The Start of this Story
July 30th, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
I have always been known for having lots to say, the guy you can count on to share some great plan or an idea that you may have never thought of before, the guy who everyone looks at to be the leader in the room.
Well truth be told that is who I am under the cloak that I have had to build around myself for most of my life. the person described above is the Derek that has always be pushing as hard as possible at the seams of the costume that I have worn for so many years under the disguise of being appropriate like I was taught to be.
To this day I can still feel the sting of the comments that slowly wrapped around and shaped me, things like Derek, kids should be seen and not heard. Derek, you don’t want to be the guy that is always asking quesions, Derek, not everyone wants to hear what you are thinking and Derek, don’t ever ruffle any feathers it will give you nothing but trouble, when you stand up for yourself you get nothing but crapped on.
I was one of the many that had taught myself to conform to what makes a good corporate employee, one of the people that had taken all my instincts and unique abilities and bottled them away to live a lie, while the whole time getting more and more disillusioned with my life and slowly being strangled in the grasp of the never ending stress and confusion that sucks your identity away until you no longer know who you are anymore.
Does this sound familiar in some way? Based on statistics from the Gallup Corporation show that only 12 percent of people feel that they use their strengths in their work. The startling thing is that number has continued to fall over the last 4 years. I am one of the lucky ones that through a series of events have been able to not only identify my unique ability but I have the freedom to celebrate my strengths.
I have begun to devote as much of my time and “Personal Energy” to the Strength Movement as possible. I have become a student of some of the great pioneers of our time including Kathy Kolbe to whom I believe is without a doubt one of the unsung heroes for people being free to be themselves, but most of all with the Kolbe A™ Index we are able to put a language around what is our unique ability, our MO, that driving force that when we allow it will lead us to take the most effective action that we can take time and time again.
With this blog I will continue to shed some light on these people and with some success I will be inspiring you to take action for your personal energy. As you will read it has changed my life, and my relationships. I now come to the table with confidence because I know exactly what it is I bring, what it is that keeps me energized and engaged.
This journey is going to be a lot of fun….cheers!
Using the Law of Attraction to Get Exactly What You Need
December 3rd, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
The Law of Attraction, in its simplest form, states that “like attracts like.” Whatever you focus on the most is what will be most attracted to your life. At first glance, that would seem to state that since we all think about being healthy, rich, and having fulfilling lives, that we should all be living happily ever after, right?
Not quite. Although it is true that if we properly focused on those things that they would come to us in abundance, the truth is that most people don’t focus on having those things–they focus on the fact that they don’t have those things!
So, going back to the definition of the Law of Attraction, “like attracts like,” if all you ever do is think about how much you wish you were healthy, or how much you wish you were rich, or how much you wish you were happy, do you know what the Universal Law of Attraction will bring you? You guessed it; a life full of wishing you had all of those things.
To attract what you truly desire, you’ve got to stay focused on it, continuously block out negative thoughts and pair that with real action. Go get ‘em tiger!
Create a Positive Belief System
November 26th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
And You Will Succeed
People enter their work situation with a negative belief system; blocked mentally. You need to establish self-training to unblock yourself. You need to emotionally experience your goals as if they’ve already happened, so your subconscious accepts it as normal, or preexisting. Once it’s fully accepted in there, it just goes…preprogrammed for success. Just think of all the doubts, worries and pressures of your daily life. These things add up and create a detrimental, hampering residue through which your mind must make its way through in order to achieve success. But with the right attitude, a true belief in the positive, then you completely bypass that plaque and simply accept that success is guaranteed.
This system will undoubtedly produce exponential growth in business and in life; consistently. Build your skill set and expectations right, and they’ll last you a lifetime; without constant effort.
Put Your Subconscious on Autopilot
November 20th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
The thinking side of business is just as important as the doing part of business. You learn the how-to stuff, but you also have to work on the belief as well. Everything begins with a vision. If you want to create change in your life, you have to: 1) see it mentally; 2) feel it emotionally-emotions supercharge the process; 3) believe it-emotion creates belief; 4) do it-belief charges you to be proactive; 5) have it.
We don’t necessarily find leaders, they’re easier to build. You’ve just got to be a person of vision. Ask yourself what it would feel like to accomplish your goals-really try to feel it. Now, hold on to that feeling. Use that feeling to drive you. Let that feeling power your actions. Hold that feeling in your subconscious as if your dream has already come true. Once you do that, you put your mind on an autopiloted course to success.
Outdo Yourself to Better Yourself
November 15th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Once you are settled into a particular pursuit, building up 10,000 hours’ worth of experience usually depends on seizing skill-building opportunities both on and off the job.
I worked as an editor for a publishing company during the time our offices made the transition from typewriters to computers. The company sent me to classes to learn the basics of Windows 3.1 and also Adobe Pagemaker because they wanted me to shift from editing to graphic design. (I had pursued an art minor in college.) Soon after completing the introductory classes, I sought permission to start doing volunteer layout jobs for local nonprofit organizations using company computers. My employer gladly gave me the keys to the offices so that I could let myself come and go during weekend hours when no one else was around. I designed newspapers, brochures, and ads for groups happy for the donated labor, but at the same time I sharpened my skills for my company. It was a win-win-win for all of us: my company, my favorite charities, and me.
However, becoming a master of your trade requires something more than accumulating hours of experience. Malcolm Gladwell says that you also need to choose challenging assignments. If you never feel an ounce of fear when beginning a new project, you are probably not doing enough to advance your skills. Get out of your comfort zone and try something difficult!
The Art of Pacing Yourself
November 12th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Malcolm Gladwell has noted that most people underestimate how many hours of sustained effort are needed in order to master a field of endeavor. The magic number, he says, is 10,000. That’s how long student Bill Gates programmed computers before eventually starting his own company.
I first realized I could be a good trumpet player the year I turned nine. That summer, my director at band camp named me the school’s most improved trumpeter. For the next four years I faithfully practiced my music for the recommended 30-60 minutes a day. By age thirteen, I had copped first chair in our school’s trumpet section. Did that make me a musical prodigy? Hardly. Four years of daily tooting had netted me at most only 1,460 hours of practice–a full 8,530 hours short of Gladwell’s golden 10,000. At the rate I was going, I would have needed another 23 years of daily rehearsal to become an expert!
Truthfully, I never envisioned for myself any greater musical accomplishment than reaching first chair by eighth grade. That’s why another of Gladwell’s tips for career success is so important: the need to vividly envision the reward that your efforts will bring. After all, when you’re busy building up 10,000 hours of experience in your chosen field, you want to feel more than the burn. You want to know in your soul the passionate thrill of chasing a dream as wild as a mustang–and as real as a fistful of mane once the dream is within your grasp.
