After over a decade of successfully offering customized seminars and workshops to groups and in face-to-face programs, Life Strategies is pleased to be able to offer personal and professional development in our flexible, facilitated e-learning format. Workshops and brief courses generally run online over a one week period while groups generally meet online weekly over a period of two months. In the week-long courses, students are expected to participate in daily topical discussion forums, complete relevant readings, and in most cases, submit very practical assignments to demonstrate their learning. In personal and professional development groups, participants are expected to be available once per week, within a scheduled window of time. Participants are also expected to complete individual activities (homework) in preparation for the weekly topical discussion forums.
Just as they’ve done in every other life stage, baby boomers are changing the face of retirement. Although many embrace early retirement opportunities, others continue working until forced out. Most expect to live many healthy years post-retirement and feel strongly that they still have much to contribute. In this workshop, explore challenges in creating retirement lifestyles that will be satisfying without being overwhelming and “too much like work.”
Many workers expect to continue to work post-retirement. “Consulting” has become the catch-all phrase that describes the services they propose to offer. This workshop will share stories from clients and colleagues who have successfully embarked on consulting careers and also those who abandoned those dreams. Leave with practical tips and strategies to help you assess potential for consulting success and prepare for a post-retirement career as a consultant.
Self-employment has risen steadily in Canada for over two decades, resulting in many home-based businesses. New technology allows many Canadian employees to tele-commute. Working from home, however, is not without challenges. This interactive workshop explores such issues as setting up home offices, managing time effectively, staying focused and productive, and blending work with family.
For professionals in dual career families, juggling work and home responsibilities has never been easy. Research by Life Strategies revealed the struggles and sacrifices made by couples as they try to balance career, family, and personal satisfaction. The cost of this juggling is high – families suffer and sleep deprivation literature tells us that drowsy driving leads to serious accidents. This workshop will explore the challenges of dual career families as well as opportunities for making it work.
Are you scrambling to get everything done? Does your family barely recognize you, they see you so seldom? This workshop will help you reflect on what work-life balance means to you and introduce strategies for restoring balance – making choices to reassert control in some arenas of life and letting go in others. Learn about links between wellness, balance, and career success. Leave with a plan for recapturing that elusive work-life balance.
Personality Dimensions® builds on the foundations for understanding temperament or personality preferences established by the work of David Keirsey, Linda Berens, and Don Lowry, and a history of temperament theories that span 25 centuries. Personality Dimensions® facilitates an understanding and appreciation of individual differences, by providing interactive opportunities for workshop participants to openly discuss their needs, expectations, and potential challenges. This tool is particularly useful for enhancing communication, resolving conflict, and understanding how stressors differ for people with diverse personal styles.
Personality Dimensions® workshops are inspirational, interactive, and a lot of fun! Besides our publicly scheduled sessions, you might like to organize a workshop for a group of friends or family (perhaps at a Christmas party or family reunion?), a sports team, a church group, or a community organization. Our team of Personality Dimensions® trainers is happy to customize a themed workshop for your group. Our most requested topics include:
Team Building
Appreciating team-mates’ needs and preferences
Clarifying the contributions each colour brings to a team
That Elusive Life-Work Balance
Identifying how each of the four styles perceives balance
Learning strategies and techniques to ensure a level of balance that is personally “just right”
Career Building
Identifying individual personality styles and potential careers that “fit”
Clarifying work-related motivators and essential elements of preferred work environments
Parenting 101
Identifying individual parenting styles and challenges of parents with different preferred styles
Understanding communication challenges when children have different personality styles than their parents
Learning Styles and Strategies
Identifying individual learning styles and the impact on learning success
Clarifying the role of parents, as tutors, and the impact of diverse learning styles
Do you need to master the American Psychological Association (APA) style for your academic or professional writing? Nobody is born knowing APA style – and getting used to it can be one of life’s bigger challenges! Join the Life Strategies team for a brief course that highlights the most common APA errors and provides tips for avoiding them. As a published author, university instructor, editor, and thesis supervisor, Dr. Roberta Neault has spent countless hours editing papers to conform to APA. This e-workshop shares lessons learned and a comprehensive checklist of the most common APA errors made by her students and colleagues.
