Leadership: 6 Things Wise Leaders Do To Engage Their Employees…These 6 Things are What Employees are Constantly Thinking About, but Not Talking Enough About with their Leaders

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An article in the New York Daily News reports that nearly 70% of U.S. employees are miserable at work. According to the story, research conducted by the Gallup Poll suggests that the majority of American’s dislike or feel disengaged on the job. Needless to say, this is disturbing news. It’s also an indicator that leaders are having trouble finding ways to stimulate engagement with today’s employees – a workforce that is much more diverse and younger than ever before.

SheepHerder

Many corporations are experiencing transformation mode, where leadership is about enabling the full potential in others. It’s about allowing employees to be their authentic selves so they can leverage their strengths and unique perspectives. I know this firsthand; in the early years of my career, I was considered high-potential by an organization that was reinventing itself. Rather than assume I was too young to take on the additional responsibilities of hiring and leading people twice my age to accomplish their goals, the organization’s leadership invested in my potential and as a result I grew quickly in this new role. This calculated risk from leadership paid off, and allowed me to prove that as an executive in my late 20s, I could generate tremendous revenue growth and ROI for the organization. I will forever be grateful to those leaders that engaged me early on and guided me rightly.

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Leaders need to let go and guide their employees to mature within new and expansive roles and responsibilities. Employees want to feel valued and challenged; they want to be trusted and given the freedom to explore and learn within the job. Employees that stretch themselves to grow and take on more advanced assignments especially should be given the opportunity to further accelerate their advancement. The bottom line is that leaders must continuously create new opportunities for their employees – or their workforce will not be innovative enough.
How else can you determine if an employee is capable of performing and stepping-up their game if you are not continuously finding new ways to engage them? This is leadership and it takes extra time and effort. If you are not cut out for this, then reconsider your leadership role. If you are not engaging your employees to create great teams, you are being irresponsible to the organization and the people you serve. Perhaps this explains the Gallup Poll’s recent findings.

Today’s leaders must constantly focus on the growth of their teams and strengthening the capabilities of individuals that can make the team more effective; this creates an environment of continuous innovation and initiative. Think of your employees as an innovation lab. As such, employee engagement should always be abundant!

To assure you don’t create a reputation as a leader that doesn’t engage employees, here are six things to consider to more effectively engage your employees. These are fundamental tips that employees desire from their leaders, and if implemented properly, will stimulate employee engagement that’s been missing.

1. Stop unknowingly creating tension

Leaders unknowingly create tension with their employees when they expect them to behave like they do, rather than encouraging them to be their authentic selves. Opportunities are everywhere, but few leaders have the eyes to see them. When employees are encouraged to be themselves and not what others want them to be, they will begin to embrace an entrepreneurial attitude that wasn’t previously being leveraged – thus stimulating engagement.

Tension is created by leaders who don’t take the time to engage with their employees. When an employee feels that their leader doesn’t care – or is disingenuous about their career and future When an employee feels that their leader doesn’t care – or is disingenuous about their career and future opportunities, they may begin to shut down and grow bitter. Employees respect leaders that allow them to use their most natural skills and characteristics. Employees are most engaged when they don’t feel confined to an environment of limitations and constraints.   Be more aware of what your employees need and stop unknowingly creating tension.

2. Detect the most positive capabilities in people

Stop spending time being overly critical of what your employees are not doing right and identify what they are naturally gravitating towards – that which gets them excited. Throw their job description out the door and focus on those areas your employees enjoy contributing to the most and build a plan that utilizes their most positive capabilities to create the outcomes you desire.

Everyone wants to enjoy what they do at work, so allow employees to engage with the business in ways that generate the results that you require, while giving them the flexibility to navigate and explore how they can best contribute. See well beyond the obvious. Expand your leadership lens to detect what matters most to your employees and allow them to flourish.

3. Empower to discover potential

You will never know what an employee is capable of accomplishing unless you stop micromanaging and start empowering them to discover their full potential. Put them in situations that will build their confidence and strengthen their self-trust.

Empowering employees sounds simple, but it requires a leader to let go, step back and observe. It demands a confident leader that is willing to allow their employees to fail, then help them pick up the pieces and rebound. Employees engage when they are empowered to explore endless possibilities.
4. Put them in a position of influence

Beyond empowering employees, put them in a position of influence to see how they react and engage in their new role. Stimulating engagement is a two-way street: it’s not just how employees gravitate towards their leaders, but how others gravitate towards them. Allow your employees to discover their own potential and put them to the test. Witness how they lead and collaborate with others. If you micromanage employees too much, they disengage. Employees want to feel trusted and valued for the independent decisions they can make and the impact they can create.

The most engaged employees are those whose leaders have confidence in them; who trust that they can always be depended to deliver when called upon.   Employees are most engaged when they feel a sense of responsibility towards their leaders and the example their performance sets for others. This is accelerated when they are placed in roles of influence and responsibility.

 5.  Share your success to build their momentumRather than enjoy your leadership success alone, share it with your employees and allow them to experience it with you.   The wise man forfeits his fortune when he does not trust himself. Sharing your success with your employees and making them feel an important part of your accomplishments is a sign of trust that organically creates engagement.

Employees want to support their leaders – even more so when a leader is transparent enough to share not only their success, but also their vulnerabilities. Employees don’t need leaders that always have to be right (or perceived as perfect) – they want leaders that open themselves up enough to share their journey with them. Genuine collaboration drives engagement and creates an environment of significance for everyone.

6.  Be consistent and have their backs

Leadership is about having each other’s backs – especially those of your employees. Employees disengage when their leaders play mind-games and are inconsistent with their approach and style. Employees are vulnerable these days – not really knowing who to trust, rely upon or follow.

Recently, I spoke with a Fortune 80 executive who has been with his organization for more than 15 years.   He has grown tired of the inconsistency of his leader, who doesn’t value him nor does he place a priority on his career development.   This executive is ready to leave the organization in search of a leader that has his best interests at heart – while still in support of the organization’s goals. He wants to be part of a team that matters, with no hidden agendas.

Who wants to engage with a leader that doesn’t have their back?   This is why leaders lose top talent all the time. They just assume their employees will be loyal to them – rather than recognizing that retaining top talent requires leaders to always be looking out for their best interests.   Leaders must communicate and become more emotionally intelligent to stimulate employee engagement.

These six things are what employees are constantly thinking about – but not talking enough about with their leaders – as they navigate ways to elevate their engagement at work. Just as the wise man may forfeit his fortune when he does not trust himself, the wise leader forfeits his leadership when he does not engage his employees.

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Job Seekers: What To Do If You Aren’t Getting Called For Interviews…Go Through this Process for Several Other Jobs for Which You’ve Applied. Do You See a Pattern?

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When you’ve been actively applying for jobs, it can get really frustrating when you aren’t getting called for interviews. If this is happening to you, don’t give up; but take a short ‘time out’ to analyze the reasonswhy you’re not making it to the next round in the hiring process.

ChairsTable

First, look at how much of a ‘fit’ you are for the jobs to which you’ve been applying. Review several of the job postings for jobs to which you’ve applied. Read through one job posting and as you read each requirement, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I meet the minimum level of experience required for the position?
  • Do I meet the minimum level of education required for the job?
  • Do I have most of the required skills for the job?
  • Do I have the certifications required for the position? (if any are required)

For each requirement, write down whether you meet, partially meet or don’t meet that requirement. Once you’ve done this for the first job posting, look at what you’ve written. Do you meet the majority of the requirements?

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Then, go through this process for several other jobs for which you’ve applied. Do you see a pattern? The most common reason I’ve found when people don’t get telephone or in-person interviews is that there are other candidates who are a better ‘fit’ (more qualified) for the job. As a hiring manager, I look for candidates who meet at least 80 percent of the job requirements. One reason you aren’t making it to the interview round might be because hiring managers don’t see you as qualified enough for the position.