Finding the “Me” in Meaningful Work
November 10th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
According to Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, the first key to career success is finding meaning in your work. Usually those who choose their employment wisely have few problems with this. They resist all of the usual influences that could lead them into a disappointing line of work: the pressure of living up to others’ expectations of them, the temptation to go for the easy or the quick money, the tendency to let the job market decide their careers for them.
Sometimes a valid reason exists for accepting an unsuitable job, but this should never be done without, at the same time, promising yourself to keep looking for a better one. Then share that promise with a trusted friend. This is someone who will ask you regularly how your job hunt is going and will remind you of the reasons why you never intended your present position to be permanent. Equally important, this person will serve as your personal cheerleader whenever the going gets tough.
While waiting for that perfect opportunity to surface, you also need to focus on the ways that your current work makes a positive difference in the lives of others. For example, one woman who was moving back into the work force after raising a child took an online tutoring position. While waiting for the job of her dreams to materialize–one that made optimal use of her master’s degree in psychology–she experienced the satisfaction of helping academically challenged youngsters.
Getting That Plum Job: Polish Your Resume and Cover Letter
November 7th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Keep a master resume on hand at all times. It lists your name and contact information at the top, then other information under the headings of Career Objective, Education and Training, Work History, and Career Highlights. Some job seekers also include References. Later when you tailor the master resume for a particular employer, you will keep only the most relevant data for the position you seek.
The career objective is always a single statement related to the job you are applying for. A hopeful sports reporter, for example, might write, “My aim is to develop must-read sports stories that will appeal to avid and casual fans alike.” The completed resume, clean and simple in appearance, should be no more than two pages long. It should appear in easy-to-read type such as 12-point Arial or Times Roman.
The cover letter is more important than the resume. After listing your name and contact information at the top, begin the body of the letter by naming the position you seek and telling how you learned of it. Then explain why you think you are a good candidate. Tell what excites you about working for the company or organization, and finish with a thank you for the employer’s time and consideration. Edit your letter until everything fits easily into one page, and it’s ready to go.
Getting That Plum Job: Know Where to Look
November 5th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
The internet is a good place to start your job hunt, but those big websites for employment seekers are not always the best places to begin-sites like www.monster.com, www.indeed.com, and www.careerbuilder.com. Go to them only after you have tried a few of these suggestions:
–Visit the website of any newspaper in the city or county where you would like to work. Most papers publish their classified ads online.
– Browse through the yellow pages of a phonebook to find names of potential employers, and then visit their websites for up-to-date job postings. If you don’t have a printed phone book, go to www.yellowpages.com .
–Visit the website of the college you graduated from. Many large colleges list employment opportunities for their alumni. Even if you have to register at the site to use the school’s career services, doing so will be well worth your time.
–Do you or have you belonged to any professional organizations? Visit their websites even if you are no longer active in them. Former English teachers, for example, have found jobs as test scorers through the National Council of Teachers of English.
–Are you a veteran? Visit www.hirevetsfirst.gov to locate employers who give special consideration to applicants with military experience.
Getting That Plum Job: Begin with a Plan
November 3rd, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Job hunting? Whether doing it again or for the first time ever, taking the right approach can help you avoid unnecessary stress.
Notice the word unnecessary. When you are searching for a new job, you are a kind of performer, and even the most experienced performers get stage fright. Yet they value their fear, saying that it helps them keep their artistic edge. Think of your stress as a store of energy that will propel you forward if properly channeled.
Begin with a realistic plan. Decide how many hours you can devote to job hunting each week. Some say it’s a full-time job to find a full-time job, so 30-40 hours would not be too many. If you don’t have that kind of time because of other responsibilities, calculate how much free time you have, and plan to use 90% of it on “the hunt.” Then make sure you spend the other 10% doing something relaxing!
Record on a calendar the number of hours spent each day on your search. Consider this calendar your personal time clock. Punch in and out faithfully. In addition, keep a work-search diary. Here, list each potential employer you have contacted, whether by phone, postal mail, e-mail, or in person, plus the date you made the contact.
Preparing for Opportunities
October 31st, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Layoffs and firings rarely come as surprises. If there are warning signs that you will soon be out of a job, follow the Boy Scout motto and be prepared:
- Decide if your career is something you really want. Do you find your work fulfilling or are you just another paper pusher? It might be time for a career change.
- Understand your transferrable skills. Are you good with people? Do you have strong communication skills? Make a list, so you know your strengths and weaknesses.
- Dust off your resume. You will have to decide whether to include your most recent job in your work history. If you can prove to a future employer that you have learned from your actions, you can avoid leaving a sizable gap in your job history.
- Reconsider your references. In the case of a layoff or firing, your most recent employer may not be someone you want to talk to a future interviewer. Make contact with previous references to reinforce the strength of your relationships
- Start networking. Make it known that you may need a job. Take the initiative to meet new people and create opportunities for yourself.
By being prepared for the worst scenarios, you can shorten the time you spend between jobs.
Tactful Interviewing
October 29th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
If you were fired, don’t let this event mar your search for new opportunities. At your next interview, you will be asked why you left your previous job. Be honest. If you try to sugar-coat your experience, your potential employers will pick up on your lies. Instead, be prepared to tell your interviewer what you have learned from the experience.
If you had problems with your coworkers, emphasize the idea that the group could not work together any more. Talk about how your approach to group work has changed. If you were slacking off in your old job because the work was not challenging enough, tell the interviewer how you plan to be more proactive in asking for assignments. You must understand how to fix the problems of your past.
The key to this situation is to become a better person as a result of your last job. A firing is a sign that you need to change some aspect of your behavior. Once you have made the necessary corrections, you will be able to convince another company to give you a change to prove yourself. Mistakes can make us into better people and better employees if we are willing to learn from them.
Fired? Don’t Despair.
October 27th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Toby Young is not a household name, at least not yet, but his story can serve as an inspiration for the rest of us. Young landed his dream job early in his career, working at a major American magazine, but after only about six months his editors showed him the door. After repeated incidents of unprofessional behavior, including sending a stripper-gram to one of his coworkers on Bring-Your-Daughter-to-Work day, Young lost it all.
While many would think that this guy missed his greatest opportunity, he instead started thinking about what he could gain from the incident. His experiences as a magazine writer bloomed into the international bestseller How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which was later adapted into a movie.
