Written by Susan Fitzell

How do you overcome unconscious bias when interviewing to hire a neurodiverse team?
Difficulty recruiting and hiring neurodiverse talent is a common scenario. It happens because hiring practices favor neurotypical people. A talk of mine about the unconscious bias surrounding neurodivergence was recently nominated for a Virtual Speaker’s Hall of Fame Award. It got me thinking a bit more about how unconscious bias keeps neurodiverse people from being hired, even when a company is motivated to employ neurodiverse people.

What Is Unconscious Bias?
Unconscious bias is preconceived notions about what people may be like based on a single attribute. It is often made up of stereotypes, experiences, and things we have heard. Even if we consider ourselves open-minded, we can still have unconscious bias.

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, Ph.D

I’ve written frequently about mindset and here I go again. Coming at it from the strangest of directions – gardening. It’s that time of year again when mulching needs to be considered and then executed. Do I buy the standard mix of soft and hardwoods, to be spread amongst my plants and shrubs, etc., and then replace it every 2-3 years, or do I pay 2-3 times as much and get the latest trend of brown shredded rubber tires that last 12-15 years?

There really is no one right answer. Whichever serves you the best way possible – that’s YOUR right answer… Higher price but does not attract all kinds of bugs and infestations, and lasts an extremely long time, or less expensive but carpenter ants and other pests will progressively thank you for it more and more over time, and it needs to be replaced or supplemented every two years? Uncharacteristically, it’s taken me two weeks to step out of the maze and confusion of the two choices.

Written by Joe Curcillo

The Art of Being a Generalist

In today’s rapidly changing world, it’s becoming increasingly valuable to possess a diverse set of skills and knowledge. This is where the art of being a generalist comes in. A generalist is someone who has a broad range of skills and knowledge in multiple areas, as opposed to a specialist, who has a deep expertise in a single discipline. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of being a generalist and the strategies that make someone an effective generalist. That is The Generalist’s Advantage.

Written by Machen MacDonald

Your brilliance lies at the intersection of the four P’s.

Imagine a Venn diagram with four circles. Where those circles intersect is your zone of brilliance. That is where you must seek to spend the majority of your time and energy so you can feel happier and be more productive.

Written by Susan Fitzell

The importance of team trust in neurodiversity
There are many different ways that human brains work.

Anyone who has ever worked with another human knows that great things can evolve when we approach conversations, problems, or ways of being in the world differently. Yet, while wisdom unfolds when people with differently wired brains collaborate, there is also a chance of friction. Some friction can spur better problem-solving, yet it can sometimes interfere with cohesive teamwork.

Individual success vs. team success
Employees naturally seek to grow in their careers. Because opportunities for recognition, professional reward, and promotion are limited, competition can cause conflict among team members. The potential for conflict is especially likely when a team member stands out as non-conformist, intense, and talented. However, at the same time, most individuals realize that working together is integral to achieving a company’s overall business goals. Managers also recognize that the company can only succeed if everyone works together.

Written by Machen MacDonald

It’s common for business owners to look back on last year and begin to plan out what they want to accomplish for the year and how they will achieve their goals. If done correctly, this process can be a liberating and inspiring exercise that enables great momentum going forward. If done incorrectly, it may be a sentencing to “paralysis by analysis”.

The challenge, for many, is that they are playing the Compare game. How did we do compared to our competitors? How did our business do compared to other investments we could have made?

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, Ph.D

YOU BET IT IS! In listening to a podcast the other day, one of the distinctions that was made about Business Coaches was that some deal with the very pragmatic (theoretically, solely pragmatic) issues of finances, creating business plans, etc. while others deal with mindset.

It caused me to do a short meditation on what it is that I do. I support my clients in dreaming bigger, in putting a structure in place to support that bigger dream, and/or becoming the person who can create and maintain that bigger dream – usually by shifting their thinking – reprogramming their minds.

Written by Juli Shulem

Often times we feel we would benefit from some guidance or support --- but which kind? I am often asked, “What is the difference between a coach and a therapist or even a mentor and consultant?” I thought I would answer that here in case you have been asking this same question as well.

So here it is in a nutshell:

Written by Michael Goldberg

Manage your calendar to have more control of your time!
I lead business networking events nationally and regularly deal with registration, planning, and all the prep required to lead a successful event.

Given our process, registration and overall attendance is excellent.

Written by Joe Curcillo

This is part two of The Advantages of a Multidisciplinary Team. Multidisciplinary teams, or MDTs, provide an environment for improved communication and collaboration, better decision-making, and flexibility & adaptability to tackle complex problems. MDTs combine the knowledge of different disciplines to quickly identify solutions, reduce the time needed to complete tasks, and achieve higher-quality results. This allows them to address any challenges efficiently and effectively.

