<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/benjamin-spall/">By Benjamin Spall</a>



There are hundreds of thousands of daily habits you can adopt to stay inspired and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/stanford-study-longer-hours-doesnt-make-you-more-productive-heres-how-to-get-more-done-by-doing-less.html" class="">boost your productivity</a>, but how do you decide on which ones to focus on?



Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed and studied more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-agree-giving-up-this-one-thing-will-make-you-more-successful.html" class="">300 highly accomplished people</a>, from business leaders and university presidents to Olympians and artists, about their daily routines.



Here’s what some of the most successful people do on weekends to make their weekdays <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/5-powerful-daily-routines-of-insanely-happy-and-productive-people.html">easier and more productive</a>:



1. They catch up on sleep



Your body (and brain) won’t perform at its best if you don’t give it proper rest. Of the several hundred people I interviewed, their sleep times&nbsp;<a href="https://mymorningroutine.com/statistics/" class="">average out</a>&nbsp;at seven hours and 29 minutes per night. Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey and Jeff Bezos all say they get at least&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/news/a35114/sleep-habits-of-highly-successful-people/" class="">seven hours of sleep per night</a>, as well.



But it can be hard to get in seven and a half hours, especially if you have a demanding job that often requires you to stay at the office late. If you find yourself falling behind during the week, use the weekend to catch up.



Don’t take this as an excuse to sleep five hours per night during the week, followed by 12 per night over the weekend, though. Just know that catching up on a few more hours over the weekend is better than nothing.



2. They spend time with their loved ones



If you feel guilty about how little time you’re able to spend with your family and friends Monday through Friday, you’re not alone. Whether you choose to work out with your spouse or take your kids to the park, doing it during the weekend will save you from feeling any guilt during the weekdays.



“On the weekends we have [a nanny] in the morning, so [my wife] Tiff and I go work out Saturday mornings. Then the rest of the weekend it’s just us,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-mark-cuban-teaches-his-kids-2014-3" class="">Mark Cuban</a>&nbsp;said at South by Southwest in 2014. “It’s us putting them to bed. It’s us at dinner. We try to be as normal as possible.”



Keep in mind, however, that if you need to get some work done over the weekend, aim to do it Saturday morning so you’re not thinking about it during the rest of the weekend.



3. They strategize on the week ahead



Successful people always strategize on their week ahead so they can get a head start on Monday. This can mean anything from blocking off a whole half-day on the weekend to spending 10 minutes on Sunday evening looking at next week’s calendar and taking notes on what you have coming up. Once Monday morning hits, you’ll be 110 percent ready.



“Saturday I take off. I hike. And then Sunday is reflections, feedback, strategy and getting ready for the rest of the week,” Jack Dorsey tells Brooke Potter, author of <a class="" href="https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-More-Productive-Successful-Revealed-ebook/dp/B00QT2VPC0">“Becoming More Productive: The Secrets of Successful People Revealed.”</a>



4. They make time for what energizes them



While successful people make plans to ensure they don’t waste their days, they also make a point to relax — and there are plenty of hours in the weekend to do that. Many will eat breakfast at a more leisurely pace than weekdays allow, curl up on the couch with some books, meditate or work out.



Richard Branson’s Saturday evenings consist of more partying (to each their own, right?). On Sundays, he engages in more physical activities like rock jumping, paddle boarding and boat races,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/my-perfect-weekend/8636955/My-perfect-weekend-Richard-Branson.html" class="">Branson tells the Telegraph</a>.



In a <a class="" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1xj56q/hello_reddit_im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill/">Reddit AMA session in 2014</a>, Gates said he prefers to keep his time off as mellow as possible. “Playing Bridge is a pretty old-fashioned thing in a way that I really like,” he said. “I was watching my daughter ride horses this weekend and that is also a bit old fashioned but fun. I do the dishes every night — other people volunteer but I like the way I do it.”



5. They take care of chores



Chores are important and if you don’t get to them, they’ll pile up and turn into a cloud of anxiety that lingers over your head. Successful people make time to take care of their chores, whether it’s shopping for groceries, doing laundry or taking care of bills, but they don’t let it take over their weekends completely. (If they did, there’d be no time to do any relaxing or reflecting.)



To properly space out your chores, you’ll have to prioritize getting some of them done during the weekdays. It can be as simple as setting aside 15 minutes before bedtime each night to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Then, when the weekend hits, schedule at least an hour or two to complete the chores that require more time and attention. You’ll feel much better and in control once you’ve finished them.



6. They set aside alone time and reflect



Reflection and alone time is healthy for your mind and body. It will also help you to better reach your goals. Successful people use the weekend to reflect or meditate on things that are important to them (how can they make more time for those things?), things that have been bothering them (what are some good solutions?) and their career (how can they improve their skills and performance?).



A&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2414478" class="">Harvard study</a>&nbsp;found that people who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about lessons they learned performed 23 percent better compared to those who didn’t. Other&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/16-077_0aae29b7-b67e-402a-9bc9-c06dd477e8da.pdf" class="">studies</a>&nbsp;have found that self-reflection can help you become a happier, more productive and less burned out person. Even if you struggle with the idea of self-reflection, at least try doing it on the weekends. It won’t be long before you start to see some of the benefits.



<a class="" href="https://benjaminspall.com/">Benjamin Spall</a>is the co-author of <a class="" href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Morning-Routine-Successful-Inspired/dp/0735220271/?tag=mmr-support-20">“My Morning Routine,”</a> which was named as one of Amazon’s best business books of 2018 and a Financial Times book of the month. He has written for the New York Times, New York Observer, Quartz, Entrepreneur, Business Insider and more.



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/29/what-successful-people-like-bill-gates-and-jeff-bezos-do-on-weekends.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/29/what-successful-people-like-bill-gates-and-jeff-bezos-do-on-weekends.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

6 things successful people like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos do on weekends to make their Mondays more productive

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/">By Cat Clifford</a>



Billionaire &#8220;Shark Tank&#8221; star&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/mark-cuban/">Mark Cuban</a>&nbsp;was once in a band, the Not So Human Beings.



