Educate Yourself

Never stop learning! Everyday we will learn something new; you never know when it’s going to happen or whom you may learn from. Keep your mind open, treat all of your interactions and conversations as though they are the key to your daily lesson. You’ll be better for it, and your acquaintances will receive the attention they seek, permanently placing you in their minds as a leader and more importantly, someone they can talk to. Live your business life with a thirst for knowledge that is surpassed only by your efforts to apply that knowledge as efficiently as possible. Educating yourself on your industry trends, weaknesses, and keys to stability can only help you succeed as a leader. Most organizations offer leadership training, conferences or one-day seminars with a variety of class options. Seek them out and test the water; you may like what you find. Your boss certainly will. If you want something a little more serious, try an online course. Local colleges and universities will offer nighttime classes for working adults and some even offer one-time weekend classes. Read blogs, e-books, and periodicals, anything that could help you expand your horizons will pay dividends many times over.

Show Your Desire to Help

Go out of your way to ask associates if they have work they may need help on, be it research, clerical fact and source checking, or even just reading over some completed work to offer your feedback and encouragement. Few things will gain you more credibility as a leader than helping others, especially when there is no obvious gain to be had. If you’re able to complete an assignment early, try creating an alternative with a slightly different direction or feel to it that your superior may be able to review and decide to use. A boss with two quality options to choose from will often be more than satisfied. Extra effort is always noticed, if not by your superior, then certainly by your peers. Doing even some of these small things show your initiative and desire for the success of everyone involved.

Utilize Social Media

Only a few years ago those seeking leadership inspiration had to look within their company. Later, as the well ran dry at home it was time to hit the road for conferences and conventions. Today, we are lucky to have social networking; nothing in recent memory has had such an enormous effect on how we go about our daily lives. From our morning coffee and news, to networking with clients across the ocean, using social media to its fullest will keep your team a step ahead or place your resume in the right hands at the right time. Services like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow users to connect with colleagues all over the world, and follow trends and fads at their most raw beginnings. Never has having your finger on the pulse of business been so easy, or so rewarding. Take advantage of these tools and opportunities. Use them to their fullest, be the leader you can be and help your business and career take that next step.

Learn from Your Mistakes

Good leaders don’t make the same mistake twice. Great leaders use their past mistakes to their benefit, teaching others as well as themselves what went wrong, why it happened and what they are going to do to keep it from happening again. As always, leadership is a series of degrees. Learning and growing from your mistakes slides your abilities up the scale at an alarming rate. Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed of mistakes; push them into the open so everyone can learn from your misstep. While this will be difficult in the present, its wisdom will be appreciated and rewarded down the road.

While working at a small company may offer challenges to your expansion as a leader, never should it be an unconquerable hindrance. The same opportunities are available to you as those working for publicly traded big businesses, you may just have to work harder to exploit them. Gaining the skills and knowledge to lead others is a long and strenuous undertaking, but the reward and benefit far outweigh the efforts. Putting the time into the collaboration of your extended team, the growth of your personal leadership abilities, and the better understanding of the tools available to you and your employer will make you invaluable to your company, big or small.

Professional Skepticism, by definition, is an attitude and approach that includes a questioning mind, careful thought, and critical assessment of all information. Few things will help you more than trusting your instincts. Professional Skepticism, as covered in this entry, is the growth of that idea. It’s not an easy skill to master; overuse could easily lead to paranoia, underuse to a naivety that will have you out the door in short order. Be it people, data, or the accumulation of your personal feelings, you will be well served carefully absorbing, reflecting, and reviewing this information without bias.

Though our society relies on trust, it’s your job to be sure that trust is well placed and well deserved. In business relationships, past dealings and relationships are the building blocks for growth. They are where we reflect and learn from our own personal use of Professional Skepticism. Did I trust too much? Was the risk justified?  Hopefully the answers suit you and your career well. If not, learn from them and apply the lessons and theory to future enterprises. An example that lends itself to our topic, as well as being a position many may find themselves in, is the task of gathering referrals and credit references. When thousands if not millions of dollars are moved by key strokes and business deals are made through emails as opposed to pen strokes and handshakes, the verification of past business references and company credit history has gained immense value. Few things are more important to your employer than the execution of Professional Skepticism in these situations. To whom are you really dealing with over email? Should this person gain access to your company’s private information? Can the past creditors word be taken at face value? Do the numbers in actual production match those promised to justify the loan? Does your contact have anything to gain by the acceptance or termination of business with the client in review? These contacts and answers are often the sole factor in the acceptance of loans or accounts between companies. This arena can be a playground for those propagating fraud; your value and growth in your field will be determined by your ability to apply your skills to the expansion of business, the protection of company interest, and the upkeep of your employer’s reputation.

