All Entries in the "Ask the Expert" Category
Education During the More Relaxed Summer Months
By Dr. Ronald G. Shapiro
School is out, but there is still time for education. Some of the more obvious educational opportunities include visits to museums, historic sites, and reading books. Some schools, of course, have summer reading lists. There are also numerous opportunities to attend workshops and special programs at colleges and universities. There are also college trips for families with rising high school juniors and seniors (though summer is probably the worst time for these trips, because one doesn’t get a realistic preview of the school). Summer also affords a great opportunity for all of us as small business owners, community leaders and as family members to think about our goals and to develop meaningful plans to achieve them.
As small business owners we ought to think about where we are today and where we would like to be in the future. We need to also think about how our business environment, such a changing demographics and technology are changing. We should then prepare a very detailed step by step plan of how we will maintain relevancy and grow. Our plan should include general goals as well as specific learning actions (with dates) we will take during the current year to prepare us to achieve our goals.
As community leaders we need to recognize that students often do not know very much about business and career options open to them. We also need to recognize that with rising costs of higher education and well as the national need for more STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), having some career goals at an early age is more important now than it was in the recent past. We can help by preparing career programs which are educational, memorable and fun for elementary, middle and high school age students and presenting these to youth groups and school career days during the academic year. Ideas for some specific activities may be found in previous issues of RISBJ.
As family members we need to help all of our family members to achieve their educational goals. Start by asking everyone from middle school up to write down their long term objectives. (Help elementary school children to do this.) Then help them to come up with plans to achieve their objectives, and finally come up with some very specific actions – such as reading specific books or taking specific classes – or talking to professionals in a variety of careers. Be sure that people aren’t overburdened with too many activities, such that nothing happens. Assign dates for the most critical activities. Remove the others from the list. Then, throughout the year be sure that everyone is achieving their goals.
Have fun while learning!
Dr. Ronald G. Shapiro
Independent Consultant in Human Factors
Learning & Human Resources
I would like to thank Industrial Consultant Dr. Margarita Posada Cossuto for helpful comments.
Professional Coaching
By Mary T. O’Sullivan
Hassled by an uncertain and complex work situation?
Learn about professional coaching and how it can benefit you. Executive and professional coaching is a process of asking questions that uses plausible suggestions without telling you what to do. Professional coaching is a partnership between you and the coach to help you creatively think through real solutions
to real issues, as you define them. The coach’s job is to assist you in the process of self-determined and self-directed problem solving or change, through a process of dialogue between you and the coach.
The coach’s role is to:
- Encourage your process of problem solving
- Elicit self-directed solutions and strategies
- Help develop realistic,achievable outcomes
How can you determine if coaching is right for you? To determine whether you can benefit from coaching, start by summarizing what you would expect to accomplish. When you have a fairly clear idea of the desired outcome, a coaching partnership can be useful for developing a strategy for how to achieve that outcome with fewer obstacles in your way.
Since coaching is a partnership, ask yourself whether collaboration, other viewpoints, and new perspectives are valued. Also, ask yourself whether you are ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes. If the answer is yes, then coaching is the right path for you.
How is coaching distinct from other service professions? Professional coaching focuses on setting goals, creating outcomes and managing personal change. Professional coaching is not therapy, or consulting. It is the process of uncovering creative solutions to achieving specific goals and outcomes. It is a fluid, inquiry based process.
What are some typical reasons someone might work with a coach?
You may choose to work with a coach for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
- Something urgent, compelling or exciting is at stake (a challenge, stretch goal or opportunity)
- A gap exists in knowledge, skills, confidence or resources
- A desire to accelerate results
- A lack of clarity with choices to be made
- Success has started to become problematic
- Work and life are out of balance, creating unwanted consequences
- Core strengths need to be identified, along with how best to leverage them
Love your job again with the help of a professional coach.
WHERE DID ALL THE NEW RAISED RANCH HOMES GO AND WHY ARE THE ONES THAT DO STILL EXIST ALL KHAKI?
This is a very interesting question, especially for my Rhode Island friends…
The color mentioned – ‘khaki’, e.g., tan, beige, desert sand, khaki…THE LIGHT BROWNS!!! It is the color family that has dominated the RI home market for decades. Why? Rhode Island has made two things clear:
1. fried calamari should be served tossed in an olive oil/balsamic vinegar with yellow banana peppers and some garlic, and;
2. the raised ranch home is the ideal contractor spec home and should have an exterior vinyl color of “khaki”.
Why khaki? When building a spec home (a contractors model home speculated to sell) they want to be certain to stay with the neutral coloring as it has been proven to be the most appealing and calming. Even if the color of ” khaki” is not the first choice of the inquiring and potential home buyer – chances are they will not walk away or lose interest in purchasing the home vs. the houses with a loud finish/exterior color which is more costly to cover up or change if disliked. And, this is the same reason that “bone white” is most often the chosen paint for the interior walls and white for six panel interior doors. This is the leading package that has been sold in Rhode Island for 20 years this coming August! Why are we seeing less of this model/package all of a sudden? Why the change? Simple. Contractors have been choosing to opt out of building spec homes from ground up due to the economy and the slowing (to almost extinction) of the middle class. These very important segments will need to be thriving if we’re to see that “khaki” raised ranch boom again!
And in the last five years contractors began to shift gears away from the fully guttedflip trend (which is now becoming very scarce) to flips with cosmetic touches. These cosmetic touchups I warn you…be careful. The permitting process is a bit sketchy, as it does not always require attention to: electrical, plumbing and mechanical areas. However, many contractors find these projects to be very lucrative and profitable and there are A LOT out there for sale now. Just a word of warning – if you do notknow your contractor, you better investigate them well – I find this “cosmetic” homeflip as the #1 cover up complaint in Rhode Island!
Craig DiPetrillo – DiPetrillo Properties – Planning, Investments, Construction
Droste Group Announces Expansion into Boston/Providence Markets
TROY, MICH. – Droste Group, a leadership and organization development firm, announced that they have opened an office to better serve their clients in the Northeast. The new office is located at 303 Wyman St., Suite 300, Waltham, Mass., 02451.
Droste distinguishes itself by partnering with highly experienced professional consultants who possess significant executive level exposure. Leading the regional office is David Robert, Managing Director, Northeast. Prior to joining Droste Group, Robert was Chief Executive Officer, Middle East Region, for Great Place to Work, Inc., a global human capital consultancy best known for its annual Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list.
“Droste Group’s core purpose is to develop extraordinary leaders who build healthy organizations that, in turn, improve people’s lives,” says Lisa Satawa, Founding Principal at Droste Group. “We create competency with our clients, rather than dependency. We work closely with our clients to understand their specific needs and how best to approach the implementation of a sustainable solution.”
Droste Group offers a wide range of solutions, including its proprietary Organizational Performance IQTM Assessment, pre hire assessments, team building, succession planning, cultural alignment, individual coaching and leadership development programs. Droste Group is also a licensed distributor of Wiley Everything DiSC™ assessments, Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ workshop, as well as McKinsey and Company’s Organizational Health Index (OHI) assessment.
“Clients come to us for a variety of reasons,” says Robert. “Many feel a specific pain point or see an opportunity on the horizon that they’d like to get ahead of. And, they know that when they partner with us they’ll be working alongside someone who has first-hand experience working through the same challenge.”
For more information about Droste Group and its services, or to learn more about how Droste Group can support your organization, visit www.drostegroup.com or call 1-877-550-5100.
