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#Strategy : This NightTime Routine Will Help you be More #Productive in the Morning…Having a Nightly Routine is as Important as your Morning Routine. This Way you Can Get the Rest you Need, & you Will be Prepared for an Energetic & Focused Tomorrow.

September 13, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Research has Proven that the Quality of Sleep is Much more Important than the Quantity of Hours you Sleep. Have you ever slept 9 hours but woken up still feeling tired and groggy? This is where the lack of quality of sleep comes in.

Reflect on your day before you go to bed.

Having a nightly routine is as important as your Morning Routine. This way you can get the rest you need, and you will be prepared for an energetic and focused tomorrow. The Nightly Routine doesn’t have to be as long as the morning — mine is only around 15 minutes or so; however, I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to crush the day.

After recently writing a post about my Morning Routine I was being asked by some of you what time I go to bed at if I get up at 5:30 am. To to get the average 8 hours we’re advised, do I go to bed at 9:30 every night? No.

Research has proven that the quality of sleep is much more important than the quantity of hours you sleep. Have you ever slept 9 hours but woken up still feeling tired and groggy? This is where the lack of quality of sleep comes in.

I sleep between 6–7 hours per night on average, and I’ve applied certain practices/sleep hacks into my nightly routine that help me to get the highest quality of sleep possible.

The 6 things before bed:

Reflection
Priorities for tomorrow
Wins
Gratitude
Clean Desk = Clean Mind
Sleep Hack

1. Reflection

Benjamin Franklin was known for his routines and continued effort toward self-improvement. At the end of each day would ask himself,

“What good have I done today?”

It’s important to look back on your day and reflect on what went well and what you have achieved. If I have a rough day, I write down 1 to 3 things I could have done to make the day better so I that I’m ready for “next time.”

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2. Priorities for tomorrow

When I was in Architecture school, I would write an absolute beast of a “to-do” list each day — a list in which I would never ever be able to complete even if I worked every minute of the day and night. It was pretty dumb. I would get to the end of the day, and, despite having worked all day, feel unaccomplished and overwhelmed. No bueno.

These days, I try to bookend my day in a much more positive way. At night, I take stock of my day and how it went. First, I’ve stopped writing impossible to-do lists, and I limit myself to 3 prioritized tasks per day, which I set during my nightly routine so that I wake up the next day knowing what needs to be completed.

This doesn’t mean I only do 3 things a day. It means I drill down to the things that matter — the things that if I did nothing else that day I would still feel accomplished at completing.

3. Wins

We’re generally our own worst critic. Take a few minutes to appreciate the things you did well, and stop beating yourself up about what you could have done better. Feel free to unapologetically brag to yourself about what you accomplished that day, whether it was a gym session, a sales call, or finally cleaning out your closet.

Making a daily habit of being positive about yourself will grow the confidence you have in yourself and your abilities.

4. Gratitude

A recent study by Nancy Digdon shows how grateful thoughts can help your sleep due to the fact that having more positive thoughts than negative thoughts make it easier to drift off to sleep. By taking a few minutes and writing down what you’re grateful for, you are focusing on the positive.

I write down 3 things I’m grateful for that happened that day. Again, it doesn’t have to be deep thoughts or something out-of-this-world. It’s not for anyone to read but yourself.

Clean organized desk computer office workspace

Keep your desk organized.

5. Clear desk = clear mind

Each evening as I finish work or before I go to bed, I organize my desk and clear up any clutter that has accumulated over the day. There is something about having a clear work area that gives our mind the focus needed to be more productive. This doesn’t mean the rest of my apartment is tidy (our secret), but I make sure my workspace is.

It’s so much easier to be productive and get your work done if you create the environment that allows you the head space for it.

I’m currently finishing up development on a product for optimizing your day and being intentional with everything we do so that it makes reaching your goals simple. We just launched on Kickstarter yesterday.

6. Sleep hacks

Most of the sleep hacks I have learned I got from The Bulletproof Diet and other biohacking resources. Some quick and free things you can do today for better sleep:

1. Sleep in a pitch black room (to stop melatonin suppression)

Melatonin, a biochemical produced to regulate our sleep-wake cycle only works when it’s dark. Even a small amount of light can be sensed by our eyes and skin which halts melatonin process and causes disrupted sleep. Here’s a great article explaining why melatonin is so important in more detail. I recently purchased some blackout blinds that have helped with this and am already noticing a difference.

2. Track your sleep so you wake up at the best time

I use an app called Sleep Cycle to track my sleep each night. The best part about the app is its smart alarm function that only wakes me during a light stage of sleep to avoid the groggy feeling I used to get when I woke up.

Here’s the type of stats you get:

0*ZJodZ8EaCJP zuGp Medium

3. Put your phone on airplane mode to avoid EMFs

Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) exposure from your phone will impede the production of melatonin, so make a habit of putting it on airport mode to prevent this.

4. Stop drinking coffee after 2 p.m.

(I’m not always awesome at this one)

5. Avoid bright lights and minimize blue light exposure

Blue light from phone screens, computer screens, and TV trick our brains into thinking it’s daytime and thus causes melatonin suppression which affects our sleep-wake cycle. Here’s 2 ways to help avoid this:

Install F.Lux on your computer. This will adapt your screen to your surroundings. When the sun goes down, it will dim the blue light from your screen and revert to normal during the day. It works in the background, so you’ll set it once and forget it. (Be sure not to do any graphic work involving color picking in the evenings or your project will look a little funky in the morning.)
Use blue-blocking glasses in the evening 1 to 3 hours before bed. And yes, as you can see from the link, they’re extremely glamorous. For more detailed info on blue light and sleep go here.

