More Cities Added for Work of Leaders Tour!

We have had such a great response to the Work of Leaders briefings held across the US, two additional locations on the East coast have been added!

Tuesday, November 12 – Cincinnati, OH

Crowne Plaza Cincinnati (map)

Tuesday, December 10 – Boston, MA

Boston Marriott Newton (map)

To register for either of these sessions, visit our Work of Leaders executive briefing page. 

Work of Leaders Tour is Coming to a City Near You!

We are pleased to announce author, Julie Straw, will be touring across the country to discuss her new book on leadership, The Work of Leaders!  It offers a rich, engaging overview of contemporary leadership research. You'll learn how the framework of Vision, Alignment, and Execution applies to your own leadership initiatives.

With your registration, you'll receive a copy of The Work of Leaders, plus a free DiSC Work of Leaders assessment, which provides highly personalized feedback on your own leadership style and capabilities. 

Click Here to Register for the Location Nearest You!

Dates and Locations:

Friday, September 13 – Dallas, TX

Embassy Suites Dallas (map)

Tuesday, September 17 – Minneapolis, MN

DoubleTree Park Place (map)

Thursday, September 26 – Atlanta, GA

Crown Plaza at Ravinia (map)

Tuesday, October 1 – Oak Ridge, TN

Chamber of Commerce (map)

Tuesday, October 8 – Tysons Corner, VA

Tysons Corner Marriott (map)

Wednesday, October 9 - King of Prussia, PA

DoubleTree by Hilton (map)

Tuesday, October 29 - Sacramento, CA

Capsity (map)

Wednesday, October 30 - Irvine, CA

Irvine Marriott (map)

Wednesday, November 6 - Grand Rapids, MI

Prince Conference Center (map)

Thursday, November 7 - Chicago, IL

AMA Conference Center (map)

DiSC Reinforcement Tips

Research conducted by Olivero, Bane, and Kopelman found that “Training increased productivity of 22.4%. In contrast, training plus coaching increased productivity by 88%”

As you can see in the statistic above, training alone is effective but when you add in additional coaching, the results are tremendous.  As a facilitator you may often think to yourself about the “what’s next” after a training session.  What can you do to ensure what you taught sticks with the attendees and they use it as a part of their work environment.  You want to keep people excited about DiSC and continuously see the benefits. 

Below you will find some suggestions that we would like to offer to you that you can use in your organization to reinforce DiSC long after the session has wrapped up.

Learning Events

·         Lunch and Learn Series

·         Refresher Series

·         Videos for People Reading or Communication

·         Panel Discussions

·         Game Shows – Team Challenges

·         Create a DiSC Trivia Game

·         Webinars

·         Team Meetings or Debriefings

·         Webinars and Online Learning Courses

DiSC Tools

·         Comparison Reports

·         Group Culture Reports

·         Quick DiSC Cards

·         DiSC In Depth Cards

·         Workplace Style Guides

·         Workplace Interaction Guides (also available to for Classic, Sales, and Management)

·         Team Maps – Focus on Priorities

·         Action Plans

·         DiSC Profiles

Miscellaneous Commitments

·         Appoint “DiSC Champions”

·         Create Learning Partners

·         Mentor – Mentee Programs

·         On-boarding

·         Celebrations – Roaming DiSC Reports complete with cameras

·         DiSC Bulletin Boards – Tips, Cartoons, “Spotlight” People or Teams

·         DiSC Detectives

·         Email Campaigns

·         Share Ideas and Tips

·         Share Challenges / Success Stories

·         Puzzles (www.puzzlemaker.com) and Wuzzles

·         “DiSC bytes”

·         Case Studies

·         Develop the “Use DiSC 10 minutes a day” philosophy

If you have any questions about how to integrate these suggestions into your organization or would like more information about the products suggested, please contact our office at 515.278.1292 or by email!

DiSC People Reading Skills

For many students, summer vacation is wrapping up and they are heading back to school.  This can be stressful for many students especially if they are headed to a new school or they are in a different class than most of their friends.

Change can be stressful at any age.  Whether you are the “new kid” on the playground or been promoted within a company you have been working at for 20 years, you will face challenges.  No matter how simple or complex, something inside triggers stress regardless if it is the best decision for you.  It is the big, bad unknown as you prepare for it that causes this.

