So much for networking, huh

So much for networking, huh I spent some time with my uncle at a family reunion over the weekend talking about his current job transition (do you know someone that is in transition?). He was telling me about the two very exciting opportunities that he is waiting to hear back from, after having numerous interviews with both companies. I asked him how he found these opportunities (supposedly he should have found them through networking 60-80% for people like me, 95% for executives like him, right?). He said same as my last job a recruiter who I didnt know found my resume and contacted me. So much for networking, huh? Ya, so much for networking. Dave Perry did a study (it took around 2 years and involved survey input from thousands of people) to determine where jobs really come from. The results, if I remember correctly, were that the higher level positions where NOT found through networking. Interesting. I cant find the results on his website Dave where is that study?? So, with this statement, so much for networking, huh?, are we to just discard networking? Is there any value to this thing called networking? Im not ready to throw networking out the door. But I can see when people have a list of their network contacts, or a stack of business cards, and that list or stack doesnt get them the results they hear about, that they think that networking doesnt work. Networking is about relationships, which strengthen over time, and need nurturing. Putting my card in your stack and never contacting me is not nurturing anything. You may not need to talk to me now, and you may be really busy (arent we all), but you should do something so that we can have a relationship that is moving forward, and I can know who you are before you need me to know who you are. As a side note, Im preparing a post for LegalAndrew on networking he is asking for one tip for 2007. And I figured it out, at some crazy hour when I should have been sleeping I figured out what the one tip that I have is! But youll have to wait until tomorrow to see what my one tip is. Ill give you a hint its not just do it. follow-up on 1/3/06: I just got an e-mail from Dave Perry with this link to his study So much for networking, huh I spent some time with my uncle at a family reunion over the weekend talking about his current job transition (do you know someone that is in transition?). He was telling me about the two very exciting opportunities that he is waiting to hear back from, after having numerous interviews with both companies. I asked him how he found these opportunities (supposedly he should have found them through networking 60-80% for people like me, 95% for executives like him, right?). He said same as my last job a recruiter who I didnt know found my resume and contacted me. So much for networking, huh? Ya, so much for networking. Dave Perry did a study (it took around 2 years and involved survey input from thousands of people) to determine where jobs really come from. The results, if I remember correctly, were that the higher level positions where NOT found through networking. Interesting. I cant find the results on his website Dave where is that study?? So, with this statement, so much for networking, huh?, are we to just discard networking? Is there any value to this thing called networking? Im not ready to throw networking out the door. But I can see when people have a list of their network contacts, or a stack of business cards, and that list or stack doesnt get them the results they hear about, that they think that networking doesnt work. Networking is about relationships, which strengthen over time, and need nurturing. Putting my card in your stack and never contacting me is not nurturing anything. You may not need to talk to me now, and you may be really busy (arent we all), but you should do something so that we can have a relationship that is moving forward, and I can know who you are before you need me to know who you are. As a side note, Im preparing a post for LegalAndrew on networking he is asking for one tip for 2007. And I figured it out, at some crazy hour when I should have been sleeping I figured out what the one tip that I have is! But youll have to wait until tomorrow to see what my one tip is. Ill give you a hint its not just do it. follow-up on 1/3/06: I just got an e-mail from Dave Perry with this link to his study

