Overworked? 4 Signs You Need to Recharge

Sometimes it's obvious we need a break, but in most cases we figure it out too late. When you work double-digit hours and Sundays are no longer a day of rest, feeling overworked can become the new normal. Even so you'll eventually hit a wall, and when that happens it can take days and even weeks to recover the enthusiasm, creativity and motivation you've lost.

Fortunately a few of the same techniques endurance athletes use to detect the need for additional recovery can be used to indicate when you need to recharge your work batteries. Where elite athletes are concerned, chronic overtraining can actaully defeat the fitness purpose and result in decreased stamina, power and speed; sometimes the harder they work the slower they get.

The same thing happens to us when we're overworked. We put in more hours to compensate...and get even less done. So how can you tell the difference between feeling overworked and really overworking yourself?

I asked Jeremiah Bishop for some simple techniques anyone can use to avoid hitting a wall. Jeremiah is a professional mountain bike rider for Cannondale Factory Racing. He's a twelve-time member of the US national team and is to mountain bike racing what an NBA All-Star is to basketball.

Here are ways to ensure you stay at your professional best:

Check your resting heart rate. Every day, before you get out of bed, take your pulse. Most of the time your heart rate will stay within a few beats per minute. But when you're overworked and stressed your body send more oxygen to your body and brain by increasing your heart rate. If your heart rate is up in the morning, do whatever it takes to get a little extra rest or sleep that night.

Check your emotions. Having a bad day? Feeling irritable and short-tempered? If you can't put your finger on a specific reason why, chronic stress and fatigue may have triggered a physiological response and sent more cortisol and less dopamine to your brain. Willing yourself to be in a better mood won't overcome the impact of chemistry, and in extreme cases the only cure is a break.

Check your weight. Lose or gain more than a percent of body weight from one day to the next and something's wrong. Maybe yesterday was incredibly stressful and you failed to notice you didn't eat or drink enough...or maybe you failed to notice just how much you actually ate. Lack of nourishment and hydration can put the hurt on higher-level mental functions. And eating too much food - well, we all know the impact of that.

Check your, um, output. Urine color can indicate a lack of hydration. The lighter the color the more hydrated you are. Hydration is a good thing. Proper hydration aids in the absorption of nutrients and helps increase energy levels. If your urine is darker than usual the cure is simple: Drink a lot of water.

The key is to monitor each of these over a period of time so you develop a feel for what is normal for you. Pay special attention on weekends and vacations, and if you notice a dramatic change, especially a positive one, that's a sure sign you need to change your workday routine.

Don't say this sounds like something only elite athletes need to worry about. We all want to be the best we can possibly be, no matter what our profession, and whenever we slam into the workload wall we are far from our best.

And don't say you don't have the time to take a short break or get a little more sleep. You owe it to yourself to find a way.

Eventually your mind and body will hit a wall and make you, so why not take care of yourself, and improve your performance, on your terms?

Taken from www.inc.com  Written by Jeff Haden

The Top 10 Interview Questions to Prepare For

In general, job interview questions fall into two categories - Traditional and Behavioral

Traditional questions help potential employers evaluate your skills and experience. Behavioral questions help employers predict how you will react in future situations based on your past behavior.

To ace your next job interview, you need to be able to answer both types of questions in a calm, collected and confident manner. And to do that, you need to rehearse your answers in advance.

Take the list below and start preparing your answers now.

• Tell me about yourself.
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Why are you leaving your current job? Or why were you terminated from your last job?
• What interested you in this position?
• What do you know about our company?
• Why do you think you will excel in this position?
• What are your biggest strengths? Weaknesses?
• Describe your biggest professional achievement.
• Tell me about a time when you dealt with conflict in the workplace and how you handled it.
• Do you have any questions for me? (ALWAYS have questions prepared to ask the interviewer.)

Written by Laurie Ballow

Time Managment: Taking Stock of Your Most Precious Commodity

If you've been entrusted to manage a valuable commodity - whether it's the company's finances, the merchandise in your shop, or your own income - you start by taking stock of what you have to work with. Where and how are the resources being generated, spent, saved, and squandered? Is it possible to appropriate them more effectively? Where are the silent leaks? It doesn't have to be any different with time, our most valuable commodity. Time management is one of the most important activities when it comes to work.

Whatever value we place on money, investments, or merchandise, it is that resource of hours and minutes that's most elusive.

Time Management Tips and Tricks

Like money, you want to know how to make sufficient time to accommodate the world-changing things you want to do with your life. Do you complain you don't have enough time or are you easy prey to any gadget that promises to make you a multitasking magician? Altering your life to accommodate your goals and ambitions isn't easy, but the time-generating solution may be simpler than you think.

• Face the Data. As eager as you are to dive into time management, it's vital to assess the situation as it is now - the problem, if you will. Successful businesses are meticulous in taking stock of their resources. They know exactly how many pennies they have and where they're spending them. You need to do the same with your minutes.
• Remember: It All Adds Up. Minutes and pennies seem like such tiny quantities - throw-aways, really. But if you've ever seen the movie Office Space, you'll remember that even fractions of a cent can result in millions of dollars if you can gather up enough of them. Minutes are your commodity - start counting.
• Track. Set yourself up for a one week mini-project. Get a small notebook that will easily fit into your purse or pocket and then trade out your fancy wristwatch for a good old-fashioned Timex with a stopwatch. Now start timing yourself. Be natural as you go through the week, not making big sweeping changes so you look better on paper. Log each activity (in exact minutes) as you proceed through your day. For example: 

• Showering and dressing for work: 45 minutes
• Looking for keys and files for morning presentation: 8 minutes
• Trip to Starbucks: 17 minutes
• Morning commute: 25 minutes
• Checking and answering email: 19 minutes

Continue making notes in your log. A tad tedious perhaps, but the information is invaluable. You'll gain some surprising insight into how much time you have and where you're spending it. Don't forget to log eating, TV watching, and sleeping. Track it - all of it!

• Be Specific. Don't guess - we always estimate in our favor and we're usually off by quite a wide margin. Remember, your mission it not to see how fast you plow through your activities of daily living. This isn't a race. It is an opportunity for you to start to conceptualize the amount of time you have, and how you are choosing to use it.
• Analyze the Data. Add up the minutes spent in each category and assess. You may be surprised to find out that in a typical day you spend two hours actually working, forty-five minutes taking a shower, and ninety accumulated minutes doing Internet "research." Highlight trouble areas.
• Don't Squander Resources. When people complain about not having enough time, the issue (usually) is not that they are so busy, but that they use their time badly. Take the data from a typical week and multiply it by fifty-two to get an annual estimate. Think about the minutes you're spending on non-essentials - what could you accomplish with that time over the course of a year? 
• Make the Right Choices. Undoubtedly you are starting to realize that the issue is not time-poverty, but misplaced priorities. If you don't have time for an activity or endeavor, it's because you've chosen to spend that time elsewhere. The trick is not to try to multi-task more tasks or even work faster, but to clarify your priorities and make better choices.
• Tighten Your Belt. We hate boundaries, but savvy time-spenders know that there's freedom in the fences. That means putting some limits on the major minute munchers.

Tips for Minimizing Minute Loss

• Confine your use of social media to 2-3 times per day. Set a limit on those sessions.
• Disable Facebook and Twitter updates on your phone.
• Set up an email schedule. Log in for 2-3 sessions per day. The world can wait, trust me.
• Assess your TV watching schedule and weight it in light of other leisure activities - pick one or two programs you can't live without and spend the saved time on coffee with friends or those trips to the gym you can never squeeze in.
• Save video games for a special reward, say after you've finished the presentation or cleaning the bathroom.

Conclusion

For some, it will be a though they've just been asked to amputate their own limb. But here's the reality: time is a limited commodity and you make the choices. In three years so you want to boast great strides towards your life goals, or be able to say you saw every Lady Gaga tweet the moment it was released?

Raise the bar on yourself and on your level of discipline - no one can do this for you. Visualizing clear goals will help you stay on track when you have that overwhelming urge to tweet your latest brainwave. Trust me, the world can probably live without it - stay on task.

How you choose to appropriate your most precious resource is a decision you make - no one is a victim to some nebulous, time-stealing monster. We all have the same 1440 minutes to work with each day. How do you choose to get a better return on yours?

Taken from workawesome.com. Written by Jacki Christopher.

How to Overcome the Stress of Being an Overachiever

According to Dr. Phil, "we can't change what we don't acknowledge first." With this being the case, I have finally come to terms with a plaguing issue that I've denied for many years. My name is Jennifer, and I am an overachiever.

There. I've said it. The proof is in the pudding.

Adorning my bedroom walls are dozens of plaques, commendations, and kudos from just about every avenue of my life: from grade school awards, to college scholarships, to writing competitions, to community service.

I say this not to brag, but to make a point. In 2005, in the hit movie "Hustle and Flow," one of the main characters of the movie laments over how hard it is to be a successful hustler. This "baller" should try being an overachiever! Overachievers may not get the same street cred, or cool theme music, but they work just as hard and live in constant angst in their daily efforts to be the best at what they do.

Achievement becomes an addiction in which the "high" of success is often chased by additional acts of excellence and emotional and physical over investment. And to be quite honest, it can be rather exhausting.

