OG Tuesday Issue #156

Start your morning with this affirmation:

Today’s checklist: Discover your communication style, learn about tax planning, open your heart, and get the buzz on Bare Minimum Mondays. 

Unlike your Style style, your communication style isn’t something you can glean from scanning your closet. Here’s a quick quiz to help you better define your communication vibe.

You’ve just returned from a 2-week vacation. What option below best describes what you do on your first day back to work? 

A) Ask your backup what you missed while you were out.
B) Hand out all the little souvenirs you got everyone, and also show off some of your favorite pictures.
C) Get going on the perfectly organized to-do list you made before you left.

You’re about to interview a potential new co-worker. What question below would you label as “the most important thing to ask?” 

A) Why should we hire you?
B) What are you most proud of?
C) How do you like to keep work organized?

During meetings, I sometimes find myself…

A) Asking a hard-hitting question or two.
B) Making jokes when things get tense or boring.
C) Sneaking a peek at my to-do list, and maybe getting a little head start on my next thing. It depends on the meeting.

You ask your work BFF to write you a LinkedIn recommendation. What strength do you imagine he’ll focus on? 

A) My visionary mindset
B) My optimism
C) My attention to detail

You want a raise and you know you deserve it. What do you do before you make your case? 

A) Go for a walk and listen to my favorite motivational song. I’m ready for this.
B) Schedule a long lunch with the boss and then figure out my top 3 talking points.
C) Analyze all the available performance and comparative compensation metrics. Twice.

Results 

If you picked mostly As…your communication style might be: Dominant

What does that mean? Per the DiSC profile framework, that means you like to get to the point quickly and stay there.

Your strength to embrace is your visionary ability to see the big picture. You always ask the right questions and consider the right details. You’re also good at helping those around you—those you lead—see what you see.

An area to work on is your hyper focus. While this is just your style, people who don’t share it may find it blunt. And while yes, that’s totally their problem, slightly softening certain communications could lead to better outcomes and relationships.

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If you picked mostly Bs…your communication style might be: Influencer

What does that mean? Per the DiSC profile framework, that means you know how to work a room. People love talking to you because you’re warm, cooperative, and upbeat.

Your strength to embrace is your ability to make others feel good. Your humor and optimism do more than just smooth things over socially. You have the power to uplift others who may tend to dwell on the negatives.

An area to work on is your comfort level with nitty gritty details. If you find your eyes glazing over when conversations move to specifics, you might consider taking notes (or asking someone else to). You can refer back to them later and process everything at your own speed.

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If you picked mostly Cs…your communication style might be: Conscientious

What does that mean? Per the DiSC profile framework, that means you’re thorough AF. You think about all the details, and you love doing it. You realize there’s no such thing as “perfect,” but your work is always, shall we say, pristine.

Your strength to embrace is your ability to see opportunities or flaws others miss. People come to you when they want to know what they overlooked. You tell them, and the end product is all the better for it.

An area to work on is handling feedback (read: criticism). As someone who holds themselves to high standards, you might take it a little hard when others point out what you overlooked, forgot, or even—it’s okay; breathe—got wrong. Mistakes aren’t usually the end of the world. Learn what you can from the experience, but also acknowledge that things just happen sometimes. Nobody’s perfect, and that’s okay.

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If you picked a mix of As, Bs, and Cs…your communication style might be: Steady

What does that mean? Per the DiSC profile framework, that means you’re often, whether you realize it or not, exuding an equalizing force on your colleagues. You thrive through collaboration, and when you’re around, others find they do too.

Your strength to embrace is your ability to bring the team together. You can see what completely escapes those around you. You know how to resolve conflicts and work better together. You’re the glue, and everyone knows it.

An area to work on is being honest when you have not-so-positive feedback. People know you look at both sides of every coin; they’ll also know that if you have some feedback, it’s well reasoned, constructive, and 100% fair. Don’t be afraid to share it.

🤔 Picture this:

You have to organize a baby or retirement gift and card from the whole team — including collecting money for the gift. Eeek!

Now you’ve got your coworkers’ money in your bank account, cash piling up on your desk and you’re glueing messages from the team on a card.

🛑 STOP! There’s a better way.

If you haven’t tried GroupTogether, you’ve got to get on board! We’re hearing rave reviews from The Assist readers just like you – from Disney, NYT, Yale and Amanda loved it for her sister’s birthday too.

It’s the easiest way to collect money for a gift and create a gorgeous group card all-in-one 😍.

Just share a link and everyone can chip in and sign the card online. Then choose from 150+ eGift Cards including Amazon, Target, and more, or give the AnyCard and let the recipient choose.

It’s ridiculously easy. And it’s FREE.

Finance guru Karla Dennis has a tip she thinks anyone looking to optimize their wealth-building strategy should know: Embrace tax planning.

“They proactively strategize all year long to manage their tax bill,” she says, discussing how wealthy people handle their finances. “They are thinking about their taxes in January, February, March, April, May, August, September, December; they’re thinking about their taxes during Thanksgiving.”

So what exactly is tax planning?
Tax planning is just proactively analyzing your finances and potential tax benefits with the goal of maximizing your breaks.

Compare this to: Waiting until the tax deadline and scrambling to get your taxes done and end the pain as soon as possible, potential breaks be damned.

Here are a few resources to help you get started with tax planning:

With the workplace evolving and changing at lightning speed, Bonusly executives, HR leaders, and Bonusly customers are gathering on September 21st, 2023 to understand what companies can do in this unique economic landscape to build a winning workplace:

💪 Strengthening businesses and engaging employees.

In this immersive event, you’ll learn:

Want to find a happy medium between the open window who wears her heart (and wipes her tears) on her sleeve and the chronically closed book wrapped in armor?

Here are some ways to open your heart:

Literally 
These poses stretch your chest, leaving you feeling lighter and more optimistic. 

Camel Pose >

Fish Pose > 

Eagle Pose >

Figuratively
These exercises help you open yourself up to giving and receiving more feelings of love and support.

Loving Kindness Meditation

Guided Meditation to Cultivate an Open Heart >

Practice Vulnerability—Opening Your Heart to Others

Adopting Bare-Minimum Mondays is a burnout prevention strategy that advocates easing into the week by doing only the absolute essentials on Mondays instead of packing them with meetings and deadlines. The trend, coined by TikToker Marisa Jo Mayes, has, by some accounts, been easier for employers to stomach than quiet quitting. Many see obvious benefits to helping employees reduce stress on the most notoriously dreaded day of the week.

Here’s a sampling of what experts, workers, and managers have to say about the trend:

Cheerleaders:

Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters, separate from your email inbox. Add your newsletters in seconds and declutter your inbox today!

Checking in with your team promotes a healthy work culture — here’s an icebreaker that can help with that.

Increase your impact before the meeting even begins with free custom meeting agenda templates.

monday.com is the project management software that powers the world’s top brands — try it free and see what the buzz is all about.

🤖 Get better at prompt engineering to produce the best results with ChatGPT.

💡 If you’re new to or currently using monday.com, here are some features you should be utilizing.

🔖 Catch up on all OG Tuesday newsletters here.

🏪 The Assist Store: Check out our Etsy Store or get our most popular templates for free here.

🚨 Job Openings

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