Presentations

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Understanding How Stress Affects The Workplace

In some ways we humans are a lot like other animals, we need to eat, sleep, and socialize to get along and survive.  But in at least one significant way we are very different; apparently zebras don’t get ulcers while we do.  According to author Robert Sapolsky, the key factor to this difference is in the area of our mental make-up.  As near as we know the animal kingdom does not spend a great deal of time worrying about what might happen to them, only what is happening.  Humans on the other hand are very good at worrying about what might happen.  In fact many of us excel at it.  And this kind of worrying about things that are not yet real has significant consequences for our personal well-being and the workplace environment.

Red Bull & Rolaids

Take some time to ponder your own work habits, how you handle the stress of being a professional, and how you might be able to maintain some measure of balance in life.

Leading With Ethics In View

Resumes tell people what you have accomplished. Job descriptions or titles indicate what you do.  But when it comes to leadership, people most often want to know who you are.  The underlying questions are usually focus on, what do you believe in? what motivates you? and why do you do what you do?  These questions are about values, and it is our values that drive our commitment.  When leaders are clear about their own values, they open the door for a far deeper commitment from those whom they seek to lead.

Building A Respectful Workplace

Most of us have heard the saying, “sticks & stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”.   Many parents have said it to their kids at one time or another as a way of softening the barbs of others.  But is the saying really true?  While our parent’s intentions were most likely good, there seems to be a great deal of evidence that name calling – along with other forms of disrespectful behaviour – really does hurt and results in significant costs, especially in the workplace.  There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that organizations with clearly established and articulated core values have a better chance of building a respectful workplace and thereby minimizing the costs of bad behaviour.

All I Really Need To Know About Professional Ethics I Learned In Kindergarten…Sort Of

For many of us ethics is simply a matter of common sense, things we learned at an early age playing in the sandbox with siblings or neighbourhood friends.  And many of those early lessons serve us very well as adults.  Learning to share, playing fair, and not taking things that are not yours are just as important now as they were when we were kids.  But as we grow up we begin to realize that applying some of those lessons to adult life, in particular adult professional or business life, can get complicated and can take some extra thought & reflection.

Three Documents To Help You Finish Well

Woody Allen is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to achieve immortality by my work…I want to achieve it by not dying.”  Death and dying are not topics that we normally enjoy discussing; in fact they are topics most of us generally try to avoid.  However, the reality of death is something each of us will face at some point; personally or with a loved one.  Dealing with the deeply emotional aspects of illness, death, and dying before they become intensely emotional allows us to invest our energy in the things that matter most.  A key to that process is having the right conversations about our desires and wishes ahead of time and there are three documents that can help in making those conversations happen.

Leading A High Performance Team

“Not finance.  Not strategy.  Not technology.  It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”  Patrick Lencioni.

To get the best results, team leads need to be able to build a trusting environment where they mine for conflict, create clarity around team commitments, and practice genuine accountability.  This presentation introduces the main ideas presented in Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, along with some practical ideas of how they can be implemented into the workplace.

‘Fighting Fair’: How To Have Constructive Conflict

Conflict is one of those things that most of us seek to avoid and even using the term ‘fighting fair’ can bring about an uneasy feeling or emotional response. We usually prefer, and do better, working in a more cooperative environment.  However, there is a kind of conflict that is constructive and is a key element in building a strong, dynamic team.  This presentation will discuss conflict that actually enhances rather than hurts team dynamics.

My Kids Call Me ‘Dude’: Understanding Generational Differences In The Workplace

Perhaps it’s just that my memory is failing, but I am fairly positive that I never called my father “dude”.  And I think it would be safe to say that even addressing my parents by their first names was pushing the limits.  But today, my kids have no problem using my first name and yes, from time to time, they will even call me ‘dude’.  This kind of casual interaction is just one of the many generational differences we see today that has overflowed into the workplace.  For the first time in history we now have four distinct generations in the workforce and each generation brings with it it’s own characteristics and values.  Understanding how these differences interact with each other is important to a building a strong workplace environment.