No a single can concentrate for the exact entire workday all inside one go; we most need regular breaks all through the day. It really is hence useful to have many delete word the moment that you will always be away from your projects location. Whether itâs a lunch break break or a quicker break period, here usually are some from the […]
The particular post Workplace Activities so that you can Break up the Day time appeared 1st on Jobacle. com .
Youâre frustrated. Youâve made countless resume updates for dozens of job applications, freshened up your social profiles, created a fancy portfolio, and jazzed up your interview […]
The post 3 Surprising Reasons You May Be Struggling to Find a Job appeared first on Blog Job Hunting Career Management Solutions | CareerShift.
As a leader in today’s modern workplace, you have to be prepared to manage hybrid, remote, and in-office employees. The success of a company depends on good management, which includes the ability to accurately measure the effectiveness of employees and make changes as needed. But the traditional ways of measuring an employee’s effectiveness don’t take into consideration how the workforce has changed since 2020 with the rise of remote work.
We recently asked our executives how they think leaders should measure the effectiveness of their remote employees.
Here are their responses…
Measuring effectiveness from remote employees can be very tricky, especially considering that 40% of leaders acknowledged in a study conducted by Harvard in 2020 that they were not prepared to manage remote employees and 41% struggled to keep their teams engaged.
Defining what’s a priority and what effectiveness looks like becomes fundamental. It has left managers and leaders unsure about how the best work gets done. Therefore, it is not a huge surprise that a lot of managers would prefer their teams to come back to work in the office.
Besides clearly defining what effectiveness looks like, its transparency to all involved, and how it is measured and improved consistently, it becomes key for managers to quickly figure out the best way to work with their employees, making them feel understood and supported and not micromanaged.
Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the “red thread.”
âAna is correct. Evaluating the effectiveness of remote workers comes down to whether or not priorities have been met. It’s less about doing time, say 9 to 5 Monday through Friday, and should be much more about impact whether that impact occurs over a long or short period of time, and whether at 9 am or 9 pm. When evaluating remote workers, organizations would be wise to, yes, define priorities but also determine what success metrics for those priorities will be. In defining success, for instance, I’m a big fan of goal setting and using SMART criteriaâi.e., is the goal specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and/or timely?
Client/project management software can also be used when there are multiple remote workers working on the same initiative so that there is clarity around each person’s role and communication as to how each person’s part fits into the project as a whole. This is where benchmark/milestone data can also be recorded along the way to indicate how well remote workers are making progress toward organizational goals.
John Schembari is a current K-12 teacher/school leader academic improvement coach and former school building and district administrator. He loves to draw, travel, swing dance, and read nonfiction.
âThere are areas and positions where remote working was preferred for years if not decades. Information technology as an example serves well here. Measuring the effectiveness of IT service desk employees is easy. KPIs like number of tickets handled orfFirst instance resolution rate come immediately to mind. Your agile software developers can be measured based on the length of their sprints or the size of the backlog. In many cases IT teams are to a large degree remote and distributed among locations, countries, and even continents.
In general, any position with clearly defined KPIs can easily be measured for effectiveness, no matter the location. In-site, remote, distributed⦠numbers do the trick. Where remote working is leaving much room for effectiveness decrease is the soft side of workârelations, knowledge sharing, team spirit, willingness to help and support. Even if not immediately visible, those qualities have a decisive impact on overall effectiveness in the long run.
Miroslav Jasso is an information technology & innovation executive with 22+ years of experience in the development, continuous improvement, and delivery of state-of-the-art IT services across automotive, finance systems, and retail businesses. He has managed teams of 5-100+ with budgets of $1M-$15M+.
Measuring remote workers’ effectiveness is no different from having workers present on-site. Having timely expected deliverables will be the most critical test of commitment. If you know the quality of the people on your team, you won’t have to worry about the work not getting done.
Sure there are monitoring tools out there to see log-in times and activity.
But as a business professional trying to run a business, I’d rather spend the time making the company better to raise revenues or creating new ways to compete with my competitors.
Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M – $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.
âIf youâre asking how to measure the effectiveness of remote workers, youâre asking the wrong question.
