DRIVEN Blog
Reframing Perfectionism: Three Steps Toward Being “Perfectly Human” at Work
Perfectionism is a condition, a trap, and a self-imposed state of shame that affects many of us, often unbeknownst to us. It also happens to be a consequence of inevitably coming up short when our expectations were unrealistic in the first place. In my recent article Perfectly Human: Evading The Trap…
DRIVEN’s Best Blog Articles of 2018, Part 2
Last week, we gave you a sampling of some of our most informative blog articles of the year (if you missed it, link to it HERE). Today, we’re back with four more significant DRIVEN posts from 2018, each offering advice, direction and food-for-thought designed to enhance your career regardless of what stage you’re…
DRIVEN’s Best Blog Articles of 2018, Part 1
Each week of the year, DRIVEN’s blog page is updated with a brand-new, relevant article relating to the business perspectives and advancement strategies encompassed within our mission to “support the health, well-being and success potential of motivated professionals”. Composed by Deborah Goldstein, these…
Conversation, Ongoing: The Back-and-Forth Circuit of Workplace Feedback
Making the shift from anxious to excited has revealed itself to be the formula for a curious mindset. Once you’ve made the transformation (which fits into the rare category of simple and easy), your emotions will stabilize, grooming you to receive workplace feedback constructively and without impediment by…
Self-Check Strategies: How To Make Feedback Sessions Work for YOU
Formal workplace feedback can be a tough nut to crack. Considering the contrasting perspectives of the givers and receivers of feedback, the amount of openness to ideas can vary, as can the trust factor between the parties. In my recent article Openness To Influence: The Factors To Consider Before Receiving…
Openness To Influence: The Factors To Consider Before Receiving Feedback
At the very end of my most recent article Listening to Understand: A Social Skills Staple Examined, you were challenged to experiment with four prompts during your conversations to more effectively “listen to understand” and to remain open to influence. Were you able to stand under another’s reality without…
Listening To Understand: A Socials Skills Staple Examined
The essential social skill of Listening is rarely mastered, even by those among us who pride ourselves on being great listeners. In my recent article, Chit-Chat Credentials: Sharpening Your Social Skills with Two Distinct Listening Styles, I offered what may have amounted to a wake-up call for many of us by sharing…
Chit-Chat Credentials: Sharpening Your Social Skills with Two Distinct Listening Styles
Listening is a communications staple and should be utilized more than 50% of the time during conversations. But just knowing this doesn’t seem to guarantee we’ll act on it. For example, I laughed out loud when a colleague once confessed about the way he uses his listening skills: to hear when the speaker is finished…
Snap Out of It!: How Being In-Trance Can Distort Our Social Skills
Because I’m an advocate of full transparency, I must make a confession: I felt a bit like Captain Obvious this month, using the DRIVEN blog to detail the importance of our culturally-embedded social skills….you know, those interactions of professionalism that stand as a “given” in any arena. And yet…
The Eyes Have It: Refining Your Social Skills Through Appropriate Eye Contact
In order to engage with colleagues professionally and effectively, it’s crucial to eliminate any preoccupations with or insecurities about our own communication techniques. Having a solid handle on our social skills in the workplace assures those communications go smoothly, and that we don’t misrepresent ourselves…
Put‘er There: The Social Skills Behind Our Most Common of Greetings
Since human relationships are directly tied to culture, it makes sense that refined social skills are vital for a healthy work environment. Culture dictates our sense of safety and acceptance, which directly impacts workplace productivity and engagement. In my recent article Clever Conversation: The Positive Effects…
Clever Conversation: The Positive Effects of Social Skills on Office Culture
After months of exploring the nooks and crannies of Emotional Intelligence, it’s time to tie up this concept into a neat little package. To do so, I’ll attempt to emulate an admired college professor’s talent of pulling themes through. This professor always amazed and amused me by spending 75 minutes lecturing about…
“If I Understand You Correctly,….”: How The Pros Put Empathy Into Practice
All summer long, we’ve been examining empathy as part of a greater overall study of emotional intelligence in the workplace. We’ve distinguished empathy from sympathy, we’ve demonstrated how empathy applies to your career, and we’ve shown the undisputed connection between one’s bias and their personal…
I Feel Your Pain: An Empathetic How-To For Today’s Professionals
Workplace harmony depends upon some specific EQ tenets, not the least of which is the ability of colleagues to Empathize with one another. Such Empathy is the root of inclusion and is essential for creating trust— without which there is low productivity and substandard office functionality. In my recent article…
The Crux of Connection: Why Empathy Is All You Need
Our exploration of Emotional Intelligence is taking its next turn, and I’m excited to invite you along for the ride! After having a detailed look at Self-Regulation, which culminated in my recent article High Stakes Perspective: How To Stay Self-Regulated When It Counts, I demonstrated for you how techniques…
Beyond Fear: Taking Self-Regulation Out For A Spin
Looking fear straight in the eye— it’s not something most of us are comfortable with, but it’s a challenge that you can realistically become comfortable with. My recent article, Escaping Gravity: The Importance of Confronting Workplace Fears And Soaring Beyond Your Comfort Zone, demonstrates that by engaging…
What, Me Worry? The Impact of Stress on Self-Awareness
Keeping up with all the nuances of Self-Awareness can seem intimidating to anyone who is just discovering the importance of this EQ tenet. If you’ve read my recent article But Now I See, you might…
But Now, I See: How Revealing Your Blind Spots Can Heighten Your Self-Awareness
With so many layers to self-awareness, it sometimes seems unreasonable to expect ourselves to practice this EQ virtue with any level of refinement. For instance, if you read my recent article Life…
Life Is Like A Wave On The Sand: Using Self-Awareness To Live In The Present
If you’ve been dabbling lately in refining your self-awareness in both your career and your personal life, you’ve taken one of the most important measures for acquiring emotional intelligence. I hope…
The Self-Awareness Challenge: A Look Inside Our Own Heads
As you’ve likely been discovering for yourself, the dynamic virtue of Self-Awareness is tricky to acquire and sustain. According to EQ specialist Travis Bradberry, only 36% of the population is aware…