Why Millennials Who Want to Improve Professionally Should Take Dance Lessons

Why Millennials Who Want to Improve Professionally Should Take Dance Lessons Why Millennials Who Want to Improve Professionally Should Take Dance Lessons It ispredicted that millennials will make up 75 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2025, and thats good news for everyone. Well-educated, passionate, and forward-thinking, millennials bringa new kind of spirit into the workplace. However, they may find themselves at odds with their boomer and Gen. X coworkers.Believe it or not, millennials can dramatically increase their professional success by applying principles from the dance world to their business lives, which is why I advise people to take dance lessons if they want to advance in their careersAside from the obvious fitness-related benefits, ballroom dance lessons can enhance millennials communication dynamics. In the dance world, millennials can learn how to better relate to others and how to succeed in the workplace (and life) through profound connection and teamwork.Still no t sold on dance as a professional development opportunity? Here are four tips from the dance floor that will help millennialsget into the rhythm of career success1. Let GoMany millennials seek control over everything their finances, their careers, their social lives, etc. Unfortunately, this need for control can limit a persons abilityto work in a team.Partner dancing helps people let go of the need for constant control. When the ego is removed from the present moment, creativity, innovation, teamwork, and true freedom result.2. Adjust to New StepsMillennials have had access to an unprecedented numberof educational opportunities. Knowledgeis power, but the abundance of education can also invite the danger of complacency that comes with feeling like you know all there is to know.Intelligence comprises many aspects, including perspective (i.e., how we evaluate information based on our past experiences) and perception (i.e., how we apply this information going forward). Learning new d ance routines challenges you to recognize new patterns, and in business, growth often comes from learning to connect the dotsin new, innovative ways.3. Express Yourself Through ChoreographyGrowing up in social-media saturated times, millennials often rely heavily on visual techniques to communicate. Unfortunately, this new way of communicating can make cross-generational understanding difficult.Choreography can teach people how to establish emotional connections even across seemingly large gaps in understanding. Choreography helps dancers ensure their movements are all geared toward effectively connecting with an audience a principle that professionals, especially those in the world of marketing, could really use.4. Ask for ScoresMillennials like toreceive frequent feedback, and theyre very good at using this feedback to improve their performance. When millennialsenter the workforce, they are often surprised and disappointed to learn that feedback rarely occurs outside of cursory a nnual performance reviews.On the flip side, many managers falsely believe that millennials cannot take criticism. They thinkthis generation received too much positive feedback in its youth.In the dance world, you receivecriticism from your coaches and judges. This criticism is always aimed at helping you improve your techniques and routines. Scoring, a type of feedback, is built into almost all practices and competitions. The majority of dancers are mora engaged and motivated as a result of this abundance of feedback.Millennials should speak up and request more frequent feedback from coworkers and managers. Contrary to popular belief, millennials would rather have (productively) critical feedback than no feedback at allValeh Nazemoff is the best-selling author of The Four Intelligence of the Business Mind and The Dance of the Business Mind,executive vice president and co-owner of the high-level data management and business performance consulting services firmAcolyst, and a leadershi p coach.

