#HR #RRHH Making love and making personal #branding #leadership

As a leader, your energy has a profound impact on your team. The way you show up in meetings and 1:1s, and even the tone in your emails can influence psychological safety in your workplace--for better or for worse. That's why I often remind myself that words matter when it comes to building a high-performing, engaged, and inclusive team. 

In an effort to be more intentional about the tone I'm setting every day, I've discovered these seven phrases help convey gratitude, vulnerability, and trust. 

As leaders, you’re often told to that in order to stem overthinking, you need to “get out of your head.” And while it’s true that too much introspection causes either oversimplification or excessive rumination, a new leadership book suggests that you should consider what’s going on in that noggin of yours. Want to improve your leadership? The place to start is your mind.

Yesterday I walked into my home office and examined the space from a fresh perspective. It hasn't had a facelift in about ten years and I've hardly noticed its dingy appearance. Don't get me wrong, I love my office but it's simply out of date and no longer reflects my personality. It's time for a change.

Approaching the challenge like any diligent, problem-solving coach, I did my research. What does science say about an office space that boosts energy, creativity, and productivity, all while projecting a safe, calm feeling for clients? Yes, it's possible, and you can do it all on your own. Here's what I've learned.

Color psychology studies (and there are many) reveal changes in the body and brain when people view certain colors. These changes influence productivity, creativity, health, stress levels, focus, communication, and emotions. That's some powerful influence!

Color psychologist Angela Wright explains the phenomenon this way: "Color travels to us on wavelengths of photons from the sun. Those are converted into electrical impulses that pass to the part of the brain known as the hypothalamus, which governs our endocrine system and hormones, and much of our activity."

First decide what's most important about how color affects you, your employees, and your visitors. In an interview with Chris Bailey, Wright offered this simple breakdown of the effects of color on the mind: "The four psychological primaries are: red, blue, yellow, and green. And they affect the body (red), the mind (blue), the emotions, the ego, and self-confidence (yellow), and the essential balance between the mind, the body, and the emotions (green)." But it's not that simple. Bailey nicely breaks down the process of choosing just the right color in this article.

Any conversation at work where you are asking someone for something is a form of negotiation. Effective managers and leaders use the principles of positive persuasion to get what they need and strengthen relationships in the process.

'The arrival of Baby Rosie has put a new term sheet on the table, and as a 41-year-old professional woman, and also a mother, one of the most unsuspecting and challenging parts of this venture has been the personal “rebranding” it required.'

It's that time of year--leaders everywhere are charging employees with the task of establishing goals for 2018. If you've never been through a structured process, this exercise can be daunting, and frankly, feel like a big waste of time. I can assure you, it's not. 

Setting goals is critical. Goals provide direction, help you focus, prioritize your time and energy, and ensure that you can objectively prove you've advanced the company's agenda.

But just any goal won't do. Research shows that goals are not only important but also that the level of specificity and difficulty matters. Goals that are both clear and challenging drive higher levels of performance.

To set their teams up for success, many organizations use SMART goals. Google leaders use something a little different--"Objectives and Key Results" (OKRs). On Google's re:Work site, a resource that shares the company's perspective on people operations, Google explains the concept.

Courage is a choice. Every moment of every single day. And it does not yearn to be a grand heroic act. Choose courage.

This month we are interviewing Judith Jungmann, who as CHRO of the Beckers Group is responsible for the people ops of about 2000 employees. She previously served as SVP Human Resources and Communication for the Scout 24 Group in Munich, which employs about 1000 people.

These are Judith’s replies to our questions:

How do you develop and support first time managers effectively?

vía @ValdezVera