An Introduction To Being A Great Leader

An Introduction To Being A Great Leader

Interested in becoming a great leader?

Leadership is a crucial component of management. Managers can help organizations maintain productivity, boost collaboration, and achieve organizational success. Great leaders don’t put themselves before others. Instead, these leaders are humble and possess other qualities like:

  • Self-sacrifice
  • Fantastic communication skills
  • Ability to take responsibility for their actions
  • Determination
  • Resourcefulness
  • Empathy
  • Mindfulness
  • Passion
  • Honesty

An effective leader also helps sync departmental goals with overarching organizational objectives. They will also ensure all office workers are well-trained and equipped to perform their duties and work effectively and efficiently. Leaders also provide team members with the necessary resources to perform their tasks, including time knowledge, equipment, software, and more.

In this blog post, we’ll cover why leadership is essential in the workplace, how you can improve on these skills, and four leadership abilities every great leader should have.

Why Is Leadership A Critical Skill

Leaders set examples for their team members. As a result, organizations with great leaders can inspire employees to follow a particular path filled with ethics, productivity, transparency, and accountability.

Leaders are there to provide guidance, boost team morale, and help the team achieve goals while simultaneously helping the organization achieve long-term success.

Here are a few other reasons why leadership is an essential skill in the workplace:

1. Provides Focus And Drives The Team Forward

Leaders help teams stay focused on the task at hand and help them achieve their goals by clearly defining them and outlining how they can get there. Leaders should also motivate team members to stay on track and work productively by setting reasonable deadlines and targets. Leaders can help teams avoid bottlenecks and roadblocks by consistently monitoring employee progress and providing solutions before any challenges turn into problems.

2. Empower Team Members To Work At Their Full Potential

A good team leader is familiar with the team’s strengths and the capabilities of every team member. As a result, these leaders assign tasks that take advantage of every team member’s strengths, leading to a well-executed project. Good leaders encourage team members to communicate and collaborate, fostering strong company culture, and boosting teamwork. As a true leader, you should also provide feedback, praise employees, and empower them to work harder and improve their skills. 

3. Takes Responsibility For Decision-Making

Being a great leader means being able to make tough decisions — even in challenging situations. The decision you make needs to benefit the team and the project. As a result, you need to have a good balance of emotional and logical reasoning when making crucial decisions. Additionally, if the decision leads to poor results, great leaders take responsibility for their actions and devise solutions. They don’t shift the blame onto others. 

3 Challenges Leaders Face

You must understand that leadership and middle management can be tough to become great at leading people. As a result, you must prepare for any challenges you might face. 

Here are three challenges leaders face:

1. Earning The Trust Of Your Employees

It can be challenging to earn the trust of anyone, especially if that person had negative experiences in the past. As a leader, you need to gain the trust of your team members, so you can work together with accountability and transparency. You can boost trust in the workplace by communicating with employees, maintaining eye contact, sharing personal experiences, and showing interest in their careers and personal lives.

2. Dealing With Pressure And Stress

Leaders often have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes, these situations can be stressful – for example, firing employees, selecting a candidate for a role, or telling an employee that they have to move departments because they’re not performing well. 

Naturally, some people will take things personally and have a bit of resentment towards you. 

Leaders also have to excel under pressure. As a result, you need to have excellent stress management skills. 

3. Managing Difficult People

You’ll often come across employees who might not share the same values, interests, or work ethic as you. But great leaders don’t use these differences to create conflicts. Instead, they find ways to work together with every employee while maintaining their core values.

4 Skills A Great Leader Should Have

Having exemplary management skills can help you become a successful leader and lead your team and organization to success. Fantastic leaders understand how to motivate their team, connect with team members, and encourage employees to grow and improve their weaknesses. Additionally, the ability to recognize your own mistakes and improve on your shortcomings sets mediocre leaders apart from exceptional ones. 

Remember, anyone can sit in a fancy office and delegate tasks. Only the best leaders can inspire team members and significantly impact the organization from within. Great leaders are essential for high-performing companies since employees who work under fantastic leaders tend to be more engaged, motivated, and productive. 

So without further ado, here are four skills every great leader should have:

1. Open Communication

One of the essential leadership skills is effective and open communication — with team members and other stakeholders. According to Sanjay Patoliya (the founder and director of Teclogiq), leaders need honesty and transparency. This way, team members will follow suit and complete projects ethically and honestly. Honest leaders can also improve the level of trust within a team and boost team morale.

Additionally, great leaders invest time in understanding their employees and the communication each team member prefers. For example, some team members prefer face-to-face communication, while others prefer email. Showing employees that you’re paying attention to their needs can motivate them to work harder and contribute to the organization’s goals. 

2. Ability To Change

Fantastic leaders have the emotional intelligence to understand that change is inevitable. As a result, great leaders can embrace change and adapt to challenging circumstances. So instead of preventing change and maintaining consistency, embrace the innovation that change brings.