Sure, for those of us who suffer this malady, we can say that it makes our moms proud, earns us a few bragging rights, and reasons to reward ourselves with chocolate and periodic shopping sprees, but somehow, somewhere, we have to draw the line.

For example, I was competing with a little girl at a close friend's daughter's birthday party, in a jump rope competition, and let's just say that this kid proved to be a poor loser. But I was determined to outdo her.

Could You Be An Overachiever Just Like Me?

According to the Overachiever Coach, "Overachievers are ambitious, driven, and influenced to do (and be) the best. They have a unique mindset that keeps their brain on overdrive and a work ethic that keeps them one step ahead. High expectations and focused intensity are definite characteristics of overachievers. They are always pushing themselves for more - whether it's professionally, academically, personally or in a sport or hobby."

Sound Familiar?

Here are some other tell-tale signs of overachievers, based upon my own experience and observations:

• Overachievers have a sense of urgency about things that makes them unique comparatively. They view time as a commodity.
• Overachievers often come from successful families where parents or other family members were doctors, lawyers, actors, teachers, bankers, or military personnel. In other words, achievement was as much a part of their family blood line as their DNA.
• Overachievers typically do well in school, often skipping a grade or two, or earning scholarships along the way.
• Overachievers tend to be their own worst critics. They impose high standards and subject themselves to personal scrutiny on various levels.
• Overachievers are very results-oriented. They are very diligent in their day-to-day functioning, and often set goals by which they measure their overall performance.
• Overachievers often feel pressured to do well.

Now that we've identified what it is, here is how to look at this condition more objectively - and use it to enhance our lives rather than encumber it.

If you, like me, have decided that 2011 will be the year to be less stressed, less anal, and more balanced in your personal and professional life, here are some savvy ways to walk the talk:

1. Realize that we were designed to be "human beings". not human doings. Keep things in proper perspective. We are more than our titles and Facebook status updates. Our value as human beings should never solely be tied into our value in the workworld, or the value of our achievements.
2. Know that the stress associated with "driven personalities", grueling work hours, and extremely high self-imposed expectations can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease, and poor sleep habits. It can also adversely impact our personal relationships, if we apply the same high, rigid standards. Act accordingly.
3. Take heed to the saying, "all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl." Balance is crucial. Work hard, but play hard too when time allows. Tap into some personal hobbies like cooking, or writing, or sports for recreational outlets and a greater quality of life.
4. Give yourself a break. There's nothing wrong with having a "marginal mindset" or weaknesses in some areas. For instance, I really suck at bowling, but enjoy it immensely. Everybody needs an activity that allows them to relax and release. What's yours?
5. Realize that life is not a competition. Run your own race. Don't get caught up in comparing your successes to your siblings, friends, or co-workers. We each have different skills, circumstances, and goals.

Follow these timely tips and you'll achieve something much greater than "status." You'll enjoy a greater quality of life, and better mental and physical health. And that's something worth boasting about.

Taken from workawesome.com. Written by Jennifer Brown Banks.

Overachiever

Latin Name: Strivum excessivus

Notable Characteristics: Felt like a loser when Stanford was his best option. Spends 15 hours developing a recruitment presentation for the kids' PTA. Regularly sends 27 work-related emails between 8 PM and midnight.

Songs and Calls: "Just one more revision." "Try harder!" "I heart all-nighters!" "I bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, make homemade 'this little piggy' hand puppets for my kindergartner's classmates, run five miles daily, and, in my free time, raise and sell free-range chickens."

Whether it's CEO status or a seven-minute mile, we're all driven to accomplish goals. And whether we have the skills to be the next Jimi Hendrix or the best damn bass player at Mad Dog's Open Mic Night, there is a healthy way to approach any objective: namely, by striving for self-improvement or for a boost in our environment or relationships.

But the normal drive to accomplish tasks has a dark counterpart. People driven to overachieve are motivated by an unhealthy compulsion to show they are worthy. "Overachievers have an underlying fear of failure or a self-worth contingent upon competence," says University of Rochester psychologist Andrew Elliot. "Rather than setting and striving for goals based on a pure desire to achieve, their underlying motivation impels them out into the world to avoid failure."

Why Motivation Matters

Some of us skip through life with our eyes on the prize while others skulk along dodging loser status. As we set out to accomplish things, that fundamental distinction between approach and avoidance motivation - between a positive and negative orientation - leads the overachiever to adopt certain types of goals that directly affect performance.

"The goal and motivation together result in overachievement," says Elliot. There are three basic ways to go after an objective. Approach-mastery goals are pure, focused on self-improvement for its own sake and predictive of learning and deep processing: "I'll memorize spelling bee words because it'll be fun to know what guidon means!"

Performance-approach goals are more complicated, focused on competition with others and predictive of strong performance: "I want to kick butt in the spelling bee to show that bespectacled dweeb I'm a genius!" But performance-avoidance goals are a troubled stew, focused on preventing bad outcomes and predictive of worse performance. "I must win the spelling bee or my girlfriend will dump me for the bespectacled dweeb."

Overachievers are likely to adopt competitive performance-approach or fearful performance-avoidance goals because of an underlying motivation to "be better than other to avoid rejection," Elliot says. That negative underpinning can turn an otherwise useful performance-approach goal into one that causes stress. But avoidance goals are even more problematic, he adds, because they "create worry and distract people from the task due to self-concerns." Those self-concerns, in turn, can cause low self-esteem, feelings of incompetence, and life dissatisfaction.

The Perfection Paradox

Perfectionism is a key feature of compulsive overstriving and being driven to achieve, says psychologist Gordon Flett of York University. Painfully high self-standards may compel overachievers to obsessively pursue success - picture the college student with the 3.9 GPA who can't stop self-flagellating over that one B+.

The irony: Though they strive for greatness, most perfectionists are destined for disappointment. "The data on perfectionism and actual performance show little payoff in terms of objective achievement," Flett reports. And when perfectionists do perform exceptionally, he adds, "many evaluate themselves quite harshly and don't feel especially good about their accomplishments."

But high self-standards in one domain do not an overachiever make, and your decades-long quest to play "Little Wing" like Hendrix is not necessarily neurotic. "It's maladaptive when someone is striving to be a perfect person, but it's natural to want to be perfect in the one or two areas that matter most to you," Flett says. So fly on, Little Wing.

Taken from Psychology Today. Written by Jill Coody Smits.

Weighty Personalities: How Character Shapes Your BMI

Your personality influences many life experiences. Now comes word that it might be making you fat...then thin, then fat again.

The Big Five measures of personality are associated with different patterns of weight gain, according to researchers at the National Institute of Aging. A team led by neuroscientist Angelina Sutin looked at data tracking 2000 people for more than 50 years. "We know personality traits are associated with other health indicators, like smoking," Sutin says. "We wanted to see if they're also associated with weight." Here's what they uncovered.

Haste Makes Waist

People who score in the top 10 percent on impulsiveness weight 22 pounds more than those in the bottom 10 percent, on average. Impulsive people have trouble planning ahead and resisting temptation. "An impulsive person intends to go to the gym, but then something pops up and they follow that impulse instead," explains Sutin.

Another predictor of having a large waistline is low agreeableness, aka antagonism. Antagonistic people tend to have stronger physiologic responses to stress, and other studies have associated higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol with weight gain. Could packing on the pounds make you surly? Since temperament is stable over time, Sutin believes personality influences weight, not vice versa.

Sad Cycle

Some people yo-yo between losing and regaining weight. Sutin's study found that this cyclical pattern often occurs in people both high in neuroticism and low in conscientiousness. Two dispositional elements that lead to negative emotions, depression and impulsiveness, were especially associated with weight fluctuations.

Depressed people frequently experience changes in appetite, which may explain some of the seesaw effect. And a 2009 study showed that when impulsive people restrict their food intake, they're even more likely to overeat when faced with temptation than impulsive people who aren't dieting. Coupled with the lack of self-discipline associated with low conscientiousness, these traits can be a recipe for a lifetime of weight fluctuations.

Strictly Slender

Highly conscientious people have the easiest time maintaining a healthy BMI. They tend to be thin and keep the same weight over time, according to the study. That's because they have more self-control and are often more conscious of their weight.

Taken from Psychology Today. Written by Rose Pastore.

Infomaniac: How to Transform Yourself into a Node of Knowledge

Though we love talking about our oh-so-cutting-edge Information Age, sharing info is nothing new. Before the Web - even before your Olivetti started gathering dust - knowledge sharing was integral to getting the job done.

But now more than ever, we're analyzing the play of information: how people swap it, who's milking it best, and which bits we should soak up. And, as always, we're looking at how our bailiwick compares with that of our peers. Certain roles rely heavily on playing catch with ideas, but everyone from a nurse to a pianist is, in a sense, a knowledge worker. And we can all use help refining our expertise.

Whether you're hoping to remain a fixture at your current job or break into a whole new field, here are expert tricks for defining your province and standing out.

The Local Lockbox

You know him: the coworker who can tell you the name of that guy who worked on that project that you think was in 2003 - though you're not sure when...or which project exactly. "Peterson, '05!" he'll declare with the certainty of a Jeopardy champ. You can depend on him to click through his institutional memory or connect you to someone else helpful. But if you're that go-to-person, you might want a break.