Go back and subtract the word âremote.â There. Thatâs the right question.
There should be no fundamental differences between how you measure the success of a remote worker vs. a hybrid worker vs. an in-person worker. Too many managers get caught up in the thought of a remote worker being somehow incredibly different.
If anything, remote workers most likely require more thoughtful management. That includes you as a manager keeping an eye on equity when handing out resources, social opportunities, and high-profile projects to remote vs. in-person workers.
Is the person meeting their goals? Are they growing in their role? Are they helping to move the organization forward? Remote or not, questions similar to these are what you should focus on.
Andrea Markowski is a marketing director with specializations in strategy development, digital tactics, design thinking, and creative direction. She has superpowers in presentations and public speaking.
I appreciate and agree with people’s comments so far. The concepts of defining success, using measurable KPIs & SMART goals, and measuring workers in the same positions in a consistent manner whether they are remote or not all make sense. There is however a range of difficulty in assessing effectiveness depending on the specific function of each FTE and how quantifiable vs. qualitative one can make the measurement of their role. That said I would like to add to the discussion the concept of engagement which is often a leading indicator of one’s effectiveness and I’ve found much harder to measure.
A couple of years ago I took on a new role as COO of a national real estate project management company one month before COVID-19 restrictions were put into place. I had to quickly adjust to managing fully remote in a company I had just joined and with people I barely knew. While we were able to successfully implement many of the effectiveness measurement tools mentioned above and felt we had a good feel for individuals’ overall effectiveness, we soon learned that it was people’s engagement we had to get our arms around. That took some time. We retained an outside consultant/survey company to measure the engagement of all employees and made it an annual occurrence.
My summary point is that while measuring employee effectiveness (remote or in person) is an ongoing, more daily requirement, complementing that with an annual or semi-annual measurement of employee engagement is often a good thing that can bring many insights when laid next to effectiveness data.
Don Schulz is a 25+ year commercial real estate executive & COO. On the personal side, he likes to ski, hike, golf, and run, and is an occasional homebrewer.
How do you think leaders should measure the effectiveness of their remote workers? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Executive Program.
If you’ve never heard of a 30-60-90 day plan, you’re not interviewing as well as you think you are. A 30-60-90 day plan is one of the most effective interview tools any professional can use, no matter their industry or job level.
Unfortunately, not a lot of job seekers know what 30-60-90 day plans are, or why they would need one in the first place.
A 30-60-90 day plan is a timeline for your first three months on the job. It lists your goals and the tasks and actions you will take to accomplish those goals. What will you do when you get hired? When will you do it? How will you make a difference from Day 1?
The idea is to run through your plans/ideas for those first three months on the job in your final job interview. Present your 30-60-90 day plan to the hiring manager and have an in-depth discussion about how you will approach the job and be successful in the role.
There are a few things you should always include in your 30-60-90 day plan. In the first 30 days, outline the steps you’ll take to complete any onboarding or company training. Also, explain your process for getting to know your teammates, and list any immediate goals that can be measured.
In the next 30 days, set realistic goals related to people, processes, and productivity. These goals shouldn’t be too detailed. A high-level approach is enough.
The last 30 days are the most important part of your 30-60-90 day plan. It’s the section that shows your potential as a long-term employee. Here, list achievements you expect to have accomplished by the three-month mark, and highlight additional goals geared towards exceeding expectations.
You’ll need to have a solid idea of what the job entails before creating your 30-60-90 day plan, so make sure to ask good interview questions and use the job description as a guide.
Ultimately, a 30-60-90 day plan is a competitive advantage. It’s something so few job candidates use that if you bring one to your final interview you’ll already have that edge over the other applicants. It could be the reason you get offered the job.
When you present your 30-60-90 day plan to the hiring manager, they’ll be extremely impressed by your “go-getter” attitude. They will automatically envision you being successful in the position because you’ve clearly outlined how you will be. And that will make them much more likely to hire you.
We hope you now have a better idea of what a 30-60-90 day plan is and understand why it’s important to have one while interviewing for jobs.
Remember: Not only does bringing a 30-60-90 day plan to your interview boost your chances of getting the job, but it also gives you a solid foundation once you start.
