Easter in Style

If your Working Style is tactile with a non-preference for mobility, chances are high that you may enjoy dabbling in various crafts from time to time.

Easter is a perfect time for crafts. Depending on the part of the world you live in and your cultural background, you may want to try your hand at painting eggs, making palm crosses, knitting fluffy yellow chickens and designing the world's best treasure hunts for those yummy chocolate treats.

More often than not, you will have a festive meal with a creatively decorated table. Have a look at our photos for some ideas. And have a very happy Easter - in Style.

Introverts unite - separately, in your own homes

If you feel drained by too much contact with other people and need to recharge your energy levels by being alone after a day at the office or a night out, you are probably an introvert. Today's workplace, however, is geared towards extroverts: team work, open-plan offices and frequent meetings.

If this sounds a bit like you, you might like to have a look at this website about managing your inner introvert. Also, our Working Style Analysis report will have ideas on how best to arrange your work place and work pace to suit your needs.

This tool guides you through your individual working style needs, helping you in the following areas:

• Better communication between you and your colleagues
• Sharper problem solving and creativity
• More productive meetings
• Better time management
• Less stress under pressure
• Happier healthier work areas
• Stronger team spirit
• Increased flexibility and tolerance
• Easier learning curves

WSA costs less than psychometric testing, but it goes deeper. WSA reveals all your bio-physical makeup and conditioned style elements across the six key areas in the Working Style Pyramid Model: Information Processing, Sensory Modalities, Physical Needs, Environmental Preferences, Social Aspects, Professional Attitudes.

 

Work Smarter, Work Less, Work in Style

Working long hours is not a badge of honour. Being busy does not equate being successful. How would you like to work half the hours you’re working right now and still achieve the same results? You can, with Working Style Analysis.

Understanding whether you work best in low or bright light may prevent you from feeling lethargic or burned out. Discovering your most productive time of day – early morning, late morning, afternoon, evening - could drastically increase your productivity. Learning whether background noise helps or hinders your work could further help you concentrate on tasks at hand and cut the hours you spend at the office.

Working in a team or alone, sipping water, adjusting the thermostat in the room – they all may have an influence on how much work you get through every day. Check what makes you more productive and shorten your hours – today.

Working Style Analysis - More Than A Personality Quiz

Are you a good problem solver? How well do you manage anger? Do stress and anxiety interfere with your life? How strong is your relationship? If you were a tree, would you be a solid oak or a weeping willow? Are your emotional highs and lows normal? Do you focus on a task or zone out? Are you pushing yourself too hard?

If you like doing personality quizzes like the ones above, you will love answering our Working Styles questionnaire. Working Style Analysis is scientifically designed to determine your optimal working mode and environment. Unlike many of the tests available elsewhere, though, this tool will give you:

• a set of well-researched and reliable guidelines
• a comprehensive report with summaries and graphs
• a thorough analysis of 48 elements of your unique Working Style
• career guidance.

 Check out your Working Style Analysis today.

Why A Students Work For C Students

"Why A Students Work For C Students" is a book by Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" (see the video here). It's full of fascinating ideas, such as:

• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job is just one of four ways of earning money;
• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job will not make you rich;
• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job will put you into the rat race.

The author advocates becoming a business person, starting another Apple or Facebook, or at least owning a lot of property like rental homes and hotels. He admits not everybody is a born entrepreneur, though, and he recognises not only different personality types, but also different Learning Styles.

If you have children, read the book to discover how to further their financial education. If you're stuck in the rat race, get the book for yourself.

Do you have the Working Style of an entrepreneur? Is your Learning Style integrated, your preferred social group friends and peers, your communication style talking and listening and doing?

Find out.

Motivation and Learning Styles

A friend of mine has recently taught me a valuable lesson about motivation: you can incentivize people to take action, but the result may not necessarily be what you expect. 

He used the example of his daughter and hockey. In order to motivate his daughter to try harder, he promised her an expensive reward if she scored a goal (she hadn't scored at all that season). The very next game, she scored a goal in the first five minutes, gave him a thumbs up... and stopped applying herself to the game. After all, she'd already achieved her goal of obtaining the expensive gift, so why bother?