6. Don’t workout within 2 hours of when you plan to sleep

7. Avoid big meals before bed

Getty ImagesDon’t eat a lot right before bed.

Sleep supplements

Following the 80/20 rule, if you do all the things above, you’ll see a huge improvement in sleep quality and may not need anything else. Personally, as well as the things above, I take a few supplements before bed to get more quality sleep. Below is what I take and why:

Magnesium

Magnesium is a component of more than 325 different enzymes in the human body. It plays an important role in hydration, muscle relaxation, energy production, and the deactivation of adrenaline. With that said, due to the very low levels of it found in food, most people are deficient in it unless they take supplements.

A more detailed article about it and its role in sleep here. I take a magnesium supplement, Natural Calm, about 30 minutes before going to bed. This gives me much more restful sleep due to natural calming and relaxation effects. It’s also pretty tasty.

A Spoonful of Raw Honey

Your brain uses a lot of energy to fuel all the processes it goes through during the night. An efficient form of energy comes from sugar stored within the liver. A spoonful of raw honey has shown through rigorous self-experimentation by Seth Roberts and The Honey Revolution to improve sleep by keeping liver glycogen full. It’s important however that it is raw honey and not cooked honey that you typically find in grocery stores.

Krill Oil

Krill oil is a great source of Omega–3s, which have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression while also improving muscle growth and insulin sensitivity. Take a Krill Oil pill 2 hours before bed.

GABA

I only take GABA on occasions when I have been travelling or I’m working crazy hours on a product launch and know I need a long restful night of sleep. It is a neuro-inhibitory transmitter, which is what your brain needs to shut down. I’d definitely recommend this over sleeping pills.

And there you have it — my evening routine and how I hack my sleep. Since I’ve started, it’s been helping with morning decision fatigue (by knowing my priorities for the day), and it’s given me a much more restful sleep so I have much more energy throughout the day.

Medium | September 13, 2015 | Cathryn Lavery, Medium

Your #Career : 5 Items On Your Resume #Recruiters Notice First…Remember that a #Resume is the Start of a Discussion, Not the Close. You are Trying to Get a Meeting or Interview, Not a Job Outright.

September 12, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Recruiters Skim Resumes in Seconds & Still Glean enough Information to Decide on a Candidate. I have fond this to be true across industries, positions and levels. I have recruited for a variety of industries (financial services, management consulting, tech, media, non-profit), positions (client-facing, administrative, strategy, creative) and levels (unpaid interns thru multiple six-figure hires), and my recruiting colleagues and I always skim.

With multiple jobs open at any one time and hundreds of resumes to review, it’s simple math that each resume gets seconds of attention. Here are five items on your resume that recruiters notice first:

Brand names

The names that get attention are top schools, Fortune 500 companies, household brands, and hot start-ups. Your employers and schools screened you and selected you over others. Recruiters weigh the competitiveness of that filter. Recruiters’ preferences will depend on the search. For an executive-level position, top schools still carry weight but not as much at this stage of the career as recent companies. For a recent graduate with less information, the school brand matters more. If the role is for a fast-growth newer company, a history with successful start-ups may be preferred over even Fortune 500 companies. However, if the search is specifically to find a large-company executive then the Fortune 500 names will carry the day.

Make sure you put as many brand names as possible. If your employer is not a household name but is a leader in its field, put a one-line sentence to indicate this (e.g., largest textile manufacturer in Japan). If your employer is not itself a brand name but serves brand names, make sure you mention this. If your start-up is gaining traction but is not widely known, include something that indicates success—for example growth figures or media mentions.

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Keywords

Many recruiters don’t just look at every resume that comes in. They do a search for specific keywords. It might be a brand name – in the above example of the fast-growth company, the recruiter may search for competitor names experiencing a similar growth trajectory. Other popular keyword searches are technical skills like software or programming languages, certifications like the CPA or PMP, and functional skills like direct response for a specialized marketing search or regression analysis for a data analyst position. Just because you apply for a role does not mean you will be considered for that role. The recruiter may pull up resumes based on keyword, rather than who applied.

Make sure your resume includes detailed keywords even if you think your title makes it obvious. If you are a direct mail marketer by title, you should still elaborate on the direct response, segmentation, and other specific campaigns and analyses you did, even if you think it’s redundant with your title. First of all, recruiters may not ever see your title because they won’t see your resume if you don’t get pulled up in their search. Secondly, recruiters are often generalists who search across a variety of positions, and the one working on the direct mail/ direct response/ email marketing search may not know what your role entails just by its title. Finally, titles vary across companies – do not assume that what you do is obvious.

Chronology

Recruiters zero in on gaps, short tenures, and lack of progression. Depending on how recent the issues are and other competing factors, the chronology in a resume may be a deal breaker. A gap in the middle of an otherwise solid career is less of an issue than a recent gap. A shorter gap (less than six months) is a non-issue. Multiple jobs with a year or less of tenure raise suspicions that the candidate has no staying power – either they can’t commit or the employer doesn’t want them. If this occurs earlier in the career and recent positions show longevity, it probably doesn’t matter. If there is longevity but no increase in responsibilities, title or results, then this shows a lack of progression.

Review your own resume just by dates and tenure. You may need to include shorter stints that you planned to omit but they fill in gaps. You might unnecessarily have short stints listed because one of your employers got acquired so it’s really a name change, not a short tenure, or maybe you moved from one subsidiary to another, each with different names, so it’s internal movement, not separate short stints. Make sure you group these experiences together, so you show continuity. Write your position descriptions to reflect progression especially for roles you have held for a number of years.

