Category Archives: Workplace Insights

Get the insights and develop the skills you need to find and get the job you want at the salary you deserve.

To Keep Moving Up, Take The Steps Necessary To Succeed

Whether it’s a high visibility assignment for your company, a line position which will get you in the running for senior management or a plum post in London — *ask for it*. Learn to negotiate. To be perceived as powerful, act like a leader. Take charge, take responsibility, come up with a solution. And most important, never stop moving up. Keeping the momentum in your career is vital for your success.

First, take stock of yourself, and see where you are in the food chain of your organization.

If you’re not at, or near the top, it’s time to take immediate remedial action. If you’re already in middle management, decide to take on the toughest hurdle: moving from middle to top management.

You probably will have to work consciously on modifying many of your habits and attitudes. Perhaps the most important attitude change will be to give up “the caretaker-of-the-details trap”. The shift from middle manager to top manager is a shift from “doing” to “directing” or delegating. A top manager must focus on big picture issues. You must learn to develop successful strategy and effective management of people. Doing someone else’s job can no longer be one of your options. Tackle the big problems….let someone else pick the ladies’ room wall paper. Learn to take well thought out risks, since being unremarkable and unnoticed at work won’t get you where you want to go either.

If you seem “stuck” in whatever position you’re in, take an analytical look at your company and its true “woman-friendly” quotient.

Does your company have women in executive offices and on the board of directors? Do female executives earn as much as their male counterparts? If not, you might start looking around at companies where you may find a more “level playing field” and greater opportunities for advancement. Even a lateral move can put the momentum back in your career.

Find the right company with a culture which supports your success.

Companies which have embraced “family friendly” and diversity oriented values will have designed an organization with the staffing philosophy and processes and development philosophy and processes to support those values. On a formal basis, managers will provide opportunities for visibility; explain and interpret organizational politics; map out clear developmental goals and support you in achieving them. On an informal basis, management will have credible advocates with positional authority to see that key people, and women in particular, are not excluded from informal networks. Advocates with authority will also assure that women have access to a line position with responsibility so they they may qualify for promotion to the next level. Within this framework you should try to align your career goals with what you see as the opportunities within your company.

Learn to negotiate, to uncover the “hidden agendas and masked perceptions”, to identify your true value, make it visible, and make the negotiation pivot around it.

Almost every day at work, we are faced with some type of negotiation. Not only must we negotiate for our salary, perks, benefits, title, office space and support staff, but daily issues involving our duties, the need for increased manpower, authority over projects, flexibility with clients, arrangements, communication or sharing of the workload with co-workers; all require a form of negotiation, which, if we fail to recognize, we will, in all probability, fail to win.

The only reason someone is negotiating with you is that you have a value which he wants. The more you can make that value visible, and make the negotiation pivot around it, the stronger your position will be. The first negotiation, which will shape much of your future is how much you will earn and what benefits you will receive. Bargain hard and smart. Your work life depends upon it.

To talk is to win.

At every opportunity, step up to the plate, speak up in an authoritative voice and present a message which is clear and communicates your firm belief in it. Whether it’s a high visibility assignment for your company, a line position which will get you in the running for senior management or a plum post in London — ask for it. Don’t hint. Forget indirection and subtlety. If you want a job within the company ask for it. And ask for the authority to do it right.

Get recognized, the not so easy task for women.

Why is it so difficult for women to get recognized in corporate America? It is one thing to perform effectively, and it is quite another to be perceived as performing effectively. The answer to being perceived as effective and getting recognized for it does not lie in performance. Research shows women perform as well on the job as men, often better, but men are prone to boasting and successful men have become experts in self promotion. To most women, boasting is anathema. A major turning point in most women’s careers comes when they recognize that self promotion is part of the game of business. Start immediately by weaving your accomplishments into your casual conversations. Absolutely anything can be your cue. Example: “I haven’t been anyplace the air conditioner was turned on so high since the Chamber of Commerce had that special banquet to honor me.”

If you want recognition, you must broadcast your achievements and press for appropriate rewards and advancement. No one else will do it for you. And if you start promoting yourself, you will soon feel comfortable doing it, and equally important, you will begin to realize you deserve it.

Go for the power and never stop moving up.

Power is an important currency in today’s workplace. In fact, power is largely in the perception of it. To be perceived as powerful, act like a leader. Take charge, take responsibility, come up with a solution. You don’t need to be president of a corporation or head of a committee. You just need to lead. Do you see a problem crying out for a solution? Develop a project to address it. Projects not only gather people together and marshal their strengths to achieve a defined and mutually beneficial goal, they advertise your skills and position you as a leader. Develop reputational power by tackling the critical issues and getting results.

