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When you think of soft skills, what comes to mind? I use to hate the term "soft skills" because many people would devalue them due to the word "soft". Then I realized that the reason people discounted soft skills is because they do not understand them and the massive impact they have on success,...

Most of us know what vital signs are. We picture someone in the hospital or at the doctor's office with monitors and testing going on. The current state of your vital signs brings clarity to your health status. Wouldn't it be great to have vital signs measures for leadership...or teams...or even...

You are walking down the hallway and see someone you know. You say hello and ask them how they are doing. They respond, "fine". You sense that may not be the entire truth but you let it go. Why do we do that? Why do we say things are fine when they are not? Probably because we want to be seen as...

I get so many questions about pre-hire assessments. That may be because I have been using and providing them for 35+ years.

Here are two statements that stand out about the value of pre-hire assessments:

"Pre-hire assessments are the same information that you would learn about someone if you...

When you have an important decision to make, how do you go about doing that?

Most people have a process. Somewhere in that process is gathering information. As an example...if you were going to buy a new car, what information would you like to have before you make your decision?

• Make and model
• ...

Purpose. If I asked you to put in one sentence the overarching purpose for your life, what would you say? Is that an easy question or difficult question to answer?

Shifting or Drifting

Purpose is the reason we do things. It is the WHY behind our decisions and actions.

Without a clear purpose, you...

Empathy. That one word raises many questions.

• What is it?
• How do I practice it?
• What value is there in being empathetic?

Many people confuse sympathy with empathy. An easy way to think of differentiating the two --  sympathy is detached, empathy is engaged and involved.

Six Seconds, a...

Optimism - an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome. (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

When you think of optimism, what comes to mind? Is it difficult for you to be optimistic? We see people who just seem to be...

Where does motivation come from?

• Recognition for doing a good job
• Getting a pay raise
• Getting likes and followers on social media

These are external motivators, and yes, they can give us motivation. However, they tend to be short term motivation boosters, not long term. Ask yourself how long...

I am currently running an EQ survey to gain insight into the emotional environment people are experiencing. In that survey, here is one of the questions, and the responses to date:

When you are experiencing strong emotions, what do you struggle with?

Notice that the largest response was being...

I was sitting in a meeting with a group of leaders recently. The question was asked, "Why do our people get stuck all the time?" I asked them if that was true. They admitted it was not all the time, but it was more often than they would like. Through a series of questions, we finally determined...

Have you ever been in that place where you recognize you are in the exact same place you have been before? I am not talking about a physical location. I am focused on a situation, or a conversation, or even a conflict with someone.

Patterns

We all have certain patterns we have developed. These...