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Brainy Books
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It seems like the latest trend in books these days are catchy titles and then a longer, more serious,
subtitle. So what’s the truth? The quick burst of the title, or the slow burn of the subtitle? We leave that
to your mindful opinion. These thoughtful books all deal with heady topics.
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Committing to Your Resolve
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It’s about six weeks into 2010, the point at which 60% of new years' resolutions have been broken.
Although business initiatives may run longer, their track record is similar–some estimate 60% are dropped
within six to nine months.
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Face-to-Face or Cyberspace: Does business travel get better results?
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Now, more than ever, Canadian businesses are tightening their belts and taking a hard look at their
budgets for ways to trim costs. According to a September 2009 study conducted by IHS Global insight on behalf
of the National Business Travel Association, travel is now viewed as a cost to be controlled, and businesses
are seeing it as an expense rather than an investment. However, business travel seems to remain on our minds.
At the time of printing, National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Canada reported that its 6th Annual
Conference and Exhibitor Showcase, scheduled for April 2010 in Toronto, was already more than 90% sold
out.
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Workplace Trends A Wake-Up Call To Leaders
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Employees are feeling increasing stress in the workplace that, if left unchecked, could impact business
performance, according to Towers Perrin’s Workplace Watch, a newly launched quarterly look at
employee opinions across global organizations. Based on opinions of more than 650,000 employees, Towers
Perrin found that only 55% of workers agree they can balance work and personal responsibilities, down from
62% just one quarter earlier. On the other hand, employee engagement, a key indicator of organizational
performance, has held steady through the first quarter of this year.
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The Top Motivator at Work
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We may all want money, respect and status but most Canadians say it’s personal satisfaction that motivates
them to do a good job at work, according to the latest Monster.ca online poll.
The new online poll, involving 6,424 Canadians, asked the following question: “What motivates you most to do
a good job?”
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Work Relationships Remain Strong
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Lean economic times do not
appear to have harmed work relationships, a new survey suggests. Eighty-seven percent of professionals
interviewed recently said they have a good rapport with their supervisors and 95 percent get along well with
coworkers. In fact, slightly more respondents today described their relationships with supervisors and peers
as “very good” than did participants in a 2005 survey on the same subject.
The survey was developed by Accountemps, a specialized staffing service. It was conducted by an independent
research firm and is based on telephone interviews with 457 workers 18 years of age or older and employed in
an office environment.
“In good times and bad, building strong relationships with peers and supervisors is a priority for most
professionals,” said Max Messmer, author of Motivating Employees For Dummies. “Employers must
continually nurture a culture in which employees feel valued and engaged–workers who enjoy interacting with
each other not only make the office more pleasant, but also produce better work.
Colleagues who have established strong rapport are more likely to support one another when presented with
challenges or new responsibilities. Employers should look for opportunities to strengthen ties with their
staff and help them bond with each other, such as by assigning mentors and encouraging people to assist those
with rising workloads.”
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Employer Committed to Staff
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The biggest challenge in finding a new job, especially after a lay-off, is the job-search myth. Let’s face
it: people are worried about searching for a job, especially during a recession. However, the fears people
have about tend to be largely unfounded.
Cheryl Bakke Martin, President of Inspirations Unlimited, a Calgary-based career counselling and coaching
company, completed an outplacement program for employees at Flextronics, an international electronics
manufacturer. She was very impressed with Flextronics in its commitment to helping staff through the
career-transition process. She says, “Flextronics really had their people’s welfare as their top
priority.”
Flextronics is in the process of shutting down its Calgary facility, which employed 370 people. As Martin
explains, “People tend to create their own obstacles to finding satisfying jobs, and my job is to shift
people’s energy from despair to hope and optimism.” She says the key is to realize what they are good at and
what they like to do.
Broaden your beliefs
The first myth to dispel is the narrow view of what people believe they are capable of. Bakke
Martin told Flextronics’ employees not to define themselves by what they have done in the past, or to think
that their previous work is all they can ever do.
Her goal is to shift workers’ tendency from looking back—thus preventing change—to looking forward at new
opportunities and ask the questions: “Where am I? Where do I want to be? What have I never had the
opportunity to try? and Can I make that happen now?”
Do not believe everything you hear
The second myth career counsellors are up against is created by the media and perpetuated by
peer groups. People should not believe everything they hear. Daily news stories about the recession and
lay-offs do not mean that there are no jobs; it all depends on where you look and what you believe.
The departing Flextronics employees were taught how to approach the job market, and how to find out about the
opportunities that do not get posted. These largely come down to using existing networks and learning how to
find new networks.
Find encouragement and support
The last myth to dispel is that career counselling is only about teaching skills such as
resume writing, interviewing, and how to find job opportunities. One of the most important aspects of career
counselling is the encouragement and support it provides. “Career counselling does require a little bit of
hand-holding and encouragement,” Martin says, “and an important part of this is giving people the confidence
they need.”
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Communication Styles
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We cannot “not” communicate. Our non-verbal behaviour speaks volumes
whether we realize it or not. We’ve heard it before: “Know who you’re talking to and adapt your communication
style to your listeners’ style.” As many times as we’ve heard these words to be the key for creating and
managing relationships, I’ve found that people often do the opposite. Whether I’m observing a speaker or
sales representative, or having a one-to-one conversation with a client, it’s obvious their messages are
about them. They’re oblivious to reading their listeners’ non-verbal and verbal cues. This is not that
difficult to do. Imagine where you could take your relationships with others if you took the time to listen
to what works for them.
