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Employee Engagement and Charity

Corporate America is rapidly being transformed by new rules of employee engagement and charity is the key. Benevolent leadership is the new gold standard and the ROI is astonishing.

Even before COVID-19, American companies—both large and small—recognized the benefits of corporate social responsibility and adjusted their business policies accordingly.

Wringing out the old

The head honcho. The big cheese. The kingpin.The traditional corporate hierarchy enforced a level of rulership that bordered on despotism. The company owner also owned the employees, who owed their allegiance to the boss. If this sounds like a gross exaggeration, just ask your parents or grandparents.

Workers enjoyed job security as long as they were content with the status quo. They were guaranteed a seat in the boat as long as they didn’t rock the boat. But today, thanks to a monumental generational shift, this “ship-of-state” is sinking like the Titanic.

In with the new generational style

Baby Boomers are retiring. Millennials are now accused of being “old school,” and the GenZers are called the “young whippersnappers.” This clash of generational and cultural values has turned the old management style on its head.

Young captains of industry are as committed to corporate social responsibility as they are to corporate profits. And they’re less territorial than their predecessors, too. Millennials and GenZers see as much value in stewardship—taking good care of other people’s things—as they do in ownership.

That’s because these whiz kids [aka upstarts] recognize that stewardship is more about serving the community than it is about being rich enough to have servants themselves. And they put their energy where their convictions are. Volunteerism and community service are literally lifestyles for millions of young executives and managers-in-training.

Seeking common ground

To turn adversaries into allies, you need one of two things: a common enemy or a common goal—either will inspire passion and unity. Baby Boomers, Millennials, and GenZers have one common goal: giving. They all welcome opportunities to give back. For some managerial types, philanthropy is simply good publicity. But increasingly, even the most profit-driven executives see that the return-on-investment or ROI is worth the effort. And Magnovo’s charitable team building events make that effort fun!

Employee engagement and charity

Mission-Military-Care-Child Is yours a military town? How many of your neighbors are deployed overseas? Our virtual Mission: Military Care Charitable Team Building Workshop provides care packages that some soldiers regard as “essential.” That’s because they’re often the only source of comfort and hygiene items. Novels, magazines, puzzle books, and even comic books.

Non-perishable snacks like cookies, candy, nuts, chips, and dried fruit. Travel-size lotions, chapstick, and sunscreen. Toothbrushes and toothpaste, razors, deodorant, and other toiletries. Stationery and pens. Shipped overseas, these simple gifts will make home feel closer for these courageous servicemen and women.

And stateside, there may be hundreds of veterans in your community with limited mobility. You could help them see the city sights and enjoy life more fully by providing something as simple as a wheelchair. We’re ready to work with you to make that happen through our virtual Wheelcharity Team Building Workshop.

Thousands of disabled veterans are homebound because they can’t get around. Going to the corner market, cruising at a safe distance through the park—these are simple things that most of us take for granted. With your help, these disabled patriots can, too.

These are just two of the many charitable team building events Magnovo provides to make meeting your corporate social responsibility fun and fulfilling. Each virtual session is educational and enlightening. As a result, you’ll learn and then practice new leadership techniques, and collaborative and communications skills. This will strengthen relationships among employees and make project teams stronger.

From the oldest to the youngest, giving back through charitable team building is what being a corporate professional is all about today. Employee engagement and charity: part of the modern business model.

Food Insecurity and Charitable Giving

Food insecurity and charitable giving. In our bountiful, first-world country, food deserts abound and millions starve. Appalling! Fortunately, through charitable giving you and your company can help give them their just desserts. Sweet!

Exactly what is “food insecurity?”

According to hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.”

Their report also explains that “it is important to know that though hunger and food insecurity are closely related, they are distinct concepts. Hunger refers to a personal, physical sensation of discomfort, while food insecurity refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level.”

And what is a “food desert?”

Most of us probably wouldn’t know one if we saw it because we don’t know what to look for. This phrase was first coined in 1995 by the Scottish Nutrition Task Force and sadly it is increasing in familiarity.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a food desert “…refers to a geographic area that lacks sufficient access to grocery stores, especially in low-income communities…….Food deserts exist in every American state, in all types of communities. It estimated that roughly 23 million people lived in 6 529 food-desert communities.”