Whether responding to a Requests for Proposal (RFP) or proposing creative new services, career practitioners, consultants, coaches, and human resource professionals are often called upon to participate in the submission of proposals. This e-workshop will introduce participants to the most common sources of proposal requests, and equip them to analyze the needs/requirements of funders and potential clients and respond quickly with complete, concise, and compelling proposals.
In today’s complex economy, many workers are self employed, working for small businesses or working on short-term contracts/projects. Learning to think like an entrepreneur, and to leverage strategic partnerships to achieve employment success, are skills that all workers can benefit from. This e-workshop will equip participants to assess self-employment readiness and explore opportunities for creating meaningful work.
Many career practitioners, counsellors, coaches, and other professionals consider setting up a private practice (even if only on a part-time basis to supplement earnings and enrich their work experience). Self-employment can maximize flexibility, offer opportunities to work with diverse clients, and minimize reliance on external funders. This e-workshop will introduce essential considerations in setting up a private practice and explore the pros and cons of self-employment.
This e-workshop will present methods of budget creation and tracking for financial management of small businesses and contracts/projects. Participants will learn about tracking income and expenses, managing payables and receivables, and tax implications for the self-employed. Business plans, their importance, and what banks will be looking for in considering financing, will also be discussed.
Career Management e-Seminars generally run online over a one week period. Students are expected to participate in daily topical discussion forums, complete relevant readings, and in most cases, submit very practical assignments to demonstrate their learning. Any of the topics listed on this page could also be delivered face-to-face.
A Time to Reflect
Discover tips and tools to facilitate taking a comprehensive look at both internal and external influences on career success and job satisfaction. Topics include personal characteristics, contextual influences, and skills most sought after by employers.
A Time to Explore
Explore changes in the workplace and learn to research economic trends, investigate new ways of working, uncover career possibilities, and examine corporate culture.
A Time to Choose
This e-seminar will help you to identify specific career goals and then develop and implement a plan to achieve them. Topics include goal-setting, decision-making, prioritizing, and managing expectations.
A Time to Prepare
This e-seminar will provide tips and strategies for building a toolkit of job search resources. Topics include developing career portfolios; writing compelling letters, e-mails, and targeted resumes; and preparing for a wide range of job interviews and contract negotiations.
A Time for Action
This workshop focuses on creating new career opportunities and ensuring that others see you as the right person for the job. Topics include networking, creative ways to get started with the organization you’ve chosen, and customizing your presentation to suit the position.
A Time to Look Ahead
Discover the importance of constantly managing your career and life, not just in times of crisis. Topics include school-to-work and retirement transitions; lifestyle expectations; managing time and money; lifelong learning; self-employment; keeping a job and moving ahead; accessing mentors, coaches and allies; and the new realities of international and global careers.
The Life Strategies team is pleased to offer an opportunity to connect with us and other professionals on various topics using our online community forums.
Groups generally meet online weekly over a period of two months. Participants are expected to be available once per week within a scheduled window of time and to complete individual activities prior to engaging in topical group discussion forums.
Topics include:
With a Little Help From My Friends
Are you considering a career shift? Are you feeling a bit stuck in any aspect of your life? Perhaps you aren't sure of what's next? Let us be a part of your SUCCESS team. Based on Barbara Sher’s innovative Sucess Team model, this group will provide an opportunity for you to share your vision, identify barriers to success, and implement a very specific action plan that will move you forward. The key to Success Teams is that you are both giving and receiving support, encouragement, and structure. This is not a one-sided project – your participation is as crucial to the success of other team members as theirs is to you!!
Job Search Tune Up
Connect online to discuss the latest strategies for…
Landing leads
Revisiting resumes
Crafting cover letters
Preparing powerful portfolios
Navigating the interview maze
Working From Home
Are you considering home-based employment? Perhaps you are currently home-based and struggling to make it work. This e-coaching group will focus on:
Gerry Neault, Vice President of the Life Strategies team, is available to provide financial management services and workshops to individuals and organizations. With over 25 years experience working in the financial industry, Gerry has assisted a wide range of Canadian and international clients with their personal banking, investment planning, and retirement/estate planning concerns.
