Part 1 of 2
So many of you ask how to crack the code to get hired at employers of choice. How close does your background really need to be to stated position requirements? How much initiatitive is admirable and how much is a turn-off? We posed some questions directly to communication hiring managers at organizations with established infrastructure and regular hiring activity in this area.
In this piece, we speak with Tracy McKee (TM), Head of Internal Communications at Aetna Inc. and Alison Davis (AD), President of Davis & Company, a national employee communication consultancy founded in 1984.
Communitelligence: Is there really such a thing as a “created hire,” when the perfect person walks in the door and you somehow find or shift funding to make a hire happen?
AD: Yes, at least for a small firm like ours. There have been several occasions in our 20-year plus history when we met someone we thought would add value to our firm and created a position just for them. We’ve also had a couple of occasions when two finalists for a position were so good that we didn’t want to choose – so we hired them both.
TM: Yes, some of the best jobs evolve this way. The beauty is that these kinds of roles often work out very well for the individual and the hiring company. It takes imagination and courage on both sides – I’m impressed with a candidate who really understands her strengths and career goals and isn’t afraid to describe a “perfect fit” role that looks different from the one on the table.
Communitelligence: How do you feel about candidates who take the initiative and call you directly? Is this an annoyance or a point of differentiation?
AD: If we have posted a job, with a clear process for applying, and someone calls me directly, I do find that annoying – it means the candidate is not respecting our process and is trying to make an end run to reach me. I’m less annoyed is someone sends me an e-mail because it’s less intrusive: I just reply quickly and forward the info to our HR manager.
TM: Perseverance is a funny thing; you want to see it in a person once they have the job but too much of it before an offer feels like pressure and if anything, can have a negative impact. Do your homework before the interview and you’ll set yourself apart from everyone else. Trying too hard to close the sale after the interview but before an offer is too late.
Communitelligence: What do you believe is the right balance between probing and selling the candidate during the interview process?
TM: If it’s a bench strength role, I do a lot more probing and listening than selling in the initial conversation. I would never sell someone on a role that isn’t a fit and I don’t know that unless I really listen to what they say. On the flip side, if they’ve done their homework and they are clear on their own goals, they’ll be probing to see if I have an opportunity that could add to their personal portfolio of skills and experience. If they aren’t asking equally insightful questions, then that tells me a lot about their confidence level and personal clarity.
AD: My role in interviewing is 50 percent sales (“you should work here”) and 50 percent probing (“what would you bring to the party?”) Other people in our interview process are focused almost completely on probing, so I rely on them to judge the candidate more than to sell him or her on the merits of the company.
Communitelligence: If you could give candidates just one piece of advice to present or interview smarter, what would it be:
AD: Be prepared to convey specific stories/examples as case studies: the challenge you faced, the approach you took to meet that challenge, and the results you achieved. That brings your experience to life and gives your potential employer a sense of how you think.
TM: Do your homework…I once had a candidate ask me before his interview to send him all kinds of information that was available on our public website. I canceled the appointment.
Also, know what you are good at and what you want to do. When you are asked about these things, don’t give a long list of accomplishments – try talking about what you learned and what you got out of it and how that relates to the kind of work you want to do. It sounds soft, but it proves two very important points: 1) you actually did the work and 2) you have a passion for it. Otherwise, how do I know it was really your accomplishment?
By Janet Long, founder and president of Integrity Search, Inc
In our next installment, Commuitelligence will speak to: Christopher Mykrantz at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Lisa Jarmoszka at Buck Consultants and Thomas Hill, who is currently engaged by Chevron.
- When contacted, ask the individual how you can be help them and what they expect from this meeting.
- With this information, be honest as to how you can help.
- Decide how/when/and for how long you want to meet. Let the individual know you can meet on Tuesday mornings for 20 minutes over coffee.
- If you can’t help them, tell them.
- If you don’t like to give out referral names but are willing to share information about your company or industry, tell them.
- If you think that someone you know might be a better contact, explain why and give the contact’s information.
- When you meet, run the meeting like a business meeting. It’s your time so take control.
- If you have names or information you think might be helpful, have it handy.
- If you think of a name or contact but don’t have the information, let the individual know you will call/email them with the information or ask them to follow up with you as a reminder.
- If you want/don’t want your name used with any contact, be specific with the individual.
- When the meeting ends, let the individual know if you want to hear from them again or not. Let them know to ‘keep in touch’ or ‘wish them well in their quest.’
Happiness–in your business life and your personal life–is often a matter of subtraction, not addition.
Consider, for example, what happens when you stop doing the following 10 things:
1. Blaming.
People make mistakes. Employees don’t meet your expectations. Vendors don’t deliver on time.
So you blame them for your problems.
But you’re also to blame. Maybe you didn’t provide enough training. Maybe you didn’t build in enough of a buffer. Maybe you asked too much, too soon.
Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn’t masochistic, it’s empowering–because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time.
And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier.
2. Impressing.
No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all “things.” People may like your things–but that doesn’t mean they like you.
Sure, superficially they might seem to, but superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship that is not based on substance is not a real relationship.
