Leadership Tips

Hiring

	Hiring mistakes you may not realize you're making HR managers have to be fair and objective, and put aside any assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices when going through the hiring process. But alas, we are human. We can be charmed by a charismatic job candidate, or completely dismiss someone whose interviewing skills are unpolished. Here is an informative "cheat-sheet" on how to sidestep the most common interview errors.
	Using tests for HR purposes The onboarding process is crucial to getting new employees started on the right foot. It's an opportunity to clarify tasks and roles, to ease them into the social environment, and clear up the shell-shock of starting in a new place. With assessments, you can help an employee adjust more quickly to their new position. Here's how:
	When Honesty Is Your Company Policy While honesty tests in general need to be taken with a grain of salt, research has shown that honesty testing in the employment setting does have its merit. In companies where testing has been implemented, theft and other forms of dishonest behaviors have decreased dramatically. Research has also found a reasonably strong link between integrity test results and overall job performance.

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Employee Development

	The Emotionally Intelligent Employee - Why Emotional Smarts Can Matter More Than IQ Most of us are familiar with the concept of IQ, but what about EIQ? Emotional Intelligence isn't just a matter of how well someone controls his or her emotions. It's the capacity to be self-aware, to resolve conflict effectively, to be resilient in the face of difficulty, and to deal with people in a socially-insightful way.
	When You Don't Have a Picasso or da Vinci on Staff - Developing Creativity in Employees Creativity is one of the least understood areas of human ability. Our ideas about our creative selves are too frequently discouraged in our early years by others whose ability to judge this matter should be questionable at best. To nurture creativity in employees, it's important to uncover if there are any psychological obstacles that can be snuffing their creative fire.
	Bridging the gap analysis Whether you're assessing a job candidate's potential or want to optimize the performance of your existing staff, the next step (after assigning psychometric tests and reviewing test results) is to conduct a Gap Analysis. Here are a few tips on how to optimize a new hire's performance by bridging the gap between their skills and your company's needs.

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Leadership Development

The Managerial Jigsaw - Finding the Right Piece to Fit Your Company's Puzzle One of the most difficult positions to fill in a company is, arguably, a managerial one. It has to be filled by someone who can wear a lot of different hats - coach, cheerleader, leader, innovator, visionary, etc. Finding a manager who possesses the right set of competencies is important, but so is the type of organizational atmosphere and circumstances you're hiring for.

The Ultimate Leaders: PsychTests Releases Study on Leadership Qualities That Differentiate the Best from the Rest It's important for companies to recognize that management and leadership are distinct, and that in order to bring out the best in employees, a person must have the business know-how of a manager but the finesse of a leader. Good leaders are in a class of their own with a very distinct personality profile.

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Motivation

	Do Your Employees Spell Team with M-E? Reasons Why Teamwork Isn't Always a Pleasant Experience Teamwork is the foundation of success for many companies. Creative ideas are more easily generated, large workloads can be shared, and it's always great to have others to turn to for help. For many people though, teamwork rarely works like a well-oiled machine - more likely, they see it as a rusty set of gears that creak and squeak at each other.
	Work Motivators - When Money and Coffee are not Enough Everyone holds different values in regards to work and needs different things in their job to feel satisfied and fulfilled. Motivation is at the heart of every productive employee, and the missing link in those who are not living up to their full potential. If managers truly want to get the best out of their workers, they need to start viewing motivation as a case-by-case issue.
	Performance Evaluations Don't Need to Taste Like Brussels Sprouts - Making Reviews an Appealing Experience Giving evaluations, especially where there's some negative feedback involved, is like a ripping a band-aid - you just want to get it over with, and suffer as little pain as possible. Here are some tips on how to ensure that the performance appraisal process of your company is a productive one.

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Employee Well-being

	The different types of stress It's important to make a clear distinction between "stressor" and "stress. A stressor is a stimulus that can either be viewed as good or bad. Stress is our response to this stimulus. The factor that determines our reaction to the stressor is our perception. Here is a breakdown of the different types of stress we endure in our day-to-day lives.
	The Stress Response: Fight, flight, freeze, or have gas When you sense danger, your body's sympathetic nervous system and neuroendocrine system are activated. These stress hormones regulate a number of physiological functions that put your body on alert, getting it ready to spring into action in order to deal with the perceived threat. This is your instinctual "fight or flight" response, which generally takes the following route:
	Developing stress-fighting strengths means knowing your weaknesses We all have a stress tolerance threshold. This threshold is based on past experience, the type of stressor you are dealing with as well as its intensity, your perception of the stressor, and the coping skills you have readily available in your arsenal (if any). There are, however, certain factors that can make a person more vulnerable to stress.

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