Popular Posts – Page 2

Happiness and Joy: Steps for Finding Happiness Now

Don’t Wait for Success to Find Happiness.

Happiness and Joy don’t happen in the past or the future. Everything can only exist here and now. Becoming happy and finding joy today gives us energy and brings joy to our lives.

The past and the future are just thoughts. They are only as real as we make them. www.jaywren.com

Thinking about the past opens the door to regret and guilt. Thinking about the future opens the door to the fear of losing something or failing to get something.

When we are living inside our heads, the world moves along without us.

While many people spend time thinking about the future, other people are living in the present moment to build success and security. They are allowing themselves to know joy and happiness. They live fuller lives. Their minds are free and energized with focus.

Most people have found satisfaction in achieving a goal. There is peace of mind in having financial security.

But happiness must happen as we go along in life. Being happy gives us the energy to achieve our goals and create security.

Be Open Joy and Happiness

If we say that I will be happy when I get that job or that car or that other person in our life, we are cheating ourselves but putting conditions on our happiness. What happens to our lives when we find that we have plenty of money for our security but live in fear of losing that money? How happy are we when we have plenty of security, but are jealous of people who have more prosperity than we have? The fact is that we are not happy.

The first step in achieving joy and happiness is to get out of our head and into our world. Thinking about the past or the future creates risks to our happiness. Resenting people for their success takes our mind off the things we need to do to ensure our own success.

Take Action for Joy and Happiness

Here are things I do to find joy and happiness in the present moment.

Gratitude: I simply make a short list of things for which I am grateful.

Perspective: Why fret over things that we can’t control? I can’t control the weather, media, behavior of other people, and fluctuations of the stock market. However, I don’t have to think about those things.

We don’t have to wait for success to be happy. We just take action to create a healthier mind.

Respect: How to Get It and How to Give It

Respect: How do people gain respect and set the tone to create a winning workplace? Here are four steps I have seen that separate workplace winners from the crowd.

Showing respect is more than doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It about laying the groundwork for a winning workplace. ~ www.jaywren.com

Respond Intelligently to Criticism

When someone criticizes me, I can easily criticize him or her for things that they have done. This type of response does not lead to solutions.

The best thing I can do is to listen to the person. I can create space and time until I can understand what the person is saying.

The person may have information I need to do a better job. Even if the person has suggestions that will not help me, I can listen and avoid tension. I can focus on the situation at hand.

Let Other People Have Their Say

I have two ears and one mouth. I need to learn from other people. If I am talking all the time, I will never learn anything from anyone.

Most people talk, because they feel the pressure to say something. Allowing people to have their say allows them to decompress.

If a person has gone off the subject, I can direct them back to the point of the discussion.

Moreover, Pay Attention to What People Are Saying

When my mind is elsewhere during a conversation, people will notice that I am not paying attention. I need to wake up and pay attention. People respect me for the attention I give as much the attention I get.

Show concern for people who are struggling

I once became impatient with a secretary who was hesitant about helping me schedule a flight. When I pressed her on the matter, she confessed that she had never scheduled a flight. She had never been on an airplane. The fact was awkward for her. She was so bright and capable in so many ways. I apologized for my impatience. I explained the simple process to her. She booked the flights. A little bit of patience from me helped us both move on to the important things we needed to do that day.

Workplace Winners

In Conclusion, respect creates workplace winners who create a winning workplace. Don’t focus on what is wrong in other people. Rather, show respect them respect and teach them to respect and learn from each other.

Quit Struggling to Get Jobs Below Your Qualifications

Qualifications: Quit Struggling to Get Jobs Below Your Qualifications. Are you frustrated, because hiring companies will not see you for jobs you can do easily? Are you overqualified for these jobs. There risks to you and the employer in hiring people who are overqualified.

Risks to Employers

Speaking as a recruiter, I can tell you that my clients focus on specific skills. These clients want to hire qualified candidates. However, they avoid overqualified applicants.

Why? Overqualified people are a risk of leaving as soon as they find a job at their skill level. Vacancies are a burden. They damage morale and productivity. Filling vacancies takes time away from other company efforts. Furthermore, staffing fees are costly, especially when searching for highly qualified candidates.

The Risks to You for Interviewing Job Below You Qualifications

Taking a job below your qualifications damages your career. You risk creating a picture of yourself as backslider. You raise questions about your ability to continue to grow. Furthermore, you may raise questions about what happened to push you back in your career.

How to Get Great Interviews with Companies Who Need Your Experience

Case Study:

Bob (not the real name): “How I should format my resume for the greatest success?”

Me: “As a person with advanced degrees and advanced qualifications, you should consider two formats for you resume: A Curriculum Vitae (CV) format or a resume format. Here are two articles that may help.

Bob: ”How should I list my skills in a resume?”