&#8220;There&#8217;s a reason why you never heard of it,&#8221; Cuban says, laughing, in a Amazon developer blog&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/0902e3c5-9649-47e5-b705-984666b85125/mark-cuban-voice-ambient-computing-are-the-future-and-why-developers-should-get-in-now">video</a>&nbsp;published Monday. &#8220;It it was a great name. But, um, there was a time to quit.&#8221;



The same holds true in business, says the tech entrepreneur. So how do you know when your business isn&#8217;t working?



&#8220;When you don&#8217;t have any customers? That&#8217;s your answer,&#8221; Cuban says. That&#8217;s when you know what you are making is not going to become a successful business.



&#8220;One of the challenges of being an entrepreneur is that we all lie to ourselves. We are the best. We are the fastest. The greatest. The this-er, the that-est,&#8221; Cuban&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/0902e3c5-9649-47e5-b705-984666b85125/mark-cuban-voice-ambient-computing-are-the-future-and-why-developers-should-get-in-now">says in the video</a>. &#8220;If you find yourself always describing your company and how you are different in terms of &#8216;er-s&#8217; and &#8216;est-s,&#8217; you have got issues and you are probably lying to yourself.



&#8220;You have to be brutally honest. You have to ask yourself: If it wasn&#8217;t me, if I was on the outside looking in, what would I say about this company? And if you are not able to do that, that&#8217;s a bigger problem.&#8221;



Having customers is the difference between being an inventor or maker and a successful business owner.



&#8220;The reality is there are a lot of great products and services that are undiscovered&#8230;. Because it&#8217;s one thing to do something great. It is a whole other thing to &#8230; be able to market and sell it,&#8221; Cuban says.



But just because what you are working on is not going to be a successful business does not mean it is not worthwhile, Cuban says.



&#8220;Everybody defines success differently. I have always told people that if you can wake up in the morning with a smile on your face, excited about your day, knowing it is going to be a good day, you&#8217;re successful. And so in terms of your business, you have got to live at some level right, but if you love what you are doing&#8230; it is not work,&#8221; Cuban says.



For example, before Cuban co-founded his first company, AudioNet (which became Broadcast.net and sold to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/09/mark-cuban-reveals-3-secrets-for-growing-a-successful-business.html">Yahoo for $5.7 billion in April 2000)</a>, he learned how to code.



&#8220;Early on, I had to teach myself how to program&#8230;and I would start writing these applications for customers. And I would start working on it&#8230;and I would look up and I had been sitting there for 24 to 26 hours not realizing that you know, I hadn&#8217;t moved this whole time. I loved what i was doing&#8221; Cuban says.



&#8220;I was sleeping six guys, living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment &#8230;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/05/how-mark-cuban-became-a-billionaire.html">I had a hole in the floorboard of my car</a>. But I knew that there was a light at the end of the tunnel as long as I just kept on getting better at what I did. But had I not had the financial success, I still would have loved it.&#8221;



Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to &#8220;Shark Tank.&#8221;



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/27/shark-tanks-mark-cuban-how-to-tell-if-a-business-will-be-a-success.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/27/shark-tanks-mark-cuban-how-to-tell-if-a-business-will-be-a-success.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Billionaire ‘Shark Tank’ star Mark Cuban: This is how to know if a business will be successful

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">By Courtney Connley</a> 



Leaving your job is a huge decision. But staying in a job that&#8217;s getting you nowhere can have a lasting negative impact on your career.



Bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch agrees: &#8220;Of all the debates in our head, deciding if it&#8217;s time to quit is one of the hardest.&#8221;



She tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;there are four &#8220;surefire signs&#8221; that will let you know it&#8217;s time to look for the exits:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. There&#8217;s no room for growth</h4>



Are you finding there&#8217;s no way to move up in your current company? Welch says this is one of the top signs that it&#8217;s time to move on.



Maybe you&#8217;re at a company, for example, where, &#8220;there&#8217;s someone above you who&#8217;s never going to leave the organization. Maybe it&#8217;s the boss&#8217;s daughter or son. Maybe it&#8217;s the superstar employee. It doesn&#8217;t matter.



&#8220;The facts are, you can&#8217;t move up, or maybe even sideways, because no one is moving out.&#8221;



If you don&#8217;t leave, she says, &#8220;you&#8217;ll never grow.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. You have an embedded reputation</h4>



Another good reason to leave is what Welch calls an &#8220;embedded reputation.&#8221;



&#8220;Say you started out as an assistant. Some people will never see you as anything but. Or maybe you were part of a project that tanked. Failure can cling to you, even when it&#8217;s not your fault.&#8221;



Regardless, she says, factors like these can leave you with an &#8220;un-promotable&#8221; or &#8220;damaged goods&#8221; vibe. And when that happens, she says, &#8220;you must go find a place to start again.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. You&#8217;re not excited about your work</h4>



If you feel &#8220;meh&#8221; about your company&#8217;s product or service, Welch says that&#8217;s a clear sign that it&#8217;s time to quit.



&#8220;Life is short and precious,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Don&#8217;t spend 40 or 50 hours a week working to advance something you don&#8217;t believe in.&#8221;



Instead, she says, &#8220;find a company that makes you proud to say, &#8216;I work here.'&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. You feel called to start your own business</h4>



&#8220;If you&#8217;re being called morning, noon and night to do your own thing,&#8221; then chances are it may be time for you to quit your job. But, she says, before putting in your two weeks, you have to be certain that you&#8217;re ready for entrepreneurship.



&#8220;Just remember this,&#8221; she says, &#8220;wanting to be your own boss doesn&#8217;t cut it unless you have an amazing idea. If you do, go build it! If not, maybe wait to leave until you do, OK?&#8221;



Welch emphasizes that &#8220;no job is perfect, and we all have times when we think about leaving.&#8221; But, she says, &#8220;don&#8217;t leap without looking for these signs and knowing at least one of them is looking back at you.&#8221;



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the&nbsp;<a href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/25/suzy-welch-4-signs-its-definitely-time-to-quit-your-job.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/25/suzy-welch-4-signs-its-definitely-time-to-quit-your-job.html</a> <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2019/03/25/3-questions-to-ask-immediately-after-youre-denied-a-pay-raise/"> </a>and is republished with its permission.

Suzy Welch: 4 signs it’s definitely time to quit your job

KAMPALA (Reuters) &#8211; Uganda’s coffee exports dropped 17 percent year-on-year in February, undercut by scant rains in some coffee growing areas, the state-run regulator Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said.



