#Leadership : 7 Mistakes Leaders Make That Make Everyone Miserable…“Look for 3 Things in a Person: Intelligence, Energy, & Integrity. If they Don’t Have the Last One, Don’t even Bother.” –Warren Buffet

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From Enron to Volkswagen, we’ve watched in horror as leaders who lack integrity have destroyed businesses time and again. But the real tragedy happens when regular leaders, who are otherwise great, sabotage themselves, day after day, with mistakes that they can’t see but are obvious to everyone else.

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In most cases, it’s slight and often unintentional gaps in integrity that hold leaders, their employees, and their companies back. Despite their potential, these leaders harm their employees and themselves.

“Look for three things in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother.” –Warren Buffet

Dr. Fred Kiel did the difficult job of quantifying the value of a leader’s integrity for his book, Return On Character, and his findings are fascinating. Over a seven-year period, Kiel collected data on 84 CEOs and compared employee ratings of their behavior to company performance.

Kiel found that high-integrity CEOs had a multi-year return of 9.4%, while low integrity CEOs had a yield of just 1.9%. What’s more, employee engagement was 26% higher in organizations led by high-integrity CEOs.

Kiel describes high-integrity CEOs this way: “They were often humble. They appeared to have very little concern for their career success or their compensation. The funny point about that is they all did better than the self-focused CEOs with regard to compensation and career success. It’s sort of ironic.”

Kiel’s data is clear: companies perform better under the guidance of high-integrity leadership. “Companies who try to compete under the leadership of a skilled but self-focused CEO are setting themselves up to lose,” Kiel says.

Every leader has the responsibility to hone his or her integrity. Many times, there are integrity traps that have a tendency to catch well-meaning leaders off guard. By studying these traps, we can all sharpen the saw and keep our leadership integrity at its highest possible level.

1. Fostering a cult of personality. It’s easy for leaders to get caught up in their own worlds as there are many systems in place that make it all about them. These leaders identify so strongly with their leadership roles that instead of remembering that the only reason they’re there is to serve others, they start thinking, ‘It’s my world, and we’ll do things my way.’ Being a good leader requires remembering that you’re there for a reason, and the reason certainly isn’t to have your way. High-integrity leaders not only welcome questioning and criticism, they insist on it.

 

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2. Dodging accountability. Politicians are notorious for refusing to be accountable for their mistakes, and business leaders do it too. Even if only a few people see a leader’s misstep (instead of millions), dodging accountability can be incredibly damaging. A person who refuses to say “the buck stops here” really isn’t a leader at all. Being a leader requires being confident enough in your own decisions and those of your team to own them when they fail. The very best leaders take the blame but share the credit.

3. Lacking self-awareness. Many leaders think they have enough emotional intelligence (EQ). And many times, they are proficient in some EQ skills, but when it comes to understanding themselves, they are woefully blind. It’s not that they’re hypocrites; they just don’t see what everyone else sees. They might play favorites, be tough to work with, or receive criticism badly. And they aren’t alone, as TalentSmart research involving more than a million people shows that just 36% of us are accurate in our self-assessments.

4. Forgetting that communication is a two-way street. Many leaders also think that they’re great communicators, not realizing that they’re only communicating in one direction. Some pride themselves on being approachable and easily accessible, yet they don’t really hear the ideas that people share with them. Some leaders don’t set goals or provide context for the things they ask people to do, and others never offer feedback, leaving people wondering if they’re more likely to get promoted or fired.

5. Not firing poor performers. Sometimes, whether it’s because they feel sorry for an employee or simply because they want to avoid conflict, leaders dodge making the really tough decisions. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being compassionate, real leaders know when it’s just not appropriate, and they understand that they owe it to the company and to the rest of the team to let someone go.

6. Succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent. The tyranny of the urgent is what happens when leaders spend their days putting out small fires. They take care of what’s dancing around in front of their faces and lose focus of what’s truly important—their people. Your integrity as a leader hinges upon your ability to avoid distractions that prevent you from putting your people first.

7. Micromanaging. You see this mistake most often with people who have recently worked their way up through the ranks. They still haven’t made the mental shift from doer to leader. Without something tangible to point to at the end of the day, they feel unproductive, not realizing that productivity means something different for a leader. As a result, they micromanage to the point of madness and fall off schedule. An important part of a leader’s integrity rests in giving people the freedom to do their jobs.

Bringing It All Together

The bad news is that these mistakes are as common as they are damaging. The good news is that they’re really easy to fix, once you’re aware of them.

Forbes.com | February 16, 2016 | Travis Bradberry 

#Leadership : True Grit: How My Team Learned To Thrive In The Face Of Adversity…Business is a Game of Dramatic Ups & Downs, Especially for Teams that are Trying to Create Something New or Bring about Meaningful Change in a Stagnant & Complacent Market.

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It’s easy to feel a bit bipolar at times. Some days you’re on top of the world, and other days you’re just trying to stay alive. How a team manages these swings, and the periods of adversity in particular, is what separates successful businesses from failures.

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Every business encounters adversity. It’s one of the few constants that you can count on and it can be all too easy to allow these setbacks to get you down, discourage your efforts, and extinguish the fire that keeps you going. Good leaders recognize this fact but find the courage and wherewithal to help their teams avoid these pitfalls.

I’m not an expert on many things, but one area where I have plenty of experience is dealing with adversity. At BodeTree, my team and I have had our fair share of failures, strikeouts, and unfair situations. Despite these setbacks, however, we always keep moving forward. We’ve learned to use adversity to our advantage, and it all comes down to one trait: grit.

Remember that character is king

Grit is just another word for strength of character. An individual or team who displays grit is someone who can take a hit and just keep on going, no matter what. It’s this resilience that enables successful teams to avoid the pitfalls of depression, lethargy, and apathy that people tend to run into when faced with adversity. It may seem like grit is an innate virtue that people people either are born with or not, but this isn’t the case. Grit can be developed, just like any other skill.

