From Cold Emails That Work To Finding Your Purpose: This Week’s Top Leadership Stories

This week we learned why cold emailing may not be as useless as many believe, how a condiment company used its own history as the starting point for writing a mission statement, and why one Thiel Fellow is washing his hands of the Trump ally’s organization.

These were the stories you loved in Leadership for the week of November 14:

1. Sir Kensington’s: Three Questions For Finding Your Purpose

Can this condiment company help your business find its mission? Maybe. Sir Kensington’s, which makes ketchups, mustards, and more, didn’t just pluck its corporate “purpose” out of the sky or have a CSR officer draft a memo. It looked back on what had actually led to the company’s success. These simple questions can lead to the type of self-examination to help you do the same.

2. Mentorship And The Art Of The Cold Email

“I’m all about cold emailing,” says Jennifer Fitzgerald, CEO and cofounder of PolicyGenius. That may be surprising for some to hear, but it’s helped Fitzgerald secure some of her most prized mentors. She isn’t alone. Here’s what fellow startup founders have discovered about putting a widely reviled networking method to good use.

3. Former Fellow To Peter Thiel: You Can Have Your Money Back

The Thiel Fellowship awards $100,000 grants to students under 22 years old to drop out of school and pursue an innovative project. But since the program’s billionaire benefactor Peter Thiel is a high-profile Trump supporter and now part of the president-elect’s transition team, one fellow says he’s had enough. This week, Cosmo Scharf explained why he cut ties.

4. Four Email Subject Lines That Make Everyone Hate You

Your simple follow-up email may seem harmless enough, but on the other end, somebody is staring at their inbox and grinding their teeth. This week we learned why certain email subject lines are likely to backfire, leaving others feeling more aggravated than interested in helping you.

5. This Project Manager’s Workflow Hack Transformed How GE Builds Airplane Engines

One Air Force veteran who now works with GE Aviation says his military experience taught him to spot problems that impact others and take action quickly. That training came in handy when Paul Thienprayoon saw how badly his team’s inventory system was slowing down the assembly and repair of GE-made airplane engines. Here’s how he took a simple Excel sheet and turned it into a software tool that streamlined the Aviation division’s workflow.