Month: April 2017

Synergy: Increasing Success By Creating Great Teams

Synergy: How do companies create teams that produce greater results together than the total results of the team members working separately?

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” ~ Aristotle

Collaboration and Synergy

Synergy is the process of combining the efforts of individuals or organizations to produce greater results together than the total the combined results from working alone.

For example, let’s say that companies X, Y, and Z earn a total of $5 million working separately.  However, by merging their efforts, these three companies earn $10 million dollars working together.

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Firsthand Experience

There are multiple reasons why synergy is so effective.  One of the reasons is that synergy fills in the gaps of knowledge among individuals or among individual organizations.

A simple example is my experience in teaming up with other recruiters to share work. Together, we each made more money by combining our resources than each of us would have made working alone.  I had recruiting contracts and job applicants.  The other firms had different recruiting contracts and different job applicants.

By working with each other, we could accelerate filling jobs by helping each other find job applicants for our recruiting contracts.

Synergy in Project Teams

In most companies, departments work separately to do their jobs.  Sales planning does sales planning.  Marketing does marketing.  Manufacturing does manufacturing.

But some projects require knowledge from each of these departments.  Collaboration empowers teams from separate departments to produce greater results by filling in the knowledge gaps.

 Synergy in Working with Specialists

Collaborating with specialists helps people focus on what they do best. For example, writers know how to write.  Some writers can do a reasonable job of editing their own work.  Also, most writers can figure out how to copyright their material.  However, writers can produce far more material by just writing and having experts handle the other tasks in publishing a book.

Grumpy versus Grateful: Do We Have a Choice in How We Feel Today?

Grumpy versus Grateful: Why is it that some people manage to find happiness during tough times?
“Choosing to Feel Happy Is Good for Our Health.”  ~   www.jaywren.com

Grumpy versus Grateful: Why Does It Matter?

Few people choose to make themselves unhappy. However, many people are unhappy.  Additionally, many of those people don’t know that they have choices in how they feel.

In the case of our careers, holding on to painful feelings can lead to career-ending job burnout.

A Grumpy Versus Grateful List

Here is a comparison table of what I have in mind.  Do you see your job for the things that gripe you or the things that make you can feel grateful?

Grumpy List versus Gratitude List
Negatives Positives
 Income Uncertainty  I have food on the table.
 Long Commute  I have free time for podcasts, music, and radio talk shows.
 Stupid Co-workers  I can lead the team with fresh ideas.
 Boring work  I can infuse my work with creativity.
 Noisy Place   I can focus on my work and not the distractions
 Work is not fulfilling.   I can volunteer for exciting projects.
 Job futility  I create a plan for better tomorrows.

Straight to Grateful

Making a gratitude list every day is one way to ease the pain of tough times.  Another way to feel grateful is to think of some of the good things in our lives before we go to sleep.

Grumpiness Is a Painful, Infectious Life Choice.

Even the most compassionate people struggle to deal with a person who is continually griping.  Constantly having to listen to negativity from other people creates negativity in ourselves.

To draw an analogy, negativity is like an infectious disease.  It spreads from one person to the other.  For example, therapists become infected from listening to the problems of their clients. Because of the negative impact of their jobs, many mental therapists seek help from other therapists to recover from doing their job.

Attitude of Gratitude

In conclusion, gratitude is one of the tools for dealing with tough times.  The method above and other methods of writing things about our troubles can help take the power out of negative thoughts and feelings.

It is healthy to check in with friends to get their ideas on solving problems.

However, it is not okay to hold pity parties for ourselves when we are alone or when we are speaking other people.

Sometimes, just realizing that we have a choice about how we feel is all we need to begin to take the steps to feel grateful.

Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Success

Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Success. When a team performs below the sum of its members’ abilities, has leadership failed?

“The greatest leaders empower the people they lead.” www.jaywren.com

Empowering Teams: Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover. Here are some simple steps that any leader can use.

Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Powerful Teams and Reduce Turnover.

Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover.  Here are some methods that simply work.

Keep an open door with your team members.

It is one thing to ask your team members to respect your time.  It is quite another to block them off just because you can’t be bothered.

Encourage your team members to give you feedback and updates.   Set up a list of things that they must tell you about no matter what.

Give directions that can’t be misunderstood.

Tell the people what you want them to do.  Then ask them to tell you what they understand about what you have told them.

Having your team members do work that does not achieve the goals, only to have to do it again, frustrates them.

