Entries by First Sun Team

Your #Career : 3 Ways to Deal With Job Search Anxiety…This Anxiety can Spill Over into the Interview Process & Cause you to Come Across as a Nervous Wreck who Doesn’t have the Right Skills for the Job.

Searching for a new job can be an anxiety-provoking activity. This is especially true if you were suddenly laid off or fired. You likely feel pressure to find a job quickly so you can pay your bills and sustain your current level of living.  However, this anxiety can spill over into the interview process and […]

Your #Career : How To Wow A Job Interviewer When Changing Careers…The Trick is to Convince an Employer that your “Old” Skills/Experiences Can be Just as or even More Valuable in a New Industry or Role.

According to a new AARP survey, four out of 10 experienced workers will be looking for a job this year, and of those, a quarter are considering a complete career change. If you’re one of those eager to change careers in 2016, what can you do to improve your odds of success? The trick is to […]

#Leadership : 5 Signs of Work Stress That You Should Never Ignore…Simply Recognizing That you’re Stressed & Taking Steps to Change your Work Environment or How you Respond to It can Be very Helpful

Everyone has the occasional stressful day at the office. But for some, work-related stress is a chronic problem. Sixty-five percent of Americans named work as their top source of stress, the American Psychological Association(APA) found. Eighty percent of people surveyed by Monster said they experienced the Sunday night blues, and 76% of those characterized those […]

#Leadership : Why Failure Makes You a Better Leader…Failure is Never a Positive Feeling. Nevertheless, Constantly trying to Avoid Failure is Just as Bad Because it Means you are Unlikely to Take the Risks Necessary to Achieve Success.

In 2016, embrace failure. It could be the point where your company makes a change for the better. How will you learn from your failures during this coming year? Failure is never a positive feeling. Nevertheless, constantly trying to avoid failure is just as bad because it means you are unlikely to take the risks necessary […]

#Leadership : The Surprising Ways Employee Benefits Will Change in 2016…Smart Companies are Helping their Employees Worry a Little Less about Life Transitions & the Exorbitant Cost of Education.

When it comes to employee benefits, it’s easy to feel like nothing changes. The calendar flips to January, and you often just retain the same benefits you did the year before. You wind up feeling grateful as long as the costs don’t rise. But in a few important ways, the benefits you’ve come to laconically […]

You #Career : Four Job Search Mistakes College Students Should Stop Making Immediately…The Pressure to Nail Down a Summer Gig starts Early in the Spring Semester. The Best Opportunities often Appear during the Doldrums of Winter & Vanish Quickly.

If you’re a college student,  For seniors, this final semester brings a blend of relief, nostalgia and, I can imagine, creeping anxiety about how to pay back those tens of thousands in student loans. As someone still young enough to remember my college days and the anxiety-filled post-graduation job hunt, but advanced enough that I’m now […]

#Strategy : Former FBI Hostage-Negotiation Trainer Shares 6 Tricks for Getting People to Do What you Want…When you’re Trying to Persuade People, more Often than Not they Feel you’re Being Pushy. When you Focus on Influencing Them, They’re much Less Defensive & Open to Hearing What you Have to Say.

Mark Goulston spent two years role-playing for a living. He’d pretend to be a suicidal policeman, holding a gun to his neck, threatening to take his own life.  His job was to challenge his audience — a room full of FBI agents and police officers — to talk him out of it. “In the end, I always […]

#Leadership : 9 Important Things Leaders Do to Create Amazing Teams…Loved Leaders are Often the Best Whole Brain Thinkers on the Planet. They Combine a Mysterious Mix of Logic & Emotion to Get the Job Done & Learning From them Can Up your Game Too.

When you see someone who knows how to grab a group and make it a team, stop and pay attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sports team, work team or even an elementary school spelling bee team. Look for the characteristics that make that leader stand out. Listen for the words they use to […]

#Leadership : 15 Surprising Things Productive People Do Differently…Interview of over 200 Ultra-Productive People & Simply asked an Open-Question: “What is your Number One Secret to Productivity?”

I recently interviewed over 200 ultra-productive people including 7 billionaires, 13 Olympians, 20 straight-A students and over 200 successful entrepreneurs. I asked a simple, open-ended question, “What is your number one secret to productivity?” After analyzing all of their responses, I coded their answers into 15 unique ideas. SECRET #1: They focus on minutes, not […]

#Leadership : How to Transform Habitual Negativity at Work…Here are some Simple Strategies to Transform Negativity at Work, Which can Slow Down Productivity & Sabotage Results.

I wish I had a penny for every leader or manager I worked with who accepted some form of negativity at work, simply because it had become familiar. Like a persistent background noise, often negativity is tolerated until the impact becomes too hard to ignore. This might be when someone complains, or results are massively affected, or […]