Update to Start the Week

Update to Start the Week You may have noticed that I skipped my post on Friday no big deal except I rarely skip a post.   I was battling over 500 e-mail messages in my JibberJobber inbox, and prepping for my trip to California. I still have over 500 messages in my inbox (I get between 300 and 500 per day).   And Im headed to the airport in less than two hours. This week is really busy, Im not sure what Ill blog, but I want to share my week with you. Regarding the branding contest, I think Ive received over 100 submissions some are short taglines, others are long explanations.   WOW.   Very awesome, Im excited to write more about it soon. If you are in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet.   Heres my schedule. If you want to read about how to recession-proof your career, check out Thom Singers recent post. Update to Start the Week You may have noticed that I skipped my post on Friday no big deal except I rarely skip a post.   I was battling over 500 e-mail messages in my JibberJobber inbox, and prepping for my trip to California. I still have over 500 messages in my inbox (I get between 300 and 500 per day).   And Im headed to the airport in less than two hours. This week is really busy, Im not sure what Ill blog, but I want to share my week with you. Regarding the branding contest, I think Ive received over 100 submissions some are short taglines, others are long explanations.   WOW.   Very awesome, Im excited to write more about it soon. If you are in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet.   Heres my schedule. If you want to read about how to recession-proof your career, check out Thom Singers recent post. Update to Start the Week You may have noticed that I skipped my post on Friday no big deal except I rarely skip a post.   I was battling over 500 e-mail messages in my JibberJobber inbox, and prepping for my trip to California. I still have over 500 messages in my inbox (I get between 300 and 500 per day).   And Im headed to the airport in less than two hours. This week is really busy, Im not sure what Ill blog, but I want to share my week with you. Regarding the branding contest, I think Ive received over 100 submissions some are short taglines, others are long explanations.   WOW.   Very awesome, Im excited to write more about it soon. If you are in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet.   Heres my schedule. If you want to read about how to recession-proof your career, check out Thom Singers recent post.

How to Easily Increase Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Easily Increase Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career The seller’s demeanor is what will either negatively or positively begin the sale cycle that either leads to an answer of “no” or “Yes!” In order to attract a positive flow of sales, the following adjectives come to mind: Be respectful, kind, thoughtful, inquisitive, an advisor and a benefactor. The last descriptor, “benefactor” refers to working to ensure your client is better off for having worked with you. The process begins with greeting people by name, and asking for correct pronunciation when needed. This is true for every type of encounter, and particularly so, when you are hosting an event. It becomes your duty to thank everyone in the room personally for attending. Few speakers or hosts adhere to this principle, but two examples below illustrate the importance. An equal component to greeting someone by name is to do so for everyone in your presence. As a host of an event, it is in your best interest to thank each person for coming, ask for questions during the time allotted, and thank each person once again before they depart. This is the mark of a memorable event. These goodwill gestures also serve to encourage further business. A few years ago, I was asked to host a sales workshop on the afternoon prior to a talk I was to give at a convention. I chose to work the exhibit hall first, by greeting each exhibitor. I introduced myself, asked questions about their services, and then invited them to my workshop to be held later that day. Most arrived at my room. They were each personally greeted as they entered, and everyone remained for the entire session. Prior to their leaving I personally thanked each attendee once again. After the event, I learned that the other workshops had to be shut down because those speakers were merely thinking about their talk and themselves. The outcome proved that your audience and clientele should always be at the top of our thoughts. Recently, I attended another meeting. Upon entering, I instantly recognized that the host was deep in conversation with one person, and the rest of us were not o disturb them. When the presentation officially began, it was interesting, however, lengthy. Over half the invitees left before the meeting ended.  Given that the host did not make an effort to say hello upfront, and that many departed before the end, he lost the ability to connect with the majority of attendees. The value in the room was lost. Afterward, an email of apology was received that the conversation was with an investor. We can all agree investors are important to business. However, that message compounded the problem for me because it indicated that I am very low on the totem pole. An improved approach would be to schedule with the investor after the presentation for a more in-depth conversation. When you work the room by treating everyone with equal respect, and show your appreciation for their time, you are far more like to build new relationships. Reciprocity come with building a respected personal brand. Follow-up leads to many more sales including securing the right investor. The value is in the people with whom you connect.   Treat them appropriately and you will enjoy the Smooth Sale!

