Now we’re working our way through the other end of this intense disruption, and organizations are left wondering how a return to normalcy even looks. For many, much of the changes made over the past year and a half will continue in the future. In fact, 68% of businesses plan to continue having flexible work arrangements even once returning to the office is safe. 

As we continue to navigate the world of remote work, one thing is clear: To have your team succeed, you need to find employees who are self-sufficient and self-aware. By recruiting self-aware candidates and developing your existing teams’ self-awareness skills, you’ll find yourself sourcing a more productive and engaged remote workforce.

#SelfAwareness in the workplace leads to higher levels of productivity and better #EmotionalIntelligence. See how you can train yourself and your team to become more self-aware on @CaliperCorp’s latest blog:
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What is Self-Awareness?

A branch of emotional intelligence, self-awareness is one’s ability to consciously manage and understand their character, feelings, motives, and desires. Essentially, it is a skill that enables people to tap into their true feelings and understand the drivers behind them. 

Self-awareness and emotional intelligence focus on understanding your own emotions and the emotions of those around you so that you can act appropriately in social settings. This management of your thoughts and emotions is crucial because it influences your ability to analyze situations and react accordingly.

Why is Being Self-Aware Important At Work?

Even in remote situations, you are constantly communicating with coworkers, handling tasks for clients, and corresponding with a variety of people every day. To succeed and accomplish your goals, you need to understand your surroundings and react appropriately. Employees with higher levels of self-awareness are better at managing their emotions in high-stress situations, admitting when they are at fault, and leaving their personal lives at the door. This positively impacts company performance, leading to a more productive and honest workplace.

But, self-awareness is not just about managing emotions. It’s also about knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Self-aware employees can cater to their strengths while understanding what areas they can improve upon. This helps them grow as a person and allows them to become stronger in their role. Below we highlight some of the valuable benefits that come from working to increase your self-awareness.

The Benefits of Being Self-Aware

Just like any other skill, self-awareness is something you need to consciously work on to improve. It takes time and patience to become highly self-aware, but the benefits of investing in your personal development speak for themselves. Highly self-aware employees find themselves to be better equipped in a variety of areas:

• Better at dealing with stress — Self-aware employees can identify when they are stressed and determine what factors led to them feeling overwhelmed. This is highly beneficial, as it allows them to pinpoint what circumstances led to this so that they can avoid these stressors in the future. Additionally, highly self-aware employees can manage their stress levels so that they can reduce the strain on them and get back to performing at their peak. This helps to reduce the likelihood of burnout, which is a large challenge for many remote employees.
• Better with time management — Self-aware employees understand the timing, conditions, and environment in which they work most productively. They also are more aware of the situations around them, giving them a greater ability to manage deadlines and tasks. With an understanding of how they work best, self-aware employees know exactly the kind of space and resources they need to succeed. This is crucial for remote teams, where the manager is not able to oversee the progress of many tasks.
• Receiving Feedback — A crucial part of professional and personal development is receiving and acting upon feedback. Self-aware people tend to be critical of their work and constantly look for ways to improve their skills, meaning they often know what they need to improve upon before being told. And, when the time comes for receiving feedback, self-aware employees are generally more open and understanding of the development advice.
• Growing Confidence — Self-aware people understand their skill sets, strengths, and talents. The confidence that comes with knowing your value and worth has positive impacts on all aspects of life, including within your work. Heightened levels of self-confidence and self-awareness lead to higher levels of happiness and a higher chance of you accomplishing your goals. Plus, confidence is key for remote work, as you often need to make decisions without insight from your team.

@CaliperCorp is shining a light on the benefits of #EmotionalIntelligence in #remote employees in their latest blog:
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Developing Self-Awareness

Developing your self-awareness is something that takes time and conscious effort. But, with practice, patience, and a solid strategy in place, you can work to develop your own self-awareness as well as those around you. Below are six strategies you can use to encourage your remote teams to become more self-aware:

1. Take a personality test. Personality tests are a great resource for understanding your own motivators as well as those around you. This can be a helpful strategy for remote teams, as it will identify what kinds of strengths you have and the strengths of your coworkers. Armed with this knowledge, you can pinpoint the different dynamics of your team, giving you a better understanding of how to work alongside one another. 
2. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is all about understanding your current thoughts and emotions and clearing your mind of negative stressors. You can gain a deeper clarity of your surroundings and reduce distractive thoughts and objects by practicing mindfulness. Some ways to practice mindfulness are reflecting at the end of the day, meditating, or going for a walk to clear your head. 
3. Practice active listening. Active listening is when you listen to what someone is saying without judgment or advice. This skill enables you to positively engage with those you are talking to and understand their point of view.
4. Try journaling. This is a great method to help you get out your feelings and process them. Many people use journaling to write down the triggers they find in their day-to-day life then reflect on steps they can take to not face negative impacts from these triggers in the future. 
5. Try naming your emotions. This exercise allows you to identify what you are feeling and why you feel that way. This may also allow you to see the emotions in other people, giving you a greater ability to manage your emotions and reactions in social situations.
6. Lastly, encourage feedback. Sometimes having a different perspective on a situation can allow us to see things more clearly. By asking your friends, colleagues, or managers for feedback, you can gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as what you can do to improve your performance.

As we prepare for the future and continue to navigate the new world of work, employees and managers would benefit from enhancing their self-awareness. Not only will you see personal benefits from managing your thoughts and emotions better, but you’ll also find yourself working in a healthier, more productive workforce.

At Caliper, we take individual development and emotional intelligence seriously. With a team of experts working on developmental strategies backed by science, our tools and resources will help you to see verifiable growth in a short amount of time. Want to learn more? Reach out to our team of experts today and see how we can help you grow your own skillset.

Most companies invest in new software, acquire new properties, or even fund new projects. But, what good is new software if the user has no idea how to work it? What is the point in investing in new projects if your employees are still applying outdated principles to them? Professional development training keeps your employees up to date with what is going on in the field, expands their skill sets, and allows them to do their jobs more efficiently.

The Cost Of Investing In Professional Development

A strong, effective professional development program requires an investment. However, the costs associated with training and development can vary based on your company.  In 2020, the average company spent about $1,111 per employee on training. As the size of the workforce increases, organizations typically spend less per employee.

@CaliperCorp says that investing in #ProfessionalDevelopment is crucial for modern companies. See what benefits you can expect when you prioritize #training and #ContinuousLearning:
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When budgeting for your organization, it’s best to keep in mind and track your spending on development per employee. This will enable you to better forecast and budget for the future.