Mistakes

Spelling and grammar mistakes jump out. The candidate looks sloppy, unprofessional, uncaring. If proper names are misspelled (a company listed as a client, a software listed as a skill) it raises doubt as to whether or not the candidate really worked at the company or knows that program.

Spell check is the first line of defense, but homonyms and names won’t get caught there, so you still need to copy edit line-by-line. Led versus lead is the most common mistake I see – the candidate means to write in the past tense (“led a team”) but instead spells it as it sounds (“lead a team”).

Potential

This is not one specific item on a resume but the feel across the entire resume. Brand names, relevant keywords, longevity and progression, and no mistakes all contribute to the message that, yes, this candidate has potential. In addition, the body of work – skills plus experience plus specific industry or functional expertise – also point to whether there is a potential fit to the opening on hand. The aesthetics of the resume – layout, readability, conciseness of descriptions – signal professionalism and attention to detail. The emphasis in the resume – the summary on top, the first bullet of each job, the results that are quantified – point to what this candidate feels is their value proposition. Does it match what the recruiter needs for the role?

Give your resume to someone else, anyone else to read. Someone who doesn’t look at resumes all the time will not be able to skim it in a few seconds, but it shouldn’t take that much longer to form an opinion. What jumps out at them? What do they think you do? What job do they think you’re applying for? Once you have all the facts down on your resume, edit it for potential – make sure it’s easy one the eyes and that you’re highlighting your value.

Remember that a resume is the start of a discussion, not the close. You are trying to get a meeting or interview, not a job outright. Don’t feel like you have to put every detail of every project. Put enough information – brand names, relevant keywords, longevity and progression, error-free presentation, potential value — so that you are clearly in the ballpark for the roles you want, but it will never be all the information you have. Your resume as an invitation to get to know you further.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart® career coaching and has worked with executives from American Express AXP +0.00%, Condé Nast, Goldman Sachs, Google GOOGL +0.50%, McKinsey, and other leading firms.. She is the co-host of the upcoming FREE webinar series, Confessions of a Former Recruiter, running September thru November. Connect with Caroline on Google+.

Forbes.com | September 12, 2015 | Caroline Ceniza-Levine

Your #Career : 45 Pieces of Career Advice That Will Get You to the Top…We’ve Collected 45 of the Best Tips for Whatever Stage You’re at In your Career.

September 12, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When it comes to your career, sometimes it feels like you could use all the advice you can get. From picking the “right” career to actually excelling in it, there’s certainly a lot to learn.

And that’s why we’ve gathered our all-time best career advice. From starting out at the bottom of the totem pole to advancing to a more senior position to—who knows?—maybe even branching out to open your own business, we’ve collected 45 of the best tips for whatever stage you’re at in your career.

On Working a Not-Quite-Dream-Job

1. The best career or job is the one in which you’re using the skills you enjoy. But, not every job needs to address all of your passions. Use every job as an opportunity to learn something new and keep an open mind; you may find that you really enjoy something you never imagined would appeal to you. Miriam Salpeter, Founder of Keppie Careers

2. Don’t take yourself (or your career) too seriously. Plenty of brilliant people started out in jobs they hated, or took paths that weren’t right at the beginning of their careers. Professional development is no longer linear, and trust that with hard work and a dedication to figuring out what you want to do with your life, you, too, will be OK! Kathryn Minshew, CEO of The Muse

3. Every person you meet is a potential door to a new opportunity—personally or professionally. Build good bridges even in that just-for-now job, because you never know how they’ll weave into the larger picture of your life. Kristina Leonardi, Career Coach

4. My friend Andre said to me, “You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great.” I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.” Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!

5. No matter how low on the totem poll you are or how jaded you’ve become by your to-do list, it’s still important to show up early, wear something sharp, and avoid Facebook like the plague. I discovered that when I acted like a professional, I suddenly felt like my work was a lot more valuable. “Looking the part” boosted my confidence, helped me begin to see myself as a highly capable contributor to the team—and ultimately led the rest of my team to see me in the same light. Lisa Habersack, Writer

6. Remember that a job, even a great job or a fantastic career, doesn’t give your life meaning, at least not by itself. Life is about what you learn, who you are or can become, who you love and are loved by.Fran Dorf, Author and Psychotherapist

7. If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them. Jane Fonda

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On Advancing Your Career

8. Every year or two, spend some time really thinking about your career. Go out and warm up your network, check out new opportunities, and do some salary comparisons. You make smarter career decisions when you have real data. Also, if you are afraid or uncomfortable, you are probably onto something awesome! Fear means you are growing your comfort zone. Christie Mims, Career Coach

9. Don’t be afraid to speak up in a meeting or to schedule a sit down with a colleague or boss—whether to hash out details on a project or deal with a sensitive situation. When it comes to having your ideas heard, or to really connecting with co-workers, never underestimate the power of face time and the importance of in-person communication. Catherine Straut, Assistant Editor of Elle

10. You’re setting yourself up for failure if you’re not preparing for an eventual promotion right now. Even if the next step in your career seems far off, you should be taking advantage of training and professional development courses and looking for ways to pitch in and expand your current role. Otherwise, even when the opportunity comes up, you won’t be ready to take advantage of it. Avery Augustine, Writer

11. Take criticism or “feedback” for what it is: a gift given to you to make you better at what you do. Don’t concern yourself with the person or the method of delivery. Instead, glean out the teachable nuggets and move on. Michelle Bruno, President of Bruno Group Signature Events

12. I know. You’ve heard it a thousand times: Dress for the job you want, not the one you’ve got. But I think this message goes far beyond the clothes you wear every day: It’s how you present yourself in meetings and at office events, how you interact with staff both above and below you, and how seriously you take your work. Adrian Granzella Larssen, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Muse

