by:  Lynda McNutt Foster, CEO, Cortex Leadership Consulting. A note from a recent conference attendee: “Lynda, I wanted to send you a note to let you know how much I enjoyed and have used the DISC training you and your team provided.    I learned a great deal about myself.  I learned how I communicate and might be perceived by others, and even have tried some of the communication practices with my daughter.  What you taught really works. After the workshop, I began seeing a f

We’ve all attended bad meetings.  Meetings that take too long and that have one person monopolizing the conversation the whole time.  I posted this guide recently on LinkedIn that some people could utilize in a meeting to decide whether or not they should speak up and when. Some people loved it and others seemed angry.  I remember the moment Courtland James , one of our executive coaches at Cortex, gave it to me to review.  I said to him, “Wow, this could really help some of

Are you looking for a quick way to identify what type of DISC behavioral style someone is at work?  See if you can match the person’s actions with the lists below. Driver’s main characteristic is dominance.  They operate at a faster pace, are task-oriented, and can get upset if something does not seem efficient. Influencer’s main characteristic is just that.  They operate at a faster pace and are people oriented.  They tend to not like conflict and would rather avoid it an

Who shares in your vision?   How reflective of your organization’s current culture is your vision?  Are your frontline team members, that have the most amount of contact with your citizens, clients, or customers, engaged and enthusiastic about your vision? With 67% of people reporting to Gallup they are disengaged at work, and competition for time and people’s attention at an all-time high, starting with why they want to work for your organization could be a good place to b

Tough, thoughtful, questions produce the best answers.  Are you asking yourself and your team enough of them?  As a leader, what are the best questions to ask and when?  In Peter Senge’s timeless work, The Fifth Discipline:  The Art & Practice of a Learning Organization, leaders learn which disciplines they need to develop to be prepared to ask the right questions, at the right times, to the appropriate people. The foundation of his work is based on creating a learning organ