In addition to embracing change, great leaders need to be open to new ideas and encourage employees to voice their opinions. When brainstorming, allow every team member to speak up and present ideas. Don’t deem an idea unviable without fully exploring it first. Showing employees that you value their thoughts and opinions can boost employee engagement, productivity, and innovation.

3. Clear Expectations

As a leader, you need to set clear expectations for your team. Ensure these expectations align with individual employee goals. Once the objectives are set, encourage employees to ask questions and provide constructive feedback. 

According to Amish Shah, president of ALTR Created Diamonds, great leaders communicate a company’s vision and mission and explain how every team member’s goals fit into that overarching objective. Leaders can keep their team motivated and inspired by helping employees realize how they can contribute to organizational goals. Clear expectations and plans make tracking progress, identifying bottlenecks, and celebrating achievements easier. Additionally, leaders must communicate how individual goals contribute to the organization’s objectives. As a result, every employee needs to understand how their tasks support the company’s success.

4. Self-Reflection

Employees need constructive feedback to improve on their weaknesses and grow. But employees aren’t the only ones who can benefit from feedback. As a leader, encourage your team members, mentors, and colleagues to give you feedback on your leadership skills and progress. While it may be difficult to self-assess, talking to your colleagues can help you learn more about your leadership style and what you need to work on.

How To Develop Your Leadership Skills?

Here are three ways you can improve your leadership skills:

1. Volunteer For New Tasks

If you want to learn new skills and thrive during challenging circumstances, you must volunteer for new tasks when your manager or supervisor asks for additional help. Doing so will help you learn to remain calm and collected when facing new duties. It’ll also help you learn to gather information from credible resources, helping you complete tasks more efficiently. You can apply this to your leadership role since managers often face difficult situations and must find ways to adapt to change while making sensible decisions. 

2. Teach And Share Information With Others

Teaching team members and employees can help you practice patience, understand other people’s opinions and perspectives, and increase your knowledge on the topic. Additionally, when you’re teaching a beginner, you’ll need to reorganize the information and present it in an easy way to consume and understand. Doing so will help you understand the subject matter differently. You can apply this skill to your leadership style. Leaders need to communicate with all team members; sometimes, this requires re-organizing information and explaining things simply so all team members can understand.

3. Understand Your Strengths And Weaknesses

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. This way, you can make the most of your strengths and find ways to improve on your weaknesses. For example, if you’re a charismatic leader who excels at socializing with team members, use this skill to motivate others when completing a project. On the other hand, if you struggle to come up with new ideas or think outside of the box, you can improve this skill by practicing brainstorming sessions.

Another way you can improve your leadership skills is by getting leadership coaching. Coaching can also help discover areas where you need improvement and help you achieve your leadership goals. 

If you want to improve your leadership presence and skills, check out the workshops we offer at Corporate Class. In this highly-acclaimed live online leadership skills development workshop, you’ll learn what it takes to develop and master your “presence” as a leader or boss. Interactive and powerful, you’ll walk away with insight and tools to help establish a high level of personal charisma, confidence, clarity, and impact. This practical leadership workshop has been delivered to Fortune 500 companies worldwide and is designed to support continued advancement and upward mobility.

Who should attend?

  • C-Suite Executives
  • Senior Leaders
  • Anyone in a management position
  • Anyone who wants to improve their leadership skills

Contact us today to improve your leadership skills and become a thoughtful and productive leader!

Ways To Tell If You Are A Great Boss

Ways To Tell If You Are A Great Boss

An experienced manager knows how to inspire and motivate their team. They also understand the importance of getting to know their team, sharing credit for wins, and knowing when it is time to coach, mentor or provide timely feedback to team members.

Here are a few other ways you can tell you are a fantastic boss:

You Are Prepared To Coach

A good boss knows they need to step in and coach their teams and when they can remain on the sidelines and let people figure things out on their own. 

Managers hire employees who have the relevant skills and expertise to thrive in specific positions. As a result, bosses rarely need to teach employees how to do their jobs. However, managers can teach employees about the company culture and processes. When managers provide employees with the relevant training to help them succeed in their roles, employees feel more capable and confident. Moreover, they will be more willing to ask for help and recognize when they’ve made mistakes.

You Can Take The Blame

Bad bosses will shift the blame onto team members when a project or task goes wrong. However, a good boss can admit that they made a mistake and help teams move forward from failure.

Additionally, some bosses think that admitting mistakes and imperfections will make them seem weak and lose the respect of colleagues. But the opposite is true. Owning up to mistakes can encourage your team to trust you more. Good bosses are positive role models for employees. As a result, they can encourage employees to adopt the same values and approach workplace challenges the same way. 

You Deliver Honest Feedback

Nobody is perfect and we all have room for growth. As a result, it’s crucial for leaders to give employees constructive feedback. Great bosses know how to deliver honest feedback that can help employees grow and improve their skills. 