Therein lies the danger of motivating our children, our employees, or even ourselves with external "carrots": the person we're trying to motivate with usually focus on the wrong goal.

Of course, some people are more externally motivated than others. Which one are you? Your Working Style Analysis will tell you.

Less Stress + Better Environment = Productivity

The sad reality is that in the current economic climate employees are expected to do more per hour with fewer resources. The result?

• Stress
• Burnout
• Skewed life-work balance
• No productivity gains

Research indicates that true productivity gains can only be achieved through better organisation in the workplace and a kinder atmosphere. This includes:

• Flexible work hours - not only for convenience, but also in recognition of the fact that people concentrate best at different times of day;
• Office light (some people need it bright, others dim);
• The chance to work alone or in groups;
• The opportunity to structure your own tasks.

Imagine if you could save two hours a day by working in an environment optimised to your specific needs.

You can. Working Style Analysis will show you and your boss how you can work smarter, faster, better.
How do you work best? Find out.

10 Ways To Increase Your Productivity

Did you know?

1. Researchers at Hiroshima University conducted a study, called The Power of Kawaii (Japanese for ''cute''), which found that the positive emotions produced by looking at baby animals seems to trigger not only happiness but a ''narrowed attentional focus'', which in turn improves our ability to concentrate. They suggested workers be subjected to cute images to induce careful behaviour.
2. Everybody has the best time of day in which they are at their most productive. When is yours?
3. Our lives and brains are cluttered with too much information. Go on an Information Diet to eliminate unproductive Internet surfing.
4. Take a short break - it'll boost your output.
5. Do you work at your best when the room's silent or filled with soothing background buzz? Find out.
6. Reward yourself for finishing a task.
7. Use caller ID and voice mail to make sure the phone doesn't interrupt you unnecessarily.
8. Some people concentrate better when they nibble a healthy snack or sip water. Do you?
9. Prioritise your tasks in terms of urgency as well as importance. Remember, if you only ever do the urgent stuff, you may never get to the less urgent but more important things in life.
10. The light in the office may make you unproductive. Discover how.

Does Your Workplace Benefit From Learning Styles Concepts?

In his article, Four Destructive Myths Companies Still Live By, Tony Schwartz (author of BE EXCELLENT AT ANYTHING) discusses two important Learning Style concepts:

• that multitasking doesn't always get things done faster; and
• that creativity is the ability to use the whole brain, flexing between the left and the right hemisphere.

What Tony doesn't say, is that true multitaskers actually do work better when they can concentrate on more than one thing, while true analytics get stressed and burned out if they have to multitask. Which working style is better for you, simultaneous or sequential? Find out.

If you discover that your working style is integrated (balanced between simultaneous and sequential), you'll have the added bonus of knowing that you have the potential to do well in creative tasks and careers.

But no matter what your working style, Tony maintains that working longer hours doesn't lead to getting more done. "Great performers — and enlightened leaders — recognize that it's not the number of hours people work that determines the value they create, but rather the energy they bring to whatever hours they work."

Here's that link to your personal working style analysis again.

Analytic? Holistic? Which Learning Style Is Which?

People often ask what the difference is between analytic and holistic learning styles.

Left brain information processing = analytic/logical thinking = sequential processing



Generally, people with a left-brain dominance are sequential thinkers, analytics who like facts, details and logic. They tend to like their work areas neat and organised. They have perfect filing systems, always deal with one project at a time and are deadline-driven. Keeping lists of tasks to do is their favourite hobby, and if they complete something that=s not on their list, they are likely to add it just for the satisfaction of crossing it out. Analytics are the ones who know the price of eggs in the local dairy, hang up the toilet paper so that the straight part touches the wall, roll up the toothpaste tube and replace the cap. An analytic cook follows a recipe step by step, and if she runs out of an ingredient, she drives to the shops to replace it.



Right brain information processing = holistic/global thinking = simultaneous processing


Right-brained people, in contrast, are holistic multi-processors. They aren't interested in the nitty-gritty of issues. Instead, they need to know the overall picture, the reasons behind a project rather than its deadline. Piles of paper gather dust on their desks and office floor, yet they are able to find any document at a moment's notice. Holistics tend to use their intuition or feelings rather than rationalise about a problem. A holistic cook never ever keeps a shopping list, doesn't sticks to recipes and is happy to substitute milo for cocoa powder in her chocolate cake.


