In our last podcast episode dedicated to our #TakeChargeChallenge, we share how to take initiative successfully. The reason? It enables you to take charge of your career and achieve your defined goals of success.

The topic bubbled to the top of our list thanks to questions we have received from our mobile app users. Although the advice and guidance we shared focused on their unique situation, a common skill surfaced, taking initiative.

Today’s employers expect all of their teammates to get work done without being told what to do and when to do it.

But there are significant personal benefits to strengthening this competency. Listen to hear how taking initiative supports continuous learning, further develops analytical skills, demonstrates leadership. And most importantly, take charge of your career growth and development.

We are taking a break from our #TakeChargeChallenge this week to discuss a situation that has played out on a global stage --- the working royal family fallout by the departure of two senior members. The timing is fitting because we discussed work relationships and their importance last week.

This unfortunate situation demonstrates how important it is to invest time and energy to understand our teammates as a person. The public stage the royal family maneuvers does not always appear to offer its members this opportunity. Without the chance to gain personal knowledge of others, they can miss out on experiencing how it leads to everyone achieving career success and happiness.

Self-Guru’s founder, Leslie Ferry, shares her view on a powerful positive lesson she believes this opportunity offers the Cambridges and Sussexes to teach the world. And how embracing it would take great intellectual humility, empathy, and courage while demonstrating strong character.

Today’s knowledge economy makes work a team sport, with each individual playing a critical role in achieving a company’s or organization’s success. It has never been more important to work collaboratively, effectively with all of our teammates, including those who seem to “push our buttons.” To do so, we need to invest time and effort to build relationships with all of our teammates.

The relationship-building process starts by understanding our colleague’s work style. There are four common work styles, and we tend to work more effectively with colleagues with similar approaches to our own. About 25% of individuals fall into each work style. So, our work style is similar to just 1 out of 4 of our co-workers. That means we may be unknowingly tuning out 75% of individuals we work with. This behavior is not conducive to developing strong work relationships.

Listen to learn the different works styles, including yours, and how to develop meaningful, strong working relationships with those who possess each.

We dedicated the first five episodes of the #TakeChargeChallenge to the different elements or contributions to sound thinking. So far, we have discussed active listening, critical thinking, problem-solving, empathy, and communication. You might find it odd that active listening, empathy, and communication were included as thinking skills. If you had the opportunity to listen to these episodes, you now know active listening and empathy are about understanding others, which requires thinking. And, being a masterful communicator starts by forming educated opinions, which involves the processing of information or thinking.

Now, with a strong understanding of how to think soundly, it’s time to take a close look at behaviors that lead to greater happiness and success. We are starting with humility. And it might not be what you think it is.

You might think great communicators are just naturally talented and born with “the gift of talk.” But the fact is that everyone can communicate well, once we recognize the secrets to strong, effective communication are active listening, critical thinking, empathy, and problem-solving. Effectively communicating is a process that starts well before we utter a single word.

This week’s #TakeChargeChallenge topic is effective communication.

You will hear the elements that contribute to delivering or presenting your messages in a way that others understand, including:

• The need to start by defining a goal

• How empathy helps to “know your audience”

• How to organize and present data and ideas in a memorable way

• Choosing the right communication method

• The importance of timing

• And more!

#TakeChargeChallenge #selfawareness #effectivecommuncation

Mastery of problem-solving is vital to career success in today's knowledge economy.

For 3-years running, 77% of respondents to PwC's Global CEO Survey said they believe soft skills, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, empathy, collaboration, and communication, are equal to or more important than strong technical skills needed for a job.

Many of us jump to define a fix for the first element or factor we discover that is not performing as intended. But often, this quick thinking leads to solutions that do not address the actual cause of a problem. Listen to learn how to approach problem-solving in a way that will get to the correct problem source.

This week’s Self-Guru Journey #TakeChargeChallenge topic is problem-solving. But given the importance of critical thinking to successful problem solving, we are sharing a replay of an episode from season 1 about this vital career skill. So, it is a bonus week with two learning opportunities about how to take charge, elevate your self-awareness to self-empowerment, and accelerate your career success.

Getting work done today requires uber-teamwork. And to be effective, we need to understand our teammates or co-workers.

Empathy is the skill that powers an ability to understand why someone reacts or behaves the way they do and to connect with others in an understanding way. In other words, empathy is “understanding what makes someone tick.” It doesn’t mean you will like or agree with everyone, but rather that you understand them.

Most of us are easily distracted and struggle to listen well.

Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, summed up this point beautifully, he said, “Most of us don’t listen with the intent to understand. We listen with the intent to reply.”

Active listening is a critical element to our success at work.

It reduces misunderstandings and building trust, it boosts our social skills thanks to powering an ability to ensure others feel heard, and it improves our work quality because it is the first step of effectively processing information, which leads to sounder problem-solving and decision making.

Welcome to season 2 of the Self-Guru Journey podcast. We are kicking-off this season in January 2021, and since many of us dedicate the beginning of the new year to self-improvement, we thought it is a great time to introduce our #TakeCharge challenge. #TakeCharge aims to demonstrate how when we focus on what we can control right now, we are better prepared for a brighter, more fulfilling life as we emerge from the challenges like those we have all faced in the last 12-months.

We want to extend self-care to self-empowerment.

For the next 12 weeks, we will dedicate our Self-Guru Journey podcast to a specific skill or characteristic of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. In addition to explaining the topic and some personal stories of how it is beneficial, we’ll end each episode with a development exercise to build and enhance that skill or characteristic.

We will guide you through the development of the human skills that will enable you to exceed your co-workers' expectations and achieve your goals for career success.