If you believe this may be your issue, look for ways you can obtain the education, certifications, skills or experience required – so that you’ll be a better fit in the near future. Then, before you apply for any more jobs, conduct this same exercise of analyzing yourself against the requirements listed in the next job posting. Pretend you’re the hiring manager and take a critical look at your resume. If you were the hiring manager, would you hire this candidate for the job?

Some people have a tendency to apply for higher-level positions than what they’re qualified for, which is why they don’t get called for interviews. In this situation, try looking for lower-level jobs that are the stepping-stones to get you to those higher-level jobs you’d like to have in the future – and apply for those.

Another issue I’ve seen is where someone has the relevant skills, experience or education, but forgot to include many of these on their resume. For every requirement in the job posting that you meet, somewhere on your resume, you should explain that you have that skill, experience or education. If you aren’t customizing your resume to include the appropriate information, then your resume won’t get the attention it deserves by recruiters and hiring managers – and you won’t get as many calls for interviews.

~ Lisa Quast, author of the book, Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time.   Join me on Twitter @careerwomaninc

 
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Got Kids? The 10 Best Websites For Finding An Internship…Question: When do You Need to Search for your Summer Internship? Answer: Now!

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Alexis DePuyt, 21, an English major at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, was spending the spring semester of her junior year studying in London, when she started hunting for a summer internship back in the States. She logged onto a website called Internships.com and looked for positions near her parents’ home in Philadelphia. Up popped a posting for a paid summer internship at a three-year-old boutique marketing firm called Sweet Rose Studios in nearby Blue Bell, PA.

20 yr old hired

 

Through Internships.com she sent in a résumé and cover letter. Within weeks she heard from the firm’s founder, Sean Rose, who interviewed her via Skype. “She was very ambitious and smart and she knew how to research what we do online,” he recalls. DePuyt got the internship and loved it. “It was a great way to utilize my writing skills,” she says. “I did blogging, emailing and worked on attracting prospective customers.” Says Rose, “She’s a terrific writer, very ambitious, independent and able to do things without a ton of babysitting.”

In most of my stories about using the Internet to find work, I exhort job seekers to limit their time online. Spending eight hours plugging your search criteria into job board aggregators like Indeed or SimplyHired and then sending your résumé into a black hole by hitting the “apply” button, is almost guaranteed to get you nowhere.

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Most jobs posted online have either already been filled or will likely be taken by someone with a personal connection at the company. If you want to have a shot at getting hired for a job listed online, you have to reach beyond the posting, scouring LinkedIn and your personal network for a contact at the company, meeting with that contact, doing lots of research on the company, trying to land an in-person meeting with the hiring manager by writing a carefully-crafted email that shows how impassioned you are about the position and how you can solve the company’s problems.
But I think the story is different for internships, especially if you’re college-age and looking for a summer spot. Many companies field applicants from job boards. Amanda Fox, 20, a junior at the University of Connecticut, had never done an internship. Instead she had worked summers as a lifeguard at the YMCA. She wanted an internship where she could apply some of what she was learning as an economics major.

On Internmatch.com she signed up to get daily notifications for new postings. One of them was for Enterprise Rent-a-Car at a location in Vernon, CT, just five minutes from where her parents live. Internmatch referred her directly to Enterprise’s site, she applied online and got the job, which pays $10.50 an hour. “I didn’t have to jump through any hoops,” she says. “Internmatch was all I needed.”

I don’t want to deter anyone from hunting for internships the way I usually recommend job seekers go about their search, by first tapping their network, relying on personal referrals and targeting companies that attract them. But because online searches really can work for internships, and also help you focus on what you want, I’ve put together a list of the best sites for finding an internship:

1. LinkedIn: Not only should you use LinkedIn to hunt for internships, you should build a fleshed-out profile and reach out to everyone you know, especially professional contacts, on the 12-year-old Mountain View, CA professional networking site. Get people you’ve worked for to write you recommendations. Do include volunteer work.

To search for internship listings, go to the jobs tab at the top of the page and put “internship” in the search box. Then refine your search by filling in the boxes on the left side of the page. I searched for “marketing internship” and a New York City zip code came up with ten pages of listings. One downside: You can’t filter for paid or unpaid positions. The most valuable aspect of LinkedIn: instantly seeing which of your contacts works at a company or knows people who work there. I also recommend college students get their parents to search their own LinkedIn networks for contacts. Companies pay varying rates to list internships and jobs on LinkedIn (a 30-day posting in San Francisco costs $499), so they are serious about hiring for many of those jobs. A possible downside is that the fee might deter smaller players, like Sean Rose, who says he listed on Internships.com because it was free and he was only hiring one intern.

2. Glassdoor: Founded in 2007 and based in Sausalito, CA, Glassdoor scrapes job boards for internship listings. But its main attraction is that it offers an instant way to search for salaries, company reviews and descriptions of job interviews. Its interface is straightforward, though for smaller companies, the salary and review functions don’t always bear fruit. In the search fields I tried putting in “paid marketing internship” and in the location box, New York City, and I got 21 listings. When I clicked on the first listing that came up, for Inspired Marketing Associates in the Bronx, I found just two company reviews and no salary listings. But a paid internship for Major League Baseball had 37 reviews and one internship salary ($1,660/month).

3. Google: Don’t underestimate the power of a Google search. I put in “paid marketing internship New York City” and got hits for several of the sites in this piece and others I’m not familiar with, likeFindSpark, which bills itself as having “the best creative internships & entry level jobs in NYC.” I like that you can filter for paid internships (I believe that by law, almost all internships should be paid, but that’s another story), though when I filtered for paid marketing internship, only one job came up, at Inc. magazine. Still, Google is a great shortcut.

4. Your school’s job listing site and alumni network: At my alma mater, Brown University, there’s something called Brown Connect, where alumni post internship listings. If you can get access to a database like this, you will vault over other potential interns vying for these jobs. This is a first stop if you are a student.

5. Internships.com: Founded in 2010, Internships.com is now owned by textbook rental and online tutoring company Chegg in Santa Clara, CA. It offers 100,000 listings from 60,000 employers. Internships.com does not charge employers to list positions. When I searched for “paid marketing internship” in New York City, I got 10 listings. One huge advantage the site offers: a “who” button that lets you see which of your Facebook friends have a connection to a company, either because they work there or used to work there. Facebook has no job listings and no other site I could find has the capability to match a job search with your friends’ résumés.

6. Internmatch.com: Founded in 2009, San Francisco-based Internmatch has listings from 30,000 companies. It specializes in internships, and entry level jobs up to two years after graduation. When I searched for “paid marketing internship” in New York City I got seven pages of results, though some of them were for jobs as far away as Morristown, NJ and not all of them were paid. But there were some promising listings, like a paid internship at DirecTV. You can sign up and the site will send you notifications when new internships in your area of interest are posted. Employers can post up to 10 listings for free, after which they pay a fee. Some of the big companies who have listed on the site: Facebook, Zappos, Aflac.
7. YouTern An unusual site, YouTern tries to mentor and connect would-be interns using social media tools like Twitter. Internship seekers fill out a profile and interact with mentors. Founder Mark Babbitt says he has relationships with recruiters at 100 companies and personally refers appropriate candidates. But internship seekers need to interact with the site before they get referred to jobs. YouTern also includes a jobs board powered by aggregator SimplyHired. Babbitt says he has connections with many startups but also works with established companies like ad firm Ogilvy & Mather. YouTern launched in 2010 and is based in Lake Tahoe, NV.

