There is no trivial comment for leaders. I would also argue: for anyone. How you show up and what you say have impact.Your actions and conversations are monitored at all times by those you work with. The upside of that is you have great ability to influence change and your culture.Nobody is perfect, and your co-workers shouldn’t expect you to be. However, not fully owning your conversations will quickly produce an environment of low morale and engagement.If you’re having a bad day and you show up at a meeting with a bad attitude, that will be noticed, talked about, and internalized by those around you. Have multiple bad days in a row, and you can watch people quickly disengage from you.Below are three steps you can take to help you more fully own your conversations.Step 1: Obey your Instincts Want to build emotional capital with people really quickly? Then obey your instincts. Take the example above. If you leave the meeting knowing you just showed up in a way that you would never tolerate from someone else on your team, contact those who were there and apologize. It’s that simple, and there is no need to go into detail about why.If your attitude was because you were unhappy with your team, take this opportunity to address the issue head on and reschedule another meeting to discuss what was bothering you.Step 2: Master the Courage to Interrogate Reality Is communication not something you feel totally comfortable with? Many don’t. Maybe you need to continue to develop your communication skills. Reach out to others within your organization and see what training your company is offering, or spearhead bringing training in yourself if it’s not available.Leaders in companies, regardless of titles, recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and set out to help improve them. Make your job easier by paying attention to how effective your conversations are, and if you need help, do something about it.Step 3: Take Responsibility for Your Emotional Wake Part of being a leader is developing your emotional intelligence. One of the ways you do that is to take responsibility for your emotional wake. Dr. Albert Mehrabian’s pioneering research on human communication tells us that only 7% of how we communicate is the words we say, 38% is tone of  voice and 55% of communication is non-verbal.Meaning, even when you’re not speaking, you’re conveying something. Being aware that you are doing this can be a challenge. When you do take notice, it doesn’t stop there. To make sure you aren’t infecting your culture with a lingering wake, check in with people. Also, when you catch yourself putting something out there that isn’t productive, address it right away.How do you take responsibility with your conversations?The post How to Take Responsibility for Your Conversations appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

October is women’s small business month. As a women-owned business, Fierce wants to thank all of the women-owned businesses that make an impact in our community - from Seattle to around the globe. I want to shout out to Blink UX, WiRL, Communique PR, and PACE Staffing as some of our women-owned business partners, who grow their businesses with brilliance and strength.In the United States, there is a surge of women-owned businesses. According to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Business Report, there are nearly 9.1 million women-owned enterprises, employing nearly 7.9 million workers and generating over $1.4 trillion in revenues. Between 1997 and 2014, the number of women-owned firms grew at 1 ½ times the national average.So I ask you: Do you have women entrepreneurs in your life? What have you learned from them? This week’s tip is to celebrate a woman in your life. Find a time to talk with someone who has been critical to your success. If possible, schedule a lunch date. If not, pick up the phone and spend some dedicated time together.How will you celebrate? The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Celebrate a Woman in Your Life appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Second of a two-part series on ACA and the finance industry In Part I of our ACA series, we discussed the significant impact that firms with 51-99 full-time employees will experience when they are... Visit site for full story...

Guest post by Pomello Making great hires usually involves evaluating a candidate’s hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills, of course, usually take priority when assessing a potential employee’s... Visit site for full story...

This post is part of the TriNet ongoing series about the Affordable Care Act and its effects on small business. Many employers who have struggled to provide affordable health benefits to their... Visit site for full story...

"Content is King". If that holds true and we believe it, then graphic design is the Queen! That’s right folks. You may have the best text and the best course materials, but your graphic design (typography, colors and images) will be the first features that will attract and retain your learner. It’s very easy to lose track of your course structure in terms of graphic design, especially if it is not your main forte. Before you hire a dedicated graphic artist to flesh up your course text, have faith. You can create a complete course - text and graphic design with the aid of these time-proven best practices. Read on to find out how many you can check off! Typography Tips Use font that is clear and device independent. A font that looks elegant on the tablet may not look as good on a smartphone. You would lose your mobile learners automatically. The Arial font is a safer choice, as it shows well on all devices. There is nothing more unfortunate in an eLearning course than the content "lost in devices"! Another advice is not to use more than two different fonts. One type to emphasize the headings and the other for the main content. Try using only two font sizes to avoid as well confusion. Color Caution If there is one element of a course that creates effective changes in the learner, it is the color. Use color with extreme care to evoke the desired emotions in your learner. For example, use the blue color for font describing material for an exam to avoid stress and anxiety. Here are a few more eLearning color points you’ll want to consider: Stick with a color scheme that involves 2 to 3 colors, any more than that and your design can start to look like a mess. Try to stick with one color for fonts for the main body of the text throughout your eLearning course. Similarly, choose one color of the heading and another for the sub-heading to make them stand out. Pair contrasting colors on the color wheel. For example, combine a light green font with a dark blue one to create a sense of drama and appeal to your eLearning course. Layout Ideas Your eLearning course layout has a direct influence on the way your learners perceive, comprehend and retain information. When learners log into an eLearning course, they scan the page from top to bottom and left to right. To make the most of this habit, place the most important information, such as main information near the top and the right-hand side of the screen. Another good practice is to place similar objects or concepts next to one another to emphasize their connection. Use different colors to highlight different groups of information. Important information through links and images should be prominent. Draw the learner’s eye to key concepts by using symbols and arrows (and be consistent with their use throughout the course) making them the central point of the page. Cohesive Visuals Visuals, such as image, icons, and graphics, enhance engagement and create a sense of suspense and excitement in the course. They also help draw attention to the core concepts of the course. As a professional practice, always integrate royalty free and high quality graphics and images. There is nothing more annoying than a blurry image in an eLearning course! Use images that are relevant to the subject matter. Images used for their "coolness" serve very little purpose. In fact, they divert learners away from the learning goals and objectives. Also, try to localize the text and graphics for your audience so that they are able to relate to the content easily. The White Space Issue Have you heard about cognitive overload? Think about the overwhelming feeling you may have had when looking at a document with lines and lines of text and figures. Your brain feels confused and you do not feel like scanning the entire page. Avoid filling the entire page with text and graphics. A bit of white space on each page helps avoid cognitive overload in learners. Leaving blank spaces on your pages encourages the learner to look at the desired information automatically. Absorbing and retaining knowledge is easier this way. Do you know your audience? The best thing about eLearning design is that you can modify it to benefit the learner. It is mandatory to understand as much as you can about your audience. Every image, block of text, and color you choose for your eLearning course must offer some benefit to your audience. Each feature in your course must serve a learning need or inspire your unique group in some way. It should redirect their attention whenever necessary. A good sense and practice of integrating graphic design is essential for an effective course. Use the power of the graphics to create a cohesive look - a unique theme that follows the course content closely. Using these six best practices, you can design an eLearning environment that is beneficial to your learners. The post 6 Best Practices in Graphic Designing for eLearners appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

