It Starts with Trust
By · CommentsBuilding trust is a skill and like all skills, it can be mastered. This video will talk about how trust and building trust plays a key role in doing business. Find out how building trust can lead to peak performance and how the DiSC Personal Profile System can help you to understand your ability to build trust with others.
It Starts With Trust- DiSC Personal Profile from NorQuest on Vimeo.
A Palindrome? Watch this!
By · CommentsA palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the
exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite,
the meaning is the exact opposite..
This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant.
Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.
This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old.
The contest was titled “u @ 50″ by AARP. This video won second place.
When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into
spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant.
Take a minute and watch it.
This video was created for the AARP U@50 video contest and placed second. It is based on the Argentinian Political Advertisement “The Truth” by RECREAR
Turn Your Hobby into a Business… in 5 Steps by Ali Brown
By · Comments
You’ve heard the stories: the office manager quits her job and becomes a successful wedding cake decorator, or the talented dressmaker makes the leap and opens a hip downtown boutique. Transforming a hobby into a lucrative business may sound like an impossible dream, but thousands of people are getting paid for doing what they love by turning their passions into profitable enterprises.
Inside every hobby is a goldmine waiting to be discovered, but you must find your unique twist. Before you wave goodbye to your day job, check out these five steps to help you turn your hobby into a profitable business.
STEP 1: Research Your Market
You may love sewing unique garments, but will people spend the money on what you have to offer? The only way to find out is to start doing some market research. Find out what people, like your family and friends, are prepared to pay for your products or services, and whether it will be enough to make a profit. Scope out the competition. Who are they? What are they doing? And how well are they doing it? Is there anything you can adopt from them, or improve upon that would make you stand out?
STEP 2: Figure Out How You’re Going to Make Money!
Consider all your costs. Every business is different, but common startup costs include bookkeeping setup, logo and branding, business cards, computers, website costs, advertising, stationery, supplies, inventory, and possibly office space.
Then consider what you can charge. Will what you bring in cover what’s going out? If not, how will you finance your enterprise? Do your savings cover all the initial costs, can you use existing credit (like I did when I got started), or will you need to borrow? Can friends or family lend you the money, or will you need to turn to banks or investors
STEP 3: Determine What Skills You Need
Entrepreneurs don’t succeed by passion for their products alone. Take inventory of your skills and be honest about your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to running a business. Do you know how to market yourself, and to convince people to work with you above all others in the field? As an entrepreneur you are constantly selling your products, your vision, your company, and yourself. Are you ready to be this type of person?
If you’re lacking in any of these areas (and everyone has one or two things they’re just not that good at), then find out how you can strengthen those weaknesses. Can you work with a consultant, hire a contractor to take on those roles, or enlist a mentor?
STEP 4: Map Out Your Milestones
It’s good to have big ambitions, but give yourself a reasonable timeline to transform your hobby into a lucrative career. Keep your eye on the prize, and set specific and measurable deadlines.
Your initial timeline of milestones will include all the processes, tasks, and objectives to see your company safely to the launch pad and into its first year of business. These might include developing your product or assembling a portfolio, and setting a desired launch date. (Of course, don’t let any of this stop you from getting out there and making money right away if you can!)
STEP 5: Get the Word Out!
Now take a deep breath and launch your new enterprise. There are lots of ways to do this: You could announce your website, attend events, hand out business cards, pound the pavement, do a mailing, etc. There are a hundred different ways to get the word out and market yourself. Choose at least three to get started!
© 2011 Ali International, LLC
“Entrepreneur mentor Ali Brown teaches women around the world how to start and grow profitable businesses that make a positive impact. Get her FREE CD “Top 10 Secrets for Entrepreneurial Women” at www.AliBrown.com ”
Note: This is NOT an affiliate offer
Get into the Game with Conflict Management
By · CommentsIn the new workplace of the 21st century, change is not only a given, the rate of change is accelerating. Not only is the workplace changing – so are the rules of the game. But what makes this playing field so different? Accelerated diversity including religion, race, inter-generational workforce, and greater virtual social interaction – all have their part. This diversification comes with economic challenges leading to greater outsourcing, right sizing, facility closures and mergers and competition from a wide variety of sources.
Although diversity offers greater opportunities to enhance an organization’s performance, it also brings new challenges, rules, and laws; all of which must be handled properly. Among these are the needs to appropriately value 
diversity, balance individual needs and group fairness, handle resistance to change, cultivate teamwork and open communication as well as resolve the increasing conflict situations. At the same time, managers must stay focused on performance, retain valued employees, and take advantage of new opportunities.
