Message from the President & CEO
Update

In the January newsletter, I mentioned that my goal was to read 60 books this year. I am happy to report that I just finished #51. So with 4 months to go I am confident I will meet if not exceed my goal. A lot of what I read about is the brain. I have always found it to be a fascinating topic. This has led us at MCE to develop a Brain Based Leadership Model. It has also led to the following article. 
 
The Brain Based Leadership Model 

In our constant search for ways to grow, develop, and hone our leadership skills for better performance and to more effectively motivate and engage those on our teams, we, as leaders, can look to neuroscience to help us achieve these goals.

Neuroscience tells us that we might change the way we lead as a result of our brain as our brains are social organs focused on improving connection with others.

Let’s start by looking at what we know about the brain. 

Dr. Brynn Winegard, an award-winning professor, speaker, and expert in business and brain sciences  tells us the brain is the ‘controller’ of our thoughts and behaviours. The neurons (nerve cells) in our brain transmit electrical impulses telling us what to do and what to think and are always active. The average size of the brain is only three pounds (size of your fist), and 95% of our brain’s activities are hardwired. 

This suggests that almost all our decision making is done by the non-conscious brain.

Our brains are hardwired to do things on auto-pilot – to do things the way we have always done them. Therefore, it is hard to change, or to break habits. But it is also good because hardwiring keeps us safe. Imagine what our lives would be like if we had to think and decide about every little thing that happens. If our brains weren’t hardwired to tell us to not to touch a hot stove, we’d be spending a lot of time in emergency.

Wondering how all this applies to leadership? Click on this LINK to read the rest of the article. 



Audie McCarthy
President & CEO
What You Tell Us. Your Testimonial Stands Out!
We hired Mohawk College Enterprise (MCE) to help us with our human resources needs. Carrie Deon (MCE's HR Generalist) was extremely helpful, knowledgeable and efficient. She helped us develop performance management tools, updated our personnel policies and put together an entire recruitment package. We look forward to working with Carrie and MCE again.

~ Sara Gill, Executive Director, Adult Basic Education Association
Announcements
Dianne Jones is at the OMHRA Fall conference at the Deerhurst Resort today. If you're in the area, drop by and touch base with Dianne about our new course offerings and what we have on the go.

View the event program here.

Follow Dianne on Twitter @DianneJones_mce
It was a diverse group that under went Paper Planes training in August. Paper Planes, Inc. is an award winning simulation that focuses on teamwork, collaboration, organizational effectiveness, breaking down silos, engagement, and customer service. We'd love to talk about setting up your own simulation for your team. The results have been proven to improve team dynamics!

Some photos of the day can be seen here. 
On Tuesday, Sept 24th, Mohawk and Burlington EcDev are inviting Halton businesses to an exclusive event: Mohawk Innovation through Partnership: Accelerate Innovation And Growth. MCE will be participating so drop by to say hello to Audie & Leanna.

More on the event here.
HR Corner:
What Drives Employee Loyalty?
There is a clear connection between employee loyalty, retention, positive workplace culture, performance, profitability and most importantly, customer loyalty. The overall success of an organization is dependent upon general morale and a strong sense of loyalty. Without loyalty, your organization could be vulnerable. The question is, what drives employee loyalty and what could you be doing to achieve and maintain it? There are four areas to consider:

  1. Job Security: When employees feel secure in their job they are more likely to be invested in the organization. Job security gives employees a sense of trust and faith in an employer leading to a sense of commitment and dedication to an organization. This sense of commitment results in better retention and positive workplace culture.
  2. Compensation: By paying fair compensation, employees will feel more valued. One of the largest stressors people face is financial stress. Paying your employees a reasonable and fair salary will eliminate this stress that can creep into the workplace and negatively impact productivity. It also demonstrates to employees that you value their time, dedication and hard work.
  3. Growth Opportunities: Offer potential for employee development. By offering training, you are fostering loyalty. It is important to provide a well-defined career path not only for those moving into management but where conceivable, for all employees.
  4. Open Communication. By clearly communicating company goals and status, employees will feel more involved. Include them in decision making and let them know you value their input. When employees are aware of the bottom line they feel more invested in how the organization is doing and are more likely to go out of their way to make a difference.

Carrie Deon
Human Resources Generalist
Celebrating Our Trainers:
George Torok
George Torok didn't start out as a natural public speaker. George learned the principles and developed the techniques of Superior Presenters. That means he can more effectively help people develop their presentation skills because he follows and conveys a dependable system of effective communication.

As a result, George has been professionally speaking and training for over 20 years. He’s trained thousands of individuals and coached hundreds of executives. He has worked with people across many industries including the private, public and non-profit sectors. 

George will be facilitating Presentation Skills training as part of our Future Ready Leadership Program.
Course of the Month:
Big Data: The New Oil
Please join us for the final topic in our Digital Literacy Series. This time, we tackle Big Data. Big Data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.

Why Big Data?
We can expect machine learning Big Data to develop further in the near future. Combined with data analytics, expect it to create predictive models to forecast the future with an even higher level of accuracy.

Who Should Attend?
Decision makers in organizations and manufacturers that understand that the Big Data market is constantly expanding and that it’s important to get value out of the data that is collected.

Who is Presenting?
Attendees will have quality facetime with Dr. Steven Way, Program Coordinator in Analytics for Business Decision Making with Mohawk College. Dr. Way specializes in emergency management information systems, Internet technologies, business strategy, operations, systems design, communications media, project management, intellectual property, and leadership.

Also on site is an Executive Roundtable. You'll have a chance to speak with leading Big Data representatives from IBM, Microsoft & Newcomp Analytics. See all the latest technologies that you can adapt to your own business to manage your data.

For more info and to register, visit this link.
For more information about our programs, contact:
Lorraine MacDonald
905-575-2534
Mohawk College Enterprise | 905-575-2534 | info@mcecor.com | www.mcecor.com