"You can be too cooperative for your own good," says Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of iOpener and author of Happiness at Work. What's more, a go-to person often isn't valued enough. He's almost never a higher-up, so his intangible leadership, though appreciated by peers, is mostly overlooked by the boss. If you're the generous one, start talking about it: "I helped Maria last week and she ended up connecting with a great new client - I was happy for her that it worked out!" If you've got a little more chutzpah, ask the person you're assisting to let the boss know you pitched in, says Pryce-Jones. Word of your expertise will trickle up.

Sociologists label people as "local" and "cosmopolitan," adds Ezra Zuckerman, an economic sociologist at MIT's Sloan School of Management. The first type is quite knowledgeable about his organization, whereas the latter has established herself across contexts. Cosmopolitans risk appearing fickle, but locals risk depending on one workplace. If your company is indelibly fixed in your memory, ask for projects that keep you marketable.

The Savvy Specialist

Typecasting is known as a career killer. Yet when Zuckerman studied film actors over the course of several years, he found that those who were boxed-in fared better: By fitting into character constraints, they were able to land gigs that generalists couldn't. In many fields, renaissance men and women are idolized, he says. But in reality, "you've got to turn yourself into a very specialized commodity."

Academics, too, need a fresh niche. You might meet a prof who specializes in 10th-century spider metaphors - she's into it because nobody else is.

The catch-22, Zuckerman admits, is that a niche can get you into a field but be harder to climb out of later. Still, specializing is part deep knowledge, part branding magic. Define yourself narrowly to appeal to a prospective employer's needs, but maintain a broader set of skills so you can wow your boss later.

The Ingenious Generalist

"There's a seduction to being an expert, an assumption in society that credibility relies on deep (and narrow) expertise," writes Jess McMullin of the Information Architecture Institute. "However, for people operating at the edges, intersections, and overlaps where innovation thrives, being a generalist is far more powerful."

In the world of business and design, broad skills lead to opportunities. For the last few years executives have buzzed about "T-shaped" people: those who pair a deep, narrow expertise with breadth in other areas. Some folks are even expected to branch out. To become a master chef, says Zuckerman, you must learn how to be a pastry chef, a cold chef, and a host of other specialists. Limit your expertise and you may never run your own kitchen.

Generalists also tend to be good people-people, says Pryce-Jones. One man she knows used to work in advertising and was always strategically introducing colleagues within the agency. Though he helped huge projects blossom, his work was largely intangible. Realizing that his know-how went beyond the confines of the ad world, he left his job and now works connecting people across industries.

The Navigating Newbie

It doesn't matter whether you've been working for a decade or more: You're still uninitiated when you start a new job. Ben Dattner, author of The Blame Game, suggests tuning in to how your colleagues like to share knowledge. If you're in need of a tutorial on, say, the office's wiki page, but your new boss keeps ignoring your query-stuffed emails, consider a new move. Might your boss prefer a face-to-face lesson over typing everything out? It may seem like a minor difference to you, but asking for help the right way means you'll get the info you need. You can also offer insights that you've gained elsewhere to initiate subtle bartering.

The Part-Time Techie

Your position is outside the tech realm, yet everyone calls you when their computer crashes or if that hamster video on YouTube won't load. Psychotherapist Michael Fromica, an informal techie himself, suggests teaching them how to problem-solve on their own - and learning how to say no when you need to.

"If you grab the mouse and do it for them, you're not doing them a favor," he says. Instead, give them new skills - and tell them when you're too busy to help.

Hoping to gain recognition for on-the-side troubleshooting? Do it by being, well, helpful. "From time to time, send out a little missive to everyone saying, 'You know, I've discovered that if you press control-F6 you get such-and-such in your spreadsheet,'" says Pryce-Jones. Small tips every once in a while remind people that you're savvy and help them in tiny but crucial ways.

Just don't broadcast your knowledge too often. You wouldn't want to become known as That Guy Who Has All The Answers But Is Too Annoying To Ask.

Taken from Psychology Today. Written by Michele Lent Hirsch

Federal Resume Tips

Myth or Fact?

Resumes have to be one page. Myth: In the government, resumes are often longer than one page because of the detailed information applicants must provide to be considered.

As a recent graduate, your educational experience can not qualify as specialized experience. Myth: Many of the assignments, committees, or extra-curricular groups students participate in can be used as experience on an application as long as it corresponds with the job duties and KSA's of the position. For example, Katie was the head of the finance club where she worked on sample projects with a consulting firm. She can describe that experience when applying for a Financial Analyst position.

Social security numbers are a common addition on a resume. Fact: Many resumes need SSNs for identification purposes, however, NIH advises applicants not to include their SSN on paper resumes or in the body of an electronic resume.

Using bullets is a great way to describe job duties on a resume. Fact: Although not always common on federal resumes, bullets make it easier to read job duties.

Formatting

There are many different styles of resumes, however, a federal resume should include the most relevant work experience and educational information at the beginning of the resume. This is best displayed in a short summary or a brief autobiography. You should include information such as skills, competencies, major accomplishments, training or any information that is required or related to the job announcement. If there is something specific you want to convey, place that information up front.

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

Keywords are very powerful words that can enhance a recruiter's understanding of your qualifications and experience. For example, when a recruiter reads the keyword 'analyst', he or she might assume you have experience in collecting data, evaluating effectiveness, and researching and developing new processes.

Keywords are most likely action verbs. When constructing your explanation of previous experience, you should use action verbs to act as descriptions, expressing how you performed that function and with what result.

If the job announcement uses keywords to describe the duties such as "develops" or "implements," these words are representative of independence in work assignments and the range of responsibility for the available position. You should include your experience "developing" or "implementing" to demonstrate your previous independence.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers 

Enhance your resume by adding numerical results. Numerical results can increase appeal with recruiters because it provides a description of the responsibility level that may relate directly to the duties of the position. For example, an individual who was in the budget field has "worked with disseminating budgets for small projects." But when the applicant describes her experience with numbers, her description is more relevant as "disseminated the budgets for small projects amounting to $450,000." Numbers can be a great way to describe the responsibility pressures, and accomplishments of your previous endeavors as they relate to the position you are applying to.

The Long vs. Short Struggle

Federal resumes are much longer than a resume created for the private industry, but how long is too long?

The Long of It

Federal resumes are usually longer because they should be more descriptive and detailed. When writing your resume, it is very important for you to include all information related to the position so that recruiters are able to determine if you qualify for their position. Leaving this information off in the interest of shortening your resume can exclude you from being considered "best qualified."

The Short of It

Although federal resumes need to be detailed, there should be some discretion when there is too much information. All information that relates directly to the position should be included on the resume but information that is only indirectly related can be excluded if the resume begins to grow. Many applicants are proud of their work experience and want to list it all, however, information such as work experience or education that happened a very long time ago and is not a requirement for the future position can be omitted. Use your best judgment to decide what the recruiter needs to know for this specific position.


Taken from www.jobs.nih.gov/jobsearch/federalresume.htm

The Problem With Perfection

If you're not familiar with the law of diminishing returns, it states that at a certain point adding more effort will not produce significantly more gains. The challenge is knowing when you've reached that point. For many managers this is an important question: "How far do I keep going on a project before I declare that it's good enough" - and that further effort will not significantly change the outcome?

Several years ago I worked with a project team charged with increasing sales to its large corporate customers. At the first meeting the team brainstormed ways to drive up sales, but before moving ahead decided to collect data about current sales and survey sales managers and customers. Since it wasn't clear which ideas might work, this seemed like a logical next step - until the data analysis work dragged on for months as the team tried to reach the perfect answer.

I've seen this pattern in many organizations where, instead of moving into action, managers insist on doing more analysis. In some cases this is part of a company-wide "paralysis by analysis" culture, while in others it is a personal tendency of the manager or team involved. Either way this oft-repeated pattern results not only in wasted effort, but significant delays in moving forward.

From my experience, there are two often-unconscious reasons for this unproductive quest for perfection. The first is the fear of failing. In many organizations, coming up with a recommendation that doesn't ultimately succeed can be career limiting. So to avoid this fate, managers put in extra effort to get the "right" answer, and back it up with as much data and justification as possible. Then, if it doesn't work, nobody can say that they didn't do their homework.

The second driver of unproductive perfection is the anxiety about taking action. Studying problems and coming up with recommendations is safe territory; while changing processes, procedures, incentives, systems, or anything else is much higher risk. Action forces managers and teams out of their comfort zones, driving them to sell ideas, deal with resistance, orchestrate work plans, and potentially disrupt work processes for colleagues and even customers. So one way to avoid dealing with these messy issues is to keep the study going as long as possible, thus delaying any action.

Because of these psychological dynamics, breaking free of unproductive perfection is not easy. But if you are a project sponsor, leader or team member, and want to move into action more quickly, here's an approach you can try: Instead of viewing "action" as something that follows research, think about how action can occur parallel to research. In other words, rather than coming up with perfect recommendations and then flipping the switch months later, start by testing some of your initial ideas on a small scale immediately - while collecting more data. Then you can feed the lessons from these experiments into the research process, while continuing to implement and scale additional ideas.