How Diversity in Experience and Expertise Leads to More Effective Solutions (Part 2)

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, Ph.D

Do you ever forget that there is so much more to you than simply your career and your family? Your family can be a blessing that makes life so worth living. Hopefully, your career calls you to continuously become so much more of who you are meant to be. Nonetheless, the many additional aspects of you may include your love of sports, your love of the sun, the outdoors, movies, walking, hiking, etc.

In addition to those, for most of us, there is also a calling to be a part of something bigger. To be a part of a community that feeds us and a part of making this world a better place. Since middle school, I have been involved in diversity and equity issues. This past Tuesday – 55 years to the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder – a cherished friend of mine hosted an event at Three Rivers Community College here in CT. She presented a panel of Millennials sharing their ideas and concerns in the world of diversity and inclusion. Racism, sexuality, education, and even financial security were brought onto the table.

Written by Susan Fitzell

So often, managers call a meeting, share information, then end the session expecting employees to understand, assimilate, and implement the new information into their work endeavors. When this does not happen, a manager may feel frustrated with employees that just can’t do what they told them to do. Or a more self-reflective manager may wonder what is wrong with their presentation style. Add the fact that more managers are managing neurodiverse employees, and the challenge increases exponentially.

Here are a dozen ways to lead more effective presentations and meetings when managing neurodiverse employees.

Written by Michael Goldberg

Written by Machen MacDonald

I am enamored at the currently popular notion of the Law of Attraction and how it relates to growing a business. How cool is it to simply tune in to what you want and have it manifest? With movies such as The Secret and What the Bleep making more people aware of the concept, it seems that more and more people are relying on this universal law to grow their businesses.

Are you getting everything you want through the Law of Attraction?

Written by Machen MacDonald

Imagine a row of trees with only one or two thriving and in full bloom. Where does your attention go? Your focus doesn’t go to the small spindly looking trees with no leaves but rather to the ones with full blossoms and leaves. Many businesses tend to cut back their marketing and wonder why they’re not attracting the business they need in order to thrive.

Scores of business owners cut off critical marketing and promotion limbs because they hallucinate they can’t afford such things in times like these.

Written by Dorothy Martin-Neville, PhD.

After speaking with someone about my work as a teacher, I mentioned that for every physician I taught the method of integrative health I developed, there were probably 1,000 or more patients he or she impacted over their career. I impacted one, he or she impacted thousands. Think of that…

Having taught innumerable physicians, nurses, social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc., etc., etc. think of the numbers of patients that have been reached over the years. It’s the same with every leader I worked with in reminding them to live their life on purpose, in peace and joy, with clarity, focus, and abundance. Think of the number of employees, vendors, and others he or she has touched. 

Written by Susan Fitzell

Historically, people have viewed neurodiversity from a deficit model point of view. Unfortunately, I’d say that this is the prevailing view. The world is still very much neurotypical-centric. Consider that neurodivergent brains are the other side of the same human neurological coin.

Humans tend to categorize, sort, and normalize information. In short, we do this to facilitate our understanding of a complex world. This tendency to categorize makes things manageable so we can focus on what we need to do. Unfortunately, this approach fails us when attempting to understand humans. We desperately want human interaction to be simple, but it isn’t.

Written by Juli Shulem

Worried & Anxious? These Steps Could Help

Feelings of anxiety can affect anyone, and for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the sensation can be overwhelming and paralyzing making getting through the day challenging at best. Many clients I work with express their feelings of anxiety, worry, and stress --- and we work through this from a coaching perspective. The majority of the time the anxiety is reduced or quelled entirely in a matter of minutes with a short conversation and reframing their mindset.
Here is the process in 3 easy steps with 2 Questions and 1 Mantra:

Written by Michael Goldberg

One of my favorite activities at the gym, other than training, is watching the people around me. It’s fun to see how others operate.

Today, I noticed a young man in excellent shape using an abdominal crunch machine right near me that I never realized was there. I liked the range of motion the machine seemed to provide.

Written by Machen MacDonald

Are you caught in the busy trap? Do you wonder, at the end of the day, what you actually got accomplished? You know you were mega busy and worked harder than those around you. You may have even checked off a couple of items from your to-do list; even the ones you wrote down after you completed the task. Those count too. However, you can be more productive.

If you are like most people, you may have either forgotten that voicemail, email, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are tools for your convenience and efficiency, not the other way around. These tools may have crept into your life without you even being aware of how to really leverage them for your productivity and efficiency. Each of these is a tool in the physical environment within which you work or operate. The trick is to learn how to set up your physical environment, as well as the tools, to serve you better so you can be more productive.