The Coronavirus is affecting everyone, and with it brings stress: concern for health and safety, loss of work, shift in school, change of routine, uncertainty about the future, grief in relationships…I don’t have to go on. How do you deal with stress? In this blog post, we’ll lay out four suggestions for how to effectively manage stress.

This is an important skill to have, not only in these days of pandemic, but for everyday stress as well. Let's look at four...

In today’s uncertain times, strong leadership is more critical than ever. Dealing with factors like a changing workplace, fears and doubts of team members, unpredictable customer behavior, and financial concerns can impact teams negatively. But the strong leader was made for times like this.

Using the acronym S-T-R-O-N-G, let’s look at the four core needs of followers and the three things strong leaders do. If you’re a leader, consider how you will meet your follower’s...

Many workers who normally work in an office setting have become remote workers due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This wasn’t a decision by choice, but rather by necessity. And now you’re wondering how to make the best of it. This is when some self-awareness paired with intentional action can make a big difference.

Let’s look at the situation of suddenly becoming a remote worker. Let’s say at the office you’re used to having:

• an effective workstation with...

We're all facing the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. But does Jesus understand what we're going through? How can we break through like Jesus did?

Watch our Facebook Live video for some thoughts on this:

In times of change and uncertainty like our world is facing, you have internal resources to help you succeed—your talents and strengths. They were made for times like this!

What I love about strengths is that they’re utterly practical. Your strengths are your best means for producing the outcomes you desire, and so the idea is this—identify your intended outcomes, then select the talents to get you there, then aim those talents toward your outcomes.

You’ll be even more...

After being around for a long time, the Enneagram has gained a resurgence in popularity mostly due to social networks, popular books and podcasts, and word of mouth. While this is good because the ancient personality tool is getting exposure, it can also be detrimental. Lots of folks think they’ve “done the Enneagram” when they really haven’t.

For them “doing the Enneagram’ means taking a free online quiz, laughing and chatting about the results with...

A goal of the strengths journey is to turn your talents into strengths. While strengths hold great power, underdeveloped or overused talents may become limitations. And so a strength ends up becoming a shortfall. Here’s what I mean.

One of my top ten talent themes is communication. I can put thoughts into words, help ideas to be understood, and consider what will be valuable to the audience. When my communication theme is working this way, it’s very helpful.

However, when the same...

Here in the U.S. it’s Valentine’s Day, which means people are talking about love. This comes two days after I led a workshop for a group of leaders on the Enneagram.

It was a fun and insightful time, and it went way too fast. The goal was to help them understand themselves better and the value they bring at work.

The intersection of the workshop and Valentine’s Day got me thinking…what might each Enneagram type want to hear on Valentine’s Day?

If you’re...

It’s a journey to grow your talents into strengths. Just because you find your talents doesn’t mean they’re that useful yet. You must develop them into strengths. This doesn’t happen automatically; it takes focus and effort.

For example, one of my talents is "being responsible"—I naturally take ownership of what has been entrusted to me, and I can be counted upon to deliver. Sounds great…but it comes with shortfalls:

• I can be really quick to say yes
• I can...

We all hear that strong employee engagement is good for your organization, but is it really? Are engagement consultants and workplace improvement organizations just trumping up the value of engagement so they can sell their services to you? Are they telling you how bad your engagement is so they can show you how good their solution is?

Maybe. But how is employee engagement good for your bottom line? Before we consider that, let’s review what employee engagement is.

There are different...