28 Daily Habits of the Most Likable People
Read Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny and Ron McMillan....
Press Room
Trouble at work: How to contradict someone powerful
“Our bodies specialize in survival, so we have a natural bias to avoid situations that might harm us,” says Joseph Grenny, the coauthor of Crucial Conversations and the co-founder of VitalSmarts, a corporate training company....
How to Determine Whether a Low Performer Has Potential
A 2017 study by corporate training company VitalSmarts found this figure isn't too far off: High performers are responsible for 61 percent of their companies' work. In other words, they produce three times as much value as their peers....
Study shows exactly how much unproductive people on your team undermine performance
It only takes one or two team members to undermine results for the entire group when they mess up, research from leadership training experts Vitalsmarts shows. Overwhelmed and less-productive team members affect performance by as much as 24%....
Soft Skills: The Catalyst to Achieving Organization-wide Change
Successful groups spoke openly about anticipated problems. They were masters of what we call crucial conversations. They effectively talked about concerns and barriers and thus created the social support needed for success....
Underproductive workers curtail team performance by a quarter, study says
Just one or two underperforming workers can jeopardize an entire team's success, according to a survey by leadership training company VitalSmarts. When a worker fails to prioritize project tasks, misses deadlines and generally underperforms, teams can lose as much as 24% of their productivity, the...
April Consumer Price Index for Wasatch Front released, Provo company finds workplace ‘mistakes’ can cut 24% of productivity, Tractor Supply makes record donation to FFA
VitalSmarts, a Provo company that specializes in leadership training, found in a recent study that even small, seemingly unimportant mistakes by just one or two members of a company can cut team performance by an average of 24%. Examples of “mistakes” include missed deadlines, failure...
Is Your Team a Ticking Time Bomb? New Research Shows It Only Takes 1 or 2 Team Members to Undermine Results When They Fumble Tasks and Responsibilities
PROVO, UT – May 16, 2019 – A new study by VitalSmarts, a top 20 leadership training company, shows that the success of critical projects and programs requires the skill, energy and focus of every team member. Specifically, it only takes 1 to 2 team members...
How to ask your boss for vacation days before summer starts
Some people dread asking for time off, and assume taking less time off is expected of them, according to Joseph Grenny, co-founder ofVitalSmarts and co-author of The New York Times best-seller, "Crucial Conversations."...
FULL-CIRCLE FEEDBACK
In a recent VitalSmarts survey of 200 managers, executives said that fewer than 18 percent of employees received clear, constructive feedback. Although the study was of all employees, many of those not receiving feedback were executives, says Justin Hale, master trainer, VitalSmarts, a leadership training...
Taming Your Post-Vacation To-Do List
"Before you take off, block out time on your calendar for the morning of your return," said Justin Hale, speaker, training designer and master trainer at VitalSmarts....
A Leader’s Guide to Effective Communication Under Pressure
We asked more than 1,300 employees to describe their leader’s style under stress and the impact of that behavior. According to respondents, one in three leaders are seen by their direct reports as someone who fails to engage in dialogue when the stakes get high....
How Learning Leaders Can Create Accountable Cultures to Drive High Performance
But accountability is more than just a trend. Our research shows it’s a leading indicator of high performance. On top-performing teams, peers immediately and respectfully confront one another when problems arise. Not only does this drive greater innovation, trust and productivity, but it also frees...
Why People Fear Giving Their Manager Feedback
In a recent survey, we asked 1,335 employees to disclose their boss’ significant weakness—one that everyone knows and discusses covertly to each other, but not directly with their manager. Asking the question was like opening the flood gates on managers behaving badly. Eight out of...
Check out 7 Mistakes That Can End Your Career
A survey conducted by the consultancy VitalSmarts and released this week by Forbes magazine points out the worst mistakes anyone can make in their career. The study found that 83% of respondents have already seen someone making mistakes that had catastrophic impacts that cost their business...
Hang up the phone and start listening
What do most of us do in such situations? Another research carried out by VitalSmarts shows that there is not much. Only one in ten people draw attention to the interlocutor, while the majority are silent, ignoring the annoying behavior (37%), looking eloquently or showing dissatisfaction in a...
80% of Workers See Faults in Their Boss, Yet Most Say Nothing
Most workers (80%) said they shared an open secret -- an issue readily discussed with peers in the office but not directly with the boss -- about their manager, in a study of 1,335 employees by VitalSmarts, a leadership training company....
Your To-Do List May Be Causing You Stress—Here’s What to Do
A new study of more than 1,300 people from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, shows that three in five people are already feeling frantic, having agreed to accomplish more than they can actually get done in the time available to them....
TOP 20 LEADERSHIP TRAINING COMPANY
TrainingIndustry.com named VitalSmarts as a Top 20 Leadership Training Company for the fifth consecutive year. Selection to the annual list is based on the following: Thought leadership and influence within the training industry, breadth of programs and audiences served, delivery methods offered, company size and...
Use this trick to take control of your boss
A new study by leadership training company VitalSmarts showed what we already knew: discussions on performance at work can be a one-way street....
The workplace’s open secret: flawed managers
More than three-quarters of employees said their managers have "glaring flaws," but few managers realize their shortcomings, a new survey from VitalSmarts revealed....
Open Office Secrets: Most Managers Have Faults Everyone Talks About to Everyone but Them
PROVO, UT – March 12, 2019 – A new study by VitalSmarts, a top 20 leadership training company, shows that across corporate America, performance discussions are one-sided. When it comes to sharing critical performance feedback, managers can speak freely with their direct reports, but direct...
To-Do List Got You Stressed?
Our latest research reveals that many people overcommit themselves. Sixty percent of respondents said their to-do lists contain more than they can complete in the given timelines....
5 Tips to Protect Your Productivity and Your Performance
Our latest research shows that Randy and Carmen are among the 60% of people who are completely overcommitted. Specifically, these people report their to-do lists contain more than they can complete in the given timelines....
Tacking Your To-Do List: 5 Ways to Combat Stress
Our latest study shows that when it comes to managing our time and to-do lists, we’re habitually overcommitted and overwhelmed. Of the 1,353 people we surveyed, 3 out of 5 agreed that they have more to accomplish than they can actually do in the time...
Want to Improve Your Style Under Stress? New Research Shows You How
Most of us intuitively get how important it is to know what to do in times of adversity and even what not to do under adversity. But until now, you may not have known just how important it really is. A new study, conducted in November 2018 among 1,334 employees by...
4 Tips for Navigating Tough Work Conversations
Luckily, author and corporate trainer Joseph Grenny has substantial experiencing navigating these less-than-smooth office dialogues, and he recently wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review outlining several important steps to take before engaging in a challenging talk in the workplace....
Just say ‘no’: More than half of workers in the US stressed out by too much work
If you don't say no, you can end up with more work on your plate than you can handle. That's happening to a lot of workers, according to a new survey from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company....
How to get confident and speak up at work
According to a report by VitalSmarts, which provides workplace leadership training, just 1% of workers said they would be confident speaking up at work if they saw an issue, and 37% said they feared speaking up would hurt their career or label them as a complainer....
A Leader’s Guide to Effective Dialogue Under Pressure
Our latest research confirms, yet again, that the way a manager performs in these crucial moments has a disproportionate effect on their personal influence and their people. The research also shows, however, that a shockingly large majority of managers and leaders buckle under pressure....
Is VR the answer to better sexual harassment training?
According to Emily Gregory, the vice president of development and delivery at leadership training provider VitalSmarts, training is most effective when it goes beyond defining what isn’t allowed, and provides alternative actions....
Study: 60% of people can’t finish everything on their to-do list (but there’s hope)
VitalSmarts, a leadership training company released findings from a study of more than 1,300 people showed that 3 in 5, or 60%, of people are overcommitted, with more on their to-do list than they can possibly finish....
This Has More Than Half of America’s Workers Stressed Out
If you don't say no, you can end up with more work on your plate than you can handle. That's happening to a lot of workers, according to a new survey from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company....
Rethinking The Rules Of Employee Engagement: Why Courage, Candor And Change Are Better
Consider this: Numerous best-selling and highly referenced books like Crucial Conversations and The Speed of Trust delve into the importance of having honest and brave dialogues in the workplace. ...
4 Things Managers Can Do to Increase Productivity and Improve Performance
Ask an open-ended question to start the conversation, listen for clues to determine whether the error was caused by motivation or ability, and then provide targeted feedback and coaching. Identifying these influencers can increase work performance and efficiency, according to Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David...
Workers with overstuffed to-do lists feel overwhelmed, not organized, study shows
Three in five people said they've agreed to take on more tasks than they can actually get done on their to-do lists, according to a new VitalSmarts study....
Practice Makes Proficient: Developing Your Competencies
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (McGraw-Hill Education, 2011) by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler...
Over-commitment Epidemic: 3 out of 5 People Say They Can’t Possibly Get Everything Done on Their To-do List
Provo, UT – January 23, 2019 – The New Year usually inspires goal setting and big ambitions, but for most, taking on yet another commitment is the last thing they should do. A new study from researchers at VitalSmarts, a leadership training companyand home of...
4 Things to Do Before a Tough Conversation
The first thing to do when preparing for a crucial conversation is to reset your motives. You can radically change your motives by thoughtfully answering a simple question: What do I really want?...
A Leader’s Guide to Dialogue: Holding Crucial Conversations Under Pressure
The routine, good work we do day in and day out can easily be tainted by one bad day, one bad interaction or one bad blowup. While this fact should keep us vigilant to controlling our tempers and tongues, VitalSmarts’ latest research shows that many leaders struggle...
ARE YOU A ‘HOTHEADED MANAGER’?
According to new research from leadership training company VitalSmarts, one out of every three managers don’t handle “high-stakes, high-pressure situations” very well....
5 THINGS GREAT LEADERS KNOW (THAT YOU CAN LEARN TODAY)
Recent research from VitalSmarts found that employees who work for managers who respond poorly to stress are much more likely to consider leaving their jobs. They’re also more likely to be frustrated and angry — and more likely to complain. Great leaders understand how important it is...
Why Your Meetings Stink—and What to Do About It LEADERSHIP When Managers Break Down Under Pressure, So Do Their Teams
We asked more than 1,300 people in an online survey to describe their leader’s style under stress and the impact of that behavior on their work. We found that a large majority of managers and leaders buckle under pressure....
10 Holiday Activities You Can Do By Yourself If You’re Not Spending Time With Family
If you want to skip a lot of the standard holiday activities, I don’t blame you; they’re not exactly a recipe for relaxation. According to a recent survey conducted by the leadership training company VitalSmarts, the top source of holiday stress was found to be juggling and scheduling...
A morning routine to combat holiday stress
A new survey by VitalSmarts found that 26 percent of people say that trying to stay healthy, active and sober over the holidays is one of their top five stressors, 44 percent of people live by the motto, "my diet starts in January”; 20 percent say...
We bring holiday stress upon ourselves, survey finds
Some of the pain is self-inflicted: 1 in 4 say they’ve taken on more than they can realistically get done, shows a new survey by Vitalsmarts, a leadership training company....
When Under Stress, Managers Reveal Their Dark Sides
These observations are among the nearly 3,000 comments workers made about their bosses in a survey by VitalSmarts, a leadership training company based in Provo, Utah....
Spoiler alert: A manager’s ability to handle stress is a key factor in team performance
A new study by leadership training company VitalSmarts found that 1 in 3 managers can’t handle the heat, and their ineptitude is affecting team performance in a variety of ways....
How you deal with stress can ruin your employees’ jobs
A new study by researchers of leadership training company VitalSmartsfound that one in three managers can’t handle high-stakes situations. And their inability to communicate and manage through these situations is affecting team performance in a variety of ways....
These are 4 of the biggest holiday stressors — and ways to cope
One in four people say they have taken on more than they can handle during the holidays, according to a recent survey by VitalSmarts....
Why Your Ability to Achieve Dialogue Will Make or Break Your Results
We asked 1,300 people to describe their manager’s style under stress and the impacts their leader’s style had on both their personal and their team results. And what we found is that a leader’s inability to communicate in high stakes, stressful situations directly impacts team...
SURVEY: The Top 5 Sources Of Holiday Stress
A new survey by VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, asked 1,166 people aged 25 to 60 — 76 percent were female — about their stress levels around the holidays and where that stress comes from. It turns out that not only are people stressed, but...
The Top 5 Sources Of Holiday Stress, According To A New Survey
A new survey by VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, asked 1,166 people aged 25 to 60 — 76 percent were female — about their stress levels around the holidays and where that stress comes from....
Surviving the Most Wonderfully Stressful Time of The Year
PROVO, UT – Nov. 29, 2018 – A new survey by VitalSmarts, home of Crucial Conversations® and Getting Things Done® Training, shows that many are just trying to survive the holidays—and this year the “happiest time of the year” might just do them in. Specifically, 1 in 4...
Most Employees Struggle with Key Competencies—But Managers Don’t Do Anything About It
PROVO UT – November 27, 2018 –A new study by VitalSmarts, a corporate training organization, shows that when employees demonstrate incompetence in key standards, managers and leaders provide little-to-no feedback about their poor performance. And in the absence of accountability, employees fail to take ownership...
6 Sex Conversations You Really Need to Have for a Successful Relationship
Couples who discuss tricky topics, like what's going down in the bedroom, are 10 times more likely to have a happy relationship than those who ignore difficult subjects, says Joseph Grenny, social scientist and co-author of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. ...
1 in 3 Managers Can’t Handle the Heat at Work, Data Shows
Unfortunately, one out of every three managers is ill equipped to handle a high-pressure situation, according to data from leadership training company VitalSmarts....
How To Unlock The Potential Of Your People
Teams have the potential to enable each of its members to provide their very best efforts. And when you create psychological safety, you become the bridge between status quo and a more fully realized/ utilized team-based discretionary effort that yields those best efforts....
Study: 1 in 3 managers can’t deal with high-stress situations
One in three managers is unable to handle high-pressure situations calmly, according to new research from VitalSmarts....
The Manager Effect: 1 Out of 3 Managers Can’t Handle High-Stakes Situations and As A Result, Their Teams are Less Successful
PROVO, UT – November 6, 2018 – A new study by researchers at VitalSmarts, a top 20 leadership training company, shows that a manager’s ability or inability to communicate in high stakes, stressful situations directly impacts team performance. Specifically, managers who clam up or blow...
Giving Feedback: What We’ve Learned About Building Strong Design and Development Teams
Giving feedback can be an uncomfortable experience, but Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler and Stephen R. Covey offers practical strategies to tackle difficult situations...
Making telecommuters feel included
Off-site employees who have little engagement with their office colleagues report feeling isolated and excluded, a recent study by leadership training company VitalSmarts says....
How to Avoid The 3 Mistakes L&D Leaders Make When Addressing Workplace Harassment
Without accountability, policies are paper tigers. Organizations know this, so “no accountability” is rarely the problem. What is common, is an accountability process that’s focused too exclusively on perpetrators and suspected perpetrators....
Three Ways To Hone Your Communication To Build Stronger Relationships
In a powerful interview on this blog with the "Behavioral Science Guys" David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, they shared their research that explored gender bias as it relates to women vs. men speaking up forcefully and assertively....
A study proves fighting with your partner is actually good for your relationship
This is what Joseph Grenny, co-author of the book Crucial Conversations concluded and further shared how couples live under the illusion that avoiding discussions on sensitive topics will avoid an argument and in turn, keep their relationship floating....
How Do You Get People to Talk?
“Safety is about intent; not content. Learn to monitor and manage safety and you can talk to anyone about anything.” – Emily Gregory, VitalSmarts...
How to 10x Your Post-Training Results
Our model of behavior change, known as the Six Sources of Influence, identifies all the forces that align to shape our behavior. Our research confirms that leaders who find a way to get all Six Sources of Influence working for, rather than against, change are 10...
2018 Training Magazine’s TTV Winner VitalSmart’s “Jurassic Sales Call”
Training Magazine's Top Training Videos Produced In-House Winner #2 "Jurrasic Sales Call" Judge comments: Clever, original, and funny. The video makes a strong statement—one I won’t forget soon....
From High Potential to High Performances: 5 Hard Skills for Increased Focus and Productivity
This pattern of high potential, followed by increased responsibility, followed by catastrophic failure is surprisingly common. Our study of more than 1,000 professionals shows...
How to Pick & Stick to Career Goals
According to corporate trainer David Maxfield in an article for the American Society for Training and Development, resistance to change and a negative attitude are two of the top career-limiting habits that can keep you from achieving your true potential....
Remote Workers
A Study of 1,100 Employees Found That Remote Workers Feel Shunned and Left Out by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield...
Crucial conversations and how they affect business
We asked Vina Vidal Vicente, an expert on business communication and public affairs, on exactly how recognizing and managing a crucial conversation could affect your business. Her insights are based on the book “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High,” by Kerry Patterson,...
How to Be the Best Boss Ever, According to Career Experts
“Communication is a crucial skill for anyone, especially new managers,” says Ngoc Nguyen, a career coach at Ama La Vida. She recommends Crucial Conversations, by Kerry Patterson, for the insights it provides to prepare for the inevitable: When you manage people, you’re going to encounter tough...
Mind the Gap: 3 Skills to Create an Accountability Culture
VitalSmarts research shows an accountability gap lasting three or fewer days costs up to $5,000 in lost time and resources as employees ruminate about problems instead of speaking up. When an accountability gap reaches five days or more, an estimated $25,000 is wasted. The sunk...
4 Books To Help You Survive A Dysfunctional Workplace
3. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler...
The 4 Conversations Overwhelmed Working Parents Need to Have
The best solution, according to New York Times bestselling author Joseph Grenny and journalist Brittney Maxfield, is communication....
