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In organizations groups have to often make decisions together.  This article shows that groups make better decisions together than when one person does alone.

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The Find: Two (or more) heads may be better than one when an important decision must be made, but research reveals that groups often go about making decisions less effectively than they could.

The Source: The Research Digest blog of the British Psychological Society.

The Takeaway: Psychologists agree that diverse groups of people with a variety of areas of expertise will almost always make better decisions than a lone individual, with one big caveat: their decision making process must be efficient. A new analysis of 72 existing studies, involving 4,795 groups and more than 17,000 individuals, however, reveals that groups are often inefficient in their decision making and also offers a sense of what can be done to improve how groups reach an informed consensus. Ironically, the answer may be to talk less:

Groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the information shared by members, which is therefore redundant, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members. This is important because those groups that do share unique information tend to make better decisions.... Another important factor is how much group members talk to each other. Ironically... groups that talked more tended to share less unique information.

University of North Carolina researcher Jessica Mesmer-Magnus explains: "teams who talk more amongst themselves aren't necessarily sharing useful information.... it's more important what the teams are talking about, than how much they are talking." So how can managers ensure their teams talk the right way about the right things? First, make sure you don't waste time going over what everyone already knows. Second, the research suggests that "a highly structured, more focused method of discussion" such as brainwriting will pay dividends in the form of higher quality decisions making.

(Image of group decision making in progress by Larsz, CC 2.0)

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The Find: Two (or more) heads may be better than one when an important decision must be made, but research reveals that groups often go about making decisions less effectively than they could. The Source: The Research Digest blog of the British Psychological Society. The Takeaway: Psychologi...

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There are 5 important stages during your career.  The stages are exploration, establishment, mid-career, late-career, and decline.

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The proper way to analyze and discuss careers is to look at them as made up of stages. We can identify five career stages that most people will go through during their adult years, regardless of the type of work they do. These stages are exploration, establishment, mid-career, late career and decline.

Many of the critical choices individuals make about their careers are made prior to entering the workforce on a paid basis. Very early in our lives, our parents and teachers begin to narrow our alternatives and lead us in certain directions.

The careers of our parents, their aspirations for their children and their financial sources are crucial factors in determining our perception of what careers are open to us.

The exploration period ends for most of us in our mid-twenties as we make the transition from college to work. From an organisational standpoint this stage has little relevance since it occurs prior to employment.

However, this period is not irrelevant because it is a time when a number of expectations about one's career are developed, many of which are unrealistic. Such expectations may lie dormant for years and then pop up later to frustrate both the employee and the employer.

The establishment period begins with the search for work and includes our First job, being accepted by our peers, learning the job and gaining the first tangible evidence of success or failure in the real world. It is a time which begins with uncertainties, anxieties and risks.

It is also marked by making mistakes and learning from these mistakes and the gradual assumption of increased responsibilities. However, the individual in this stage has yet to reach his peak productivity and rarely gets the job that carries great power or high status.

Most people do not face their first severe dilemmas until they reach their mid-career stage. This is a time when individuals may continue their prior improvements in performance or begin to deteriorate. At this point in a career, one is expected to have moved beyond apprenticeship to worker-status.

Those who make a successful transition assume greater responsibilities and get rewards. For others, it may be a time for reassessment, job changes, adjustment of priorities or the pursuit of alternative lifestyles.

For those who continue to grow through the mid- career stage, the late career usually is a pleasant time when one is allowed the luxury to relax a bit. It is the time when one can enjoy the respect given to him by younger employees. During the late career, individuals are no longer learning, they teach others on the basis of the knowledge they have gained.

To those who have stagnated during the previous stage, the late career brings the reality that they cannot change the world as they had once thought.

It is a time when individuals have decreased work mobility and may be locked into their current job. One starts looking forward to retirement and the opportunities of doing something different.
5. Decline
The final stage in one's career is difficult for everyone but it is hardest for those who have had continued successes in the earlier stages. After several decades of continuous achievements and high levels of performance, the time has come for retirement.

