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"Leading Virtually"
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* 5 ways to get your team off to the right start
* 3 unexpected challenges and how to meet them
*Why technology alone is not the answer
*How to address team issues
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for our newsletter  And check out our blog!
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Tips, Tools & Tactics
Summer's off to a roaring start: leadership and supervision training series, new coaching candidates, strategic planning retreats, and a stint at my favorite conference, The Leadership Forum at Silver Bay. Hope your summer season holds wonders for you! - Diana
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There's No Fix for Meanness
Five Keys to Hiring for Kindness
"We need you to fix him." I hear this sentence at least once a week, usually from an HR Manager who wants to improve how an employee or manager works with others. As a coach and trainer, I have seen motivat-ed people who made amazing improvements, to the delight of their managers and peers.
But then there are those few who don't improve. Some of them simply can't make the changes suggested, some just want to game the system -- or occasionally me. And there are those for whom there is NO FIX.
No Fix for Poor Character
Let's be clear. Behavior can be fixed. Tactics can be fixed. Character? No, poor character cannot be fixed. The supervisor who criticizes employees roughly can learn and apply effective words and tactics. The uncommunicative manager can communicate more. But the liars, backstabbers, manipulators, and people who just lack human kindness--these cannot be fixed.
Kindness isn't a word we use often in organizations, but it's at the heart of almost everything we ask of people when working with others. On a recent trip to India, I encountered a striking example of a company that hires for kindness, and I was fascinated by their story.
You Can Hire for Kindness?
The company is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, a stunning hotel renowned for both its beauty and its customer service. Before you think of this as an exotic place (which it is, actually) remote from your own employee concerns (which it is not), just listen to what they do....
Click here to read the rest of this article.
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The Secret to Getting your Email Read
We've all been there. After sweating through giving birth to a finely  -crafted email that says all the right things with just the right tone, you hit SEND, and then you run into the addressee later only to find out he clearly has read no more than the first sentence of it. Politely, you repeat the message and conclude that your addressee is a disrespectful clod. Let's hope not. More likely, he was just performing the "internet skim" that has now infused so much of our reading. We glance at the first paragraph-boom! No photos? No headlines? No bullets? Well then, I'm done! Next?
The secret to getting your email read, assuming your subject line was pointed enough to get your reader to actually open the email, is a simple technique I always share in my writing workshops, Top-Down Organizing. Here's how to do it....
Click here to read the rest of this article.
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And finally...
Diana Brooks Associates helps people and organizations improve leadership, communication and talent management.
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