10 Tips for Standing Out on LinkedIn

10 Tips for Standing Out on LinkedIn What  does it take to become a LinkedIn WINNER? Although theres more to creating a great presence on the network than merely creating a profile and leaving it to work its magic, ensuring that you fill your profile out fully and sell yourself in the best possible way really can make a difference. Whether youre looking for a new job, seeking out new business or just trying to maintain a strong professional network, it pays off to look after your personal brand on LinkedIn. This infographic by Todd Clarke gives 10 tips for a better LinkedIn profile that will capture peoples attention! 1) Write an enticing summary Your summary is key to capturing peoples attention when they visit your profile. Keep it short and sweet, highlighting your best qualities, skills and experience. Treat it as an elevator pitch telling the reader the essentials that will present you in the best light. 2) Choose a good picture Its a professional network, so keep your photo exactly that. No holiday snaps on the beach or photos from a night out with a drink in your hand save these for Facebook. Choose a high quality image that represents you as a professional. 3)  Highlight your best selling points Let the reader know exactly why they should work with you and what you can deliver, measurably and specifically. 4) Make yourself heard Add media to your profile. Sound and video will stand out and can help people to connect with you more as a person. 5) Use your recommendations Use specific examples of how and why you have helped others. Ask them to provide recommendations on your profile to add credibility. 6) Be human People  dont want to work with robots, they want to work with real people, with real passions and interests. Dont be afraid to show that you have a personality. 7) Be mysterious Surprise people with an unusual skill or interest that will make you stand out from the crowd. 8) Reach out Reach out to your connections and other people on LinkedIn. Ask someone to review your profile and offer to do the same. 9) Make your headline stand out Your headline is the first thing that people will see, so make sure it grabs their attention. It should be you in a nutshell, so your job title and company/industry could work, or alternatively something more quirky could do the trick. 10) Know your objective What do you want to achieve from your presence on LinkedIn? You can use this objective to tailor your profile and create a plan of action for how you wish to utilise the network, from expanding your network, to getting spotted by a recruiter. Top image: Pablo