When you’re down on your luck, take the time to reflect on your work history. While you may not want to write a book, you may have learned about work environments you need to avoid. Your temperament may be best suited to an entrepreneurial or freelance setting. Alternatively, you may find that you were let go because you weren’t using your skills to their greatest potential. Although shrouded in failure and disappointment, a firing can serve as a call to self-discovery.
It’s All About The Timing
October 24th, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Success often requires the confluence of the right person with the right place and time. In 1988, Dan Jansen was the favored contender in Olympic speed skating, but a few hours before the race, he received a call from his family back in the United States informing him that his sister Jane was dying of leukemia. Dan tried to speak to her on the phone, but she did not respond. That night, during the competition, Dan fell twice, dashing his hopes for victory. Eight years later, in his final attempt at the gold medal, Dan broke the world record in the 1,000 meters and winning the gold, achieving the goal he had set long ago. In 2004, he was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame, and he now has a successful career as a sports commentator and coach.
Sometimes our successes are overshadowed by the negative events happening in the rest of our lives. It can seem impossible, almost as if the universe is conspiring against you, but if you preserve, you can go on to great things. Maintain your focus and deal with each moment as best you can. Patience and hard-work can take you to your goal as long as you keep at it.
Turn Your Shortcomings Around
October 22nd, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
When something goes wrong in our lives, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. We try to find the source of the errors in the world around us. It seems obvious that there must be someone or something “out there” conspiring against us. How could we ever succeed with the deck stacked against us like it is?
This is the wrong approach. Defeatist thinking patterns place the locus of control outside of your power, making the obstacles worse than they seem. You must realize that the only thing you have the ability to change is your attitudes toward your situation, so you must be brutally honest with yourself. If you were outside of the situation, where would you place the blame? What could you have done to make the situation better? How can you move forward, minimizing the effects of any mistakes you have made?
By bringing the locus of control back under your power, you seize the ability to improve your situation. You gain the resilience and strength that you need to ask not what made this situation go badly, but what can you do to prevent mistakes in the future.
Knowing If Your Job is Not Right for You
October 20th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Picture this: You’ve been called into your boss’ office for what seems like the thousandth time. Your work isn’t up to the standard. You can’t get the procedure for filing reports down. Even though you try, your spirit is not in your efforts. The chasm created by your failures seems so steep that you can’t climb out. This scenario reflects many indications that you are not using your strengths in the right area.
In the movie Stranger than Fiction, the character Ana tells the story of how she became a baker. While attending Harvard Law School, she started going to study sessions that lasted all night long, but her grade point average didn’t improve. Ana began baking cookies to share with her study buddies, and she loved it. She failed law school but found her true passion in the kitchen.
If we are not in the right environment, we will never succeed. Failure in this case is an indicator that you are not following the correct career path. If you have exhausted all your options for improving your situation, it is time to change paths. Listen to what your experiences tell you and see the signs that you need to explore another field of employment.
Be Daring: Try Something New
October 17th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
While we love our comfort zones, career development stagnates with routine. Once we settle in to a position and know exactly what we can do, that’s all we do. While this strategy keeps us from failing, we don’t really succeed either.
Risking failure forces us to stretch our skills. Mary Ann was a successful college student in her last year at school. She could have coasted through her classes, graduated, and headed to law school at the end of the year. At the prompting of one of her professors, Mary Ann applied for a prestigious scholarship, something she had dreamed of but didn’t think she could get on her own. She put all of her effort into the application process and learned much about herself.
In essence, she failed and did not win the scholarship, but the process opened many doors for her; she won the school’s highest honors and accepted a job directing economic development in a small community. Mary Ann’s life would have been smoother had she not taken the risk, however she is grateful for the diversity it brought to her life.
Pick one of your daydreams. What can you do to make that dream a reality? If you go for it, you never know what opportunities await you.
Being Brave at Work: Asking for Help
October 15th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
You’ve made a mess of things with an important project. The orders you placed for one client are mixed up with those for another. The accounting is all tangled up, you clients are getting angry, and you can’t fulfill your promises. The situation seems hopeless, and you are certain you are going to be fired.
We make mistakes all the time but the key to limiting their effects is asking for help. While it is difficult to admit that we are wrong, a larger problem is that we do not know who to turn to.
Before you encounter problems, try to find a mentor at your company. A mentor does not have to be your immediate superior; all you need is another employee who has seniority and knows the company intimately. By networking with your co-workers, you can determine who has the most to teach you.
The next step is to work up the courage to speak with your mentor-to-be, but make sure you have a clear idea of what you need from the partnership. Most likely, the person you ask will be honored by the idea and will agree to help you out. Once you have established a relationship with your mentor, you will have someone to run to when you no longer know what to do.
What do you Need in your Next President?
October 14th, 2008. Published under Personal Energy and Kolbe. No Comments.
Do Your Conative Duty! - Help Kolbe make history by taking our innaugural survey on Presidential instincts! Answer a brief set of questions at http://www.presidentialinstincts.com and we’ll use your responses to create instinctive profiles of John McCain and Barack Obama. You can also sound off on what MO you would like to see in the OO (Oval Office). View results by age, gender, voting preference and more. It’s fun, fast and a great way to get friends, colleagues and clients interested in Kolbe and aware of conation. We’ll announce final results on October 28. We’ll compare them to the actual Kolbe A™ Index results for McCain and Obama, assuming the candidates complete the complimentary Kolbe A™ Indexes we’ve offered each of them.
Fight Your Fears — Find a Friend
October 13th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
Sometimes, when work problems have you completely stumped, in the words of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, you need to use a lifeline and phone a friend. While we often think that the road to success is travelled alone, our friends can give us the strength we need to take the chances that will lead to larger goals.
If you work alone, you can only rely on the skills you possess. You have no one to buoy your spirits when you are discouraged or to share your successes. Our friends often know our abilities better than we do. Where we see ourselves through a lens of self-criticism and doubt, our friends see a strong, smart, able-bodied compatriot. Don’t keep your work life a secret when you are having trouble; talk out your troubles with a friend and brainstorm solutions. You never know when creativity will strike.
You can also develop working friendships once you understand the politics of your workplace. Work on projects with a variety of people. Despite some awkward pairings, you will learn which of your coworkers have approaches that complement your own. Every workplace has its power teams, and with some experimentation, you and your group will find your way to the top.
Succeed by Studying Failure
October 10th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Many self-help books and entrepreneurial guides tell us that we will succeed if we study those who are themselves successful. While this is often a good strategy, we cannot all be just like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, or Oprah Winfrey. Sometimes we learn best by seeing what not to do.