Developing grit in yourself is difficult; trying to develop it in others is even harder. It takes equal parts understanding, compassion, and dedication. Over the years at BodeTree, I’ve learned that grit starts with intellectual honesty and the ability to face your fears. Leaders looking to foster gritty teams can start by fostering an environment of transparency and trust. When team members know how they’re being judged and what the expectations are, they’re more willing to be honest about shortcomings and face their fears. If team members feel as though their next mistake will be their last, anxiety sets in and people tend to crumble in the face of adversity. Leaders must create an environment that encourages grit and resilient thinking across the board.

 

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Turn anger and frustration into something productive

If you’ve developed a gritty team,  you can use adversity and challenges to your advantage. There are only two ways to handle bad situations; you can accept what happened and roll over, or you can get mad. I’ve found that turning the other cheek is rarely productive in business. Instead, I like to work to focus the collective anger and frustration of my team into something productive and transformational.

We’ve faced some difficult situations at BodeTree over the last few years, including deals and partnerships falling through at the 11th hour. The news can be devastating at first, but it can also be motivating. We’ve learned to let our feelings of self-pity give way to righteous indignation. We channel our anger into productivity and let it renew our passion to bring about change. For us, succeeding in our space is no longer a matter of business or strategy; it’s personal.

I’m fortunate to have such a dedicated and gritty team. The adversity we’ve faced could have derailed us, robbing the team of its drive and dampening our will to move forward. Lesser teams would have crumbled, but we’ve managed to turn adversity into an advantage. Our anger and resilience pushes us forward and gives us purpose. We’ve become a team hell-bent on advancing constantly, uninterested in anything short of total market dominance.

I hope that our experience can serve as an example for other teams. You will face adversity in your endeavors no matter what they are, that much is certain. Just remember that success isn’t determined by whether or not you encounter challenges, but rather by the way you respond to those challenges. Leaders of teams must work to developing grit, both in themselves as well as the people they lead. The resilience that results will enable individuals and teams to transform anger and frustration into a powerful motivator that can you forward, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

 

Forbes.com | February 15, 2016 | Chris Myers

 

 

Chris Myers is the Cofounder and CEO of BodeTree, a web application designed to help small businesses manage their finances.

#Leadership : 5 Bad Habits That Make Meetings Miserable & Unproductive…Report Found that 67% of Meetings are Considered Unproductive by Executives & They take Up Roughly 15 % of every Institutions Time.

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In 2015 organizations held more than 25 million meetings per day in the United States. This translates to more than $37 billion in lost productivity, according toa study by Fuze. One Harvard Business Review report found that 67 percent of meetings are considered unproductive by executives and they take up roughly 15 percent of every institutions time.

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As a recent college graduate working at my first full-time job, this calculatorestimates $3,000 of my salary has already gone toward meetings. While some advocate for nixing meetings altogether, we see a lot of tools that help capitalize on that time and money spent. Sticking to an agenda, setting clear goals, sending reading materials in advance are a few items to start the list. Even though many people spend countless hours in meetings every week, meeting time doesn’t have to be money down the drain. I’ve learned a lot and completed numerous team projects as a result of meetings.

But even if meeting organizers use all the tools available, we can still waste time when employees do not conduct themselves well in meetings. As a newbie in the professional world, I’ve had to learn a lot (the hard way) about the flip side of productive meetings: how to be a good meeting attendee. I think the main guiding principle boils down to knowing what to say and when to say it.

 Nevertheless, here are five bad habits we often see in meeting attendees. They each take on a life of their own. I have observed or experienced all of the during my first six months in the professional world.

1. Offline Commenter: We see this trait manifested when people share any comment that would be better made “offline” from the current meeting. It’s easy to over-share because we want our coworkers (and by coworkers I mean our boss) to know how hard we’re working throughout the hum drum of our daily tasks. But there’s nothing worse than wasting everyone’s time with something that should have just been sent to one person in an email.

Offline Comments likely show up during transitional moments in department-wide meetings and sound like this: “I was thinking that the thirteenth graph on page 41 should fade from blue to green because it really captures the essence of the numeric transition happening there,” and “Could you send out that production schedule for me while I’m on vacation next week?” If it pertains to less than three people in the room, one should jot it down and share it later.

 

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2. Interrupter: The most surprising element of my short time in office culture is just how often sophisticated, adult humans interrupt each other. I thought everyone’s parents were like mine, forcing me to stop and realize my error every time I spoke over another person. While my parents were trying to teach me that interrupting is just plain rude (which is still true), this tendency is also an obvious meeting-time-waster because of how many interrupted comments end up needing to be re-said. An interrupter is skilled at convincing office attendees that whatever he has to say cannot wait even one second. This is almost never true. But he is easy to tame. One must simply default to only speaking when others have finished.

3. Brainstormer: If you want to waste a lot of people’s time, send in an untimely Brainstorm. I only know this because of all the evil stares I got the first time I threw out a new, unformed idea at the end of a long meeting. Everyone was gearing up to head back to their desks and finish daily tasks when I said something to the effect of, “Hey guys. What if we did this really cool, time consuming thing that just popped into my head but hasn’t been fleshed out at all. Dear Boss, aren’t I brilliant?”

Brainstormer will try to convince you in the moment that she is more impressive than she is. But the truth is most new ideas aren’t formed enough to be shared with large groups on the spot, and co-workers are not prepared for an unplanned creative discussion. People will tune out while the person entertaining Brainstorm verbally babbles through the rough sketch of a new idea. Ultimately, the time will pass at an unproductive caliber.

Brainstormer is tricky, though, because offices shouldn’t throw this character out completely, unlike some others that need to die forever. Brainstormer brings a timeliness learning curve with her. One has to work with her for a while while before she is ready to be unveiled, and there is an optimal setting for such unveiling: generally in a meeting that has been dedicated solely to this Brainstorm, and one where all the attendees have already been briefed on what is to be Brainstormed.

