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Apprenticeship as an Alternative Hiring Strategy for a Neurodiverse Workforce

Written by Susan Fitzell

There’s one approach to neurodiverse hiring that has not received much notice in the United States: apprenticeships. Data from the United Kingdom (UK)(HM Government, 2020), where renewed interest in apprenticeships has spurred relevant research, indicates that 89% of employers said apprenticeships helped companies develop skills pertinent to their organization. Over 74% of employers said apprenticeships helped them improve productivity and the quality of their product or service.

I remember a time when teens who weren’t into academics and preferred to work with their hands had the option of becoming an apprentice. Starting in secondary school or after graduation, they worked side-by-side with a plumber, electrician, carpenter, etc. They learned the trade hands-on. These opportunities are almost non-existent today. Now, they must (usually) go to a tech school. More school!

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Questions to Ask When You Dare to Think

Written by Machen MacDonald

Are you thinking or are you thoughting? Most people don’t really think. They spend most of their day thoughting. Most people have over 80,000 different thoughts a day. The challenge is that 90% of those thoughts are the same things we thought about yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that.

In performance coaching, we know that our thoughts, ideas, and beliefs invoke feelings and emotions. It is your emotions that cause you to take action or behave a certain way and it is your actions and behaviors that lead to your outcome or results. Based on this, it is your thoughts that ultimately lead to your outcome.

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The Importance of LinkedIn Invitations to BD

Written by Susan Catalano

LinkedIn is a tremendous resource for B2B Lead Gen programs. It is a platform filled with members that have judiciously updated their personal data. Those same members are very open to the content on LinkedIn, using that content to do their jobs better and to grow professionally. These aspects of LinkedIn, plus the platform’s ability to utilize member data for targeting, make LinkedIn a powerful tool for BD and Lead Gen.

One of the best ways to begin a relationship with a LinkedIn member is to invite them to join your network. Unlike in times past, when people were suspicious of unsolicited connection requests, members have become accepting of the opportunity to connect to another LinkedIn member who might be in a position to help them. And this is not about getting a new job, although recruiters use LinkedIn extensively. This is about Lead Gen and Business Development, making connections, educating, conversing, proposing, and ultimately getting a referral or closing a sale.

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4 Ways to @#$% Up Networking!

Written by Michael Goldberg

Yes, there are lots of ways to “mess” up your business networking. Here are some of my favorites!

Getting Caught Up with Selling

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Seven Tips to Keep Your Home Office from Being a Hamster Wheel!

Written by Joe Curcillo

Chase Your Dream

When you are working at home, the line between work, family, and play can be blurred. To keep this from happening, surround yourself with items that remind you why you are doing what you are doing. Keep your dream and focus and you will function better on a daily basis. For some new “home workers,” shaving and other regiments fall apart. Don’t let your dreams fall with them.

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Stereotypes in Neurodivergent Hiring: When Exceptional is the Expectation

Written by Susan Fitzell

For all the acceptance that neurodivergence has been receiving, including workplace initiatives to recruit and train neurodivergent talent, we still have a long way to go to attain equity and full inclusion. Stereotypes still impact hiring patterns. Hiring practices are standardized around these stereotypes.

I am guilty of espousing the idea that neurodiversity is a competitive advantage. I’ve quoted corporate studies confirming the belief that having neurodiverse teams fuels innovation.

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Create a Concise Plan for Success

Written by Machen MacDonald

Simple clear purpose in principle gives rise to complex intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.” If this quote by Dee Hock contains truth, then your business plan, game plan, or even life plan must be concise. You must plan for success.

When it comes to writing business plans, many people either numb out and don’t do it, hire someone else to do it that doesn’t know them or their business, or they attempt to create a plan for success that ends up being just a multi-page document that is an exercise in futility.

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What a Life

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, PhD

If you have been following me, you are aware that I have recently moved. The walls are all painted, the pictures are all hung, all the plants are settling, and the new furniture is in. Now back to my life

In my meditation each evening, I review my day. In what way did I betray myself today? (Saying yes when I wanted to say no, etc.) In what way did I fall short? (Didn’t submit that form I promised.) As well, in what way did I exceed expectations or receive an unexpected blessing?

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START

Written by Juli Shulem

Starting the new year right may mean getting a solid footing on the process of ‘STARTING’ altogether. I have written about how starting helps with the finishing in a previous post on my website – so I am backing up a bit now, and addressing the ‘starting’ process itself. 

Starting is often challenging for us. No one is immune to this I have noticed.  Whether it be starting a project, a report, an employee evaluation, a research paper, or a blog post – the very idea of starting can be daunting. And it isn’t always the ‘starting’ that is the culprit – it is the emotional or mental ‘stuck-ness’ when thinking about the sheer magnitude of the project overall, right? Those thoughts of “oh wow, this is going to be a lot of work” or “I don’t have the multiple hours this will probably take to finish” or “what if I do a bad job after putting in all the time,” or the ever-famous “I don’t know what to do first.” Yeh, there are those concerns – but these are simply limiting beliefs. You probably can ascertain from previous experiences that most of those thoughts have no real foundation or legitimacy. So. Let’s Start. (Pun intended).

