2014 The Year of Increased Recruiting Activity

2014 The Year of Increased Recruiting Activity New Year, New You! That’s the motto. With a new year upon us it’s time for a quick burst in gym membership, healthy food purchases and for exercise equipment sales to double.  That is, of course, until March roles around and everyone gets back to their normal schedules. Personally, I do not subscribe to the New Year’s fad. However, if you do fall victim to this, then good for you! Any work out is better than no work out at all!  This, however, is not a fitness blog (well remembered Chadd! Editor), but the same principals apply here. In 2014, it is time to take a look at our activity. The beginning of a new year is a good time to take a look back on the previous one and see what went right and what went wrong. And I think there is something, regardless of our experience in this industry, that we can all agree on: activity is key. From how many calls you make, how many meetings you attend, how many interviews you conduct to ultimately the number of placements you make. So I propose this for 2016: let’s make this the year that we increase our productivity. Personally I am a proponent of making sure if it is important, to write it down somewhere and keep it relatively close by. If you look at my desk you will see my yearly and weekly goals, daily schedule and other important information. As the old saying goes; what gets measured gets done. So now let us take a look at how making minor changes can have a large impact overall in 2014 1. Client meetings: Last year did you average 10 client meetings per week? Add 2 more during the week and you are seeing 104 more people this year  compared to last! 2. Phone calls: Make 3 more calls before you leave the office each day and you just added 780 more calls to your yearly production. READ MORE:  Are Recruiters  Hiding  Behind  Social Media? 3. Candidate interviews: Depending on your field, the number of placements you make will vary. Technical recruiting could be anywhere from 1-3 per month, non-technical is the same amount, but per week. So let’s just take a round number of 5 per month. Interview 2 more candidates per placement and you are looking at having 500+ candidates in your pipeline for this year. RELATED:  13  Interview  Questions You Should Be Asking Finance  Candidates 4.  Marketing calls: One popular activity in the agency world is to call companies with active openings with a blind resume of a candidate you are working with. While some people may look down on this process, it is an activity that produces results. For every candidate you work with you should be sending their resume to at least one client or company who would benefit from their employment. Assuming you interview 5 candidates per placement and taking from the numbers listed in point 3, if you do this per candidate you will have 1,000+ calls a year. Even if only a small percentage of those calls turn into placements you just added a significant increase into your yearly earnings. These numbers and metrics aren’t to be used as an exact road map for 2014. But ultimately it is important that we increase our activity. And that doesn’t require a seismic shift in your work ethic or daily schedule. All it takes is making that little bit of effort on a daily basis that in the long run will add to much greater success at the end of the year.

Being a Solar CEO What Its Taught Me About Workplace Energy

Being a Solar CEO What It’s Taught Me About Workplace Energy The following post was written and provided by Scott Cramer of Go Solar Group.    Go Solar Group  is a family-owned, full-service solar company that was founded in Utah after a service mission in Africa, which included experiencing the benefits of installing solar products for orphanages in off-grid communities and providing an additional 3 million hours of study time for Ugandan schoolchildren since its creation. As a solar company CEO, I’ve learned many unexpected lessons about a form of energy seemingly different yet related to solar energy â€" energy in the workplace.   Workplace energy is as powerful as any energy, perhaps more so. I know how to manage people’s electricity usage within the walls of their homes, helping them reduce power bills and establish energy independence. But that’s just the beginning of the technical jargon to which I’ve grown accustomed: I know conduits, alternating currents, direct currents, PV, kilowatt hours, and transduction like the back of my hand. I could probably teach and certify electricians if I wanted to. However, nowhere in the bucket of solar and electricity knowledge I’ve acquired over the years can I find solar energy lessons more important than the ones I’ve learned about human energy while working as a CEO. Am I a shaman or spiritual guru? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. However, I value performance and have spent years testing and revising my lifestyle to see which conditions best set the stage for success and happiness in my life as a very busy executive at a growing company. I’ve battle-tested the following 5 tidbits on positive energy in helping me raise four small children, maintain a happy marriage, and lead a business to year-over-year growth in existing and new markets. I believe these lessons on human energy can be useful to anybody earning an income, but particularly for executives and business owners. So, without further ado, here are 5 lessons on human energy I’ve learned as a CEO that will help entrepreneurs and executives manage their time more effectively, lead happier lives, and inspire their employees to push themselves to new heights. Live Inside Out, Not Outside In If you put money front and center, nobody will buy-in to your purpose enough to give you their hard-earned dollars. The inmost purpose of your company, no matter what industry its in, should not contain a monetary objective. Even if you manage a large hedge fund on Wall Street, you are not trying to make people money. You’re trying to give them the feeling having more money will give them. The feeling the customer, in general, is more important than the outcome of the business objective. If you tend to your customer, prospect, or yourself as someone who needs to consume something from the outside world, the resulting feeling will be that of a person being a mere means to an end. And who wants to feel that way? Executives who are passionate about what they do, not the outcomes of their labor per se, tend to be happier and more successful. If your organization’s mission is to improve the lives of others with your product(s), you will perform better than any executive hell-bent on merely selling more product(s). Brands that sell products and have the live inside out mantra handled make better brand extensions and adapt more quickly to changing markets, because they see beyond the product to the benefits the product gives to its people. Take Richard Branson, Elon Musk, or Steve Jobs, for example. Do you think any of these three men accomplished what they did because they just wanted to make money? They live their purposes inside out, and everything else falls into place, always returning to the purpose that made them visionaries to guide the brand and its product development when things get difficult, markets change, or downfalls occur. The purpose of their brands not only set the positive energy of each company in motion, but awakened potential customers to each brand’s virtuosic ability to improve lives, one product and brand extension at a time. Abiding by a purpose will also simplify your moral code, making it clear what you should do when difficult decisions must be made, helping you sidestep what CEOs call  decision fatigue. Purpose comes from within. Money comes from out there. Live inside out with purpose front and center, and the money will come. If you put money front and center, nobody will buy in to your purpose enough to give you theirs. Understand Mind and Body as One Rene Descartes, the French Philosopher who famously coined the expression “I think therefore I am,” is also famous for beginning a discourse of research that would culminate in our contemporary understanding of the mind and body’s interrelatedness. Descartes had a hypothesis that the mind and body operate as a unit more than they do independently of each other, and technology later proved he was right in his assumption. When researchers configure an  EEG  to the heads of world class sprinters and ask the runners to envision themselves setting a world record for the race in which they specialize, researchers found that the muscles in the athletes’ legs and arms fired at the same rate they would have to to actually run at a world record pace, all while the athletes sat completely still. The mind is the most powerful instrument at your disposal when it comes to cultivating the right energy. Executives can take the power of visualization and apply it to any objective they see fit, whether it means increasing sales or nailing out the kinks in a budget. If executives harness their mental energy correctly and ruminate on positive outcomes, they will be able to find solutions that lead to the desired outcome more easily. One can’t expect to be on top of his or her mental game if the body’s physical needs are neglected: Exercise, adequate sleep, and eating healthily. And, if all you do is polish your physique and your diet, your mind won’t operate at its maximum capacity. Balance is key in the principle of leveraging the mind’s and body’s conjunctive power. Bad Vibes Are   Real, and they Can’t Be Hidden or Swept Under the Rug Any and all advice that tells you to alter your appearance, stance, posture, or attire is as hollow as an empty gesture. Yes, I regret to inform you your GQ subscription is only a very small piece of the puzzle when it comes to feeling and looking powerful. No matter what power pose you strike or power suit you put on in the morning, attire won’t determine whether you communicate a message of power or influence to your employees. The way you feel about yourself at your core, however, will. That’s why a sense of  self-efficacy  is so important, and why the adage ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ makes nothing more than a noticeable charade of your insecurities, of which your office compadres will be keenly aware. These further fuels a cycle of bad energy and underperforming leadership. While power poses and nice business casual attire may make you feel more confident and capable, the dependent variable far more important and worth measuring/improving upon is how you feel about yourself at your core. Changing the way you feel about yourself may seem like it takes more work than buying a suit, because it does. However, finding that positive sense of self isn’t as complicated as many self-help scholars and therapists would like us to believe it is. Tally your victories, focus on what you have to be grateful for, and ruminate on what good fortune the future will bring. To get rid of bad vibes and capitalize on your positive energy, you need to change your feelings. The easiest way to change your feelings is to prioritize the positive things in your life as most deserving of your attention. Once you make this subtle shift in awareness, your positive energy and sense of gratitude will grow, and you will attract more positive energy and success in your life. Cut Your Workweek to a 50-Hour Max to Activate Remote Modes of Thought Believe me, the ‘take it easy’ mantra annoys me just as much as it annoys any other executive, so rest assured that’s not what this section is about. There is a silver lining between that platitude and working your mind into an ineffective frenzy, thought, and it’s best illustrated by the diffuse mode of thinking, which occurs when our minds solve problems in ‘the background’ while we concentrate on something else. Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. describes the diffuse mode and focused mode in her landmark book on problem solving, “A Mind for Numbers.” Most decisions executives make in their workweeks hinge on number-driven decision making and understanding big data, making the principles Oakley outlines in this book highly relevant to executives in any industry. The diffuse mode of thought, as it’s identified by Oakley, occurs when we are relaxing or letting our minds wander. If you have ever arrived at the solution to a problem while in the shower or when you wake up, it’s likely the diffuse mode of thought that gave you the solution to the problem. The lesson is to give your mind enough time to work in focused mode without sacrificing its capacity for operating in the diffuse mode, meaning a 50-hour workweek cut off to strike the right balance. In stark contrast, workplace productivity and efficiency expert, Brian Tracy, tells us top executives work 59 hours per week, and that developing a  workaholic mentality  is a positive thing that will generate greater results for us at the office. The idea is so incredibly simple that even a kindergartener can understand and replicate it. The thing Brian Tracy forgets to point out at the forefront of his talks on this subject is that you should not develop a workaholic mentality and exercise it  continuously. Rather, it should be developed and exercised  continually.  Continually meaning intermittently and as needed, Continuously meaning without interruption or aberration. If you have several months where rote, simple tasks need to be hammered out, then go ahead and work the 60-hour workweek for a few months. However, if the problems you need to solve require high order thinking and an interdisciplinary blend of creativity and mathematical reasoning, be sure to get your rest as needed to activate the energy your diffuse mode brain needs to solve complex problems. Caring Energy: The Best Marketing and Sales Strategy Does your sales team have a caring energy or a pushy energy? Is there a sense of desperation to sell more or a caring urgency to improve others’ lives with the product or service offered? It’s very difficult to teach someone how to care, so the best strategy to make sure your customers and prospects receive the right energy from your team is to hire people who are emotionally invested in your cause and care about it beyond the scope of their own monetary gain. You may be thinking  Okay,  easier said than done. How do I get a team of twenty somethings in my call center to care? There are a number of books you can read to answer that question, all of which describe how the right energy can be applied to generate the best results and motivate your team to care. These are my go-tos for motivating teams and establishing the right energy: Influence â€" The Psychology of Persuasion by Bob Cialdini Ph.D. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Start with Why by Simon Sinek Customers and prospects alike can feel whether salespeople are trying to sell them or advise them, and, ironically, the latter of these two methods will increase sales. Again, in reference to point #3, a ‘you’re trying to sell me’ vibe is a very real thing, and it deters customers from buying products  very  quickly if there’s still legwork needed to convince the prospect. Our best sales rep is passionate about selling solar to improve the environment, give homeowners energy independence, and save prospects from utility companies’ electrical rate hikes. He isn’t in it for the money. He’s in it for the purpose (see point #5). He also has solar on his own home. His belief in the product and how it can truly help other people is the biggest determinant of his success, which has made him one of the most decorated solar consultants in the Inter-mountain West. Bringing All the Right Energy Together All of the points I’ve made above can be distilled into two categories â€" having the right mindset and tuning the environment you operate in for success. Remember, the environment you create is about so much more than your to do list. It’s about the vibes you give off to others, and the ones you apply to yourself as well. As long as you apply these principles, you’ll be harnessing the power of human energy in a way that will benefit you tremendously, says me, the guy who’s learned a thing or two about energy in general throughout the course of his career as a solar company CEO. This guest post was authored by Scott Cramer Scott Cramer is CEO of Go Solar Group a solar quote provider  and installer based in Utah and Reno, Nevada. Green Business has always been a part of Scott’s life. At the age of 11, Scott started a curbside recycling business. After graduating from university, Scott started an energy consulting firm designed to save business owners money and help the environment. Scott has immersed himself in solar since 2009 when he first saw the effect it could have on the lives of others. . Image credits. Mind.  