If you are starting a new business in a city or town, consider the businesses in the area which have failed recently. Do you share any commonalities? Did any of these commonalities lead to the other business’s downfall? While people don’t like to talk about their failures, you may learn a tremendous amount from speaking with those who did not succeed.
Even if your ambition is not to own your own business, you can improve your standing in your own workplace by observing your co-workers’ reprimands. If Tom is rebuked for not starting enough projects, maybe you should inspect your own initiative. If Betty is told to be more courteous to customers, treat the next difficult person with respect and dignity. You will become a better employee and will have fewer confrontations with your boss. In learning by trial and error, not all the errors have to be our own.
Fear, Forgiveness, and Freedom
October 8th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Mistakes and failure scare us, sometimes even to the point of paralysis. Many people replay their errors in their mind over and over, kicking themselves repeatedly. In essence, these people are stuck in the moment.
If you find yourself in a constant cycle of blame, stop for a moment and step back from the situation. Put your error in perspective: did you say the wrong thing to your supervisor or did you cost your company thousands of dollars? In either case, admitting that you made a mistake is the first step to minimizing its effects.
After you have made amends at work, you must forgive yourself. Figure out what you have learned from this experience and move forward. Every experience makes you wiser, if you treat life as a learning experience. Trial-and-error was key to learning when we were children; there is no reason that should stop now.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” When you master your fear of failure and forgive yourself, you gain the freedom to try new things and the wisdom to make the best of your situation.
The Curse of Perfectionism
October 6th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Are you a perfectionist? If you are never satisfied with you performance unless you come out on top, you may actually be setting yourself up for poor job performance. By avoiding criticism, you also limit your creativity.
Randy O. Frost, a psychologist who researches our perfection obsession, administered a writing test and found that perfectionists are actually worse writers than students who are less success driven. We improve our skills through receiving criticism and building upon it. If you avoid all negative comments, you will never grow.
Perfectionists are also at risk for eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression, divorce, and even suicide, according to an article in Psychology Today. Unrealistic expectations can have a negative on both your physical health and your moral character. Perfection-driven individuals are more likely to cover-up mistakes they make on the job because their fear of criticism is so great. In other words, we don’t want perfectionists working in high-risk careers, because they can jeopardize both their own safety and that of others.
Do yourself a favor. Set realistic goals. Admit your failures. Mistakes exist so we can learn from them. Perfection is an unattainable goal, so set your sights on a different prize.
Success from Failure
October 3rd, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Even if you understand yourself completely, fear of failure can keep you from following your dreams. After we survive high school and college, we usually get a job and settle into a routine. While we might talk about trying new things and going to new places, we don’t. Routines create a feeling of safety while ensuring that you meet your needs. Despite their benefits, routines can turn into ruts. If we leave our comfort zone, we risk falling short of our goals, but we also seize the opportunity to make great changes.
Many inventions have made great success out of failure. Sir Alexander Fleming, upon returning from a holiday, found one of his cultures of staphylococci contaminated with a fungus. The contamination revealed the antibiotic power of a substance we now know as penicillin, which has saved countless lives. Wilson Greatbatch was trying to devise an invention to record irregular heartbeats. He put the wrong resistor in the device and it began to pulse in a regular pattern, giving him the inspiration for the first pacemaker.
Don’t let fear or failure paralyze you. Some failures can save lives, so break out of your rut and try something new.
Your Own Worst Enemy
October 1st, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
When it comes to realizing your career dreams, you may be your own worst enemy. While we like to place the blame on forces beyond our control, it is often our own procrastination, self-doubt, and fear which keep us from success. These are the most insidious obstacles we face because we are often not aware of the inner monologues that frame our experiences.
The key to achieving your dreams lies in self-mastery, one of the hardest skills to learn. Start fostering your self-awareness. Start making mental notes of your achievements and how you accomplished them. If you have a positive confrontation with your neighbor who keeps killing your petunias with his weed-whacker, or you win at bowling, ask yourself “What did I do differently this time?”
These skills are similar to those you would develop by playing golf, a game of self-mastery. Since it is an individual sport, each player can only depend on him or herself. Physical fitness and strength are not enough to play well. Golfers must observe which techniques work and which don’t, adjusting their games accordingly.
So what is working in your life? What can you improve? Most importantly, how will you make the changes you need to? Become a student of yourself and learn to quiet those bad habits that limit your dreams.
What’s keeping you from success?
September 29th, 2008. Published under To Your Success. No Comments.
What are your grand plans, your wildest dreams? Do you want to be manager, director, or CEO of your company, or do you fantasize about owning your own business? What is standing in your way?
In every situation, we face obstacles. Often we blame our bosses, coworkers and even our families for our limitations. We look outside of ourselves for mountains we can’t climb and rivers we can’t cross. No obstacle is too great if you have the right amount of preparation and planning to achieve your dreams. Take a clear look at the problem you face and size it up. With an accurate image of the rock in your road, you can go around it, remove it, or climb over it.
In 2007, 71-year-old Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to scale Mount Everest. He credits the support of his friends as being important to his success. Sometimes, if you don’t have the confidence within yourself, look to those around you for the energy you need move forward.
The tools you need to achieve your dreams lie within you. It is up to you to learn to use them.
Dealing with a Moody Boss
September 26th, 2008. Published under To Your Success. No Comments.
What if you have a moody boss? Do you steel yourself before going to work every day and simply endure her slings and arrows until you are safely home again?
This is the boss who keeps changing the rules according to her mood. One day she loves it when you use loud colors in the design for a flyer, and the next day she insists that neutral pastels are the only true fit for the company image. To get along, you need to learn to read her body language. Stay away from her on her bad days and save important interactions for her good days.
If that solution is not possible, then wait for a good time to speak with her in private about your concerns. Keep your focus off her behavior and on the good of the company. In a non-threatening way, stress that you want to do the best work you can, and then point out that you sometimes are confused about the directions you receive. Ask for clarification on the latest communication that confused you. Be diplomatic in your choice of words. Don’t refer to her as “moody” or call her reversals “flip-flops.” Dwell only on your own difficulty with interpreting her messages. Stoop to conquer.
Dealing with an Incommunicative Boss
September 24th, 2008. Published under To Your Success. No Comments.
Let’s face it. Despite widespread awareness of the Peter Principle, there are lots of mediocre managers are out there. Not every employee who is raised to his level of incompetence has the wisdom or humility to recognize it and step down. Robert F. Gately estimates that the success rate in promoting and hiring is about 50%.
