Edmonton facilitators, trainers, coaches and consultants | Affinity Consulting and Training Inc.

How to Achieve Your Goals

Brian Ward — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:37:32 +0000

Achieve your goals by focusing on the positive, while overcoming the negative. Our world is made up of opposites. There’s an inside and an outside, left and right, male and female, good and bad, positive and negative, strengths and weaknesses, and so on. Much of the talk these days around goal setting focuses on positives [...]

Jeffrey Immelt on Leadership

Brian Ward — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:57:23 +0000

Jeffrey Immelt took over at the helm of GE, stepping into Jack Welch’s shoes in 2001. In this address to a graduating class from Stanford University in 2010, he talks about the 10 Traits of an effective leader:

Listening analytically
Being adaptable in a volatile world
Managing relationships
Simplifying everything (especially structure, metrics, accountability [...]

Engagement is Free

Brian Ward — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:31:55 +0000

Are you struggling with employee engagement? Most employees want to be fully engaged in their work. In that respect, they don’t differ from you or me. They want to be aligned with their organizations strategic goals and priorities. They want to feel that they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Most organizations however [...]

Are You Dreaming BIG?

Brian Ward — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:35:10 +0000

“You have to dream big. If we want to be a little city, we dream small. If we want to be a big city, we dream big, and this is a big idea.” - City of Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, 02/22/2012

What’s your BIG idea? It doesn’t have to be as grand as building a big [...]

Are You Confused Yet?

Brian Ward — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:17:28 +0000

Most managers I know, when pressed, will admit to some level of confusion. Some are very confused. By confusion, I mean that they are continually being challenged to commit strongly to their organizations strategic, long range direction…which in many cases is vaguely stated and constantly shifting, while delivering results today. It’s enough that they have [...]

Do Your Leaders Have GRIT?

Brian Ward — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:39:53 +0000

If your leadership team is fixated on short term results, then they probably need more “Grit”. While you may look for traits such as IQ and other specific talents to achieve long term goals, researchers in recent years have discovered an independent trait called Grit that is a good predictor of success and goal achievement [...]

The Three Secrets of Engagement

Brian Ward — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:40:47 +0000

Do you know what causes engagement in your team? The type of engagement I am talking about is innate, in other words driven by an internal desire, and universal, that is it applies across all peoples and cultures.

As it happens, research [1] has demonstrated that we all seek self-determination. And self-determination is made up of three innate and [...]

How To Motivate Yourself and Others

Brian Ward — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:28:53 +0000

When it comes to understanding how to motivate ourselves and others, psychologists have been arguing the pros and cons of different theories for decades. Most of us have grown up on a diet of theories provided by such trailblazers as Maslow, McClelland, and Herzberg and more recently Robbins. But psychologists now tend to be in [...]

Leadership Styles: Research in Motion (RIM)

Brian Ward — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:43:09 +0000

This morning we woke to the news that RIM is in crisis mode. In 2008, it had a stock share price of $148. Last week, shares closed at $17.24. Something had to give, and today it did, with the announcement that it’s co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were stepping down. RIM started out with [...]

High Performing Teams: Is There Enough “GRRRRRR!” in Your Team?

Brian Ward — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:58:12 +0000

Most descriptions of High Performing Teams focus on the ideal – where everyone gets along with and supports each other, where conflicts are minimised or even prevented altogether, where teamwork prevails and a smooth flow exists in the patterns of communication between team members and with other teams.

Yet in reality, most teams that are [...]