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 »
Posts By: Marcia
Best Business Research from 2016
As 2016 comes to a close, we consider some interesting business research from publications and firms around the world. Business research allows the industry to better understand human and employee behavior, develop programming that increases productivity and performance, and improve workplace culture. Here’s the business research highlights we found: The positive impact of a “fun” workplace. A new… Read more »
Research Uncovers the Secret to Productivity (Hint: We’ve been right all along!)
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 »
Empathy: The Foundation of a Strong Business Culture
We call them “soft skills”: communication and interactional skills that demonstrate emotional intelligence. It’s been well established (for nearly a century, in fact) that “85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge” (source: National Soft Skills Association). Yet development… Read more »
Interested in Employee Training? 5 Reasons to Take the Plunge
Is your company looking for a new employee training program? Curious about investing in one for the first time? It’s wise to invest in employee training while things are going well rather than waiting for problems to arise. But employee development programs like Increasing Personal Effectiveness can help address issues like workplace dynamics, productivity, conflict, and management… Read more »
Practical Applications for the DiSC Assessment
If you’re familiar with our programming, then you know that the DiSC assessment is an important part of what we do. Understanding our own personalities (and those of our team members, managers, and leaders) is essential to effective communication, conflict resolution, and improved performance. But what does the DiSC actually mean for the long-term success… Read more »
4 Steps to Managing Difficult Personalities
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 »
Increasing Personal Effectiveness: Worth the Investment?
Is your company interested in employee development, but not sure about each program’s cost-effectiveness and ROI? You may be concerned about the investment of funds and time away from day-to-day operations. You may wonder if a course like Increasing Personal Effectiveness will truly pay off. Will you see results in terms of employee satisfaction and attitude, improved productivity,… Read more »
A to C Blog Series: Making Changes Last
In our “Adapting to Change” blog series, we’ve discussed all the important steps to bringing fundamental shifts to your organization. We’ve highlighted the importance of recognizing when there is a need for change, communicating the need for change and inspiring employees, maintaining momentum, and setting attainable benchmarks to induce progress. To close out our series, it’s time to… Read more »
Can You Change Your Personality Type?
A recent study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that only 13 percent of people are completely satisfied with their personality types. That number seems pretty low, but many of us likely have at least one element of our personalities that we wish we could change — becoming more outgoing and extroverted,… Read more »