For example, in the sales case described above, the team shifted its pattern by selecting three corporate customers where they could quickly test some of their ideas, in a low-risk way, in collaboration with the sales teams. With one customer, the sales leader experimented with selling products and services together, rather than having services as an after-sell. A second sales leader added a paid advisory service to his offering. The third worked on building relationships higher up in the C-suite. The lessons from these experiments were then incorporated into the team's recommendations, which were then tested with several more customers and so on. Within a year, most of the corporate sales teams were working differently and increasing their overall sales.

Clearly the ideas that first emerge through this iterative approach are not going to be perfect, but by sharpening them through field-testing rather than theoretical analysis they will eventually become good enough to deliver results. Working in this way also reduces the risk of recommending the "wrong" ideas and the anxiety about managing change, since small-scale tests provide rapid feedback and engage others in the organization right from the beginning.

Perfection certainly makes sense when designing an airplane or an office building. But if the search for perfection is leading you to diminishing returns and an avoidance of action, it might be worth taking a different path.

Taken from blogs.hbr.org  Written by Ron Ashkenas

How to Use Video to Market Your Business

The average Internet user watches an astounding 186 videos a month, according to comScore Inc., a global digital market measurement service. This includes news and entertainment clips, personal videos, advertising videos gone viral - you name it.

Video engages people in a way that photos and text along can't. For small business owners, using video in your marketing can bring faces, voices, personality and heart to your operation, while also demonstrating your authenticity. To top that, video in email is said to be able to boost conversion rates by as much as 50 percent.

Thanks to affordable video cameras and easy-to-use software, video has become a tool that nearly any small business can use to enhance their marketing efforts on any channel. Your videos don't have to be big Hollywood productions to be engaging and effective. You can even use your smartphone camera to create them. Here's a quick example:

Types of Videos You Can Create
Not sure what you'd produce a video about? Here are six tips for video production that can help you create informative clips that also reveal your business's "human" side:

• Demonstrate your product or service. Don't just tell, show your customers how your business works. In other words, bring your how-to guides to life. In my experience, informed prospects are more likely to make purchases.
• Use customer testimonials. Your best fans can explain on video how using your products or services solved a problem or improved their lives. Help prospects see themselves in the stories of real people.
• Put donor dollars to work. Videos of how your charitable donations benefit a cause tell a compelling story, which makes a problem - and how donations help remedy it - more real.
• Introduce your staff. This simple method can help show your dedication, passion and commitment to customer satisfaction. It can also create a greater connection with customers by showing them the faces and personalities of your employees.
• Offer a video tour of your office or business location. Another option is to add some spice to your website's "About Us" page by providing an insider's look at your operation.
• Request to take a poll or survey. Add a personal touch to your "Tell us what you think" feedback requests by creating a video. In it, assure customers that their opinions matter.

Tips for First-Time Video Producers

Are you camera shy? Producing marketing videos for your business doesn't have to be a daunting process. Here are a few things to keep in mind that should help make your video shoots simple, smooth and effective.

• Don't make it too complicated. Pick a simple topic for your first video.
• Relax. Work with a colleague you're comfortable with and speak to him or her as the video records.
• Prepare notes but don't read them on camera. Video should be casual and conversational whether it's you, an employee or a customer talking.
• Keep it brief. Determine which two or three bullet points you want to convey in a two-minute video. If you're interviewing a customer for a testimonial, it's usually a good idea to limit it to two or three questions.
• Don't worry too much about "ums" and "ers." You're human. That's what video is about. But take the time to do a few takes and then edit together the best segments.
• Enable and encourage comments. Videos, email marketing and social media marketing go hand-in-hand-in-hand. Get your viewers talking and sharing. Good videos go viral and are great for building brand awareness.
• Incorporate a call to action. This can add interactivity at the end of your video (i.e., For more information..., To take out survey..., To share your story with us...).

Video is a fun and effective marketing tool that's accessible to entrepreneurs - even those who are on a budget. Think about which of your marketing messages could benefit most by the color that video brings to the mix. If a picture says a thousand words, a video can say it bigger, brighter and better.

Taken from entrepreneur.com  Written by Gail Goodman

Market Your Business with Online Video

One of the most popular activities on the web is watching video. People of all ages and backgrounds love watching videos, and the genre has grown well beyond funny clips, sports highlights, and music videos. In fact, online video isn't just for entertainment purposes now, and you can use that to your advantage to help promote your business.

First, let's talk about just how popular and powerful online video is. Here are some stats about online video consumption.

1. Nielsen reports there were over 141 million unique viewers of online video in 2010
2. That figure represents a year over year increase of 10.5%
3. The average time spent per viewer watching online videos was 181.9 minutes
4. YouTube alone pulled in 108,776,000 million unique viewers monthly

Are those numbers large enough to get your attention? Within such huge audiences, there are bound to be people out there looking for the products and services you provide. And what's more, these consumers exhibit high engagement levels. Not only in the amount of time they spend watching videos online as referenced above, but also in the fact that in order for them to see a video, typically they have sought it out or had it sent from a credible source like a friend or family member. So someone watching your online video is doing so of their own free will (as opposed to someone subjected to a commercial during a TV show) so they stand a much better chance of converting to becoming a customer.

Of course, it is easy to say there's a great opportunity out there on the web. It can be more difficult to figure out exactly where your specific opportunity is. There are lots of potential starting points. For instance, how-to videos have a huge audience on the web. These could be anything from how to repair something to how to apply makeup and put together the perfect outfit to how to increase your fuel efficiency. You need to think about what you can offer the public that adds value to their lives and will help position you in their minds as a positive, helpful force. To do this, you could ask yourself, "What questions do my customers most frequently ask?" or "What parts of my web site draw the most visitors?" Knowing what people are interested in will help you determine what kind of content to produce for them.

A second way to go is to produce an interactive Q and A type video. You could invite your customers to send in questions about your products and services, and then you could respond to them via online video. You could make this a weekly or monthly occurrence, and then customers would know to visit your web site, YouTube, or wherever you decide to post the video on a regular basis to see if their question was answered.

If you produce commercials for your business, you can upload those to video sites as well. People search for your brand online on lots of different sites, including sites you may not initially think of like YouTube. By uploading your commercials, you will be able to have more control over what people see when they search for your brand name. Wouldn't you rather have them exposed to your professionally-shot commercial than someone on a webcam reviewing your product?

Video promotions are always a big hit as well. One popular way to execute online video promotions is to have customers submit videos of themselves doing some specified action, and the person who does it the best or correctly wins a prize. This is an especially powerful form of online video marketing because in this scenario, your customers begin creating your marketing messages for you. Even if the videos they make do not mention your brand, the fact that people are making videos at your request lends credibility and respect to your brand.

Getting these videos online is quite simple and costs nothing. The best course of action is to begin by uploading your video to YouTube. Why is this the ideal starting point? 

1. YouTube is owned by Google, and Google constantly crawls YouTube for its search engine results. So by posting a video to YouTube, you are increasing your odds of it also showing up in the Google search results.
2. Whenever you post a video to YouTube, you will be given a code snippet that you can copy and paste on pretty much any site. So you can then add the video to your site, your blog, your social media pages, and anywhere else you want to promote your web site.

Online video offers more opportunity to your business than you may realize. It gives you access to an audience that is quite large in size and extremely engaged with the content they are consuming. There are many different ways to successfully execute an online video marketing campaign, and the barriers to getting videos online are quite low.

Taken from blogspot.com  Written by Stanley Quinn

How to Write a Press Release to Promote Your Business

Press releases are on of the easiest and most inexpensive forms of advertising for any business. Yet most business owners don't know how to write a proper press release for publication in a newspaper or magazine. Here are some simple tips to write a press release to promote your business.

Things you'll need

• A business
• Typing paper
• Story ideas
• List of magazines and newspapers in your niche market
• Editor's names and addresses

1. Make it newsworthy. A press release is often published in a newspaper or magazine as an article, so you want to present a story about your business to the editor. One of the best ways to make your business appealing is to show what is exciting and new for that community. What makes your business unique from other businesses similar to your in town?
2. Find your niche market. You may have a great story ready for publication, but you won't receive much business if the readers don't need your product or service. Research the newspaper or magazine before submitting your press release. If you offer child care services, submit your press release to magazines geared to mothers. If your company provides secretarial assistance to companies, you'll probably want to submit your press release to the business editor of a newspaper.
3. Keep it simple. Remember that you're not the only business out there! Editors receive hundreds, even thousands, of press releases on their desks every day. They probably scan only a few, looking for key words that are specific for their publication. Keep your press release to about one page, focusing on the highlights of your business.
4. Write new press releases as your business changes. It's a good idea to submit a press release any time you add new services or products, change your location, add new staff members, or expand. Keep your community aware of your company so that they will be more likely to do business with you.
5. Continue to submit! Even if your press release is rejected from one newspaper or magazine, keep submitting. Not every publication is right for your business. But someone is in need of your press release right now, and you will be published before you know it.