Financial management services and workshops include advice and information about:
The counselling/coaching services of Life Strategies Ltd. are conducted in a number of different ways, depending on the needs of the client and the style and training of the counsellor/coach. When people request counselling or personal coaching it is because they want something to change in their lives. They may want to change their life situations (including their careers), solve a problem, make a decision, increase their productivity, or gain an understanding about what is happening to them. As a first step in counselling/coaching, we will explore goals. When we both understand the situation, together, we will develop an action plan to accomplish those goals. For counselling/coaching to be most effective, there must be a commitment of time and energy. Clients take an active part in the process; this may involve activities undertaken between sessions, such as completing career assessments, reading articles, keeping a journal, or practicing new skills.
Components of coaching/counselling for career and life management include:
Benchmarking and self-assessments
Planning careers
Setting career goals
Writing effective resumes, proposals, and expressions of interest
Strengthening interviewing skills
Strengthening interpersonal/cross-cultural communication
Setting goals and action planning
Enhancing productivity
Working with difficult people
Managing change and transition
Managing time
Managing stress
Managing money and financial planning
Creating work-life balance
Assessing retirement readiness
Most counselling sessions take place weekly or biweekly and last one hour. Depending on the concerns, however, sessions may be scheduled more or less frequently. Some people prefer telephone or e-mail coaching – this option can also be arranged. The number of sessions needed varies with each person and problem. The number of sessions required will be discussed after the concerns are fully understood.
"The information you provided to me (i.e. the personality assessments and the book 'Career Strategies for A Lifetime of Success') along with the counseling sessions were invaluable. I am pleased to announce that I was hired. Please accept my appreciation for all of your efforts as well as the extra time you spent with me."
Mary Korac (March 2008) Supervisor, Corporate Actions, Raymond James Ltd.
e-Coaching Groups
The Life Strategies team is pleased to offer an opportunity to connect with us and other professionals on various topics using our online community forums.
Groups generally meet online weekly over a period of two months. Participants are expected to be available once per week within a scheduled window of time and to complete individual activities prior to engaging in topical group discussion forums.
Topics include:
With a Little Help From My Friends
Are you considering a career shift? Are you feeling a bit stuck in any aspect of your life? Perhaps you aren't sure of what's next? Let us be a part of your SUCCESS team. Based on Barbara Sher’s innovative Sucess Team model, this group will provide an opportunity for you to share your vision, identify barriers to success, and implement a very specific action plan that will move you forward. The key to Success Teams is that you are both giving and receiving support, encouragement, and structure. This is not a one-sided project – your participation is as crucial to the success of other team members as theirs is to you!!
Job Search Tune Up
Connect online to discuss the latest strategies for…
Landing leads
Revisiting resumes
Crafting cover letters
Preparing powerful portfolios
Navigating the interview maze
Working From Home
Are you considering home-based employment? Perhaps you are currently home-based and struggling to make it work. This e-coaching group will focus on:
What to do before you decide
Setting up
Setting boundaries
Surviving for the long haul
Psychometric Assessments...
The Life Strategies team uses a wide range of vocational and psychological tests to provide psychometric testing for individuals and organizations. Assessments, as part of a comprehensive counselling/coaching program, can contribute to deeper understanding and appreciation of individual differences, strategic planning for personal and organizational development, and more effective interpersonal relationships.
Some of the assessment tools we use include:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®
Newly Revised Strong Interest Inventory®
BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory®
Leadership Skills Profile®
Leadership Development Report®
Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised®
Quality of Life Questionnaire®
Six Factor Personality Questionnaire®
Employee Screening Questionnaire®
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey®
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Inventory®
Survivability Pro®
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument®
Career Values Scale®
Work Personality Index®
Multidimensional Aptitude Battery®
Wide-Range Achievement Test-4®
SkillScan® and SkillScan® Advanced
The Life Strategies team trains counsellors, coaches, human resource professionals, and vocational rehabilitation specialists to administer and interpret psychometric assessments.