But wouldn't it be nice if you could walk into a new environment and know exactly how everyone reacted.  How do they want information provide to them? Do they like a lot of details or the ability to use their own creative juices to develop the idea?  Maybe they hesitate before taking on a new project or dive right in with no questions asked?

While we can’t ask everyone to wear a name tag for an easy reference, we do have some tricks for you to identify their styles.   Take a look at these 3 easy steps highlighted below to provide some insight into someone you work with.

First, does this person tend to be more Fast-Paced and Outspoken or Cautious and Reflective? Next, think about is this person Questioning and Skeptical or Accepting and Warm? Once you have combined their tendencies, they should fall in one of the following styles.

D – Dominance Fast-paced & Outspoken Questioning & Skeptical	i – influence Fast-paced & Outspoken Accepting & Warm
C – Conscientiousness Questioning & Skeptical Cautious & Reflective	S – Steadiness Accepting & Warm Cautious & Reflective

Now that you have been able to hone in on their DiSC style, you need to be able to use this information to work more effectively with others.  What are their priorities, motivations, fears, or limitations?  Below you will find descriptions outlining these attributes.

Dominance

Priorities	Motivations	Fears	Limitations
·   Taking Action ·   Challenging Self ·   Immediate Results	· Power and Authority · Competition · Success	· Loss of control ·  Vulnerability	· Insensitivity · Impatience · Lack of concern

Influence

Priorities	Motivations	Fears	Limitations
· Expressing Enthusiasm · Taking Action · Encouraging Collaboration	· Social Recognition · Group Activities · Friendly Relationships	· Social Rejection ·  Disapproval ·  Being Ignored	· Impulsiveness ·Disorganization · Lack of Follow-Through

Steadiness

Priorities	Motivations	Fears	Limitations
·  Giving Support ·  Maintaining Stability ·  Enjoying Collaboration	·  Stable Environments ·  Sincere Appreciation ·  Cooperation	· Loss of stability · Change · Loss of Harmony · Offending Others	· Overly Accommodating · Tendency to Avoid Change ·  Indecisiveness

Conscientiousness

Priorities	Motivations	Fears	Limitations
·  Ensuring Accuracy ·  Maintaining Stability ·  Challenging Assumptions	· Opportunities to Use Expertise ·  Gain Knowledge ·  Attention to Quality	· Criticism ·  Being Wrong ·   Careless Methods	· Overly Critical · Over-analyze ·  Isolate self

For more tips on how to work effectively with each style, we offer Interaction Guides.  These are job aids that support the Everything DiSC Workplace training program. Featuring the Everything DiSC Workplace Map and tips for working with each style, these maps can be used to identify a colleague's style or as a reminder before meetings.

To order the Everything DiSC Interaction Guides, click here or contact us at 515.278.1292!

Summary of Work of Leaders Virtual Briefing

This past Tuesday, we hosted a Work of Leaders Virtual Briefing with author Julie Straw.   Julie provided great insights into the Work of Leaders model and the research involved in the process.  If you would like to view the webinar to learn more about the framework of Work of Leaders, click here!

The products that were mentioned during the webinar can be purchased through Resources Unlimited along with many more DiSC products to fit your training needs.  

The first product is the Work of Leaders profile encourages leaders to understand their own leadership behaviors and the impact on their effectiveness. Rich, compelling narrative adds depth to the data and strong visuals support the learning process by illustrating key messages.  It focuses on tangible steps directed at leading a group or organization toward desired outcomes!

Second, The Work of Leaders, written by Julie Straw with foreword by Resources Unlimited CEO, Barbara Stennes, is based around the framework of Vision, Alignment and Execution. Everything DiSC Work of Leaders approaches leadership as a one-to-many relationship, as opposed to the one-to-one relationship of management.  The goal of this book is to take the classroom experience that has been so valuable for thousands of leaders and introduce the Vision, Alignment and Execution model to an even broader audience.

Mark your calendar for our first-annual Everything DiSC Forum: November 7-8 in Chicago! We're excited to bring clients and colleagues together to share best practices, case studies, training ideas, new applications, and new DiSC products.  

We're in the very early stages of planning, and we'd appreciate your input. Would you take 2-3 minutes to answer a quick survey about which sessions and topics you would be most interested in?  Click here to take survey

Everything DiSC Workplace Now Available in Spanish!

Are there people in your workplace with whom you get along great?  Or maybe on the opposite side of the spectrum there are some people with whom you don’t see eye to eye? Everyone has been in a situation where they have wished to better understand someone and connect with them better. 

