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Leadership Thinking – Your Work, Your Way
When you ask someone what makes a good leader, plenty of qualities come to mind. Confidence, authority, gravitas, fairness, and empathy are a few I’ve heard recently. But even more important than how a leader presents themselves is how they think. Writing for The Big Think.com, Donna Wiggs cites psychologist and science journalist Adam Grant, author…
The Art of Bushido Leadership – Your Work, Your Way
If I suggested that you lead like a Samurai warrior, you might be a bit alarmed. Especially if you’ve watched too many corny movies. In a Fast company article by Amanda Yello and Lori Tsugawa Whaley, Whaley says that the Samurai code of conduct was actually designed to create a space for benevolent leadership. She writes, “Benevolent…
Your Personal SWOT Analysis – Your Work, Your Way
If you’ve ever been assigned to a business project, you’ve probably heard of a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses (both internal factors) Opportunities and Threats (both external factors.) In an online article for SmartBrief, Denise Lee Yohn suggests you perform your own SWOT analysis to uncover new insights and help you become your…
Your Dental Hygienist Cleans like a Girl. (Because chances are, she is.) – Your Work, Your Way
A February 2024 Wall Street Journal headline read like this: 40% of Lawyers Are Women. 7% Are Black. America’s Workforce in Charts. The article analyzed The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which each year looks at the gender and racial composition of hundreds of occupations, offering a snapshot of how workers sort themselves into…
Tips for Successful Boomerang-ing – Your Work, Your Way
In a previous post, I wrote about the boomerang employee trend. Returning employees make up an estimated 25% of all new hires over the past couple of years, according to HR surveys. The 2020 pandemic caused millions of workers to re-think their careers. Now that the world has returned to (mostly) normal, many of those…
Should You Boomerang? Things to Consider Before You Return. – Your Work, Your Way
You made a mistake. The grass is not greener; it’s not even grass – it’s some sort of weird weed that you’re beginning to hate. The job isn’t what they promised. Your new “hybrid” schedule is mandatory cubicle time four days a week. You miss your teammates. You’re thinking of asking for your old job…
MyPerfectResume’s HR & Recruitment Report Predicts 2024 Will Be the Year of the “Big Stay” – Your Work, Your Way
45% of workers expect a decrease in the number of remote job openings (A guest post from our friends at MyPerfectResume.com) San Francisco, CA, February, 2024 – MyPerfectResume® (MPR), a leading resource for resume and career advice, polled nearly 1,900 U.S.-based workers to investigate their sentiments around the 2024 job market, recruitment processes, professional development, mental health,…
The Big Yawn – Your Work, Your Way
It’s been a busy few years. We’ve lived through the Great Resignation (workers quitting in droves after the Pandemic), the Big Stay (workers hunkering down in their jobs after things normalized), and Quiet Quitting (staying, but doing the absolute minimum to keep from being fired. Now we have the Big Yawn (my words, not theirs.)…
Types of Who I Am Stories – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Her book is intended to help you get into “story thinking,” using stories as tools for persuasion in your personal and business life. One of the most important stories you can…
Career Change Late in Your Career: Focus on Your Strengths Rather than Your History – Your Work, Your Way
You’re never too old to pivot in your career. That’s the advice of career coach Patrice Lindo, CEO of Career Nomad, a consulting firm, in an online article from CNBC Make It. We’re learning that the pandemic created a sea change in the way people think about and manage their careers. From wanting more work from…
Why You Should Tell (True) Stories about Who You Are – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Her book is intended to help you get into “story thinking,” using stories as tools for persuasion in your personal and business life. One of the most important stories you can…
2024 is the Year of the Dragon – Your Work, Your Way
If you were born in 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, you are lucky to be born in the Year of the Dragon. It goes without saying that the Dragon is the most glamorous and powerful sign of the Chinese zodiac. (For contrast, I was born in the Year of the Dog. No glamor…
Many Workers Experiencing Financial Stress – Your Work, Your Way
Resume Now, an online resume builder, conducted a survey of 1.100 U.S. workers to find out how they’re feeling about their financial situation. You can see the full October 2023 Financial Transparency survey here and read through the findings. Here are some of the findings that stood out to me. Over half of respondents (58%)…
