Whether you feel secure or think your job may soon disappear
While we can't control the economy or the other forces of change, we can position ourselves to survive and even thrive in challenging times. Here are a dozen tips to consider, whether you feel secure or think your job may soon disappear: 1. Don't get caught unaware. Too often, workers fail to recognize the early…
It doesn’t take much to make people feel left out
Naomi Eisenberger, a social neuroscience researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), designed an experiment to find out what goes on in the brain when people feel rejected by others. She had volunteers play a computer game while their brains were scanned by fMRI machines. Subjects thought they were playing a ball-tossing…
Self-starters don’t wait to be empowered
After my speech on Building Leadership Presence for a large business organization, an audience member raised her hand to comment: “I’m new to the company, but there is one change that I wish we’d make. I think we need a mentor program where we’d be paired with an experienced manager to have someone ‘show us…
How skilled are you at expressing your authentic self?
You are talented, skilled, and highly competent, with positive business results that have been responsible for your career progress to this point. What more could you possibly need? At a certain level, the force that will catapult you to more senior positions of leadership may have less to do with the abilities that got you…
Before jumping into a team-building session, ask yourself if it really going to resolve the issue
Leading a team requires a skill set that is completely different from that of managing direct reports, the people who work directly under you. I have worked for leaders who were great at galvanizing a team but ineffective one-on-one, and amazing bosses who were terrible team leads. Actually, most of the people I’ve worked for…
Learn to unlearn to detach yourself from the status quo and move forward
Want to add real value to your team, your company, or your profession? Want to stay influential and relevant? Want to enhance your reputation as an effective and transparent leader? Then learn to unlearn - and share those lessons. Not that it’s easy to do so. We become psychologically attached to the status quo because…
But stay open to the unpredictable and exciting opportunities life has in store for you
Working with clients as a therapist in private practice and now as an executive coach, I’ve learned some valuable but unorthodox lessons about goal setting: Don’t focus on building up your areas of weakness. Talents overlooked may atrophy, and weaknesses – regardless of how much effort is put into trying to improve them – will…
It takes time and repetition to create a new habit. But it’s worth it
Although there are many nonverbal strategies that help you look like a leader, there are gender, situational, and cultural differences that impact their effectiveness. But one body language truth is universal: You are the most convincing, motivating and charismatic when your body language reflects your best authentic self. You probably already realize that it isn’t…
Writer Shelby Carleton is changing the narrative for women in the gaming industry
As a teenager growing up in Fort McMurray, Shelby Carleton played Call of Duty so hard she literally wore out the disk. Some 15 years later, Carleton is a narrative designer for the video game, one of the most popular in the world. She helped shape some of the characters in the series’ latest release, Call of…
The simple act of touching adds personal warmth to business communications
If you found a coin, would you give it to a person who approached you and said it was theirs? Would it make any difference if the person approaching you touched your arm when they made their request? Well, for most people, the answers are no ... and yes! Only 23 per cent of the…
Our tips to help you quickly overcome your slump
Have you ever noticed how much more productive you are when you are immersed in activities that sing to you? Me too. But I also realize that waking up and feeling you cannot face another day at your desk happens to all of us. Catch me on a high note and I am captivated, inspired…
Smiles release serotonin and dopamine in your brain, and that helps improve your mood
Whenever I give a presentation on the impact of body language in the workplace, I always include a section on the power of a smile. That’s because research shows that facial expressions send feedback from your face to your left frontal cortex, which in turn triggers the release of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine into…
Artifacts dating back 50,000 years help us better understand human connections
It’s one of the most enduring craft traditions in human history, stretching back 50,000 years: tiny donut-shaped beads made from ostrich eggshells. They reveal the oldest social network ever identified, according to a study by Jennifer Miller. The beads probably originated in eastern Africa and spread west and south through the continent as people traded them…
U of A criminology program has highest rate of Indigenous enrolment among all arts programs
Growing up near Lac La Biche, Alta., Shaylee Lyne Desjarlais-Whitford couldn’t help noticing how Indigenous people were treated differently by the justice system. She saw how many close to her on the Kikino Métis Settlement didn’t get fair representation when charged with an offence. “Prosecutors were throwing cases away just to get them done,” she…
The whole employee rating process is a recipe for disaster
I was 23 when I got my first promotion to Acting Assistant Labour Relations Manager in the UK’s Health Service. My boss’s gift to me was my one and only report, Megan, 20 years old, grumpy, difficult and the department’s secretary. My first task in my new position was to deliver her end-of-year review. My…