Whether you are planning an in-house training day or management retreat, or enhancing an existing organizational development curriculum, a three-hour seminar is perfect. Presented by Vital Integrities author George Brymer, these thought-provoking programs teach values-based leadership in a compelling and meaningful format:

An Introduction to Values-Based Leadership
A national workplace study revealed that just 30 percent of U.S. workers are loyal to their employers—that is, they feel a personal connection, are apt to recommend their organizations to others, and are resistant to offers from outside employers. In another study, just 49 percent of respondents said they trust their organization's senior leaders. Increasing mistrust and vanishing loyalty come at a challenging time for hiring and retaining employees: the U.S. Department of Labor projects a shortfall of four million workers by 2012.

George Brymer, creator of The Leading from the Heart Workshop, describes how the most successful companies use values-based leadership to create a culture of trust. Read more...  

Workplace Ethics in an Age of Corporate Governance
Enron, Arthur Anderson, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Tyco—once prominent organizations, but now infamous names in newspaper headlines. Business leaders face accusations about overstating earnings, hiding massive debt, diverting millions of dollars in company funds for their personal use, using questionable accounting practices, and obstructing justice. Is it any wonder many employees develop biases that lead them to associate their leaders with dishonesty and untrustworthiness?

Ethics Resource Center’s 2003 National Business Ethics Survey, the top reasons employees close their eyes to misconduct include the belief that management will avoid taking action anyway, and a concern about remaining anonymous. Read more... 

RESOLUTION: Changing the Workplace Problem-Solving Culture
Most experts describe conventional problem solving as steps on a checklist: identify, analyze, brainstorm, plan, implement, and evaluate. But in today’s business world, change occurs at the speed of light, and problem solvers race from one ensuing crisis to the next. So how can we rely on old approaches to problem solving any longer?

Fact is, organizations typically resolve problems inefficiently: a spur-of-the-moment diagnosis, followed by a hastily applied band-aid. But it’s not just the solution that’s wrong—it’s the problem-solving culture common in most organizations that’s not working. Read more... 

Why Your Employees Ignore You When You Speak
Have you mastered the leadership arts of listening and speaking? Are your messages credible and memorable, or are employees tuning out because your speech is filled with buzzwords, euphemisms, and acronyms? Are you an engaged listener, or are your inner voices, hidden biases, or preconceptions drowning out your employees’ ideas and warnings?

Everything we do as leaders communicates something to our employees. The words we choose set the tone for openness, respect, and trust. The stories we tell determine how employees remember our messages. Whether we’re engaged listeners, or absent ones, our listening actions convey as much to employees as what we say. More than ever, leadership comes down to our conversations with employees. Read more... 

There are immediate costs when employees resign. Many companies pay departing employees for accrued vacation and sick time. Some companies ask employees who give two-week notices to leave immediately, yet pay them for the extra time. There are costs for continued benefits like COBRA. And there are the internal costs of processing the termination, everything from deleting employees from the payroll system, to conducting an exit interview. To cover open positions, companies might need to pay remaining employees overtime or hire temporary workers. If not, productivity might suffer, deadlines might come and go, and morale might fall.

The costs of hiring new employees are even greater. There are recruiting costs for advertising or fees paid to an employment agency. There are expenses associated with interviewing applicants, including interviewer time, reimbursing candidates for travel outlays, and contacting personal references. Once companies identify qualified replacements, they must pay for criminal background checks, psychological assessments, and credit inquiries. Finalists must undergo costly medical exams and drug testing. For the chosen, there might be specially negotiated perks, like sign-on bonuses or relocation expenses. And how do you measure the cost of lost knowledge, customer good will, or chain reaction resignations? How do you predict the price of educating new employees and integrating them into the organizational culture?

Question is: can you afford not to train your leaders?