Determine to hone and expand your skills, grow and promote yourself, build relationships and networks, deliver results and be sure to get credit for them. Then, continue to get feedback.

Are your career goals still the same, or have they changed. If they’ve changed, make the necessary adjustments and pursue new opportunities which match your new goals.

Check with the market to be certain you’re getting paid what you’re worth in the market today. Check salary benchmarks in your industry.

As measures of your success, you must….

Have an exceptional skill or expertise at something which delivers real value.
Focus on the practical result of the skill you deliver.
Learn how to be a leader and a supportive team player at the same time.
Be a visionary….. define a goal and make it a reality.

As Thoreau once said :” Keep marching continously in the direction of your dreams and one day you will be leading the life you have imagined.” It will never be sooner than today to start.

How to Captivate an Audience

OPEN Forum - How to Captivate an Audience.

Nancy Duarte knows how to make killer presentations. She and her husband, Mark, founded Duarte Design, Inc., a firm that helps everyone from Google to Al Gore master the art of captivating audiences. Her recent book is called slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. In this interview, she shares the secret to great Powerpoints and tells us how to avoid some of the most common presentation pitfalls, starting with the question:” Why do most presentations suck?”

If youre serious about wanting to improve your presentations, whether in house or to a large group, this author gets into the nuts and bolts of doing it right, giving some good advice like “Develop your content from the context of what the audience needs,” and noting that high impact presentations take some time to develop. She also notes the importance of feedback from honest friends who are not afraid to tell you when your presentation is not up to par. For the whole post, go here:

How to Captivate an Audience.

Get A Mentor To Help You Learn The Ropes

Get A Mentor To Help You Learn The Ropes – AdvancingWomen.com

Gretchen Glasscock

Being mentored by the right person is an important and viable bridge to achieving your career goals. Mentors can serve as role models and gateways, introducing you to the right people. Having savvy mentors is one of the key levers that can lift you from obscurity and fruitless toil to success. Because top leadership posts are occupied primarily by men, women must build the skills to enlist men as allies and mentors. As Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, said “Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Therefore, the leaders you work with (or network with) should welcome the opportunity to mentor you, if you ask them directly and make it easy on them, not taking up too much of their time. When you network (an extension of mentoring), it’s a good idea to reach out to men’s established, powerful networks as well as the newer women’s networks.

Get a mentor. For many daughters of prominent men, their father is their first mentor. From the age of about five, the author, along with her brother and sister, was in “entrepreneur training” with her father. He would take us on business drives to oversee his properties, then point out a building and ask us what we thought it was worth. The correct answer was, “Whatever you can get for it.” He also taught all of us to play poker, as a way of learning business and betting strategy. But this isn’t just the author’s story; Governor Kathleen Sebelious of Kansas, the first daughter of a Governor in U.S. history to be elected to the same office, learned her lessons at her father’s knee. And Cheryl Miller, the first female analyst to call a nationally televised NBA game on Turner Broadcasting Team, was mentored by her dad.
If your dad’s not the mentoring type, look to your mom or a teacher. Mothers can be mentors, too. Sharon Avent, president and CEO of Smead Manufacturing Company (a privately held, women-owned company founded in 1906 that manufactures and distributes home and office filing systems, supplies, and software, with $315 million in annual sales and approximately 2500 employees) took over as president from her mother. Another woman leader told a story about her sixth-grade civics teacher, who after a class debate told her, “You know, if you were my daughter, I’d send you to law school.” She took it to heart, determined not to be a tobacco farmer all her life, overcame her mother’s admonition that she should aspire to be a school teacher, and went on to law school and a successful career.
Get an incredibly successful woman to be your mentor. Ask for 15 minutes a month, and be willing to do it by e-mail. Gayle Crowell, who was a six-figure executive at a software company (but also a former school teacher) says she’s always willing to mentor, as long as she can do it by e-mail, while she’s waiting in airports or on planes.
Turn to your supervisor. Your supervisor might be willing to mentor you if you ask for just 15 minutes, once a month, to tell you the expectations for your position; how well you are meeting them; and a plan to move you along a career path that will take you to the next level (as long as it doesn’t threaten his job, even if it’s a lateral move to another track.)
Tap into powerful networks. Join the National Association of Women Business Owners, the National Association of Female Executives, your city’s Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and your Alumni Club. Janet Hanson, the founder & CEO of Milestone Capital Management, founded 85 Broads—a groundbreaking global mentoring network now with 4,200 18,000 members worldwide. It offers ‘Broad2Broad,’ a model for numerous other corporate/alumnae networks.
Hire a coach. When the author was on the board of directors of NAWBO, she was enlisted to ask a friend of hers, an enormously successful millionaire entrepreneur, to be the keynote speaker at our awards event. Linda had never spoken in public or gone beyond high school. She asked me to connect her with an executive coach, another NAWBO member, who helped her give a successful speech to a rousing response.

