To Skill, or Not to Skill? Like so many things, the modern office is in a constant state of flux. So too must we be in flux, ready for imminent change around the next...
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Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica Fear of technology and its supposed imminent rise to prominence has long lingered in our collective consciousness. Though perhaps most famously displayed in Hollywood theatrics ranging from the explosive battles...
Curb Your Enthusiasm There are times when it feels like everything is going our way. No matter what we do, success stacks atop success, filling us with joy, optimism, and hope. The euphoria spills...
Click here to read the thorough report on mental health and the student athlete experience. “Playing a sport in college, honestly, feels like playing fruit ninja with a butter knife. There are watermelons and...
What Kind of Egg Are You? Sometimes bad economic news tends to spill over the transom. From layoffs to inflation, troubling news can fully consume our background consciousness. With that uncertainty comes feelings of...
Imposters Among Us Who we are as individuals is a sometimes-complicated line of thought. For many of us, who we are depends on what we are. Our careers can often become the foundation of...
In the Absence of Trust Though the importance of personal relationships is pronounced throughout society to the point of ad nauseam, many of us experience a dearth of meaningful connections. While the decline of...
Perchance to Dream Stability isn’t easy to come by, especially as economic pressures continue to rack our teams. It’s no secret that the bulk of our workforce, millennials and Generation Z, face particularly daunting...
Out with the Old It’s not uncommon to blur the distinction between “stable” and “stale.” We may think that stability brings with it a lack of excitement, perhaps even outright boredom. Indeed, even our...
Stability vs. Anxiety Though pandemic concerns had ebbed by the start of the year, inflation writhes around us and a potential shadow of recession looms ahead, inspiring apprehension about coming days. Fear of the...
Perception is Not Reality Amongst the persistence of balancing work and life routines exists the great challenge of balancing relationships. With work and life feeling more intertwined than ever before, the necessity to weigh...
Collaboration in Isolation We find ourselves simultaneously more connected yet disconnected than ever before. The open-door policies of old have become intensified. While we may not be able to casually wander over to someone’s...
I, Human It wasn’t too long ago that many were touting Meta’s “metaverse” as the solution for virtual offices. It was proposed as offering a Sims-like workplace of the future, an obvious answer to the distant-yet-connected...
Business Casual The new year brings with it a new age in the modern world of work. The rise of flexible work environments has many of us rethinking how we approach work. Numerous organizations...
A Carol of Control & Productivity, Part 2 Festivity makes us merry, and happy people are usually healthy people. Reflecting on our own experiences, we probably know that the day flies by when we enjoy...
CHICAGO, IL – December 27, 2022 – SurePeople, a technology innovator specializing in People Science, today announced that it has won three 2022 Gold Excellence in Technology awards from Brandon Hall Group in the categories of...
A Carol of Control & Productivity, Part 1 ‘Tis the season of jolly carols and twinkling lights. The mood of merriment is in full swing, our calendars marked by various events and get-togethers. We...
Brave New Shores Now is the time we begin to ponder what direction to steer our teams. For some, the past two years yielded a boost in productivity with the embrace of remote and hybrid workspaces....
Through the Forest Over the past few years, various companies like Adobe and General Electric have done away with the sometimes-dreaded blizzard of annual performance reviews, discussed here by leadership development service Lighthouse. The...
Harnessing the Power of Emotional, Relational and Team Intelligence (ERT-i) There’s growing recognition among leaders, researchers and educators that Emotional, Relational, and Team intelligence (“ERT-i”) is critical to personal and professional success. In fact, many...
Roads Not Taken The end of the year is almost upon us. This is typically a time when we look back and take stock of the year’s accomplishments—or what we missed along the way....
Perpetuating Merriment Gratitude and how we express it has always been important, and not just for those we express it to, but also for ourselves. By now, it’s well-known that expressing gratitude makes us...
20,000 Leagues of Personality, Part 3 Our channels of communication, the waters between us, can be a placid pond or a stormy sea. While we can carefully select our personal relationships, professional relationships aren’t...
20,000 Leagues of Personality, Part 2 It’s easy to feel detached, maybe even isolated in modern-day flexible workplaces. Communication channels perhaps seem muddled, not as buoyant as before. Worst still are the potentially submerged...
20,000 Leagues of Personality, Part 1 The pressure is certainly pushing down on us, unrelenting with its menacing tides and the seemingly perpetual flotsam of inflation and the housing crisis. To help ourselves and our...