You Get to Know Team Members

Great bosses understand that it’s important to bond with their entire team and colleagues. Spending time with employees outside of the office can help them trust you more and feel more engaged at work. You can build relationships with team members by greeting them whenever you see them at work, attending team-building events, and initiating casual water-cooler chats. Ensure you remember details about your employees. This shows them that you care and you can bring up those specific details in future conversations. Additionally, remember to share information about yourself as well. Doing so will help you connect with your team and let them know that you are only human!

You Give Autonomy

Great team leaders avoid micromanagement by showing team members that they trust their judgment and capabilities. Such managers ask for feedback periodically and offer assistance when needed. Additionally, ensure you don’t limit your staff to one way of completing a task. Instead, celebrate employees who come up with new systems or processes for tasks, especially if it boosts productivity and efficiency. 

If you want to improve your leadership presence and skills, check out the workshops we offer at Corporate Class. In this highly-acclaimed live online leadership skills development workshop, you’ll learn what it takes to develop and master your “presence” as a leader or boss. Interactive and powerful, you’ll walk away with insight and tools to help establish a high level of personal charisma, confidence, clarity, and impact. This effective leadership workshop has been delivered to Fortune 500 companies around the world and is designed to support continued advancement and upward mobility.

Who should attend?

  • C-Suite Executives
  • Senior Leaders
  • Managers
  • Anyone who wants to improve their leadership skills

If you want to improve your leadership skills and become a great boss, contact us today!

Why Is Company Culture So Critical?

Why Is Company Culture So Critical_

Company culture is about how things are done within an organization. This includes the organization’s shared values, attitudes, goals, and practices. A company’s culture also determines how employees and leaders interact with one another, the type of values they hold, and the decisions they make. 

Company culture is also known as organizational culture, corporate culture, or workplace culture. Some of the main components of company culture include the work environment, the company’s vision, and mission, leadership style, ethics, code of conduct, expectations, and more. 

Why is company culture so important?

A positive work culture ensures that the organization’s employees and employers have consistent values and goals. This can also improve employee well-being and engagement. Additionally, if you work in a company where the culture aligns with your own values, you’ll develop better relationships with coworkers and be more productive.

Here are a few other reasons why company culture is critical to an organization’s success:

Your Company’s Core Values Are Displayed

A company’s culture usually reflects its core values. How your company manages operations, workflow, teamwork, and your customers represent your organization and the type of employees you attract. In other words, your company’s culture showcases your company’s beliefs. 

However, it can be difficult for leaders to build a solid and successful company culture when the organization’s values and vision don’t align. For example, if your organization has core values related to environmental commitment and sustainable development but puts profit before environmental stewardship, you’ve got a problem.

Employees will start to view the company’s core values as empty promises and this might lead to employee disengagement.

Employee Engagement Increases

An organization with strong company culture is driven by clear expectations and goals. Clear goals can motivate and inspire employees to be more productive and engaged. Engaged employees usually have a stronger connection to the organization and its people. 

A healthy culture also attracts better talent and boosts retention rates. This is because the employees feel like they belong to the organization, making them less likely to churn or look for other jobs. The added bonus is that your teams have better synergy, and you can save on hiring costs!

It Creates A Stronger Brand Identity

An organization’s culture represents its public image and reputation – how a company interacts with its internal and external stakeholders impacts how people view the company. If the organization has a poor company culture, customers might not want to do business with them. Additionally, it’ll be challenging for the organization to attract the right talent.

Employees’ Performance And Wellbeing Are Improved

Employees tend to be more productive and happy when they work in an enjoyable environment. Additionally, when employees feel connected to a company and its vision and mission, leaders tend to see higher productivity rates, improved accountability, and better team morale.

Moreover, organizations with a poor company culture tend to see higher absenteeism rates. 

Why?

When leaders neglect their employees’ well-being, employees are more likely to feel stressed and get sick. They’re also more likely to make mistakes.

If you want to improve your company culture, visit the Corporate Class website. We offer a 1-day workplace well-being workshop where our corporate well-being experts teach participants what it takes to build a culture of employee well-being to sustain high employee performance. Participants will walk away with insights, tools, and skills to build resilience and thrive in the face of stress and uncertainty.

So what are you waiting for?

Contact us today and build a solid company culture!

Women In Leadership: Why It Works So Well

Women In Leadership_ Why It Works So Well

Gender should never determine someone’s leadership abilities. Instead, companies should look at an individual’s personality traits, leadership abilities, and gravitas. This way, they can appoint leaders who can lead by example and inspire their team. 

Unfortunately, women usually aren’t encouraged to assume leadership positions in organizations. While the gap between men and women in leadership roles is decreasing, there’s still a massive disparity between them. In fact, according to a 2019  study conducted by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey, women only hold 21% of C-suite positions!

Women are excellent leaders who have the relevant soft skills to help them excel in their positions – sometimes even surpassing their male counterparts. Additionally, women are often more communicative, empathetic, and great listeners  – all these qualities make them exceptional leaders.

