Leadership Institute at Columbus State University

  How to Promote a Culture of Wellness at Work We all have been living in a never-ending pandemic and experiencing the longest transition to a ‘new normal’ while still having to ‘show up’ at work. Sociologist at Sandford University Marianne Cooper warns, “employers need to understand the employees returning to the office are not the same people who left last March.”  In fact, behavioral app Ginger surveyed workers and found “69% of them said the pandemic was the most stressful time of their entire professional career”. Last year involved sickness and shutdowns which galvanized people to prioritize their mental, physical, and social wellness more now than ever before. This year people have focused on self-care realizing the importance of wellness in their lives at home and at work. Just do it, that’s what Nike did. They shut down for one-week, Matt Marrazzo senior manager said “it’s not just a ‘week off’ for the team ... It’s an acknowledgment that we can prioritize mental heal...

  You can do anything, but not everything A major part of leading others is developing them, and delegation is one of the easiest ways to build up others on your team. James Graves lead of Executive Development at Korn Ferry says, “leaders need to be more planful around what decisions can and should be made by others.” A leader’s lack of ability to delegate can result in burnout and ignoring the team members there to help them. So, why else is it important to delegate? 1. Builds trust amongst the team. When you show trust in your team, in return they understand their contributions, experience increase feelings of belonging, and take more responsive action to ensure organizational success. To evaluate whether someone on your team is a trusted individual ask yourself is this person credible, reliable, and open to other's points of view? If the answer is yes, it’s simple to entrust them with the tasks.   2. Builds an environment of empowerment. We often hear people say, “If you w...

CEO Gary Burnison says self-awareness is everything. Without it, we’ll never learn, grow, or improve. We’ll ignore our blind spots, overestimate our strengths, and gloss over our weaknesses. Other than that, why else is self-awareness important? It’s important because you get an accurate sense of strengths and limitations. You receive clarity on your values and sense of purpose which helps you to understand how others see you. A 2004 research study by psychology professors at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Paul J. Silvia and Maureen E. O'Brien, revealed that self-awareness enables perspective-taking, self-control, creative accomplishments, and high self-esteem. Here are 5 tips for becoming self-aware of blind spots: 1.        Normalize time for self-reflection Create a habit for taking stock of your goals or career growth. Make sure you set a realistic goal for doing so it doesn’t get lost in your day-to-day responsibilities. Deter...

  It is safe to say 2020 changed our lives forever and will go down in history books. For some, there were good changes, and for others challenging changes. Many of us became caretakers to love ones, battled health threats, became a remote worker for your job or a virtual teacher for your kids. Most of these circumstances have become permanent or are slowly getting back to normal for you. Being back to work at full capacity everyone is looking to get to know each other all over. In virtual and physical spaces leaders and their teams struggle to maintain relationships and team dynamics strained by the pandemic. People simply want to collect insight about themselves or gain perspective about what others think of their leadership style. This summer the Leadership Institute has noticed an increase in requests for assessment tools. At the Leadership Institute assessments are tools and critical to developing and retaining your most valuable asset: your employees. We offer teams a...

  By: Shana Young Are you struggling to connect with your employees? Chief Learning Officer for the International Trade Administration, Brian McNamara, says the key is simple - just care more, sincerely and authentically. One of the easiest ways to show employees you care is to ask questions and listen, really listen. Do not listen to respond, insert your own view or opinion or interject with words of advice.  Here are nine questions you can start with to connect and care more: 1.     What do you want?  For yourself?  For your career? 2.     What do you enjoy doing the most? 3.     What gives you satisfaction and makes you feel alive and inspired? 4.     What do you enjoy doing the least? 5.     What do you resist or procrastinate doing? 6.     What frustrates you? 7.     What challenges do you face? 8.     What keeps you from being emp...

  According to a Global Business Technographics Workforce Benchmark Survey, Forrester Analytics 2019, here are the 5 key predictor for employee burnout:   78%   Lack of recognition for hard work and accomplishments 72%   Recent changes that affect them 45%   Micromanaging boss 40%   Corporate politics 33%   Devices or applications break often   To prevent burnout in your team:   Recognize their hard work and accomplishments, communicate changes that affect them early and often, give them autonomy to do their job, help them navigate office politics (because they cannot be avoided), and invest in the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

 In this follow up blog we look at the different types of microaggression and recap steps to managing microaggressions in the workplace. To reiterate microaggressions go beyond sex, race and ethnicity and can encompass a range of other characteristics. The types of microaggression are: micro-assault, micro-insult, and micro-invalidation. ·          Micro-assault: Intentional action intended to cause harm. Overt, explicit discrimination. ·          Micro-insult: Unintentional, insensitive and dismissive of one’s identity/ culture. o    “Where are you actually from?” ·          Micro-invalidation: Unintentional and resulting in the dismissal of another’s feelings, and invalidating the reality of that person’s culture, identity or outlook. o    “When I look at you, I don’t see color.”   o    “You don’t talk like a black ...