VitalSmarts Announces Partnership with Charles Duhigg, Bestselling Author of “The Power of Habit” and “Smarter Faster Better”
PROVO, UT – September 5, 2018 – VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and leadership development, announced today a partnership with Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the New York Times bestselling books The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better. VitalSmarts and Duhigg...
The Cost of Conflict Avoidance
VitalSmarts research shows, ninety-five percent of a company’s workforce struggles to speak up to their colleagues about their concerns. As a result, they engage in resource-sapping avoidance tactics including ruminating excessively about crucial issues, complaining, getting angry, doing unnecessary work, and avoiding the other person...
Start Your Day With Heart
I've been teaching the VitalSmarts Crucial Conversations course, coaching people through them, and even certifying others to instruct the course. And with all this knowledge, I limited the skills taught in the class to holding difficult conversations or coaching people through difficult moments. I didn't...
A conversation free from technological distractions
If you have ever doubted whether or not your boss is giving you full attention, being sunk into what he reads on the laptop screen, stop doubting. Despite assurances such as "I'm listening, keep talking", he does not listen. Tens of years ago, the research answered the...
Here’s how to work with the office slacker
Either way, nearly everyone (93%) has a coworker who doesn’t do their fair share, according to a 2013 VitalSmarts survey of 549 people — and four in five say their work quality diminishes when they have to cover colleagues’ work. Yet just 10% of people speak up...
These four small mind-set shifts will make you more productive
Getting more done effectively and efficiently is a challenge for both employees and employers. And it’s an expensive one. A March 2018 study by leadership training company VitalSmarts found that 70% of managers currently have at least one “high-potential” (HIPO) employee they are considering letting go for poor...
Have a Concern? The Clock is Ticking
According to a new study by VitalSmarts, organizations lose an average of $5,000 in productivity costs when a problem, process or strategy isn’t addressed within three days. We surveyed 792 professionals about the time lag between identifying and discussing problems, and we asked them about the...
How to Get Someone to Put Away Their Phone and Actually Listen
So, what do you do when faced with these interruptions? According to another VitalSmarts survey, not much. Only 1 in 10 people speak up to the offender, while the vast majority remain silent by either ignoring the behavior (37%), giving dirty looks or showing disapproval in...
This is why you should speak up about work problems
Employees who keep mum about a problem, process or strategy that just isn’t working out — often because they’re worried about being labeled a “complainer” or fear retaliation — can cost companies $25,000 or more in productivity costs, according to a recent report by leadership...
Long Silences at Work: Companies struggle when employees don’t quickly surface problems or concerns
How quickly employees speak up is directly related to the health of an organization, according to a new study Provo, UT - July 11, 2018 - Organizations are susceptible to a wide variety of problems, including unproductive processes, misaligned strategies, underperforming colleagues and ineffective policies. According...
Brett Kavanaugh, Reese Witherspoon, Russell Simmons: Broadsheet July 11th
Now, a new survey of 1,100 people published in the Harvard Business Review suggests that I’m not alone. Here’s what the researchers found: 19% of women and 23% of men say, “My workplace has provided additional training.” 23% of women and 17% of men say, “I’ve seen...
Most People Are Supportive of #MeToo. But Will Workplaces Actually Change?
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the respondents in our survey describe #MeToo as “healthy,” and 45% say talking about harm they are experiencing is now safer. In fact, 41% of the women in our survey know someone who has shared their story of harassment since these...
21 Books Highly Recommended by Successful Executives
"More than anything else in our lives, our habits determine our destiny. Their mysterious power comes from their automaticity, repetition, and cumulative power. For example, Benjamin Franklin wrote a summary of his day every night before bed. Arianna Huffington begins her days with 30 minutes...
You think Bitcoin is volatile, look at the history of global currencies.
A few years ago, the behavioral scientists at VitalSmarts conducted an experiment on value, and the circumstances that influence our determinations of something we want. Certainly scarcity and abundance affect our decisions. Emotional needs are in the mix, as is peer pressure. But so is...
C-Suite Advice to Women in the Workplace: Don’t Hedge Your Message
This is particularly true for women, who face some unique challenges when it comes to getting ahead. New research by VitalSmarts, a leadership training and consulting company, shows that women face emotional inequality at work – their perceived competency decreases 35 percent when they're as assertive or...
Most employers haven’t taken new action in light of #MeToo
But a similarly gloomy online survey from the leadership training company VitalSmarts revealed that just 34% of the more than 1,100 respondents were willing to address unwanted conduct when they saw or experienced it — and respondents indicated the movement hadn’t much impacted whether people were more...
#MeToo Moment or Movement? What’s Missing from The Biggest News Story of The Last Year Is Organizational Action
Provo, UT – May 16, 2018 – While #MeToo continues to promote a wave of social media activity and much-needed awareness of sexual harassment and misconduct, a new study by researchers at VitalSmarts, home of the bestseller Crucial Conversations, shows little significant change—and some unintended...
Kylie Minogue just taught us all a valuable lesson about knowing our own worth
And it seems as if our reasoning for this is rooted in some logic, despite being horribly depressing: women who are assertive or forceful (aka intent on pursuing their dreams and achieving their goals) are perceived as 35% less competent than non-assertive women, according to...
How to Get Your Boss to Listen To You
Not surprisingly, workers seldom take that route. A VitalSmarts study found that only 1 percent of respondents were willing to break the mold; roughly three out of 10 cited a negative organization as the reason for their silence. Anyone who’s seen a colleague punished for being honest...
Good Work Habits Stick Only When Leaders Step up to the Plate and Help
Bad habits are often a form of self-preservation. For example, David Maxfield, the vice president of research for leadership training company VitalSmarts, told me he once had an employee who had been through the competitive ringer....
Why Does Power Abuse Persist?
According to a VitalSmarts study on workplace bullying, 96 percent of us say we’ve experienced it, and 54 percent of bullies have been at it for years. If you are part of that 96 percent, you know it hurts, it harms, and it leaves a...
4 Signs It’s Time to Let That High-Potential Employee Go
In fact, a March VitalSmarts survey of more than 1,000 managers and employees found that 70 percent of managers surveyed had at least one high-potential employee they were considering firing because of poor performance....
On the Same Page: How to avoid the meeting after the meeting
David Maxfield, vice president of research at VitalSmarts and coauthor of Crucial Accountability, Influencer and Change Anything, says the answer is to get the first meeting right....
How to Get People to Accept a Tough Decision
Imagine this: You’re a general manager for a manufacturing company and orders are up. You know you should be celebrating, but instead, you feel gut punched. Your plants are facing severe capacity and material constraints and you know you can’t fill these orders. Now you...
How to Get Your Boss to Actually Listen to You
Not surprisingly, workers seldom take that route. A VitalSmarts study found that only 1 percent of respondents were willing to break the mold; roughly three out of 10 cited a negative organization as the reason for their silence. Anyone who’s seen a colleague punished for being honest...
What to Consider Before Hiring a Friend
I’ve observed and studied friend-boss relationships — and even been on both sides of them — and now know what it takes for them to be successful. The key is having the right combination of patience and candor before and during the hiring process....
LEAD2018 LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARDS: TOP LEADERSHIP PARTNER
VitalSmarts received a LEAD award for Top Leadership Partner. For more than 30 years, Leadership Excellence, now a part of HR.com, has identified and recognized the top 500 leadership organizations and their strategies and solutions in its yearly ranking....
Rethinking Remote Relationships
According to a VitalSmarts survey of 1153 global workers reported in Harvard Business Review (April 2018), remote employees feel left out and disadvantaged as a result of their status. And it goes far beyond ‘out of sight, out of mind.’...
The Truth Behind “I Don’t have Time”: Take control of your inputs and take control of your life
Thankfully, the brain science and our work with people in many organizations shows if you change how you engage with these agreements and commitments, you open yourself to a whole new world of added mental peace as well as a whole lot of time. Here...
‘Queer Eye’ Culture Expert Karamo Brown Shares His 8 Essential Items
Book: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny, and Ron McMillan "It’s all about how to have difficult conversations. I think especially right now, with what’s happening in our country and how divided we are, people don’t know how to have...
The 3 ’Mini-Habits’ of Productive People
At VitalSmarts, we recently asked more than 800 people this same question. We found that three out of four people have wanted to be more productive, less stressed, and more present. Despite this prevailing desire to change the way work impacts our lives, less than one-tenth of the...
Do Your Employees Believe That You Value Innovation? Probably Not
Business leaders surveyed by the cofounders of the leadership training company VitalSmarts, Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield (whom we interviewed recently), say they value innovation, initiative, candor, and teamwork from their workforces. Their employees, however, don’t see it that way. They say their bosses actually value obedience,...
Employee Potential Does Not Always Equal Workplace Performance
"These high potentials have been successful," said best-selling author and expert in workplace productivity David Maxfield in a press release. "They have strong track records that have gotten them to where they are. But often, the productivity practices they've used in the past aren't up...
The Pitfalls of High-Potentials: Technically-Skilled Employees Fail to Meet Performance Expectations
Provo, UT – March 6, 2018 – What good is potential if you don’t live up to it? A new study by experts at VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, shows 70 percent of managers currently have at least one employee, classified as someone with “high-potential”...
4 Steps to Starting a Conversation about Changing Your Culture
Wondering how to fix your business’s culture? If you’re like most business leaders, you probably are. VitalSmarts founders and researchers Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield found recently that a large majority of executives, managers, and employees have an unfavorable view of their culture, and that views of...
This Is How Happy Couples Argue
But here’s a plot twist for you: According to a study about communication in relationships conducted by VitalSmarts as a follow-up to the New York Times bestselling book series Crucial Conversations ($20), the right kind of arguing is far from a death sentence in a romantic partnership. Couples who engage in healthy conflict are...
TOP 20 LEADERSHIP TRAINING COMPANY
TrainingIndustry.com, named VitalSmarts as a Top 20 Leadership Training Company for the fourth consecutive year. Selection to the annual list is based on the following: Thought leadership and influence within the training industry, breadth of programs and audiences served, delivery methods offered, company size and...
Employees & Companies Win Big When Hiring Remote Employees
Remote employees could be costly to companies, but with proper expectations, clear communication, and face time, remote employees can improve a company’s bottom line. RewardExpert spoke with Justin Hale, Leadership Trainer and Content SME for VitalSmarts, one of the top leadership training companies, to find out...
The couple that fights together, stays together: study
"The biggest mistake that couples make is avoidance," Joseph Grenny, an author who was not involved with the study, told The Guardian. "We feel something but say nothing. At least until we can't stand it anymore …...
Why Couples Who Fight Are Happier Than Those Who Don’t
The co-author of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations, Joseph Grenny, believes it’s the problem of avoiding conflict and communication that has a part to play in this unhappiness....
Couples who argue together, stay together, research finds
Many couples mistakenly believe that avoiding discussing sensitive issues means avoiding an argument, which, in turn, will be good for their relationship, said Joseph Grenny, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations....
Workplace Bullying Prevention & Resolution Strategies
According to research published in Forbes, 75% of U.S. workers have been affected by workplace bullying. A survey by VitalSmarts puts this number at 96%....
Couples Who Argue Stay Together, Study Says — But Here’s The Catch
According to Joseph Grenny, co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Crucial Conversations, arguing is a healthy part of a long-term relationship. In fact, couples who argue tend to be about 10 times more likely to stay together than those who never argue, which means I should be...
COUPLES WHO ARGUE ARE 10 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO STAY TOGETHER, SAYS MOST RELATABLE STUDY EVER
Joseph Grenny, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations, told The Guardian, “the biggest mistake that couples make is avoidance.” He added, “We feel something but say nothing. At least until we can’t stand it anymore. So, we wait until we are certain to discuss it poorly before...
7 Ways Arguing Benefits Your Relationship, According To Experts
While you may not like to argue with your significant other, it probably happens sometimes. You may know couples who argue often and those who don’t. But there are several reasons why arguing may be good for your relationship. In fact, an online study, “Able Arguers,”...
Remote Employees Are Angry: 3 Keys To Re-Engage And Boost Performance
A recent article in Harvard Business Review, by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, discussed their study of remote employees and their findings were powerful....
20 Life-Changing Books You Must Add to Your List for 2017
Crucial Conversations is ranked No. 9 on the list of 20 life-changing books you must read in 2017....
5 Ways to Be More Productive in 2018
If your goal for 2018 is to maximize your time, then implementing the “two-minute rule” is a habit you’ll want to adopt now. This rule states that any action that can be carried out in two minutes or less is completed right away. According to...
This Is What Remote Workers Need Most From Their Bosses
Working remotely is a sought-after perk when it comes to employment, but that doesn’t mean it’s all rainbows and unicorns. Workplace politics can be more frequent and complicated when you work from home, according to research by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, coauthors of Crucial Conversations:...
7 Skills You Need to Manage Remote Employees
But for all the perks of being productive in pajamas, there are challenges. As part of a recent study, VitalSmarts surveyed 1,153 remote employees and found they more often feel undervalued than their onsite associates do. Specifically, remote employees more frequently feel that coworkers talk behind their...
3 ways to salvage a meeting that’s gone sour after a big conflict
After exploring various examples of dicey situations, Joseph Grenny, author, keynote speaker, business performance social scientist, and cofounder of VitalSmarts, offers a line that managers can use to “interrupt the chaos” in the Harvard Business Review....
How to Save a Meeting That’s Gotten Tense
It can be surprisingly easy to bring order to a chaotic meeting — and to turn conflict back into conversation — if you know how. Perhaps you don’t have an angry mob yelling at your meeting but there are lots of crises that managers face...
5 things you should do now to be more productive in 2018
According to researchers David Maxfield and Justin Hale from the leadership training company VitalSmarts, the one thing top employees do that sets them apart from average employees is use "capture tools." Rather than running the risk of forgetting a task, top-performing employees use a sticky note, app or...
Supporting Remote Workers
But there are also downsides. A new survey conducted by corporate training firm VitalSmarts finds that a majority of remote workers (52 percent) feels that their colleagues don’t treat them equally....
4 Simple Ways Highest-Performing Employees Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress
An August VitalSmarts survey of more than 2,000 managers and employees asked them about co-workers they would rate a 10 out of 10. About half of both managers and peers said these '10' employees worked both harder and smarter. On top of that, 75 percent of leaders...
Platinum Winner in The Pixie Awards
VitalSmarts was awarded two platinum Pixie Awards (scoring 9/10) for their videos: An Introduction to Crucial Conversations Online with Joseph Grenny and The B.S. Guys: The 4 Ways You’re Being Manipulated (and How to Stop It)....
The Pitfalls of the Phrase “That’s Not My Job!”
You have probably said this once or twice. And you most likely meant no harm with your response. However, telling a coworker that a task isn’t your responsibility can cause you some serious professional drawbacks. The “not my job” approach to work is one of the five most...
7 critical skills for managing remote workers
Remote and flexible work opportunities are quickly becoming a differentiator for attracting and retaining top tech talent. But remote workers face unique challenges that on-site colleagues don’t, according to a new study from authors and social scientists Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, including unequal treatment...
Feeling Undervalued as a Remote Worker? Here’s What to Do About It
According to a new study by New York Times bestselling authors Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, remote employees often feel undervalued by their coworkers. The research, which examined the challenges that remote employees face, surveyed 1,400 employees and found that nearly half (45%) of remote workers feel that their...
Yes, You Can Make Office Politics Less Toxic
I once served on the board of a nonprofit with a group of men and women I deeply admired. Board meetings were an uninterrupted joy. Even lengthy conference calls were opportunities for spontaneous sharing, personal connection, and productive problem-solving. It was Camelot. Until it wasn’t....
Remote Leaders? Here’s How Your Company Can Retain 99 Percent of Them.
David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, authors of Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability, conducted a study of 1,400 employees. They found that 45 percent of their respondents primarily worked from home or some other remote site and that a significant number reported facing greater tensions with co-workers than on-site employees....
Survey: Remote workers are paranoid and feel left out
When you’re a remote worker, there’s a nagging thought that creeps in when your emails and messages go unanswered: Is everyone hanging out without me? When you’re not physically in the rooms where it happens, you can start to worry that you don’t have a...
People who work from home suspect their in-office coworkers are doing this
According to a new survey from David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, social scientists and authors of the best-sellers “Crucial Conversations” and “Crucial Accountability,” more than half (52%) of employees who work from home feel their on-site colleagues don’t treat them equally....
A Study of 1,100 Employees Found That Remote Workers Feel Shunned and Left Out
When it comes to virtual teams, if you’re out of sight, you’re also out of mind. While more and more people are working remotely, our recent study suggests that unless we take extra measures to build trust and connection with colleagues, we pay dearly for doing...
Virtual Reality: Remote Employees Experience More Workplace Politics Than Onsite Teammates
Provo, UT – November 2 – Working remote has become a highly sought-after job perk. Having the flexibility to live and work where you please, regardless of corporate headquarters, often draws people to take one job over another. But while popular and convenient, a new study...
They’re Talking Behind My Back: Remote Workers Feel Unsupported
Working from home may not be the Shangri-La it’s cracked up to be. In fact, remote workers are more likely than on-site workers to believe their associates don’t treat them equally, a new study shows....
5 Tips for a Successful Performance Review
A review is a great opportunity to discuss work styles and expectations—topics that aren’t always easy to broach during a hectic workday, says Glickman. Ask, “How can I make your life easier?” or “How can I help you achieve your goals?” Use the time to...
12 Phrases You Should Definitely Avoid When Giving Bad News
Your news could devastate the listeners, so be prepared for the flood of emotions without trying to sugarcoat what’s happening. Saying, “At least you still have your job” or “At least you still have our team intact” implies you aren’t acknowledging their pain, says Joseph...
Workforce Optimas Gold Winner for Managing Change
VitalSmarts' client The University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine received a Gold Award in the Workforce Optimas Awards program for managing change through Crucial Conversations Training....
