering to dress, and ran through the streets to announce his discovery. The geographer Eratosthenes (c. 276 BCE-194 BCE) also taught in Alexandria and made his groundbreaking calculation of the circumference of the Earth in that city. He was the founder of chronology, the first person to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis, and the creator of the first global map projection of the world (In cartography, a map projection is a precise method of displaying the globe's surface as a flat plane while maintaining accuracy). The founder of the mathematical sub-discipline of geometry, Euclid (born c. 300 BCE) taught at Alexandria too. Later, the engineer and mathematician Hero (also called Heron, 10 CE-70 CE), nicknamed “the greatest experimenter of antiquity,” lived and worked in Alexandria as well. It was there that he invented the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/aeolipile">aeolipile </a>— the first known device to transform steam into rotary motion. (At the time, the steam turbine was treated as an amusing curiosity without any practical purpose).

The Great Library and the Musaeum were open to scholars from all cultures and backgrounds. A few centuries after the period that concerns us, one of the first recorded female scholars, the philosopher and mathematician Hypatia (born between 350 and 370 CE and died 415 CE) would work in Alexandria, in the spirit of the Musaeum even after that institution's destruction. Both women and men were allowed to study the texts in the Great Library.

While other cities had built libraries <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_libraries_in_the_ancient_world">before </a>, Alexandria pioneered the idea of a universal library at a scale never before achieved. Libraries and archives were kept in many cities in various ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria and Greece. However, those earlier institutions were limited in scope, typically only contained local knowledge or covered a particular subject area, and were chiefly oriented toward conservation of a particular cultural tradition or heritage.

The idea of a universal library, like that of Alexandria, proved game-changing. Alexandria’s library contained works concerning practices from far away. To give an example, it included scrolls describing Buddhism, which arrived in the library as a result of diplomatic exchange between India’s Ashoka and Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Alexandria inspired other cities to create rival “universal libraries,” such as the Library of Pergamum in what is today Turkey.

The Great Library was eventually destroyed. The main library structure was likely burned in 48 BCE, when the last Ptolemy ruler, Ptolemy XIII, laid a siege against his wife, sister and co-ruler Cleopatra and her lover, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. The secondary library building, in the Serapeum temple, which was added when the first library could fit no more scrolls, may have survived until the 4th century, when the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I ordered the demolition of all pagan temples.

For seeking to compile all of the known knowledge in the world in one place and make it accessible to scholars from all parts of the Mediterranean, Alexandria during the third and second centuries BCE is deservedly our eighth Center of Progress . Alexandria pioneered the concept of a universal library. Long after the Great Library of Alexandria ceased operating, people have continued to expand the store of human knowledge, and access to it, ultimately culminating in tools like Google and Wikipedia. Today, many of us carry the keys to a library that is infinitely larger than Alexandria’s—in our pockets in the form of smartphones.

<ul><li><div>Introducing the New and Improved HumanProgress.org </div><div>March 28, 2018 </div> </li> </ul>

Centers of Progress: Alexandria (Information)

A whole lot of ingredients go into the cauldron of motivation, and each one of us has different personality attributes, requiring a specific and tailored approach. The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator tool identifies one’s personality type by providing indications like:
<ol>
<li>One’s degree of introversion or extroversion.</li>
<li>Usage of feelings or thinking while making decisions.</li>
</ol>

Our Own Personal Motivation

<ul>
<li>In a professional setting, the promotion-focused people are optimistic, speed-oriented, great brainstormers, plan for best-case scenarios and are also open to new opportunities. The people rely on positive feedback and can be dejected when things are not right. They like to think out-of-the-box and dive into work such as musicians, copywriters, inventors and consultants.</li>
<li>Prevention-focused people are slow and steady, provide accuracy, and have tried and tested ways of doing things. The people are uncomfortable with short deadlines, praise, and feel worried or anxious when things aren’t going smoothly. Being risk-aversive, they do great in administrative work, bookkeeping, accounting, manufacturing and risk-management work. Any job requiring accuracy and attention to detail would fit these personality types.</li>
</ul>

Promotion And Prevention Work Personalities

It enhances and sustains the value of the individual. When managers&#39; motivational strategies do not align with the dominant focus of one employee (prevention or promotion), then it is less likely the individual will achieve one’s goal.