Managers should be more concerned with the match for new employees and those just beginning their employment careers. Successful placement at this stage should provide significant advantages to both the organisation and the individual.

Many employees lack proper information about career options. As managers identify career-paths that successful employees follow within the organisation, they should publish this information. To provide information to all employees about job openings, managers can use job posting.

Job posting provides a channel by which the organisation lets employees know what jobs are available and what requirements they will have to fulfill to achieve the promotions to which they may aspire.

One of the most logical parts of a career development programme is career counseling. This can be made part of an individual's annual performance review. The career counseling process should contain the following elements:

(a) The employee's goals, aspirations and expectations with regard to his own career for the next five or six years;

(b) The manager's view of the opportunities available and the degree to which the employee's aspirations are realistic and match with the opportunities available;

(c) Identification of what the employee would have to do in the way of further self-development to qualify for new opportunities;

(d) New job assignments that would prepare the employee for further career growth.

Training and educational development activities reduce the possibilities that employees will find themselves with obsolete skills. When these development activities are properly aligned with an individual's aspirations and organisational needs, they become an essential element in an employee's career growth.

In addition to encouraging employees to continue their education and training so as to prevent obsolescence and stimulate career growth, managers should be aware that periodic job changes can achieve similar ends.

Job changes can take the form of vertical promotions, lateral transfers or assignments organised around new tasks.

Available evidence suggests that employees who receive challenging job assignments early in their careers do better on their jobs. The degree of stimulation and challenge in a person's initial job assignment tends to be significantly related to later career success and retention in the organisation.

Initial challenges, if they are successfully met, stimulate a person to perform well in later years. There are definite benefits for managers who correctly fill positions with individuals who have the ability and interest to satisfy the job's demands.

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5 Different Career Stages for an Employee

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ADVERTISEMENTS: The proper way to analyze and discuss careers is to look at them as made up of stages. We can identify five career stages that most people will go through during their adult years, regardless of the type of work they do. These stages are exploration, establishment, mid-career, late career and decline.

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A lot of people have heard of ethics, but they don't truly understand what it means. We have all heard of the Code of Ethics in the workplace. This video goes over the true meaning of ethics.

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Integrating Ethics: From Thought to Action

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This video gives tips on how to make decisions in the workplace.

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Diversity is importance in the workplace today. This generation is more diverse than ever, and companies that have more diversity are ultimately making more money. Diversity in the higher ranks of a company will be an advantage for the business by enhancing the credibility with customers.

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Diversity is such an important topic. Data shows that organizations that are more diverse not only make more money, but are more innovative, smarter, and retain more of their staff.

But more work still needs to be done to continue to advance the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. While the U.S. has increasingly gotten more and more diverse, we still must break down the barriers to diversity that continue to exist in many organizations.

Major tech companies such as Google and Apple are making efforts to boost their own diversity, but they're still having trouble achieving it. So what can organizations and leaders do to reflect the growing tide of data that shows that diversity simply makes good business sense?
1. Leverage groups/leaders who are already advocating for change.
Leverage the voice and power of people of influence who are already leading the charge. Former U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter, author of A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, said that the biggest problem in the world today is abuse against women. He recognizes that the more diversity there is in any system, the more everyone is better off. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also put this into action in 2015 by appointing a gender-balanced cabinet of 50% women and 50% men. More recently, French President Emmanuel Macron appointed a diverse cabinet by gender, political newcomers and different political leanings.

In the same way that world leaders make diverse picks in their cabinet appointments, business leaders can step up to help change the way organizations are run.