The 5 Skills of Highly Valuable and Highly Productive Employees
It’s no surprise managers rate their top performers as their most valuable employees. VitalSmarts’ latest research sought to measure just how much more valuable top performers are and exactly what it is they do that makes them so valuable....
This Is Why No One Understands What You’re Saying
“It’s always you,” says business social scientist Joseph Grenny, coauthor of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. “It could be that you failed to communicate, and so it was a fact gap, or it could be an expectation gap, or it could be that on...
VitalSmarts Releases the Live Online Edition of Getting Things Done® Training
Provo, UT—October 4, 2017—VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today announced the release of the Live Online edition of Getting Things Done® (GTD®) Training, based on the methodology from the bestselling book Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by...
No. 1 Top Training Video
VitalSmarts video "Mneumonic Nmagic" was awarded the No. 1 Top Training Video in the Produced In-House category in the Training Magazine TTV Awards....
How to talk about tragedies like the Las Vegas shooting at work
Joseph Grenny, the author of “Crucial Conversations” and cofounder of VitalSmarts, a corporate leadership development company, told Moneyish that going to work can help employees work through their fear, grief and anger following a catastrophic event if the work environment is sensitive to everyone’s needs....
Finding the Link Between Peace and Productivity
To answer this question, we tested the methodology described by David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done to see whether the GTD practices could make someone a ten. We had 2,072 respondents assess the impact of their production practices on two key areas: performance...
Great Storytelling Connects Employees to Their Work
Joseph Grenny says that in every organization he's ever studied where there was a strong sense of moral motivation, the leaders were always storytellers. They understood and acted on their responsibility to overcome the inevitable alienation of routine organizational life by connecting employees with those...
Do This Ritual At The End Of Each Week To Become More Productive
It’s obvious that some employees perform at higher levels than others—but why? David Maxfield, vice president of research for the leadership-training firm VitalSmarts, studied 1,594 managers and employees and found that high performers have adopted smart habits, one of which is an important ritual for...
Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards: Silver Award for Best Use of Video for Learning
VitalSmarts' Crucial Conversations Online Trainer Certification was award a Silver Award in the Best Use of Video for Learning category in the Human Capital Management Excellence Awards sponsored by Brandon Hall Group....
5 Productivity Practices to Help You Stress Less and Do More
According to a study by leadership training company VitalSmarts, 83 percent of managers and 77 percent of employees are less stressed when they exhibit the productivity habits and traits of top performers. These include organization, time management skills, attention to detail, making to-do lists, keeping...
5 Habits of the Most Valuable and Productive Employees
David Maxfield shares 5 habits that can be adopted by anyone to improve individual and team performance as well as reduce stress....
5 Habits of the Most Valuable and Productive Employees
It’s no surprise managers rate top performers as their most valuable employees. What might not be as obvious is the massive impact a top performer has on an organization. A recent study revealed employees rated by their managers as “nines” and “tens” on a 10-point performance scale...
How to handle high-stakes conversations
VitalSmarts surveyed 1,025 managers and employees about a time when they had a concern at work but failed to voice it. From hundreds of stories emerged five categories of people who go silent rather than communicate concerns....
VitalSmarts Releases Getting Things Done® Training
Provo, UT—September 6, 2017—VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today announced the release of a new edition of Getting Things Done® (GTD®) Training, based on the methodology from the bestselling book Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David...
Is It All About The App?
Justin Hale says your personal productivity turns on behaviors, not tools....
The 5 Best Ways to Handle Difficult Workplace Conversations in the Office
A VitalSmarts Certified Trainer shares five steps for handling some of the most tricky and crucial conversations in the workplace....
The Top 5 Career-Limiting Habits You’ve Built (And 6 Ways to Break Them)
Based on a study that included hundreds of managers, VitalSmarts (a corporate training and leadership development firm) found that 97 percent of employees have at least one career limiting habit -- a behavior that restricts their potential at work. The top five most common were: ...
6 Surefire Signs Your Workplace Is Toxic
Aggressive employees can undermine safety and lower productivity, because they make the people around them go into fight-or-flight mode. According to a VitalSmarts survey, "Eighty percent of bullies in the workplace affect five or more people."...
There Are 3 Skills That Will Get You Promoted and 1 That Won’t, According to a Study
According to a VitalSmarts study, a corporate training and leadership development firm, which examined 1,650 promotions, 92 percent of the respondents said poor interpersonal skills hinder progression. The same research revealed that strong interpersonal skills combined with substantial contributions and caring about your organization are the...
Problems at Work? 5 Questions Every Employee Should Ask Their Boss
Have a problem at work? Get in line. Half of office workers say they’re overworked, and 75% say they don’t have access to the latest technology to help them do their jobs, according to the Staples Business Advantage Workplace Index. Three-quarters of people say slacker...
You can be a 10 in your boss’s book, be more productive and have less stress
It’s no surprise managers rate top performers as their most valuable employees. But what might not be as obvious is the massive impact a top performer has on the organization. A new study by VitalSmarts revealed employees rated by their managers as a “9” or “10” on a...
5 personality traits to develop if you want to be more successful
A survey of 1,500 participating managers and employees by leadership training company VitalSmarts found that top performers don't work longer hours than their peers, they work smarter. To work smarter, researchers suggest communicating more clearly and more often with your manager and colleagues....
5 productivity habits of high-performing employees that you can start today
A new study from leadership training company VitalSmarts reveals that top-rated employees perform better than their colleagues because they work smarter — not harder — when it comes to completing tasks....
Here’s why the highest-performing employees are also the least stressed
While many people may think success is born of the stress of long hours, chaotic schedules and hundreds of unread emails, a new study from leadership training company VitalSmarts reveals just the opposite is true for top-rated employees....
The Traits of Top Performers That Allow Them to Do More and Be Less Stressed
VitalSmarts survey of 1,600 managers and employees found that 83 percent of leaders and 77 percent of workers say that top performers have less stress and increased productivity because of their habits....
Are you a Ten in your boss’s book? Employees skilled at managing their workload are three times more valuable to their bosses than their peers
Provo, UT – August 1, 2017 – It’s no surprise managers rate top performers as their most valuable employees. But what might not be as obvious is the massive impact a top performer has on the organization. A new study by VitalSmarts revealed employees rated...
When to Solve Your Team’s Problems, and When to Let Them Sort It Out
Joseph Grenny gives leaders advice on working with their teams to resolve conflict. He says there are times when leaders will want to intervene and times when it's best to let employees work through issues themselves....
How to confront your boss about the gender pay gap, by a journalist who it did it live on the air
Joseph Grenny advises people to discuss issues in private, and to not overplay the risks of speaking up. ...
Managing in Tech: Exude Cool, Thrive Under Pressure and Dance with Your Stars
David Maxfield discusses the results of VitalSmarts study into the culture of tech. The unique nature of the tech world doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. What can change and change quickly is a manager’s ability to manage the idiosyncratic challenges that come...
Do You Have A Culture Of Silos? Here’s How To Break Them Down
VitalSmarts Trainer, Kelly Andrews, write that our siloed cultures can be broken up once we internally change our motivation and practice speaking up. As we start to challenge the conventions that hold us back from dialogue and create psychological safety in our interactions, others will...
Gender Bias At Work — Why Men Call Forceful Women ‘Hysterical’ And Try To Silence Them
A new study by New York Times bestselling authors, Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield revealed that gender bias in the workplace is real, finding that women’s perceived competency drops by 35% and their perceived worth falls by $15,088 when they are judged as being "forceful" or "assertive."...
What to Do When You Inherit a Team That Isn’t Working Hard Enough
Joseph Grenny give leaders advice on motivating and unmotivated workforce....
A new ‘warning’ for families: You may be trading a full life for Facebook Likes
A new VitalSmarts study found that people don't get as much pleasure from their experiences when they're "focused on capturing rather than experiencing." Turns out that social media 'Likes' are a low-effort way of producing a feeling of social well-being that takes more effort to get...
4 Ways To Foster Happiness In The Workplace
Joseph Grenny says one way to foster happiness in the workplace is to encourage conflict resolution. Encourage face-to-face communication, in a safe environment, where the employees can discuss and work out conflicts. Then be sure to follow up, asking how the meeting went. That follow-through will...
How to Give an Employee Feedback About Their Appearance
Joseph Grenny shares advice on giving employee feedback about sensitive topics--like one's appearance. Don't understate or sugarcoat your message....
Telly Awards Silver & Bronze Winner
VitalSmarts was awarded a Silver Telly Award for it's video "Don't Suck At Talking: Introducing Crucial Conversations Online." It was also awarded a Bronze Telly Award for it's video "How to Talk Politics with Friends & Still Have Some Left."...
Why You Should Walk the Line Between Company Culture and Your Individual Leadership Style
Although company culture is meant to guide employee actions and bring teams together, many employees have a negative view of these principles. In fact, a survey of 1,200 employees and executives conducted by researchers at VitalSmarts in July found a gap in how leaders and...
Playing favorites and workplace gossip hurt quality of care, providers charge
Gossip, rudeness and playing “favorites” hurts the quality of healthcare in facilities, a new report alleges. A survey of more than 1,200 physicians, nurses and other healthcare staff by VitalSmarts identified common communication issues among providers. In addition to gossip, the respondents said a failure to...
Don’t let these 5 toxic workplace dramas hurt patient safety
A survey of more than 1,200 physicians, nurses and staff, led by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield of the training company VitalSmarts, identified five common behavioral problems that more often than not go unaddressed in hospitals and other healthcare settings....
Crucial Moments in Healthcare: New study shows staff drama puts patients at risk
Provo, UT—May 9, 2017—A new study by VitalSmarts suggests that slackers, timid supervisors, toxic peers and arrogant doctors are common in healthcare. But while frustrating—those behavior problems aren’t the real problem. The real problem in healthcare is silence. The study of workplace drama in healthcare found...
How to React to Biased Comments at Work
Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, and Judith Honesty discuss the results of VitalSmarts research on unconscious bias in the workplace. They share tips for confronting discrimination to reduce the harmful effects of bias....
Debunking The 4 Myths of Online Learning
Emily Hoffman and Justin Hale talk about the myths of online learning and how the new Crucial Conversations Online course from VitalSmarts debunks those myths to create a stellar learning experience....
What to Do About Mediocrity on Your Team
Joseph Grenny says individual performance problems are far easier to address if you’ve done the work of establishing a norm of excellence. He shares four simple but important practices that if implemented can rapidly and profoundly shift a group’s expectations in a way that leads...
Unconscious Bias and the Skills for Speaking Up
David Maxfield and Judith Honesty share the results of their latest study on workplace discrimination and impact of unconscious bias....
Study on Bias Reveals Several Types of Discrimination
VitalSmarts latest research on workplace bias identified several ways in which people discriminate against others. Whether the discrimination was subtle or overt, those who experienced it heard these messages: "Don't be yourself." "You're not considered credible." "Just kidding." "Anything goes after hours.""You're unwelcome." "Gotcha."...
When You Use the Word Victim…
VitalSmarts, the leadership training company asked 500 victims of discrimination to share workplace experiences that made them feel excluded, unwelcome, discounted, etc. based on their race, gender, age and a host of other diversity-related criteria. They found workplace bias to be pervasive, permanent and unmanageable for...
Discrimination at Work: Prevalent yet subtle workplace bias erodes productivity and engagement
Provo, UT—March 21, 2017—A new study by VitalSmarts, a Top 20 Leadership Training Company, found that more than a quarter (27 percent) of those who experience discrimination at work report the bias to be common, impactful and beyond their ability to manage. The result of...
How to Raise Sensitive Issues During a Virtual Meeting
Joseph Grenny says the reason so few of us speak up about sensitive issues is that we are wired for mistrust. As a result, we have a conservative bias: When in doubt, play it safe. Hide in a bush. Pick up a rock. Keep silent. Grenny...
This Is How You Handle Negative Feedback, According To Career Experts
Joseph Grenny provides advice on how to accept criticism and feedback....
Five Common Habits That Can Kill Your Career
David Maxfield says your blind spots for your own bad habits could be keeping you from raises and promotions. In a recent study for VitalSmarts, Maxfield interviewed managers who identified the top five career killers....
VitalSmarts Releases Crucial Conversations® Online Training
Provo, UT—February 22, 2017—VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty, Inc. company and an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today announced that the award-winning Crucial Conversations Training course is now available online in a completely on-demand, asynchronous learning experience designed to reach the modern learner. While Crucial Conversations...
4 bad habits that can destroy your career
"Poor habits over time can absolutely derail a person's career," says David Maxfield, vice president of research at corporate training company VitalSmarts. "And most often they are not aware of what they're doing." Maxfield shares 4 career-limiting habits and how to overcome them....
How To Quit Your Job In A Classy Way
Many employers require a formal letter of resignation, but it's worth viewing this as an opportunity rather than a burden. "Don't use your letter to point to negatives, to settle gripes, or to say 'I told you so,'" said David Maxfield, vice president of research...
Top 20 Leadership Training Company
TrainingIndustry.com, named VitalSmarts as a Top 20 Leadership Training Company for the third consecutive year. Selection to the annual list is based on the following: Thought leadership and influence within the training industry, breadth of programs and audiences served, delivery methods offered, company size and...
A 3-Step Plan for Turning Weaknesses into Strengths
Joseph Grenny writes that you can change your own career-limiting habit if you identify your own crucial moments, seek out brief and intentional opportunities for deliberate practice, and build skills in addressing emotional barriers to your progress. Don’t let fear or inertia hold you back....
The do’s and don’ts of talking politics at work
According to a recent study by VitalSmarts, nine out of 10 U.S. voters said the 2016 election was more polarizing and volatile than ever before. So, how do you cover what will inevitably be a topic of discussion, without starting a bitter debate with coworkers? Read the...
VitalSmarts Announces Partnership with The David Allen Company
PROVO, UT – January 10, 2017 – VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty Inc. Company, and leader in corporate training and leadership development, announced today a partnership with The David Allen Company. VitalSmarts will be the North American distributor for The David Allen Company’s premier training product, Getting...
When Employees Are Afraid to Speak Up, Organizations Suffer
A new study lead by VitalSmarts Cochairman and Cofounder Joseph Grenny and Vice President of Research David Maxfield found that a scant 1 percent of employees feel “extremely confident” when it comes to voicing their concerns in the workplace at critical moments. Furthermore, a third of employees...
The rise of the feedback culture
Joseph Grenny says that, in his experience, a company's overall "health" is often linked to the "average lag time between identifying and discussing problems." The longer managers wait to address problems in the workplace, the greater the negative impact on things like engagement, employee satisfaction and productivity....
Over 43% of Spouses Hide Holiday Spending From Partners
VitalSmarts research found that eight out of ten U.S. adults "either overspend or have a spouse or partner who overspends during the holiday season, and nearly 56% say it is difficult to discuss holiday spending with their spouse/partner."...
How to Bridge the Leadership Perception Divide
A VitalSmarts survey uncovered a huge gap between how management and employees view the company's leadership style and culture. Even worse, this gap markedly influences productivity and turnover. When employees thought leaders valued obedience, deference to authority, predictability and competition with peers, they were 32 percent...
How a Culture of Silence Eats Away at Your Company
David Maxfield shares the results of VitalSmarts study on the organizational costs of conversations either not held, or held poorly. He offers tips for changing cultures of silence into cultures of dialogue to mitigate those costs....
Costly Conversations: Why The Way Employees Communicate Will Make or Break Your Bottom Line
Provo, UT – December 6, 2016 – Steve worked with a colleague whose disrespectful behavior and verbal abuse went unchecked. Steve never said anything. His colleagues never said anything. And even management avoided the conversation with the office bully. Instead, they complained and gossiped about...
7 Things That Will Destroy Your Career
A recent survey by VitalSmarts found that 83% of people had seen someone make a blunder that had catastrophic results for their career, reputation, or business, and 69% admitted that they themselves had done something that had damaged their careers....
Five Ways to Prevent A Holiday Spending Nightmare
According to a study by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, 8 out of 10 people either overspend or have a spouse or partner who overspends during the holiday season, and nearly 56% say it is difficult to discuss holiday spending with their spouse or partner...
Unwrapping the Secret to Talking About Holiday Finances
Provo, Utah, November 22, 2016 – Each holiday season, it’s the same old story: you endure a year-long battle of meticulously balancing and budgeting your funds, only to blow your budget come Black Friday. If this form of holiday gluttony sounds familiar, you’re not alone. New...
What You Can Do If You Have a Gossiping Boss
Joseph Grenny shares best practices for confronting a gossiping boss. With the right skills, you really can talk to anyone--even your boss--about anything in a way that produces results and maintains the relationship....
Holiday secret: 8 of 10 couples have an overspender
Is Black Friday breaking your budget? Turns out you're not alone. VitalSmarts research shows 8 out of 10 couples overspend during the holidays, but most never address their squandering partner. Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield share tips for holding this crucial conversation....
DevLearn’s DemoFest Winner for Best Soft Skills Solution
VitalSmarts was awarded Best Soft Skills Solution for Crucial Conversations Online at DevLearn's DemoFest awards....
Don’t Apologise Just To Be Forgiven
Joseph Grenny explains, "the best apology is a glimpse into your own accountability." When you're truly sorry for something, you take a sincere look into your own feelings and actions to express your remorse....
How to keep it cordial when talking politics with friends
Joseph Grenny talks with Glen Mills about how to discuss politics with friends and family cordially and respectfully. They share results of their latest study that reveal it's not whether you disagree with others' opinions that determines the success of your relationship, but how you...
Facebook Gets Ugly: Politics Brings Out the Troll In Us
Research by Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Conversations, shows 81% said “difficult or emotionally charged” conversations they have held over social media remained unresolved. Two out of five blocked, unsubscribed to, or defriended someone over arguments that took place via social media....