Benefits Of Investing In Professional Development:

Employee and professional development opportunities have been rising in the ranks of importance for job seekers. Recent studies have shown that 34% of employees left their previous positions due to having more career development opportunities from other employers. It’s clear that employees are taking professional development very seriously. Working professionals want to advance in their careers by training in new areas.

When you invest in professional development, you’ll see benefits like:

• Increased Retention — Retention rates rise 30-50% for companies with strong learning cultures. This shows employees you care about their career progression and are interested in keeping them at the company long term. 
• Easier Succession Planning — Did you know that internal candidates can fill 42% of critical roles quickly? Promoting from within has its benefits, such as preventing learning gaps and decreasing turnover rates. Additionally, you know your employee’s track record and performance, reducing the risk of taking on a new hire. 
• Improve Efficiency — When you invest in developing employees, they can share their new skills and insights with the team, helping everyone become more knowledgeable and efficient. With new perspectives, you can rework old processes and procedures to better apply to your current needs.
• Prepare Future Leaders — Professional development allows you to invest in the next generation of company leaders. Due to the effects of the pandemic, many companies have undergone a massive shift. With professional development, employees can learn to balance organizational needs, customer requirements and understand the market state.

When you invest in your employees’ professional development, you’ll find yourself saving money on recruiting and onboarding while having a more highly productive workforce.

When you invest in #ProfessionalDevelopment, you’ll find a more #engaged, #productive, and #skilled workforce. @CaliperCorp talks about the benefits of professional development on their latest blog:
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The ROI Of Investing In Professional Development

The best way to understand the impact of professional development is to look at the return on investment (ROI). Your shareholders will want to see the benefits of such an investment, and you need to be sure that your efforts are working as intended. Some things to analyze include:

• Retention rates — As stated earlier, you can reduce the likelihood of turnover by 30-50% with training and development programs. Check out the reduction in turnover after you implemented a professional development program. How does this number compare to before you started your initiatives? You should see a decrease in the number of employees leaving your organization. 
• Productivity rates — When your team is well-trained and highly skilled, you should see productivity increase by up to 10%. Keeping your team focused and working efficiently will make a significant impact on your bottom line. 
• Engagement levels — As you invest in professional development, you’ll find that employee engagement rates rise. Employees like to know they are advancing their skill set and adding value to the processes. This has a rippling effect on other metrics of your organization. Companies with high levels of engagement are 21% more profitable and see 41% lower rates of absenteeism in employees. 
• Recruiting and onboarding expenses — With a more skilled and loyal workforce, you’ll find you spend less money and time recruiting and onboarding new talent. This can lead to significant savings, seeing as an average mid-sized company spends upwards of $40,000 a year on onboarding.

Did you know? It pays to invest in the development of your employees. Depending on the effectiveness of your efforts, you can see an ROI of upwards of 350%!

Professional development can greatly aid in your company’s success. To stay competitive in the recruiting space, your company needs to offer learning and development initiatives that compare to other organizations. And, to keep your existing team happy, you’ll need to provide them with the support and space to learn new skills and advance within your organization. With the right approach, you can create a development program that churns out highly talented employees, reduces turnover and recruiting costs, and impacts your bottom line with a positive ROI.

Investing in professional development in the workplace can be challenging, but Caliper makes it easy. We help employees reach their full potential by going beyond traditional training with self-awareness. Download our Personal Development Guide today to plan out your company’s goals, behavioral changes, practice, and more.

What is Self-Awareness?

A popular New York Times Bestselling Author, Mark Manson, describes self-awareness as our ability to ground ourselves in reality. With the ability to manage our thoughts, impulses, and feelings, self-awareness in the workplace helps with not only interpersonal interactions and relationships but also self-governance and accountability. With so many organizations continuing to work remotely or in a hybrid capacity, the ability to manage one’s own emotions and workload are crucial for success. 

When you break down self-awareness, it is all about creating a healthy and productive state of mind for you to focus your thoughts and attention. Highly self-aware individuals are able to turn their focus and critiques to themselves, observing their current emotional and mental state. People who are truly self-aware separate their decision-making from their emotions; they control and manage their thoughts, rather than having their thoughts and emotions control them.

Did you know? Only 10-15% of people are self-aware. Although, the percentage of those who think they are self-aware is much higher.

The Appeal For Being Self-Aware

In the workplace, self-awareness is something all employees should strive for. Enabling individuals to have control over their own actions and emotions, a highly self-aware employee is one that takes challenges in stride and reacts in a calm, professional manner. This is a critical aspect when it comes to our current state of business, as many industries and companies continue to face unusually prolonged disruptions.

@CaliperCorp says that there are two main types of #selfawareness, both crucial for your individual #growth. Read up on the differences and how you can refine your skills here:
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There are many benefits to having the ability to regulate and control your emotions. Self-aware individuals can reframe situations and view them positively rather than negatively. It’s important to remember that often, we cannot control external factors in our lives. But, we need to be able to control the way we react to the situations that arise.

Additionally, self-aware people are able to recognize and identify underlying issues in their mental and work processes. Individuals with a high level of self-awareness are always striving to improve their work. They seek out hurdles in their processes and work to improve and correct any potential issues. These corrective measures will help your team become more self-sufficient, productive, and engaged with their team and work.

Did you know? People with high levels of self-awareness are 32% happier compared to those who do not.

The Two Types Of Self-Awareness

When it comes to self-awareness, there are two different categories that you need to be mindful of. Understanding the differences between these categories will help you to identify which aspect you need to develop further. Each individual is unique in their self-awareness journey, so highlighting your strengths and trouble areas will help you advance in your growth.

Public self-awareness is the first of the two categories. This type of self-awareness is centered around controlling your outward appearance and managing the way others perceive you. Often, this form of self-awareness involves regulating your actions and emotions to stick within societal norms or the “status-quo.” Take a moment and imagine you’re speaking at an event in front of a large group of people. How do you feel standing up in front of the crowd? What actions do you take to manage your emotions and reactions to this event? The way you handle and present yourself externally is tied to your public self-awareness skill set.

The other form of self-awareness is the kind that is private and internal. How you perceive yourself and regulate your emotions can be just as important as managing others’ expectations and perceptions of you. At its core, private self-awareness deals with the ability to understand yourself. Often, people will find that they are more well-suited for one form of self-awareness than the other. By identifying which aspects you excel in, you can further refine your plan for growth.

The Levels Of Being Self-Aware

Self-awareness is more than just understanding your surroundings. There are varying levels of awareness, each of which can help you to understand your current state better. Below we break down these levels so that you can better visualize the process.