13. In chaos, there is opportunity. Most major career accelerations happen when someone steps into a mess and makes a difference. Kristi Hedges, Leadership Coach

14. Work harder than everyone under you or above you. Nothing commands respect more than a good work ethic. This means being the first one at the event in the morning and the last one to leave in the evening. No one said this gig was easy. Keith Johnston, Event Consultant at Plannerwire

15. When you’re offered a big opportunity, consider it carefully—even if it scares the heck out of you. In the end, high risk often leads to high reward. But if you turn down every opportunity that comes your way, you won’t even have the chance to succeed. Avery Augustine, Writer

On Excelling in Your Career

16. I first heard Zig Ziglar say it when people challenged him on his “positive attitude” manifesto: “You can do anything with a positive attitude better than you can do it with a negative one.” Lea McLeod, Career Coach

17. Work hard and be nice to people. It’s a very simple motto I try to live by daily. Marie Burns, Recruiting Leader at Compete

18. There’s never going to be a precisely right moment to speak, share an idea, or take a chance. Just take the moment—don’t let thoughts like “I don’t feel like I’m ready” get in the way. Look to see if you have the main things or the opportunity will pass you by. Don’t let perfect get in the way of really, really good. Kathleen Tierney, Executive Vice President and COO of Chubb Insurance

19. “Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.” Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google

20. No matter what your dream job is, you’ll likely hear “no” many times before you achieve your goals. Just accept that as a fact. But by refusing to accept that “no,” you’ll separate yourself from the pack. Sometimes you just have to outlast the competition—and wear down your boss! Shannon Bream, Supreme Court Correspondent at FOX

21. Tenacity and persistence—nothing beats it. Even if your talent isn’t there yet, you can always develop it to what it will eventually be. But people who are persistent and tenacious and driven and have a really clear, defined goal of what they want, nothing compares to that. Not giving up is really huge. Catt Sadler, Anchor at E!

22. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. No one got to where they are today without help along the way. Don’t be afraid to ask, and then remember to return the favor. Elliott Bell, Director of Marketing of The Muse

23. Even if you aren’t feeling totally sure of yourself and your abilities, it’s important you present yourself otherwise. That means shifting your body language to portray confidence. So, while you may be so nervous before your big interview or meeting that you want to curl into a ball, resist the temptation to cower or make yourself smaller, and walk in with your head held high. Michele Hoos, Writer

24. My advice for everyone in the industry is to find a mentor and to be a mentor. You’ll learn a great deal from both of these experiences, and make sure to leverage these roles for networking. Ask your mentor for introductions, and introduce the person that you’re mentoring to others—both will increase your visibility in the industry. Mariela McIlwraith, President at Meeting Change

25. I live by the 80/20 rule. 80% of the impact can be done with 20% of the work. It’s the last 20% that takes up the most time. Know when to stop, and when things are close enough. Alex Cavoulacos, COO at The Muse

26. Having a strong network adds to your value as an employee. In other words, the more people I can reach out to for help, the more valuable I am. Hannah Morgan, Founder of Career Sherpa

27. Do what you say you’re going to do. Danielle LaPorte, Entrepreneur

28. One of the most important things I’ve found is the importance of playing to your strengths. I think it’s common for us to learn while in school that if you get an A+ in writing and a C- in math, that you should focus your time and attention to getting better at math. In the working world I find it to be the opposite; by putting your focus on those things that you are strongest at, over time you will become an expert at it. By outsourcing your weaknesses to others who excel in those areas, you’ll be able cover those weaknesses better than you could have otherwise. Trying to be great at everything could be spreading yourself thin and keeping you from reaching your full potential in your strongest areas.Ryan Kahn, Career Coach

On Starting Your Own Business

29. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that a lot of people have a lot of ideas that they’d like to turn into businesses—but if your ideas don’t turn into actual money, then you’re not able to turn it into a business. You have to be able to generate revenue first and foremost. A lot of people have conceptual ideas and conceptual dreams, and you just have to be able to distinguish between what is a hobby and what is a passion and what you can actually turn into a business. Emily Cavalier, Founder of Midnight Brunch

30. No matter what you do, you’ll make it through. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The thing they don’t tell you is that it nearly kills you. Tyler Arnold, Founder of SimplySocial Inc.

31. Early on in my career, I was determined to be independent and create my own success, and I thought this meant learning everything on my own. The reality is, you can’t always be an expert at everything, so surround yourself with brilliant, creative people and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Humility is key to success, especially in your early years. Ivanka Trump

32. I wish I knew that working smarter, not harder, is essential to surviving as an entrepreneur. You can get by working hard in the corporate world, but you won’t last long in small business ownership without working smart. Andrew Schrage, Partner and Editor-in-Chief of Money Crashers Personal Finance

33. Don’t let fear be the reason you don’t launch your new business. When have you ever felt fully ready to do anything this important in your life? All you can do is prepare as much as humanly possible, know that you’ve done all you can for your baby to shine, and send it out into the world. Megan Broussard, Founder of ProfessionGal

34. Remember all those stories you’ve heard of how the most successful entrepreneurs in the world made it to where they are now? Well, most of them started with different jobs or interests and amounts of money in the bank. The one thing they had in common is an unyielding commitment to doing whatever it was that needed to be done in order to make their dream a reality. Danielle Mund, Life Coach

35. If you’re serious about building a great, enduring company, you have to be willing to sacrifice some things. A vacation in the first year is likely going to be one of those things, so take one before you start! Ronnie Castro, Founder of Porch