4. Side Noter: Side Note is a tricky guy because he will drop little clues that make you feel like something you wish to say is more important and relevant than it is. Being able to consistently discern what constitutes a Side Noter comes with the benefits of being a meeting veteran. But it’s not too difficult to catch on. Side noter is similar to Offline Commenter, but carries an aura of false importance because he likely has at least a tangential relationship to something that is already being discussed.

However, the easiest way to lose the attention of half the people in the room is to start a sentence with, “And Just as a side note…” Upon hearing these words, one person will check their watch, another will respond to an email, a third will be whispering to the colleague beside them, and someone will get up to refill their coffee. If something seems to be a Side Note, then it should be shared from its rightful place, which is on the side.

5. Late Starter: It may seem like a no-brainer, but Late Starter still plagues more meetings in the professional world than she should. A Bain and Companyreport says that typically 8 percent of the time and money spent on a meeting is lost when the meeting starts only five minutes late. Late start will whisper to you,just finish sending this last email, the elevator will definitely come quickly, oryou need fill your water bottle and it’s no big deal if you’re a few minutes late.She’s lying, though. The truth she tries to hide from you is that there is almost never a good reason to be late to a meeting.

Late Startr serves only one purpose: rendering those precious beginning minutes as useless. We’ve all been there—the awkward moments when we try to eek out the perfect amount of small talk so as not to launch a too-long conversation, tip-toeing around words that might need to be repeated when the late person arrives, pinging said late person to see when they will show up. And then somehow, like the universe has slowed so that everyone can feel the meaty weight of this wasted time, all three of those things likely took place in only two and a half minutes. And then everyone browses their phone in silence. Precious minutes (and therefore dollars) wasted.

 

Forbes.com | February 14, 2016 | The Berlin School Of Creative Leadership

 

#Leadership : 8 Ways to Not Only Survive But Prosper Around Negative People…To Be an Manager/Entrepreneur, you Have to Have a Thick Skin & Not be Defensive to Customer Feedback & Constructive Criticism. On the Other Hand, No Manager/Entrepreneur should Tolerate Negative Vibes & Complainers on their Own Team.

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The challenge is to understand the difference between these two situations — and to respond effectively to both. You can’t reinforce negative thinking and stay positive.

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Related: People Hating on You? Here Are 4 Ways to Use That Negative Energy to Your Advantage.

Even active listening to negative team members and partners, as you would with customers, will perpetuate the toxic habit. In addition, the other members of your team may become infected with the same negativity and will erode the passion and innovation that you need to compete and survive. In my experience, good entrepreneurs proactively minimize negativity as follows:

1. They stifle their own occasional negativity in front of the team.

We all get frustrated when the economy turns against us, investors can’t be found or a customer turns into a nightmare. In these cases, you must keep your thoughts to yourself, and be the role model for positive creative solutions. Your team will practice what they see and hear.

2. Extract and highlight potential positives from every negative.

If your team is struggling with quality problems before shipment, remind them that it’s great to have found these problems before customers could be impacted. The alternative is that everyone, including yourself, will eventually feel defeated and de-energized.

 

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3. Turn responsibility back to the complainer and ask for solutions.

Sometimes, team members are frustrated and just want to vent, so asking them to bring you solutions, not just problems, will set a more positive tone and may circumvent future negative outbursts. For those who don’t learn, it’s time for swift job reassignment and performance counseling.

Related: Stressed at Work? Ditch the Drama Already.

4. Don’t accept excuses for any negative outcomes.

Excuses are a way of not accepting full responsibility for actions, if there is a negative outcome. Even worse, some people believe negativity is a way of impressing everyone with their wisdom. Make sure that complainers understand from your reward system that excuses don’t mitigate failures.

5. Restrain from engaging complainers at their level.

If none of these approaches work, it’s better to defer the discussion to another time and place with no emotion. Trying too hard to convert people to the positive view will likely result in you becoming the target, or permanently breaking the relationship. It’s better to listen in silence.

6. Remove yourself physically from a toxic environment.

Presence without engagement may be taken as tacit concurrence, so it’s best to exit the situation to somewhere neutral and quiet. The last thing you need is to be brought down to the same level, and lose your ability to provide positive leadership to the team.

7. Overlook occasional lapses in yourself and others.

Even the best professionals and leaders find themselves being negative occasionally. It’s human nature, in times of stress, when people are physically or mentally exhausted, or multiple deadlines loom. The challenge is to make lapses less frequent as a habit rather than more frequent.

8. Build a personal negativity shield from your confidence and passion.

All business leaders as well as innovative thinkers learn to deflect negative energy with an invisible cloak that allows them to move forward despite negative feedback from the crowd. They continually remind themselves of their vision to make the world a better place.

When negativity is positioned by team members as constructive criticism, be sure to ask for the constructive positive part of the message, offered in a friendly manner. Living with complainers in any business is a burden you don’t need, and it impacts everyone’s performance and mindset. Just as a positive mindset is infectious and brings the whole team up, a few negative ones will sicken your whole team and jeopardize your business. You can’t afford that kind of help.

 

Entrepreneur.com  |  February 2016 | Martin Zwilling

#Leadership : 15 Tricks for Making Better Decisions Faster…The Thing about Most Important Decisions is That you Usually Don’t Have much Time to Make them. Question: What is One Trick you Use to Make Faster, Better Decisions?

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“Measure the weight of a decision against your established set of core priorities for the company. Will the decision affect the top priority? Then allow yourself more time to deliberate and analyze various outcomes. If the decision pertains to one of your lower priorities or business goals, trust your instincts, get the opinion of one or two stakeholders, or delegate.” 

–ZACH ROBBINS, Leadnomics

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1- Trust My Gut

“It’s become cliched because it works. Trust your instincts. Your brain is an incredibly powerful machine capable of amazing things, including making good decisions. The best decisions are often the ones you make the fastest, before you have a chance to second-guess yourself over and over.”