Much of this may seem as common sense, but as with many things, familiarity can lead to complacency. Don’t be lulled by your desire to trust. Too often our human want for acceptance and friendship end without the desired result. Success and prosperity go hand in hand for employer and employee alike, the application of your carefully and skeptically gained experience will work wonders for both. Go and use your freshly sharpened sense of Professional Skepticism, apply the theory when needed and make the practice a part of your everyday business life, with it your career path can only lead up.

The problem with a lot of leaders or managers is that most of the time, they seemed to be incompetent at conducting a good meeting. This typical scenario shows people attending the assembly getting bored or the meeting itself is disorganized. Fortunately, there are some techniques on how to carry out efficient and productive meetings. Take a look at the following tips that will assist you in maintaining opinionated and very smart employees concentrated on your conference even if there’s a temptation for them to lose focus or get sleepy.

• Prior to starting the gathering, always make it a point to explain the real setting of the meeting to everyone involved. Letting them know exactly what you want and don’t want from them is very essential.

• Show and make them feel that you have control inside the room. Do it with confidence by having eye contact and correct body language. You are the one who’s in-charge of the meeting so don’t feel threatened by the presence of the CEO or the founder of the organization. Remember though that you can still show respect while being in control of everything. Know your limits and just try to explain the important points with respect and authority.

• Argument or debate is more often than not present in any kind of meeting. So always be prepared when this happens by knowing how to control dispute situations. When it’s already getting out of control, immediately get the attention of the disputing parties. Try to consider the different opinions of the individuals in debate and bring them back to harmony so you maintain power.

• This one is like resolving arguments but this time, you have all of the meeting attendee’s attention. Tell them to settle their disputes when the meeting is over or in a separate assembly. What is important is to go on with the meeting with your power harmoniously intact. They must have the distinct impression that there are more important issues to discuss other than their debate. This is one way of showing them you are in control and you are serious about your business.

• A meeting most often gets disorganized when it becomes obvious that you messed up and everyone has surely noticed it. You can avoid this embarrassing scene if you know how to improvise when the situations calls for it. The most effective way to gain this skill is through learning from your past experiences. Always be prepared, be confident and sprinkle the meeting with a sense of humor.

All the tips mentioned can be learned through a gradual process. Committing mistakes is inevitable but avoiding doing them twice is recommendable. Knowing how to have control in a meeting is not that easy, yet with patience and dedication, it can be mastered.

Being merely at ease talking in front of a crowd is not the only skill you need to learn because speaking well in front of those listeners is vital. Read the following tips that will help you in becoming one of the best business speakers in town.

Avoid Too Much Company or Self Promotion Introductions

This is the usual mistake of amateur business speakers. At the start of their speech, they usually discuss tons of unnecessary biographical information or inessential things about their company. The audience, more often than not, is not interested about a course in college you may have taken or what particular University you graduated from, because this type of information should be included briefly in your introduction as speaker. Also, telling them about the history and popularity of your company will make their eyes roll for sure because they already have information on that. What you need to do during the first essential 20 or 50 seconds of your introduction is to instantly let the audience know what you are about to share with them. I am talking here about the specific topic of discourse. This moment will let your audience choose if they’ll listen to you or not. So instead of a boring opening message, strongly convince the people in lending their ears to you.

Engage your Audience with your Speech

If you want to be sure that your listeners are paying attention to your speech, just allow them be a part of whatever it is you are trying to discuss with them. One trick is to ask questions, this does not literally mean asking each person in your audience a question. Instead, you can throw in general questions, like for example, if you are talking about real-estate, ask something like “What is it that you are looking for in an ideal area to build your house?” By doing that, you are stirring the mind of your audience and thereby engage them on the topic you are to discuss. Moreover, it will prevent them from getting bored and distracted so that they will not end up text messaging or sending e-mails on their Blackberries.