Tips and Warnings

• Submit, submit, submit!
• Keep your press releases to one page
• Know your niche market
• Don't be discouraged by editor's rejection; someone needs your press release
• Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed; anyone can write about what they know

Taken from ehow.com 

10 Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Business

Too many small business owners think marketing is like a trip to the dentist - something you gotta do every six months or so. But when marketing is continuous and targeted rather than occasional and shotgun, business gets easier. If prospects have a positive view of your wares and reputation before you call or before they start shopping, you're that much closer to nailing a sale. The next news flash is that ongoing marketing isn't tied to a price tag. It's defined only by putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Here are 10 ideas for doing that - on the cheap.

1. Take steps to make customers feel special. Customers respond to being recognized, especially in these rush-rush, get-the-lowest-price times. "Even with a Web-based business, good customer service is possible," says Denise McMillan, co-owner of Plush Creations, an online retailer of handcrafted travel bags. McMillan encloses a small, rose-scented sachet in every jewelry and lingerie bag she sells and also sends a handwritten thank-you note. "The sachet and not cost pennies but add something special to the purchase," she says.
2. Create business cards that prospects keep. Most business cards are tossed within hours of a meeting. Instead of having your card tossed, create one that recipients actually will use - say, a good-looking notepad with your contact info and tagline on every page. "The business card notepad is referred to almost daily, kept for 30 days or so and carries a high remembrance factor," says Elliott Black, a Northbrook, IL, marketing consultant who specializes in small businesses.
3. Stop servicing break-even customers. If this idea makes you gasp, think harder. You're failing for the fallacy of increasing sales instead of boosting profits. If you stop marketing to unprofitable customers, you have more time and resources for customers who actually grow your business. "More than likely, 20% of your customer base is contributing 150 to 200% of total annualized profit; 70% is breaking even; and 10% is costing you 50 to 100%," says Atlanta marketing consultant Michael King. Take a detailed look at your customer profitability data and then direct premium services and marketing to customers who count.
4. Develop an electronic mailing list and send old-fashioned letters. Most businesses have harnessed the power of e-newsletters - and you definitely should be sending out one, too. It's very cost-effective. But exactly because email marketing is now nearly ubiquitous, you can quickly stand out by occasionally sending personal, surface mail letters to customers and prospects. Just make sure the letter delivers something customers want to read, whether an analysis of recent events in your field, premium offers or a sweetener personalized for the recipient (a discount on this next purchase of whatever he last purchased, for instance). "This mailing has to have value to those that read it, so it reflects the value of what you offer," says Leslie Ungar, an executive coach in Akron, OH. "Remember, the best way to sell is to tell."
5. Boost your profile at trade shows and conferences. You can quickly create signage, glossy postcards with your contact information, product news inserts or an event mini Web site in a publishing program.
6. Combine business with pleasure - and charity. Spearhead an event, party or conference for a cause you care about. That puts you in a position of getting to know lots of people, and shows off your small business leadership skills. "I host an annual baseball game where I take hundreds of clients to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field," says Kate Koziel, who owns a public relations agency in Chicago. "Last year, I took 300 people and we raised $10,000 for a local children's hospital. Few people turn down a game and it's a great networking opportunity for guests. It lets me reconnect with current clients and impress potential clients."
7. Create a destination. Bookstore chain Barnes and Noble has its coffee bars. Furnishings giant Ikea offers child-care centers and cafeterias. Why? So customers gravitate to the stores and enjoy an experience, to hang out for a while. Sunday morning at Barnes and Noble becomes a pleasant weekend routine, rather than a shopping errand. Steal this idea. This tip isn't limited to offline destinations, either. Using pay-per-click advertising, you can cheaply drive traffic to a one-time news event or specialty offerings, points out Jay Lipe, a small business marketing consultant based in Minneapolis, MN. Lipe set up a web site for Games by James, a retailer of board games, and quickly attracted customers via pay-per-click ads. "The effect was overnight," says Lipe. "Traditionally in the marketing world, it takes weeks or even months to generate acceptable awareness and traffic. Here we saw traffic spike overnight."
8. Become an online expert. This is the "free sample" approach to bringing in business. Research active email discussion lists and online bulletin boards that are relevant to your business and audience. Join several and start posting expert advice to solve problems or answer questions. You may need to keep this up for a bit. But the rewards come back in paying clients and referrals. "Email discussion lists have been my single largest source of clients over the last eight years," says Shel Horowitz, a small business marketing consultant based in Northampton, MA.
9. Court local media. Editorial features convey more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising does. To get coverage from the local media, whether from the town newspaper, from TV or radio stations, or from trade journals, you need a fresh, timely story. It's usually worthwhile to hire an experienced publicist to position the stories, target appropriate media representatives and write and send press releases. Usually, you can work on a short-term or contingency basis.
10. Finally, don't let the customers simply slip away. Make an effort to reel them back in. It costs a lot less to retain a disgruntled or inactive customer than to acquire a new one. If you haven't heard from a customer in a while, send a personalized email, inquiring whether all is well. For a customer who suffered a bad experience, pick up the phone, ackknowledging the unpleasantness and ask if there's anything you can do. A discount can't hurt either. Being kind to customers is the smartest low-cost marketing you can do.

Taken from microsoft.com/business  Written by Joanna Krotz

How to Market Your Business

In order to get people to notice your business or services, you need to get the word out. For those on a tight budget, you need to spend your money wisely, and advertising agencies can quite expensive to work with. Here are a few ideas on what is most important when getting your business noticed.

1. Have a noticeable sign in the front of your office or store. Make sure it's big enough to get noticed and that the color scheme doesn't blend with its surroundings.
2. Next, work with a free-lance writer and/or designer to create a brochure for you. List the main services you want to advertise and list the prices next to it. Make sure it is full color and has pictures on it because this will make your brochure more memorable.
3. Get business cards that are attractive and that represent the type of business you have. For example, if your business is geared toward children, make your business card (and other marketing materials) colorful and fun. But if you want customers to know that you run a professional, upscale business, make sure your marketing materials are classy.
4. Write a press release, or work with a free-lance writer to write a press release. Have it sent to all the local press in your area.
5. Then follow-up with a call to the editor to see if the media needs any additional information.
6. Have an event to celebrate your opening. Try hosting an Open House or a sales event to welcome customers inside your building.

Tips and Warnings

To find a free-lance writer who can help you with marketing materials, search your local newspapers and shoppers for ads or call the newspaper editor to ask for referrals. You could also ask other business owners who they have worked with on these types of projects. If you want to try using a college student, contact the English or Mass Communications department and ask for an intern. Otherwise, you will need to contact an ad agency to meet with a local writer.

Taken from ehow.com

Email Etiquette

Of all Internet activities, email is the most popular. Almost 88 percent of all Internet users in the US use email. This information comes from a survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy. According to the same survey, approximately 90 percent of those who use the Internet at work use it to access business email.

There are two reasons I decided to write an article about email etiquette. The first one is the sheer number of people using email, especially those using it for business communications. Since you are reading this article which appears on the Web, there's a good chance you use email to communicate with others, including your boss, colleagues, clients or prospective employers.

So, what's the second reason? Well, as the Career Planning guide here on About.com, I receive a lot of email. A lot of it is well written. A lot of it isn't. Some messages go on and on and on, until finally the question is asked. Sometimes the length is necessary - other times the writer could be more concise.

Some messages get right to the point... a little too quickly. The writer wastes no time asking for what he or she needs without bothering to be polite. Some of my younger readers (I assume) use what I can only describe as some sort of shorthand, i.e., "Can U plz send info on careers?" This may be appropriate for communicating with your buddies through instant messaging, but not for writing to someone you've never met. Besides, being a little more specific might help me find the information faster.

Sometimes there are glaring errors, such as misspellings and very poor grammar. While this annoys me some, I can only imagine what a prospective employer would think when receiving a poorly written message. Because your correspondence says a lot about you, you should be aware of some basic email etiquette, sometimes known as netiquette.

Manners and Tone

What three words have a total of 14 letters yet carry a great deal of meaning? People may not notice these words when they're there, but if you forget to use them, you'll come across looking disrespectful and ungrateful. Give up? These very powerful words are "Please" and "Thank You." Please take my advice. You'll thank me later.

This isn't something that especially bothers me, but there are others who are very sensitive to being addressed by their first names. When in doubt, use Mr., Mrs., or Dr. (if appropriate). When you are replying to an email and the sender of the original message has used his or her first name only, then you could safely assume it's okay to use that person's first name as well.

Tone is a difficult thing to explain. Remember when your parents would say "Don't use that tone of voice with me, young lady (or young man)?" Your feelings come across by the way you say something. It is easy to change your tone when you're speaking. When you're writing it's very hard to do. Whenever I write an email, I read my message over several times before I hit send. I want to make sure I come across as respectful, friendly and approachable. I don't want to sound curt or demanding. Sometimes just rearranging your paragraphs will help.

If you're writing to someone you've communicated with before, you may want to begin by saying "I hope you are well." Email writers often use emoticons to convey a certain tone. For those of you who don't know what these are, emoticons are little faces made up by arranging parentheses, colons and semi-colons. Use good judgment here. If you write to someone frequently and you have a less formal relationship, then emoticons are okay. If, however, you're writing to a prospective employer, stick to words only.