Free Salary Negotiation Ebook Giveaway

Free Salary Negotiation Ebook Giveaway To celebrate my book coming out this summer, I am giving away something FREE each week until the book comes out! Make sure you check out previous giveaways: a  Free Networking Success Ebook with tips from 13 Successful Women,  a  Free Resume Makeover Webinar  and a Free Career Strategy Session with Anna Runyan. The giveaways just keep coming! The networking success tips ebook I gave away a few weeks ago got a TON of amazing responses! Over 200 people downloaded the ebook! So I am giving away another ebook this week. I am sharing with you the BEST  tips to get what you deserve at your next salary negotiation. After reading this ebook, you will learn: How to prepare for your next your salary negotiation How to best answer those tricky salary negotiation questions How to  not  get intimidated during salary negotiations The biggest mistakes people make during salary negotiations Most importantly, HOW TO GET MORE MONEY!   And much more! Click here to get your free salary negotiation ebook right now. Go get what you deserve!!

Personal Brands LinkedIn the Network to Watch - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Brands LinkedIn the Network to Watch - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career It’s the leading online networking site for the modern professional, and has proven very valuable to providing professionals from all sectors with a platform to connect, interact and share information. With a growing user base, LinkedIn has had to make changes over the years in order to improve user experience and enable companies and individuals maximize on their connections. As someone looking to make the most of their brand (personal or company) interactions, you have to pay attention to the changes. If you are looking to catch up on the changes, here is a review of the features that the serious network has included (and removed) in the past year. Relocation of status updates With this change, users can no longer post their status updates on their profiles. The ability to update now resides on the home screen (for individual users) or the company page. This move was meant to encourage more users to visit the home page, something LinkedIn noticed many avoided. Also, for your network to see your status updates, they have to be logged into their home screen when you update. It might be a little inconveniencing, but you have Twitter and FB to handle status updates anyways. Introduction of LinkedIn Contacts This new feature enables you to organize, tag and save your contacts from one location. With LinkedIn Contacts, you can bring together all your contacts from your LinkedIn network, emails, and address books. The feature is currently on a limited release basis: available only to users of the English version of the site. Global release is slated for later in the year. You should know that once you opt for the Contacts feature, you reverting to the older system is impossible. It does make life easier though, seeing as you can also view the contacts who have yet to accept your connection requests. Removal of email filters Previously, you were able to send emails to your connections within a certain industry by selecting their email addresses. That ability is gone now, replaced by one where you have to tag your contacts in order to send emails. A limit of 50 people is imposed for doing this, which has not pleased a good number of LinkedIn users. However, LinkedIn’s point of view is that it doesn’t want the platform to be used for mass mailing. LinkedIn Publishing platform Simply connecting with other companies and professionals isn’t enough. To stand out from the crowd, the need to establish yourself as a thought leader is crucial, and with the rollout of a Publishing Platform feature, you can do just that. With this feature, you can write longer blog posts that capture your professional insights and share them with your network. Posts become part of your profile, which helps when connections view your skills and experience. The publishing feature has yet to be rolled out to all members, and currently is offered to a select number (around 25,000 members) that have to apply for early access. Applying for early access is possible on the LinkedIn site, with an email sent to the user if the application is approved. The benefits of being able to publish content on LinkedIn are enormous. For a personal brand, this is an opportunity to establish your status as a thought leader, and provide insights your connections can’t get anywhere else. For a business, the Publishing Platform is perfect for providing meaningful content to an audience that will be looking for more than just the occasional status update. The Content Index Score To keep track of how well the content that brands publish on the platform fares, LinkedIn introduced the Content Index Score. Brands will be assigned scores to “gauge the effectiveness of their posts to company pages, their branded groups, posts by company ‘influencers’ who are part of LinkedIn’s publishing program, employee posts, and ‘sponsored updates’ ads that appear in users’ streams,” according to Cotton Delo, who’s done a great job reviewing the index score system. This feature is intended for brands that craft LinkedIn campaigns to reach and advertise to users. For