We have preferences—certain skills and behaviours that make us who we are. Recognizing styles in yourself and
others can help you influence and build relationships and become a better communicator.
There are a variety of instruments that identify individual communication styles. For the purpose of this
article, I’ve chosen the four communication styles identified by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. These styles
are based on tendencies to be task-oriented, versus people-oriented and easygoing, versus take-charge.
While these are simplifications, tendencies of the four styles
are:
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Dealing With Difficult Team Members
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There is a fundamental shift that needs to take place in our thinking about the role of immigrants in our
workforce. It’s a shift upon which our prosperity depends, not just for private enterprise but for the
Canadian economy as a whole. By 2011, immigration will likely account for 100% of our net labour force
growth, according to Catalyst Inc. report, Career Advancement in Corporate Canada: A Focus on Visible
Minorities. Already, visible minorities make up more than 15% of the Canadian workforce.
It’s time for us to stop looking at how we can benefit immigrants by hiring them, and shift into a deeper
understanding of the boon to business of having a diverse team. Nytric Limited, celebrated internationally
for its reputation for technological innovation, credits its success to its inclusive hiring policies. Nytric
was recently awarded the RBC Best Immigrant Employer Award by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment
Council. Asked why Nytric has a high ratio of immigrants to Canadian-born workers on staff, Director of
Business Development, Anthony Gussin, says, “People from different cultures tend to think in slightly
different ways. Instead of always viewing a problem from one particular perspective, we get several points of
view on it. And that has made us very competitive in the sense that we are able to come up with smart ideas,
new ideas, and different ideas that have helped us get products into the market more effectively.”
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Make Work for Yourself
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Professionals trying to land a job may want to pursue project work. According to specialized staffing
service, Robert Half International, companies that are unable to add full-time employees during periods of
economic uncertainty often bring in professionals on a temporary basis, which can translate into
opportunities for those who are looking to earn income, make new contacts and enhance their marketability
during an extended job search.
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Workplace Without Borders
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When Amanda Wilson finishes her night shift, her work day isn’t over. The MacDonald’s restaurant manager
heads home to log on to StationM, a social network developed by MacDonald’s as an online meeting place for
crew members. The 20-year-old Okotoks, Alberta native was selected as this year’s resident blogger for the
North American site.
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Power Up Your Life
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Are you living the best possible life? In this issue, we explore books
for discovering your potential and motivating yourself to achieve it. Whether you’re new to the workforce,
retiring, or smack in the middle of work life, there are ways for you to shine.
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Phased Retirement
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One day you’re working… the next you’re not—a terrifying prospect for many people approaching retirement
age. The loss of a social connection and daily routine can be overwhelming, not to mention the havoc it can
wreak on one’s identity and sense of purpose. In the next five years, 39% of Canada’s eight million baby
boomers will start preparing for life after retirement. What will they do? Where will they go? Karen
Schellinck, President and CEO of Myera, a global provider of retirement transitional programs, claims that
67% of those retirees are choosing to not the leave the workforce at all. Instead, they are gradually easing
into their retirement by working part-time in order to balance their new lifestyle wants with the desire to
keep themselves engaged, continue learning, or generate more income. To be more precise, the upcoming working
retirees want to work on their own terms.
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Do it Yourself!: Part 2 of 3
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Have you done anything worthy of recognition this week? (Of course you have!) Did anybody notice?
(Maybe yes—maybe no. It might have gone either way!) The real question worth answering is whether or
not you noticed. How much attention did you pay to your own contributions, accomplishments, innovations and
progress?
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Cost Management
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Reductions are planned across most employee groups, industry sectors and geographies. Even in Alberta,
those employers who do plan to cut back call for the same 0.75% decrease to 2009’s salary increase plan.
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Retaining Potential Retirees
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Sometimes winning isn’t just about age.
With baby boomers retiring in large numbers, concern in the corporate world is growing regarding the loss of
experienced employees. How do we slow down the brain drain and keep potential retirees in the workforce while
we transition into replacement with the younger generations? The 2008 Recent Retirees Survey conducted by the
Employee Benefit Research Institute was undertaken to better understand what employers might have done to
encourage workers to postpone their retirement and remain longer with their company.
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Embrace Diversity
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Diversity has become the latest catch phrase as more and more Canadian employers look to new immigrants to
fill job vacancies. Companies are making efforts to embrace diversity, helping employees with different
ethnic and cultural backgrounds integrate into their new workplace. But which strategies are working? What
else can employers do in their quest to hire and retain the best candidates?
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One Size Does Not Fit All: Part 1 of 3
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Can we agree on one point right off the top? That working until we keel over from exhaustion is neither
heroic nor sustainable? In fact, recurring cycles of crash and burn simply leave us sick and tired. It’s not
good for us individually; nor does it create vital, engaging, productive workplaces. In today’s workplace,
breaks for renewal seem to be harder to come by than ever. Workloads are expanding. At the same time, the
pool of available skilled hands is shrinking. With demands high, peer pressure to keep moving and keep
producing is strong. Technology advances are helpful, but they create problems of their own. The good news
about today’s portable technology is that we can be connected anywhere, anytime. The bad news is that we can
be reached anywhere, anytime. So much for taking a break!
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