8. Idealist: An excellent site to look for both internships and jobs in the non-profit sector, Idealist, based in Portland, OR, dates back to 1996. Run as a non-profit, it has listings for organizations around the world. The site currently lists more than 2,000 internships worldwide. A couple of current offerings for paid internships: a fundraising position in Washington, DC for the National Hispanic Council on Aging and a summer internship at the progressive Nation magazine and Nation Institute.

9. Global Experiences: Founded in 2001 and based in Annapolis, MD, Global Experiences offers internships where interns pay instead of getting paid. This would surely run afoul of US laws but the bulk of its offerings are overseas and interns get visas that don’t allow them to work. The plus: genuine work experience in foreign cities. Global Experiences works in eight cities—London, Paris, Dublin, Barcelona, Florence, Milan, Shanghai and Sydney. Prices range from $6,000 to $10,000 per internship stint. Company founder Emily Merson says that some colleges like Arizona State, University of Southern California and University of Illinois have partnerships with the company and pick up the tab. Students must apply but once they’re accepted, placement is 100% guaranteed.

10. CoolWorks: This site isn’t for internships per se, but rather for jobs, especially summer positions, geared toward young people. According to the website, it offers “job opportunities in great places like national parks, various resorts, ranches, camps, ski resorts, and jobs on the water.”

Founded in 1995 it’s based, rather exotically, just outside the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Sample jobs: Ranch Foreman/Ranch Hand/Wrangler/Packer at a ranch called Flying B in Idaho wilderness located on the middle fork of the Salmon River, and Rafting Guide on the Arkansas River in Buena Vista, Colorado. Some of the jobs are listed as “internships,” but they seem indistinguishable from the other jobs on the site. Example: positions with Alaska Wildland Adventures on the Kenai Peninsula in Denali National Park.

 

Forbes.com | January 30, 2015 | Susan Adams

Strategy: How To Write Emails That Get Replies From Extremely Busy People…If you’re Looking to Initiate a Mutually Beneficial, Professional Relationship with Someone you Admire, Consider these Email Tips

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Over the past five years, Jon Levy has built “the Influencers,” a network of over 400 impressive people in a wide variety of fields.  Twice a month, Levy hosts a private dinner in his sprawling New York City apartment followed by a Salon featuring TED Talk-like presentations from the likes of Bill Nye the Science Guy and breakdancing pioneer Richard “Crazy Legs” Colón.

business smartphone email

If you want your email read by busy people, make it easy to read and reply to on a smartphone.

New York may be filled with wealthy socialites, but Levy has built his network from the ground up.

One reason Levy, an independent marketing consultant, has been able to add executives, celebrities, and Nobel laureates to his network is that he’s figured out how to send emails that get replies from even the busiest people.

If you’re looking to initiate a mutually beneficial, professional relationship with someone you admire, consider the email tips that have worked for him:

Don’t be a salesman.

“I don’t try to convince them of anything in my message,” Levy says. “It’s not, ‘Oh, I think it would be really good to do this because of X, Y, and Z.’ [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][It’s] ‘This is what I do… I think what you’re doing is fascinating, and I’d like to sit down with you and talk about what you’re up to.'”

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Keep it as short as possible.

You want the recipient to look at your message and be able to give an adequate response, even if it takes them 30 seconds on their smartphone. When Levy emails a high-demand person like a celebrity, he keeps his email down to a single sentence that cuts out any trace of filler. If he emails an executive, who makes decisions based on available information, he’ll limit his message to three to five sentences and include some links they can click if they’d like to learn more about him and the Influencers.

Entice them with your subject lines.

If you’re being referred by someone in their inner circle, mention their name in the subject. Levy likes the subject line “Quick Question” because it signals to the reader that they can open the email and remain on a path to a cleaner inbox.

Offer a clear next step.

If your recipient is interested in you, let them know how you’d like to move things forward by asking a question or extending an invitation to talk further.

Businessinsider.com | January 29, 2015  |  Richard Feloni 
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-emails-to-busy-people-2015-1#ixzz3QDwPk3fH

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Your Career: Job Hunting In 2015: 7 Things You Need To Know…Get Creative with Your CVs. Don’t just Opt for the Standard Words on a Page, Do Something Different to Stand Out

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Work.  The dreaded, daily, servitude that burdens your already tired and weary shoulders. Beaten, bedraggled and crestfallen you slump out of your bed at 6am, ready for another day of instant coffee, TPS reports and habitual sighing.

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If any part of that sounds like you -or your daily routine – then there’s a good chance that it’s time for a change. Or, if you’re entering the workforce for the first time, and this is what you’re expecting from a job market that’s not too friendly to young people and graduates, then fear not – there are options.

If you’re so inclined, many of those options exist in the tech industry, which is experiencing an ever growing roster of successful companies, huge investments and even a Mike Judge TV show (the only true metric of success).

In response,young people, graduates and experienced employees are flocking towards either building their own startup or working for an exciting tech company. But the popularity of these companies means that you will need to stand out – in a big way.

So what can you do to land a top job in tech (or any other industry)? I asked some big tech companies, and some startups, what it takes to be the winning candidate.

Get Creative

Ann Pickering HR Director at O2,  suggests that people get creative with their CVs. Don’t just opt for the standard words on a page, do something different to stand out.

“Use your application as a chance to show what you’d bring to the role – and it doesn’t need to just be words on a page. People who bring a digital aspect to their application, whether that’s a well-crafted blog post or a snappy Vine video, will always leave a lasting impression.”

Pickering explained that it’s also important to keep your application succinct and to the point – explaining exactly what your skills are and why you’re suited to the role.

“It can be tempting to shout about everything you’ve ever accomplished, but this can sometimes mean doing yourself a disservice. No one wants – nor has the time – to wade through pages and pages of preamble, so make sure your CV gets straight to the point. Read the skills and requirements an employer is looking for closely, and ask yourself whether your application can link back to every point on the list. If not, change it – and cut out anything that’s not relevant.”

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Make a connection with the interviewer

Nedhal Alkhatib, Programme Manager for Motorola, told me that it’s not only important to make an impression during the interview, but also a connection.

“How the candidate’s personality comes across is extremely important to me.  I look for a ‘can do’ attitude – someone who is approachable, and consistent throughout the interview. It’s absolutely fine if they don’t know the answer to something; I just want to see a willingness to learn underpinned by a confidence and drive to succeed. I also want them to make a connection with me, I often interview many people for a role and so standing out is vital – if I leave happy and get on with the candidate I’ll remember them and be more likely to hire them.”

She continued: “How you present yourself in the interview is crucial – don’t come across as over keen or desperate – you want the interviewer to like you and your personality, not pity you. In the same vein, don’t forget to ask what the company can offer you in return – this should be a mutually satisfactory exchange and you should leave with your questions answered.”

 

Never stop learning and picking up new skills

Ben Medlock, co-founder of Swiftkey, is a big advocate of skills. If you want to contribute to a startup, then you’ll need to bring something fresh.

“The main thing not to do is stop learning or stop being curious. We rate people who are always teaching themselves and others something new. That gives you lots to talk about in an interview, too.”

Medlock continued: “We definitely look for an entrepreneurial spirit, the kind of people who’ve taught themselves new skills and challenged themselves. But starting your own business isn’t a requirement. You need many different backgrounds, personalities and experiences to build an effective team and we find our strength in our diversity – our team speaks 33 languages between them and everyone brings a fresh perspective and set of skills.”

Graeme Smith, Managing Director of Amazon’s Development Centre in Scotland, explained to me how important technical skills are.

“We’re solving hard problems and building systems that run at massive scale, we need people who are great at coding and problem solving.”

He added: “To push the boundaries of technology you need a solid base of theory, so we generally look for a Computer Science degree from a good university. On top of that, we work in close-knit teams so we need people with exemplary written and verbal communications skills.

Be comfortable with change

Leah Busque, founder and CEO of TaskRabbit, says that it’s imperative for people in tech to be comfortable with the rapidly changing industry.