The beans are one of Uganda’s major exports and a big earner of foreign exchange for the east African country which largely cultivates robusta variety.



Shipments in February totalled 323,828 60-kg bags of coffee, down from 390,677 bags exported in same month a year.



Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa

Coffee exports in this East African country are down 17 percent yr/yr in Feb

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Troubled South African retailer Steinhoff said on Wednesday it had raised 4.8 billion rand ($332 million) from the sale of its 26 percent stake in KAP Industrial to pay off debt and shore up its finances, sending its shares higher. 



Steinhoff admitted “accounting irregularities” in December 2017, shocking investors who had backed its reinvention from a small South African business to a multinational retailer at the vanguard of the European discount furniture retail industry.



This wiped about 85 percent off its market value and threw the company into a liquidity crisis.



Steinhoff said in a statement it sold 694 million KAP shares at 6.85 rand per share, a 9.4 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. The book of demand was oversubscribed, it added.



Steinhoff said on Tuesday the placement would be offered to institutional investors only and will result in the company no longer holding an interest in KAP.



Steinhoff shares jumped in early trade on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and were up more than 6 percent by 0725 GMT.



Shares in KAP, a diversified industrial group selling everything from chemicals and auto components to mattresses, were down more than 7 percent.



In South Africa’s biggest corporate scandal, an investigation carried out by PwC found that Steinhoff recorded fictitious or irregular transactions totalling 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) over a period covering the 2009 and 2017 financial years.



Steinhoff sold down its stake in KAP in March 2018 after placing 450 million shares, or a 17 percent stake, also via an accelerated bookbuild in a bid to plug a liquidity gap.



Steinhoff has also raised cash from the sale of stakes in South African investment firm PSG Group, French online retailer Showroomprive.com, as well a property in Austria.



($1 = 14.4535 rand)



($1 = 0.8885 euros)



Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Louise Heavens

Steinhoff exits KAP

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">By Courtney Connley</a>



Have you spent the past few weeks, or maybe even months, building up the courage to ask for a much-deserved raise, only to have your request denied?



You&#8217;re probably not alone. In a survey of more 7,000 employers conducted by compensation site&nbsp;<a href="https://www.payscale.com/about/press-releases/payscale-research-shows-most-companies-arent-planning-meaningful-pay-increases-in-2019">PayScale</a>, a majority of companies said that they aren&#8217;t planning to provide a meaningful pay increase to their staff this year. In fact,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/12/companies-need-workers-but-69percent-wont-meaningfully-raise-worker-salaries-payscale-study-finds.html">nearly 70 percent</a>&nbsp;said they plan to provide pay increases of 3 percent or less to some of their employees.



Lydia Frank, vice president of content strategy at PayScale, tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;that her advice for anyone who has been denied a raise is to &#8220;not take &#8216;no&#8217; as the end of a conversation.&#8221;



&#8220;I think &#8216;no&#8217; should be an opening to ask questions.&#8221;



Frank shares three questions you should ask immediately after being denied a pay increase:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Ask why</h4>



If you don&#8217;t understand the reasoning for why you weren&#8217;t given a raise, then Frank says it is perfectly fine to dig deeper into why you were told no.



&#8220;Of course you want to keep it respectful and professional,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Try to divorce emotion from that conversation because you don&#8217;t want it to get heated.&#8221;



As an example, she says you can ask your boss something like, &#8220;I&#8217;d really love to get a better understanding for why my request wasn&#8217;t granted. Is there something I can be doing more of?&#8221; She says that this question will provide you with a clear answer as to whether or not the reasoning is related to your performance or to an outside factor, like budgeting.



&#8220;I do think it&#8217;s fair to ask some questions about why,&#8221; she says. &#8220;And if you feel like you&#8217;re getting stonewalled a bit, then that could be a red flag.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Ask about variable pay</h4>



If your employer is unable to match your request for a salary increase, then Frank suggests asking about variable pay, such as a bonus tied to a particular project. She says that even if the bonus is already part of your compensation package, you can say something like, &#8220;Hey, I know we&#8217;ve talked about me doing this project. If I kill it and hit these particular metrics, can we talk about a bonus?&#8221;



&#8220;I think more organizations are willing to consider that because they are only on the hook if you perform,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Essentially, it&#8217;s like the result is for the business and they are paying for that result. So, sometimes that&#8217;s more negotiable than the base pay number. &#8220;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Ask about other benefits</h4>



If a company is unable to grant you a raise or a bonus due to finances, then Frank suggests you negotiate for other benefits that will help to make your work experience more enjoyable.



&#8220;When companies are feeling tapped out, like they&#8217;ve spent what they can in terms of pay increases, then they sometimes look at other ways to compensate employees to keep them happy.&#8221; That&#8217;s why, she says, it&#8217;s completely appropriate to ask about non-monetary benefits, like additional time off or the option to work from home.



&#8220;It really depends on what&#8217;s important to you,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Ask if there is room to do the things that will make your work situation more comfortable and satisfactory to you.&#8221;



In the end, if your request for a bonus or more benefits is denied, and your boss is unable to tell you why, then you may want to consider looking for a new job. Brian Kropp, vice president of research firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/human-resources-leaders">Gartner</a>, says that workers who quit their old job for a new one see an average increase of 15 percent in compensation.



In most cases, he tells <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/workers-are-quitting-their-jobs-in-order-to-get-raises.html">CNBC Make It</a>, &#8220;you&#8217;re never going to get that 15 percent by staying at your current job.&#8221;



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/22/3-questions-to-ask-immediately-after-youre-denied-a-pay-raise.html and is republished with its permission.

Improperly appointed boards spell disaster for organisations

3 questions to ask immediately after you’re denied a pay raise

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday it would keep close ties with U.S. planemaker Boeing even though questions remained about its 737 MAX 8 model, after a crash shortly after take off this month killed 157 people. 



CEO Tewolde Gebremariam also promised to work closely with an investigation into the March 10 incident, after reports that the probe was under strain because the Ethiopian authorities were not sharing information with international partners.



Boeing has come under intense scrutiny since the crash, the second in five months involving its new 737 MAX 8 model. But Tewolde said the airline’s relationship with Boeing was sound.



“Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future,” he said, in his most extensive written statement since the incident.



