On Careers
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Why the Secretary Is Part of the Interview, Too
Continue reading… 3 CommentsHello. It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm glad we were able to find a convenient interview time so quickly.
Let me explain how this process works. You were waiting in the reception area for around five minutes. You arrived a little early and scored a few points for that. (You'd be surprised at how many applicants show up late for interviews and how many don't appear at all, so I appreciate your beating the clock.)
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How to Change Your Life With People
Continue reading… 3 CommentsWant a quick prediction of your potential in life? Take a look at the people around you.
How high do they inspire you to fly? Do they lift you up, or do they drag you down? Do they energize you or drain you? Do they inspire belief, or do they plant seeds of doubt?
When you surround yourself with people who are positive and motivated, who believe in their potential, a funny thing happens. Even if nothing else in your life changes, it starts to rub off on you. It starts to change your paradigm.
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The Worst Interview Question of Them All
Continue reading… 8 CommentsNo, it's not "If you were a breakfast cereal, which kind would you be?"
Although that's close.
It's this: "What is your salary history?"
You will want to say, "It's really none of your business." But it's hard to pull that off without sounding snarky. So here are four sample answers. Take your pick.
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A Pretty Website Won't Make Selling Easy
Continue reading… 4 CommentsOver the years, I have seen far too many sales and marketing people develop, create, and depend upon sales literature and brochures to present, and even sell, their services and products.
Far too much time and resources have been spent on this activity.
One time, at a sales meeting, I passed out our new literature and asked, rather proudly—since I had been involved its development—how the literature was "performing" for them? One older, rather confident and curmudgeonly sales guy held 'my' sales literature and looked at it. He said: "Well, if you want to know, here's what I think." He then tore it in half and said, "It's worthless, no help at all."
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6 Reasons Your Résumé Goes Straight to My Trash
Continue reading… 13 CommentsWhen I review résumés, a surprising percentage of them go straight into the reject pile because of mistakes that could have been avoided. Here are the top reasons why:
1. Your cover letter is clearly a form letter that you're mass-mailing—and it doesn't even relate to the job. The most extreme version of this is when an applicant leaves another company's name in the letter by mistake. But plenty of times, the letter is simply utterly generic and displays no sign that the candidate bothered to read my job posting.
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The Power of Reciprocity at Work
Continue reading… 0 CommentsFrom Christianity to Buddhism, almost all of the major world religions believe that the more you give, the more you get in return.
Making the place you work the best place possible falls on your shoulders. Help make the office a better space by giving until you drop.
It's not just giving; it's the intention behind giving. You have to want to make it really count without motive or selfishness. Mutual action, or the power of reciprocity, starts with YOU.
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21 Management Lessons from Successful Politicians
Continue reading… 11 Comments- Call people by name.
- Find out what they want.
- Give them your time.
- Go to all parts of your community.
- Listen carefully.
- Don't try to do too much.
- Keep in touch.
- Simplify your message.
- Maintain key principles.
- Think several steps ahead.
- Recognize your supporters.
- Listen to your opponents.
- Adjust your strategies so they correspond to, or reshape, reality.
- Marshal your resources.
- Consider new perspectives.
- Develop your skills.
- Pay attention to those who may feel excluded.
- Understate your case.
- Avoid convoluted explanations.
- Don't accord too much weight to your greatest fans and critics.
- Lead and serve.
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When to Ignore Your Turnover
Continue reading… 2 CommentsI work for a large third-party logistics company that has some of the largest retail suppliers in the world. My site has an average of 115 hourly and management employees on the payroll per month. What is the best way to calculate turnover, hourly and management? What is the clearest formula for finding the monthly and year-to-date percentile?
Of course, if you are still reading by this point, I have to give you credit. What on earth can be more boring than turnover? (Hint: data audits)
I admit it—I have a soft spot in my heart for turnover. I do, really. I've also had some rather intense arguments on how we should calculate turnover. I've even become somewhat emotional over the subject.
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Put Your Favorite Quote to Work
Continue reading… 4 CommentsDo you have a favorite quote? Are you wasting its potential?
Quotes have the potential to be inspiring reminders of the way we want to live our lives. Unfortunately they rarely live up to that potential, amounting instead to little more than meaningless sound bites. They go in one ear—we nod vigorously in agreement like a bobblehead doll—and they go right out the other.
I started thinking about this recently when I came across a quote from Gandhi that seems to be ubiquitous these days: "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
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Is Your Boss Superhuman?
Continue reading… 7 CommentsMaybe you've had one. A boss who's a likable, funny, generous, and all-around lovely human, but who is...a terrible boss. Unreliable. Inconsistent. Disorganized. In short, a nightmare.
The qualities that make people charming and fun are not the same qualities that make them good bosses. In fact, it's a lot harder to be a good boss than to be a nice person. Why? Because a good boss is a predictable, sane, and organized human being who can handle power with grace and humility.
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4 Lessons Learned From Blog Commenters
Continue reading… 6 CommentsThere is nothing worse than getting older and dumber.
Last week, I tried to make what I thought was—and had intended to be—an innocent comparison between the motivated followers of Rep. Ron Paul and passionate, excited employees. In 250 words, my goal was to point out some of what was working for Paul and show how you could do something similar. That was dumb, consensus showed.