“Be open to the possibility of not knowing. In Technology, we’re in the business of creating entirely new paradigms to advance the world and that can mean more experimenting and failing than knowing and succeeding. The more you are able to demonstrate your comfort in this perpetual state of change, the better.”

Rob Coupland, MD of TelecityGroup agrees that being adaptable is key to working in tech: “Be open-minded, be adaptable, and be flexible. Technology is an extremely fast-moving industry, and you should be open to all the opportunities that are presented to you. For example, there are now countless more creative roles in technology than there were just a few years ago. If you are self-motivated and always eager to learn, you will be perfectly placed to seize new opportunities as our industry continues to evolve.”

Be genuinely passionate about the job you’re applying for

Busque also suggests that those excited by an industry will generally succeed in landing a job in it.

“Targeting a company that you know well but that doesn’t align with what will ignite that daily fire to learn and grow will prove unsustainable and ultimately be a disservice to your career and even personal life. Every person I’ve seen succeed in the industry is excited by the promise of their product or company mission. Believe in what you’re working on and the rest will follow.”

Graeme Smith agrees and places a particular importance on a candidate’s visible passion for the industry.

“First and foremost we’re looking for people who are passionate about inventing for customers and passionate about technology. We’re inventing on behalf of our customers, so we need people who can think from a customer’s perspective and don’t just build technology for technology’s sake.”

Have an understanding of different areas of the industry

Coupland explains that understanding the industry you want to work in, from bottom to top, can really demonstrate multiple skills.

“If an applicant has spent time in a retail environment, or on a helpdesk, they can demonstrate that they recognise the importance of both customer service and technical expertise. For example, if you’ve had work experience at Apple AAPL -3.52% Store, you are demonstrating that you understand technology, that you are commercially competent, and that you are able explain technology in a way that everyone can understand.”

Get connected and get active

Sarah Wood, co-founder of Unruly, thinks that it’s important to fully immerse yourself in the industry by making contacts and showing off your talents.

“Get connected. On LinkedIn LNKD -1.65%, in tech forums and best of all in person. This way you’ll understand how the ecosystem works and where to find the most promising points of entry. Build a portfolio of outputs that you can show to prospective employers – a blog, a working prototype, a university project, a video of the Code Club you ran – visual, tangible proof that you won’t just talk the talk, you’ll walk the walk. Voluntary work as a teacher at code club will boost your resume and help kids improve their future prospects too.”

Graeme Smith also thinks it’s important to be as busy as possible: “Attend tech meetups to get to know people from your target companies, that’s often the best way in. Don’t wait for a job ad to apply for a job, many companies will respond favourably to speculative applications. The demand for talent is massive right now so don’t sell yourself short.”

Jay McGregor is a freelance technology journalist who writes for The Guardian, Forbes, TechRadar and is a tech correspondent for BBC’s James Hazel show. Follow on Twitter @_jaymcgregor

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Leadership: 13 Habits of Exceptionally Likeable People…Mistaken Belief that Being Likeable Comes from Natural, Unteachable Traits that Belong Only to a Lucky Few

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Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likeable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few—the good looking, the fiercely social, and the incredibly talented. It’s easy to fall prey to this misconception. In reality, being likeable is under your control, and it’s a matter of emotional intelligence (EQ).

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You've got less than a minute to persuade the audience you're worth listening to.

You’ve got less than a minute to persuade the audience you’re worth listening to.

In a study conducted at UCLA, subjects rated over 500 adjectives based on their perceived significance to likeability. The top-rated adjectives had nothing to do with being gregarious, intelligent, or attractive (innate characteristics). Instead, the top adjectives were sincerity, transparency, and capacity for understanding (another person).

These adjectives, and others like them, describe people who are skilled in the social side of emotional intelligence. TalentSmart research data from more than a million people shows that people who possess these skills aren’t just highly likeable, they outperform those who don’t by a large margin.

We did some digging to uncover the key behaviors that emotionally intelligent people engage in that make them so likeable. Here are 13 of the best:

They Ask Questions

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to listening is they’re so focused on what they’re going to say next or how what the other person is saying is going to affect them that they fail to hear what’s being said. The words come through loud and clear, but the meaning is lost.

A simple way to avoid this is to ask a lot of questions. People like to know you’re listening, and something as simple as a clarification question shows that not only are you listening, you also care about what they’re saying. You’ll be surprised how much respect and appreciation you gain just by asking questions.

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They Put Away Their Phones

Nothing will turn someone off to you like a mid-conversation text message or even a quick glance at your phone. When you commit to a conversation, focus all of your energy on the conversation. You will find that conversations are more enjoyable and effective when you immerse yourself in them.

They Are Genuine

Being genuine and honest is essential to being likeable. No one likes a fake. People gravitate toward those who are genuine because they know they can trust them. It is difficult to like someone when you don’t know who they really are and how they really feel.

Likeable people know who they are. They are confident enough to be comfortable in their own skin. By concentrating on what drives you and makes you happy as an individual, you become a much more interesting person than if you attempt to win people over by making choices that you think will make them like you.

They Don’t Pass Judgment

If you want to be likeable you must be open-minded. Being open-minded makes you approachable and interesting to others. No one wants to have a conversation with someone who has already formed an opinion and is not willing to listen.

Having an open mind is crucial in the workplace where approachability means access to new ideas and help. To eliminate preconceived notions and judgment, you need to see the world through other people’s eyes. This doesn’t require you believe what they believe or condone their behavior, it simply means you quit passing judgment long enough to truly understand what makes them tick. Only then can you let them be who they are.

They Don’t Seek Attention

People are averse to those who are desperate for attention. You don’t need to develop a big, extroverted personality to be likeable. Simply being friendly and considerate is all you need to win people over. When you speak in a friendly, confident, and concise manner, you will notice that people are much more attentive and persuadable than if you try to show them you’re important. People catch on to your attitude quickly and are more attracted to the right attitude than what—or how many people—you know.

When you’re being given attention, such as when you’re being recognized for an accomplishment, shift the focus to all the people who worked hard to help you get there. This may sound cliché, but if it’s genuine, the fact that you pay attention to others and appreciate their help will show that you’re appreciative and humble—two adjectives that are closely tied to likeability.

They Are Consistent

Few things make you more unlikeable than when you’re all over the place. When people approach you, they like to know whom they’re dealing with and what sort of response they can expect. To be consistent you must be reliable, and you must ensure that even when your mood goes up and down it doesn’t affect how you treat other people.

They Use Positive Body Language

Becoming cognizant of your gestures, expressions, and tone of voice (and making certain they’re positive) will draw people to you like ants to a picnic. Using an enthusiastic tone, uncrossing your arms, maintaining eye contact, and leaning towards the person who’s speaking are all forms of positive body language that high-EQ people use to draw others in. Positive body language can make all the difference in a conversation.

It’s true that how you say something can be more important than what you say.

They Leave a Strong First Impression

Research shows most people decide whether or not they like you within the first seven seconds of meeting you. They then spend the rest of the conversation internally justifying their initial reaction. This may sound terrifying, but by knowing this you can take advantage of it to make huge gains in your likeability. First impressions are tied intimately to positive body language. Strong posture, a firm handshake, smiling, and opening your shoulders to the person you are talking to will help ensure that your first impression is a good one.

They Greet People by Name

Your name is an essential part of your identity, and it feels terrific when people use it. Likeable people make certain they use others’ names every time they see them. You shouldn’t use someone’s name only when you greet him. Research shows that people feel validated when the person they’re speaking with refers to them by name during a conversation.

If you’re great with faces but have trouble with names, have some fun with it and make remembering people’s names a brain exercise. When you meet someone, don’t be afraid to ask her name a second time if you forget it right after you hear it. You’ll need to keep her name handy if you’re going to remember it the next time you see her.

