Develop a competitive advantage starting WITHIN your organization.
Helping your workforce achieve their potential is the right thing to do—both morally and fiscally. Capiche helps businesses gain a competitive advantage by developing the most valuable resources they already have—their employees—to increase productivity, sales, engagement and retention. This can be done with a modest investment of time and resources, yet the returns are fantastic. Time and again, this success has been documented in businesses ranging from insurance sales to high-tech engineering to law enforcement and beyond. The theory of developing employees’ strengths towards a culture of hope, confidence, resilience, optimism and happiness makes sense, and now the benefits have been proven by scientific research.
Read Chris’s Latest Posts
How Do You Influence?
In the Working with Emotional Intelligence master’s course, we have discussed many different aspects of self-awareness, managing our own emotions, developing empathy for others and using listening skills that deepen empathy and understanding of others. These emotional intelligence competencies strengthen our interactions with selves and others. Read more …
Walk a Mile in My Shoes
“Seek first to understand and then seek to be understood,” Stephen R. Covey’s fifth habit from his book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People is easier said than done. To truly grow and succeed in this habit, we must recognize how we empathize and how we can sincerely enhance that ability. Read more …
Develop Positive Rituals to Increase Emotional Intelligence
As we begin to understand our responses to situations, we can more effectively regulate and manage our emotions. My Master in Management class, “Working with Emotional Intelligence,” encourages students to build more awareness and confidence in their ability to understand and strengthen their emotional intelligence. Read more …
Hugheisms: Work Ethic Trumps Talent
I consider myself fairly smart … in some ways. Thus it was disconcerting last week when I heard people of average intelligence outperform people with high IQs 70 percent of the time. But that statistic does not surprise me. (Guest post by Dick Hughes) Read more …
What’s in the Mirror?
This week, students in my Working with Emotional Intelligence class were asked to stretch their self-awareness by noticing annoying behaviors in others—and then looking for the same behavior in themselves. Are you curious to see what it brings up for you? Read more …
Be Aware: Start from the Inside
Are you aware of how you feel and how you respond to those feelings? We can go through our day on automatic pilot, which works fine for tasks that do not require thought such as brushing our teeth or taking a shower. There are times, however, when being mindless about situations causes us to react instead of respond in a proactive manner. Read more …
Make the Connection for a Happier Life
One of the key predictors of happiness is connectivity—feeling a sense of community. Some of us find our community with work colleagues. Others find it among a circle of friends outside work. In this new economy, many of us find ourselves relocating. Read more …
Think You’ve Got Your Marketing Ducks in a Row?
If you were near my place at Christmas, you would have heard a big whoop of joy as I learned Cracker Barrel was pulling Duck Dynasty items from its shelves—not because of the backlash from Phil Robertson’s anti-gay and racially charged comments. Read more …
How to Avoid “Blue Monday”
Feeling a little down? Unmotivated? Think you need to do something about it? You’re not alone. Every January, we’re subjected to a pseudoscientific study in the national news known as “Blue Monday.” Read more …
What Would Increased Happiness Do for Your Business?
This summer, I worked with the Ashland Food Co-op on its groundbreaking Happiness@Work project. The project was born out of tension between departments and between managers and their employees as well as a volatile debate around whether or not to unionize. Read more …
What Do You Expect from Your Job?
Really? Is this a valid question? The business world is changing along with our expectations. More than ever, we are looking to work for an organization with vision and values that align with our own. We are seeking a sense of purpose in what we do and how we do it. Read more …
How Can You Fuel Success and Performance?
Every time I think the notion of “happiness” in the business world is just not taking hold, I am encouraged by new research that again points to the benefits of a happy workplace. Who can argue with increased performance, more creativity, better teamwork, higher levels of innovation, better customer service, less turnover and minimal sick leave? Read more …
Leaders, Listen Up!