The USDA says they are particularly prevalent in densely populated urban areas, as well at the opposite end of the spectrum, sparsely populated rural areas. In both cases there is a higher level of poverty and the most easily accessible nutrition is fast food.

Hunger and COVID-19

Initially for millions of students, no school also meant no food. Mercifully the USDA stepped up. They report: “To slow the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), many schools have closed unexpectedly. To ensure that children who rely on free or reduced-price meals at school are able to get the nutrition they need, USDA is working with states to continue providing meals to students. Usually, the rules require that children gather and eat their meals on site. However, due to the exceptional circumstances of this public health emergency and the need for social distancing, USDA was able to make temporary changes so that meals may be taken home, and parents or guardians may pick meals for their children if the state allows.”

How hunger affects the brain

Chronic hunger results in emotional, social, and cognitive developmental delays.

When you’re hungry you can’t learn because you can’t concentrate. You can’t study carefully or productively. Reading, language, and problem-solving skills don’t develop. Just ask any hungry child.

When you’re hungry you don’t get enough vitamins. Chronic hunger can result in poor eyesight, a lower IQ, and permanent brain damage.

According to fillingtummies.com “Each year, as a result of vitamin A deficiency, more than 2 million children experience severe eyesight issues and some are permanently blinded….In the first two years of life, 70% of the brain develops. If a child experiences significant malnourishment, hunger and stress during that time frame, it’s likely their brain will be permanently damaged.”

In addition to the damage hunger can do to the brain, for parents with hungry children, it also has an emotional and psychological impact.

Again, Feeding America reports: “The American Academy of Pediatrics revealed that mothers with school-aged children who face severe hunger are 56.2% more likely to have PTSD and 53.1% more likely to have severe depression. The inability to feed your loved ones can have traumatic effects on a person’s mental health.”

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, chronic hunger makes you more susceptible to raging diseases like the novel coronavirus.

Food insecurity and charitable giving

No doubt you’re feeling a ravenous hunger to help some of these poor starving people! Right? Well, you and your colleagues can become the cavalry that charges in and saves the day for many neighbors in your hometown!

Magnovo has a number of virtual charity workshops we’ll tailor to suit your tastes—pun intended. Your team can Donate a Dinner by dividing into small groups and competing for each item to be donated. The competition is not only friendly, it actually fosters closer bonds between coworkers who are working remotely.

Our virtual Puttin Pantry charity workshop combines the skills of miniature golf with team building exercises. At the end, the winners amass loads of canned fruits, veggies, non-perishables, bottled water, and juices to donate.

If you’d like to combine the two, our Charity Giving Stations will fit the bill perfectly. Your local food bank or other social service organization will undoubtedly thank you profusely for your donation and accommodate any special requests about how it is to be distributed.

With the holidays coming up, this would be a perfect way to bring cheer to some hungry families. Filling their bellies will surely warm your hearts and ours. Glad tidings to all!

Literacy: Why Reading is Still Fundamental

Our ability to navigate through daily life is dependent upon reading the written word. This is why reading is still fundamental—it’s literally a lifeline.

“If you can read this it means you’re too *#% close!” I used to love this bumper sticker because it was snarky but clever. It never occurred to me that many drivers sharing the roadways with me, can’t read it no matter how close they get!

Reading is fundamental

RIF is the largest non-profit organization devoted to children’s literacy. It was started in 1966 by Margaret McNamera, wife of United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. She launched it because she was alarmed to discover how many children didn’t have ready access to books.

I shared her alarm when I read the following in The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell: “…a third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and 42 percent of college graduates similarly never read a book after college.1 And publisher David Godine claims that only 32 percent of the U.S. population has ever been in a bookstore.”

It is estimated that 32 million adult Americans cannot read. Approximately 20 percent of high schools graduate students without their knowing how to read at the high school level. And then many of them head off to college.

According to the World Literacy Foundation, “Illiteracy, the inability to read or write, costs the global economy an estimated $1.19 trillion annually….”

Take a moment and Let. That. Sink. In.

Reading is our roadmap

Almost everything we do requires some level of reading proficiency.

Voting ballots. Prescription warnings. Ikea assembly instructions. Traffic signs. “No swimming” posts. Drivers manuals. Danger signs. Menus. Recipes. Food recall alerts. Movie marquees. Greeting cards. Twitter. Emails. Texts. Textbooks. Comic books. Blogs. Newspapers. Breaking news alerts. Magazines. Love letters. Business contracts. Foreign movie subtitles. Billboards. Basketball scores. NFL draft lists. Serena Williams’ Instagrams of love about her baby girl.

