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.

What are your favorite groups of people to work with?
Emerging leaders and emerging teams. They are eager to learn how to do it right with less struggle, they come with open minds and always are great contributors to the learning process!

Three words that describe your presentation style:
Collaborative, Fun and Interactive

Do you have any pets? Kids? Unusual hobbies?
I have a Plott Hound named Guinness who will never rest until he catches a rabbit. I have two tireless little girls, Kyla, four years, and Fallon, two years. They get me up way too early, love my “mama” hugs way too little, and make my life more full of joyful moments than I could have ever imagined.

Do you have a favorite quote? What/why?
“YOU are the only one who creates your reality. For no one else can think for you. No one else can do it. It is only you. Every bit of it you.” – Ester Hicks

Standard Starbucks order:
Grande Soy Latte one pump sugar free vanilla. Can’t go wrong with this one.

Inquire about Tara Powers

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by Zoe Training staff

A body language expert and teacher of unconscious persuasion skills, Traci Brown shows participants how to use her techniques in all sorts of business negotiations and in interactions with personal clients, and has even adapted the skills to talk herself out of an embarrassing number of traffic tickets. Traci shares some personal insights and words of wisdom in our latest Zoe Spotlight interview.

Words that describe your presentation style:

Engaging and laugh-out-loud funny.

What’s the most unusual way you’ve been paid to speak?

When I first started out and was just getting my feet wet, once I was paid for a speech with fireworks.  It was a nonprofit group and they didn’t have cash, so I took them and had lots of fun.

What are your most popular presentation topics?

Body language and unconscious persuasion is by far my post popular.  People like to leave with tools that are immediately usable and can have a big impact on the bottom line.

Why did you become a speaker/trainer?

Speaking is a way to affect lots of people at once.  It’s just a more effective use of resources than one-on-one coaching.  I’ll always do coaching; speaking is just an expansion of that.  Additionally, for me it fills my need of excitement and performing when the pressure is on. Bike racing used to do this for me.  Now I’ve replaced it with speaking.

Are you involved in any community projects/issues?

I’m the director of the Colorado Aloha Festival, a two-day celebration of the Hawaiian culture: music, art, food, and hula dancing.  20,000+ people attend.  And yes, I’m a hula dancer.

What’s your favorite quote?

“Excuses are the tools that allow you to deny the truth and destroy opportunity.”  While I was racing I had a coach that would tell me this.  And as much as I hated it at the time now I know he was right.

by Anna Conrad

Imagine [insert your favorite sports team here] without a head coach. What would happen? Who would guide the team and keep them all working together towards one common goal: to win the game? The same thing is true with your team – they need a good leader who understands what it takes to be a good coach.

But what does it mean to be a good coach? It is not just yelling at everyone to move faster or pick up the ball. Coaching is a skill that combines motivation, integrity, and knowledge. Do you have what it takes to be a good coach?

• Coach to a specific behavior. Don’t just yell at your employee to “get it right!” What exactly do they need to do? Instruct them to measure the angle using a specific tool to teach them and ensure success next time.
• Make sure the behavior is observable. “Don’t be so stupid!” May be something that you say inside your head, but what comes out needs to be more helpful. What exactly did they do, and did you observe it? Avoid the temptation to rely on others to tell you; only coach to behaviors your have observed, not what you have heard about.
• Coach to one or two behaviors at a time. Pick one or two key things for the person to focus on to improve his performance. Not only does this allow the person to focus their energy, but it is usually not overwhelming or demotivating.
• Be a good listener. There is a reason you have two ears and only one mouth. Listen carefully without interrupting. Observe the other person’s body language. Sometimes what is being said is not as important as what is not being said.
• Don’t let your ego get in the way. Just because you may have been great at your technical job doesn’t mean that you will be a great supervisor. Remember, some of the best coaches have never played the game professionally. Don’t assume your way of doing things is the only way. Allow your staff to get the results the way they think is best; they may come up with a process or procedure that is faster and more effective.

Being a good coach takes time, practice, and experience. Sometimes the hardest thing about leading people is realizing that they don’t need us to tell them what to do (even if think we know the answer), they just need us to help make them better.