What are you doing? This is the initial level of self-awareness and is also the most basic. This level encompasses understanding your current situation and actions in your vicinity. On any given day, there are sure to be distractions and challenges you need to overcome. Understanding what they are can help you to focus on the tasks at hand.  

What are you feeling? The next level of self-awareness deals more with your emotions and reactions to things around you. After you’ve determined what you are focused on, center your thoughts around how you feel about what you are doing and experiencing. 

Where are your blindspots? The final level of self-awareness requires a strong skill for reflection. This level asks you to take a deep look at yourself and your situation and recognize areas that you are lacking. Everyone has blind spots and weak points, but the key is identifying these points and reframing them into a growth mindset. Think of this level as your chance to overcome your weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

Climbing the levels of self-awareness is very beneficial for everyone. It allows individuals to concentrate on what’s important, analyze their feelings towards it, and figure out what they might not be able to see at first glance.

Why Is Self-Awareness Important At Work?

Your workplace should strive to hire and develop self-aware individuals. When your workforce excels at identifying, managing, and productively expressing their thoughts and emotions, you’ll see significant improvements in your business functions. Some benefits of encouraging employees to become self-aware include:

• Handle Conflict Productively: In life, things happen! How you react to these changes and turbulence is critical. Staying positive and professional in the face of adversity is crucial for keeping your organization running smoothly. 
• Deeper Understanding Of Your Emotions: The journey towards self-awareness helps you to better identify and manage your emotions. In the workplace, this is crucial, as it can impact your ability to communicate with others and collaborate productively.
• Boost Your Self-Esteem: Self-awareness can actually boost your self-esteem. As you move through the levels of self-awareness, you’ll likely feel more accomplished and confident. Employees with better self-esteem are more likely to perform well within their roles. 
• Increase Empathy And Inclusivity: Self-aware employees have an easier time empathizing with people from different backgrounds. In the workplace, this leads to higher levels of inclusivity and diversity in thinking.
• Stronger Decision Making: In a business setting, decisions are constantly being made. Self-awareness is a valuable tool, as it helps you regulate your thoughts and emotions to make clear, strong decisions.

How do you know if you are #SelfAware? @CaliperCorp discusses tactics for you to practice, and #develop your self-awareness and professional skills in their latest blog:
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Practicing Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a skill that takes time, energy, and practice to excel at. By practicing techniques and consciously working to improve, you can grow your skillset and become an example for others. Some tips for practicing self-awareness include:

• Practice Mindfulness: Each day, spend some time connecting with yourself and self-reflecting. What occurred throughout the day? How did this make you feel? What could you have done better? Create the space and time to ask yourself these questions before ending your day. 
• Writing It Out: Journaling can be a positive outlet for many individuals. It allows you to process your thoughts and emotions by writing them down. This is a great way to get out your frustrations, feelings, or irritations in a healthy and productive way. 
• Check Your Communication: Communication is much more than just speaking to someone. It is important for you to practice picking up on both verbal and nonverbal cues. Look at peoples’ body language. What is their stance? How about their facial expressions? Nonverbal communication can often be more telling than verbal cues. At the end of the day, you need to ensure you are creating a safe space where people feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and emotions. 
• Walk A Mile In Someone Else’s Shoes:  Sometimes, we forget to take a step back and look at situations from an outside perspective. This can create a tunneled view of our situations. Combat this by challenging yourself to view things from the vantage point of another person. You can do this by asking for feedback from those around you or taking the time to put yourself in others’ shoes.
• Question Everything: You should ask “why” to everything. Be as curious as you can and soak up the knowledge of others. This is an opportunity for you to grow as a person and move towards being more self-aware.

Be patient with yourself, and remember that gaining self-awareness takes time and energy to achieve. With continuous practice, you can build up your skills and become more self-aware of your surroundings, emotions, and personal strengths.

As previously mentioned, no one is born being exceptionally self-aware. It is a skill, and just like any other skill, it needs to be refined and strengthened over time. Employers would benefit from offering support and tools for developing their employees’ self-awareness. Not only will their teams become more attuned to their needs, but they will also find themselves better equipped to handle disruptions down the road.

Self-awareness is a key element in your individual development process. With access to the right resources and tools, you can grow yourself personally and professionally. To see more about how you can better yourself through self-exploration and growth, take a look at our Individual Development Guide. Our team of experts is standing by, ready to help you take your development to the next level!

What Are High-Potential Employees?

High-potential employees (HIPOs) are the employees that exhibit the necessary skills for a leadership or management position. These employees are ambitious and take initiative in all their tasks. They have the potential, ability, and aspiration to be successful in leadership positions. Typically, HIPOs excel in their current roles and have a hunger for more responsibilities. They have a strong will to grow in their role and overcome any obstacles they may encounter.

DYK? High-potential employees are 91% more valuable to a business than non-high-potential workers.

Some companies confuse high-potential employees with high-performance employees. It is crucial for businesses to know the difference between them to be successful.

The Difference Between High-Potential vs High-Performance

High-potential employees and high-performance employees are not the same. High-performance refers to employees who excel in their current roles. They tend to set and crush goals such as exceeding their sales quarter goals. These employees function well by themselves and have an innate ability to stay focused on the tasks at hand. However, typically they do not possess the soft skills, such as leadership or a student mentality, in order to be a great leader. 

When it comes to #HighPotential employees, understanding how best to develop these individuals can set your workforce up for future success. @CaliperCorp breaks down how you can identify and develop these employees in their latest blog:
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HIPOs, on the other hand, have the potential to be a strong asset when it comes to management roles. They have the soft skills necessary to learn the role and lead their team toward attaining company goals. High-potential employees tend to excel in an individual setting while HIPOs excel in a group setting.

What makes soft skills so important?

Soft skills are non-negotiable when you are working in a leadership role. For example, having empathy can allow your leaders to connect with other employees and see situations from their perspectives. Enabling these future leaders to develop these soft skills will help your company in the long run.

One mistake companies tend to make is promoting high-performance employees when they should be promoting high-potential employees. 90% of high performers have difficulty adjusting to the higher levels of responsibilities required to lead. When it comes down to it, mistaking high-performance employees for high-potential employees can cost your company time, money, and potentially even employees.

Benefits of Identifying Your High-Potential Employees

Identifying high-potential employees will benefit your company in the long run. Knowing which employees you can trust with various tasks and projects to achieve your company goals is important. When organizations identify and develop their HIPO employees, they often see many benefits to their processes and business functions.