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Five Brain Hacks to Learn Faster

Written by Susan Fitzell

Much of my work is helping professionals see that they’re not “bad at learning”; they’re simply trying to learn in a way that doesn’t work for their brains. While my work naturally helps many neurodivergent people, it applies to neurotypical people with different learning styles.

One of the things I wish I could put on billboards everywhere is that people need to stop fighting the way their brain works and instead lean into it. If you learn in a way that works best for your brain, you can process much more information faster. When I joined Michael Sherlock on her podcast, we discussed helpful tech tools for learning and how to hack your brain to learn more quickly. Here are some of my favorite brain hacks from that conversation.

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Fixing Your Energy Crisis to Get Things Done

Written by Machen MacDonald

Do you wish you had more energy to get things done? Are you exhausted at the end of the day and not really sure why? Do you wonder how other people seem to have so much energy and vitality for their life and work?

Before I help you find more energy to get things done, here is a quick physics lesson. It’s a simple one, so hang in here with me. 

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It's An Odd World

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, PhD

Have you ever noticed that the most skilled, qualified folks, have a large sense of insecurity or uncertainty about so many things they are not expected to know?  Or that the folks who are just starting out have an amazing sense of all-knowingness?

A theoretical physicist I know will not feel he has accomplished anything until he equals or exceeds his idol who has long passed over. Another friend is thrilled at simply getting the laundry completed.

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How Entrepreneurs Can Be Empowered to Thrive with Less Hesitation and Fear

Written by Joe Curcillo

I hope no one told you that being an entrepreneur would be easy. Somewhere, in the definition of entrepreneur, you may not have been told about the stress, dancing on the edge of poverty, and all of the hurdles that go with the excitement of being self-employed or self-directed. Yes, the definition includes the words, “assumes the risks of a business or enterprise,” but many times, in the excitement to declare yourself an entrepreneur, you forget that fear is built into your chosen path.

It is that fear of the risks you take that makes the outcome worthwhile.

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Letting Go

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, PhD

In preparing for my move to a new home, I discovered that in addition to the normal anxiety, excitement, anticipation, and longing for peace and being settled, there was also the need to let go. To let go of things I never anticipated leaving behind and things far less tangible as well. 

Moving into a home with a dramatically different floor plan means some things I have will not fit. On top of that, some things such as my mattress which was 16 years old needs replacing, and my couches which after 16 years have me sitting close to the floor are going away as well. I had no problem with any of those. However, my dining set and my hutch, my heart feels the loss. It was a sad goodbye. There is no dining room in the new home so consequently nowhere to put them. They just don’t fit.  

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Affect the Change You Want

Written by Machen MacDonald

Welcome aboard the change ship. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to your ability to handle uncertainty. The only thing that seems to be certain these days is change. Why is it that some people seem to adapt really well to change while others get stopped in their tracks from it?

The differentiator for people dancing more effectively with change is simply one thing. Those that affect change in positive ways, for themselves, take responsibility for making sure they have a winning hand. 

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Why Neurodiverse Teams are the Way of the Future

Written by Susan Fitzell

Innovation and creativity are the lifeblood of business. To get to both of those, you need different perspectives and ways of thinking. That is why companies hire consultants and agencies.

A more effective way for businesses to gain different perspectives and divergent thinking is to hire a diverse team. Neurodiversity is just as important as other forms of diversity. A neurodiverse person’s brain is wired differently. They experience the world differently than neurotypical people and often have entirely different perspectives.

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I am an Awesome Entrepreneur! Do I Really Need a Business Coach?

Written by Joe Curcillo

Most entrepreneurs have skills and passion in a particular area, which is what led them to open a business in the first place. That doesn’t mean, however, that they know how to make a business successful, because there is more to it than being good at what you do. There are issues that play an important role in business success, and without gaining insight into how to handle them, people are losing money.

Overhead can help make or break a business. Consider this, it is crucial that entrepreneurs learn how to make their business successful overall. As a business coach, I give entrepreneurs the tools to stop the financial bleeding and start reaping the rewards.

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Legal Accommodations for Neurodivergent Workers

Written by Susan Fitzell

How the Law Supports a Neurodiverse Workplace

There are countless reasons why it’s a good idea to create more neurodivergent-friendly workplaces. Research has proven that a neurodiverse workforce increases productivity and gives businesses a creative cutting edge by harnessing the entire spectrum of human thought processing.

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Starting The Year Off With A Dream

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville

Another week begins. As an Executive Leadership Coach, I have supported clients through mergers where not only did they need to grow their companies and their visions, they needed to grow themselves so that they could lead an even greater sized company. It had never dawned on them that they would need to be a greater-sized self as well…

When we create larger or more diverse dreams, it requires a larger presence and/or a more diversified sense of self. The “smaller” vision of who you are cannot sustain a larger dream, you need to be as big as or bigger than your dreams. Remember, you are here to lead your dreams, not have your dreams lead you…. Initially the former may work, but to sustain it or grow it, you need to be the larger entity in order to direct and support its growth.

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The Value of Rest for Your Success

Written by Machen MacDonald

Are you overscheduled? Obsessing about your career? Fantasizing about lolling on an exotic island beach? You may be overdue for some rest. As the pace of modern life accelerates, the need for, and the value of rest sometimes gets pushed to the bottom of our priority list. Often, rest is exactly what we need to perform at our peak.

The Value of Rest

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