Convey your Ideas in a Precise Manner

When you are trying to explain something to your listeners, be certain that you are discussing it in a specific manner, so they will fully understand everything. It’s ok to share with them your ideas and opinions, but shortly after, it will be best to give examples or even tell a story that will truly describe the point you are trying to convey. Your audience will start forming a mental landscape as to what you are talking about and will lend you not only their ears, but also allow you to cultivate their minds.

Minimize Power Point Presentations

Although having Power Point included in your speech can give it a bit of boost, sometimes it can do you harm instead of good. This is because some audiences will have their eyes and attention fixed on the slide presentations rather than listening to you. Due to that, some speakers don’t use this kind of tool anymore as they view it as a hindrance to capturing their listener’s attention as well as their concentration. But if you really require a Power Point to present ideas of a more visual nature or even graphs, then try to minimize their use. Excessive slides will make your audience get confused if they constantly must sift through a heavy quantity of images, as well as the verbal data delivered in your speech; thus they’ll end up focusing themselves in an inefficient manner or, perhaps, on something else all together, such as day dreaming or using their phones. An ideal Power Point presentation should be composed of about 5-10 slides only, as well as succinct use of words and phrases if you are to deliver your message to the audience exceptionally well.

The problem with the usual recommendation methods is that the receipt of referrals are merely obliged and not thoroughly researched. What hiring teams should do is to have a more advanced hiring process in the form of active employee referral sessions. An active employee referral session is a program utilized by best-practice firms that employ almost 60% or more of external hires they receive through recommendations.

So what’s valuable about these proactive referrals? It is their ability to obtain immediate hiring results. What happens with an active referral session is that a staffing manager or recruiter engages a group of target employees in an exercise to record candidates they know that are best suited to a particular job vacancy. Instead of asking who they know, the hiring manager should inquire employees about the following:

• Who they have previously worked with or met that work in a type of position at ABC Establishment or XYZ Corporation (All companies mentioned must have already recognized candidates provided by the hiring manager or recruiter)

• In reference to the establishment they’ve worked with before, they should provide who is thought to be the ideal person when it comes to job skill ‘A’ or job skill ‘B”.
• Out of all the people they have worked with in the past, who do they think can easily adapt to your company’s working environment.

The example questions mentioned above are known to be ‘priming questions’ for they assist the workers in performing an exercise that allows them to recall individuals they would not normally remember in detail if asked about them. Once recruiters and staffing directors manage to prepare at least 5-7 priming questions, they can often haul out lots of information from a staff group to seal the search for a much needed candidate. Having all of the essential info, the hiring committee can verify them and then cooperate with the staff that offered the leads to get close to the target candidate and turn them into a valid and sound recommendation.
Once the company is ready to promptly track the prospect through this procedure, using active employee referral sessions can often result in a hire within 1-2 weeks of the sessions. If organized properly, these active referrals sessions can be the best scouting method any business establishment can make employ.

Human Resources ambit of responsibility may increase as a company grows. At one point or another, every employee from CEO down to the janitor, has been trained, compensated or consulted by HR. But companies still do not view the HR department as a profit center under their business model. A company cannot generate revenue from itself; however, it can offset expenses. It is important to note that revenue and profit can come from external sources. So, being internal, HR does not turn a profit. That’s because the HR doesn’t generate income and profit, it doesn’t mean it’s not an integral part of the company. HR can offset expenses and focus more on expense reduction which can help the company keep clear of any potential financial pot hole.

Another part of HR’s role is to get clear agreement and support from everyone companywide. They set the expectation at the leadership level and get input and feedback about what the employees’ needs are and finalize and enact the strategy that will eventually lead to success.

HR teaches by example by insisting on looking back to go forward: they teach how the problems were fixed and not on what’s been done wrong. Looking back on past problems and evaluating the solutions employed is one of HR’s most notable functions. For example, rather than showing who is not performing, they should focus on who is performing. HR tells the stories of great achievements to senior leaders who may then bring the information back to the managers so they might adjust their approaches and become more successful. These success stories will help leaders to act intelligently and be able to make changes perspicaciously. Business culture will be vibrant in proportion to the positive outcomes the current problem solving and forward thinking are achieving. HR helps the CEO and other leaders identify their professional definitions of success. They can then commit to support others in achieving their personal definitions of success.