High-potential employees benefit your company by:

• Increasing Productivity— HIPOs are known to be highly productive. They set strong goals for themselves and have the discipline and desire to see them through. Not only do HIPOs accomplish their own goals, but they also work to encourage those around them to do the same. 
• Enabling Succession Planning— Every organization needs to have a road map to success. This involves succession plans for higher-level executives and plans for managing employee departures and promotions. Your HIPOs need to know the plan you have in place and how they contribute to the overall mission. 
• Saving You Money — When it comes to identifying and developing HIPO employees, your company will save time and money. These employees catch on quickly and have a heightened urge to learn new skills, meaning they are more willing to tackle new professional development opportunities.
• Helping You To Identify Strengths—  HIPOs are usually very self-aware employees. This means that they know the strengths and weaknesses they bring to the table and how to apply these skills for actual growth and success. HIPOs often also help other employees to realize their unique skill set. This enables your company to excel with the existing talent in your organization.

While the above benefits are the most commonly recognized advantages to developing your HIPOs, you might see other value-added benefits. This can include an increase in revenue and improved morale. Organizations should strive to identify and develop their high-potential employees whenever possible.

How To Identify High-Potential Employees

The first step to identifying HIPO employees is observing your employees to see who has the management or supervisory skills necessary to lead your team in the right direction. There are certain criteria in identifying high-potential employees. Criteria may include knowledge, reputation, and certainty. Other common traits include:

• Takes the initiative and Has a Desire To Lead — High-potential employees take the initiative to help whenever they can. HIPOs are willing and able to take the reins and ensure your team accomplishes your goals, going above and beyond their job description to help fill the gaps in your company.
• Has an Entrepreneurial Mindset — HIPOs are forward-thinkers. They are well-versed in all aspects of the business and are always looking at the overall picture. Your HIPOs will be employees who are invested in your company goals and work to support their teams when needed. 
• Makes Decisions and Acts on Them — It is important to have someone who can make a decision and stick to it. More importantly, your organization needs someone who can execute decisions when needed. 
• Is Flexible in Fast-Paced Environments — Most businesses today operate at a warp-speed. HIPOs need to be flexible and adapt to changes as they come. Your high-potential employees should be able to make quick changes when needed.
• Is Committed and Engaged — These employees are loyal to the goals of the company. HIPOs also love asking questions. It could be for clarification or asking for more information to gain a deeper understanding of their tasks. Still, your high-potential employees have an innate desire to learn and a curiosity to take your team to the next level. 
• Fosters Positive Relationships — Employees who can develop positive internal and external relationships are well-fitted for leadership roles. The ability to form meaningful and positive workplace relationships helps keep your team motivated and engaged. 
• Performs Leadership Duties — Employees who perform leadership roles are considered a high-value asset to your team. HIPOs are also your employees who need little-to-no direction. They are able to take a task and run with it, meaning you’ll spend less time guiding and supporting them along the way.
• Is Talented at Their Job — Finally, potential HIPOs are employees that excel in their current roles. The employees best equipped to be future leaders are always working their hardest to push themselves and their team members in the right direction.

Developing High-Potential Employees

When it comes to developing your high-potential employees, having a strong, reliable development program is necessary. How do you start? One option is to implement a mentorship program. By pairing your HIPO with a more experienced leader within your organization, they can learn the intricacies and nuances of leadership roles before jumping in head-first. Their mentor can offer guidance, coaching, and feedback as they take on their new roles.

@CaliperCorp discusses the importance of identifying and #developing #HighPotentialEmployees in their latest blog. See what strategies they recommend implementing in your own organization:
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Another strategy that needs to be included in your development program is an individualized and customized career plan for each employee. Focused career plans are a transparent way for employees to know what their future holds. Not only will they see a road map of where they are and where they can go within your organization, but it also reassures your employees that you are invested in their future.

Finally, implementing online learning programs can benefit your organization. These programs are highly useful, as they do not require as significant of a commitment as in-person programs. Your HIPOs can manage their learning at their own pace and attend virtual classes to refine skills and industry knowledge. These learning programs also enable HIPOs to network with other like-minded professionals, creating an expansive web of support and guidance that employees can draw upon in times of need.

Developing your HIPOs is crucial. It is important to remember that leadership skills come with time, practice, and experience. By investing the proper resources in your employees’ development, you can create a future workforce with the knowledge, skills, and ambition to take your company to the next level. Remember that even when the above options are implemented, it is still possible for HIPOs to fail in their roles. If they do not have the support and development needed to succeed in a leadership role, it can be difficult for your employees to succeed. Make sure they know they have a place to ask questions and develop their skills. There is bound to be a learning curve with a new position, but with the right guidance, they can be successful.

Bear in mind that HIPOs are not the same as high-performance employees. Properly identifying and developing high-potential employees can set your organization up for future success.

Taking initiative, a desire to lead, and being flexible in fast-paced environments are a few characteristics that you can look for when identifying high-potential employees. It is important to develop these employees since they can directly and positively impact your business’s revenue to help you accomplish your goals. By investing in development opportunities, offering mentorship programs, and creating individualized career plans, you can better grow these HIPO into future leaders.

Develop your talent to peak performance! Our science-backed and results-proven solutions for training, coaching, and development can help you build a stronger workforce. To learn more about the benefits, you’ll gain from implementing our solutions, reach out to our team of experts today.

Employees depend on their supervisors to create a better work culture, motivate them, and coach them throughout their roles. Being an effective manager requires more than just managing tasks — it requires leadership. 72% of job seekers are driven by career advancement opportunities and cite it as the number one reason to change jobs. Simply put, professional development matters, not only for leaders but for all employees.

Professional development and goal-setting play a significant role in successful growth and advancement at any point in a manager’s career. As leaders, managers spend a great deal of time helping employees and teams meet their objectives. However, it can be easy for managers to lose sight of their own goals. It’s time to reflect on what excellent goal setting is and how you can put those plans into action for your managers.

@CaliperCorp breaks down the importance of #ProfessionalDevelopment #goals when it comes to organizational success. Read more:
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What is a Professional Development Goal?

The success of the company is dependent upon the success of its employees. That’s why it is crucial to encourage your employees, especially your managers, to grow within their role. So, what exactly are professional development goals?

Professional development goals aim to help individuals focus on improving and increasing their competencies through continuous learning and training initiatives throughout the workplace. 

Not Sure Where To Start?