Me: “Be specific. For example, I once had a search for a company that sold perishable products (products types are different from this example). I had a resume for a general manager who was perfect for the job. His resume showed that he had canned goods experience. However, his resume did not show is that he also had the required perishable foods experience at the same company.

After I filled the job, I learned that he was qualified for the job.

Bob: “How do I select companies?”

Me: “My recommendation is that you target specific jobs, not just every job opening. Identify roles that match your skills and get to know people who work at places that hire people for those roles.

Use your current close professional and personal network more frequently than you use a broad network of people on LinkedIn.

When introducing yourself via a referral, first ask for permission to use the person as a reference.

Where you have friends, who want to help you, ask them to forward your resume to a professional at a place where you want to work. Additionally, ask them to copy you on the resume. Then you follow up directly with the new contact.”

Great Leaders: 7 Steps to Creating Greatness in Others

Great Leaders: Some leaders are not only great themselves, but also inspire others to become great. What do they do differently?

Great leaders do more than achieve success. They create greatness in others. ~ www.jaywren.com

Great Leaders: 7 Steps to Creating Greatness in Others

Some leaders have command presence. Colin Powell is an example of a person whose outward behavior or bearing commanded respect. Other leaders have charisma. President John Kennedy had the magnetic ability to draw attention by merely entering a room. Then there are leaders like Winston Churchill who can shape the language to persuade and inspire nations.

These leaders in their own ways achieved personal and professional greatness. But what are the traits that of leaders who inspire greatness in others?

1. Give Credit

Leaders who have the humility to give credit gain support from their people. They allow others to take the center stage.
They step back from the urge to say, “I did this.” They step up to say when the team or a member of the team created success.

Furthermore, they encourage positive behavior with positive reinforcement. Inspirational leaders are not afraid to say, “You did an excellent job.”

Giving credit increases bonds and reduces turnover.

2. Use Criticism to Train

It is easy to criticize people. However. great leaders do more than find fault. They give solutions. Furthermore, they train their people the correct way to do things in the future.

3. Build the Skills and Knowledge of the Team.

It takes time and patience to train team members. Leaders who invest this time to show team members new and better ways of doing things increase the success of the individual members of the team and increase the success of the entire team.

4. Delegate Authority as Well as Responsibility.

As soon as he was given the proper support and appropriate work for his strengths, he grew less apathetic and at least gave a good day’s effort. Teaching people their responsibilities is one thing. Giving people the authority to make decisions on their responsibilities is another. Great leaders delegate authority as well as responsibility.

Delegating authority empowers people to make the team more powerful. Furthermore, it engages the team to be more effective.

Lastly, it creates ownership and builds the self-esteem of team members.

5. Focus on the Big Picture

Great leaders don’t let small frustrations to become major distractions. They adjust. At times of distraction, that refocus themselves and the team on the goal. However, they don’t let these frustrations waste their time.

6. Practice Integrity and Honesty

Successful leaders keep commitments. Their people can trust them in every area. They make meetings on time. They deliver on promotions and pay raises.

Their people can trust them to manage confidential discussions discretely and to tell them. On the other hand, great leaders are transparent to ensure integrity.

Through integrity and honesty, great leaders inspire commitment from the people they lead.

7. Avoid Leadership Resentment

For leaders to develop respect from their people, leaders can’t tell their people to be frugal while the leaders are extravagant. Successful leaders can’t press their people to work hard when the leaders themselves are out the door early for personal activities.

Telling people to act one way while the leader abuses authority to act another, creates resentment towards leadership and towards the leaders themselves. Great leaders avoid leadership resentment through their own example.

How to Use Your Emotions to Make Better Decisions

Emotions: How do some people keep a clear mind to make intelligent decisions? Is managing emotions a skill anyone can learn?

There are no bad emotions. There are only bad uses of emotions. ~ www.jaywren.com

Emotions Have Positive Purposes

All feelings help us interpret our world and make decisions. Even anger, doubt, and fear have positive benefits. Anger can help us protect ourselves and the people we love. Doubt helps us avoid doing things before we prepare. Fear can save our lives by avoiding danger.

Additionally, feeling positive is healthy. When we feel good, we enjoy life more. Positive feelings reduce mental stress. Consequently, positive states of mind reduce the unhealthy physical stress that comes from mental stress.

Used correctly, our feelings can give us greater opportunity for success.

Too Low and Too High

When we overreact out of anger or fear, we risk damaging relationships and even our safety. Additionally, when we let doubt drive us to inaction, we do not take risks that are part of growing personally and professionally.

Can we have emotions that are too high? Absolutely. When we are emotionally highs, we see a world of abundance. And that’s fine up to the point. However, these highs can lead us to spend money and make commitments beyond our means or best interests.

