Archive for February, 2010

Archives for Coaching

In a job interview, you may field questions about your situational behavior and decision making. That’s based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Behavioral questions (often not even framed as a question) typically start out: “Tell me about a time…” or “Describe a situation…”

Example questions are: “Tell me about a time where you confronted an unexpected problem,” “Describe an experience when you failed to achieve a goal,” or “Give me a specific example of a time when you managed several projects at once.”

Equip yourself to answer the questions thoroughly. Obviously, you can prepare better for this type of interview if you know which skills the employer has predetermined to be necessary for the job you seek. Researching the company, studying the job description, and talking to people who work there will enable you to zero in on the kinds of behaviors the company wants. In the interview, your response must be specific and detailed. Candidates who tell the interviewer about particular situations that relate to each question will be far more successful than those who respond in general terms.

Ideally, briefly describe the situation, the specific action you took to have an effect on the situation, and the positive result or outcome. It’s also helpful to think of your responses as stories. Frame each example as a three-step story, usually called a S-A-R, P-A-R, or C-A-R statement: 1. situation (or problem, challenge), 2. action, 3. result/outcome. Become an engaging storyteller in your interviews, but be careful not to ramble.

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Archives for Workplace

How loyal are you to your employer? Would you be willing to cut pay, benefits, or hours to help keep your company afloat? Do you feel as if you and your company are “in this together”?

If you said “No way!” to the above questions, you’re not alone. A new study by research giant Ipsos Loyalty found that only about 30 percent of us feel loyal to our employers. About the same number of us feel that our employers have earned our loyalty.

So why does loyalty on the job matter?

Because our loyalty as employees impacts our happiness at work. According to the landmark Ipsos Loyalty Study, employees with the highest levels of loyalty to their job also characterized themselves as happiest.

What Is Loyalty—and Why Does It Matter?

Loyalty is the realization that we need each other to be whole and happy. It’s well known that people who are happy at work are happier overall.

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Archives for Coaching

Let’s talk about getting fired. So the boss calls you in to her office. Things haven’t been going well lately at the company. Sales are down. So is new hiring. You take a seat and your boss says, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we need to let you go.” What do you do? What do you say? What should you not say?

Here’s the first question: Do you want to keep this job? If you do, what’s the best way to try and paint a picture for your boss that portrays your remaining at the company in a positive light, and creates a vision of you as an employee determined to pull your weight, to excel, and be beneficial to the company? In other words, how can you–on the spot–change your boss’s mind and help her see that doing so will be to her advantage?

1. Open with a positive. Make a positive opening statement, such as, “I want to thank you for all of the opportunities you’ve given me.” Don’t wing it; write your opening statement down and commit it to memory if you have any inkling that a layoff is imminent.

2. Get your boss talking. Ask a great question, such as, “If there were one area I could improve upon that would enable me to stay, what would it be?” Again, don’t wing it; write it down if you suspect this is going to happen.

3. Control your presentation. Keep a low voice, a slow voice. Don’t allow yourself to become emotional no matter what the answer. Don’t allow your voice to go up, or your speech to speed up. Don’t lean aggressively forward suddenly. Ahead of time, practice talking in the mirror with a calm, composed manner so you’ll know what it feels like.

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Archives for Hot Skills

In our modern world, we’re moving at such a rapid pace we often miss seeing extraordinary signs and messages that pop up in our daily life. Whether you’re a soldier in Afghanistan, a corporate executive, a parent, spouse, or employee, when you can slow down enough to recognize and listen to your intuition, it can reveal truth, warn you of danger, uncover an ingenious idea, or help you understand people and situations in new ways.

In my new book, Second Sight, I show how to keep an eye out for intuitive experiences in everyday life, and what they can teach us. Drawing from my own experiences as an intuitive along with new scientific studies on the value of intuition in decision making, I include strategies anyone can use to develop their intuitive intelligence. In the book, you will learn how I came to be a pioneer in intuitive medicine, using my intuitive gift as a potent healing tool and incorporating it into my medical practice.

From Second Sight, here are five types of intuitive experiences you may encounter, and what they can teach you:

Body signals. Your body has many ways of getting your attention. It could be goosebumps when something feels right or strikes you as true. Or it might be your hair standing up on the back of your neck when you sense danger.

How to use it. Most commonly referred to as a “gut reaction,” your body’s response to the world around you is often instant–quicker, in fact, than your conscious thought. Next time you sense your body is trying to alert you to something, check in with it. Are your shoulders tense? Is there a knot in your stomach? Or do you feel energized and excited? When you learn to read your body signals, a whole new type of information will be available to you.

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Archives for Career Advice

Have you noticed any similarities between your dating experiences and your job searches?

What these two puzzle parts have in common is a quest for better relationships. Granted, for some of us, both of these personal quests are fraught with frustration.

But in Shawn Graham’s book Courting Your Career, he spins the metaphor in amusing and insightful ways. Networking is matchmaking. Career fairs are akin to clubbing. Cover letters are like pick-up lines. And job boards are linked to online dating (and about equally successful).

Graham, a Fast Company Experts blogger, has served as a career counselor at UNC-Chapel Hill where he field-tested this metaphor and found that it resonated well with students. When you’re looking for a job you want to work with amiable people, right?

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Archives for Coaching

Not all executives are leaders.  Not all managers are executives.  Not all career people are professional.

Top company management usually comes from the ranks of those who sell the core business product-service, not from those on the firing line who deliver it.   That’s why in media, programming and news people rarely become management.  Since advertising sales is the primary product of media, the sales people become the managers.  In education, good teachers stay in the classroom.  In the energy industry, engineers dominate. Engineers steadfastly believe that they’re in the energy exploration and production business.  The companies themselves are in the energy marketing business.    Restaurants are in the business of marketing atmosphere and service.  Yet, they put food preparers (representing 20% of the pie) in charge.  Decisions are always food driven, explaining in part the high failure rate of restaurants.  Other reasons include poor planning, substandard customer service, low capitalization and inappropriate marketing.

A major problem with companies stems from the fact that management and company leadership come from one small piece of the organizational pie.  Filling all management slots with financial people, for example, serves to limit the organizational strategy and focus.  They all hire like-minded people and frame every business decision from their micro perspective.

The ideal executive has strong leadership skills first.  He or she develops organizational vision and sets strategies.  Leaders should reflect a diversity of focus, guaranteeing that a balance is achieved. The best management team looks at the macro, rather than just the niche micro.

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Archives for Career Advice

Are you unfulfilled in your job? You are not alone. One-half of US employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, up from two-fifths 10 years ago.

Perhaps it’s time to move on. But where? And will you be successful in your new job? Or would it be a case of “out of the frying pan into the fire”?

You can minimize that risk. You should find a job that fires you with hwyl—the Celtic concept of passion, fervor, and spirit that can lift you to extremes of success. Then you need to check that market conditions at this job are favorable, and that you will be at least reasonably well placed to succeed in the job. But first things first.

Find a Job with Hwyl

To find a job you feel passionate about, you need a process. Make three columns on a sheet of paper or on the computer. In column one, write down all the names of people who have jobs that inspire you. In the middle column, write down the type of work they do. In the third column, put 1–5 tick marks according to how passionate you feel about these jobs, where 1 = okay job, and 5 = truly inspired.

For ideas, look to friends, family, and colleagues—and their friends, family, and colleagues. Think of fellow members of interest groups you belong to. Think of people you have read about in the press or seen on TV. Don’t forget fictional people in books, movies, and plays. Don’t limit yourself. Dream large. Write down any job that sounds fun or exciting to you.

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