Monthly Archives: January 2016

Boost your Creativity as a Manager

We all get into ruts. You probably do too. The human brain likes to use already established pathways of thought and feeling; it’s simply easier for it. But habitual leadership is not really inspiring at all. The management training programs we offer explore creativity and its positive impact on managing people.

 

But what does extra emphasis on creativity really serve? Think about it this way. The world is changing ever more quickly; yours included. The same thinking that served you yesterday is just a little obsolete today. For you to stay at the edge of the management game, it will serve you to take a fresh and creative approach each and every day. That is why we play with thinking and acting outside the box as an essential part of our management training seminars.

 

There are barriers to everything in the world. And so, there are barriers to being more creative. One of those obstacles is right inside you in the form of your brain’s wiring. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But our neural blueprinting has us predisposed to routine; the opposite of creativity. We teach ways out of this cycle during our interactive and experiential management training courses.

 

You can begin the process of creative expansion in very simple ways. Try doing something different five times a day for at least a week (to get some momentum going). We do hundreds of things in the same way each and every day of our lives. From which shoe we tie first, to how you button your shirt, to which hand you pick up a cup with; creative prisoners of our own ingrained habits. Shake that up! Intentionally try new approaches. Your brain circuitry will light up in new ways. And each time you do this, you expand your thinking and acting. New thoughts for new situations = new solutions. Our management training classes will help you understand the necessity of expanding your inventiveness to become a truly enlightened leader.

 

The Downfall of Defensiveness

As a manager, do you welcome different points of view or do you get defensive when yours is challenged?  This is a very common reaction amongst people that when a question is asked or a comment made that seems different from what we’ve proposed.  Defensiveness in fact is so prevalent and therefore seems so natural, that it may be going on under your EQ-Life Intelligence radar.

 

The first problem with defending is that it puts us into a corner; has us “positional”. And that closes us down to being open to additional possibilities.  As a manager and one who should be setting an example for your team, this is not a productive place from which to operate.

 

The second effect that defensiveness often has is to set up a battle of the protective minds. Someone stimulates you’re defense mechanism, you counter with an even stronger stance about a subject, then their mind feels a threat and defends their own position. Now conflict ensues stalling a solution or co-agreement.

 

In our management training classes and resilience training programs, we explore how this negative process impedes problem solving and weakens one’s resilience.

 

What to do? First, start a practice of noticing when your mind leaps to your defense. That noticing creates a moment of choice: to defend or to listen openly. When you put the defense mechanism aside for at least a little while, there is space to take in new information or perspectives that may have some value. This neutral time allows you to more intelligently assess the greater body of information (yours and theirs) and choose where to go from there. It may be to stick with your original view or to tweak that a bit which results in a better way forward and a more melded approach with the other person(s).

 

Like most things worthwhile, this practice may be hard at first, but the new process and more beneficial results are truly worth the effort. The Management Training Institute truly believes that it simply doesn’t serve you, your team, or your organization to be closed minded (a habituated defender).  And the Resilience Training Institute knows that being more open minded to explore alternative possibilities has you being more overall successful, and that success strengthens us bringing us greater resilience.

 

As a Manager, Change Starts with You

Your role as manager is to help others grow and change for the benefit of your team and your organization. But how can you request and inspire change if you don’t start with yourself?  Participating in a management training seminar will help you understand why the change starts with you and how to get on the right track.

 

Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” You are the model to your team members. A management training seminar can also give you plenty of exercises to excite your desire to ever-change for the better as a conscious way of life.  The results will be evident in the way you view your role as manager going forward.

 

The good news is the neuroscience and epigenetics agree that we can indeed become more of who, how and what we want to be. Bold New Directions’ management training courses can guide you on practices you make your desired changes become reality.

Presenting from a Positive Place

Feeling nervous about an upcoming presentation?  There are so many factors that are out of your control, however.  You may get a tough audience who are hard to engage or simply unhappy people.  It’s a challenge to not let this affect your presentation.  However, presentation training can prepare you for this challenge and teach you skills and strategies for rising above it to deliver an outstanding presentation regardless of your audience’s state of mind.

 

A Master by the name of Don Miguel Ruiz writes about not taking anyone else personally. That’s hard to do at first. But, like anything practiced well, you can train yourself to do just that. In fact, presentation training can help you be proactive and hone this very practice so as not to be caught off guard by negative energy from your audience.

 

While you are presenting, we at the Presentation Training Institute say that you are in fact the leader while in front.  And that also means you are leading from happiness to inspire audience members to greater happiness.   Presentation training can help you make the connections needed to equate both mood and relevant material for meeting your audience’s overt and inner needs.