“We pledge to work with Boeing and our colleagues in all the airlines to make air travel even safer,” he said, although he added: “Many questions on the B-737 MAX airplane remain without answers.”



He said he did not want to speculate on the cause of the crash, but defended the airline’s training programme.



Boeing’s 737 MAX fleet has been grounded worldwide, wiping $28 billion off the company’s market value and throwing doubt over advance orders of the plane, worth more than $500 billion.



Tewolde said he supported the decision to halt flights of the plane. “Until we have answers, putting one more life at risk is too much,” he said,



Tewolde said both pilots of the doomed Ethiopian Airlines plane had been fully trained “beyond” the requirements of Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.



The airline’s Aviation Academy annually trains more than 2,000 pilots, flight attendants, maintenance workers and other employees for Ethiopian Airlines and other African carriers, he said.



“We are the company others turn to for aviation expertise,” he said, adding the company had invested more than $500 million in the last five years in training and other infrastructure in their Addis Ababa base.



Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Edmund Blair

Here’s why Ethiopian Airlines is committing to Boeing ties despite crash

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s Naspers will float its e-commerce ventures on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam, it said on Monday.



The e-commerce ventures include its stakes in China’s Tencent, Russia’s mail.ru and food delivery app iFood, the company said.



Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng, editing by Louise Heavens

Naspers plans to list e-commerce ventures abroad, what you need to know

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mohammed-girma-480174">Mohammed Girma</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-pretoria-1645">University of Pretoria</a>



The recent announcement that a British museum will <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47441042">return</a> two stolen locks of hair from a 19th century Ethiopian king was hailed as an “exemplary gesture of goodwill” by the Ethiopian Embassy in London. The hair was cut from Emperor Tewodros II’s head after he shot himself rather than be taken prisoner by invading British forces. The forces attacked his fortress at Maqdala during Easter in 1868. 

The British forces went on a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/651322.stm#sa-link_location=story-body&amp;intlink_from_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-africa-47441042&amp;intlink_ts=1552471155315-sa">looting spree</a>, taking so much bounty after the Battle of Maqdala that they needed 15 elephants and 200 mules to cart it away. It included more than 500 ancient parchment manuscripts, two gold crowns, crosses and chalices in gold, silver and copper, and religious icons. His seven-year-old son Prince Alemayehu was taken to the UK along with the looted treasures. 

Strands of the Emperor’s hair were given to the National Army Museum in London 60 years ago.

The return of the locks follows a recent <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46324174">report</a> commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron that recommended African treasures in French museums be returned to their countries of origin. During colonial rule in Africa, thousands of cultural artefacts were <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45406557">plundered</a> from the continent by Western countries. 

What makes these 151-year-old Ethiopian artefacts so deeply significant? The answer lies in Tewodros’s subsequent <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41965909?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">symbolism</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/179677?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">significance</a> in the history of Ethiopia – historically known as Abyssinia – a nation that has faced vicious attacks from powerful nations, and still, stands tall in its independence.

Ethiopia is a storytelling nation in which the past is of crucial importance. Tewodros has a special place in the storytelling process.

<h2>King of Kings</h2>

A ferocious warrior, Tewodros rose from being the son of a provincial chief to power, known as Nəguśä Nägäśt or King of Kings. Ending the chaotic period in Ethiopian history known as “Zämänä Mäsafənt” (the era of princes), he aimed to unify and modernise Ethiopia.

Tewodros was deeply religious and saw his political policy as a part of divine mission. The immediate threats that brought about his demise were Islamic Turks threatening to occupy parts of Ethiopia. He assumed that the Christian West would to come to his aid, and made an appeal by a letter to Queen Victoria of England <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/amharic-letters-of-emperor-theodore-of-ethiopia-to-queen-victoria-and-her-special-envoy-by-girmaselassie-asfaw-and-david-l-appleyard-in-collaboration-with-edward-ullendorff-the-british-academy-oriental-documents-series-ii-pp-xxxvii-94-oxford-oxford-university-press-for-the-british-academy-1979-6/8A9DFF1FCE879E5F0C47BD2BE70A3D80">saying</a>, 

<blockquote>
…when I told the Turks to relinquish the soil of my fathers, they refused, and so, by the power of God, here I am about to struggle against them. 
</blockquote>

However, to his utter bewilderment, the queen declined. The emperor could not <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Wanderings-Among-the-Falashas-in-Abyssinia-Together-with-Descriptions-of/Stern/p/book/9781138986886">fathom</a> how a Christian nation like England could uphold the power of Islam in Egypt and Turkey. 

Out of fury, Tewodros jailed the British consul and other foreigners. His calculation was using the detainees as bargaining chips to secure the British support. However, his action led Britain to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3669915/Mad-king-Tewodros-of-Abyssinia.html">see</a> Ethiopia as a “risk without profit”.

They <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jan/12/history.biography">sent</a> 64,000 people (including 12,000 fighting men) under Sir Robert Napier, and invaded Ethiopia to face Tewodros. Called the Napier expedition, it’s been described as the largest military offensive by the British empire in Africa. Rather than being captured, the emperor <a href="https://www.nazret.com/2019/03/04/british-museum-agrees-to-return-emperor-tewodros-hair-to-ethiopia/">killed himself</a>.

<h2>Hero status</h2>

Tewodros’s biographer Philip Marsden <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3669915/Mad-king-Tewodros-of-Abyssinia.html">wrote</a> the impression he got when visiting the region in the early 1980s, which is when <a href="https://biography.yourdictionary.com/mengistu-haile-mariam">Mengistu</a> Haile Mariam’s military junta governed Ethiopia, was that Tewodros was,

<blockquote>
a mad dog let loose, a sort of black reincarnation of Ivan the Terrible.
</blockquote>

But when he returned after the 1990s when the dictatorship had been deposed, a “heroification” of Tewodros had started – this, Marsden found, was necessary because of a vilification of the Ethiopian leader by foreign authors. 

It’s quite debatable if there was such a dramatic shift in the Ethiopian perception Tewodros. 

Less debatable, however, is a clear difference between how Western and Ethiopian writers interpreted and portrayed the man. Like all interpretative projects, this one is not without ideological preoccupation. The Western authors wanted to caricature him in a certain way to justify the British looting of precious historical artefacts as “war trophy”.

