On Careers
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Don't Let Them Underestimate You
Continue reading… 2 CommentsOne of the saddest sights in a workplace is the highly skilled person whose accomplishments are discounted or ignored because he or she made the job look easy.
This happens more often than you would imagine. The person tackles responsibilities that would sink a lesser talent, creates a systematic way to address the routine challenges, develops a strong team, and drags order out of chaos. Things begin to hum along.
They hum so well that outsiders conclude the original situation must not have been too bad.
What can you do to prevent this?
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When a Colleague Leaves Under a Cloud
Continue reading… 0 CommentsI received the following e-mail: 'X' has been suspended, with pay, pending the results of an investigation. Please don't make quick judgments regarding this situation. We want to allow this to play out fairly. During this time, 'Y' will assume the duties of "acting director." Programs and activities will continue as planned.
The E-mail was sent by the President of my college. Is this a legal practice?
I’m not going to jump into the legal/illlegal game, as I am not a lawyer. You’ll have to go elsewhere for free legal advice.
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The Thing You Must Give Up
Continue reading… 1 CommentI have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is, you can’t have it all. The good news is, when you give up an insistence on having it all, you’re way more likely to get what you really want.
We live in an age of, “I want it all, and I want it easy,” yet when we pursue those twin objectives, we often end up with little more than a bag full of wishful thinking. With that in mind, I have an important question for you. What are you willing to sacrifice?
Now, before the idea of sacrificing sends you running the other way, let me give it a little different spin. Another way of asking “What am I willing to sacrifice” is “What choices am I willing to make in order to get there?” In many ways, sacrifice is really about nothing more than choices and priorities. It’s about saying, “Sure I would like to have that, but this is more important to me right now.”
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The Secure Job is Back in Style
Continue reading… 3 CommentsTime was, people chose careers based on potential employability. Anxious mothers urged their sons and daughters to become doctors, engineers, accountants, and teachers “because there’ll always be a need for that kind of work.”
In the go-go nineties and until recently, people worried less about need. The economy felt strong and people had money—or thought they did—for the extras. Making your living as, say, a closet organizer or personal concierge seemed perfectly doable. Few likely paused to reflect that these were needs a very wealthy, comfortable society demands and that if the market stopped heading up, up up, their income could go down, down, down.
Nowadays, many of us have gone back to organizing our own closets and running our own errands. Job hunters are looking to the fields still hiring (or at least the ones not bleeding jobs): education, healthcare, IT, engineering.
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What To Do After You Get Advice
Continue reading… 2 CommentsThis is for recent college graduates, networkers, and friends of friends.
You may have already discovered the one universal truth about relationship building, career advancement, and mentoring: People love giving advice. Asking “would you help me?” and “may I get some career advice from you?” nearly always get you to third base. Say it aloud: People love giving advice. It fascinates me to hear there are people who still think otherwise.
OK. Just remember it is not a one-way street. With advice cometh responsibility, saith someone like Socrates, and this is what was meant:
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The Ideal Colleague
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIf he made a commitment, he kept it. It might take some wrangling – always polite, of course – to get that promise, but once granted, you never had to check your back.
He was invariably polite and gave others the benefit of the doubt. “You don’t know what people are going through” was one of his truths and he cut a lot of slack in the face of rude behavior.
His ability to drain personalities from disputes was legendary. He always wanted to see if the other side’s position had any merit. He was wary of broad brushes and equally careful of automatically going to the middle ground.
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The Unexpected Wisdom of Being Honest in a Job Interview
Continue reading… 3 CommentsWhen in a job interview, you should say whatever you think the interviewers want to hear, right? Suck up, even if you don’t really mean it, say whatever it takes to get the job. Right?
Wrong. You don’t want a job where you have to lie to get it. You really don’t. You’ll be miserable, and same for your boss and coworkers.
But, isn’t it a huge risk to speak your actual mind? Yes, but it's less of a risk than taking a job you aren’t suited for. As an example, a friend told me about a job interview she had recently. During the phone interview, she told them she was not interested in pursuing the job any further because the job required her to directly supervise 25 people covering four areas.
