Is The Time Right for a Career Change?

clock with people in the background

Who would have thought that a global pandemic could be just the thing to prompt a career change? When COVID-19 first hit, we were thinking, “Do I have enough toilet paper” and “Where can I get hand sanitizer?”—not “Perhaps I should switch jobs.” However, there are actually several reasons why it just might be the perfect time to make a career move.

Time to think. Before the pandemic, it was go-go-go.  We were running to work. Running home to take care of the kids. Running to meet friends for dinner. Now we’re sitting on the sofa…and sitting there some more. It gives us time to think, and, importantly, to assess whether or not we’re happy with our careers. Time to think can lead to “time to change.”

Job uncertainty. Businesses of all sizes are hurting. Many Americans are worried about job security, rightly so. Even if you enjoy your current job, will it be there when the dust settles as the pandemic winds down? Unfortunately, a new career might not be something we want, but something we need.

Time to learn. With all of these weeks at home, we have plenty of time on our hands. That means we have time to learn new skills. We have time to update our resumes and LinkedIn profiles, too. (Even if you’re working full-time, you no longer have a commute, social engagements, or errands to run.)

Workplace flexibility. Just a few months ago, an employer might have questioned a job candidate on a career shift. In these unprecedented circumstances, a career move is understood.

Corexcel offers the educational opportunities you need to revitalize or reinvent your career. Not only do we offer a full suite of career-boosting courses, we also offer many online certificate programs. Earn your certification in Data Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Cybersecurity, or many other in-demand options. Exit the pandemic with a valuable skill set—and a new career!

Email us at learn@corexcel.com to learn more.

So You Want to be a DiSC® Trainer? Earn Your Certification!

DiSC-based Live Training CourseConsultants, human resources specialists, and internal corporate trainers interested in facilitating Everything DiSC Workplace® workshops: We get it. The Everything DiSC Workplace® profile is a phenomenal tool that helps improve employee communication and relationships in any workplace. Earn your certification, and you’ll be on your way to running DiSC training sessions—and launching an exciting new chapter in your career!

Earn DiSC Certification Online
Our online DiSC certification program lets you become DiSC-certified from the comfort of your home (or wherever you like). The comprehensive four-week program includes three, 90-minute live training sessions. In between these instructor-led classes, you have self-directed work. At the end of the program, you take an exam that leads to certification.

Not only will you learn how to facilitate professional training sessions using the power of DiSC, but also how to customize the standard presentation to make it your own. Once you’re a certified trainer, you will be able to incorporate your own style as you present the material!

DiSC in the Workplace Matters
Every organization—big, small, corporate, nonprofit—has employees with distinct personalities and behavioral traits. There’s sure to be conflict and communication challenges. The beauty of Everything DiSC is that it provides insight on individuals’ primary and secondary behavioral styles across a variety of business functions. Whether it’s Workplace, Management, Sales, Productive Conflict or Work of Leaders, Everything DiSC helps people gain knowledge and understanding, which can improve workplace camaraderie.

Corexcel President and CEO Don Bowlby said, “We’ve found that our customers who use Everything DiSC and integrate it with their culture often experience exceptional team performance and rising stock prices. Helping that happen is extremely rewarding for us.”

To bring the benefits of Everything DiSC Workplace® to your workplace or the workplaces you support, earn your certification through our online program.

Email us at learn@corexcel.com to learn more.

5 Key Ways How Leadership Style Impacts Corporate Culture

Corporate CultureYour organization’s culture comes from its history and the values, beliefs, and attitudes that it holds. What behaviors are acceptable? What traditions are followed? What is your mission? These factors, and your team members’ styles, are your culture’s ingredients. Mix them together, add a dash of group dynamics, and voila! Your corporate culture is complete.

The style of your organization’s leaders also has a dramatic effect on your corporate culture, in five key ways:

  1. The pace at which decisions are made. Leaders who make quick decisions produce a fast-paced environment, which can be stressful. More methodical leaders provide a more relaxed atmosphere. However, this can diminish your competitive edge.
  2. The process for making decisions and getting things done. Some leaders take a look-at-the-big-picture approach while others obsess over details. When employees are left to work independently, self-starters shine but team camaraderie is minimized. In more collaborative settings, employees have less opportunity to showcase their own accomplishments.
  3. The standards of perfection. Do leaders expect work to be uniformly perfect, or is trial-and-error accepted in an effort to achieve innovation? Striving only for perfection can cause missed opportunities while leniency can diminish quality.
  4. The perspective on risk. Do leaders make bold decisions or proceed with tiny steps? A constant push for innovation can result in missteps while cautiousness can cause missed opportunities.
  5. The predictability of the work experience. Predictable leaders give employees a comfortable atmosphere, though things tend to remain status quo. Leaders who react to clients or the market encourage innovation. This can become a negative if the atmosphere becomes chaotic.