In order to restore him, it required the imagination of arts to cement his memory in the Ethiopian history. 

No other leader has influenced popular culture in Ethiopia as Tewodros did. He is a treasure trove for songwriters, playwrights and poets. Once <a href="http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.013.0009">Abbe Gubegna</a>, a prolific writer who uses his literary skills to launch sharp political critiques, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41965909?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">said</a>, 

<blockquote>
Tewodros will continue to sparkle like a jewel in the heart of many generations. 
</blockquote>

Moreover, the dramatic nature of his lifestyle, his rise from an ordinary background and his ambitions of transforming Ethiopia into a modern state adds to the fascination of the literary world in his life and action. He is viewed as a true leader who authored his immortality by refusing to surrender to British forces and taking his own life instead.

The scene of his confrontation with Napier’s forces was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fASZ81ecyZ8&amp;t=191s">re-imagined</a> by renowned playwright, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/may/03/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries">Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin</a>, who was also considered Ethiopia’s poet laureate: 

<blockquote>
‘Hands up,’ says a European

A hand to be raised and surrender

What hand does have a wild fire?

Except that burns and consumes. 
</blockquote>

<figure>
 <iframe loading="lazy" width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uxFE9sRNUNc?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 <figcaption>Teddy Afro’s tribute to Emperor Tewodros.</figcaption>
 </figure>

<a href="http://teddyafro.info/">Teddy Afro</a>, a contemporary singer and songwriter, captures the significance of his hair as a thread that ties all Ethiopians together across ethnic divides:

<blockquote>
Bring a thread from his (Tewodros’s) hair

Let’s tie our covenant so we’re divided no more.
</blockquote>

<h2>A storytelling nation</h2>

Tewodros’s sacrifice has ramifications to both Ethiopia’s projection of itself at home and to the international community. 

In domestic politics, the nation has struggled with leaders who could not see beyond their personal enrichment. For those who failed to put the nation first, Tewodros still stands as a loud critical voice. As for international diplomacy, Tewodros symbolises Ethiopia – a nation that has faced vicious attacks from powerful nations, and still stands tall in its independence.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113382/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mohammed-girma-480174">Mohammed Girma</a>, Research Associate and the author of Understanding Religion and Social Change in Ethiopia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), and the editor of The Healing of Memories (Rowan &#038; Littlefield, 2018). Follow him on Twitter @girma_mohammed, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-pretoria-1645">University of Pretoria</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-significant-that-the-uk-has-returned-the-locks-of-hair-of-an-ethiopian-king-113382">original article</a>.

The UK has returned the locks of hair of an Ethiopian king, here’s why it is significant

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/">By Cat Clifford</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/bill-gates/">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;reads all the time —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/03/bill-gates-names-the-5-best-books-he-read-in-2018.html">about 50 books a year</a>&nbsp;— and is an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/31/what-mark-cuban-reads-every-day.html">advocate for its many benefits</a>.



So how does the billionaire book lover remember what he reads? The trick, he says, is context.



&#8220;If you read enough, there&#8217;s a similarity between things that make it easy, because this thing is like this other thing. If you have a broad framework, then you have a place to put everything,&#8221; Gates says in the Quartz video, &#8220;How Bill Gates remembers what he reads.&#8221;



When you come to a topic with a base layer of understanding, then fitting in new tidbits of information makes them easier to remember.



&#8220;So, incremental knowledge is so much easier to maintain in a rich way,&#8221; Gates says. &#8220;At first it is very daunting but then as you get the kind of scope, then all these pieces fit in.&#8221;



If you want to learn about science, for example, Gates says reading the history of scientists and reading about the progress they made can give you the context or framework to help you remember the details.



&#8220;So you have the timeline, or you have the map or you have the branches of science and what&#8217;s known and what&#8217;s not known,&#8221; Gates says in the Quartz interview.



Reading is more than a pastime for Gates. In 2017, Gates told Time that reading is &#8220;absolutely&#8221; essential to success.



&#8220;You don&#8217;t really start getting old until you stop learning,&#8221; Gates told Time. &#8220;Every book teaches me something new or helps me see things differently. I was lucky to have parents who encouraged me to read. Reading fuels a sense of curiosity about the world, which I think helped drive me forward in my career and in the work that I do now with my foundation.&#8221;



Gates is rather fastidious in his reading habits: He always finishes a book he starts, whether he agrees with it or not.



&#8220;I refuse to stop reading a book in the middle, even if I don&#8217;t like it,&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="http://time.com/4786837/bill-gates-books-reading/">Gates told Time</a>. &#8220;And the more I dislike a book, the more time I take to write margin notes. That means I sometimes spend more time reading a book that I can&#8217;t stand than a book that I love.&#8221;



And if material he is reading doesn&#8217;t make sense within his existing understanding of a topic, he will actively seek out an explanation.



&#8220;So it&#8217;s fun to say, okay, this is where this belongs and does this contradict something I knew before? And I better look that up, I better figure it out,&#8221; Gates tells Quartz. 



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/21/how-bill-gates-remembers-what-he-reads.html and is republished with its permission.

This is the simple trick billionaire Bill Gates uses to remember what he reads

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">By Courtney Connley</a> 



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="page_header"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/get-to-work-with-suzy-welch/">GET TO WORK: WITH SUZY WELCH</a></h4>



Recovering from a major workplace mistake is no easy feat.



But according to bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your reputation remains intact, even after the error has been made. &#8220;You lost a client, missed a deadline or hired the wrong person,&#8221; she tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. &#8220;Mistakes happen. You&#8217;re human!&#8221;



However, she warns, you could also end up &#8220;an unemployed human&#8221; if you don&#8217;t take action right away. Here are three things to do immediately after you screw up at work:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Own your mistake</h4>



Welch says the No. 1 thing you want to do is own the fact that you messed up. &#8220;The minute you start playing the blame game, you look small, you look defensive.&#8221;



&#8220;Even if you aren&#8217;t the only author of the mistake — and you probably aren&#8217;t — you still have to take responsibility with your boss, colleagues and subordinates,&#8221; she says. Doing this &#8220;is how we demonstrate that we&#8217;re grown-ups, that we get it and that we feel remorse.&#8221;



&#8220;People need to see those things to give you what you need to move on,&#8221; she says, &#8220;which is a second chance.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Get to the bottom of your mistake</h4>



The next thing you need to do is get a clear understanding of why what you did was wrong.