Giving them clear direction helps them be more successful and feel engaged and successful.

Text and Email with a Purpose.

Before you send a text or an email, write down the purpose of the message.

Use Critiques to Increase Competence.

Finding fault just discourages your team.  Take a minute to make sure that they understand what you expect them to do.

Criticism creates stress.  Helpful, clear direction creates engagement and increases competence.

Give Progress Updates and Interim Encouragement.

Check the progress your team is making on projects.  Update the team members with changes and corrections as work progresses.  Encourage team members to continue the good work they are doing.

Delegate, but don’t abdicate.

Empower team members to make decisions.  State clearly how much authority that they have and how you expect them to use that authority.

However, don’t just assume that they will do everything the way you expect.  Check in with them often to encourage them and to keep them focused.

Use Emotional Intelligence as a Tool for Success.

Emotional Intelligence is the process of responding with intelligence and giving direction based on the best interest of the business.  It is easy to let your ego take over and run roughshod over your team members.

Sometimes, you must be firm.  However, angry outbursts don’t work effectively with every team member.

Carefully gauge how you respond emotionally based on the conditions and based on the emotional intelligence of the team member.

Interview Feedback: How a Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job

Interview Feedback: Have you had interviews and have no idea how well the interview went? A thank you letter can help you land the job.

“If you need interview feedback, sometimes all you need to do is ask for it.” www.jaywren.com

Interview Feedback: How A Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job

After an interview, you should always send a thank you letter to your interviewer. You are in competition with other candidates.  Therefore, setting yourself apart from those candidates is important in getting a job offer.

A Thank-You Letter Can Help You Do Several Things.

You can reinforce your interest in the job.  Additionally, you can reinforce your qualifications for the job.

Also, the thank you letter gives you an opportunity to ask for interview feedback and to ask for another meeting.

Who Gets an Interview Thank You Letter?

Send a thank you letter to everyone who met you.  If you are working with a recruiter, send the letter to the hiring managers and a blind copy the recruiter.  Recruiters have an interesting role between you and the company.  They can help reinforce your interests and your qualifications for the job.  Keeping the recruiters informed is important to enabling them to help you.

Note that both letters have a call to action: that is, you ask for a time to meet again.

Email or Postal Letter?

A thank you email helps you respond promptly.

A thank you letter is more formal and more impressive.

These formats will help you write a post-interview thank you letter in either format.

Sample Email Thank-You Letter

Name of Recipient:

The purpose of this email is to thank you for meeting with me to discuss my qualifications for the [name of position].

I am excited about your opportunity.

When may I meet with you again to discuss your opportunity further?

Thank you,

Your Name
Phone Number
Email address

Postal Thank-You Letter

I created a lengthier, more detailed discussion that might help you remind the hiring manager of your qualifications and your interest.  You can add a discussion like the one in the postal cover letter to the email cover letter as well.

Your information

Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Date

Contact’s information

Name, titles
Company name
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Dear [Name of Hiring Manager]:

Thank you for meeting with me this morning.  After our meeting, I am even more excited about the possibility of working for your company.

I believe that I can contribute at once to your business.  Furthermore, I have accomplishments in the following areas that crossover to the job you have available:

Increased administrative efficiency 20%
Reduced 3rd-party contract costs 30%
Trained 6 new hires, all of whom have been promoted
Four-year member of the President Sales Club.

Your description of the responsibilities, the team environment, and the growth plan for your company tell me that your job is the job I want and that your company is the place where I want to work.

I look forward to being invited back for another meeting.

When may I speak with you again?

Thank you again for your time.

Sincerely,

Your Signature

Your Name Typed

In Conclusion

In these examples, I created two bodies of content.  The shorter you make your letter the better. However, if you believe that making the letter more detailed, and therefore, longer to read will help you get to a job offer.

The Best Job Applicants Do These Seven Things.

The best job applicants do things that land them job offers. Furthermore, they set themselves apart from other job applicants to be the person companies want to hire.

“In a job interview, it is far better to get a job offer than to have to learn from your mistakes.” ~ www.JayWren.com

The Best Job Applicants Do These Seven Things.

#1 Show they are interested in the job.

The best job applicants come prepared with information on the job.  Furthermore, they may come prepared with information on the people who are interviewing job applicants.

Research on companies is easy.  Additionally, when the best job applicants know the names of the people they will be meeting, they research the profile of these people on Facebook and LinkedIn.

#2 Thoroughly understand the job description.