–BRITTANY HODAK, ZinePak

 

2- Recognize the Danger of Indecision

“The most successful entrepreneurs recognize that they do not have time to get all the facts for the dozens of decisions they make each day. Instead, they need to gather just enough information to make sound decisions so their company can move forward. Some of those decisions will be wrong, but it is better to learn from those mistakes and try again than to be immobilized by indecision.”

–DOUG BEND, Bend Law Group, PC

 

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3- Acknowledge What I’m Trying to Optimize For

“Making decisions can be difficult when you don’t exactly know what you’re trying to accomplish. A great mentor asked me once what I was trying to optimize for in my personal life when I asked for feedback on deciding whether I should move or not. I’ve since used this thought process of thinking through what I’m trying to optimize for in different scenarios to help bring the best option to light.”

–KELSEY MEYER, Influence & Co.

 

4- Focus on What’s Most Important

“As an entrepreneur you will often be faced with a variety of difficult decisions. These decisions are so difficult because they tend to head in very different directions. The reason that a mission statement is so important for a company is because it is vital for decision making. Keeping that in mind allows you to focus only on the decisions that keep you on course.”

–JAMES SIMPSON, GoldFire Studios

 

5- Establish Litmus Tests Early On

“The best way to quickly know if you’re making an on or off track decision is to know what your gut check tests are. For us, when it comes to rolling out new features, building on consumer asks, or generally redirecting resources, we look to our established product principles, brand values and culture characteristics. If what we are contemplating doesn’t measure up or fit in, we don’t do it.”

–SHARAM FOULADGAR-MERCER, AirPR

6- Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix

“Once I learned of the Eisenhower decision matrix, I realized I had been putting off extremely important tasks and decisions simply because they weren’t urgent. Learning how Ike made decisions has made me more confident, and therefore faster, at making good decisions.”

–BRENNAN WHITE, Cortex

7- Survey the Audience

“Nothing is better than asking your audience or trusted advisors for their input. There are many resources for surveys; however, if you need a faster turnaround and don’t want to mess with it, create an email list that you can easily use from time to time. You’ll be amazed on how often they don’t agree with what you originally wanted to do, and usually for good reason.”

–ANTHONY JOHNSON, American Injury Attorney Group

8- Focus on Getting to 90 Percent

“Particularly in meetings, the last ten percent of a decision is what puts you far over the time limit. Once you hit ninety percent, you can often make the right decision and table the minutia for follow up.”

–SAM SAXTON, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs

 

9- Ask, “Does This Really Matter?”

“I first ask myself if this decision really matters. Next I ask, “Does this really matter for me, for my business and further, does it matter right now?” Many times the answer is actually no. There are things that I feel strongly about but that don’t matter to whatever I’m trying to get done at the moment. I can save myself time struggling through a decision that doesn’t even need to be made.”

–ERICA DHAWAN, Cotential

 

10- Prioritize and Delegate

“Making better decisions comes down to prioritization and delegation. Prioritize the decisions you need to make by impact on your business and allocate your time accordingly. If you’re spending too much time on decisions that aren’t vital, delegate the less essential decisions and review recommendations quickly together to keep the team and business moving forward.”

–JESS LEVIN, Carats & Cake

 

11- Give Myself a Deadline for the Decision

“It’s good to set a deadline for a decision, such as at the end of the meeting, the day, or before the end of the quarter. This creates a sense of urgency, keeping things moving forward, but you’re also likely to avoid paralysis by analysis. In fact, it’s very easy to overthink things and make bad decisions because of it, as you might introduce doubts that conflict with your gut instincts.”

–ANDY KARUZA, brandbuddee

12- Chart the Decision on a Graph

“Put cost of the decision (time or money) on the x-axis, and put impact on your business of the decision on the y-axis. Chart the outcome. If its low cost/high impact, then it’s a no-brainer. If high impact/high cost, then plan the appropriate resources to make it happen. If its low impact, then chuck it away.  ”

NICK FRIEDMAN, College Hunks Hauling Junk

 

13- Toss a Coin

“Last year, the Freakonomics team conducted a research study challenging their fans to make a decision based on flipping a coin. Participants would have to act based on the randomized coin flip and take follow-up surveys. Similarly, when I have trouble making a decision, I also flip a coin and go with what the coin dictates. If I’m really not happy with the coin toss, then I go with the opposite.”

–FIRAS KITTANEH, AstraBeds

14- Always Do a Pre-Mortem Analysis

“As an entrepreneur you always deal with uncertainty, which can stop you from making big decisions quickly. When I make big decisions, I always do a pre-mortem analysis on if this initiative or decision goes the wrong way, why will it happen. This allows me to analyze both the upside and downside quickly. If the downside is not high, I make aggressive decisions quickly.”

–KELSEY RECHT, VenueBook

 

15- Reference Your Core Priorities

“Measure the weight of a decision against your established set of core priorities for the company. Will the decision affect the top priority? Then allow yourself more time to deliberate and analyze various outcomes. If the decision pertains to one of your lower priorities or business goals, trust your instincts, get the opinion of one or two stakeholders, or delegate.”

–ZACH ROBBINS, Leadnomics

 

Businessinsider.com | February 13, 2016 |  YEC, BusinessCollective

 

Your #Career : 5 Ways Other People Can Help (or Hurt) Your Career…Work hard, Put your Time In, & Move Up the Corporate Ladder, Right? Not so Fast.

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As important as it is to do your best at work and to gain experience, there are many mistakes you could make that would negate your hard work and damage your career. In addition, the truth is that you alone are not in charge of where your career goes (or doesn’t go); other people have more power than you may realize.

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This is particularly true if you are an employee because you have performance reviews and co-workers to worry about, but even if you own your own business, you will always have to interact with other people. While hard work can get you far, there will always be other players who can positively or negatively change your course. Here are five ways that other people can affect your career.

1. References

Sometimes a reference is a good thing. If a hiring manager has narrowed the search down to two candidates, and your references speak very highly of you, then you might get the job offer. Also, if you regularly check in with your references and you update them about new work experience and training that you have, they will be prepared to share this information when they receive calls.

