There are many ways that people communicate throughout the world, including facial expressions, verbal cues, and body language. Since there are many ways to convey a message, it’s important to make sure one is clear in their intent when communicating. This is especially true in the workplace when you’re engaged with a team to finish an important task or project.

As a person moves up the corporate ladder, there may be a point when they are placed in a management role—and there are definitely clear differences between average managers and effective leaders. Honing in your leadership skills to keep a well-functioning team not only facilitates company loyalty but also helps retain your staff.

One of the biggest challenges facing employers and companies today is keeping employees happy, engaged, and productive. Recent data suggests that upwards of 71% of employees are not fully engaged at their jobs, and 26% are actively disengaged. There are many potential reasons for this, but one of the big factors is lack of professional training and development.

If you’re a job seeker and you want to stand out from the crowd, it’s important to understand the types of skills employers are looking for in 2017. While there are always specific “hard skills” required for each unique job (typing speed, language proficiency, knowledge of software, etc.) these can be taught, but the “soft skills” that are important to employers can be more difficult to learn. The Balance describes soft skills as “…subjective skills that are much harder to quantify. Also known as "people skills" or "interpersonal skills," soft skills relate to the way you relate to and interact with other people.” Unlike hard skills, soft skills are more difficult to teach employees, and that’s why employers are placing more importance on them.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is “the ability to manage one’s own emotions and perceive others’ feeling.” While many people put a great value on a high intellectual intelligence (IQ), the importance of emotional intelligence is being more widely supported. In fact, Daniel Goleman, the leading research specialist on EQ has found that EQ is just as important to career success as IQ. According to the University of Consulting Alliance, Goleman found 67% of all abilities associated with professional success are related to EI.

Updated April 10, 2023

Those looking to motivate their workplace teams, instill confidence, and increase productivity often find that the missing ingredient is a culture of trust among their employees. Without trust in the workplace, workers are simply doing a job with little emotional investment rather than being a complete team with different parts working together for the organization's greater good.  

Here, we look at establishing trust in the workplace by demonstrating and incorporating these six pillars into your workplace culture.

Presenting under any circumstances can be a stressful experience, but even more so when presenting your business case. When you have a business case to share, it’s often something you’re passionate about and the culmination of a lot of hard work. When the stakes are high, it’s perfectly normal to feel nervous about presenting, but there are many things you can so beforehand to ensure it goes smoothly. Here are 6 ways to increase your confidence when presenting your business case:

Updated Dec. 8, 2022.

Project management is an important skill. Successful project managers know how to run a good team, keep multiple balls in the air, and ideally bring their project in on time despite whatever problems might emerge. 

Of course, project managers are also human. Project outcomes can vary, and they can obviously make mistakes. A good project manager is not somebody who never makes a mistake. Instead, they are somebody who learns from their mistakes and, of course, from those good things that can happen through serendipity.

Being on a high performance team feels great. Everybody wants to succeed and feel like they bring value to a job. Most would agree the characteristics of a team’s leader determine, in large part, whether or not the team functions and performs well. Leaders who know how to coach rather than just manage have an advantage and will find developing high performance teams easier.

There’s an old saying that “a fish rots from the head down.” Nowhere can this be truer than in the business world. From huge corporations, to small business, leadership at all levels sets the tone for any organization. If any of that leadership is unethical, it will more than likely have a trickle-down effect to the rest of the company.