Month: October 2017

Simplicity: The Essential Leadership Skill for Success

Simplicity: As situations become more complex, simplicity is a powerful tool. How do leaders eliminate the clutter to create success?

Simplicity creates clarity and empowers leaders to remove the roadblocks to success.   www.jaywren.com

The Clarity of Simplicity

Simplicity creates clarity.

  • When leaders speak with simplicity, their message is easier to understand.
  • Simplifying their schedule creates clarity on the things that leaders must do to be effective.
  • Creating simple strategies clarifies the mission and reduces mistakes.
  • Simplifying product mix and services creates clarity in the purpose of the company.
  • The clarity of simplicity throughout an organization empowers the organization to do the big things that count the most.

Simplicity and Priorities

The most important things don’t automatically become visible.  Simplicity helps leaders see what is important.

To speak effectively, leaders eliminate the words and ideas that are not important.  Therefore, the only thing left to say are the simple things that effectively make the leader’s point.

Likewise, leaders must know the actions that are distractions and the actions that are essential.  They eliminate everything that is a waste of time.

On a grander scale, leaders of large companies simplify product mix to the products that guarantee the greatest success in sales, market share, and profits.  Simplifying successful product mix by eliminating the products that detract from the company’s successful products is one of the greatest and most important challenges in leadership.

Stating the Purpose Increases Simplicity

Employees must know what to do.  Without stating the purpose, leaders leave employees to find their own purpose and to work on projects that take them further away from the goal.

In product development, the first step is to state the purpose of not just the project but, also, of the product.

Case Study Statement: “The purpose of the project is to create a hand soap.  The purpose of the new hand soap is to increase market share through increased product effectiveness.”

This step simplifies the focus and makes developers stick to the mission.

From there, developers and project managers must use this focus to create a project plan.  With this plan, developers and project managers can stay on task and measure progress against milestones.

Simplicity Reduces Stress and Increases Engagement

Focused people have a present-moment experience that eliminates the stress of a cluttered mind.  Furthermore, a focused mind is more engaged in work and less engaged in distracting thoughts that create fear and regret.

Happiness: Making Better Choices About How We Feel

Happiness is easy when everything is going our way. Some people seem happy all the time. How can we be happy even when life is challenging?

Feeling unhappy is normal.  Staying unhappy is not.  ~ www.jaywren.com

Happiness Takes Place Inside of Our Head.

When things frustrate, disappoint, or anger us, we feel unhappy.

These unhappy feelings have a healthy purpose.  They alert us to problems.  The discomfort of unhappiness motivates us to make changes either in ourselves or our circumstances.

When we are mentally and emotionally healthy, we can make these changes.

Furthermore, realizing that feelings take place inside of us helps us understand that we can have control over our feelings.

The Questions for Overcoming Unhappiness.

First, can we simply let the feelings pass?  Thinking about the unhappy experience heightens our unhappiness.  Even years later, when we think of bad experiences, the unhappy feelings can return.  Therefore, not thinking about the cause of our unhappiness allows us to find happiness and return to the present moment.  A process for letting feelings pass is to sit with a feeling and focus on the feeling, not the things that we think are causing our unhappiness.

Second, can we change things that make us unhappy?  If we can, we can concentrate on solutions and not the problem.

Third, is the situation beyond our control? We can concentrate on not making the situation worse. Furthermore, we can avoid repeating mistakes that we made to create the problem.

Fourth, what is our role in the problem? Nobody enjoys looking at their mistakes. Why should we look at our role in the problem when we can blame other people, places, or things? A useful process is to write why we are unhappy. We include in our description what happened and how it affected us. Then we look at our role in creating the problem. From there we correct the mistakes that we made. In this process, we find that we can more easily accept what happened and move on beyond our happiness.

Fifth, is our unhappiness mood related?  To understand how moods affect the things that make us unhappy, pay attention to what is going on when the unhappiness returns.  Are you hungry, tired, or lonely?  These things and other things push us into lower moods.  Consequently, the things that make us unhappy swing into force with our moods.

