by Tara Powers
This article is about clarity of purpose for you, your team, and your business. It includes simple yet powerful steps that when discussed, analyzed, agreed upon, and written down, will provide a clear expectations and a compelling direction for 2010.
The steps outlined in this article are not confusing or difficult. However, many business owners, teams and individuals don’t do it. Why? Here are the excuses that get in the way: Read more »
by Zoe Training staff
During the past several years, David C. Sanford has answered the demand by global companies to provide insights into how to successfully understand and communicate effectively with Indian nationals. Having spent more than thirteen years living and working abroad including assignments in the UK, Taiwan, India, Iran, Italy, and Japan, he has an intimate understanding and insight into the challenges faced by those living and/or working in multicultural environments.
1. What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?
The challenge of communicating with someone from a different culture. As the world has become flatter we are now all interacting more than ever with people who view things such as punctuality, the word “YES,” and building trust radically differently than we do. Whether it is the Help Desk person that we contact, the grocery store clerk or co-worker, my skill is creating communication bridges so that all can communicate more effectively. Read more »
The U.S. Economy
What we now call the Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. It was the longest, the deepest, and the most painful recession since the Great Depression.
By my count, that suggests that the current U.S. economic expansion is now reaching the two-and-a-half year mark. The current expansion has been less than satisfying both statistically and emotionally, with major headwinds still in play involving weak residential and commercial real estate markets, uncomfortably high unemployment, major European financial risk, and elevated levels of anxiety about the direction of the federal government. Read more »
by Zoe Training staff
When Tara Powers isn’t busy running her own training and development organization, she is also managing her other venture, Mama Means Business, a resource that coaches and supports “mompreneur” businesses, providing already proven resources that help women launch successful businesses FAST. In this interview, Tara gives us some insight into her passions for her career and everyday life.
Why did you become a speaker/trainer?
I organically got into training 15 years ago when I was asked to train a bunch of managers on how to understand their budget. The jolt of energy and excitement I got when I was teaching someone was enough to make me go back to school and get my master’s degree in Organizational Management. This led me into the HR field for many years where I was able to grow and build a training department. My experience has helped me to understand that I have a real opportunity to change people’s lives for the better if I can help them identify how to make small behavioral shifts that can give them fast results and big impacts on their team and company. I believe that it’s up to each of us to ask what we want to be known for, get clear on our values and vision, and make decisions that are in alignment with who we are. This is what I try to get across when I am speaking or training. Read more »
by Mike Faber
Dede Osborn is a Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. She’s also a student of Hawaiian leadership and values, and is the author of the paper Leadership Styles in Modern Hawaiian Organizations: Island Culture at Work. Looking at a variety of leadership measures, her studies determine that the three most frequent Hawaiian leadership behaviors are:
Not rocket science, right? So why are these behaviors not practiced more widely and more consistently? Read more »
by Zoe Training staff
Jayne Gnadt, a seasoned professional with an extensive background in project management, is also an energizing and memorable keynote speaker who shared some insightful gems with us in this interview.
What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?
I love to speak on motivational and rather “edgy” topics because my greatest thrill from a speaking perspective is to have everyone laughing and smiling from ear to ear!
3 words that describe your presentation style:
Energizing, Fun, Engaging
What’s the most unusual location (or circumstances) you’ve presented in?
I’m actually getting ready to facilitate a class in Broken Bow, Neb., at the country club as there isn’t any other place in town large enough to hold a class for 25 people!! Read more »
One of my favorite tools that I use when I teach college students or train Project Management, Business Analysis, or Leadership for organizations is the Team Contract.
The team contract is a document outlining agreements about how the team will work together. Team contracts contain topics such as “Commitments,” “Participation,” “Communication,” “Problem Solving,” “Decision-Making,” “Conflict Management,” “Use of Technology,” and “Meeting Guidelines.”
Looking at the group dynamics of Forming, Norming, Storming, Performing, and Adjourning, the team contract speeds up the Norming phase and helps prevent/mitigate the Storming phase, so the team can get to the Performing phase faster–making your team more efficient. Read more »
by Zoe Training staff
Starting with a strong foundation in accounting, Dan Chenoweth has a broad background in American and international business. His focus on general management issues inherent in today’s changing business environment involves organization leadership; business process analysis and improvement; project management; strategic supplier relationships; team development; and change management. In every situation, Dan helps clients take their strategy to the bottom line.
What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?
Business ethics. It is a multi-faceted, complex topic and there is no lack of “fresh/new” material! Ethics do count! They are relevant and we need to have more discussion about them in these tumultuous times. Read more »
by D.J. Vanas
The magical, mystical glue that holds teams together is trust. With it, we see people follow their leaders through the fires of change, challenge, doubt and fear. Without it, people won’t follow their leader to the bathroom. But how do we build that trust and strengthen our relationships, our connections and ultimately influence how well we lead others?
Through communication.
We are all like human radio stations, transmitting information to those around us at all times. We communicate through e-mail, texting and speaking, but also through our body language and most importantly, through the example we set with our actions. In the end, our goal as leaders is to communicate in a way that strengthens the bond of trust and enables us to have more influence and impact with those we lead. Whether they are teammates, co-workers, fellow community member or our own families, good communication is a must. Read more »
Ten years ago I was a professor of Gender in the Sociology Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Almost every semester, I taught a course in Sex, Gender, and Society and several times during that course I invited a M2F post-operative transgendered person, “Terri,” to discuss transgender issues with my students. I had several conversations with Terri outside of class, and she told me about feeling like a woman trapped in the body of a man, who went through counseling, cross-dressing, hormone replacement therapy, and costly operations to become the woman she perceived herself to be. I used to joke with Terri that she was more female than I, which meant that she wore stilettos, clothes that showed her curves, and talked in a high voice, none of which I did. From Terri, I learned about being transgendered from a person, not a textbook. She told me about family, work, and personal relationship issues that she faced in her transition and about her daily decisions whether or not to tell people she encountered about her “secret.” Terri also told me about the danger and fear she lived with daily as a woman who passed, but whose secret might be revealed to someone who perceived her as a threat. As a woman and an intellectual, I was well-informed, I thought, about being transgendered. Read more »
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