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We all want to learn and grow. Improving our skills and being exposed to new ideas not only makes us better at our jobs but makes us happier and more engaged at work. But with a full-time job, it can be tough to find the time and resources to dedicate to personal development. Some people, like me, are lucky to work for companies that encourage and even fund classes, sabbaticals, or fellowships. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have an official policy, how can you make the case to your manager (and the necessary higher ups) to support you?' Identify how you want to learn and grow. If you don’t yet have a clear picture of what you want to develop, spend time honing in on exactly what you need. Do you want to build your emotional intelligence skills to be a more attuned business leader? Are you interested in going on a yoga or meditation retreat? Set aside a specific period of time, such as one evening or even a week, to explore ideas and research what appeals to you. Write down what you want to learn and how you would grow from the experience you’ve identified. Research shows that the physical act of writing has a neurological effect on the brain which tells the cerebral cortex to “wake up and pay attention.” Writing stimulates a bunch of cells in the brain called the Reticular Activating System that plays a key role in being more conscious and alert. The more you can write down, the more aware and real your ideas become.
Via The Learning Factor
We all know that the work landscape is changing. The jobs that will be in demand are shifting as more are automated by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robots. Teams are becoming more disparate and globalization has added new collaboration challenges. At the same time, more millennials are taking on management roles, and even our work spaces will undergo changes between now and 2025. “Change will be happening so quickly that 50% of the occupations that exist today will not exist 10 years from now. So we’re going to be living in an environment that is extremely adaptable and changing all the time,” says Liz Bentley, the founder of Liz Bentley Associates, a leadership development consulting firm.
Via The Learning Factor
Help others while helping your career.
Via Jay
Game of Thrones has some applicable management lessons, even if you don't have the power of life or death.
Via Jay
Stop being so responsive. Instead, protect your time and energy for the things that matter most.
Via Jay
Raise your hand--who likes to discipline an employee? I hear crickets chirping in the background. Yet discipline is a cornerstone of highly productive companies. Without it, employee performance is at risk. But don't see it as a negative. If conducted with a constructive, future focus, it provides consistency, guidance, and valuable feedback both to and from the problem employee. The best managers employ a face-to-face discussion to deal with low performers, and employees with attitude problems in general. This conversation is best handled on the manager's end when they're well prepared and have a game plan. Here's how they do it:
Via The Learning Factor
Angie Morgan is a Marine veteran and the coauthor, along with Courtney Lynch and Sean Lynch, of "Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success.
Via Jay, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
We all want to be more confident-it's a personal quality that helps us build strong relationships with others, get things done, and move forward in our work and life. However, sometimes we can go overboard, and our confidence can become something much darker: arrogance. In their book, Why Leaders Fail, authors Peter Stark and Mary Kelly explain how leaders sabotage themselves-and their organizations-when they project arrogance instead of confidence. According to the authors, the defining factor of a strong leader is rooted in the relationships he or she builds with followers, and how effectively he or she propels the organization toward great achievement.
Via The Learning Factor
We tend to put great emphasis on leadership skills and ways we can learn and build them (and spend a ton of money on professional development each year, too). But if you really want to inspire the…
Via Jay, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
From the 3rd Results Oriented principle, Leader behaviors – McKinsey research helps us know what works best today. From the article: 5 Strategies to Lead Change, Using Liberating Structures
Five key concepts and supporting research and tools will help you lead through adaptive change in a VUCA world, one that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous, as presented in Mexico City for CPA firm leaders at the Russell Bedford International conference, yet applicable for any leader.
Researchers showed that out of 20 distinct leadership traits identified in organizations whose leadership performance was strong, high-quality leadership teams typically displayed 4 of the 20 possible types of behavior. These 4 behaviors explained 89 percent of the variance between strong and weak organizations in terms of leadership effectiveness
1. Solving problems effectively.
2. Operating with a strong results orientation.
3. Seeking different perspectives.
4. Supporting others.
This is from the McKinsey Quarterly, first published in 1964, which now offers the perspective today that “much of the management intuition that has served us in the past will become irrelevant,” (Dobbs, 2014.) McKinsey forecasts a crash of:
1) technological disruption,
2) rapid emerging-markets growth, and
3) widespread aging as “long-held assumptions [give] way, and seemingly powerful business models [become] upended.”