such a brand to maximize on its campaign, it will have to make changes such as increasing the frequency of posts, publishing higher quality content, or buy sponsored updates to increase reach: methods that boost the brand’s content index score. The score will enable brands to see how well their content reaches their target audience; how well the brand performs across the entire LinkedIn network; and much closer to home, how a brand’s advertising performs in relation to its competition. LinkedIn Pulse Originally, LinkedIn Pulse was available on RSS readers for LinkedIn users accessing the site through smartphones. Now, it is the default news page, and displays all relevant posts by LinkedIn influencers as well as those from other companies and networks. With Pulse, you can keep up to date with the latest in your industry, and can customize the feature to display only the stories and posts that you find relevant. Removal of Products and Services tab The Product and Services tab was part of the Company Pages feature; one that allowed businesses the opportunity to highlight their products and services. Each product or service had to be accessed through this tab, and customers would be able to post their feedback. However, effective April 14, 2014, the Products and Services function ceased to exist. While companies that featured their products and services will feel the loss, LinkedIn is replacing that with a new feature called the Showcase Pages.   Showcase Pages Showcase Pages work well for individual brands, so if you have multiple products and services, you can set up an individual page for each offering. The idea behind this feature is that clients can access updates to only the products they like on these pages, as opposed to viewing everything on the company home page. If you are a brand that targets different client groups, this works in your favor. You can customize each Showcase page to cater and appeal to each group’s needs. Showcase pages become a small extension of your overall brand. You can design each individual page differently and post updates as you like. There’s no limit to the number of Showcase pages you can come up with, though more than ten pages requires you to contact LinkedIn for approval. The challenge with Showcase pages is getting followers to opt in on their own. Here, you can’t “add” people, they have to choose to do so willingly. This requires you to come up with creative and appealing pages, in terms of both visuals and text, in order to boost engagement. Consistency and clear messaging are your friends in this department, as is clearly defining your target market. Groups This one is not really a new feature but a suggestion to boost your branding endeavors, especially personal brands. Find groups that cater to your interests. There are bound to be a few groups you can relate to, and where you can contribute. Start one if you can, though this means constantly engaging with followers to keep them interested. Being active in groups is what benefits your brand, and often leads to growing your network. Expect a few more changes to LinkedIn as the year rolls on, but for the time being, these were the major ones you should be updated on. They are all implemented towards helping brands increase engagement, and in the case of Showcase pages, enable companies give more visibility to their products and services. Dedi Grigoroiu / Shutterstock.com

The Challenges and Strategies of Changing Industries [Updated] - Career Pivot

The Challenges and Strategies of Changing Industries [Updated] - Career Pivot Changing Industries Many of you are or should be thinking of changing industries. Creative destruction is wreaking havoc on so many industries that if you are not looking â€" you should be. I have written multiple posts on the need to be vigilant: Living in a “Career Disaster Area” at the Age of 65 Surviving Creative Destruction in the 2nd Half of Life Has Your Job Been SMACed? If not Yet, It Will! Beware Automation and Robots Will Sabotage Your Career Are you actively looking at changing industries but find that you’re running into a lot of roadblocks? If so, you are not alone. Several years ago, I had a client who was a PMP certified project manager. He had a lot of project management experience managing IT projects, but he wanted to transition to the healthcare industry. I arranged for him to meet the COO of a rapidly-expanding healthcare provider. The COO told him that his credentials were impressive, but he had no healthcare experience. The COO said they really should not care that he had no healthcare experience, but … they will. Skill Sets Whether you are a project manager, product manager, business analyst, or any other position, you will likely have two sets of skills: Business skills Industry skills Which is the most important? Your business skills! Which will the hiring authorities care most about? Your industry skills! This why changing industries is so difficult. Listen to the most recent episode If you think that this is not fair then you are right! You might be saying, “These folks are not any good at interviewing candidates”and you would be correct! A good project manager should be able to manage any project. A good business analyst should be able to work in any industry. There should be peace on earth and goodwill towards men! There should