Begin by exploring these sources to elevate professional development:

• Formal training seminars
• Online webinars
• Videos
• Coaching
• Mentoring
• Job sharing

During monthly or quarterly performance reviews, sit down with your managers to determine where they need to improve, what skills they wish to acquire or grow, and what these goals will do to improve their overall performance. Each professional development goal can be job-specific, such as cross-training with another department, or more generalized, like leadership participation throughout the organization. When setting goals for your leaders, make sure they are clear, measurable, and realistic. Focusing on these aspects will help your managers achieve these goals and put them into play within their team. When your managers complete specific goals, your entire workforce’s performance will elevate through enhanced communication, productivity, and retention.

Bonus Material: See how Caliper can transform your leadership strategies with Caliper Executive Development and Coaching.

So what key goals can turn your good managers into great leaders? Take a look:

Cross-Functional Learning

Great leaders possess a holistic view of the company. Managers must learn all of the relevant business functions. Having this view helps them maximize their goals and more effectively mentor their employees.  By developing yourself cross-functionally, you can identify professional relationships and how to improve upon them. 

3 Quick Tips for Grasping Cross-Functional Learning:

• Interact with each department — Take the time to learn their goals and results. 
• Learning each department, individual, and team’s needs —  Understand the different roles within each function and recognize its impact on the company.
• Understand how each department works together — Determine what each department should be doing and highlight collaboration opportunities. 

Communication

Managing a team can be challenging. Obstacles can cause significant miscommunication issues throughout the entire team. A much-overlooked skill among managers is possessing the communication skills to set expectations, share feedback, listen intently, demonstrate empathy, and inspire action or change. 

According to an Interact/Harris Poll, communicating well is the one critical skill that 91% of 1,000 employees said their leaders lack. If managers lack the skills to communicate effectively, they create a roadblock for their teams. Ensuring communication is established and thoroughly understood across the board is crucial to being a great leader.

Encouraging a culture for #feedback enables #leaders to gain insight into employee sentiment. @CaliperCorp says #ProfessionalDevelopment goals can help you better engage and retain employees. See how:
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Setting a goal to evaluate your current communication techniques and figuring out ways to fill those missing gaps can help your team succeed. Plus, you can help your managers be more effective leaders.

Developing clear channels for communication and building a team that embraces open feedback play a large part in success. After all, you want to promote regular communication and establish the workplace as an environment for public discussion.

When setting this goal, ask your employees for their feedback and learn how communication can improve throughout the organization. Allowing your team to discuss their opinions, challenges, or room for improvement will demonstrate that you’re listening to them. If you aren’t sure how to get the ball rolling, begin by creating a staff survey. Not only do surveys allow your staff to come to you with concerns, but it encourages a culture for feedback. 

4 Questions to Ask In Employee Surveys:

1. How can I help you to feel more satisfied with your role?
2. Do you feel like the management team is transparent? If not, why?
3. Do you feel valued at work?
4. Are you receiving the proper resources and training to succeed throughout your role?

Using the given information, managers will gain insight into others’ ideas, encourage feedback from staff, use feedback to improve initiatives and create an overall better communication process.

Coaching

With better communication comes better coaching. If a manager wants to become a leader, they must develop the ability to coach others. If managers aren’t skilled at coaching their staff, it’ll be difficult for them to achieve long-term, impactful results for themselves, their teams, and the organization. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 93% of managers felt they lacked the training and skills needed to properly coach their direct reports.

Ultimately, coaching requires skill and time. Set up managers with mentors so they can gain first-hand experience about the benefits of coaching. They will also gain a valuable adviser on how to coach others. Part of being a great leader is providing each member with insights and tips to help them improve their performance. 

Given that their relationship with their manager partly shapes your employee’s experience, managers must have access to the tools to render their management style more helpful with each individual’s needs. To achieve this, on-demand skills and training such as active listening, questioning, building rapport, delivering constructive feedback, and delegation will help managers be honest, transparent, engage employees, and improve workforce performance.

3 Reasons Why Taking A Step Back From Day-to-Day Managing Helps:

1. You learn to talk to and respect others.
2. You will possess a general understanding of everyone’s roles, responsibilities, and the expectations employees should be setting for themselves.
3. You will show how your expertise brings value to the organization.

If you want your team to run like a well-oiled machine, motivation and coaching is a master skill every great leader can acquire. As your managers learn to coach employees through their challenges and identify their strengths, this builds an environment and culture for employees to grow within their career and learn new skills.

Productivity

Everybody loves to be efficient and productive, but managers can quickly get stuck in their day-to-day routine and forget to look for gaps in their process. To have a great leader on your side, you’ll need them to keep up with the latest tech, systems, and procedures to ensure their team is getting the best of the best in order to produce quality work and ramp up productivity, as well as reduce the amount of time spent on unnecessary tasks.

By incorporating management training into your professional development program, you can prepare your leaders for continuous change and improvements to stay ahead of the evolving business world. With this approach to leadership, you will see increased employee retention and overall team productivity growth. Your leaders will evolve, and your team will learn from them.

Every organization is different; your leaders all require their unique professional development action plan to achieve overall team and organizational success. Make sure you collaborate with your team members to identify key objectives or missed opportunities and set professional development goals based upon those objectives. Remember, set goals that are manageable, reasonable, and impactful, not just for your manager but for their team as well.

Interested in how you can help turn your good managers into great leaders? Get the insight and data you need from them to create an impactful professional development program. Work with Caliper to see how the Caliper Essentials for Coaching can turn your managers into great leaders!

However, emotional intelligence in the workplace doesn’t stop there. In the final part of our series, we’ll take a closer look at how your organization’s values, teamwork, and communication affect your team’s overall success.

Identifying Your Values

What are values, and how do you identify them?

The values of your organization are like the roots of a tree. They are not always visible, but they need to be strong for your organization to succeed. An organization builds its foundation from the mindset, values, and beliefs of the team. How do values and beliefs differ? Beliefs represent the different assumptions each individual holds, while values exemplify the motivators and things that are most important to us. Essentially, values are part of our identity and drive the actions we do, anchoring us in unsteady times. 

Identifying your values doesn’t have to be tricky. Using a pie chart like the one above, you can focus on your six key values. Fill in each slice of the chart with a word or phrase that means something to you. Ask yourself why this word or phrase holds importance in your life. 

Every organization will face disruption and adversity. @CaliperCorp says it's how you recover and grow from the adversity that matters. Read more on part 2 of their #emotional #intelligence series:
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Take the time to identify your top six values and work to prioritize them. How often do you use this value in your daily life? Is it something you use sporadically or consistently? This exercise helps you balance and behave in-line with your values. When you take strides to behave in line with your values and beliefs, you’ll find increased self-esteem, self-regard, and emotional well-being and health.

