How to Stand Out in an Interview: Part Two
In my last blog How to Stand Out in an Interview: Part One, I wrote about some of the ways to answer the interview question, “Why are you the best candidate for this job.” In Part Two I’ll explain how to really make your answer stand out. Give them what they want...
How to Stand Out in an Interview: Part One
The interview is going so well. Your answers are flowing naturally; you feel like you’re nailing it; the job is yours for sure. You feel it starting to wind down, and you know what’s coming next. “Why should we hire you? Why do you think you’re the best candidate for...
What’s Your Leadership Style? Part Two
In the previous blog What’s Your Leadership Style? Part One, I talked about five major styles of leadership: Autocratic Democratic/Participative Transformational Delegative Transactional We looked at Autocratic and its opposite approach, Democratic/Participative...
What’s Your Leadership Style? Part One
When it comes to leadership styles, which one is right for you? Each style has its own benefits and drawbacks, so if you’re in a position of leadership it’s important to figure out which one will work best for you and your organization or business. It...
Changing Jobs? Avoid These Interview Red Flags
With the Turnover Tsunami creating an employee-driven job market, employers in all sectors are facing a challenge in identifying and attracting qualified new candidates. Despite the challenge, it doesn’t mean employers want to lower their standards. Just because...
Is Work-Life Balance Really a Thing?
Work-life balance: is it REALLY a thing? I think most of us want to think so, but is it really achievable? Or is it just a catchy buzzword, and something we tell ourselves we need in order to be happy? I continue to reflect on the “Big Quit” or the “Great Resignation”...
When Values Collide at Work
Opinions, beliefs, and values swirl around like a nasty tornado in this global pandemic with no sign of cooling down. I’m sure you’ve noticed there is no shortage of social media rows; heated exchanges between strangers, friends, coworkers and yes even family have...
Look Before You Leap – Considerations Before Quitting
If the events of the past couple of years have inspired you to reevaluate your priorities and what you want out of life, you’re not alone! I’ve written about the Big Quit – also known as the Big Resignation or the Turnover Tsunami – a number of times over the last...
Lessons from Unlikely Leaders
A while back, a client told me about a training program she had attended about “executive presence” and how its tone-deaf message badly missed the mark. The narrow-minded, toxic key message centred on the idea that there is a specific and correct way to be an...
Top Three Soft Skills That Employers Are Looking For
The modern workplace requires greater soft skills and the ability to build interpersonal relationships – especially in remote or hybrid environments. It’s not easy to integrate multigenerational employees into productive teams. Plus, there are other types of diversity...
Your Place … Will This Be the New Office Space for Good?
Long before the pandemic became a global reality, I wrote about the benefits of working from home never realizing how many workers would pivot to pyjama laptop meetings in a makeshift office in their kitchen. In this two-part series, I discussed the evolving concept...
Three Leadership Practices to Consider Embracing
Most people would agree that the modern workplace is complicated – for leaders and employees. The rapid shift to remote and hybrid work, the challenges associated with creating multigenerational and inclusive workplace cultures, technological changes, and the...
Six Leadership Lessons from Ted Lasso
Like so many others, I’ve discovered the Apple+ show Ted Lasso, in which Jason Sudekis plays a successful American college football coach from Wichita, Kansas who moves to the UK to coach professional soccer (aka the sport known as football outside of North America)....
Dr. Helen’s Top 5 Blog Posts of 2021
It’s the time of year for “best of” lists and articles as we recount memorable moments and events of the past year, and it’s no different for me. May I present my five most-read blog posts from 2021! Nearly two years after the strange, disorienting events of 2020...
Signs of Burnout
Stress goes hand in hand with much of what we do every day. For the most part, we’re able to handle the stress and keep it under control. Then we get up the next day and do it over again. As acknowledged in Part One of this two-part series on burnout, we all have...
Pandemic Burnout: Are You at Risk?
Stress isn’t always a bad thing. Stress can help us to focus and prioritize; it can force us to tackle what needs to be done. Sometimes a little pressure and anxiety can really motivate us to take action. But prolonged stress — constant, chronic pressure and anxiety...
Top Nine Most-Read I/O Advisory Services Blog Posts
I just celebrated my ninth anniversary of starting I/O Advisory Services. How the time has flown by. I’ve experienced many of the ups and downs that business owners face, and also many, many surprises along the way. And I don’t regret it for a minute! I’ve...
Difficult Conversations: From Painful to Productive (Part 3 of 3)
In Parts One and Two of this blog series, I wrote about how conflict avoidance seems to be the most common—but also the most ineffective—strategy for handling difficult conversations. Not only is conflict avoidance an ineffective strategy, but putting off difficult...