Leadership: An Essential Skill

 "Talking" with your hands plays a huge role in conversation but I've never really understood what hand gestures mean or when to use what or how it works. Some gestures look really funny or sometimes it looks like people are just flailing their arms everywhere. But, according to some psychologists these funny gestures actually help people express their thoughts more effectively. "A study analyzing TED Talks last year found that the most popular, viral speakers used an average of about 465 hand gestures, which is nearly twice as many as the least popular speakers used. Other researchers has found that people who “talk” with their hands tend to be viewed as warm, agreeable and energetic, while those who are less animated are seen as logical, cold and analytical (Gregoire, 2016)." This does not mean that you need to be waving your arms up and down every second you say a word though! Hand gestures are important in the way we think. Basically hand gestures take what

Have you have tried to do something for years but failed because you're not getting anywhere or you have no purpose? Well it might be because you haven't set any goals for yourself. Many people jump from task to task because its either taken them too long to accomplish or because they haven't seen any progress. If you feel this way you need to set yourself a SMART goal. A SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. SMART goals are a great way to know exactly what to do to accomplish the goal, with no questions asked. First, you start with a specific goal in mind. You want it to be specific so it motivates you. You need to figure the who, what, when, where, and why of this specific goal. Next, measurable, pick something you'll be able to track so you can physically see your own progress and keep focused. Then comes attainable. Don't pick something so far out of this world that you physically would be able to do it, make it realisti

It is very hard to make a decision sometimes. For me personally I know I always have a tough time. It's easy when either A: someone makes the decision for you or B: the decision is a group consensus. But, as a manager it will never be this easy and you'll just have to make the decision yourself. The article I found on mind t ools.com talks about the Vroom-Yetton Decision making model. "This model  allows you to bring consistency and order to a process that might otherwise feel idiosyncratic and instinctive." To put it simply it effectively  helps you make a decision. The  Vroom-Yetton offers a several different decision making processes into one model and helps you choose the best one to use for that specific situation. Before using the Vroom-Yetton model you must take three factors into consideration:  decision quality, team commitment, and time constraints. Once you have done this you are ready to go. The picture below is the actual Vroom-Yetton model. It is a ser

Today I came across video on motivation. In the work place it is crucial as a manager to keep you team motivated. We all go trough times where we slack off or just have no motivation to do anything what so ever. This short video shows you in four steps on how to keep your team motivated. The first step is to create a contract with your workers. This contract will be no more than a page and consist of the guidelines and aspirations you expect from each employee at work. Next step is to have short frequent meetings that re-vist the contract and expectations. Studies have shown the farther and farther apart meetings are people tend to get off track and lose motivation. The third step is to have each employee stand up every week and say what they have accomplished. This makes everyone feel that they are important and increases motivation. The final step is to create a line of sight, meaning making sure the employees can see the impact of the end goal and what they are accomplishing. This

I always enjoy watching videos by Simon Sinek. He is a smart guy and I always learn a lot from his talks. This video is on how to begin your presentations. I thought that this would be helpful because sometimes its tough or awkward to get right into a presentation. One great idea Simon mentions right off the bat is start with your end goal. Your end goal is usually to make sure everyone learns something new. The audience cannot predict what you are going to say or do so the structure of your presentation is very important. Simon suggests starting your presentation is a story or an analogy that practices what you will talk about. Starting with a story makes your presentation interesting and easy to talk about. Simon also says in his talk to build a rationale arrangement for your presentation this way you can suck people into the conversation. There are a few other points Simon mentions in the video too but I hope this helps!

There are many ways to define leadership. If I were to define leadership I would say it is when an individual takes charge of a group when no one else will. This may be more of an example but this is what I think of when I am defining leadership. I came across a great article in Business News Daily that listed 11 quotes defining leadership. The quotes were all very different and were from various types of people ranging from CEOs to authors and to founders of business'. What I found interesting was that the majority of the quotes all had a common goal of bettering their team and environment and making sure everyone succeeds. I definitely agree with this. I think leader wants to be apart of something bigger than themselves and looks out for others, which is their team. This is a great little article and below I have added the link. http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3647-leadership-definition.html

As I was searching for a new leadership video to post on my blog I stumbled across this video: 7 Body Language Habits for Effective Leaders. I thought that this would be a good transition into our internships this summer. At our jobs sites we need to look and act professional and to do that we need to work on our body language. We can't just slouch back in our seats at work like we are hanging out and watching TV. Body language plays a huge part in our leadership skills and nearly 80%-90% on how people perceive us. The first habit to be an effective leader is your posture, you don't want to shrink back and look small, sit and stand upright like you are interested. The next habit is your spacital awareness. You don't want to sit or stand right on top of someone. Give people their space but don't sit or stand so far away that you have to yell just to talk to someone. Next is eye contact, I think that we have all learned about this many times, but eye contact is key, it l

We will go through many interviews in our life. Some students now are currently going through interviews to get an internship for the summer. I thought this Ted talk by Anna Post fit well and we can always improve on our interview skills. Interviews are nerve-racking, especially your very first one, you don't know what to expect. Anna Post says " think of it like a one on one regular conversation." Anna throughout this video talks about six key way to help improve your interview skills and really make it count. First, Anna says to prepare. Prepare what you are going to say, learn about the company, and then repeat what you are going to say before you go to the interview, practice with a friend. Next, dress up, dress appropriately to visit. Don't be afraid to the call the office and ask what the dress code is like. Then, be on time. This is super important, don't be afraid to time it out and drive there before hand to see how long it takes you to get there. I typi

I have been lacking on posting lately but I found a short little Ted talk on success. The school year is quickly coming to an end I thought it would give some people motivation to finish up strong! Richard St. John went around for 7 years and interviewed 500 successful people from CEOs to car designers. Richard narrowed all 500 interviews down to 8 categories of success: serving, passion, work, focus, persistence, ideas, getting good at something, and pushing yourself. He shortly explains why these 8 things lead to success and I think it was super helpful. Overall it is a great short video and hope you enjoy.  

This goes along with my last post in a way... When you don't have good time management skills stress starts to kick in and you freak out and don't know what to do and you just make everything worse for yourself. I read a good article on mindtools.com that gives you 3 great ways to tackle stress and give you some relief. Before you tackle stress you need to identify the causes of stress and what their impacts are on you. Then you can you can use these 3 approaches to help deal with stress; action-oriented approach, emotion-oriented approach, and acceptance-oriented approach. Managing your time plays a huge part in the action-oriented approach. If you do not manage your time the amount of work you have can cause you to have a whole lot of stress. Things like creating a to-list or not playing on your phone can help you manage your time better and cause less stress in your life. Its better if you take action and try to get your work done earlier so you have less stress on your pl

I recently just took a quiz on MindTools.com called "How Good Is Your Time Management?" Time management plays a huge role when you first enter college and especially when you get into the work place. You need to be able to balance all your work so you are able to get it all complete by the date it is due. For me personally I know I tend to have a tough time with this so I took this little quiz to see if my results were accurate with my thoughts. Results:  40,   You're good at some things, but there's room for improvement elsewhere. I  believe for the most part that this is correct. Some days I tend to be good at time management and I get a head start on work to get it done early. This is a huge stress reliever and I do not panic later on. Other times I am not so good at time management and I am backed up doing other work as well in order to get everything done in time. This was a fun little quiz and everyone should see how well their time management is!

I think that this is a great Ted talk for everyone whether you are good at talking in front of people or not. Julian Treasure talks about how to speak in front of people so they actually listen. Julian says there are seven things that shouldn't talk about when you want people to listen. The seven things you shouldn't talk about are gossip, judging, negativity, complaining, excuses, lying, and dogmatism. If you talk about any of these topics while trying to speak powerfully most likely people will be less interested in what you are trying to say. Julian says in order to have a powerful speech you must follow the guidelines of HAIL: Honesty- being clear and straight, Authenticity- being yourself, Integrity- being your word, and Love- wishing people well. Julian says if you follow these guidelines not only will people listen to you but your speech will be much more powerful and less boring. The final guideline Julian gives us is the tool box to increase the power of your speech.

This Ted talk by Michele Sullivan is an inspiring story about her life growing up shorter than most people and the struggle she goes through for simple everyday tasks. Even though she persevers Michele realizes she needs help with some things like climbing stairs if there are no ramps or help with bags on an airplane. To do these tasks she needs to ask others for help. She is very grateful for all the help she gets from others and has had wonderful conversations with all of them. The last few minutes of Michele's Ted talk she talks about how asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. Michele says she would be no where without the help of her family, friends, and many strangers that helped her along the way. We will all need help some where along the way and Michele explains that it is just as important to be there for others when they are in need. Michele then says the only shoes you can walk in are your own. You may not know what struggle is going on in someones life. With Mic

I found another great TED Talk, this time by Arianna Huffington, where she simply talks about how sleep I such an important aspect of being a leader. I know this subject may seem a little corny, but the fact is we simply don't get enough sleep and it truly impacts our lives. Some college students are staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning and then waking up at 8 for class and then go about their days why no energy or will to learn. Arianna learned this the hard way for herself when one day after not getting enough sleep she fainted and hit her head because of sleep deprivation. Arianna believes that just because someone has a high IQ does not make you a great leader. A great leader is someone who can see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic. In other words someone who gets more sleep than someone else will enjoy life better and be more aware, become a better leader and succeed in their careers. 

The other day for a pre-work class assignment we had a family member or someone close to you take the Myers Briggs test. The catch was that whoever you had take the test had to take it in the perspective of you! For myself, I had my younger sister, Danielle take it. She has grown up with me and knows me very well so I figured she would get the same result as I did!  When I first took the test my results were ESTJ which stan ds for extraversion, sensing, thinking, judgment and is also know as "the executive." ESTJ's are e xcellent administrators, unsurpassed at managing things or people. I totally agree with this results. I think that I definitely represent these traits and I have also taken this test several times in the past and have gotten the same result each time which backs up my answers. As for my sister, her results for me were E SFP, which stands for e xtrovert, sensing, feeling, perception and is also know as "the entertainer." ESFP's are s