Stop priding yourself on being brutally honest

Stop priding yourself on being hochly honestStop priding yourself on being ausgesprochenly honestThe truth already hurts. If you intentionally put the pain in the process, maybe youre honest maybe youre guilty of being just a little too brutally honest. So how can you determine the difference between honesty, brutal honesty, and outright cruelty? Heres one hint examine the intention. Are you trying to hurt the other partie, even a little? Shock them into listening? Then there may be a streak of abusive intent behind that honesty. The Canadian writer Richard J. Needham once wrote that the person who is brutally honest enjoys the brutality quite as much as the honesty. Possibly more. So when is it not appropriate to be brutally honest? Luckily, the answer is easy.You never, ever need to be brutally honest in the officeA recent tweet about a rather exacting executives search for an intern sparked a conversation about whether brutal honesty is welcome in the office. The job posting said Ill push you into the pool, but I wont let you drown, just before adding I will be brutally honest with you. I may be the first to do so.The reactions? Surprisingly welcoming from many.Is brutal honesty in the workplace necessary- much less to an inexperienced intern who will likely be counting this as one of their first professional experiences? Not necessarily, according to Ray Luther, Executive Director of the Partnership for Coaching Excellence and Personal Leadership at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Promises of brutal honesty are overshooting the mark, according to experts. Honesty is great and necessary - you cant build a good company on lies, after all - but you can leave the brutality at home.Your colleague experiences the brutality, not youLuther explained to Ladders that the concept of brutal honesty as a whole- both brutal and honest are relative terms to the person experiencing them, so the most important parte is determining who will be on the rece iving end. Luther continued, What might be very brutal feedback for one person, might work for another person. Its more about how they make sense of the feedback and their relationship with the giver. So, in the case of a newly minted intern with no previous working experience nor relationship with their new boss, brutal honesty might not necessarily be the best approach.How to give honest feedback without brutality know your listenerLuther helped explain the concept of brutal honesty in the workplace in terms of feedback, how its given, received, and processed. He says that as a coach working with young MBA students he regularly hears them saying they like clear, transparent feedback- which is a fairly universal comment to an extremely nuanced process. The important part Brutally honest feedback delivered the wrong way can cause the listener to shut down and lose any potential benefit.Stacey Hanke, a C-Suite mentor, says she has clients who need positive feedback along with the neg ative. She also works with other clients who tell her be tough with your feedback. I can take it. Hanke advises that before sharing honest feedback, make aya you understand your listeners style. Do you need to slowly work your way to the tough feedback or does this person prefer you tell them how it is up front? In other words, adapt your message and style based on your listeners style. Pay attention to what your listeners want so that your feedback is received and that you have influence on them. Before you hand out feedback, critique or your next brutally honest comment, Luther advises paying attention to the human dynamic going on. In a perfect professional world, the dispenser of critique or feedback of any sort really wants to make sure the person understands it and that the intended message is received. Consider the relationship are you speaking as a boss to employee? A manager to an intern? Luther suggests you try to understand how the person on the receiving end may be proce ssing or filtering your comment. We all have our own filters, he says, Were making sense of it based on our own values, our own personality, our own experiences. And if youre troubled by the way someone interacts with you or offers feedback, you probably cant change them or their style- but you can change the way you react or process things. Hanke adds have a conversation with this individual to understand their style, for them to understand your style and to agree to how much feedback you both want, how often and how direct.What to ask yourself before being brutally honestIn case youre trying to find your own balance between honesty and brutal honesty, ask yourself to articulate whats important to you when receiving feedback. Luther says that by clarifying your needs, you become more conscious and a better giver of feedback. He says the sign of a good leader is one who doesnt say Im brutally honest and you have to take it and suck it up. The good leader will make people better and help develop them. Sometimes that requires courage and candor and tough love. While Luther says that he doesnt believe in beating around the bush and filtering feedback, he tempers it and balances it with his level of desire for the person to develop. It should never be about telling them theyre wrong. Luther ends by saying if someone is only doing or saying something to shout it out unfiltered without regard for the persons feelings, emotions or thoughts, that their level of influence is compromised. And thats being brutally honest about it.

Why Meditation Is One of the Best Time Management Tools

Why Meditation Is One of the Best Time Management ToolsWhy Meditation Is One of the Best Time Management ToolsWhen you feel like your working mom life is too chaotic its time for more than just a mommy timeout. Its time to decompress and meditate. Most of us know meditation is good for you but stopping and sitting seems impossible. Theres just too much to do Lack of time is the problem that meditation can solve. Let me convince you that investing in meditation practices is the best time management tool. Heres what happens when you dont meditate When youre running in a non-stop marathon your brain can become unbalanced from stress or anxiety. One side of your brain is working harder than the other and then the two falls out ofsync. Meditation allows your brain to become balanced again. For example, lets say you stay up late trying to solve a problem. In the morning you magicallythink of theanswer You think to yourself, Why couldnt I figure this out last night? What happened while you were asleep is that your brain found its center. It became balanced again. Meditation can give you the same results. When you are juggling many tasks or decisions, you make it worse by stressing about resolutions or trying to organize your life better. If you stop what you are doing and relax, itgives your brain a chance to balance itself. Sitting still can be the hardest part Sitting still in silence is glorious, isnt it? Your marathon or sprint interval training ends. You sit comfortably with your eyes closed ready to retreat to tranquility. No need to watch children jump around or play referee. You give yourself permission to release the pressure of working on your to-do list, emails, or chores and you just sit still. This may be the hardest part How can you give yourself permission to stop when theres so much to be done, constantly? Lets say you are walking downstairs with a laundry basket and you think Im so tired but Ill just do one more load of laundry, and then Ill f eel good. Youll feel accomplished but still tired. Thats not really good. Youll get to check something off your to-do list but how does that make you feel good in the long run? In five years from now will you remember how good you felt from folding clothes? Change your perspective about your priorities Make meditation a priority. To help you change your perspective on meditation think about how this practice will this make you feel five years from now. After meditating answer the question, Do I think this would change how I live my life? Think about how much time you spend on negative emotions like worry, stress, anxiety, anger, or guilt. If you spend time meditating you are lessening these emotions and as a result will spend less time dwelling in them and more time in a relaxed state. Meditation leaves you feeling released of something. It leaves you feeling a bit more peaceful. How to start meditating Let the family plektron from the wrinkled clothes in the morning and cho ose to sit still. You always have a choice. Make a choice to sit then take a few deep breaths. Think about how your body is moving while you inhale and exhale. This is meditation in its most basic form. Thoughts will come into your mind, they always do, but you can chose to decide that they dont matter at the moment. The only thing that matters is your breath. It doesnt matter how long you meditate for initially. Try not to stress about how long you sit for. Give yourself permission to not feel guilty about sitting still. The itch to move may happen but with practice it will subside. Keep with your meditation practice to discover for yourself how you feel afterwards. The effect of meditation may pleasantly surprise you. In five years from now you may be a different person and your family will love you for it.