Genuine relationships make you happier, and you’ll only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.
3. Clinging.
When you’re afraid or insecure, you hold on tightly to what you know, even if what you know isn’t particularly good for you.
An absence of fear or insecurity isn’t happiness: It’s just an absence of fear or insecurity.
Holding on to what you think you need won’t make you happier; letting go so you can reach for and try to earn what you want will.
Even if you don’t succeed in earning what you want, the act of trying alone will make you feel better about yourself.
4. Interrupting.
Interrupting isn’t just rude. When you interrupt someone, what you’re really saying is, “I’m not listening to you so I can understand what you’re saying; I’m listening to you so I can decide what I want to say.”
Want people to like you? Listen to what they say. Focus on what they say. Ask questions to make sure you understand what they say.
They’ll love you for it–and you’ll love how that makes you feel.
5. Whining.
Your words have power, especially over you. Whining about your problems makes you feel worse, not better.
If something is wrong, don’t waste time complaining. Put that effort into making the situation better. Unless you want to whine about it forever, eventually you’ll have to do that. So why waste time? Fix it now.
Don’t talk about what’s wrong. Talk about how you’ll make things better, even if that conversation is only with yourself.
And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don’t just be the shoulder they cry on.
Friends don’t let friends whine–friends help friends make their lives better.
Workplaces aren’t what they used to be — and that’s a good thing! Though professional attire is a must in virtually any workplace, what constitutes professional attire can vary wildly depending on profession, employer, and even location. Even in more conservative workplaces, like a law or business office, some degree of relaxed or casual attire is permitted on certain days or during certain times of year.
This is usually the case in the summer when the heat makes traditional professional attire unbearably warm. Despite the fact that you’re unlikely to wear heavy clothes on a casual Friday, such days still require a wardrobe mindful of what’s appropriate in the workplace. Here are some dos and don’ts that apply to most casual dress days:
DON’T wear sweats, pajamas, or lounge wear.
Just because you’re dressing casually doesn’t mean you should ignore what your clothes say about you and your work. One of the main reasons professional attire exists is to instill confidence in one’s appearance; professional attire is often designed to make you look your best. Wearing sweats, pajamas, or lounge clothes would only serve to make you look lazy in the eyes of others. These kinds of clothes, by design, do not fit especially well and are not typically meant to be worn to the office. A good rule of thumb is to never wear anything to work that you would wear in bed or lounging on the couch at home.
DO wear jeans.
Jeans are an excellent alternative to slacks or dress pants, which are typical in professional attire. Be mindful of the sort of jeans you wear though. Choosing a dark wash of jeans, as opposed to a lighter wash, looks more professional since the darker color mimics dress pants. Distressed jeans, jeans with holes in them or those covered in paint splatter are generally unacceptable as they look messy. Fit is important too. Very baggy or skinny jeans are not going to cut it; boot cut or straight-legged jeans are going to be the most professional option.
Do…
· Be approachable. At your desk. In the lunchroom. In the bathroom. In the parking lot. You’ll get a reputation as a go-to guy who listens. A low-level supervisor remembers a colleague approached him at his desk the day after an office party and said, “My wife loved talking to you. She thought you were so interesting.” The supervisor remembered talking with her, and he remembered that he had barely said a word. He just listened to her.
· Build relationships before you need them. Crushing office politics means networking before you need to network. People who know each other can handle disagreements better than people who do not.
· Practice self-awareness. Are you the source of tension? Many people can recognize shortcomings in others, but fail to recognize their own faults. Be a positive influence for everyone else.
· Think win-win. We grow up thinking that if someone has to win, then someone else has to lose. It doesn’t have to be that way in the workplace. Be the one in your office or department who is always saying, “How can we all win here?” Promote mutually acceptable solutions. Win-win situations help to engage employees, promote unity, and drown out politics.
With his team, Saku Tuominen, founder and creative director at the Idealist Group in Finland, interviewed and followed 1,500 workers at Finnish and global firms to study how people feel and respond to issues in the workplace. Tuominen’s findings are easy to understand — 40 percent of those surveyed said their inboxes are out of control, 60 percent noted that they attend too many meetings, and 70 percent don’t plan their weeks in advance. Overall, employees said they lacked a sense of meaning, control, and achievement in the workplace. Sound familiar?
Based on the study and the insights of Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, Tuominen recommends new approaches to changing our work processes that all tap into our unconscious:
- Think about one question/idea that needs insight and keep this thought in your subconscious mind.
- Clear your conscious mind by using this two-step system: move your thought(s) from your mind to a list and then clear your list when you have a short break (if your meeting is canceled, for instance, or your flight is delayed).
- Plan your week and month by listing three priorities you would like to accomplish.
- Make certain you have at least four consecutive, uninterrupted hours a day dedicated to the three priorities you identified.
This last point is key. Tuominen deduced that if you can schedule four hours with continuous flow and concentration, you could accomplish a lot and improve the quality of your thinking. As Tuominen aptly states, “you can’t manage people if you can’t manage yourself.”