Avoid writing your message using all upper case letters. It looks like you're shouting. Don't use all lower case letters either. Some people say it will make it seem like you're mumbling.

Be Concise and Be Professional

When possible, be brief. Get to your point as quickly as you can. However, please don't leave out necessary details. If providing a lot of background information will help the recipient answer your query, by all means, include it. You may even want to apologize for being so wordy at the beginning of the message.

My teenage nieces send me email using all sorts of abbreviations - U instead of you, 2 instead of to or too, plz instead of please, and thanx instead of thanks. It's fine for personal email. Business email should be more formal. Of course, frequently used abbreviations such as Mr. and Mrs., FYI, inc., and etc. are fine.

Take a look at your email address. What does it say about you? Are you a sexymom@isp.com? Maybe. But do you want a prospective employer to think so? Think of getting a more formal address. Perhaps your first initial and last name would be good. If you're really attached to your address and don't want to change it, consider adding a second one for professional use only. If your ISP only provides a single address, look into getting a free account. If you're currently working, you may have a company email account. Do not use this address for job hunting purposes. Use a personal account only.

Spelling, Grammar and Attachments

Use your spell checker. That's what it's for. Don't rely entirely on the spell checker though. If you're using the wrong spelling for a particular use of a word, i.e. two vs. too, the spell checker won't pick it up. Don't try to guess the spelling of a word. Look it up. Personally I use Merriam-Webster Online.

Good grammar is important. As you can see, I believe in using a conversational tone when writing. It sounds friendlier. Contractions are okay. Slang is not. Under no circumstances should you use offensive language.

Attachments - the bane of my existence. I don't open them unless I know the sender. And even then, I hesitate. As one of my colleagues said recently, "I don't open attachments unless they're from my own mother." To which another colleague responded: "I don't open attachments especially if they're from my mother." Attachments often carry viruses. The sender may not even know they're sending you a virus. As a matter of fact, they may not even know they're sending an email. There are many viruses that cause your email program to send everyone in your address book an infected file.

You can contact the recipient first to ask if it's okay to send an attachment. Then that person will know to expect it. If you're sending a resume, you're best off cutting and pasting it right into the email message itself. While we're on this topic, let me remind you what when sending email, avoid using hypertext markup language, or HTML. Not every email program can interpret it, and what the recipient winds up with is an unreadable mess. Use plain text only. Sorry, you will have to change that beautifully formatted resume into something a little less fancy.

I love email. It's much less intrusive than a phone call and faster than a letter. It may be your introduction to someone you never met before. Take your time putting together a well-written message. Once you hit the send button you won't have another chance.

Taken from about.com  Written by Dawn Rosenberg McKay

The Risks of Electronic Communication

If you're tempted to

• broadcast or post a funny message
• send or post an angry message
• be sarcastic or ironic
• criticize others in public
• post a message or send email late at night
• send a message about a person that you wouldn't want them to see

please think twice. Ask somebody else to talk you out of it.

It's easy to damage your reputation and productivity by saying the wrong thing: it's ten times as easy to do this with electronic communication.

By using electronic mail, USENET news groups, electronic bulletin board systems, irc, chat, and so forth, you can make a fool of yourself to many strangers rapidly.

Sending an electronic message is a lot more permanent than saying something; long after your feelings change, the words are still there. Unlike messages on paper, electronic messages are hard to stop once you've sent them: they can be delivered and read seconds after you send them. And electronic messages are awfully easy to copy and resend - you can't be sure who will read them eventually and form a negative impression of you for sending them.

Messages you post to news groups are remembered forever. Anyone can issue a simple command to search all posted messages for a keyword, or for a name. When you post a message, ask yourself if you'd like a potential employer to read it several years from now.

Broadcast messages and Netnews

If you're mad at the company, and really want to hurt it, don't broadcast a message; just kick in the monitor on your desk. In a big company, it costs about as much, and the advantage of wrecking your tube is that fewer people will know about it, and the consequences won't go on as long.

If you're not mad at the company, weigh the cost of company resources your broadcast will consume against the possible benefit of this broadcast.

Jokes

What seem hilarious when you type it in may offend others. And somehow, people are more offended by offensive jokes when they come through the electronic medium than they would be by the same joke told face to face. People also misunderstand electronic messages, because tone of voice doesn't come along with the message; and when they misunderstand, they get mad. My rule is "Computers and humor have nothing to do with each other". After all, what joke can be repeated a million times a second and stay funny for long?

Anger

If you're upset with someone, talk to him or her in person. If you send an angry message, it is likely to make the problem, whatever it is, worse. Because people often react quickly to online messages, without reading them carefully, each emotional message causes more an stronger emotion in the receiver.

Sarcasm and irony

You can't count on sarcasm and irony getting through. Some people read hastily; others just take your words literally and don't understand that you really meant the opposite of what you wrote. Even a smiley or "just kidding" won't always work.

Public criticism

If you are tempted to criticize another person, don't do it online. This includes everything from flaming others to spelling corrections. People are touchy; if they feel attacked, they attack back. It's very hard to disagree with somebody in a way that lets dialogue continue. Search for non-judgmental ways of disagreeing: try saying "That doesn't work, because..." instead of "That's wrong."

Suppose somebody says something really dumb. Lots of times, the thing that works best is to pretend you didn't notice. Pointing out that the remark was dumb won't work, we know that; the person is just going to dig in and push back. Arguing, saying what you think is smart instead, may not work either, no matter how nice you are, because some people take any disagreement as criticism. If you ignore the remark entirely, though, you've done the best thing you can to kill it off.

Some news and mail systems have a feature called a "kill file" that silently hides messages if they're from a given sender or about a chosen topic. If you have this feature, use it. If you don't, pretend you do: you can ignore completely any message that you disagree with, and then you don't have to react to it.

Late nights

Be especially careful about messages you compose late at night. Some mysterious influence seems to start operating after a certain hour, 9 PM or so, which makes us think we're typing in sensible messages, when in fact they are subject to severe misunderstanding. "Oh, not me," you say. Well, even so, could the message wait? If it can, my advice is to save it to a file and look at it tomorrow morning. Chances are you'll want to make some changes to make it more clear and more polite.

Personal remarks

Making derogatory remarks about others is a bad idea. Doing it behind their back is worse. Doing it in public is worse still. And doing it in a way that suppresses the human side of the communication, the smile or "just kidding" shrug you might have included face to face, makes it even worse. Electronic messages are the last place for any kind of uncomplimentary remark. I know of a case where a mail user hit REPLY instead of FORWARD and accidentally sent the nasty crack about someone to that person. Just don't do it.

Know your tools

If you insist in posting a message or sending mail, make sure you do it the right way, use the correct mail class, and avoid spamming people. Read your company's mail policy. If you don't know, ask.

Electronic mail is insecure. Your most private messages can be read by others as it travels through the Internet. System administrators at your company, at your intended recipient's company, and at points in between, can read your message. And a security breakin, or a software bug, might allow others to read your messages also. Unless you are sure that you are using a secure channel, don't send any kind of information in a mail message that you wouldn't announce in public.

If you are replying to a message, check the list of recipients; your software may have copied this list from a previous message, and your message may be unwelcome in some of the places you're about to send it. Sometimes a spammer will send a message to many inappropriate news groups; then people will make things worse by responding to the message saying "this is off topic" - spamming the news groups again.

Never count on being able to cancel a message. A recipient or agent may read it before your cancel catches up with the message. Some mail systems send the recipient another copy of the message if you cancel it after they have read it.

Taken from multicians.com  Written by Tom Van Vleck

Communication Mistakes Every Office Makes

There's no doubt about it - the workplace can sometimes feel like an endless entanglement of conflict and confusion. Miscommunication accounts for some of the most common work issues, like employee dissatisfaction or forgotten tasks. Luckily, good communication skills are easy to learn and endlessly helpful in navigating the office jungle. Here's an account of some of the most common flaws in workplace communication, and how to avoid them:

Silence isn't always golden.

The problem: According to a Cornell study, over half of the workers surveyed said that they rarely spoke to their superiors about problems or ideas (only five or fewer times each year). Fifteen percent admitted to never speaking up at all.

Why so speechless? Some said they had nothing to say, but the majority said they believed sharing was a waste of time or potentially detrimental.

The effect: Employees at every level can make valuable contributions. "We believe the answers don't all stem from better financial models or decision-making at the top," says Harvard Business Review (HBR). "Rather, employees have knowledge and ideas that could help head off organizational malfunctions and drive performance, if only they'd speak up."

"When only execs contribute to the debate, businesses risk missing out on hearing fresh and interesting perspectives. And employees who keep quiet about dissatisfaction in part ensure that the problems won't get fixed."

How to avoid it: According to HBR, it's not enough to leave a suggestion box on the reception desk. Employers should be proactive and ask their employees, "What do you think?" Soliciting feedback will make employees feel comfortable speaking up, not just about good ideas but workplace concerns. Employees can improve their sharing skills by asking questions. Real Business suggests managers give their staff a quota of two suggestions per month on how to improve business.

Emails can create more problems than they clear up.

The problem: The Internet has transformed the way business is conducted and email has become a standard professional communication. So why do people still struggle with it? A 2005 study found that although 50 percent of all online communication is misunderstood, senders believe that, for the most part, their message is being received clearly.