Validate Before Trying to Persuade – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. She wrote the book to help people bring storytelling back into their repertoire of persuasive tactics, and she offers many tips for telling better stories. One of her most important ideas…
Tell Me a Picture – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. She says that humans have used storytelling to communicate since the beginning of time, and today is no different. Her book is intended to help you tell stories that are more…
Don’t Let Negativity Spread – Your Work, Your Way
Almost every team has one: the negative personality whose poison is starting to affect everyone. Whether it’s snide comments in team meetings, passive-aggressive information withholding, or acid emails, a negative team member can quickly cause irreparable damage to productivity, comradery, and, eventually, retention. But containing - or removing – a toxic team member can be…
Telling Better Stories – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Her book is intended to help you get into “story thinking,” using stories as tools for persuasion in your personal and business life. She defines stories as “a reimagined experience narrated…
The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and Others) – Your Work, Your Way
Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Her book is intended to help you get into “story thinking,” using stories as tools to bring emotion back into the decision-making process. She writes, “We know everything will change tomorrow…
50 Percent of New Hires Change Their Minds – Your Work, Your Way
A recent survey conducted by HR consultancy Gartner of nearly 3,500 respondents found that 50 percent of candidates accepted a job offer between May 2022 and May 2023, backed out, then started working for another employer. SHRM’s blog says among nearly 2,000 respondents who recently started a new job, 47 percent said they were still…
Asking Good Questions to Get Better Results – Your Work, Your Way
In a great post, The Eblin Group refers back to an ancient method for building leadership capacity in your staff. Large organizations simply don’t have the ability to provide all the answers from the top down, they say. It’s critical to teach your employees how to think through problems on their own. The master of…
Tell Me Seven Times. No – Make that Three. – Your Work, Your Way
In an online article, author Matthew Kirchner says (and this won’t be news to any of us) that attention spans are getting shorter. He writes, “Microsoft published a study that our attention spans had decreased by almost a third in the preceding 15 years, from 12 seconds to just eight. Goldfish, so we’re told, have an…
Being a Jerk is Not Against the Law (even if we think it should be) – Your Work, Your Way
"I'm afraid being a jerk isn't against the law, even if we wish it could be." That’s a quote from yours truly when I worked as an executive for a regional nonprofit organization. I sometimes heard from employees outside my division, asking for advice on whether they should file a formal grievance about their boss.…
The Best Home Office Setup – Your Work, Your Way
For many workers, the pandemic lockdowns meant they had to set up home offices overnight. Most believed (and hoped) that the setup would be temporary, so they carved out a place in the bedroom, on the dining room table, or the living room coffee table to call their “home office.” Others, with more means or…
The Meeting Before the Meeting – Your Work, Your Way
What time does a meeting start? The agenda may start at a specific moment (give or take 10 minutes, in my sad experience), but you can be very productive in the minutes before a meeting actually begins. Those of us who are always early know this. In fact, we’re early for two reasons. One is…
A College Degree is Not Required for Success – Your Work, Your Way
When I entered the field of workforce development in 1997, I confidently predicted the demise of the 4-year degree. I spoke to anyone who would listen (employers and jobseekers) about the idea that employment trends were changing quickly, and that the pace of change was accelerating faster than universities and colleges could ever aspire to.…
Every College Student Should Have a Side Hustle – Your Work, Your Way
In fact, everyone should have a side hustle, but that’s another post. Most parents encourage their college students to get a job, but a side hustle makes more sense – both now and for the long-term. First, let’s talk about the difference between a job and a side hustle. The difference is important. A job…
Feeling Safe at Work – Your Work, Your Way
