Category Archives: Job Skills

Business Writing

Business Writing: A Skill that Successful People Master

Job Skills, Quotes, Resumes

Business writing is a skill everyone can learn.
~ www.jaywren.com

Writing is part of the job for most business professionals.  Business writing includes emails, proposals, contracts, Internet posts, letters, business plans, memorandums, reports, job descriptions, and resumes.

The measure of effective writing is how well the reader can understand the writer’s message.  Therefore, the writer must carry the reader’s attention and understanding from the first word to the last word in a piece of communications.

Here are 4 steps to writing clearly and effectively.

1. First Paragraph.

The first paragraph must prepare readers for what you are going to tell them.  If there are two or more subjects, list each of these subjects in the opening paragraph.

2. Use Subheadings.

The reader may only have enough time to scan for information.  Helping the reader with subheadings makes your key points stand out from the details that support those key points.

You can create subheadings in at least three ways.

  1. Put the subheading in bold letters.
  2. Make the subheading ALL CAPS.
  3. If available, use a word processing software setting for subheadings.

3. Transition Words

When you are continuing with the same subject and want to emphasize a new element or thought from one sentence to the next, use transition words.   Here are some examples of words that carry your reader’s attention as you expand on your topic: furthermore, additionally, indeed, for example, first, second, third.

4. Grammar and Spelling

Grammar and spelling are as important as content.  Grammatical errors and spelling errors not only distract from your message.  These errors undermine the credibility of your message.

Carefully review what you have written.  Use word processing software to check for mistakes.

Ask other people to proofread your material.  In this case, I ask you the reader to let me know if see any mistakes in my writing.  On the About page of this website, there is a contact form to make it easy for you to give me feedback.

Business Writing: Conclusion

In conclusion, the formula for business writing anything is simple.

State the subject in the opening sentence.

Use subheadings to transition from one subject to another.

Additionally, use transition words to guide your reader’s attention as you transition from one point to the next.

Equally important, make your grammar and spelling perfect.

When you make your writing easier to read, you will be far more successful in communicating with your readers.

Productivity

Productivity: 5 Things Highly Successful People Do Differently

Job Skills, Quotes, Success

Being busy means nothing.  Success comes from getting things done. ~ www.jaywren.com

Productivity: Some people have a successful career based on their ability to get things done. Other people accomplish less and their careers fail. Why?

1. Have a Simple Productivity Process

Bricklayers start the day with the same tools and supplies.  From there they lay one brick.  Then another brick.  By the end of the day, bricklayers have finished a section of a wall or a complete wall.

Each day they use the same process to build walls.  They finish a project.  Then, using the same simple process, they start a new project.

2. Stay on Tasks

Productive people finish one task before starting on the next task.  They cut the wasted time of going back and forth between tasks.  Through the day, they steadily complete more tasks than people who waste time going back and for between tasks.

3. Eliminate Distractions.

Focus is as much about what you don’t think about as it is what you do think about.  If a phone is not important to their work, productive people turn off their phones.

Successful people cut the noise that disturbs their focus.  They don’t listen to music or podcasts and they don’t have the television on in the background.

4. Take Breaks that Clear the Mind

Snack breaks and lunch breaks cut the energy loss from hunger.  Furthermore, sitting quietly clears your mind and restores your energy and focus.

5. Schedule a Time for Distractions

Yes, schedule specific times for distractions. Scheduling time to surf the web and play with cell phones cuts the risk of distraction during work.

The time to schedule distractions is before we schedule our work.  Scheduling distraction time cuts the feeling of being deprived.  Furthermore, knowing that we have a time specifically for distractions reinforces the awareness of cutting distractions from the periods of work.

Career Burnout 3

Career Burnout: When Working Less Becomes a Priority

Health and Fitness, Job Skills, Quotes

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.

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

Job Skills, Leadership, Quotes

Leadership soft skills: What are the leadership soft skills that create great employees and successful companies. How can you develop these skills?

The most successful leaders not only develop technical skills; they also develop powerful leadership soft skills.
~ www.jaywren.com

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

“That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

There are countless leadership qualities that lead to success.  Throughout my career as a recruiter, I have made notes on leaders I admire.  These leaders have these soft skills.

1. Confidence During Periods of Uncertainty

The ability to build trust is the single most important leadership soft skill.  Furthermore, without trust, morale fails, engagement and commitment fail, and turnover rises.