Here are a few other reasons why more women should be in leadership positions:

Women Regulate Work-Life Balances Efficiently

Women are effective leaders because they can balance professional and interpersonal skills. This also makes them effective mentors since they can easily form open and communicative relationships with the people they work with. For example, it’s usually less intimidating to approach a woman leader if you have a sensitive question or personal request.

Women leaders are also usually more empathetic and care about their employees’ home and work lives, helping employees have a healthier work-life balance.

Women Are Strong Communicators

Women leaders are effective communicators. Most women leaders can explain clear expectations to their team for a certain project or event. This way, teams can complete the project without any confusion. 

Additionally, women leaders often find a way to strike a balance between requirements and creativity. As a result, they can give instructions to teams and not in a way that hinders their creativity and opinions. This is crucial for creating an inclusive work environment where employees feel valued and engaged. 

Women leaders often use their effective communication skills to build relationships with team members, employees, superiors, and clients. 

Women Have High Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and understand your emotions and that of others. When you have high emotional intelligence, you’re able to understand, use, and manage your own feelings and effectively communicate and empathize with others. Lakshmi Raj, Co-founder, and Co-CEO of Replicon believes that emotional intelligence comes more naturally to women than men. 

In order to create a productive and inclusive work environment, leaders need to demonstrate emotional intelligence. This way, they can diffuse conflicts and manage stressful situations with ease.

Women Are Team-Orientated

According to Katharine M. Nohr, Principal, Nohr Sports Risk Management, the women she’s worked with typically show more passion, enthusiasm, and willingness to serve their teammates and be served by others. She also mentioned that the work environment feels more collaborative, democratic, and family-like – and with a solid leadership presence. 

While women make fantastic and inspiring leaders, they’re often not given equal opportunities as their male counterparts. As a result, women remain underrepresented in leadership positions and in the political field. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 40% of the participants believe higher standards for women and lack of readiness by companies to hire women for leadership roles are major reasons why there are so few women in leadership positions. 

At  Corporate Class we strive to  support women leaders and for that  reason we offer a two-day customizable executive presence workshop for women.  This way, women can expand on their leadership skills and take the political and business world by storm!

Women in Fortune 500 companies have participated in this inclusive and interactive program. Women who attend this workshop will learn how to project confidence, surpass barriers, and voice their opinions. This way, they can accelerate their career, lead by example, and inspire their teams!

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop can be customized for all levels:

  • High-potential and emerging leaders
  • Senior management
  • Established leaders

Note: This program offers a safe and open space for women, transgender, and non-binary people. We work together to create an inclusive experience.

If you want your company to have more women in leadership, contact us today!

Leadership And Executive Presence

Leadership and Executive Presence

Executive presence refers to the characteristics and personality traits that make a dynamic influential leader. A great executive inspires others to be assertive and leads by example. This entails demonstrating a humble confidence and excellent leadership skills. Executive presence can help you get your dream job, a promotion, close a deal, and more. The Center for Talent Innovation’s research makes it clear that Executive Presence has emerged as compulsory for aspiring leaders and that the “lack of Executive Presence will definitely impede your ability to get as far as you want to go.” 

How can you improve your executive presence skills?

Stop overthinking it! 

Here are five effective and proven ways you can build a strong executive presence.

Master The Use Of Body Language

Body language can have a significant impact on leadership presence. Generally, ensure you look relaxed and display confidence. 

Here are some other tips:

  • Make eye contact: Making eye contact can help you make connections while you speak and get your message across. When speaking to others, eye contact helps you appear self-assured and let other people know that you are listening to them.  Without the right amount of eye contact, people might think you’re distracted, disengaged, or even dishonest. Noticing their eye color is a good way to practice making eye contact. 
  • Mind your posture: If you keep your arms folded in front of you while giving a speech or talking to others, it can make you seem closed off, making it difficult for people to connect with you. Instead, keep your arms at your side or use your hands and arms to aid what you’re saying. If you don’t know what to do with your hands, imagine you are holding a ball in your hands.
  • Watch your facial expressions: Leaders with executive presence use facial expressions to convey their emotions. This involves smiling, laughing, nodding, and frowning. Communicating your emotions through facial expressions shows people that you’re human, helping you build better connections.

Practice Great Communication Skills

It’s not uncommon for people to speak softly during meetings in an attempt to sound relaxed and “laid back.” The problem with doing this is that you won’t grab anyone’s attention or project authority. As a result, ensure you use an energetic voice that can help you create connections and credibility. 

Fantastic communication skills are also important for conferences, team discussions, presentations, and more. To ensure you sound confident, consider using a lower tone, slow down the rate of your ideas — not the rate of your speech, and avoid word-fillers (like, um, so, etc.). Replace word fillers by becoming comfortable with pausing. Silence creates anticipation. 

Think Strategically

Thinking strategically can set you apart from the crowd and your competitors. You can lead strategically by asking the right questions and focusing on the pros and cons of every new opportunity. You should also evaluate the consequences of decisions for the future and never rush to judge a situation, person, or data. Instead, always ask questions, observe the data thoroughly, and most importantly: listen to others’ opinions. As the leader you have the final say. First consider others’ points of view and evaluate the implications. 

