Defining Your Vision, Path, and What You Want

Defining Your Vision, Path, and What You Want Laura de Jong wrote an awesome post titled It Starts with a Vision.  In this post she tells the story of a job seeker she was working with who had a vision of what kind of company she wanted to work for.  Laura listened to this vision and thought of a perfect company, but it was on the other side of the country. A few days later, the job seeker described her vision to someone else, and said you need to talk about to this company in Boston! A few days later the job seeker talked with an executive recruiter who was commissioned to fill the Chief Sales Officer role for that very company, and get this, the person could be based anywhere in the US! She had a vision of the idea country, defined that vision (not as easy as it sounds), shared the vision with others and through what might seem like a miracle, she eventually got a CxO role at the very company that matched her vision even though they were three thousand miles away! Having a vision, and communicating it, is much, much, much more effective than being open to anything.  Be focused and its easier for people to understand what you want and think of ways they can help you! Defining Your Vision, Path, and What You Want Laura de Jong wrote an awesome post titled It Starts with a Vision.  In this post she tells the story of a job seeker she was working with who had a vision of what kind of company she wanted to work for.  Laura listened to this vision and thought of a perfect company, but it was on the other side of the country. A few days later, the job seeker described her vision to someone else, and said you need to talk about to this company in Boston! A few days later the job seeker talked with an executive recruiter who was commissioned to fill the Chief Sales Officer role for that very company, and get this, the person could be based anywhere in the US! She had a vision of the idea country, defined that vision (not as easy as it sounds), shared the vision with others and through what might seem like a miracle, she eventually got a CxO role at the very company that matched her vision even though they were three thousand miles away! Having a vision, and communicating it, is much, much, much more effective than being open to anything.  Be focused and its easier for people to understand what you want and think of ways they can help you!

Keep Your Customers Coming Back For More - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Keep Your Customers Coming Back For More - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I know of a company that boasts of a 95 percent customer retention rate. That means 95 percent of its customers are repeat customers. One of the best ways to build a stable income is through returning customers and clients. Not only do you keep their business, but if they’re returning, they like you which means they may refer others to your business. When it comes to marketing, nothing is more effective than repeat and referral business. But customer loyalty doesn’t happen on its own. Here are tips to keeping your customers and clients coming back. 1) Provide great value. I once bought an ebook in which the main content was done 65 percent of the way through the book, leaving 35 percent of fluff.   I felt ripped off. You never want to leave your customers and clients feeling like they didn’t get what they paid for. 2) Always be truthful. In the movie Miracle on 34th Street, Santa boosts Macy’s popularity by referring customers to other stores if the product was a better value elsewhere. While you don’t need send your customers away, if you don’t have it or know it, say so. If your product can’t do it, admit it. Don’t resort to lies or deception to make a sale. 3) Focus on your customers and clients, not on you. This means you need to listen to their wants and needs to fulfill them. There may be times in which you need to give a customer or client your opinion as an expert, but don’t try to force your customers or clients into something because that’s the way you want it. 4) Always respect your clients. It seems obvious that you’d show good manners toward your clients, but you’ve probably been on the receiving end of a rude or disrespectful business. Even if you’re feeling surly, you need to dig deep to smile and be nice or have one of your staff or a virtual assistant deal with the client or customer. 5) Make it easy for people to do business with you. If you’re not a available to take calls, do you have a voicemail? Do you offer more than one payment option? If you do business online, is your ordering process straightforward and easy to use? When people can’t find what   they need, get help or complete an order, they’ll give up and find another business. 6) Have a great customer service system. Your job isn’t finished at the end of the sale. Clients or customers will have questions or returns. Create a system to provide support and information after a sale. Make it easy for clients to make a return. Have a follow up system to insure they continue to be happy with the service or product they received.

4 Personality Traits That Make Women Successful In Business - Classy Career Girl

4 Personality Traits That Make Women Successful In Business Years ago, women were expected to stay at home and raise a family. It was rare that a woman was successful in business and at home. Women didn’t hold high-flying jobs that were considered only for men. But fast-forward to today and woman have dominated the business sector and it is only the beginning.  More and more women are given the top jobs and today we see a record number of woman being nominated as board members, CEO’s and so on. It’s quite exciting for our daughters to grow up in a world of opportunity, when over 60 years ago it just didn’t exist. It’s not surprising that Women in Leadership roles are successful due to the personality traits we each have.  Lets explore the top 4 personality traits that continue to make women successful in business. 4 Personality Traits That Make Women Successful In Business 1. Empathy Empathy is a skill that not everyone has but women are known to be more empathetic than men. Maybe it’s the maternal instinct that kicks in, or that we tend to listen more.  Women succeed by showing real empathy to their work colleagues, friends and customers. They have the ability to understand how someone feels and can relate to them. They listen and they show they really care. This goes very far in the business world.  Allowing yourself to be seen as real, is a great skill to possess in the business world. 2. Determination Women in business often have a real determination to succeed because they are powered by their mission and purpose in life. They may have motive and a desire to succeed because of a family to support or they may just have dreams they want to turn into a reality. They may want to make the world a better place or solve a problem that they are having themselves. Having determination can take you very far in business. If you are determined to do something, you are halfway to being successful. 3. Ambition Not everyone has ambition; that is true. But woman in business tend to be very ambitious in taking the necessary next steps to turn their goals into reality. To be ambitious doesn’t mean you are cut throat or that you will do anything you can to succeed. Instead, being ambitious means having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed.  Ambition is a really great trait to have. Some business owners would much rather have someone who is ambitiously working for them than someone who is just happy to be mediocre. 4. Work Ethic Most businesswomen are known for their great work ethic  and they won’t stop working until the job is done. Whether that is a project, a meeting or just making sure their customers get the service they expect. Women also have the great ability to multi-task. Some have families, school drop-offs and home budgeting to work through as well as their day jobs. They also have the unique ability to keep their personal life at the door and work hard and will do what it takes to succeed. It’s exciting to be a woman in business these days, the world is your oyster and your dreams can be a reality.

Bland to Brand with Appreciation - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Bland to Brand with Appreciation - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career As a small business entrepreneur, having co-workers and team members who share your passion to make the business improve and who value each other is a great gift.   What do people do when they don’t feel valued? Some people will show outward signs of displeasure (weary, discouraged faces), yet many will internalize it. In such instances, it’s valuable to know the clues they send out so you know when there’s discontent. As Dr. Paul White, co-author of “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace” says, “… some of us are not especially talented at picking up clues sent out by others. They may be clearly communicating their distress, but we are missing the signals.” Notice the signals Displeasure, weariness, and outright unhappiness will manifest in various forms. Some will be directed towards you and others, show in work results, and worse toward customers. As a small business owner, an unhappy employee can jeopardize your livelihood and your reputation. It is then imperative that you notice the signals and act on them, fast. Clear irritability is a sign of anger. It could be someone doesn’t like an aspect of the job, or are dealing with personal issues. Whatever the case, show that you value the person and get to the root of the issue. Anger, if left unattended to, so to speak, can lead to resistance and insubordination, which can be fatal to productivity and morale of any business and even more rapidly in a small business. Apathy and social withdrawal are other signals to watch out for. When an employee develops a “why try at all?” attitude, they believe their work doesn’t matter to the business. Or when a team member withdraws from social interactions, this could be a sign that they don’t feel valued/cared for by the team. You don’t want these two attributes replicated in your business. Take this as an opportunity to listen, learn and step in and show appreciation. Other times, you could be creating a negative work environment that brings about feelings of passivity, tardiness, cynicism and discouragement. When you openly criticize employees on mistakes, give negative feedback, never allow people to express themselves fully, and in some extreme cases, are an outright “jerk” to your employees simply because you own the business, you’re fostering a bad work environment. In such cases, evaluate yourself and start looking for opportunities to create a culture of positivity in your workplace. Constantly encouraging and appreciating the work of others, even where it doesn’t meet standards, raises the morale and overall mood of the place. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not condoning subpar work, but simply appreciating the effort employees put in the work, while opening an easy avenue to give constructive feedback. Your business brand is a conglomeration of the personal brands that interact with your customers and represent your business.  [tweet this] Always appreciate Appreciating doesn’t only extend to those you work with, but also customers, suppliers, and family. Pay attention to the signals that people send that they need encouragement. It means always being appreciative and warm, even when the day isn’t going well for you. You could set a daily reminder to thank everyone for their work, and wish them a great day/week ahead. It can also be personal notes sent to every employee, each with a custom message as to why they are valued in the business. Even more valuable, is when you learn and understand the language that people “hear” and value appreciation in. When it’s shown and delivered in a way that they themselves value, that’s when sincere appreciation makes a difference. Appreciation knows no boundaries, so small business or not, it’s up to you to set the foundation for the best business climate ever.

Dont Make Your Promotion The End of Your Career

Don't Make Your Promotion The End of Your Career Photo Credit â€" Pixabay.comYou’ve just been promoted.You’re on a roll.You believe the momentum that got you here will carry you to more higher level positions and greater career success.WRONG!evalYour current success recognizes only two things. First, your achievements in the past roles you have held, and second, that you might have the potential to go further.It doesn’t guarantee that you will have a long and lucrative career with the position power that comes with leadership.Many people crash and burn after they have been promoted; their career goes in a nose dive. They’ve reached theirlevel of incompetence.They fail to realize that their new position is merely the next chapter of their journey that requires new approaches to winning.These 5 moves will at least give you a fighting chancefor a rewarding and successful career after your promotion.1. Evaluate your new position carefullyevalDefine the critical 3 deliverables it requires. Define the measures of performance for your role. Ensure they represent the key elements of the organization’s strategic game plan.evalTest your list with your boss and other senior leaders to ensure your conclusions are consistent with the views of the senior leadership team.Determine the key “customers” for your work. Interview each of them. Determine precisely what they expect from you and when they want it.2. Assess yourinternal competitionDevelop a detailed profile on other individuals who are your new peers in the hierarchy who will be competing for future opportunities that come available in the next higher level.Identify their strengths and weakness and how they lead. Look for gaps that you can exploit.3. Develop your“these are the ways I intend to be different”strategy.evalYou need to stand apart from others and give the organization a fresh approach to getting things done.If you’re like everyone else you won’t be noticedand likely will be passed over for other promotions or lateral moves.Furthermo re you won’t offer the organization any unique value, the thing it needs to thrive and survive.4.Find a mentor one level above youYou need a coach for moving up. Choose one who has atrack record of achievement5. Ask yourself“The Magic Question”What will you do differently in your new role?Build on what got you this far.Don’t assume that the methods that were previously effective for you in other positions will work in your new expanded role.Determine the skills and competencies that are critical to consistently delivering your results.Quickly acquire those where you are deficient; apply more energy and focus on those that you possess.evalYour promotion isn’t the end, it’s a new beginning.Make sure it ends with a successful career.

CV Mistakes To Avoid

CV Mistakes To Avoid Recent evidence suggests that more and more young people are complaining that once they submit their CV to a company, they don’t hear anything back. In the current climate, the number of people applying for every job has more than doubled. With fewer jobs in the public sector, and more and more commercial companies refusing to recruit externally, the competition is getting harder. I am not surprised that many people feel  aggrieved  and frustrated when they submit a CV and then hear nothing back. However, without wishing to sound blunt, these people only have themselves to blame!Over the last few years I have advertised many job vacancies within my company, from sales administrators through to office managers. This means that whilst I have witnessed some truly fantastic CV’s, I have also seen my fair share of bad ones. With this in mind, I want to share with you some fantastic advice on what CV mistakes to avoid.CV Mistakes to Avoid: Wake Up!It is becoming increasingly clear that too many young people are creating just one CV, and then submitting it to scores of different companies. They do this in the hope that they will land an interview. This is a big mistake! If you want your CV to stand out, and get your dream job, then you have to change your attitude to the employment process and learn the key CV mistakes to avoid.First of all you need to wake up to the fact that the majority of employers will receive hundreds of CV’s for every post advertised. To give you an idea of what it is like right now, I advertised a Sales Administrators post a few weeks ago for £6.08 per hour. I was inundated with CV’s! In fact, I can safely say that I received well in excess of one hundred applications. Was I surprised? No, I wasn’t.  Let me give you some top tips on how to impress recruiters.CV PointersIf you want to get invited to an interview, then here are some important pointers that will help you to get ahead of the competition and get an invitation to intervie w:1. Create a new CV for every single job that you apply for. While this involves a lot of work, if you are applying for jobs then my guess is that you have plenty of spare time on your hands anyway! Create the CV around the job you are applying for, not around you.2. Use keywords and phrases from the job description and person specification. This is VERY important. Before you apply for the job, take a look at the person specification and seek out strong keywords and phrases from it. When you write your personal profile on your CV, use the same keywords from the person spec. This is very powerful and the words will jump out at the person reading the CV, without them even knowing it!3. Include a covering letter with your CV. Again, this is an important one. By including a relevant covering letter with your CV, you will be making yours stand out from the hoards of poorly written ones that get submitted every day.What To Avoid!Now that you’ve read some advice on what you SHOULD be do ing, let’s take a look at some CV mistakes that you should avoid. By reducing these mistakes, you will greatly increase your chances of success, so pay close attention! [x] Confident [ ] Arrogant .It’s often said that one of the most important things that employers look for in a candidate, is confidence. They want a candidate who not only fills them with confidence in their ability to do the role, but is self confident enough to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. However, overconfidence can be fatal. This is particularly important when you describe your future ambitions. Before you write down that it’s your aim to be running the company within a few years, think about how you’d react if you read that on someone else’s CV. Confidence does not mean arrogance! Boring = Snoring When it comes to writing your CV, it’s imperative that you focus on the length. A good CV should be no longer than 2 pages in length. Anything longer than this and you significantly hurt y our chances of moving on to the interview. Furthermore, the layout of your CV is extremely important. Take a look at your CV right now. Is it written in full length paragraphs, that span 2 pages of A4? Now think about if you were an employer, looking through hundreds of applications per day. Would you want to read all of that? The answer is no, you wouldn’t. When you construct your CV, you need to make it easy for the employer to find exactly what it is that they are looking for. It’s estimated that an employer looks at a CV for all of 11 seconds, and if they can’t find the information they need in that time, throws it in the bin. This might seem a harsh way to look at things, but employers simply don’t have the time to read an essay on why you are the right person for the role. Lay your CV out in carefully constructed bullet point lists and short paragraphs, which cut right to the chase. Wrong email? Fail! This is a very basic point, but one that a great many people miss. W hen you list your contact details on your CV, make sure you use a professional email address. . When I say a professional email address, I mean that you should a) try to use Gmail and b) absolutely avoid using joke names, for example ‘Baby_Gal_Princess@hotmail.com’. Employers will look at this as a sign of immaturity, and it will really damage your application. The reason that you should use Gmail is because on a number of other sites, some correspondence will go immediately spam. The best email addresses to use are professional and mature. Focuss on the Gramer Did you spot the mistakes in the above heading? If so, good! Grammar is absolutely fundamental if you want to impress the employer. It’s an unfortunate fact that good grammar doesn’t prove much to the interviewer, but bad grammar proves everything. It shows that you have not checked your CV over before sending, that you have a lack of attention to detail, aren’t concerned with whether you get the job or not and that your English comprehension is poor. In a recent newspaper study, bad grammar was listed in the top 3 pet peeves for employers when looking at a CV. Again, it’s a question of making the assessor’s life as easy as possible. Put yourself in the position of translating 2 badly written pages, filled with grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. How would you feel? Grammar is a basic requirement, and one that you can’t afford to slack on if you want the job. This is a key CV mistake to avoid.PRODUCTS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN The guide will provide you with simple step-by-step instructions on how to write a CV, including sample CV templates and an online video tutorial.See here for our full page on  how to write aCV.   This entry was posted in Career Advice. Bookmark the permalink. Richard How To Improve Memory For ExamsBleep Test Results: Do They Matter?

Make a Resume That is Amazing

Make a Resume That is AmazingIf you got that job or you want to apply for a job in a company, then you need to write resume writing for different reasons. Aside from the monetary benefits that you will get when you have written a good resume, you will also be able to enhance your current skills and knowledge. In fact, you can use the information written on the resume to put into practice other skills that you have, which could then be applied to your new job.You may have excellent job experience that would land you a job in a company. However, if you do not have that experience, then it is important that you can still create a resume that is impressive. What can you do? You can start by writing your resume.Writing a resume is not as hard as you think. Indeed, writing resumes are easy but this does not mean that you do not need to put your best effort to write your resume. You need to put effort in writing a resume if you want to impress the employer and you can always ask a professio nal writer to help you. Having an effective resume is very important and with the help of a writer, you will be able to get one that is great.The first thing that you need to do when you want to write a resume is to choose the appropriate content. It is essential that you write about the key skills that you have. This means that you need to have a clear description of what you have done in the past. It will help you to have a clear idea about the kind of work that you can do in the future. Once you have a clear picture of what you can do in the future, you will be able to put the right words in your resume.There are also other things that you need to consider before you approach a writer. It is important that you write your resume according to the needs of the employer. It is very important that you know your purpose of writing the resume. Knowing your purpose will help you to know what exactly you need to put in your resume.You need to keep in mind that you need to come up with the idea of your resume. You need to identify the idea of your resume first before you start writing it. You need to be objective when you write your resume because it will help you make a better resume. Just do not get carried away with writing.Moreover, you need to understand that when you write a resume, it is not as easy as you think. There are certain tips that you need to consider before you start to write your resume. You need to remember these tips to make your resume a great one.Writing a resume should be done in a way that will help you impress the employer. You need to know what you need to say in your resume. The important thing is that you know what you want to write and that you know what your purpose is before you start to write it.