2. Create formal mentoring programs in organizations.

As research shows, mandatory diversity training implemented since the 1960s hasn't been as effective as initially hoped. However, setting up formal mentoring programs that are volunteer-based (e.g. both the mentors and mentees voluntarily sign up for them), then deliberately pairing minorities and women with those already in leadership positions often opens up the dialogue and interactions between those who might not normally interact. This breaks down barriers and builds support and encouragement for advocating and finding opportunities for mentees. Interactions between these different groups, especially when working towards a common goal, often lead to more openness and breaking down barriers to find similarities.
3. Continue to spread the word that diversity increases financial revenue.
Advancing diversity is good business, but it also makes financial sense. Businesses see an increase in ROI when there's more diversity in the organization - 35% for ethnically diverse companies and 15% for gender-diverse companies. They say this is so because companies are better able to win top talent and increase employee satisfaction.

Educating our leaders and heads of organizations/systems about this benefit can certainly help in changing hearts and minds and continuing to grow more diversity in organizations. Demonstrate the value of diversity on your bottom line, whether you are a manager, senior manager, or higher by increasing diversity in your group. Take that data and hold discussions with your senior leadership to show them the value too in small discussions or one-one-on meetings.

We need to continue to break down barriers and allow diversity to flourish in organizations by educating more and more people about the benefits of inclusion. The organizational dynamic, as well as your bottom line, will grow for the better.

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How To Lead The Push For Diversity In The Workplace

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Diversity is such an important topic. Data shows that organizations that are more diverse not only make more money, but are more innovative, smarter, and retain more of their staff. But more work still needs to be done to continue to advance the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

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As a leader, you will constantly run into problems, whether it is problems with the company or with employees. As a manager, you have to possess strong communication skills to be able to communicate through these problems. From experience, I have customers that want to speak to managers all the time because they think their problems are going to be solved this way. Most of the time, as an employee I have already solved the problem but the consumer would like to speak to someone above me so that they can hear it from them. This is where the good communication skills come in and managers have to be able to talk their way through the problem.

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With as many problems as we are all faced with in our work and life, it seems as if there is never enough time to solve each one without dealing with some adversity along the way. Problems keep mounting so fast that we find ourselves taking short-cuts to temporarily alleviate the tension points - so we can move onto the next problem. In the process, we fail to solve the core of each problem we are dealt; thus we continuously get caught in the trap of a never-ending cycle that makes it difficult to find any real resolutions. Sound familiar?

Problem solving is the essence of what leaders exist to do. As leaders, the goal is to minimize the occurrence of problems - which means we must be courageous enough to tackle them head-on before circumstances force our hand. We must be resilient in our quest to create and sustain momentum for the organization and people we serve. But the reality of the workplace finds us dealing with people that complicate matters with their corporate politicking, self-promotion, power-plays and ploys, and envy. Silos, lack of budgets and resources, and many other random acts or circumstances also make it harder for people to be productive.

Competitors equally create problems for us when they unexpectedly convert a long-standing client, establish a new industry relationship, or launch a new product, brand or corporate strategy. Mergers & acquisitions keep us on our toes and further distract us from solving existing problems by creating new ones.

As Karl Popper, one of the most influential 20 th century philosophers of science, once eloquently stated, "All life is problem solving." I've often contended that the best leaders are the best problem solvers. They have the patience to step back and see the problem at-hand through broadened observation; circular vision. They see around, beneath and beyond the problem itself. They see well-beyond the obvious. The most effective leaders approach problems through a lens of opportunity.

Leaders who lack this wisdom approach problems with linear vision - thus only seeing the problem that lies directly in front of them and blocking the possibilities that lie within the problem. As such, they never see the totality of what the problem represents; that it can actually serve as an enabler to improve existing best practices, protocols and standard operating procedures for growing and competing in the marketplace. They never realize that, in the end, all problems are the same - just packaged differently.

A leader must never view a problem as a distraction, but rather as a strategic enabler for continuous improvement and opportunities previously unseen.

