Sunday, December 29, 2019

Self-talk How I overcame negative self-talk to be more confident

Self-talk How I overcame negative self-talk to be mora confidentSelf-talk How I overcame negative self-talk to be mora confidentSelf-talk, the words we mutter in ur minds, can have a strong influence over our performance.Ive found that the right attitude, coupled with the right internal dialogue, can make things happen in life. The wrong attitude, however, combined with self-doubting dialogue, can stop you in your tracks and make you want to run home and hide your head.I can recall one professional experience when this welches really clear to me.During a mainboard meeting for a Marine Corps nonprofit, the chairman asked us, What are we not doing to help fund our organizations mission? Can anyone think of anything that we havent considered?Well, I had an idea. Scanning the boardroom, it was clear to me that our board composition could be more diverse. I raised my hand and said to the chairman, I think one of our challenges is the lack of diversity represented on our board. Theres more than enough data to support that diverse boards deliver stronger results - financial and otherwise. This is true in the corporate world, and I cant imagine why it would be different in the nonprofit world.After sharing some facts and figures to support my perspective, I finished up and then sat up in my seat a little bit straighter, proud that Id made my case so strongly.Then I waited for a reply. And waited . . . and waited.That was when my confident pride faded to insecurity. Oh dear God, I thought. What have I done?You could hear crickets. Rarely did this board not have an opinion. I felt insecure over having raised the issue that silenced the room. I then felt embarrassed, like I had either offended someone or that maybe I had tarnished the reputation I had been carefully building.When the meeting adjourned, I didnt engage in polite chitchat with the other members but headed straight to the door, caught a cab, and hightailed it to the airport so I could go home and be alone wi th my self-destructive insecure thoughts.While boarding the plane, I passed our boards general counsel, a very famous attorney - John Dowd, who authored the Dowd Report that led to the suspension of Pete Rose from baseball for life.He asked me to sit next to him, and while I didnt want to, fearing a confrontation, I sat down out of respect. And immediately he jumped into the conversation with, Im glad you brought that point up about diversity. Youre right.He then shared that he was going to talk with the CEO about the diversity of our board, because we might be missing out on some of its key benefits.In those moments, Johns perspective shed some critical light on my self-talk. He made me realize how quickly Id taken the others silence to mean that they were judging me when maybe they were just thinking and reflecting about something theyd never thought about before.I was amazed by how automatically Id conjured the worst-case scenario without even considering a best-case scenario. I realized that I needed to have more confidence in myself and write a new inner dialogue for when Im feeling stressed or pressured, because the current one wasnt helping.Had I not had this random encounter with John, I would have drowned myself in my own miserable self-talk for weeks.John and I spent the next 30to 40minutes talking about our life experiences, diversity, families, and the Marine Corps. He ended up introducing me to General Joseph Dunford then Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, the second-highest-ranking Marine in the organization.After an initial meeting, General Dunford asked for my help in arranging a private luncheon with other Marines and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, whos the CEO-equivalent in the organization, and his executive team. It was a lively, candid, and memorable discussion.My relationship with General Dunford continued as he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with whom Ive now shared my thoughts, ideas, and research on diversi ty to help promote a military in which everyone - from recruit to active-duty service member to Veteran- recognizes the benefits that diversity can bring to an organization.When I look back on the string of events that allowed me to provide my perspectives on diversity to the highest levels of the military, theres no doubt that confidence has been a part of every step.This Spark quality,which I define in my recent bookSpark,as your belief in your abilities and the feeling that you can rise to the occasion when the pressure is on, inspired me to speak my mind and share my point of view, even though I had mistakenly told myself that it had been received poorly. In fact, speaking up opened the door to greater opportunities.What has sustained me as a Spark is the ability to manage my confidence by substituting positive self-appraisals for those harmful, negative ones. Im not perfect at this - Im still a work in progress - but I lean on this story about John Dowd and General Dunford for confidence boosting all the time.Angie Morgan is a former Captain in the U.S., Marine Corps, co-creator of Lead Star, and co-author of Leading from the Front and SPARK How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt January 2017).

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Examples of Resume Words to Avoid When to use Career Oriented Synonyms

Examples of Resume Words to Avoid When to use Career Oriented SynonymsExamples of Resume Words to Avoid When to use Career Oriented SynonymsHighly energetic and other flimsy, fluffy and weak resume phrases and words to avoid.Youre highly qualified. Youre results focused.Youre also energetic, confident and professional - and if you put those words in your resume, youve just caused a hiring professionals eyes to glaze over.Why is such language undesirable for resumes ? First, its subjective. Its the resume subjects own interpretation of herself, and its unacceptably vague.Words like successfully are pretty lame and overused. Such wording doesnt tell the reader what he wants to know, said Tina Brasher, a certified professional resume writer who works with Ladders and recently rewrote the resume of a 46-year-old technology executive who used this type of vague, subjective language on his resume before Brasher reworked the document.Resume readers want to know specifics relating to the bo ttom line, Brasher said. What they want to get out of a resume is 1) How can you make the company money ? and 2) How can you save the company money? she said. Theyre looking for a resume not only for that but, Are you qualified for the job opening I posted? And, Whats your skill tischset? How did you make a positive difference in the company you just left? How are you different and more valuable as an employee from John Smith whose resume I just read or John Doe whose resume Im about to read? Brasher offers the following list of what she calls fluffy language phrases and words that resume readers have seen 10 million times and that will lose their attention.Highly qualifiedResults focusedEffectual leaderHas talent forEnergeticConfidentProfessionalSuccessfullyOther words to avoid include competent, and its a good idea to stay away from its synonyms able, capable, fit, good, qualified or suitable, Brasher said.The following resume example is from the summary paragraph of the technolog y executives original resume the weak, subjective words are rendered in italic and shown in the context of how these words are typically used by far too many people who craft their own resumesHighly qualified Executive Manager offering more than 22 years of software development, consulting services business, product sales and tech support experiences. Results-focused and effectual leader with proven ability to turnaround troubled organizations. Has talent forproactively identifying and resolving problems and building highly motivated teamwork organization.The resume example below is Brashers revision of the technology executives summary paragraph. (The executive requested Ladders withhold the personenname of his employer.) While words such as excellent and seasoned are subjective, note that they are also backed up by specific facts (noted in bold underline) that will get noticed by a hiring professionalCombine astute strategic, business, and project management skills with an 11-year track record of business consultancy and analysis that enables revenue and profit growth. Excellent analytical, organizational, and leadership skills. Seasoned, collaborative leader skilled in motivating staff to achieve aggressive goals and objectives. Global business operational perspective through exposure to diverse business protocols, particularly in North America, Europe, Emerging Markets, and Asia Pacificwith technology company name withheld led more than 800 pre-sales technical support staff organization that supported $7B to $8B in revenue. Skilled in product development with solid hintergrund in IT systems.In the revised version, the resume summary statement gives readers a pretty good understanding of what this person can do, Brasher said. And that, of course, is far preferable to losing their attention for good.

Friday, December 20, 2019

4 Secrets to a Successful Job Share

4 Secrets to a Successful Job Share4 Secrets to a Successful Job ShareJob sharing can be a terrific solution for working moms or dads who want to pursue a high-powered career. If you want to succeed at this and find work/life balance here are some secrets you need to know. Job Sharing Is Like a Marriage Like a happy marriage, effective job sharing requires trust, flexibility, and compatibility between partners. The big secret behind a successfuljob-share situation is finding the right fit for employees. This is why if you are going to share your job you take your time finding the right teammate. Your job-share partner should have a similar professional style, work ethic, career goals and values as you. You dont want to come in for your half of the week and have to re-do all the work your teammates work because its not up to snuff. Most importantly, you should trust that any issues that arise when you are out of the office will be handled in a professional and thorough manner. You must be confident that your job will be performed equally well whether its your day or theirs. It Relies on Open Communication A job share should function as smoothly as if only one rolle filled the position. You and your partner must communicate as seamlessly as if you shared a brain. That means setting up systems that make it quick and easyfor you to hand off projects to each other. The other person should be able to easily find the answer to questions and understand the work you completed. For instance, at the end of your work shift, leave a memo about the work you completed. You could agree on consistent methods for naming and organizing both computer files and paper records. To help control your shared inbox, develop a way to sort and store e-mail that is efficient and simple. Its critical to clearly communicate as a united front with other members of your work team. For instance, a job-share team might use a shared email account, but the person writing a given email signs their name. Some job-share teams work so well together that they even apply for promotions or new jobs as a team. You could either develop a joint resume or have one person apply for the position and mention your interest in job sharing during the interview process. tischset a Consistent Schedule It may be tempting to split a job share position exactly in half, with each person covering 20 hours a week. That may work for service positions, where you complete all your tasks during the allotted hours and few projects carry over. For most jobs, its best for a job-share team to overlap at least once every week. That lets you communicate in person about ongoing projects, meetings, and goals. Some teams have each job-share partner work three days a week, meaning two days by themselves and one shared day (often Wednesday). By working side by side at least once a week, you strengthen the trust and team orientation that will ensure the success of your partnership. Agree in advance which person is on call for after-hours emergencies on any given day. You might want to split each week, alternate weeks or even alternate months, depending on what works best for your other responsibilities. Be Flexible One of the key benefits of job sharing is your ability to cover for your partner when they are on vacation or out sick or with a sick child. So its important to be flexible in scheduling. Each member of the job-share team should have flexible childcare or backup plans, such as a grandparent or other family member, in case the other partner has a personal emergency on the day when they are scheduled to work.? You also should communicate well in advance of any major life changes, such as possible maternity leave, applying for a promotion or potential relocation due to a spouses career change. The last thing you want is to blindside the person whos made it possible for you to enjoy a challenging, gratifying career while also having time for your family.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Build Relationships with Hiring Managers to Interview Better

Build Relationships with Hiring Managers to Interview BetterBuild Relationships with Hiring Managers to Interview BetterIn the story of interviewing for a job, sometimes the hiring manager can become the villain. After all, if youve been on interview after interview, sometimes it seems like theyre listing the perfect job for you over and over again only to pull it out from under your feet after the interview. Whod want to be friends with a villain? Not me, thats for sure. And so its worth considering that the attitude of me versus you might not be the healthiest one to bring into your interview. Instead of focusing on why the next hiring manager wont hire you, reframe your perspective. Consider ways in which you can develop a better relationship with a hiring manager to make each interview a deeper and mora satisfying interaction whether you get the job or not. Here are four ideas to help you get startedLose your preconceived notionsHave you been strung alongby a hiring manager in a past interview situation? Let it go. Just as you hope the hiring manager will not hold you accountable for the rude interviewee who answered a phone during the meeting so you should be willing to start this manager off with a clean slate. Do your best to enter every interview with an eager sense of curiosity about the person youll meet. Be prepared to accept them as they are and make inquiries as to who they are as a person. Use all communication methods thoughtfullyDont save your best impression for your in-person meeting. Starting with your very first email, be polite and thoughtful when you communicate with the hiring manager. Personalize your emails to the person youre speaking with, check for good grammar and spelling errors and put some thought into your email title. Escape into the interviewThe goal of an interview is to get a sense of how you work, how you think and who you are. If youre an introvert like 50 percentof the population, it may be hard for you to put that much p ressure into one 30-minute period of time without getting distracted or feeling like you cant be yourself.However, the key to forming a good relationship with a hiring manager is to be yourself. To help you feel mora comfortable, dont think of a job interview as a pressure performance. Try thinking of it as a brief opportunity to escape your day-to-day and to make a connection with someone else. If you focus on the one-on-one feel of two people having a conversation it will be much easier to feel that a connection is being made.Ask about the interviewerOne of the best ways to connect with people is to ask them about themselves. If you can get them talking about their passions and get them feeling as if you are genuinely interested in what they are saying, they will open up to the idea that a worthwhile relationship is being formed. It might seem like this approach to building a relationship with the hiring manager makes it more of social call than a job interview, but there are plen ty of ways to ask about the interviewer and get a personal connection while still keeping things professional. For example, ask them about their relationship with the company in different ways, such as What made you decide to work for X? Or What are you most proud of about this organization? Questions like these keep the conversation on topic but also reveal opportunities for a more intimate, personalized discussion.Are all hiring managers villains? Definitely not. Theyre just hard-working company representatives trying to fill the open position with the best candidate possible. And the best way for you to be seen as the best candidate is to forge a better relationship with the hiring manager.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Number One Question You Must Ask for Volunteering Resume

