Archive for the ‘Great Leadership’ Category

The Power of Psychological Courage: Steps to Building Resilience

It’s no secret that the modern workplace can be challenging from unrealistic demands, interactions with peers and clients, cultural issues, and life in general. However, it’s not just raw talent that makes for a successful employee. Psychological Courage is taking risks by facing challenges instead of avoiding them and confronting fears, uncertainty, and emotional distress to take decisive action. Psychological Courage is crucial for navigating stress, conflict, and change. The result will be empowerment, building stronger relationships, and ultimately enhancing performance.

Psychological Courage will require showing vulnerability, speaking openly and honestly, and learning from failures to shift them into opportunities.

How do we move into Courage:
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Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion Article

There have been so many posts regarding compassion, empathy, sympathy, and pity; however, do we really understand the difference?

Compassion, empathy, and sympathy are all related concepts but have distinct differences. Compassion is an emotion that motivates behavior; it leads to action. It involves understanding the struggles of another person and wanting to help them. Empathy is a feeling of shared experience; it’s being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand their feelings. Sympathy, on the other hand, is an emotion characterized by feeling sorry for or sad about someone else’s plight. While sympathy does not always lead to action, it does show understanding and concern for another person’s suffering or misfortune. Pity, on the other hand, is a feeling of superiority that demeans those for whom it’s felt; it does not lead to any kind of helpful behavior.
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How to Enjoy the Holidays

The Holiday season is here, and although many look forward to some time off and spending with friends and family, a great deal of stress, obligation, and exhaustion can accompany this time.

So here are 3 steps to enjoy and be grateful during the holidays.

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Ending the Year on a Strong Note

As we move into the end of the year, it’s important to take stock of where we are and where we want to be. For many people, this time is to reflect on the past and set goals for the future. It is also important to take time for ourselves during the busy holiday season. However, it can be a difficult balance to strike, but it’s important to focus on what was and what will be most important to us.

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End of the Year asks for a Raise or Promotion. Yes or No?

The end of the year is typically a busy time for most organizations as they finalize their budgets and prepare for the upcoming year. This can make it difficult to justify asking for a raise or promotion. However, if you have been performing well and feel you deserve more compensation, the end of the year may be the best time to ask.

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What can employers do around Quiet Quitting:

Quiet quitting is quitting your job with no notice or quitting the idea of going above and beyond.  Per Gallup, 50% of the US workforce make up quiet quitters.

When an employee gives notice, it can be a tough pill for any company to swallow. As the old saying goes, it’s not necessarily the quitting that’s hardest, it’s the quitting without notice that does the most damage. Whether two weeks or two months, employees who leave without any kind of notice put extra stress on their team, and their manager. Of course, sometimes life happens, and people have to quit without notice.   Below are steps and best practices your organization can take:

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“Don’t Take it Personally”​ is not helpful

There’s a lot of wisdom in the old saying, “don’t take it personally.” But is it okay to say that to someone whose upset? Is it helpful, or is it just a way to brush off their feelings and ignore what they’re going through?

We no longer live in a world where personal and business are separated. We never did; however, the phrase “don’t take it personally” is not helpful; it is dismissive. Our personal and our business are now blended. Furthermore, taking it “personally” is not what we need to address. It is the reaction we are trying to avoid or ignore.

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Navigating the Chaos and Moving Forward

“New normal,” “New reality,” or whatever your mantra for defining our current day to day life, the fact is that challenges, chaos, change, and pivoting are our constant. What makes this unique is it is happening to the majority of the population at the same time. So, emotions are high due to: the uncertainty of our economy, the instability in our community, the sadness and anger of injustice, and climate change that is impacting us all. On top of all this, we must continue with our jobs, career, livelihood, and/or businesses.

So how do we navigate all this and continue to move forward? The following five steps address organizational change, and life in general, to help with perseverance and resilience. I use them with my clients and myself to keep on track. (more…)

Why do we have to talk so much about Emotions?

The reason why we are talking so much about emotions these days is simple. As a society, we have not been consistent or set as a priority to practice Emotional Intelligence with as much focus as we apply to other skill sets.

Our current environment is a perfect example of the importance of Emotional Intelligence and what a necessary skill set it is. In comparing world leaders, we see those who combine their intelligence with their emotions to deliver powerful messages. Others just bombard us with information without emotion, generally with negative results.

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Do You have the Makings of a Great Leader?

Today leadership is challenged more than ever. However, I believe at times we get away from the foundational principles. The following are 12 characteristics that I learned through the teachings of the Lakota people: (more…)