Imagine navigating through this world without being able to read your own drivers license! Or using landmarks as guideposts because you can’t read maps or street signs. Imagine faking your way through a job application. Imagine what you’d miss if you couldn’t “read “the world around you!

A sign of the times

Illiteracy marginalizes millions of people, leaving them on the fringes of mainstream society without basic life skills, technological literacy and computer access, or other survival tools. It has been directly linked to unemployment, poverty, chronic health issues, poor dietary habits, welfare dependency, social isolation, and crime.

In partnership with Book Bundlers, Magnovo’s Leveraging Literacy initiative is helping to change the world one book at a time and your company can help. How? By building a team among your staffers to give free books to kids, teens, and adults in your city. You’ll open a whole new world of discovery, adventure, and opportunity to them.

Through our virtual Mission: Kids Care Charity Workshop, you can transform the lives of your younger neighbors by supplying grade-specific books to supplement their classroom reading. Notebooks. Paper. Pens. Highlighters. Art supplies. Calculators. Rulers. Flash drives.

These and other school supplies often strain the budgets of low income families. And many families are suddenly dealing with layoffs, remote learning arrangements, and other major life changes. So they could definitely use the help. Your team’s support could make a tremendous difference in their quality of life and the quality of their children’s education.

If you can read, you are rich!

Increased potential for secondary and collegiate academic success. Dramatically increased employability. Relief from poverty. Reduced participation in criminal activity. Markedly improved health. Informed consumerism. More intentional eating habits. Better self care. Positive self-esteem. Active and enlightened political participation.

These are just a few of the benefits of reading proficiency. And your generosity can open the door to this exciting new lifestyle for families and their kids in your hometown.

Why Corporate Social Responsibility is So Important

CSR started out as a goodwill face-saver in the 1800s. Now it’s a profit-booster no successful business can survive without. Most communities now demand that businesses practice good corporate citizenship. That’s why corporate social responsibility is so important today.

Corporate social responsibility a brief history

It used to be called corporate” philanthropy” which made billionaires sound like they were going out of their way to do something they didn’t have to do. But surprisingly, some philanthropists gave from the heart.

In his manifesto, The Gospel of Wealth, industrialist Andrew Carnegie wrote: “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.”

This Scottish American steel magnate amassed more than $370 billion in today’s currency and purportedly donated $65 billion of his fortune to universities, foundations, and other charities.

Carnegie’s convictions were simple but profound: “There is no class as pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.”……. “I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.

Kindness is contagious

Inspired by Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, donated half-a-billion dollars of the fortune he made as an oil baron. Clearly, he put his money where his convictions were. He famously declared, “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.” The generosity of these captains of industry is legendary and has made them great American heroes in the eyes of millions.

But yesterday’s voluntary corporate philanthropy is a mandate today. Hence the name corporate social responsibility, the responsibility being to both the company and the community because they are no longer regarded as wholly separate entities. They’re both considered stakeholders.

According to the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals, in the 1900s a Cleveland banker established the country’s community-centric foundation. But it wasn’t until right before the second World War that the notion of CSR started to gain traction in the US.

American economist Howard Bowen is regarded as the father of CSR. Published in 1953, his book the Social Responsibilities of the Businessman said this: “CSR can help business reach the goals of social justice and economic prosperity by creating welfare for a broad range of social groups, beyond the corporations and their shareholders….corporations not only produce “good and services” but also “workplace conditions,” and highlights the economic rationality of investing in social responsibility to enhance the well-being of employees.”

Redemption matters

Over the past two decades, business scandals, scams, and schemes have left a bad taste in the public’s mouths. Today evidence of a solid philanthropic protocol can add to a company’s legitimacy. It sends a message that the company is not only viable, but thriving. And it demonstrates that the business is an integral part of the community. Important reasons why corporate social responsibility is so important today.

CSR is a “check” magnet

Pardon the clumsy pun, but it’s true. Customers are eager to write checks and clients are more willing to sign contracts with businesses that understand their responsibility to the wider community. According to a study noted by cybergrants.com, “….90% of the over 10,000 consumers surveyed said they would switch to brands that supported responsible causes, and 84% bought responsible products when available. 71% of those surveyed said they would pay more for socially responsible goods and services, and 81% said they’d curtail wasteful spending if it would have a positive impact on environmental and social issues.”