This list of values can help you brainstorm what matters most to you:

Tip: 7 Strategies to use your values to keep you emotionally and mentally strong

• Notice what you are doing well
• Look for values you have that will help you connect with others.
• Connect with values that will help you stay hopeful, grounded, and strong – look for silver linings.
• Increase your focus on facts and statistics – have accurate information.
• Identify a great role model.
• ‘Borrow’ someone else’s values.
• Notice the values of others

Teamwork Is Everything

The old saying goes, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” With a strong emotional intelligence in the workplace comes heightened collaboration. Employees equipped with emotional intelligence skills are more capable of connecting on a common commitment and engaging those around them. 

Work as a team to determine:

• Achievable outcomes — provide clarity on the mission, vision, and organizational goals, prioritize tasks and responsibilities, utilize personal talents, and ensure you remain realistic in your team efforts.
• Workplace relationship needs — determine if you are meeting frequently enough as a team, share thoughts and opinions on workplace processes, ask for feedback, and acknowledge ways your team can improve.
• Employee emotional needs — discuss whether you and your employees feel adequately supported in your functions, brainstorm opportunities to be proactive in your emotional needs, and converse about what can be learned from past challenges.

When your team members support one another and work toward a common goal, you become a powerful collective, fostering increased productivity.

Listen Up

You can base an individual’s ability to listen on two factors:

• Self Awareness — This is your ability to focus and pay attention to what the speaker is saying.
• Regard for Others — This is your attitude towards the person speaking.

Listening well is paramount to one’s ability to act quickly and adapt to challenges. In today’s frequently changing landscape, it has never been more critical for individuals to practice active listening so they can be educated and prepared for any potential disruptions. 

Here are some simple steps you can take to practice your listening skills.

• Practice being present. Remove all distractions, both internal and external, from the area. Put your phone to the side, turn off all sounds, and closeout of any apps or tabs that may distract you. 
• Try to understand what they are saying. Approach the conversation with a positive attitude and vested interest. Minimize your preconceptions so that you can be listening without judging them, and let them speak fully — don’t interrupt. An excellent way to ensure you understood the speaker is to rephrase and reflect on what you heard. 
• Ask open-ended questions. Ask questions that probe deeper and allow the speaker to converse openly. Sample phrases and questions include:
  • Tell me more…
  • How is this affecting you?
  • What impact does this have on you?

Tip: When having important conversations, include all relevant parties so that everyone can feel heard and represented.

There are three different forms of listening, each with unique behaviors:

1. Listening to speak. This form of listening is the most passive form of the three. People are not invested in the speaker when practicing this method of listening. They often are listening selectively and spend time daydreaming and ignoring the speaker. These listeners are often quick to judge and are self-focused; they are merely waiting for their chance to speak.
2. Active listening. Active listeners are interested in the conversation and are focused on the speaker. Each party is listening to one another and taking turns to talk, and both parties feel valued and understood. In these kinds of conversations, people explore details, and information is shared efficiently. 
3. Empathic listening. Empathic listeners fully and completely focus on the speaker. They approach conversations with complete openness and are non-judgmental. The speaker feels valued and comfortable, which fosters an environment where people can discuss feelings with honesty. Empathic listeners note both verbal and nonverbal language and can reflect on the conversation.

Listening is crucial in building trust in your workplace relationships. By providing an atmosphere where your employees feel valued and heard, you can strengthen your teamwork and culture.

Focus On Growth

Every organization will face disruption and adversity. It is how you cope with the adversity that makes all the difference. The “Thrive Cycle of Resilience” illustrates a 4-step process we progress through as crises arise. While every individual moves through the cycle at their own speed, this model helps us to visualize how behaviors might manifest in each stage.

Survive. When initially exposed to adversity or stress, people react in different ways. Anxiety and fear may cloud judgment, and people are often unable to think rationally and calmly. In this stage, it is not uncommon for our emotions to drive poor behaviors.

Adapt. What does adapting to adversity mean? In the adaptation stage, people make the conscious decision to adjust their surroundings and make necessary changes. This stage requires self-awareness, attention to detail, and a willingness to step out of the comfort zone. The adaptation stage fosters positive behaviors. 

Recover. Recovering from challenging situations is just that — the ability to bounce back. When you enter the recovery stage, you have accepted your situation and are actively searching for solutions to your problems. A motivation to change your circumstances drives this stage, and it often reveals inner talents and strengths.

Thrive. The final stage of the cycle is all about growth. At this point in the process, you are focused on learning from the past and reflecting on how you can prepare for the future. When you reach the thriving stage, you have grown stronger and are a self-believer. This stage equips leaders with the resilience that is needed to cope with adversity better next time. 

@CaliperCorp breaks down the 3 forms of listening in the final part of their #emotional #intelligence series. Read more:
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As you advance through the cycle, take care not to get stuck in the adaptation mode. Adapting to adversity is not the same as recovering from adversity. To move on, we need to do the following four things:

1. Take action. People draw their motivation from taking action, and recovery will not happen if you procrastinate. 
2. Set small objectives. To help motivate you towards action, set small objectives. Often, people look at their to-do list and feel overwhelmed. By working toward smaller and achievable goals, your objectives will feel less demanding.
3. Create new routines and habits. Humans have an emotional side to our brains. It’s there to keep us safe and comfortable, which means it thrives on predictability. By reworking familiar routines to fit your new environment, you can help ease your mind and find ways to recover.
4. Learn from past experiences. Recognizing your talents and strengths can motivate you to work toward recovery. Approach this reflection with a positive attitude — don’t take your past achievements for granted.

Once you’ve reached the end of the cycle, it is essential to give yourself the time and space to reflect on your journey. The pathway through the cycle builds up the resilience in your leaders to prepare them and equip them for future challenges. To assist you with your reflection, ask yourself the following questions:

• How did I initially respond to the crisis?
• How did I learn to adapt and cope with this adversity?
• What personal strengths and talents helped guide me through this situation?
• What did I learn from this experience?
• How did this experience make me stronger?

Emotional intelligence in the workplace equips us with the tools we need to better manage ourselves and our interpersonal relationships. When we practice emotional intelligence, we can regulate our emotions, think rationally, demonstrate empathy and respect, and foster positive behaviors. 

In the final part of our series, we identified the importance of balancing our values with our actions and approaching conversations with a positive mindset and attitude. We discussed the various ways to listen to one another and the benefits of listening with empathy. Finally, we learned about the cycle of resiliency and the importance of focusing on growth. Emotional intelligence is something that can always be improved. By remaining open-minded and willing to adapt and grow, you can nurture deeper, more meaningful personal and professional relationships.