7 Personal Branding Tips for College Graduates - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

7 Personal Branding Tips for College Graduates - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Guest post by David G. Heiser, college senior and intern. Sponsored: Online college degrees can make candidates out of the previous unemployable It’s strange to think about it because it’s only October, but for seniors like me, entry into the real world is quickly approaching. We may not want to accept that our final summer break just ended, but we have to start ramping up our preparations for life after graduation. Note from Dan Schawbel: Employers plan to hire just 1.3% more graduates in 2009 than they hired this year, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Thats the weakest outlook in six years and reflects a sharp recent downturn. After changing majors a few times, I settled on public relations at the start of my junior year. Once I made that choice, I realized that I needed to establish an area of expertise, something that would set my personal brand apart from the thousands of other freshly minted public relations grads. For me, this was pretty easy; I wanted to focus on food and restaurants. The focus of your personal brand must be something you are going to enthusiastically look forward to learning and talking about every day. Since I set my target, I’ve begun taking steps to make my goal a reality. I still have a long way to go, but the following are some of the things that have at least improved my chances: Offline branding I drastically increased my consumption of media related to my brand. E-mail companies that you’re interested in working for after you graduate and ask them what qualities they look for in a junior hire. A common theme in the responses I received was being very familiar with the major industry publications. I immediately subscribed to three magazines, made sure I’m reading everything about restaurants in my local newspapers, and started a crusade to expand my culinary vocabulary by reading books by popular food writers. I researched and aggressively pursued the most relevant internships in my area. Look for the companies in your town that are most similar to those at which you’d eventually like to work. I ended up securing internships with my city’s food and wine festival and a local PR agency that has several restaurants as clients. I sought out opportunities to get advice from successful PR professionals through my school. It’s easy. Arrange lunch with a professor who worked in your chosen industry. Ask and respond to questions when guest speakers come to your campus. Get involved with any campus program that may afford you networking opportunities. I got my byline in a printed publication. Whether it’s a campus newspaper, community magazine, or company newsletter, employers love to see that someone else thought your work was worth publishing. My reviews in our campus newspaper reach 3,000 readers weekly. As a bonus, the general manager of one of the restaurants I reviewed enjoyed my writing style so much he recruited me to help write its newsletter. Online branding I claimed my brand and started networking Claiming your brand on social networking sites insures that you have control over your reputation, but also provides motivation to, you know, actually network, which may lead to otherwise unavailable opportunities. I have profiles on a variety of social networks and have used them to make contacts which I will call on during my job search. I started producing relevant content. Showcase your unique voice with consistently updated content that will help position you as an thought/opinion leader in your field. My reviews frequently appear in the first few Google results for popular Charleston restaurants. I also recently purchased www.DavidGHeiser.com and am making efforts to move up in the results for my name. I take advantage of every opportunity to increase the visibility of my personal brand. Jump on any chance to get your name in front of an audience that it normally wouldn’t be exposed to. In addition to writing this post, I also worked to get my restaurant reviews syndicated on a local community news website. David G. Heiser is an intern at Leapfrog PR, a public relations agency specializing in restaurant and other lifestyle clients. Hes also a senior at the College of Charleston and a double major in sociology and communication studies. He is the resident food and film critic for the College of Charlestons student newspaper, the George Street Observer, which has a circulation of 3,000 weekly. After he graduates, he plans on pursuing a career in public relations with a focus on the culinary industry.

