This Bright & Wize episode explores what it takes to be a strategic thinker and make sound decisions. Listeners will hear what these skills involve and why they matter at work, like producing creative, innovative, breakthrough ideas that elevate our company's customer experience or eliminate problems customers face.For individuals, strategic thinking and sound decision-making can lead to new work opportunities, more challenging responsibilities, or a promotion. It also leads to lower stress and anxiety because it eliminates the need to re-work some project or task and speeds up completing our responsibilities.The skills that fuel strategic thinking and decision making are:Active Listening (Yes, it is a thinking skill.)Intellectual HumilityIntentional or Critical ThinkingProblem SolvingCommunicating Effectively#strategicthinking #decisionmaking #listening #humility #criticalthinking #effectivecommunication #softskills #careersuccess #brize

There is a growing recognition that self-awareness is the secret to career success, happiness, and mental well-being. But the big challenge is knowing how to develop it. On this episode, Leslie shares information from the psychologists and career coaches who developed the educational content for Brize, including:How self-awareness powers career mental well-beingThe broader details of what it means to be self-awareHow Brize’s approach eases the overwhelming feeling of knowing how to develop self-awareness and soft skills Brize users:Learn how to achieve their career goalsDevelop strong soft skills and deeper self-awareness through work-related exercisesStrengthen their mental health and well-being 

This week, we wrap up our conversation with Dr. Mo McCusker and Dr. Nikki Blacksmith, who share a secret to building self-awareness and succeeding at work. This episode may be short, but it is powerful.To build self-awareness, you’ll hear that we need to seek knowledge of self, others, and us and what our emotions tell us. #selfawareness #curiousity #careersuccess 

This Bright & Wize episode with guests Dr. Mo McCusker and Dr. Nikki Blacksmith is jammed packed with insights and invaluable advice on how to embrace mistakes and failures versus fearing them.As Nikki shares, a fear of failure is rooted in fear of looking foolish and how others will perceive us. She goes on to share that success is less about the mistake but rather how we handle it. When we take responsibility for our actions that might feel like a failure to us, others are more forgiving and will pitch in to help us fix it if needed. Mo shares that failure is a rite of passage in the start-up space and that teammates lift each other in work environments that accept mistakes will happen.Listen to hear how mistakes and failures lead to success, why it is a mistake not to accept responsibility for our errors, and sage advice on steps to take to minimize the impact of our mistakes.And you’ll want to hear the story Nikki shares about the brave professor who tweeted their CV, but it only included their failures. Another resource on this topic is the Brize app. It includes information on how to graciously accept responsibility for a mistake and then move on in the Intellectual Humility module. It also includes exercises to train our brains to look for the learnings in our failures.#selfawareness #fearoffailure #softskills #humility

Over the last two weeks, Dr. Nikki Blacksmith and Dr. Mo McCusker have explained self-awareness, illustrated its value through the positive outcomes it produces, and guided us on how to develop this invaluable knowledge. This week Leslie shifts the focus of her discussion with Mo and Nikki to the barriers we can create to gaining greater self-awareness and performing at our best.The first barrier they explore together is confidence and how low confidence can lead to self-handicapping or self-sabotaging behaviors. Subconsciously, we can create obstacles to our belief that we can succeed and achieve our goals.#confidence #softskills #careersuccess #impostersyndrome #selfconfidence #selfesteem

This week Leslie is back with Dr. Nikki Blacksmith and Dr. Mo McCusker, continuing their discussion on the importance of self-awareness at work. In this episode, Nikki & Mo share guidance on how to tackle building greater self-awareness.  A couple of key takeaways is that self-awareness is not a one-and-done process; we are continuously evolving and truly developing self-awareness requires more than understanding ourselves and ourselves in relation to others. Listen to learn the "and then...."The process of building greater self-awareness includes:Assessing our current abilities, values, and aspirationsReflecting on our actions, behaviors, skills, and output Defining and developing any needed changes#selfawareness #softskills #careererperformance   

This episode’s title is a declaration of why Leslie Ferry created the Bright & Wize podcast and the Brize app. Both aim to raise personal and other self-awareness to fuel career empowerment and success. Dr. Tasha Eurich coined self-awareness as the “meta-skill of the 21st century.” Dr. Nikki Blacksmith and Dr. Mo McCusker embody this belief and have dedicated their learning, research, and careers to empowering individual and team success through greater self-awareness and self-awareness in relation to others.This is the first in several episodes where Nikki & Mo will share their expertise on the topics of: Self-awareness. What it is and how it extends to learning about our colleagues at work.How it drives positive outcomes at work (and in life).How soft skills are critical to strengthening self-awareness.And finally, unknown barriers we all create to becoming self-aware and achieving our goals.# careersuccess #selfawareness #softskills 

About mid-way through next season, which will start next week, we will explore the topic of different work styles. Our listeners will learn how unique approaches to work can be misinterpreted. For example, someone may be highly conflict adverse whose behavior may be interpreted as disinterested or lazy because they seem to be attempting to avoid work. When in reality, they will avoid conflict at all costs. Understanding our colleagues' unique work approaches, characteristics, or traits are key data points that enable us to build strong, trusting working relationships.But before we get to that episode this week, we are sharing a replay of one of Leslie Ferry's (Brize founder and host of Bright & Wize) work experiences that demonstrate the benefits and importance of investing time to build strong work relationships. #teamwork #collaboration #buildworkrelationships

We have some exciting guests planned for season 3, which starts soon. In the meantime, we wanted to share some of our most actionable podcasts from Season 2, where Brize founder Leslie Ferry  explores 3 behaviors a growing number of employees are demonstrating that might be negatively impacting career productivity and growth. Leslie describes each behavior, shares how it is frustrating others, and provides a way to determine if you exhibit these behaviors. And then you'll hear actions you can take to adjust them.  #careergrowth #selfawareness #intentionalthinking #criticalthinking #intellectualhumility 

We don’t walk around with a mirror at work, where we can watch ourselves to ensure our behaviors, body language, tone of voice, and actions demonstrate ourselves as we intend. Our intentions are misinterpreted by our co-workers more often than we realize.One of the leading misinterpreted behaviors is how we share our opinions. We have invested time and energy to become subject matter experts. When we share our expert opinions, we express them with great confidence. We can sometimes be so sure in our opinions that we can appear to ignore or dismiss counter facts shared by others.This extreme confidence can be interpreted as proving our intelligence, arrogance, or a need to be right.When we subconsciously or consciously need to be right, we do not think objectively and miss important information that impacts our thoughts, ideas, and proposed strategies. This behavior frustrates others because, besides the lack of making others feel valued, we can miss information that might be critical to supporting our opinions and ideas for overcoming a problem and getting closer to the best solution. This need to demonstrate our intellect or to be right stalls progress for all.In this potentially tricky topic podcast, we share ways to learn if you might be exhibiting this behavior and steps to take to change it.