PublicationsIdea Generation – It’s Not A Competition By Tracy MacDonaldAug 2016Great ideas. They are the cornerstone of innovation, inspiration and change. They can make our days more productive, our lives easier, and things that were previously thought of as unattainable, possible. While we don’t have control over when a great idea will strike, we do have a responsibility to ourselves and our colleagues to explore them. Continue reading… The Importance of Empowering People to Work Independently By Tracy MacDonaldAug 2016Leaders are expected to accomplish a variety of success oriented objectives in a business environment. But if they are constantly bogged down in the minutia of day to day operational decisions, it not only takes away from the planning and building of future initiatives, but also stops productive workflow dead in its tracks. There are two reasons why this is bad for business: one is for the growth of the business and the other is directly related to a positive human resources experience for your employees. With leadership initiatives focused on helping employees to work independently, it becomes easier to be productive and have happy employees at the same time. Continue reading… When Giants Fall, Who is to Blame? By Tracy MacDonaldAug 2016In the history of the successes and failures of businesses, size does not matter. The behemoths have just as much risk of failure as any medium to smaller sized company and success is not measured just by profits, nor is it just by growth. Success is agility, retention, and sometimes the result of reinvention which is driven by either marketplace, technology, or competition. But what happens when companies try to reverse stagnant or negative growth, and fail? Did they miss the opportunity to reinvent themselves? Did they try to reinvent, but in the wrong marketplace? Was the leadership looking to make changes only through external sources and not through internal adjustments? Regardless of the why, when giants fall, everyone notices. The most recent behemoth to fall, or in business-speak suffer acquisition, is Yahoo Inc. Once a part of the triad of internet giants, it’s now an acquisition for Verizon. Continue reading… Leading By Example By Tracy MacDonaldAug 2016 Most people appreciate the differences in roles and responsibilities between themselves and their leaders, but that recognition needs to be continuously nurtured and acknowledged in order to avoid feelings of animosity or disrespect. For example, a leader may have slightly different working hours from the rest of the staff, but what may not be known is that the leader spends a lot of time working on large scale projects away from traditional office time. Perceptions exist and whether right or wrong, still need to be managed. One way to manage them is leading by example in the areas in which we have control. Continue reading… Cloud Collaboration By Tracy MacDonaldJul 2016The Cloud. It’s a great place to store photos, backup your contacts, get directions, and access email from just about anywhere. We use it every day, even when we don’t realize it. It’s become a resource for productivity and storage in a time when we’ve move more toward digital environments than ever before. In the professional world, the cloud has helped to change office workflow by improving collaborative efforts among teams. With chat rooms, shared files and documents, and the ability to share anything almost instantly from a phone, what does collaboration really mean? For us, it’s about more than sharing notes. Continue reading… Professional Development By Tracy MacDonaldJul 2016The beauty of having a career for any extended period of time is that you are constantly learning and improving just through the active task of overcoming the challenges you face in the regular course of doing your job. While all solutions to all challenges may not work perfectly every time, and it’s likely they won’t, there is always something learned and then referenced for future. But what about growth? How do you keep doing your job and growing in useful ways? How do you keep your job challenging for yourself and something more than task accomplishment? Continue reading… Listening By Tracy MacDonaldJun 2016There is a huge difference between merely hearings and listening, Bolton notes. The word” listening is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words, hlystan ( hearing) and hlosnian( waiting in suspense).The act of listening means more than just something physical, it is psychological engagement with another person. How Your Subconscious Mind Controls Your Behavior By Tracy MacDonaldIt is a common notion among people that all of your behavior is entirely in control of the conscious mind. If you fall in the same category of people, then you are about to get to know something really surprising. How amazed would you be if we told you that your subconscious mind has as much to do with your behavior as the conscious mind? Continue reading… «1234