Resumes Must Close the Sale on Getting a Job Interview

Resumes must close the sale on getting a job interview ~ www.jaywren.com

Resumes: Do you have all the qualifications and are not getting job interviews.  Look at your resume. These resume tips might help.

I owned a recruiting company for thirty years.  Like most recruiters, I spent a couple of seconds scanning for the correct job qualifications.  If they did not leap out to me, I tossed the resume.  Clean, simple, well-written resumes helped me do my job.

Resumes Employers Will Want to Read.

You must write a resume that shows three things.

  1. How your experience qualifies you for the job opening.
  2. The ways your accomplishments set you above the competition.
  3. How your background shows that you love the type of job the hiring company is trying to fill.

This is an Example of How to Write a Resume.

If you replace the information below with your information, you will have written a resume.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Your name
Street address City, State Zip
Phone
Email address

OBJECTIVE AND SUMMARY

Some people include an “Objective” or a “Summary” at the beginning of the resume. However, including these two elements is optional. If you use either, you must make them specific to the required job qualifications of the hiring company.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY (Most recent job first)

Company Name, Company Location, From -To

Most recent title, location, From – To

Use bullet format.

  • Don’t waste space on listing details of your current job description.
  • Instead, show your successes.
  • Furthermore, show how your work made a difference.  For example, “Saved the company $30,000 by switching suppliers.”
  • Give examples of how you exceeded your peers.
  • Include specific data.  For example, “Exceeded assigned sales goal 30% by adding new accounts.
  • Include keywords that fit the job where you are applying. You can find these keywords in the hiring company’s job description.

Previous Experience

Then include earlier experience at companies going back in time from most recent experience.

EDUCATION

Normally, education goes at the bottom of the resume. However, people who have no experience after receiving a degree might consider putting their degree at the top of the resume.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Other items that might go at the bottom of the resume are awards, extra skills, volunteer work, or college employment.

HOW TO SHORTEN YOUR RESUME FOR READABILITY

The following items don’t belong on your resume.

  • Hobbies
  • References
  • Compensation
  • Long paragraphs
  • Details on responsibilities with well-known job functions
  • Details on jobs that date back in time
  • Referring to yourself in the third person

Sentence Structure

It is not only okay to use sentence fragments in a resume. In fact, most resumes include sentence fragments.

  • Instead of writing “I doubled the company’s sales in 6 months by adding new accounts” 
  • Write “Doubled company’s sales in 6 months by adding new accounts.”

People: 18 Point Check-Off List for Making Great Hires

People: What are the steps for building teams? How do you know which person is best for the work you need done?

If a company has great people at all levels, great goods and services will follow. ~ www.jaywren.com

The Challenging Work of Selecting Great People

As a recruiter who worked with wonderful human resources people and hiring managers, I know the challenges people face in making great hires.  Over the years, I built a check-off list of traits I considered when making referrals.  Using this list, I increased my placement to referral rate.  Furthermore, I increased the long-term success of the people my clients hired.

Here is that check-off list that you as an HR or hiring manager may want to use.  If you believe that anyone in your company will find this list helpful, please share it with them.

1. Intelligence

I believe in hiring smart people at all levels.

As a junior Navy officer, I had a petty officer working for me who had an MBA.   He edited the ship’s newspaper on the carrier USS Midway.  Although he was intelligent to do my job, he didn’t want to pressure of a Navy officer.

Every secretary I hired had the intelligence to do my job.  These people just didn’t want a job with the responsibilities I had.

However, their intelligence gave them the ability to make decisions and recommendations.  I was fortunate to have these bright people work for me.

2. Professional Skills

There is very little exception to making great hires without fundamental skill sets. If you are hiring a coder, the person must know how to code.

If someone already has the skills to use the applications and processes that your company uses, the person will become effectively more quickly. Furthermore, this person will save your company money from lost time in training a new hire.

3. Soft Skills

I have three articles on this subject. If you are not familiar with soft skills, these articles might be helpful.

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

The Top 6 Soft Skills

Job Searching: Hard Skills and Soft Skills

4. The Ability to Grow

Ideally, you are hiring someone who can grow into a bigger role and expand into dissimilar roles within your company. The ability of employees to grow helps a company make long-term hires.

