3 Things Strong Leaders Never Do

Posted by & filed under Active Listening, Communication, Conflict, Employee Development, Leadership, Performance Management.

The strength and effectiveness of an organization depend on team members at all levels, but these qualities start at the top. Strong leaders are in high demand! These people must motivate and inspire their teams but still maintain high expectations for performance. While it’s easy to find qualities that strong leaders share, some behaviors mean… Read more »

Hiring Millennials? Here’s What You Should Know

Posted by & filed under Communication, Hiring & Selection, increasing personal effectiveness, Personal Effectiveness, Professional Presence in a Casual World, Work Life Balance.

Almost everywhere we turn, we see complaints about the Millennial generation. Born between the mid ’80s and the late ’90s (though the exact time frame is up for some debate), this generation has been analyzed and criticized just as much as Generation X before them. Millennials have been labeled entitled, narcissistic, and sheltered. But are… Read more »

4 Steps to a New Career Path in 2017

Posted by & filed under Active Listening, Actively Engaged Workers, Career Development, Communication, DISC Personality Styles, Hiring & Selection.

January is one of the busiest hiring months of the year. The beginning of a new fiscal year for many businesses, it inspires an influx of new positions that need filling. At the same time, January is a time for a lot of personal reflection as well, and it’s often when people look for a new… Read more »

Research Uncovers the Secret to Productivity (Hint: We’ve been right all along!)

Posted by & filed under Accountability, Actively Engaged Workers, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Employee Development, increasing personal effectiveness, teamwork.

Earlier this week we discussed soft skills and why employee development in these skills might be a good investment. Later this week, two articles reveal that focusing on productive communication, kindness, and “psychological safety” does, in fact, yield tangible results. This comes as no surprise to us, given the return on investment experienced by many clients… Read more »

4 Steps to Managing Difficult Personalities

Posted by & filed under Accountability, Communicating To Manage Performance, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Leadership.

Conflict is a natural aspect of workplace dynamics, but it can quickly turn toxic if employees can’t find a way to work together. Managing difficult personalities in a way that is effective, compassionate, and respectful of differences is no easy task. Often, the source of ongoing discord isn’t a single situation but friction between personalities (either between peers… Read more »

How to Help Introverts Succeed on Your Team

Posted by & filed under Communicating To Manage Performance, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, DISC Personality Styles, Leadership, Performance Management.

Last week, we touched on the impact that introverts and extrovert can have in leadership. (Recap: it’s not as important as you might think, but it does require mindfulness and different leadership techniques.) But whether you or your managers are introverts or extroverts, it’s fairly safe to say that your team will most likely be made… Read more »

Four Bad Email Habits That Backfire

Posted by & filed under Communication, Corporate Culture, Professional Presence in a Casual World.

Email ranks high on lists of top stressors at the office. Designed to make businesses operative more effectively and productively, email now creates hours spent trying to sort and archive (or find) old messages and find the elusive “inbox zero.” Using email correctly is an important part of professional etiquette. Habits that you might use in… Read more »

Do Leaders Need to Be Extroverts?

Posted by & filed under Communication, DISC Personality Styles, Leadership.

Every so often we’ll see blogs featuring the Myers-Briggs personalities of famous CEOs. This well-known personality inventory evaluates personality types on the basis of four main variables: Introversion (I) versus Extroversion (E); Intuition (N) versus Sensing (S); Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F); and Perceiving (P) versus Judging (J). This begs the question: does being an… Read more »