CSR and team building

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie said “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results….”

Another reason why corporate social responsibility is so important today is employee engagement. It’s no secret that Millennial employees are CSR advocates. What may be surprising though is that in a multigenerational office, charitable giving is the one common vision everyone shares.

Company loyalty is stronger among employees who work for community-minded businesses. And charitable giving provides an outlet for personal passions and convictions beyond zeal for a fat paycheck. This is the stuff of which dream teams are made.

Equally important, managers sense an uptick in morale when their team building activities involve charitable donations. Besides, there are so many wonderful causes and equally wonderful people in need of help!

Bicycles for kids from low income families. Wheelchairs for homebound disabled veterans. Pet care supplies for cash-strapped animal lovers. School supplies for online students. Hospital care packages for the suffering. Military care packages for homesick soldiers overseas. These are just a few more reasons why corporate social responsibility is so important.

CSR and How to Leverage Kindness

How to leverage kindness: be proactive

You got to give the people, now

Give the people what they want

This sentiment expressed by 1970s superstars The O’Jays, still rings true today. But you’ve got to know what the people want in order to give it to them, right? Well here ya go!

According to multiple surveys tracked and aggregated by Engageforgood.com this is what the people want: Team Building for Pharma Professionals

Working for a company with a strong purpose is more important to employees (88%) now than ever before.
68% of respondents said they wanted brands to donate to programs that provide direct support for medical workers.
89% of consumers say they want brands to shift money and resources to produce products that help people meet pandemic-related challenges.
67% of young people want brands to keep them informed on how they’re supporting employees and the broader team.

And finally there’s this little eye-opener:

Nearly 75% of respondents report an increase in leaderships’ CSR expectations or demands due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 has rewritten the CSR script. Corporate social responsibility is now on the hearts and minds of every executive around the globe. It’s not just “good for business;” it is a vital part of every successful business.

For reinforcement, allow me to quote Jacob Marley, my least favorite character in my favorite Charles Dickens’ book, A Christmas Carol. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business.”

How to leverage kindness: employee engagement

According to Inc.com, “One way to engage employees to participate is to align the company’s donation choices with causes that have the greatest meaning to your workforce.”

Your Millennial staffers may not have any kids yet, but you can bet they’ve got a pet. No doubt they’d jump at the chance to help a puppy or kitten find a forever home. And that’s where our virtual Happy Tails Charity Team Building Workshop comes in. Your staff and Magnovo’s facilitators will help a family longing for a pet take that big step when you donate a starter kit.

Food, food dishes, water bowls, scratching posts, blankets, leashes, flea collars, bedding, toys—pet paraphernalia is pricey. In fact some prospective pet parents who are ready to make the emotional commitment simply can’t afford the financial commitment. Your team can spend an afternoon getting to know each other better while prepping a batch of goodies for a cuddly fur-baby and their new owner.

Of course, the doting parents among your staff may have another passion—kids. With our Mission: Kids Care Charity Team Building Workshop these impassioned parents can chip in and help some other moms and dads. Because although most children are attending school remotely thanks to the pandemic, they still need school supplies.

Many parents around the country are retro-fitting bedrooms and spare rooms into classrooms for online learning. And they want to provide all the school trappings. Decorative bulletin boards, cheerful posters, art supplies, along with the basics: pens, paper, calculators, notebooks, highlighters, and staplers.

During our virtual workshop your team will “compete” for items to donate to a family in your hometown who could really use the support. And as for that competition, well, it’s really just a fun exercise to help your team grow closer while they’re working apart.

How to leverage kindness: make it personal

According to an article by moneycrashers.com, “A study by a University of Oregon professor and his colleagues demonstrates that charitable contributions create a response in the brain that mimics one activated by drugs and other stimuli.”

Charitable giving can lower your blood pressure, improve your cognitive functions, and vastly improve your coping skills. And for Baby Boomers it can even improve joint health, and increase stamina making it’s easier to walk briskly or climb stairs. Positive proof that it really is better—physically, emotionally, and psychologically—to give than to receive.