5 Secrets To Mastering Conflict
VitalSmarts' research shows that those who consistently speak up aren’t necessarily more courageous; they’re simply more accurate....
What a Real Apology Requires
Joseph Grenny shares the best practices of issuing a genuine apology. He says, "The purpose of an apology is not to restore trust, but to confirm to others that we deserve it."...
Leaders Need Different Skills to Thrive in Tech
Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield share the results of their study examining the unique culture of tech and what mangers can do to improve team performance amidst the industry's challenges....
Why Teamwork Matters at Every Level
The July 2016 Corporate Culture Chasm survey from VitalSmarts found a disparity between how employers and employees perceive competition. While leaders say they value teamwork in the workplace, employees say they believe employers really want to see staff compete with one another....
How to Defuse Trump-Style “Locker Room” Talk at the Office
When confronting inappropriate comments, sooner is always better says Joseph Grenny, cofounder of VitalSmart and co-author of the book Crucial Conversations. “Don’t bite your tongue, even for a second. When inappropriate remarks border on any kind of verbal harassment, witnesses must speak up and confront the...
VitalSmarts Training Recognized by Chief Learning Officer and Training Magazine for Ability to Drive Business Impact and Quality of Training Content
Provo, Utah – October 10, 2016 –VitalSmarts training programs have earned recognition by two prominent training and leadership development publications for their ability to help clients drive business impact and for the quality of their content. Chief Learning Officer awarded Gold Fields, a client of VitalSmarts,...
Four Leadership Rules for Success in Utah’s Silicon Slopes
Joseph Grenny says that while every industry is unique, no sector can make the case for uniqueness better than tech. He shares four leadership rules for managing in tech to improve team performance....
Training Magazine Learning Design Challenge
VitalSmarts' Crucial Conversations Online Trainer Certification program received a Gold Award in Training Magazine's Learning Design Challenge in the Social/Collaborative Learning Category....
Learning In Practice: GOLD Award Winner
VitalSmarts partnered with our client, Gold Fields, to enter their Influencer Training initiative to reduce avoidable injuries on their mining worksites. The practice won the top award, Gold, in the Business Impact category from Chief Learning Officer....
Should You Talk About Politics at Work?
Joseph Grenny says learning how to talk about politics in a productive manner can help you “manage other difficult conversations at work,” including peer performance reviews or disagreements over strategy and policy....
No. 1 Top Training Video
Training Magazine named “The Janitor Story” from Crucial Accountability the No. 1 training video produced in-house. ...
How Employees and Managers See Things Differently — and How to Fix It
There is a large disconnect between how higher-ups perceive their organizational culture and the reality that employees experience. The July 2016 Corporate Culture Chasm survey, from VitalSmarts found that managers had a much more positive view of their corporate culture than did their employees....
How to talk politics with those you love — without tearing your hair or their eyes out
VitalSmarts research shows the 2016 presidential election was more polarizing and divisive than ever before. Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield share tips for talking about politics with your loved ones in a way that can maintain the relationship....
VitalSmarts Ranked #30 in the UV 50 Awards
VitalSmarts ranked 30 among 50 0f Utah Valley's fastest-growing companies. This was VitalSmarts' fourth consecutive year on the UV 50 list....
How to disagree with your friends about politics and keep them too: New research shows your delivery matters more than your position
Provo, UT—September 14, 2016—In past elections, our front yards, t-shirts, car bumpers and water cooler conversations proudly campaigned for the presidential candidate of our choice. In 2016, most are afraid to utter the name of the person they plan to vote for on November 8. Research...
Want a top-performing team? Make sure speaking up is encouraged
Joseph Grenny, a co-founder of the consulting firm Vital Smarts, notes, “Our research over the past 30 years has shown that you can largely measure the health of a team by measuring the average lag time between identifying and discussing problems.”...
The Delicate Art of Gracefully Recovering From a Verbal Blunder
David Maxfield shares best practices for recovering from seemingly catastrophic conversations. When you learn to apologize with honesty and respect, you can take control of a catastrophic situation and right the wrong. Your job and your relationships depend on it....
This is How Your Employees Really See Your Company Culture
Company culture has become more and more important in the workplace, but when VitalSmarts surveyed 1,200 employees in July, it found that many employers were missing the mark....
Are You Disconnected From Your Employees? Then Your Culture Is in Trouble
If you want your workers to be productive, you must create an environment where they feel appreciated and involved. Unfortunately, VitalSmarts latest research shows there is a disconnect between management and employees in this area. Joseph Grenny offers tips for closing the culture chasm....
How To Give And Accept Criticism In The Workplace
Why is it so difficult to hear criticism in the workplace? Joseph Grenny, a leading social scientist for business performance, believes it’s because people don’t receive feedback frequently enough....
How to Make Feedback Feel Normal
Joseph Grenny says the primary reason people struggle with giving and receiving feedback is not a lack of proficiency but of frequency. He shares the success of implementing feedback at The Other Side Academy and tips leaders can use to create a similar environment in their...
VitalSmarts Honors HCA for Its Contribution to Changing Human Behavior
Provo, Utah – August 15, 2016 – VitalSmarts, one of the world’s top leadership development companies, today announced that it awarded Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) the prestigious Albert Bandura Influencer Award at the annual REACH event which took place August 9 - 11 in...
Address workplace conflict or it could cost you
VitalSmarts research shows avoiding conflict is costly. Each avoided conflict can cost an organization up to $2,000. Joseph Grenny offers tips for reducing conflict avoidance....
VIRTUAL VS. CLASSROOM TRAINING
David Maxfield writes about how to design virtual training that performs equally as well as traditional classroom training....
4 Steps to Starting a Conversation about Changing Your Culture
VitalSmarts founders and researchers Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield found recently that a large majority of executives, managers, and employees have an unfavorable view of their culture, and that views of what an organization values differ drastically between management and employees....
When women speak up, they get punished
Joseph Grenny and Beth Wolfson share research that says gender bias is a reality, but recognizing it can spark change....
Do Your Employees Believe That You Value Innovation? Probably Not
Bosses beware: Researchers say most of you are out of touch with your employees’ day-to-day work experience. A study of 1,200 employees, managers, and executives found a big gap between what managers say they want their company culture to be and what employees say is truly...
Corporate Culture Chasm: Employees and Management Don’t Agree
A new study from VitalSmarts finds a large chasm between how employers and employees view corporate culture....
Corporate Culture Chasm: Employees View Their Culture Much More Negatively Than Management
July 19, 2016 – PROVO, UT – A new study, released today, found a concerning gap between what managers say they want their company culture to be and what employees say is really valued by these same bosses. The study, conducted by Joseph Grenny and David...
What did you say?
Some 31% of respondents to a recent study by VitalSmarts executives Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield said making a catastrophic comment cost them a pay increase, a promotion, or their job....
Almost All Managers Have at Least One Career-Limiting Habit
Joseph Grenny shares a few new ways to think about the real causes behind some of the most common career-limiting habits — and what you can do about them....
Could Rules for Managing Tech Workers Translate to Your Industry?
Aabaco Small Business spoke with VitalSmarts VP of Research David Maxfield about the top four culture challenges tech managers need to master in order to effect change in their organizations....
Don’t let stress and a crazy pace kill your culture
A 2016 study from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, interviewed 827 tech employees, to look at how culture affects performance in tech companies. The study identified some key ideas around culture and how it can positively or negatively affect the overall performance of the company. Based on...
Managing Tech Teams: New Study Identifies Four Culture Challenges Unique to Tech that Strongly Affect Performance
Provo, Utah (June 14) – A new study released today identifies four culture challenges in tech companies that substantially affect a tech organization’s ability to execute and innovate. And yet, tech leaders receive little-to-no training or coaching on how to successfully manage these challenges. According to...
How to Talk About the Orlando Shootings at Work
How can you discuss your feelings about violence like the Orlando mass shootings without upsetting coworkers? David Maxfield, vice president of research at VitalSmarts, says, “ask yourself what the purpose of having this conversation is. If you want to express sadness for the victims or support,...
How to Deal with the Irrational Parts of a Negotiation
Joseph Grenny shares a few best practices for addressing the human dynamics that frequently drive negotiations....
How To Give Feedback At Work That Doesn’t Jeopardize Your Career
If you have constructive feedback to offer, how do you avoid a "pink slip of the tongue"? David Maxfield shares tips for delivering criticism in a constructive and respectful way....
How Democrats Married to Republicans Survive Election Seasons
A study by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, cofounders of corporate training firm VitalSmarts, found that 1 in 3 people have been “attacked, insulted, or called names” over political clashes, and 1 in 4 have had a political debate hurt a relationship. According to the...
Avoiding the Controversy in Controversial Conversations about Politics
If you're like most people you avoid political conversations at all costs but there are ways to keep it cordial. Glen Mills sat down with New York Times best selling author Joseph Grenny to talk about just that. He's been studying the impact of political...
81 percent of wary Americans now swear off political discussions over 2016 election ‘at all costs’
How acrimonious is the 2016 presidential race? A new survey finds that 90 percent of Americans say the bout between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is more polarizing and controversial than the 2012 election - to the point that it has compromised their personal relationships. Some appear to be...
Tips to Keep Employee Silence from Driving Away Customers
Joseph Grenny writes that a recent study by VitalSmarts found that silence is killing customer service. We asked subjects how often they witness a fellow employee underserving, or even abusing, a customer. Then we asked: What happens next? Does someone in your organization speak up and address...
New Study Shows It’s Never Been Riskier to Talk About Politics
Provo, UT—May 3, 2016—As the primary elections for the 2016 U.S. presidential race come to a close, the media is buzzing about unprecedented contested elections and unexpected slug fests over the Democratic and Republican party nominations. And the drama doesn’t end with the news. A new...
7 Ways to Stop a Meeting from Dragging On
Joseph Grenny shared seven of his favorite interventions for stopping a meandering meeting. These tips are tactful things anyone can do to not only take responsibility for my own investment of time, but to become a healthy voice for the silent majority....
5 Career-Crushing Things Employees Say
VitalSmarts has come up with a list of what we'll describe as "five career-crushing ways to express yourself," and we've adapted that survey-supported list here. The conversations and exchanges that require some degree of caution include: offering feedback to a co-worker; discussing race, politics, religion...
5 career-killing conversations to avoid at work
No matter how progressive, open and casual your workplace, there are some conversations that should never take place. VitalSmarts research identifies five conversations to avoid at all costs....
Avoiding ‘pink slips of the tongue’ at work
VitalSmarts research shows we all put our foot in our mouth at work. "It happens to all of us from time to time. I don’t think any of us have particularly learned how to deal with it when it does. We could all use help,”...
Can You Recover from a Major Gaffe at Work?
VitalSmarts recently surveyed 775 U.S. employees and found that 69% admitted they had said something at work that they later had cause to wish they hadn’t. Of those, VitalSmarts reports, 27% said inserting foot in mouth had “undercut or destroyed a working relationship,” and almost one in...
Curious Things That Will Kill Your Career
A recent survey by VitalSmarts found that 83% of people had seen someone make a blunder that had catastrophic results for their career, reputation, or business, and 69% admitted that they themselves had done something that had damaged their careers....
WorkZone: Avoiding “pink slips of the tongue” at work
VitalSmarts research shows we all put our foot in our mouth at work. "It happens to all of us from time to time. I don’t think any of us have particularly learned how to deal with it when it does. We could all use help,”...
What to Do If a Conversation Is Turning Loud and Aggressive
Joseph Grenny shares five skills to halt, and sometimes reverse, a conversation meltdown....
How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You
What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do? How do you decide whether it’s worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactly should you say? It’s a natural human reaction to shy away from disagreeing with a...
New Study: How to Kill Your Career in One Sentence
A new study by New York Times bestselling authors Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield found five common career killing comments, and the top comment involves giving critical feedback....
Pink Slips of the Tongue: VitalSmarts Study Reveals the Top Five One-Sentence Career Killers
March 8, 2016 – Provo, UT – Marianne C. thought she was in a “safe” meeting where open discussion was encouraged and yet, following the meeting, she found herself in and out of the discipline process and shortly thereafter demoted—all because of one comment. Pam S....
Top 20 Leadership Training Company
TrainingIndustry.com, named VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty company, to the Top 20 Leadership Training Companies List for the second consecutive year. Selection to the annual list is based on the following: Thought leadership and influence within the training industry Industry recognition and innovation Breadth of programs and range of audiences...
5 ways to minimize distractions at work
Research continually tells us multitasking decreases productivity rather than increasing it. By dividing your focus, you’re increasing your stress levels and decreasing your performance abilities, write Joseph Grenny for Harvard Business Review. Grenny shares five ways you can minimize your workplace distractions....
LEAD2016 Leadership Excellence Awards: Top Leadership Partner
VitalSmarts received a LEAD award for Top Leadership Partner. For more than 30 years, Leadership Excellence, now a part of HR.com, has identified and recognized the top 500 leadership organizations and their strategies and solutions in its yearly ranking....
LEAD2016 Leadership Excellence Awards: Best Experienced/Senior Leader program
VitalSmarts received a LEAD award for Best Experienced/Senior Leader program. For more than 30 years, Leadership Excellence, now a part of HR.com, has identified and recognized the top 500 leadership organizations and their strategies and solutions in its yearly ranking....
LEAD2016 Leadership Excellence Awards: Best Train the Trainer Program
VitalSmarts received a LEAD award for Best Train the Trainer program. For more than 30 years, Leadership Excellence, now a part of HR.com, has identified and recognized the top 500 leadership organizations and their strategies and solutions in its yearly ranking....
VitalSmarts Named a Top 20 Leadership Training Company and Takes Home Multiple LEAD Awards
Provo, Utah – Feb. 18, 2016 – Two of the most prominent training and workforce development professional organizations in the world have recognized VitalSmarts for its contributions in the industry. TrainingIndustry.com, named VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty company, to the Top 20 Leadership Training Companies List for the...
Two actors, a man and a woman, performed an exact same script for the 4517 test subjects
This Norwegian publication shares VitalSmarts research that shows gender bias exists for women in business....
Why Keeping Quiet May Sabotage Your Relationship
A lot of couples might keep it to themselves when they're mad at each other because they're scared of starting potentially relationship-threatening arguments. But a new study by VitalSmarts has found that avoiding these conversations is actually more likely to do a relationship in....
Tiffany Gee Lewis: The most important words you’ll ever say
The author used Crucial Conversations in a high-stakes relationship with her son. In addition to using the skills with her family, she says, "I find myself consciously employing the techniques in numerous situations: in a director hire for our charter school, in exchanges about difficult...
3 Ways to Improve the Learning Environment
Author Kerry Patterson writes that if you want to create a high-impact learning environment, start with genuine problems and end with real solutions. Avoid solutions that mask tactics as outcomes or call for miracles....
How arguing can be good for your marriage
Arguing may not be such a bad thing. In fact, a new survey by VitalSmarts that found finds couples who engage in healthy conflict are 10 times more likely to have a happy relationship than those who ignore difficult conversations....
Do You Avoid Arguing With the One You Love? Why Keeping Quiet May Sabatoge Your Relationship
A lot of couples might keep it to themselves when they're mad at each other because they're scared of starting potentially relationship-threatening arguments. But a new study by VitalSmarts has found that avoiding these conversations is actually more likely to do a relationship in....
VitalSmarts Earns Silver Status in the Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards in Technology
Provo, Utah – Jan. 20, 2016 – VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty company, won a Brandon Hall Group Silver award for excellence in learning management technology for external training, the company announced Wednesday. VitalSmarts was recognized for achieving inspiring results with the VitalSmarts Instructional Platform. The VitalSmarts Instructional...
Trick Yourself into Breaking a Bad Habit
Joseph Grenny writes that most of us are blind to the many forces that shape our choices. We overestimate the degree to which we are the product of conscious choice and grossly underestimate the power of situational and social forces. It’s time we learned to...
5 things (besides willpower) that’ll help you successfully make life changes
When trying to change your behavior, the authors of Change Anything don't write off willpower altogether. However, they do assert that there are five additional factors that influence whether you will successfully make changes in your life. Learn how to utilize all six sources of...
Here’s How Much Your New Year’s Resolution Will Cost You
According to author Joseph Grenny, 70 percent of people who fail to keep their New Year's resolutions lose more than $1,000, reported Time in 2014. If you're one of those people, that's a lot of wasted energy and money down the drain....
New Year’s Resolutions: Why We Do What We Do
David Maxfield, author of Change Anything, has studied failed resolutions. He's also studied what the successful few do who actually succeed at changing behavior. His research shows those who include six sources of influence in their resolution plans are 10 times more likely to succeed...
6 Workplace Realities Women Will Face In 2040
VitalSmarts research, conducted by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, found that women’s perceived competency drops by 35% and their perceived deserved compensation by $15,000 when they're seen to be assertive or forceful—violating ingrained cultural expectations for women to be caring and nurturing....
5 Ways to Minimize Office Distractions
Simply gritting your teeth and attempting to ignore nagging interruptions at work doesn’t work. Master these five ways to take control of your environment so it stops controlling you....
See Something, Say Something
Bad customer service is costing the average company $54,511 annually per employee, according to a new study released by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, authors of Crucial Accountability....
Brandon Hall Excellence in Technology: Best Advance in Learning Management Technology for External Training
VitalSmarts was awarded the silver award for the VitalSmarts Instructional Platform (VIP) -- the Company's proprietary training platform....
Utah Business Best Companies to Work For
VitalSmarts was named among the best companies to work for in Utah in 2015....
Silence Costs You in Customer Service
Joseph Grenny writes that we’re facing a “crisis of silence” in the corporate world; people simply don’t hold their colleagues accountable for delivering poor customer service. The key to creating distinguishing customer service is to create a culture where anyone can speak up to anyone...
What your child’s teacher needs to know
A VitalSmarts study reveals that many parents fail to communicate major changes in the home to their child’s teacher...
