Doing a Little Spring Cleaning in Your Office?

Posted on May 22, 2013 by HRDQ

What your workspace tells about your co-workers and your communication styles.

Throwing away old papers? Dusting off that top shelf? During your office spring cleaning, take a closer look around your workspace. Does your desk have an endless supply of papers strewn across it; or is it so clear of clutter that you can see every inch of the desk with charts and graphs on your wall? Are papers arranged in neat organized piles? Or mixed with personal photos and some clutter? Your work space can provide insight into your personality style.

Personal style is developed over time and revealed by the level of assertiveness and expressiveness you display. Assertiveness is the amount of effort you make to influence or control another’s thoughts or actions, and expressiveness is the amount of effort you make to control emotions when interacting with others. By measuring your levels of assertiveness and expressiveness, you can discover your preference for one of the four personality styles.

Identifying an individual’s preferred personality style as Direct, Spirited, Considerate, or Systematic enables us to develop better interpersonal connections while recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each style. By understanding the strengths of each style, we can flex our own style to work with those strengths – communicating and interacting better.

The next time you enter into your or a co-worker’s space, take some time to look around - take mental notes about the space.

If you have a hard time finding their desk under all the papers, notes, books, or magazines, they are displaying a spirited personality style and you should turn on your listening ears because they like to talk.

Do you see family photos prominently displayed? Is there a comfy couch or chairs? This type of space reflects considerate personality styles. Create rapport by making small talk. You’ll build a solid relationship before jumping into projects.

If you see piles of papers nicely organized with personal photos discreetly placed in the corner, you are meeting with a direct personality style. Be direct and to the point with clear instructions.

When you pass by your co-worker’s workspace at night and all you see is the desk, they are displaying a systematic personality style. Provide and focus on the facts in an organized way.

Simple clues such as how a co-worker’s workspace looks help identify communication styles and enter into more effective relationships.

The HRDQ Style Series provides quick and accurate ways to identify personality styles and the impact they make in the workplace. Using self-assessments, participants can better understand how personality drives behavior, improve their people skills, and successfully create interpersonal relationships.

What’s My Communication Style? is the perfect place to start!

Team Emotional and Social Intelligence

Posted on May 15, 2013 by HRDQ

There are many measurable skills that contribute to individual high performance. Furthermore, there are essential soft skills that make possible the delivery of that performance to an organization.

A majority of these soft skills pertain to interpersonal relationships, and so are only visible in team settings. Working as part of a team is much more difficult than working on one’s own – it means having to rely on others, committing to a common set of objectives, and modifying one’s own behaviors to accommodate those of others and move everyone toward shared goals.

There are, however, simple choices that can improve overall team function, and allow individuals to contribute their individual best – unhindered by team discord. These choices amount to team emotional and social intelligence, which, in turn, enables sustainable productivity. Intelligence, here, s used in a non-traditional way – meaning something closer to awareness than ability. For everyone is able to choose “emotionally intelligent” behaviors, but we to be cognizant of their value and how to put them to use.

To develop this awareness, self-assessment couldn’t be more valuable in providing insight into current behaviors and tendencies as juxtaposed with statistically sound, effective behaviors. The Team Emotional and Social Intelligence (TESI) soft-skills training program is the perfect way to develop a practical picture of an entire team’s effectiveness.

Revealing a 360 degree evaluation of a team’s “Collaboration Skills,” the TESI shows common strengths and weaknesses in seven areas of teamwork. Stressing the idea that each member of a team needs a personal association with their team (a reason they have to continue working toward team goals), this program shows participants that it is possible for every team to possess excellent collaboration skills, achieve high performance, and feel emotionally and socially well while acting as part of their team.

An experiential learning program, the TESI will not only allow participants to learn from their self-assessments, but to participate in activities and action planning that will apply directly to their own experience – learning that can take effect immediately, and that will resonate with teams as they work together.

Try TESI today!

Free Webinar! How to Build Emotional Intelligence for Individuals and Teams: The Top 7 Skills

Posted on May 13, 2013 by HRDQ

FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Marcia Hughes and James Bradford Terrell
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

If your organization’s teams are lacking direction, control, or the desire to achieve, underdeveloped emotional intelligence could be the cause. A prerequisite for success, research shows that emotional intelligence is a key driver in team and interpersonal dynamics.

Join presenters Marcia Hughes and James Terrell for an informative free webinar that will help trainers, consultants, team leaders, and OD professionals navigate the road of emotional and social intelligence. They’ll explore the seven emotional competencies and discuss how each relates to team performance. Marcia and James will also present the Collaborative Growth Model, a practical framework that maps the route to emotional and social effectiveness at individual and team levels.

James Bradford Terrell and Marcia Hughes are co-authors of Team Emotional & Social Intelligence, which offers a unique set of tools for determining and developing a team’s emotional effectiveness in seven dimensions that are a prerequisite for high performance.