Make The First Move

Great leaders know how and when to make the first move. This applies to networking events, business conferences, everyday meetings, and more. Don’t wait for people to approach you and introduce themselves – take initiative and introduce yourself! You also want to try to make introductions between others at work who may have things in common, like goals, interests, and more. In other words, be the liaison to help others work together. Doing so can help you build a stronger and more engaged team. Being proactive in social and business settings also helps you build better connections and helps you become the person “who knows everyone” and whom “everybody knows,” and wants to know.

Take Leadership Courses

If you want to become a successful leader, talk to an advisor today. We offer an executive presence training program for anyone who wants to accelerate their career and transform into the team leader they aspire to become now! By signing up for this program, you’ll learn how to foster an inclusive leadership environment, connect authentically, build confidence in yourself and others and become more influential. 

Who is the program for?

  • C-Suite executives
  • Senior leaders
  • High potentials
  • Anyone in a management position

Contact us today to improve your executive presence skills today!

Dare To Lead: Taking The Initiative To Become A Boss

Dare To Lead_ Taking The Initiative To Become A Boss

A boss is the owner or manager of a business or organization. The boss is usually responsible for company goals and objectives. Among the other tasks managers are accountable for, they are also required to make crucial hiring decisions, delegate tasks to different teams, and oversee the progress of projects.

You can be a boss in most fields of work. But not everyone has  the necessary skills and expertise to become a great boss. You have to have vision, self-discipline, gravitas, emotional intelligence, and much more.

As you can see, there are certain leadership skills that bosses need to have in order to be inspiring role models and lead their teams and organization to success. 

So in addition to fantastic time-management and problem-solving skills, here are four other traits a great leader has:

Create A Network

All bosses need to build good working relationships with the people who can help complete projects and achieve business goals. The people involved in operational networks include employees, superiors, internal players who can either support or block a specific initiative, and key outside stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and distributors. Bosses who can create an effective network can boost coordination and cooperation among all stakeholders. This also boosts trust among all interested parties and speeds up project timelines and ultimately performance. 

Inspire Your Team 

One way leaders can inspire their team is by giving back positive and constructive feedback. This way, employees know how well they are performing at work and understand what they need to improve on. You can do this by providing immediate feedback once a project is completed – explain what went well and what could have been done better. This feedback can stimulate employees to do better and keep them motivated. 

Another way you can inspire your team is to lead  by example. This means taking responsibility for your own actions and your team’s actions and leading with respect and impartiality. 

Encourage Transparent Communication

Leaders need to have strong problem solving skills and this entails encouraging teams to communicate openly. This way, everyone can express their concerns and voice their opinions without fearing that they may lose their jobs or expose someone else’s mistakes. Open communication can help teams get to the root of matters quickly, generate ideas effectively, and come up with solutions to pressing problems. To do this, leaders need to be able to facilitate constructive dialogue between employees and teams, making everyone feel safe and heard. This is crucial for employee conflicts since leaders get both sides of the story. This way, they can map-out a path toward a viable and fair solution that works for all parties involved. 

Think Like A Boss

Here’s how you can think like a boss:

  • Have a vision: A true leader has a clear and ambitious vision that can help them set relevant goals and guide their career. 
  • Be competitive: Staying competitive can help you excel at everything you do. It will also help you stand out from competitors who are equally or more skilled than you. 
  • Be persistent: The best managers are persistent and work hard in everything they do to achieve success. Determination and persistence can’t be replaced by education and expertise. 

If you want to become a successful leader, talk to an advisor today. We offer an executive presence training program for anyone who wants to accelerate their career and transform into the team leader they aspire to become now! By signing up for this program, you’ll learn how to foster an inclusive leadership environment, connect authentically, build confidence in yourself and others, and become more influential. 

Who is the program for?

  • C-Suite executives
  • Senior leaders
  • High potentials
  • Anyone in a management position

Contact us today to become a boss who leads with compassion and respect!

The Benefits Of Having A Positive Intelligence

The Benefits Of Having A Positive Intelligence

What is positive intelligence?

Positive intelligence is a new skill that measures how often your mind acts in your best interest. Your mind should be your best friend, but unfortunately, it can also be your worst enemy (self-sabotage). 

For example, if your mind is encouraging you to complete a task to meet the deadline, then it’s acting as a friend. However, it’s acting as your enemy if it’s telling you to forget about the deadline and go out with your friends!

Think of it this way: going to the gym is crucial if you want to maintain your fitness, improve your immune system, mental health, and flexibility, right?

The same can be said for your mental strength.

You need to exercise your mind and train it to channel positivity during stressful or challenging situations if you want to be able to deal with stress properly and achieve your goals.

Nobody can escape stress when they’re working – there are deadlines, the fear of performing poorly, the fear of losing your job, the fear of being late, and more. 

Fortunately, by working on your positive intelligence, you can experience sustained improvements in both your wellbeing and performance.

