Is your supervisory leadership training effective? Let’s check.
(Snippet: To know if your workplace training is effective start by clarifying your desired outcomes and then make sure the training program you choose reflects a good understanding of how adults learn at work. Once this is in place, ensure you know what to...
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How to diversify your network!
“A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet” Anonymous Most people find networking events stressful. The idea of spending an afternoon after work or evening with a bunch of strangers trying to make awkward conversation doesn’t seem like most people’s idea of a good...
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What is managers’ #1 complaint? Hint: Same as employees’ #1 complaint!
"The reason people blame things on the previous generation is that there's only one other choice." -- Doug Larson If you guessed, “getting people to do their jobs without being nagged”, you would be right. The number one complaint of managers is that their team...
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Why people don’t follow procedures and what to do about it
You have been through this before. An employee seems to know what to do. You have communicated the procedure, and probably explained the steps. And…it isn’t done. Or it isn’t done right. You could tear your hair out! Ranting and raving, getting mad and frustrated or...
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Using your natural connections to get into a career: Barry’s story
Many newcomers get their first job through connections. For Barrie Latter, a family connection in Canada was able to find him a job opportunity before he planned to immigrate. He is a firm believer in using your connections to get to find a job higher up in the...
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How Arnold became a master networker and rocked his career!
Let me tell you about Arnold D’Souza and how he built a meaningful and well-paying job in Canada by having a clear career path and networking. Arnold moved to Canada 8 years ago, from Dubai, where he handled the logistics for 40 countries and 27 distributors for...
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Your transferable skills: Finding and using them for work
Are you confused about this talk of “soft skills” for getting a job? Do you wonder what it means to have “transferable” skills? Do you want to have a fast way to find out what your soft, transferable - or whatever employers want skills - are and then use them to...
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“I love my company!” Group pride, inclusion and employee engagement
“I love my company!” Group pride, inclusion and employee engagement How an inclusion opportunity came up at Fenceline and what happened when they took it on. Marie Gervais, Shift Management Inc. “Never underestimate your ability to make someone else’s life...
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Want to elevate employee engagement? Try this simple idea (consistently!)
Does employee engagement have to be tricky? Developing a collaborative workspace with commitment to purpose and goals can be helped along with one, simple, consistent check in. The side benefits? Increased engagement and stronger sense of belonging. The other day I...
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Can a construction company be intentionally inclusive? Jen-Col says “Yes!”
Jen-Col is serious about building a better future. When you first walk into Jen-Col Construction (Building a better future), I guarantee you will be impressed. The building is a combination of new and old with repurposed recycled wood in different shades throughout...
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How Emanuel did it: 3 strategies for getting into an industry
Emanuel was a Masters in Economics graduate and needed to find work. He found that the skills he had in math were useful for supply chain management so he decided to investigate the industry as a possible career route. To avoid being stuck in a survival level job, he...
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Diversifying your workforce…Who has time?
Have you ever been in a conversation with a group.. when one person was way behind what everyone else seems to know? I witnessed exactly that at a business dinner event just recently. Everyone at the table was talking about ways they were strategizing to find...
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Supervisory survival basics: Giving direction
Being good at your job has its downside. People usually come into their first managerial positions because they are good at what they are already doing. Decision makers identify them as responsible, committed and technically competent. With those company-friendly...
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4 ways to motivate others using your experience
What motivates people? The first response of almost everyone you ask this question is “money”. Yet in study after study, money has only proven to be a motivator when someone is in grinding poverty or in a situation of narcissistic hoarding. Even then, as soon as the...
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How not belonging teaches inclusion
I’m what they call a 3rd culture kid. I belong to the 17.7% of Canadians who had one or two parents born outside of Canada and grew up learning to bridge different cultures, languages, and worldviews. Let me share with you a few stats about immigrants in Canada and a...
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Increase your leadership attraction: Your backstory
Did you know that leadership attraction and marketing are related? You couldn’t control how your story started, but you can write a few good pages in there ― Mustafa Saifuddin As I was reading Russell’s most recent book called Dotcom Secrets, something really jumped...
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Channeling your inner “scary leader”
Lots of people come to me with their workplace issues and management dilemmas. I listen patiently and help them come to a few conclusions about their next steps. Upon reflection, I would say that 99% of the managers seeking my advice have problems because they have an...