36. If you are like me and follow many relevant business people, you often see tweets like “5 things to avoid when starting your business” or similar posts. You may even read them. But here’s the thing: None of that matters. Every journey is different. No two things work exactly the same. You will make mistakes. Embrace the fact that you made the mistake, learn from it, move on, and never repeat it. John Jackovin, Founder of Bawte

37. Be confident, don’t doubt yourself, and go for it. If you are sure there is an opportunity, you need to believe wholeheartedly in it—your team won’t be driven to succeed unless you are. Kellee Khalil, Founder of Loverly

On Doing What You Love

38. Don’t sweat it. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’ll probably be scary or uncomfortable, but you always get to make a new choice if this one doesn’t work out. Steve Errey, Career Coach

39. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life…have the courage to follow your own heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” These words, spoken by Steve Jobs during his 2005 Stanford commencement address, guide me on a regular basis. Michael Terrell, Founder, Terrell Leadership Group

40. Having an evolving bucket list or a career path that defies logic is 100% OK. After spending years envying the neatly defined careers of my friends, I came to the better-late-than-never conclusion that I wasn’t wired that way… Once I stopped fighting who I was and relaxed into the idea that different was okay, all the possibilities before me were exciting, not stressful. I love what I’m doing now, but I also know that I’ll probably have multiple careers throughout my lifetime. Kacey Crawford, Career Coach

41. When you need the courage to be bold, simply ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could possibly happen?” When you have the answer, ask, “Can I live with that?” And if the answer is yes, then take a leap! Cindy Bates, Vice President of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses at Microsoft

42. If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time. Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you… Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it. Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur

43. Ultimately, you won’t really know what you love to do unless you actually bite the bullet. Until you give it a go, it’s really just speculation. So, whether you take a small step like signing up for a class or you dive head-first into entrepreneurship, roll up your sleeves and do it. You’ll never know until you try. Ruth Zive, Writer

44. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. Steve Jobs

45. Life’s too short to be stuck in a job you hate. Kathryn Minshew, CEO of The Muse

The Muse | September 2015

Your #Career : Science says People Determine your Competence, Intelligence, & Salary Based on your Weight…White Women Seem to be Most Affected by Weight Bias.

September 10, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

“What we Found Across our Studies is that Obesity Serves as a Proxy for Low Competence,” Schweitzer said in a release. “People judge obese people to be less competent even when it’s not the case.”

We’re often biased to see overweight people as less capable in the workplace.

What factors would you consider when evaluating candidates for a job or a promotion? Their past performance? Personality? These qualities might be meaningful, but a growing body of research suggests that we’re swayed, too, by aspects of a person’s physical appearance — namely, their weight. When it comes to judging professional potential, we’re often biased to see overweight people as less capable.

A recent series of experiments led by Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer, Ph.D., and doctoral student Emma Levine, highlighted the potentially powerful effects of weight bias in the workplace.

In one experiment, men and women rated digital resumes that included photographs of non-obese people and digitally altered photographs of those same people as obese. Results showed that obese job candidates were deemed significantly less competent than non-obese candidates. Interestingly, even overweight participants showed a bias against obese candidates.

“What we found across our studies is that obesity serves as a proxy for low competence,” Schweitzer said in a release. “People judge obese people to be less competent even when it’s not the case.”

Schweitzer and Levine’s study is supported by other research, which suggests that obese people are generally seen as less productive, more prone to interpersonal problems, lazy, and less intelligent than their thinner counterparts.

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Perhaps the most compelling evidence that overweight people are less successful in the workplace is research that found they tend to earn less than others. White women seem to be most affected by weight bias: A difference of about 64 pounds translates to a 9% decrease in wages for this demographic.

It’s worth noting that experts disagree as to whether the wage penalty is a way to offset higher expected healthcare costs or discrimination.

But assuming that discrimination accounts for at least some part of the wage penalty, a major issue is that weight discrimination is still relatively socially acceptable — especially compared to gender or race prejudice.

White women seem to be most affected by weight bias. CityYear/Flickr

“Because many people perceive obesity to be a choice, discrimination against obese people is far more accepted” than other forms of discrimination, Schweitzer said in the release.

In fact, under federal law, employers cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of race or sex. But only one state — Michigan — has a law against weight discrimination.

Ultimately, it helps to simply be aware that weight bias exists. If you’re on the hiring side of the job application process, you can take measures to ensure that weight bias doesn’t interfere with your good judgment about which candidate would perform best.

If you feel that weight discrimination has interfered with your professional prospects, The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination recommends speaking to the appropriate person — say, your boss or the hiring manager — about the problem. If that doesn’t work, you can get in touch with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the American Civil Liberties Union.

Businessinsider.com | September 9, 2015 | Shana Lebowitz

http://www.businessinsider.com/science-overweight-people-less-successful-2015-9#ixzz3lLdKxox4

#Leadership : The Pernicious Myth of the 80-20 Rule…While it’s Easy to See Why Managers Still Believe That 20% of a Company’s Workforce does 80% of the Work, the 80-20 Rule is a Corrosive Myth that Often Does More Harm Than Good.

September 8, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Management Consultants Insist that a 20% Vital Few really Matter in Companies, a Large Middle Just do their Jobs, & Another 10% or 20% Should be Encouraged to Leave or Be Fired.

Back in the late 19th century, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80 percent of the land was owned by 20 percent of the people. In the 1940s management consultant Joseph Juran argued that the 80-20 rule applied to management in general, concluding that there were the “vital few and the trivial many.” That seemed a bit harsh, so he later revised it to the “vital few and the useful many.”