So what do you do if you have an incommunicative boss? This type avoids the needed managerial task of routinely assessing the feelings and opinions of his employees. He keeps to himself mostly, except when he posts memos and sends out e-mails.
The first thing you need to do is accept that you are not going to change his management style. If his people skills are poor, you cannot wish him into good ones. Instead, resolve that from time to time you will be the one to initiate an interaction. Use the mode of communication that seems to be most comfortable for him. If he usually e-mails employees, then use e-mail to respond to him. If he frequently posts memos on a board, then put a written proposal on his desk and ask him to let you know later if he has any comments or suggestions.
Make yourself valuable to him by offering the employee feedback he actually needs to do his own job better.
When Downward Mobility Is a Good Thing
September 22nd, 2008. Published under To Your Success. No Comments.
Two brothers began different but related careers. John worked in an office for an oil company and James, in an office for a trucking company. John was detail-oriented, responsible, and efficient. He worked hard and spoke little. James was a hard worker in much the same mold as John, but also a joker and a back slapper with his co-workers.
Over time both were promoted. One brother proved to be a natural in management, while the other soon discovered he was in over his head.
It’s probably not hard to guess which brother asked to return to his former position. As a supervisor, John could not bring himself to challenge slackers and to encourage achievers. Uncommunicative by nature, he simply stewed about things that needed to be discussed.
Too often, employers assume that someone who is good at a job will be good at supervising others who do that same job. Yet the Peter Principle, explained in Dr. Laurence J. Peter’s 1968 book of the same title, states that competent employees rewarded with promotions eventually get promoted into positions for which they are unsuited.
Whenever that happens, a company is lucky to have an employee like John-someone honest enough to step down rather than pretend he is something he is not.
Eating and Drinking Your Way to the Top
September 19th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
The old adage of “Garbage in, garbage out” also applies to the snacks and drinks you consume during an average workday. To get the best from your slaving body and brain, give them good fuels to run on.
Wholesome snacks include sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, raisins, small amounts of dark chocolate, and whole-grained snacks like Honey Nut Cheerios straight from the box. Nuts and grains supply protein and antioxidants. Raisins, chocolate, and honey supply the glucose that your brain burns at a rapid rate whenever it is sentenced to hard labor.
And what about your stomach when a case of job-related nerves is making it a little queasy? Ginger snaps, ginger ale, or anything else ginger-flavored is a soothing antidote.
What can you do when a gnawing hunger is driving you to distraction? An apple is a little powerhouse of satisfying carbs and fiber. So is a canned diet milkshake.
Finally, are caffeinated beverages beneficial? A double espresso is too much of a good thing, but a few cups of coffee or black tea judiciously spaced throughout the day do aid alertness. (Just be sure to switch to decaf after 3 p.m. if you have trouble falling asleep at night.)
An Action Plan Can Save the Day-or Most of It, Anyway
September 17th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Let me repeat: the research of Baumeister and others suggests that your mental energy on any given day is limited. (You can read all about it in the books Losing Control and Handbook of Self-Regulation).
Here is a plan for setting and keeping workday priorities. Begin your day by making a to-do list in two parts: high-priority and low-priority. Then choose a high-priority item you know you will enjoy and tackle it first. If there are none that are high-priority, then go ahead and let yourself begin work with an enjoyable low-priority task–but only one. The idea is to build up to more energy-draining tasks after you have accomplished something you truly liked doing. Start your day with cookies, not radishes.
Then take a crack at the top item on your high-priority list, whatever its level of difficulty. Keep dispensing with high-priority tasks until all of them are completed. Save the low-priority tasks for last, when it won’t matter so much if they don’t get your best attention.
If you stall during a difficult task, try promising yourself a small reward immediately upon completing it. Allow yourself a favorite snack, for example, or a minute or two just to doodle or daydream.
Too Pooped to Pop? Maybe You Need to Recognize Your Limits
September 15th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Suppose a child sees chocolate chip cookies and radishes on a plate. A researcher gives the child permission to eat the cookies, then gives him a difficult puzzle to solve. How long does he stay on task before giving up? Suppose another child placed in the same situation is denied the cookies and allowed only the radishes. When given the same puzzle, how long does that child stay on task?
Psychology professors Roy Baumeister and Dianne Tice received a $1 million grant in 1997 to conduct this experiment and others like it over several years. Their goal was to learn about mental energy. Is it an inexhaustible resource in people?
It is not, the researchers concluded. In the experiment just described, the child who had to discipline himself to leave the cookies untouched usually had less energy to tackle the mental problem given him later. Other experiments produced similar results. It seems that, on any given day, each of us has a finite supply of willpower to expend before simply running out of it.
Ego depletion (Baumeister’s term for the phenomenon) should make us look twice at how we approach each new day on the job. Do we set priorities so that important tasks get our best shot?
Keeping Your Brain on the Ball
September 12th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Researchers say the brain never stops replenishing its dead neurons. However, there’s a catch. This happens only to brains that are kept stimulated throughout life.
Do cross-training. If you are a wordsmith by trade, try solving sudoku puzzles. Conversely, if math is your thing, get busy with crossword puzzles.
Use your commute to stretch your mind. Pick a letter of the alphabet and glance around for objects whose names begin with that letter. Or pick an object you see along the way and imagine how all different kinds of people might see the same object. A tree, for example, means one thing to a child and quite another to a lumberjack.
Try new ways of memorizing grocery lists and telephone numbers. Remember the song that helped you learn the alphabet? Make up little songs to help you remember other things. Use acronyms as memory aids-such as BAMCH to remember to buy bananas, apples, milk, cheese, and hamburger at the store. Or use absurd mental images. With the same grocery list, imagine a tower made of a banana, an apple, a carton of milk, and a pound of cheese, topped by a Black Angus cow.
Who said brain exercises couldn’t be fun?
Dreaming on the Job? Good for You!
September 10th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
I submit that letting yourself daydream during actual working hours is not a waste of your employer’s time or money. It actually can improve your productivity, especially if a certain amount of creativity is required for your job.
Perhaps we all need to take a cue from the guys who run Google. Following a 70-20-10 formula, they ask their employees to spend 70 percent of their time on the company’s core business of developing its search and advertising capabilities. Twenty percent is for activities related to the core, and ten percent is for entertaining crazy, far-fetched ideas. It was while making use of his ten percent time that one particular employee came up with the idea for Google Talk, a system for instant voice messaging.
The daydreaming brain builds up new neural connections between unrelated areas of the cortex, researchers say. Those new connections later help one reach creative breakthroughs during periods of active problem-solving.
