Entries by First Sun Team

Your #Career : Talkaholics Sink Partnerships, Presentations—and Careers…Long-Winded Executives Think they’re Personable, But Loquaciousness can Turn Off Colleagues & Potential Clients.

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She yammered on and on—and then talked some more.  The very chatty woman was interviewing this fall to become a vice president of water utility Aqua America Inc. But during her corner office session with Chief Executive Christopher Franklin, she spent 25 minutes answering his initial question. Her next reply lasted another 25 minutes. “I felt like I was […]

#Leadership : Got a #ProblemEmployee ? Being a Fix-It Boss Doesn’t Help Things… #Leaders Fixated on Assisting #WeakPerformers May Hurt Everyone—Themselves Included.

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Most bosses know they can succeed by making their lieutenants look good. But some well-meaning executives work too hard to fix weak staffers, putting themselves in a messy career fix. Overly focused on assisting underperformers—even taking over subordinates’ toughest tasks at times—these fixers tend to lose demoralized stars. Rescuers also risk being viewed as poor […]

#Leadership : 12 Ways to Automate #YourBusiness & Boost Efficiency…With the Right Systems, You can Maximize #Efficiency & #Profits.

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Too often, repetition, waste, and unnecessary bureaucracy slow down business. Members of The Oracles share their systems to streamline your business to run like a Swiss watch. Patrick Byrne Image credit: The Oracles 1. Implement AI and machine learning. It’s now possible to convert your business metrics into data points and then turn those data points over […]

#Leadership : Hiring Remote Workers Made My Entire #Team More Productive…One CEO Explains How Surprised he was to Find the #RemoteTeams he Hired Reshaping his Company’s In-Office #WorkCulture for the Better.

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“Want to get lunch?”  This is a phrase you’ll rarely hear at our office. It’s not that we don’t eat or spend time together, but it’s physically impossible for our entire team to be in the same place at the same time. Sixty percent of our team works remotely, so for us, grabbing lunch is, “let’s […]

Your #Career : Bigger Companies Once Meant Much Bigger #Pay , No More…For Decades, even Lower-Paid Workers could Boost their #Pay by Moving to a Bigger Employer. No Longer.

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The significant pay premium that Americans used to receive for working at large companies has shrunk rapidly in recent decades, especially for lower-wage workers, a new study finds. For the last century, economists have noted that similar workers tend to earn significantly more at large firms than at small ones—a premium that worked out to […]

#Leadership : How To Lead A Productive #PerformanceReview …How Can you Make the Performance Review something of Value for You & your Employee?

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Employees dread the performance review. They look to this yearly evaluation with angst, annoyance and anger. It’s a measure of their whole year bottled into a one- to two-hour meeting that will determine their promotion, raise, etc. They often don’t even leave with feedback on how to grow; it’s mostly a waste of time. Leaders […]

Your #Career : This Is How To Conquer Even The Most Hardcore #Networking Anxiety…Having #SocialAnxiety isn’t the Same as just Being a Natural #Introvert, which Means there are Steps you can Take to Mitigate It.

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As an anxious person, there are few things I dread more than large, unstructured networking events. Hell is nothing if not balancing a plate of hors d’oeuvres while desperately scanning the room for a kindly looking duo or trio who might welcome me into their conversation. Despite fearing these situations, I know they’re an important […]

#Leadership : How To #Communicate With People Who Disagree With You…Research Suggests Oral(Ouch!), Not Written, Communication Works Best.

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We’ve all been there: those times you need to argue your point of view to someone who you know disagrees with you. You immediately go to your keyboard and start to type out that 280-character tweet, the Facebook reply, or a paragraphs-long email. Surely the reason, logic, and sheer power of your written words will […]

Your #Career : The Best Way to Answer “Why are You Leaving your Job?” Without Making your #Interviewer Worry… There are Many Reasons Why you Might have Left your Last Job, and Not All of Them are Rosy.

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Answering the interview question “Why are you leaving your job?” can be difficult.  You want to show your motivations, but also not worry the interviewer.  Emphasize results, be polite, and don’t dwell on your current/previous employer. Focus on you. There are many reasons why you might have left your last job, and not all of […]