Motivational Fit

Different personality types are inspired and motivated by different types of stories.
The promotion-focused ones find inspirational leaders stories to be engaging and effective, whereas the prevention-focused individuals are impressed with cautionary tales of someone who didn’t follow the path.

The Right Motivational Story

The right mentors and bosses play a significant role in the motivation of the individual.
When there is a mismatch between the employee and the boss, the work commitment and enjoyment declines.

The Right Mentor

The right language, especially in framing a goal has a big impact on the performance of an employee.
<ul>
<li>The prevention-focused employee gets motivated by a different kind of language, which emphasizes on the inconvenience and the pitfalls of their assignments.</li>
<li>The promotion-focused employees get motivated by language that is inspiring and makes the work enjoyable and tantalizing.</li>
</ul>

Goal Framing

Promotion-focused employees like to receive feedback in which the manager is acknowledging and praising their excellent efforts. Prevention-focused employees respond well to criticism and the looming possibility of failure and try harder to achieve the goal when they are made to feel insecure.
It is a sound strategy not to be overly positive with the prevention-focused, or overly critical with the promotion-focused.

Feedback: Giving And Receiving

Rewards and incentives vary according to personality type.
<ul>
<li>The fear-based strategies that instil insecurity in the employees (The Stick) work well with the prevention-based employee.</li>
<li>&#39;Carrot&#39; based strategies that are rewarding success, work best with the promotion-based employees.</li>
</ul>

Incentives

In what kinds of situations are you most effective? What factors strengthen—or undermine—your motivation? People answer these questions in very different ways, and that’s the challenge at the heart of good management—whether you’re managing your own performance or someone else’s. One-size-fits-all principles don’t work. The strategies that help you excel may not help your colleagues or your direct reports; what works for your boss or your mentor doesn’t always work for you. Personality matters.

In business the most common tool for identifying one’s personality type is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. But the problem with this and many other assessment tools is that they don’t actually predict performance. (In fairness to Myers-Briggs, it doesn’t claim to.) These tests will tell you about attributes—such as your degree of introversion or extroversion, or your reliance on thinking versus feeling—that indicate what you like to do, but they tell you very little about whether you are good at it, or how to improve if you’re not.

Fortunately, there is a way of grouping people into types on the basis of a personality attribute that does predict performance: promotion focus or prevention focus. Although these types are well known among academic psychologists and marketing and management researchers, word of them has not yet filtered down to the people who we believe could benefit most: managers keen to be more effective in their jobs and to help others reach their full potential as well.

Motivational focus affects how we approach life’s challenges and demands. Promotion-focused people see their goals as creating a path to gain or advancement and concentrate on the rewards that will accrue when they achieve them. They are eager and they play to win. You’ll recognize promotion-focused people as those who are comfortable taking chances, who like to work quickly, who dream big and think creatively. Unfortunately, all that chance taking, speedy working, and positive thinking makes these individuals more prone to error, less likely to think things through, and usually unprepared with a plan B if things go wrong. That’s a price they are willing to pay, because for the promotion-focused, the worst thing is a chance not taken, a reward unearned, a failure to advance.

The promotion-focused are engaged by inspirational role models, the prevention-focused by cautionary tales. Prevention-focused people, in contrast, see their goals as responsibilities, and they concentrate on staying safe. They worry about what might go wrong if they don’t work hard enough or aren’t careful enough. They are vigilant and play to not lose, to hang on to what they have, to maintain the status quo. They are often more risk-averse, but their work is also more thorough, accurate, and carefully considered. To succeed, they work slowly and meticulously. They aren’t usually the most creative thinkers, but they may have excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. While the promotion-minded generate lots of ideas, good and bad, it often takes someone prevention-minded to tell the difference between the two.