With his team, Saku Tuominen, founder and creative director at the Idealist Group in Finland, interviewed and followed 1,500 workers at Finnish and global firms to study how people feel and respond to issues in the workplace. Tuominen’s findings are easy to understand — 40 percent of those surveyed said their inboxes are out of control, 60 percent noted that they attend too many meetings, and 70 percent don’t plan their weeks in advance. Overall, employees said they lacked a sense of meaning, control, and achievement in the workplace. Sound familiar?
Based on the study and the insights of Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, Tuominen recommends new approaches to changing our work processes that all tap into our unconscious:
- Think about one question/idea that needs insight and keep this thought in your subconscious mind.
- Clear your conscious mind by using this two-step system: move your thought(s) from your mind to a list and then clear your list when you have a short break (if your meeting is canceled, for instance, or your flight is delayed).
- Plan your week and month by listing three priorities you would like to accomplish.
- Make certain you have at least four consecutive, uninterrupted hours a day dedicated to the three priorities you identified.
This last point is key. Tuominen deduced that if you can schedule four hours with continuous flow and concentration, you could accomplish a lot and improve the quality of your thinking. As Tuominen aptly states, “you can’t manage people if you can’t manage yourself.”
Further investigations were made, and finally it was discovered that the statue had been sculpted by forgers in Rome. The teams of analysts who did the 14 months of research turned out to be wrong. The historians who relied on their initial hunches were right.
I especially like this story because it aligns so strongly with my research in organizational creativity. Whether they call it a hunch, a gut feeling, or a flash of insight, thousands of successful managers and executives make business decisions using their intuition. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Conrad Hilton are famous examples of executives who relied heavily on intuitive business decisions. A story about Conrad Hilton highlights the value of what was referred to as “one of Connie’s hunches.” There was to be a sealed bid on a New York property. Hilton evaluated its worth at $159,000. and prepared a bid in that amount. He slept that night and upon awakening, the figure $174,000 stood out in his mind. He changed the bid and submitted the higher figure. It won. The next highest bid was $173,000. He subsequently sold the property for several million dollars.
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Douglas Dean studied the relationship between intuition and business success. He found that 80 percent of executives whose companies’ profits had more than doubled in the past five years had above average precognitive powers. Management professor Weston Agor of the University of Texas in El Paso found that of the 2,000 managers he tested, higher-level managers had the top scores in intuition. Most of these executives first digested all the relevant information and data available, but when the data was conflicting or incomplete, they relied on intuitive approaches to come to a conclusion.
Computer whiz Allan Huang had puzzled for months over a recurring dream in which two opposing armies of sorcerers’ apprentices carried pails filled with data. Most nights, the two armies marched toward each other but stopped just short of confrontation. Other times they collided, tying themselves into a big red knot. Then one night, something different happened – the armies marched right into each other, but with no collision. Instead, they passed harmlessly through each other like light passing through light.
In all of our brains, there is a powerful subconscious process, which works to sift huge amounts of information, blend data, isolate telling details, and come to astonishingly rapid conclusions. Our job is to better understand that process so we can nurture it, trust it, and use it!
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is the author of nine books including CREATIVITY IN BUSINESS and “THIS ISN’T THE COMPANY I JOINED” — How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down. She delivers keynote speeches and seminars to association and business audiences around the world. For more information or to book Carol as a speaker at one of your events, please call: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or visit her website: http://www.CKG.com.
Here are three strategies for avoiding burnout by staying connected to work, both as an employee and as a person.
1. Connect the dots between the Home You and the Office You.
One cliché that still holds very true: Finding what you love is central to being your best at work. Within your industry and organization, be sure that your talents and abilities in “real life” (the things that are important to you in your day-to-day life at home) are in line with your tasks at work. In the best scenario, the talents that make you who you are in your family life, your social life, your hobbies, etc. are also put to use in your job (think meticulous attention to detail, compassionate understanding in social situations, drive to creatively problem solve, etc.).
Not there yet? Even some small changes–like taking on pieces of projects that you feel connected to–can help give you a more personal relationship to your work and company.
Some of the best decisions I’ve made for Blu have involved helping employees find where they are best suited and where their passions within the business truly lie. Productivity goes up, of course, but so do morale, fresh ideas, and a host of other invaluable and highly contagious effects.
2. Keep the big picture easily within reach–literally.
Getting caught up in the minutiae is so easy, especially when your job is high stress, involves managing others, or demands intense attention to detail.
There’s much research to support the idea that visual reminders can be powerful motivators. So find one and keep it in plain sight. Hokey? Maybe.
But I remember one day when I stopped by my local pizza place for a slice, I was struck by, of all things, the box: The ambitious little pizza company had designed its box to incorporate the words that evoke its mission and message. It depicted visually the ideals at the core of the business. That stuck with me. I cut out the box top and still have it to this day at my desk.
Reconnecting to the reasons you were inspired in the first place is crucial to keeping your own work exciting–and, if you are the boss, provides the fuel for continuing to inspire others.
Read full article via Inc
Maybe it’s the first time you’re standing in the doorway to a room of people you don’t know—swallowing hard because there’s no saliva in your mouth, and clutching your business cards in a sweaty hand. Or maybe you’ve been in that doorway many times (but chances are, you’re still exhibiting a milder form of both symptoms).