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“If it ain’t broke” – Workplace lessons for the entitled
Here’s a workplace attitude comparison I think you will find interesting... You might remember when social media evangelist Jill Rowley’s employment termination at Oracle made the headlines. Rowley was portrayed as a talented creative whose free spirit did not fit the...
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Pre-influencing your team for great attitude
I have been reading Robert Cialdini’s most recent book Pre-Suasion. It's about how people are triggered to behave in certain ways under certain conditions. The short version is that people are influenced by reciprocity, social proof, likeability, consistency,...
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Andrew’s story: Finding work in chemical manufacturing
Let me tell you about how I first met Andrew Zheng... I was a speaker at the Chinese Students and Scholars Association gala (CSSA) and met Andrew during the networking portion of the evening. He impressed me by explaining how he landed a job in his industry right...
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What is the difference between culture, personality, wellness, and performance issues?
Let me tell you a story... An employment counsellor told me about a client - an immigrant who had come to Canada as a refugee - who quit and immediately walked away from a very good job on a Friday. The client said he was offended by the three month review he had just...
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How Sandra cracked the code on “Canadian Experience”
"A career is a journey with stops along the way, not a destination." It’s a classic line that newcomers hear when trying to find work in Canada: “We are looking for someone with ‘Canadian experience.’” And while this isn’t necessarily an invalid point, it can be code...
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How to be a better you: Changing your habits with “If/when…then”
Have you felt frustrated with yourself for not being able to change habits? Maybe you’ve heard yourself saying, “Just this one chocolate bar,” or, “Tomorrow I’ll get serious about this,” when you are trying to make a lifestyle or workplace change. When struggling to...
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How to make yourself irresistible in a job interview – part four: 5 gestures to create success
You know what they say about body language... The way we position ourselves as we share a message comprises the bulk of the communication that gets through to the audience. Estimates range anywhere from 55% to 90% (and the debate among communication experts will...
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How to make yourself irresistible in a job interview – part three: 4 (More) strategies that help people know, like, and trust you
The job interview... It’s that ominous space that separates your accepted job application and the job offer. And it doesn’t depend - at least not entirely - on your technical skill. In the end, whether or not you land the job offer you’re hoping for depends on how...
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5 (Commonplace) Bad Meeting Presentation Mistakes & What You Can Learn From Them
For many of us, just the mention of the word “meeting” makes us roll our eyes and groan. We’ve all had the misfortune of sitting through yet another bad presentation and have cursed the heavens for losing an hour (or longer) of our lives to boredom and frustration....
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10 Ways to survive the new supervisor nightmare
So your time has come and you're officially the new supervisor! Of course you are feeling both excited and perhaps a bit scared at the same time. You want to make a good impression and you want people to like you, but you recognize a need for discipline and want...
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How to make yourself irresistible in a job interview – part two: 4 Strategies that help people know, like, and trust you
Make no mistake... You can show you have all the technical skill in the world, but if the interviewer doesn’t leave that meeting feeling they know you, like you, and can trust you, there’s a good chance you’ll miss your opportunity. In part one of this series “How to...
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How to make yourself irresistible in a job interview – part one: The 3 crucial ways to prepare
Ever wonder how some people have the uncanny ability to get people to know, like, and trust them within just minutes of meeting? Academics call it the “KLT” factor and it measures how much a person feels they “Know, Like, and Trust” you. Notice that KLT rests...
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Bringing out the talents of your team: Survey and you shall receive
I recently did a communication training for an organization whose leadership spent two hours beforehand explaining to me that their employees were "all under-performing, irresponsible and unresponsive." I didn’t believe them then, and I believed them even less when I...
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How to get strategic and START putting out fires in your business or team
Do you spend most of your time at work dealing with emergencies?... Does your business day revolve around putting out fire after fire, and are you constantly working to respond to client needs (or demands) because you are worried that you will lose your customer to a...
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3 Typical workplace communication problems you can actually do something about
Workplace communication is a two-way street. It involves people listening to each other and responding, where ideas are shared and then collaboratively built out over time. So, when workplace interactions evolve from poor communication, it is no surprise that a...
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Stop spending 80% of your time on one bad egg
Ever notice how there are those "bad eggs" on your team who, like vacuums, seem to suck not only your energy, but everyone's energy? Learning to deal with the "bad eggs" on our teams can feel like a trap. It's easy to think that with just a little more coaching or...
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Live your work life as if you could die tomorrow
Recently I have been reminded of the importance of death... When we think about our own death and what might be our legacy after we have left this world, it can have a big impact on how we live daily. It has a lot of weight on how we treat people at work, in our...
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The quick guide to increasing cultural comfort in the workplace
Increasingly organizations are looking to hire for "fit." They've become more conscious of the culture that they are trying to create within their company and look for people who have the "right" attitudes, energy, and predilections to meld well with what is already...
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Cross cultural negotiation – part three: Personality traits that lead to cultural behaviour change
Turns out that your personality traits impact how effectively you can navigate cultural difference. Learn how “The Big Five,” “The Asian Personality at Work Index,” and how individualism and collectivism impact your ability to negotiate.
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Cross cultural negotiation – part two: Using influence
Learn the 6 universal principles of influence you can start using today to improve your negotiations and your relationships.
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The spirit of work: How courtesy, respect and thoughtfulness create the foundation for all other work success
Recipes for success at work are printed everywhere…articles, textbooks, templates, and checklists. Ready for a different approach? Find how Marie’s 3 key values can ignite your team and enable you to light the way for others.
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Cross cultural negotiation – part one: Using power strategies
If you are working with human beings at all you will find yourself negotiating. Two definitions of the word negotiate that I like are "to obtain or bring about by discussion" and "to find a way over or through a difficult path or obstacle." Put those together and...
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Ndumiso’s Swaziland to Canada story: Advancing in the telecommunications workplace
If you took our Canadian Workplace certificate course, you might remember an engaging interview video with Ndumiso. In the video he explained his creative way of finding work in his chosen field of telecommunications. After moving to Canada from Swaziland, Ndumiso...
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Turning Twitter into a giant job board
Not one who needs to use a lot of words in a day? You probably find that Twitter is a favourite social media space and it turns out that many employers feel the same way. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are posted by employers using a mere 140 characters everyday, and...
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Gerard Keledjian: An immigrant success story
About four years ago I migrated to Canada from Dubai, UAE, bringing with me over 15 years of experience and the dream of starting an exciting, new chapter in my life. However, like most new immigrants, I struggled to find my footing. In my search for solutions, I made...
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Courageous conversations you wish you’d had
Have you ever found yourself wishing you would have had a conversation that could have made a difference for you and for the other person? Maybe you wish you had told that wonderful colleague you appreciated her but were afraid it might be taken the wrong way or “go...
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To stop the talent drain, develop your own leadership
Your leadership actions are predictors of your organization’s success. If you are in any kind of a management position right now, sit down with a pen and paper and take five minutes to write down your answer to this question: Why would anyone want to follow me? If you...
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On fasting, culture and family
You may or may not know that I am a Baha’i. One thing that Baha’is do as part of their spiritual practice is to participate in a month of fasting every March from the 1st to the 19th, then celebrate the Baha’i New Year on the first day of the spring equinox. So what...
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Is it true that some people can’t be motivated?
Unpacking Motivation Ever found yourself asking this question? It's one that I am often asked, usually by someone who is frustrated with an employee who seems to have a lot of motivation issues, and usually when the asker has already decided that the answer to the...
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Foreign credential recognition in Alberta: A few explanations and resources
One of the most common settlement difficulties faced by newcomers in Canada is credential recognition. Because countries differ in educational standards, what might have been a Bachelor of Engineering in one country may be considered a two-year equivalency in...
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3 critical supervisory leadership tools for this century and the next!
Supervisory leadership promotion: do you have the tools? To promote someone to a supervisory level, the most common approach is to choose someone who is good at the job and has been both responsible and loyal to the company. Very little thought goes into whether the...
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Build Powerful Engaged Teams
Outstanding teamwork doesn’t just happen. The core competency of management is to truly appreciate your staff and make the team more powerful than individual workers to produce business goals. Training is not enough. You can develop the individual until the cows come...
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Is online learning for you? Let’s find out
Online learning isn’t for every professional. It might work for you, let's find out. For me, I have been taking and creating online courses for several years now, and it occurred to me that I should look at the characteristics of successful online learners to see if...
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