Additionally, they know the requirements of the job and how they have the qualification for the job.  They prepare to how their qualifications are a match for the job.

#3 Bring the right tools to the interview.

What you bring to any business meeting will make or bring your success in that meeting.  Getting to a business meeting to discover that you do not have the things you need is not only embarrassing, it is often a business-meeting killer.  I recommend that you buy a portfolio case or a briefcase that you use just for meetings.  Keep the case stocked with the materials that you will take to every meeting.

#4 Listen to the interview questions.

Some of the feedback I got on candidates is that they do not answer the questions the interviewer asked.  They gave answers about the subject in the question.  However, the best job applicants listen to the interviewer and answer their questions.

#5 Ask for the job.

I have had countless applicants fail to get a job offer, because they left the hiring manager uncertain about whether they had an interest in the job.

You are not the only applicant in the interview process. If three equally qualified applicants compete for a job and only one is expressing an interest in getting the job, the hiring managers have an easy decision. They will offer the job to the person who wants the job.

They simply say that they want the job and state why they want it.

#6 The best job applicants send a thank you note.

A thank you note can remind the interviewer of your ability to do the job.  Furthermore, a thank you note shows interest in the job and respect for the interviewer’s time.

#7 Arrive Early.

Arriving early is an infinite amount of time.  Arriving after the time of your appointment means you are late.  The best job applicants arrive early.

Jay Wren Client List – Building a Business Never Ends

Jay Wren Client List: For me, building a successful business never ends. It is a continual process of expanding my skills and expanding my network.

Jay Wren Partial Client List of Companies I Have Served

Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network. The day I sat down to start my career as a recruiter; I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards. My contact management systems today contain tens of thousands of contacts. These are people I have personally tracked and for whom I created files. Most of them I have reached out to by phone, email, or professional networks. I still make new connections every day. Little has changed except that my file system has gone from paper to a computer.

I have continually added clients.

Here is a partial list of companies that I served.

  1. PepsiCo
  2. Pepsi Bottling Group
  3. Frito-Lay
  4. Coca Cola, USA
  5. Coca Cola Foods
  6. Mobil Oil Company
  7. Soft Soap
  8. Pillsbury Green Giant
  9. International Playtex
  10. Quaker Oats
  11. Dannon Corporation
  12. No Nonsense Fashions
  13. Coca-Cola Foods
  14. Del Monte Foods
  15. The Clorox Company
  16. Nestle
  17. Brach & Brock
  18. Catalina Marketing
  19. Health Resource Corporation
  20. Majers Corporation
  21. Welch Foods
  22. Softsoap
  23. E & J Gallo
  24. Sunny Delight
  25. M & M Mars
  26. Tambrands
  27. Nabisco
  28. News America Marketing
  29. El Dorado Marketing
  30. Imagitas
  31. ConAgra Foods
  32. ConAgra Armour Swift-Eckrich
  33. Polaroid Corporation
  34. Dial Corporation
  35. Dep Corporation
  36. United Vintners
  37. 7-Up
  38. Miller Brewing Company
  39. 13-30 Corporation
  40. Hain Celestial Group
  41. Q-Interactive
  42. Label Dollars
  43. Promo Edge
  44. Centiv
  45. The Sunflower Group
  46. PromoWorks
  47. The Wine Spectrum of Coca Cola
  48. Kaiser-Roth
  49. DSD Communications
  50. Black & Decker
  51. ActMedia
  52. Linkewell Health
  53. Bush Brothers Beans
  54. Marketing Technology Solutions
  55. Sunny D
  56. Twenty-Ten Corporation
  57. InStore Broadcasting Network
  58. Insignia Pops
  59. The Beecham Group
  60. GlaxoSmithKline – GSK
  61. Jacobs Suchard
  62. Cody Kramer
  63. SVP Worldwide
  64. Mauna Loa
  65. Garden Burger
  66. EAS
  67. New World Pasta Company
  68. Vacation Connections
  69. Lala USA
  70. Continental Promotion Group
  71. Kayser Roth
  72. Morningstar Farms
  73. Duracell
  74. Kiss Products
  75. Phillips Food Brokerage
  76. Unicous Marketing
  77. Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage
  78. Wizards of the Coast
  79. Oberto Sausage
  80. Fanfare Media
  81. Linkwell Communications
  82. Lindt
  83. Nurserymen’s Exchange
  84. Maybelline
  85. Advantage 360
  86. American Italian Pasta
  87. Warner Lambert
  88. Fuel Rewards/Centego
  89. First Flavor
  90. Potlatch Corporation
  91. Crossmark Food Brokerage
  92. RB (Reckitt Benckiser)
  93. Marketing Force
  94. J&J Snack Foods Corporation
  95. Cartera Commerce Inc.
  96. Alcon Laboratories
  97. Ray-O-Vac
  98. Naterra
  99. ICOM
  100. Slim Fast (Unilever)
  101. Potlatch Corporation
  102. Dean Foods
  103. …and others

Jay Wren Client List: Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends.