be no wars! Well, there I go again. I am using the “S”wordâ€"”should.” Employers today are frequently looking for the purple cow candidateâ€"or a candidate that likely does not exist. They want a candidate that has both business and industry skills. If they have to compromise, most will lean on industry skills. Strategies for Changing Industries Whether you like it or not, when changing industries, you will need to show that you have some industry experience. If you have no industry experience you will have to demonstrate that your current industry maps to new or adjacent industries. Let me give you some examples: Create a Blog and Interview People in the Target Industry. In 2015, I told the story ofDaniel Elizalde. Daniel wanted to make the shift to the Smart Grid industry. He created a blog where he published monthly interviews with experts in the smart grid industry. Daniel very methodically interviewed experts that he could learn from, and after 18 months he found he had developed some “street cred”. Managers at companies that were on Daniel’s target list of companies were reading his blog and were now willing to talk with him about future opportunities. Check out Daniel’s story in the post Changing Industries to Smart Grid. Rebrand Yourself via a Blog, Videos, and Whitepapers This is what Alexander Buschekdid when he wanted to become a digital transformation thought leader. Alexander created the Digital Transformation Blogto demonstrate that he knew his stuff.He wrote the whitepaperYour Existing IT Strategy Won’t Work Why SMBs have to rethink their IT strategy and embrace Digital Transformationand published it on his blog. He then spent much of the holiday season in late 2016, creating videos around all of the facets of digital transformation. Alexander had a lot of fun doing this but I suspect he drove his wife a bit crazy creating a mini-video studio in their house. The blog, videos, and whitepapers clearly demonstrated his expertise and from that came numerous opportunities to speak at industry conferences. A good example of this was hisSpeech at IIoT Talk Conference in Berlin. From the blog, Alexander was able to move from being a CIO for a valve manufacturer in the oil and gas industry to being a CIO at a high-tech hardware company where he will be able to implement digital transformation strategies. Look for Alexander’s story on the Repurpose Your Career Podcast in early April of 2018. Publish LinkedIn Publisher Posts on Topics Related to the Target Industry Write about relevant topics that you have researched thoroughly. Make sure you get someone in the target industry to review them before you publish. The advantage of writing LinkedIn Publisher posts is they will be seen on your LinkedIn profile. When a recruiter or hiring manager find your LinkedIn profile, they will see that you have published and, thus, have demonstrated your knowledge of the industry. Other Options to Build Credibility When changing industries you can demonstrate expertise by commenting on blog posts and social media where you will be seen by others in the target industry. Make sure and target individuals that could be good connectors to the companies on your target list. This is a slow, tedious process, and it will take a while to be noticed. I would also suggest that you attend industry conferences and make sure to interact with individuals from your target companies. Get as much face time with individuals who can either help you get to the next step. This was part of Alexander Buschek’s strategy to rebrand himself as a Digital Transformation thought leader. Alexander was able to meet executives at numerous companies that allowed him to get both speaking engagements at industry events and introductions to hiring managers at target companies. Demonstrate Your Industry Expertise on Platforms You Control When changing industries, you will need to demonstrate your industry expertise. You may notice that the concrete examples I gave you were from individuals who created their own platforms that they controlled. You can do demonstrate your expertise on platforms like LinkedIn or Medium but you do not own these platforms and therefore, they can change overnight outside of your control. You need to plan on demonstrating your industry expertise if you are changing industries. Do this before your existing industry goes away! Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

What is happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

What is happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Arbejdsgl?de We Scandinavians have an advantage over the rest of the world: We have a word for happiness at work. In Danish (my native language) the word is arbejdsgl?de, and while that quite rightly looks utterly unpronounceable to the rest of the world, it?s a concept that is deeply ingrained in Scandinavian work culture and one that most Nordic businesses focus on to some degree. Its also one reason why Scandinavian companies do so well and contributes to the success of companies like NOKIA, IKEA, Oticon (the worlds leading producer of hearing aids), Carlsberg, Ericsson etc Arbejdsgl?de translates into English simply as work-happiness, and its that feeling you get when you: Enjoy what you do Do good work and feel proud of it Work with nice people Know that what you do is important Are