The Number One Question You Must Ask for Volunteering Resume There are a few formal certifications it is possible to obtain should you prefer to pursue employment outside the conventional apprenticeship model. Firefighting is an art which not only requires sacrifice but in addition requires qualifications. Its still true that you have skills to provide. Your resume is the perfect place to outline your particular accomplishments and relevant competencies. Get the Scoop on Volunteering Resume Before Youre Too Late Working at home is a possibility for a number of the work. Things were too intriguing. Well nowadays, its about you, Students As a result, if you want to turn into a volunteer, you will see volunteer resume templates very valuable. Volunteers should have the ability to create profiles on your site that collects information for their areas of interest. Volunteers may see the results within a few hours, and the full community enjoys and comments on the success for a couple days. A volunteer is a person who has made a decision they will do the job for a business or an organization without expecting a payment. Volunteers learn a good deal about the surrounding atmosphere. They will receive community service hours which is an excellent resume builder. A volunteer resume is all you want to start. Becoming a volunteer isnt always as simple as it seems. Remind volunteers that all types of users ought to be able to relish the advantages of the park in a clean and healthful atmosphere. You should give people a chance to present their time and help make a difference. Such programs ought to be focused on making materials-search very simple for readers. Many organizations using volunteers deliver extensive training that can be invaluable in the very long run. Even though there are professional added benefits of volunteering, the key motivations are usually entirely selfless. Your career objective can create a huge effect on the success of the resume in getting you the much sought after interview. With the following advice and data on average maintenance industry salaries you should have the ability to win any interview. There are some unique places where you could consist of volunteer experience on your resume the placement will truly depend on just what the remainder of your professional experience appears like and your present job objectives. Working in IT requires technical savvy, but in addition it entails working closely with individuals who have an extremely rudimentary comprehension of the technology they use each day. Volunteer work covers a vast range of activities and can vastly enhance your odds of receiving an interview for your perfect job if you understand how to put volunteer work on your resume in a means that shows your strengths, dedication and enthusiasm. Though more affordable part-time courses that are emerging, the expense of education is normally getting more expensive. If youre set in dwellin g in a specific area then you could be restricted to what jobs are available, but for the large part, the world will be wide open and you will most likely have many job possibilities to select from. Ideally, the opportunities you select should offer expert growth and networking. Seek out volunteer or employment opportunities with the kind of people who you feel you would like to work with.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Term Paper Template Tips & Guide

Term Paper Template Tips & Guide The selection posting a graduate faculty computer software program essay should concentrate on his aim and really ought to be straightforward in requesting it. Thus, methods to find college or university essay writing tips are sometimes a considerable share for folks hoping to locate entry into several educational institutions across the world. Around the Earth, students may join the exact same class, share info, and learn together. College students should use a suitable numbering for unique sections. A term paper is designed to gauge the students knowledge of the subject and the specific topic thats under consideration. True, such kind of assignment for a term paper needs a scrupulous strategy, time and confidence that youre doing it right. Firstly, in the event the topic space from the essay is of present-day curiosity needs to be cured analytically or provides the array of giving a totally new perspective it has a propensity to contain the focus within the website visitors. The simple format for a research paper proposal if you thought you would find it possible to acquire through college without a lot of writing, you may discover yourself asking, isnt. Dissertation is among the things which universities term paper bangladesh reckon as being a freiheitsgrade to learn a learners grasp of your distinctive topic. Without focus, papers usually do not flow well and are more difficult to read and understand. The outline will reflect your aims and the stream of the entire term paper. Before you commence preparing an outline, we suggest that you search for the sources readily available on your topic. Finding Term Paper Template If you dont understand how to perform the assigned work correctly, you could always visit our blog at Pro-Papers and find a few practical recommendations. When you havent any yet, then it is going to be better for you to hunt for any examples and samples of works to fully grasp the method b y which the work ought to be completed and formatted. Choose a topic that youre comfortable working on. Needless to say, to make a great program, you are going to have to decide on a topic initially and narrow it down not to get overwhelmed with materies out there. Its possible to look through the above-given one to find a rough idea of the way in which an outline needs to be structured and what are the fundamental components of it. In the corporate world, the cover page design is largely related to the essence of the organization and the sort of document youre producing. The term template is presented which can be readily edited any moment. Even though the fabric of the people phrases deviate whilst in the function theyre published. Where to Find Term Paper Template List your ideas to abflug with so the thesis linked must be accumulated. Despite the fact that crafting an essay, many ways should be submitted in the mind so as to allow it to work. Another person learning t he precise same term paper outline template essay may have an extra viewpoint stage. Indoors a couple of phrases it offers you an image from your primary heart and soul from the essay. Hence, youve got to know developing a scholar college admission essay. A good a couple of sentence thesis statement is necessary before they end their introduction. Even though it noises quite simple, the scholars has to be diligent term paper apa whilst addressing like important questions. There are quite a lot of trends of scholar education essays. The Basic Facts of Term Paper Template Think if it is going to bring you anywhere as you write your term paper. Prior to getting very far, you will require a term paper outline. For that reason, its so important to understand how to make an outline for a term paper because it will function as a framework or draft to rely on. Moreover, you might have to compose an annotated term paper outline. To utilize APA paper outline or a different style, you must read many samples of such documents. Most significantly, the document must be shown in the suitable format. Templates for research papers the next material is designed to supply you with a few guidelines for organization of a term paper we also have included some. The subject, the material along with layout from the essay term paper cover take pleasure in the perfect added benefits. The most important thing here is that they ought to be functional and provide you a better comprehension of the way to structure the draft and ultimately the paper itself. It is possible to still revise your topic if you believe your present one isnt good enough. The primary purpose of a white paper is to promote certain ideas generated for many different distinct factors. When you are searching for examples in the MLA style, there are many place youre able to look.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

What Everyone Else Does When It Comes to Resume for College Graduate and What You Need to Do Different

What Everyone Else Does When It Comes to Resume for College Graduate and What You Need to Do Different What the In-Crowd Wont Tell You About Resume for College Graduate If youre still a fresh graduate, dont be scared to go out there and compete with individuals who have professional experiences. Review job notices and remember to include how your skills can deal with the requirements of the employer. Capitalize on your skills, since it will compensate for your lack of specialist experience. Demonstrating you have work experience is vital, even supposing it isnt directly associated with your objectives. Top Choices of Resume for College Graduate Wherever you are able to add numbers. Or maybe, its because of your poorly written resume. In addition, be sure your resume is formatted well. People today become fired from the job for assorted reasons. Being fired means you have an extra hurdle to overcome to locate a new job, but its not unsurmountable. After you have graduate d, it can be challenging to face the world outside college, start looking for employment or even imagine yourself as an employable individual. Now you have job experience, thats far more important your liberal arts degree that everybody else has, too. Its possible for you to decide on the resume help that specializes in the kind of career youre frustrating to pursue. On-line job search plays an important part in the current globalised and competitive world. Contact Information The very first section of your resume should incorporate information on the way the employer can contact you. When it is included, consider the following to help you get through the application and interview approach. Who really would like to do a nice job, whether offline or zugnglich via the net, the work is highly advised. Missing out on volunteer work related to the work application. Resume for College Graduate Features Most resume have a specific outline. Make certain theres a summary statement at the summit of your resume, following your header. For instance, if a resume template doesnt include a list of skills, but you desire to include one, you ought to do so. You may choose to execute a Google search and have a look at different resume templates to provide you a notion of which one would do the job for you. Without such a section, the possible hiring manager may be left wondering why he or shes reading your resume in any respect. Before you start your negotiation you will need to learn your market value. Naturally, seeking the service a professional resume writer will help you save you time, but its also important you ought to understand how to compose your own CV. Your resume is not fiction which should be dramatic in any sense but its a concise written piece. So, essentially, resume writing businesses can gain in regard to anyone thats in search of an extra job and isnt an expert writer. When writing your first resume, it can be hard to understand where to g et started. It can be challenging to understand precisely where to start when writing your resume. Watch the next video to learn to compose the ideal recent-graduate resume for an entry-level position. Make it simple for them to find you by including the URL to your profile at the peak of your resume. Make certain that you get the info youre looking for. Clearly, youre want to highlight certain skills for each position, but the simple information will continue being the same. Of course if youre asking for a particular job, its simple enough to amend a resume to incorporate an objective that matches the work description. Think about utilizing a combination resume to give more flexibility if you prefer to use it in order to apply to many different jobs. Your good grades have to be emphasised and hopefully it will be said by the recruiter. Negotiate your work offer. Rank-and-file positions are also tricky to get nowadays. Whether youre paid or not, practicum experiences can o ffer information which you have already worked in a professional environment for a trainee. As you most likely dont have a good deal of work experience associated with the job that you want, you will obviously need to emphasize your latest education or training on your no experience resume. Afterwards, you might get into your professional experience. Companies want to check drive you too. To begin with, its important to realize that any resume from copywriter to CEO ought to be limited to 1-2 pages. Many Professional Resume Writers offer a complimentary review of your resume together with an explanation of the way that they may be in a position to aid you.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

What to Cut and What to Keep on Your Résumé

What to Cut and What to Keep on Your RsumWhat to Cut and What to Keep on Your RsumYouve likely heard that you shouldonly include relevant experience on your rsum and then youve probably asked yourself what exactly that means. You may be wondering Shouldnt I include all my work experience? Wont it hurt my chances of getting called for an interview if an employer doesnt know everything Ive done and am capable of on the job? The answers are no and no. You hurt your chances if you include experience that has nothing to do with the job youre applying to. The reason for limiting a rsum to two pages is that an employer only wants to read what is important for the job. Plus, writing a concise rsum demonstrates business savvy and an ability to write well.Remember that your first screening is likely done by a computer and possibly next by an human resources representative. While many disgruntled candidates argue that employers shouldseriouslyconsider every application they receive, they forge t that the initial screeners may not have more insight into the job than what they read on the job description itself.This is why your rsum must respond directly to the description.Heres how to decide what to keep on yourrsumand what to nix from itStep 1 Think about your career level. If you are just starting out in the job market, you have more rsum real estate available. While you shouldnt just fill it with any sort of information, such as your favorite foods and sports teams, you have more leeway when it comes to including the extent of your experience, because you have a page to use. However, even then you should focus on quality over quantity.Employers dont want to spend time reading information that doesnt help them determine if youre a good candidate for the job and potentially a likeable person. Step 2 Consider the industry and company. If youre wondering whether to include a job description for a ort you held more than 10 years ago, the answer will depend on what value it a dds to your story for a particular job application. So if you worked at an entertainment company long ago and are trying to re-enter the industry, you should include it. If you worked for a similar company years ago, include it. If neither situation applies, a simple list of previous titles, companies, locations and dates will suffice. Step 3 Look closely at the required and preferred qualifications. This part of the job description is where you should concentrate your efforts for the meat of your rsum the bullets. The qualifications tell you what the company wants. In your head, rephrase all these statements as questions. For example Do you have five to 10 years of experience in software sales? Then answer each question. All of your answers should be in the rsum wherever applicable, whether its in the career summary at the top or in the bullets under your jobs. Step 4 Decide what your greatest accomplishments were at each job. An accomplishment is something youve done that produce d an impact of some kind, big or small. It does not have to be a number or figure, but it should be as specific as possible. Choose your most significant achievements, and incorporate them into your bullets. Step 5 Filter out responsibilities. Employers can likely find almost exact replicas of your job descriptions by doing a Google search for your job titles. Its your responsibility to tell them more of your story and what you are capable of. Replace your laundry list of duties with specific examples and the impact of your work. This is what is going to get you noticed. Step 6 Consider grouping experience into skill areas or industries. This technique may help you to figure out whats important, what can be left out entirely and what can be given just one simple line. Perhaps youll decide its worthwhile to use one or two relevant bullets for some jobs rather than five or more. Again, you should be thinking of your answers to the questions you asked yourself in step three as you make these decisions. Rsums might as well be called questionnaires, since that is the approach you are taking when writing them. If you treat it this way, youll be able to address the important requirements in a job description. This will increase your chances of getting through applicant tracking systems and to a human who will appreciate your attention to detail and ability to parse out whats significant for the job. If you can figure out whats relevant, youll stand out from the crowd. Marcelle Yeageris the president ofCareer Valet, which delivers personalized career navigation services. Her goal is to enable people to recognize skills and job possibilities they didnt know they had to make a career change or progress in their current career. She worked for more than 10 years as a strategic communications consultant, including four years overseas. Marcelle holds an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Take the Cupcakes Out of Your Resume