Although everyone is concerned at various times with both promotion and prevention, most of us have a dominant motivational focus. It affects what we pay attention to, what we value, and how we feel when we succeed or fail. It determines our strengths and weaknesses, both personally and professionally. And it’s why the decisions and preferences of our differently focused colleagues can seem so odd at times.

Most readers will be able to identify their dominant focus immediately. If you can’t, you can try our <a dir="ltr" href="http://yourfocusdiagnostic.com/">online diagnostic </a>or look for the following signs in yourself or your colleagues: <ul><li>work quickly </li> </ul><ul><li>consider lots of alternatives and are great brainstormers </li> </ul><ul><li>are open to new opportunities </li> </ul><ul><li>are optimists </li> </ul>

<ul><li>plan only for best-case scenarios </li> </ul><ul><li>seek positive feedback and lose steam without it </li> </ul><ul><li>feel dejected or depressed when things go wrong </li> </ul><ul><li>work slowly and deliberately </li> </ul><ul><li>tend to be accurate </li> </ul><ul><li>are prepared for the worst </li> </ul><ul><li>are stressed by short deadlines </li> </ul><ul><li>stick to tried-and-true ways of doing things </li> </ul><ul><li>are uncomfortable with praise or optimism </li> </ul>

<ul><li>feel worried or anxious when things go wrong </li> </ul>Simply identifying your own type should help you embrace your strengths as well as recognize and compensate for your weaknesses. To some extent people do this intuitively. Studies show that prevention-focused individuals are likely to take up what organizational psychologists call “conventional and realistic” work, as administrators, bookkeepers, accountants, technicians, and manufacturing workers. These occupations require knowledge of rules and regulations, careful execution, and a propensity for thoroughness—they are jobs in which attention to detail is what really pays off.

The promotion-focused are likely to pursue “artistic and investigative” careers, as musicians, copywriters, inventors, and consultants. These tend to be think-outside-the-box jobs, in which people are rewarded for creative and innovative thinking, and being practical isn’t emphasized.

Your focus might also steer you toward a particular industry. Promotion-focused leaders tend to be most effective in dynamic industries, where it’s important to respond rapidly and innovatively to stay ahead. Prevention-focused leaders are most effective in more stable industries, where avoiding catastrophic error is often the key to success.

Once you know your focus, you can choose role models, frame goals, seek or give feedback, and provide incentives that will strengthen your motivation or your team’s. Motivational fit enhances and sustains both the eagerness of the promotion-minded and the vigilance of the prevention-minded, making work seem more valuable and thus boosting both performance and enjoyment. When the motivational strategies we use don’t align with our dominant focus, we are less likely to achieve our goals.

Storytelling has long been touted as a motivational tool. But different types of people need varying kinds of stories. Studies show that the promotion-focused are more engaged when they hear about an inspirational role model, such as a particularly high-performing salesperson or a uniquely effective team leader. The prevention-focused, in contrast, are impressed by a strong cautionary tale about someone whose path they shouldn’t follow, because thinking about avoiding mistakes feels right to them. As an individual, you naturally pay attention to the kind of story that resonates most with you. But as a colleague or a boss, you should think about whether the stories you share with others are motivational for them.

It’s also important to seek out mentors and, when possible, future bosses whose focus matches your own and, if you’re a manager, to subtly adapt your style to suit each employee’s focus. According to recent research, promotion-minded employees thrive under transformational leaders, who support creative solutions, have a long-term vision, and look for ways to shake things up. The prevention-focused are at their best under transactional leaders, who emphasize rules and standards, protect the status quo, tend toward micromanagement, discourage errors, and focus on effectively reaching more-immediate goals. When people find themselves working for a leader who fits, they say that they value their work significantly more and are less likely to want to leave the organization. When employees and bosses are mismatched, enjoyment of and commitment to work declines. If no one works to counteract the tension, serious problems can arise. (See the exhibit “When Personalities Don’t Match.”)

