This Month's Quote!

“Those with goals tend to succeed because they are focused and know where they are going. While those without goals do not.”

Ted Karam
Author, Jumping on Water: Awaken Your Joy – Empower your life

Its Here! A new Kind of 360™

Inscape Publishing has just announced the release of 363™ for Leaders. It is a new kind of 360 feedback that combines the best of 360’s with the simplicity and power of DiSC®.

Compared to other 360's - 363™ for Leaders is more:

1. Approachable

• Includes balanced constructive feedback, using “CommentSmart™” - Inscape’s proprietary selectable comments feature
• Detailed but easy to understand
• Simple clear visuals tell the story at a glance

2. Actionable

• Provides three strategies for improving leadership effectiveness
• Tightly focused
• Prioritized by raters
• Strategies based on DiSC® style

3. Personalized

• Interpretative report uses narrative to give context and meaning to your data
• Uses knowledge of your DiSC style to keep the feedback relevant
• CommentSmart™ selectable comments add a personal touch without distracting from the feedback

The result: A 360 experience that is more productive and satisfying.

For many, 360 was a frustrating experience. At best open-ended comments could be a frustrating experience. Often open-ended comments can be unfocused and unhelpful. Sometime they can be a way to anonymously take a jab at a colleague.

With the “CommentSmart™” feature, raters can give focused, balance and constructive feedback. This time-saving option allows raters to expand on their rating by choosing from a list of highly tested comments

Finally the “Now what” question is answered! 363™ for Leaders answers that question by giving leaders their next steps, with three things they can focus on now. These are strategies to improve their leadership effectiveness that can be put into effect immediately.

Everything DiSC® 363™ for Leaders

Highlights

1. The Profile

• 22+ pages all about the leader
• All-new research-validated model
• Intuitive, easy-to-read visuals
• Rich cuts of data and feedback breakdowns
• Comprehensive listing of rater comments
• Three strategies for imporiving effectiveness

2. Raters

Raters are broken into 4 groups

• Direct Reports
• Peers
• Manager
• Others

Leaders can have an unlimited number of raters, but the minimums are as shown in the diagram.

3. CommentSmart™

CommentSmart™ saves time and reduces stress. The innovative selectable comments feature, allows raters to choose from highly tested, behavior-focused comments to give more richness, context, and depth to their feedback – without the potential for snide remarks.

4. Workflow Resources

A variety of resources are available to help you get 363™ for Leaders up and running in your organization – all at no extra charge. All of the resources were designed to help you easily navigate the five program phases: Set-up, Communication, Assessment, Coaching, and Wrap-up.

As an introduction to Everything DiSC® 363™ for Leaders, Norquest Associates will offer one free trial for each unique organization, (identified by email), that would like to evaluate the program. Probably the best leader for this trial offer is the top decision maker, but that is up to each organization. This offer is worth in excess of US$150.

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Listening for Understanding

Listening is the single most important skill in any relationship – business or personal. But it is also one that many people simply take for granted. Consequently the skill never gets developed to the same extent as many of our other skills.

Too often we seem to behave like the person in this dialogue:

“I know that you heard what you thought I said, but what you heard is not what I intended to say.”

Successful organizations know that effective communication bolsters employee morale, boosts performance, and increases the bottom line. They also know that how well you listen has the strongest influence on the quality and outcome of all communication.
Clearly then, listening is a skill that merits ongoing attempts at improvement. Just one of its benefits is that you will reduce conflict and misunderstandings – both necessary for workplace success.

• Appreciative: Listens in a relaxed manner, seeks enjoyment, entertainment, or inspiration.
• Empathic: Listens without judging, is supportive of the speaker, and learns from the experiences of others.
• Comprehensive: Listens to organize and make sense of information by understanding relationships among ideas.
• Discerning: Listens to get complete information, understand the main message, and determine important details.
• Evaluative: Listens in order to make a decision based on information provided and may accept or reject messages based on personal beliefs.

The Personal Listening Profile® also helps people to recognize that their listening style may not be appropriate in certain situations. They learn when and how to adapt to other listening styles.

For further information on this profile Click Here.

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Productivity Tip of the Month

This month’s productivity tip is about “Fences” - a software program that can be downloaded for free HERE
(Note: this is not an affiliate link)

A pro version is also available, but the free version will probably satisfy most of your needs.

Fences is intended to reorganize your desktop, putting a fence or barrier around program icons with a common purpose or theme.

The program is very simple to learn and use. Just download the program, then holding down the right mouse button to draw a rectangle on your desktop. A space for the title of the group will appear. Type in the title, and click and drag your icons to the rectangle - then repeat the process. Rectangles can be increased or decreased in size as you wish.

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Resources

Do you own a Flip Style Camera? Or a Kodak Zi8? Or a cell phone that shoots video?

If so, then you will want to take a look at this week’s resource tip.

It is Dave Kaminski of Web Video University providing over a dozen videos on how to get the best results from these little cameras. Whether you use your videos for marketing, or for your own personal use, you want your videos to be of the highest quality. Dave can teach you this.

He has a well deserved reputation as an expert in this field. Check out his program by clicking here.

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