Strength Strategy
Female Managers Have the Edge
Employee engagement is linked to productivity, retention, and positive job satisfaction. So which gender of managers keep employees more engaged? Male or Female? How do you prepare to select new managers as people progress in their career when...
What do Bad Managers, Employees, and Puppies Have in Common?
Getting a puppy is exciting! The giggles, the snuggles, the learning for both the owner and the growing pup. But it’s not all peachy. There are also downsides: potty training, chewing up your favorite shoes, learning how to walk on a leash without tugging, learning the new house rules. These obstacles can be overcome with positive reinforcement, treats, and learning to understand your new best friend.
Disengaged Managers Make Disengaged Employees: Why Leadership Strengths Matter
It is no surprise that there are significant differences between good and bad managers. Often, your first job may be with a bad manager instead of a good manager. This can put a unique spin on how you view management for a long time. My First Bad Manager... And My...
Finding Talent: Understanding the Skills and Attributes of Great Managers
“What do you feel your talents are?” My confidence seemed to escape me for a moment as I was asked this in a job interview. I had to stop for a moment to collect my thoughts and compile how I wanted to answer this question. This was a direct question and a golden...
Why Great Managers Are Rare: The Business Case for Disruption
Hiking in the mountains of Colorado, I always marvel when I get to spot a beautiful fox, moose, or member of wildlife uncommon to suburbia. Their mystique reminds me of how rare it is to get close to them and how fortunate I am to witness their grace, survival, and...
Interviewing
So you didn’t get the job… what now?
I just had an amazing client learn that they did not get selected for the job they had been excited to interview for. I get it: you deliver your best examples of your skills in action you walk into a great opportunity to showcase your talent you walk out knowing you...
How to Prepare for the Interview: Data is the New Bacon
What Employers Want on Your Resume: Data Ok, I know this is a funky title and when I saw this on a T-shirt while at the gym I would have laughed out loud if I hadn’t been fighting just to breath as I huffed and puffed in spin class. But as I thought about it, it was...
How Your Personal Experience Helps Prepare for a Job Interview
Make life experience count. When helping people develop their answers for interview questions it’s hard to know exactly what will be asked. Here are a few examples of questions to expect in your interview: What are your strengths and weakness? How do you think and...
How to Prepare for an Interview: What questions do they expect me to ask?
What questions do they expect me to ask? The first time I was ever asked if I had any questions to ask the interviewer, I blanked! I had spent so much time anxiously figuring out how to make myself look good to them in the interview, I hadn’t taken any time to reflect...
How to Prepare for the Interview: Handling the “Tell us about yourself” statement
"So, tell us about yourself." The very first time I encountered the “Tell us about yourself” statement, I thought it was a very considerate gesture to make me feel at ease and share a little about myself as a person and on how to prepare for interview...
How to Prepare for an Interview: Dealing with the Failure Question
When I ask a job candidate to tell me a time they experienced a failure and how they handled it, I often get that ‘deer in headlights’ look. I then may rephrase the question to allow them to share a disappointment, a loss, or any instance where they had...
If the ‘Interviews Suck’ – It could be you!
A recent article attempted to convince me of the one best question to ask a job candidate that will tell you if they are right for the job. The article caught my attention because it started with ‘Interviews Suck!’ Ok, honestly – the idea that there is...
The Customer Service of Interviewing
Have you ever wondered how to make the interview process more welcoming and productive? Maybe a customer service perspective would help. Recently published in the Kentucky SHRM Magazine, I was honored to share why I coach interviewing skills the way I do....
I got the interview! Now what?!
Last night I attended a local SHRM meeting hosting a panel of high end recruiters, where I asked, “how can candidates prepare for the interview in the right way?” I received the following 3 answers: Stick with the truth! Meaning you need to be truthful in your...
They asked you what?!
How to prepare for the Interview to paint yourself into the position you want. Really?! What animal would I be? Argh! Who thinks these up? Did they run out of questions? Is the interview going so badly I’m now the subject of their entertainment? If...
Feedback Loop
The Best Managers Do 5 Things Differently
We often compete to share the stories of our worst managers. The poignant point here is that experience with a bad manager is so prolific that we CAN compete to share the worst stories. What if? What if instead of competing to share stories of having the worst manager...
Female Managers Have the Edge
Employee engagement is linked to productivity, retention, and positive job satisfaction. So which gender of managers keep employees more engaged? Male or Female? How do you prepare to select new managers as people progress in their career when...
Don’t Wing It!
In 2017, job hiring statistics were very revealing. Jennifer Gladstone of EBI offered 60 hiring statistics in June and the top ones to pay attention to include: The average job opening attracts 250 resumes. (Glassdoor) Only 2% of applicants will be called for an...
Be Yourself at Work: Using Self-Assesment Tools to Maximize Your Potential
Attend an Upcoming Strength Strategy Workshop for those local to 20147! Use the TOP5 coupon to receive a surprise discount. I once asked a peer from some advice on how to handle a project meeting. I was told to relax and ‘Just be myself’. When I was given this advice,...
How to Make Your Dream Job a Reality with Positive Feedback Loops
This weekend the Washington Post had an advertising supplement article within the jobs section, written by Arden Davidson, addressing the disillusionment that can occur once you’ve gotten into a job and you’re not sure you made the right choice. The statement that...
How Millennials are Changing the Playing Field in Corporate Feedback Loops
I firmly believe that “Millennials are not the problem, they are the solution.” This is how millennial solutions work as examples for everyone when it comes to positive feedback loops.
Defining Positive Feedback Loops at Work and How to start one
At work we receive feedback in a variety of ways: work that is accepted, a pat on the back, a client’s praise or complaint, a mention in the office circulation, etc. These are feedback bursts – like small atm deposits and withdrawals in your mental bank account of...
What is a Positive Feedback Loop and how does it elevate performance
What is a positive feedback loop I recently experienced a challenge in designing my own business strategy that caused me to muddle my message, lack clarity in my purpose, and frustrate several partnering contractors. I would sit and ponder this dilemma and...
How to create a Positive Feedback Loop!
I recently received some feedback that was hard to hear. Seems I had developed a habit I thought was a friendly way to relate when, actually, I had never really stopped to understand how it might be perceived by others. Turns out, it was rarely received...
Improve your work life? What does that mean?!
What happens when your work life is not optimal due to miscommunication with another team mate or boss? Or your new promotion puts you in a different position with your fellow employees who are now direct reports to you? That uneasy feeling of not knowing...
Having Fun with Feedback
I recently received some feedback that was hard to hear. Seems I had developed a habit I thought was a friendly way to relate when, actually, I had never really stopped to understand how it might be perceived by others. Turns out, it was rarely received...
Task-oriented or Engaged at work – what’s the difference?
Let’s get more clear. We all feel like we are getting things done when we are at work. We have a job to do, we get it done, we get paid, we consume – it keeps the industrial world turning. What’s the big fuss over engagement? Great question!...
Smiling isn’t enough: Secrets to improving engagement in life and work
Creating an environment to gain rich feedback that allows you and others to thrive with healthy feedback loops of critical information takes more than surface gestures. At 17 and lying in intensive care after being critically injured by a car accident, I...