You spent another day motivating the troops to perform the same mundane tasks that they performed yesterday, and the yesterday before yesterday. In fact, you've perfected the art of managing your team to perform the same mundane tasks every day of the working year. Yet, something is missing from your management skills repertoire. You always seem to finish a project within minutes the deadline. Many of your co-workers think your communication skills go about as far as your email address. You organize your day about as well as Donald Trump organizes his hair. The bottom line at the end of the cliché-ridden day is that you successfully manage other people, but your personal management skills need marked improvement. … [Read more...] about Personal Management Skills
Career Advice
What Salary Should I Ask For?
The third and final interview excruciatingly winds down to the final question. You've survived mind numbing questions such as "Where do you plan to be in five years" and "Tell me about a boss that you enjoyed working for." First, in five years, I want to be the one asking the dumb questions. Second, you would call me a liar, if I made up a boss that I enjoyed working for. So, let's cut to the chase and ask the last question of the interview. What salary should I ask for? You can flawlessly answer every interview question and still screw up because of the all-important what salary should I ask for question. Like Goldilocks and the porridge, ask for too much money and find the exit door. Ask for too less than what the job pays and the hiring manager might view you as someone that's less than confident. You need to be proactive and follow four simple steps to ensure you get the final question right. … [Read more...] about What Salary Should I Ask For?
How Much Sleep Do Adults Need?
"I'll sleep when I'm dead." How many times have we heard this declaration of invincibility from a co-worker, friend, family member, or even the sleep-deprived demons that live restlessly in our heads? We live in a culture that celebrates the walking dead, the adults wandering around aimlessly throughout the day barely functioning on a few hours sleep. Regardless for the reasons that motivate people to eschew sleep, the fact remains that sleep represents just as much of a contributor to living a healthy life as diet and exercise. For our health, we need to ponder the answer to the question, "How much sleep do adults need." How Much Sleep is Enough for Adults? According to the highly respected National Institute of Health (NIH), the answer to "How much sleep do adults need" does not vary much among the adult population. You've heard co-workers justify two to three hours of sleep per night by exclaiming, "My body knows how much sleep it needs." Hectic work schedules and immense family … [Read more...] about How Much Sleep Do Adults Need?
Welcome to the Workforce, Generation Z
What is Generation Z, you may ask? Good question. Just know that the answer is still way up in the air. It is an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, launched on an app, seen on an Apple Watch and eventually will be livestreamed directly into an Oculus Rift. Is that enough buzzwords for you? Well, the modern office is going to be looking at you, Generation Z members, to make sense of all these concepts and integrate them smoothly into our economy. Basically, if you were born from the late 90s , you could be looking at membership in Generation Z. Late Millenialish, but the constant immersion into online life and the explosion of tech since your birth means that you have very little experience with the analog world that used to exist. What can you expect from the workplace? Oh, nothin’ much, just all your bosses and their bosses looking to you for salvation. Someone needs to come up with the innovations that will make the Internet of Things work, create new streams of revenue that rival what … [Read more...] about Welcome to the Workforce, Generation Z
Learn Everything About Text Etiquette At Work in 2015
Put that phone down and read these rules of text etiquette at work! With the lines between personal life and work blurring all the time, chances are you are using your smartphone at your desk. In fact, chances are you are texting your buddies about meeting up for drinks at happy hour. But you need to know how to handle texting relationships with your boss, colleagues and others in your professional orbit. This is not your group text with your buddies from college. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, keep your romantic texting as far away from this environment as possible. In fact, keep all your romantic aspirations out of the workplace. Now, onto the new normal of texting. … [Read more...] about Learn Everything About Text Etiquette At Work in 2015
Virtual Online Education Learning Classes: New Age of Internet Communication
Before the Internet became as necessary to daily life as electricity or plumbing, learning had to be found beyond the walls of your home. As the public’s access to the Internet evolved, though, so did the learning process – you no longer need a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica to find out how many islands are in the Indonesian archipelago or what South American parrots eat. With this increase in informal learning comes a need for formal learning to keep up with the breakneck pace. By now, you are familiar with the mainstream avenues for formal online learning – the various colleges run entirely online and the auxiliary programs done off the side of an established university’s desk. Virtual learning is also starting to reach the younger demographic, with private primary schools now run online and experimental teaching philosophies being tested at high schools. The classroom is changing with the times, thanks to new technologies and an explosion in Internet access. … [Read more...] about Virtual Online Education Learning Classes: New Age of Internet Communication
Unique Ways to Keep Yourself Happy at Work
Your mood can drastically affect the quality of your work. You always work better and time passes faster when you’re having fun. Imagine how great it would be to stay happy at work most of the time. While you can’t control everything at your job, you can take steps to keep a more positive, happy attitude throughout the day. Help Someone Else You probably know at least one coworker who could use some help now and then. Lend them a hand when you get a free minute. Even if it’s something as simple as bringing them back a cup of coffee when they can’t take a break, the act of helping others around you makes you feel happier. You’ll definitely smile more when you hear heartfelt thank yous from your coworkers. … [Read more...] about Unique Ways to Keep Yourself Happy at Work
Want to Be a Better Manager? Give Your Employees More Chances to Socialize
Employees are notoriously off-task during the NCAA basketball tournament. About 50 million employees participate in March Madness office pools, which, according to some sources, can cost companies as much as $1.2 billion in lost productivity during the first week alone. However, a little lost productivity in March could translate into big payoffs down the road. New research suggests that the best way to increase productivity is to encourage your workers to socialize. … [Read more...] about Want to Be a Better Manager? Give Your Employees More Chances to Socialize
Spring Clean Your Life
You know the drill. Months of cabin fever unleash into a firestorm of cleaning fury. From organizing the garage to removing the last of the dust on the chandelier, we prepare our homes for the inevitable chirping of birds and brilliant sunlight the cuts through the verdant bushes on the front lawn. This year, spring cleaning is the last thing on the mind of many Americans, as we continue to dig out of storm after winter storm that has assaulted virtually every part of the United States. It's difficult to plan spring cleaning, when six feet of snow blocks the front doorway. However, tough times bring out the best in people, which means maybe there is something you can do that involves spring-cleaning. Now is a good time to spring clean your life. … [Read more...] about Spring Clean Your Life
Don’t Let Weather Be An Obstacle In Your Client Meetings
At the core of a successful business lies one enduring idea: customer service. As the widely popular online shop Zappos likes to put it, you’ve got to deliver wow through your customer service. It’s a company philosophy they swear by, one that hugely contributes to the success of the company. Their entire company culture, in fact, is based around the idea. Wow through customer service Of course, one has to follow that basic idea through to the end. The best kind of customer service means being there to provide your clients with the kind and quality of assistance they need. That includes showing up on time for client meetings, no matter the dark clouds over the horizon, the threat of rain, no matter the sleet and snow. Whatever kind of weather you have to face, you face it. That’s how the old school thinking goes. With technologies such as video conferencing enabling people to work from anywhere and meet anyone from any place on earth, you might have to reconsider that approach. … [Read more...] about Don’t Let Weather Be An Obstacle In Your Client Meetings