Maintaining confidence in periods of uncertainty takes personal courage.  Furthermore, leaders must focus on their mental and emotional balance to restore their own confidence in periods of uncertainty.  This leadership soft skill takes maintenance as well as continued growth.

2. Integrity that Creates Trust

Without Integrity, leadership fails.  Relationships fail.  For example, integrity in water tightness keeps ships afloat.  Structural integrity in a bridge is makes bridges safe to cross.  Personal integrity among the people in an organization builds trust in working for an organization.

Furthermore, ensuring integrity takes honest appraisal. In the case of structures, it takes regular inspections. In the case of an organization, integrity is part of regular reviews.

3. Skills to Create Greatness in Others

Leadership is not about creating personal greatness.  What good is a leader if that leader can’t create greatness in the members of the team?  A lack of this ability to create greatness in the others undermines the long-term future of an organization.

4. Command Skills to Lead

There are many ways people can take over a group.  Charisma, boldness, persuasiveness, dominance are just three characteristics that people use to take command.  However, without commands skills, leaders cannot exert control.

With command skills, the actor can become the director.  Likewise, the secretary can become the office manager.  The vice president can become the CEO.

Command skills are leadership soft skills you can develop.

5. Enthusiasm to Inspire Energy in Others

Being around people without enthusiasm can turn optimism drain the energy from the entire team.  On the other hand, people with enthusiasm can create energy in the people without them.  Sometimes somethings as a smile can inspire energy in others.

6. Ability to Walk the Talk

Insisting that workers arrive on time while the leader is unpredictable about the time they arrive to work creates resentment in the workplace.

Furthermore, any instance where leaders don’t follow the rules harms employee morale and trust.

7. Realistic Optimism to Accept Change and Avoid Costly Mistakes

Being optimistic about the direction of an organization is important to motivating employees.  However, not being realistic about a failed project wastes time and money.  People who are unrealistic about the need to change are like people swimming out to sea.  If they have optimism, but keep the right perspective of the practicality of an idea or a project, their realistic optimism gives them perspective on what will work and what will not work.

9. Open-mindedness to Listen to Others

Some leaders just can’t listen.  They don’t understand the proverb that two heads are better than on. In so doing, they do not gain the collective wisdom of the team. The best leaders hire people who can expand the intelligence of the company.  Furthermore, these leaders listen to people who can make the company smarter.

10. Stamina to Endure Extended Periods of Demanding Work

For some people, stamina seems to come naturally, especially for young people.  However, people who do healthy things can increase their stamina. These people reduce or cut alcohol and tobacco from their lives. The eat foods that help them store energy.  They exercise.

Furthermore, they take breaks to rest to restore cover their energy.

11. Instincts to Know When to Trust Their Inner Voice

This inner voice exists in most people.  Additionally, learning to listen is a skill most people can develop.  Many top-level executive have said that their inner voice guides them through decision-making better than analytical thinking.  They can make bolder steps and continue to have confidence when they have listened to their inner voice.

12. Emotional and Mental Maturity to Keep Perspective

“The sky is falling” mentality is dangerous.  This mentality of thinking of is the theme in the famous children’s folk story, “Chicken Little.”

There are many versions of the story. According to one version of this folk story, a nut falls on Chicken Little’s head. The chick becomes hysterical and goes on a quest to alert others and gather followers on his trip to notify the king. In this version, a fox joins the group, leads them to his den, and eats them.

Hysteria leads to panic.  From there, panic incinerate the clear thinking to handle problems in perspective.

13. Courage to Speak Out

The captain might become disturbed to know that the ship is leaking.  Having to disturb the captain, especially an intimidating captain, takes courage.  However, the consequences of not telling the captain that the ship is leaking has catastrophic consequences.

14. Humility to Give Credit to Others.

Having to work for leaders who selfishly takes credit for everyone’s work becomes quickly annoying, even demoralizing.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses the results of studying 1,435 good companies. From those companies, Mr. Collins and his team of researchers selected 11 companies that had gone from Good to Great over a 40 year-year period.

In the end, Jim Collins and his team of researchers found that humility is critical for successful leadership.

15. Flexibility to Work with Others

People who can’t work with other people have no value as a leader.  Some people play important roles in a company without working with others.  However, these people can’t lead teams.

Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd

Job Skills, Leadership, Quotes

Confidence:  From time to time, everyone feels insecure.  Our feelings turn inward. Here are five tips for turning insecurity into poise and confidence.