 

They Smile

People naturally (and unconsciously) mirror the body language of the person they’re talking to. If you want people to like you, smile at them during a conversation and they will unconsciously return the favor and feel good as a result.

They Know When To Open Up

Be careful to avoid sharing personal problems and confessions too quickly, as this will get you labeled a complainer. Likeable people let the other person guide when it’s the right time for them to open up.

They Know Who To Touch (and They Touch Them)

When you touch someone during a conversation, you release oxytocin in their brain, a neurotransmitter that makes their brain associate you with trust and a slew of other positive feelings. A simple touch on the shoulder, a hug, or a friendly handshake is all it takes to release oxytocin. Of course, you have to touch the right person in the right way to release oxytocin, as unwanted or inappropriate touching has the opposite effect. Just remember, relationships are built not just from words, but also from general feelings about each other. Touching someone appropriately is a great way to show you care.

They Balance Passion and Fun

People gravitate toward those who are passionate. That said, it’s easy for passionate people to come across as too serious or uninterested because they tend to get absorbed in their work. Likeable people balance their passion with the ability to have fun. At work they are serious, yet friendly. They still get things done because they are socially effective in short amounts of time and they capitalize on valuable social moments. They minimize small talk and gossip and instead focus on having meaningful interactions with their coworkers. They remember what you said to them yesterday or last week, which shows that you’re just as important to them as their work.

Bringing It All Together

Likeable people are invaluable and unique. They network with ease, promote harmony in the workplace, bring out the best in everyone around them, and generally seem to have the most fun. Add these skills to your repertoire and watch your likeability soar!

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-founded TalentSmart, the world’s #1 provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving 75% of Fortune 500 Companies.

Forbes.com | January 27, 2015 | Travis Bradberry

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Strategy: A Master Networker Shares His Top 20 Networking Tips…Appreciate That the Most Influential People Operate on a Different Level

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At one of Jon Levy’s house parties you could find yourself, as we recently did, making fajitas with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Regina Spektor and leading snake venom expert Zoltan Takacs before watching live presentations from Bill Nye the Science Guy and break-dancing pioneer Richard “Crazy Legs” Colón.

jon levy

Jon Levy introduces one of his Salon guests in his living room.

Levy may not be a Wall Street billionaire or hotshot advertising executive, but over the past five years, he’s built the Influencers, a network of over 400 interesting and impressive people that includes everyone from Nobel laureates to Olympic athletes.

Twice a month, Levy holds private dinner parties and TED Talk-like “Salons” in the sprawling New York City apartment he inherited from his parents, who are successful artists now living in Israel. As an independent marketing consultant specializing in consumer behavior, a diverse, strong network is beneficial to his career. But beyond that, Levy has a genuine passion for connecting influential people from different fields and seeing what these relationships yield.

We asked Levy to share some of the tactics he used to go from a low-profile New Yorker to the leader of a growing network of power players. Here are his top networking tips.

1. Appreciate that the most influential people operate on a different level.

A Landmark Education seminar on personal success inspired Levy to start a network that became the Influencers. He says he left thinking about this quote: “The fundamental element that defines the quality of your life is the people you surround yourself with and the conversations you have with them.”

If you want to surround yourself with executives and successful entrepreneurs, you first need to understand and respect that the lives of high-demand people are fundamentally different from even most chronically busy people, Levy says. Their schedules are likely filled with travel plans and meetings, with scarce free time dedicated to family.

“Everybody’s coming to them for answers. Everybody’s asking them the same questions millions of times. You can begin to think about, ‘OK, what is something different that I could provide this person that would make it worth their time to speak with me or meet with me?'” Levy says.

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2. Add value without expecting anything.

On that note, you should be thinking of how you can add value to a potential connection without expecting anything in return, at least immediately. Levy is a proponent of Wharton professor — and Influencers member — Adam Grant’s theory on “givers,” those who seek out opportunities to help people they respect and appreciate.

“If you’re a giver, then you build quality relationships, and with those relationships you’re exposed to opportunity over the long term,” Grant told Business Insider last year. “You actually increase your own luck so far as you contribute things to other people.

3. Create memories.

Rahzel, former member of The Roots and beatboxing legend, joined the Influencers about a year ago and says that he’s amazed by Levy’s memory. “Jon can pinpoint people and the places and exact time he met them,” he says.

Levy says he’s boosted his memory with a simple trick. “For the most part our memory is visual, and it works based on novelty for something to really stick out,” he says. “If there’s somebody I meet that I really want to connect with, I try to create a moment that’s memorable and that can serve as tradition.”

This can mean sharing a special toast or asking a question that will elicit a unique response. For example, Levy met a Tinder exec recently and asked her about the first thing most people ask her. She said men who use the dating app often nervously ask if Tinder employees can read guys’ messages to other users. “Now I’ll never forget her!” he says.

4. Make your introductions more interesting.

Most people just aren’t interesting in the way they communicate, Levy says. He thinks that Americans, especially, apply their efficient approach at work to how they meet people, talking in boring, direct ways about themselves.

“When people ask me what I do, I try to be a little elusive just to create some interest. So I tell people I spend most of my life trying to convince people to cook me dinner. Which is true,” he says, laughing. “A lot of my time is really spent around logistics, phone calls, and emails and all that. But the benefit of [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][my introduction] is that it sounds so different and then it’s much easier to connect.”

You may be better off delaying the job-talk for as long as possible. Levy has his dinner guests spend the majority of the evening refraining from discussing any aspect of their occupation, and encourages Salon guests to do the same, so that they can get to know each other personally.

New Yorker writer and author Maria Konnikova found this endearing when she attended one of Levy’s dinners and Salons. “At the Salon, you’re just enjoying the evening and figuring out which people you actually like, regardless of whether they can be helpful to you,” she says.

5. Use the double opt-in system to introduce people to each other.

In keeping with being a “giver,” you should always be aware of which of your connections could be interested in meeting each other, and email is the easiest way to do so remotely.

Levy is comfortable connecting his closest friends through an email addressed to both of them, but he’ll use what Grant calls the “double opt-in” system for the busiest people in his network. If there’s a chance that the busier connection simply doesn’t have the time or desire to speak with the other person, a private email to both parties asking if they’d like to connect allows you to screen refusals without hurting anyone’s feelings.

And as Grant explains in an “Art of Charm” podcast, introduce people because you think they can add value to each other, not just because they happen to live in the same city.

6. Befriend gatekeepers.

You’ll find that many of the world’s busiest people have assistants taking care of their emails, phone calls, and schedules. If that’s the case, it’s in your best interest to be on cordial terms with them if you’re looking to connect with their boss.

“If you can make friends with [the gatekeepers], you will be on their schedule,” Levy says.

He says that once he’s met someone in person and gotten their personal contact information, he’ll first try them directly the next time he wants to reach out. And if they don’t respond, he’ll try again with their assistant looped in.

“There’s no ego involved,” he says. Don’t feel slighted if you have to go through an assistant even after you’ve met someone. Whatever works for their schedule will work for you.

7. Make cold calls.

To get in touch with influential people, you can’t be afraid of reaching out without precedent.

Levy recommends getting in touch with an executive sometime before 8 a.m. because it’s likely that they’re in their office but that their assistant isn’t. If you’re able to get access to their number, give them a call before their day becomes too hectic. There are databases like Who Represents that you can subscribe to that include the contact information of high-demand people and their gatekeepers.

And if you don’t want to use a database, you can try a free trick that Levy uses. Get just a single person’s email address from the company your target works for to determine the format (e.g. my email is rfeloni@businessinsider.com so it makes sense that my colleague Drake Baer’s email is dbaer@businessinsider.com). This sneaky tactic is actually how Levy recently got in touch with a Sony senior vice president.