That's why some people mistake right-brain dominance for creative talent. But creativity and genius are a marvellous combination of our entire brain and have little to do with the processing hemisphere of our preference.

Are you analytic or holistic? Find out.

Working Styles and Multitasking

Multitasking means working on several projects concurrently. Today’s technology enables us to stretch our attention over several simultaneous activities, like reading deleting spam in your email inbox while speaking on the phone to a client.

The latest scientific research indicates that multitasking - the very quality most employers seek - can lead to stress and burnout, which in turn leads to loss of productivity.

According to Dr. Etienne Koechlin of France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research: "The human prefrontal function seems to be built to control two tasks simultaneously. It means in everyday behaviour we can readily switch between two tasks but not between three (or more)."

Some people thrive on doing little bits here and little bits there, others need to see a task to its end before moving on to something new. It all depends on your own unique Working Style. 

Are you the type of person who prefers to work sequentially or simultaneously? Find out. 

Language Styles Count!

In a bid to determine what turns a date into a relationship, USA scientists studied the first dates and text conversations of college students. They discovered that couples whose language use was similar, tended to want to meet again and again.


About 80 percent of the couples whose conversational styles were similar were still dating three months after the experiment, compared with just 54 percent of couples whose styles were markedly different.


The experiment looked at the use of function words such as "be" and "that". Here, at Creative Learning, we are proposing a much more intuitive test.


Compare your own Working Style Analysis Report with that of your prospective romantic partner. In terms of the Senses (sensory input), do you match on the talker-listener scale? Are you both visual or both internally kinesthetic, so that you find it easy to understand one another's NLP Predicate Language?


Look at the top of the WSA Pyramid: are you both analytic or both holistic? If not, you might find it frustrating or confusing if one of you starts talking without giving an indication of where the conversation is heading or what the end goal is.


Skip down to the Physical Requirements layer: are you both night owls or early birds? Your relationship will have a better chance of surviving if you both enjoy staying up late or getting up early to go for a run.


There are many more indicators of a healthy relationship. If in doubt, please contact us with specific queries.



The 3 Levels of Literacy

Adult literacy is an emerging issue in highly developed countries, one that will have to be addressed within the next few decades. Although most school-leavers can read and write, and can figure out 15+24 without the aid of a calculator, their education had failed them nevertheless.

Workplaces have encountered a huge gap in the adult work literacy arena. Employees are unable to follow written instructions, estimate measurements or use computers for anything other than games. And yet, in today's workplace, we are expected to think critically, create procedures and possess elementary IT skills.

Many adults can read a newspaper yet cannot read a technical document such as a safety manual. Also, because of the global-village syndrome, many production lines employ people from diverse cultures, whose schooling system did not focus on what we see as core skills, or whose home language is different from the language spoken at the factory.

All these aspects make Working Style Analysis (WSA) an absolute must-have tool for any employer. (Please note that if language or reading skills are a challenge, you may require a translator to ensure accuracy of the analysis. You may also use the LSA Mini tool, which caters towards English-As-A-Second-Language adults.)

Are You a Stressed-Out Parent?

If you're a stressed-out parent, you're not alone. Even those seemingly-perfect dads and those yummy mummies have their moments.

Parenting is probably the most rewarding, yet the most strenuous job ever.

Why?

It all comes down to your working style:

• if you operate best in silence, shrieking children will drive you crazy within half an hour;
• if you are not an early riser, looking after your children at 6A.M. places enough biological stress on your body even when there are no squabbles or ripped pillows to deal with;
• if you're an analytic thinker, it'll be mega-stressful for you to deal with three simultaneous parenting issues (like feeding the baby while taking the toddler to the toilet and telling the older child to put down the scissors);
• click here to see more Style Elements that may clash with your parenting responsibilities.

Are you ready to find out what your Working Style as a Parent is? Simply complete your WSA Combo and send us the resulting PDF file. We will email you back with a detailed analysis of your Parenting Style.