Human connection is critical for a person’s health and development, starting at infancy and continuing into the workplace. Relationships with colleagues and with the boss matter for creating a workplace where employees come to work ready to contribute and be their best. Read more …
What’s Holding You Back from Reaching Your Potential? How to Find a Coach Who’s the Right Fit
Do you have a goal you want to reach by the end of the year—either career-related or personal? Is there something you want to improve or change between now and then? What’s holding you back? Where are you stuck? Why haven’t you been successful in the past? Have you ever considered working with a coach? Read more …
This Is for All the Lonely Leaders: Why Partner with an Executive Coach
Think back on your life. As you were growing up, who nudged you toward greatness? Who gave you gentle support while simultaneously challenging you to grow, to stretch? Who offered a candid perspective you could always trust, a wisdom that inspired? Perhaps it was a family member, a teacher … or a coach. Read more …
Why Coaching? Why Now?
The Wall Street Journal reveals that executive coaches report steady demand for their services despite the recession. As the economy begins to bounce back, those individual and corporate clients say this one-on-one coaching has been instrumental to their career and organization’s success. Read more …
What’s Your Sign? Let’s Talk Personal Brand
Here’s an old line with a new twist: what’s your elevator speech—for yourself? You’ve probably invested months defining your company’s brand, zeroing in on the sweet spot that distinguishes your organization from its competitors and then figuring out how to live it. But how much thought have you given to your personal brand? Read more …
Speaking of Happiness: How to Have Your Cake—And Eat It, Too
There’s a lot of buzz about the significance of employee engagement—Forbes, Gallup Business Journal, and Harvard Business Review have all published articles on engagement just in the last three months. I, too, have examined the topic—most recently reporting on the Hay Group findings that highly engaged employees can quadruple a company’s revenue growth. Read more …
Project Teams: Your Nemesis or a Sure Way to Succeed? The Devil Is in the Details.
How often do you work in distinct teams to achieve a goal? (Probably quite often if you work for an organization of any size.) And how often do these team projects go perfectly? (Hmm … if my own experience is any indication, my guess is there are usually challenges.) What happens when they don’t go perfectly? Read more …
How to Live the Brand—and Play to Your Strengths
Say your company just invested a hefty amount of time and resources in a process to clarify its brand and claim its position in the market. Now that you’ve codified your brand, including your signature strengths, how do you help employees embody those principles on a daily basis? Read more …
The Cinderella Fit: 5 Steps to a Better Brand
Adopting a new brand shouldn’t make you feel like an ugly stepsister squishing her foot into a tiny glass slipper. Rather, you’re looking for that Cinderella fit, a thoughtful melding of truth and optimism that empowers your company to grow into its deeper self. The shoe fits, but your toes still have room to wiggle. Read more …
Six Key Features of the Happiest Workplace on Earth
Let’s pretend you’ve been given carte blanche to design the company of your dreams. What would that company look like? How would you do things differently? Why would your employees look forward to starting work each day? Read more …
How Important Is Leadership—Really?
Leaders define an organization. Leaders inspire employees to achieve terrific heights. Leaders make the difference between success and failure.… Or do they? A recent survey of 1,000 employees suggests otherwise. Read more …
Take a 75% Pay Cut? Are You Kidding?
Last week while visiting Eugene, my friend and I were craving Chinese food. We checked Yelp and found the highest-ranking Chinese restaurant. Driving there in the rain, we were hoping the food would be good. We love Chinese food—good Chinese food. Read more …
Civility Costs Nothing—and Buys Everything
Did you know rudeness at work is raging and is on the rise? According to researchers, 98 percent of workers polled said they experienced rudeness at work—with half of them experiencing it at least once a week, up from 25 percent in 1998. Read more …
What’s the Problem? (No. Strike That.) What’s Working Here?
Since childhood, we’ve been conditioned to look for what’s wrong and try to fix it. In organizations, we often start with looking for the deficits, the weak spots, the challenges—and then have countless committee meetings to study these problem areas. Read more …
10 Things Happy People Do Differently … What Do YOU Do Differently?
I love reading other happiness researchers’ findings, and this article by Paula Davis-Laack resonates with me. While you are reading it, think about how it relates to you. What’s true, and what’s not? What else is there for you? I am curious! Read more …
This Year, Retrain Your Brain! Give Yourself the Happiness Advantage.
Why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen—as they happen? Then on New Year’s Eve, empty the jar and recall the year’s best moments. Read more …