The author G.K. Chesterton noted that “there is a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” Of the four communication skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – we learn listening first, but as time goes on many of us seem to lose interest in truly listening to what others have to say. Leaders would do well to work on listening to inspire workers and increase productivity.

If you suspect that your employees are wasting time on the job and they are not performing up to expectations, it might be time to transform the culture of your organization. A company with a toxic culture runs the risk that employees will remain disengaged and productivity will decline even further. As a leader, you have the perfect opportunity to make improvements by building a culture of support and respect and strengthening teamwork.

Financial gain is one of the most common motivations behind cyber-attacks, making the financial sector an attractive target for cyber criminals. Recently, it was reported that companies in finance lost nearly $20 billion due to cyber-attacks and breaches. Furthermore, it was reported that financial companies get attacked 2500x more than a typical business for a total of over one billion attack attempts in a single year. These attacks don’t just target financial institutions.

Investigating a once trusted employee for potential misuse, theft, or other offenses regarding company resources can be a complicated process. While we all hope to hire ethically sound employees, various factors can contribute to ending up with a bad apple in the bunch. Labeled, insider threats, these employees pose a grave risk to organizations due to the insider knowledge and often authorized access they have to critical resources.

The concept of emotional intelligence was first introduced by psychologist Dr. Daniel Goleman in 1995. Dr. Goleman found that while intelligence (IQ) is an important factor in leadership, a high level of emotional intelligence (EI) marks those who emerge as highly effective leaders. Emotional intelligence involves soft skills such as discipline, motivation and empathy.

Every visionary business wants to onboard the best of the best when it comes to talent. When hiring, companies look for hardworking, trustworthy individuals that they can rely on to propel the business forward. Similarly, people don’t typically hire people thinking they might start stealing money or misusing information and resources. Unfortunately, this happens quite regularly.