Spending your Corporate Training Dollars Wisely Let’s face it, with the economy the way it is, many companies have drastically cut back on team building and leadership training budgets. Simultaneously, employee morale may be low because of uncertainty in many companies, layoffs, cutbacks, etc. Professional development training or team building may be more needed than ever to boost employee satisfaction, but there just are not enough dollars to invest in employee education. How can you maximize the training dollars you do have? 1. Get VERY clear on what your training objectives are. We get many phone calls from companies who…

The Employee Experience Is The Future Of Work: 10 HR Trends For 2017 Jeanne Meister , Contributer at Forbes The Future Workplace: Building A Consumer And Digital HR Organization Today, almost every company is undergoing a digital transformation. Cloud and mobile computing, artificial intelligence, and increasing automation have created the potential to transform nearly every aspect of a business. A survey of CEOs conducted by Fortune asked whether they thought their company was a “technology company” and 67% of CEOs said yes. The same can be said for forward looking HR departments like those at IBM and General Electric. HR…

Effective Team Communication Skills in Denver Develop your Effective Team Communication Skills in Denver. One of the most common requests we get is to help teams develop more effective communication skills. Here are 4 tips to handling difficult conversations. Effective Team Communication Skills in Denver: Tips for Handling Difficult Conversations – part 1 If you are stuck trying to achieve a result, chances are there is a difficult conversation to be had.  In the book, Crucial Conversations, the authors spent 25 years researching successful communicators. Their findings? The most successful communicators have a skill set to deal effectively with critical conversations. Here are…

The activities and interactions were great. They really helped to push the material forward without being corny. The program was very professionally delivered 8 Things Exceptional Bosses Constantly Tell Their Employees By Elle Kaplan CEO, Lexion Capital Management Whether you’re managing an intern or running an entire business, your employees’ success (and your own skin) depends on your leadership. Thankfully, the solution for motivating your team and squashing any issues is right at the tip of your tongue. It all starts with communication — the skill experts point to as the make-or-break factor for successful leadership. Here are eight things that exceptional bosses tell their…

Depending on the day and the employee you asked, I’d rate anywhere from a zero to a seven on the unkindness scale (10 being a tyrant)

The Four Foundations of a Small Team After working with thousands of people over the last 18 years, we have noticed that there are certain qualities that highly effective teams have mastered. When teams come to us with challenges, invariably they are in one of these four areas. These four pillars of teamwork, if mastered, create a stimulating, creative and productive work environment where people are excited and eager to contribute. They are represented here by the acronym PACE which stands for Purpose, Acknowledgment, Communication and Engagement.  Purpose  Let’s take each quality in turn to see how they are related…

The ability to handle conflicts skillfully is one of the most important tools a leader has in his/her “toolbox.” Great conflict management skills will move you from being a good leader to one that inspires leadership in others. When we are called in to teach conflict management or mediation skills to teams, what we have noticed over the years is that most people are avoiders – they tend to let conflicts build up because addressing them is too uncomfortable. Other people are confronters, and their conflict style is direct, but often intimidating to avoiders. There are generally very few people…