Take the Cupcakes Out of Your ResumeTake the Cupcakes Out of Your ResumeTake the Cupcakes Out of Your ResumeAs someone who has spent just about all of his professional life working with korrekts, I admire any piece of writing that employs a mora vivid word or phrase in place of something wimpier. I get that same feeling when I read a resume that includes such vigorous verbs as accomplished, administered, and my favorite spearheaded.But just as sure as there are words and phrases in your resume and titel letter that will impress readers and nudge them to keep reading, there are others that can elicit a so what or this guy is full of himself kind of reaction. Litter your resume with such weak words and you can kiss your potential interview goodbye.But dont just take my word for it. Heres what Alison Green, a staffing manager, said in a recent blog post on U.S. News World Reports web siteI ignore anything subjective that an applicant writes about herself (in a resume), because so many peoples self-assessments are wildly inaccurate and I dont yet know enough about the candidate to have any idea if hers is reliable or not.I call these subjective descriptions cupcake words you can make someone eat them, but they contain no (mental) nutrients to back up the empty calories. These words and phrases usually found in a professional summary or list of qualifications describe your abilities without proof to support them. Here are five examples1)Outstanding (fill in the blank) Used in reference to yourself, this may sound overly boastful. Were you the go-to person for the company because you did something so well? Did you lead a key project or other high-value initiative to fruition? If so, describe it in terms of what you did and how it helped the employer. If an ex-boss or colleague used that word to describe your work, mention it in your cover letter instead.2)Excellent team player You really need facts to replace this and create the impression that you are both excellen t and a team player. Yes, employers like people who put the companys needs ahead of their own, but try saying something like Worked with three other departments to deliver new application functionality three weeks ahead of deadline to generate an extra $1 million in revenue. That says youre an excellent team player, plus a lot more.3)Solid writing skills Maybe they are, but youd better have some awards or recommendations in your resume or cover letter so that this isnt coming from your head. Even better would be a link to a web site that showcases examples of your best writing. Regardless, making sure your cover letter and resume are well written and error-free is one of the most important ways to promote your writing skills.4)Successful or Successfully (fill in the blank) How do you define success? Whats more important is how your previous employer defined it and how a future employer will interpret it. If you want to demonstrate how you were a successful sales representative, for example, its more effective to say something that proves it, like Exceeded sales quota in 13 of 16 quarters, bringing in an extra $2.5 million in revenue. Yep, Id call that successful.5)Detail-oriented This is arguably the emptiest of them all. Its also a double-edged sword Its a good thing to pay strict attention to detail, but far from good to get bogged down in too much detail that you miss deadlines or lose sight of your mission or task. Ditch this cupcake in favor of something more nutritious, such as Planned menus, arranged for timely food delivery, scheduled catering staff, and directed catering operations for 75 wedding receptions in 2008. Now, thats detailThe important thing is that if youre going to extol your value in your resume and cover letter, its better to show it with examples and quantifiable accomplishments than to just tell it with subjective words and phrases.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Artist Resume The 2019 Guide to Art Resume (With Samples Examples)

Artist Resume The 2019 Guide to Art Resume (With Samples Examples) Artist Resume The 2019 Guide to Art Resume (With Samples Examples) “Every artist was once an amateur. - Ralph Waldo Emerson We don't expect you to be a master in making an art resume either. But after reading this guide, you sure will become one. Like making drawings, paintings and collages is an art, so is making a resume. As a painting needs to be on point in order to sell them, so does a resume needs to be on point to get you interviews. Resumes are divided into 10 sections which are arranged strategically. The typical work of an artist is to develop creative works of art by using different type of media. Artists create work in 3 different dimensions, namely, two dimension, three dimension, and four dimension. Artists will see perpetual growth in their profession in the coming years due to their increasing demand by private art collectors, museums, electronic magazines, etc. According to CollegeGrad.com the demand for Painters, Sculptors and Illustrators is expected to rise by 8% in the next 10 years. As a result of reading our 2019 Guide on Artist Resume, you'll know: How to write an artistic resume How to write an artist resume with no experience How to write an art resume skills section The difference between artistic resume and CV ... All for making a job winning art resume In order to make your artist resume, you can opt for Hiration's Online Resume Builder for an effortless resume making experience. If you still decide to make your artistic resume on your own, then keep reading this article to make a job-cracking artist resume. In addition to this, refer the art resume example below to get greater clarity. Artistic Resume ExampleFurther, after making your artist resume, you can opt for Hiration's Resume Reviewing Service where select industry experts professionally review your art resume to see if it's of the ideal length. What Is An Artist Resume And Why Do You Need It? A resume that illustrates the skillfulness of an artist in his/her field is known as an art resume. The functions of an artist comprise of duties like generating and developing ideas, making sketches and models, developing or creating a piece of work according to a commission or brief, etc. Job as an artist requires the person to meet tight deadlines. They work in an off-site or in a studio while adhering to health and safety measures. An artist needs to cultivate relations with suppliers and source materials. He/she requires to conduct researches and interviews, visit locations, use libraries and the internet. They also manage administrators, correspondents and create publicity. An artist resume will give the recruiter a deeper insight into your proficiency level as an artist. Artist resumes give the recruiter a brief about your educational and professional background. According to Prospects.ac.uk the starting salary of freshers in this field is of approximately $1,100. If you want to get to the hire paid salary slot, you need to update your artist resume every time you switch a job. Keeping your work history up-to-date by maintaining an art resume will give the recruiters an in-depth knowledge about the kind of work you've done previously. You can also use Hiration's Online Resume Builder to make your artistic resume look professional. How To Write An Artist Resume? Like making sculptures, making an artist resume is also an art. But it won't take long for you to learn this art. By the end of this article, you'll be as skilled at making artistic resumes as you probably are at creating installations. To make it easier for you, we've specifically written about how to make each artist resume section in depth to provide you with a better understanding. Additionally, you can opt for Hiration's Online Resume Builder where you'll get pre-filled artist resume template. These artist resume templates are ready-to-use and have been made by select industry experts. Making use of them will bolster your chances of getting shortlisted by 50%. Don't believe us? Then give it a try and find out yourself! Also, you can add that touch of being an artist by using some of our jazzed up resume templates like the California resume template. Fancy resume templates and creative resume ideas will work in your favor if you are being referred internally. But if you are sending your artist resume through your network, then do not use these jazzed up templates for your standard application. Also, it will be useless if you spend days and nights giving your art resume an artistic touch as much as possible, but when it'll actually matter, it'll end up in a bin. Artist Resume Sections An art resume includes the following sections in the below-given order: Header Personal Information Title Summary Skills Technical Skills Professional Experience Education Certifications and Training Awards and Recognition Writing Artist Resume Header So now, the question is: What exactly is an artistic resume header? It is the very first section of the artist resume. It comprises of your name. So, you must be thinking what's the point of making a header? Well, it differentiates your art resume from other artist resumes. It is the biggest text in your art resume. It is written between the font size of 14-16 points. Also, it is very important to have correct spacing between your first name and the last name. In addition to this, there is a proper way to write a middle name if you have one. The proper format is: 'Bella K. Hadid'. You will only write the first initial of your middle name and then a full-stop after it. If you've decided to make your artist resume on your own, then look at the below-given example to get a clearer idea of how a header should be written. Artistic Resume: Header Section ExampleTo get that perfect art resume header, you can use Hiration's Online Resume Builder as our resume builder uses a fixed font size with respect to the current hiring trend. Personal Information Section In Your Artist Resume The second section that goes into making your artistic resume is the personal information section. It consists of your personal information like your personal phone number, professional e-mail ID and the current location of residence. Personal Phone Number: There is a proper way to write your phone number in an artist resume. You can't just illegibly write your phone number in the art resume. The space below the header, on the left-hand side, is the space where you will write your personal phone number. The first thing to be written is the International Subscriber Dialing (ISD) code where you live in followed by a plus sign (+). After writing the ISD code, give a single space and then write your phone number. Personal E-mail ID: The second thing to go into the personal information section is your personal e-mail ID. In case you have multiple e-mail IDs, then choose the one that you use most often and then write that one in the artistic resume. In addition to this, you can add a hyperlink of any of the social media sites like of Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook if they support or demonstrate your work in any way. Further, you can give hyperlinks of your personal website or portfolios that support your work or if you have any. Current Location of Residence: The third thing that goes into your personal information section is your current location of residence. It will be written on the right corner of this section, which is right next to the e-mail ID. Do not write whole of your address as it consumes unnecessary space and is of no use to the recruiter. Write only the city name and the country code to give the recruiter the idea if you'll be relocating in case you joined that company or not. Take a brief look at the artist resume sample given below to get a better understanding of how to make the personal information section. Artist Resume: Personal Information Section SampleBesides this, you can opt for Hiration's Online Resume Builder to make your artistic resume in which you have options like various social media icons for your personal information section which will make your art resume look more appealing. Customizing Artist Resume Profile Title The third section in the artistic resume is of profile title. The profile title tells the recruiter for which profile you have applied for. For example: Multimedia Artist, Animator, Graphic Designer, etc. It should be written in the font size of 12-14 points. Take a glance at the example below to have more clarity on how to write the profile title. Artist Resume: Profile Title ExampleAdditionally, you can go for a review of your artist resume done by professionals at Hiration to check if you have written your job title correctly or not. Artist Resume Professional Experience Section Professional experience section is of prime importance in an artist resume. All the work experience that you've had is written in this section. For people who have extensive work experience, this section is of utmost importance. Make use of the below-given format to write your professional experience section: {Name of the Company} | {Location of the Company (city, country pin)} | {Dates (in mm/yy-mm/yy)} Also, do bucketing within your professional experience section and write your points pertaining to the professional experience section in STAR format. STAR format stands for: Situation Task Action Result Let's see it with an example: Professional Experience Section without bucketing and STAR points: Working with game designers, developers, artists and testers Creating low ploy assets Deploying Optimization Techniques in unity scene Exporting and assembling images from art files Applying textures via UVW mapping Creating and importing machines Professional Experience Section with bucketing and STAR points: Designing Coordination Working closely with game designers, developers, artists and testers to reach a common goal Exporting and assembling images from art files within prescribed technical parameters and protocols Creating and importing animations and state machines Import Optimization Applying textures via UVW mapping with PBR workflow and rendering realistic environments and artistic product designs Deploying Optimization Techniques in unity scene such as light optimization, culling, performance profiling Creating and importing animation and state machines You can see from the artist resume examples above that how bucketing and STAR format has improved the readability of the art resume. Take a glimpse of the below-given artist resume sample to get greater clarity on how to encompass the information related to your work experience in this section. Art Resume: Professional Experience Section SampleArtist Resume Education Section The education section is the second most important section after the professional experience section. The information in this section includes course name, university/school name, their locations, dates of enrolling and graduating along with CGPA. The following format is used to write this section: {School/University Name} | {Location} | {Dates (in mm/yy-mm/yy)} {Degree Name} {CGPA} The recruiter decides on the basis of this section whether you are qualified for the position or not. So, it is very important that the information that goes into this section is true to the best of your knowledge. The below-given artist resume samples will give you a better idea of how to make this section. Artist Resume: Education Section SampleFurthermore, you can opt for hIration's Online Resume Builder in which all these sections are pre-arranged for enhanced user experience. Art Resume Certification And Training Section Basically, this section consists of any and every certification or training that you have done which adds value to your artistic resume. The following things are written in this section: Name of Certification/Training Name of Affiliating Institute Location of Institute Dates of enrollment and completion of course/training The below given format should be used to write this section: {Certification/Training Name} | {Affiliating Institution Name} | {Institute location} | {Dates (in mm/yy-mm/yy)} See the example below to get more clarity on how to write this section. Art Resume: Certification Training Section ExampleIn this section, you will write all the value-adding awards and recognition that you got in school, university or in your previous work engagements. Also, Make sure that the awards that you write are relevant to your target profile. Use the below given format to write this section: {Award Name} | {Awarding Institute} | {Date (in mm/yy)} Opt for Hiration's Resume Reviewing Service to check the reliability (achievements backed with relevant examples) score today! Illustrating Your Artist Resume Skills The skills section is fifth in the order of artic resume sections, but it will be the second last section that you will write. You will first scan the rest of your artist resume to look for skills and then pick those skills and write them in the key skills section. This process will give you more skills to write in the art resume key skills section. The correct format to write this section is to include a bullet before each skill while writing them. For example: Research Design Creation Articulating Designs The skills section should be only three sentences long and not more. Also, when you're done making this section, bold the whole section. By doing so, you will be able to seek the attention of the recruiter directly towards it. In addition to this, you can give your resume that artistic touch by making your artistic resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder where you can add pie charts and bar graphs and much more things in your skills section by using templates like that of California. Make your art resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder Now! Artist Resume Technical Skills Section Artistic resume skills like that of using Unity 3D, Blender and Auto Desk Maya, will be included in a separate section. A section named 'TECHNICAL SKILLS' will be made which will comprise of all the technical skills/tool that you know how to operate. Your technical skills will come only in two lines and not more than that. After making this section, bold and italicize the whole section. Doing this will separate it from the key skills section and will increase its readability. In order to get a clearer idea of how to make this section, look at the artist resume sample given below. Artist Resume: Technical Skills Section SampleAgain, you can go for Hiration's Resume Reviewing Services, where select industry experts will review your art resume for readability to pass the 6 seconds test of the recruiters. On average, the recruiters scan a resume only for 6 seconds. So, it is important to for you to hook the recruiter to your artistic resume in just 6 seconds. Now, what are you waiting for? Get Hiration's Resume Reviewing Service Now! Personalizing Artist Resume Summary Section The summary section is the fourth section in your artist resume, but you will write it at the very end. It is important to follow this process so that one can scan the whole of the artistic resume and then pick out the highlights of their career to put in the resume summary section. In the summary section mention how you used your skills to benefit your previous organization. Also, mention how you can utilize them to benefit the company in which you have applied for. Look at the artist resume sample given below to see how you can optimize the summary section. Art Resume: Summary Section SampleArtist Resume With No Experience Now the question is how to write an art resume with no experience? In this section, we will tell you how to make an artist resume if you are a fresher in the field of artists. The artistic resume of a fresher is more or less the same as an experienced professionals resume except for two sections. These sections are the professional experience section and the summary section. Let us see how. Artist Resume Internship Section Now, if you're thinking: 'What will a fresher write in the professional experience section?' then let us tell you that a fresher won't have this section. Yes. You read it right. A fresher will have an 'INTERNSHIP' section instead, of a 'PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE' section. Internship section and the professional experience section are vastly different from each other. Internships are basically when you work for a company but don't get paid, whereas, in a job, you get a monthly salary for what you do for the company. Making an internship section and listing what you did in your internship under it lets the recruiter know that you are not completely an in-experienced person in your field. He gets to know the broad level work that you already have some professional experience in. You can use the following format to write this section of your art resume: {Organization's Name} | {Location (city, country pin)} | {Dates (in mm/yy-mm/yy)} {Designation} Assessment Development Assisted in designing development of layouts graphics for an advertisement project Played a key role in the assessment of graphic materials to ensure quality of designs Hiration Pr-Tip: All the points in your professional experience section and internship section should be written in STAR format. Situation-Task-Action-Result. Get your artistic resume professionally reviewed by professionals to check if its ATS friendly, go for Hiration's Resume Reviewing Service Today! Artist Resume Objective Section The last section that you will write in your fresher artist resume is the objective section. Freshers and entry -evel professional write an objective section instead of a summary section. In the objective section, you won't write what you expect from the company, but you will write what you can do for the company. Hiration Pro-Tip: Write your summary in a paragraph from and not in bullet points. While writing the summary section, make sure to quantify your achievements. You can opt for Hiration's Online Resume Builder to make your artistic resume. You will get pre-filled artist resume templates that are made for fresher artistic resumes. These are moldable templates which you can tweak as per your experience. Artist Resume vs CV Artist Resume Artist resumes are of one full page minimum and two full pages at maximum. Artistic resumes are brief documents of a person's educational and professional background. Artist resumes can be tailored according to each job description that you apply for. Artist CV CVs are longer and are usually of more than two pages. CVs are detailed documents of a person's life in terms of education and professional background. CVs cannot be tailored according to each job description, but the changes are made in the cover letter that goes with it. Artist Resume Template There are a number of artistic resume templates that you will find at Hiration's Online Resume Builder. Also, if you opt for making your artist resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder, you will get the following options: Live Resume Editor Save Unlimited Resumes Full Rich Text Editor So, opt for Hiration's Online Resume Builder and make an artistic resume today! Artist Resume Template Free If you make your artist resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder, you will get 4 free content templates to choose from. Artist Resume Design At Hiration's Online Resume Builder, you will get the following: 20+ Resume Designs and Royal Blue which is a Free Design Artist Resume PDF Using Hiration's Online Resume Builder also has benefits around PDF downloads. These are the following benefits around PDF: Unlimited PDF Downloads and A Sharable Resume Link By making your art resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder, you get to download as many PDFs of your artist resume as you want along with a sharable link for your artistic resume. Visit Hiration's Online Resume Builder today to grab all these benefits. Key Takeaways Hiration's Online Resume Builder has template designs that dramatically increase the overall readability of your artist resume. So, go and make your art resume at Hiration's Online Resume Builder Now! Do ensure that you have written a profile title. Always include a job title optimized according to the profiles which you are targeting. For example: Fine Artist/3D Artist Do not include bullets in your summary. To best optimize it, start by summarizing your qualifications and key skills and tailoring your sentences according to your target profile. Start your summary in the manner â€" '7+ years Graphic Artist with...' Mention only the most important and relevant points in 3-4 lines to showcase what value to can provide to the organization in your summary section. Highlight your major certifications training as they are highly relevant to your target profile. You do not have to explain them. If you've done any freelance projects as an artist then include them in your artistic resume as well. Make a separate section for this which will be named 'PROJECTS'. For each project, mention what all techniques and methods you utilized for completing the project. For ALL your projects, include the date and the organization for which you did that project for by using the following template: {Project Name} | {Organization Name} | {Location} | {Dates (in mm/yy)} Additionally, make sure your points answer the following questions: What were your key roles and responsibilities specific to that project? What were some key project deliverables that you were responsible for? Mention a list of significant achievements for every project, with performance figures if possible. In case of no non-disclosure agreements, you should mention the name of the client in the project header itself and also in the professional experience section. Consequently, you do not need to repeat the same in your points. If you've still got questions regarding artist resume, then you can ask them at team@hiration.com and our industry experts will reach out to you as soon as possible.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