Balancing act: ‘Crisis of silence’ leads to bad customer service, survey says
A study by VitalSmarts, a Utah-based company that focuses on leadership training, found that each employee who witnesses bad customer service and fails to speak up costs his or her company an average of $54,511 per year....
Can You Count on Your Employees to Tell You When Your Customer Services Stinks
VitalSmarts research shows each employee who witnesses bad customer service and fails to speak up costs his or her company an average of $54,511 per year....
The Salt Lake Tribune Top Workplaces 2015
For the second consecutive year, VitalSmarts is ranked #12 in the Top Workplaces in Utah in the midsize business division by The Salt Lake Tribune....
Study: Employees Are Letting Customer Service Slip—And It Costs Businesses Big
Provo, Utah – Nov. 10, 2015 – Gary was flying home from his father’s funeral. His plane touched down, was delayed on the tarmac for 45 minutes and, due to a last-minute change of gates, Gary missed his connecting flight. Frustrated, tired and still grieving,...
How to Get Work Done on the Road -By Joseph Grenny
For me the key to being productive while shuttling around the globe is to think of myself in the third person, as someone I need to carefully and deliberately influence. Here are the ways I do that....
How to Handle an Increased Workload (And When to Ask for Help)
As author and social scientist Joseph Grenny told Fast Company, it's important to "acknowledge what you know to be true and tell your boss how it caused your conclusion. Ask how your boss came to her conclusion. If you’re simply in a no-yes argument, you’re...
Four Sneaky Ways to Trick Your Enemies Into Becoming Allies
This is what Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, the authors of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, call “inventing a mutual purpose.” If your in-law hates a certain sports team, find a way to hate them too....
What Businesses Can Learn From B2G Content Marketing Strategies
Need inspiration? Take a look at VitalSmarts ...
The 8 Most Annoying Things People Do With Their Phones
"Sadly [social media platforms] they have also become the default forums for holding high-stakes conversations, blasting polarizing opinions and making statements with little regard for those within screen shot,” says Joseph Grenny....
Chief Learning Officer’s 2015 Learning In Practice Awards
VitalSmarts won GOLD for Excellence in Community Service -- in Chief Learning Officer's 2015 Learning In Practice Awards -- for its efforts in helping the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) increase the number of KIPP school founders who make it to year four from 50...
VitalSmarts Wins Gold in Chief Learning Officer 2015 Learning In Practice Awards
Chicago & Austin, Oct. 12, 2015 — Chief Learning Officer magazine, published by Human Capital Media (HCM), the largest integrated media company in the human resources industry, announced the winners of its 15th annual Learning In Practice awards at a recognition ceremony last night preceding the Fall...
VitalSmarts wins Gold in Learning in Practice Awards
VitalSmarts win first place (Gold) in the Excellence in Community Service category of the 2015 Learning in Practice Awards, presented by Chief Learning Officer....
5 Ways To Get Better At Grown-Up Love
(None of this is easy, of course!) For further reading on this topic, I recommend Emotional Freedom by Judith Orloff and Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny....
Crucial Conversations No. 1 on Bestseller List (Non-fiction/General)
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (Second Edition). (McGraw-Hill, $20). By Kerry Patterson...
The great generational divide -By David Maxfield
If senior leaders and HR directors teach workplace managers the few basic skills to speak up to anyone – regardless of age or authority – employees can candidly and respectfully resolve conflict and improve productivity in today’s multigenerational workplace....
Are You Sure You Want to Be a Manager? By Joseph Grenny
I’ve sat with many recently promoted leaders over the years — newly minted supervisors, first-time CEOs, and even recently elected political leaders — some who wondered what they had gotten themselves into ...
18 things you should do immediately to best prepare for the next five years
Learn how to deal with interpersonal conflicts. Read Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. ...
Here’s how you can get the most of out this fall’s parent-teacher conferences
Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield issued a report that detailed "five life-event areas where failure to communicate can damage a child's ability to learn" ...
Your kid’s teacher wants to know about your home life
The vast majority of teachers — 94 percent — say it's important for them to know that a child's parents are divorcing, but just 23 percent of divorcing parents say they told their child's teacher, according to a new study....
How parents and teachers can work together to help kids
A recent study explained that there's a significant disconnect between teachers and parents that could affect our children in school. Where do you even start to establish a connection with teachers? David Maxfield, vice president of VitalSmarts, the organization that conducted the study, offered some ideas:...
What your child’s teacher wants to know
According to research by VitalSmarts, teachers and parents are great at communicating - just not in the areas each wants to know about. Parents, for example, say that teachers are not communicating with them on issues like drug abuse or depression. Teachers say that they...
This Year, No “Dear Teacher, We Are Divorced” Declaration
I am not alone. A recent study by New York Times best-selling authors Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield found that 94 percent of teachers want to know about a recent divorce but only 23 percent of the parents who are getting divorced told the teachers!...
How to communicate like a Buddhist — mindfully and without judgment
“Find a shared goal, and you have both a good reason and a healthy climate for talking,” writes Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler in “Crucial Conversations.”...
How to Control Your Nerves Before Giving a Speech
Joseph Grenny, a bestselling author and keynote speaker, writes in Harvard Business Review about his best practices for beating the pre-speech jitters....
Study: Parents want to hear more from teachers, teachers want to hear more from parents
Why aren’t teachers and parents talking more? Anecdotally, there were a variety of reasons, including that mental illness, divorce, an arrest and other life-changers, might be topics they don’t feel safe sharing. “There is shame and embarrassment,” Grenny says. “They probably don’t appreciate how profoundly...
Education Matters: Here’s what’s wrong with parent-teacher communications
There’s a crucial disconnect between parents and teachers, both vital players in a child's growth and development, according to the results of a new survey. VitalSmarts, a corporate training and leadership development company, surveyed 689 parents and 174 teachers from its national database of subscribers....
Parents and Teachers Should Talk More for Students’ Sake, Survey Finds
"Parents can have a significant influence on empowering teachers and should stay in touch on major life events in their children's life," said Grenny, co-founder of VitalSmarts, in an interview withEducation Week....
Tell Teachers About Problems at Home — or Impede Your Child’s Success
Problems at home — divorce, death, incarceration, illness — feel like intensely private affairs. But when you also have a kid in school, you might want to consider letting his or her teacher in on the news, as it can be critical to a child’s...
Parents and teachers should talk about the life-events that impact students
Wednesday, Grenny's and Maxfield's company, VitalSmarts, issued a report, "Silence at School," that identifies five life-event areas where failure to communicate can damage a child's ability to learn: a death in the family, a major illness, a divorce or another family disruption, mood changes and...
Silence at School: Parents Fail to Communicate Life Altering Events That Affect Student Performance
Provo, Utah – Aug. 26, 2015 – A fifth grader’s family was awakened by a SWAT team that held them at gunpoint and arrested the father on drug-related charges. The mother then sent her child to school without a chance to tell the teacher, who...
Gender Bias Is Real: Women’s Perceived Competency Drops Significantly When Judged As Being Forceful
As part of the study, Grenny and Maxfield conducted an experiment to see if using a brief, framing statement (that allowed the speakers to explain their intent before sharing theircontent) could reduce social and emotional backlash ...
Can technology drive meaningful cultural change in healthcare?
These stats [from VitalSmarts] are startling in and of themselves, but the most worrisome item in the report was that, “despite the risks to patients, less than 10 percent of physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff directly confronted their colleagues about their concerns.”...
Having this trait at work can cost women $15,000
According to a recent experiment by VitalSmarts, a corporate training company, women perceived as more aggressive in the office may be penalized for their behavior — at a price of $15,088, to be exact....
New studies show power of ‘unconscious bias’ in workplace
A new study from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, found that women who speak forcefully risk losing more economic power (i.e. lower paychecks) than men who talk with equal assertiveness when addressing subordinates....
The Six Ways Your Financial Behavior Is Manipulated
In his research, Grenny breaks it down: The first two domains, Personal Motivation and Ability, relate to sources of influence within an individual (motives and abilities) that determine their behavioral choices. The next two, Social Motivation and Ability, relate to how other people affect an individual's...
Studies Show That Female Executives Still Face an Uphill Battle
However, if the woman in question framed her aggressive statement by first saying something like, “I know it’s risky for a woman to speak this assertively, but I’m going to express my opinion very directly,” the social backlash was reduced by as much as 27 percent....
Women get penalized for being assertive at work—unless they do this one thing
When a woman prefaces a harsh comment with a “framing” phrase, like “I know it’s a risk for a woman to speak this assertively, but I’m going to express my opinion very directly,” backlash can be reduced by as much as 27%. ...
The Key to Giving and Receiving Negative Feedback
Assure the person of your positive intentions in offering your critique. Pain is not an essential byproduct of feedback — it is the result of an absence of safety....
Read this before posting photos of your kids on Facebook [video]
Many parents are living through the lens of their smartphone rather than in the moment: 80% of adults say they’ve seen parents put their attempts to get the perfect photo ahead of their child’s enjoyment of an event, according to a recent survey — “Society’s New...
Getting Angry At Work Can Literally Cost You, Says Study — Especially If You’re A Woman
This finding came about as the result of research conducted in June, which surveyed over 11,000 people about their experiences in the workplace. 4,517 of the 11,000 people they studied were asked to watch set-up performances on video ...
The Best Books for Salespeople
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Again, this book isn't sales–specific, but it's absolutely sales–essential ...
Getting Mad at Work Can Cost Women $15,000 in Annual Pay
Corporate training company VitalSmarts surveyed more than 11,000 people in June to reach its results, which included this silver lining: Sometimes acknowledging sexism can reduce its effects....
Anger in the office costs women more than men
A study conducted by corporate consultancy VitalSmarts found that a woman's "perceived competence" fell 35 percent and her "perceived deserved compensation" dropped $15,088 when she spoke angrily or forcefully....
Getting Angry at Work Can Cost Women $15,000
New research from VitalSmarts ...
Conflict Is a Matter of the Heart
My favorite conversational model to facilitate effective dialogue is outlined in the book Crucial Conversations....
New Study: Women Judged More Harshly When Speaking Up Assertively
Provo, Utah – August 5, 2015 – What if your colleagues discriminated against you just for being assertive? Unfortunately for many women, gender bias is a reality in today’s workplace. A new study about emotional inequality at work conducted by VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty, Inc. company,...
KIPP founder shares 3 tips for increasing principal retention
Dave Levin has made keeping top principals a priority for his charter network. KIPP partnered with VitalSmarts, a corporate training and performance company, to help pinpoint what made principals stick around or leave....
5 Things to Immediately Stop Doing at Work
These actions are sabotaging your career and workplace happiness. [No. 1]: Staying silent. A recent study conducted by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, co-authors of "Crucial Conversations," found that 56 percent of employees refrain from addressing troublesome issues at workfor more than a year....
Sticking It Out: 6 Research-Based Pointers for Sustained Behavior Change
David Maxfield recognizes that motivation and ability drive behavior and divides these domains into personal, social and structural sources....
How a Charter School Giant Revamped its Culture to Put a Stop to Burnout
And what other organizations can learn from KIPP's experiments in taking time for renewal. ...
Frank, open conversation improves atmosphere at work
That point was confirmed by the results of a recent study on workplace secrets by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, the authors of Crucial Accountability ...
Purge the Scourge of Office Jerks
Fed-up colleagues should confront bullies with examples of their bad behavior culled from several incidents, says David Maxfield ...
What Your Employees Aren’t Telling You
A new [VitalSmarts] study suggests most staff have at least one workplace grievance that they haven't voiced out loud. How to get them to talk....
Bad Day? Honey, Don’t Bring It Home
A spouse should ask a mate’s permission before switching to a problem-solving role, says David Maxfield ...
How to Resolve Workplace Conflicts
Every unaddressed conflict wastes about eight hours of company time in gossip and other unproductive activities, says Joseph Grenny. “It’s an enormous drain on an organization."...
Six Ways to Increase Your Influence
Until we get all six of the sources of influence flowing in the direction of change, we’ll continue to fail. Even more damaging, we’ll pin the failure on moral deficiencies in our people rather than on our own insufficient understanding of human behavior....
Book It — Summer Reading From SHRM
Another book in hand was “Crucial Conversations,” which she thought will help with developing deeper, broad relationships among employees. “Performance conversations, collaboration, merit pay — these are all important issues we need to deal with.”...
Signs Your Team is Too Strong for its Own Good
Frequent self-examination for the four indicators of the tribal virus — and intentional promotion of these three behaviors — will help you strike the right balance in building your team....
How to criticize a coworker without wrecking the relationship
David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, co-authors of a book called Crucial Conversations, recently did a study of 1,400 U.S. employees and managers and found that 56% refrained from bringing up a particular grievance, or more than one, usually out of fear of alienating someone they...
VitalSmarts Releases Influencer Training® in the Virtual Classroom
Provo, UT — June 24, 2015 — VitalSmarts, a TwentyEighty, Inc. company and an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today announced its award-winning Influencer Training® classroom course is now available through the VitalSmarts Virtual Classroom™—its live, synchronous online learning platform powered by Adobe Connect™ and MeetingOne. Courses...
Things Are Not Always What They Seem
The book Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson is a wonderful resource to help us realize that human interactions can be difficult and that we can often misread the process unless we are willing to get our hands dirty and break down the communication machine....
Study: 56% of Employees Have at Least One Grievance They’ve Kept Locked Up for 1 Year
Provo, Utah – June 17, 2015 – A new study shows employees can be just as dysfunctional as Elaine Benes and the characters on Seinfeld. In the hit 90’s sitcom, Elaine, along with Jerry, George and Kramer lock away their darkest secrets in the vault...
From Playground To Workplace: 3 Tips For Battling Office Bullies
David Maxfield, coauthor of both “Crucial Confrontations” and “Influencer,” conducted a study for VitalSmarts in 2014 that found 96 percent of survey respondents experienced bullying at some point in their careers....
5 Secrets to Mastering Conflict
By Travis Bradberry Between the two of us, Joseph Grenny (bio below) and I have spent 50 years studying what makes people successful at work. A persistent finding in both of our research is that your ability to handle moments of conflict has a massive impact on...
From Bestselling Author Kerry Patterson Comes The Gray Fedora: Lessons on Life, Business, and Everything In Between
Provo, Utah – June 15, 2015 – After nearly two decades of both educating and entertaining a worldwide audience with his New York Times bestselling books and monthly column, Kerrying On, author Kerry Patterson today released a new book, The Gray Fedora: Lessons on Life,...
How to Raise Ethical Issues at Work
If the person with questionable ethics is your boss, it’s best to proceed with caution. Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Accountability, tells Fast Company that you should begin by letting your boss know you have their best interest in mind....
What Africa’s Leaders Have Learned About Facing Huge Challenges -by Joseph Grenny
Simple principles appropriately applied can restore trust, create hope, and improve results. Even in the most complex political environments one can act with independence and integrity to do great things. And when leaders do the work required to mobilize effective behavior, remarkable things can be...
A Leader’s Guide to Influence: How to Change Bad Behavior and Get Results
If your organization has found a way to tolerate or simply live with entrenched bad habits, then it's time you challenged these behaviors and turned them into productive work practices. If you don't, then this research suggests these bad habits will continue indefinitely and produce...
Are “Likes” dominating your life?
A study, facilitated by VitalSmarts, shows that an increasing amount of people are losing connection with their lives in order to earn 'Likes' and social media praise....
5 Books to Help You Deal with Work Drama
The book [Crucial Accountability] outlines keys skills we’re rarely taught in college or business school, such as how to foster greater personal accountability among teammates and how to deliver praise when things do go right to keep everyone motivated....
Silence Kills: Can Technology Drive Meaningful Cultural Change In Health Care?
In 2005, VitalSmarts and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) published a groundbreaking report called Silence Kills ...
5 common mistakes that will keep you from winning an argument
[Joseph Grenny co-write this post with Dr. Travis Bradberry.] So how can you use emotional intelligence to master crucial conversations? There are five common mistakes you must avoid, and five alternative strategies you can follow that will take you down the right path....
5 Secrets to Mastering Conflict – By Travis Bradberry & Joseph Grenny
The only way to win an argument is to never have one in the first place. Successful people know this—they don’t avoid conflict because they can do something productive with it before things get out of hand. Apply these strategies the next time you’re facing...
Creating Measurable Change in a Dying Culture
If you don’t want to end up at the bottom of the large precipice, the best step forward usually involves an overt, intentional, and systematic strategy for influencing the behaviors required to improve results....
Acquire career-enhancing habits
Joseph Grenny, best selling author, social scientist and co-founder of VitalSmarts, outlines strategies you can take to foster positive change....
How being unprofessional increases employee engagement
The best-selling book Crucial Conversations, discusses how you can express yourself (no matter how offensively) and feel heard as long as there is safety. Learning to become proficient at creating a sense of safety will allow you to help people express how they really feel....
How to reduce workplace bullying using proactive measures
Leadership development and research firm VitalSmarts recently carried out a survey that revealed a few alarming statistics. About 96 per cent of workers polled had witnessed workplace bullying...
Are You Present When Viewing Real Estate?
A recent VitalSmarts survey reported that 91% of the more than 1600 people involved had seen tourists miss out on an important moment by trying to capture it on social media. Since buyers are "tourists" in someone else's real estate, this research may be extrapolated to...
Transforming Communication and Safety Culture in Intrapartum Care
The results of collaborative research studies conducted by organizations that represent professionals who care for women during labor and birth indicate that health care providers may frequently witness, but may not always report, problems with safety or clinical performance. Some of these health care providers...
7 Ways to Say No to Your Boss and Keep Your Job
"People have a hard time saying 'no'––period––and when you introduce power, it gets exponentially worse," says Joseph Grenny, coauthor of Crucial Conversations ...