3 Proven Strategies That Will Supercharge Your Team

3 Proven Strategies That Will Supercharge Your Team There are two ways to create a top-performing team. You can try to transfer, fire, and hire your way to a team that, on paper, looks great. Or you can be a leader. High-performance teams aren’t clobbered and pieced together; they are forged. And if you’re doing your job effectively, any human soul can be properly forged in your furnaceâ€"if you follow three proven strategies. Consider this example: Say there’s a member of your sales team who’s underperforming and threatening a project’s success. Sound familiar? This is where you make your first choice. You can judge this person on his numbers and throw him into a performance review (and an eventual frustrated exit), or you can think of him as an emotionally driven human being and talk to him. You decide to talk to him. Good choice. Strategy #1: Talk Firstâ€"and Ask Questions. When you talk to him, you ask why he’s struggling. This is important: always ask questions first. Your job is not to force success; it’s to find that something greaterâ€"that spark that lights a fireâ€"which will leverage people into pursuing success whether you ask them to or not. During your talk, you discover this employee just found out his wife is pregnant, and he’s terrified about the prospect of providing for a growing family. Here you make your second choice. Strategy #2: Provide a Path. The average HR manager might listen, nod, empathize and encourage the teammate to keep his head up because losing his job or missing a bonus will only make things harder. But kindness is not enough to give this person leverage. Being nice is not enough to unlock high performance. Instead, you look him in the eye and make him a promise. You tell him you’re going to make him a plan. This plan will include performance milestones, intense goals, and regular performance reviews. If he hits those goals, you promise him you’ll do everything possible to secure a raise and plenty of paternity leave to take care of his new child. That teammate is going to leave the office ready to run through a wall for you. Now, instead of just feeling heard, he feels empowered. You haven’t solved his problem for him. You’ve offered him a path to the life he wants for himself and the people he cares about. Strategy #3: Leverage Human Emotion. Leveraging human emotion is the most powerful thing a leader can do to forge a high-performance team. To do this, though, you need to understand that humans, at their core, are far more emotional than they are practical. It sounds counterintuitive, but your time is better spent engaging the emotions of your team than appealing to their sense of strategy or professional intuition. This ability is what makes the difference between a team that can hit a goal and a team that can pull off the impossible. If all you can leverage is your team’s minds, time, or bank accounts, their objectives at that level will always be out of your reach. It all boils down to this: you sit your team members down, you ask them who they want to be, and then you create the opportunity for them to be what they want. That’s what leveraging emotion is all about. Give people not money, time off, nor a kind shoulder to lean on. Give them purpose. Your job, despite your title, is not to manage people. It’s to discover, champion, and maintain that fire that keeps all members of a team leveraged and managing themselves. High-performance teams are made up exclusively of emotionally leveraged people who are determined to achieve the “something greater” offered to them by a high-performance leader. And that leader can be you. About the author:  Jason Caldwell  is the founder of Latitude 35, a leadership training firm that operates around the globe. He works with top organizationsâ€"including Nike, Booking.com, Columbia Business School, and the Haas School of Businessâ€"and delivers speaking programs to packed crowds at Fortune 500 companies and universities worldwide. A professional adventure racer, Caldwell currently holds over a dozen world records across five continents. His new book is  Navigating the Impossible: Build Extraordinary Teams and Shatter Expectations.

Dream Careers for Lovers of the Great Outdoors

Dream Careers for Lovers of the Great Outdoors Does the prospect of spending the rest of your life strapped behind a desk scare the life out of you? If you are a lover of adventure and the great outdoors, then why not pursue a different path? There are plenty of dream careers out there to explore. In this guide, we’re going to give you some ideas. Fitness Coach If you have an interest in health and fitness, why not get out there and become a trainer? You don’t have to constrict yourself to the gym, and there is a growing trend for outdoor fitness sessions in amazing environments. You’ll need to have a background in physiology, nutrition and some basic biology and exercise science. You should also seek out some certification in the field you want to train in. For example, if you want to teach people to become triathletes, you should take a course with the USA Triathlon Association. As people become more aware of the importance of balancing their work lives with fitness, there will be plenty of customers banging on your door. Park Ranger A keen interest in conservation and wildlife is what you need to become a park ranger. You should also be good with people, as a lot of the job will involve you sharing your knowledge with the general public. Your first step should be to get a qualification in conservation or environmental management. The higher you progress, the more opportunities for promotion you will find. You can also bolster your chances of getting a good job as a ranger by volunteering as much as possible. National parks are always looking for people to help out, and it’s a great way to show your enthusiasm while you are at college. Ski Instructor Fancy a career living in the mountains and skiing or snowboarding every day? Then commit to a ski instructor course and see how far you can go. It’s a great career move for people that love being in the great outdoors and out in the snow. And, of course, you will have the opportunity to work in some of the most stunning environments on the planet. Plus, you’ll get a lot out of helping people improve their skiing skills. One for those of you who enjoy the colder climes. Marine Biologist If you have a natural affinity for the ocean and all the life it contains, then perhaps a career as a marine biologist will suit you. Your best bet is to get to at least Master’s level in marine biology or oceanography and your job opportunities will be even greater if you get a Ph.D. There will be a lot of travel involved to some spectacular places, and you will study and see plenty of amazing underwater wildlife. Plus, of course, you’ll be able to slip in the fact you’re a marine biologist to anyone that asks. And, no doubt, even those that don’t!   Marine biology also isnt the only science field career that will get you outdoors.   Gwynedd Mercy University outlines a number of other career options for biology students, including botany, ecology and working in state parks.   Busker Finally, one for the musical folks out there. If you have an artistic gift, why not share it with the public? Although the pay can be unpredictable at times, as you progress you will begin to learn the odd trick here or there that can pull in that little bit extra. It’s a great way to see the world, too. There are no startup costs other than what you spend on an instrument. And, as long as you ensure you are licensed to busk wherever you are, you can do it almost anywhere. Image Credit