The principle seems to be having a revival these days. Management consultants insist that a 20 percent vital few really matter in companies, a large middle just do their jobs, and another 10 percent or 20 percent should be encouraged to leave or be fired. Recent data from Mercer Consulting shows that employers are now focusing most of their bonuses on just a small number of people, while about 30 percent of companies that had broad-based equity plans have dropped them to focus on “the people who really matter.” So the new corporate mantra, I suppose, is that “20 percent of our people are our most important asset.”

This rule never made much sense to me. After all, if we focus rewards on the 20 percent, the other 80 percent would be most unhappy. Of course, that might demotivate them enough to make the 80-20 rule actually work. That is especially true because surveys consistently show that about 70 percent of employees believe they are in the top 10 percent of performers (admit it, you think you are, right?).

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It is easy to see why people are attracted to the 80-20 rule for management. First, everyone who writes and reads about it, I’d wager, believes they are in the 20 percent. Second, it justifies maximizing the rewards that go to the top. Third, if you treat people as if they don’t matter that much, you may well end up with an organization where they don’t. So your brilliance in following the 80-20 rules is self-fulfilling. In fact, why not take the 80-20 rule a little farther? If 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the people, then shouldn’t 80 percent of the results from the top 20 percent of the company come from 4 percent? And 80 percent of what the 4 percent produce from 0.8 percent? After all, this is a rule.

Curious about this, I spent an hour Googling for research on it in anything related to human resource management that prove the 80-20 rule. There may be something out there, but I couldn’t find it. Of the hundreds of links I did find, all but a handful just accepted the rule as some kind of unrepealable law of nature.

The 80-20 rule is corrosive. It deters management from finding ways to get as many people as possible in an organization to contribute ideas, information, and effort that help the company move forward. It creates too much competition between people for scarce rewards, thus discouraging teamwork. And while it is certainly true that people make unequal contributions to organizational success, to assume this follows an arbitrary division of any kind is lazy and ineffective. So I am herewith creating the Rosen rule. If in your organization 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the people, your organization is very badly mismanaged.

That’s how Doug Smith of Lumber Traders, an ESOP-owned company in Port Angeles, Washington sees it. He told us that “the establishment of the 80/20 rule is a benchmark of bad management. Our society always looks to the dark side, self-interest and fear. No wonder so many people are only looking out for themselves. We take a different approach. Yes we do have some percentage of ‘vital few’, and we do have pockets of perfection, but our overriding goal is to identify these resources and to propagate them.” Smith’s concept is that these star performers should be focusing their efforts not on distinguishing themselves from everyone else, but working to bring the other 80 percent up to their level.”

Great business leaders are humble. That humility is what makes I possible for people around them to be confident they can express ideas and disagree. Rather than trying to rely on the ideas and energy of just a small percentage of their workforce, they seek to engage everyone and put them all in the top 20 percent.

PUBLISHED ON: SEP 7, 2015

BY COREY ROSEN

Founder, National Center for Employee Ownership

#Strategy : 4 Ways Big Data Will Change Every Business…If You’re Still Saying, “Big Data isn’t Relevant to my Company,” You’re Missing the Boat.

September 8, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

It Doesn’t Matter What Field you Operate In or The Size of your Business; as data collection, analysis, and interpretation become more readily accessible, they will have an impact on every business in several important ways.

If You’re Still Saying, “Big Data isn’t Relevant to my Company,” You’re Missing the Boat. I firmly believe that big data and its implications will affect every single business— from Fortune 500 enterprises to mom and pop companies— and change how we do business, inside and out.

It doesn’t matter what field you operate in or the size of your business; as data collection, analysis, and interpretation become more readily accessible, they will have an impact on every business in several important ways.

1. Data will become an asset to every business.

Even the smallest businesses generate data these days. If the business has a website, a social media presence, accepts credit cards etc., even a one-person shop has data it can collect on its customers, its user experience, web traffic, and more. This means companies of all sizes need a strategy for big data and a plan of how to collect, use, and protect it. This also means that savvy businesses will start to offer data services to even very small companies.

It also means that businesses and industries that never thought big data would be “for them” might be scrambling to catch up. Let me just make this as plain as possible: If you own or operate a business, and you have questions about how to improve that business, you have data, your data is an asset, and it can be used to improve your business. Simple as that.

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2. Big data will enable companies to collect better market and customer intelligence.

Like it or not, the companies you do business with know a lot about you — and the quantity and diversity of what they know about you is increasing every year. Every company (from car manufactures who will monitor our driving to tennis racket manufacturers that know how often and how well we play) will get much better insights into what customers want, what they will use, what channels they use to buy, and so on.

The other half of this equation is that companies will need to be proactive about creating and maintaining their privacy policies and all the systems and security needed to protect that user data. As we’ve seen with the recent backlash againstSpotify and to a lesser extent Microsoft 10, most people will allow companies to gather this data, but they want transparency around what’s being collected and why and they want the ability to opt-out.

3. It will improve internal efficiency and operations

From using sensors to track machine performance, to optimising delivery routes, to better tracking employee performance and even recruiting top talent, big data has the potential to improve internal efficiency and operations for almost any type of business and in many different departments.

Companies can use sensors to track shipments and machine performance, but also employee performance. Companies have started using sensors to track employee movements, stress, health, and even who they converse with and the tone of voice they use.

In addition, if data can successfully be used to quantify what makes a good CEO, it can be used to improve the HR and hiring process at any level.

Data is breaking away from the IT department and becoming an integral part of every department in a company.

4. And data will allow companies to improve the customer experience and build big data into their product offering.

In the best of all possible worlds, companies will use the data they collect to improve their products and the customer experience.