What if Human Resource “charged” their internal clients for their use of training courses offered? Those may include: Recruiting and outsourcing, succession planning, conflict resolutions, coaching services, compensation analysis, and employee surveys. Maybe companies would be able to place more value on the services they receive. It is valuable to point out that the use of social media on recruitment can reduce cost. Using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with candidates, HR eliminates spending excessive time and money administering the process of providing candidates with a less than satisfactory recruitment experience.

Most successful entrepreneurs are very aware that having a business is just being in contest, or, perhaps, playing a game. There are many competitions lurking around the corner and a good leader must learn to acknowledge each of them. The next step is to place those rivals in the sphere of immediate attention of your employees: tell each of them to look at those other brands or companies as their enemies. Explain to your people that part of your own company’s success will rely on how you can stay above those competitors. They have to stick in their mind that those other brands or services are their business foes that they have to beat on a continuous basis.

For sure, you employees will feel the need to do their best in order uplift the image of their company. They will also make an effort to find ways in making the products and services of the company better than that of the competition. Moreover, they will be more innovative and creative, as well as finish their projects on time so that they will not feel left behind by their competition. Your employees will look at it as a challenge that may become very rewarding as well.

As a leader, you can motivate your workers to do research on the rival brands. Ask them to study the competition’s company feature, especially the quality of the product or services that they produce for the market. Through those examinations, they will identify the things that make your business rivals better or those things that create your company’s edge. Both weakness and strength of your products or services will aid in the changes or improvements that they must take action on. They can also collaborate with their fellow workers and discuss these issues as to create a common work goal.

When it comes to business matters, other brands are never regarded as a friendly force but instead as enemies that need to be overcome. As a leader, must remind your worker to give their best all the time because their business foes are also doing everything they can to replace their products or services with that of the competition. No need for punches and casting aspersions just plain cooperation and hard work among the leader and employees. Eventually, all of you will surely feel confident that your competitions are left behind and the company and employees have merged and have overcome the adversary as one, and, hopefully, as “number one” in the market.

The reason behind these non-stop layoffs is due to a corporation’s desire to spread their wealth between the fewest possible members, although they may want to retain an otherwise useful employee. This move is clearly made in order to conform to the latest market size. Actually, there are indeed instances that cutting jobs is needed like when an industry is slowly diminishing or is permanently falling. But if your company belongs to the industry of the present time, then having a mass of layoffs will surely hurt your business instead of helping it. Also, it will not stop your company’s ultimate downfall, (which is your main aim in the first place) but instead will just delay it for a while. Wayne Cascio, a professor in the University of Colorado and author of “Responsible Restructuring” made a list of possible direct and indirect outcomes of layoffs which are:

• Severance pay
• Paying out accrued vacation and sick pay
• Outplacement costs
• Higher unemployment-insurance taxes
• The cost of rehiring employees when business improves
• Low morale and risk-averse survivors
• Potential lawsuits, sabotage, or even workplace violence from aggrieved employees or former employees
• Loss of institutional memory and knowledge
• Diminished trust in management
• Reduced productivity

Just think about it, once a company decreases its number of employees, customer service, productivity and improvement will also lessen and the staffs will feel discouraged to work. Establishments suffer big costs once they cut down employees, which include big separation pay and outplacement. It will also cause low morale and decreased productivity with the remaining workers as they’ll feel anxious about whether or not they will be the next person to bid farewell from work.

To avoid trouble when performing layoffs, companies should be very specific who is going to be cut off from work. It will eradicate worry from other workers – especially the most treasured employees in the company – so they can perform their tasks well without the fear of being the next person to walk out the door. Another tip is to offer generous separation packages and letting those fired workers advanced notice to see their colleagues off. Doing those things will lessen the pain in the individual’s self-esteem and overall morale. Talking and explaining to workers why you need to layoff staff is highly recommended. Some companies even cut off senior executives and not just front-line staffs to avoid any excessive or unfounded resentment.

Unnecessary layoffs will not only greatly hinder a company’s success but is also harmful to the economy and demoralizing for the workers as individuals. Even in a healthy economy, this principle remains true.