Overcoming Peer Pressure in Your Business Decisions
Last month the thought leaders at VitalSmarts published an article in their online Newsletter about how to avoid making stupid choices because of peer pressure. The article, One Simple Skill to Overcome Peer Pressure, teaches a valuable skill that we can all benefit from in...
4 Strategies to Implement and Spread PBL in Your School
As suggested in Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, et al, we feel the answer lies within the previous question -- we need to make the conversation safe...
The Current: Ditch social media to discover “The Joy of Missing Out”
David Maxfield was recently interviewed on-air on CBC Radio (Toronto) for the program “The Current” — about VitalSmarts’ latest study “Society’s New Addiction: ‘Likes' Over Life.” Listen here to the 8-minute segment in which David tells the personal story that prompted him to do this study...
Keys to help you develop your leadership through social influence -By Joseph Grenny
Si vous voulez vraiment accélérer un changement et faire adopter de façon généralisée de nouveaux modes de fonctionnement ou créer de nouvelles habitudes, vous devez trouver des leaders d’opinion et les impliquer dans vos projets de changement –trouvez ces personnes dans votre entreprise et faîtes-en...
Errors of Comedy: Office humor has its place, but managers need to intervene when it crosses the line
Sometimes the volume or nature of a worker’s jokes makes it necessary for a manager to intervene. While this conversation can be uncomfortable, silence is not an option because it implies permission for the undesirable behavior to continue. David Maxfield, vice president of research at...
Why we no longer talk with each other
“‘Likes’ are a low-effort way of producing a feeling of social well-being that takes more effort to get in the real world,” said Greeny in the study. “This study is a warning that we are beginning to take the easy over the real.”...
Column: Social media often makes us anti-social
Co-authors of New York Times bestsellers like “Crucial Conversations,” Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, recently analyzed how “likes” and the need for other social media praise impact our lives. The results paint a picture of a media-obsessed society and found, for one thing, that 58 percent...
Six Frightening Facts You Need to Know About Health Care
58 percent of clinicians felt unsafe about speaking up about a problem they observed or were unable to get others to listen. This statistic first appeared in a 2005 report by VitalSmarts and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) called "Silence Kills."...
You Can Have Constructive Conflict Over Email -By Joseph Grenny
It is possible to handle sensitive topics without the benefit of seeing faces, so long as you can accurately imagine them, and discipline yourself to respond to those imagined cues. When it becomes clear either your imagination or interventions are insufficient, make visual contact as...
Date night — the secret to a happy and long-lasting marriage
Joseph Grenny, a New York Times best-selling author who has continued to go on dates with his wife during his 26 years of marriage, agrees. “Behavior is always a team sport,” Grenny told the National. “Other people play a role in my behavior, influencing, provoking. It’s...
How Wanting ‘Likes’ on Social Media Is Killing Our Capacity for Actual Joy (Infographic)
58 percent of respondents claimed that attempting to hone the perfect post has prevented them from enjoying life. The survey was conducted by behaviorists and best-selling authors Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield....
Obsessing over the perfect social media post is ruining your life, study says
Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, co-authors of New York Times bestsellers like Crucial Conversations, have unveiled a new study on the way "likes" and the need for other social media praise affect our day-to-day lives. The results of the study, which surveyed 1,623 people, paint...
Social media addiction: when preserving the moment gets in the way of the actual moment
The resulting report, “Society’s New Addiction: Getting a ‘Like’ over Having a Life,” was co-authored with Joseph Grenny and is out today from training and consulting firmVitalSmarts....
Society’s New Addiction: Getting a “Like” over Having a Life
New research shows obsession with posting photos, checking phones corresponds with lower enjoyment Provo, Utah, March 12, 2015 – A mother of a 3-year-old writes: “I disciplined my son and he threw a tantrum that I thought was so funny that I disciplined him again just...
Crucial Conversations Review – Strategies That Work When the Stakes are High
There’s no graduation for this work -- it’s a life-long process. But with the alternative being a life-long series of experiences of unsatisfactory exchanges, stressful moments with colleagues, unproductive business proposals, and other personal and professional relationship problems, Crucial Conversationsstands as a tested and reliable...
Balancing act: Readers offer tips for building trust with remote workers
They wrote to me in response to my recent column about a survey of more than 2,000 employees conducted by Utah-based VitalSmarts in partnership with Training Magazine. It was designed to capture people's impressions of colleagues who work remotely, and respondents said they thought those remote...
The technology that keeps us constantly connected is changing the way we think about etiquette
In a 2,000-person study conducted by VitalSmarts Research in 2014, 89% of respondents reported damaged relationships as a result of another person’s “electronic display of insensitivity” (EDI). One in four said that EDIs had caused a serious rift with a friend or family member....
How to Change Your Employees’ Bad Habits
Joseph Grenny, a co-founder of corporate training and leadership development firm VitalSmarts, conducted a study of close to 1,000 professionals and found that 97 percent of them admit to having a "career-limiting habit." These bad habits can range from unreliability to procrastination to just a...
You Might Be the Reason Your Employees Aren’t Changing -By Joseph Grenny
In short, coaching works when it amplifies one’s own motivation, enhances ability, and equips people to address their context when it inhibits their ability to change. When it fails to do that, it simply doesn’t work....
How to Stop Workplace Bullying -By David Maxfield
Clamping down on workplace bullying could mean saving thousands of dollars a year in lost productivity. Here’s where talent managers can start....
Survey: Office workers don’t trust colleagues who work remotely
So what can companies and managers do to overcome these problems? Maxfield wrote that VitalSmarts collected 600 examples of what the best managers of virtual teams do, and he offered six ideas based on what they learned....
The 3 Most Powerful Ways To Change People Who Don’t Want To Change
I was intrigued when I saw a recent video of David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny– The “Behavioral Science Guys” — all around how we can change behavior in people who don’t want to change, and I thought the messages were dead on. See what you think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACi-D5DI6A...
Sources of influence deconstruct mystery of change
Not only was I able to lose my stubborn extra pounds, but I’ve kept them off for more than a year through one simple strategy: I changed the way I change. I targeted six sources of influence pulled from psychology, social psychology and organizational theory, as...
It’s Never Too Late To Be Nice
Kerry Patterson, co-founder of VitalSmarts and co-author of Crucial Conversations (a company and book that are all about empowering people to make better interpersonal choices), has just published a magnificent children’s book titled It’s Never Too Late To Be Nice. When I saw the title,...
Top 20 Leadership Training Companies
VitalSmarts was named to the Top 20 Leadership Training Companies List by Training Industry, Inc....
VitalSmarts Named to Top 20 Leadership Training Companies List
Provo, Utah – January 29, 2015 – VitalSmarts today announced it has been named to the Top 20 Leadership Training Companies List, by Training Industry, Inc. The listing is part of the Training Industry’s mission to continually monitor the marketplace for the best providers of...
Leading with the truth: how to handle crucial conversations
Have you ever experienced saying something and, literally as the words were leaving your lips, you knew you would regret it?...
Shaping Strong School Leaders: KIPP Principal Training Rooted in ‘Real-World’ Practice
KIPP surveyed its principals—current and past—to see what they felt they needed in the job and brought in David Maxfield of VitalSmarts, a corporate training- and leadership-development company, as a consultant. Through its research, KIPP identified four vital behaviors it believes successful school leaders possess...
A Proactive Approach to Addressing Unethical Behavior in the Workplace
When the authors of Crucial Accountability gave an online survey to more than 900 working people in 2013, the three most common unethical workplace behaviors cited were taking credit for someone else’s work, indulging in extra long breaks and calling in sick when actually well....
Getting rid of company gossip
According to social scientist Joseph Grenny, workplace gossip cultivates an unhealthy, company-wide social system that can be difficult stamp out....
Career Coach: Dealing with a disruption
There are also some great books on this topic “Difficult Conversations,” “Fierce Conversations,” “Crucial Confrontations” that you might consider....
Stop Enabling Gossip On Your Team – By Joseph Grenny
Gossip is not a problem; it’s a symptom. The symptom disappears when a critical mass of leaders stop enabling it, create trust in healthy communication channels, and invest in building employees’ skills to use them....
When Dementia Threatens a Family’s Finances
To help a family prepare for a discussion of changing financial responsibilities, circulate the book Crucial Conversations, by Kerry Patterson....
Top 10 Simple New Years Resolutions
We observe, we tell a story, and then we feel. …Since we and only we are telling the story, we can take back control of our own emotions by telling a different story. These are the claims made in Chapter 6 of Crucial Conversations...
People Who Keep Their Resolutions Do These 5 Things
The “ah-ha” moment came while reading the book Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success ...
10 great steps to talk about money without fighting
You may need to explore your spouse’s feelings that are leading to her withdrawal from the discussion. A good tool for learning how to better communicate with your spouse is the bestselling book, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High....
Why are resolutions so hard to follow?
While many of us assume that the key to changing our habits is having enough willpower, social scientistJoseph Grenny, co-author of Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success, says our will to change is only a small factor that contributes to our ability to...
5 Signs You’re a Bad Customer
If crummy service seems constant, the common denominator may be you. [Joseph Grenny is quoted.]...
How Parents Could Be Sending The Wrong Message With Elf On The Shelf
A 2014 study by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, co-authors of Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, gauged how the framing of the holiday affects kids' behavior....
How To Successfully Get Your Company To Change
I highly recommend the book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, for those who would like to learn more about the power of and strategies related to influence....
VitalSmarts one of ‘Best Companies to Work For’ in Utah
More than 500 people gathered together Thursday during Utah Business magazine’s annual Best Companies to Work For awards program and luncheon to celebrate the ...
Lessons Learned: Small Business Takeaways from 2014
“Too often, organizations ask Millennials to bide their time and wait their turn,” says David Maxfield, the company’s vice president of research. “That’s not how you nurture knowledge workers, no matter their age. VitalSmarts’ research shows that organizations can help through training and by making...
Does Santa make our kids selfish?
Maxfield, a social scientist and author, said parents need to talk about generosity — it doesn’t just happen. “Have them be involved in being generous where they actually take action,” he said. “Brainstorm with a young child as to what their siblings or daddy or...
Does Santa Make Us Selfish?
Video experiment shows one easy thing parents can do to help their kids be more generous during the holidays Provo, Utah – December 3, 2014 – In a newly released video, Santa’s Elf holds out two tantalizing foil-wrapped chocolate Christmas bears to Emma and Alex. One...
Creating an Open Sales Environment
I recently read a posting on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network by Joseph Grenny entitled “4 Ways Leaders Can Create a Candid Culture.” I have long believed that the most successful distribution reps use leadership skills instead of the typical sales tactics to achieve...
Hard but necessary steps to build trust
There is another interesting factor at play in the leadership challenge of trust, and that is the ability to have crucial conversations ...
How to Disagree with Your Boss – By Joseph Grenny
When powerful people shut you down, it may not be because they’re incapable of brooking dissent. It may be that they mistake dissent for disrespect. By contracting up front for candor, clarifying your intent before diving into the content of your concerns, and giving your...
Businesses need to focus on ‘crucial conversations’ for efficiency
“Sometimes, we have these opposing opinions, we see things differently in different situations, the stakes are high and important to all the parties involved and the emotions kick in, people tend to not be on their best behaviour," said Beth Wolfson, a consultant at a...
Top Workplaces – Wasatch Front – 2014
In The Salt Lake Tribune’s first annual ranking of Utah’s top workplaces, VitalSmarts ranked #6 out of 20 in the Small Companies category....
Five keys to building a better workplace
Communication may be an overused word in the world of workplace management, but not all companies do it well. David Maxfield is a Utah business consultant on the most effective ways to talk and engage with employees, especially when it comes to underperforming workers....
VitalSmarts One of Top Workplaces in Utah –Salt Lake Tribune
Meet the 50 companies in Utah that received the highest ratings from their employees. [VitalSmarts No. 6 in Small Businesses.]...
6 Keys To Working With Others As Your Startup Grows -By Kerry Patterson
"We needed the ability to master high-stakes, often emotional, conversations. We had to know how to turn those nasty 'others' that many of us now found annoying, into helpful colleagues whom we respected and valued...
Can you recommend any sources … to manage conflict? Crucial Conversations
Dear Interested in Language Tools, How wonderful you have an interest in further educating yourself and your coworkers to find and use the power of words to resolve conflict. I recommend the following books: ”Confident Voices” by Beth Boynton, RN; “Crucial Conversations” by KerryPatterson, Joseph Grenny,...
Reader interview: ‘Crucial Conversations’ a great tool for important discussions
The book, 'Crucial Conversations,' has real potential, like an awakening to what one should be doing — to refocus, to be aware of your dialogue and the person you're having a dialogue with. It's quite comprehensive — and helpful....
MountainWest Capital Network’s Utah 100
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 97 on the Utah 100 list of most successful and fastest-growing companies....
It’s influence, not authority that makes a great leader
Joseph Grenny will be in town on the afternoon of Oct. 28 to talk about “Crucial Leadership During Critical Times” at the 15th Achievers & Leaders Seminar at SMX Taguig Convention Center. In his talk, Grenny will outline the “influence process” supported by extensive intuitive...
Most Parents Fail at School-Related Crucial Conversations
Provo, Utah – October 15, 2014 – A national study reveals that 3 in 4 parents overestimate their effectiveness in helping their children navigate school-related issues, and many rely too heavily on teachers or school administrators to fix the problems. While most parents think they are...
How to Get Your Quiet Employees Talking
Joseph Grenny, co-founder of corporate training company VitalSmarts, tells HBR that leaders need to dig into their culture and understand why people aren't talking: "Silence usually means people are holding back," Grenny says....
Don’t Just Make Money, Build Relationships
Stressful conversation is when communication really counts, and when we will either shine or have egg on our faces ...
How to Get Your Employees to Speak Up
Getting an early handle on minor issues before they become big problems is the key, according to Joseph Grenny ...
Neutralizing the Workplace Bully
A recent survey conducted by VitalSmarts, a corporate training solutions provider, found that workplace bullies can have better job security. According to the survey, some bullies have kept the same job for more than 30 years....
In crucial workplace conversations, choose your words wisely
Some of this thinking is inspired by Vital Smarts, a company known for providing excellent training in managing “Crucial Conversations” — conversations that help manage conflict in the workplace. I have partnered with them, applying their methodologies with some of my Career Coaching clients, and have...
[Crucial Accountability is #7 on Bestselling Paperback list: Nonfiction/General]
7. Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior (McGraw-Hill, $20). By Kerry Patterson....
Speak Up or Burn Out
Five crucial conversations that drive educational excellence. By David Maxfield...
Rude Technology: Where have all the manners gone?
Three out of five people say someone is rude to them on social media more than once a month. VitalSmarts conducted a survey of 2,698 people, and 78 percent of those reported an increase of rudeness in the virtual world as opposed to face to face....
Community Date Night to feature NYT best-selling Provo author
Grenny will be basing the Date Night discussion on decades of research on the topic of accountability and strengthening family relationships. He will teach vital skills for holding one’s spouse and children accountable while building family relationships on a foundation of trust....
The Top 10 Books to Build Your Business Acumen
Much of what we are able to accomplish is based on the quality of conversations we have – whether they are personal conversations with family or friends, or business conversations with customers, employees, or your boss. Based on 25 years of research, Crucial Conversations presents...
Community Date Night
Those tired of having the same argument with their spouse – or wishing their kids would follow through on chores – or looking to teach their kids some responsibility – should benefit from the seventh annual Community Date Night, supported by the United Way of Utah...
Eleven Ways To Stay Sought-After By Connecting Better In Conversation
For further ideas on fostering convivial, worthwhile conversation, I recommend Crucial Conversations....
VitalSmarts Acquired by Providence Equity Partners
VitalSmarts has agreed to be acquired by Providence Equity Partners. The companies have not disclosed the financial terms of the transaction....
Making Long-distance Relationships Work -By David Maxfield
Problems that involve remote colleagues result in significantly more severe impacts to productivity, cost, quality, and time, according to a survey by VitalSmarts and Training magazine. But the situation isn’t hopeless. Here are some steps that can help....
2014 Bronze Stevie Award Winner
VitalSmarts won a Stevie Award in The 2014 American Business Awards in the category of Product Development/Management Department or Team of the Year....
How to set expectations with your employees
“Sometimes we wait to offer criticism until we’re irritated,” says Joseph Grenny, co-author of “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.” “That’s a bad idea, because in spite of our best efforts to mask our emotions, the way we offer criticism inevitably changes....
Don Follis: Crucial conversations are vital for a meaningful life
In the many summits that I have attended, few topics resonated with me as much as one that was featured this year — the importance of having crucial conversations. Joseph Grenny brought his expertise on this topic to the Willow Creek Stage by saying if...
5 reasons to put down the smartphone
"Ninety percent of responses to Grenny's survey said people shouldn't respond to texts or check social media sites in public."...
Joseph Grenny Presents Community Date Night to Help Utah Couples Improve Relationships
Provo, UT—Sept. 2, 2014—Those tired of having the same argument with their spouse – or wishing their kids would follow through on chores – or looking to teach their kids some responsibility – should benefit from the seventh annual Community Date Night, supported by the...
Critical Conversations in Nursing
The nursing process offers pathways for nurses to communicate effectively with patients and increase staff unity....
Utah Business Magazine
VitalSmarts was named to the Fast 50 by Utah Business Magazine -- for the third time. (We also won in 2009 and 2010.)...
Inc. Magazine
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 4875 on the 2014 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America -- and was named a Five-time Inc. 5000 Honoree....
Speak Up or Burn Out -By David Maxfield
Five Crucial Conversations that Drive Educational Excellence...
VitalSmarts Updates Influencer 2.0 Training
The Influencer 2.0 Training course teaches “a proven change model for anyone looking to alter human behavior – no matter the person’s level of formal authority, leadership, experience, or number of direct reports.”...