So go ahead. Do some mindless doodling on a pad. Stare at an open book without actually reading it. Gaze out the window. Your brain will thank you. So will your employers-unless they are unfamiliar with the latest in brain research. In that case, be discreet when daydreaming on the company clock.
The Up Side of Down Time
September 8th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Recent research sheds new light on the importance of “down time” for better job performance. Specifically, down time is well spent on daydreaming-and, more specifically, on something I’ll call “lucid daydreaming.” Lucid daydreams are the ones we remember and use later.
Here’s an example. Arthur Fry, inventor of Post-It notes, got his inspiration for the handy item back in 1974 while daydreaming during a church choir rehearsal. He kept losing track of the pages in his hymnal that were bookmarked with little slips of paper that kept falling out. Wouldn’t it be great, he fantasized, if someone invented bookmarks that stuck to pages without damaging them when removed? The next day, Fry carried that thought with him to his job as an engineer at 3M.
Talented students often master the art of lucid daydreaming. During a chemistry lecture, Jan lets his mind wander to the person he plans to write about for a character sketch his composition instructor has assigned. People-watching instead of text-messaging as she crosses the campus for her next class, Maura starts wondering about the likely trajectory of human evolution if people keep overusing their thumbs. Then, voila, her idle thought inspires the topic for her next research paper.
Which parts of your day would allow for a little constructive daydreaming?
Ordinary Everyday Job Stress
September 5th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Even at good workplaces, job stress builds up from time to time. Sometimes it is simply stress from home that you drag with you to work. Other times the workplace itself is the source of tension.
During an election year like this one, many major corporations forbid partisan political talk during working hours. This is a wise rule. However, smaller companies may be less regulated, and political disagreements can flare up among employees. How can you deal with the tension? Besides the obvious advice to try to stay out of the arguments altogether, there are other things you can do to keep calm.
Are your usual work breaks really breaks? Now might be the time to schedule that long-discussed lunch date with a friend so that you can slip away from the office at noon. Have you investigated the strolling possibilities within the immediate vicinity of your worksite? A small publishing firm with offices located in a semi-industrial area once employed me. I began taking 15-minute walks to get away from the hot discussions that dominated our firm’s afternoon coffee breaks during one particular political scandal. The autumn sunlight, the cool breezes, and the wildflowers growing along the railroad tracks provided more than escape. They were unexpected delights.
Job Stress at Evaluation Time: Hold Your Boss Accountable, Too
September 5th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
A principal charged a teacher with chronic tardiness during an annual job performance review. When asked for the reason, the principal cited a time the first bell rang as the teacher was running off tests in the school office. The incident indeed happened, but only once. When calmly confronted with this fact, the discomfited principal agreed to re-write her evaluation.
A performance review with an unpredictable boss requires preparation. First, simply remind yourself of your past workplace achievements. No false humility is allowed here. Success breeds confidence, but only if you acknowledge it. Second, review the main responsibilities listed in your role description or employee handbook. Do this to remind yourself of what’s most important about your work-and also in case you need to remind your boss.
BNET says that good managers always use “a behaviorally based measure tied to the important dimensions of the job” [emphasis added]. Good managers also document employee performance in an organized, ongoing fashion, giving their annual reviews a firm basis in fact. Finally, they address any serious shortcomings in performance as they arise, without waiting for the annual review.
You don’t have to put up with a job review that departs from professional standards. But first you need to know the standards.
Job Stress at Evaluation Time: Try a New Mantra
September 3rd, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Job reviews, ugh! If you are conscientious by nature, chances are you have already evaluated yourself a thousand times without exactly giving yourself glittering reviews.
Sometimes, though, it is good to stop thinking about your own job anxiety and put yourself in the position of your employer. How would you feel reviewing someone else’s performance? Doubtless you would strive for objectivity. Even if you really liked an employee and deeply appreciated the person’s work, you would balance your positive comments with one or two suggestions for improvement. You would do this even if you had to strain to think of any. On the other hand, if you were not pleased with an employee yet still wanted to be fair, you probably would overcompensate for your displeasure and cut the person any breaks you could.
The bottom line is that unless your boss is a sociopath or you are a total doofus, you waste your energy fearing an evaluation. Some anxiety-prone students prepare for tests by training themselves to avoid the self-defeating mantra of “What if I fail?” Instead they
ask themselves, “So what if I fail?” Maybe you need to change your usual mantra, too.
Ordinary Everyday Job Stress
September 1st, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Even at good workplaces, job stress builds up from time to time. Sometimes it is simply stress from home that you drag with you to work. Other times the workplace itself is the source of tension.
During an election year like this one, many major corporations forbid partisan political talk during working hours. This is a wise rule. However, smaller companies may be less regulated, and political disagreements can flare up among employees. How can you deal with the tension? Besides the obvious advice to try to stay out of the arguments altogether, there are other things you can do to keep calm.
Are your usual work breaks really breaks? Now might be the time to schedule that long-discussed lunch date with a friend so that you can slip away from the office at noon. Have you investigated the strolling possibilities within the immediate vicinity of your worksite? A small publishing firm with offices located in a semi-industrial area once employed me. I began taking 15-minute walks to get away from the hot discussions that dominated our firm’s afternoon coffee breaks during one particular political scandal. The autumn sunlight, the cool breezes, and the wildflowers growing along the railroad tracks provided more than escape. They were unexpected delights.
Improving Your Day Job: Making a Change
August 29th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Sometimes you have the opportunity to find another job within your company. While saving a lot of paperwork and hassle, these jobs may be hard to find. You can maximize your opportunity to move around your company by doing a little investigating and networking.
The first step is to understand your company and its various departments. You can use your company directory, annual reports or other company publications. The second step is to find a way to extend your network into the areas that are most interesting. You may have already made a few contacts, but every area has its “person-to-know” who should be your main target. Sometimes being a little more outgoing on the elevator or in the cafeteria will help you make necessary connections.
It is a good idea to know what you want to ask or say when you stumble upon an opportunity to talk to your target contact. This is an opportunity to get more details about other areas in your company, build relationships, sell your skills, and put yourself in the running for any positions that might come open in the near future. Networking and knowledge can move you closer to landing a better job.
Improving Your Day Job: Altering Your Mindset
August 27th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Often when we dislike our jobs, we are stuck in the mindset of “I can’t.” It seems that we can’t escape our job descriptions or our daily routine. However, the only thing we can’t escape is our own negative mindset. As long as you accomplish your assigned tasks, you should be able to help with other projects and broaden your experience range.