As leadership style directly affects corporate culture, it’s essential that leaders understand the implications of their style. An easy-to-use online tool, Everything DiSC Work of Leaders®, provides a customized strategy for leadership success. The assessment gives your leaders the personalized information and guidance they need to maximize their effectiveness.

Email us at learn@corexcel.com to learn more.

Webinar: Build Your DiSC Capabilities & Strengthen Culture

Building DiSC CapabilitiesDiSC® is an amazing, simple tool that dramatically improves communication, teamwork and enhances culture. It is easy to understand and remember. However, good managers know that completing DiSC assessments are just a first step.

It takes a conscious effort to reinforce DiSC concepts and use the learning across different workplace challenges. Ones like improving management and teamwork, reducing conflict, and embracing change.

In this short 30-minute webinar we’ll explore 5 steps to create a DiSC culture and review available resources, facilitation kits and materials that will help you use DiSC every day to improve your workplace.

Date:  April 24, 2019

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Taking the Sting Out of 360 Feedback Profiling

Feedback UnderlinedEvery thriving organization relies on honest feedback. For leaders, input is crucial not only from their bosses, but also from subordinates and colleagues. To solicit input, many organizations use 360-degree performance feedback profiles. However, with the way these assessments are structured, the comments can sting—and even cause damage to morale. Fortunately, there’s a better way. Let us explain.

A Traditional 360 (The Old Way)

In typical 360-degree performance assessments, leaders assess their own performance. Their peers, subordinates, and managers assess them as well. Challenges arise because:

  • Free-form comment sections give reviewers free rein to say whatever they wish. With input provided anonymously, the comments can be mean-spirited and demoralizing.
  • In small organizations, leaders can figure out who commented. This can make people hesitant to provide honest feedback. It also causes resentment when people are brutally honest.

So how can you get the information you need to help your leaders excel? Use Checkpoint 360, a revolutionary, online feedback profile!

360 (The New Way)

Why Checkpoint 360?

  • It produces a detailed report that conveniently highlights key points in a top section. This presents leaders’ greatest strengths and their top development opportunities, so leaders can start to improve their results right away.
  • It replaces a section for free-form comments with carefully crafted questions to produce instructive, informative comments for leaders. The focus is on constructive feedback that reduces the sting!
  • It uses the DiSC® model, so it looks at behaviors and delivers detailed, easy-to-understand data—with helpful graphs.

Here’s an example. A traditional 360 assessment might ask, “Does this leader clearly communicate team opportunities?” Meanwhile, Checkpoint asks, “Do you think this leader needs to be more active about finding new opportunities for the group?” with multiple-choice answers:

  • Yes, a lot more
  • Yes, a little more
  • No

Reviewers then select additional, pre-populated comments, such as “Their passion for finding new opportunities encourages the rest of us to show initiative” or “They already do a good job of finding new opportunities.” This allows for useful, sting-free actionable feedback that your leaders need for positive development.

We’re here to help you revolutionize the way your organization delivers feedback. Email us at learn@corexcel.com to learn more.

Yes, You Can Minimize Workplace Conflict

Meeting Involving Conflict

There’s conflict in every workplace. It’s inevitable. Colleagues with different communication styles working together every day are bound to have friction sometimes. Surely you’ve seen this in your own workplace.

For instance, consider the “no-fluff” boss. “I need this report on my desk by 10:00,” she might announce Monday morning. The employee, however, had started his day with a cheerful “Good morning! How was your weekend?” to his co-workers. With his softer communication style, he might react negatively to his boss. Neither style is right or wrong, but it’s easy for someone to misunderstand another’s intent. That’s how conflict arises.

In your workplace:

  • Is there an employee who repeatedly offends others?
  • Is there an employee who’s often mad?
  • Do team members fail to effectively convey ideas to one another?
  • Are employees just not getting along?