Balancing act: Readers dispute prevalence of workplace bullying
Are Americans really being bullied at work? Or are U.S. workers just too sensitive to criticism? Several readers have sent these questions my way during the last month since I wrote a couple of columns about the prevalence of bullying at work....
6 Keys To Change Management: Why Willpower Alone Isn’t Enough
David Maxfield joined me for half an hour on the topic of change management for companies and individuals. I was sitting on my phone, taking notes in Evernote at a table at Roxberry, drinking a green smoothie to lose weight as I listened to David....
Business Bookshelf: Learning how to address bad behaviour
Would we be more apt to speak up? The award-winning team of authors — Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan and Switzler — have done just that in Crucial Accountability. They teach us how to deal with the problem at hand without harming the relationship — and, possibly...
How To Use Conflict To Your Advantage At Work
VitalSmarts found that 95% of employees have trouble voicing differences of opinion, which results in a loss of roughly $1,500 per eight-hour workday....
How to Be a Leader during Layoffs
Grenny offers these tips to help managers lead through layoffs and emerge with a strong, trusting team of reps: 1. Downsize with kindness. 2. Be transparent. 3. Build confidence in the future....
VitalSmarts Kicks Off 7th Annual REACH 2014 Event
SALT LAKE CITY – July 29, 2014 – Today, VitalSmarts opens its seventh annual REACH learning experience – at Salt Lake City’s Grand America Hotel – with bestselling author Joseph Grenny as the keynote speaker. REACH is a three-day event designed for those who work...
Dealing with Workplace Bullies
“There’s this collective powerlessness, which is remarkable,” says Grenny. “Social control is the most effective way to stamp out bullying, but that’s not happening.”...
The Real-World Implications Of Workplace And Cyber Bullying
A recent study by VitalSmarts, a leadership consultancy founded by David Maxwell, author of the excellent book Crucial Conversations, polled nearly 3,000 people on the topic of workplace bullying. ...
The worst (and best) things to say to someone who is grieving -By Joseph Grenny
Dos and Don'ts of Comforting Others: 1. Offer your heart, not your brain. 2. Don't offer judgments. 3. Don't give them an assignment, but take thoughtful initiative....
Rampant Bullying Found Across Workplaces -By David Maxfield
In a recent study that Joseph Grenny and I conducted for our organization, VitalSmarts, 96 percent of survey respondents said they have experienced bullying at work. It's not the kind of bullying one might expect, though....
Facebook Users Are More Likely to Divorce, Study Finds
VitalSmarts found that 19 percent of respondents decreased their offline contact with a person because of something that individual said on social media. [Joseph Grenny told The Christian Post last year that the findings showed there is a need "for manners to catch up with technology."]...
VitalSmarts Releases Influencer 2.0 Training
July 17, 2014 – Provo, UT – VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today released a new edition of its award-winning leadership course, Influencer Training®. The revised edition includes updated videos, a new training platform, and greater flexibility in its participant response...
5 Signs You’re Dealing With A Workplace Bully
96% of people have experienced bullying at the office, says David Maxfield, VP of research at VitalSmarts and coauthor of a recent study on workplace bullying. ...
Taking Aim at Workplace Bullies
One study, released in June by Provo, Utah-based VitalSmarts, found that 96 percent of 2,283 individuals had experienced some form of workplace bullying. What's more, the survey found 86 percent of bullies have been at it for more than one year and 54 percent have...
Fight Workplace Bullying with Better Communication Skills
In our email interview, Maxfield wrote that the best way to prevent bullying at work is to build a strong culture of accountability on four levels: Personal. Peer. Supervisory. Systemic....
4 Ways Leaders Can Create a Candid Culture -By Joseph Grenny
When leaders want to create an open culture where people are willing to speak up and challenge one another, they often start by listening. This is a good instinct. But listening with your ears will only take you so far. You also need to demonstrate...
The Social Media Skills Gap
Social media has potential for improving organizational performance and driving business, but new research from VitalSmarts, a corporate training solutions provider, found that many organizations persist in discouraging its use in the workplace. Rooting out organizations' remaining distrust of social media starts with training....
Workplace Bullying on the Rise: How Dangerous Is It?
Suffice to say, most companies are not adept with dealing with bullies in the workplace. TheVitalSmarts report found that a mere 51 percent of respondents worked for a place that had a policy to keep bullying at bay, 7 percent know of an individual who used...
More teaching, less threatening can lead to greater influence -By Joseph Grenny
Bad behavior is more often due to a lack of skills than to bad motives. When we learn to recognize our tendency to commit the Fundamental Attribution Error and ask, “Why would a reasonable, rational and decent person do this?” our influence efforts improve markedly....
VitalSmarts Acquired by Providence Equity Partners
Provo, Utah – July 2, 2014 – VitalSmarts today announced it has agreed to be acquired by Providence Equity Partners, marking the beginning of a new phase of growth in the company’s history. The investment from Providence will accelerate VitalSmarts’ corporate growth initiatives and further...
Balancing act: Survey: Bullying is wreaking havoc in the workplace
Bullying isn't only a problem for children at school. According to a new survey from VitalSmarts, it's wreaking havoc in our offices, too ...
Does the Office Bully Have More Job Security?
A new survey says bullies have job security, usually because people are afraid to confront them. Here's how to shut down the bad behavior....
The ‘silent epidemic’: workplace bullying is on the rise, research shows
Grenny and his co-author, David Maxfield, suggest several techniques for dealing with bullies, including speaking up right away, sticking to detailed facts when talking about bullying, finding out what kind of legitimate concern the bully has, warning the bully of the consequences of their behavior, and holding...
How Facebook employees use Facebook at work
David Maxfield: "If we could break down this fear that letting people’s outside life ‘intrude’ into their work life is always bad, I think we’d discover a huge breakthrough in productivity.”...
Next time you feel nervous, assume this position -By Joseph Grenny
"Changing your posture doesn’t just “psych you up” — it juices you up. It isn’t just others who are influenced by our nonverbal communications, we are too. Body language affects not only how others see us, but it also appears to change how we see...
How a best-selling author helped a Michigan hospital raise hand hygiene rates
“We taught them how to think about influence problems with six of these sources of influence, and how to shift human behavior,” said Grenny, who led a morning seminar on business leadership at the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, June 25, and will...
Does Bullying Provide Job Security? You’ll Be Infuriated by the Answer
Provo, Utah – June 25, 2014 – Brian regularly emailed his direct reports at all hours of the night. When one didn’t immediately answer, he would hurl a volley of emailed threats and personal insults. Team members felt afraid, vulnerable, and helpless. Many quit. The...
What Workplace Bullying Looks Like In 2014 — And How To Intervene
According to David Maxfield, coauthor of the books Crucial Conversations and Influencer, 96% of American employees experience bullying in the workplace, and the nature of that bullying is changing. “In the 70’s, it was fisticuffs,” he recalls. “I don’t think that’s happening at Facebook.” ...
Who Me? How to Build Accountability in the Workplace
Best-selling author David Maxfield explains why it’s important to hold one another accountable at work and how we can do so....
Joseph Grenny to share insights on business performance at 20104 Summit
"Start every change project with a clear and compelling statement of the goal you're trying to achieve," says Joseph Grenny, co-chairman and co-founder of VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development. Grenny is one of 14 featured speakers for Willow Creek Association's 2014...
Five tips for parents of electronics addicts -By Joseph Grenny
"Your best hope of influencing [your son] for the better is to keep your motives right, maintain reasonable boundaries and focus on helping him learn to recognize consequences in his own life."...
About To Say “I Do”? Make Sure You’re Money Compatible
With money and communication issues cited as some of the main reasons for divorce, it’s important a new couple develop healthy habits early on, says Joseph Grenny, author of Crucial Conversations, the New York Times bestselling book....
How To Get People Off Their Phones In Meetings Without Being A Jerk
It’s not only at work where we’re bothered by inappropriate cell phone use, or Electronic Displays of Insensitivity (EDI). According to a survey by VitalSmarts, 89% of participants said that insensitive use of technology had negatively affected their personal relationships....
The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable –By Joseph Grenny
The role of the boss should not be to settle problems or constantly monitor your team, it should be to create a team culture where peers address concerns immediately, directly and respectfully with each other. Yes, this takes time up front. But you'll see problems...
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE [and others incl. Joseph Grenny] to present at Global Leadership Summit
The Summit is a two-day event that seeks to transform leaders around the world with an injection of vision, skill development and inspiration from a Christian perspective. ...
Can a Digital Connection Replace a Physical One?
Joseph Grenny writes that social media can boost productivity, improve decisions, and drive sales, but the danger is that managers will be deluded into thinking it can substitute for the day-to-day investment in face-to-face connections....
Smartphones are causing rifts in relationships (TV)
David Maxfield talks about the results of VitalSmarts' recent study "Digital Divisiveness."...
Stop Arguing With Atheists Online
According to a 2013 VitalSmarts survey of about 2,600 people, 35 percent of respondents reported blocking, unsubscribing or "un-friending" someone due to an argument held on social media....
4 Challenges of Being a Young Boss
Joseph Grenny suggests having an honest discussion in which you let the other person know you want a productive working relationship that doesn’t skirt sensitive issues like age differences. (See PDF to May newsletter_Silence 7 common complaints) ...
The Case for Embracing Social Media at Work
A new report led by David Maxfield claims social media has untapped potential in the workplace....
Putting Poverty Alleviation in the Hands of the Impoverished
Albert Bandura and the "Influencer" strategy, developed by Joseph Grenny, inspired Fundación Paraguaya to help poor families ask two questions: Is it worth it? Can I do it?...
Can Social Media At Work Be A Good Thing?
Six in 10 respondents to a recent survey said that use of social media in the office improved work relationships, and about a third said that they used platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to further work-related projects....
Infographic: 48% of companies don’t encourage social media networking
Social media can have “powerful positive impacts” in professional settings, but most organisations either discourage or disregard its use in the workplace, a new study has revealed....
VitalSmarts Releases Virtual Training for Crucial Conversations
April 17, 2014—Provo, UT—VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today announced its award-winning Crucial Conversations™ classroom course is now available online via live, synchronous learning. The company launched this first course using its new VitalSmarts Virtual Classroom™ technology, a highly collaborative learning platform...
2 Remarkable Books That Will Change Your Life–And Your Business
In Crucial Conversations, the authors share the results of their 25-year study of successful communicators. Not surprisingly, the key skill that differentiated them from their peers was their ability to deal with these very crucial (and oft-dreaded) conversations....
Dog-Eared Books: What’s on Your Bedside Table?
"I find myself turning again and again to Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. It’s my instinct to avoid having difficult conversations and I have to work against my fight-or-flight tendencies....
David Maxfield discusses “Electronic Displays of Insensitivity” (TV)
Earlier this month we told you about new research on "Electronic Displays of Insensitivity" -- basically ignoring people in favor of your smartphone. Today we are lucky enough to have one of the men behind this study in studio today -- New York Times best...
VitalSmarts Wins ISA ‘Business of the Year’ Award for Second Time
PROVO, UT – March 26, 2014 – VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and leadership development, was named the 2014 Business of the Year by ISA – The Association of Learning Providers – for the second time, during its annual business retreat this week in...
VitalSmarts Wins ISA ‘Business of the Year’ Award
VitalSmarts was named the 2014 Business of the Year by ISA – The Association of Learning Providers – for the second time, during its annual business retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona. ...
‘Electronic Displays of Insensitivity’ on the Rise
In Joseph Grenny’s Digital Divisiveness, 87 percent of respondents reported that electronic displays of insensitivity (EDIs) — i.e., the intrusive or inappropriate use of technology — is worse today than it was just a year ago....
VitalSmarts Acquires Vital Skills of Michigan
PROVO – March 20, 2014 – VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and leadership development, announced today it has acquired Vital Skills International of Michigan. As part of the acquisition, VitalSmarts will maintain the presence of a Michigan-based office to provide its U.S. customers in...
Checking your cell phone will kill your relationship
Nearly 9 out of 10 people say that at least once a week, their friends or family stop paying attention to them in favor of something happening on their digital devices. And 1 in 4 say EDIs have caused a serious rift with a friend...
What to Answer: Your Phone or Your Wife?
A new study [by VitalSmarts] suggests ignoring someone to check a digital device may actually damage your relationship. When did technology start trumping respect?...
Digital Divisiveness: Electronic Displays of Insensitivity (EDIs) Take Toll on Relationships
Provo, Utah, March 19, 2014 – Sandie sent her husband an email during dinner asking if they could talk. Even though he was sitting across the table, it was the only way she could get his attention as he buried his nose in his smartphone....
4 Ways to Overcome Age-Related Tension in the Office
David Maxfield contributes an article on how to work with coworkers of different generations based on VitalSmarts multigenerational research....
Social Media Helps Coworkers Bond
David Maxfield discusses the advantages of social media in the workplace and how to mitigate issues with coworkers....
Why Accountability is Key to Maintaining an Ethical Workplace
Joseph Grenny contributes advice on how to speak up and hold others accountable to maintain and ethical workplace....
Study: The War Of Generations Results In Lost Productivity
VitalSmarts releases new research that shows more than 1 in 3 people waste five or more hours each week (12 percent of their work week), due to chronic, unaddressed conflict between colleagues from different generations....
The Great Generational Divide: New study shows unaddressed resentment between Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials saps productivity by as much as 12%
PROVO – February 5, 2014 – Tami has a coworker who behaves poorly as a result of what she and her colleagues perceive as “senioritis.” After 35 years with the organization, the coworker comes in late, leaves early, takes lengthy personal calls, is resistant to...
Top 20 Leadership Training Companies Watch List
VitalSmarts made the watch list for TrainingIndustry.com’s 2014 Top 20 Leadership Training Companies. ...
Research: We Should Speak Up About Ethical Violations More Often
Joseph Grenny shares research and experience that proves getting people to speak up about ethical violations is not about rewarding whistle-blowers, but creating an environment where employees feel able to hold people accountable....
VitalSmarts Announces Three Premier Associates for 2014
PROVO – January 17, 2014 – VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and leadership development, announced today its list of Premier Associates who are recognized for achieving top revenue and sales targets in their respective regional markets in 2013. That list includes three of the...
New Year’s Resolutions: Why You Shouldn’t Bother
Vitalsmarts found that the failure to stick to New Year's resolutions carries a price tag of more than $1,000 for seven in 10 people. ...
When Santa ‘Frames’ Christmas, Children Respond
VitalSmarts experts found that the way you frame gift giving at Christmas can affect children’s generosity. ...
The 13 Most Popular Business Books of 2013
Crucial Conversations is listed among the 13 most popular business books of 2013 alongside Jim Collins' Good to Great, and Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In....
The Hidden Cost of Your New Year’s Resolution
December 11, 2013—Provo, UT—Edith L. has always struggled with weight gain, but the one thing that has historically kept her weight in check is exercise. In an attempt to gain motivation to work on her exercise goal, she joined a state-of-the-art gym. Two years later,...
When Your Partner’s Wallet Wanders
Joseph Grenny shares five tips for discussing holiday finances with a squandering spouse. ...
VitalSmarts Has Trained One Million People Worldwide
December 9, 2013—Provo, UT—VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and leadership development, today announced it has trained one million people in 36 countries in its four award-winning training products. Based on three decades of original research and 50 years of the best social science thinking, VitalSmarts’...
Millennials More Responsible with Credit Than Gen X-ers
Joseph Grenny shares insight as to why Millennials are better with their money. ...
The Do’s and Don’ts of Dealing With a Slacking Co-Worker
Kerry Patterson discusses how to respectfully and effectively confront a slacking coworker. ...
Paladin Associates and VitalSmarts partner to help procurement drive lasting change
Paladin Associates, a procurement services provider, and VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, are pleased to announce their partnership aimed at addressing procurement’s numerous and complex change challenges....
How to Form a Healthy Habit That’ll Actually Last
Joseph Grenny shares tips for what it takes to really create a healthy habit and how long before it clicks....
How to Blow The Whistle Without Blowing Your Career
VitalSmarts found that 63% frequently observe minor and major infractions, yet they confront only half of the unethical behavior they see....
How to Blow the Whistle Without Blowing Your Career
VitalSmarts found that 63% frequently observe minor and major infractions, yet they confront only half of the unethical behavior they see. ...
Aligning Different Parenting Styles
Joseph Grenny shares how to turn conflicting parenting styles into complementary ones....
Elizabeth George and Nobel Laureate Alice Munro at Number 1 on Fiction Hardback, Paperback Lists
Crucial Conversations is ranked No. 2 on the Washington Post Paperback Nonfiction Bestsellers List....
Why You Need to Ask Doctors if They’ve Washed Their Hands
David Maxfield shares the importance of personal, social and structural influences to facilitate hand hygiene behavior....
Six Frightening Facts You Need to Know About Healthcare
VitalSmarts' "Silence Kills" study found that less than 10 percent of medical staff confront their colleagues about their concerns....
How to Blow the Whistle without Blowing Your Career
An online survey of 926 people administered by the New York Times best-selling authors of Crucial Accountability found that while 63 percent of respondents regularly witness both minor and major ethical infractions, employees confront only half of the unethical behavior they witness at work....
MountainWest Capital Network’s Utah 100
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 97 on the Utah 100 list of most successful and fastest-growing companies....
Change Your Bad Habits
Joseph Grenny gives a preview of the skills he’ll share at the upcoming community date night to benefit the United Way....
Workplace Blame: Don’t Be a Snitch or a Pushover
Joseph Grenny shares how employees can effectively handle mistakes at work....
Want Better Relationships, More Money, Greater Happiness? Change Your Behavior
Joseph Grenny shares how to achieve greater success and build stronger relationships through applying the behavior change principles in Change Anything....
Silence Kills: Can Technology Drive Meaningful Cultural Change in Healthcare?