Communication is the second contributor to your levels of stress. If you issue verbal commands, yet your children are not auditory, you are on the road to Burnout Land, fast.

What is the best way to get through to your children? Let them complete their Learning Style Analysis to find out.

Happy New Year

It’s hard to believe that it was really 30 years ago that ABBA sang “Happy New Year” with the following lyrics:

It’s the end of the decade

In another 10 years time

Who can say what we’ll find

What lies waiting down the line

In the end of ’89….

As we approach the end of 2009, let’s think about those words. In another ten years time, who can say what we’ll find?

You can. It’s the end of the decade, the first decade of the new millennium. And it’s up to you what lies waiting down the line at the end of 2019.

Happy new year!!!

(Start the new year with a bang: give yourself a Working Style Analysis today and find out how to make 2010 the best year of your life.)

The Best Christmas Gift

With Christmas approaching fast, and your bank account emptying even faster, do you ever pause to bemoan the consumer culture we live in? Do you ever wonder what happens to your gift after Christmas and whether it’s used or stored in the cupboard? Do you sometimes think that the best things in life aren’t things?

This season, we have a perfect gift for your friends and family: their individual Working Style. Just think about it: would you rather give someone a plastic gadget or the gift of health and de-stressing?

The elements that may contribute to tension levels include:

· the amount of light in the workplace

· room temperature,

· time of day,

· change

· chaos or excessive neatness

· others.

If your loved ones work in circumstances that are mismatched with their Working Style, they can seriously harm their health. Stress is the silent killer of the 21^st century - don’t let it happen!

Give them a gift of a good life.

Give them a Working Style Analysis today for a full report of things they should avoid.

Say Goodbye to Office Stress, too!

Last week, we talked about using Working Styles at home, when dealing with your children (click here to read the full post). Today, we’ll use Working Styles in a more conventional way, namely, to decrease your stress levels in the office.

Your Working Style is the way in which you approach complex projects and cope with problematic tasks. Do you dive into the details straight away, or do you search for an overview first? Do deadlines stress you or energise you? Do you get excited or irritated by a promise of a performance bonus? Do you work more optimally in a group or by yourself? Do you enjoy working under a mentor or a supervisor? When people are late for a meeting, do you use the extra time to focus your mind or do you get so impatient that you can actually feel your blood pressure rising?

It’s not a joking matter. If you force yourself to work in circumstances that are incompatible with your Working Style, you can do your health a serious amount of damage. Stress is the silent killer of the 21^st century - don’t let it get to you. Complete your Working Style Analysis today for a full report of factors that may contribute to your tension on the job.

And remember, the elements we discussed last week, namely:

· the amount of light in your office,

· tidiness or chaos (either can set your teeth on edge, depending on your unique Working Style),

· variety or habit (again, some people get upset by change, others don’t settle well into a routine),

· room temperature,

· time of day,

may also affect how stressed you feel at work. Check your Working Style Analysis report.

Say Goodbye to Stress with Working Styles

Step 1: Recognise Stress

(that’s nothing to do with Working Styles!)

· Your little girl spills juice on the carpet.

· Your son is having a screaming fit.

· Your toddler is carrying her latest painted masterpiece towards you. She drops it face down onto the carpet….

· Your teenager has died her hair purple.

Step 2: Discover Why You Are REALLY Stressed. No, REALLY!

Take something as simple as the light in your house. Did you know that some people feel better in darker rooms that have softer lighting, while others need bright light to function? If you like bright light, you may feel lethargic in dimly lit rooms; while if you prefer soft light, you may be stressed in a room in which the light bulbs are very bright. Fluorescent lights in particular (present in many kitchens, garages and laundries) can make you feel extremely agitated because of their constant flickering that your eye doesn’t notice but your brain still registers.

You can also feel stressed because of an untidy environment, too much change or too much routine, because of the weather, because of the time of day.

To find out, do our Working Style Analysis.

Step 3: Banish Stress

1. Think about your daily schedule and about your house. What can you change to achieve a better environment in which to be a parent? Hint: read the report you get with your personal and unique Working Style Analysis.