Think Through the Action

The solution to making intelligent decisions in the face of highly charged negative or positive emotions is to think through the action. I can ask myself, “What are the consequences of acting on my emotions.”
Personal Case Study #1: I am angry with my boss and with other people around the office. When I vent my anger, am I damaging my relationships and putting my job at risk?

Thinking through my actions to the damage that my actions might cause can reduce the anger that I feel.

Furthermore, I can focus on what changes I can make in myself to reduce the anger I feel toward the people in my office. I can get more rest, eat healthy snacks, and reduce caffeine.

Personal Case Study #2: I am jubilant about a pay raise and decide to buy a new car.

Before I buy the car, I can think through the costs and whether my pay raise makes the car affordable. Making an expensive purchase is never in my best interest.

Conclusion

All feelings are healthy. However, sometimes I must do a few things to make my emotions work for me and not against me.

Interview Tips: How Do You Get from a Handshake to a Job Offer?

Interview tips: Do you have a job interview coming up and are not sure how to prepare? Even worse, are you getting interviews but no job offers? These tips will help you get a job offer.

Interview Tips: How Do You Get from a Handshake to a Job Offer?

Use these 5 interview tips to cross the maze to getting a job offer. Hiring managers want to hire you when they invite you to an interview. Make their job easy.

Say That You Want the Job.

This tip for getting a job offer sounds obvious. However, I have had countless applicants fail to get a job offer, because they left the interview with the hiring manager uncertain about whether the applicants had an interest in the job.

You are not the only applicant in the interview process. If three equally qualified applicants compete for a job and only one is expressing an interest in getting the job, the hiring managers have an easy decision. They will offer the job to the person who wants the job.

Simply say that they you want the job and why you want it.

Use Facts of Your Accomplishments.

Don’t use a list of adjective about yourself. Avoid describing yourself as outstanding, motivated, organized, etc. These words have no value.

Use the facts of your success.

For example, you doubled the business. At the same time, you reduced costs twenty-five percent. You hired six people who got promoted.

These facts show the hiring managers you can do a great job at their company.

Show How Your Skills Match the Job Description.

Before you go to the interview, study the job description. List your skills with each qualification the hiring company requires.

Prepare a presentation either on paper or on your laptop to show hiring managers how your skills match what their company is looking for in the person they are hiring.

Ask Questions.

Don’t make the interview about you. Have the good manners to ask hiring managers about themselves and their career.

Certainly, ask questions about the company.

Say some good things about the hiring manager’s comments and about the company. Humility is a valuable trait for getting a job offer. Hiring managers want to hire people who fit in with other people as well as people they like. Show the humility to show an interest in the hiring manager and the company.

Avoid Jargon.

Every company has its jargon. The people in the company fall into using these words as part of the workday.

If you are transitioning from the military or interviewing for a job that is in a different industry, be especially careful about avoiding jargon that will confuse the interviewer.

Did You Pass or Fail that Interview?

The One Thing You Should Know to Get a Job Offer

Job offers are the midway point in a job change. ~ www.jaywren.com

Job offer: There are many things that you need to know to get a job offer. However, the answer to this one question is critical.

The One Thing You Should Know to Get a Job Offer

There are many interview questions that challenge your ability to think on the spot. There are many things that you just can’t know.

Often, you don’t know anything about the other candidates, the salary, or the interviewer.

Therefore, you need to prepare by being able to answer one simple question.

Why Should We Hire You?

The things that you do know are the facts of your qualifications: that is, the things that make you the person the company wants to hire.

Furthermore, you not only want to show that you have the experience and education for the job. You want to show that you have a record of accomplishment in the job for which you are applying.

Here’s How You Make It Work.

Before you go to an interview, rehearse a short pitch on how your experience shows that you have successfully performed the same job. Some people call this short pitch, “The Elevator Pitch.”

Say that they should hire the most qualified person for the job.
Summarize the objective of the job.
State a list of successful things you have done to achieve and exceed this type of objective.
State that the reason that you are interviewing for the job is that you enjoy performing the type of tasks the job requires.
Close by saying that whomever the company hires, the person will be lucky to get the job.
Say that you hope that the company hires you.

In conclusion, prepare for the question “Why should we hire you?“

This type of question challenges you to think about your qualifications. In your preparation, you can practice giving answers that show that you are an outstanding applicant for the job. Answering the question with a positive, enthusiastic statement about how much you want the job will help seal your opportunity in getting a job offer.

https://www.jaywren.com/category/job-offers/

When Leaving a Company: How to Say Goodbye Gracefully

Leave them with a smile.

A former employer is a future reference. ~ www.jaywren.com

When Leaving a Company, knowing how to say goodbye gracefully is important. What are the do’s and don’ts of an exit interview?

When Leaving a Company, there are things to do and things not to do.