With your 30-60-90 day plan, you know that you and your new boss are on the same page. You can start your job with confidence, knowing you’re on the right path to success.
So, what are you waiting for? Write your 30-60-90 day plan today! Once you realize what a game changer it is, you’ll never interview without one again.
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
âWhy do you want to work here?â is an interview question that seems easy to answer, but trips up applicants all the time. And we can guarantee that youâll have to answer it at some point in your job search. This guide covers why interviewers ask this question, and teaches you how to answer it […]
The post “Why Do You Want To Work Here?” How To Answer + Examples appeared first on Career Sherpa.
I will assume you believe people can make a bigger, faster difference toward success when engaged well and respectfully. No matter what you find on the ground when you arrive to help, people can solve problems faster when treated this way rather than when they are told, pushed, directed, and treated as dispensable.
If you feel people are a means to an end and you donât value the individual as a human being but rather more as an asset only, then this blog is probably not going to be of help to you.
As part of my work as a business change consultant and coach, I have had the privilege of helping organisations and their teams when projects get into trouble. I call it a privilege because the people I come across on the ground when I arrive are invariable hard working, keen, and really want some help. And they are now confused and uncertain and donât know how to deal with where they are.
This is an incredibly humbling position to be in. People are in a state of stress and feeling vulnerable; there is usually a strange sense in the air when I arrive, a sort of mix of both loyalty and fear because action has been replaced with dread and bewilderment asking âhow did we get hereâ as realisations hit that the team, function, project or company is suddenly (or so it appears) not where it should be and that consequences may now be seriousâboth for the company and people on the ground.
A project sponsor, for example, usually calls me in as a kind of last resort. Frustrated by the situation, they decide enough is enough after assessing from afar with a watchful eye that things arenât going the way they should be. Sometimes the sponsor can be closely linked to the person directly responsible for the situation now in distress.
Most of the time, my arrival into a distressed project is greeted with a kind of hopeful hesitation by those involved. You may find this too if you arrive in a situation, for example, a project where changes are likely, and you are the one recommending and leading those changes (for a time anyway). How long a company took to decide to act to address the distressed situation has major implications for the likelihood of success for your work to get things back on track. You can read ‘#1 Thing That Breaks Projects (And Is Likely In Your Control)’ here about the one big thing that if handled well initially makes a big difference to a projectâs ultimate success or failureâand usually this one thing, to a certain extent, is in a companyâs control. Worth a read!
This initial situation of a sense of vulnerability particularly, which as I said is what I often find when I first arrive to help with a project in distress, motivates me greatly to get things done in double quick time, to rough out a mud map toward clarity so that both the company and people involved know where they stand and what the likely next steps are. Where possible I try to reassure quickly. If you find yourself in a similar leadership situation responsible for getting things back on track, get things done as quickly as you can. I guess weâd call these quick wins.
So, what are the things that you need to focus on when dealing with a distressed company, team, or project situation?
So, I wanted to share my approach for when I hit the ground in these sorts of project situations, a sort of standard checklist I have in my mind when I first arrive and in the early days. The list is born out of over 25 years of experience and success (and not) and serves me well when it comes to getting a project (or team or function) back on track to clarity and positive momentum.
The very first thing you need to do is you must demonstrate you are âhitting the ground fastâ toward helping everything get back on track to clarity and forward momentum.
Note I didnât say back on track to success. Clarity first. Forward momentum second. Success may be third. Please do note that although success is often the case, there are some situations where the project or the team or the circumstances have been left for too long without care and attention and the situation is almost irretrievable.
If you find yourself inheriting or becoming aware of a distressed project, team, or function, here is what to do in the initial stage. Do it in this order and quickly.
Here is my 6-point checklist that guides my initial entry into a distressed consulting assignment:
As I am called in when usual actions to fix a situation in distress donât work (or havenât worked)âeven actions like replacing or firing people may have been tried in an attempt to not get this far gone into distress and non-performance, lack of productivityâoften there are earlier warnings than the one that led to the phone to me.