John Deere DE -2.23% is an excellent example of a company that is not only using data to benefit its customers, but also as a new product offering.

All new John Deere tractors are equipped with sensors that can help the company understand how the equipment is being used, and predict and diagnose breakdowns. But they’ve also put the sensors to work for the farmers, offering access to data about when to plant, where, the best patterns for ploughing and reaping, and more. It’s become an entirely new revenue stream for an old company.

As we invite more connected things into our lives — from smart thermostats toApple AAPL -0.92% Watches and fitness trackers — there will be more and more data, analysis, and insights that companies can sell back to consumers.

These are just the top four impacts I predict big data will have on businesses of all types in the near future. Is your business ready to capitalize on these opportunities?

Bernard Marr is a best-selling business author, keynote speaker and leading business performance, analytics and data expert. His latest books are ‘Big Data‘ and ‘KPIs for Dummies‘.

Forbes.com | September 8, 2015 | Bernard Marr

#Leadership : We Don’t Need The Best People, We Need The Best Teams…Having the “Smartest Guys in the Room” Won’t Do you Much Good If they Can’t Work with Others Effectively. We Need to ReThink How we Approach Talent.

September 7, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

All of this Points to a Major Change in How we Need to Recruit, Train & Manage People. Many long-held practices, such as individual performance assessments and compensation will have to be reassessed. The best performers are no longer the hard driving executives that can impose their force of will, but those who can engender trust and encourage others to contribute.

The Navy SEALs, one of the world’s most elite fighting units, emphasizes teamwork over individual performance in its training and evaluation (image credit: Wikipedia)

In 1997, in a landmark article, McKinsey declared the war for talent. The firm argued that due to demographic shifts, recruiting the “best and the brightest” was even more important than “capital, strategy, or R&D.” The report was enormously influential and continues to affect how enterprises operate even today.

Companies were urged to identify specific traits they were looking for, aggressively recruit and retain the very best performers and move quickly to weed out those who didn’t measure up. Some companies, such as General Electric, instituted a policy of stacked ranking, routinely firing the bottom 10% of their workers.

Yet in a new book, Humans Are Underrated, longtime Fortune editor Geoff Colvin challenges this notion. As it turns out, what it takes to compete in today’s world is not the best individual performers, but the best teams. Having the “smartest guys in the room” won’t do you much good if they can’t work with others effectively. We need to rethink how we approach talent.

The Increasing Dominance of Teams

In the aftermath of 9/11, the CIA commissioned a study to determine what attributes made for the most effective analyst teams. What they found was surprising. As it turned out, what made for the most effective teams was not the individual attributes of their members, or even the coaching they got from their leaders, but the interactions within the team itself.

Managers have long sought to stock their organizations with great performers. Hard working people who went to top schools, scored high on aptitude tests and had a proven track record of getting results were highly sought after. Compensation schemes and retention practices were similarly geared to top performers.

However recent studies show that high value work is increasingly done not by individuals, but teams and those teams are increasing in size. Moreover, other research demonstrates that diverse teams outperform others that are more homogenous even if the more uniform units are made up of people with higher ability.

In fact, almost everywhere you look there is evidence that belies the central premise of the “war for talent” approach that McKinsey promoted and that so many organizations have adopted. What’s increasingly becoming clear is the focus on individual performance was misguided. We need to shift our focus from individuals to teams.

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What’s Driving The Shift

At first, the new emphasis on teams, rather than individual performance, can be a little hard to swallow. We’ve all seen great performers at work and marveled at their effectiveness, just as we’ve all seen real buffoons in action who can’t seem to tie their own shoelaces. It seems far fetched, to say the least, that the former do not outperform the latter.

Yet in truth, very few people are stars or dolts, most sit somewhere in between and cognitive ability isn’t as consequential as it used to be. Consider the fact that an ordinary teenager with a smartphone has more access to information than even a genius working in a high-powered organization a generation ago and it becomes clear that talent is overrated.

So just as the industrial revolution devalued physical power, the digital age is reducing the importance of cognitive power. Increasingly, we’re collaborating with machines to get work done. Further, as the world grows more complex, expertise is becoming more domain specific, so we need to work with others to get things done.

The effect of teams is even becoming clear in fields that have long been considered in the realm of individual performance. The National Transportation Safety Board, for example, found that 73% of fight incidents happen on the crew’s first day together, before they had a chance to build a team dynamic. Another study showed that surgeons perform markedly worse at unfamiliar hospitals.

Building A Team Of Teams

Just as the individual capabilities of team members isn’t nearly as important as how they work together, overemphasizing individual team performance can hinder the performance of the organization as a whole. As he describes in Team of Teams, that’s what General Stanley McChrystal found fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004.

Although as the Commander of Special Forces, he led some of the world’s most capable teams, the interactions between them left much to be desired. Commandos would capture valuable intelligence, which would often sit for weeks before a team of analysts would get to it. Insights from analysts, on the other hand, often weren’t getting to the soldiers on the ground.

McChrystal saw that his forces had fallen into an efficiency paradox. In their zeal to field the most capable teams hell bent on accomplishing their specific missions, interoperability suffered and the shared mission of the organization was being lost. They were winning every battle, but somehow still losing the war.

So McChrystal took steps to network his organization, even if that meant slowing the individual teams down slightly. For example, he took top soldiers out of the field and made them liaison officers—usually a role for those past their prime. He also embedded analysts in commando units and vise versa. The result was that overall efficiency increased by a factor of seventeen.

What Makes A Great Team?