5 Skills You Need to be The Best Employee Focus Group Moderator

5 Skills You Need to be The Best Employee Focus Group Moderator If you’re preparing to moderate an employee focus group, you have a big job ahead to ensure everyone participates and the research objectives are met.To facilitate an engaging and fruitful session, you’ll need to:Make participants feel comfortable speaking upSet the tone for the discussionKeep the conversation on trackListen carefully to what is being said, while remembering what has been covered and what still needs to be coveredGive everyone a chance to talk Master these five key skills to become a great moderator:eval1. Establish a safe environmentMake a good first impression by warmly welcoming participantsSmile and shake participants’ hands as they come into the roomOffer them food or a beverageDirect them to their seatsLet them know they can ask you questions2. Set expectationsThank participants for their time and clearly explain the purpose of the focus group and the process you’ll followExplain the reason for the session, areas for discussion, length of the session, a nd other important logisticsExplain that your role is to guide the discussion and ask questions; their role is to share their opinions and ideas3. Keep the focus group on trackDecide when to allow participants to go on tangents and when to bring the discussion back to the main subjectConsider how the tangent aligns 4. Encourage participationUse clarifying follow-up questions to get more in-depth information or ensure everyone understands a response, such as:“Can you give me an example of that?”“Please tell me a little more about that.”“How does that work?”“Does anyone else have a similar perspective? Or a different view?”5. Manage problem participantsNo matter how well you master key moderating skills, or how thoroughly you’ve prepared, you can’t predict which personalities will turn up at your focus group. Don’t let unruly attendees put a damper on your session. Instead, manage challenging participants by politely and assertively directing the conversation. He re are some techniques to keep your focus group running smoothly:Control a monopolizerParticipants who are passionate or knowledgeable about a topic can easily dominate the conversation without giving others a chance to contribute. But remember, to gather the most comprehensive findings, you need to ensure all attendees are able to share their opinions.evalIf one participant begins to take over your focus group, here’s what to do: acknowledge the speaker’s expertise, then turn back to the group and ask for additional ideas:“Thanksâ€"you obviously have a lot of experience with this topic. Now I’d like to hear from someone else. Who else has some thoughts about this?”Tame a talkative groupImagine you’re moderating a focus group where participants have a lot to say. They answer every question in depth, comment on each other’s answers and tell lots of interesting stories. You suddenly check the time and realize you only have 25 minutes left, with a lot of ground yet to cov er. What now?An adept moderator will become familiar with the discussion guide ahead of time. The more comfortable you are with the content, the more you can manage the time you have left. Quickly glance at upcoming questions and note which are critical. At this point, you will have to stick only to main questions, skipping follow-up questions.evalTime-tracking tip: Write time cues in the discussion guide margin to help you keep time. If the focus group starts at 1 p.m. and the introduction should take 10 minutes, put “1:10 p.m.” at the end of the intro. Do the same for each section, then check the time regularly.Steer off-topic comments back on courseYou know the situation: a participant begins talking about one idea, which leads to another and another until he or she gets lostâ€"far from the original idea. Suddenly your focus group is at risk of losing it’s, well, focus.What to do? Jump in quickly:Refocus the discussion and get other participants involved:“Thanks, Joe, for those thoughts. Would anyone like to add anything on the point Joe was making about What do you do? Faced with an all-out mutiny, it would be understandable to flee the scene. Instead, keep your cool and allow employees to ventâ€"for as short a time-period as possible. When the temperature has cooled, regain control by firmly restating the focus group’s goal:“I appreciate your candor, but now I need your help to answer the questions I came to ask. Can you help?”How can you become a focus group master? Practice, practice, practice.With time and preparation, you can hone your focus group moderating skills so you’re ready to handle any situation.The best way to build your skills is to practice, so why not try a mock focus group? Enlist the assistance of four or five colleagues Prepare for the session by becoming familiar with the discussion guide. If you are using an exercise or game, have all the necessary sheets or materials. Encourage participants to have fun and role play. For instance, assign each member a role, such as an employee from a specific department or a conversation monopolizer. During the mock focus group, ask people not to break character.After the session has concluded, ask your colleagues for feedback:How was the experience overall? Were there enough chances to participate?What do you think I handled well? What situations seemed more difficult?What suggestions do you have to help me improve my moderating skills?Moderating focus groups requires keen concentration and determination. Keep practicing until you’re comfortable juggling multiple responsibilitiesâ€"and managing multiple personalities.

Social Media Job Seeking in the News - CareerEnlightenment.com

Top 15 IT / Tech Job Boards and Job Search Engine | SociableBlog By Social Guy Job search by Simply Hired . Skip social media and social networking sites and use Job Boards instead. I really like the list here, thanks social guy for sharing some top job boards. My personal favorite is Indeed.com. Gayleen SociableBlog.com : Social Media Blog http://www.sociableblog.com/Dude, Seriously, Facebook Could Cost You a Job HRGuru By Rock Hill Herald DONT mention your job search if youre still employed. The lesson here? Help social media help you. Dont cost yourself a job because you dont think people notice your online personality. In this job market, especially, look for every hrguru http://www.hrguru.com/

How to handle chronic complainers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

