The Dr CK Bray Show

When you say NO at the right time, and in the right way it can change the course of a day and in the long run the course of your career. We’ve lost the art of saying NO that 3-year-olds are so good at. Tune into today’s podcast and learn a few valuable lessons. First, there are reasons to say no. Second, there are positive ways to say no and lastly, when is the right time to say no!

Chances are  your employees are withholding valuable information and ideas from you. Leaders want to make it easier for employees to share ideas but they put up two big obstacles, the fear of consequences and a sense of futility. When people speak freely productivity and employee fulfillment and financial performance go up. When employees stay quiet bad decisions continue, no new ideas or innovations are brought up so how do you get people to speak up?

There is more work than you can get possibly get done in a work day and more keeps coming. You keep saying yes to everything and helping everyone out while the most important tasks may get shoved to the side. Instead of asking how you can get everything done let's ask another question.. How can you manage your workload and learn to say NO?

What do you do when you make a big mistake at work?  At some point in your career things won’t work out, you’ll be blamed when a project fails or your branding takes a hit. You need to know how to navigate these delicate situations.

If your career history isn't stellar you need to know how to handle those tough interview questions. Interviewers are (usually!) intelligent enough to see through what you're doing. It's important to realize that everyone has positives and negatives in their career experience so learning how to discuss both will help you get that promotion or next job.

Leadership Development isn’t working. Research shows that leaders are less prepared to lead and guide their teams through corporate change. People need more than off-the-shelf courses to learn how to influence the behavior of team members. Having real life situations and case studies can help leaders learn faster, retain information longer and be more effective change agents.

Nobody likes the annual review process. Managers ask you to write a self-evaluation before they do your performance review and you wrestle with what information you should include. Writing a quality self-evaluation is a good opportunity to remind your boss of your accomplishments, successes and goals. It's difficult to be truly objective about your performance so how do you find the right balance between self-promotion and self-criticism?

“I despise my boss! What should I do? You’ve got to help me out!” You may have a boss that you hate, but don’t quit your job because of it. Half of the population have quit their job at some point in their careers in order to get away from a bad boss. I have the answer to this problem!

When most employees quit a job the believe they will never go back. Not true! Boomerang employees are on the rise. Every leader needs to think about the variables of hiring back an ex-employee. Whether you're a leader or an employee there's a lot to consider when it comes to boomerang employees.

Your direct report approaches you and asks to have an off the record, confidential discussion; what do you say? Learn how to respond to this situation and maintain trust after the conversation.  Information may be shared that would obligate you to share this information with your manager or Human Resources.  How do you direct that conversation while still maintaining trust?