The Masks We Wear, Part 2 Blood boils, vision turning red. Or stomachs get queasy, nerves turning to mush. This is conflict and Gotham City, haunting ground of the Batman and similar mascots of...
The Masks We Wear, Part 1 Gone is the glimmer of spring. Vanished is the tranquility of summer. Soon will come the festivity of winter. But first are the ghouls of October. Cut in...
Introduction Emotional intelligence is carried through an organization “like electricity through wires,” wrote Daniel Goleman two decades ago in the Harvard Business Review. “To be more specific, the leader’s mood is quite literally contagious,...
Chillingly Quiet, Part 3 A twilight of seasons is upon us, yet the concerns of this past summer aren’t yet far behind us. The worries of burnout continue to permeate many workplaces and teams,...
Chillingly Quiet, Part 2 As summer departs, taking with it traditional sentiments of joy and vibrancy, so does autumn descend, heralding a presumed dearth of those delights. Yet all needn’t be lost, as fall...
Chillingly Quiet, Part 1 In recent months, an apparently eerie new trend has crept through the world of work. As if heralding the bite of the fall equinox, repeated in harsh tones by broadcasters,...
Cultivating the Secret Garden Within, Part 3 “People don’t change,” goes the old saying. It might be more accurate to suggest that we can’t change someone else. Change, however, is indeed possible when we...
Cultivating the Secret Garden Within, Part 2 “Not the sharpest tool in the shed.” This expression is as ubiquitous as any, yet it perhaps misses the mark. We aren’t necessarily born sharp, after all....
Click here to read the thorough report on mental health and the athlete experience. “Stress-related illnesses are extremely common in professional sports, and they are becoming more so as the pressures on athletes increase”...
Cultivating the Secret Garden Within, Part 1 “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” This idiom depicting the struggle of self-growth has permeated society since the 1500s with its first mention in John...
HealthforceX Briefing (August 2022) New data-driven approaches to reducing burnout, improving resilience and increasing retention are critical to reversing longstanding health workforce (“Healthforce”) challenges. Why? For one, the staffing crisis plaguing our nation’s hospitals...
The Screens Between Us, Part 2 In today’s world of video calls and remote work, it can be difficult to remember how to navigate the intricacies of human interaction. This era of constant communication...
The Silent Hero, Part 2 At the edge of words, perhaps disguised by practiced tone or chosen vocabulary, lurks the ever-present shadow of emotion. Whether we’re listening to colleagues or a conversation among friends,...
The Silent Hero, Part 1 Voices waft into the air around us, expressing joys or sorrows. They tell of new information or sudden challenges. We listen without comment. No words are needed, after all....
The Screens Between Us, Part I From the advent of electricity to sliced bread and beyond, technology has evolved to make our lives more convenient. The Internet in particular has significantly changed the ease...
A Sherlock of Others, Part 2 Nonverbal expressions and cues are a telltale means of interpreting the impact of words or situations on others. Emphasis on the importance of gestures and expressions has prevailed...
A Sherlock of Others, Part 1 To succeed in both our professional and social worlds, we must play well with others. The need to expertly tread the multifaceted arena of human interactions is crucial...
Highway From the Danger Zone, Part 2 Having spent the past weekend celebrating with loved ones, many of us are perhaps just now returning to our regular routines. Maybe we dove right back in—or we’re listlessly...
Rolling With the Punches, Part 2 If battling against the odds, or even just facing off against a grueling challenge, it’s important to contemplate our strategy. What defines our success against hardship? Is it...
Rolling With the Punches, Part 1 Over the past couple years, we’ve all heard the buzzword “resilience.” The term has often been used in reference to healthcare and “essential” workers. Yet resilience applies to...
Highway From the Danger Zone, Part 1 Summer is in full swing, kids are out of school, and a season of celebration is upon us. From recent Father’s Day to upcoming Independence Day, we glide along...
The Curious Case of Productivity The battle for employee productivity and retention has been waged since far before the Great Reshuffle. Eons ago, back in the early 2000s, retail giant Best Buy had endured...
This is the Way…of Work Our workplaces have evolved more rapidly than we could ever have anticipated. Consequently, the way we work must also evolve. Whereas once we would have physically seen the colleagues...