When I launched my first venture in the food industry, we had a problem with the adhesion of the labels to the glass jar packaging of our products that affected nearly 20% of an initial shipment. As circumstances would have it, this was the first shipment to a new client that was "testing" our new products in 200 stores with an opportunity to expand our distribution to over 2500 stores nationally. Instead of panicking, we took a problem solving approach that involved multiple steps and resulted in a full-blown change management effort with our label supplier, manufacturer, trucking company and client. Rather than viewing this problem simply as a hurdle that could potentially lose us the client, we took proactive measures (and a financial investment) to show our new client that we were capable of not only solving the problem - but earning their trust by responding promptly and efficiently with a comprehensive step-by-step incident report that included our change management efforts.

This experience taught us many lessons about our company and helped us to avoid many unforeseen problems. The ROI from how we handled this problem helped open our eyes to many elements that were previously being overlooked - and in the long run it helped enable us to grow the business.

Whether you are a leader for a large corporation or a small business owner, here are the four most effective ways to solve problems.
1. Transparent Communication
Problem solving requires transparent communication where everyone's concerns and points of view are freely expressed. I've seen one too many times how difficult it is to get to the root of the matter in a timely manner when people do not speak-up.

Yes, communication is a fundamental necessity. That is why when those involved in the problem would rather not express themselves - fearing they may threaten their job and/or expose their own or someone else's wrong-doing - the problem solving process becomes a treasure hunt. Effective communication towards problem solving happens because of a leader's ability to facilitate an open dialogue between people who trust her intentions and feel that they are in a safe environment to share why they believe the problem happened as well as specific solutions.

Once all voices have been heard and all points of view accounted for, the leader (with her team) can collectively map-out a path toward a viable and sustainable solution. As fundamental as communication may sound, don't ever assume that people are comfortable sharing what they really think. This is where a leader must trust herself and her intuition enough to challenge the team until accountability can be fairly enforced and a solution can been reached.

Transparent communication requires you to break down silos and enable a boundary-less organization whose culture is focused on the betterment of a healthier whole. Unnecessary silos invite hidden agendas rather than welcome efficient cross-functional collaboration and problem solving.

Organizational silos are the root cause of most workplace problems and are why many of them never get resolved. This is why today's new workplace must embrace an entrepreneurial spirit where employees can freely navigate and cross-collaborate to connect the problem solving dots; where everyone can be a passionate explorer who knows their own workplace dot and its intersections. When you know your workplace dot, you have a much greater sense of your sphere of influence. This is almost impossible to gauge when you operate in silos that potentially keep you from having any influence at all.

In a workplace where silos exist, problem solving is more difficult because you are more likely dealing with self-promoters - rather than team players fostered by a cross functional environment.. When you operate in a siloed environment where everyone wants to be a star, it becomes increasingly difficult to help make anything or anyone better. This is when problem solving becomes a discouraging task.

Breaking down silos allows a leader to more easily engage their employees to get their hands dirty and solve problems together. It becomes less about corporate politicking and more about finding resolutions and making the organization stronger.

Breaking down silos and communication barriers requires people to be open-minded. In the end, problem solving is about people working together to make the organization and the people it serves better. Therefore, if you are stuck working with people that are closed-minded, effective problem solving becomes a long and winding road of misery.

There are many people in the workplace that enjoy creating unnecessary chaos so that their inefficiencies are never exposed. These are the types of people ( loafers and leeches) that make it difficult for problems to get solved because they slow the process down while trying to make themselves look more important. Discover the lifters and high-potential leaders within the organization and you will see examples of the benefits of being open-minded and how this eventually leads to more innovation and initiative.

Open-minded people see beyond the obvious details before them and view risk as their best friend. They tackle problems head-on and get on with the business of driving growth and innovation. Close-minded employees turn things around to make it more about themselves and less about what is required to convert a problem into a new opportunity.
4. A Solid Foundational Strategy
With this explanation in mind, carefully observe the actions of others the next time you are dealt a real problem.

Without strategy, change is merely substitution, not evolution. A solid strategy must be implemented in order to solve any problem. Many leaders attempt to dissect a problem rather than identify the strategy for change that lies within the problem itself.