One of the great advantages of the global economy is the new breed of virtual worker and global virtual teams, taking advantage of competencies and skills from anywhere in the world at any time. As a result, teams can develop greater competencies to solve problems and create solutions. But with these synergies come cultural differences and the need to establish trust and rapport. With the whole world just a click away you do not want to take any chances by not resolving conflicts as soon as they arise.
Organizational responses to dealing with these challenges sometime place greater stress on employees struggling to understand their role in the new workplace. This can spark conflict between individuals and between employees and supervisors.
Two areas that can improve the odds of winning the games are:
1. Become more knowledgeable and proficient in the area of interpersonal skills; and
2. Improve conflict resolution skills
Solving issues quickly and effectively will go a long way toward greater satisfaction within the workgroup. But it also involves a great deal of listening, the ability to articulate the issues, questioning skills, and creating acceptable solutions.
Through effective leadership training, most of today’s new issues can be resolved. Effective conflict resolution means leaders should be able to:
- Accept conflict as an inevitable part of all work situations, and deal with it in order to maintain individual and team focus and productivity.
- Recognize the positive and negative aspects of conflicts, and leverage conflict to everyone’s advantage
- Distinguish between the two major sources of conflict so that it can be done fairly and effectively
- Establish a cooperative atmosphere to resolve conflicts when they arise.
Through effective communication and resolution techniques, leaders can help individuals understand another point of view and move beyond conflict.
And now if this is a subject you wish to pursue further please visit our online course on Resolving Conflict by Clicking Here.
What in the World is EPIC?
By · CommentsAnd how is it connected to DiSC?
One of the most exciting things to come from Inscape in recent years is not a product, but a product platform. EPIC (Electronic Profile Information Center) provides a simple way to deliver profiles via the internet.
Here’s how it works: As an EPIC System Administrator, with your own EPIC Sub-account, you have access to all of Inscape’s online profiles. From a computer, access codes can be issued to anyone in the world, anytime, via the internet. Once a respondent completes the assessment, 
EPIC generates a personalized profile that can be used as a stand-alone piece or as part of a larger training program.
The choice is yours! You or one of your employees can act as your Sub-account System Administrator; or we, at Norquest, will perform that function for you.
What products are available on EPIC?
- All of the products outlined on our sites www.discandmore.com and www.ProfileProf.com are available on EPIC.
How do we pay for the products?
- Credits is the term used to describe the “currency” used in the EPIC system. Credits are needed to issue access codes for individual reports and generate group/facilitator reports. EPIC credits can be purchased by contacting us, or by phone at 1-800-842-5857
Some Advantages
You can take advantage of EPIC’s many features and benefits to revolutionize the way you do business:
- Deliver reports where and when you want
- Manage just-in-time inventory
- Address the needs of multi-location businesses
- Maintain administrative control
- Your logo and contact information can be featured on-screen and in print
For further information, CLICK HERE.
St Patrick’s Day Greetings!
By · CommentsJust a bit of Irish dancing to cheer you on St Patrick’s Day!
How Do You Support Change?
By · CommentsJohn F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
Every d
ay, in hundreds of change situations happening in the workplace, the actions of leaders at all levels are risking the promotion of atrophy. This is simply because many managers are ill-prepared to address the changing landscape of the business world. Just as change is a law of life, so it is in business.
In and of itself, change is prevalent in any organization. But this is compounded by the changing demographics of the workforce, on top of other issues – such as management of strategies for new revenue growth, planned culture shifts, and initiatives to contain costs.
Imagine the impact to your organization if your managers ignored these issues!
Typically, your environment evolves into a turmoil of rumours, backbiting, lack of focus, conflict, employee anxiety, lack of energy in service to customers, and a breakdown of trust between superiors and their staff.
Can your organization sustain a competitive advantage under this scenario? Not under the usual circumstance of supply and demand.
Building Change Managers
It is not enough that people are promoted, or enter management ranks without understanding the impact of change. Change-ready managers are respected and effective, are able to motivate others to be receptive to change, and to build collaborative environments.
The fact is that people don’t leave companies – they leave bad bosses who are ineffective and not respected. These bosses can’t retain employees, and they certainly can’t motivate the ones who stay. A company can have great pay and benefits, but also have managers who are poisoning the well because they simply don’t know how to manage change.