What You Will Learn

The biggest challenge to productive teamwork
How to identify and develop the seven core behaviors of emotional effectiveness
Techniques to spark candid team conversations about what does or doesn’t work
How to use emotional intelligence skills to integrate individual goals into team goals
Creating buy-in with team members

Who Should Attend

Trainers
Consultants
Team Leaders
Team Members
OD professionals

About the Presenters

The president of Collaborative Growth, LLC, Marcia Hughes serves as a strategic communications partner for teams and their leaders. She presents her expertise in emotional intelligence through her consulting, keynote sessions, and program facilitation. She is co-author of the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence, which includes the TESI® Short, A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, and Emotional Intelligence in Action as well as the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence Survey™ (TESI®). Marcia is also the author of Life’s 2% Solution. She is a certified trainer in the Bar-On EQ-i ® and EQ 360® and provides train-the-trainer facilitation and coaching in powerful EQ delivery.

As the Vice President of Collaborative Growth, LLC, James Bradford Terrell applies his expertise in interpersonal communication to help a variety of public and private sector clients anticipate change and respond to it resiliently. He is co-author of the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence Facilitator Guide Package, which includes the TESI® Short, A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, and Emotional Intelligence in Action. James also coaches leaders, teams in transition, and senior management using the Bar-On EQi®, EQ 360®, and other assessments. Terrell is co-creator of the Team Emotional and Social Intelligence Survey™ (TESI®), and he provides train-the-trainer workshops on how to develop the insightful interpretation and application of EQ results.

Register Here!

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

Posted on May 8, 2013 by HRDQ

Although you may not think of yourself as a negotiator (like, with a capital N), negotiating is something we all do all the time. It’s communication aimed at mutual need satisfaction.

But even though we do it all the time, there’s a lot to negotiating – and by building the right interpersonal skills and modeling our behavior on a sound methodology, we can all reach positive outcomes. The key is knowing which skills are in need of building, and how to put them into practice.

Self-assessment is the first step toward improved performance. In order to progress, we first have to take stock of available resources and make note of deficiencies. By looking closely at our natural tendencies and current behaviors, we can make a plan to move toward more appropriate behaviors that will facilitate more effective negotiations.

The Negotiating Style Profile will frame this picture for you, and set out a model of effective negotiation skills to measure against and work toward. The basis for the Negotiating Style Profile assessment is that, in negotiations, the involved parties should have high concern for two things: the outcome of the discussion, and their relationship with the others involved.

By measuring these levels of concern as expressed by behavioral choices, the Negotiating Style Profile reveals your relative tendencies toward five negotiating styles. A collaborating style is put forth as the most effective approach to produce positive outcomes for all parties involved, and to maintain healthy relationships between them.

Simply understanding negotiation as a collaborative form of communication can be a major shift for a lot of people. And this shift can affect more than just negotiations. The set of skills needed to negotiate collaboratively can be extended to all aspects of worklife – improving performance and employee well-being.

Get started today with the Negotiating Style Profile today!

What’s My Time Style?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by HRDQ

Personality Style affects all aspects of our work life – especially time management. Just as with social situations involving different groups of people, we approach time management differently depending on what we’re doing.

When thinking about time management, it’s important to consider not just the nature of the task, but the other people involved. Team members, managers, and other stakeholders may have very different methods of time management than we do. And while we cannot control the behaviors of others, and most often can’t choose who we work with, we can make our time-management style align more closely for a more harmonious group effort.

This is especially important when fitting our own tasks into a schedule developed by someone else. We need to choose an appropriate time-management style for the task at hand, but also make sure that our style is appropriate for the people we are working with.

So, how do we classify time-management style?

We all observe behaviors in ourselves and in others, and can sense when we are compatible (or not). There’s a simple and effective way to decipher these behaviors and understand why they result in compatible or incompatible relationships. It’s the HRDQ Style Model.

Classifying observable behaviors into four distinct personality styles (Direct, Spirited, Systematic, and Considerate), the HRDQ Style Model helps us create a plan for capitalizing on our own natural strengths, and relating to others more effectively. The HRDQ Style Series is comprised of eight style assessments that deal with specific aspects of work life and provide personal development training. What’s My Time Style? deals directly with time management.

Built on a foundation of behavioral tendencies, arrived at by self-assessment, What’s My Time Style reports an individual’s “style” and provides enough interpretive information and time managemet training to chart a course toward better performance, better relationships, and smoother sailing all around.

Learning about personality style can improve all aspects of our home and work lives, and help us build the skills and relationships we need to maintain high performance, feel fulfilled in our interactions, and help others succeed with us.

Let the HRDQ Style Series help you!

