Personal Engagement: The Role of Happiness
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. The role of happiness in personal engagement has become a hot topic for research in the last several years. Recently, Harvard University Graduate students launched an app to track your happiness (trackyourhappiness.org). Books such as Well Being, from the well known author of Strengths Finder 2.0, […]
Personal Engagement & WorkTraits
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. A recent Gallup Poll discovered that 70% of U.S. workers were disengaged with their jobs… Meaning, each person in some way didn’t want to be at his or her job, felt they were a poor fit for their role, or were not committed to the success […]
Identifying & Mitigating Stress #1
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. Stress is important. In fact, if we didn’t have small amounts of daily stress we would lack motivation and drive. What paralyzes employees however, is stress that appears endless. Often this type of stress is brought on by job requirements that are a poor fit for […]
WorkTraits: Identity and Conflict Resolution Pt. 2
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. As you can imagine, emotions became inflamed and in some instances paralyzed the manager. When emotions were at their worst, the manager and owner would argue in front of customers. Morale was low for the rest of the staff and the owner was at loss […]
WorkTraits: Identity and Conflict Resolution Pt. 1
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. There are 3 steps to resolving this type of conflict. First, ask yourself how the person with whom you are in conflict is keeping you from your current or desired identity. Are they taking your authority? Do they take credit for your achievements? Once you have […]
Does your #WorkSpace show your #WorkTraits?
We want to see your work space! Do you have only the most essential items on hand? Are pictures and toys strewn around to make it fun? Does it have personal items, like a family photo? Is everything organized, and kept neatly in its place? Show us! We’re willing […]
WorkTraits Insight: Identity and Conflict Awareness
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. Identity is made of three elements: 1) Who the person is told he or she is (this usually comes from a job description, a title, or what a supervisor has told the individual). 2) Who the person thinks he or she is (this usually has to […]
WorkTraits & When It’s Time To Change
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. This epiphany came to me at In-N-Out Burger. Revelations are funny like that. They come at strange times (in this case, with secret sauce on my chin). I had to scramble to find something to capture those thoughts. I was using my napkin to wipe my […]
Communication: Past and Present (Part 1)
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. I doubt David Wells could have imagined what assaults awaited individuals a generation later. We are, for better or worse, a culture “plugged in” with access to information, entertainment, and people with a mere touch of a button. In fact, as I write this, I can […]
Servant Leadership Characteristics: Trackers
By Mark Vickers, Ph.D. It struck me that different behavioral styles appear to place different emphasis on passion and perspective. Decision-Makers and Encouragers are motivated by passion and tend to give less consideration to perspective, while the opposite is true for Facilitators and Trackers who are motivated by perspective more […]
