#HR #RRHH Making love and making personal #branding #leadership

We all want to learn and grow. Improving our skills and being exposed to new ideas not only makes us better at our jobs but makes us happier and more engaged at work. But with a full-time job, it can be tough to find the time and resources to dedicate to personal development. Some people, like me, are lucky to work for companies that encourage and even fund classes, sabbaticals, or fellowships. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have an official policy, how can you make the case to your manager (and the necessary higher ups) to support you?'

Identify how you want to learn and grow. If you don’t yet have a clear picture of what you want to develop, spend time honing in on exactly what you need. Do you want to build your emotional intelligence skills to be a more attuned business leader? Are you interested in going on a yoga or meditation retreat? Set aside a specific period of time, such as one evening or even a week, to explore ideas and research what appeals to you. Write down what you want to learn and how you would grow from the experience you’ve identified. Research shows that the physical act of writing has a neurological effect on the brain which tells the cerebral cortex to “wake up and pay attention.” Writing stimulates a bunch of cells in the brain called the Reticular Activating System that plays a key role in being more conscious and alert. The more you can write down, the more aware and real your ideas become. 

Raise your hand--who likes to discipline an employee? I hear crickets chirping in the background. Yet discipline is a cornerstone of highly productive companies. Without it, employee performance is at risk.

But don't see it as a negative. If conducted with a constructive, future focus, it provides consistency, guidance, and valuable feedback both to and from the problem employee.

The best managers employ a face-to-face discussion to deal with low performers, and employees with attitude problems in general. This conversation is best handled on the manager's end when they're well prepared and have a game plan. Here's how they do it:

Let’s just call it evolution. Take a quick trip to the other side of town, the other side of the country, or even the other side of the world, and it quickly becomes evident that our lives have drastically evolved due to technology.  Gone are the days of walking into any old restaurant and hoping for the best meal. Today we ask our smart devices where we can find the best burritos.  Need a good Pilates class? We quickly check Yelp reviews.  And, instead of filing those business cards we collected in a drawer, we simply go back to the office to connect on LinkedIn. And, here lies the problem. Many of us, especially leaders who aren’t looking for a job, aren’t doing a very good job putting our best profile forward.

“Tacky photos, incomplete sentences, poor spelling or grammar, and a lack of effort placed on who you are and what you stand for vs. just focusing on what you've accomplished in your career, are a few turn-offs for our team,” says Brian Mohr, cofounder and managing director of executive search firm, Y Scouts, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. “LinkedIn reveals how people present themselves to the world of business.”

Mohr’s statements, as an executive recruiting professional, may not be all that surprising, until you consider the level of employee his firm is looking to recruit—the rock star leader who probably doesn’t have their next career move on their radar.

Does it ever seem like some people you know are advancing rapidly in their careers or businesses, while you seem to be just plodding along? Chances are you're not doing one simple thing that can make all the difference to achieving your goals. You're not putting yourself first.

In the personal finance world, experts often advise people to "pay yourself first." The idea is that when a paycheck or other payment comes in the first thing you should so is put a portion of it into your savings and only then pay your bills and other financial obligations.

Most of us, of course, instinctively do the opposite. We first pay our bills and then put money into savings if there's any left over. The problem, of course, is that there very rarely is any money left over. So our bills get paid, but we never manage to save much, making it impossible to reach our financial goals. This is why 401(k) programs are so powerful: They literally force you to pay yourself first by putting money into savings before you can pay anyone else.

When we think of great leaders, certain characteristics come to mind: They have confidence in their abilities and conviction in their beliefs. They “trust their gut,” “stay the course,” and “prove others wrong.” They aren’t “pushovers,” and they certainly don’t “flip-flop.” But this archetype is terribly outdated. Having spent three years studying many of the world’s most successful leaders for my new book, Persuadable, I’ve learned one surprising thing they have in common: a willingness to be persuaded.

Alan Mulally, the vaunted CEO who saved Ford Motor Company, is, for example, exceptionally skeptical of his own opinions. Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers, insists that his team ruthlessly second-guess his thinking. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, seeks out information that might disprove her beliefs about the world and herself. In our increasingly complex world, these leaders have realized that the ability to consider emerging evidence and change their minds accordingly provides extraordinary advantages.

We all want to be more confident-it's a personal quality that helps us build strong relationships with others, get things done, and move forward in our work and life. However, sometimes we can go overboard, and our confidence can become something much darker: arrogance.

In their book, Why Leaders Fail, authors Peter Stark and Mary Kelly explain how leaders sabotage themselves-and their organizations-when they project arrogance instead of confidence. According to the authors, the defining factor of a strong leader is rooted in the relationships he or she builds with followers, and how effectively he or she propels the organization toward great achievement.

A CEO client is over-extended, has too many priorities to juggle, and is simultaneously hyper-stressed and hyper-exhausted. Actually this describes many of my clients. Does this sound like you too?

Friends, this is no way to go through life. As someone who has dodged two cancer bullets while building two businesses and raising two sons, I have a very healthy respect for mortality, along with the insight that tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

During our call this week, my client shared her anxiety about getting everything accomplished, and that she has made no time to exercise or decompress in several days. She is on a non-stop treadmill.

In the ideal meeting, all attendees participate, contributing diverse points of view and thinking together to reach new insights. But few meetings live up to this ideal, in large part because not everyone is able to effectively contribute. We recently asked employees at a large global bank a question: “When you have a contribution to make in a meeting, how often are you able to do so?” Only 35% said they felt able to make a contribution all the time.

There are three segments of the workforce who are routinely overlooked: introverts, remote workers, and women. As a leader, chances are you’re not actively silencing these voices — it’s more likely that hidden biases at play. Let’s look at these biases and what you can do to mitigate their influence.

The unconscious bias: Smart people think on their feet.

What happens: A program manager calls a meeting to think through a resourcing issue. She summarizes the situation, shares results of a recent staffing analysis, and then tees up the discussion. This works great for extroverted thinkers (those that talk to think). But from the get-go, the introverted thinkers (those who think to talk) are at a disadvantage....