Did You Know That Hull & Associates Offers ...
• Conference and Convention Speaking
• Coaching
• Organizational Development
• Team Building
• Bridging the Generation Gap
• Creativity and Innovation
• Leadership Development
• The Myers-Briggs (MBTI)
• Diversity Training— Cultural Competence
• Communications Training
• Assertiveness Training
• Time and Stress Management
• Conflict Management
• Not-for-Profit Board Development
• Employee Satisfaction Surveys
• Organizational Assessments
• 360/Multi-rater Feedback
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Strategic Planning
• Meeting Facilitation
Call us today at (407) 628-0669 to see if we can help you satisfy your Human Relations and Organizational Development needs.

Get a Coach!

Are you worried about keeping your job?
Are you just not assertive enough?
Do you wish there was someone that you could talk to that would help you to make important decisions?

If so, a coach might help.

Coaches aren’t just for executives who are at the top of the organization chart. Coaches are for anyone who wants to grow and be even more effective.
Did you know that Dr. Mimi Hull coaches individuals one on one?
Call her at (407) 628-0669 for a free consultation to see how she can help you.

Encouraging Creativity

You can actively encourage creative thinking and innovation:

1. Make it safe to have new ideas. New or unfamiliar ideas are often “wrong” initiallly. An immediate negative evaluation of the idea (however warranted) will kill it.

2. Cross-pollinate groups. Idea generation works best when there are differences in perspective, knowledge and background. A creativity team should consist of experts, as well as newbies. Newbies are great because they don’t know what doesn’t work!

3. Use an outside facilitator conduct creativity sessions. A good facilitator keeps the process moving, and protects the ideas and the people offering them, two of your greatest assets.

4. Support employees for engaging in the process. Recognize the efforts of generating ideas, even if no applicable concept or solution is produced. Properly encouraged, individuals will engage in the creative process again, perhaps coming up with the next big breakthrough!

5. Evaluate and develop new ideas. Unless you explore some ideas, with assignments and timetables, there is little point in encouraging creativity. Creative thinking is fun, but gets old quickly if ideas don’t go anywhere.

Try these ideas and experience the power of imagination!

(From “Innovation and Creativity Seminar” by Dr. Mimi Hull)

Making Strategic Decisions

According to by Michael C. Mankins, in a Harvard Business Review article, most leadership teams spend just three hours per month making strategic decisions. Worse, many teams fritter away precious hours on unfocused, inconclusive discussion rather than rapid, well-informed decision making. This results in delayed decisions that lead to wasted resources, missed opportunities, and poor long-term investments.

How can your leadership team avoid such pitfalls?
· Spend your limited time on issues exerting the greatest impact on your company's long-term value. Have separate meetings for strategy initiatives vs. day to day tactical issues
· Put real choices on the table, evaluating at least three viable options for every strategy. This gives you choices and encourages better options rather than simply going with the easier obvious ones.
· Use meeting time for decision making--not just discussion. Give people information before the meeting so they will be prepared to make a decision at the meeting. Then commit the resources (time, talent, and money) required to execute the strategy.

Your reward? Strategic decisions--made better and faster.

(From Strategic Thinking workshop – Dr. Mimi Hull)

Bullies in the Workplace
A recent study estimated that approximately one in six U.S. workers had experienced bullying within the previous year. Bullying might be verbal abuse; threatening, humiliating, or offensive behavior; or interference with the victim’s work, and might include any of the following:
· spreading malicious rumors
· ridiculing or demeaning someone
· excluding people
· micromanaging or overbearing supervision
· unwelcome sexual advances
· making threats
· persistent criticism
· withholding information
· removing responsibilities
· overloading with work
These forms of bullying are often carried out by people in supervisory or lower management roles.

What should you do?
First, it is important that you have policies and procedures to prevent bullying. Make sure your employees are aware of the policies and the procedures and understand that they will be enforced.

The most important actions to take when approached by an employee concerned about bullying, or claiming to have been bullied, are as follows:
· Respond to concerns sensitively, and accept that a “star” employee might be a bully.
· Deal with any complaints quickly.
· Ensure that complaints are dealt with in complete confidence.
· Advise the complaining party to gather evidence, by keeping a diary of any relevant dates and times, and related notes, memos, or e-mails.

Try to solve the problem informally by discussing the complaint separately with both parties. Someone may be genuinely unaware that their behavior is inappropriate, and a simple—but unambiguous—conversation may be sufficient.

The next stage is a formal complaint as defined in your policies and procedures document. If the complaint is upheld, the bully should be dealt with promptly.
Examples of possible penalties or actions you might decide to take against the bully include:
· counseling
· a written warning
· suspension
· transfer to another department or location
· dismissal.

Being bullied can be extremely traumatic. If it continues for a long period of time, it can affect the mental and physical health of the victim quite dramatically—some people even feel suicidal as a result of it. Counseling can help when provided by trained expert brought into the organization.

Five Tips Effective Managers Must Master

1. Give Your Employees SMART Goals. Explain to your employees in smart language what needs to get done -- they're not going to figure it out on their own. When we say smart we mean: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Rewarding, and Timed.

2. Give Recognition.Don’t be stingy with praise. Motivate staff and boost your bottom line by giving recognition where and when it's due. Don’t hog the credit. There is a great quote from Colin Powell which says, “It is amazing how much can get done when you don’t care who gets the credit. "

3. Admit your Mistakes. We all make mistakes. Being able to admit mistakes is crucial to becoming a trustworthy manager. Be sincere and specific. Don’t rationalize. Use good eye contact and let your employee know that you are sorry. Literally say, “I’m sorry.”

4. Bring Out the Best in Your People. Focusing on what employees do wrong gives the biggest bang for your buck, right? Wrong. The key to keeping your teams productive is downplaying their weaknesses and highlighting their strengths.

5. Be Approachable. Do your employees come to you with their questions or concerns? Approachable managers have productive employees. One simple thing to do to be more approachable is to make eye contact. Stop what you are doing and look at a person as they are talking and when you are talking to them. People will feel like they are being listened to and will be more likely to respect you, keep you informed and work harder and smarter.

(From Leadership Seminar – Dr. Mimi Hull)

DiSC® vs. MBTI®
In our practice, we use both the Myers-Briggs (MBTI®) and the DiSC® and I am often asked, “Which one is better?”

The fact is, there is no such thing as “the best” psychological instrument. As consultants, who use a variety of assessments, our challenge is to choose the “appropriate” instrument that will meet our client’s needs. Both assessments are valid. Both are reliable. Both can be taken online. In fact, there may be a circumstance when we want to administer both!

Why? Because they measure different things! While the DiSC® measures behaviors, MBTI measures personality types. The concept of “personality” presupposes that a person will react similarly in most situations. Another model to look at the comparison is that MBTI® looks at “climate” or overall personality and the DiSC® looks at “weather,” behavior in a specific situation.

Dr. William Marston, a physiological psychologist who introduced DISC, studied how individuals perceived themselves in a particular situation. DiSC® measures the resulting behaviors and emotions of the perception, and the likely subsequent behavior. Thus, DISC helps people understand behavior (their own and others) in various circumstances (work, home, etc.) While you personality is less likely to change, your behavior is more flexible depending on the needs of the situation.

Just as a medical doctor runs different tests, based on different symptoms, we listen to the needs of our clients and, if an assessment is needed, we prescribe the best one to satisfy the particular needs. If you want to have a better idea of what would best suit your needs, please feel free to contact us!