Confidence: Only You Can Deny Yourself Permission to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd. ~ www.jaywren.com

Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd

I have a fair amount of confidence in a crowd.  I meet people easily.  However, sometimes I feel uncertain about how to start a conversation with people I don’t know.

I have become aware of these insecurities when I am walking the floor at trade shows.

You may have similar experiences in your own life.

First, relax.

Isn’t the inability to relax the source of insecurities of all types.

I find that taking a couple of deep breath helps me relax before meeting people.  Other times, I pause before entering a room and think of things I would like to discuss.

Before a meeting, I may use caffeine in one of two ways.  Caffeine can create a case of the jitters.  On the other hand, caffeine can boost your energy and lift your spirits.

When I am hungry and my blood sugar is low, I avoid caffeine before a meeting.  Instead, I eat a lite snack.

However, if my energy is low, a little caffeine boosts my energy and makes me feel more confident.

Second, say the name of the people you meet.

People love to hear their own name–myself included.

When I introduce myself, I must focus to hear another person’s name when they introduce themselves.  The only name I am sure that I will hear is my own name.  However, the best way to hear another person’s name is to repeat it back to them.  Saying another’s person name stimulates an awareness that you are listening to them.

Also, before seeing people I have not seen for a while, I go over the names of the people I will meet. My wife is especially helpful when I am seeing members of her extended family or families of her friends.

Third, ask questions.

You can find countless lists of small-talk questions on the Internet.

However, the questions that I find most helpful are the ones about a person’s interests or their families.

On the other hand, the questions I avoid are about stressful subjects like politics or work.

Fourth, smile and nod.

This simple gesture encourages other people to speak when you are at a loss for words. Furthermore, it is difficult to focus on your insecurities when you are smiling and nodding approval.

Fifth, speak with your eyes.

Look at people’s face when they speak.  Of course, look at their eyes. But also, let your eyes look at their nose and their mouth when they are speaking. Staring into people’s eyes can make them feel insecure.

Allow your eyes to express your feelings and to show that you are listening.

Interview Preparation

Interview Preparation: Three Steps That Will Land You the Job

Interviewing, Job Search, Job Skills, Quotes, Resumes

Interview Preparation: Are you frustrated with rejection when you have the qualifications for the job? These three steps will help.

Fifty percent of the effort for the best interviews is in the preparation. ~ www.jaywren.com

There are three distinct steps in preparing for an interview.

#1 Interview Preparation: Everything About You

In the first step, review your qualifications.  This step will organize your thinking about the things you want the interviewer to know about you.

In writing your resume, you will have begun to work on this step.  Ensure that you can discuss from memory the dates and places where you where you have worked.  Furthermore, prepare to present your qualifications as accomplishments.

In the United States, applicants for jobs in research, education, and medicine often use a curriculum vitae.

# 2 Interview Preparation: Everything About the Company

The second step in preparing for an interview is to research the company and research the people at the company where you are interviewing.

The Internet is a powerful tool in this step.

Research the directions to location of the interview. Your smartphone can direct you to the location.  However, having to follow your smartphone in traffic is stress that you don’t need.  Additionally, know where to park before you arrive at your destination.

Furthermore, is this a location where you want to work?
Then, research the details of the company business.  What is unique about the company?  Why do you want to work for this company?  Can you explain to the interviewer the reasons you find the company attractive?

Additionally, learn about the people you will meet.  Are these people you want to work with every day? Can you tell the interviewers why you are excited to meet them?

Thoroughly understand the experience and qualifications listed in the job description.  If the company does not publish a job description, find job descriptions for similar jobs at other companies.

#3 Interview Preparation: Everything About the Match

Prepare to discuss how your qualifications are a match for the job and for the company that is interviewing you.  In this step, merge the preparation you have done on presenting your qualifications with your research on the company.

Furthermore, show how you experience makes you the perfect match with the job requirements.

Based on your research, make a list of the things you don’t know about the job and the company.  Prepare questions that you fill in the gaps between what you know and what you need to know.

Do mock presentations.  Become confident that you can show that you are the best candidate for the job.

In Conclusion

You are competing against other candidates.  Most of them have the qualifications to get the job.  Separate yourself from the competition by using the steps in this article to prepare for the interview.

Getting Things Done

Get Things Done: How to Defeat Procrastination

Job Skills, Success

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.

Cold Calls

Cold Calls: How Do You Take the Chill Out of Cold Calls?

Job Skills, Leadership, Success

Cold calls: do you fear calling people you don’t know?  How do successful people open doors to opportunity through a simple phone call?

