Can My Boss Do That?
“My son recently gave his two week notice to his employer so he can take another position. They let him go the next day, so he was without income for the two weeks. Can you help recover his earnings?”
Category: Professional Development
Building skills on the job
5 Healthy Work Habits for 2013
It’s the end of January, the time of year when some of us sheepishly and quietly give up on our New Year’s resolutions. This annual ritual has inspired the development of dozens of apps designed to help you be more productive and to develop and keep healthy habits. These apps can remind you to floss, eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise, or get more sleep. Here is my take on the five habits you should adopt to have a healthier year at the office.
Lion Taming Part Two
Just like performing in a circus act, your corporate lion taming act can be exhilarating, as long as you follow some basic guidelines.
Guest Post: Job Search Tips for Introverts
Introverts tend to gain strength, energy and confidence through spending time alone, unlike extroverts who tend to recharge their batteries in social settings. Introverts can be intelligent, calm, thoughtful, and creative. They just don’t find social contact as energizing as extroverts do.
Lion Taming Part One
Steven L. Katz is the author of Lion Taming: Working Successfully with Leaders, Bosses and Other Tough Customers. Katz has worked as a corporate lion tamer for over 20 years; he’s been the executive assistant and right hand to many high-level executives and leaders, including a senior (unnamed in the book) U.S. senator. He intersperses real lion tamer advice from circus performers with advice on how to work with powerful leaders in business.
New Year’s Resolutions for Your Career
Since you’re making all those other New Year’s resolutions, why not add a couple to perk up your career prospects? Here are two suggestions that will add value to your resume and that can be accomplished in your spare time.
How Interesting are You?
Heather Huhman wrote a great post about the personal qualities that hiring managers don’t like to see in a candidate. But it’s the Smart Brief link title that caught my eye: Are you too boring to hire?
Huhman writes:
“Hiring managers don’t want to see a candidate who has no additional interests or personality beyond what’s required to get a job in their industry. You need to show you’re a human being, not a robot. Hiring managers love to see candidates with hobbies, or even those who have taken on a second job—it shows you’re able to make good use of your free time to expand your skills and interests, and this is a quality that’s likely to spill over into your professional life.”
Now Discover Your Strengths
When asked the question “At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” only 20 percent answered yes; the other 80 percent felt that they were not using their strengths in their roles at work.
The Language of Talent
Buckingham starts out by defining “strength” as “near perfect, consistent performance.” Being pretty good at something is not enough. It starts with talent, which Buckingham describes as an innate ability – something you may have been a natural at all your life. In fact, being a natural is what keeps many of us from understanding true strengths; if it’s that easy for me, doesn’t everyone find it to be easy too?
Six Signs that You Might Be Too Nice for Your Own Good
What could be wrong with being nice? Here are six signs that you might be nice to the point of unhealthy.
Your Work, Your Way 