Boosts Team Productivity

Positive intelligence can also help boost productivity in one’s personal and professional lives.

In fact, a study of over 2,75,000 people revealed that higher positive intelligence leads to higher salary and greater success in work, marriage, health, sociability, friendship, and creativity.

Positive intelligence is crucial for managers in the workplace since it can encourage team leaders to perform duties with empathy, sympathy, and mindfulness. This skill will also help leaders provide strong social support to employees. This way, employees can excel during stressful periods and perform to the best of their ability. 

Research also shows that happy employees:

  • Are 31% more productive
  • Achieve 37% higher sales
  • Are 3 times more creative
  • Are 40% more likely to get a promotion
  • Are 10 times more engaged

Employees can also provide social support to team members by:

  • Helping others when they need it
  • Engaging in creative problem solving
  • Inviting coworkers for lunch
  • Greeting people with a smile and eye contact

Changes How You View And Deal With Stress

Developing positive intelligence can alter your relationship with stress and how you handle challenging circumstances. 

Although your positive intelligence saboteurs are sometimes there to help you avoid trauma, danger and stressful situations, they also have a negative impact on how you deal with stress and other negative feelings. 

Fortunately, by developing your positive intelligence, you can figure out what environments and situations trigger stressful responses from your body and mind. Positive intelligence can also help you get your body and mind back to a calm and rational state when dealing with challenging circumstances. This way, you can avoid that common feeling of “fight or flight.”

If you want to improve your mental fitness today, visit the Corporate Class website.

We offer a 1-hour Webinar on Mental Fitness for professionals and teams. The webinar is based on Shirzad Chamine’s positive intelligence book and will help you learn how to improve your performance and mental wellbeing.

Who should attend this webinar?

  • Managers across industries (business, engineering, product, finance, etc.) who are looking to become better leaders.
  • Human Resources and Learning & Development Professionals looking for innovative coaching-at-scale programs to improve wellbeing, engagement and performance in their organizations.

What will you learn?

If you’ve ever experienced mental stress, anxiety, or frustration while handling difficult tasks and relationship challenges, this webinar will help you tackle those feelings and find a way to move forward.

Sign up for our Mental Fitness webinar today to experience the benefits of positive intelligence.

Boost Your Positive Intelligence With These 3 Tips

Boost your positive intelligence with these 3 tips

Want to boost your positive intelligence?

Similar to cognitive and emotional intelligence, positive intelligence is a concept that gained popularity recently in the professional coaching world. 

What is positive intelligence?

This new form of intelligence measures how often your mind acts in your best interest. Your mind should be your best friend, but unfortunately, it can also be your worst enemy (self-sabotage). 

For example, if your mind is encouraging you to commit to a healthy diet, then it’s acting as a friend. However, it’s acting as your enemy if it’s telling you to go back to old habits and throw all the progress you’ve made away.

Additionally, positive intelligence quotient (PQ) is a measure of your mental fitness. It keeps track of the percentage of the time your mind is being positive, allowing you to achieve success and reach your full potential.

And don’t worry, positive intelligence is a skill you can develop. 

Here are three tips to boost your positive intelligence:

Weaken your Saboteurs

The journey to boost your positive intelligence often begins with recognizing and addressing your internal enemies, referred to as Saboteurs. These Saboteurs operate within, serving as barriers to our growth, success, and happiness. But what exactly does ‘Saboteur’ mean in the context of positive intelligence?

At its core, positive intelligence saboteurs represent those aspects of our thought patterns and behaviors that counteract or undermine our efforts to succeed, be happy, or grow. In essence, they’re the negative voices or impulses that often stem from past experiences, fears, or societal pressures. They trick us into believing that they’re acting in our best interests when, in reality, they hinder us from achieving our goals and reaching our full potential.

Types of Saboteurs and How They Operate

As mentioned, there are a variety of Saboteurs, each with its distinct characteristics:

The Judge: This Saboteur criticizes you, others, and even the situations around you. It’s the voice that magnifies mistakes and overlooks the positives.

Controller: This type is driven by a need to take charge and control situations, often stemming from a fear of chaos or vulnerability.

Victim: The Victim Saboteur thrives on feeling sad or wronged, seeing itself as perpetually in the receiving end of injustices.

Stickler: With an obsession for perfection, the Stickler slows you down in your quest for flawless results, often causing procrastination.

Pleaser: This one wants to constantly please others, even at its own expense. It fears rejection and yearns for acceptance.

Avoider: The Avoider focuses on avoiding conflicts and difficult tasks, often leading to missed opportunities or unresolved issues.

While everyone possesses these Saboteurs to some extent, the types and their intensity can differ from person to person.

Understanding and managing your Saboteurs is crucial in your journey to boost your positive intelligence. Through dedicated effort and consistent positive intelligence exercises, you can lessen their impact and pave the way for a more fulfilling and successful life.