by Andrew Kakabadse and Nada K. Kakabadse What happens when differing personality types work together yet don’t appreciate each other’s strengths? Over the past 20 years we have done research with leaders in more than 12,500 private, public, military, and government organizations across 21 countries. Here’s what we’ve found:

When Jane Promotion manages Joe Prevention, she rarely sees him as a threat. But she may overlook and underutilize his strengths and fail to encourage him with defined tasks and clear objectives. When both individuals are subordinate, their contrasting approaches lead to tension. Joe Prevention sees Jane Promotion as a threat, while Jane gets frustrated by the barriers Joe creates and may openly challenge him. When Joe Prevention and Jane Promotion are both bosses, a power struggle may develop. Jane will emphasize successes, undermining Joe, while Joe heaps on criticism, often behind Jane’s back.

Even when Joe Prevention manages Jane Promotion, he may feel threatened by her and seek to limit her activity and opportunities as a result. She will resent the micromanagement and may eventually leave. Andrew Kakabadse is a professor of international management development at Cranfield University’s School of Management in the UK. Nada K. Kakabadse is a professor of management and business research at the University of Northampton’s Business School in the UK. Sometimes even minor tweaks in how you think about a goal or the language you use to describe it can make a difference. One of our favorite studies on this subject comes from Germany. Coaches in a highly regarded semiprofessional soccer league were told to prep their players for high-pressure penalty kicks with one of two statements: “You are going to shoot five penalties. Your aspiration is to score at least three times.” Or “You are going to shoot five penalties. Your obligation is to not miss more than twice.” You probably wouldn’t expect a small change in wording to affect these practiced, highly motivated players. But it had a big impact. Players did significantly better when the instructions were framed to match their dominant motivational focus, which the researchers had previously measured. This was especially true for prevention-minded players, who scored nearly twice as often when they received the don’t-miss instructions.

In another study that used framing, students were assigned to write a report, for which they would be paid, and deliver it by a certain date. They were asked to make a specific plan, detailing when, where, and how they would write the report. One version of the instructions was designed to fit a promotion focus: Imagine a convenient time when you will be able to write your report. Imagine a comfortable, quiet place where you might write your report. Imagine yourself capturing as many details as you can and making your report vivid and interesting.

The other version was designed to fit a prevention focus:Imagine times that will be inconvenient for writing your report so that you can avoid them. Imagine places that will be uncomfortable or have lots of distraction so that you can avoid writing your report there. Imagine yourself not forgetting any details and being careful not to make your report bland or boring.

Remarkably, students who received instructions suited to their dominant motivational focus were about 50% more likely than others to turn in their reports. So when you are trying to keep yourself or someone else motivated, remember that promotion-focused people need to think about what they are doing in terms of positives (what they aspire to, how best to accomplish the task) and prevention-focused people should instead think about negatives (potential mistakes, obstacles to avoid).

Once goals are set in a way that creates motivational fit, you must sustain the fit by seeking out—or, as a manager, giving—the right kind of feedback. Promotion-focused people tend to increase their efforts when a supervisor offers them praise for excellent work, whereas prevention-focused people are more responsive to criticism and the looming possibility of failure. For instance, in one study we found that the promotion-focused were more motivated and tried harder in the midst of a task when they were assured that they were on target to reach a goal as opposed to when they were told that they were below target but could catch up. For prevention-focused people the reverse was true: They tried harder when told they weren’t on target; in fact, being assured of success undermined their motivation.

Most people have a dominant focus, but some seem to wear both hats equally often. To create motivational fit and enhance performance for these hybrids, you must remember that no one can wear both hats at the same time. Hybrids will adopt one focus or the other, often as a function of which motivation is best suited to the task at hand—so let that be your guide. Create fit for tasks involving safety or accuracy by using prevention feedback and incentives, but use the promotion variety for tasks involving creativity or advancement.

.css-d7z4j9{font-family:'Source Sans Pro',sans-serif;font-size:2rem;line-height:2.5rem;letter-spacing:-0.125%;font-weight:700;}The Principle Of Authority