Kindness is soul food

From Inc.com: “According to a 2016 Deloitte study on volunteering, millennials were “twice as likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive” if their company participated in workplace volunteer activities. Employees respect companies that care for their community—it simply makes employees feel good, and increases the emotional attachment to their employer.”

Charitable giving empowers you. There’s so much going on in the world over which you have absolutely no control. This one act testifies that you can make a big difference in your community by making a small difference in just one person’s life. That’s how to leverage kindness!

DiSC and Race in the Workplace

Race in the workplace can mean one of two things: vibrant diversity and inclusion or volatile discrimination and division. Which one describes your company?

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, “A majority of Americans (57%) say the fact that the U.S. population is made up of people of many different races and ethnicities is a very good thing for the country….”

That’s encouraging, but how does that play out in their daily lives? For instance, diversity is defined per Google, as “understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.”

For some people these distinctions provide lots of reasons for inclusion. For others, each dimension or category is a legitimate excuse for exclusion and division.

The race to erase race

Race. People are tired of the subject and want it to just go away….but it won’t and can’t until facing and dealing with this issue is normalized, that is, a part of business as usual. Just like eating an elephant—one bite at a time…until it’s gone.

An article in the online magazine Forbes the Culture recommends that companies create “a mandatory safe space (a meeting or forum) for the purpose of acknowledging any and all toxic workplace culture or experiences of discrimination.”

In such a setting employees need to feel safe, because being honest—earnestly or brutally—is a risky proposition. A facilitator should provide that sense of safety and an HR rep should be present to monitor and take notes. And the article also recommends that sensitivity training sessions should be made available as well to those who recognize the need for them and are willing to participate.

What’s equally important is that neither the mandatory forums nor the sensitivity sessions should be conducted in response to specific events. They should be an ongoing part of the corporate culture—the norm, rather than the exception.

Race in the workplace and intentionality

Healthy corporate culture doesn’t just happen, any more than weight loss or other self-improvement initiatives. It requires intentionality and commitment.

And it’s true that you can’t legislate morality, but you can teach it. And it’s worth the effort if it makes your employees better professionally and personally. But teaching works best when you understand your pupils and unfortunately the daily work grind affords little time to know people beyond the context of deadlines and quotas.

DiSC personality profile training is the most powerful tool you should have in your team building arsenal. It’s a bit ironic to refer to an arsenal here because DiSC can diffuse hostilities, conflicts, and other forms of workplace warfare.

DiSC stands for Dominant, Influential, Supportive or Steadfast, and Conscientious. Like the 4 basic food groups on the old-school nutritional chart, these are the 4 basic personality types. Training about each of these personalities—their quirks, weaknesses, and strengths—can help to increase understanding and acceptance among colleagues.

DiSC is safe and non-threatening because it takes a “neutral” position about even the most difficult personalities. Because it’s non-judgmental, participants don’t feel vulnerable or defensive, even when they see their weaknesses and flaws more clearly. DiSC training not only reveals these traits, it teaches people how to improve their interpersonal skills.

Skillful use of the information and insights gleaned from DiSC profiles can make race in the workplace a non-issue. DiSC can help coworkers see that behaviors and communication styles that are different aren’t necessarily bad. They’re just different and certainly none is based on skin color.

It can teach coworkers an important lesson that most traditional schools skipped: the art of being humane human beings. Imagine being flawed, yet accepted and valued just as you are—wisdom, warts, and all. That’s the power of DiSC.

Holiday Charity and Team Building in a Pandemic

It’s beginning to look a lot like—uh, never mind.

Office parties, festive decorations, holiday charity and team bonding in a pandemic? No doubt, this holiday season will be unlike any we’ve ever imagined. But don’t let that stop you from embracing the holiday spirit. Make your corporate gift-giving really count this year through charitable team building.

A traditional office party may not be practical right now, but you can create some new traditions that will keep your staff safe and boost their morale at the same time.

Magnovo’s virtual team building events for charity include icebreakers, and clever games between small groups or teams. And the grand prize is a gift you give someone else. Someone in your own community who really needs support, kindness, and a bit of financial help.

Support small businesses

There are 30 million small businesses in America and they represent 99 percent of all businesses in America! That’s right! And millions of these “mom-and-pop” operations are fighting to stay afloat right now. Magnovo can help you support some of your local entrepreneurs. During our holiday charity workshops, you’ll need tools, toys, decorations, food, and other materials to create your donations. We’ll make sure all of these items come from local vendors.