On the other hand, be careful who you choose as a reference. It’s a common myth that companies can only give the dates that you were employed; employers are allowed to give an honest opinion about employees as long as they avoid misrepresentations or lies (however, many companies have set rules about how much information they will provide). Be sure to ask if it is acceptable to use someone as a reference, and if they feel comfortable giving you a positive one.

The work you do to move forward in your career is essential to success, but remember that other people can have a big impact on your career as well.

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2. Networking

The importance of networking can’t be overstated: meeting the right people can truly help your career. If you build and maintain a strong network of people who can share job opportunities with you, and even recommend you for positions, then you will truly be building important relationships. Still, as much as contacts have the ability to help you in your career, they also can easily harm you. If you have a bad experience with someone who is well known or important in your job field, you could easily find yourself unable to find a job at several companies that work with your contact.

In order to successfully network, it’s important to avoid some big mistakes; make sure to talk about more than just work, and truly build relationships and offer to help others too.

3. Reviews

Your boss can easily make or break your career, or at least, your ability to move up at your current company. If your boss is disappointed with your work, believes that you are lacking in some other way, or simply dislikes you, he or she can make it next to impossible for you to advance in your career or earn a promotion. Your boss can also help you though; if you impress your boss, you may quickly get promoted at your company, and you also may have the opportunity to meet new people and work on projects that will help your career in other ways.

Your boss isn’t the only one who might give you a negative or positive review. Your co-workers can also have a say: if they find you to be lazy or incompetent, your boss will surely hear about it.

If you have a customer-facing job, you may get a customer complaint. Most companies provide training for their employees, but if your supervisor continually receives negative reviews or complaints about your work, you might find that a complete stranger has the ability to negatively affect your career simply by sharing their opinion. Even a simple mistake during an important client lunch could have disatrous effects.

4. Job competition

We all know that we are likely competing against several other qualified people when we apply for a job or come in for an interview. However, it’s also true that you might lose out on a huge opportunity because a complete stranger is more qualified than you, or is better at interviewing, or simply knows the right people. It’s possible that you might be even farther in your career right now if years ago a hiring manager hadn’t received a better resume from another applicant.

Where you live alone might be changing your career path. According to the January 2016 Rankings from Indeed, it’s much harder to find a job in certain cities; if there are more unemployed people for each job listing, you may be facing more competition for the job you want.

5. Social media

What you put on social media can affect your career. If you post embarrassing pictures, or you complain about your job, then your boss or co-workers might see it. However, your career can be affected by what other people post too. If your friends share embarrassing or drunken photos of you and your boss sees them before you get a chance to delete them, the result could be funny, or it could be ruinous.

According to Kelly Services’ The 2015 Hiring Manager Research, only 12% or hiring managers said they had disqualified a candidate based on a review of their social media profile, but you don’t want to be part of that 12%. Also according to Kelly, social media can be an important tool when networking (68% of working professionals said they use social media as their primary method of networking.)

The work you do to move forward in your career is essential to success, but remember that other people can have a big impact on your career as well.

 

CheatSheet.com | February 12, 2016 | 

 

 

Your #Career : Ready To Leave Your Corporate Job And Start Freelancing? Here’s What You Need To Know…Projections of More than 40% of the Workforce Will be Made up of Freelance Workers by 2020.

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Intuit projects that more than 40% of the workforce will be made up of freelance workers by 2020. Other research shares that by the end of this decade over half of the private workforce will be independent. If these projections holds true, millions of Americans will transition into a freelance career over the next four years.

Free- NYC Skycraper

To learn more about how corporate professionals can transition seamlessly and effectively to the freelance life, I caught up with Constantine Anastasakis, Senior Director of Business Development and Strategy for Fiverr, an online marketplace that matches freelancers with buyers ranging from SMBs to major corporations. Fiverr reports having facilitated more than 25 million transactions since 2010 across more than 100 categories of services.

Constantine shares his tips for freelancer success:

Kathy Caprino: Constantine, what do you think are the key criteria and questions one should consider when thinking about the transition from full-time to freelance?

Constantine Anastasakis: Any successful freelancer will tell you that the transition from a full-time career to independent work is challenging, especially if you want it to be lucrative. Compared to a corporate career, the world of freelancing can be unpredictable and intimidating. While issues like finding work and creating income stability are often seen as the top barriers to doing more freelance work, it’s important to remember that it’s been done successfully by thousands upon thousands of others. Preparing for the transition before diving right in can help make it less choppy.

Before you start freelancing full time, consider doing it as a side gig first. Redd Horrocks, one voiceover actress on Fiverr who earns six figures annually, started working independently on Fiverr while she held a full-time job as a stage manager for an event production company. At first, she used her side gig to help her pay off thousands in credit card debt. Once she paid off her debt, she started banking her income from her full-time job and using her freelancing income for living expenses. Redd’s success didn’t happen overnight, and she didn’t start freelancing thinking she’d make six figures right away. She set small attainable goals, like paying off one credit card, then moving onto the next. Eventually, she saved enough to make a down payment on her house and still had a deep savings bench that eased the transition to freelancing full time.

It takes hard work, persistence and patience to successfully transition into a freelance career. While it won’t happen right away, you have to start somewhere. Freelancing on the side (while working a corporate job) first is a good way to mitigate some of the risk, save money and decide that you really love it before taking the plunge.

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Caprino: What do you think differentiates very successful freelancers from those who struggle?

Anastasakis: Most freelancers have the passion and drive to be successful, but many don’t know where to start when it comes to finding clients. Look at starting a freelance career like starting a business from the ground up. You have to build a strong customer base, then fortify and expand that base. Whether you’re working in a more traditional environment or through a marketplace, the reality is the same: your clients are everything.

Successful freelancers service their clients with any eye towards organic business growth. They develop individual relationships with new customers to convert them into long-term customers. Eventually these relationships will pay dividends down the road without outbound marketing efforts. A strong network will always reap multiplier benefits.