Anna Conrad, JD, is an expert in organizational effectiveness and leadership development, and she is President of Impact Leadership Solutions. Anna Conrad has over a decade of experience in executive and leadership coaching, group facilitation, leadership development, and training. She has been a trusted confidante to leaders in numerous Fortune 500 companies, including the financial, telecommunications, legal, and health-care sectors, as well as in academia, government, and nonprofits.

by Zoe Training staff

With the employment situation in flux in recent years, Paul Unks’ career management expertise has come in handy for many people who need to regain their footing by either clarifying their career objectives or identifying new career options. And because career ups and downs can be the source of so much stress, Paul is also there to help individuals understand how stress impacts our daily lives and what we can do about it to alleviate the potential negative effects. In this interview, Paul talks about the joys of teaching his favorite topics and the mutual benefits that are gained by working together with participants.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?

1) Career Life Transition and Development, 2)Managing Stress and Wellness (“The Joy of Stress”) and 3) Communications and Team Building

I love teaching and facilitating workshops on these three topics.

I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping people to identify and then achieve the career position where they will be: fulfilled, very productive and successful, and in the right environment.  Career Life Development knowledge and skills are increasingly important and needed in our world today. Whether someone has been laid off through no fault of their own, if they are seeking a clearer direction and path to a more rewarding career, or if they want to further advance their career proactively in their current organization, they can benefit greatly from three key areas: 1) Assessment and Goal-Setting: Knowing how to do a clarifying self-assessment that accurately identifies their unique individual strengths and priorities (not artificially force fits them into one category that most traditional tests attempt to put people in). Then they need to know how to use the results of their assessment to see how their priorities best fit into the current job market segments in order to establish goals that are both desirable and viable. 2) Research and Confirmation of their top potential career goals; Knowing how to effectively research and conduct the early stages of networking so that they can be at peace with what they choose, as well as that which they choose not to do.

3) Setting up and Executing an effective Marketing strategy to attain the goal: Knowing how to prepare and deliver a clear and compelling message to their targeted market through networking, in their resume, letters and in some entrepreneurial cases, their website, as well as interviewing and negotiation. Being good at these aspects and knowing how to leverage key differentiators goes a long way to helping them gain an advantage in a very competitive market.

There are many aspects involved in each of the above areas, but it can all be more concisely boiled down to helping people address three questions:

1) Who am I? 2) Where am I going? and 3) How am I going to get there? It is by effectively addressing these questions that we can become more who we are.

I also love to help people better understand and manage their stress and wellness. I like to help people get a better handle on their most significant sources of stress, the major things, as well as the smaller seemingly less significant things they might otherwise overlook. And then it is important to understand how these different sources of stress impact on us both mentally and physically, how it can negatively effect our thought process, communication, performance and health. Once they have a good understanding of the progressive sequence, or chain, of mental and physical stress reactions, and where they are individually in that sequence, they are in a much better position to effectively manage their stress. We also take a look at the benefits and blessings of stress, and how to use the good kind of stress to combat and defeat the negative effects of distress. Finally we end on selecting from a long list of many things we can do to protect ourselves from the damaging effects of stress, prevent potential problems, or when required; how to get out of and reverse a downward unhealthy spiral someone might be in. Each person in the workshop leaves with an individualized assessment and action plan to protect themselves from their greatest risks and to proactively promote greater health and wellness for themselves. As a result, they have a much greater awareness and control over their unique stress situations and health, and are able to perform better as well.

Teaching and facilitating interpersonal communication and team building I find both rewarding and fun. I enjoy helping people gain greater insight to their own and others’ naturally preferred ways of working and communicating, and how these can present challenges, as well as be leveraged as advantages to the team so they can more effectively achieve shared goals.

I like to teach a simple and successful four-step team building model they can use to clearly see where they are strong and where they are vulnerable. They can also use the same four-step process to more effectively solve problems and mange projects as well. I like to include a key piece in this highly interactive workshop I call “The Power of Active Listening.” Very few people have ever had a class on listening skills. But it is one of, if not the most important communication skill of all. Yet it almost always gets short shrift in our education and training system. Once each person on the team has a better understanding of their own and each others’ main tendencies, what each finds easy and difficult, they are in a much better position leverage their strengths, and better accommodate each other. Where previously they might  have seen a certain team mate’s particular tendency as purposely being annoying, they now understand that he or she just comes by it naturally. There are many ways people can have fun in this workshop and become more enlightened in the process. One of the take aways I like participants to get out of the workshop is an enhanced sense of trust in each other and more enjoyment in working together.