The back-and-forth nature of email "makes text-based communication seem more informal and more like face-to-face communication than it really is," said Dr Nicholas Epley, who spearheaded the research. Plus, the results show communication is further hindered by the lack of interpersonal nuances like body language and tone of voice.

The effect: Email can create problems or confusion in an otherwise tranquil situation, according to a study in the Academy of Management Review. The article said that messages tend to be interpreted as less positive than intended. Tensions can arise from misunderstood sarcasm, for example.

The solution: They say voicemail is dead but it might be time for a comeback. Leaving a quick message can prevent the kind of misunderstandings brought upon by the informality and emotional vacancy of email. Seventy-five percent of the Epley's subjects were able to correctly interpret phone messages - a vast improvement from the 56 percent success rate for emails.

Listen up.

The problem: Communication isn't just about saying the right thing. It's also about knowing when and how to listen. Too often these days, says the Huffington Post, the listener os physically present but mentally engaged elsewhere. He or she hears - but does not digest - information.

The effect: If a fellow employee's eyes seem vacant or glued to his/her Blackberry screen, the speaker may feel ignored. And the supposed listener might be missing out on valuable information even if he or she thinks they're getting the gist of it.

The solution: When someone's talking to you, listen. Put down your Blackberry, turn off your thoughts about last night's American Idol, and synthesize the information handed to you. Listening builds better relationships, facilitates the spread of ideas, and helps improve workplace communication.

Don't let details fall through the cracks.

The problem: With teamwork, especially in bigger teams, an assignment can reach many people before it's done. With all the handoffs, little details can be easily missed if a group is disorganized, says HBR.

The effect: Failing to stay organized leaves much room for dropped balls. HBR says that even employees who think they're communicating all the necessary information during handoffs may be missing key details by assuming certain facts are implicit or by not being specific enough. And when a task is miscommunicated, it reflects poorly on the team as a whole.

The solution: HBR has a simple way to stay on top of an assignment for every step: make a checklist. During each handoff phase, discuss questions like, "What do you understand the priorities to be?" and "What are your key next steps?"

Taken from openforum.com  

How to Communicate in Every Situation

Communication is increasingly happening electronically. Still, there are times when conversing the old-fashioned way - through the telephone or face-to-face - is best.

With so many forms of communication to choose from, knowing which to use can be difficult. "There are many factors to consider when determining the best approach, from the product or service you're selling to the person you're dealing with," says Gina Rubel, head of Furia Rubel Communications, a marketing and public relations firm in Doylestown, PA. "It's not always clear what's appropriate."

Here's a look at three types of interactions and the most effective communication form for each of them:

Employee communication

For some situations, a face-to-face meeting is essential. "For anything involving a critical conversation or emotional issue, do it in person," says Rubel. Also, for small businesses that don't have offices, important meetings - discussions of goals for the coming year or regular planning sessions - should be done face-to-face. Employee evaluations should always be conducted in person, according to Rubel.

Job interviews also require face-to-face discussions. "I would never hire someone to work in my office without meeting them first," says Rubel. "The risks are too high." One exception: If you're hiring someone for a lower-level job who's too far away for a feasible face-to-face interview. In that case, your might conduct the conversation via Skype.

The situation may be different for independent contractors, however, especially if there's a lot of information available about them on the web. When hiring graphic designers, for example, Rubel finds that a telephone call does the trick. That's because she generally can see samples of their work on their website or through Google searches. "Today, there's enough information online, you can get a good feel for whether someone is a good fit without seeing the person in person," she says.

As for day-to-day matters, those can be discussed via email or telephone. But, if you talk on the phone, follow up with an email. When Rubel is out of town, for example, she always asks employees to confirm conversations electronically. "People get so distracted," she says. "If they don't get it in writing, they'll forget."


Negotiations

If it's a high stakes negotiation, you have to meet face-to-face. That's especially true for discussions with potential manufacturers or other partners in foreign countries. For one thing, in many cultures it's expected that you'll spend time cultivating a relationship in person so you can establish a bond of trust. In addition, you need a feel for the nuances of the conversation, something that can only happen in a face-to-face conversation.

In addition, if you're hiring a company to manufacture a product, you need to be able to see the physical location. Rubel recalls a client who recently discovered (during an initial tour of a plant in China) that the factory was using child labor. The negotiations were called off.

Once you've finished that phase of the process, however, then you can rely on email. In fact, according to Rubel, that's preferable and will ensure interactions are documented. "From a legal perspective, getting into the nitty gritty should be done in writing," she says.

In other cases, telephone and email will do. That's particularly the case if you already know the person, but you don't need to have a previous relationship. For example, when working out contract terms with graphic designers, Rubel almost always uses emails. The same is true for many customers. "We have a lot of clients we've never met in person," says Rubel.

Client interaction

Generally, for day-to-day communication, email is fine. In most service industries where the quality of the relationship is essential, regular in-person meetings for more important matters are de rigueur. That's especially true for lawyers, accountants, human resources professionals, financial advisors, etc. In between those meetings you can communicate via email.

Despite all the guidelines, there's no hard and fast rule. When it comes to clients, it's best to find out ahead of time how they like to communicate. A financial advisor, for example, may learn that more tech-savvy people prefer conversing electronically. "Some clients are too busy for anything but email," says Rubel.

Still, if you're interested in sealing the relationship, personal interactions are the most effective. Rubel, for example, recently switched from a major national bank to a smaller, local one. In December, a bank vice-president dropped by her office for a visit and brought a Christmas basket with him "That kind of personal interaction shows they value our business," she says. Sometimes, you can't cut corners and it pays to make time for a personal visit. For every other scenario, there's wealth of communication technology to choose from.

Taken from openforum.com  Written by Anne Field

3 Steps to Managing Workplace Conflict with Emotional Intelligence

No matter how great a corporate culture you create, no matter how good a role model you are, it's inevitable that situations will arise that require you to mitigate emotional stress within the ranks. Personal conflicts, outside pressures, and job-related stress will eventually become a factor to be dealt with in any workplace setting. How well leaders handle those situations depends on their emotional intelligence.

Managers often make one of two common mistakes when dealing with an emotional situation.

• The manager attempts to invalidate or downplay an emotional conflict and becomes a player in the emotional drama himself.
• The manager simply ignores the job-affecting emotions, hoping they will resolve themselves.

When the manager or group leader tries to downplay or dismiss a worker's emotions, he or she inevitably creates a bigger problem. Not only does this raise the emotional stakes, but it now creates a situation in which negative emotions are directed at the manager. Though this is very common and, arguably, a natural form of response from busy managers with plenty on their plates, it's incumbent upon leaders to avoid leaving an employee feeling slighted in this way.

Likewise, ignoring the problem often creates a snowball effect, where resentment and negative emotions continue to grow, making the situation worse. It's always better to address emotionally-wrought problems earlier than later.

There is a three-step formula, however, which comes naturally to emotionally intelligent leaders. It is one that can easily be employed by any manager to take the edge off an emotional situation. This formula does not attempt to solve the problem itself, but is geared toward addressing and neutralizing the emotions so that the problem can then be approached in a more objective and effective manner.

Step 1: Acknowledge. More than anything, people want their feelings to be acknowledged. It may seem overly simple at first, but a statement such as, "I want you to know, I understand you are feeling very stressed right now," can go miles toward lowering the emotional stakes of a situation. Everyone wants to feel understood, and acknowledgment is not difficult or compromising to do. Further, it doesn't concede agreement with the emotional state; only empathy.

Step 2: Positively substitute. There is a great power in a positive outlook and almost any negative situation can be framed in a positive light. A manager with emotional wisdom may say something like, "I know you are under a lot of stress, and I know a great deal of it is because you are a great employee and want to do the very best job you can." What the manager has done in this example is to mitigate a negative emotion of personal pride in a job well done. This doesn't alleviate the first emotion, but it adds a positive perspective into the conversation.

Step 3: Suggest, re-acknowledge and appreciate. Not all situations are within the control of the manager. An increased workload that has come down from above may not be able to be removed, for example. What the manager can do is suggest ways he or she might be able to help, re-acknowledge the emotions involved and offer appreciation for the employee. "I cannot promise anything, but I will try to see if there is any way to lighten your load. I understand you are feeling stressed and I want you to know I really appreciate your efforts." By saying this, you have reassured the employee without making binding promises, and reinforced a sense of empathy and appreciation.

Taken from openforum.com  Written by Scott Allen

Top 10 Mistakes Home-Based Business Owners Make

While it may be true that there is no place like home, it is also true that running a home business may not be as easy as it looks. Dividing your home in order to create a suitable location for your business - while keeping the remaining space comfortable for those living in the house - will take some careful planning.