&#8220;An executive I know didn&#8217;t get a promotion,&#8221; she says. &#8220;So he walked into his boss&#8217;s office, shut the door and asked for an autopsy. That has to be you. You have to ask people, &#8216;Where did I go wrong? What can I learn?'&#8221;



Welch admits that this is a process that &#8220;will definitely take you out of your comfort zone.&#8221; But, she says, &#8220;it&#8217;s also going to show your organization that you have the guts and integrity to grow in ways that ensure your error never happens again.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Rebrand yourself with a win</h4>



Welch says that one of the best ways to recover from a mistake is to immediately follow it up with a major win that will impress your boss and colleagues.



&#8220;You&#8217;ve got a scarlet &#8216;L&#8217; on your shoulder: &#8216;Loser!&#8217; You want it off fast, and no one will do that for you.&#8221;



She suggests coming up with an achievable victory for yourself like &#8220;a project, an initiative or an assignment&#8221; that has &#8220;good optics that you can nail.&#8221; Use that win to prove that you&#8217;re still a valuable employee who knows how to bounce back.



&#8220;Everybody screws up sometimes,&#8221; Welch says. &#8220;But one mistake isn&#8217;t the end of the game for you unless you let it be. There are three ways back to the winner&#8217;s circle. Grab them and run.&#8221;



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the <a href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/18/suzy-welch-3-things-to-do-immediately-when-you-screw-up-at-work.html and is republished with its permission.

Suzy Welch: 3 things you should do immediately when you screw up at work

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/guy-kawasaki/">By Guy Kawasaki</a>



I worked at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/ex-apple-engineer-ken-kocienda-what-it-was-like-to-pitch-steve-jobs.html">Apple</a>&nbsp;from 1983 to 1987, and then from 1995 to 1997. Although I refer to these stints as &#8220;two tours of duty,&#8221; it was a privilege and an honor to work there. In many ways, I am who I am and where I am because of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/steve-jobs-heres-what-most-people-get-wrong-about-focus.html">Steve Jobs</a>&nbsp;and Apple.



One day sometime in 1984, Jobs appeared in my cubicle with a man I didn&#8217;t know. He didn&#8217;t introduce him — Jobs wasn&#8217;t long on social niceties. Instead, he asked, &#8220;What do you think of a company called Knoware?&#8221;



Most people would have taken a long pause before giving an answer. Would I be punished for giving my true (and harsh) opinions? Or should I give a neutral and safe answer?



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">I went with the truth</h4>



I told Jobs that the company&#8217;s products were mediocre, boring, and simplistic and that the company was not strategic for us. After all, they didn&#8217;t take advantage of the Mac graphical user interface and other advanced features.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;In the Macintosh Division, you had to prove yourself every day, or Jobs got rid of you&#8221;-Guy Kawasaki, author, &#8220;Wise Guy: Lessons from Life&#8221;</blockquote>



After my diatribe, Jobs said to me, &#8220;I want you to meet the CEO of Knoware, Archie McGill.&#8221; I shook his hand, and Steve said to him, &#8220;See? That&#8217;s what I told you.&#8221;



Thank you, Steve.



If I had said nice things about the crappy Knoware products, Jobs would have, at a minimum, decided that I was clueless, and that would have limited my career at Apple. At worst, he would have said that I was shit and fired me later that day, if not on the spot.



In the Macintosh Division, you had to prove yourself every day, or Jobs got rid of you. He demanded excellence and kept you at the top of your game. It wasn&#8217;t easy to work for him; it was sometimes unpleasant and always scary, but it drove many of us to do the finest work of our careers.



I wouldn&#8217;t trade working for him for any job I&#8217;ve ever had — and I don&#8217;t know anyone in the Macintosh Division who would.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Lying won&#8217;t get you anywhere</h4>



Here&#8217;s what I learned from my experience at Apple and working with Jobs:



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Tell the truth. Honesty is a test of your competence and character. You need intelligence to recognize what is true, and you need strength to speak it.</li><li>The wiser the person, the more they yearn for the truth. Telling people that their product is good in order to be kind or positive doesn&#8217;t help them improve it — much less impress or fool people like Jobs.</li><li>Honesty is not only better, it&#8217;s also easier than lying. There&#8217;s only one truth, so being consistent is simple if you&#8217;re honest. If you are not honest, you have to concoct a lie and then keep track of what you said.</li></ol>



<a href="https://guykawasaki.com/">Guy Kawasaki</a>&nbsp;is the chief evangelist of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canva.com/">Canva</a>. Previously, Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple. He has written 14 books, including &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Start-Time-Tested-Battle-Hardened-Starting/dp/B001PNLKJG">The Art of the Start</a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Dream-Guy-Kawasaki/">Selling the Dream</a>&#8221; and his latest, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Guy-Lessons-Life-Kawasaki/dp/0525538615">Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life.</a>&#8221; Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/GuyKawasaki">@GuyKawasaki&nbsp;</a>.



*This is an adapted excerpt from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Guy-Lessons-Life-Kawasaki/dp/0525538615">Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life</a>,&#8221; by Guy Kawasaki, and with permission of Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/former-apple-employee-guy-kawasaki-once-stood-up-to-steve-jobs-here-is-the-amazing-response-he-received.html and is republished with its permission.

Guy Kawasaki: At Apple, ‘you had to prove yourself every day, or Steve Jobs got rid of you’

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/vanna-le/">By Vanna Le</a>



Albert Einstein didn&#8217;t speak until he was three, but by age 12, he was already studying calculus. So it comes as no surprise that he would go on to revolutionize the world of science. Yet the question still remains: How did he become such a genius?



For years, researchers have been trying to find the answer. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)70592-4/fulltext">1999 study in the Lancet</a>&nbsp;that analyzed 14 photographs of Einstein&#8217;s brain found that one brain region was completely absent, allowing his parietal lobe (which holds several areas that are important in language processing) to take up more space. Other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/einsteinrsquos-brain-really-was-bigger-than-most-peoplersquos/">studies of his brain</a>&nbsp;found that it was larger than most others.