“Being 99% correct on this job is not enough; you must be 100% correct all the time.” This line is just an example of a hard to please employer. Each of us must learn how to cope with the demands of an arrogant boss, yet keep our emotions and work ethics intact. Below are some lines you’ll often hear from a leader that tends to be a perfectionist:

“What the hell are you doing?! That’s wrong!”
Expect to be corrected; it is guaranteed to happen and sometimes with startling frequency. There is an old saying that goes, “we show others how we wish to be treated ourselves.” Politely ask your boss how things need to get done and express that you appreciate hearing new ideas. That way, the boss will feel guilty for treating you bad because you have presented yourself as a courteous, and affable person. Think of the situation as a new learning experience and opportunity for self improvement.

“Don’t ask me stupid questions! You must know the answer already!”
Patience is needed to call a “brilliant” boss’s attention, and for him take your work seriously. A perspicacious employee will usually alter plans and work flow to attempt to satisfy this kind of boss. The trick is to ask intelligent and well thought out questions without overwhelming or undermining. Trivial questions will certainly attract ire.

“I can do this quickly, but you’re so slow!”
Try to get the job done as quickly as possible while learning from the inside out. Most bosses boast on how quickly and efficiently they do the work you have been assigned. Learn on how to be effective: Study to improve your performance and output. If you’re good at what you do, the arrogant boss will have fewer reasons to be picky and point out problems.

“You’re good but as long as I’m here, you are just second best see…”
Try your best to give positive comments on your boss’s standards; after all they are the boss’s rules. Try to implement those rules that seem to be most effective first. Tell the boss sincerely that you are learning from his/her expertise and how grateful you are. But remember this: Improving standards at work is one thing and blatant interference and control from the boss is another.

If you have ever seen the film, “The Devil wears Prada” you may have been horrified, and perhaps a bit amused by the boss in this film, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), and the way she expected perfection from all her employees. One thing that I took from this film was the revelation of the boss’s character in the denouement of the story. She actually turned out to be quite sympathetic when her exhausted and frustrated protégé, Andie, finally decided to quit. Arrogant and perfectionist bosses often have an annoying habit of testing their newbies to the most extreme of limits. They want to see what you are made of and may actually be assisting employee development in a way that assumes to bring out the very best qualities in people who work for them. They challenge you to strive for excellence which is one way of promoting improvements in the workplace. These improvements can actually serve as a reward for anyone who can last the distance in the job. Your skills and work ethic are guaranteed to be sharpened to an impressive standard. If all else fails with regards to dealing with an arrogant/perfectionist boss, then seriously consider changing to another job. If you do indeed end up handing in your resignation, you won’t have to be concerned about a perfect delivery in announcing this to your boss.

I can still remember my very first job I got right out of school. I can also remember being frequently criticized by my new employer. Though I admit it was irritating, it helped me a lot in improving myself. I can now really appreciate employers that are not afraid to voice their opinions regarding someone’s job. This is very important because it gives workers awareness of the things that they may be able to aptly improve, as well opening new ideas on how to produce a better end-product.

So why is it that a lot of bosses are so hesitant when it comes to giving feedback? It is very predictable that they simply don’t want to cause tension with their employees. The key here is how and when employers should deliver their comments, not if they should at all. It has been found that the best rhythm in which to provide critical assessment is about once a month. Doing it will thoroughly evaluate the performance of a person within a reasonable, and meaningful period of time. You cannot say that within just a week, a worker has had a sufficient amount of time to display consistently good or bad work that falls completely outside of what probability may offer; hence a month’s observation is the most reasonable.

How an employer delivers his/her feedbacks must also be put into consideration. They must keep in mind that the reason why they are doing it is to help their employees develop their work skills and ethics, instead of just taking advantage of a convenient forum with the sole purpose to cast insult or produce an annoyance. Focusing on improving the employee’s performance while at work must be the intention. Attack on someone’s personal life must be avoided at all cost. Bosses need to show that they are sincerely concerned about the improvement of their people and that they expect positive results out of those feedbacks.

Employers must prepare themselves prior to giving out comments. They should know precisely the basis as to why a particular employee is being given negative feedback. Knowing the cause of a situation is of great significance. Suggesting a means of solving the issue or at least preventing it from happening again is the goal.

It’s indeed crucial that employers are open to giving feedback to their workers so that they can guide those people that work for them in the proper way of performing their duties. Moreover, it will be beneficial both to the company and to the employees: for it will enhance their knowledge and skills, thus resulting in a great job performance.