[NOTE: click on any of the images to go directly to our online store to purchase.]
That Elusive Work-Life Balance Written by Roberta Neault (2005). Stress-related illness and disability costs the Canadian economy billions of dollars each year. Achieving work-life balance is the number one challenge for workers in the new millennium. Whether juggling dual careers with family responsibilities or struggling with the need to stay connected 24/7, individuals today are facing new challenges. This 31 page workbook provides background information and many worksheets, tips, and strategies to help you (and your clients) find "that elusive work-life balance." Topics include stress, transitions, role overload, and the impact of dual careers on families. Links to relevant websites are provided. This version is printed and will require the shipping fee. This book is available in both print and PDF format.
Career Strategies for a Lifetime of Success
Written for adults, at any stage of life, who are looking for tips on managing their careers more successfully, this book consists of six e-books which can each be purchased separately. [Author: Dr. Roberta Neault, Published by Life Strategies, 2006].
Time to Reflect: Understanding Yourself This section provides tips and tools to facilitate taking a comprehensive look at both internal and external influences on career success and job satisfaction. Topics include personal characteristics, contextual influences, and the skills most sought after by employers.
Time to Explore: Understanding the Workplace This section explores changes in the workplace and equips readers to research economic trends, investigate new ways of working, uncover career possibilities, and examine corporate culture.
Time to Choose: Identifying Career Possibilities The focus of this section is on identifying specific career goals, and then developing and implementing a plan to achieve them. Topics include goal-setting, decision-making, prioritizing, and managing expectations.
Time to Prepare: Developing Portfolios, Resumes, and Interview Skills This section provides tips and strategies for building a toolkit of job search resources. Topics include developing career portfolios; writing compelling letters, e-mails, and targeted resumes; and preparing for a wide range of job interviews and contract negotiations.
Time for Action: Successful Marketing Strategies The focus of this section is on creating new career opportunities and ensuring that others see you as the right person for the job. Topics include networking, creative ways to get started with the organization you?ve chosen, and customizing your presentation to suit the position.
Time to Look Ahead: Proactive Career Management This section highlights the importance of constantly managing your career and life, not just in times of crisis. Topics include school-to-work and retirement transitions, lifestyle expectations, managing time and money, lifelong learning, self-employment, keeping a job and moving ahead, accessing mentors, coaches and allies; and the new realities of international and global careers.
The NEW Book for people who want to live an INSPIREMENT not a RETIREMENT! Most boomers reject traditional retirement. They already know they don't want to be put out to pasture, or snooze with the TV remote in hand. Will finances force boomers to accept a less than satisfactory retirement? Are the barriers REAL or PERCEIVED? What can you do if something hits you out of left field? What are the choices? Is retirement a game of chance? Can you manage change? Can you even prepare for changes you can't predict? We already know that the new retirement defined by the baby boomers will be significantly different than the retirement of their parent's generation. What will it be like though, as the number of seniors out numbers the number of people under age 14. Will the services seniors will expect be available? What do SUCCESSFUL retirees say? What do retirees say about living life to the fullest even in the bonus years? What is possible?
Kristi Nielsen, Retirement Coach, interviewed: Human Resources Managers, prospective retirees, and people presently living out their Golden Years, while writing this book. The result is a candid look at the challenges and possibilities that await the boomers. Order Retirement Inspirement TODAY.
Strategic Retirement
Strategic Retirement
Personality Dimensions® builds on the foundations for understanding temperament or personality preferences established by the work of David Keirsey, Linda Berens, and Don Lowry, and a history of temperament theories that span 25 centuries. Personality Dimensions® facilitates an understanding and appreciation of individual differences, by providing interactive opportunities for workshop participants to openly discuss their needs, expectations, and potential challenges. This tool is particularly useful for enhancing communication, resolving conflict, and understanding how stressors differ for people with diverse personal styles.