You have the power to change your approach to work. Take the initiative when an opportunity presents itself. If you volunteer for new opportunities, you might find tasks you enjoy more than your daily assignments. Hidden prospects may reveal themselves if you are proactive at work.
Even if you despise your current employer, you can choose to see it as an opportunity for personal growth. Every day you remain in a bad job, you show yourself you can persevere through adversity. Improve your transferrable skills, so when the time comes you are readily employable elsewhere.
People recognize those who take initiative. If you show enthusiasm toward your work, you are more likely to be chosen for greater opportunities. Even if you can’t change your working situation, change your focus. Don’t wait for things to happen to you - make them happen.
Improving Your Day Job: Doing Your Research
August 25th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Research isn’t just for the job search. You can improve your current circumstances by getting in-depth information on your industry, your profession and your projects. Many people find their way into jobs that they are not specifically trained for. For example, Peter graduated from college with a degree in English. He had taken no business classes at all, but after graduation he found a job with a local non-profit organization. He became very involved with the organization’s mission and began reading everything he could about non-profit management, grant writing and fundraising. He increased the diversity of his daily tasks and, when his direct superior decided to leave, he was offered a promotion.
If you are uncertain where to begin, start looking for articles about your company using a news search engine. Look at what your industry competitors are doing. Find trade journals and take the time to learn technical terms and tactics. If you are still unsuccessful, stop by a local newsstand and pick up a copy of Business Week, the Wall Street Journal or another business magazine which looks relevant to your company. These general publications should give you the leads you need to enhance your understanding of your company and your job.
Keep Your Calm: Dealing with Confrontational Clients
August 22nd, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Even if you enjoy your coworkers and your boss is a saint, angry clients and customers can still make your work life difficult. Dave Kahle, a sales consultant and motivational speaker, equates dealing with confrontational people to cracking a hard-boiled egg.
The customer’s anger is like the shell of the egg, the hardest part to break through. Kahle advocates letting customers vent their frustrations because it will help calm them down. If you listen carefully, you can capture the basic problem. When antagonists pause for breath, empathize with them and make a connection. If you are calm, you can maintain control of the situation.
Next, identify the root problem, the white of the egg. Get the details from the customers and apologize for the inconveniences that have occurred. While it may be tempting to place the blame on your company’s infrastructure or the customer’s misunderstanding, avoid this temptation as it won’t help the situation.
Finally, it is up to you to solve the yoke of the customer’s problem. If you can’t do it immediately, let customers know when you will get back to them. Following this process will minimize the conflict and will help you deal with difficult customers effectively.
Dealing with Difficult Bosses and Supervisors
August 20th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
So you’ve just landed your dream job, your coworkers are friendly, and everything seems peachy, except the fact that your boss seems like an ogre in his corner office. Bad boss syndrome happens to most of us, but we don’t have to be victims; we can manage our managers.
The first step is to open the lines of communication with your boss, by setting up a meeting to discuss your role in the company. This meeting may help you understand why your boss seems so intimidating. Try to find common ground which will help you communicate with your boss in the future.
Your coworkers can be the best allies in this situation. By making connections and gaining their trust, you can get valuable information about pertinent projects. If you succeed in your projects, you will demonstrate the leadership skills that your boss is lacking. You will also prove that you are dependable and responsible, which may lead you to other opportunities.
If there is no way to manage your boss, you may need to talk to the human resource officers in your company to find an alternative position. If active efforts cannot improve the working situation, you need to find a position more conducive to your personal growth.
Dealing with Your Coworkers
August 18th, 2008. Published under In the Workplace. No Comments.
Even if you love what you do, the people you work with may not share your opinion. While your coworkers can become your good friends, they can also be your worst enemies. Try these tips to keep the peace at your newest job.
Test the waters: Starting on day one, observe your coworkers, looking for existing cliques and conflicts. Until you have a sense of the larger social scene, treat everyone equally. It is best to be a neutral party until you can make your own decisions about who to trust.
Be a good worker: While this may lead to some envy among your coworkers, it improves your standing with your new boss. He or she will be more likely to listen to your comments later on.
Don’t play their games: If your coworkers are being petty and trying to involve you, leave the situation. Find a way to maintain your neutrality and avoid public confrontations with others at work.
Don’t get too involved: When you get personally involved with your coworkers too quickly, conflicts from your personal life may worm their way into your workplace. If possible, maintain distinct personal and coworker social circles for the first few months on the job.
Once you have passed your probationary period, you will have a better grasp of the social dynamics of your workplace, and you can begin to alter the role you play.
Doing and Knowing What You Love
August 15th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
Doing what you love seems deceptively simple. We should know what we love, but we often confuse this with what others expect us to love, what we do to fill our time, and what we merely like.
Our friends, family and society have expectations of us which vary greatly. If you look at practically any program on television, you will see what society currently expects us to want and love. These images influence our behavior, even if we do not completely understand it.
Sometimes we are pressured to make our hobbies into more than they are. My friend Jen is a crafter in her spare time. She has a flair for making adorable dolls, but once she started taking commissions, her hobby became a chore. In this case, Jen didn’t really love what she was doing. Making dolls was a pleasant time filler, but it was little more than that. In time, she came to take up scrapbooking instead, but has not tried to start up a cottage business again.
When you truly love what you do, you get a sense of joy the moment you begin. Something you love will energize you and make you feel better about yourself, what you’re doing and life in general. Loving your career will bring harmony into your life; in and out of your workplace.
Determining What You Value
August 13th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction, Uncategorized. No Comments.
Several of these posts have mentioned that you need to know what you value before you take a job. Often, we think of our values as principles in the back of our minds that govern our actions. However, letting our values marinate in our subconscious means that we may not understand why we act in certain ways.
In college, I took an ethics course, and our main project was to evaluate our moral system and apply our values to some kind of ethical dilemma. I was surprised when it took me several hours just to sketch out some of the major issues. The exercise has given me great guidance in figuring out the role I play in life.
To begin laying out your values system, do the following:
- Think about your family upbringing and religious background. What were the major lessons and principles you learned from these sources? Are they right?
- Consider how you treat others. Should you act in this way? Is this how you want to be treated?
- Remember how you have been treated. Do you approve?
After you have answered these questions, ask yourself “Am I consistent?” If you are, you have a clear understanding of your principles. If you aren’t, you need to think more about what is important to you. If you understand your moral framework, you can choose a job that will not weigh on your conscience, making you more satisfied.
Why Should You Take a Job?
