Words from the Wise

Con­nect­ing through con­ver­sa­tions is at the heart of much of the work we do at Day One Group. Recent­ly, we have been think­ing about where words of wis­dom can be found in our every­day dia­logue. With the right mind­set of open­ness and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, we can learn quite a lot from the peo­ple we talk to and also gain unex­pect­ed insights from sur­pris­ing sources. Are you wel­com­ing wis­dom? What kinds of con­ver­sa­tions are you craving?

Words from the Wise

How To Keep Your Blind Spots in Check

Blind­ed By Your Blind Spots?

I recent­ly got some feed­back from my team that I should increase my LinkedIn pres­ence. Def­i­nite­ly a blind spot that I was not addressing.

When you’re sur­round­ed by peo­ple who want to bring out the best in you, it implies that you also need to be open to hav­ing blind spots called out – even on social media. If you’re com­mit­ted to growth, you have to look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to get tough news and be will­ing to act on what’s being offered.

So, here’s my first LinkedIn post on blind spots: How To Keep Your Blind Spots In Check

Executive Coaching Is Not One Size Fits All

Pick the Right Coach for the Win

In today’s work­place, one size fits all is rarely use­ful when it comes to lead­er­ship devel­op­ment. Our work­force is a mix of mil­len­ni­als and vet­er­ans who both could ben­e­fit from exec­u­tive coach­ing. So, what is more ben­e­fi­cial: Invest­ing in your mil­len­ni­al who shows ear­ly signs of being a strong leader in the future or empow­er­ing your sea­soned vet­er­an who seems ready for a lead­er­ship oppor­tu­ni­ty? Both can be a worth­while invest­ment with the right exec­u­tive coach. A well-trained coach is one who under­stands that mil­len­ni­als want to accel­er­ate quick­ly and need direct feed­back to move for­ward, and vet­er­ans are eager to be intro­spec­tive in order to grow. 

Read HBR’s Younger and Old­er Exec­u­tives Need Dif­fer­ent Things From Coach­ing to make sure you know what to look for in a coach.

Communication Styles Training at the Olympics

DiSC Train­ing: The New Olympic Sport

If you think the cor­po­rate office is the only place where com­mu­ni­ca­tion styles train­ing is all the rage, think again! Olympic ath­letes Ker­ri Walsh-Jen­nings and April Ross decid­ed to take their game to the next lev­el before going for Gold in beach vol­ley­ball at the 2016 Rio Olympics by tak­ing the DiSC per­son­al­i­ty test. Once they were able to iden­ti­fy their behav­ioral styles and improve their com­mu­ni­ca­tion, they noticed an imme­di­ate shift in their lev­el of trust and team­work on the court. Read more about how Walsh-Jen­nings and Ross used DiSC to learn that win­ning is a com­bi­na­tion of tal­ent, train­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.

A New Beach Vol­ley­ball Part­ner­ship Faces its Tough­est Test Yet

Employee Engagement Starts with a Little Love

What Moti­vates You: Pay­check or Passion?

Do you love your job? If your answer is yes, then chances are you are also a top per­former. Work­place research shows that moti­va­tion comes from the heart, not from the mind. Lead­ers who under­stand this intrin­sic moti­va­tion are like­ly to lead teams who are engaged, loy­al and successful.

Find out what dri­ves your employ­ees to excel:

Why Engage­ment Hap­pens in Employ­ees’ Hearts, Not Their Minds

Feed Your Team Some Feedback

Feed­back: The Most Impor­tant Meal of the Day

For­get Wheaties! Pour your team a hearty bowl of feed­back for break­fast and help them reap the ben­e­fits that come with an open line of thought­ful, action­able, trans­for­ma­tive communication.
Joel Peter­son, CEO of Jet Blue Air­ways, tells us the Top 10 Tips on how to serve up feed­back for success:

Feed­back Is the Break­fast of Champions

Engaging Leadership

If You Lead (Well), They Will Follow

What makes a good leader?  Tough Guy or Nice Guy?  A boss who push­es employ­ees to a high­er stan­dard of excel­lence?  Or a boss who empha­sizes trust and empow­er­ment?  The boss who gets the great­est com­mit­ment from employ­ees has a com­bi­na­tion of these two styles.  Keep your eye on the goal, but keep con­nect­ed to your peo­ple. Then lead, and they will follow.

Nice or Tough: Which Approach Engages Employ­ees Most

Retool Your Rhetoric

Ethos + Pathos + Logos = Effec­tive Communication

In busi­ness, com­mu­ni­ca­tion is the key to suc­cess.  Just ask, Aris­to­tle.  Scott Edinger, founder of Edinger Con­sult­ing Group, reflect­ed on what it takes to be an effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tor and found that Aris­to­tle had it fig­ured out cen­turies ago.  Focus­ing on ethos (cred­i­bil­i­ty), pathos (emo­tion­al con­nec­tion) and logos (appeal­ing to rea­son), in prop­er bal­ance, will result in improved com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and, ulti­mate­ly, bet­ter busi­ness relationships.

Three Ele­ments of Great Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Accord­ing to Aristotle

The Change Starts with You

Want Change? Prove It!

James Clear has a recipe for change. To cre­ate a change with­in your­self, Clear believes you must first change your beliefs about your­self. If you want to stick to a new habit, you have to take on the iden­ti­ty of the type of per­son you want to become. Results don’t come from just a per­for­mance-based goal; results come from believ­ing you are the type of per­son you want to become.

So, before you set per­for­mance-based goals for your­self at work such as “I will become a man­ag­er by next spring”, take a look at Clear’s recipe and change the way you think about change…

Iden­ti­ty-based Habits: How to Actu­al­ly Stick to Your Goals This Year

Collaboration Through Giving

Want Cor­po­rate Suc­cess? Try Giving

A cul­ture of “giv­ing” in the work­place can often be the key to high-per­form­ing orga­ni­za­tions. Adam Grant, man­age­ment pro­fes­sor at UPenn’s Whar­ton School of Busi­ness, writes about this inno­v­a­tive approach to col­lab­o­ra­tion in the work­place. While being a “giv­er” may have been con­sid­ered a cov­et­ed remark on your kinder­garten report card, it is gen­er­al­ly not a trait asso­ci­at­ed with reward or pro­mo­tion in the work­place. How­ev­er, research indi­cates that giv­ing envi­ron­ments in which employ­ees help each oth­er, work togeth­er and share ideas pro­vide invalu­able orga­ni­za­tion­al ben­e­fits. Take a look…Or, should we say, “give” it a look…

McK­in­sey Quar­ter­ly — Givers Take All