Many years ago, as a newly promoted supervisor, I had my first experience with a personality assessment. It was the “Personal Profile System”—also known as the “DiSC®” profile.My eyes were opened to a new way of working with people. One of my biggest learning insights was that my strengths of forcefulness, getting results, and enthusiasm could also be liabilities if I wasn’t mindful of their impact. Based on that management training class, I learned to pay better attention to applying my strengths at the correct time and with the right intensity when dealing with my direct reports, peers and bosses. This allowed me to key in to others’ communication needs to build better rapport and foster teamwork.
My positive initial experience with personality assessments fueled my passion for helping others discover their unique talents. For over two decades, I’ve consulted with organizations who want to use assessments for leadership development. The clients’ intent is straightforward and worthy: provide employees a means for becoming the best leaders possible, with assessments providing one avenue for personal development. In many cases, these efforts succeed. But sometimes, things go astray. I’ve heard countless stories of people who were excited to take the assessment, only to be left on their own to puzzle out the meaning of its results. Or, they were provided with a level of detail that left their heads spinning.
Let me go on the record as saying that highly complex, detailed personality assessments and 360 degree feedback processes have significant merit—if a company has the time, money and educated staff to implement these tools. For companies new to the use of assessments for leadership development, simpler is better. As Valerie McMurray, a former vice presidentof HR with extensive expertise in the use of assessments writes in 3 Things You Need To Know About Personality Assessments To Choose The Right One(s) For Your Employees:
We hear a lot today about women’s bodies, self-image, body consciousness, and self-confidence. One solution to improve body image and self-confidence is working out more and pushing yourself physically. And one option for that is belly dance.
Sausan has taught a number of women in workshops and her own classes. She has observed these women making huge personal shifts – embracing their feminity and personalities to achieve new personal heights after a few classes. We’ll be discussing the changes, the fears, and the accomplishments she has seen with this empowering dance.
We’ll be talking with Sausan, a well-known Egyptian-style belly dance instructor in San Francisco. She has been a belly dancer since 1972 with prior study in Flamenco, Sevillanas, Thai Classical Dance, English Highland, and Scottish Dance (including Scottish Sword Dance). For a number of years, Sausan has focused her dance studies on the dance of Egypt (Raqs Sharqi), its culture, cuisine, arts, and history. Since 1999 she has worked closely with a number of notable institutions participating, producing, choreographing, and/or directing many of its events, including the DeYoung Museum, Stanford University, and the Egyptian Consolate.
Guide to Women in Leadership
Organizations with women in their executive suites regularly out-perform others. Yet rising female executives (and their mentors) are frustrated at how hard it is to break through the glass ceiling. In this extensive guide, Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel into higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
April is Stress Awareness Month, so guess what we’ll be writing about a lot? Yes! How to manage stress! We’re kicking it off with Laurie Erdman, a true expert in the art of stress release, health and getting a lot done. – InPower Editors
Imagine if there were a disease affecting three out of four adults (and even more teenagers). It was costing the economy billions of dollars each year. The government would deem it an epidemic. Right?
There would be entire agencies dedicated to eradicating the disease. We would hold endless Congressional hearings. We would spend billions of dollars into finding a cure. Right?
Indeed, these reactions have all happened for diseases affecting far fewer Americans.
This epidemic is silent because we accept stress as normal. Everyone is stressed? Stress just is. So we make little efforts to address this epidemic in our society or in ourselves, thinking there is nothing we can do.
The prices of our hamster wheel of stress are staggering.
Join Dana Theus and Mary Brodie in a conversation with Mary Schaefer about what a “pro-human” work culture means.
“You may have heard the term “pro-employee” workplace, but what would it mean to have a “pro-human” workplace? You could say it’s about employee engagement, employee satisfaction, morale, spirit, or vitality. The “human” aspect of the human beings who happen to be employees, tends to be glossed over. What would it mean to truly address human needs at work, like the need for appreciation, belonging or to make a meaningful contribution? It’s no different than caring for any other valued asset. In this blab, we’ll discuss what it would mean to be a pro-human workplace, both at the program and daily interaction level.”
So much leadership communications training is about what we say to others, but the most powerful leaders have open communications with themselves too. Learn from Dana’s insights on a new way to lead – from within! – InPower Editors
Great leaders often cite “self-awareness” as the top soft skill responsible for their success. There’s even some research that documents this correlation. I believe that self-awareness is a leadership communication skill, one that starts with communicating effectively with yourself instead of just focusing externally on your relations with others. But how can you develop self-communication prowess and self-awareness if you don’t already have it, and turn it into a professional asset if you do?
I wish I knew a simple answer to this question. I don’t. Self-awareness is a journey, and your strongest ally on this inner journey is the voice in your head — the one you might be used to ignoring, or following without challenging. Learning to communicate effectively with yourself may be one of the greatest communications challenges you’ll ever face.
We met Priyanka in our InPower Coaching forums and have enjoyed watching her blossom into her personal power. We’re excited that she is sharing more of her personal story with us and how she came to appreciate the truth that “only you can define you.” Please welcome Priyanka to InPower Women! – InPower Editors
It should arrive anytime soon. I kept looking at my phone every few seconds to see if a return call came through from a prospective employer. I kept refreshing my inbox. Finally, a ding arrived and my most awaited message came through.
“Sorry I didn’t return your call but I wasn’t able to make out most of what you said anyway.”
My heart sank. My confidence dented. The job opportunity vanished.
This happened close to a decade ago. Given that I was an award-winning public speaker back home in India, I was upset and frustrated with being an international graduate living in the United States of America all by myself. It was my first time living on my own away from my family who were seven seas apart. It was a lonely and a lovely experience, and what I learned dealing with the hardships of those early days in the States are key to my current day success.
Doesn’t it strike you as ironic that some of the best laughs we have at the office are when we’re sharing a Dilbert cartoon or joking about how much this meeting reminds us of a scene from The Office?
So often office humor is just us laughing at how incredibly absurd and unfunny the workplace can be. You know, like when you get your travel authorization two days after the plane takes off, or when the copier breaks right before everysingle meeting with your boss when you need copies. (Of course, it totally knows you’re running late!)
The workplace can certainly be a place with little room for joy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
To celebrate our partnership between InPower Women and Silkarmour, we asked some women to choose a piece from the Silkarmour website that they like and share with us why they chose it. The “why” includes how it supports their own personal brand and style, and how it fits into their view of work and clothing. Check out the workplace fashion selections we chose (and feel free to leave your own in comments!)
Here are some of their recommendations and perspectives. Enjoy the reviews!
Dana’s on vacation this week so we’re taking a break from her regular Friday Insight & Inspiration post to share some thoughts from our newest team member Suzan Czajkowski who reminds us how to turn bad news into opportunity with a positive attitude. Please help us welcome Suzan! – InPower Editors
I received an unexpected phone call yesterday: “We’ve decided to discontinue that program that you’re helping us run. We’ll go to the end of next month, and then that’s it.”
Oh. Well, that sucks.
I really enjoyed working in that program. Though I have a number of other irons in the fire, this particular program was lucrative and, more importantly, it was fun.
Needless to say, I’m more than disappointed. That news generated a negative spiral and from there on, it felt like everything went wrong.
Maybe you’ve been there too? You’re going along with everything feeling like it’s all headed in the right direction when, out of nowhere, it all falls right back apart again. As I mentioned – it sucks. (more…)
So much leadership communications training is about what we say to others, but the most powerful leaders have open communications with themselves too. Learn from Dana’s insights on a new way to lead – from within! – InPower Editors