Food for thoughtfulness

For instance, you and your team could Donate a Dinner, in fact several dinners to some of the first responders in your city. Paramedics, police officers, and health care providers—their heroism during this pandemic has become legendary across the nation.

You can say ‘thank you’ with a feast of some of their favorite foods along with greeting cards of appreciation and kindness. And by coordinating the menus with several local restaurateurs, you’ll spread holiday cheer in a tangible way.

Start the holidays on a roll

Lost jobs. Foreclosures. Overdue rents. Excessive medical bills. For many families in your area, this holiday will be pretty lean.Your company can make sure their kids don’t suffer by giving them a brand new set of wheels. During our virtual Bike-A-Thon Charitable Workshop you’ll assemble bikes for local youngsters to discover under the tree. And once again, we’ll coordinate the purchase of the bike parts and tools from a small business in your community.

Magnovo’s virtual Wagon Builders Charitable Workshop is another opportunity to get things rolling for a needy family in your town. Purchased from local vendors, you’ll assemble and donate wagons full of gifts, and good wishes to some enthusiastic children. But, actually, these classic little red wagons aren’t just for little kids anymore. They’re great for gathering leaves, kindling, pine cones, ferrying garden supplies, and other big kid fun.

Each workshop teaches teammates how to collaborate remotely and to communicate more clearly. Collaboration and communication are at the heart of team bonding. And with the help of a social service organization like the Boys and Girls Club of America, we’ll make sure that your bikes or wagons are delivered to grateful families.

Gifts that keep on giving

During a recent survey reported by Human Resource Executive, 70 percent of workers reported experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression. Approximately 60 percent of respondents reported productivity loss of one hour a day; 32 percent reported a 2-hour loss each day. As productivity decreases, the strain on businesses increases. It’s not just about the bottom line any more. The emotional well-being of millions of employees is at stake.

Virtual charitable workshops are tremendously therapeutic! And despite their virtual context, they bring colleagues together in unexpected ways. A few hours of freedom from worrying about quotas, deadlines, homeschooling, health insurance, bill paying—a break from worrying about anything—is something everyone needs right now.

Focusing on someone else’s needs is also a great way to put your own concerns into perspective. And so many people have needs to which we can each respond even if only in small ways. Kindness affirms our humanity.

Holiday charity and team bonding—the gift that keeps on giving.

CSR and Social Distancing

Can you fulfill your corporate social responsibility and maintain social distancing? Yes, by working together apart. CSR and social distancing—it’s a thing. And that’s good news for your company and millions of essential workers around the country.

When most of us think of essential workers, health care providers, grocery and drugstore personnel, and child care providers spring to mind. But the truth is that’s not even a fraction of the number of champions keeping us afloat.

There are nearly 60 million Americans who wake up every day and provide essential services without which our country would sink.

They include farm workers, and warehouse workers. Communications and IT personnel [without whom you wouldn’t be able to read this article]. Electricians, plumbers, and HVAC technicians. Long-haul truck drivers. Delivery drivers. Taxicab drivers. Maritime pilots. Gas and electric utility workers. Petroleum and fuel production workers.

CSR and social distancing: virtual kindness

These people show up for you every day. Now it’s your turn to pay it forward. And you can fulfill your responsibility to be a good corporate neighbor without risking your health. How? Through virtual charitable team building workshops. You can maintain a safe distance and still close the financial gap for some essential service providers.

Be a buddy and give a buddy

First responders have never been more challenged or more heroic than they are right now. They are bombarded with heartaches and hardships every day that most of us cannot even imagine. One way your team can help is to donate gifts that will heal their hearts along with the hearts of some emotionally distraught children.

Rescue Buddies are stuffed animals given to children who are reeling from shock after a house fire, domestic violence, auto accident, or family death. Firefighters, health care providers, social workers, and police officers are often the first people these kids encounter after a life-altering event. These first responders carry Rescue Buddies with them to give these frightened babes something to cling to when their little world is falling apart.

During a Rescue Buddies Charitable Team Building Workshop you and your staff will literally stuff and assemble these huggable toys. You’ll tag each one with a birth certificate; and you can add loving notes of encouragement as well. Then your cuddly bird, bear, fish, or moose is tenderly stored in a brightly colored backpack and stashed away in a squad car or fire truck until they’re needed.

