Clarity Consultants - Learning and Development

It’s an ongoing conversation that women have long been overcoming challenges in their work lives. These challenges include a stubborn pay gap, less opportunity, higher standards, and gender bias. While society has taken many steps over the past several decades to enable women to achieve their career goals, the struggle remains and the conversation must continue. This article dives into some of those challenges that women in leadership face day to day, and what we can do as a community to create a more inclusive work environment.

As a busy professional, you know that sometimes you need to prep for important presentations on the fly. Whether you are literally reviewing your notes on and airplane, or you need a mental refresh before running in the door, here are 5 prep tips that will keep you sounding on point and on top of things even when on the go.

There is a real war for talent occurring today. Many companies are already operating with lean staff, due to high attrition rates and not replacing staff, not to mention downsizing as a result of a difficult economy. In this kind of environment, focusing on worker retention and cross training to make existing workers more efficient makes a lot of sense. Everyone is trying to do more with less, and to help them achieve this goal, organizations are leaning in to their learning and development programs to help them fill that gap.

Leadership is about more than evaluating the effectiveness of your team. Sometimes, leadership is about assessing your own effectiveness and making appropriate changes to grow. There are all kinds of leadership training programs available today, many have important elements around soliciting and implementing feedback. But self-assessments are also powerful tools.

Working at home requires self-discipline and organization. Set up a separate, dedicated workspace away from distractions. People who have been teleworking for a long time recommend that you establish boundaries between your personal and business lives.

You, like many businesses, may find yourself in the situation where budget is tight for investing in training and development programs. But you also know that failing to increase your knowledge base (and that of your team) can drag your company down in a competitive business landscape. Luckily, there is a wealth of information available online that is easy to access and reasonably inexpensive (often even free).

John Maxwell, a business and leadership guru, advises leaders in companies to come up with a delegation plan that works for them. He suggests the 10-80-10 rule.  Plenty of leaders wonder why is it so hard to delegate. Understanding where you should be “hands-on” and where you should back off is key to the success of your projects and your team, as well. Here are a few thoughts on how the 10-80-10 principle can help you delegate more effectively.

All companies need employees who are strong leaders. Managers need leadership skills to encourage, motivate and support their teams. Even those who are not in managerial roles provide more value to the organization if they possess some of the leadership qualities described by Adam and Jordan Bornstein in Entrepreneur, like having focus, confidence and integrity.

Every day we are bombarded with an avalanche of news, articles, advertisements, social media posts and more. Our families and friends email and text us at all hours. The amount of visual, aural, and emotional stimulation to our brains is simply staggering—and seems to be increasing all the time.

If the thought of teaching in a live classroom makes you break out in a sweat, you’re not alone. Plenty of instructors feel anxious about their performance in the classroom and fear the potential symptoms—shaky voice, trembling hands—that might impact their ability to teach effectively.