Caliper can assist you with your employees with your professional development goals. Our Individual Development Guide equips individuals with the tools and skills they need to advance their self-awareness and offers a guide on improving upon areas of opportunity. Caliper’s Essentials for Coaching works to help managers and HR Professionals coach and develop their employees. To learn more about how Caliper supports your organization in professional development, speak to one of our experts.

What is Emotional Intelligence:

In simple terms, Emotional Intelligence is how we manage ourselves and manage our relationships to be effective both personally and interpersonally. It’s helpful to envision Emotional Intelligence like a tree. 

• The roots are our mindset/attitude; these ground us and how we perceive the world around us. 
• The trunk is our feelings; these are more subject to outside forces.
• The leaves and branches are our actions, essentially, how our feelings are acted out on the world or, in some cases, ourselves.

How it works:

As you may have guessed, each of these impacts the other two; attitude is the most important component of Emotional Intelligence. When your attitude or mindset is suffering,  impacted, or altered, your feelings and behavior are also affected. 

One way to move your attitude and mindset in the right direction is in the word “mindfulness.” When you’re in a mindful state, you are much more likely to be aware of how your attitude, feelings, and thoughts impact your behavior toward others, ultimately affecting the outcome of your situation. As you can imagine, during a time of crisis and rebuilding, as we’re in now, any positive impact you or your colleagues or employees can have on one another can have ripple effects. The same holds for negative behaviors, emotions, and, obviously, outcomes.

It boils down to three simple steps:

• Be aware of your attitude and intent.
• Be aware of your and other people’s feelings.
• Choose how you behave!

Observe the difference between mindfulness and survival mode (a mode which many of us are currently operating within, naturally):

As you can see, there are benefits to the survival mode responses, but these will be short-lived. Having a survival mode or instinct helps us “survive” certain situations, but we must pivot quickly to mindfulness to scale that successfully.

#EmotionalIntelligence is how we manage ourselves and manage our relationships to be effective both personally and interpersonal. @CaliperCorp has advice on how to better your emotional intelligence in the workplace:
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Gaining Control of Your Feelings

Once you’ve grasped the benefits of mindfulness and how it can impact you and those around you, it’s time to move the feelings portion of our triangle. 

One way to keep a pulse on your feelings is by doing a daily emotional check-in. While this seems obvious, many of us neglect to focus on what and how we feel, especially during stressful or chaotic times. So take the time to notice how you are feeling and assigning your feelings a label. Use the diagram below to help you identify your feelings and coach your employees and colleagues on their identification checks.

What is the goal of these identification exercises? Well, once you know what you are feeling and can see where it fits on the spectrum, you can work to:

Calm heightened emotions using techniques like breathing, grounding, and relaxation techniques. Scan your body and how you feel. Are there any areas of stress, how is your breathing, is there concentrated pain anywhere?  

Create positive emotions by asking yourself what is going well (or has gone well), identifying what you are proud of, focusing on the good things around you, and creating opportunities for fun and laughter in your life.

Attitude Matters

Attitude and mindset, as we discussed, are the basis for all that follows. So let’s discuss what we mean by mindset. Well, it’s how we feel about ourselves and others. Having a clear view of this can help us spot opportunities and avoid self-defeating cycles.

One tool to ensure we don’t fall victim to self-defeating cycles is to simply recognize the space between your emotion (we cannot always control this)  and your response (this is something we can control.) How? 

Envision the outcome you want in the situation and work backward into goals and appropriate responses. 

Another tool in your arsenal is the ability to recognize your intentions and the intentions of others. Remember what’s important to you and connect to your sense of purpose. Here are ways to remove conditional self-regard.

• Be Perfect – Antidote: You are good enough. 
• Be Strong – Antidote: You can ask for help. You can show your feelings and be vulnerable.
• Please Others – Antidote: Please yourself too.
• Try hard, but don’t succeed – Antidote: Believe in yourself.
• Hurry up!  – Antidote: Take your time.

These techniques help you control your emotions and, in turn, your responses. But in interpersonal exchanges, it’s crucial to view others in high regard. Doing this is surprisingly simple:

• See their humanness. Recognize their humanity and activate empathy. 
• Communicate in a way that shows you care. In written communication, much can be lost, and for some exchanges, that is not the best option.

“People don’t remember what you did or what you said…but they always remember how you make them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Staying Well in a Crisis

Emotional Intelligence serves an even higher purpose during times of crisis. You and your colleagues need to recognize your own emotions and identify them, and that’s very difficult if your emotional and physical health is suffering. EI requires leaders to understand what human needs aren’t being met in their workforce.

While it’s true, we must be aware of all of the above human needs in our own lives and the lives of our employees; there are simply some things we can’t control. To empower ourselves and those we work with, limit the focus to the things we can influence. Once you’ve identified the places where you can make a change,  take action to give yourself some certainty during difficult times.

Need your relationship to be more supportive?  Be clear about what you need in your relationship conversations and ask other people what they need from you.

Understand what you need from your relationships to support you in this time, and ask what people need from you to fulfill interpersonal needs and improve relationships. Get more #emotionalintelligence tips and insights from @CaliperCorp
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Physical needs also impact our attitudes, emotions, and reactions. The good news is we’re far more likely to be able to control how we feel physically. Follow these rules to ensure your physical health doesn’t impact your mindset.

• Get enough sleep (no news before bed, stick to a schedule, avoid food or drink that will keep you awake.)
• Move your body around (stretch, take a walk, integrate movement into your routine.)
• Think about your physical environment’s impact and how it makes you feel (remove clutter, add a lamp, plants.)
• Look after your body and your brain. Part of this is eating correctly and learning how to turn things off.

Emotional Intelligence can help us manage ourselves better and impact our interpersonal relationships. Our mindset grounds us and is closely linked to our physical and emotional leads. Our feelings are more subject to outside forces but can be impacted by identifying those feelings, calming any heightened emotions, and creating more positive feelings.  Finally, we touched on how our actions are the determining factor influencing outcomes. Put another way, our feelings are acted out on the world or, in some cases, ourselves.

This isn’t all there is to learn regarding Emotional Intelligence. In our next blog, we’ll discuss:

• The secret to active listening
• How values can strengthen your ability to control outcomes
• The power of a team that understand Emotional Intelligence

In part 1, we discussed how composure and self awareness tag-team to boost employees self-management skills. And in part 2, we looked at the importance of adaptability and professionalism, and how each contributes to self-managed employees. Today, we’ll take a closer look at how taking ownership of your work and boosting eagerness to learn improves employees’ ability to self-manage.