Managers have long relied on assessments such as the IQ test to identify high performers and those scores do correlate highly with individual achievement. However, the work we do today demands greater collaboration and the same individual skills don’t necessarily transfer to a group setting. In fact, some high performance traits, like assertiveness, negatively affect teams.

To understand how to create more effective teams, scientists at MIT and Carnegie Mellon have identified a collective intelligence factor that predicts group performance. Rather than hard driving “A personalities,” it turns out that high performing teams are made up with people who have high social sensitivity, take turns when speaking and, surprisingly the number of women in the group.

Another study found that successful groups exhibited behaviors that engender trust, such as facing each other while talking and making eye contact. Colvin also pointed to further research, still unpublished, which suggested that team performance was hindered when people believed that their work was being individually assessed.

All of this points to a major change in how we need to recruit, train and manage people. Many long-held practices, such as individual performance assessments and compensation will have to be reassessed. The best performers are no longer the hard driving executives that can impose their force of will, but those who can engender trust and encourage others to contribute.

Forbes.com | September 5, 2015 | Greg Satell

#Strategy : The 22 Books you Should Read Before you Quit your Job to Start a Business…“If I Stay in this Job, I Will Never be Able to Live like This.” I spent $237.91 on 22 Books, a Hefty Investment for Me at the Time, & Got Reading.

September 5, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

I Don’t have an MBA. I Never took a Business Studies Class in High School. What Do I Know about Running & Growing a Business? I wasn’t about to quit my job, join an MBA program, and then start a business. I didn’t have the time, patience, or money for that.

I spent $237.91 on 22 books, a hefty investment for me at the time, and got reading.

I was recently visited by a good friend I went to university with. He’s still in the field of architecture, and it was the first time we’d seen each other since I’d given up on the industry in favor of entrepreneurship. During his visit we talked a lot about the Architecture industry as a whole, our biggest problems with it, and why I ultimately decided it wasn’t what I wanted.

I described moments at my job when I was working on designs for a high-end luxury apartment in the Lower East Side and thinking, “If I stay in this job, I will never be able to live like this.” Not that I dreamt of luxury penthouses and a $70,000 custom millwork closet (yes, this happened), but I did dream of financial freedom and travel, as well as working for myself.

I started a side project, Calm The Ham, which after 18 months of work was making decent money, especially compared to the $40,000 I was making at my job (which does not stretch far living in New York City). I was only able to work on Calm the Ham on weeknights and weekends, which slowly became harder and harder as I juggled this new life. In the 6 months prior to quitting my more stable job, I kept thinking what if I had the time and resources to make my newer venture full-time.

What could I create if it was my only focus?

Then the negative thoughts would kick in. I don’t have an MBA. I never took a business studies class in high school. What do I know about running and growing a business? I wasn’t about to quit my job, join an MBA program, and then start a business. I didn’t have the time, patience, or money for that.

I needed to learn the basic principles of business, both running and growing one.

I made a reading list for myself of all the business books I had heard about from people I admired or that had been recommended to me personally. I spent $237.91 on 22 books, a hefty investment for me at the time and got reading.

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Personal Mindset & Inspiration: ‘Awaken The Giant Within’ by Tony Robbins

Amazon

An inspirational book by Tony Robbins. Difficult to drill down to one lesson I’ve learned but essentially this book has the potential to change your life.

The 6 things before bed:

1. Reflection

2. Priorities for tomorrow

3. Wins

4. Gratitude

5. Clear desk = clear mind

6. Sleep hacks

Sleep supplements

On Working a Not-Quite-Dream-Job

On Advancing Your Career

On Excelling in Your Career

On Starting Your Own Business

On Doing What You Love

Bernard Marr is a best-selling business author, keynote speaker and leading business performance, analytics and data expert. His latest books are ‘Big Data‘ and ‘KPIs for Dummies‘.

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Personal Mindset & Inspiration: ‘Awaken The Giant Within’ by Tony Robbins

‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell

‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell

‘The Millionaire Fastlane’ by MJ DeMarco

‘Good To Great’ by Jim Collins

Productivity: ‘The Four Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferris

‘The Compound Effect’ by Darren Hardy

‘The 80/20 Principles’ by Richard Koch

‘The Ultimate Sales Machine’ by Chet Holmes

Business: ‘The Power Of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg

‘The Personal MBA’ by Josh Kaufman

‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Reis

‘The $100 Startup’ by Chris Guillebeau

‘Crush It’ by Gary Vaynerchuk

‘The E-Myth Revisited’ by Michael E. Gerber

‘Purple Cow’ by Seth Godin

‘ReWork’ by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

‘This Book Will Teach You How to Write Better’ by Neville Medhora

Sales: ‘To Sell Is Human’ by Daniel Pink

‘Pitch Anything’ by Oren Klaf

Finance: ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert T. Kiyosaki

‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’ by Ramit Sethi

1. Take a few 30-minute breaks to walk around the whole company and talk to people.

2. Talk to at least one customer.

3. Limit meetings.

4. Don’t leave things for later.

5. Run to work and back.

6. Wake up an hour early and stay up an hour late.

7. Be willing to meet with anyone at any time.

8. Work your to-do list.

9. Work out hard every day.

10. Be a servant.

11. Don’t be afraid of failure.

12. Leverage all of your staff.

13. Be a collector.

14. Exercise during your break.

15. Have pointless conversations.

16. Cross things off the to do list, but don’t delete them.

17. Meditate every morning.

18. Go out for coffee several times a week.

19. Listen to podcasts.

Bernard Marr is a best-selling business author, keynote speaker and leading business performance, analytics and data expert. His latest books are ‘Big Data‘ and ‘KPIs for Dummies‘.