Make sure, however, that if you’re reaching out you’ve actually got something of genuine value to share, as mentioned above.

8. Write emails that will get replies.

Sending an introductory email to someone is low-risk because the worst-case scenario is that your message gets tossed and your name forgotten. But you can significantly increase the chance that your email will get a reply if you follow these tips, Levy says:

  • Don’t be a salesman. “I don’t try to convince them of anything in my message,” Levy says. “It’s not, ‘Oh, I think it would be really good to do this because of X, Y, and Z.’ [It’s] ‘This is what I do… I think what you’re doing is fascinating, and I’d like to sit down with you and talk about what you’re up to.'”
  • Keep it as short as possible. You’ll want to have the recipient take a look at your message and be able to give an adequate response, even if it takes them 30 seconds on their smartphone. When Levy emails a high-demand person like a celebrity, he keeps his email down to a single sentence that cuts out any trace of filler. If he emails an executive, who make decisions based on available information, he’ll limit his message to three to five sentences and include some links they can click if they’d like to learn more about him and the Influencers.
  • Offer a clear next step. If your recipient is interested in you, let them know how you’d like to take things forward by asking a question or extending an invite they can email reply to.
  • Entice them with your subject lines. If you’re being referred by someone in their inner circle, mention their name in the subject. Levy likes the subject line “Quick Question” because it signals to the reader that they can open the email and remain on a path to a cleaner inbox.

9. Follow up.

Be sure to send a quick follow-up email either later in the day or the next day after meeting someone for coffee or lunch. It’s proper etiquette that will keep you from looking like you’re selfishly using the other person.

10. Organize your contacts.

If you’re looking to build a network on the scale of Levy’s, you could benefit from some simple organization.

Levy uses Google docs like a traditional phone book, but with contacts arranged by industry and ranked by the likelihood that they’ll do business together. He keeps separate lists for those in his Influencers community, potential members he’s reached out to, and those he’s interested in eventually connecting with.

jon levy

Levy gives a toast with his Salon guests.

11. Create a diverse network of givers.

Who should you be adding to your network in the first place? Generous people from a wide variety of industries, Levy says. Prioritize personality over perceived “usefulness.”

“It’s adding diversity to your network that truly helps it. The reason is, every time you add an additional person that’s in your industry, you’re not expanding your network very much because you all probably know the same people,” he says.

For example, Levy became friends with the founder of Wizard World Comicon, Gareb Shamus, someone completely unrelated to Levy’s industry. “Nobody would think that investing in that relationship makes any sense! He’s a wonderful guy, and one of the most generous people I’ve had the pleasure to know,” he says.

12. Stay away from drama.

“I’m in full support of providing value and helping people who are struggling, but I fundamentally will not allow my network to be exposed to people who are negative and have the potential to bring them down. It’s insidious, and it spreads through the network very quickly,” Levy says.

13. Don’t be afraid of making a fool of yourself.

If you’re serious about making a name for yourself, you’ll need to be willing to embarrass yourself in front of powerful people.

Speaking about himself, Levy says, “I think the only people who would probably embarrass themselves more over time are people who are far, far, far more successful. Like the [Richard] Bransons of the world.”

There are going to be times when you’re not going to appear as funny or impressive as you’d like, but as with anything else, you should make note of how your social interactions failed and improve the next time.

Levy actually plays with the way he tells stories and introduces himself either in person or over email to see how people react, and then adjusts accordingly.

14. Don’t impose yourself on others.

“One of the fundamental mistakes I made at the beginning was thinking that people enjoyed all the things I liked,” Levy says.

He would take an “older sibling” approach and try to get his introverted connections to behave like him, an extrovert. For example, if he tried to get a shy person to retell a story he enjoyed in front of a large crowd, he ended up putting that person into an incredibly uncomfortable situation.

Whether you’re introducing people or hosting them at an event, you should always be aware that it’s not your job to get people to behave a certain way.

15. Understand that not everyone will like you, and that’s OK.

“At a certain point, I realized that there’s a percentage of the population that no matter what you do or say, they’re just not going to like you, and it’s beyond your control,” Levy says.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on yourself and develop yourself and learn to make people more comfortable, but at a certain point it’s like, what are you trying to accomplish?”

If it turns out that a coworker or even a childhood hero of yours doesn’t like your personality even when you’re at your best, then simply move on and spend time with someone else.

16. Have a topic prepared to start a conversation.

Everyone’s been in a situation where you’re stuck with a stranger and neither of you has anything to say. So instead of talking about the weather or your commute, says Levy, “I always have a story of something I’ve been doing recently or a book that I’ve been reading.”

“Otherwise I hate the ‘interview’ setting, which is what happens when it’s like, ‘So what do you do? I do this. What do you do?’ That’s sharing facts, not insights. It’s not connecting,” he says.

17. Tell a story that is clear and compelling.

When you tell a story, make sure it has a clear point and a punchline, whether it’s a takeaway or a joke. You should strive to be memorable when you’re meeting new people, and the best way to do so is through good storytelling.

18. End conversations gracefully.

“I used to be absolutely awful, really awkward, at ending conversations,” Levy says, laughing. “The last moments of a conversation will define how people remember you, so you want to get really good at a solid ending,” instead of being rudely (or strangely) abrupt.

Over the phone, wait for a lull in the conversation and then give an indication that you need to be excused for something else or are happy with how the conversation went. Tell them it was a pleasure speaking with them and that you’ll make sure to follow up on certain points.

In person, Levy says he always takes an extra beat to make eye contact with the person he’s finished speaking with so that it doesn’t seem as if he’s running away.

19. Keep meetings brief.

There’s no need to let an introductory meeting with a new connection last longer than 45 minutes, Levy says. And if you’re grabbing coffee or lunch, the ideal is probably a half hour.

“It’s better to leave the conversation having something to talk about and feeling like you need to connect again rather than feeling that the energy’s died,” Levy says.

20. Be open. People are ultimately unpredictable.

You can’t be uptight if you’re looking to become a great networker. Do what you can to connect with people who are interesting, and don’t waste time with those who don’t mesh with your personality.

“One of the fundamental issues that we face as people is we are acutely aware of the things we tell ourselves to be aware of and then are aware of virtually nothing else,” Levy says. “So we tend to overvalue specific people or experiences. And when you realize the diversity of exceptional human beings out there and opportunities and business deals and everything, you’re going to realize there are a lot more options than you’re giving credit to.”

Photographs courtesy of Rick Smolan, Influencers member, CEO of Against All Odds Productions, and author of “Inside Tracks: Robyn Davidson’s Solo Journey Across the Outback.”

 

Businessinsider.com |  January 27, 2015  |  

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Your Career: How To Spend The Hour Before Your Job Interview…Don’t Let Last-Minute Anxiety Spoil your Long-Term Preparation. Follow this Expert Advice to Feel Calm & Focused

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Your suit is ironed, tucked and free of cat hairs. Your own hairs are combed, your padfolio is organized and your employer research is thorough. And your mind? For this interview, you’ve packed it like a filing cabinet: Answers to typical interview questions are filed under A; smart questions you plan to ask your interviewers are under Q; and examples of your achievements are under E.

laptop cafe girl blonde

Do some last-minute LinkedIn research.

But although you’ve set yourself up for success, a shiver of doubt may slink up your suit in that darkest hour before the interview. Nerves set in. You try to appear relaxed, but not boring. Enthused, but not abrasive. Prepared, but not canned.