Three words that describe your presentation style:

Dynamic, Engaging and Authentic

Do you have a favorite quote? What/why?

“Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

I also like, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” – Dr. George Draper, founder of physiological psychology in America. Therapist to Franklin Roosevelt and supreme court justice William O. Douglas. Both of these famous men credit Dr. Draper with helping them overcome their respective phobias and fears.

by Zoe Training staff

Perhaps Mike Faber’s face is familiar to you. Maybe it’s because Mike has been a regular pledge drive host for PBS television stations across the country since the mid ’90s and has been in television broadcasting since the late ’70s.

In this interview, Mike opens up about his personal philosophies and what motivates him to positively impact others.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?

My focus is on leadership, and how we “show up” as leaders in our business, community and personal lives. It’s my favorite topic because we can all remember a leader who made a life-time impact for us in our growth – what better legacy to leave than helping others make the same impact?

What are your favorite groups of people to work with?

I love working with business groups, especially people who are relatively new to management and leadership positions. When I began as a corporate manager and executive, I believed that it was more important to know business, than to know people. Now I realize that institutional knowledge can be passed along, but relating to others in an inspirational and compelling way is the foundation for any great leader.

Are you involved in any community projects/issues?

The first five years after college I was a TV sportscaster and that began a lifelong connection to broadcasting. I’m in my 26th year of volunteering at Public Television, in markets as diverse as Brownsville, Tex., San Francisco, and for the last 15 years in Denver, Colo. As a speaker I contribute a portion of all event proceeds to charity, including the Campership Fund at Camp Pathfinder in Algonquin Park, Ontario. One of my talents is that I can right a capsized canoe in virtually any weather!

Do you have a favorite quote? What/why?

Many, but the playwright Arthur Miller captured the potential risk and reward of leadership when he said “One can’t stand forever on the shore. At some point, filled with indecision, skepticism, reservation and doubt, you either jump in or concede that life is forever elsewhere.”

Tell us a recent book you’ve read and would recommend:

“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. The story of Olympic runner, WWII aviator and POW Louis Zamperini. Simply the most inspirational book of survival I’ve ever read.

What are you most grateful for in life?

My family, wife Terry and boys, Nick and Chris. In my keynote Aloha Leadership I share a story about a recent family trip to Hawaii. In the midst of paradise, we found ourselves in an urgent double health crisis. Without our Hawaiian “ohana,” the trip could have been disastrous!

by Zoe Training staff

Being a seasoned international trainer and coach since 1985, as well as having a long history of serving as a professor and lecturer at various colleges and universities in the U.S. and Singapore, Mark Zalkin has had plenty of thought-provoking – if not life-changing – experiences that he was willing to share with us. This is the second of a two-part interview.

What is your favorite quote?

I have many favorite quotes but the one I like the best is:  “You are an architect of your own misery.  You also have the ability to remodel.”  -  Stephen Marmer, M.D.

I really like Dr. Marmer’s quote because it reinforces the concept of taking responsibility of your own situation and then doing something to start making changes.

I like to feel that my workshops offer my participants the beginning motivation and tools to begin to start the remodeling process.

Why did you become a trainer?

One major reason is that this work affords me the opportunity to meet a very wide range of very interesting people.

I also love the opportunity to share information with people, to receive the feedback that they enjoyed the presentation, and that the information will be very helpful to them in their work and life.

What are your most popular presentation topics?

Working With Difficult People,  Introduction to Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Managing Conflict Effectively, Understanding Yourself and Others (Behavioral Styles), Are You Meeting More and Enjoying it Less? and Time Management ( when I have time to teach time management).

A presentation that went wrong – at least in the beginning:

I was doing a three-day conflict management workshop for a large defense company in Texas.  I was told that I had 32 participants.