Ownership of Work

This trait is what makes or breaks an employee’s overall work ethic and productivity level. Self-managed employees take ownership of their latest project — both the positive and negative aspects — and are willing to hold themselves accountable for the wins and losses brought on by their work. These employees are not afraid to admit when they’ve made a mistake, need help, or feel out of their depth, but are also eager to contribute when they believe they have something of value to offer. They take their work seriously, pride themselves on their successes, and learn from their missteps.

Are your employees self-managed? Find out how to exemplify #selfmanagement in your office and build an outstanding team of #leaders in the latest addition of @CaliperCorp’s 3-part blog series:
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Here are a few key tactics for how you can coach ownership in your employees:

1. Hold Yourself and Employees Accountable: Being accountable means that in theory, you have full control over what happens in all situations in your everyday life, no matter what the severity entails. While this, of course, isn’t true for all situations, you are still 100% in control of how you react to them. Decide how you want to define your accountability philosophy at your company. This should be shared with your employees from day one and out.
2. Control Your Fears: It’s human nature to fear many situations. To mitigate any work-related fears, start by organizing them and jotting down all the negative thoughts that frequent your mind. Next to each fear, write how much impact you have on that fear on a scale from 1-5 (1 being completely out of your control and 5 being fully controllable). Most likely, a lot of these fears will be a 4 or 5. Instead of dwelling on these, it’s now obvious to the employee that they’re in control of most of their fearful thoughts — motivating them to put in the extra work needed to get ahead of these fears.
3. Always Start With the End Goal: All of our best work begins with a vision — the end goal. Detail out your end goal for a project before jumping into the nitty-gritty details of how you’re going to accomplish it. Whenever you feel like you’re losing touch with the original goal or find yourself lost while working on the project, take a step back and revisit the original goal you set. This will help your employees stay on track.

A Focus on Learning

Highly-experienced professionals may have seen a lot and experienced success over time, but there is no ‘correct’ way of completing a task, and new approaches are being implemented all the time. Due to the constantly evolving world we live in, it’s essential to reinforce learning opportunities at your workplace and offer your employees the opportunity to expand, think creatively, and continue to grow.

Are your employees struggling to take ownership of the work they’ve produced? Jot down these tips to develop self-management in your employees in @CaliperCorp’s latest blog:
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Self-managed employees are hungry to learn more — even if it’s a new skill relevant to a different department. The more knowledge and skill they can take in, the better, more complex understanding they gain of their own work, and ultimately, the better their output of work will be. Additionally, they can jump in and help out in other areas of the company when assistance is needed, as well as share fresh perspectives with your team and others. Giving your employees several learning opportunities can promote a self-management culture by encouraging they take ownership of their professional growth.

If you want to help your employees become more you’re feeling unsure of who your top self-managed, provide them with a Caliper Individual Developmental Guide so they can discover additional ways to become self-starters and so you can develop a team of powerful leaders. Connect with our experts today to get started.

Adaptability

A popular conversation today is the fast-paced nature of technology and the effects of its rapid change. But what’s remained constant are the unpredictable demands of clients, consumers, and market trends and the consistent tweaks to company process, personnel, workplace policies, and job responsibilities. Part of self-management is to accept these dynamic forces as part of the job and anticipate that you’ll be asked to make changes at any time for a number of reasons from a wide variety of external factors. When an individual is too rigid to change or needs assistance as their expectations are redirected, there’s a chain of events that occurs when teammates and managers have to step in and assist the individual in navigating the necessary changes. When an individual can self-manage through periods of change, the amount of friction that results from the new circumstances is reduced, and management can focus on meeting the team’s needs.

Do you know how to develop #SelfManagement in employees? Part 2 of @CaliperCorp's 3-part series digs into the value of adaptability and professionalism to high performing self managers.
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Key aspects of adaptability include:

• Organization and preparedness: Forward-thinking individuals can stay organized should things need to change on a dime. Whether that means updating workflows, a change in strategy or tactics, or implementing a new tool, someone with adaptability knows where all the important parts lie, where they need to be, and how to get them there. With proper organization, any changes can be accommodated in a more timely, organized fashion — keeping any extra work that may occur to a minimum.
• Staying current: When something new comes to light, it’s for a reason. By updating your understanding, individuals gain a deeper understanding of why the change has occurred, rather than simply complying to change. What’s being removed, improved, updated, and how does it affect your outcomes? Put the change into context, and adaptability becomes easier, and the individual is more likely to accept it.
• Being proactive: Highly adaptable individuals often contribute to change proactively. Because they’re open to doing things differently, they often look for new solutions to recurring problems, try to improve inefficiencies, and look for cost-saving alternatives. Those who look ahead and anticipate future needs tend to be more willing to accept change as it occurs.

Professionalism

Professionalism isn’t just about dress codes, showing up fifteen minutes early, or addressing leadership appropriately. There are vast differences in culture from workplace to workplace, so professionalism requires a set of higher values and a personal code of ethics. Self-management includes not only performing job duties in a timely and satisfactory manner, but it also requires deliberate styles of interaction when it comes to colleagues, management, customers, and leadership. Communication is key. They treat others with respect, speak with confidence, and convey messages in the proper tone for a given setting. Professionalism means being able to adapt communication styles as needed. Things can be more casual on the company Slack channel, but pitching ideas to leadership will need to be more composed and articulated through detail and research.

Additionally, professional individuals also manage their appearance to demonstrate they value their work — though that no longer requires showing up in a suit and tie in a lot of offices. Dress codes might be losing favor, but individuals with exceptional professionalism present themselves in a way that shows they take their job seriously.

How is #professionalism tied to #SelfManagement? @CaliperCorp dives deeper into individual employee development on the blog:
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But perhaps most importantly, professionalism is tied to performance. Individuals with excellent self-management take ownership of their work. They don’t pass blame or make excuses. They acknowledge where they need to improve, take feedback well, and seize opportunities for growth. They are willing to offer help to others, and are comfortable stepping outside their specific job function in order to serve the needs of their team. They’re eager to improve, are open to challenges, and while they have goals for their own career and skillsets, they also consider the greater good instead of solely on individual initiatives.

An individual’s pride in their work and ownership of work are themselves aspects of self-management, and we’ll dive more into the idea of how ownership of work and a focus on learning round out the traits that define self-management in next month’s installment. To learn more about the Individual Developmental Guide and how it helps encourage your employees to self-manage, reach out to our experts.