Supporting and Motivating Change
One of the main conditions for the support of change is the degree of motivation among individuals. We have learned a lot about how individuals either hold on to the status quo or embrace taking the road to change.
Managers who understand the distractions and emotions of their team members, in association with changes, will be better prepared to support and lead them through it. The right training for managers gives them the tools to understand: first the change, its interpretation, and then to facilitate the acceptance of the new way in place of the old.
Change-ready managers will communicate more effectively with their employees, encourage greater participation, and empower them to be able to embrace the change.
Training Managers to Become Change Ready
As in life, the law of change for business is constant. That’s never been truer than it is today. Implementing a training program to make your employees change-ready will not only make them great bosses, but it will also build teams of greatly empowered employees who are ready for change.
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable” William Pollard (1828-1893)
A Supporting Change learning program can empower your leaders and first line managers to:
- Understand why change happens, how people react to it, and how they need to be supported through the struggle
- Involve team members in change initiatives by promoting their understanding and ownership of change and its benefits.
- Plan for individuals or work groups to support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals.
And now, if this article was of interest to you, you can get further information on our Supporting Change online program, by visiting NorquestOnline.com or by Clicking Here
Ensuring Peak Workplace Performance
By · CommentsIn the fast paced, change oriented business environment we live in, improvement of workplace performance must be an ever present priority, if business organizations are to thrive and survive.
In this environment, work teams have become more common, and it becomes increasingly important for each player to perform to his/her optimum.
In addition, the manager (or team leader) must assume the responsibility for:
- staging, or managing, the success of the subordinate, and
- that the coaching function should be on an ongoing basis,
Before any process is started, remember that this is the age of relationships. If a manager is not connecting with a member of his/her team, no trust can be established, and if there is no trust – productivity suffers, and profits are likely to disappear.
The effective manager will know the leader’s style, and how best to communicate with him/her before the initial sessions.
To maximize the beneficial results of this ongoing dialogue, the process followed should be similar to that outlined in the diagram below.
While the performance interview would remain, on an annual, or some other regular interval, the dialogue between the manager and the subordinate would be continuous
- At the performance review session, goals would be formulated and shared. If the 363 for Leaders was used, a coaching supplement can be obtained which provides further information based on the assessment and the Leader’s DiSC® style.
- Following this session, progress toward the identified goals would be tracked and shared.
- Feedback from both parties (or on a broader basis) would be sought and shared.
- This feedback would be reviewed and analyzed, by both manager and subordinate; and the results would form the basis for the discussion at a performance review meeting, plus any additional feedback needed or desired.
This process would involve active participation by both parties to the review and would ensure that the best interests of all concerned would be realized.
“Feedback may be the breakfast of champions”, but learning how to receive feedback, without blame or excuses, is an acquired skill. But once mastered, you can become a peak performing, high achieving, self-actualized human being.
And now, if this article was of interest to you, you can get further information on 360 Feedback, and 363 for Leaders, by visiting http://www.360feedbackandmore.com
Human beings, of necessity, depend on one another. As John Donne said some 400 years ago, “No man is an island.”
But we all know that when groups of people gather together, there is often dissension. Even in couples or small groups, simply getting along is often a problem. And that is the problem that we must address if we wish to be effective in relating positively to one another. Because we also know that cooperation leads to greater productivity, while dissension often gives the opposite result!
But people are different! And that’s what it is all about: trying to understand and respond to the needs of the people we are trying to build a relationship with.
Most of us grew up with the Golden Rule; “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A great message, but taken literally, it simply does not work! How I would like to be treated is not necessarily the way you would like to be treated! We are all different – with different patterns of behavior and different perceptions of what appeals to us, and how we want to be treated. Read More→
Setting Smart Goals to Help People Shape Smart Plans
By · CommentsDeveloping Performance Goals to Achieve Success
We seem to be in the season when many individuals and organizations focus on goal setting or making resolutions. This in itself is a good thing. If a ship has no destination, then all winds are favourable. If we have no goals, how will we know which route to take, how we are progressing, and will we know when we have arrived.
Goals drive us! They allow us to determine our future, and help us to grow and excel in all of our endeavours. An important part of any manager’s role is to encourage team members to develop effective performance goals and to commit to those goals on a daily basis. In order to do so, the goals must be written down and referred to constantly. Then we know where we are going and how we are going to get there. Nothing is impossible! As Dr. Schuller says, “If you can conceive it in your mind and believe it in your heart, you can achieve it.” It’s now up to you. Whether you achieve your goal or not, is in your hands.