One freelancer who can speak to this is Ryan Heenan. He sells custom jingles and animated videos online and has more than 4,000 positive reviews from his buyers. His secret? He builds personal relationships with his customers by asking a lot of questions up front, specializing his offerings and following up to make sure his customers get what they need. As a result, about 40% of his customers are repeat buyers.

Caprino: What do freelancers need to know that they weren’t aware of as corporate employees?

Anastasakis: One of the worst mistakes new freelancers can make is selling themselves short . You see it time and time again: a new freelancer offers to do too much work for too little money  in an effort to over-service their clients. While you should always provide top-notch service to your clients, you have to know the market. If you’re going to start selling copywriting services, research what other freelancers are charging for copywriting. You want to be competitive and you absolutely want to keep in mind your experience and breadth of portfolio, but charge your clients what your skills are worth.

You should also differentiate your offerings to help them stand out. You can do this through a variety of tactics including offering a wide portfolio of work to create a simple buying experience, or utilizing marketing tools like videos to draw attention to your services and offer greater visibility. Another essential step is to carve out a niche for your offerings. You can be a video photographer and specialize in only one type of video photography or style. It may seem counterintuitive and limiting, but it actually enables you to charge more for your services thanks to the unique set of offerings.

Once you determine what services you’ll offer and how much you’ll charge, learn how to market those skills. Corporate employees certainly know what they’re good at, but many don’t know how to promote themselves. Don’t underestimate resources like Coursera and Udemy, where you can learn valuable marketing skills. You can also turn to other freelancers to find marketing materials on a budget. As you expand your network, you’ll find new customers and gain new insights into the services you can offer and how your value-added services differentiate you.

Caprino: How can people research and determine accurately if they’ll end up enjoying freelance work and make it a success?

Anastasakis: Freelancing is quite different from most full-time careers and the transition starts with a frank inward discussion. Think about your personality and your interests. Freelancing requires you to work alone (a lot), be solely responsible for the work you produce and to always put your clients’ needs first.

Are you a self-motivated person? Can you devote time each day to developing your freelance career? If you’re the type of person who needs a set schedule to be productive, you’ll probably have to set that schedule yourself. To be a successful freelancer you need self-discipline and accountability.

Also consider what makes you passionate. As with any job, you’ll be happiest doing something you love day in and day out. The great thing about freelancing though is that you’re not stuck doing one thing forever. As I mentioned earlier, once you build up a clientele, you can start to offer additional services that will add variety to your daily tasks and more depth to your portfolio.

Caprino: To offer some inspiration, what are the latest data/stats on freelancers, and the potential success they can achieve?

Anastasakis: : According to Inuit, 60 million Americans will be freelancing by 2020, making up more than 40% of the workforce . In fact, the number of Americans who voluntarily quit their jobs climbed to the highest number since April 2008 in November, as 2.8 million Americans left an employer. As the freelance workforce continues to rise, millions of Americans will branch out on their own and more and more resources will be available for people who want to start freelancing. As with any job, there’s never a guarantee that you’ll be a success, but if you’ve ever considered starting your own thing, now is a great time to start taking steps.

Caprino: Anything else we need to know?

Anastasakis: A great deal of freelancers limit themselves to local work and immediate needs in their communities, which while effective, is a fairly traditional approach to freelancing. There is a much larger market for freelancers if they look beyond their own backyards. The beauty of freelancing is that you not only can work from anywhere, but you can also work with clients from anywhere. Using a global platform can make a big difference in the initial lift it takes to build a customer base. For many new freelancers, a strong local or professional network may not exist and the overhead of time and energy required to build one is intimidating. Leveraging a massive global marketplace allows a new freelancer in Boise, Idaho to do business with a small business owner in Paris. That same mechanism will also help new freelancers build out their portfolios. While experience can’t be bought or sold, it can be accelerated.

The transition into a freelance career isn’t easy, but we’re at a unique juncture in the way people work that’s making freelancing even more appealing. In part thanks to technological and societal shifts, freelancing today allows you to work from anywhere, be your own boss and explore a career you may have never thought possible. By preparing for the transition before making it, you can jump in with the confidence that you made the right choice.

******

As one who left corporate America after 9/11 and launched a coaching and consulting firm, I know that Constantine’s tips are solid and helpful, for sure. I’d also add this: When you’re considering making a leap to another career or going freelance, you need to “try on” this new direction – physically, behaviorally, financially, and emotionally – before you jump, to make sure it’s something you’ll thrive at and enjoy. So often, professionals fantasize about chucking their unhappy and stressed corporate life, only to find that the new direction is not what they dreamed it would be, and their professional strife follows them in this new chapter. Here’s more about the 5 biggest mistakes career changes make and how not to leap before you’ve tested out if this new direction is right for you.

For more information, visit Fiverr.com.

To transition to a happier, more flexible and independent career, visitKathyCaprino.com, The Amazing Career Project, and Kathy’s new Amazing Career Coach Certification training.

Part of the series “Living and Working Better”

 

Forbes.com | February 8, 2016 | Kathy Caprino

 

#Strategy : A Wharton Professor Shares 3 Science-Backed Strategies for Raising Highly Creative Kids…If you Want to Raise Creative Kids, you Need to Teach them to Think for Themselves.

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To do this, Adam Grant, a professor of management at Wharton, author of the new book, “Originals,” and father of three, tells Business Insider, you need “to foster an identify that ‘I’m somebody who doesn’t conform,’ that ‘I’m somebody who doesn’t follow the crowd.'”

Free- Locks

According to Grant, parents of highly-creative children think differently about how they approach raising their kids in three important ways:

1. They praise the child, not the act.

When Grant’s daughter creates a piece of art, instead of saying, “Wow, that’s a really creative drawing,” Grant would tell her, “Wow, you are a really creative person.” This helps her develop a sense of self as a creative person with unique ideas, he says.

“It’s so tempting to reinforce the behavior, when in fact what we need to do is help children see that that behavior is a core part of who they are, so that when they grow up they don’t lose creativity,” Grant explains.