3D Printing Creates Electronic Fabric

3D Printing Creates Electronic Fabric 3D Printing Creates Electronic Fabric 3D Printing Creates Electronic Fabric Engineers at the University of Minnesota have developed a one-of-a-kind printer that produces a tiny swatch of what they call stretchable electronic fabric. The fabrica cube about as big as a peppercornis studded with embedded sensors and may set the stage for robots with a sense of touch or humans who have enhanced prosthetic printed directly on their fingertips. The research team spent about a year tinkering with materials and fabrication before perfecting their printer, which uses four alternating syringe-like nozzles to squeeze out strands of specialized inks in rows the width of human hairs. The skin consists of a base layer of silicone, top and bottom electrodes made of a conducting ink, and a coil-shaped pressure sensor. A sacrificial layer that holds the top layer in place while it sets eventually washes away. Significantly, the flexible inks are printed and cured at room temperature, eliminating a major obstacle to affixing these tags to the human body. Conventional 3D printing is too hot, and the objects too hard when they set, to be printed directly onto skin. The new sensory devices could give robots the ability to feel their environment. Image: University of Minnesota We set out to advance the technology of 3D printing, said Michael McAlpine, associate professor of mechanical engineering and leader of the research team. 3D printed objects have limited functionality because they are rigid plastics. What we can do here is print a stretchable electronic device on a curved surface like a finger. We first 3D scan a model finger and conformal print electronics on the surface. Though they have yet to use human skin, McAlpines team has printed a device on the finger of a model human hand. And one of the tactile sensors laminated to a students wrist detected and measured his pulse in real time as he went running. Because of the versatility of our tools, you can imagine printing many kinds of electronic devices all over the body, McAlpine said. By exploring a diverse palette of soft, nanoscale materials, he envisions printing different types of sensors on skin for, among other purposes, health monitoring, or for soldiers in the field to detect poison gas or explosives. One advantage of the teams innovation is that the manufacturing is built into the process, McAlpine said. Indeed, the 3D printer is a manufacturing tool that can be made portable, he continued, and perhaps be carried around in a backpack, to print electronics on the fly. In the near-term, the team hopes to use the stretchable devices to conform to the geometry of robots used in minimally invasive surgery, giving them a sense of touch. Currently surgeons rely solely on cameras. In the future it would make the surgery more precise to have tactile, or haptic, feedback to these surgical tools, McAlpine said, because right now youre basically just looking into a TV screen. Read the latest issue of the Mechanical Engineering Magazine. For Further Discussion Indeed, the 3D printer is a manufacturing tool that can be made portable, and perhaps be carried around in a backpack, to print electronics on the fly.Prof. Michael McAlpine, University of Minnesota

Monday, November 18, 2019

3 Ways to Figure Out Your New BossQuick

3 Ways to Figure Out Your New Bossâ€"Quick 3 Ways to Figure Out Your New Boss- Quick The first few weeks at a new job are always a bit awkward, aren’t they? There’s the whole dress code issue, where you turn up with your best suit on and it turns out it’s Onesie Wednesday. Or not knowing where to sit at lunch- should you have a laugh with the cool kids or network with the bosses over your sad sandwich? But there’s one thing you have to figure out as quickly as possible, and that’s who you’re dealing with in your new manager. You don’t have a lot of time to get this one right, as first impressions tend to stick. And if you and your new boss have wildly different working styles, you might find yourself on the other side of the door before you can say “probationary period.” So, you need to turn detective and start looking for clues that will give away the type of person your new supervisor is, how he or she likes to communicate, and what makes him or her tick. Here are some tips to get you started. 1. Pay Attention to the Morning Meet-and-Greet If your new boss greets you each morning with a hearty “Hey newbie, how are you doing? What did you get up to last night?” then you’re probably dealing with someone for whom personal relationships are really crucial. He’ll want to know who you are, understand you, and be a friend and a listening ear as well as a manager, and he’ll likely consider your stance on things when making decisions. And while you don’t want to get overly personal with a manager, use this as your cue to reflect his open manner right back at him. Tell him who you really are and where your passions really lie; this type of manager is all about the people, and he’ll want to help you develop into the company superstar you want to be. On the other hand, if you’re greeted with a quick “good morning” as she barely lifts her eyes from the screen and an email with this week’s task list, you’ll probably be able to guess that you’re dealing with the polar opposite type of manager- one who is task-focused, will be directive, and likes to make sure that everyone knows the parts they play in order to get the job done. In this case you’re going to have to prove your worth before you are let in to your manager’s more personal side- if she has one. She may well be a work-hard-play-hard type, but you won’t be invited to play until you’ve proved your ability to get your job done on time and in a way that smashes expectations. Of course there are a thousand other tiny day-to-day clues that will let you know what type of manager you have. Does he make a coffee for himself or offer to get everyone a cup? Does she show frustration or keep her cool? People slip clues about themselves into every single interaction, so keep your eyes wide open, and you’ll soon be able to figure it out. 2. Read Between the Email Lines You’re deep in thought, and- ping!- it’s an email from your manager. If it outlines some ideas he’s got about how to tackle an upcoming project, then says “Can we have a quick chat about this?” or “Any ideas on your end?” you’re dealing with a team player who wants to make sure that everyone feels listened to, who appreciates collaboration, and who’s looking for ideas-people, not just worker bees. On the other hand, if the email outlines the next project and ends with a “When can you commit to action?” or “I need your response to this by the end of the day,” then you’re likely faced with a manager who is fleet of foot, like to make things happen, and- let’s face it- already has the plan down cold and just needs you to fall in line to get it done. Paying attention to email can also tell you how organized someone is: Does she send one comprehensive email containing all the necessary details or lots of short emails entitled “Just one more thing…?” Does he stick to the company-authorized 10pt Arial, or is he a little more creative and individual than that? (Oh, but if your new boss uses Comic Sans, then the only advice I can give is resign. Right now.) There are lots of tiny clues sprinkled through every communication, so don’t just read what someone has written, take note of how he or she writes, too. 3. Watch How Decisions Are Made Another way you can put your sleuthing to work is to observe how your new boss makes decisions. If she is methodical and meticulous in putting together a list of options, weighing up the pros and cons of each, and then creating a detailed project plan based on what she knows is the best way forward (after all, she’s done extensive research), then you are looking at a manager who makes decisions not with gut instinct, but with the head. Logic rules all with these types, so if you have reservations about a plan, you better do your homework before you put them on the table. If you try to show the personal effect of a logical decision, your boss might see you as whiny or weak, so back up your argument with solid facts, every time. On the other hand, you may see someone who makes decisions by what his gut tells him, instinctively leaning one way or the other, based on how he feels about each option. He won’t feel compelled to justify decisions, he’ll “just have a hunch” about how to proceed. He’ll also consider counter-arguments from The Logic Team a bit of a bore, and probably not fully give his attention to other sides of the debate. In this case, you need to put the facts to one side and focus on the personal; has he thought about how the decision will affect the team? How will everyone feel about it? Will they feel pressured, stressed, or disenfranchised? You’ll only be able to change decisions made by this manager by appealing to his people-pleasing nature. Once you’ve completed initial investigations, you’ll probably have a pretty clear idea of who you’re dealing with (and you can take off the trench coat and sunglasses and put down the newspaper with cut-out eye holes). Only you will know if your new manager is someone you’ll instinctively gel with, or someone whose style you’ll have to work pretty hard to adapt to. But make sure you do take the time to figure it out, and you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s the job for you or not. Photo of brain courtesy of Shutterstock.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