appreciated for your work Take responsibility Have fun at work Are motivated and energized Feel that you kick butt Most of us already know that feeling. Weve been there some of the time or even most of the time in our work lives. The question is: How do we get there some more. And in case youre wondering, arbejdsgl?de is pronounced something like ah-bites-gleh-the. So what is it, then? What exactly is happiness at work? This question seems like a good place to start, and Ive been working long and hard to come up with a definition of happiness at work, precisely because so many people ask me just that. Working with clients, big and small, private and public, got me closer and closer to the answer, and after long deliberations I came up with what I believe is a concise, spot-on definition. This will amaze you. Are you ready? Here it is: Happiness at work is: A feeling of happiness derived from work Boggles the mind, doesnt it? In fact, out of the three questions mentioned in the introduction (What? Why? How), What? is the least interesting because it turns out time after time, that though people may not have a pre-agreed dictionary definition of happiness at work, most people know when they are happy at work ? and especially when theyre not. This makes a definition less crucial. The thing is, happiness at work is an emotion. It comes from inside of you, and like all other emotions it is difficult to define, but inescapable once its present. Or not present. Can you define love or anger? Its tricky. But when youre feeling love or anger, youre acutely aware of it, regardless of the lack of a formal definition. Happy is as happy does So while it may not matter much what happiness at work is, it matters immensely what it does to people ? or what its absence does. And fortunately its easy to say some things about what happines at work does to people. People who are happy at work generally: Like the work they do Like the people they work with Feel energetic Are motivated Look forward to going to work Trust each other Go the extra mile Conversely, people who are unhapy (or simply not happy) at work often: Are cynical Dont care about co-workers Dread work Feel tired Dont trust co-workers Do only as much as they have to So while we may not be able to define happiness at work, we can still say some things about it. Happiness at work is different for everyone (picture of Allan and Soren) Heres Allan and Soren. Theyre both males in their 30s and work for the same advertising agency. They have similar backgrounds, but what makes them happy at work is wildly different. Allan enjoys working closely with others, Soren prefers working alone Allan hates writing reports, Soren loves it Allan likes lots of new challenges, Soren prefers predicability Allan likes risk, Soren tends to avoid it Allan hates having to focus on only one project, Soren loves it While there are definitely some things that make most people happy at work, we need to remember that happiness at work is different for everyone. One persons happiness at work can be anothers living hell. Thats why happiness at work means treating everybody differently! Happiness at work is infectious Its downright contagious. One determinedly happy employee can lift the spirits of an entire department. One happy executive can spread a positive mood in the whole organization. The bad news is that unhappiness spreads itself faster than happiness, probably because humans are conditioned by evolutionary pressures to be more atuned to negative emotions. This makes fear and anger in the workplace more contagious than happiness, meaning businesses must work actively to spread happiess instead. Happiness at work is long-term It?s never about blowing off work that must be done, in order to have fun and be happy instead. It?s not just about being happy here and now it?s happiness for today and tomorrow and next year and 10 years from now. Happiness at work is an invitation I have a coworker who takes it upon herself to act as the happiness police and it has had the result of creating an antagonistic attitude towards positive thining! I had to calm down one team member who was genuinely insulted by her attempts, because by constantly goading him to be happier she very much implied that his current life just wasn?t happy enough (and thus, the implication was, not worthwhile). Having someone try to control your ?happiness??? can be a very unpleasant experience indeed! You cant force people to be happy! Its that simple. The more you try to convince or pressure people to be happy at work, the less happy they will be. People generally respond to emotional pressure by reacting oppositely. Which means that trying to force happiness on people will actually make them less happy! If you purposely or inadvertently create a mood at work where its right to be happy and wrong not to be, people will actively react against that. You may even risk making happiness at work a dirty word ? something to be ridiculed and actively resisted. Thats why happiness at work is an invitation. You can open the door, and invite people in ? but you cant push them through the door against their will. The more you try, the more they will cling to the door jamb, kicking and screaming. Happiness at work is not eternal The IT support department at the medical company Leo Pharma are a critical