Don’t let last-minute anxiety spoil your long-term preparation. Follow this expert advice to feel calm and focused in the hour before a job interview:

Warm up your vocal cords. Talk about a quick confidence killer: introducing yourself to the interviewers only to have your voice crack or sound strained. Don’t let a weak, I-woke-up-an-hour-ago voice set the tone for the rest of the day. Lewis Lin, founder and CEO of Impact Interview, an interview coaching service, suggests warming up your vocal cords, especially before phone interviews. Before the interview — say, on the drive to the office — speak through your talking points loud and clear, “as if you were an actor or actress getting ready for an audition,” Lin says.

Do some last-minute LinkedIn research. Being likable in the interview is key, Lin says. After all, your interviewers are not only hiring, say, a product manager. They’re hiring someone they’ll encounter daily: at meetings, in the break room, at happy hours and in the buffet line of holiday parties. Show the interviewers you’re someone they should want to work with. “A great way to build that chemistry, that rapport with the interviewer, is to be able to relate to the interviewer,” Lin says.

He suggests using the hour before the interview to scan your interviewers’ profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as any personal website they have or articles written about them. Did you and one of your interviewers attend neighboring colleges? Do you both know Pete from Boston? Did you attend the same conference last summer? Breathe easier knowing you have a shared connection to mention come interview time.

Strike a power pose. Consider your pre-interview posture, says Susan Joyce, an online job search expert. She suggests looking at the research and TED Talk of social psychologist Amy Cuddy, an associate professor​ at Harvard Business School. ​Cuddy’s work shows that power poses can boost confidence, and as Joyce points out, what better time to feel confident than minutes before speaking to a prospective employer?

Joyce suggests ducking into a restroom stall before the interview and trying the starfish pose. With your feet spread apart, “you raise your arms up to the sky, you look up to the ceiling and you smile,” Joyce says. “It’s an amazing quick fix to confidence.”

Think happy thoughts. This will be easier to do after those poses, Joyce says. She and Lin say candidates often put tons of pressure on themselves: What if I blow this interview, and then I don’t get the job, and then I don’t get an interview for another six months, and then I can’t pay rent? And so on. “End-of-world-type scenarios start dancing through our heads,” Lin says, “and that’s clearly not going to be helpful when you’ve got that much pressure.”

Lin’s suggestion for showing you’re passionate about the position, but not crazy-eyed and desperate? “Have that kind of kid-like wonder,” he says.​ “Like, ‘Hey, I’m just going to have this conversation with another professional in the industry. I get to share my experiences, the things I’ve learned and I hope we get a chance to learn about the other person and the experiences they’ve had.’”

Joyce recommends repeating a few positive affirmations. Think: “I’m perfectly qualified for this job. I’m perfectly qualified for this job. I’m perfectly qualified for this job.”

Calm your nerves. “Nerves mess up a lot of interviews,” Lin says. “Whatever ritual [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][or] routine or habit that works for you to get in the right mindset to come across as relaxed and confident is really important.”  He suggests exercising if you have the time before suiting up or watching a clip from your favorite movie. Listening to music can help you focus, too. Watch pregame coverage of a professional sporting event​, and you’ll see most players entering the facility while listening to music on their headphones, Lin points out. (Ray Lewis, former NFL linebacker once told Men’s Journal that he listened to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” before every game with the Baltimore Ravens to get fired up.)

Whether you’re about to tackle quarterbacks or a high-stakes interview, simply taking deep breaths will help settle your nerves, too, Lin and Joyce say. Before you enter the building, as you sit in the reception area and as you open wide in starfish pose, take a few long inhales through the nose and exhales through the mouth.

As Joyce sums up: “Take a big deep breath, put a smile on your face and roll with it.”

This article originally appeared at U.S. News & World Report. Copyright 2015. Follow U.S. News & World Report on Twitter.

 

Businessinsider.com |  January 26, 2015  |  LAURA MCMULLEN, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2015/01/14/how-to-spend-the-hour-before-your-interview#ixzz3PxiF6Utb

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Leadership: Why Do Managers Hate Agile?…Agile Involves Self-Organizing Teams that Work in an Iterative Fashion & Deliver Continuous Additional Value Directly to Customers

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Why don’t Agile and management get along? In a poll last Wednesday of some 400 people working in many different firms where the practices known as Agile and Scrum are being implemented, 88 percent reported tension between the way Agile/Scrum teams are managed in their organization and the way the rest of the organization is managed. Only 8 percent reported “no tension.”

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Develop an Effective Knowledge Transfer System

Develop an Effective Knowledge Transfer System

Two different worlds

The reality is that “management” and “Agile” are two different worlds.

The world of “management” is vertical. Its natural habitat comprises tall buildings in places like New York. Its mindset is also vertical. “Strategy gets set at the top,” as Gary Hamel often explains. “Power trickles down. Big leaders appoint little leaders. Individuals compete for promotion. Compensation correlates with rank. Tasks are assigned. Managers assess performance. Rules tightly circumscribe discretion.”

The purpose of this vertical world is self-evident: to make money for the shareholders, including the top executives. Its communications are top-down. Its values are efficiency and predictability. The key to succeeding in this world is tight control. Its dynamic is conservative: to preserve the gains of the past. Its workforce is dispirited. It has a hard time with innovation. Its com1panies are being systemically disrupted. Its economy—the Traditional Economy—is in decline.

The Agile world is horizontal. Its natural habitat is in low flat buildings in places like California, although it also spreading rapidly like a virus and has already established footholds in most of the tall vertical organizations. The Agile mindset is horizontal. Its purpose is to delight customers. Making money is the result, not the goal of its activities. Its focus is on continuous innovation.

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Its dynamic is enablement, rather than control. Its communications tend to be horizontal conversations. It aspires to liberate the full talents and capacities of those doing the work. It is oriented to understanding and creating the future. It believes in banking, not necessarily banks. It believes in accommodation, not necessarily hotels. It believes in transport, not necessarily cars. It believes in health, not necessarily hospitals. It believes in education, not necessarily schools. Its economy—the Creative Economy—is thriving.

The adults in the room?

The vertical world of management likes to position itself as “the adults in the room.” The following from an interview with Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM, in June 2014 in HBR is typical:

“You’ve got companies in great runs right now, the Googles and the Facebooks. Good ideas, great returns, but then all of a sudden, you need an act two. Well, jeez, is act two going to propel you from $30 billion to $100 billion? That’s a little tougher. It’s the Microsoft challenge.

“So you have to say, ‘Well, I need a different view. I can still create shareholder value, but I can do it a different way. I can rethink capital allocation.’ Recognize where you are on your maturity curve, as a management team, and behave accordingly. Don’t give a speech as CEO as if you just got out of Stanford and you came up with an iconic interface and you called yourself a piece of fruit.

Sadly, the real world is the opposite of the imaginary world that Palmisano inhabits.

The firms with “names like pieces of fruit” are not “$30 billion firms.” In fact some of them are now much larger than the old 20th Century “giants.” Apple for instance is now more than four times the size of IBM.

Market capitalization

Apple $660 billion

Google $362 billion

Facebook $222 billion

IBM     $155 billion

GM       $ 54 billion

Whereas firms with a vertical mindset at the top, like IBM, are struggling with declining revenues andbloody cost-cutting reorganizations, firms in the horizontal world of Agile, like Apple and Google, are busy growing and inventing the future. Their second, third and fourth acts are already well under way.

What then is Agile?

For those managers who don’t know what the Agile is (itself a part of the problem), the horizontal world of Agile involves self-organizing teams that work in an iterative fashion and deliver continuous additional value directly to customers.

The practices of Agile that includes names like Scrum, XP, Kanban, DevOps and Continuous Development, grew out of lean manufacturing in Japan in the late 20th Century. As Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka wrote in “The New New Product Development Game” in HBR in January 1986:

This new emphasis on speed and flexibility calls for a different approach for managing new product development. The traditional sequential or “relay race” approach to product development… may conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility. Instead, a holistic or “rugby” approach—where a team tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth—may better serve today’s competitive requirements.