3 Ways to Include Testimonials on Your Resume

3 Ways to Include Testimonials on Your Resume 3 Ways to Include Testimonials on Your Resume 3 Ways to Include Testimonials on Your Resume Do your colleagues' words speak louder than yours? Add their endorsements to your resume. [TWEET] In a competitive job search environment, it's more than likely that all applicants have included their qualifications, professional experience, and education on their resumes. So you may be wondering how you can make your information stand out from other candidates'. Have you considered adding testimonials and endorsements to your resume formats? Read below for three ways to use this valuable information. Add testimonials from supervisors and managers corresponding to each job position. If you did a great job as Marketing Manager, then gather a written testimonial from the CEO and include that sentence underneath your Marketing Manager achievements. If you are looking to add an entire section to your resume and have three to five testimonials from various people and different employers, add a section titled Testimonials or Endorsements. This resume format will show that you have multiple people that think you are a great candidate. Is your resume two pages, but you have a large gap or white space at the bottom of page two? Instead of leaving it blank, add one or two testimonials to this section. Not only does this show glowing reviews of your work, it allows the reader to end with positive thoughts about your potential candidacy for the position. When asking for testimonials, be sure to confirm that it is okay with the writer to use the information in your resume writing. Only add those testimonials that actually say something. Don't add a testimonial that says, Great job! Instead, add written reviews that are specificsomething like, Heather led 18 managers throughout a new program implementation, increasing sales by 32% during her tenure. We would absolutely welcome her back in any leadership role. Finally, a crucual resume tip is to ASK for testimonials or written recommendations. These tiny marketing pieces can be utilized on your resume as another piece of your personal marketing puzzle. Let TopResume help you write the next chapter of your career. Here's how.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

2 Little Words That Have a Huge Impact at Work

2 Little Words That Have a Huge Impact at Work 2 Little Words That Have a Huge Impact at Work A friend of mine opens doors for strangers. And while I’m sure he’s trying to preserve his gentleman-like nature and will be doing this until the end of time, he’s always agitated when people don’t say thank you. Sometimes he even sarcastically whisper-shouts, “You’re welcome!” letting people know that they’ve forgotten to acknowledge that the door didn’t open with special body sensors.This always reminds me of when I was a teenager, and my mother gave me a small sheet of paper that said: “A smile and a thank you won’t cost you a dime, but not doing either may cost you later.” At the time, I thought it was a subtle fire-and-brimstone message for some ungrateful action I committed in my adolescence. What do you mean it will cost me later? Will the ghosts of Thanksgivings past come to haunt me, or will I be forever known as the frowning selfish girl?But a decade later, the words have stuck with me, not only when people hold the door or elevator open for me, but in my professional life as well. Turns out, saying thank you to your boss, co-workers, and the people who work for you is pretty powerful. And it doesn't cost you a thing, but it can have a big impact on how people think of you- both now and later.Here are a few steps you can take to revive the art of thank you in the workplace (and maybe outside of it, too).Who You Should ThankIn a word, everyone. Well, everyone who has helped you out in some way. Thank the recruiter who picked your resume out of the thousands that poured in for a position- she’ll definitely notice if you don’t. Thank your project team members for their guidance or sheer awesomeness- it’s always appreciated, it’s often reciprocated, and it usually puts people on your good side. Thank your support staff for taking the time to teach you about the power of Keurigs and faxing- our bosses will always get confetti and gratitude, but they rarely do.Before the end of my last two weeks with my former company, I wrot e a thank you card to everyone who had been beneficial to my development. I even wrote one to the guy in the cafeteria who hugged me after I cried on his pork loins while I was going through my breakup. He didn’t have to come from behind the counter to console me, but I remembered his empathy and the chocolate chip cookie he gave me that day.By going out of your way to thank people who have helped you, you’ll not only make the work environment a better, happier place, you’ll create mutual feelings of respect and gratitude. And who couldn't use a little more of that at work?Say It (Out Loud)Sure, sending a thank-you email is convenient for small, internal moments like “Thanks for circling back with the client,” or, “I really appreciate your help with the project yesterday.” But don’t forget the benefits of face-to-face communication.As an employee, when my boss thanked me for staying after hours to finish up a project, I always appreciated her telling me instead of se nding an email- it was more heartfelt. So, as a small business owner, I do the same. It’s always important that my crew knows how grateful I am that they’re advancing my dream with every red velvet waffle they serve.Saying thank you is also about timing. You don’t want to just blurt it out in the middle of a meeting or in the morning while people are on their Mailbox apps (still on the waiting list- sigh). As a leader, I like to start and end meetings on a positive note, so before and after crew meetings, I recognize team members who performed CPR on Lazarus or received praise on Twitter for customer service. The sincerity and authenticity of verbal communication, often a lost art among text messages and Twitter, can be a powerful motivator.Or Write ItI’m all about fancy pens that make my handwriting pretty and embossed designs on Kraft paper, so when I say thank you, it’s usually in card form. Cards are particularly appropriate around a co-worker’s company anniversary, when you’re leaving a company, or after a huge event or project when someone has gone above and beyond, but you can really send them anytime. Come on, who doesn’t get a thrill from tearing open a pastel envelope and reading a message crafted just for you? (Need some professional looking cards? Check out Tiny Prints or Etsy.)I try to keep my message short and sweet with four sentences- maybe six if I’m really thankful. In the first and second sentence, detail how the thankee contributed to your success or assisted you, such as, “Andre, I’ve always appreciated your flexibility when my reports are tardy for the party,” or, “Jessica, thank you so much for working at the event all weekend.”  Feel free to be personal- you can definitely tell your co-worker how swagtastic you think she is (as long as said co-worker is not the vice president). The third and fourth sentences can be general messages like, “I appreciate learning something new with this company every day,” o r, “Thank you for being such an integral part of the team.” No matter what, make sure it's specific, heartfelt, and genuine.The Power of Thank-YouRecently, one of the vice presidents of a company I worked for wrote me a thank you email thanking me for the thank you card. She told me that it was a pleasure working with me and that she would be more than happy to provide a recommendation for me in the future. Now, I’m sure I could get a recommendation from her if I had asked, but the point is, going out of my way to say thank you left a lasting, positive impression. People notice when you say thanks, and- as I’ve learned from my friend the door-holder- they notice when you don’t.Of course, I’m not saying you should give out thank yous expecting something in return, but it’s  important to build bridges with your supervisors and co-workers, and regularly expressing gratitude is a great way to do it.I’ve also found that being mindful of what others do for me keeps me in a constant space of gratefulness, and I’m more likely to pay it forward by doing things like taking the new hire under my wing or staying an extra hour to help out a team member.And if you need even more convincing, research suggests that people who express gratitude daily experience lower levels of stress and boosted immune systems. So, apparently, it’s not just good for your career- it’s good for you. Photo courtesy of MoneyAware.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