5. Current Compensation

Hiring someone who is at a pay grade lower than you are paying will allow you to reduce costs. Furthermore, you will be able to give the person raises for a longer time without having to promote the person into a higher pay grade.

6. Cultural Skills

A person who has cultural skills is someone who can work with people across diverse cultures.

As companies grow, the challenge in dealing with diversity becomes greater.

For great long-term hires, human resources managers and hiring managers must hire people who can adapt to changes within the company. Often those changes involve cultural diversity in the workplace.

7. Team Skills

People who have team skills, know their own role as a team member.  Furthermore, they can support other team members when needed.

If you look closely at a baseball game, you will see that players work in pairs.  The pitcher knows when to race behind home plate to back up the catcher.  The right fielder knows when to move behind first base to back up the first baseman.

If you have ever watched a base runner caught between two bases, you will see players from several positions form a team to trap the runner.

Each player knows what to do in their primary role and their back up role.

8. Mental Stability

Hire people who can make sound decisions in their work and in their personal lives for the long-term.

In an interview process, you are looking for examples over the course of years of how your prospect has made solid decisions in a variety of rolls.

9. Commitment

People who have commitment can make things work in challenging times.

Jobs are not always fun.  Sometimes, they are stressful, challenging, and demanding.  Every job brings its own set of problems.

However, people who start with a commitment will find ways to adjust and still be healthy when riding out difficulties.

10. Flexibility

Some people are naturally flexible. The boss tells them they are working late on Friday.  They think nothing about working late on Friday.

However, in the alpha society of the competitive organizations, strong leaders make decisions based on what they believe is in the best interest of the company.  Their flexibility stops where the interest of the company begins.

11. Motivation

Motivation generates the energy to create a positive mind set in even the toughest times.  When the job is easy and exciting, motivation is easy and exciting.  However, when challenging times come along, the best people find the motivation to rekindle their own spirit and encourage other people.

12. Resilience

The resilience issue centers around situations in which the prospect had stumbled and bounced back.  Ask the prospect about tough times and how they worked through them.

13. Reliability

This trait appears easy to check when doing references.  However, the evidence of reliability is readily available in the prospect’s resume.  Has the person worked for a company for ten years and had progressive responsibility? The logical conclusion is that the prospect is reliable.  On the other hand, if the prospect has ten years of moving laterally through several companies, you should see a red flag on the person’s reliability.

14. Integrity

Once, in the evening after my secretary had left the office, I went to her desk drawer to find a pen.  This drawer was also where she kept the stamps.

When I opened the drawer, I saw a note that read, “I owe Jay 2 stamps.”

The note reinforced what I knew every day.  My employee had solid integrity.

15. Punctual

Before making a job offer, you must know without a doubt that the prospect is punctual.  Nothing damages morale more than having to deal with people who are always late.

16. Presentable

Defining presentable is part of creating a company culture.  The players on Wall Street dress differently than the leaders in Silicon Valley.

There are no universal standards.  The people you hire must be able and committed to adapting to the standards of your company.

17. Work Ethic

People who love to work, make a manager’s job much easier.  It is easier for a manager to turn off the lights and tell an employee to go home than having to plead for a worker to stay late.  Make it easy on yourself. Hire people with a magnificent work ethic.

18. Love of the Job

Hiring people who will love their work is one of the wisest decisions in the hiring process.  There is no greater motivator than passion.  People who love their job can make up for shortcomings in some of the other areas.  These people intuitively focus on doing their work to the best of their ability.

Winning Behavior: 8 Bad Habits to Break

inning Behavior: The things we don’t do are as important as the things we do to be a winner in the workplace. Here are eight things to avoid as you work to build a successful career and become a leader among your peers.

Sometimes it’s the things that you don’t do that count the most. ~ www.jaywren.com

The Pitfalls to Winning Behavior

Some of the pitfalls to winning behavior are habits that seem normal, but annoy others and detract from our accomplishments.  I have been guilty of some of the things I am going to discuss.  Seeing the harm of these habits has helped me become more engaged with other people and more mindful of their needs and interests.