Another way for you to reduce the chances of distressed projects and teams in your company and on your watch is to scan for what I call the early warning signalsâsignals that triggered your gut feeling in the first place and now demand more investigation.
Donât ignore your gut feeling. It is always right. Just sometimes the interpretation of that gut feeling may be off and is what lets you down in the end. So, learn to surround yourself with good factual evidence like impartial data and seek out relevant subject matter experts ideally who are critical thinkers and respectful disagree-ers (you want people who are technically strong not people who are without critical thought) from in and outside the company ideally.
This information and help from others will help you make sure your interpretation of what your gut feeling is saying is as accurate as possible.
Then you decide whether you ignore or act on that gut feeling because now you have both data and impartial external input from others you trust and know or seek out that can help you in your decision making. This approach saves me time and continues to serve me well, particularly when it comes to identifying early warning signs well before a situation, team, function or project get into a distressed and difficult situation.
âIf you find yourself appointed to help resolve a distressed work situation, team, or project, use the 6-point checklist as a guide.
Pay attention to the âhowâ you go about implementing each step as much as doing each step quickly and effectively. There is more at stake here than meets the eye. If you believe people are the critical resource and central to your organisationâs ongoing health and success, the âhowâ you handle the implementation to address the distressed work situation is equally important as to the structure and steps in the approach and actually getting it done.
Good luck. I would love to hear what you think and about your experiences in dealing with distressed situations.
Perform you find it difficult to get inside contact with people throughout your network (especially close to the holidays)? And/or people struggling to grow your own personal network overall? Even using your present strategy?
The holiday season can be the wonderful time of yr for many individuals. This is a new great time to loosen up, reconnect with friends plus family, and celebrate! Youâre probably going to end up being seeing people that you havenât spoken within quite a few time.
With that being said, this allows you this PERFECT chance to brush upward on your networking abilities and reconnect with these types of individuals PLUS others!
In this teaching, youâll learn to:
Sign up for our CEO, J. To. O’Donnell, and Director associated with Training Development & Training, Christina Burgio, for this particular live event on Wed, November 9th at twelve pm ET.
CAN’T GO TO LIVE? Which okay. You’ll have entry to the recording as well as the workbook after the program!
I’m a big fan of the X-Men comic books and have always loved the powers of Dr. Charles Xavier, who is telepathic. Who wouldn’t want the ability to instantly read a person’s mind and affect their behavior? This skill would come in extremely handy during interviews with hiring managers, many of whom seem to belong squarely to the school of âsay little and express even less.”
Here are five ways to turn off a hiring manager and ruin your chances of getting the job.
A big mistake job seekers make is submitting overly general resumes. This makes sense in theory. After all, the more applications you can shoot off, the more interviews, right? But this can really turn off a hiring manager, who wants to know exactly how your background will enable you to tackle the problems they need to be solved. Clichés just won’t cut it at this stage.
Here’s what you should do instead:
Once you have a solid framework in place, include metrics-based quantifiable accomplishments on your resume for every major position you’ve held that proves your ability to execute.
Here’s an example: Saved global Telecom company $500M over 2 years through development and deployment of end-to-end Complexity Reduction methodology resulting in purchasing and inventory efficiencies.
Look, it’s great to be ambitious. And of course, the job you’re after today is probably not the one you want to retire on. But you need to place your focus squarely on becoming the ideal candidate for THIS job before even talking about the next step. Neglect to do this, and a hiring manager will naturally start thinking that you might jump ship within a year, and they’ll be back to square one.
Create a short “value presentation” for the interview that talks about how your three to four strongest skills can be applied immediately towards helping the company. It’s similar to a 30-60-90 day plan. Get creative here!
For example, if you’re going after a product development position, why not run some quick usability tests on a company’s products, document them, and develop some design suggestions?
A hiring manager is not a career counselor. With the latter, it’s perfectly fine to be honest about vulnerabilities in your personality or “pet peeves” that drive you crazy in the work environment. But if you take the same approach with a hiring manager and confide things like you have trouble balancing family responsibilities with workplace demands, you’ll most likely get passed over.
They’re not only looking to find the best candidate but manage risk.
Learn how to “spin” negatives into something that ultimately leads to success. For example, if you’re asked what your greatest weakness is, you can tell a story about how you once had chronic shyness and needed 30 minutes to “amp yourself” up for a simple phone call, and now, through courage and repeated exposure, you can handle dozens of calls with high-level clients per day. Negative to positive.
This is also known as the “Experience + Learn = Grow” model, which is the best way to answer behavioral interview questions. Therefore, you should definitely learn this strategy before your next job interview.
Following up matters! It shows that you’re truly invested in landing the position and aren’t just treating it as one of many potential opportunities.
We recommend emailing everyone you met at the company within 24 hours of your interview thanking them for the opportunity, followed by an email sent a week later that essentially continues the conversationâadding greater detail to questions raised, sharing an industry article of interest, and so on.
You’re making it clear that the interview was the beginning of an ongoing relationship, no matter the outcome of the interview process.
If a hiring manager has to choose between the most qualified candidate on paper and a less qualified candidate who brings genuine passion to the table, they’ll go for the latter every time. You can teach someone almost anything except enthusiasm.
So, if you have a personal connection with the company you’re interviewing for, and believe that this is a meaningful step in your life’s ambitions, or simply love the unique culture they’ve developed, take time in the interview to let them know!
It also doesn’t hurt to explicitly state, “I’m very interested in this position, and would love to see a positive outcome,” or something similar. Excitement fuels job offers!
Making the five mistakes above will ruin your chances with a hiring manager every time. To secure your chances of getting the job, be sure to tailor your resume, create a 30-60-90 day plan, learn how to answer behavioral interview questions, follow up after the job interview, and state your enthusiasm for the position.
It’ll be impossible to ruin your chances with a hiring manager with that strategy.
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
You started a new role and determined that one of your business partners has been âmusclingâ through one of their key operational processes. They believe the process can be done more efficiently but have been so busy and havenât had time to figure out what the changes should be.
Youâve agreed to review the process to help solve their problem. Here are five steps I typically follow:
1. Identify the problem. The first step is to identify what the true problem is. Talk with the business to understand what is the goal or problem that needs to be solved. If there is more than one problem, donât assume that they are necessarily related.
2. Assess the problem. Define the problem based on factual data and not opinions. You may want to pull reports, talk with other departments, and observe the process yourself. Then you can start to analyze the data to determine what is/isnât happening, or if there are any contributing factors.
3. Develop the solution. This is a pivotal step, and you want to make sure you have the best solution (and not just a temporary workaround). Brainstorm possible solutions! Diverse ideas are contributed by diverse individuals with diverse perspectives.
4. Implement the solution. Create a detailed implementation/project plan. Depending on your solution, you may need to include updated procedures, internal controls, testing, and/or training. Nobody wants âbadâ surprises when implementing something new. I believe there canât be too much communication so communicate, communicate, and communicate.
5. Monitor the solution. Once youâve implemented the solution, evaluate to make sure the solution is working correctly and has resolved the problem (continuously monitor and improve). Donât forget to update your disaster recovery and/or business continuity plan.
And last but not least, it may be worthwhile to solicit input from the business and document the process results (similar to a project wrap-up). Define what went well, what didnât go well and could be improved next time, pending issues, etc.
For more information on problem-solving techniques, follow me on LinkedIn!
I am currently sitting in a lounge in Prague International Airport. Just spent a whole week in an internal sprint that my employer held in the “Mother of Cities.”
When I saw this sign after I landed at the airport, it made me smile. Never heard that expression before, and I am SURE that there are quite a few of you that may come up with a list of alternative “mommy cities.” Still, you have to admit that Prague (or Praha in Czech) rocks! Just the castle, brightly lit at night, makes the trip all worth it.
However, this ad also inspired me to write an article, as I wondered: Really? People need to be reminded to be polite when visiting?
Sure. We all have in mind the rowdy tourists that upon landing somewhere start behaving as if they owned the place. You know, the good folks who believe that YELLING in English will obviously ensure their hosts somehow will understand them better, or the overgrown teens that feel entitled to loudly shout in celebration when coming back from a local pub.
But as businesspeople, aren’t we at times missing an opportunity to show proper deference to the local culture? Don’t we have a duty to show a better example as well?
I would argue that not only do we have this duty, but it is in our business and personal best interest to do so. Because good business and good times can and should rhyme!
Question is, how do you do this? Here are a few tips.
Those of you that know me personally or follow me on LinkedIn know I am dabbling in a few languagesâFrench, English, Chinese, some Japanese…
But one language that I do NOT know much about is Czech, which is the local tongue in Prague.
So upon landing here, I opened my cell phone and asked translate.google.com how to say “thank you” in Czech.
DÄkuji!
Ouch, I thought: how am I supposed to pronounce that accent on the ‘e’? Fortunately, Google told me at a click of a button (‘djyekuyi’).
So I started using this word in my daily interactions with hotel staff, restaurant waiters, and so on. Which earned me smiles, usually followed by prosimâplease!âuttered in a more or less official tone.
Unfortunately, after a day or two, my pronunciation started drifting. “Djyekuyi” became “Vyekuyi.”
The result? The smiles and the prosim kept on coming. Only in the end, when someone answered “thank you” back at me in Czech, did I notice I butchered the language for days!
So, what is the lesson here?
Well, practice makes perfect… but perfection is NOT required in order to be effective.
Your hosts are paying attention to the effort you put in, but they are not expecting an infrequent visitor to master their language.
Talking about effort, how difficult is it, really? Well, if your target language uses the same writing system as you use in your own, it will probably feel easier. And if that language is in the same family as yours (Czech is an Indo-European language, like English, French, Russian, and also Hindi), then it may even be possible to pick up additional words on your own through similarities, even basic syntax.
On the other hand, learning languages from a different familyâTurkish, Hungarian (which is not an Indo-European language)âor that use a different writing system (Chinese, Arabic) would be more challenging. But again, the goal is not to turn you into a native speaker overnight. Just to learn a word, or two, or three.
And if you end up mangling these words beyond recognition, that is OK. Locals will usually still appreciate the gesture.
So, go ahead and work on these: merci, danke sh¸ön, xiexie, arigatou, terima khasi, and of course dÄkuji!
And since I just boarded a Turkish Airlines: Tesserkular!
Sitting on a Turkish Airlines flight that will first take me to Istanbul back from Prague, somewhere over the Carpathian mountains, I pondered about manners while conducting business abroad.
That is clearly an important topic, but it is also quite a wide one. The basics of what constitutes good manners may be similar from one culture to the next but these basics are heavily colored by local customs.
For example, one day, I traveled to Malaysia. I met a government officialâand greeted her by shaking her hands. Instant awkward moment!
Fortunately, she chose not to hold it against me. But this served me as a reminder: I should have prepared better by reading about local customs before landing in Kuala Lumpur.
This is exactly what I did before I went for the first time to Japan. So when came the time to exchange business cards, I knew what the ‘procedure’ was: start with the senior person first (follow othersâ gaze when in doubt), bow, and offer the card with two hands, writings facing your counterpart, while reciting something pretty elaborate in Japanese. It worked wonders.
Still, cultures are vast topics. It can be difficult to know what you donât know, to imagine that something that is so natural, so instinctive at home can be at odds with local mores.
So, how do you deal with this? By paying attention to what is going on.
I knew from prior research that in India you eat with the right hand, sometimes without a fork or a spoon. But that metal bowl with warm water that showed up at my table was not in any manuals I read. But a quick, discreet look at another table taught me that it was there to wash my hand after the meal, and… not to drink!
Also, if you are sharing your table with your local employees, partners, or clients, asking questions about local customs is not only OK but appreciatedâyou are after all showing curiosity about their culture.
I can tell you that my Korean counterparts taught me much about proper behavior during a banquet. Never pour your own drinkâinstead, always pour othersâ (they will do the same for you). When you do, use both hands, with one of the hands on the bottom of the bottle. Why? Because Koreans used to wear garbs with loose sleeves, and this ensured the fabric wouldnât dip into your counterpartâs drink.
A nice gesture. And an interesting way of seeing things.
Finally, just in case you bungle something, just know it is usually OK. Even if the custom you broke is… a law.
Case in point: what happened to us while walking in Prague.
We were coming back to a restaurant. We stopped at a red light but someone one of us (who?) did not wait for the light to become green, and the rest of us just sheepishly followed him while continuing to talk.
Too bad a cop was right there watching the whole scene. He parked his car on the side of the road, lights on, came out of the car, and said pretty crossly, “You didnât see me?!”
Oops. We were in trouble.
But we smiled, explained calmly what happened, that no offense was meant. And, when he took off, I offered him a warm DÄkuji (thanks!).
Crisis avoided. Fortunately, legal did not have to come to bail us out on this one!
Lesson: even if you break a custom, or even a local ordinance, it doesnât need to land you in trouble. Locals expect foreigners to be a tad ignorant. So as long as the error occurred in good faith and you promptly apologize, chances are you will be fine.
This being said, here’s another lesson: I needed to learn how to say “sorry” in Czech.
Sitting at a lounge in Istanbul’s glitzy new airport, it is easy to think that the world is losing local flavors. After all, those big modern airports all look a bit similar, don’t they? Duty frees everywhere. Restaurants proposing easy (and pricey) bites. Plenty of gates connecting you to the world.
OK, that is a tad of an exaggeration, as each country tries to bring its visitors a bit of the local flavor. You really want to see the Korean actors impersonating royal guards in Incheon!
But still, travel can sometimes feel “standardized.” Take hotels: your typical Hilton will feel pretty similar whether you are in Prague, Beijing, or Denver, with minor differences in the food being offered. And in truth, many may actually appreciate some standardization. After all, it is familiar. Expected. Comforting.
But isn’t that missing (part of) the point of going abroad?
As an international business person, you are part of a long line of travelers who roamed the earth, tirelessly connecting different people and cultures while making a profit. And these traders of lore engaged with the locals around a meal because this is something that everyone has in common: the need to eat. We just differ on the meals’ contents.
So, why not go with the tradition on that one? There are definite personal advantages. In my experience, you get much better food for less by going local and avoiding the hotel’s sanitized fares and the obvious tourist traps.
This time around in Prague, I brought my team to a nice restaurant that was definitely aimed at the local crowd. Food was succulent, beer was good, and all of this was available at a pretty reasonable price. Accounting will be happy on that one!
However, getting a good experience isn’t the only reason why you should go out of your hotel and explore the local fares. There is a simple business reason to do so as well.
Remember what I said above: locals are usually pretty flattered when you pay attention to their local culture. And that can translate into a more trustworthy relationship because they know you get it.
More than once, I developed trust with Chinese prospective clients over a local dish, discussing the finer points of Chinese cuisine. The spicier the better.
So go ahead and experience abroad through your stomach!
One more hour to go on that transatlantic flight before finally reaching home.
I love to travel. But not just by air. The view from the ground can be pretty amazing too.
And when abroad, I try to roam around the way the locals would.
I have a collection of common transportation cards for several cities on this planet. Tokyoâs Suica, Seoulâs T-Money, Beijingâs Yitongka, Londonâs Oyster Cardâ¦
There are several reasons to do this. In many countries, this is the most efficient way to go around. No need to explain to a taxi driver how to get somewhere or fear Uber will not work. Trains won’t be blocked by traffic either.
And againâI like to keep Accounting happy. Just recharge the card and go.
But again, there is another business-related reason why you should try to emulate the locals when abroad.
This whole article is all about the importance of cultures in human interactions. After all, it is the substrate in which we interact, whether it is for business or pleasureâor both (which it often is). Better understanding the local culture can help you develop more fruitful relationships.
What better way to do just this than by walking or jogging through the local streets, sitting in the local trains, seeing the hustle and bustle, smelling the local cuisine?
It may all sound a bit metaphysical. But the benefits are tangible. By building your practical knowledge of your hosts’ country, by sharing a part of their lives, they may end up thinking about you less in terms of a foreigner and more as a fellow human being, perhaps even a ‘proto-local.’
In other words: the distance between you and your counterparts melts away. Trust goes up.
This works equally well with clients and local employees. More than once, clients expressed (pleasant) surprises when I showed up at their site by taking the metro (You were able to do this? Yeah!). Likewise, I also have Indian employees that thought I was walking like one of them through the streets of Bangalore (and yes, they meant it as a good thing).
Granted, roaming the country like a local is not always possible. There may be schedule imperatives that force you to take a taxi, or safety considerations at play.
But otherwise, go ahead and go around like a local, feeling safe with the knowledge that if you get lost, locals (or Google maps) will help you out.
Usually are you thinking about making a sales team? Maybe you’ ve been relying in in-house salespeople and will be ready to expand, or perhaps you’ re starting through scratch. Either way, there’ re a couple of critical items to know prior to starting. These types of determine whether you’ lmost all end up with a new productive, successful team or maybe not. It also might affect the […]
This post 4 Critical Items To Know When Producing a Sales Team appeared first with Jobacle. com .
Are you wondering how to write a LinkedIn profile when you’re unemployed? This may sound odd, but if you’re unemployed, you actually have BETTER opportunities to promote yourself on LinkedIn than other users.
Openly displaying your personal brand and skills is simpler than fretting over the possibility that your boss is reviewing your LinkedIn profile changes with suspicion. Still, marketing yourself on LinkedIn when you’re seeking a new job can be daunting. What should you disclose about your job search and goalsâand how much?
Use these tips for a strong LinkedIn profileâone that tells employers why you’re an asset to their organization, while capitalizing on your ability to freely promote your skills.
Here’s where you’ll want to ensure your value proposition (rather than your employment status) stands out. After all, your LinkedIn headline is prime real estate. It’s displayed in nearly every interaction you’ll have on the site and is the most heavily weighted field in LinkedIn’s indexing scheme.
However, your employment status is NOT the brand message to send to employers. That’s definitely one of the common LinkedIn headline mistakes. Instead, you’ll want to display a clear promise of value, while alluding to (but not directly stating) your job search.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile (especially your headline) by adding specific keywords that relate to your skill sets.
The following example shows how you can make your message clear to employers, without the negative connotation of “unemployed” in your LinkedIn headline:
Senior Sales Rep | Manufacturing | SaaS | IT | Infrastructure | Applications | Networking | Managed Services
See how there’s no mention of your employment status? The goal is to draw recruiters, hiring managers, and employers in with your skills. Then they’ll be inclined to check out your profile, review your experience, and message you once they see your LinkedIn summary and the end date of your previous job.
Just like your LinkedIn headline, your summary can be used to deliver a direct message to employersâreferring to your value proposition first and foremost. What services do you provide as a business-of-one?
The best way to accomplish this is by adding a vertical list of your skills underneath your personal branding statement, which is basically you explaining the problem you like to solve for employers and what you would like to do next with your skills.
You can also close your LinkedIn summary with a call to action that states:
I’m eager to discuss requirements for a business development leader who can open multiyear sales opportunities at the CIO or CTO level, using a sales background in cloud services, hosting, managed services, and software.
In this example, business development, sales, CIO, CTO, and other industry-specific terms are all used as keywords to attract attention from the right employer. Combine this with a list of skills and a keyword-optimized personal branding statement and you’ll have hiring managers hooked.
If your employment ended only recently, you have several options. Some users leave their LinkedIn profile as is for a few months, especially if they’re technically still “employed” by receiving severance pay. You may need to check with your former employer before doing this.
Another option is to simply give your former job an end date on your LinkedIn profile. While doing so will drop your profile’s searchability (slightly), this is also the most straightforward way to show your current status.
In some cases, job seekers add a “current job” to give recruiters an idea of the title they’re seeking, while making it clear they’re currently unemployed. Should you decide to do so, a simple “COO in Transition” or “Sales Rep Open to Territory Responsibility” can serve to educate your LinkedIn profile viewers on your status.
The bottom line? Being unemployed is actually a good reason to tend to your LinkedIn profile with renewed enthusiasm. If you use keywords and brand messaging appropriately and leverage your ability to be more open in your job search, you’re likely to gain increased traffic (and job opportunities) as a result.
Need more help with your job search?
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.