The Hybrid Workscape Our organizations, our offices—our teams—are often made up of very diverse individuals. As delineated by the AAUW and reports from others such as the Pew Research Center, our workforce is now more diverse than...
SurePeople’s EVP of Research and Data Science, Paul Tsagaroulis, discusses the importance of using people intelligence to assist leaders in optimizing their teams and transforming their organizations. Businesses rely on high-performing leaders and their...
You Are the Magic 8 Ball The utterance of “That’s not my job” or its companion phrase, “That’s not in my job description” are inevitable. Perhaps we ourselves have muttered these very same words....
The Distributed Team Working in a team isn’t always easy. Oftentimes we may feel that we’re doing more than our fair share and dragging dead weight across the finish line. Such is the fear...
Build Anew Change is never easy. It is difficult to accept and challenging to experience. But if recent times have taught us anything, it’s that versatility is not an option–it’s a need. The ability to...
Work with Life The spiraling storm of the Great Reshuffle still thunders across the world of work, forcing employees and employers alike to grasp onto the slippery concept of work-life balance. For instance, the restaurant industry...
Hunting for Happiness We might think of happiness as something to work towards, something achieved when we land that ideal job or move into that perfect house. Modern society has defined those as the...
Speak Up For What’s Right Numerous stories have bubbled into our peripheral for years, whispering of workplace fear—fear of retaliation, fear of job loss. It was a bleak warning to stay within the lines....
Our Values are Our Culture In our modern world of work, the term “workplace culture” has become something of a buzz phrase, not entirely dissimilar to food marketers capitalizing on terms like “GMO/Antibiotic-free.” Behind...
Find Assertiveness Between Passivity and Aggression Following the tumultuous waves of the Great Resignation—or the “Great Reshuffle,” as it’s come to be known—many of us have challenged the idea of what is against what can be. Maybe...
Your Big Picture Think big! See the big picture! Pecking at our ability of foresight (or lack thereof) comes these expressions, accentuated by the dreaded interview question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”...
From 0 to 10 Take a deep breath and count to ten. We’ve all heard this advice at one time or another. This isn’t a call to test our aptitude for counting small numbers,...
Focus on Unfocusing Focusing on details might seem like nitpicking, but not doing so could prove disastrous for many activities—especially with tax season upon us. As the comic book villain, the Joker once remarked, “I’m...
Liar Liar If we seek understanding of a subject or situation, where do we turn? What do we trust? The TV, the Internet—hearsay? Do we venture beyond biases (ours and those of others) to...
Our mountain of tasks won’t erode itself. But crossing that mountain might seem like an arduous quest, the mountain perpetually casting its dominating shadow over our steps, permeating our days with its sinister, unrelenting...
Conflict is omnipresent and inevitable, lurking within the shadows of each corner along the road of life. It’s unavoidable even when we seek to avoid it. Whether with colleagues or family, in circles professional...
“What was I thinking?” This nagging question inevitably slices across our thoughts now and again. Did we buy that snazzy new car while our old car was just fine? Did we cheat on our...
Awkward situations are unavoidable. We’ve probably all been there—that first high school dance, where we’re not sure who to mingle with, or even how to mingle. Next thing we know, we’ve dragged ourselves to the distant...
Can we guess what’s going to happen next? How about when watching a romantic comedy? A Marvel superhero film? What about when we see someone eating a sandwich at the beach, with seagulls flying...
“Control freak.” Perhaps we know someone who’s been called one. Perhaps we’ve been called one. If we are constantly stressed by tasks at work or thinking about errands at home, when do we rest?...
Let’s take a moment to reflect on our professional and personal achievements over the past few years. While those years might have been extraordinarily challenging, are we still able to identify blossoming accomplishments made...
It’s easy to get stuck in our ways and firmly cling to our plans and ideas, but the currents of life don’t always go the way we imagine. Winds change, things happen, and our...
The new year is here and we’ve probably decided on a resolution to pursue for 2022. Wonderful! Maybe that resolution is to achieve a promotion or raise. Maybe it’s to finally fix that leaky...
We get out of bed in the morning, wash up, and maybe we grab breakfast before heading to work. Then we come back, do whatever chores or errands are required of us, and repeat...
Whether we look to the new year with eager anticipation or teeth-clenching apprehension was–and still is–up to us all individually. Our nerves might be frayed as we try to strategize for what may or may...
Many of us might be familiar with the notion that the only constant in life is change. Last year brought it with a resounding echo of that lesson, blasting us with drastic transformations from...