In ways that I can’t measure, avoiding these behaviors has help me build relationships and increase my network.

1. Using Long, Uncommon Words

Building your vocabulary is a good practice. However, using big words to try to sound intelligent and impress people is phony and annoying.  Furthermore, using long or uncommon words confuses people and detracts from your point.

It is narcissistic to throw around words that few people know or that people know as pretentious. You become like a person who poses in front of the mirror in a public restroom.

As a lesson about my own use of words that meant little but I used to impress others, my Mother once said to me, “You are so bombastic and I am so illiterate that you will have to elucidate for me to comprehend.” Lesson delivered, lesson learned.

2. Using Facilities and Parking for the Handicapped

People who need handicapped facilities have no choice.  They need them when they need them.

Abusing the use of handicapped parking is not only annoying, it is illegal.  Most states have stiff fines for using handicapped parking without legal authorization.  Furthermore, most people have no tolerance for people who abuse the use of handicapped parking.

Restroom facilities become more challenging, because some locations only have one or two stalls.  I have been in a one-stall restroom when a person in a wheelchair was waiting in line. The situation was awkward even though I had no choice. The best practice is, whenever possible, to defer to people who might need the handicapped facility.

3. Yacking on Your Cell Phone

There is something odd about strangers carrying on a conversation on a cell phone when they are next to you.

They have entered your space and are holding a conversation that doesn’t involve you.

I have been guilty of using a cell phone in a supermarket.  As my wife gave me instructions on the things she wanted me to buy, I passed one shopper three times.  The third time he suggested that I stop walking around talking on my phone and make a list.

This was an awakening to me just how easily cell conversations annoy the people around us.

Around the office, it is good to be aware when you are carrying on cell phone conversations around people who aren’t involved in the discussion.

4. Winning Behavior in Meetings

Texting and sending emails on a phone at the wrong time can be just as annoying.

At work, you can quickly annoy people, including people you need to impress.  Look at the situation.  You are in a meeting, and everyone is discussing the topic of the meeting.  Your mind wanders from the discussion, and you suddenly feel the urge to send a message or read your email.

You mind tells you that you must deal with your priorities. However, you are creating a distraction for everyone in the room.  People who are in a meeting are mentally like members in a marching band.  They are in coordination. When you start texting or sending emails, you break step and become a distraction.

5. Blocking the Exits

Blocking the exits or any other passageway is annoying.  Some people do not know how to navigate blocked hallways or aisles.  Other people feel awkward asking to get past.

People often gather at the entrance to meetings or at the door when leaving.  If this is a problem in your office, I recommend that the senior person in the room ask people not to block the door when they are leaving.

On the other hand, if you do need to get past people in a blocked passageway, simply say, “Pardon me.

6. Constant Complaining

Negative information creates bad moods.  A constant flow of negative information destroys morale and increases turnover.

Everyone has problems.  Solving those problems makes you look like a leader.  Whining about those problems not only is annoying.  It soon makes you look incompetent.

Instead of complaining, especially constant complaining, focus on solutions.

7. Self-Reference

Receiving credit for your work is a crucial step in the path to success.  However, constantly talking about yourself is annoying and makes people see you as shallow.

If you are not receiving credit for the work you are doing. talk with your managers.  Having them reference your accomplishments is far more effective than when you are doing it.  Furthermore, avoiding this behavior has helped me build a strong network.

Additionally, give credit to other people for their accomplishments.  People not only enjoy receiving credit.  They often remember the people who helped them receive credit.  This type of winning behavior will help you build a powerful network.

8. Trying to Be Funny

I remember an article that helped me know that not everyone understands the impact of their failed attempts at humor.  The author started his article with religious jokes.  These jokes were off topic.

The jokes weren’t clever.  They were flippant.  Furthermore, they distracted from the point of the article.

The author was undermining his own work, by not practicing winning behavior.

Luck Needs Action. We Have to Play to Win.

Luck comes to those who act.  Fate decides who wins.  But acting often and acting smarter increases our odds of turning fate in our favor.