At the time of this assignment, I had presented this workshop at least 12 -14 times, so I was very confident that it would work well again.  I used my normal opening with several true stories that illustrated common conflicts that happen in most organizations. These stories had always helped me develop a rapid rapport with participants.  After that, I usually went over the agenda and had them, in their table groups, come up with real conflict issues on index cards.  These issues would be processed during the last afternoon of the course.

I immediately noticed that this group was not the bit least interested in my stories and we were not developing any rapport.  The body language was pretty negative.  So, I did what most people do — I pushed harder and told another story that always got a positive response and laughs from participants; they just stared at me.  I said to myself that they couldn’t hate me in only the first three minutes of the program.  I tried again, and failed to connect.  I realized I had better move quickly to save this program.

I stopped and made following statement:  ” I have a sense that most of you are not very receptive to my opening stories. I don’t think you can all hate me in just three minutes, so what’s going on?”   Silence is a great tool.  ( I figured it would take no more than 10 seconds before some spoke. I started counting ” 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand, etc.  I got to 20 one thousand and still nothing, I was getting a bit nervous, but kept a smile on my face.  Finally around the 26-second mark, one person raised their hand.  I called on him.  He said he had the longest tenure in this group. He went on to say that they were in the middle of a huge project with major time deadlines.  They had nothing against me, or the topic, it was just that they were being forced to attend by a new boss in their Atlanta office.  They resented having to be forced and now had to come in early and stay late to catch up.  Several other people spoke up as well confirming his comments.

I appreciated his sharing the situation and then said to the group, well now we have several options, of which I quickly put up on the flipchart:

1. Cancel the program and I go back to Denver and they go back to work.
2. Continue on with an understanding of their tough schedule and see if we can find a way to help them out.
3. Other options?

They had no other options so I went back to the first two:

1. I have no authority to cancel the program; I will teach this workshop for whomever is here. I cannot do anything about any person who chooses to leave.   (Someone responded that they could not leave — it was mandated that they attend.)
2. I asked them to brainstorm, at their table groups, and come up with creative ways we could squeeze a little more time for them and still keep the integrity of the program intact.  ( I gave them 10 minutes to do this.)

They responded with some terrific ideas that concluded with starting the program 30 minutes earlier each day, bring sack lunches so we had working sessions, 10 minute breaks instead of 15, etc. This activity helped them gain about 1 and 1/2 hours as we concluded the course at 3:45 p.m. each day.

I then asked them, at their table groups, to come up with three to four real world issues they were dealing with in their jobs. (Each group listed the manager in Atlanta.)  I told them that the material in this course would help them look at options for dealing with all of their issues.

Once we solved this problem, I decided to forget the stories and give this group what they wanted — precise, wanting data and specific information — not stories. They were still very reserved.   I started by taking out the assessment tool I was going to give them in the afternoon.  As I discussed the standard deviation and means of the instrument, I heard the click of their mechanical pencils as they wrote down the data.   I stayed very precise in my presentation all day and reduced my normal high energy approach. As I did this, I sensed that they were opening up.  By the end of the day, I tried a story or two and they laughed and let their guard down.

The lesson to me was to be honest and real, don’t be afraid to share your feelings and discuss it with others.   I know that it would have been a pretty unpleasant experience for all of us if I had just continued to plow ahead.

by Tara Powers

“Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware.” – David Armistead

“Trust is the denominator of efficiency.” I heard this quote from a company leader that I am working with as we discussed the impact of trust on manager-employee relationships, relationships with customers, and efficiency between teams. This quote hits the nail on the head when talking about any type of business improvement. Nothing is going to improve long-term if trust does not exist.

Everyone knows that it’s not easy to build trust, but it’s very easy to destroy it. Trust is what creates a workplace where people hold themselves accountable. Trust creates a workplace where information is shared freely and openly, silos are non-existent, and people are involved in designing their own jobs and creating systems to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Trust is about sharing information, caring about other roles, opening yourself up to constructive feedback, communicating with integrity, asking for what you need, and providing support even when it’s not your job.