With Magnovo as a liaison, you can also partner with a social service organization to add age-appropriate books to your stash of donations. Imagine a child clutching your adorable little bear while reading an amazing book you provided.

These are gifts that you, the first responder, the child, and their parents will never forget. Tragedies can be life-defining events, but your kindness can help rewrite this milestone in a child’s memory forever.

Make caring your mission

Because essential workers are just that, they can’t make the adjustments to their schedules that many of us can. So they need additional support right now for their children .

This new school year is especially challenging because so many children are studying remotely. Here’s where you come in. During a Mission: Kids Care Charitable Team Building Workshop your staff can pool your resources remotely to donate much-needed school supplies to the children of essential workers in your town.

Naturally the list of basic school supplies—including paper, pens, pencils, notebooks, calculators, and rulers—is still the order of the day. But now, so are computers, software, and other digital technology some families cannot afford.

And the home-school model has made the learning curve a steep one for a lot of parents. For example, in a home-based classroom, the decor should inspire children to learn even though they’re still at home. But posters, bulletin boards, pencil sharpeners, maps, world-globes, and art supplies, aren’t typically on parents’ shopping lists.

Your company can make this strange, exciting new territory easier to navigate by donating many of the supplies these essential working parents cannot purchase.

With Magnovo’s help, CSR and social distancing can work to boost the morale of your staff and increase your goodwill in the community.

Getting to Know You With DiSC

Social distancing versus team building. How can CEOs make this work? Personality profile training! Yup, getting to know you with DiSC makes it a breeze.

Getting to know who?

Getting to know you

Getting to know all about you

Getting to like you

Getting to hope you like me

These famous lyrics are from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I.” Nearly 70 years later, they speak volumes about life in corporate America today. That’s because so many of us are working remotely that getting to know each other is more of a challenge than ever.

Does this sound familiar?

The online meeting ended 5 minutes ago, but you’re still staring at your computer screen, your mouth agape. “What is WRONG with this guy?” That’s the question you and a number of your colleagues are stuck on. “This guy” is brilliant at brainstorming and is full of phenomenal ideas! But he’s also full of himself!

Getting total buy-in to his ideas is rarely a problem. They’re usually thoroughly researched and applicable. What’s more, they get results! But even upper management finds his personality hard to swallow.

For instance, during brainstorming sessions, he’s the star of the show because nobody else can get a word in edgewise! Nobody else’s brain matters to him. So the quiet after his brainstorm is actually a silence full of vexation and irritation from his teammates. Thank goodness he can’t hear what they’re thinking!

Getting to know you with DiSC

But maybe he should hear their thoughts. In fact, maybe everybody should, but how? Human emotions are fragile. Like any delicate procedure, exploring the human personality requires deft handling, skill, precision, and a strong sense of security.

Magnovo’s DiSC personality profile training is the safest and most productive setting in which your team can search for answers to each other’s idiosyncrasies without violating or damaging each other’s hearts.

DiSC stands for Dominant, Influential, Supportive or Steadfast, and Conscientious. These 4 fundamental personality types are what we’re all made of emotionally and psychologically.

Getting to know all about you

So “this guy” whom everyone applauds for his ingenuity and scorns for his arrogance, might be your textbook Dominant. He eats and and sleeps for the thrill of competition and winning is his only motivation. He savors challenges and his enthusiasm can be infectious, which is why buying into his ideas is usually not that difficult.

Getting to like you

What is difficult, though, is tolerating his impatience with those who don’t think or act as quickly as he does. Interestingly, what others may see as arrogance may actually be an emotional mask. More often than not, every hero has a chink in their armor. DiSC can help you understand what’s lurking behind that armor.

For instance: Dominant personalities hate being wrong! It makes them feel weak, out of control. For “this guy,” the D stands for ‘defensive’ as well as Dominant. Could it be that Mister-Know-It-All is feeling vulnerable? Once you understand that these personality types don’t mean to do harm, it may become easier not to feel so deeply wounded.

Getting to hope you like me

Now if you are “this guy,” DiSC can make you more aware of your behavior and how it impacts others—for good or ill. Don’t be defensive! No one is suggesting that you need a complete makeover! You can still be you! The goal is to make you a more valued member of the team instead of flying solo. How about opening your mind to some interpersonal skills training? The DiSC learning curve is not steep and the sessions are painless and easy.