Companies come and go. People come and go. Processes change. Opportunities that are here today are gone tomorrow. Even if a person only has one large, sustained client, may see frequent buyer turnover. People who build new relationships and expand their relationships within that one client will become more effective.

Change is constant in business and careers. Building a business and a career is not like building a house or a wall. The process of building a business and building a career never ends.

Find the Job You Want Where You Want It.

Get Things Done: How to Defeat Procrastination

Get Things Done: How is it that some people are so productive when other people can’t get to the job? What can you do to become successfully productive?

Inspiration is not an accomplishment.  Passion is not an accomplishment.  Getting things done is an accomplishment.  ~ www.jaywren.com

Get Things Done: How to Defeat Procrastination: Highly successful people do many things that make them successful.  Here are four traits that enable them to keep a clear head, make better decisions, do more, and have a well-balanced life.

Set Tight Schedules.

The time to do a job expands with the amount of time allowed to do a job.  Busy people are more productive than people with little to do.

For example, the days before a vacation, people feel energy to complete projects before they leave.  They are working against the clock to get things done.

Therefore, setting tight schedules for projects creates focus and delivers energy to get things done.

Start with Just One Thing.

When you look at all the things to do to complete a task, just starting can be hard to do.  However, most jobs have steps for completion.  Workdays have multiple tasks.

Doing just one thing now puts you into action.

Focus on solutions not problems.

Focusing on problems is just worrying.  Furthermore, worrying does not produce any results.

However, focusing on solutions leads places your mind on the things that you can do to stop worrying.

Schedule Time Off. 

Highly successful people live a balanced life.  They work hard.  Sometimes they push themselves to finish a project, even weeks at a time.  But they know to take breaks.  Time with their family is important to them.  Community service gives them rewards and diverts their attention to new areas.  Scheduling and taking lunch breaks helps successful people recover and work more effectively.  Blocking out an hour a day to exercise restores your energy and conditions you to work harder.  Simple rest breaks are important as well.  Scheduling these breaks with a co-worker makes them a reality.

When you commit to taking time off, you are again setting deadlines to get things done.

Success: How do Successful People Create Long-Term Success?

Success: What are the things that successful people do to build a long-term career? Can you do these things? Can you repeat them throughout your career?

Success: How do Successful People Create Long-Term Success?

During three decades working as a corporate recruiter, I saw people do many things to create successful careers.

Here are five things that you can do.

Don’t Take Your Current Job for Granted.

Success is Never Final. It is Born and Reborn Every Day.

If you have a job, focus being the best employee in the company. Keep a positive attitude. Be personable. Do top-notch work. Show respect for your boss, your peers, and the people who work for you. Stay off social media during the workday. Stay off personal calls during the workday. Avoid political and religious discussions and stick to discussions that will move your work forward.

Surround Yourself with Success.

When you are in the office or out of the office, surround yourself with people who have successful people.  Learning how these people have become successful and stay successful can help you learn how to build your own career. They can help you network with other successful people who can lead you to greater opportunities for your career.

Make Your Health a Priority.

When I was a young Navy officer, I noticed that the most successful senior officers were physically fit. There were not top athletes. They did not look ripped and shredded. However, they were trim and fit. They had a lot of energy. They had the ability to work hard year after year.
I don’t remember anyone who rose in the ranks of the Marine Corps or the Navy who did not stay physically fit.

Their health made them capable of doing the hard work for success.

Use Books and the Internet to Build Your Skills.

Because of the Internet, it is easy today to read great material. You can read almost any book online by becoming a member of your local library and using online book services that libraries offer.

Newsletters, business websites, business feeds on LinkedIn and on Facebook, online college courses and other resources offer online help you build your career.

Become the Top Expert in Your Field

For some people knowing what they must do on their job each day is as far as their take the knowledge of their industry.  However, becoming an expert in your field raises your value to your company, your clients, and the future of your career.

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