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  • Intention and Integrity

    Have you ever found yourself in a dilemma where you are caught between doing what’s right and doing what you want to do? You know those ethical dilemmas that make being a leader with integrity a very unappealing path? (more…)

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  • The Courageous Leader Program Brochure

    Are you interested in learning more about The Courageous Leader Program?

    The Courageous Leader program is a one-day, highly engaging, development program focused on helping leaders build their courage muscles. It is based on the book, The Courageous Leader. Participants who attend The Courageous Leader™ program will be challenged to think differently about the role courage plays in leadership while being provided new tools and skills to address tough situations head on.

    Download The Courageous Leader Program Brochure to learn more!

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  • Q&A with the author of The Courageous Leader

    Angela was a senior leader in various industries and then took the courageous leap to become an entrepreneur. The result: she co-founded Personify Leadership with Michelle Cummings.

    Her book, The Courageous Leader: How to Face Any Challenge and Lead Your Team to Success, builds on those many years of experience. Angela shares great client stories to show us how anyone at any level can choose to honor the courageous leader within themselves, as well as some of her own missteps and successes on the road to becoming who she is today. This is a must-read for anyone who aspires to become the type of leader others can look up to.

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  • The Creative Corner: Team DiSC Graph

    The Creative Corner:  Team DiSC Graph

    We use the Everything DiSC Workplace assessment tool in the Personify Leadership program.  We use this in our Voice and Ears modules where we teach leaders new skills in effective communication.  We love this tool and how it identifies what our behavior preferences are — and the behavior preferences of our team members as well.

    Team DiSC Graph

    Recently we visited one of our clients who has had several of their team members go through the Personify Leadership program.  We LOVED what they had done with their DiSC results when they returned to the office.  They made a wall hanging of the DiSC grid, then had team members put their pictures on the grid where they ‘dotted out’ on the assessment.  Individuals could choose to use a photo of themselves or create a cartoon Avatar that looked like them to place on the grid.

    The graph is displayed prominently in the office as a constant reminder of the learning they had in the program.  We all like to receive information differently, and that as leaders we sometimes need to change our communication style to meet the needs of others from time to time.  This graph is a wonderfully creative idea that team members can utilize for weeks and months to come.  Bravo!

    Team DiSC Graph

    Here are some things I love about this, and how you can apply this concept to your team:

    1. Anchor Tools:  

    Anchor Tools are creative ways to anchor the learning in a training back to the real world.  This organization found additional ways to extend the life of their learning beyond our two-day program.  This visual tool will anchor them back to the skills they learned in the training that will help them communicate better with one another long term. (What Anchor Tools can you use?)

    1. Public Display:

    As humans, we can only absorb so much information in a short period of time.  Memorizing the entire team’s DiSC styles would be impossible.  By displaying these results publicly, individuals can quickly check the DiSC grid to recall the style of a team member before a meeting or conversation.   (Do you have a Team Board or a visual reminder for team members to reference?)

    I hope you enjoyed this first edition of The Creative Corner!  Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas for future articles.

    ~ Michelle Cummings, CEO of Personify Leadership

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  • The Courageous Leader book is here!

    We could not be more excited to tell you that The Courageous Leader is now available!  Listen below as Angela shares a few insights from her new book:

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  • Courageous Conversations 

    So what is a courageous conversation?  It is saying what is needed to be said in a way that others will hear it, with respect and concern for the other person.  It means minimizing the threat that you represent while still staying true to the virtue of your message.  Watch Angela as she shares strategies for having a courageous conversation.

     

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  • An Interview with Carl Larson, Creator of the Drain Model

    This month we are focusing on The Eyes of a Leader, Be a Leader Who Has a Vision for the Future.  Watch below as Michelle Cummings interviews Carl Larson about what makes teams successful and how he created the Drain Model. Dr. Carl Larson and his colleague Frank LaFasto conducted an in-depth study at The University of Denver about what makes a team successful.  For over a decade, they collected and analyzed responses from more than 6,000 team members and leaders across a variety of industries, in both public and private sectors, to find out exactly what conditions help or hinder teams in achieving their goals. The voices of these team members-often eloquent, always enlightening-are heard through the quotations that appear throughout their book, When Teams Work Best.  As a result of their findings, Larson and LaFasto created a model they call The Drain Model.  With permission, Personify Leadership uses this model in our Eyes of a Leader module:  Be a leader who has a vision for the future. (more…)

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  • Pay It Forward

    This month we are focusing on the Heart of a Leader, Be a Leader who looks out for the best interest of others. I was thinking through what stories I had to share that would be relevant and I thought about an article I wrote in 2009, shortly after I decided to start my first business. I was at a small regional conference exhibiting for the first time all by myself at a small booth.  It was here that I had a chance to look out for the best interest of someone else and was motivated to do so based on someone else having looked out for my best interest. I thought this article would be great to share. It’s also a little ironic in the timing as we just finished our big splash at ATD International Conference for my second business, Personify Leadership. What a difference 7 years can make!

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  • Listening for the Signs of Stress

    A 2015 working paper from Harvard and Stanford Business Schools took a look at 10 common job stressors: from lack of health insurance, to long working hours, to job insecurity. Researchers then considered how the mental and physical effects of these forms of stress related to mortality. The paper found that health problems stemming from job stress, like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and decreased mental health, can lead to fatal conditions that wind up killing about 120,000 people each year-making work-related stressors and the maladies they cause, more deadly than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza. (more…)

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