part of the organization. If theyre not picking up the phones, Leos 4.000 employees have nowhere to go with their IT-related questions. To ensure that the phones are always manned, a huge whiteboard with a space for each support-worker shows whos on call at any time. The IT department realizes, that people have good and bad days, so they set up a simple policy: When employees get in in the morning, they can place a green or a red magnetic tag next to their name. Green means Im having a good day, a red marker means Im having a bad day. So if a co-worker storms in the door without saying good morning, places at red marker next to his name, and sits at his desk scowling at his computer, you dont have to wonder was it something I said? This policy does two things for the department: It makes it visible who is having a good or a bad day, and people with red markers are given a little space and leeway. If somebody puts up a red marker every day for a week this becomes visible, and steps can be taken to help that person. It makes it legal to have a bad day. We all have bad days, but if you have to hide it and pretend to be chipper, it takes longer to get out of the bad mood. You cant be happy at work every day. No matter how much you love your job, theres still going to be bad days. And its always OK to have a bad day at work. Its just that if you have more of the bad than the good days at work, then maybe its time to consider what that does to you, and what you can do about it Happiness at work is not pervasive Its almost impossible to find a job, where every single aspect makes you happy. There will always be some boring tasks. Some co-workers you dont like. Some unpleasant customers. Happiness at work is not about eliminating all the bad stuff from your job. Its about being happy at work even though all of these things are present. About building your skills to handle the bad stuff, and to create more and more good experiences at work. Happiness at work is not about being ecstatic One of the very first Happy at Work Workshops I did was for the Scandinavian logistics department of a large American car manufacturer. At the end of the workshop, I asked the participants to share their thoughts and one gentleman in his 50s stood up to speak. He was formally dressed in a suit and tie (the only one in the group) and with his gray hair and glasses he looked every bit the accountant. Which in fact he was. Hed been very quiet throughout of the workshop, but now he stood up to adress the group. He paused for a moment. ?I want all of you to know,??? he said in a somber voice, ?that Im not as unhappy as I look.??? The room erupted in laughter. The serious face, the somber voice, the quiet demeanor and the formal manner ? thats how this man looked when he was happy at work. Happiness at work does not necessarily mean running around ecstatically all day long. You can sit at your desk, quietly doing you work, and be discreetly happy. You can be sitting in a hectic meeting arguing forcefully for your point of view and be happy. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Federal Resume Writing

Federal Resume WritingFederal resume writing is not an easy task and can sometimes be tricky. However, it is one of the most rewarding jobs in today's world with an international outlook on talent exchanges and the business networking opportunities that they present.In order to achieve federal resume writing success, the writer must first realize that their goal must not be purely monetary. If this is the case, the writer will be seeking job opportunities that pay handsomely without regard to their position and qualifications.Writing federal resume is a competitive task because the competition is stiff among the talent pools that are present in the world today. Such pool of talent includes applicants from all nations in the world, whether they are high school students or older persons, professionals or retired persons. It is only by writing the federal resume for each of them that the writer can be assured of finding a well-paying job and one that will also be preferred by their pros pective employers.One should also practice using important tips on writing federal resume. These tips should focus on helping the writer to achieve the desired objective of successfully generating a good resume. The tips can be learned through close observation of successful writers who are often found practicing in the internet.The first tip on writing federal resume is to ensure that the writer uses a grammar checker on the paper before making any other changes to it. This helps to prevent misspellings, grammatical errors and other typographical mistakes.The second tip on writing federal resume is to ensure that the writers use proper spacing between words. Space is crucial in federal resume writing because such spacing will help to make the material seem more readable.The third tip on writing federal resume is to ensure that the resume is clear, concise and complete. Alayman may take longer time to decipher a document when the work is difficult to understand. In the same way, com plex writing skills may be lost if the document is short of the right information.The fourth tip on writing federal resume is to keep the tone of the material pleasant. This ensures that the writer gets across the message with great ease.