They don’t call it “NetWORKING” for nothing!
Looking for a new take on this standard business tactic, I attended “The Wonders of Intentional Networking” at the Wright Business Institute in Chicago (http://www.wrightexcellence.com). Here are three of my lessons learned—and some new tactics you and I should both be using.
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Trick #1: Walk In with a Goal. It probably shouldn’t be one of these: 1) the number of business cards you give out or get, 2) finding a new client or employer, or 3) closing a sale. This is tough. Most of the time we (force ourselves to) network because we’ve got a business need and we want to create an opportunity.
Experience taught me this kind of desperation leaks out your pores—turning off any chance of a meaningful exchange with someone who could be interested. And I’ve also walked into plenty of rooms with no real notion why I’m there (besides I should be) and come away disappointed.
So set a realistic goal. If you’re a new networker or shy, that could be speaking with at least two new people (rather than finding a friend or one person you meet and attaching yourself to him or her all night). If you’re a regular networker, your goal could be to locate someone you’d like to add to your “life team”—people you can cultivate and count on for good advice and support.
It’s that law of attraction: going in knowing what you want increases the chances that you’ll get it. Take an extra minute to do this before you arrive.
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Trick #2: Be Unselfish. Having cut my teeth in networking at Business Networking International (BNI), I’m a true believer in the “givers gain” philosophy. Enter a room ready to make connections to help the people you meet. This means you have to listen. It also requires you to ask non-directional questions: letting the person talk about what he or she wants—rather than what you want.
This is hard for me. I interview people for a living. My tendency is to “gather information.” Often my questions are targeted at learning about something that speaks to me. Now I’m trying out a new tack. More often, my questions and comments will include these: “How’s it going? Tell me more about that. Go on. That’s interesting. How so?”
Let the other person talk about what interests her or him. This actually leads to a deeper level of conversation, where you can learn more about a person’s issues or needs. And if you can connect the person to someone else who can help—or provide the help yourself—you’ve done a service that will be remembered.
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Trick #3: Be Selfish. There’s one person who comes to every networking event. Verbally and in body language, she screams “me-Me-ME!” She only wishes to speak about herself, her business, her family, her activities. She hands you her card before she asks your name. If she takes your card, you’ll find she’s left it on the table after departing—or has enrolled you in her e-newsletter the next day without having asked your permission.
When faced with her, remember your goal for this networking event. If listening to and assisting her will help reach your goal, then stay in the conversation. If it won’t (which usually is the case), then find a polite way to disengage (“Thanks for telling me about what you do. I’m sure there are other people you want to meet, too, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.”). Then shake hands and move on. Trick #2’s being unselfish doesn’t mean being a doormat—so watch out for yourself.
Think about it: your best networking experiences happen when you have meaningful conversations on subjects people care about. And when you find ways to help others get to their goals, they’ll want to do the same for you. Then it becomes “Networking.”
Lynn Franklin says she started Lynne Franklin Wordsmith 16 years ago because …”I was in danger of being made a partner at the world’s largest investor relations agency. Or because a tarot card reader told me to. Or because I wanted to prove my theory that wearing pantyhose didn’t make me more productive. All of those would be true.”
As a veteran executive recruiter – with an earlier hands-on career in my area of specialization – it’s tempting to reach a point where you think you’ve seen or know it all. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. At the end of the day, the most comprehensive oral interview processes across organization levels, diligent 360-degree reference checking and even predictive psychological assessments can’t give you the whole picture.
More and more, we’re advising clients to include a job simulation piece in the candidate evaluation process. While you can’t re-create every aspect of the work environment and job content, you can construct a representative experience that will help the candidate as well as the hiring organization assess whether this will really be a match “on the ground.” Too often recruiters (present company included) get so caught up in the HR jargon of our job descriptions and integrating interview feedback from multiple sources that we move away from the basic question: can this candidate really do — and does he or she want to do — the job at hand?
Because we recruit communication professionals, measuring on-the-spot writing skills is one example of this, asking all candidates in the process, for instance, to complete a timed exercise illustrating how they might respond to a particular client challenge. Administered effectively, this type of exercise can demonstrate not only core written communication competency but how an individual approaches and prioritizes issues – the thought process.
And there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to simulation, even in the same field. When one of our clients, a management consulting firm, was hiring a senior vice president and national practice leader for one of its key service lines, the simulation was a business plan presented to the organization’s leadership team. Through this process, the candidate learned quite a bit about how the executive team asks questions, integrates feedback and communicates with each other. Seven years later this individual is with the firm and has grown the practice significantly.
In another instance, we suggested to a client who was on the fence about hiring a finalist candidate that this individual spend another day in the office, not interviewing but shadowing the hiring manager in representative meetings. As a direct result, both the candidate and the client decided this was not the right fit, and saved everyone a lot of time, money and heartache in the process.
Job simulation exercises may not work for every hiring process but it’s worth thinking through whether this additional piece can add predictive value for both parties.
By Janet Long
In light of the current economic downturn, what new opportunities do you see for public relations professionals, either in agencies or working for corporations? Here are the answers from two of our Inner Circle leaders:
Answer by Jim Bowman, The PR Doc® “We now have an unprecedented opportunity to add quantifiable value to the businesses we serve.”
- A recent Advertising Age article [http://budurl.com/pvaf] assessed the human carnage in communications professions wrought by the current recession:
- 65,100 jobs lost in advertising and media in 2008, 18,700 of them in December alone
- Media companies (newspapers, magazines, broadcasters) eliminated 41,000 U.S. jobs, or 4.6% of staff, from the time the recession began in Dec. 2007
- Advertising agencies and marketing-services firms cut 24,100 jobs, or 3.1% of staff
- Across all professions nationwide, job loss stood at 2.6%
There were gains in related areas:
- Marketing consulting added 2,200 jobs
- Public relations added 1,200 jobs
- Internet media companies added 5,400 jobs
Given the fragility of the global economy, it is not safe to extrapolate those numbers through the remainder of this year. In fact, there is growing evidence of cuts coming in PR. But at this point in time the numbers seem to say marketing consulting and public relations are more than holding their value.
Mash up the data some and the clear message is that traditional media are declining, while new, Web-based media are on the rise. For discerning public relations professionals, it should be clear our profession is changing simultaneously.
Agency and corporate PR people who cling to the old ways – i.e., see the Internet as simply a new channel for reaching journalists – are likely to be among the first casualties. Conversely, those who skill up for the new marketing and PR reality will be in demand.
Work with journalists, certainly, but take advantage of the opportunities online PR affords to reach customers directly and interact with them. When I write news releases for my clients, I write first for their customers; journalists are a secondary target. My favorite way of pitching journalists is a brief, but highly focused and personalized email with a link to a multimedia release.
I agree in principle with nearly everything David Meerman Scott set forth in The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Anyone serious about a public relations or corporate communications career today should own the book and refer to it often.
The emerging profile of public relations professionals includes working as nimbly in the online world as among the bricks and mortar; writing search-engine-optimized copy as well as print and broadcast styles; learning to do key word research and writing for search engines as well as human readers (hint: there’s a lot more to it than peppering a release with anchor text links).
Traditional PR will not go away, but it is being irrevocably altered. Incredibly, many traditional PR people I talk with in agency and corporate jobs still don’t get it when dealing with the realities of online PR. Some dismiss it (big mistake) and some fear it (equally big mistake).
Embrace it. We now have an unprecedented opportunity to add quantifiable value to the businesses we serve. Instead of boxes of clippings we can generate traffic to Websites and measure the results in terms CEOs and CFOs understand – sales leads, new customers, and reputation indices, to name a few.
Answer by Barbara Puffer, Puffer Public Relations Strategies: Lifelong learning is essential. If you have kept up with the profession, the people who need you — who want to pay you for your services — will find you.
“Very unpredictable and changing times” has been the mantra during many periods in my long career. At those times, public relations professionals have been relied upon to manage critical information and to strategically use research and words to turn the tides of crises.
Today’s economic downturn and related turmoil is an exciting opportunity for communications professionals that have kept abreast of and adept at the latest trends of the profession. It’s a time when all of one’s networking relationships, education, and experience can be maximized for the most effective approaches.
I remember a now-retired colleague from Union Carbide telling me as a young professional that a prepared communicator doesn’t need to worry about “crisis communications” as a singly-defined area of expertise. He emphasized that all crisis communications is best tackled with a base of solid communications research, planning and practice that effective communicators should have been using all along.
To tap a familiar cliche, lifelong learning is essential. If you have kept up with the profession, the people who need you — who want to pay you for your services — will find you. Continue learning and using all technology available to you, read and stay informed, and know your colleagues in the profession. It’s a small world out there.
I’ve learned a few things about selling a house. I know, for instance, that much depends on timing (economic timing as well as the time of year you put the house on the market), and of course the mantra “location, location, location” is still paramount. I’ve also found out that a property needs “curb appeal.” That is, it needs to make a special, positive, and instant impression when prospective buyers first see it.
So when I read Drew Westen’s fabulous book, The Political Brain (about the role of emotion in politics), I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that curb appeal is also crucial in political campaigns.
Of course, Westen is referring to personal curb appeal. According to Westen, “One of the main determinants of electoral success,” he explains, “is simply a candidate’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is the feeling voters get when they ‘drive by’ a candidate a few times on television and form an emotional impression.”
Research shows that personal curb appeal can be assessed quickly. Psychologists Nalini Ambady and Bob Rosenthal conducted experiments involving what they called “thin slices of behavior.” These studies have been referenced in numerous writings – most famously, in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink. In one such study, subjects watched a 30-second clip of college teachers at the beginning of a term and rated them on characteristics such as accepting, active, competent, and confident. The results were startling. Raters were able to accurately predict how students would evaluate those same teachers at the end of the course.
Personal curb appeal is also primarily a nonverbal process. When Ambady and Rosenthal turned off the audio portion of the teachers’ video clip, so that subjects had to rely only on body language cues, the accuracy of their 30-second predictions remained just as high.
How’s your personal curb appeal? When your co-workers, clients, and business partners “drive by” you, how do you come across? If you’d like to improve, here are five tips to keep in mind:
1) Dress for success.
Joyce is a successful educator and entrepreneur. One of the secrets of her success is the way she dresses. Even when traveling for a vacation, Joyce is in a business suit and heels. Her motto: “Wear great clothes. You never know whom you’ll meet!”
When it comes to curb appeal, the way you dress matters. A lot. Clothing has an effect on both the observer and the wearer. It has been proven that people are more likely to give money (charitable donations, tips) or information to someone if that person is well dressed. And, if you’d ever watched actors at their first dress rehearsal, you’d be convinced of the power of the right costume to powerfully impact what the wearer feels.
Dressing for success doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to wear a suit to work. Many organizations have a more casual dress code. But it does mean that whatever you wear should help you make the statement that you are a competent professional.
2) Maintain positive eye contact.
Eye contact is most effective when both parties feel its intensity is appropriate for the situation. This may differ with introverts/extroverts, men/women, or between different cultures. But, in general, greater eye contact — especially in intervals lasting four to five seconds –almost always leads to greater liking.
Looking at someone’s eyes transmits energy and indicates interest. As long as you are looking at me, I believe that I have your full attention. In my book, The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work, I offer a simple way to improve your likeability factor: Whenever you greet a business colleague, remember to look into her eyes long enough to notice what color they are.
3) Learn to speak the body language of inclusion.
Back-to-back doesn’t do it. But belly-to-belly – facing people directly when talking with them – does. Even a quarter turn away signals your lack of interest and makes the speaker shut down.
Remove barriers between you and the other person. Take away things that block your view. Move the phone or stacks of paper on your desk. Better still, come out from behind your desk and sit next to the person you’re dealing with.
Use palm-up hand gestures when speaking. Keeping your movements relaxed, using open arm gestures, and showing the palms of your hands — all are silent signals of credibility and candor. Individuals with open gestures are perceived more positively and are more persuasive than those with closed gestures (arms crossed, hands hidden or held close to the body, etc.).
Synchronize your body language to mirror your partner’s. Subtly match his stance, arm positions and facial expressions. You may not realize, by the way, that you do this naturally with people you genuinely like or agree with. It’s a way of nonverbally signaling that you are connected and engaged.
4. Use your head.
The next time you are in a conversation where you’re trying to encourage the other person to speak more, nod your head using clusters of three nods at regular intervals. Research shows that people will talk three to four times more than usual when the listener nods in this manner. You’ll be amazed at how this single nonverbal signal can trigger such a positive response.
Head tilting is another signal that you are interested and involved. As such, head tilts can be very positive cues when you want to send messages of empathy and understanding. But a tilted head is also subconsciously processed as a submission signal. (Dogs will tilt to show their necks in deference to a more dominant animal.) And in business negotiations with men, women – who tend to head-tilt the most – should keep their heads straight up in a more neutral position.
5) Activate your smile power.
A smile is an invitation, a sign of welcome. It says, “I’m friendly and approachable.” The human brain prefers happy faces, recognizing them more quickly than those with negative expressions. In fact, a smile is such an important signal to social interaction that it can be recognized from 300 feet — more than a football field away.
Most importantly, smiling directly influences how other people respond to you. When you smile at someone, they almost always smile in return. And, because facial expressions trigger corresponding feelings, the smile you get back actually changes that person’s emotional state in a positive way. This one simple act will instantly and powerfully increase your curb appeal.
Drew Westen found that, after party affiliation, the most important predictor of how people vote is their emotional reaction (gut feeling) toward the candidate. I found similar results in the work place. We all want to do business with and work for people who come across as friendly, trustworthy, competent, confident, and empathetic.
I can’t guarantee you’ll win a political election. But improve your curb appeal and I will guarantee that you’ll be more successful in your career.
Self-delusion #1: Our company has such a great reputation/product/leadership team/fill in the blank that anyone would want to work here.
Self-delusion #2: We’re very selective about who we hire so we will make our candidates jump through lots of hoops, then make our decision. Our process is our process, and the right candidate will do it our way.
Self-delusion #3: Who’s the right candidate? We’ll know it when we see it.
The labor market ebbs and flows. Most say it’s getting tighter again which is good news for candidates. No one is partying like it’s 1999 but the sniff of multiple offers is back in the air. So how do you keep pace with the candidate market, striking the right balance between promoting your job and conducting due diligence on the contenders?
Tip #1: Start at the Finish Line
First, fast forward to the end of a successful hiring process. What will you need to make a decision? Not just from the candidates, but from within your organization.
Who needs to give input into the final job description? Who needs to actually interview the candidate? Separate true voters from politically correct buyers-in. Both are important, but each has a different place in the line-up and in how you manage expectations for their input.
Do you have true time committed from the voters? What authority – or contingency plan – do you have to move ahead to make an offer if you need to move quickly and someone is not available? For example, is there a surrogate decision-maker? If not, can you get agreement that a phone or video interview will suffice?
Will you require an exercise, presentation or any other kind of test to decide among finalists?
Are your HR people on board with compensation parameters, relocation assistance options, timing for background checks and other reference checking? Do you have a clear chain of command and a commitment to a reasonable time frame if exceptions need to be made to get the right candidate?
If all this sounds tedious and time consuming, it probably will be. But if you can put this in place before you interview the first candidate, you will have the leverage of a real game plan and the support of your colleagues to make the hire happen. There is little more frustrating than losing the candidate you want because the process did you in.
By Janet Long, founder and president of Integrity Search, Inc
As a recruiter, I’m looking at resumes all day long. Unfortunately, the number of resumes that need to be proofed is increasing. It’s extremely hard to find errors in something you have written so try:
1. Yes, as a fist step, use your computer’s spell check program. It will catch obvious errors.
2. Do what we all learned, proof and then re-proof. Read it from the bottom to the top. This will help you concentrate on each word.
3. Now go back and look for inconsistencies. Did you keep to your format?
4. Sent it to a friend. First, to make sure that when you emailed it, it held its format. Second, to make sure your deletions, additions and format changes do not show. Third, for proofreading.
5. Sent it to someone else who is not in the field. Can they understand what you do? If they can’t, you might want to rework your resume. Remember, the first person seeing your resume may not be a communications person. If they cannot understand what your do at first glance, you may not make it to the second round.
6. Remember, you can always ask a recruiter to review your resume. While we advise candidates to makes changes for a specific position, we can often offer suggestions to help you to present yourself more effectively or figure out why you might be having a problem.
Marie Raperto, Cantor Executive Search Solutions Inc.
Q: Is this a joke? I count at least four misspelled words and that’s to say nothing of the grammatical/punctuation errors.
A: Yes, I did want to see if anyone would notice. On Friday, I read 32 resumes. The average error rate – 15 per page! .
I spent three hours today rehearsing with a client. She is doing 10 individual podcasts to support their benefits open enrollment. The video will be married with a handful of simple slides.
When I told her rehearsal would be necessary, she was doubtful. She’s a newbie – never done video before. And these pieces are tough because she must hit each 2- to 3-minute script with no breaks. The individual pieces cannot be edited.
She’s got to get through each one cleanly.
It’s important to note that she’ll be using a teleprompter tool. She will see the text as she reads it. She also knows her content really well.
While we rehearsed, we added places to pause. We added returns to draw her attention to different bits of text, or text she was struggling to get through. We bolded some text to prompt her to give it emphasis.
We changed some words, sometimes making it grammatically incorrect. She couldn’t say “contracted” so we used “negotiated.” She struggled with “benefits enrollment” so we dropped “benefits.” After the first 90 minutes she turned to me and said, “I am so glad we’re doing this.” She had wanted to just practice on her own.
We talked about her vocal tone, where to go down, where to go up, where to sound stronger or let the voice trail off. We timed her so she could be more conscious of her speed.
All in all, it was time well spent, and she had new respect for those who do video well. “It takes a lot of work and practice. I’ll practice more over the weekend.” Now, she knows how to practice.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Forbes interviewed 20 entrepreneurs about their work habits and found they worked an average of 60 to more than 100 hours per week. Most noted that weekdays were not much different from weekends, and that personal time off did not exist at all. One responded, “the concept of ‘work’ disappears–it is just what we do.”
As anyone who has crammed for an exam can tell you, usually the number of hours we work without interruption is inversely proportionate to how much we accomplish. So how do these entrepreneurs manage to work so many hours without suffering from brain fatigue?
Well, first of all, it is because they truly love being an entrepreneur and are passionate about their enterprise. But, I believe, part of the answer is that they wear so many hats. They never get stuck doing the same kind of work for too long.
Here are some more brain-based tips that can work wonders and could be what helps propel entrepreneurs forward:
1. Buy a good office chair, or get a standing desk.
Focal Upright Furniture has a brand-new chair-and-desk combination on the market. Invented by Martin Keen, of Keen shoes fame, it uses a position between sitting and standing, and allows lots of movement as you work. It also helps those who use it remain attentive.
2. Do not multitask.
John Medina, author of Brain Rules, tells us the brain cannot multitask, period. What it does do is switch back and forth between tasks very quickly. Someone whose attention is interrupted not only takes 50% longer to accomplish a task but also makes up to 50% more errors. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people who talk on the cell phone while driving are four times more likely to have an accident, because it isn’t possible to devote your full attention to both driving and talking at the same time. Hands-free calling offered no advantage. What’s the lesson to take away? Focus on one task at a time, and you’ll accomplish each better and faster–without killing anybody.
3. Use all your senses.
Work is more entertaining for your brain–and therefore makes you more alert–when you engage as many of your senses as possible. Use colored paper and pens. Experiment with peppermint, lemon, or cinnamon aromatherapy. Try playing background music.
4. Don’t make too many decisions in one day.
It sounds farfetched, but if you go shopping in the morning, then negotiate yourself out of eating a cookie at lunch, and finally try to decide between two job offers that afternoon, you might choose the wrong job because you didn’t eat the cookie, according to Scientific American. Making choices depletes your reserves of executive function, or “the mental system involved in abstract thinking, planning, and focusing on one thing instead of another.” This can adversely affect decisions you make later.
5. Take a quick break every 20 minutes.
A study in the journal Cognition reveals that people can maintain their focus or “vigilance” much longer when their brains are given something else to think about every 20 minutes. That’s the time when thinking becomes less efficient. This trick is called momentary deactivation. If your mind isn’t as sharp after a long period of work, it may not be completely fatigued. It just needs to focus on something else to refresh the specific neural network you’ve been using.
In turbulent times, it’s hard enough to deal with external problems. But too often people and companies exacerbate their troubles by their own actions. Self-defeating behaviors can make any situation worse. Put these five on the what-not-to-do list.
Demanding a bigger share of a shrinking pie
Leaders defeat themselves when they seek gain when others suffer, for example, raising prices in a time of high unemployment when consumers have less to spend, to ensure profits when sales are down. McDonald’s raised prices three percent in early 2012 and by the third quarter,faced the first drop in same-store sales in nine years. The executive responsible for that strategy was replaced.
At bankrupt Hostess Brands, bakery workers refused to make concessions (though the Teamsters did), thereby forcing the company to liquidate, eliminating 18,000 jobs. By trying to grab too much, the bakery union could lose everything.
This happens to executives too. A manager in a retail company demanded a promotion during the recession, because he was “indispensable,” he said. The CEO, who had cut her own pay to save jobs, fired him instead. Greed makes a bad situation worse.
Getting angry
Anger and blame are unproductive emotions. Post-U.S. election, defeated Mitt Romney blamed his defeat on “gifts” that “bought” the votes of young people, women, African-Americans, and Latinos for President Obama. Losing the Presidency is a big defeat, but Romney further defeated future electoral prospects with public bitterness and insults. History might remember the bitterness, not his gracious concession speech.
Anger hurts companies too, especially if misplaced. Years after a tragic explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 in which 11 people lost their lives, BP was back in the news with a record fine and criminal charges. Former CEO Tony Hayward defeated himself and damaged the company in the public mind by issuing bitter statements about how unfair this was.
Angry words leave a long trail. An employee in another company who threw a temper tantrum over a denied proposal was surprised that this episode was still recalled two years later, overwhelming his accomplishments. He was the first terminated in a reorganization. Bitterness turns everything sour.
Giving in to mission creep
Sometimes self-perpetuated decline occurs more slowly, through taking core strengths for granted while chasing the greener grass. I can’t say that this is happening to Google, a company I admire, but I do see potholes ahead — although driverless cars are an extension of mapping software close to Google’s core strength in search. But should Google expand its territory to be a device maker and communications network provider, building a fiber-optics and mobile network? This could be mission creep. Perhaps Google should focus on improving Googling.
Read full article via Harvard Business Review
In turbulent times, it’s hard enough to deal with external problems. But too often people and companies exacerbate their troubles by their own actions. Self-defeating behaviors can make any situation worse. Put these five on the what-not-to-do list.
Demanding a bigger share of a shrinking pie
Leaders defeat themselves when they seek gain when others suffer, for example, raising prices in a time of high unemployment when consumers have less to spend, to ensure profits when sales are down. McDonald’s raised prices three percent in early 2012 and by the third quarter,faced the first drop in same-store sales in nine years. The executive responsible for that strategy was replaced.
At bankrupt Hostess Brands, bakery workers refused to make concessions (though the Teamsters did), thereby forcing the company to liquidate, eliminating 18,000 jobs. By trying to grab too much, the bakery union could lose everything.
This happens to executives too. A manager in a retail company demanded a promotion during the recession, because he was “indispensable,” he said. The CEO, who had cut her own pay to save jobs, fired him instead. Greed makes a bad situation worse.
Getting angry
Anger and blame are unproductive emotions. Post-U.S. election, defeated Mitt Romney blamed his defeat on “gifts” that “bought” the votes of young people, women, African-Americans, and Latinos for President Obama. Losing the Presidency is a big defeat, but Romney further defeated future electoral prospects with public bitterness and insults. History might remember the bitterness, not his gracious concession speech.
Anger hurts companies too, especially if misplaced. Years after a tragic explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 in which 11 people lost their lives, BP was back in the news with a record fine and criminal charges. Former CEO Tony Hayward defeated himself and damaged the company in the public mind by issuing bitter statements about how unfair this was.
Angry words leave a long trail. An employee in another company who threw a temper tantrum over a denied proposal was surprised that this episode was still recalled two years later, overwhelming his accomplishments. He was the first terminated in a reorganization. Bitterness turns everything sour.
Giving in to mission creep
Sometimes self-perpetuated decline occurs more slowly, through taking core strengths for granted while chasing the greener grass. I can’t say that this is happening to Google, a company I admire, but I do see potholes ahead — although driverless cars are an extension of mapping software close to Google’s core strength in search. But should Google expand its territory to be a device maker and communications network provider, building a fiber-optics and mobile network? This could be mission creep. Perhaps Google should focus on improving Googling.
Read full article via Harvard Business Review
