To be a more helpful person, find ways to say "yes, and" instead of the word "but." If someone has an idea, affirm their belief and elevate the idea.

4. End conversations by asking how you can be helpful. I know this sounds simple, but you can honestly be your own best researcher; you just have to know what’s truly helpful to other people.

People wildly underestimate the odds that others will help us, says social psychologist Heidi Grant. Grant is the author of Reinforcements: How To Get People to Help You (Harvard Business Review).

I’d rather have 10 helpful individuals in my network than 1,000 people who aren’t so inclined. I’ve learned that a network is only as helpful as the people within it. For instance, you can ...

Using a third-person perspective can help people achieve personal goals better than using first-person perspective when they visual themselves from the past, says Thomas Gilovich, professor of ...