There are two kinds of safety leaders are responsible for in the workplace. Physical safety is one of them: making sure that employees’ health and wellbeing are important priorities (the pandemic changed what used to be a low priority in most settings to the primary issue in almost every industry.) Workers also want to know…
Join the Gig Economy Before You Retire – Your Work, Your Way
It’s always nice when the Motley Fool agrees with me. The Motley Fool has been providing sound financial advice since 1993, and they specialize in clear, actionable coaching that “makes the world smarter, happier, and richer.” In a great online article, they recommend starting a side hustle before you leave your full time career, something…
Soft Language Works for Women – Your Work, Your Way
In an article for The New York Times, Adam Grant says the advice women get to eliminate “soft language” is bad advice. He writes, “If you’re a woman, you’ve probably gotten this advice from a mentor, a coach or a teacher. If you want to be heard, use more forceful language. If you want a…
Magic Words to Make you More Persuasive – Your Work, Your Way
What if there was one word – a simple word – that would increase your chances of persuading someone to do something by 50 percent? Sounds like magic, but it’s been tested and verified by social scientists for years. That word is “because.” Researchers have investigated persuasion for decades, and they’ve found that adding a…
Do Clothes Make the Man? – Your Work, Your Way
“A monkey dressed in silk is still a monkey,” Spanish proverb There’s a saying in almost every culture that reminds us that “clothes don’t make the man (or woman).” The aphorism cuts both ways; it warns us that dressing up doesn’t make you a better person. It also warns us that we shouldn’t judge people by…
Curiosity is an Essential Trait for Success – Your Work, Your Way
When I was hiring team members, one of the most important interview questions came at the very end. “Do you have any questions for me?” was more than a courtesy; it was a way to see how a candidate’s mind worked. If a candidate didn’t ask any questions, it was a red flag for me.…
On Being Bored – Your Work, Your Way
I am a person who is almost never bored. I have an active mind and plenty of projects and plans to keep myself occupied. I’m also a voracious reader, so there’s always something new being planted in my brain. Nope – never bored. But now I'm thinking that might not be a good thing. Nicola…
Time Management for the 21st Century – Your Work, Your Way
If there’s one aspect of quiet quitting that makes sense, it’s that the quitters are finally acknowledging that you can’t get it all done. Not in one day, not in a 40-hour workweek; maybe not in a lifetime. There will always be more to be done, and the stress of that fact is what causes…
Candace Moody, Human Writer – Your Work, Your Way
My latest post "The Labor Illusion" talks about what AI can never do: show its work. It will always produce pretty good work instantly. I pride myself in producing excellent work pretty fast. I'm proud to be one of the first writers to be certified as Human by Authory, the site I use as my…
The Labor Illusion – Your Work, Your Way
Blogger Phil Agnew wrote a great post about Steve Jobs’s ability to persuade. He writes of Jobs: “His ability to convince billions of people to buy his products at premium prices was no coincidence.” One of the techniques Jobs used so effectively was “The Labor Illusion.” The labor illusion suggests that when people witness the effort and…
Quantitative Intuition – Your Work, Your Way
Data drives almost every business decision in almost every modern business. Even creative industries like art and music rely on data to figure out what sells to whom for how much and how often. We have access to more data than ever; in fact, if you’ve got a big enough server farm, you can access…
Winning the Status Game – Your Work, Your Way
There are two things every human craves, according to science writer Will Storr, author of The Status Game. We want to get along and get ahead. In other words, we desire to be part of a group – a very basic human need – and we desire to be admired, to have status within the…
Why Students Drop out of College (and what can help them stay) – Your Work, Your Way
(Courtesy of IvyPanda, an educational blog) Almost a third of students drop out of college without getting a degree. Some are simply not cut out for the rigors of college; others are homesick or have difficulty paying for college. Some have family issues that pull them back to help out. Some leave for good; others…
Managers Admit to “Quiet Firing” – Your Work, Your Way
JobSage, an online platform that brings insight to jobseeker issues, including inclusive workplaces, opportunities for growth, a sense of purpose, meaningful feedback, and flexibility, surveyed 1,000 U.S. employers about “quiet firing.” If you haven’t heard the term before, it’s the management equivalent of “quiet quitting.” Quiet quitting has been in the news for months as…