The Silence Kills and Silent Treatment studies from VitalSmarts show the lack of effective communication between clinical teams can have deadly consequences....
An Influencer Can Change People’s Behaviour in the Pursuit of High Performance
Al Switzler shares how Spectrum Health achieved unprecedented success in hand hygiene compliance through Influencer....
How to Stop a Bully–Before Anyone Gets Hurt
Joseph Grenny shares four tips to stop playground and cyber bullying....
Inc. Magazine
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 4109 on the 2013 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America and No. 79 for Utah companies....
5 Toughest Work Conversations
Joseph Grenny shares tips for successfully navigating difficult conversations at work....
Business 360: Quest Means Business
Ron McMillan elaborates on the five toughest work conversations shared in the CNNMoney article....
How We Successfully Built an Awesome Company Culture Abroad
TaskUs says Crucial Conversations solved their communication struggles....
2013 Inc. 5000 List
VitalSmarts is listed as #4109 on the 2013 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America....
Tranel Financial Group to Be Host Site for Global Leadership Summit
Joseph Grenny will speak at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit alongside Colin Powell, Patrick Lencioni and Brene Brown....
4 Key Strategies for Increasing Transference
Al Switzler shares how to increase training transference by incorporating strategies within the Six Sources of Influence....
Bosses, Bullying & Burnout in Nursing
Rebecca Saxton said introducing Crucial Conversations Training to the AORN-Greater Kansas City Chapter was time and money well spent to create healthy work environments....
What Do Your Two Battling Friends Have in Common? You.
Joseph Grenny shares what to do when caught between fighting friends....
New York Times Bestseller on the Perils of Social Media
Joseph Grenny shares tips for communicating both candidly and respectfully on social media....
How to Whistleblow Like Edward Snowden Without Blowing Your Career
Joseph Grenny shares tips for effectively raising ethical issues to your boss....
VitalSmarts Releases Crucial Accountability™
VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, today released Crucial Accountability™—the update to the Company’s popular Crucial Confrontations Training. The two-day classroom course teaches a step-by-step process for holding others accountable to violated expectations in order to improve performance....
The authors of Crucial Conversations release the second edition of their New York Times bestseller Crucial Accountability
Based on more than 30 years of research, CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY (McGraw-Hill Professional; June 2013; Original paperback and eBook formats: $19) provides readers with the essential tools they need to resolve controversial and complex issues dealing with repeated disappointments and performance gaps. This is the revised...
Are your co-workers lazy? Incompetent? Or both?
New research from the authors of the New York Times best-seller Crucial Accountability shows that three in four employees quickly attribute co-workers’ bad behavior to lack of motivation while only one in 10 consider ability deficits. As a result, they avoid holding problem colleagues accountable,...
Fighting Fair: How to Tackle Crucial Conversations on Facebook & Twitter
Joseph Grenny shares his research on social media conversations and provides tips for communicating effectively online....
MassMutual Fosters Open Communication
MassMutual Financial uses Crucial Conversations Training to increase employees’ capacity to foster open and direct communication....
Interview: Joseph Grenny
Joseph Grenny shares how to harness the Six Sources of Influence™ to make lasting changes in your life....
Are Americans Getting Smarter with their Personal Finances?
Kerry Patterson shares the impact social influences have on our personal finances....
I Lost Weight: With the Support of Her Family and Co-Workers, Patty Loeffler Lost 100 Pounds
Patty Loeffler lost 100 pounds by following the principles in Influencer and Change Anything....
Get a Lazy Co-Worker to Pick Up the Slack
Research from VitalSmarts shows slacking co-workers cause their hard-working colleagues to put in extra time at the office....
How to End Sexual Abuse in the Military
Joseph Grenny shares strategies for ending sexual abuse in the military....
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change
In every business interaction—from weekly conference calls to high-stakes corporate negotiations—one major element separates successful change efforts from the ones that fail: Influence. In INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change (McGraw-Hill; Paperback and eBook formats: $19; May 14, 2013), Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David...
Lack influence at work? Why most leaders struggle to lead positive change
Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products and engaging with analysts and shareholders, but according to a new study, only six percent are successful in influencing the behavior of the people who will have to execute on the...
What is the Essence of Leadership?
Joseph Grenny shares how leaders can increase their effectiveness by learning how to influence behavior change....
’I Love It!’ and Other Gift Lies
Kerry Patterson shares how to graciously accept a gift you don't like. (This article was picked up by 31 publications.)...
Don’t Worry, Be Happy—At Work
Joseph Grenny shares his research on slacking co-workers and provides solutions for holding slackers accountable....
Survey: Online Rudeness Growing
Steve Rappoport shares VitalSmarts’ research on social media conversations....
Online Fights Spill Into Real World
Erin Burnett shares VitalSmarts’ research on social media conversations and displays the VitalSmarts website....
Antisocial Networks? Hostility on social media rising for 78 percent of users
Social networks are becoming increasingly hostile, with 78 percent of users reporting rising incivility online and 2 in 5 blocking, unsubscribing or “unfriending” someone over an argument on social media, according to new research from the authors of the New York Times best-seller Crucial Conversations....
Friendships Cut Short on Social Media as People Get Ruder-Survey
Joseph Grenny shares his research on social media conversations and tips for communicating effectively online....
Antisocial Networks
Joseph Grenny shares his research on social media conversations and tips for how manners can catch up with technology....
If Working With a Slacker Drives You Nuts…
Joseph Grenny shares his research on slacking co-workers and provides solutions for holding slackers accountable. ...
Got a Teammate Who’s Slacking Off? Here’s What to Do
Kerry Patterson shares advice in response to a reader’s question on how to deal with slacking co-workers. ...
Co-workers can shape up slackers
Joseph Grenny shares his research on slacking co-workers and provides solutions for holding slackers accountable. ...
How to Stop Work Drama to Get More Done
A VitalSmarts study shows that valuable employees work up to an additional six hours per week because of slacking colleagues....
VitalSmarts Releases the Impact Cloud Measurement Tool
VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, today released the Impact Cloud—a free, customizable, online tool that measures the impact of an organization’s training investment on key behavioral and business outcomes....
Job Slackers Can Become More Productive
Kerry Patterson shares his research which shows 93 percent of employees have co-workers who don't pull their weight, but only 1 in 10 confronts those lackluster colleagues. ...
Stuck with a slacking co-worker? Why you’re to blame
Slacking co-workers cause a quarter of their hard-working colleagues to put in four to six more hours of work each week, according to new research from the New York Times best-selling authors of Crucial Confrontations....
“Spirit of ISA” Broomfield Award
Al Switzler received the 2013 “Spirit of ISA” Broomfield Award for his contributions to advance ISA’s vision and strategic direction....
Telly Awards
VitalSmarts received two second-place bronze awards from the 34th Annual Telly Awards for outstanding videos....
Hawaiians Have Highest Well-Being Rating for 4th Year
Joseph Grenny shares ways people can increase their level of happiness. ...
Books: Denver Best Sellers, 2/24/2013
Crucial Conversations is ranked No. 2 on the paperback nonfiction bestseller list. ...
How to Confront Your Doctor
Joseph Grenny shares his research and tips on how to speak up to your doctor....
4 Ways to Open Up Communication With Your Partner
Joseph Grenny shares his research which shows that couples who argue effectively are 10 times more likely to be happy. ...
Top 20 Leadership Training Companies Watch List
VitalSmarts made the watch list for TrainingIndustry.com's 2013 Top 20 Leadership Training Companies....
VitalSmarts Announces Seven Premier Associates for 2012
VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and organizational performance, announced today its list of Premier Associates who are recognized for achieving top revenue and sales targets in their respective markets in 2012. That list includes seven of the Company’s 18 licensed resellers located across the...
Why Trainers Lack Influence—And How They Can Get It
Joseph Grenny shares the six sources of influence trainers must engage in order to drive profound and rapid change in behavior. ...
VitalSmarts Releases the Crucial Accountability™ Companion Course
VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, today released the Crucial Accountability™ Companion Course. The one-day training builds on the skills learned in Crucial Conversations® Training and introduces a powerful new set of skills for resolving violated expectations, broken commitments and bad behavior....
Big Names Dominated Bestsellers in 2012
Crucial Conversations was ranked No. 10 on the Publishers Weekly Business Bestsellers List....
Why So Few Performance Reviews Lead to Any Change
Joseph Grenny shares why performance reviews are largely ineffective and how managers can truly help their employees improve. ...
Déjà vu performance review? Why employees will fail to change in 2013
According to new research from the co-authors of the New York Times best-seller Change Anything, 43 percent of employees experienced a déjà vu performance review in 2012—negative performance feedback that surfaces year after year....
5 Solid Tips for Sticking to Your Career Resolutions
Joseph Grenny shares how to overcome the career-limiting habits that keep you from achieving your career resolutions. ...
Shaping New Diet and Exercise Habits: Tips For Success
Joseph Grenny shares why willpower is insufficient to change behavior. ...
Why Year-End Reviews Are A Big Fat Waste Of Time
Joseph Grenny shares tips for providing feedback candidly and respectfully. ...
VitalSmarts welcomes new leaders, Stephen Wunderli and Andrew Maxfield
VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, recently welcomed two leaders to its team, Stephen Wunderli and Andrew Maxfield....
Should Organizations Embrace Political Diversity?
Joseph Grenny says political diversity discussions can be healthy to hold. ...
Four Reasons Why Leaders Lack Influence
Joseph Grenny shares how leaders can increase their capacity for influencing change. ...
How to avoid a financial holiday hangover
Joseph Grenny shares tips for how to discuss holiday finances with your spouse. ...
Stuck in a Dead End Job? It Could be Your Fault
Joseph Grenny shares how to reverse career-limiting habits to achieve greater success at work. ...
PRSA Golden Spike Awards
VitalSmarts received a Golden Spike Finalist Award in the Marketing Products/Services category from the Public Relations Society of America, Utah Valley Chapter for the Crucial Conversations 4 launch campaign....
3 Signs You’re an Oversensitive Employee
Joseph Grenny shares tips for overcoming the sensitivities that undermine our performance at work. (This article was picked up by 5 publications.) ...
Four Key Skills to Change Company Culture
Joseph Grenny shares the four critical competencies of a high-performance cultural operating system. ...
Exercise Your Free Won’t
Joseph Grenny shares why willpower alone is insufficient to change behavior. ...
People we don’t talk politics with
This Snapshot features VitalSmarts’ research which shows who we avoid talking politics with the most. ...
How Workplace Conflict is Killing Your Bottom Line
Joseph Grenny shares his research on the costs of conflict avoidance in the workplace. ...
Hiding on Facebook: Online Election Talk Gets Nasty
Kerry Patterson says a good political rant rarely leads to catharsis....
Books: Denver best sellers, 10/21/2012
Crucial Conversations is No. 3 on The Denver Post bestseller list for paperback nonfiction books for the week of October 21....
How to Avoid a Political Minefield
Joseph Grenny shares what to do if your political discussion turns heated despite your best efforts to remain in dialogue. (This article ran in the Sunday print edition of The New York Times and was also picked up by the Philadelphia Inquirer)....
Be careful about mixing politics and work
A survey from VitalSmarts shows 86 percent of Americans avoid political discussions. (This article was picked up by three additional publications.)...
MountainWest Capital Network’s Utah 100
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 100 on the Utah 100 list of most successful and fastest growing companies....
Why Learning Is Never Enough: Implementing a Multi-faceted Change Management Strategy
Kerry Patterson shares how to use the Influencer Model to achieve lasting change in an organization....
How to talk politics with friends—and still have some left
Romney and Obama aren’t the only ones taking sides in intense debates this election season. According to a new poll from VitalSmarts and the authors of the New York Times best-seller Crucial Conversations, 62 percent of Americans have found themselves in heated debates and the...
Crucial Conversations with Kerry Patterson
Kerry Patterson shares tips for how to say “no.”...
How to ask for a raise and get it
Crucial Conversations is listed as a great resource for providing a framework for discussions on salary negotiation....
Overcoming Career-Limiting Habits
David Maxfield shares tips for overcoming career-limiting habits to achieve greater potential at work....
Fully Engaged
David Maxfield shares how to apply Influencer strategies to motivate employees and increase engagement....
Washington Post Bestsellers Aug. 26-Sept. 1
Crucial Conversations is No. 1 on the Washington Post bestseller list for nonfiction paperbacks for the week of August 26....
Inc. Magazine
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 3311 on the 2012 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America....
Patients Report High Number of Medical Mistakes
The Silent Treatment study shows that a culture of poor communication in hospitals contributes to medical errors....
4 Reasons Facebook Employees Aren’t Jumping Ship
Ron McMillan shares tips for determining when to make a career move....
2012 Inc. 5000 List
VitalSmarts is No. 3311 on the 2012 Inc. 5000 list. The Company has been ranked by Inc. as one of America's fastest-growing companies for eight consecutive years....
5 ways to catch your spouse hiding money
Kerry Patterson shares tips for handling financial differences in marriage....
Chief Learning Officer Learning in Practice Awards
VitalSmarts was awarded a certificate of merit from the Chief Learning Officer Learning in Practice Awards for the Change Anything Training course....
Five Key Moves to Overcoming Career-Limiting Habits
A survey from VitalSmarts reveals that 97 percent of employees have a career-limiting habit that keeps them from achieving their potential at work....
Training Today: Products and Services
VitalSmarts released the fourth edition of Crucial Conversations Training, which teaches high-leverage skills to improve dialogue, relationships, and bottom-line organizational results....
Changing Anything Starts with Changing Something
Change Anything shows how to reach a higher level of achievement and satisfaction in life....
Vacation, No Vacation, or Work-ation?
Joseph Grenny offers advice for taking well-deserved vacation time and for setting appropriate boundaries while away....
Three Crucial Conversations for Leaders
Joseph Grenny shares how the most influential leaders handle three important crucial conversations....
Utah Valley BusinessQ Top 30 Fastest-Growing Companies
VitalSmarts was ranked No. 29 in the UV50 list of fastest-growing companies....
VitalSmarts Study Finds Able Arguers are 10 Times Happier than Silent Spouses
Kim was distressed after she and her fiancée received a "conflicted couple" flag following a premarital questionnaire. She knew from previous failed relationships that she struggled to bring up sensitive issues, but would her tendency to avoid a nasty debate really threaten the success of...
Outlook can give you the power to change your career
A survey from VitalSmarts reveals that 97 percent of employees have a career-limiting habit....
Is texting ruining the art of conversation?
Joseph Grenny shares how to hold effective crucial conversations in this age of digital communication....
How to tell when you need a vacation
Kerry Patterson shares tips for negotiating vacation time....
VitalSmarts Releases Crucial Conversations(R) Training 4th Edition
VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, today released the fourth edition of Crucial Conversations® Training, one of the training industry's leading courses in teaching high-leverage skills to improve dialogue, relationships and bottom-line organizational results.
...Change Anything in Your Business or Personal Life
Ron McMillan shares how to use Change Anything principles to reach both professional and personal goals....
Crucial Moments in Management: What Separates the Good from the Great
Joseph Grenny demonstrates the difference Crucial Conversations skills make in being a great leader....
Culture Change at Paychex
Crucial Conversations Training taught Paychex leaders how to achieve spirited dialogue at all levels in the organization, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on decisions with unity and commitment....
Four Ways CLOs Can Change Their Company’s Culture
Joseph Grenny shares how to change a company’s culture using the four critical competencies of a high performance cultural operating system....
Managing disruptive physician behavior through communication skills training
Four weeks after seventeen periOperative nurses participated in Crucial Conversations Training, they reported the ability to address disruptive physician behavior 71 percent of the time....
When in Doubt, Open Your Mouth
Joseph Grenny shares how to effectively speak up when facing moral dilemmas....
Communicator Awards
The Silent Treatment Study website was awarded the prestigious Silver Communicator Award in the Website category of the 2012 Communicator Awards....
7 Ways to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills
David Maxfield explains why being helpful is an important leadership skill....
Stand up and be promoted!
Joseph Grenny shares the importance of positive peer pressure to meet career goals....
Spiraling into financial failure? Your wealth-limiting habits are to blame
A new study from New York Times best-selling authors Joseph Grenny and Loral Langemeier shows that over the past five years, three out of five people have failed to meet their financial goals; despite this, 76 percent are doing little to change their spending and...
Not Meeting Your Money Goals? It Might Be Your Fault
According to a new study by Joseph Grenny, 76 percent of U.S. adults are doing little to change their financial behavior....
BOOK WORLD Bestsellers—April 1, 2012
Crucial Conversations was No. 8 on the nonfiction paperback bestseller list for April 1....
Telly Awards
VitalSmarts received one first-place silver award and one second-place bronze award from the 33rd Annual Telly Awards for outstanding videos....
Tread lightly when talking politics with co-workers
Joseph Grenny shares how to candidly and respectfully discuss politics at work....
Time to discuss a ‘Stephen King’ law
Joseph Grenny outlines how the attention given to and glorification of school shooters amplifies the violence....
USA TODAY Money best sellers
Crucial Conversations was No. 7 on the list of USA TODAY Money bestsellers for March 4....
Digging Employees Out of a Career Rut
Joseph Grenny and Chase McMillan share how managers can help employees overcome their career-limiting habits....
The List / Bestselling Business Books
The second edition of Crucial Conversations was No. 3 on the list of bestselling business books for February 28....
Surprising Lessons from 525 Life-Changing Moments
Joseph Grenny shares his research which reveals why crucial conversations succeed or fail....
Influencing Employee Motivation
Kerry Patterson shares how leaders can increase employee engagement....
Books: Business bestsellers
Crucial Conversations was No. 1 on the list of softcover business bestsellers for February 12....
12 effective habits of indispensable IT pros
David Maxfield shares the importance of positive social influence in altering career-limiting habits. (This article was picked up by 8 additional publications.)...