Using these techniques will reduce the stress for you and avoid burning bridges with the company you are leaving. First, here are some things to do when you leaving a company.

Do prepare for the things to do in an exit interview.

Despite what some headhunters will tell when they are preparing you to leave your current company, there are benefits to attending and even excelling in the way you handle your exit interview.

Before resigning, weigh the pros and cons of leaving your current company.

Once you are committed to leaving, give the company two weeks’ notice. Two weeks’ notice is common courtesy. You owe your company no more.

Also, before you resign, remove your personal property from your workplace and download or delete your personal files from the company computers. You do not want to run into your company holding your property until someone gets around to doing an inventory of what belongs to you and what belong to your employer.

Do prepare to return company property.

When you go into an exit interview, bring the company property to the interview: e.g., keys to a company car, company laptop, mobile phone, etc. Since you have already recovered all your property, put the burden on your employer to give you an inventory of any other property they believe that you need to return. You may not have to offer to turn over the property during the exit interview. However, having it on hand will make things simpler if your company decides to walk you out the door.

Do prepare for questions that you have about compensation and benefits you receive when leaving.

Prepare for to discuss compensation due you upon leaving the company: unpaid vacation time, unpaid bonuses, and unpaid salary. Your company should explain to you what money you have coming and when they will pay you.

Know the questions you need answering in transitioning or continuing your health benefits after you leave the company.

As you will discover from the DOL website, your employer owes you information on the way that your benefits extend beyond your employment.

Using these techniques will reduce the stress for you and avoid burning bridges with the company you are leaving. First, here are some things to do when you leaving a company.

Do be positive but firm in your resignation.

Politely explain that it is time for you to move on. Thank your employers for the support they have given you. Ask for your employer’s’ direction about how you can transition your material and responsibilities smoothly and promptly.

When Leaving a Company, avoid some things.

There are things not to do in an exit interview to make sure that you leave on good terms. Somewhere down the road, you may find that the company you are leaving will help you with a strong reference in seeking another job. Avoiding these things will make you exit go more smoothly.

Don’t discuss counter offers.

One of the purposes of an exit interview is to prevent losing employees who are critical to the company at the time. I emphasize “at the time,” because people known for disloyalty have a mark against them in future evaluations and layoffs. Counter offers can drag out the length of the exit interview, perhaps into days. Counter offers just increase the stress in your exit interview. As I have written elsewhere, they are offers that are too good to accept.

Don’t make the exit interview a gripe session.

If you are unhappy with the people or practices of the company you are leaving, an exit interview is not the time to express them. The time to express your concerns is before you start looking for another job and you can still make a difference at your current employer.

Don’t discuss your new job.

Don’t say where you are going to work or how much money your new employer is paying. Avoid giving any details about the function of the new job or your capacity in the new job. The information about your new job is confidential information between you and your new employer.

Don’t be rude or disrespectful.

Whether you are going through an exit interview with your supervisor or an HR person does not matter. Remember that the person who is conducting the interview is simply doing a job. They are not your whipping child. They are human beings you may or may not like. However, being rude or disrespectful will not help you garner respect from people who may read or hear about the interviewer’s experience with you.

As I said in the first paragraph, somewhere down the road, you may need the people involved in your exit interview to help you find your next job.

Don’t Wait for Success to Find Happiness.

Be Open Joy and Happiness

Take Action for Joy and Happiness

Respond Intelligently to Criticism

Let Other People Have Their Say

Moreover, Pay Attention to What People Are Saying

Show concern for people who are struggling

Workplace Winners

Risks to Employers

The Risks to You for Interviewing Job Below You Qualifications

How to Get Great Interviews with Companies Who Need Your Experience

Great Leaders: 7 Steps to Creating Greatness in Others

1. Give Credit

2. Use Criticism to Train

3. Build the Skills and Knowledge of the Team.

4. Delegate Authority as Well as Responsibility.

5. Focus on the Big Picture

6. Practice Integrity and Honesty

7. Avoid Leadership Resentment

Emotions Have Positive Purposes

Too Low and Too High

Think Through the Action

Conclusion

Interview Tips: How Do You Get from a Handshake to a Job Offer?

Say That You Want the Job.

Use Facts of Your Accomplishments.

Show How Your Skills Match the Job Description.

Ask Questions.

Avoid Jargon.

The One Thing You Should Know to Get a Job Offer

Why Should We Hire You?

Here’s How You Make It Work.

When Leaving a Company, there are things to do and things not to do.

Do prepare for the things to do in an exit interview.

Do prepare to return company property.

Do prepare for questions that you have about compensation and benefits you receive when leaving.

Do be positive but firm in your resignation.

When Leaving a Company, avoid some things.

Don’t discuss counter offers.

Don’t make the exit interview a gripe session.

Don’t discuss your new job.

Don’t be rude or disrespectful.

How to Use This Map