1. Trying to fit a round business into a square house. Not all businesses can realistically succeed in a home-based location. Take a look at your needs for equipment, work space, storage, inventory and employees to determine if it is simply too difficult to run your business from your home. Service-based businesses are typically easier to fit comfortably into a home than retail or manufacturing businesses. Many people learn the hard way by not being realistic upfront.
2. Lack of motivation. It is easy to become distracted. A home business should be run in the same manner as an office-based business. You need to motivate yourself to go to work in the morning and maintain that motivation during the course of the day in order to succeed.
3. No room to grow. If you are fortunate and your home-based business is successful, you may need to expand. This may simply mean purchasing another computer or printer, or making space for an employee. It is important while setting up a home business environment to anticipate growth. How do you know if it is time to expand beyond your home into a real office?
4. Overspending what you are saving on overhead. Too many business owners justify spending money on all sorts of equipment by not paying overhead. In the end they overspend. Watch your budget.
5. Forgetting to promote your company. It is not uncommon for home-based business owners to get a little too comfortable working in a relaxed environment. Too often this means not getting out and promoting the business. Email newsletters are a valuable means of promotion. Conferences, industry events, and even local chamber of commerce gatherings can help you build your customer base.
6. Not having a client-friendly environment. You may need to have clients come to your home. Too many home business owners have had to make excuses for their house, kids, dog and the lawn sprinklers before sitting down with their clients. Set up the office portion of the house for business only.
7. Technical insufficiencies. Many home-based businesses are not dedicated or up-to-date. Your business computers should not be networked to the home computer where your children are hogging valuable bandwidth downloading games. And your technical equipment should be as state-of-the-art as you need and can afford.
8. Zoning nightmares. You may not know the zoning laws for your neighborhood, but your neighbors may be able to recite them. There are many stories of home business nightmares because of zoning laws. The more discrete your business is, the less likely you will have problems. However, read the zoning laws regardless.
9. Overlapping home and office. One of the advantages of working from a home-based office is that you can spend more time with your family. However, as much as you love them, you need to have a separate office space and set some ground rules so you can work while other activities are taking place at home.
10. Lack of a business plan. Just because it is a home-based business does not mean you do not need a business plan. You should be taking your business just as seriously as if you were heading into any other type of business.

Taken from allbusiness.com

10 Steps to Running a Successful Home-Based Business

No one wants his or her business to fail, but that prospect is something that every business owner must consider. Luckily there are steps you can take to help ensure your success. These steps are easy to follow and will help you to become a successful home-based business owner.

1. Plan ahead. Take the time to make plans for every eventuality that may arise. From natural disasters to unexpected financial problems, you will need to have a plan that can be readily accessed to get you through a difficult time.
2. Put money aside. Don't begin your business with delusions of overnight success. You'll need funds to tide you over while your business grows and becomes profitable. Put some money aside that you can tap into if necessary.
3. Organize your time. Being a responsible business owner means managing your time wisely. Initially you will need to spend extra time making your vision a reality. Build that time into your schedule.
4. Organize your space. You can't run your business effectively if you are wasting time looking for an important receipt under reams of loose paper. Take some time to organize your home office and make sure you can function efficiently.
5. Stay focused. Family responsibilities, chores, TV and the warmth of your own bed can all distract you from the task at hand. Remove as many distractions as you can from your home office and stay focused.
6. Figure out tax laws now, before it is too late. Don't wait to research the tax laws that will impact your new business. Do your research now so you will be prepared come tax time.
7. Advertise your business. You can't afford to wait for your customers to come to you - you need to go out and get them. Advertising is an investment, and spending money now to market your business effectively can pay big dividends down the road.
8. Get the proper equipment. If you are running to the nearest Kinko's to send a fax, it is time to purchase the equipment you need to run your business correctly. It is an extra expense, but it's a necessary one.
9. Cover your assets. Don't wait for a natural disaster to destroy your entire inventory - now is the time to purchase the insurance you need. Do not incur losses that could be avoided by having proper insurance.
10. Do not get discouraged. Success does not come overnight. It will require dedication, hard work, and a lot of extra effort to make it a reality. Many business owners quit when all they needed to do was hang in there for a few more months. This is your dream; do all you can to keep it alive.

Taken from allbusiness.com

10 Tips for Home-Based Businesses

Starting a home-based business is never easy. From advertising to zoning, there is always something that will require your attention. Here are 10 tips to keep you focused on your quest to make your home-based business a success.

1. Set a schedule and stick to it. The allure of working from home is powerful - but so in the appeal of spending more time with your family or of taking a nap in the middle of the day. Setting and maintaining a schedule for your workday is critical.
2. Set up a dedicated office area. You can't run a business from your kitchen table. A successful business requires a fully equipped home office. If you have an extra bedroom, consider converting it into office space. If you do not have an extra room in your home, try setting up a partition to create and office area.
3. Be professional. One of the perks of running a business from home is having the option of working in your pajamas, but your customers should not be able to tell that you just rolled out of bed. Maintain normal office hours and a professional demeanor when answering your phone or dealing with customers.
4. Advertise. Just because you build it doesn't necessarily mean they will come. To succeed, you will need to advertise your new business. Advertising and marketing don't have to be expensive, but they have to be done.
5. Familiarize yourself with the applicable tax laws. You are about to enter a whole new world of taxation. To avoid ending up frazzled by April 15th, take the time now to discuss your options with your accountant or with another qualified professional who can advise you about your tax situation.
6. Check with your zoning commission. Make sure there are no zoning laws that will prevent you from running your business from home.
7. Formulate your business plan. Where do you want your business to be in six months? How about in five years? Many small business owners mistakenly think that a business plan is only necessary if they are going to have investors. But businesses of all sizes can use a business plan as a roadmap to success.
8. Get on the Web. The Internet is the single best way for a home-based business to reach out to prospective customers. Even if your business isn't "e" anything, you need a website that can function as an online brochure for your company.
9. Do your research. You may think that your idea for your home-based business is unique. But unless you do some market research, you won't know whether or not your market is already saturated. Market research can help you find a special angle for your product or service, giving you an edge over your competitors.
10. Don't get discouraged. Many businesses fail simply because their owners became discouraged after a disappointing trial period. You will have to show grit and determination to make your business succeed. Hang in there and do all that you can to make your business the success you know it can be.

Taken from allbusiness.com

How to Succeed on the Home-based Entrepreneurial Journey

As a home-based business entrepreneur you are choosing to do something bold. You are taking a journey on a road less traveled. Obviously, if I tell you that 95% of all businesses fail you'll realize that to succeed you will require safe directions.

You'll have to make decisions like, is this going to be a real business? Will it be a move from where you are now to the land of Freedom? Or will it be just some additional income for you and your family, a little pleasure trip?

The choice you make will determine rather on not you will have an opportunity to end up in the top 3% of the income earning population. Whatever you choose you will need a few things to make your journey feasible.

A vehicle: The business you've chosen. Some girls like fast cars some girls don't. Some girls are going to spend the money, some want to start with the economy model.

A map: The system that your company already has in place. Others have already followed this map and know the directions work. They know what roadblocks to watch out for and where the potholes are. You only need to follow the directions and not try to reinvent the wheel.

A coach to ride shotgun: Your sponsor, partner or mentor. Remember the map? Whoever rides shotgun will be there to guide you. Sometimes you'll have trouble reading the map. They'll know and understand the roads because they've already traveled on them. It''s a win win situation.

A suitcase: You'll need clothes, makeup and some good reading material. Let's talk girl talk for a minute. You can't make a first impression on the second try. Increase your first impression power by dressing a little nicer and putting your best face. I do not mean you always have to wear a business suit and make up. Keep in mind however what kind of impression you want to make.

As for reading material you should be reading books and magazines that will improve your knowledge. Do you know who you want to be? A businesswoman learns about her company, how to run a business, finance, and yes, she works on personal development.

A set of keys: Your mindset, how you think and what your beliefs are. How you talk to yourself.

Your 'why', is it big enough? Are you passionate enough about your 'why' for it to see you through any hardship you will, most definitely, encounter on your journey?

Your character, are you diligent, humble and giving? Do you have integrity? You can have the best vehicle, map and coach and still not succeed. You must have the right keys?

Your mindset

• How do you feel about money? Are you afraid of it? Do you believe it is evil? Do you believe you deserve it?
• How do you talk to yourself? Do you tell yourself encouraging things like, 'I am unstoppable.' 'I am in the process of becoming a self-made millionaire.'

Your 'Why'

• Why are you taking this journey? What are your dreams? What are your objectives?
• Are you passionate enough about your reason that you can keep your destination foremost in your mind in through the storms in life?

Your character

• Is this all about you? Are you doing this solely to make your dreams come true or do you desire to help others? Are you seeking to live a joyful thriving existence through philanthropy? What would that look like? Feeding the poor, building wells for water in third world countries, helping abused women, or perhaps giving to stop sex trafficking across the world.
• Are you prepared to lead with integrity? To brand your name for the world to see knowing you will be under scrutiny of everyone you come into contact with.

Are you unstoppable? Are you prepared to stop for repairs, most of which will be to your own mindset? Are you willing to discover the real you? There are a lot of questions here. They require answers.

Usually people find the greatest success when they take the time and effort to write out the answers to these questions. Use this article like a worksheet by copying it and writing the answers out.

As you read this you had thoughts and feelings about how you would answer these questions. They are telling you about you. These answers can be used to assist you on your road trip to Freedom.

By now you see the advantage of having the right tools and guidance. Decide now to commit to equipping yourself with the right keys. Remember that you cannot possibly fail unless you give up.

'til next time, Janette Stoll