Career

Where are YOU going in Year 2016 and Beyond? You don’t need a New Year’s resolution to set in motion a positive change in your life. However, you do need to set goals and put a plan into action. Many times we are not taught to set goals. Yes, we may find ourselves dreaming about a better vacation, getting out of debt or owning a business when the boss asks us to work yet, another weekend. But effective goal setting is more than just talking or dreaming about what you want to accomplish. There are specific steps to successful goal setting. Here are some guidelines to help you establish your goals and achieve them. What Do YOU Want Out of Life? The foundation to a goal begins with a want, desire or a dream. First of all, you must search yourself for the wants, desires and dreams that you have ...
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You may not have thought about this, but everyday you use your negotiating skills. Have you ever asked the plumber to discount his repair bill or asked if there are any special room rates available at the hotel you're planning to stay at? Have you ever interviewed for a position or asked your boss for a raise? In every example you NEGOTIATED your position in an effort to better your situation. There is nothing wrong with using different means to improve your situation. However, many times in our careers, we pass up great opportunities for a promotion or a raise or to work on an exciting, high profile assignment because we don’t: 1) SEE the opportunity to ask for a better situation or 2) we don’t feel comfortable ASKING for the better situation. As a side note, sometimes number 2 leads to number 1 because we aren’t on the lookout ...
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Leaving a Winning Lasting Impression The key to securing the position you want is showing your potential employer that you are the most qualified candidate. It is not about how great your resume looks or what you did at your previous job, but how you will solve their problems. Only half the battle is won at the interview. The final winning blow is dealt at the end with your follow up letter. Understand the Key Qualifications of the Position It is quite obvious that you will be promoting your skills and work experience during the interview, but make sure you walk out of the meeting with a clear understanding of what the specific job responsibilities are. Because an effective follow up letter does not just thank the interviewer for his or her time and consideration, but also reconfirms each key qualification of the position and explains how each one will ...
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If you are the typical woman, life never slows down for you. Between taking care of your work, family and personal obligations, there isn't any time left for you. However, if you are feeling "burnt-out" you need, no, you MUST, take a personal break and reward yourself. Here are three easy tips to refresh yourself. Schedule quiet time each week Reward yourself for your accomplishments Have a personal day or evening each month Schedule quiet time each week You can feel the pressure building up inside you. You feel yourself becoming irritated at the smallest inconvenience or problem that normally wouldn't upset you. You are heading for a "melt down". Time to refresh. Start by forcing yourself to schedule a quiet time each week. Literally turn off the outside world. Turn off your pager, cell phone, forward your calls, and tell whoever you need to that you will be unavailable ...
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Have you called someone to just relay some information and was drawn into a relatively long conversation talking about the weather, the home team, political and current events, their home life, etc? The call took you completely off track of the subject matter you wanted to relay and you felt it would be rude to interrupt even though you had an insurmountable list of things to do. Here is a short list of three things you can do to save some time and keep yourself from being held captive in unnecessary conversation. Announce time constraint. When starting a conversation, you can open with something like, "Tom, I only have a minute and I wanted to get back to you about……" By warning most people in advance that you don't have much time to spend with them, they generally will catch the subtle hint and not keep you with idle chit-chat ...
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Sometimes being a frontline manager is a thankless job. You're required to keep your staff motivated to work long hours, producing superior work product and remain "happy campers" even if their annual raise this year was not up to their expectation. Each person on your team is an important cog in the wheel that keeps your department running smoothly. Unfortunately, when someone on your team is not carrying her weight, resentment amongst the other staff members may surface. It is so true that "One bad apple can spoil the whole bushel". What makes it worse is, if one person is consistently late to work or never completes their assignment on time and you allow this to continue, the other staff members blame not only the non-performing individual, but also you. If you notice a member of your staff falling behind in their work performance, you need to address it immediately ...
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The second of the four steps to success is to make a decision to change. Here is a truism: "If you do what you have always done, you will have what you always had". What this means is that you need to do something different to achieve more (yes, I do mean CHANGE). After you have determined what you want (your goals), decide what you will be willing to do different (change) with your life and reprioritize your daily, weekly, monthly life's activities to accommodate these decisions to change. An example might be: You decide you need to go to school evenings to obtain more education, however, the bowling league you are in meets the only night the class is offered. Decision time! You make a decision to change based on your desire to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. You determine that it is more important for ...
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It's that dreaded time of year when your boss calls you into her office and hands you the all too familiar annual review form. Your heart beats wildly as you try to read the small print crammed into the little boxes titled "Comments". Whew! You let out a mental sigh of relief because there are no unsatisfactory boxes checked. But some of the comments your boss makes about your work performance comes as a shock. What does she mean, "lacks initiative" or "needs to work on her time management skill" or may be even something like "lacks confidence"? Why didn't she talk to me earlier, so I could improve BEFORE my review was written up….and why didn't she write anything about the new marketing plan I put together. Everyone is already using it. Well, it's too late now. I wonder if I'll even get that promotion? Most people take on ...
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Memos are a great way of effectively conveying your message to many people. But what good is it if nobody understands what you are trying to say. Think of how many reams of paper with tiny black and white print cross over your supervisor's desk each day. If you want your memo's to stand out from the crowd, apply these winning methods for memo writing. Before you begin writing, identify the purpose of the memo. Are you documenting a meeting? Do you need someone to take action? Are you addressing a personnel issue for an employee's file? Make sure you clearly state that specific purpose in one sentence at the very beginning of the memo. No one has time to muddle through several paragraphs to figure out why you wrote the memo. For example: "This memo documents our understanding of the terms of the agreement discussed at our meeting on ...
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