Effective leaders that are comfortable with problem solving always know how to gather the right people, resources, budget and knowledge from past experiences. They inspire people to lift their game by making the problem solving process highly collaborative; for them, it's an opportunity to bring people closer together. I've always believed that you don't know the true potential and character of a person until you see the way they solve problems.

Effective leaders connect the dots and map-out a realistic plan of action in advance. They have a strategy that serves as the foundation for how the problem will be approached and managed. They anticipate the unexpected and utilize the strengths of their people to assure the strategy leads to a sustainable solution.

Never shoot from the hip when problem solving. Avoid guessing. Take enough time to step back and assess the situation and the opportunities that each problem represents. Make the problem solving process more efficient by recognizing that each problem has its own nuances that may require a distinct strategy towards a viable resolution.
Also on Forbes:
You know that you have great leadership in your organization when problem solving becomes a seamless process that enables the people and the organization to grow and get better. If problem solving creates chaos, you may have a serious leadership deficiency.

Problem solving is the greatest enabler for growth and opportunity. This is why they say failure serves as the greatest lesson in business and in life. Be the leader that shows maturity, acts courageously, and requires accountability. Applying each of these lessons can help you become a master problem solver. Each experience teaches us all new things. Embrace problem solving and the many unseen treasures it represents.

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The 4 Most Effective Ways Leaders Solve Problems

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With as many problems as we are all faced with in our work and life, it seems as if there is never enough time to solve each one without dealing with some adversity along the way. Problems keep mounting so fast that we find ourselves taking short-cuts to temporarily alleviate the tension points - so we can move onto the next problem.

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Here is a Forbes article that relates to the modules that we went over during this course.  Leadership vs management is very important in the workplace today.  A lot of managers have trouble balancing their management skills with leadership, and owning both.  When a manager is only managing their team and not leading, their team is most likely to fail in the long run.  I have experienced this myself with my manager at my current job, and our team has fallen into last place because he does not know how to lead us.  This article explains that managers need to check on the well being of their employees and recognize how they feel about their job.

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For years we were taught that management has to do with forecasting, budgeting, planning and controlling. Managers were taught to manage, not to lead.

New supervisors and grizzled management veterans were taught how to assign work to subordinates, how to evaluate their teammates' work, how to counsel people on performance problems and how to hire and fire staff members. Everything we were taught about management assumed that the manager would know what to do and was calling the shots.

These days we understand that the old-fashioned view of a manager's duties is wholly insufficient for the new-millennium workplace.

Responsibility for a team of people and its success -- not to mention each team members' well-being and professional development -- is a big assignment to take on. Leadership has very little to do with controlling, budgeting and so on. It has little overlap with assigning work and evaluating it.

Our traditional view of management is task-based and mechanical. In that worldview, we don't think about topics like "How are my teammates holding up? Are they stressed out? Are they feeling good about the future and about the energy on the team?"

For years we pretended that human energy isn't a factor in a team's success, even though anybody who has ever been on any kind of team knows that the team energy, also known as trust level, is the whole ballgame!

We can use the carrot and the stick to get people to perform for a while but eventually, if they don't care about the mission, about their leader and/or about one another, the team will fracture and lose steam. It's inevitable! Today we know that empathetic, trust-based human leadership is not only the most effective way to lead a team but also the most profitable way to run a company.

Here are five enormous differences between managers and leaders. If you hold a leadership role now or aspire to do so in the future, think about steps you can take in each of these areas.
Mission
The traditional view of management assumes that a manager's job is to run an apparatus -- perhaps a corporate Credit Department or a team of programmers. There are clear inputs and outputs and expected results from the engine each manager is responsible for. The manager's job is to keep the machine running smoothly.

In that worldview, the people on the manager's team are essentially machine parts. They are interchangeable. Once they are hired into a role, their job is to perform that role (to run their piece of the machine) according to goals and standards that preceded them and that will outlast their tenure in the job. The presumption is that the machine is more important and more powerful than anyone who helps to run it.