How to Choose a Dress Code for Your Office

How to Choose a Dress Code for Your Office When it comes to explaining what “appropriate work attire” really is, employers often struggle to provide their workers with a concrete definition. The concept seems easy enough to grasp until you actually have to put it into practice. Many employers want to follow current trends to attract new and diverse talent but the majority of them struggle with developing and enforcing a company dress code suited for the times. The following are a few things to consider and some tips to help you when choosing a dress code for your office. 1. The Public Eye First determine how you want to be perceived by customers and then decide the perception you want customers to have of your employees. Even when operating in an office environment, there are always employees that work face-to-face with clients and others who work in the back and rarely interact with clients in person. To create a professional environment, which appears to be all-business, requiring more professional attire is recommended. For a more relaxed environment, it makes more sense to allow jeans or casual clothes crafted to maximize comfort. 2. Happy Employees Are Productive Employees There are many studies showing that if employees are comfortable, their work output increases. If there are no safety concerns and if a relaxed dress code poses no risk of being interpretively offensive, relax your policies for the sake of your employees’  happiness. Also, keep in mind that your employee base may be financially more able to maintain a relaxed wardrobe. Workers should never be forced to wear expensive clothing if their jobs pose a high risk of getting dirty. Less expensive clothing will go a long way in keeping your employees happy, comfortable, and productive. 3. Offensive Clothing Your employee dress code policy should include something about offensive or sexually suggestive clothing. Studies show that companies that prevent certain types of revealing or offensive clothing have less cases of sexual harassment. Inevitably, no matter how professional your workers, someone is bound to wear something that distracts customers and/or co-workers. Make it known that offensive clothing that is potentially insulting to someone else is unacceptable. This simple policy can save you from headaches in the future. 4. Modern Times Recently, you’ve undoubtedly seen a gradual increase in tattoos and piercings among your employees. More and more, employers are accepting the notion that tattoos and piercings are not as offensive as once perceived. Take a look at your clientele to gauge whether this applies to your business. If your demographic is a liberal, accepting population that sports the piercings and tattoos themselves, it’s probably ok for you to relax the dress code to allow non-offensive tattoos and moderate piercings. 5. Pick Your Battles The things employees argue about in the workplace should be few and far between and fashion should never be one of them. Consider creating a fairly relaxed dress code for your office unless the success of your business is dependent upon the appearance of each and every employee. Redirect your focus on other more important areas like productivity, training, development and other ways to market and grow your business. Ask yourself how important dress code is to your business, in a market where employees can choose from employers for whom they wish to work. A relaxed dress code costs you nothing and if done right, can even be profitable. In many cases, employees even turn down job offers due to a more comfortable and relaxed work environment at their current employer. Some small business owners are under the impression that dress code policies don’t apply to them. It is impossible to lead by example if you aren’t following the same rules as employees. Once you begin to ignore aspects of the dress code policy, they will too. Use these tips to apply the appropriate dress code for your office to maintain high employee morale and increase productivity.

How to Be Aware of a Standard Resume Writing Style

How to Be Aware of a Standard Resume Writing StyleYou should be conscious of the kinds of resume writing styles that are used in different industries. You should use this information to inform your own resume writing style. Your resume writing style can help you attract and keep a good job candidate, especially if you go for a standard resume. An ordinary resume can be used in some fields.For example, if you're applying for a job as a sales manager in a company, your resume style should include enough references to show your accomplishments. You should also be willing to give your employer's your reasons why you should be hired. A standard resume is a piece of paper that contains the necessary information about your employment. You have a header, a body, and a footer that represent the beginning and the end of your resume.The standard resume is a single page that contain the address, phone number, and e-mail address of the employer and all necessary information. A resume cannot conta in more than two of these parts. Your resume is typically five pages long, although there are some exceptions that will vary according to the industry you work in.Resume writing style varies according to the industry. The resume is a document that includes the education, training, and previous work experience. It is used as a guide to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the applicant. These two elements must be included in your resume.The resume is usually short and to the point. It should have only enough information to identify the applicant's abilities and the reasons why the employer should hire him or her. On the other hand, a standard resume can contain much more information to highlight a career with more responsibilities.If you're applying for a position in a corporation, it is important to know your resume writing style. Abusiness oriented resume is ideal for people who want to work in a managerial role in a company. The major goal of the business is to establish t he credibility of the company. Therefore, they want to show that their personnel are adept at achieving their goals.A corporate resume is specifically made to show your achievements in a managerial position. The resume emphasizes your years of experience and the value of your experience. Most people, however, usually use this resume style when they want to apply for jobs that involve specialized positions such as the finance or sales positions.The resume writing style that will get you hired depends on how you present yourself. The person who writes the resume must demonstrate that he or she has a great deal of knowledge about the job you're applying for. In the following paragraphs, we'll see how this is done.