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What to Do if You Think You’re About to Get Fired
Continue reading… 14 CommentsOften, when someone is having serious performance issues and in danger of losing their job, they simply do...nothing. Sometimes it's denial about the severity of the situation, but other times people just feel helpless to change anything. If you're getting signals that your job may be in jeopardy, however, doing nothing is about the worst thing you can do. Instead, here are some ways to take control of the situation and turn it into something more manageable:
1. First, drop your ego. It's human nature to want to defend ourselves against criticism. But focusing on your defense—or the idea that your boss is crazy/tyrannical/wrong—can keep you from an objective analysis of whether there's any truth to the complaints. I've seen a sad number of cases where the things that got someone fired could have been fixed if the person had truly heard the criticism, rather than put up walls and refused to process it. Even if your boss is a tyrant, you do yourself a disservice by not hearing the feedback with an open mind.
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The Pros/Cons of an Online Masters
Continue reading… 11 CommentsTen years removed from college, and for the first time in a decade, I'm flirting with the idea of continuing my education. I'm honestly not sure where this newfound idea is rooted. Boredom? Ego? A challenge? Thirst for knowledge? The truth will shake out over the next few weeks as I begin to familiarize myself with the GMAT, online programs, and the positive/negatives of the endeavor. (My sneaking suspicion is that the MATH will ultimately keep me away.)
Here are some questions that need to be answered before I move forward:
- What will I study and how will it help my career?
- Will an advanced degree help me at my current job or is a company/career switch necessary?
- How will I pay for it? What's the ROI?
- Even though my job doesn't outwardly offer tuition reimbursement, is there a way I can convince them to foot the bill?
- Do I have the time to commit?
- Are there other alternatives that can satisfy my list of pros? Perhaps a certificate program?
- How important is the name of the school attended? What if they only have an online presence? (Stay away from diploma mills and understand the differences between nationally and regionally accredited schools.)
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How Much Personality Should You Bring to the Office?
Continue reading… 2 CommentsA true challenge in the workplace is learning how much of our real personality can be revealed without producing serious career damage. This should not imply that our genuine nature is defective, of course, but who among us would not benefit from Tongue-Biting 101?
Employees rightly assume that while management might talk about embracing diversity, acting like rebels, and thinking outside of whatever geometric shape is the latest rage, none of those activities are without limits. Visit your organization's fringe offices and you'll probably meet a lot of eccentrics, some of whom earned that label by speaking their minds. There is a fine line between the genius and the crank, and sometimes no line at all.
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5 Rules for Laying Off an Employee
Continue reading… 2 CommentsLast month, we talked about what questions to ask if you are ever laid off. But what if you are unlucky enough to be the manager of someone whose position is being eliminated? This is different from a termination for cause—this is someone who has the misfortune of being in the wrong position at the wrong time.
Here are five things to help you through this stressful experience:
1. Don't give any false hope. By the time you sit down, the decision has been made and everyone has signed off on it. Don't let your employee think that maybe there's a chance. It just makes the layoff more painful.
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Say No to Black-and-White Thinking
Continue reading… 0 CommentsWant a surefire way to limit your ability to create a future that energizes and inspires you? Think in black and white.
So often I see people looking at life's options and obstacles as though there were only two possibilities for any given scenario. "Either I do it this way or I can't do it at all. Either I do it perfectly or my efforts are completely flawed. Either I take this path to my goal or there's no way to get there."
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How to Lead a Headhunter to Your Head
Continue reading… 1 CommentNeed a job? A headhunter may be your answer. But how do you get your head hunted?
It's simple but not easy: The way to find a good headhunter is to put yourself in places where headhunters will find you.
Headhunters don't exist to get you a job. You as a job-hunter can't hire a headhunter. Headhunters work for employers—it's important to remember that's where their paycheck comes from and that's where their loyalties lie. Many headhunters won't even take calls from job applicants.
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Overwhelming Your New Employees Will Kill Productivity
Continue reading… 0 CommentsLast week was the beginning of a new project at work. I am practicing a new role and the employee below me is only three weeks into his first career. Needless to say, we are both expanding our skills.
We began our project, like most, with a pre-engagement meeting to help familiarize everyone with the data and the client. The concepts we were covering were fairly foreign to our new employee and rarely covered in the college classroom.
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What Ron Paul Knows That Your Company Doesn't
Continue reading… 113 CommentsI am no political commentator, pundit, operative, or shill. Consider me "A-Political." I do vote, but that's about it. (I say this so I do not get spammed to death from one political campaign, party, or candidate. This post is NOT about politics. So spare me, puh-lease.)
But still...
I am a "connection theorist" by habit. I like to see how something works in one area and think of how I would apply that activity to another. You probably do the same—we can connect seemingly unique or disparate activities to make a bigger point. Our daily mantra is: "Can this work over here?"
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Work: Where Good Ideas Go to Die?
Continue reading… 2 CommentsGeorge Jetson was hired to push a button. Nothing more. Nothing less. His boss, Mr. Spacely, never wanted to hear from George about how he could push the button differently or be more productive.
Where I'm going with this is how there are many jobs where you are merely expected to carry out a function—that's it—case closed.
For some people, this type of work is easy and appreciated. Others find it boring, frustrating, and claustrophobic.