Sound familiar? Are you ready?
Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN
A CEO client is over-extended, has too many priorities to juggle, and is simultaneously hyper-stressed and hyper-exhausted. Actually this describes many of my clients. Does this sound like you too? Friends, this is no way to go through life. As someone who has dodged two cancer bullets while building two businesses and raising two sons, I have a very healthy respect for mortality, along with the insight that tomorrow is not promised to anyone. During our call this week, my client shared her anxiety about getting everything accomplished, and that she has made no time to exercise or decompress in several days. She is on a non-stop treadmill.
Via The Learning Factor
A project or initiative begins. Do we have the authority to lead? An initiative deviates. Do we have accountability in results? Authority and accountability are necessary companions, yet the
Via Jay, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
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A new study suggests misplaced fears hold too many introverts back from striving for the top.
Via Jay, Kevin Watson
Ask people "Do you have above average driving skills?" and 90 per cent will say yes. "Sense of humour?" You guessed it, 90 per cent.
Via Jay
Steer clear of these four disabling behaviors to effectively manage your team, no matter where you are in the world.
Via Jay
You don't want to be the next United Airlines; instead, take steps to empower employees to behave better by modeling true leadership for them.
Via Jay
As a leader, your communication skills have the potential to leave a lasting impact on others--make sure that impact is a positive one.
Via Jay
"We all behave in perfect alignment with our current level of emotional, psychological, and spiritual evolution. All our actions and relationships, as well as the quality and power of our leadership, accurately express the person we have become."
Via Jay, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
Great Leaders have certain traits that make them stand out from the rest. If we want to achieve what they've achieved, we have to learn to do as they do.
Via Jay, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
Let’s just call it evolution. Take a quick trip to the other side of town, the other side of the country, or even the other side of the world, and it quickly becomes evident that our lives have drastically evolved due to technology. Gone are the days of walking into any old restaurant and hoping for the best meal. Today we ask our smart devices where we can find the best burritos. Need a good Pilates class? We quickly check Yelp reviews. And, instead of filing those business cards we collected in a drawer, we simply go back to the office to connect on LinkedIn. And, here lies the problem. Many of us, especially leaders who aren’t looking for a job, aren’t doing a very good job putting our best profile forward. “Tacky photos, incomplete sentences, poor spelling or grammar, and a lack of effort placed on who you are and what you stand for vs. just focusing on what you've accomplished in your career, are a few turn-offs for our team,” says Brian Mohr, cofounder and managing director of executive search firm, Y Scouts, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. “LinkedIn reveals how people present themselves to the world of business.” Mohr’s statements, as an executive recruiting professional, may not be all that surprising, until you consider the level of employee his firm is looking to recruit—the rock star leader who probably doesn’t have their next career move on their radar.
Via The Learning Factor
For one, they provide clear strategic perspective.
Does it ever seem like some people you know are advancing rapidly in their careers or businesses, while you seem to be just plodding along? Chances are you're not doing one simple thing that can make all the difference to achieving your goals. You're not putting yourself first. In the personal finance world, experts often advise people to "pay yourself first." The idea is that when a paycheck or other payment comes in the first thing you should so is put a portion of it into your savings and only then pay your bills and other financial obligations. Most of us, of course, instinctively do the opposite. We first pay our bills and then put money into savings if there's any left over. The problem, of course, is that there very rarely is any money left over. So our bills get paid, but we never manage to save much, making it impossible to reach our financial goals. This is why 401(k) programs are so powerful: They literally force you to pay yourself first by putting money into savings before you can pay anyone else.
Via The Learning Factor
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A six-step plan for making a persuasive request.