Let us help.

Tell us about the conflict your workplace is experiencing. If you can’t pinpoint the root of the problem, we’ll help you identify it. Then we’ll establish an action plan on how to minimize conflict in your workplace. We might recommend:

Personality assessments. These assessments shed light on the group’s culture and the tendencies of the individuals. You can even compare the priorities of two individuals and uncover their potential communication roadblocks. You’ll have a roadmap to success, with advice on how the individuals can best work with each other.

Coaching or training. Our on-site and virtual workshops let you learn how to achieve smoother interactions, at your convenience. If you prefer to run a workshop yourself, we can provide the necessary materials.

Your customized action plan for resolving conflict in the workplace is designed to eliminate dysfunctional communication that creates roadblocks. Our goal is to deliver the “aha” moments that come from employees learning to understand themselves and one another. There’s no better way to minimize conflict in the workplace.

To get started, please email us at learn@corexcel.com.

DiSC® Myths—Busted

DiSC® Myths—Busted

How much do you know about the DiSC® Personality Test? When it comes to behavior assessment profiles, DiSC is simply unmatched. Participants complete a short survey, which then generates insightful results on their behavior. DiSC offers valuable information for your organization, yet misconceptions abound. Here are some DiSC assessment myths debunked.

Myth #1: You can’t use DiSC as part of your hiring process.
Truth: While DiSC shouldn’t be your sole decision-making tool, it can be helpful during the hiring process. DiSC provides insight into a candidate’s behavior and communication preferences, so it can help you find someone who fits nicely in your organization.

Myth #2: You must have special certification to use DiSC in training sessions.
Truth: Unless you’re outside North America, you can use DiSC without receiving certification. This makes DiSC highly accessible to organizations that would benefit from this tool.

Myth #3: DiSC is like other behavior assessments out there.
Truth: DiSC measures so much more. While other assessments label individuals in one of a handful of categories, DiSC identifies an individual’s primary—and secondary—style. So instead of simply identifying participants as having a “D,” “i,” “S,” or “C” style (for Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness), DiSC notes their style as CD, Si, and so on. It’s a more layered approach to reflect that no individual has a “one-note” personality.

DiSC is differentiated even further by diving deeper into the intensity of each participant’s personality. With an individual’s results plotted as a dot on a graph like the one here, the location of the dot is very telling. Is your dot toward the edge of the circle? If so, then your personality is firmly in the identified style. Is your dot towards the center of the circle? In that case, you have those characteristics to a lesser degree.

Circular DiSC Model

Do you have questions? You can find common DISC questions and answers here.

To learn more, please email us at learn@corexcel.com.

Is Office Drama Costing You? | Webinar

Explore Everything DiSC Productive Conflict!

Conflicted People

However you think of conflict, it comes down to a difference of opinion involving strong emotions. Whether it’s a brief, explosive dispute or subtle, long-lasting issue, we’ve all done things in these moments that derail conversations and destroy our relationships.

Ever wonder why? Are we bad people, unable to control ourselves?

There is an explanation and it’s roots are in the cognitive behavioral model. Hidden inside us are our thoughts, often unconscious. Many times we’re unaware of these thoughts until we react in ways that have negative consequences. Gaining awareness of these thoughts, making better choices and changing our responses contributes to our overall emotional intelligence quotient.

In this session, we’ll explore how the Everything DiSC Productive Conflict program can help you and your team gain the emotional intelligence you need to engage in positive conflict and succeed in today’s workplace.

Date:  September 26, 2018

Contact us to request the webinar recording

Webinar: Maintain Team Momentum During Management Changes

Team Exhibiting MomentumWhether a manager is going to be responsible for a new group because of an internal promotion, a transfer, or company reorganization, they will be challenged with building relationships with their new team members.

On the other hand, when teams face a management change, it taxes their engagement and productivity.

Learn how Everything DiSC Management and Everything DiSC Workplace assessments can help managers understand, relate to and communicate with their new team. And how these tools can help the team work with a new boss.

In this webinar you’ll hear:

  1. Areas of communication most important to management transition and success
  2. How management style can impact a new team
  3. How to recognize and best approach the style of each team member
  4. How to create a motivating team atmosphere

Learn how you can help your managers gain traction quickly with new teams.

Contact us to request the August 29 webinar recording https://www.corexcel.com/html/contact.php