Leadership takes just the opposite view! The energy on your team powers everything you will accomplish.

The machine can change whenever it makes sense to change it, even many times a day. Maybe your machine should change, or maybe it's time to junk the machine and invent something totally new. People are creative. Machines in general are not.

Leaders allow people to design their own jobs as much as possible and to put their own stamp on their jobs.

A leader is not working to achieve machine-like process perfection to be repeated over and over until the end of time.

A leader and his or her team have a mission. They all know what the mission is and they know their piece in it. Maybe at one point your mission is to replace your outdated Credit Department procedures with new procedures that are faster and simpler. Apart from the fact that they have a job and need the paycheck, your teammates know what the Credit Department modernization means for customers, for themselves and for the company.

A mission has a beginning, a middle and an end, no matter what the mission is. When you complete the mission, you'll start a new one.

Maybe your mission is to produce an off-Broadway play or to invent a better mousetrap. Leadership is inextricable from a specific mission that people are excited about. Without a mission, there is no place to lead your team toward! Without a mission, where are you headed?

Who can get excited about doing the same things day after day, year after year, to no visible end except to make a few executives rich? There has to be more to the mission than that, and part of a leader's job is to explore and exalt the connections between his or her team's mission and each team member's personal mission.

This is why I write about plugging into your power source at work, whether that means using a different part of your brain or getting to teach what you know or another element that important to you. We all need that power jolt at work. We all deserve it, too!
Self-Awareness
The old-fashioned, command-and-control view of management did not require that a manager look in the mirror, but leadership requires that activity of a leader every day.

A leader is someone who get outside his or her busy brain to see him- or herself rather than being controlled by his or her emotions, especially fear.

Fear is the emotion that makes managers freak out and bring the hammer down. It makes some of them yell at subordinates or put the fear of termination into them so that people skulk around in terror that they'll make a mistake.

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Management Vs. Leadership: Five Ways They Are Different

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For years we were taught that management has to do with forecasting, budgeting, planning and controlling. Managers were taught to manage, not to lead. New supervisors and grizzled management veterans were taught how to assign work to subordinates, how to evaluate their teammates' work, how to counsel people on performance problems and how to hire and fire staff members.

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Code of Ethics is very important in the workplace.  Without a Code of Ethics business can get into a lot of trouble with their consumers. A Code of Ethics acts as a blueprint for the business, which keeps the business in order and out of trouble. It acts as a guide for managers to make their decisions and understand their boundaries.

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Importance of Creating a Code of Ethics for a Business

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A code of ethics is a vital document for any business, as breaches of ethics can land companies in serious trouble with consumers, other organizations or government authorities. Creating a code of ethics makes decision-making easier at all levels of an organization by reducing ambiguity and considerations of ...

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How to Manage a Company through Teamwork

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How to Manage a Company through Teamwork

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A lot of people are very opinionated about Steve Jobs and the type of leader he was. In the end, he became extremely successful and this video shares some of his tips on teamwork.

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An important part of leadership is coaching.  As a manager of a team, you will most likely have to coach on a daily basis.  At my current job, I receive a monthly coaching on my performance and metrics.  If additional coaching is needed throughout the month due to specific situations, then we have those discussions as well.  Coaching can make an employee either feel better about their job or worse.  Depending on the coaching skills of your manager, these conversations can be bad all of the time!  The article below shares some coaching tips for leaders.

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Coaching and Mentoring Skills for Leadership Success

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The keys to leadership effectiveness today: coaching and mentoring The old rules of management and supervision simply don't work with today's complex workforce. That's why the most effective leaders in America now rely on the power of coaching and mentoring to lead their teams to success.

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All of the modules covered different parts of leadership and what it takes to be successful.. The video below shows seven essential qualities of great leaders.

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7 Essential Qualities of All Great Leaders