An estimated $41 billion is lost by U.S. companies each year following a bad customer experience. (source) Advice from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Businesses of all types want to provide excellent customer service, but very few can master the "art" and "science" of service. The first challenge many organizations face is selecting "warm bodies" to deliver excellent customer service instead of selecting the person with the "right fit." Organizations need to hire people with an understanding of service as an "art" that is personalized and anticipatory, as well as an understanding of service as a "science," that is comprised of steps towards consistently excellent service delivery. The second challenge organizations face is lack of training. Great customer-centric organizations will train and re-train their employees on how to deliver excellent customer service. Employees must first understand the fundamentals of customer service—etiquette and respect. As Emily Post noted, "Good manners reflect something from inside—an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self." Basic social skills are the foundation for the more refined skills of empathy, genuine caring and graceful problem solving. At The Ritz-Carlton, our Employee Promise pledges to "nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company." Organizations can avoid losses due to bad customer experiences by taking the time to hire the best candidates and invest in training. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium on November 12th. The day includes a Ritz-Carlton executive panel with Herve Humler, president & chief operations officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. The Blog Post Significant Stat: Deliver Excellent Customer Service appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

We are very excited to be sponsoring the webinar about the Top 10 Association LMS Features that John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, LLC, will run on Wednesday, October 7 at 11am EST.   If you work in member training or professional education for an association, institute or other member organization, you are going to want to join John Leh and Mike Bourassa, of WBT Systems, as they share best-practices learned from decades of association learning technology experience. They will dig into the key differentiators of an Association LMS, show you examples, discuss case studies and share best practices.   What do you mean by Association LMS features? Educating members, selling content, providing continuing education credit and managing trade-show activities are all challenges that associations and institutes face but not typical corporations. As a result, Association LMS’s need an enhanced feature set to support and they are tough to find. In this fast paced and detailed session, they will cover the following: Why associations are using LMS technology AMS vs. LMS Top association training challenges Top 10 association LMS features needed Tips for selecting the right association LMS Case studies, mini-demos and polling throughout   Want to learn more? Please register even if you can’t attend and we will send you a link to the session recording. Hope to see you there! The post Top 10 Association LMS Features appeared first on WBT Systems.

A Millennial Outlook on "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" As a Millennial leader it often feels as though only two roads to career advancement exist: Be reminded of how young we are and that we need to wait our turn if we want to be in senior management or Ready, set, here’s the deep end - hope you can swim. Both leave us in the lurch, feeling neglected, and our talent wasted. But there is another option. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" by Devon Scheef and Diane Thielfoldt is a breath of fresh air. They have not only taken the time to research but to understand the Millennial generation, mapping out strategic ways to harness our talents and get us off the bench (…finally!). They find the balance of articulating the value and potential we hold with practical steps that employers can take to move our careers to the next level. It is not a secret that we (in general) often forsake company loyalty in the effort to achieve our desired career goals - but it doesn’t have to be us vs them, my way or the highway. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" exposes the reader to our desperate need to excel and then details the little (and big) things that can be done before we are ready for the role of senior management. We all know that we may not be ready to be CEO on day one (although don’t put it past us to have that ambition) but we do have creative vision that can push our company ahead of it’s competitors and are eager to work for a company willing to embrace us, coach us, and (when we are ready for it) let us lead. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" shows you how to do precisely that. Every company looking forward to the future needs to read this and learn how to prepare a new generation for leadership success. The Accelerated Millennial Manager The Accelerated Millennial Manager

Training 2015 Conference and Expo - February 6 - 11, 2015 February 7th 9AM - 4PM - Performance Consulting & Measuring ROI Certificate Program with Jack & Patti Phillips February 8th 9AM - 4PM - Performance Consulting & Measuring ROI Certificate Program with Jack & Patti Phillips February 9th 8AM - 9AM - Instructional Design and Performance Consulting in One Model - It’s About Time