This idea of directing praise to the child rather than the act comes from research that found children were much more generous after their character had been praised than after their actions had been. “When our character is praised, we internalize it as part of our identities,” Grant writes in his book.

 

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2. They don’t set a ton of rules.

Grant points to research out of Boston College that compared the families of highly original children with those with ordinary ability and found that the parents of ordinary children had an average of six rules — like when it’s time for bed or homework — while parents of highly creative children had an average of less than one rule.

“If you want your kids to follow rules, then it’s much more likely that, when it comes time to solve a problem, he or she looks to how it’s been solved before — what are the conventional ways to doing it— as opposed to saying, ‘Well, how can I approach this? What other solutions haven’t been come up with before?'” Grant tells Business Insider.

This isn’t to say there should be no rules. “There have to be some boundaries in order to get children to think creatively.”

3. They reason with their kids.

Grant says that when researchers studied “one of the most daring acts of nonconformity that we’ve seen in the past century” — individuals who rescued victims of the Holocaust — they found one key difference between those who stood by and did nothing and those who put their lives on the line: Holocaust rescuers’ parents used reasoning as a disciplinary tactic more often than others.

Explanations can do a few important things, based on the research cited in Grant’s book.

Another study of American architects found that parents of the most creative architects disciplined their kids by outlining their standards of conduct and explaining their reasoning behind these principles — and encouraging their kids to come up with their own values.

And, as with the study of Holocaust rescuers, researchers found discussions that encourage kids to consider the impact of their actions on others activate a desire to right wrongs and do better.

“When you help children think about the consequences of their action for others, they’re much more likely to channel their originality in moral and creative directions, as opposed to saying, ‘I’m going to break a bunch of rules,’ or ‘I’m going to do something that perhaps would harm a few people,'” Grant explains.

SEE ALSO: 9 scientific ways having a child influences your success

 

Businessinsider.com | February 10, 2016 | 

Your #Career : Need a Job? 5 Ways to Get Employed Faster…Searching for a New Job, you’re Not Alone. 71% of workers are workers are Either Actively Looking or Interested in Finding a New Position

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The hunt for the perfect position can take months. One rule of thumb says that you should expect to spend at least one month of job searching for every $10,000 you earn. So, if your currently salary is $70,000 per year, you can expect to spend at least seven months hunting for work.

Free- Door to Building

Few people want to wait that long to find a new job. If your current position is unbearable (you hate your boss, your company is massively dysfunctional, your commute is killing you), feeling that you’re at the mercy of the job market can be incredibly frustrating. If you’re out of work, waiting months to find a job may not even be an option. In either case, you need a new job, and you needed it yesterday.

Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to accelerate your job search. Here are five things you can do that will help you get hired faster, so that you can get your career – and your life – back on the right track.

1. Time your search right

Some seasons are more favorable for job searchers than others. Obviously, if you need work right away, you don’t have the luxury of waiting to look for a job. But if you’re itching for a change, you might want to start your search at a time of year when companies are more likely to be looking for new employees.

“The big months for hiring are January and February, and late September and October,” Scott Testa, chief operating officer of Mindbridge Software, told Monster. “Job seekers who make contact right at the start of these cycles have the best chance of being hired.”

Hiring often slows down in the summer, since many people are out of the office. If you’re thinking about looking for a new job now, consider spending the next month or two fine-tuning your resume, updating your LinkedIn profile, and building your network. Then, you can hit the ground running when hiring kicks into high gear around Labor Day.

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2. Let people know you’re looking

If you’re only looking for jobs online, you’re missing out. Forty-one percent of people surveyed by staffing company Manpower reported that networking was the key to landing their latest job, as reported in Forbes. Many open positions are never posted online.

Don’t hesitate to make your job search public. Personally reach out to former co-workers and others in your network (both online and in real life) and ask for a favor that might help move your job search along.

“[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][P]eople are much more likely to help if you give them something concrete they can do,” wrote Alison Green for U.S. News & World Report’s Ask A Manager blog. “For instance, you might ask your neighbor if she can connect you with a hiring manager at her former company, or you might ask your old manager if she’d advise you on the companies you’re considering.

3. Show employers what you’ve done

You know that “goals and objectives” statement at the top of your resume? Skip it, say experts. Your goal is obvious, after all – you want a job. Instead, use a summary statement that focuses on your past accomplishments. Show hiring managers and interviewers what you’ve done in the past and how that will make you a better employee for them.

“Even if you’re a recent college grad just joining a new industry, you’ve got a sentence or two you could put in that paragraph that might generate questions, interest and maybe even a job interview,” wrote Jon Acuff, author of Start, on Brazen Careerist.

In short, you need to brag a little (or maybe a lot). And whenever possible, it’s helpful to quantify your accomplishments. Don’t just say you recruited volunteers for a cause, say you recruited 50 volunteers and helped raise $50,000. Don’t just say that you managed a big project, say that you managed a big project and completed it two weeks early and $20,000 under budget.

4. Volunteer

Dedicating some of your time to helping others could make it much easier to find a job, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Career Assessment. The study looked at 265 unemployed twentysomethings and found that those who volunteered were more likely to have a job after six months than those who didn’t. Even volunteering for just an hour a week was associated with a greater chance of finding a job.

One reason that volunteering may so useful for young people looking for a job is that it demonstrates to employers that they have specific job-related skills – skills they may not be developing in college.

“Employers are no longer interested in training potential applicants who may do an outstanding job based on academic promise,” noted the study’s authors. “Volunteering activities provide opportunities for emerging adults to master specific skillsets and to demonstrate proof of competency and value.”

5. Clean up your social media

You should really know this by now, but here’s a reminder just in case you forgot: There’s a very good chance your potential employer is checking out your social media profiles. Forty-three percent of employers are researching candidates on social media, according to a CareerBuilder survey. If they don’t like what they see, it could cost you the job.

