Most people, given the right circumstances will do the right things, claims Dr. James Doty, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founding director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. In a recent podcast, Dr. Doty gave new meaning of being a hero. “Being a hero doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to jump off a bridge into freezing water and pull somebody out of the water. Being a hero can simply mean recognizing a situation where somebody is at risk and making the effort to go and help them.” An act of heroism can be as simple as helping a senior citizen to cross the street or standing up to someone is who bullying a coworker or friend.
Operating a kitchen and bath showroom is not easy. There are constant demands and the fact for many is that the “to-do” list never is completely done. You put in long hours and the demands of your position likely come at the cost of a good night’s sleep. What’s the trade off? Research shows that when leaders trade sleep to work more, they become less effective, are more hostile and have less effective relationships with team members, are less likely to inspire others and experience declining engagement rates on the teams that they manage. When you are tired, you become more impulsive, less creative and innovative and less likely to make the best decisions.
On Monday, October 15, Sears filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, announced the shuttering of more than 140 stores and fired its CEO. None of these actions came as a surprise to anyone who has followed Sears recently. There will be many who attribute Sears’ woes to Amazon and other online etailers. That’s not the reason for Sears’ current predicament. In fact, Sears was Amazon before the Internet was even a pipe dream.
There have been numerous studies that show being an optimist is good for your physical and mental wellbeing. However, does the benefits of being an optimist translate to the showroom? Not necessarily. According to Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, there are generally two types of people: multipliers and diminishers. Multipliers, as the name implies, highlight the intelligence and skill sets of their co-workers. Conversely, diminishers do exactly the opposite. Even the best managers and leaders can have elements of a diminisher in them because their personalities are so large they tend to inhibit or intimate their fellow team members.
Learning new things can be difficult. It becomes even more challenging when the subject matter that you are trying to master is one in which you are not interested. However, this process does not have to be painful writes Dr. Barbara Oakley, in her book Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential.
How many times after working a full day do you believe that you did not accomplish as much as you wanted to? Have you ever wanted to add an additional day to the week or a few extra hours to a day in order to get through your “to do” list? A challenge in improving your and your team’s productivity is to determine how you currently spend your time. There are a number of apps that can assist such as Be Focused Timer, which is free, an enables you to track blocks of work and track past work history. Another app, Focus Booster ($2.99/month individual, $4.99 month professional) tracks where your time goes and can link revenue, projects and meetings to your to-do list tasks. There are literally dozens of others and always the option of tracking your time the old-fashioned way by recording it on a spread sheet in hour or half hour increments.
Derek Gaunt will be sharing the negotiation secrets of the Black Swan Group at the 2018 BKBG Annual Conference, September 25. Black Swan advises its clients to avoid the typical negotiating scenario where one-party states what their issues are and what they want and the other party does the same hoping to reach a compromise in the middle.
BKBG Shareholders relate that finding and retaining best-in-class talent is one of their greatest challenges. With unemployment rates dipping below four percent nationally, that challenge is becoming increasingly more difficult.
Have you noticed that customers will readily drop $20,000 on a new refrigerator for their kitchen renovation but balk at spending $500 on a new faucet. The fact that they may be without a place to cook for two months does not seem to bother them as much as a $200 change order. If you examined the things that drive your customers crazy, chances are they are not big picture items. Instead, it’s the small, pesky inconveniences that send them off the deep end.
Career, community and cause are the three primary motivators that motivate the 21st century workforce to perform at their bests, concluded a study by Facebook of its team members.
Career relates to a place of employment that provides team members autonomy, enabling staff to use their strengths and provide them opportunities to learn and develop professionally.