How to handle chronic complainers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Got any chronic complainers where you work? It seems like every workplace has them the people for whom the weather is always too warm or too cold, the boss is a jerk, the food is lousy, work sucks and you fill out the list. No matter how good things get they still only see the bad and they go to huge lengths to point it out to everyone around them. Im not saying we should outlaw complaining, but workplaces need to do something about the chronic complainers because they tend to make people around them unhappy at work. Its a fact that negative people are highly contagious and one chronic complainer can easily get an entire department down. We try many different strategies to deal with complainers one german IT company even bans whiners from the workplace. Yep if you have a bad day you are not allowed to come in. But most of the strategies we normally use on complainers dont help and often make matters worse. Ive outlined these strategies below. And then at the end of the post, theres a simple, devious trick that works amazingly well. Try it! The things we normally do about complainers and why they dont work There are several strategies people use around complainers, none of which really work. 1: Cheering them up doesnt work As in Oh, it cant be that bad, Come on, cheer up or the perennial favorite Time heals all wounds. Saying things like this shows the complainer that youre not taking their pain seriously. When you tell a complainer its not that bad, he will often complain even harder to convince you (and himself) that his problems are very serious indeed. 2: Suggesting solutions doesnt work Why dont you, have you tried or even worse You should really have The complainers problems are really serious and cant be solved by a few smart-ass suggestions from you. Or so theyve convinced themselves. The more you try to suggest solutions, the harder they will work to convince you and themselves that these solutions could never possibly work for them. 3: Telling them to pull themselves together doesnt work Quit complaining and do something about it or one of my favorites: You either want the problem or you want the solution. Yeah, telling them that their problems are trivial and they just need to pull themselves together is going to work juuuuust fine. All complainers magically stop complaining at this. Or do they? 4: Complaining about the complainers doesnt work Damn, that Sally complains a lot doesnt she? Guess what, you just became a complainer :o) 5: Ignoring them / avoiding them doesnt work This makes complainers clamor for attention even more which usually makes people ignore them even more. Thats a vicious cycle right there. 6: Complaining along with them doesnt work You know what, youre right, the boss IS a jerk. And the weather sucks. In fact everything sucks. This can be kind of cosy because it creates bonding and an us-against-the-world feeling. But ultimately its a bad idea because the more people complain the less prone they are to doing something about their problems. I remember one of the first jobs I had where my manager was a complete dolt. My co-workers and I couldnt start a meeting, go out for a beer or just meet in the hallway without spending 15-20 minutes complaining about him and his stupid ways. But all those man-hours spent complaining changed nothing and none of us ever did anything about it. Except quit the company one by one :o) 7: Confronting them doesnt work You can drive the complaints underground where you dont see them, but they will probably still be going on. And repressed complaining is worse than open complaining because it gets to stew and grow while its hidden. A trick that does work So what does work? Heres a simple but very effective trick: A friend of mine whos a dentist told me about an elderly, grouchy patient of hers. Every time he came in for an appointment hed complain about the weather, his children, his car, taxes, society, and any other topic that might come up. Now you might think Hey, shes a dentist, fill his mouth with gauze and cotton and lets see him complain then! but my friend is a naturally happy person and would instead try to cheer him up. Didnt work, just made him complain even more. So I taught her this trick and the next time he came in for an appointment she was ready. He went in the chair, and immediately started complaining. After listening to his usual litany for a while my dentist friend said, with deep sympathy in her voice, You know, that sounds terrible. I dont know how you deal with all of these problems. You know what he said? Weeeeell, its not THAT bad! This approach works because it gives the complainer what hes really after: Empathy. Not cheering up, not solutions, not egging-on. Just understanding of what is, for him, a difficult situation. There are two important things to notice here: Dont be sarcastic when you say it. Be sincere. You dont have to agree that these are huge problems. Even if everything the complainer says sounds trivial to you, remember that it feels like a huge problem to him or her wouldnt go on about it. What seems trivial to one person can be a huge problem for others. So youre not saying Yes, I agree thats a huge problem. And youre certainly not saying Oh, poor poor you in a sarcastic voice. Youre just acknowledging the fact that this is a huge problem for that person. Which undeniably it is. Does this make the complaining go away? Only sometimes. But it keeps you from being part of a vicious cycle of responses that just makes the complainers complain more and more and more. The cycle is cut at the point you take their distress seriously. So try this approach on your favorite complainer and tell me how it goes. If you liked this post Im pretty sure youll also enjoy these: The top 10 advantages of low-rent living How to resolve conflicts at work Being positive makes you lucky. No, really! Top 5 business maxims that need to go part II Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related