August 11th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
A large part of career success lies in knowing yourself and finding work that agrees with your values, desires and strengths. Be careful about choosing a career until you know yourself and the company or industry you might work for well. You should ask yourself three questions: “What do I value,” “What do I enjoy,” and “What do I need to do in order to feel challenged or fulfilled in my work life?”
The next step is to look at potential jobs and careers. Do the companies and industries share your values? Will the work be challenging or fulfilling? Will you like what you do? These questions may not be easily answered. If possible, ask your extended social network if they know someone who works at your target company. A connection like this may give you more valuable information about the internal reality of that company. If you don’t have any personal connections, schedule an informational interview to speak directly with someone in the company.
Through knowing yourself, you understand what situations will best suit you. While money is often the immediate motivation for a career, it rarely leads to personal satisfaction. If you enjoy what you do, it is no longer work - it is just part of your life.
Why Did You Really Take this Job?
August 8th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting, Uncategorized. No Comments.
Financial Pressure
The average amount of debt per household in the United States is $14,500 (not including mortgages) according to Bankrate.com. Many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, so it seems impossible to quit an unfulfilling career. If you are one of these people, you must plan your career moves carefully.
- Begin sending out resumes to your new field of choice immediately. If you are lucky, you will line up a new job which uses your strengths more fully. Remember, if you change career fields, you may take a pay cut.
- Analyze your spending. Many people have small habits which add up to great costs, like your morning cup of coffee or that burger for lunch. By cutting out these habits, you will have more money left at the end of the month and will soon be in a more secure financial position.
- Find a part-time job in addition to your full-time job. While this may not be feasible for everyone, it will increase your income and your financial stability. You might also find a part-time job in your new career field which will give you valuable experience and better chances at the premium jobs when you are ready to switch careers.
By reducing your financial burdens, you will have more freedom to find a job you love. And as the old saying goes, if you do what you love, the money will follow.
Why Did You Really Take this Job?
August 6th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Family Pressure
All too often we take a job because we feel we have no other options. Meeting others’ expectations and paying the bills, however, do not necessarily lead to a fulfilling job.
I know a woman who chose her children’s careers for them. Her two girls were supposed to be a school teachers and her son was supposed to join the military. Not wanting to upset the status quo, they followed their mother’s desires and took the jobs they were supposed to. All three were extremely unhappy, two of their marriages failed, and they all quit their jobs to begin arduous career changes.
Family pressure has a heavy influence on many careers. Often you are expected to follow your parents’ footsteps, becoming a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or a mechanic. However, the only person who has a complete understanding of your strong points, desires and dreams is you. When it comes to choosing a career, you have to block out the voices from others, determine what you value, and recognize your strengths. By being your own guide, you will be on your way to a more successful and fulfilling career.
Doing a Background Check on Your Next Job
August 4th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Often when you are looking through job listings, you come across companies you’ve never heard of advertising for positions that sound like they are made up. This makes it difficult to decide if you want to apply for that job, let alone make it a career. In order to get more information about fields which pique your interest, you should schedule an “informational interview.”
An informational interview, a term coined by Richard Nelson Bolles, author of “What Color is Your Parachute,” allows you to ask questions of a professional in your potential field. After choosing a career, come up with questions which you believe will better prepare you for the job hunt. The next step is to select someone to talk to, which may be intimidating, but it will gain you valuable contacts. Nearly one out of 12 informational interviews results in a job offer because of the networking which occurs.
The golden rule of informational interviewing is to never ask for a job. Employers will feel that you are taking advantage of their good will if you immediately ask them about openings in their company. You must let the interviewee take the lead, and if they want to offer you a job, it is their call. At this stage, your immediate goal is to learn if this career will suit your personality, talents and values.
Concepts and Reality: Our Perceptions of Careers
August 1st, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
We often get involved with careers based on an idealized conception. My friend Mary had this experience in college. She started working at the tutoring center on campus because she loved the idea of helping people learn. The students she worked with, however, expected her to fix their mistakes and act as a proofreader. They were not interested in learning anything. Thinking her difficulties were based on the setting, Mary began tutoring for a specific department on campus, but her experience was the same. After spending two years following a dream that never became reality, Mary quit tutoring and became a reference librarian. Now, she helps people find information, but she is not expected to give them all the answers.
In order to avoid an experience like Mary’s, ask specific questions during your interview. We have conceptions which go with titles like “office manager,” “human resources supervisor,” or “teacher” which may vary greatly depending on the employer. The interview is your opportunity to find out more about the job itself and determine if it matches your ideas and values. Make sure you are clear on the responsibilities and procedures you will be expected to perform. Being informed will help you separate dreams and preconceptions from reality.
Considering Why, Who and What when Choosing a Job or Career
July 30th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
Marcus Buckingham’s questions of why, who and what (see previous post for more details) can also be good guides for the job searcher.
Why: If you know a company’s purpose, you can determine if their position would be in accord with your own values. Many job search guides ask you to list what is most important to you to determine which jobs are best suited for you. If you value helping children, you might want to work in a daycare or school, and not at a corporation which endorses child labor.
Who: While looking for a new position, you should understand who you will be working with. Some people work best in a large group or with one or two close coworkers, so you should know your strengths. Be careful about getting too attached to the idea of working with specific people because they may move on, leaving you in a situation you dislike.
What: Understanding what exactly you will be doing is tantamount to choosing a job or a career. If you accept a job advertised as “writing” for the local newspaper without asking questions, you might be writing ad copy instead of covering stories. Even if you share your company’s goals and like your coworkers, your success in your career will come from following through on your daily tasks.
Three Important Questions: Why, Who and What
July 28th, 2008. Published under Career Satisfaction. No Comments.
There comes a point in everyone’s life when you wake up and a feeling of despair sets in. You just can’t bear to go to work again, speak to the same people, and do the same monotonous tasks.
When Marcus Buckingham, author and motivational speaker, works with someone facing this problem, he asks them three important questions:
- Why this job? What is its broader purpose?
- Who are you working with?
- What exactly do you do at this job?
By exploring these questions, you can isolate the real reasons you are staying in an unsatisfying job. Often we can be enchanted with the idea behind our work or with our co-workers, making us loyal to a career that is not meeting our personal needs
The people you work with may keep you in a job with no opportunity for advancement. You may like preparing documents and giving presentations, but you may not care for your company’s goals or motives. Dedication to a career helping people may keep you working with doctors and nurses you despise.
These questions will help you gain a deeper understanding of your relationship with your job and what you really value from the experience.