10 Employee Engagement Steps To Drive Results

10 Employee Engagement Steps To Drive Results 10 Employee Engagement Steps To Drive Results 10 Employee Engagement Steps To Drive Results Louder Than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results PDF Note: Youll need Adobe Reader to view the PDF file above. Download Adobe Reader. Wednesday, August 28, 2013 Thought leader Bob Kelleher shares ten practical and transformative steps to maximize employee engagement at your organization. In his bestselling book, Louder Than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps to Drive Results, thought leader Bob Kelleher shares ten practical and transformative steps to maximize employee engagement at your organization. Distilling proven employee engagement principles, Mr. Kelleher illustrates the connection between employee engagement and increased discretionary effort. While highlighting win-win engagement solutions, the author makes a compelling case for creating and maintaining a corporate culture that attracts and retains the most productive and creative people. Throughout the book, specific best-in-class employee engagement and leadership examples are shared, including those from CISCO, The Timberland Company, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ENSR, and AECOM. Readers will discover practical tools and examples to help them engage their workforce. The book has become a must read for anyone who manages people. Employee Engagement Drives Success 2012 engagement levels represented the largest decline in 15 years and actively disengaged employees annually cost the US economy $370 billion Employee Engagement is still the most crucial factor when determining organizational success. 90% of leaders recognize this fact by acknowledging that engagement practices directly impact the success of their business, yet over 75% also admit they have no engagement plan or strategy in place. Companies with high levels of Employee Engagement benefited from 19% increased operating income while companies with low levels of engagement declined by 33% Click here for our latest video! Presented by: Bob Kelleher Author and Speaker, Founder of The Employee Engagement Group Bob Kelleher is the author of two critically acclaimed books: Creativeship: A Novel for Evolving Leaders Louder Than Words 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps That Drive Results The latter achieved Amazon rankings of #3 workplace book, #5 HR book and #12 management book. Mr. Kelleher, a speaker and consultant on the subjects of employee engagement, workforce trends, and leadership, is also the founder of The Employee Engagement Group. Before opening his consulting business, Mr. Kelleher spearheaded award-winning employee engagement programs and initiatives at AECOM, a Fortune 500 global professional services firm and ENSR. His experience as a top executive at the above organizations has provided him with a unique perspective on employee engagement in todays workplace. Webinar Transcript: Louder than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results (28 Aug 13) Good afternoon! Im Jim Thompson, Senior Writer with Monster. I would like to thank you for joining us today for this exclusive webinar hosted by Intelligence. Todays webinar is entitled Louder Than Words: Ten Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results. Thought leader, Bob Kelleher from the Employment Engagement Group, is presenting this afternoon. In this webinar, Bob will share 10 practical and transformative steps to maximize employee engagement at your organization. Before we get started, I would like to mention a few housekeeping items. Todays presentation and the copy of the recording will be posted on hiring.monster.com within the next two to three business days. Please click on the resources tab and navigate to HR Events to obtain your copy. All registered participants will also receive an email with a direct link to todays materials. intelligence helps HR professionals improve worker performance, retain top talent and enhance recruiting strategies. We analyze and collect data from over four million unique job searches performed on each day. We invite you to visit hiring.monster.com to read our in-depth reports and analysis. For our latest materials click on the resources center tab when you visit the website. After the presentation, therell be time for questions. Our meeting manager will help facilitate the QA. Please feel free to type your questions into the available space during the event and we will make every effort to include them in todays session. And if youre listening to todays presentation via telephone, youll be placed on mute until the QA session begins. I would like to provide some background on todays speaker. Bob Kelleher is the author of Louder than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagements Steps that Drive Results, as well as Creativeship: A Novel for Evolving Leaders. Bob speaks around the world sharing his insights and recommendations on workforce trends, and leadership and employee engagement. Bob is the founder and president of the Employee Engagement Group. Prior to opening the Engagement Group, Bob was the Chief Human Capital Officer for ACOM, a 45,000 employee firm headquartered in California. And now Ill turn the webinar over to Bob Kelleher. Please go ahead, Bob. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Monster. Its always great to partner with you folks, thank you so much. And thank you to the over 800 folks who signed up for todays webinar. Well try to make it lively and hopefully entertaining for you. So lets step right in. Are we feeling engaged these days? And let me explain what I mean. The recent Gallup survey of 150,000 U.S. employees just came out over the past couple of months, and I was struck at the findings. To kind of set the stage, Im going to share a metaphor with you. Imagine if you are on a crew team, and you are in front, pedaling like crazy. You turn around, and you notice two of your crew mates are also pedaling like crazy, and you conclude that while there are 10 of us, only three seem to be giving it their all. Then you casually look behind, and you see that five of your colleagues are looking at the scenery, and looking at life pass them by. But worse, you notice two of them are actually trying to sink your crew boat. They are adding water to the back. And you sit there and say, Boy, can we possibly win with that as our crew team? or according to Gallup, with that as your workforce? Because based on their report, 30 percent of the workforce is classified as engaged. That makes 5, or 52 percent, out of 10 are disengaged. And sadly, 18 percent are actively disengaged. Whats interesting about this statistic is of those who are actively disengaged, over 50 percent of them have no plans to leave. I think thats more astonishing than anything else. So half of you are actively disengaged meaning half of your employees who are trying to sink your boat arent even looking for a job. My question to leadership is, Why do you let them stay? Now that metaphor is really at the heart of a new video that we just launched a couple of days ago called, Whos sinking your boat? It has a lot of the latest engagement statistics that I will be sharing during this talk. So I invite you to visit employengagement.com to look at that video. It is a terrific four-minute call to action. In fact, we have had a couple of thousand views just on the first day that we released it. If you need help in getting your leadership team on board, we think this is a terrific, easy, metaphorically rich, plus wildly entertaining video to get their attention. Lets focus today on what I think you need to do if you are trying to build a culture of employee engagement. Let me set the stage in one hour or less when we begin QA; this is not going to be a deep dive in any of these contents. In fact, I do key note presentations all across the world on these 10 steps. We also have our signature 10 Steps of Engagement Workshop which is a deep dive, where we go in to a full day sharing practical tools, best practices and approaches to help leadership teams. But I think well give you enough even on this webinar to get you going. So were going to first start with step one, Link to High Performance, and if there were any of you on todays webinar who work in the human resource function, OD training, corporate communications or marketing, often the leaders will look at engagement as a warm, fuzzy, touchy, feely type of thing, which is why I think its so important to kick off your engagement efforts with the business case. Why are we looking to engage our work force? And Im going to start off by defining engagement. I will start by, first of all, saying what it isnt. Engagement is not satisfaction. Its not about how do I make my employees happy or how do I have a satisfied working population. Because I think the last thing you want is a satisfied but under-performing employee. The last thing you want is a group of employees who are satisfied working collectively towards a business or within a business model that isnt sustainable. Perhaps the company is not viable, so you have a lot of satisfied employees working towards bankruptcy. Neither one of those models is particularly a satisfying or a sustainable model. See, when I think of satisfaction as a goal, I see satisfaction as something that means your employees are there to get benefits. Theyre there to get paid. Theyre there to get the beer cut on Friday afternoons. They are there for the Ping-Pong table. Theyre there because they cant find another job. When I define engagement, its all about engaging your own employees to give how are they helping the company be successful? I understand that theres a quid pro quo, theyre getting something, but what really drives them is, How can I give, what are my contributions doing to help the company be successful? Another way of looking at the difference between satisfaction and engagement satisfaction is doing ones job. Engagement is doing above and beyond. Im doing my job, but Im giving it my all. Satisfaction is about getting the best of everything, every benefit. Think Detroit in 2008-2009, we had the collapse of Detroit, but yet we had some unions within GM and Chrysler and Detroit Ford fighting for more and more benefits while the companies are fighting for their lives. You cant provide the best of every amenity if the business isnt doing well. I believe employees should get the best based on performance. How well the companys doing, and how well the individual is doing. Satisfaction is about making, or avoiding making the tough decisions, where engagement is about making the right decision. And often that right decision involves the help of both the business, as well as the employee population. Satisfaction is about, how can I be successful? Again, this mutual commitment is the aim. Engagement is about making me successful and the company succeeding as well. Satisfaction is about pleasing people all of the time, engagement is about pleasing your performers. My definition of engagement is very much driven towards higher performance. Satisfa ction is a moment in time, engagement is, How do I build my business so that its sustainable? How do I build my career so that it is sustainable? Satisfaction is personal commitment and engagement is about mutual commitment between the employer and the employee, or the boss and the employee. We will talk in a moment about the importance of that first line manager the role of the boss. Satisfaction is about happiness as engagement is about succeeding in my career. Now in the spirit of full disclosure, if you have happy employees if you have satisfied employees thats okay, but I dont think it should be a goal. It should be the outcome. Engagement should be your goal. Now Ive seen hundreds of definitions of engagement. I will try to share the one that I think most resonates with clients and audiences when I speak. Engagement is unlocking the potential of your employees to drive high business performance. Another way of looking at it is this mutual commitment where we, as the company, will do everything we can to have our employees maximize their potential. But theres such an important quid pro quo. Your employees have to understand that they have to do everything they can to help the company succeed as well. Engagement is also about capturing your own employees heads, the intellectual aspects of your employees as well as their hearts; the emotional connection that your employees have with the employer. Let me explain the reason why Im so passionate on this project. I spent 20 years working for companies as chief HR officer, even spent a year as chief operations officer, and I saw experience first-hand. I was the living case study that if you can e ngage your employees collectively, the collective gains that come with your employees giving above and beyond compared to your competitors employees, is magic. And Ive often equated discretionary efforts as being Disney like. Its the magic dust that can separate you from your competitors. Now, lets make the business case. Most of you, probably report to highly left brain, analytical folks, and they always want to know what the return on the investment is, if youre looking into pushes, anything that they would consider maybe on the soft side. So, lets make the business case. Bruce Temkins team on the Temkin group has done some really significant research and work within the areas of employee engagement. In one particular study at the end of 2012, really says it all. They were able to prove that if you can engage your employees; your employees are 480 percent more committed to helping your company succeed. They are 250 percent more likely to recommend process improvement. How do you innovate in your business? And as youll see in a moment, it is so difficult to get your employees to innovate as we age, and as we increase our tenure inside business. So, how can you get your employee to challenge the status quo, to come up with new ideas, new ways of doing what youre curre ntly doing in a more effective and efficient manner? Theyre 370 percent more likely to recommend your company as an employer of choice, and when we get to step 10, youll see why that is so critically important. Now, I wont drown you with too much in terms of details. If you go on employengagement.com, we have a resources section that has all of these studies. We archive the best of the best in terms of the research, white papers and best practices. So Im just showcasing some of them during todays webinar. But again, its overwhelming that if you can increase your engagement levels, you will increase a lot of positive outlines that your CFOs and your CEOs are looking for, while also decreasing things like absenteeism, which will also play a significant role in the bottom line. It starts at the top. It really is about leadership. In fact, I recently did some work with the technology firm Silk Road, and learned of their 2013 global survey of over 2000 client global company. And they wanted to ask their clients whats the best method, organizationally, to foster employee engagement? And as you can see, the top respondents are listed. Their top, which is not a surprise, is the one that I most often see. If you want to build and engage culture, you have to get your employees to trust leaders. Your leadership team has to demonstrate that they can be trusted. I was in Abu Dhabi recently, and I worked with the Connexa folks on providing some information to a client in the United Arab Emirates, and Connexa shared with me some research that Im not even sure has been released yet. It was based on a global study that they did on how employees can build trust with their leadership team and they concluded, based on their research; there are three ways your leaders can build trust. In third place, your leaders have to demonstrate they are competent in the jobs that they hold. In the second place, which is kind of amazing that its only in second place, is your leaders have to demonstrate that they are leaders of integrity. When I first saw their study, I was struck by the fact that integrity came in second place. I said, What could possibly come in first place? Well in number one, the top way leaders build trust in their organizations, they have to show concerns about the well-being of employees. And the reason that is so challenging, since 2008-2 009 and the start of Great Recession, these have been challenging times in the work place. Leaders have had to make really tough decisions; often they have been in survival mode. They have been leading the efforts to count paper clips, to ask people to do more with less, to reduce spending and to manage lay-offs. It has been a really difficult time since the start of the recession. Now, theoretically we are out of the recession, but I would suspect many of you feel like I feel, that we are still not in the 2005-2006 when we were really at full employment. So these are still challenging times. So we are asking our leaders to lead in very challenging times. But are they leading in a way that is demonstrating empathy and in ways that they show concern in the well-being of employees? Because according to the research of Connexa, which really maps all my work, showing the concern about the well-being of the work force is such a key driver of engagement. I was recently with a client and I wanted to share something with you because it really speaks volumes about the Connexa research. I was having a conversation with Howard Cohen, who is the CEO of Beacon. Beacon is a residential developer and property management company headquartered here in Boston. And I asked Howard and this is a company that is a recognized employer of choice in their business. They are a market leader. They are highly profitable; highly successful from a growth standpoint. And I ask their CEO, What drives you? The first thing he said, and he said it in such a genuine way. I have 300 families Im responsible for. And when I heard him say that, I instantly said, Thats it. See, thats the type of commentary that when employees hear that and they see all of the practices, and how they lead the organization when people walk away and say, Now theres a leader who cares about the well-being of our employees. By the way, this doesnt mean you cant be tenacious for performan ce management, or you cant make tough decisions. But its that empathy that comes from a leader who cares about his or her employees. Now the good news is and I knew this is very positive the fifth week they get it today, in 2013 they know that they in their ranks have many disengaged employees who