How to Future-Proof Your Career

How to Future-Proof Your Career.

Karen Williams

“In the current economic uncertainty, you may be concerned about the security of your job and may be reluctant to make changes even if you are dissatisfied at work. But even if you are happy with the status quo now, what could you do to improve your opportunities in the future?

To future-proof your career, follow my top tips and take one simple action today.

1. Keep up to date with changing technology. What skills do you need for your job and what will help you in the future? Keep your technical skills current, even if it doesn’t directly relate to your job right now. If you are proactive, it will put you in a good position for future changes.

2. Develop your competencies, skills and experience. Keeping up to date with your professional development is important in any industry and will help you to develop skills that can be transferred to other positions. Competencies include areas such as leadership, communication, innovation and interpersonal skills. What competencies are important for you or your career? Take some time to design a plan to help you to develop these skills.

3. Create a record of your achievements. When many people develop their CV’s, they can remember the most recent achievements but forget those that happened a while ago. However, these may also be important to the requirements of a new job. If you keep a record of your achievements and successes, you will be able to list and describe these situations in an application or interview situation.

4. Build and maintain a professional network. When you are seeking a new job or are making contacts as part of your business, building a network plays a key part. Develop relationships with people both inside and outside your organisation. Make contacts with people who can encourage or mentor you, support your development and offer new opportunities.

5. Be aware of changes to your industry or environment. By reading trade journals, the business press and keeping an eye on the news, you can become aware of any emerging trends or challenges that may affect you. This will help you to take advantage of new opportunities or change jobs if the future looks tough.

6. Develop a plan for your career. There are few people who work in an organisation where they have a clear career path laid out ahead of them. As the adage says, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. To achieve your potential, consider where you want to be in one, five or ten year’s time. Then decide what you need to do to get there – set yourself some goals and most importantly, remember to take action!”

These are all excellent tips in good times and bad, techniques to keep your career moving and you one step ahead of the power curve.

Using the Net to Leverage Your Business

Using the Net to Leverage Your Business.

Today a small, sharp and nimble business leveraging the Net, can compete on equal footing with big businesses in many areas. A new breed of Net companies give small business access to sophisticated management support and real time business processes which go a long way towards leveling the playing field. Most of the services you need to give your company big company muscle and an impressive public image can be found on the Net at small company prices.

Marketing

The following sites let you keep projects in-house but get online and perform your own public relations, marketing, direct mail and market research at a fraction of the cost of hiring an outside agency. Companies like Constant Contact or I Contact will collect opt in names and email addresses from users of your web site and provide you with attractive templates which, with a click of a mouse, will allow you to email your tailored marketing message to each of your different market segments.

To reach beyond your current customers and expand your marketing base, AdReady offers display advertising that works for marketers at all levels of expertise and all budgets. Their platform allows you to develop custom display ads targeted to your industry, set your own budget, run them on Google or Yahoo, and monitor, measure and manage your results.

Management Today on the net you can find shared applications like Central Destop which provide online tools for project management and collaboration, which your team can access from any where in the world or on the road from a Blackberry or Iphone, allowing you to work with less expensive outsourced providers.

Workforce Need to trim your payroll but still get the job done?

At Guru.com or Freelance.com, you can have your pick of independent professionals willing to take on your company’s tasks on a moment’s notice.

Or go to Elance.com is a global, online marketplace for services, with users from over 140 countries and services ranging from programming and graphic design to translation, web design or education, legal, accounting, medical and other services. Competitive bids, particularly from countries with different wage scales like India or China, will drive down the costs of your project.

Marketplaces End to end marketplaces like Ebay.com bring buyers and sellers together in one spot, simultaneously expanding the market and Fdriving down costs through competitive bidding.

Sales Force Sales Force has become a Standard on the Net. Salesforce The automation it provides empowers companies to manage people and processes more effectively, so reps can close more deals. Their application gives the sales force fast access to data—online, offline, and via mobile devices—and links easily to popular tools like Microsoft Office and Outlook.

In fact, the mom and pop store of yesteryear is fast becoming today’s small networked business with a hand full of employees which can get up to speed fast, ramp up quickly and succeed globally because of the reach, speed and efficiency of the Net and the exponentially expanding business resources on it. If your business needs something you can’t find on the Net, just wait, it will soon be there. Or better yet, if you find a gap, fill it and the world will beat a path to your door.