2. Not sure what else is adding to your stress? Then email Prashnig Style Solutions on info@clc.co.nz with a subject line “Parental Stress Competition” for your chance to win a personal analysis.

Is Empathy Helping or Hurting Your Career?

By Judith Orloff, MD
(Adapted from "Emotional Freedom")

AM I AN EMPATH?
- Have I been labeled by coworkers as "too emotional" or overly sensitive?
- If a co-worker is distraught, does it affect my mood at work?
- Are my feelings easily hurt when a supervisor or peer delivers negative feedback?
- Am I emotionally drained when I have to work closely with others, and do I require time alone to revive? (see footnote 1)
- Do my nerves get frayed by office noise, machine noise, smells, or excessive talking? (see footnote 2)
- Do I prefer working quietly and off by myself? (see footnote 1 and footnote 2)
- Do I overeat or need a happy hour cocktail to deal with work-related stress? (see footnote 3)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're at least part empath. Responding yes to more than three indicates that you're quite sensitive and empathic.

THE EMPATH'S UPSIDE AT WORK
You are big hearted, and big-hearted people are gifted helpers and mentors. Empaths are patient, kind, and compassionate--just what you need as a manager, trainer, or team leader.

You are passionate, and passionate people put their all into projects. Empathetic people are passionate about their beliefs and ideas. In creative roles, or as sales or marketing people, passion is a plus.

You are intuitive, and intutive people can read between the lines. Empaths often perceive gray areas in a discussion or sense unspoken tension in meetings. Their ability to read others' feelings is a critical skill in negotiating and personnel management.

You are an emotionally responsive person, and that means you are a great communicator. Listening is an essential business skill, and those who are best at it are emotional empaths who have a well-developed ability to relate to others, and then interpret or build on what they see and hear.

You are "in touch" with your emotions, which means others can connect well with you. We most admire and best relate to people who are authentic. In other words, they show their emotions. In the business world, being "real" helps you build networks, earn the loyalty of others, win clients, and forge alliances.

THE EMPATH'S DOWNSIDE AT WORK
You're an emotional sponge. Super empathetic people tend to pick up on others' emotions. This can be detrimental when a cool-headed leader is needed, or when an objective perspective would yield a clearer decision.

You're prone to anxiety, depression, and fatigue. If you're always tuned in to coworkers' feelings, it's difficult to keep your nerves from getting frazzled. You need to be able to process emotions coming at you from all directions.

You may find it hard to work well with others. Empaths often need to work alone, and they seek solitude in order to regain their calm. Others may see you as antisocial.

If you are a super sensitive and empathetic person, be aware of the ways this wonderful trait serves you in the workplace. But be extra careful to protect your emotional and physical health, because empathetic people are, by definition, more vulnerable and open than their peers.
www.drjudithorloff.com.

***To purchase “Emotional Freedom” with 100 free gifts from noted transformational leaders such as Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Shirley Maclaine and more go to :

http://www.drjudithorloff.com/emotional-freedom-promotion/

Judith Orloff MD is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA. This article was adapted from her new book, Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life (Harmony Books, 2009, $24.95), which is on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. For more information on Dr. Orloff, visit ww.drjudithorloff.com.

***To purchase “Emotional Freedom” with 100 free gifts from noted transformational leaders such as Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Shirley Maclaine and more go to :

http://www.drjudithorloff.com/emotional-freedom-promotion/

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Footnote 1: The ability to tolerate, even welcome, noise in your workplace is a result of your Working Style Preferences. Please click here to see whether you need background noise in order to concentrate.

Footnote 2: The preference for working alone or in a group is a Working Style Element. Please click here to see your optimal work group.

Footnote 3: The tendency to nibble is ingrained in Working Style. Please click here to see what you need when you work on something new or difficult.

All footnotes are authored by Creative Learning.

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Working Style Analysis (WSA) and the Recession

Psst...

Did you know that Working Style Analysis (WSA) can:

· make you more efficient at your current job

· help you retain your current job by proving how suitable you are for the position you’re holding

· prove to a potential employer that you are the ideal candidate they’re looking for?

To find out how, please check this page next week...

... however, you can find a partial answer in this article.