FREE Webinar! Breakthrough Creativity

Posted on April 15, 2013 by HRDQ

Breakthrough Creativity:

How to Use Your Talents to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Hosted by HRDQ

Presented by Lynne Levesque

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

2 – 3pm (Eastern Time)

Organizations that integrate creativity into their DNA achieve significant benefits, including better team performance, increased flexibility, greater retention rates, creative problem solving, and strategic decision making. Some say it’s the “secret sauce” that’s needed to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Lynne Levesque is the Author of the Breakthough Creativity Profile – a combination self-assessment and classroom workshop, that helps individuals and teams to leverage their creative strengths, improve their problem-solving skills, increase productivity, and achieve their creative best.

But creativity isn’t limited to artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs. The fact is everyone is creative. Just as there are multiple styles of intelligence, there are multiple styles of creativity that produce different yet equally valuable results. Variations in how individuals look at the world, gather information, and respond to challenges all have an impact on creative contributions. And the first step in realizing creative potential in individuals and teams is self-discovery.

Join creativity and leadership development expert Dr. Lynne Levesque for an hour-long exploration of creativity in the workplace. She’ll discuss how creative talents impact organizational performance, introduce eight creative talents, and offer a practical framework you can use to accelerate the growth of creative strengths in individuals, teams, and leaders.

What You Will Learn

What it means to be creative at work and why it’s critical to performance
Discover the different ways people can be creative
How to apply creativity to inventive problem solving, strategic decision making, and resilient change management
Understand the impact of different creative talents on teamwork
Identify steps for building creative competency in individuals, teams, and leaders

Who Should Attend

Trainers
Managers and Team Leaders
Human Resources Managers
OD Professionals
Consultants

About the Presenter

Lynne C. Levesque, Ed. D. is an expert in the field of creativity and leadership with over 20 years of experience consulting, training, and researching. She is the author of Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents (Davies-Black: June, 2001), as well as numerous articles and Harvard Business School cases for the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. Lynne holds an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an Ed.D. in Creativity from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Click here to register!

The Right Stuff

Posted on April 10, 2013 by HRDQ

Our planet has a specific set of resources. Independently, they’re just a group of things. But, under the right conditions, when they interact with one another and begin processes in which they are interdependent, they have the ability to synthesize into a thing that has greater capabilities. (Liquid water and biogenic elements come together and begin processes facilitated by energy from the sun. With adequate protection and stability, they become life.)

In the same way, a specific group of people can work together interdependently and communicate with each other to accomplish common goals. They can be a team. These conditions, however, do need to be met in order to create a synergistic team:

Interdependence

A group is not a team until its members’ actions depend on each other. Knowing that someone depends on you is a great motivator to regulate and maintain quality, time management, and interpersonal relationships. Everyone learns from everyone else and applies that new knowledge to their own tasks. And with acknowledgement of interdependence comes the open communication of needs – of and between individuals and of the team as a whole.

Communication/Information Flow

A team requires an accurate and constant flow of information – reinforcing goals, needs, and main points. This serves, also, to make transitions smooth, prevent individual departures down unexpected paths, and generate a continuous exchange of ideas – turning over new stones and polishing existing ones. It confirms and reminds of shared assets, shared processes, and shared goals.

Common Goals

Communication and Interdependence only make a team if, rather than maintaining the mindset of perfecting their own tasks, individuals are focused on how best to achieve team goals. Each member needs to understand why everyone is doing what they’re doing, and how they can help to move things forward. The acceptance of and alignment to common goals will structure and strengthen a group – determining the actions and methods of its members, and uniting them as a team.

Bring the concept of team-membership to life through experiential learning in a team building game. Mars Surface Rover will show the members of your organization how to recognize and capitalize on the benefits of being part of a team – highlighting the need for the three conditions above, and writing the formula for success. Illustrated by a fun and memorable activity, the model presented by Mars Surface Rover incorporates soft skills training beyond team building to communication, time management, problem solving, and more.

Get started with this HRDQ customer favorite today, and watch your teams flourish!

Marco…

Posted on April 3, 2013 by HRDQ

Managing employees is a true feat of soft skills. Communication, personality style, leadership, and project and performance management are all put to the test on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the employees you manage might seem like they’re on another planet, even when they’re sitting right in front of you. So, what if they’re in another building? Another city? Another country? Actually ON another planet? It happens.

When employees are discreetly distributed, the manager’s position becomes more important and requires a broader skill set. The manager may be the only link between employees – the one to set schedules, allocate resources, and synthesize production. But he also needs to be the one to ensure alignment – making sure his employees are all aware of and working toward organizational goals.

Although it’s such a basic thing, the loss of face-to-face communication can have a huge impact on how things get done. Written communication and phone skills become invaluable, and relationships need to be built more deliberately without the luxury of casual interactions. Managers who are great face-to-face may find themselves struggling in this new system of information transfer.