In due course, Agile became a major force in software development, following the Agile Manifesto in 2001. More recently, it has been spreading to all sectors of the economy, not only in digital natives like Apple and Google, but also in significant pockets within large traditional organizations.

Agile was a response to hierarchical bureaucracy

Agile, Scrum and Lean arose as a deliberate response to the problems of hierarchical bureaucracy that is still pervasive in organizations today: falling rates of return on assets and on invested capital, a dispirited workforce, a decline in competitiveness andwidespread disruption of existing business models.

Given these problems, it’s easy to forget that hierarchical bureaucracy was a great advance when it was introduced over a hundred and fifty years ago. The basic idea of hierarchical bureaucracy is that work is organized with individuals reporting to bosses who tell them what to do and control their work. The roles, the rules, the plans, and the reports of hierarchical bureaucracy created order where previously there had been chaos.

Icons from TheNounProject

As Gary Hamel has noted, hierarchical bureaucracy solved two essential problems:

  • getting semiskilled employees to perform repetitive activities competently and efficiently;
  • coordinating those efforts so that products could be produced in large quantities.

In a stable environment, it had great strengths. It was scalable. It was efficient. It was predictable and it delivered reliable average performance.

It had some liabilities. It was vertical. It was non-collaborative. Its plans were linear. It couldn’t change direction very fast. It was dispiriting to staff but at least people had a job. And the customer was noticeable by being totally absent: the focus was internal.

In a stable environment, these liabilities didn’t matter much.

Change wasn’t important. A firm could go on, grinding out the same basic product for years without much risk of harm. In a stable context, it could predict what customers would buy. It didn’t need to worry about customers. They could be manipulated by advertising.

With semi-skilled employees performing repetitive tasks, collaboration wasn’t important. And who really cared if the workers were dispirited? It was enough that they had their job and their paycheck.

In a world where workers were only semi-skilled and information was hard to come by, it made sense to put the boss in charge. In that setting, managers generally did know best.

Then the world became turbulent

But the world changed and the marketplace became turbulent. There were a number of factors: Globalization, deregulation, and new technology, particularly the Internet. The Internet changed everything:

  • Power in the marketplace shifted from seller to buyer. Suddenly the customer was central, not something you could take for granted.
  • Now the new norm as “better, cheaper, faster, smaller, more personalized and more convenient.” Average performance wasn’t good enough. Continuous innovation became a requirement.
  • In a world that required continuous innovation, a dispirited workforce was a serious productivity problem.
  • As the market shifted in ways that were difficult to predict, static plans became liabilities.
  • The inability to adapt led to “big bang disruption.”

In this turbulent context, the strengths of hierarchical bureaucracy evaporated.

Scalability turned into unmanageable complexity.

The efficiency of economies of scale turned into diseconomies and inefficiency.

Predictability turned into a crippling lack of agility.

And reliable average performance wasn’t good enough for customers who wanted “faster, better, cheaper, smaller, more personalized and more convenient.”

The horizontal world of Agile

In the light of these problems, managers began to fundamentally rethink the way organizations are run. And so Agile was born. Scrum was notable among the approaches, but not the only one. The approaches all had certain features in common:

Work is done by self-organizing teams that could mobilize the full talents of those doing the work.

Work is focused directly on meeting customers’ needs.

A “lens” focuses attention on the customers’ needs (when the lens is a person, as in Scrum, the person is known as a “product owner”; in large scale applications, the lens is “a platform.”)

Work proceeds in an iterative fashion so that it can progressively satisfy customers’ needs better.

The arrangement can be pictured thus.

Icons from TheNounProject
In this way of organizing work, the basic dynamics of the traditional economy are reversed.

Instead of a vertical dynamic of hierarchical bureaucracy with people reporting upwards to bosses, the firm was operating horizontally was a focus on the customer.

Instead of a controlling ideology, the approach is one of enabling self-organization.

Instead of static linear plans, plans are iterative and continuously on the move.

Instead of a workplace that is dispiriting to staff, the workplace is interesting, even inspiring, because people have the autonomy to deliver their best.

Instead of the customer being absent, the customer is now central. The goal of the firm is to delight the customer.

Coming next: Part 2: Does Agile Scale?

And read also:

A Learning Consortium for Management Innovation

The best-kept management secret on the planet: Agile

The case against Agile: ten perennial objections

What manufacturing can learn from Agile

GE Healthcare Gets Agile

___________________

Follow Steve Denning on Twitter at @stevedenning

 

Forbes.com | January 26, 2015 | Steve Denning 

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Taxes: 10 Surprising Items IRS Says To Report On Your Taxes…Many Fringes from your Employer Aren’t Taxed, but Some Are

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This time of year, the IRS likes to remind us that just about everything is taxed. It isn’t just your paychecks that get tallied on a W-2 and end up on your tax return. Income means income from all sources. So as you start getting organized for the annual drudgery of filing taxes this year, don’t forget about some of the odder ones.

IRS

 

1. If you sell unwanted clothes, cars, furniture, even family heirlooms, are they taxed? You bet. If you sell something for $100 you bought for $50, that’s a $50 gain. But in many cases you may not know what your tax basis is. If you can’t prove your basis, IRS will view the whole $100 as income. Maybe its capital gain, but it’s still income.

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2. Barters and Trades are taxed. If you get paid to baby sit for your neighbor, take a friend to the airport or water your uncle’s garden, it’s income. Suppose you trade favors and don’t swap cash? IRS says each of you is taxed at the market value of the goods or services. 

3. Ticket scalping? Taxed. Even swapping tickets of even value can trigger tax. Selling for cash certainly does. And the fact that scalping is illegal is no excuse for failing to report it. Same for any other illegal activity. Income is income. Remember, they got Al Capone for tax evasion, not murder.

4. Gambling winnings are taxed too. If you hit the jackpot or win the lottery, it’s all taxed. Taxes are one of the main reasons some people choose to take annual payments when they have that choice. A lump-sum payout can generate a big tax bill.

5. Prizes and awards are taxed, even if you win a Nobel. They are taxed even if you don’t win cash. If you buy raffle tickets and win a car, the cash value of the car is taxed.

6. Tips on the job? IRS taxes tips just like everything else.

7. Many fringes from your employer aren’t taxed, but some are. Small value benefits in the workplace aren’t taxed. This includes coffee and pastries, occasional photocopying, occasional entertainment or sports tickets, occasional meal transportation money for working overtime. But these days the IRS is looking hard at benefits it thinks are too big to let go. Silicon Valley meal benefits could be next.

8. Cancellation of debt is a strange one. When you borrow money, you don’t have income because it’s not yours, you have to pay it back. But if the lender forgives it, you pay tax. COD is short for “cancellation of debt.” When a debt you owe is canceled or discharged, in many cases the tax code treats the wiped out debt as cash income to you. If you owe $500,000 to the bank, but the bank forgives it, it’s as if the bank just handed you $500,000 and Uncle Sam wants his cut.

9. Lawsuit recoveries are usually taxed. It may seem like you are just getting damages so aren’t being enriched, but they are usually taxed. One big exception is physical injury recoveries. But even there, punitive damages and interest are taxed. Sometimes, if you win a lawsuit, you have to pay the IRS—even on your attorney’s fees.

10. Treasure trove sounds like something from a pirate movie, but it’s a term used by the IRS. Cash or valuables you find are taxed. In Cesarini v. United States, a man bought a used piano for $15 and found $5,000 in cash inside. When the IRS said it was taxable, Mr. Cesarini went to court. He lost, and the treasure trove tax hit happens to others too. In 2013, an anonymous couple found $10 million in rare gold coins buried in cans on their property. It was the biggest and best coin discovery in U.S. history. And it was taxed.

For alerts to future tax articles, follow me on Forbes.com. Email me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional.