Work, success and meaning at every stage of your career
How do you set yourself apart from the hundreds of applicants competing with you for your next dream job? You may find yourself up against people with more experience or education and more prestigious job titles on their resumes. Your challenge is to let the interviewer know that you are a special person who brings … Continue reading Gifts, Talents and Skills
In a recent post, I wrote about creating an alter ego to take on big challenges in your life. That’s the theory behind Todd Herman’s book The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. You may have had an alter ego when you were a child; Herman writes that alter … Continue reading Your Alter Ego Takes on the World
To be coachable, a player needs to be open to the idea that he has room to improve. That attitude is in direct opposition to what got that player to the big leagues in the first place: huge confidence and unswerving belief that s/he’s the best of the best.
If you read my blog posts regularly, it will not surprise you to learn that I am strongly task-oriented. Tips for goal setting, tips for getting organized, tips to keep you on track – it’s obvious that I care about getting things done.
But there are differences of opinion, even among strongly task-oriented people. Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner, authors of Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, calls the two types of task-oriented people “Get it Done” versus “Get it Right.” And even though we both focus on tasks, we can drive each other crazy.
Famous people make up stories to reflect the way they feel about themselves. Stories that, if they aren’t exactly accurate, are the version of the story that should be true.
Somewhere along the way, ambition went out of style, or at least showing it did. Recently, articles about Olympic snowboarder Shaun White reported that he is wildly unpopular among his fellow snowboarders despite the fact that he almost singlehandedly brought the sport to the world stage. Other snowboarders found his ambition to win unseemly.
The point is that your style is hard wired. Just like your eye color or height, it’s part of who you are. No amount of training or “fixing” will change you; when the next new task or problem comes around, you’ll revert back to your innate style. Your conative style is not related to your IQ, your education, or your job. It’s just who you are.
71 Percent of Workers Disengaged at Work
Are you one of them? What would it take to get you really engaged on the job?
Any career advice column can give you tips on answering the most-often asked questions in an interview. It takes real confidence to give tips on how to shine when the questions are just plain wacky. This post by Glassdoor.com compiled the 25 strangest interview questions posed by recruiters from name brand companies.
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.
Your Work, Your Way 