They need help filling in the gaps left by the demands of a discreet organizational system. So help them! Managing Offsite Employees is a new title from the Reproducible Training Library. A complete, half-day program, it assesses and builds skills in all areas needed by managers of remote teams.

You can even make your training session into an example of efficient communication and teamwork across distances. Have your managers print out their own participant materials and try an alternative means of meeting – like a webinar or phone or video conference.

Providing the appropriate supervision training is instrumental to a strong team – wherever they are. Settling for resources in a convenient location is a thing of the past. Build your team on a global scale – because you want the best; because it’s possible; because your supervisors know how to manage offsite employees.

Free Webinar: Building High-Performance Leadership Relationships Across Generations

Posted on March 18, 2013 by HRDQ

FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Ron Carrucci and Josh Epperson
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

Now more than ever, organizations are struggling with generational differences in the workplace. Transferring years of experience and knowledge from incumbent leaders to senior managers to the generation climbing the ranks is no easy challenge under normal circumstances. And when issues surrounding communication preferences, assumptions about authority, power, control, and lifestyle are present, that process is made all the more difficult. So what’s the best way for organizations to bridge the gap, so to speak?

Join subject matter experts Ron Carucci and Josh Epperson for an informative webinar that discusses the leadership issues persisting in today’s multi-generational organizations. Not only will you gain valuable insight and a new way of thinking, you’ll also learn a number of action-oriented techniques you can use to enable your leaders to work together harmoniously and create a positive impact on performance.

Ron Carrucci and Josh Epperson are co-authors of Bridging the Leadership Divide – a workshop that helps leaders of multiple generations to remove the inherent barriers to productive relationships between incumbent and emerging leaders.

What You Will Learn

Six patterns of cross-generational leadership relationships
The inherent (and sometimes assumed) challenges between incumbent and emerging leaders – The war of Legacy and Potential
Effective approaches for handling cross-generational leadership issues
The strengths, challenges, and outcomes of a real-world example of cross-generational relationship

Who Should Attend

Supervisors
Managers
Leaders
Human resources professionals
OD professionals
…and if you’re fortunate enough to participate with one of your cross-generational leaders even better!

About the Presenters

Ron Carrucci is a seasoned consultant with more than 25 years of experience in strategy formulation, global organization design, organizational change, and executive leadership development. He is a former faculty member at Fordham University Graduate School and he served as an adjunct at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Leadership Divided, What Emerging Leaders Need and What you Might be Missing, and Bridging the Leadership Divide. His clients include CitiBank, Corning Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, Deutsche Bank, ConAgra, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Johnson & Johnson, and ADP.

A consultant who specializes in large-scale organization and culture change, organization architecture, and leadership development, Josh Epperson is the co-author of Bridging the Leadership Divide, and Future in-Formation: Choosing a Generative Organizational Life. He earned a Master of Science degree in Organizational Development at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. Josh also holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Mars Hill Graduate School. Some of his clients include Cadbury Schweppes, The Hershey Company, Microsoft, McDonalds, Starbucks Coffee Company, and the CIA.

Register Here!

Don’t Kiss Me, I’m Systematic

Posted on March 13, 2013 by HRDQ

On St, Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish. It’s not really about ethnicity or religion – it’s about finding things that are special and unique in us and in others, and celebrating them. It’s about being aware and appreciative of differences.

But more than that, it’s an acknowledgement that behavior is a choice. We can shape our interactions and interpersonal relationships by choosing certain behaviors.

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone incorporates the good, fun parts of the signifier “Irish” into their own behavior. In the same regard, we can all flex our personality style to incorporate positive aspects of other styles into our behavior in situations that call for them.

Teams and organizations are made up of personalities. Successful teams and organizations are conscious of the different strengths and weaknesses of these personalities, and understand that behavior is a choice.

Personality Styles

By helping your team understand their own behavioral tendencies, you’ll encourage them to recognize and develop their special, unique strengths while appreciating the strengths of others.

The HRDQ Style Model is based on the understanding that everyone has inherent tendencies – a personality style – and that no style is fundamentally better or worse than any other. Measuring the expressiveness (desire to share thoughts and feelings with others) and assertiveness (desire to influence others) of individuals, HRDQ Style Assessments reveal a personality style based on individuals’ response to statements regarding interpersonal behavior.

Offering eight different assessments targeted towards varying soft skill sets, the HRDQ Style Series is your tool for building healthy and productive workplace relationships. On their own, or as part of broader training on related topics, HRDQ Style Assessments are an effective foundation for a variety of soft-skills training topics, including communication, leadership, team building, and supervisory skills.

Get Started with the HRDQ Style Series Today!

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Tag Archives: organizational development

Doing a Little Spring Cleaning in Your Office?

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

What’s My Time Style?