What social media behaviors turn off employers? Nearly half said they’d pass on an applicant who posted “provocative or inappropriate photographs or information.” Other social media no-no’s included:

  • Sharing information about drinking or using drugs
  • Bad-mouthing an employer or co-worker
  • Making racist, sexist, or other discriminatory comments
  • Sharing confidential information
  • Having an unprofessional screen name

Just as social media blunders can harm your job search, so can not having any online presence at all. A LinkedIn profile is a must at this point – 94% of recruiters used the site to find candidates, a 2014 survey by Jobvite found. Overall, 73% of recruiters said they had hired a candidate through social media.

CheatSheet.com |  February 9, 2016 | Megan Elliott 

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#Leadership : 10 Ways To Spot A Truly Exceptional Employee…Take Notice of what’s Not Mentioned: Coding Skills, Years of Experience, Business Degrees, etc. These Things Matter, But they Won’t Make you Exceptional.

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A recent international study surveyed more than 500 business leaders and asked them what sets great employees apart. The researchers wanted to know why some people are more successful than others at work, and the answers were surprising; leaders chose “personality” as the leading reason.

Free- Man reaching to Sun Rise

Notably, 78% of leaders said personality sets great employees apart, more than cultural fit (53%) and even an employee’s skills (39%).

“We should take care not to make the intellect our God; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” –Albert Einstein

The problem is, when leaders say ‘personality’ they don’t understand what they’re referring to. Personality consists of a stable set of preferences and tendencies through which we approach the world. Being introverted or extroverted is an example of an important personality trait.

Personality traits form at an early age and are fixed by early adulthood. Many important things about you change over the course of your lifetime, but your personality isn’t one of them.

Personality is distinct from intellect (or IQ). The two don’t occur together in any meaningful way. Personality is also distinct from emotional intelligence (or EQ), and this is where the study, and most leaders for that matter, have misinterpreted the term.

talent

The qualities that leaders in the study called personality were actually emotional intelligence skills. And unlike your personality, which is set in stone, you can change and improve your EQ.

Exceptional employees don’t possess God-given personality traits; they rely on simple, everyday EQ skills that anyone can incorporate into their repertoire.

Leaders don’t need to go searching for these skills either (though it doesn’t hurt when you find them); their duty is to help everyone on their team harness these skills to become exceptional.

Just consider some of the EQ skills that leaders and managers commonly mislabel as personality characteristics. These are the skills that set exceptional employees apart.

They’re willing to delay gratification. One thing an exceptional employee never says is, “That’s not in my job description.” Exceptional employees work outside the boundaries of job descriptions. They’re neither intimidated nor entitled; instead of expecting recognition or compensation to come first, they forge ahead in their work, confident that they’ll be rewarded later but unconcerned if they’re not.

 

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They can tolerate conflict. While exceptional employees don’t seek conflict, they don’t run away from it either. They’re able to maintain their composure while presenting their positions calmly and logically. They’re able to withstand personal attacks in pursuit of the greater goal and never use that tactic themselves.

They focus. Student pilots are often told, “When things start going wrong, don’t forget to fly the plane.” Plane crashes have resulted from pilots concentrating so hard on identifying the problem that they flew the plane into the ground. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is just one example: The flight crew was so concerned about the landing gear being down that they didn’t realize they were losing altitude until it was too late, despite alarms going off in the cockpit. Exceptional employees understand the principle of “Just fly the plane.” They don’t get distracted by cranky customers, interoffice squabbles, or switch to a different brand of coffee. They can differentiate between real problems and background noise; therefore, they stay focused on what matters.

They’re judiciously courageous. Exceptional employees are willing to speak up when others are not, whether it’s to ask a difficult (or “embarrassingly” simple) question or to challenge an executive decision. However, that’s balanced with common sense and timing. They think before they speak and wisely choose the best time and place to do so.

They’re in control of their egos. Exceptional employees have egos. While that’s part of what drives them, they never give their egos more weight than what is deserved. They’re willing to admit when they’re wrong and willing to do things someone else’s way, whether it’s because the other way is better or it’s important to maintain team harmony.

They’re never satisfied. Exceptional employees have unparalleled convictions that things can always be better—and they’re right. No one is ever done growing, and there is no such thing as “good enough” when it comes to personal improvement. No matter how well things are going, exceptional employees are driven to improve, without forgetting to give themselves a healthy pat on the back.

They recognize when things are broken and fix them. Whether it’s a sticky desk drawer or an inefficient, wasteful process affecting the cash flow of the entire department, exceptional employees don’t walk past problems. “Oh, it’s been that way forever,” simply isn’t in their vocabulary. They see problems as issues to be fixed immediately; it’s that simple.

They’re accountable. If you’re a manager trying to decipher a bungled report, “It’s not my fault” is the most irritating phrase in the English language. Exceptional employees are accountable. They own their work, their decisions, and all of their results—good or bad. They bring their mistakes to management’s attention rather than hoping no one will find out. They understand that managers aren’t out to assign blame; they’re out to get things done.

They’re marketable. “Marketable” can mean many things. Inside the organization, it means “likeable.” Exceptional employees are well liked by co-workers. They have integrity and leadership skills (even if they’re not in an official leadership position) that people respond to. Externally, it means they can be trusted to represent the brand well. Managers know they can send these employees out to meet with clients and prospects without worrying about what they’ll say or do.

They neutralize toxic people. Dealing with difficult people is frustrating and exhausting for most. Exceptional employees control their interactions with toxic people by keeping their feelings in check. When they need to confront a toxic person, they approach the situation rationally. They identify their own emotions and don’t allow anger or frustration to fuel the chaos. They also consider the difficult person’s standpoint and are able to find solutions and common ground. Even when things completely derail, emotionally intelligent people are able to take the toxic person with a grain of salt to avoid letting him or her bring them down.

Bringing It All Together

Take notice of what’s not mentioned: coding skills, years of experience, business degrees, etc. These things matter, but they won’t make you exceptional.

What other qualities make people exceptional? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

 

Forbes.com | February 9, 2016 | Travis Bradberry