Career Coach: Be A Better Negotiator – Lifestyle – Shape

Career Coach: Be A Better Negotiator – Lifestyle – Shape.

“Babcock, economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, found that men are four times more likely to negotiate for extras on the job, from vacation to higher salaries. “We’re more willing to accept what’s offered instead of engaging in the process. This can have big consequences.” Check out her example:

Two 22-year-old pros enter the workforce earning $35,000/yr.
One asks for high yearly raises, averaging 5%
One accepts yearly raise as given, averaging 3%
By age 37, the negotiator earns $61,250/yr; the other earns $50,750/yr.”

The results of failing to bargain hard and smart ” accumulate over time, widening a gap that is no longer measured in money alone.” This gap can result in a woman not being given the resources or authority to allow her to succeed, and in being passed over for plum assignments, where she will gain visibility and recognition. The effects of acquiescing, rather than holding your opposition’s feet to the fire, can snowball, not only becoming increasingly negative, as time goes by, but sending your career on a downward trajectory as well.

“Try Babcock’s five negotiating tips when navigating your bright future.

Brush Up – The more you know, the more confident you’ll be making your case.
Strategize
Before knocking on your boss’s door, map out a plan. First, pinpoint your target (flextime, a raise, extra vacation?) “Next, decide how much more than your target you’ll ask for,” says Babcock. “You’ve got to aim higher than your real goal!
Script It, Rehearse It
Be Cooperative Not Competitive
Keep your frame of mind in check. Stay calm, courteous and professional. If your initial proposal is met with resistance, ask, “Can you help me understand why it won’t work?”
“NO” Is Not the Enemy
Getting comfortable hearing ‘No’ is an integral step to acing negotiations. If you’re aiming high and asking for more than your target, ‘No’ doesn’t end the conversation. It’s just the next step of negotiation, a back-and-forth process. “If you hear ‘Yes’ every time you ask for something, you’re not asking for enough.”

Negotiating well is really a matter of learning some basic techniques, bringing to bear all your observations and insights about the other parties, speaking up for yourself, and practicing every day, in every negotiation, no matter how small. You need to do thi, you will soon feel comfortable doing this and your future success depends on it

Five Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned As An Entrepreneur – Guy Kawasaki

Popular entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and blogger, Guy Kawasaki understands business. Guy is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, and author of eight books on innovative business. He’s a guy who should know what he’s talking about. Here he expounds on the following principles:

Focus on cash flow.
Make a little progress every day
Try stuff.
Ignore schmexperts
Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do. ( And he’s funny too… listen to this advice:) This goes for customers (“fill out these twenty-five fields of personal information to get an account for our website”) to employees (“fly coach to Mumbai, meet all day the day you arrive, and fly back that night”). If you follow this principle, you’ll almost always have a good customer service reputation and happy employees.

But the most important of these, AdvancingWomen believes, particularly for start ups, is

“Focus on cash flow. …cash is what keeps the doors open and pays the bills. Paper profits on an accrual accounting basis is of no more than secondary or tertiary importance for a startup. As my mother used to say, “Sales fixes everything.”

How to Become a Super Star at Work – 50 Great Ways to Be Impressive

How to Become a Super Star at Work – 50 Great Ways to Be Impressive.

A great piece on how to go the extra mile at work… some of the advice:

Have a solutions attitude
Practice public speaking
Learn the nuts and bolts of your company
Have an attitude of learning
Network, network, network
Be a leader
Deal with conflict
Add value
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Delegate
Keep cool in a crisis

Top Ten Strengths of Workplace Re-Entry Women

Top Ten Strengths of Workplace Re-Entry Women.

“Women returning to the workforce often sell themselves short, partly because of society’s view that if you’re not in the paid workforce you are “doing nothing”.

The other part of this equation is because after a few years of dealing mainly with children and duties around the home, many women find own self esteem and self confidence is low as to what they have to offer in the world of work.

But as any savvy employer knows, a woman returning to the workplace brings with her extremely valuable skills and qualities:

1.Multi-tasking

2. Problem Solver, Handling Emergencies, Troubleshooting

3. Manager, Initiative, Self Directed

4. Organized, Inventory Control

5. Creative, Innovative, Lifelong Learner

6. Money Management, Budgeting

7. Reliability , Stable, Sense Of Responsibility

8. Event Organization

9. Mediator, Interpersonal Skills

10. Coach, Mentor, Teacher”

Many women who’ve achieved executive positions on business or public office have declared their best training came from the demands of motherhood.