Getting to know you

Getting to feel free and easy

When I am with you

Getting to know what to say

Getting to know DiSC

Feeling free and easy and knowing what to say, how to say it, and to whom. That’s what DiSC can do for you. Mastering the insights and communications skills Magnovo’s training provides will make all the difference to your corporate culture. And it will restore the joy and delight of both the song lyrics and their sentiments to your team.

How To Use Your Emotional Quotient With DiSC

As an executive during this pandemic, knowing how to use your emotional quotient or EQ can be one of your most important leadership tools.

Leadership and loss

The great exodus from company cubicles to home offices was also a stampede from things we now miss more than ever:

Hugs. High-fives. Malls. Play dates. Adult dates. Restaurants. Happy hour. Proms. Graduations. Sleep. Personal space. Distant loved ones. Friendly faces! [Who can tell what’s behind a mask?] Freedom.

Online meetings, social media, and smartphones can’t fill the gap left by lack of personal interaction. Millions of workers—on every rung of the corporate ladder—are suffering a deep sense of loss and are struggling to work in spite of it. There’s no time to grieve and little time to reflect because there are too many irons in the fire; too many fires to put out.

Leadership one-on-one

As a leader, your challenge—one of many—is to keep things together when everyone and everything seems to be falling apart. And the first major change to your management style is individualizing it. You’ll have to gauge how to use your emotional quotient with each employee. One-size-fits-all management won’t work right now—perhaps it’s gone forever.

A few of your employees may be longing for the old normal. Some are waiting for the new normal to settle down, so they can take a deep breath and start fresh. Some recognize that the new normal is already here, but they don’t quite know what to do with it.

Leadership, EQ, and self-awareness

Your emotional intelligence of EQ regarding others actually starts with you. For instance, your EQ will shape how you communicate, and what you communicate. And that all depends on how you’re coping yourself. Your ability to empathize with an anxious employee will hinge on how you’re managing your own emotions.

Openness, transparency, and compassion—they certainly didn’t cover these virtues in your MBA program, right? Yet these non-traditional, un-businesslike concepts may have to become part of your new management normal. For some executives this is a very scary prospect. Sliding down the corporate ladder and away from professional autonomy? What a dreadful picture!

How about you? How aware are you of your own thoughts, feelings, and behavioral patterns and how they impact others? And how comfortable are you about being sensitive to a worker’s emotional needs without feeling that your authority is being undermined?

Do you know how to pick up on emotional cues from others without being judgmental? As work demands ebb and flow, your demands on your team must reflect these unpredictable shifts. Are you ready to adapt to the changes in relationships with members of your core team?

Leadership, EQ, and mental health

Some 60 million essential American workers are putting in longer hours on-site. They live in constant fear of contracting the virus or transmitting it to their loved ones. This is straining their childcare arrangements, their budgets, their marriages, and their emotional stability.

Millions of remote workers feel isolated, depressed, and stressed, because they, too, worry about contracting this dreaded disease. On-site and at home, employees from coast to coast are exhibiting an increase in mental illness which is resulting in a decrease in productivity.

Leadership, EQ, and DiSC

Employees are emotionally and psychologically fragile. Many remote workers don’t know how to establish a work-life balance when home and work are in the same place. Full of anxiety, both remote and essential on-site workers have questions about the future of their health and their jobs. They need leaders with answers.

Now is the time to learn how to use your emotional quotient in order to become a more dynamic leader. And there’s no more essential or dynamic tool than DiSC personality profile training to teach you how to use your EQ.

Each of us exhibits Dominant, Influential, Supportive, or Conscientious [DiSC] personality types that shape the way we interact with people. DiSC can help you understand where each staffer’s head is and help them adapt to the changing demands at work and regain stability at home.

For example, some staffers may need more time to shift gears and mindsets about new policies, procedures, and programs. Subconsciously they may drag their feet longing to return to life before COVID. Unintentionally, they may hang on to the old normal waiting for it to return. With insights learned from DiSC training, you can better understand their reluctance and help them make this transition without making them feel guilty or anxious.

DiSC personality profile training will dramatically increase your EQ and your credibility with your staff. When they need understanding the most, you’ll be able to provide it, along with the assurances they’ll need in order to move the company forward.

Firm, steady, and compassionate leadership. DiSC.

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