Strengthen your Sage

he true essence of boosting your positive intelligence lies in harnessing and fortifying the powers of your Sage. This intrinsic component of our cognitive and emotional framework represents positivity, wisdom, and clear-sightedness. Its primary strength rests in its transformative power to reshape how you interpret situations or challenges. Rather than seeing adversities as colossal barriers, the Sage empowers you to view them as enlightening lessons or avenues for personal growth. Indeed, through the eyes of the Sage, challenges morph into invaluable gifts and opportunities.

However, this challenge of amplifying your positive intelligence will introduce you to your internal saboteurs. These negative entities, always poised to sow seeds of doubt and pessimism, challenge the positive perspective the Sage offers. They aim to envelope you in feelings of anxiety, stress, and guilt. The dichotomy between the Sage and the Saboteur is profound: the former paints a world filled with hope and potential, while the latter casts shadows of limitations and regret. Engaging in positive intelligence exercises is the antidote. These practices, designed to heighten your awareness and reshape your cognitive responses, provide the tools needed to amplify the voice of your Sage while diminishing the influence of the Saboteurs. By making these exercises a regular ritual, you’ll gradually steer your mindset towards optimism and clarity, fully realizing your potential and enhancing your well-being.

Strengthen PQ Brain muscles

By strengthening your PQ brain muscles, you’ll not only navigate challenges with greater ease but also unlock potential you didn’t know existed. Instead of getting bogged down by negativity or the voices of the positive intelligence saboteurs, you’ll be primed to focus on thriving rather than just surviving. Boosting your positive intelligence empowers you to navigate challenges with greater dexterity, unlocking potential you might have overlooked. However, to rise above, it’s vital to fend off the influences of positive intelligence saboteurs, those internal voices like the Judge, the Victim, or the Controller that often pull us into a spiral of negativity.

Positive intelligence exercises provide a tangible route to reinforce these crucial muscles. One foundational exercise involves teaching your mind to filter out the noise and anxieties that often cloud judgment. By channeling energy into your physical sensations, you anchor yourself in the present. For instance, focusing intently on your breathing—a deep inhale, a brief hold, followed by a calm exhale—draws attention to the rhythm of your breath and the life-giving sensation of air in your lungs. Similarly, honing in on ambient sounds or the weight of your body on a chair or the floor can divert attention from those sabotaging thoughts. Incorporating these exercises daily not only combats the negative influences of saboteurs in positive intelligence but also sets the stage for enhanced mental well-being, resilience, and an enriched life experience.

Measuring PQ: 3 Assessments & Tests

Here are some PQ assessments and tests that coaches can use to help clients develop and nurture their PQ:

PQ gym

This PG assessment consists of a 10-second hyper-focus on one of your senses. 

These 1-second exercises can improve your mental fitness and in doing so, helps you tackle challenges and roadblocks with a clear, insightful, and open mind.

PQ score

The PQ score is a measure of your overall happiness and performance potential.

This score is a widely used mental fitness indicator that basically evaluates the strength of your sage versus the saboteur. 

Using this score, coaches can see how happy an individual is and whether or not the individual is thriving towards their full potential. 

PQ training program

If you want to improve your mental fitness today, visit the Corporate Class website.

We offer a 1-hour Webinar on Mental Fitness for professionals and teams. The webinar is based on Shirzad Chamine’s positive intelligence book and will help you learn how to improve your performance and mental wellbeing.

Who should attend this webinar?

  • Managers across industries (business, engineering, product, finance, etc.) who are looking to become better leaders.
  • Human Resources and Learning & Development Professionals looking for innovative coaching-at-scale programs to improve wellbeing, engagement and performance in their organizations.

What will you learn?

If you’ve ever experienced mental stress, anxiety, or frustration while handling difficult tasks and relationship challenges, this webinar will help you tackle those feelings and find a way to move forward.

Sign up for our Mental Fitness webinar today to boost your positive intelligence!

How to Build Resilience in Times of Uncertainty

How to build resilience in times of uncertainty

Not sure how to help your employees build resilience in times of uncertainty?

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations were already experiencing uncertainty and ambiguity due to widespread digitization and globalization. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the shift to increased digitization and magnified the many challenges businesses were already facing. 

Moreover, employees are expected to adapt to these changes quickly – this includes adopting new technologies, developing new processes, and working remotely. Additionally, employees are expected to achieve the above while remaining engaged and productive. 

So how do you ensure your employees thrive in such trying times?

Resilience is a crucial part of every high-performing team – the ability to remain focused under pressure and manage projects through adversity sets competitive teams apart from others. 

Fortunately, resilience is a skill that can be developed. Here are five ways to help your team build resilience in times of uncertainty.

Build trust

A workplace culture that prioritizes trust, accountability, and flexibility can help employees develop resiliency. Organizations can promote trust in the workplace by ensuring the leadership team is approachable, vulnerable  and friendly. Additionally, managers need to support team members even when mistakes are made. This way, employees feel more comfortable bringing up issues and improving on their mistakes.