perhaps, in a more robust economy, may have left. But many employees have been disengaged and theyve kind of hung in there, and your leaders do understand, this is a threat to the business. However, I love this picture justification that down in Cape Cod in Chatham, Massachusetts, appears to be the shock capital of the nation. But theres trouble in paradise, not only in Chatham, theres trouble in the work force because although the C-suite understands that engagements important based on this study by Silk Road, less than 4 out of 10 of their pole companies even focus on engagement. So they understand its important but they havent yet reached a point in which they are developing time, resources, energy and focus towards employee engagement. Let s take a look at what drives engagement. I recently did some work with Dale Carnegie and they had a terrific study in 2012 that looked at, What are the drivers of the engagement within your work force? Rule number one, satisfaction with my boss. We will talk about this in a moment. Number two, belief in senior leaders. Again, this maps some of the work with Connexa and Silk Road. And number three, pride in the organization. Its being able to identify with the product and the service that we sell in such a way that connects not only my head, but connects my heart. Now lets take a look at step three, engaging first line leaders. Now look at this statistic. Its a little dated, 2010, but it maps what my personal experience has been in a 25-year-plus career. When youve a manager who is disengaged, his or her employees are three times more likely to be disengaged themselves. But if you think about it again, leaders have had to make tough decisions, and its been a really tough place for managers to work over the past five years as well. These managers and supervisors have had to make some tough decisions themselves. So are they engaged? In fact, theres increasing research that some of the least engaged employees are our first line supervisors and our middle managers, but yet the research is overwhelming. If you have a disengaged manager the person who is leading people the employees under them are three times less likely to be engaged themselves. Now I know this could be true from my personal experience, similar to probably many of your experience s. We tend to stay in a job longer when we like our boss. We tend to leave a job sooner, if we dont like our boss. And it goes back to what many of us have seen. We tend to stay in a company because of our boss; we tend to leave a company because of our boss. Ironically, the number one driver of engagement is also the number one disengagement driver, which is having a good boss or having a crummy boss. By the way, also, on the first line supervisor USA Today just had a great report that showed 35 percent, one in three employees would forego a substantial pay-increase if they could get their bosses fired. Think of that. What damning statistics? One out of three would actually forego money, if they could get their bosses fired. But we put so little time, money and resources into the development of our people who lead people. Step four is communication, the cornerstone of engagement. Never before have had we had more communication vehicles in front of us to help engage, communicate with, and align our employees. There used to be a point in time where communication experts would say that, Your employees dont hear something until they see it or hear it seven times. Today with social media, and technology, and communication overload, the experts now say, Your employees dont hear messages until they see it or hear it 13 times. So as you communicate within your organization, are you communicating via blogs? Are you leveraging texting? Are you communicating with video? Are you leveraging the variety we have in front of us today to communicate your message? And youre communicating not only the what, which is how you get the intellectual aspect of engagement with your employees, but youre also communicating the why. Are you trying to connect emotional aspect? Are you getting your employees heart? And often you ge t their heart by getting them to understand, Its not just what we do. Why are we in business? Who are we as an employer? Well, its not just about the products we sell or the services we offer, but why we are in business and how to articulate that why message to get your employees engaged in your brand in a way that again catches their head and their heart. I was in Mexico not too long ago when I happened to speak on a panel. I was the keynote speaker and this other speaker was from Whirlpool. I heard this executive speak, and one of the things that jumped out of her talk was, theres no right way to do a wrong thing. I was smitten with Whirlpool and in the spirit of full disclosure they are not a client. In fact, Ive never even met anyone who works for Whirlpool other than this keynote speaker. But I was struck with the message of, Theres no right way to do a wrong thing. If you look at Whirlpool, you also see that they are deeply interested in corporate citizenship. In fact, they had a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Every time a home is built via Habitat for Humanity, the appliances are donated by Whirlpool. So theyre focusing on the business, wildly profitable, and the heart of their employees is to be able to engage the brand, as well as engage customers to the brand, in a way that you cant do if you remove that purpose as pa rt of your brand. Step five is individualizing engagement. We do a lot of work with the different generations and for those who are not Generation Y, meaning Millennials, on todays call, they are coming. They are coming in mass entering the workforce. There are thousands of them. In fact, there are millions of them. And right now, Generation Y, although theyre a minority, they will be in a majority by 2015. Meaning they will be the dominant generation in the workplace over the next three years. But if you look at Gen Y based on some studies, they are the least engaged work force. Why? I think its because we have policies and coaches that were established by boomers and traditionalists, and they dont really relate to this generation coming into the work force. So how are you looking at individualizing your engagement effort by generation? Thats the graduating class of Northeastern University 2011. My son is in the middle of that class. I was struck at what I saw during this commencement day and I turned to my wife and I said, This is remarkable. Northeastern University of Boston theyve given every single graduate a little flashlight to read the program. And my wife had to look closely and tell me they werent flashlights, but thousands of graduates, texting during the commencement speech. I laughed well, actually, I didnt laugh at first, I said Geez, Im not sure thats respectful. And then it dawned on me that were not going to change how they communicate, thats the world they live in. Theyre entering the work force so how are we communicating with this highly mobile, highly technology-savvy wave of employees that are entering our work forces every day? This is one college, one graduating class, one year, graduating thousands of graduates. And Ive since done a lot of work with Generation Y. They have a lot to offer but if we think were going to engage them like we engage the 50-year-old employee, were sadly mistaken. We also need to individualize engagement as it relates to diversity, and I would challenge you to change the name of diversity to inclusion. Because its really not about having your EEO 1 report tell you that youre underrepresented with the women or minorities in the workforce or within the leadership team. See, I think if youre underrepresented, its not a EEOC issue, its an innovation issue. The way you innovate is by introducing diversity of thought. So, as you look to individualize engagement, recognize that diversity and inclusion are significant engagement drivers that are going to lead to innovation. Step six: create a motivational culture. I was lucky enough to keynote a conference with Dan Pink. I think it was on a Tuesday and Dan keynoted on a Wednesday. Ive gotten to know Dan, and most of you probably know his book, Drive. Well, Drive is all about engagement. The reason its about engagement is because its about capturing and understanding the intrinsic motivational drivers of your employees. Heres a really quick, easy exercise that Im going to give you. I call it simply My Three Circles. By the way, a lot of these exercises and tools you can find on our Employee Engagement Library on employengagement.com. We offer a lot of these tools free to use and download and hopefully start using with your managers. But these three circles I have been using for years. When you can overlap these three circles get your employees to understand what it is they like to do, what they are really good at and get them in a job that needs to get done when you can overlap these three circles, its actually quite simple, youll have an engaged employee. So often people are not engaged, or they are under-performing because they are in a job that they shouldnt be in. They are doing things that perhaps they are not really good at. We squeeze them into a job description. By all means ask my clients, Is there a way to modify your job description to maximize the benefit of your employees? And using these very simple three circles is a great tool to arm your managers with a very effective solution on getting their employees focused on things they are great at, things that they love to do. Encourage creativity and innovation in the work force. If you can get your employees input, if you can get them to feel like they have something to offer, then your employees have an idea that perhaps is different than the idea of the department manager. Perhaps its a better idea. How do you encourage the input in a way thats going to foster creativity and innovation? And its not just technology. If I give a keynote, I often use a lot of videos, a multimedia to challenge the audience. How do you look at technology as an innovation driver? And its so easy to look at technology as part of your definition of innovation. But I also like to challenge that its not just about RND or technology. Steve Church of Mabnet has been able to quantify engagement scores going up when he gets his employees involved in process improvement. So anything that can improve how you currently do your business more effective, more efficient is going to drive engagement. So if you improve the number of days y our accounts outstanding are out, if you bring it down from 45 days to 42 days, thats process improvement, and the ideas that go into reducing that is actually an engagement driver. How are you getting your employees to look at your current process for them to challenge how you do business? Oh, we have a challenge in business as we age in life, we tend to get less creative. Im going to share a great summary of a book called What a Great Idea by Chic Thompson. Based on Chic Thompsons research, we are at our most creative self at age five. In fact he shares an example of the same creativity exam that NASA uses to test how creative astronauts are. 98 percent of five year olds pass. They then give that test to eight year olds, only 32 percent pass. Sadly, when we reach the age of 44, only 2 percent of 44 year olds pass this creativity exam. Now lets take a look at questions. We know five year olds ask a lot of questions. In fact, they ask 65 a day. That drops to 41 a day at age eight. It tumbles to only six times, six questions a day at age 44. That is tragic. What happened? Well, we stopped asking questions. We stopped innovating. We start following the norm. We dont challenge anymore and as we age, we lose some creativity. And you see this sadly reflected in this particular study. Now I also know that laughter is a significant engagement driver. But you probably see where were heading. We laugh 113 times a day at age five, which tumbles to only 83 at age eight. Sadly, we all become dark or doom at age 44, where we only laugh another 11 times a day. The research is overwhelming, if you can get your own employees to laugh, it will release endorphins that releases creative energy that will better allow them to innovate. So again, share some of these statistics with your leadership team. Its a great way to use it as a call to action to get your employees who normally arent in meetings to attend meetings and hopefully challenge the norm. By the way, good news, it does get better when we time it. I concluded, were in this whimsical world of exploration on zero to five, five to twelve, whereas were born in a creative state, were in a state of Why not? And then we turn into a culture or society of because. That wont work here because. In fact, I have clients that have taken the word because and put a big red x on it in their attempt to encourage more innovation and discourage the use of the word because. Step seven: create feedback mechanisms. Never before have had we had more vehicles in front of us to ask our employees, What do you think? Im a huge fan of engagement surveys. We can actually prove that if you do an engagement survey, you have a benchmark in which to monitor your progress with your engagement effort. So those who are on this webinar, if youre thinking about what to do first as youre just starting, I strongly encourage you to think of a baseline engagement survey to solicit feedback from your employees as a first step. Step eight: reinforce and reward the right behaviors with consequences for the wrong behaviors. Think money matters, and I would suspect that the vast majority of your employees do not want to hear that money does not foster engagement. But I am here to say that money does not foster engagement. It only matters when its perceived to be unfair. And then it matters as it relates to disengagement. So let me try to explain. Unless you are a waiter or a waitress, or a doorman, unless you are so closely connected to activity or the end reward, the vast majority of people are no more engaged if you give them $10,000 today, than they would be if you didnt give them $10,000 today. Now they might be happier, but their happiness is going to have a shelf life, and they will return to their pre-money level of engagement. Now, where it comes into play is disengagement. If everyone else is getting $10,000 other than John Doe, John Doe is going to be disengaged, unless he understands why he didnt ge t the same as everyone else. If you hire someone into your department with the same skills, qualifications, and you pay them more, youre going to disengage the others. See, money plays a significant role in disengagement, not necessarily engagement. However, where it gets even more confusing is that we are engaged by achievement. We want to achieve. And when money reinforces achievement, then you see an engagement driver, but its the acknowledgement that they have achieved thats the driver, not necessarily the money. Organizations need to focus on how to rebuild cultures of achievement. Sadly, according to this study by Blessingwhite, we are not doing a good job at it. About half of our employees are saying we do not create cultures that drive high performance, sadly. Step nine: track and communicate progress. Every organization needs to link achievement with something. Something might be your financial report; it might be your turnover statistics. It might be your health and safety, or your recordable stuff. It might be your revenue growth. Im not really sure what your up-skill metrics are. If you are a retail firm, it might be shrinkage. But it is the key to understand the metrics that are really important to our company, and how do we communicate these metrics in a way that we can track progress? It is so important to connect the achievement of our employees with their progress. Its not just organizational metrics, but its also the metrics that relate to individuals. So if were saying employee engagement is one of our goals, how are we measuring engagement? How can we track engagement all the way down to the employee level? Is it turnover? Is employee engagement a statistic? Is it training and development investments? Is it the number of employ ee referrals? The key is to track progress. Make sure your metrics are balanced and report on it. Because thats how you build cultures of engagement, and high performance and alignment. Youre trying to get your employees to understand this is where the companys going, this is where or how well were doing and this is where I fit in. And while youre tracking progress dont forget to focus on the positives and celebrate success. Organizations that have cultures of celebration, that they celebrate milestones, are more apt to establish positive cultures, and positive cultures will have more engagement than cultures that are negative cultures. Its why its such a hard thing to turn around a business when youre declining, when sales are down and turnover is high, because you have this negative cloud hanging over the culture. So how do you build in mechanisms, processes, ways that your managers are highlighting the positives that take place, and youre going above and beyond celebrating your successes? Step 10: hire and promote the right behaviors and traits for your success. Heres an acronym I will share with you its called the BEST concept. We know we need certain education, and certain skills to do jobs. And most of the resumes that we evaluate focus on the EMS. However, the vast majority of your employees that succeed is because of the behaviors and traits they bring to your organization, and its the same when people fail. You generally dont fire the accountant because he cant add. You generally fire the accountant because they have skills, or I should say they have behaviors and traits that are prohibiting them from succeeding in the job. Maybe his absenteeism, maybe theyre a non-team player, maybe theyre just a jerk. We put so much focus on the EMS, but in reality, success comes from the aptitude, or I should say, the attitudinal things not just the aptitudinal things. Now, Ive often told clients that, You need to know who you are before you can put in this concept of depth in your selection. You need to understand what are the behaviors and traits that we identify with? Do we know who were as an employer? I often start to work with a client and I say, You dont have an engagement issue you have a selection issue. Youre not hiring the behaviors and traits that would succeed in your culture. One of the first things that companies should do is build their stories. Whats our