Category: Professional Development

Building skills on the job

Language of Appreciation: Quality Time

by candacemoody

Quality time people plan activities that bring the team together: supervisors who organize pot luck lunches or take the team out for coffee after the conference are showing their appreciation is this tangible way. If you have a team member or manager who tends to connect by dropping by for a chat, pay attention to this signal; it’s easy to get it wrong. Some managers tend to view requests for quality time as intrusive, or as asking for “friendship” instead of affirmation. Likewise, some workers don’t necessarily want to spend face to face time with their managers; they’d rather focus on getting work done.

Languages of Appreciation: Acts of Service

by candacemoody

When acts of service are they language of appreciation that you value, you show others how much you care by doing things. I understand this language well; it’s the language I use in my personal and professional relationships. When I borrow my husband’s car for the day, I fill it up with gas and get it washed. When I see a staff member struggling with a task, I pitch in. I usually don’t just offer to pitch in – I grab a pile of paper and start sorting. (It’s not called acts of lip service, after all.)

Language of Appreciation: Words of Affirmation

by candacemoody

“Thanks – you did a great job today.” It’s the simplest form of appreciation and in most cases it’s enough to warm a worker’s heart. Words of affirmation are one of the “languages of appreciation” that managers and team members use almost every day. But are they using it well?

The Languages of Appreciation

by candacemoody

Gary Chapman and Paul White are the authors of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. Their book discusses why appreciation is one of the most important elements of employee motivation and satisfaction. That sounds elementary, and perhaps it is. Everyone, after all, wants workers to feel appreciated. The art is in figuring out how to make an individual feel it; the same kind of appreciation can have very different effects on different people. Over the next few posts, we’ll discuss the five “languages” of appreciation that Chapman and White examine.

Have you Updated Your LinkedIn Page Lately?

by candacemoody

Of course you’re on LinkedIn. Every serious job seeking professional is. LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories. According to the site’s founder, professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second. But if you’re like many users, you set up a profile a while ago and haven’t gone back in to update it. The site is adding new features all the time, and if you’ve not been paying attention, you’re missing out on some great opportunities.

When to put it in Writing

by candacemoody

Volumes have been written about when not to write. If you have something difficult to say, it’s best to say it in person, or so the advisors will tell you. Email (that’s how most business writing occurs today) is certainly not an ideal medium for tough conversations; it can be cold and impersonal. If you have a good relationship with someone, you want to temper your difficult conversation with personal signals; empathy is easier to express in person. But there are times when writing is the best medium.

Dealing with Difficult People: Being Objective

by candacemoody

Arthur Bell and Dayle M. Smith wrote “Difficult People at Work; How to Cope, How to Win” to help us work and live with people who make us crazy. The authors call difficult people SOP’s: Sources of Pain. They don’t try to minimize the pain you feel from difficult people; they simply try to help you manage to get work done and keep from strangling your coworkers (which this column does NOT endorse.)

How to Answer a Question when You Don’t Know the Answer

by candacemoody

At some point during your work week, someone is going to ask you for information you don’t have. There are some people (I don’t happen to be one of them) who hate to say “I don’t know.” For some reason, it makes them feel stupid, or out of touch. I never worry about that. I know lots of things, so missing an answer at any given time doesn’t make me feel dumb. In fact, it’s why I almost never use “I don’t know” by itself; I think of it as an incomplete sentence. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” is my idea of a complete sentence.

Asking for Help

by candacemoody

Jodi Glickman is the author of “Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say it” and she offers readers a step by step guide to success by saying the right things. Glickman offers scripts for getting things done at work, asking for help and managing priorities. They’re good scripts; as a manager, I can vouch for her expertise in guiding workers toward more successful outcomes. Here’s her formula for success when you have to ask for help.

Getting Unstuck

by candacemoody

Once in a great while, I’ll run into someone who asks for advice, but then rejects every offering. “I tried that once; it didn’t work.” “I can’t do that; I have no (insert resource here.)” “I don’t know how to (find, do, spell; insert another verb here) that.” When I come across these people, their responses are usually immediate and firm. I get the impression that I have not been helpful, and I certainly don’t feel good. Worse, I sometimes hear that other advisors, who I know to be smart and helpful, “were no help at all to me.” I’d hate to think that someone was saying that about me.