But in a new book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Formula-Unlocking-Secrets-Successful-Children/dp/1946885061">The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children</a>,&#8221; award-winning journalist Tatsha Robertson and Harvard economist Ronald F. Ferguson explore the how parents of successful children contributed to their achievements and the actionable insights we can glean about their child-rearing.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The &#8216;Formula&#8217; for successful parenting</h4>



Over the course of 15 years, Robertson and Ferguson analyzed 200 high-achieving adults and their parents. They also studied the childhoods of well-known figures, from Anne, Susan and Janet Wojcicki (who have been called the &#8220;Silicon Valley sisters&#8221;) to Albert Einstein.



In the research, a clear pattern emerged: &#8220;The approaches that parents of high achievers adopted, beginning in the earliest years of life, bore real and striking similarities, despite those parents&#8217; widely divergent backgrounds and life circumstances.



That pattern, which Robertson and Ferguson call the &#8220;Formula,&#8221; consists of eight roles: The Early Learning Partner, the Flight Engineer, the Fixer, the Revealer, the Philosopher, the Model, the Negotiator and the GPS Navigational Voice.



Einstein&#8217;s parents, Pauline and Hermann, were very supportive in all eight roles, Robertson tells <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>, but they were particularly skilled at being Negotiators and Revealers.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The Negotiator</h4>



Negotiatorsnurture and encourage their children&#8217;s independence, but they also intervene when necessary.



For negotiators, quitting is never an option. &#8220;Once the choice is made, sticking with it for a while becomes a non-negotiable requirement. The child isn&#8217;t allowed to go back on the agreement,&#8221; writes Robertson and Ferguson. Pauline was very strict on this rule.



In 1884, a frisky young Einstein decided to throw a tantrum — and then a chair — at his violin tutor. Instead of scolding him or having him quit violin altogether, Pauline decided to hire a new tutor.



She had discovered early on that her son often struggled to concentrate, and as an accomplished pianist herself, she understood that instrumental learning was helpful in developing discipline and focus. The new tutor was effective, and Albert&#8217;s concentration improved.



&#8220;He mastered the violin and it ended up being a lifelong passion for him,&#8221; Ferguson tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. In fact, &#8220;[Einstein] said that some of his best theoretical physics ideas came during periods when he was playing the violin. We might not have had the theory of relativity if Pauline wasn&#8217;t persistent in making her son play the violin.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The Revealer</h4>



Revealers introduce new ideas and possibilities to their children — things they can learn about, places they can go and people they can be. They encourage their children to be persistent in finding solutions to problems — and, when doing so, to be &#8220;curious, disciplined and and self-reliant.&#8221;



Even though Einstein hated school, his parents knew that it wasn&#8217;t because he had a learning disability — it was simply because he wasn&#8217;t learning muchat school. Their solution was to create a stimulating learning environment at home, where they provided him with books and toys that supplemented his interests.



As Einstein grew older, his curiosity was further fueled by Thursday lunches at home, where his parents allowed him to sit at the table with family members and scientist friends. &#8220;His uncle would be at the table, throwing tricky algebra questions to Einstein,&#8221; says Robertson. &#8220;Einstein would hoot every time he got a correct answer.&#8221;



These lunchtime seminars allowed him to interact with worldly adults who challenged him with new ideas and concepts in math, science and technology. &#8220;One young man, in particular, ended up becoming a math tutor for Albert,&#8221; says Ferguson. &#8220;And by the time [Albert] was 12 or 13, the tutor said that he was having a hard time keeping up because Albert&#8217;s skills had surpassed his own.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Child-rearing is an art</h4>



It isn&#8217;t easy to nurture a genius, let alone raise one. In their case studies, the authors found that every child who went on to be successful had unique stories about how their were raised, but their plots were all the same: They had parents who made very strategic parenting choices.



Einstein was raised to embrace humility and be accepting of his failures, and it motivated him to explore the things he was passionate about. &#8220;It&#8217;s not that I&#8217;m so smart,&#8221; he once said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just that I stay with problems longer.&#8221;



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/how-this-formula-that-helped-albert-einsteins-parents-raise-a-genius.html and is republished with its permission.

How do you raise a genius? Researchers say they’ve found the secret to successful parenting

PwC Steinhoff report out

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/debby-carreau/">By Debby Carreau</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/5-hiring-secrets-employers-dont-want-you-to-know-according-to-an-hr-expert.html">Hiring managers</a> take a lot into account during the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/these-4-interview-mistakes-are-every-hiring-managers-worst-nightmare.html">interview process</a> — and every little action counts, from your <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/31/6-common-body-language-mistakes-to-avoid-in-your-next-job-interview.html">body language</a> to the tone of your voice to the things you say.



Within the first&nbsp;<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joop.12118">15 minutes</a>&nbsp;of an interview, their top priorities include determining whether you&#8217;re capable of maintaining&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/what-google-learned-in-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html">positive workplace relationships</a>&nbsp;and being a team player. Sure, your actual skills and experience matter, but how you interact with your potential co-workers and and handle your responsibilities directly impacts a company&#8217;s success, your career advancement, workplace satisfaction and even your mental health.



To ensure success, you&#8217;ll want to avoid the most common behaviors that hiring managers judge you on within the first 15 minutes of the interview



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Sounding overly pompous and confident</h4>



You see yourself as: A genius Hiring managers see you as: A know-it-all



It&#8217;s good to talk about all the great ideas you had in your previous jobs and how you made them work, but be somewhat humble about it and don&#8217;t take all the credit.



When you fail to acknowledge the people who helped you (i.e., your team&#8217;s contribution or your boss who provided wonderful guidance), you give your hiring manager the impression that you have a big ego and aren&#8217;t a team player. The most valuable people in an organization are the ones who acknowledge and motivate those around them, so give examples that show how you&#8217;ve demonstrated those qualities.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Saying negative things</h4>



You see yourself as: A voice of reason Hiring managers see you as: A negative Nancy



Don&#8217;t be so quick to point out the flaws in your current or previous employers and colleagues (i.e., &#8220;We weren&#8217;t meeting revenue goals because our managers were slackers.&#8221;)



A recent CareerBuilder&nbsp;<a href="http://advice.careerbuilder.com/posts/grow-up-10-bad-habits-at-work">survey</a>&nbsp;found that 62 percent of employers are less likely to promote employees who have a negative or pessimistic attitude. Always look for the positive things in your experience. If you felt overworked at a previous job, for instance, talk about how it taught you to better manage your time and set boundaries.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Having no strong opinions at all</h4>



You see yourself as: A peacekeeper&nbsp; Hiring managers see you as: An yes-man/yes-woman



You want the hiring manager to like you, but that doesn&#8217;t mean agreeing with every little thing he or she says. Employers want to hire people who are bold and have opinions that lead to innovative new ideas. These are the people who aren&#8217;t afraid to disagree or raise their hands and ask the questions that no one else will.



