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Explain Yourself - The Elaura Blog

  • 5 practical activities to engage your expresso data

    These methods are just a few examples of practical ways you can engage with your expresso data... find something that works for you - or mix it up and do a bit of everything!

  • Transforming your everyday relationships... Part 3

    Our socialised behaviour is very useful to us at times but it’s not the whole picture of who we are...

  • Far out: seeing in monochrome

    There can be great strength in being very strongly one colour on the Grid, but there can also be dangers when it comes to interacting and working with people who are very different from us...

  • Get a grip: the value in stopping

    Sometimes you just have to do the thing that seems crazy and impossible in the midst of pressure, and stop long enough to get a grip on what really matters...

  • The Birkman Method: What do you want to get out of this process?

    Whether you started this process with a ‘because-I-have-to’ or a ‘because-I-want-to’ outlook, it’s not too late to make the decision to get the most out of this experience that you possibly can...

  • Transforming your everyday relationships... Part 2

    Look at Usual Styles across the Map and you can see why people behave very differently. They are generally not being awkward or difficult, just different in their approach to things...

  • Being an Assertive Blue

    What’s a far corner, introverted Blue Usual like me, doing with such a top-of-the-grid, extroverted Assertiveness score...?

  • Transforming your everyday relationships with the Birkman Map

    This 4 quadrant framework in effect provides a map for all people, and gives clues about connecting with others, even those whose Map / Grid you don’t have access to...

  • Slowing Down to Go Faster

    By consciously slowing things down a little, a leader might avoid situations where things have been slowed down - unexpectedly - a great deal...

  • Leverage your motivators for a successful year ahead

    One way you can use your expresso data to keep you on track and energised, is to leverage your intrinsic motivators by making use of both Your Interests & Focus...

  • How's your bandwidth? (Part 3)

    We've got this far without mentioning Stress, but if your Stress score is different from your Need score, we need to take that into account as well...

  • How's your bandwidth? (Part 2)

    I talked previously about how you can measure your own bandwidth using the Grid. This time we are going to take this idea a little further...

  • How's your bandwidth?

    Grab your Birkman Report and turn to the Map / Grid, because here is a simple and yet profound source of insight...

  • Sit me with the sales team...

    There is no predictable correlation between what you want to be involved in and what you need from the people around you...

  • Self-development with expresso

    Here's some suggestions, if you really want to see the longer term benefits of utilising your expresso data...

  • Plan your time off around your Interest scores

    How do three high Artistic people - with a good dose of high Outdoor, high Scientific and high Mechanical - spend their holiday together?

  • Did you tick everything off?

    Now as 2018 begins to draw to a close I’ve started looking back over my own year, and asking myself whether I achieved all the things I had hoped to...

  • How do we change?

    How do we reconcile these two aspects; what’s the value of knowing that core personality when we are making efforts to change our behaviour?...

  • Reading People

    Whether you are the subject, or you are helping the subject, those two questions are critical...

  • Ideas for better group sessions using expresso

    Here's some ideas to help you get the most out of any group session around expresso - whether you're making use of a discussion guide or simply 'winging it'...

  • 2 keys to Talent

    Something that deeply impacts both employers and employees is low expectation...

  • Making ‘future proof’ career choices

    How do you prepare and plan, when at any time the job you thought you were preparing for, looks like it may no longer exist...

  • Stop hiring to the Strategy

    In a Business, Strategy often has to change at very short notice. While Mission - what the business is here for - doesn’t change, except on a multi-decade timescale...

  • The expresso platform: My Headlines

    It's easy to overlook, but the 'My Headlines' page of the expresso platform is a really great resource - especially if you're just looking for a quick reminder...

  • What 'data language' do you speak?

    Learning to receive and consider data across the whole factual-emotional spectrum is very valuable...

  • Owning your weaknesses

    When we stop viewing 'weaknesses' as our potential downfall, we can leverage that knowledge to direct our focus and energy more effectively...

  • Focus: your preferred approach

    We often talk about Focus in terms of 'the specific tasks you want to spend your time doing' but it could also be described in terms of 'your preferred approach in any given situation'...

  • Just how Sociable are you - really?

    We're all pretty good at working out how sociable someone else is; or at least we think we are...

  • I can help you understand me better

    How do we navigate our way through the complexity of human behaviour and differences and make sense of what we experience?...

  • Future-proofing your career

    I've been looking at some data and research in the past couple of weeks, which underlines some (almost) obvious points about the shape of work in the future...

  • On the line: the Interests scale

    Each of your Interest scores are presented as a number between 1 and 99, 1 being a really low score and 99 a really high score...

  • How can I use Birkman data to do a better job of managing my team(s)?

    Here’s 3 practical ways a manager can use Birkman...