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DISC In-Depth: S's and C's
Last time we looked at the D and the I. Today we are going to turn our attention to the S and C's. The S The 'S' stands for 'steadiness'. This factor is about how a person prefers and responds to the pace of their environment. How to tell if you're dealing with an S (behavioral tendencies): Very steady and reliable Dependable - show up and work hard Consistent and have great follow through Supportive of…
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DISC In-Depth: D's and I's
Yesterday, I covered some of the foundations of the DISC and some of the benefits you can gain from using it effectively. Today I want to go into a bit more detail about the first two factors (a 'factor' here simply means 'area of focus' or 'part'), the 'D' and the 'I'. The D 'D' is short for 'dominance.' The 'D' part of the theory is interested in how people make decisions, and how they respond…
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DISC In-Depth: Introduction and Overview
'All people exhibit all four behavioral factors in varying degrees of intensity.' - W. M. Marston Over the course of the next few post, I want to take a more in-depth look at the DISC. DISC assessments, along with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the best selling and most widely used assessments in the business world, and has been for a long time. A high quality assessment, coupled…
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TQT: Morale
Today's quick thought is about morale. I've been listening recently to Adrian Goldsworthy's excellent biography of Caesar, aptly titled Caesar. Caesar was an excellent general. Tactically, he was creative, smart, and kept his soldiers very well disciplined. As a leader he exhibited a number of great traits, including the ability to make a good decision quickly and to know which battles to fight. He…
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TQT: Leadership
Today's Tuesday quick thought is about leadership. I had the opportunity this past week to hear from Connie Dieken, best selling author and leadership consultant for some of the largest companies in the world. Connie was the keynote at the TTISI annual convention, where she talked about the intersection of leadership and influence. I want to focus on one aspect of her talk: what makes someone…
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TQT: The Big 3
Today's quick thought is about the 'Big 3.' In a book club for one of our clients, we have been reading through John Maxwell's excellent book Developing the Leader Within You. In the last chapter, Maxwell talks about staff development. One of his key points is that "excellent leaders keep control of the 'Big 3'." While a leader or executive may want to be involved in many, many areas of their…
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Building Your Business for the Long Haul Through Hiring
~5-6 minute read~ Welcome to 2017! I've mentioned this fact before but want to repeat it here: there are 80 million baby boomers moving out of important administrative, professional, and managerial jobs as we speak. Not all at once, of course. But this is an old-ish (2-3 years) figure, so this transition is well under way. That means the people that built your business, that have been foundational…
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TQT: Telling Stories
Today's quick thought is about building a narrative. I swiped the title from Tracy Chapman's 2000 album of the same name, and I think she has a song with that title as well. But the idea came from a conversation I had this morning with someone at The Meeting House, a local coffee haunt I visit regularly. I noticed that my acquaintance was reading a book by Donald Miller, author of the…
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TQT: Human Resources
Today's quick thought is about the human resource role. Most of the time for quick thoughts I write about ideas, not roles. But I recently read a LinkedIn piece from an HR expert who said something interesting. Quick background: the role of HR, historically, has been one of compliance. That is, the role makes sure that the company is compliant and protected. Hiring has been a part of that,…
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Leveraging Behaviors to Improve Your Hiring and Decrease Turnover
~3-5 minute read~ We are coming up on a new year, and we all know what that means. It's time for us to come up with our resolutions, those patterns of behavior we resolve to change to make our lives better. ...And we mean it this year! But we all know, there is a big difference between writing down our resolutions and actually implementing them. As an example, consider this statistic: of the…
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TQT: Buy-in
Today's quick thought is about buy-in. I've been thinking about buy-in today as I reflect on a training session that I facilitated yesterday. We talk alot about communication when we do training centered around the DISC, and one of the exercises that we do is called 'Checklists for Communicating.' The title is taken from a very helpful and informative section of our DISC report. On one page (Ways…
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December Special: Solutions For Your Business!
I can't believe that it is already December! It seems like the past year has flown by and here we are getting ready for a new year. If you're like many of our clients, my guess is you've already started thinking about new initiatives for the spring. Hopefully, you've been thinking about how you can better hire, manage, and develop your most important assets: your employees. As you prepare,…
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TQT: Miscommunication Check Up
Today's Tuesday quick thought it about communication. Read the following phrases: 'I rode a black horse in red pajamas.' 'He fed her cat food.' How did you interpret each? Did you see at least 2 ways to interpret those phrases? In the first, either the person or the horse could have been wearing pajamas, and in the second the person could have fed 'her' cat food, or given food to 'her'…
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TQT: Self-Discipline
Today's quick thought is about self-discipline. With one of our clients we have been doing a lunchtime book club throughout the fall centered around John Maxwell's Developing the Leader Within You. It is a great book, and Maxwell is one of the definitive voices on leading and development in the world. We are currently looking at the chapter on self-discipline, appropriately enough since it…
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Focusing on the Right Areas to Improve Employee Retention
~8-10 min read~ One area of organizational development that continues to challenge and demoralize leaders on a regular basis is employee retention. Despite a favorable hiring market (have you heard about all those millennials with college degrees?), many companies continue to have difficulty keeping their people from leaving. Statistics show that since 2010, 'quits' have been trending up year over…