You&#8217;ll likely be asked questions that require an honest opinion or questions about how you would do X, Y and Z. Don&#8217;t offer generic answers. Remember that it&#8217;s OK to disagree with something as long as you have a good reason.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Bragging about having &#8216;never missed a day&#8217;</h4>



You see yourself as: A warrior Hiring managers see you as: A germ factory



Being present at work is important, but companies want to make sure their employees are smart enough to prioritize their health — it can be costly if they don&#8217;t. Going on and on about how you&#8217;ve &#8220;never missed a day at work&#8221; implies that you have a tendency to drag yourself to work on days when you&#8217;re feeling sick.



Many candidates think that a perfect attendance record is a sign of dedication, but to employers, it&#8217;s a liability. The last thing they need is an entire team being absent simply because someone came to work with a contagious illness.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. Sharing too much about your personal life</h4>



You see yourself as: An open book Hiring managers see you as: An attention seeker



There&#8217;s such a thing as sharing &#8220;too much&#8221; about your personal life, from your terrible date last night to replaying the details of your recent doctor&#8217;s appointment in great detail. Talking through personal challenges with your office mates helps you process. Sometimes a good cry or venting helps you feel better. But avoid bringing any of that into the interview.



Know where to draw the line. Even if it&#8217;s something that may affect your work arrangements (i.e., you&#8217;re dealing with personal family issues and will need to work from home X days a week for X amount of time), work it out in the conversation you have&nbsp;after&nbsp;you&#8217;ve received an offer.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">6. Not being present</h4>



You see yourself as: A (busy) VIP Hiring managers see you as: Disrespectful



Apart from being late to an interview (which is the biggest red flag), don&#8217;t risk of letting your hiring manager see a phone in your hand, especially right before he or she comes out to greet you. And don&#8217;t even think about taking it out during the interview.



Hiring managers notice all those little things, like if you take a quick glance at your phone, wristwatch or clock on the wall. If they see you checking the time, it&#8217;ll seem like you&#8217;re distracted and thinking on &#8220;more important&#8221; things. Show up early and and stay present. Let them know that this job interview is your most important priority right now. Looking &#8220;too busy&#8221; isn&#8217;t a badge of honor, it&#8217;s just disrespectful.



<a href="http://www.debbycarreau.com/">Debby Carreau</a> is an entrepreneur, author and founder of <a href="https://www.inspiredhr.ca/">Inspired HR</a>. She has been recognized as one of Canada&#8217;s Top 25 HR Professionals and is a regular contributor on multiple TV shows, Entrepreneur Magazine and many other print and online publications. She is a board member for Young Presidents Organization and Elevation Group as well as an Advisory Board member for FinDev Canada.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/hiring-managers-judge-you-on-these-6-little-things-within-the-first-15-minutes-of-a-job-interview.html and is republished with its permission.

6 surprising little things hiring managers judge you on within the first 15 minutes of a job interview

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand firmed early on Friday, reversing some of its losses from the previous session with demand for emerging market currencies boosted by new signs of a trade deal between China and the United States.



At 0730 GMT the rand was 0.41 percent firmer at 14.4800 per dollar compared to a close of 14.5400 overnight in New York.



Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by telephone with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the two sides made further substantive progress on trade talks, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.



Bonds also gained with the yield on the benchmark paper due in 2026 down 3.5 basis points to 8.725 percent.



Stocks opened firmer, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 index up 0.35 percent to 49,712 points.



Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana

South Africa’s rand firms as trade deal hopes rise, what you need to know…

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">By Courtney Connley</a>



When you&#8217;re prepping for a job interview, it&#8217;s important to consider not just the potential curve balls you might be pitched, but also the seemingly straightforward questions, like interviewer favorite, &#8220;Why should we hire you?&#8221;



Bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;that while this question may seem like an easy one, &#8220;you better be prepared to hit three targets in a row, because if you don&#8217;t, the next well-prepared candidate for the job will.&#8221;



&#8220;Your opening salvo should sound like this: &#8216;You should hire me because I have the skills, values and desire to deliver results from day one.'&#8221;



Then she says, you want to &#8220;amplify that statement&#8221; by taking each of the three steps below in your answer:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Highlight your skills</h4>



First, Welch says, you need to explain the skills that you bring to the table and how they make you, specifically, a &#8220;perfect fit&#8221; for the job.



She gives examples like, &#8220;You need quantitative analysis. That was my college major,&#8221; and &#8220;You&#8217;re looking for innovation. That&#8217;s exactly what I did at my last job.&#8221;



&#8220;The key here is to be as specific as possible,&#8221; Welch emphasizes. &#8220;With your particular capabilities and experiences, you are the puzzle piece the hiring company is looking for.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Demonstrate your values</h4>



It&#8217;s time to highlight how your values and the organization&#8217;s values align.



&#8220;Here are your company&#8217;s values,&#8221; Welch recommends you say, &#8220;which I happen to know so well. And great news — I not only share those values, I embrace them.&#8221;



Welch adds that you&#8217;ll receive bonus points if you have an actual story &#8220;that shows you demonstrating that statement in action, with an example of your tenacity, say, or bent for collaboration, or authenticity.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Tell them how much you want the job</h4>



Being transparent about how bad you want a job, Welch admits, can feel awkward. But, she says, &#8220;job hunting is an awkward and vulnerable experience, and having the poise and self-confidence to reveal your beating heart of desire to a prospective employer is amazingly powerful.&#8221;



She encourages job-seekers to frankly state how much they want a position, because employers read it as &#8220;appealing and authentic.&#8221;



You&#8217;re probably going to get this interview question. The key, Welch says, is to &#8220;not let it faze you.&#8221;



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the&nbsp;<a href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/11/suzy-welch-how-to-answer-the-question-why-should-we-hire-you.html&nbsp;and is republished with its permission.

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