We all have 24 hours in a day. So why does it sometimes seem like others are getting more accomplished than we are? We’re working, maybe parenting or trying to make time for friends–but...
It isn’t a secret that last year brought with it a glaring focus on how lonely we as adults might really be. Quarantine and necessary distance forced some of us to take an entirely...
The holidays invite waves of emotions, oftentimes conflicting. Now, as we emerge through the other side of a global pandemic we find ourselves navigating global shortages and spiking inflation as we prepare to celebrate....
You’ve done so much arduous work Staying past your scheduled out time, ruminating upon how best to approach the project when next you clock in, dedicating so much mental real estate to the tasks...
What does it mean to drive action? At its very core, the ability to drive action simply refers to one’s ability to take action. We may find ourselves unable to make a decision due...
Is there a difference between empathy and compassion? We know that empathy is the exact opposite of apathy. If apathy is to not concern ourselves with the feelings of another, then empathy is to...
Take responsibility. A simple yet elusive concept. Finger-pointing and insistence on blamelessness proliferate our modern society. “It wasn’t me–it was them!” is often seen more so than “It was me; I’m sorry.” Owning our...
Trust, that slippery thing that is difficult to build and yet so terribly easy to break. Today, our society is plagued by the conundrum of who to trust, what to trust, and where to...
What do Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Robin, and Spider-Man have in common? All of these renowned characters are the product of exceedingly impactful mentors. Everyone knows the ability of a hero to harness and...
We don’t always get our way, or what we want. This fact of life is summarized in dozens of different idioms from “you win some, you lose some” to “agree to disagree” and–the greatest...
Choice. A coveted luxury yet also a nettlesome nuisance. Regardless of the significance of the choices, battling between options can oftentimes bring about internal conflict. Do we order the salad or the steak? What’s...
The advent of digital communication has, for years, allowed us as a people to build bridges across vast distances between faraway family and friends. This digital bridge saw more travelers than ever before during...
You may be burned out, overworked, over-stressed, or just overwhelmed. But, you’re also not alone. A Harvard Business School survey determined that the majority of working professionals give more than 50 hours per week to their...
Leadership encompasses four fundamental principles: vision, motivation, navigation, and organization. But what does that mean? Are you a leader? Are any of us leaders? Or…are we all leaders? Do we not all have visions...
You’re not perfect. To be fair, though, none of us are. Perfection shouldn’t be the goal, either. The quest towards perfection is always riddled with failure while the path towards better is always lined...
The power of emotion plays a large part in our daily lives. How we feel at a given moment can impact our ability to think, reason and act. Emotions in this way tend to...
Over the years, we at SurePeople have immersed ourselves in the exploration of the fields of psychology, leadership, communication, adult learning & development, human trait & behavioral theories, organizational development, data sciences, and others...
Have you ever found yourself listening to another and realize you’re not actually hearing what they’re saying? We’re all guilty of it at one time or another. We show up but are tuned out...
How do we inspire others towards great moments, movements, and causes? How do leaders truly move people? Rallying communities towards greater ideals has become more and more ubiquitous. With services like GoFundMe and Kickstarter,...
The “Golden Rule,” is the age-old adage that insists we should treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated in return. The principle is simple; we all wish to be treated fairly...
We are complex, multi-dimensional, and different from each other. We’re driven by a spectacular array of motivations and held back by a daunting amount of obstacles. As human beings, we’re spirited, autonomous, and unpredictable....
When it comes to time, we typically think about how little of it we have. Our duties and responsibilities often consume our day’s focus with little room left to break free of old routines....
Last week, athletes from around the world joined together in Tokyo Japan to wave their nations’ flags in representation of their home countries during the opening ceremonies of the 32nd Olympic Summer Games. For...
Everyone loves an underdog. There’s something appealingly natural about cheering for the undying conviction and refusal to give in against the odds, that’s not just to defy the critics but to rise above the...
When was the last time you felt a need to give someone feedback? Usually, the need arises when you experience a strong emotional response to another’s actions. A peer who surprises you with news...
It can happen in an instant. You’re talking with a teammate, and without really thinking, you comment on something you like or dislike. To your surprise, the person you’re speaking with has a strong...
Change is ever-present. It’s always right around the corner, a few moments past having occurred, and currently in the midst of happening. While it’s widely discussed and often overly stated, there’s a reason why...