Manage Your Emotions To Succeed

A big part of achieving success is learning to manage your own emotions. We all have “hot buttons” which can lead us to feel anxiety, anger or even burn-out. Learning to be sensitive to our own feelings, to problem solve in order to analyze the surrounding situation and develop alternative responses, will allow us to redirect our emotions in a positive, constructive way which fosters success.

All of us face those moments when we experience anxiety on the job. Probably Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates have those moments, too. You may have heard your company lost the account you were working on, or that someone, possibly your supervisor, has questioned your performance. You feel a moment of uneasiness. The important thing is to zero in on precisely what it is that’s making you uncomfortable and turn it into an opportunity to learn and do better. If you lost an account, find out why. Maybe it was a reason entirely outside your control, like the company was washed away in a flood and doesn’t exist anymore, or the president’s wife wanted to take over the account herself. If your supervisor questions your performance, try to turn him into a mentor who will personally help you do better, in a systematic program of coaching and feedback.

When something does not go as you expected, and you begin to feel anxious, it helps to understand, that is part of the package. The most seasoned professional in the world still feels anxious, at times, just like the most seasoned opera singer or matinee idol still feels stage fright; the trick is to keep it under control. You have to decide to take each day as it comes, do your planning, tend to your own job, be obsessive about details, produce the best quality product or service you can, and success will come.

One of the techniques which may help keep you on an even keel in your work is to develop a systems approach to your job. Set priorities and do first things first. Use check lists. Try to put more structure in your job so you’re not constantly drained by making hundreds of small decisions. Save yourself for the big moment, the huge contracts, the momentous decisions. This will allow you to devote more time and reflection to the most pivotal items, and be sure to get adequate feedback from your clients and your supervisor so you will be very clear on precisely the type and quantity of work which is expected of you.

If you start to feel anger at work, remember it is a natural manifestation of the “fight or flight” instinct, part of your survival reflex built into your DNA. Don’t get caught up in it, however. Instead, redirect your energies into problem solving. Try to understand what event or remark created this response in you, then address that in a constructive way. Learn to communicate more effectively and use self disclosure to encourage others to communicate with you. The better you understand your colleagues and their goals, the clearer your mission is, the more items which are expressed,”put on the table”, made explicit instead of implicit where they can be misunderstood or misconstrued, made manifest instead of part of a hidden agenda, the more positive and productive your workplace will be.

If you start to feel any of the symptoms of burn-out…. excessive tiredness, distraction, lack of interest, a vague sense of futility…. take immediate corrective action. It’s not uncommon for dedicated professionals to approach the precipice of burn-out. Many professionals are passionate about their mission and put in long, hard hours to accomplish it. Generally, accomplishment brings praise and rewards. Add a touch of ambition to that and you get a professional who pushes on to longer and harder hours, assuming that will bring more accomplishment, praise and reward. Often that is not the case, however. It is easy to cross an invisible line where achievement, riches and glory are on one side, declining health, frustration and defeat on the other. The fact is, after a certain point, one loses perspective and mental sharpness. Tasks take longer when you’re over-tired. You lose objectivity. Eventually, the judo principal is reversed, and leverage starts to move against you. The harder you work, the less you accomplish.
Burn-out is a definite workplace nose dive, so learn to recognize the symptoms and take the necessary preventative actions:

First, cut back on your actual hours, but increase the intensity of your focus, so those hours will be more productive.

Take a vacation, even if it’s only a long week-end or, in a crunch situation, an afternoon off. If you have trouble doing this, better start mastering the art of delegation and/ or the “work smart as well as work hard” method.

One of the best stress relievers is exercise. Schedule a walk or work-out at least once a day, even if it’s during lunch.

Plan an activity which is the opposite of your work. Go to a concert. Take your child, a neice or nephew to the zoo or to a children’s museum. Volunteer for a cause you believe in; even if you volunteer the same type of work you usually do, it will be in a different setting and will give you a fresh perspective and perhaps make you more appreciative of your own job. Try a new hobby like sailing, mountain climbing or even gourmet cooking; a challenging and consuming hobby will take your mind off your work, refresh your spirit, and call on fresh reserves of energy and drive.

Get out and meet new people, learn new things. You can do this in a professional setting by taking time from your work horse schedule to get a fresh view of what you’re doing, learn new skills and techniques and recharge your batteries. This not only alleviates boredom, it can reinvigorate you about your work, reminding you of the good you do and what your organization accomplishes.

In the end, it is you who are in charge of your emotions. And, although you can not control each and every event in your workplace, you can control your reactions and emotions and make them positive, constructive ones. This will put you in charge of your own space at work, which is about as much as anyone can ask and as much as anyone needs to succeed. �

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