Transformative Professional Development for Business

Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Good time management allows you to work smarter, not harder, so that you can achieve more in less time. One of the key aspects of effective time management is setting goals. This involves identifying what you want to accomplish and setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to help you achieve those objectives. Setting goals can help you stay focused and motivated, and can help you track your progress over time.

Implementing SMART goals with your team can help you be a better leader by providing a clear direction for your team and ensuring that everyone is working towards a common set of objectives.

We live in a time that everything is rushed, from the time we wake up, and head to work, to preparing a meal with our families. With the fast pace of life, it seems there is not enough time in the day to plan anything extra for a vacation or self-care. Many of us have instead mastered the art of multitasking.  This seems like a fantastic skill if you can truly concentrate on both tasks simultaneously. Usually, it means spreading our focus too thin into two tasks, neither of which receiving our full attention. We can be more productive AND create more time for ourselves and our personal lives by implementing effective time management techniques.

Emotional intelligence is a buzzword we hear thrown around the corporate world and on LinkedIn a lot these days but what is emotional intelligence and how do we use it effectively at work? Emotional intelligence impacts our ability to communicate, resolve conflicts and work with others to reach goals. If your team is struggling to have productive conversations and accomplish projects, you may want to evaluate your team's emotional intelligence and implement some strategies to help them become more emotionally intelligent individuals.

If you’ve been in a manager position at all in the last few years, you probably know the pain that comes with saying goodbye to a valuable team member who holds a lot of institutional knowledge and going through the lengthy hiring process of reviewing applications, giving multiple rounds of interviews, and finally getting your new hire up to speed on their role and your company. The Great Resignation reminded us all of the importance of retaining great employees. Not only does employee retention prevent the disruption of projects and goals, it also saves companies time and thousands of dollars. Besides toxic company culture and low salary, many employees cite poor management as one of the main reasons they’ll leave a job. Read these tips on how to be a good manager and foster a work environment employees want to stick around for.

Conflict, while unpleasant, is something we will all face multiple times over the course of our careers. Though conflict is inherently negative, when managed effectively it can actually yield productive conversations and personal growth. Because conflict at work is inevitable, it is best to know how to manage conflict by having some strategies at your disposal so that you can resolve conflict quickly and get back to focusing on your goals. Your ability to manage conflict will provide a lot of value to your team as so many employees lack this skill and often don’t know how to express themselves professionally and respectfully when they are experiencing a high degree of emotion. Knowing how to manage conflict is a great way to practice emotional intelligence at work. Whether you’re a manager or a team member, having the right conflict management techniques at your disposal will give you simple, actionable steps to take so you can resolve these unpleasant, unavoidable situations.

Tim Dorton will serve as the Leadership Architect and Director of The Center for Leadership Development and Advisory Services. In this role, Dorton will oversee the Center for Leadership and Development’s sales initiatives and foster strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 clients for the promotion of the Leadership & Development Advisory Services.

While most companies agree that employee development training is a priority, what should be included in a professional development plan sometimes varies. Navigating the differences of plans and understanding what goes into successful professional development training courses is key. It all comes down to knowing what to look for, asking the right questions, and watching out for red flags. Here are the tips for choosing a professional development program.