So HOW do you build trust? Here are ten ideas you can put to use immediately:

1. Managers act more as mentors and coaches rather then task masters.
2. Share leadership on the team.
3. Provide ongoing feedback on progress.
4. Readjust meetings to create more openness, sharing of feedback, creative thinking and risk taking.
5. Share ideas with the team or with an individual on what needs to be done and then ask for voluntary participation to make it happen.
6. Encourage team members to share mistakes so that everyone can learn from it.
7. Use a problem solving and decision making process that everyone can follow individually and as a group.
   • Example: Gather data, analyze data, identify issues, decide on solutions, implement solutions, analyze results, start process over if necessary.
8. Encourage each team member to share their personal vision for their role.
9. Ask team members to serve their internal and external customers as they would like to be served. Then trust them to do the right thing.
10. Have frequent discussions as a team what it would look like to appreciate one another, put others first, openly communicate, etc.

As you review this list consider if your corporate culture imposes more authority and control or operates from a high level of trust where people are free to do their jobs to the best of their ability.  What would it take to begin trusting your team to do the right thing? What would need to shift to make this happen? Focus on one idea listed in this article each month to improve the level of trust on your team and expect amazing results.

As this year comes to a close, encourage your employees to take stock of what they’ve created in 2010. Encourage them to think about what they would like to see happen for themselves, their team, and the company in 2011. Ask them to ponder one small shift they might make in their life that could bring them more joy, peace and happiness. Ask them to ponder one small shift the company could make that could bring more joy, peace and happiness to your workforce.

These are important conversations that build a foundation of trust with your employees. They demonstrate a level of caring and show that you are interested in them and their aspirations. More importantly they will begin to trust that you truly have their best interest at heart.

© 2010 Powers Resource Center

International trainer, consultant, and founder of The Toxic Workplace, Tara Powers partners with organizations interested in improving their company culture to boost their bottom line. If you’re ready to make changes in your business that will make employees happy AND make you money, get your FREE tips now at PowersResourceCenter.com.

by Zoe Training staff

Being a seasoned international trainer and coach since 1985, as well as having a long history of serving as a professor and lecturer at various colleges and universities in the U.S. and Singapore, Mark Zalkin has had plenty of thought-provoking – if not life-changing – experiences that he was willing to share with us. This is the first of a two-part interview.

What are some things that inspire you about interactions with clients/participants?

I have learned that I only have to keep an open mind and I will usually learn something from my workshop participants and coaching clients. Like many trainers and coaches, I have used certain exercises and questions thousands of times because they are effective in reinforcing a point.

After 26 years, I can usually predict about 98 percent of the questions, answers, and outcomes stated by workshop participants and coaching clients. However, many times, a participant will make a observation that I never saw or even considered. I look forward to picking up new insights and nuances from my participants. This reinforces the old saying, ” if you want to really learn something, teach it.”

What’s the most unusual location (or circumstances) you’ve presented in?

I have two that stand out during the past 26 years.

(1) I was doing a five-day leadership development workshop at a high-rise hotel in New Orleans (during the era before mobile phones). Upon arriving at the New Orleans airport on Sunday afternoon, I noticed several banners, the streets were jammed, and restaurants had 1- to 2-hour waits. I turned around and had a quick bite at the hotel.

We had 30 people in the program, mostly from the New Orleans area, a couple from another US office of the organization, and one participant who came from a branch office in South America.

On Monday morning it was clear that this group of participants would be lively, engaged and energetic. My opening table group exercises went exceptionally well and I then reviewed the agenda for the five-day program. They seemed to be unusually enthusiastic about the program from their questions and behavior. I completed the first day and as I was packing my briefcase, a participant came to me and said he would probably be late on Tuesday morning. I asked why and he said that he lived on the Gulf Coast and that he had heard, at lunch, that there was a chance that there might be some heavy rains coming on Tuesday night. He indicated that he was going to be busy putting up boards on the windows. He would try to come back on Tuesday afternoon.

I thought nothing of it and went up to my room on the 23rd floor of the hotel. I normally turn on the TV and get the news but this evening I decided to take a short walk to the French Quarter. I noticed a surreal sense of quiet and very few people as contrasted with the scene a mere 24 hours earlier. Most store and restaurant windows were boarded up. There was the occasional sound of hammers coming from the quarter. I stopped one person on the street and asked what was going on, and she said that a hurricane was heading to the east coast of Florida on Wednesday; however, the latest projection was for it to veer northwest and score a dead hit on New Orleans perhaps as early as Tuesday night.

I went back to my hotel and turned on the news. Sure enough, New Orleans was in major shut-down mode. I quickly called my workshop contact, who knew less that I did about the situation in New Orleans. I said it was looking bleak that we would be able to run this program due to the weather forecasts. He said you must run it. I said I will do my best. Meanwhile, on the late evening local news, video showed thousands of cars jammed with people trying to leave the city. They announced that the airport would be shutting down at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and people needing to leave should make arrangements. I called my contact and they said, “What are you talking about?….run the program.” I said I would try but would also try to get a flight out of town on Tuesday afternoon. He was not very understanding. After being on the phone for several hours, I was able to book a stand-by seat on the last flight out at 2:50 p.m.

The next morning I had several messages from participants that they would not be in that day. I showed up at the workshop venue at 7: 45 a.m; the program started at 8 a.m. I figured I should wait at least until 8: 30 a.m. and then call the contact.

At 8:00 a.m. the one participant from South America showed up but all the locals were absent. At 8:30 a.m. I suggested she try to make arrangements to leave quickly. I called the contact who asked how it was going, and I said, ” It is not going as only one person showed up and the city looks like a ghost town.” He was still not understanding and I said,” I am packing up and leaving as I do NOT do hurricanes.”

I took a taxi about 11 a.m. to the airport expecting a traffic jam, but instead there was very little traffic. I was able to get on the flight, and with two connections arrived back in Denver 7 hours later. When I arrived at the Denver airport, my wife told me that that Hurricane Andrew switched course and hit major sections of Dade County, Florida. New Orleans was dry and sunny!

(2) During the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Shanghai, China, to teach a wide range of workshops.

Workshops are normally held in fairly high floors of some of Shanghai’s spectacular skyscrapers or hotels which affords an unbelievable view of Shanghai’s amazing skyline.

One workshop was held at a venue I had never experienced in China – a factory of an electronics manufacturing company. I normally research client organizations before finalizing the arrangements. Since this particular workshop assignment came a day before I left Denver for Shanghai, I did not have the time to do my normal research. While I secured a profile of the management group I was training., I did not recognize the name of the company. It was a one of the several thousand multinational companies with a presence in Shanghai. During lunch in the company cafeteria, I noticed hundreds of employees in their multi- colored uniforms eating their meals. My sponsor told me that most of the workers were from rural China. They lived in housing adjacent to the factory and received two meals per day. Some traveled home every 15 weeks or so to see their families. I asked what their average salary was and my sponsor replied about US $150 per month, US $200-225 if they worked overtime. She indicated that they were making $75 working on rural farms so this job doubled their salaries. Most frequently sent money home. I asked where the home office of this company was located and my host replied ( a large city in) Florida. The answer did not surprise me as I was aware of the low-wage competitive advantage through my research on doing business in China. However, seeing it right in front of my eyes made a much deeper impression of what is going on in the world today.

by Mike Faber

A coaching client asked me recently how she could “create more time” for her personal and professional interests. While we all have the same twenty-four hours in a day, the way we use that time varies wildly. Here are four great tips for getting more out of the time you have!

1. Clearly define what your priorities are for each day. Writing them out increases the chances exponentially that the most important things will get done.
2. Understand what your compelling purpose is for achieving a specific result. Doing this simple association turns a “nice to have” into a “Non Negotiable” result. If a result or action doesn’t have a compelling purpose attached to it, that result or action cannot be a priority for you.
3. Get proactive. The average American worker spends three to four hours a day on email. At the risk of driving readers away from my own email announcements, limit your email. I answer personal business email in three fifteen-minute time chunks per day. Quitting all-day email must be like quitting heroin, but you must do it to create more time for yourself.
4. Find partners and make them a part of your team. I love my bookkeeper Chris because she updates my financial reports every other month. In the past, I’d spend three to four hours every month updating QuickBooks myself. That took me away from my job as the creativity specialist and visionary for my company. Updating my financial ledger was mindless, painless, and the exact opposite of what I do to serve clients and stay in business!

Try these out for thirty days and see what happens to your business. We all spend far too much time being reactive in life, whether it’s personally or professionally. The key to time management is to take control where you can. This trains your mind and body to be more judicious with your time, and more focused on the activities that create wealth and fulfillment.

Mike Faber is an award-winning sales professional, business leader, and television personality. He’s also a speaker and certified professional coach who has taught thousands of business leaders to communicate passionately and effectively. Mike brings the lessons of a 30-year career in sales, management, and broadcasting to audiences in a style that combines humor, candor, and lessons that can be applied to all walks of life.

by Ashley Andrus

Well, it’s the time of year for “best of” and “Top 10″ lists, so in honor of the brand new 2010, we thought we’d share a run-down of the most popular training topics our clients are planning for this upcoming year:

1. Behavioral Interviewing
There is nothing more important than hiring the right people. Hiring the right person for the right job provides tremendous organizational benefits by increasing employee productivity, reducing training time, and controlling the high cost of employee turnover—not to mention the positive impact on team morale. You’d think, with double-digit unemployment rates across the country, that it would be easy to hire right now…right? Well, maybe. Read more…

2. Business Writing
Many experts estimate that as much as 90% of human communication comes from non-verbal clues such as voice inflection and body language. In business writing, however, you have only the words to get your meaning across, so the way the writer uses those words becomes more important. On-the-job writing matters—to your company, to your readers, and to you as a writer. From sales proposals to client emails to internal communications, your employees represent your organization every time they write an email or craft a document. Read more…

3. Coaching/Mentoring
Coaching can help managers and supervisors provide a structure for enabling their employees to achieve high performance. But the bewildering array of both available resources and management duties can complicate the process. What situations call for coaching vs. counseling? What’s the difference in coaching and performance management? How exactly do you give constructive feedback? Read more…

4. DiSC
There are, of course, many different assessment tools that rate behavior, preference, attitudes, etc. and provide a framework for understanding the way in which you see the world and the differing ways in which others may approach the same set of facts or circumstances. Myers-Briggs/MBTI, Emergenetics, Lominger, Insights and many others remain popular, but the most common tool we see clients utilizing is the DiSC. Read more…

5. Emotional Intelligence/EQ
All managers can relate horror stories about employees or team members who were clearly intelligent, technically capable, and able to perform the duties their job demanded…and who wreaked havoc on their teams because their social skills or self-management capability was lacking. When it comes to individual and team success, IQ is not enough; in fact, the skill set known as Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has consistently proven to be a better indicator of workplace success. Read more…

6. Facilitation Skills
Most of us feel like we spend too much time in meetings. Meetings that are too long. Meetings that have too many participants. Meetings that don’t have clear objectives. Meetings that get sidetracked by off-topic discussions. Meetings can be a waste of time…but with an effective facilitator, that doesn’t have to be the case. Read more…

7. Harassment Prevention/Respectful Work Environment
Even when training budgets are tight, harassment prevention and awareness remains a topic of interest to many organizations due to the legal liability issues that can be involved. Ensuring that both individual contributors and managers understand the policies/procedures and responsibilities of the organization is essential, but may not be enough. Read more…

8. Networking Skills
Networking…it isn’t just for salespeople! Although for many people the word “networking” conjures up a cringe-inducing image of a pushy salesperson shoving a business card into every hand she can find, the reality is that networking is about serving as a resource—about giving, not taking—and it’s essential for both individual and organizational success. Read more…

9. Project Management
In past years, much of the project management training offered by organizations was geared towards those employees who were planning to become a Project Management Professional (PMP) and whose job title or function specifically encompassed a formal project management role. Today, however, we see organizations recognizing that many employees manage projects (albeit on a less formal basis) and recognizing the benefits of a project management overview. Read more…

10. Work-Life Balance/Stress Management
It goes without saying that the state of the economy, mass layoffs, and ever-increasing demands on our employees’ time creates a perfect storm of stress. The negative impacts of stress can range from the physical to the mental and can have devastating impacts on both individuals and teams. Organizations are exploring a variety of resources they can offer to help weather the storm. Read more…

Wishing you an excellent and productive 2010!

Ashley Andrus is President of Zoe Training & Consulting. Her passion is making HR folks and meeting planners look like *rock stars* by providing one-stop access to 90+ speakers, trainers, facilitators, coaches, and consultants.