Decision Making Archives - Page 4 of 6

Your Body as a Decision-Making Power Tool

By Jalene Case

Plugging into our bodies’ way of communicating is like using a decision-making power tool. It quickly drills to the core. Whether we’re struggling to make tiny, seemingly inconsequential choices or gigantic, clearly life-changing decisions, our bodies know the answer first.

It’s easy to rush through life without taking time to notice our physical sensations. In fact we often try to actively ignore our bodies by not listening to their plea for sleep, urge to move, or hunger for good food. Feel familiar?

That denial of our bodies’ voice also shows up in our decision-making process. For example, have you ever made a list of pros and cons to help you make a choice and, more often than not, ended up in analysis-paralysis? Did you feel that even though there were more pros on the list, you wanted to make the opposite choice? Interpreting what our bodies are trying to tell us is more than a gut-feeling-style approach.

How to Explain a 7-Figure Mistake to a Client

Event: The most nerve-wracking moment of my career
Location: The conference room of a massive social media company

I was looking at twelve angry eyeballs. Two of those eyes belonged to my client’s Treasurer. The other eyes belonged to my client’s Lead Auditor, Treasurer, Accounting Manager, and two other accounting staffers.

Forty-eight hours earlier, my firm and I had made a seven-figure mistake. A mistake that could force my client to re-file their quarterly “10-Q” filing with the SEC.

How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to Training

By Jaime Lisk

You’ve found the perfect training to attend – it’s a topic you have been curious about for the past year, the top expert in the field is speaking, the training is during your slow season, and you feel like you could really learn something. But now you need to ask your boss for approval. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you forward the email to your boss and she approves it. But if you’re like most people, you may have a bit of anxiety at the thought of asking for approval. It can be an easy yes if you do your homework and you know how to ask.

Here are some sure-fire steps to successfully ask for training:
Read More

How to Navigate the New Hiring Landscape

By Ron Price

Hiring has become more important than ever. Today we are not simply filling a job, but instead asking people to balance complexity and deal with ever-present change. We are not only looking for someone who is going to fit into the job today, but also grow into additional roles in the future, due to the pace of change in the world.

Today’s workplace dynamic of low unemployment and increased worker mobility has resulted in employees who no longer feel loyalty to a company because companies are no longer loyal to them.

This changing landscape can seem like a threat to hiring, but I prefer to see it as an opportunity. It is a chance to hire in a new way.

Are We Solving the Right Problem?

By David Quinlan

Imagine an iceberg floating in the middle of the sea. Above the surface sits the impressive tip and rugged edges. What you do not see is what rests below the surface – a massive glacier with peaks and valleys and mass that comprises 90 percent of the entire body.

Defining a problem is like an iceberg. Many organizations make the mistake of trying to fix what they can see above the surface and ignore the root of a problem that sits below the surface.

Just like an iceberg, the deeper we go into the world of innovation, the more we discover. And as leaders, it’s our job to find the truth and identify a problem for what it really is versus what we think it is.

Opposites That Feed Each Other

Tips to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Be More Productive

By Jalene Case

Bring to mind your last off-the-grid, disconnected-style vacation. If you can’t think of one, you’re not alone. Even though we know (somewhere deep down!) that taking a complete break from work will increase our work productivity, we often resist.

I recently returned from a one-week vacation during which I fasted from email and social media. The urge to check-check-check was mighty. It reminded me of a chicken’s endless drive to peck-peck-peck its food. The problem was that my habit of continually checking was not nourishing me! Instead, I was doing a great job of sustaining a constant level of alertness mixed with anxiety, which was depleting my energy.

My coach wisely challenged me to leave my phone at home. I involuntarily gasped and wondered to myself, Could I do that? After negotiating, I agreed to take my phone so I could use the travel apps, and hide the email and social media apps so I wouldn’t check them for a week.

Does Your Culture Need Help?

7 indications of a broken culture

By Lisa Aldisert

Culture is a common buzzword these days. Many articles tout the importance of a good culture. There are even awards that celebrate companies where employees love to work. Experts talk about defining, transforming, and fixing your culture. But how do you even know if your company’s culture needs help? Or what aspects to fix if it has some cracks?

It is possible for a culture to be mostly good and have only a few blemishes. In fact, that’s the way that most cultures are. Even idealized cultures you see showcased in the media, with inventive perks and fun break rooms, still have issues.

Every culture has its challenges. There is no Oz, nor any magic bullet. Because companies and people evolve, keeping a healthy culture in check requires constant maintenance before a variety of factors can throw it off.

The Leader as Talent Agent

Host Dale Dixon and Executive Advisor Ron Price explore the leader’s role in finding and developing great talent for his or her organization. Ron lists ways that leaders can keep the hiring pipeline full, and how to make sure that a candidate is a good fit for the job and the organization. He discusses the importance of systemically evaluating, challenging and reorganizing your team. And also shares potential landmines.

Why Changing the Culture Helps Businesses Innovate

By David Quinlan

If there is one takeaway from my journey into the world of innovation, it’s that truly successful innovation requires courage and the willingness to let go of uncertainty.

Welcome back to the Innovators Academy – a behind-the-scenes, unscripted backstory of what it means to be innovative and how an organization like Better Business Bureau can make it happen. For the past month our cohort had two jobs – ideate and identify waste.

And by waste, I mean duplicated processes, inefficiencies and bottlenecks – the processes that plague instead of propel good intentions. For our team of innovators, waste was surprisingly not hard to find, and the solutions on how to correct them came pouring in.

4 Tips to Manage Email

By Dr. Francis Eberle

I recently had a conversation with a client about email as it relates to work-life balance because her company had formed a committee to work on it. We explored whether her own email habits were impacting her life, and I asked her the following questions to help her gauge her email use:

Does your daily routine include checking email when you wake up?
How many times do you check your email during the day?
Do you have email pop-up notifications on your phone and computer?
Do you check your email right before you go to bed?

If the answer to these questions makes you feel a bit uneasy about your work intruding into your personal life, you are not alone. Email has become the go-to communication tool for work. Its accessibility on smart phones allows us 24/7 participation and connection.

1 2 345 6

OUR THINKING