Why Companies Want to Hire Entrepreneurs

Why Companies Want to Hire Entrepreneurs Im sharing a guest blog from a fellow entrepreneur. Coach Wolfgang Many companies list entrepreneurial-minded as one of their desired qualifications on job descriptions. But what does that mean? What is the company hoping for in those candidates? Common answers may be creative or innovative in creating new business models. You might also think it means efficient or lean in terms of processes and operations. What does entrepreneurial-minded mean? I used to think it was creativity, that is, being an entrepreneur requires you to be so much more creative than your current job. I still think that is right but, from my perspective, I see a different primary value that entrepreneurial-minded people bring to established companies: entrepreneurs have a mindset to maximize the scarce resources of time, money and man-power. First of all, you should know my situation maybe you can relate. Im a marketer by profession and work for a good-sized technology company. I also have a small business on the side. I dont run the daily operations of the small business but I handle all the marketing, part-time. Usually, I work at night and on the weekends on my small business and correspond via email with my team. My situation doesnt give me the full burden of being an entrepreneur but it helps me realize the differences compared to working for an established company. Differences between start-ups and established companies Things take a lot longer to execute when you are an entrepreneur working for a bootstrapped start up you dont have the cash to outsource much, you have dozens of other things that require your time, and you dont have employees to throw at projects. Without much cash, it comes down to utilizing your time. You have to really focus on doing the most important things because you only have a few hours each day. In a corporate job, you have the time but you spend it on things that dont directly move the needle and sometimes dont seem to add much value. Heres the most frustrating part of working for a big company: at the end of the day you and your team have spent far more man-hours to produce something that you, as an entrepreneur, produced in a fraction of the time. The reason is straight-forward: constrained resources forces entrepreneurs to focus, be very efficient and make sure their work produces results. You quickly lose that mindset when you start working for an established company. Example of the differences Lets take an example. When I run a paid media campaign for my own business, I get approval from two other people on the ad copy, I setup my own tests, I know which leads came in each day and I know what each lead is costing me. Im trying different copy and looking at the stats to see how my test performed. At the end of the day, we did okay, not great, but we tried and learned something new. At my day job, we need an agency to figure out the ad copy and another agency to run the ads. We have to wait two weeks to get the first report and then it takes us another two weeks to consider other ideas to test. Then it takes another week to find reports to show us if these leads are creating opportunities. During that time, my team has kicked off a number of other initiatives that both distract us from determining the success of our ad campaign and keep us from moving the needle much on any of the initiatives we started since the ad campaign. What entrepreneurs bring to established companies I will admit that Im leaving out the advantages that the established company has over the start-up. Instead, Im discussing the ways the entrepreneurs mindset could positively impact an established company. You probably see it. Entrepreneurial-minded employees can identify areas of inefficiency and unnecessary activities. Entrepreneurs push for much faster turnaround times and want to process information in real-time as much as possible. Most importantly, entrepreneurial-minded employees are focused on the bottom line they make decisions with ROI on their mind and take action when the results arent up to snuff. These are the improvements I try to bring to the company I work for. Why dont YOU give it a try? Then you can have a compelling story in a job interview when asked if you are entrepreneurial-minded!

In the media - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

In the media - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog My main project (happiness at work) has come to the attention of the media. Its actually a little too soon for my taste, Id have liked to have more results before we go public but hey, its nice that people are interested. Yesterday we were mentioned in Denmarks largest newspaper, in an article about how best to start work after a vacation. This is what I wrote about in an earlier post. And today I was live on national TV (on Good morning Denmark), being interviewed by Michael Meyerheim. Ill try to convert it to a digital format and post it on the site. The whole process was interesting to try. I talked to one of their journalists yesterday morning, and apparantely what I said met with approval, because they invited me to do the interview today. I arrived at seven in the morning in their studio which is set in the middle of Copenhagens central train station. I had a chance to sit and get really nervous for a while, then I was fitted with a wireless mike and sent to the makeup lady. Shortly after that the interviewer came, and we talked a little about the questions he was going to ask. And then it was straight into it. Ive seen the interview, and I think it went well. I come across as happy, intense and fast-talking, but thats hardly anything new thats what Im always like. Being interviewed was actually quite a kick. You need to be quite focused, and you need to be fully present in essence were talking about a 100% genuine flow experience. Now, 2 hours later Im still riding the high from it. Im not sure Ill be able to calm down enough to do any real work today. But its worth it. And Ive already gotten two mails from people who saw the interview and are interested in the project. Yeah! 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