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Find Your Positive Inner Pragmatist
Continue reading… 1 CommentMany of the obstacles to creating a career that lights you up can look completely reasonable on the surface. One is pragmatism.
Not just any kind of pragmatism, mind you. I’m talking about the needlessly negative variety. For so many people, “I’m just being pragmatic” really boils down to, “I have an excuse to say no.”
Under the guise of pragmatism, people have a reason to say, “No, I can’t follow that dream. It’s not realistic. No, I can’t take that step. I have too many demands on my time. No, I can’t do that thing that energizes me, because I have too many practical concerns to think about.”
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How to Rebuild Your Community After a Layoff
Continue reading… 2 CommentsWhen you lose your job, you lose more than a paycheck. You lose your community.
Many workplaces are like families. Companies encourage this because an emotional attachment to your coworkers and a desire to support them is often what’s behind your “choice” to work nights and weekends for no extra pay.
You may even be one of the increasing number of Americans who has few or no friends outside of work, which makes losing a job an emotional, as well as financial, blow.
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Shiny Pennies in the Workplace
Continue reading… 0 CommentsWe are all easily entranced by new products, services, ideas, applications and…..people. It is hard to resist the temptation of the “new.” Even the answer to the question, “Do you want the La-Z-Boy you see here, or what is behind door no. 2?” almost always gets answered “Door no. 2, Drew!”
Most new things come all wrapped up and pretty, shiny and new--but mostly they're just different. I call it the shiny penny syndrome (not original) and I have made this mistake plenty.
This is how many consultants earn their living. They know pretty much what you tell them, but do a better job of articulating it, organizing it, and then telling you what you must do… later. Still , they look good in suits, mill around smartly, and are awfully impressive. Shiny pennies. Not true? How many studies do you have in your drawer that have not been acted upon…yet?
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When Gen Y Just Doesn't Fit In
Continue reading… 4 CommentsWhat do government agencies, nonprofits, and unionized entities have in common?
Dinosaurs. (And I mean that affectionately.)
While many career blogs and job-related social networks would have you believe otherwise, there are still many baby boomers in our workforce. Don't let their weaker eyesight and slower response times fool you--these folks are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Many of them are still damn good at what they do.
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Are You Making These Job Reference Mistakes?
Continue reading… 8 CommentsIt turns out that it's possible for your references to diminish your chances of getting the job without even saying a word. Here's a recent experience I had when checking the references of two candidates I was torn between.
Candidate no. 1 gave me the phone numbers of three former managers. I reached each of them easily and their references were strong.
Candidate no. 2 also gave me a list of references. One featured a phone number which, when I called it, turned out to be disconnected. Another featured a number that was answered by someone else, not even at the same company. I had to contact the candidate several times to get correct numbers. This raised red flags about the candidate's attention to detail and whether she doesn't tend to check things out before handing over potentially wrong information. In the position she was applying for, that could be disastrous.
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10 Ways to Handle a Crisis
Continue reading… 1 CommentAt some point, you may have to deal with a workplace crisis. Here are some actions your team should consider:
1. Prevent it. This is a pre-crisis step, of course, and it requires the ability to visualize how things could go wrong. Although seemingly a basic skill, those who fall in love with a project or plan may have difficulty spotting the vulnerable areas.
2. Stabilize the situation. The crisis has arrived. Now you need to assert control, isolate the crisis, and minimize the damage.
3. Notify your boss. Pronto. The bad news will not improve with age.
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When The Boss's Wife is The HR Department
Continue reading… 7 CommentsI worked for a small, husband and wife- owned company. The husband was my boss and also the President of the company. His wife? The entire HR Department. Isn't this, oh, I don't know, a conflict of interest? There were several instances where I had a problem with the way my boss treated my coworkers and me, but didn't really feel comfortable talking about it with his wife. Is it the type of situation where having your wife as HR is a bad idea, but there are no rules against it?
There are lots of things that are bad ideas, but businesses do them anyway. Now, is it a good idea or a bad idea to have the boss's wife in charge of HR? Well, that depends on the people involved. If she's a competent HR person, then I'm all for it. If she was hired because shes the boss's wife, well then, that's a whole different ball of wax. Remember, the point of HR is to help the business succeed, not to play referee between employees and management.