Luck needs action. We must play to win. In the Lottery, buying a ticket comes before success.
~ www.jaywren.com

Good Luck

I have had good luck and bad luck.  But without work, I could not have had the luck to do so many things I enjoy.

My luck in college increased greatly when I realized I didn’t have to be the smartest student.  At least for me to be lucky in school, I had to be the hardest working student.

I was lucky to get into Naval Officer Candidate School. However, if I had not worked hard in college, I would not have  had the opportunity to become a bridge officer on the carrier, USS Midway.

As a business owner, I had success and frustration.  I learned early on that I could not control the results.  Results are about fate.  However, by making the phone calls, working the extra hours, changing with the changes in technology, I had enough luck to run a successful business for thirty years.

You Can’t Control the Results

At least, I can’t imagine how anyone can control the results of their work.  The results are fate.  We work hard.  We do the correct things.  But the world changes.  Technology, industrial dynamics, economics, and other things change.   Furthermore, it is the things that we can’t control that decides our fate.

Poker is a game of betting on the cards you have and the cards you hope to have.

Poker players know as well as anyone how fate controls the outcome of a hand.  Holding aces never guarantees a win.  But playing the hand, and playing it smartly, increases our odds of winning.

Not only in poker, but in everything I do, I play to win.  I know that taking the right action increases my chances of prosperity. Also, acting helps me build stronger family ties, gives me greater friendships, and rewards with me better health.

75 of America’s Largest Employers – Mapped

Largest Employers

This map has the name, address, and phone number of America’s largest employers. There are also links to more resources.

How to Use This Map

Click the icon pin to see the company name, address, and phone number.  When you click the icon, a new tab will open to help you find you find directions to the company office.

Scroll in and out to select new pins.

To expand, click the [  ] icon to open the map in a new tab.

Other maps:

Here are two popular maps for the consumer products industry.

More Resources:

Career Burnout: When Working Less Becomes a Priority

Career Burnout: In a culture where people believe that working hard can overcome any obstacle, reality teaches us that we have limitations. We burnout. ~ www.jaywren.com

I am a few days late writing this article on purpose.  For the past two weeks I have had trouble writing.  During that time, I sensed that I needed a break.  Career burnout is not new to me.  I have learned from my experience that relentlessly pushing through obstacles leads to not being able to work at all.

Now that I feel better, I want to talk about the trouble that career burnout has caused me.

When Relentless Effort Becomes Destructive

The term “burnout” in reference to job performance comes from an article “Staff Burn-Out” by Herbert J. Freudenberger, first published in January 1974  in the Journal of Social Issues.
In 1980, Herbert Freudenberger collaborated with Richelson Géraldine to write the book Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement.

My Experience with Career Burnout

I am a high achiever who believed for years that I could work past any obstacle.

Whatever the job requirements, I would exceed them.  I believed that exceeding requirements would always create greater success. When my results did not match my expectations, I worked harder.

Pushing myself this way has led to periods in my life when I just could not work.

For me, recognizing the difference between a challenging period in my career and real burnout are hard to see. Here are symptoms I respond to before burning out.

  • Depression
  • Physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion
  • Inability to engage mentally in my work
  • Apathy
  • Fear, anger, and uncertainty
  • Despair of achieving my goals
  • Inability to be present for my work or my family
  • Inability to accept that my relentless pursuit of success was self-defeating

8 Steps I Take to Prevent Burnout

Here are 8 simple steps I take to prevent going over the edge into career burnout.

  1. Taking breaks.
  2. Finding emotional support through friendships and family.
  3. Trying new things: new routine, new skills, new tools
  4. Making a list of my work priorities.
  5. Doing one thing at a time.
  6. Getting regular physical exercise.
  7. Using techniques for resting my mind from work: meditation, short breaks, meeting or calling friends to relieve stress.
  8. Watching or listening to things that are relaxing, motivational, or inspirational

I continually work on balance in work, entertainment, exercise, family, and quiet time.  Experience has taught me that balance more than relentless effort leads to long-term success.

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