employee value proposition? Why do people work here? And if I go to your website today, if you reached out and said, Bob, we work for company ABC, what do you see? If I go to your website I would see what you sell, your product, and the services youre offering. And I would have to hunt down whats your employee value proposition, but unless youre an E-commerce Company or a retail firm, the vast majority of people who visit your website are probably looking for jobs or looking to kn ow who you are. We so under-invest in telling the world who we are and why people work here? I apologize for that typo, it looks like why do people walk here but how do you create that story, and how do you create that employee value proposition? See, you should be partnering your product service offering with your employment branding, and your customers and your potential applicants should see the same face of your business. I call that co-branding. Tony Hsieh from Zappos understands it. In fact, hes so big on co-branding and understanding employees that theyre branding their culture and they actually offer $3000 to any employee if they go through the orientation and decide to quit. See Tony Hsieh understands that it is more damaging to have an employee join us, go through orientation and decide perhaps theyre not a fit, then it is to stay and start looking for a job. So he will pay you to quit. Now, they also do a remarkable job on hiring the types of people that fit their culture, so they dont pay this out too often. Theres something else taking place, which is really showcasing my book Creativeship. Its this concept called tri-branding. Its no longer just partnering your employment brand with your service or product brand. Successful organizations are now leveraging third parties, customers, applicants, media, and the government to brand on your behalf. And there are some wonderful examples of companies that do this really well, such as these brands right here. These brands somehow create connections with their customers, in which their customers start branding their brand on your behalf. And because of social media being your brand accelerator, companies act and migrate from co-branding to tri-branding. I believe there are going to be those brands who are going to win because theyll engage both their employees, customers and other key stakeholders. Why use social media in such a component of engagement? Well, lets talk. Yesterday if I disliked my boss, I could tell 37 Kellehers that I liked my company, liked my boss, disliked my company, and disliked my boss. And I could have a reach of maybe a couple of hundred people, once my Kelleher buddies and friends and colleagues started telling others. Whereas today, the reach is exponential. If you dont like a company, or you dont like your boss, or better yet if you like your company or like your boss, you can tell your friends. They can tell their friends and your brand is exponential to engage your customers. Employees are the key stakeholders. I believe increasingly engaged employees are going to have a brand that can engage these various stakeholders. Of course, we have challenges in play. Use of policies Well, I was recently in Japan. There was a policy set in Japan. Not a lot of diversity not a lot of diversity in generations either. Often we have the architect of yesterdays b usiness designing the cultures and policies for tomorrows workforce. Tomorrows workforce, here they are. Those are my kids. I live in a laboratory, I study how they communicate and the millennial generation is coming forward. Unless we figure out how to engage them, we are going to have a challenge. If you think about branding as it relates to engagement, Malcolm Gladwell first taught us about the importance of connectives. Connectives are so important to connecting your brand, and I would argue your best, most engaged employees are probably your connectors. How are you engaging them in your business, in your branding efforts? Ill leave you with this closing point. Your best employees going forward, are those who are going to be able to connect people and information. Because going forward, its no longer going to be about knowledge. Its going to be about engaging your employees to know how to transfer knowledge. Thatll be the power. Ill leave you with this funny little story that just happened with my youngest son. He can take a Rubiks cube and put all the colors in sequence in a matter of 30 seconds and his older sibling, his brother, said, Hes cheating! And I asked, How is he cheating? He said, Dad, hes gone online and hes memorized the algorithm. That struck me as such a picture of the future. Those who can really figure that out, I believe will engage their employees and their brand and the years ahead. So with that well open it up to questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to register a question please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request, and your line will then be accessed from the conference to obtain information. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the one followed by the three. If you are using a speaker phone, please lift your handset before entering your request. I would like to thank Bob for sharing his insight and knowledge with us today. As we wait for our operator to receive calls on her end, I have actually got a couple on my end here on the text line. So Ill begin Bob, with the first one here. What is the first thing you suggest we do to get our leadership on board with your suggestions? Yeah, thats a great one Jim, and its the reason why step two is also at the top. Getting your leaders on board is so key, and because so many of your leaders are highly left brained, quantitative return on investments types, I would say show them the business case, make the business case. And again my resource section on emplyerengagement.com has a lot of key studies on the Gallows, Howard Watson, the AONs, the Blessing Whites, the Silk Roads. So theres a cottage industry right now that can prove if you engage your employees it drives tangible business results, so try to have them make their business case. And the other thing I would encourage you to think about, usually theres someone on the seat sweep, someone on the leadership team who really gets this stuff. Try to get him or her to listen to further forge the efforts that youre trying to make on the engagement front. I also find pilot programs great. They may not be willing to endorse a company-wide initiative, so look at an emp loyee pilot on engagement. And of course, company-wide initiative, I would encourage you to think about even an engagement survey, because I think that will also provide some tangible quantitative information for this with technology. Excellent. Thanks very much, Bob. Well have another question coming in. Would you recommend or do you recommend creating a new role for employees who are failing in their current position? Yeah, if you think about someone whos failing I used to teach a lot of youth sports, or coach youth sports, and I would tell the parent that I dont believe that theres anything true about a bad kid. I think we have bad situations and bad parenting. And I think to a certain degree, there were some exceptions, the same is true with employees. We dont really have bad employees, We have disengaged employees; we have bad fits. And something happens with many employees after they join a company. In fact the honeymoon, the first 12 months, employees dont repeat the same level of engagement until year seven. So after year one, engagement levels drop. And I often ask clients, you know, Why is that? What happens? or What happens when you have under-performing employees? Why have they become disengaged? or Where did the performance go south? And, again, usually its not education or skill, usually its behaviors and traits. And I usually see its because of a misfit. They are doing things that the y are not really good at so they are frustrated. Or they are doing things they dont want to do, so they dont do a particularly good job at it. So, you know, look at those three circles that I shared earlier. They are a great easy way of having a discussion about if its because youre doing things that youre not capable of doing? Is it desire? Is it competence? How do we help you be successful? And a lot of times, by the way, when someone is a misfit maybe they dont have the competence or they shouldnt be working for you company, and the last thing you should do is keep that person. Once you try to save the person, once you realize you have someone who has performance issues and that performance is dragging on the performance of others, and theres no other place to transfer that person, you run the risk of disengaging your performers by not addressing it. Excellent. Thank you, Bob. At this point I want to shift gears and check in with our operator to see if shes gotten some questions on her end yet. We do have one question. Its coming from the line. Nicole Rimaya, please go ahead. Hello. Okay. So my question is, can we have this powerpoint? I live in a world of if you give, you get [chuckles]. So I always share, even when I speak at conferences, I always share my full deck. So I will give the green light to send copies of the deck to all attendees. Great, thank you. This is Lisa, just quickly. Copies of presentation as well as the recording will be available in about two to three business days on hiring.monster.com, under the resources center tab and HR events. And if youre registered for todays event, youll also receive a copy with direct links in the email. Okay, thank you. Yeah, were pretty good about keeping the majority of the presentations on the webinar, as you see here, all will be available at that location. And Bob, Ill go ahead on my end with an additional question. Do you have suggestions for organizations to engage, or just suggestions if they have limited funds? Yeah. There are some significant things you can do that cost zero dollars just improving communication. If you improve communication from the top down to the bottom, you will see a spike in engagement. In fact, if you go on our employee engagement library, theres a free tool in the library called the communication protocol. It is terrific and free a step-by-step way on how you build both consistency and redundancy in your communication. You can do that for nothing. The second thing I encourage companies to do is embrace corporate social responsibility. Get your employees involved in after-hours type of activities. Walk for Hunger, Habitat Humanity, and youll find that when your employee sees that the employer is helping to deal with the administration, not the funding, just helping to endorse and promote these corporate social responsibility type of activities, you start capturing your employees heart. And its not just about the business of business. You know, how do you show your employees that you are an employer who cares about the community, you care about corporate citizenship, you care about the environment? And the more you can link your efforts, even volunteerism type of efforts. You know it doesnt cost any money to do these things other than some time on the administrative front. And youll see a spike in engagement just by getting your employees to partner with the firm on corporate social responsibility type of activities. Excellent! Great suggestions, Bob! And I believe Ive got word, we may have cut off our last caller, perhaps had an additional question beyond the slide deck. If the operator could jump back in, Id appreciate it. I will open back up her line for you. Nicole, your line is open. For those who are looking for concrete suggestions, you can pick up Louder Than Words right on Amazon or Barnes Noble. And it really is a cookbook of ideas and practical tips. And thats another way, Jim you know. For probably $18, you can pick up some really good practical ideas that help you during engagement methods, as a manager or as the company. Excellent. Thanks Bob. All right, well moving on I do have an additional question on my side. Ill put that up there now. Any ideas on how to build, and engage culture when you do know that your leadership is not going to be on board? You have some tactics there you can share with us Bob? Yeah. You know, thats a question, Jim, thats often asked when I give it to keynote. Someone will sheepishly come up to me and say, Hey, I agree with everything you just said. But, you know, we have an organizational jackass in charge and boy, he or she will never embrace this stuff. Its all about the numbers, and its hopeless. And I often challenge that person that they themselves as an individual employee can do a lot. If they manage people, they can do a lot. So, this fear in which you work to engage the people around you can be a great first step. So dont look to build Rome in a day. Try to be engaged yourself and practice some of the engagement principles just within the world that you live in. And if you manage people, focus on how you can engage the people that report to me in a way that this little popular engagement is going to stand out in the company. Because that type of grassroots effort can really take root, and I dont believe a leader who doesnt embrace this stuff wil l survive in the upcoming years anyways. So there is hope [chuckles] you know, there will be hope on its way, but you can do a lot as an individual contributor while you are waiting. Excellent thanks very much Bob. I believe we did have an individual on the phone. Nicole, if youre still with us, theres a follow up question you may have had? Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you. So, we just completed our first employee Satisfaction Survey and Im just kind of struggling on how to broadcast results to our staff without fully disclosing everything that was given to us. So what is your suggestion on broadcasting survey results to the company? The first thing I would say is on your next survey shift the name from Satisfaction to Engagement because you really want to kind of push your employees that our goal is not to satisfy you. If you focus just on satisfaction, the survey results might be, Oh, we want more benefits. We want more this, we want more that. So just a micro-suggestion. Its very specific, Nicole, to the client or the company to the organization of readiness. My last employer, we would post all engagement scores. We would not do it in a way that would embarrass anyone. We would only post, say, company-wide scores; we wouldnt post narratives. It would only be the statistical aspect that we would post and we would also post okay, we have a committee thats looking at these results, but its transparent youre seeing what we see. What we would not post other breakdowns by gender, or breakdown by departments, PNL, or breakdowns by service lines or age, because then you would run the risk of embarrassing groups, and the goal should not be embarrassment; it should be full disclosure. But again it depends on your scores, it depends on what your company plans on doing. The biggest mistake companies make with engagement surveys is the lack of follow up and follow through. One of the things that I like about posting your results is holding your leadership accountable. Then you need to do something. Youve just kind of shared the results with your employees. Okay. Can I ask one more question actually? Yes. Okay, sorry. In relation to our survey -Is there any common action steps that people, or that companies, do that are successful? I have a couple things in mind that I want to implement. Anything that has shown its a successful action step for an engagement or satisfaction? Yes, I would its very different per company. Its sort of like roses. There are no two roses alike, theres no two action plans that would be identical. That said, I can tell you I almost never seen an engagement survey that didnt include some action or some attention around three areas. Number one, staff recognition. Your employees are begging for more staff recognition, so how do you put in some vehicle or pathway in which youre going to encourage more people to recognize more often? Second is communication. How do you create increased communication including soliciting feedback from employees? Number three, how do you boost career development? So how do you get some focus on helping employees advance and develop towards their careers without knowing who you are, who your company is, I will be shocked if you dont have some metrics begging for some help in those three areas. When you say you recognize employees, is it bad to recognize individuals to the company? Does that make it feel other employees are not recognized? If you are recognizing individuals, thats something that I think would maybe be something with low morale. If youre praising one person and not praising others people people feel theyre not getting recognized. Do you suggest individual recognition? Yeah. Im going to turn this into a commercial because we could be here all day. But what I want to suggest, Nicole, is I have a book coming out called Employee Engagements for Dummies. That will be published by Wiley, it will go out in December. Theres an entire section, a big section in there all about employee recognition. I am not sensitive to people who say they shouldnt recognize because theyre afraid to not recognize those who maybe they forget. Ive never seen an employee say, I quit this company because theres too much recognition. I think companies mostly under-recognize. And they often use that as the excuse, Well, I dont want to recognize John because there are others who deserve as well. Well recognize John, and tomorrow well recognize the other deserving folks and come Monday, recognize someone else. Cultures of recognition foster positive goodwill in the replication of other positive behavior. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Nicole. Okay, if I could step in, Bob. Unfortunately we have run out of time for the webinar this afternoon, but we will pledge to forward any unanswered questions to Bob for follow up to get everything answered and to forward along. Bob, first I would like to say thanks very much for sharing your expertise with us today. This does conclude our webinar. A recording of this event, as well as the presentation materials, will be available shortly on our hiring site, and that can be reached at hiring.monster.com. Simply look under the resources center tab for that information, and thanks again for watching us. Please do join us again on September 18th for our webinar on Keeping your Road Warrior Employees Engaged and Productive. Thank you, and have a great day. Thanks all.