Moreover, organizations need to promote a healthy balance between deadlines and the employees’ well-being. Organizations can do this by setting realistic expectations across teams.

Listen to your employees

Listening to your employees is one of the easiest ways to gather intel on what business processes are working and what needs improvement. Organizations can get the point of view of their employees by conducting one-on-one interviews, sending out anonymous surveys, and holding focus groups. Leaders can then use the data to create effective strategies to help employees adapt to change and build resiliency.

Focus on emotional well-being

Employees suffering from mental health issues or even a general sense of disillusionment are often less productive and frequently absent. This, in turn, will negatively impact the business’ profits and goals. 

As a result, businesses must prioritize emotional well-being, especially during trying times. Organizations can invest in counseling support, employee health programs, and resilience and stress management workshops. 

Communicate your commitment to your employees’ emotional well-being

Employee well-being is now at the forefront of most employers’ minds. But it’s not enough to just create programs that promote emotional and mental well-being – organizations also need to ensure their employees know about the existing programs. This way, employees can take advantage of them. 

Organizations can inform staff members via email, posters, SMSs, and more. This form of open communication might encourage employees to get involved in the programs.

Put programs in place that help build resilience

Organizations need to invest in programs and resources to help their employees develop resilience. This way, organizations can nurture their resilient employees by ensuring that employees have the necessary resources, programs, and support in place to navigate an ever-changing world. This is crucial since workplace disruption is inevitable, and the only way organizations can thrive is by understanding that their employees are only human and will deal with change differently. 

Additionally, creating tailored programs will let your employees know that you are trying your best to support and keep them engaged even in the most challenging circumstances. This way, your organization will maintain your most crucial asset – 

employees. 

Visit the Corporate Class website today if you want to help your team build resilience in the most challenging circumstances.
We offer corporate well-being training for leaders and teams. Through our professional workshops, we will teach your teams how to reduce anxiety and boost resilience in times of uncertainty while also maintaining productivity. You can also visit this page and learn more about our program on mental fitness.

How to Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace Environment

How to thrive in a hybrid workplace environment

What exactly is a hybrid workplace environment?

A hybrid workplace environment is a model that combines in-house and remote work for employees. This way, employees can benefit from flexible work schedules, autonomy, and a better work-life balance. Some employers are benefiting from a hybrid work environment because several of their employees are more productive, engaged, and healthy when they have more autonomy and flexibility. It is always a good idea to survey employees to get a sense of what works best for them. Some employees will differ and believe they are more productive in the office because there may be too many distractions at home. 

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hybrid workplace model has grown popular. Suppose you’re new to hybrid workplace environments. In that case, you might face initial challenges like setting boundaries between your work and home life.

But don’t worry – we’ve put together a comprehensive list of 6 tips to help you thrive in a hybrid work environment.

Communicate effectively 

Hybrid workforces need clear communication channels to stay in contact and collaborate. For example, employers can opt for emailing for non-urgent tasks and communication software like Slack for time-sensitive tasks. This is crucial since your employees will be working in different locations and at various times.

Establish a precise schedule

Establishing a consistent schedule can help you work productively in the office and at home. You need to determine when you are most productive – in the morning, midday, or the evening. Once that’s done, you can establish a schedule that works for you. Additionally, you’ll need to determine what tasks you should perform when working in the office and at home. For example, perhaps you prefer to take meetings at home while completing projects that require collaboration in the office.

Create healthy boundaries

It can be challenging to create and maintain boundaries when working from home. As a result, you need to stipulate your working hours, ensure your calendar is up to date, and work in a dedicated office. Creating these boundaries will help you avoid burnout and stay on track with work deadlines. 

Make sure you have the tools you need to succeed

It’s essential to have all the tools you need to perform productively, whether you’re working from home or the office. This is easier to achieve in the office since most companies provide appropriate workstations. However, when you’re working from home, you also need to have a professional set-up – this is crucial since there can be many distractions at home.

Invest in team building

Employers need to invest in team-building to keep their employees engaged and connected. And while online team building via Zoom is a great way to motivate team members, it’s crucial to invest in face-to-face team-building activities. Face-to-face team building can help your employees connect quickly and bond over mutual interests.

Don’t be afraid to change things up

Having a set schedule and routine can help you get into the rhythm of things, but sometimes you need to change things up.

If you notice that you’ve become less productive when you start working right away in the morning, you can try starting your day with yoga or a quick morning run instead. The beauty of it is that you have the flexibility to alter your schedule when working in a hybrid workplace environment. But remember to keep your communication channels open, as you’ll need to keep your team in the loop and respond when needed.

To ensure your employees have everything they need to thrive in a hybrid workplace environment, visit the Corporate Class website today.

 We offer customized workshops that’ll teach your leaders and teams how to build resilience and thrive in the face of stress and uncertainty. Through our workshops, your teams will learn how to adapt to change (while remaining productive) and deal with potential stressors in a hybrid workplace environment. For different organizations, a hybrid workplace may mean something different. Together, we will identify other areas you may want to include and that are important to you.