Everything DiSC Workplace will help you discover your reactions to the different styles and how to interact.  By learning the challenges of working with each style, they will be able to identify and overcome the obstacles.  Each participant will have a personalized road map on how to work with each style.  The DiSC model helps you understand the people you work with to move towards a more effective working environment. 

How does the Workplace Program fit into the objectives of analysis and best practices in the workplace:

Learn Your DiSC Style:

Obtain your personal DiSC style through a series of questions.

Discover how we are all a blend of all four styles but tend strongly toward one or two styles.

Understand what your personal stressors and motivators are.

Understand Your Colleagues:

Learn to relate to other DiSC styles in your workplace through strategies for helpful means to respond.

Understand that no one style is better than the other and each person is unique.

Grow as a More Effective Team:

Develop key strategies on how to work with other styles more effectively through action planning.

Take DiSC Outside the Office:

Using the basic behavior cues, identify DiSC styles of others in different departments or environments.

Cornerstone Principles

·        All DiSC styles and priorities are equally valuable and everyone is a blend of all four styles. ·        Your work style is also influenced by other factors such as life experiences, education, and maturity. ·        Understanding yourself better is the first step to becoming more effective when working with others ·        Learning about other people’s DiSC styles can help you understand their own priorities and how they may differ from your own. ·        You can improve the quality of your workplace by using Disc to build more effective relationships.

NOW AVAILBLE IN SPANISH!

Our best-selling Everything DiSC program is now in Spanish! We're excited to announce that Everything DiSC Workplace is now in available en español, along with the Supplement for Facilitators, the Comparison Report, and the Workplace Facilitation Kit.

Call us at 515.278.1292 and we will be delighted to assist you with your order or answer any questions that you may have!

Sinking Ship (DiSC Activity)

Are your training activities feeling a little repetitive? Well in honor of summer, I would like to provide you with a new activity that is focused on a beloved summer activity, boating. 

To get started, divide your groups by their DiSC styles and give them each the following scenario:

You and three other people are in a four person row boat.  Your boat springs a leak.  You are in the middle of a very large lake and cannot see the shore. 

You have two oars, a cooler full of food and drinks, and one life preserver. 

One person can swim well and all others are poor swimmers.  Your boat is sinking fast. 

How would you go about solving your problem?

Give them no more than 5-7 minutes to discuss and illustrate on flip chart paper their steps for solving the problem. Encourage them to draw pictures!  Once they have shared their strategy to solve the problem, provide debriefs of how each style is different than the other and what is needed for success.  They will be able to apply these findings in the workplace with intact teams!

As a next step, hang up their posters in their workplace as a visual reminder of each style.

Please comment below how you think each DiSC style would react and fix a sinking ship!

Leadership: What does it mean to you?

Everyone has their view on what makes a good leader.  What do you think are some traits of an successful leader?

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt

Everything DiSC Authorized Partner, a Wiley Brand

With the acquisition of Inscape Publishing by John Wiley & Sons, Inc in February 2012, Resources Unlimited is now an Everything DiSC Authorized Partner instead of Authorized Distributor. 

With over 37 years in training and consulting, Resources Unlimited is thrilled with the acquisition and what it means for the services we provide to you.  We are continuously improving and expanding!

We are thrilled to report that we will be offering even more training and developing assessments and materials for your teams. The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, Innovation Assessment, and The Leadership Challenge are just a few of the new products that will be available in the future, in addition to the Everything DiSC products and reports.   

So in short, over the next 18 months, you will start to see “Wiley” on DiSC products that used to say “Inscape Publishing.”  The content or delivery of the assessments is not changing.  If you have any questions regarding the acquisitions and what it means for you, please send us an email!

Leadership Insights: An Executive Briefing

On June 5, 2013, 70 leaders came together in Des Moines (Iowa) to learn more how Work of Leaders can enhance their leadership programs or be a part of the groundwork for a new program. This book that is based around the framework of Vision, Alignment, and Execution and what that means for your organization.  Julie Straw, a contributing author, spoke about how the book was formed off research data and other text books ranging from classic to contemporary.  

 

The goal of the Work of Leaders is to take the classroom experience that has been so valuable for thousands of leaders and introduce the Vision, Alignment and Execution model to an even broader audience.

If you are interested in learning more about the Work of Leaders book or assessment and how it can impact your organization, contact us!