I think your concern is that if you go to HR (the wife) and say, "Your husband is treating me like dirt," she'll be defensive and she'll take his side. This is highly likely. What's even more likely is that regardless of the relationship between the president and HR, HR will take the president's side. Why? Because I have never seen a company where HR didn't have to report to the president.
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Put Away The Magic Wand And Work
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIf the article titles on magazine covers are to be believed, we’re all just a hair’s breadth away from whatever our hearts desire. “Three easy steps to ______,” they shout. “Achieve _____ in only 20 minutes a day!” And we eat it up. We can’t get enough of those quick fixes that promise maximum results for a minimal time investment. And what’s not to love about that?
Well, potentially plenty. While it’s theoretically possible that we’ll come across just the idea that will let us make ultragigantihumongous change in our lives in short order, for the most part the quick and easy route doesn’t stick. Real, substantive change in your life tends to come in slow, measured doses.
It’s like creating a new habit. Have you ever resolved to create a new positive habit? Something like, “OK, now I’m going to exercise regularly,” or, “I’m going to read every night now instead of watching TV.” If you have, you have probably also experienced a well-intended habit spiraling downward into oblivion.
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Ignore The Numbers. Get a Job.
Continue reading… 2 CommentsYou can’t pick up a paper, thumb through a magazine, listen to the radio, watch TV, or log on these days without being pummeled by the relentless news: Unemployment is up. The economy is down. The sky is falling and it's aimed right for your head.
As if looking for a job wasn’t hard enough.
You’re tempted to just stop consuming news. You’re tempted to just give up the job hunt. But you need to keep up with the world, and you need to find a job.
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Should Extra Duties Equal More Pay?
Continue reading… 10 CommentsA reader writes:
I am currently a secretary, with a degree in computer engineering. My employer now wants me to be the back-up I.T. person in the office, which is not a part of a support staff position. Is it unprofessional to expect or to ask to be compensated for this addition of extra duties? Can you please tell me the best way to ask for compensation and the appropriate time to ask?
Are they asking you to work more hours? Take on work that you strongly prefer not to do? Or is your only objection that it's outside of your regular job description?
If the latter, asking for more money isn't likely to go over well. You'll risk being seen as difficult and not particularly committed to the company or your own performance.
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How to Make Enemies
Continue reading… 8 CommentsThere are at least 30 ways to make enemies in the workplace:
- Always correct others when they are wrong.
- Avoid “win-win” outcomes and instead rub in an opponent’s loss.
- Surprise people with bad news.
- Overpromise.
- Underperform.
- Let others rely upon your word, and then renege on your commitment.
- Use sarcasm.
- Spread rumors.
- Boast.
- Lie.
- Belittle people.
- Respond promptly whenever you are angry.
- Routinely question the motives of others.
- Be too busy for others.
- Don’t respect their time.
- Make loose allegations.
- Be uncaring.
- Ignore common courtesies.
- Don’t return letters, calls or email.
- Engage in personal attacks.
- Exhibit cruel and senseless prejudices.
- Openly enjoy the discomfort of others.
- Embarrass people.
- Don’t keep confidences.
- Claim undue credit.
- Be hypercritical.
- Be indiscreet.
- Be crude.
- Look down on people.
- Kiss up and kick down.
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The Dream-Killing "No" is Often Illogical
Continue reading… 2 CommentsWant a simple tip to increase the likelihood that you will find a career that lights you up? One that is easy to implement and involves no risk whatsoever?
Resist the urge to say “No” prematurely.
Easy, huh? But too often I hear the glimmer of a dream start to show up, only to be followed immediately by some variation of “That will never work,” or, “That’s not realistic.”
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How to Look Smarter Than You Are
Continue reading… 12 CommentsTimes are tough and everybody’s looking for an edge. So here’s an easy, and ethical, tip for looking smarter than you really are at work:
Talk more.
Yup, that’s it. Research shows that people who speak up more often in groups are viewed as more competent and more instrumental to a group’s overall success. Maybe they aren’t the smartest people in the room, and maybe what they have to say isn’t always 100 percent right on, but talkative people are perceived as more dominant. And, for better or for worse, dominant people are perceived as competent people.