Cold Calls: How Do You Take the Chill Out of Cold Calls?

Cold calls: do you fear calling people you don’t know?  How do successful people open doors to opportunity through a simple phone call?

Here are some tips that will help you with cold calls.

Be Okay with Rejection

One of the things that make cold calling scary for many people is their fear of rejection.

Allow yourself to be okay with people telling you “No.”  Be okay with people being rude.  Even be okay with people hanging up on you.

None of this rejection is personal.  That is, the rejection is not about you.  The person who is being rude doesn’t even know you.

Have a Script.

Know what you want to say.  Rehearse your script.

Furthermore, develop a level comfort in giving your presentation that you can deviate from your script and return to it with ease.

Be Friendly and Flexible.

When you are making a cold call, you are asking people to give you their time and attention.  Be friendly.  Thank the buyers for their time.  Be flexible to deviate from your script when it stops working for you.

Listen and Allow Questions

Your buyer may be very interested in your offer.  However, they may need to ask questions to understand the purpose of your call.

If you can listen and allow questions, you can develop a skill for knowing when you are wasting your time.  When buyers have questions, they are giving you their attention.  Furthermore, they are giving you two pieces of information.  On one hand, your buyer needs more information.  However, on the other hand, your buyer may be showing you that your product will never fit the buyer’s needs.

Your Call is a Service to the Buyer.

When you understand that you are giving your buyer information your buyer needs to decide how your product fits their need, your attitude changes.  You release the pressure to sell.  You assume the of a person there to help the buyer.

Learning more about negotiation as a service will help you become more confident in making cold calls.

It’s Okay for Your Buyer to Raise Objections.

Your product might not fit your buyer needs.  Therefore, it is okay for your buyer to object or even say no.  You can say “thank you” and move on to the next call.

Allowing your buyer an opportunity to object to your presentation relieves the buyer from the pressure of feeling stuffed.

Furthermore, it takes the pressure for you to insist having to close the sale.  You will think more clearly.

Moreover, you will take the chill out of making cold calls.

Business Meetings

Business Meetings: Bringing the Right Tools

Job Skills, Leadership

Business Meetings: job interviews, sales calls, client service meetings, meetings within your own company.  What tools can add power to your presence?

Business Meetings: Bringing the Right Tools

What you bring to a business meeting is as important as the things you say or do in a business 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.

When organizing your meeting case, make sure you bring the following items.

Bring several copies of presentations.

You should have a copy for your own use and a copy for each person on the meeting schedule.  Take extra copies for people who are not on the schedule but who might come into the meeting unannounced.  Sometimes having unexpected people join the meeting is a sign that the people are interested in what you must say or show.

Bring a list of the attendees.

Having this list will help you organize your notes about questions people have.  The list can also help you remember people’s names and the role of the people in the meeting.

Bring a list of recommendations.

For sales presentations and interviews, having a list of recommendations adds power to your professional credibility and creates excitement about the quality of your work.

Bring a brag book or portfolio.

A brag book contains samples of your work so that people can see the range of your success.  Furthermore, a brag book can help people visualize what you have accomplished.

Bring your laptop.

If you have powerhouse presentations that you can show more examples of your work, you can use your laptop as a dynamic tool.

Bring business cards.

Some people see business cards to verify your employment and verify your job title.  They show people that you are who you say you are.

Bring a notepad.

You need to keep track of contact and company information that you learn during your meetings.  A notepad is an effective way to make notes without distracting people the way using a smartphone or laptop might distract people when you are taking notes.

Bring three or four pens.

The extra pens help you relax that you have a pen that works.  In addition, it is wise to make sure you can help an attendee who does not have a pen for taking notes.

Mentors When what you know is not enough.

Mentors: A Source Of Power Or A Waste of Time?

Job Skills, Leadership, Success

Mentors: What is a mentor? How can a mentor help you? What skills do you need to benefit from mentoring? What type of mentoring will work effectively for you?

Mentors:  A Source of Power or A Waste of Time?

For many people, a mentor is a source of inspiration, wisdom, and solutions.

Some people rely on their mentor for mental and emotional direction.  In my case, I have a friend who has a great ability to see things in perspective.  He mentors me when I am concerned about the things that happen in my life.

In other cases, mentors with practical or professional experience can help you make decisions on your education, health, career, finances, or business.  Again, in my case, I have had mentors whose professional experience helped me solve problems in my business.  In other cases, their knowledge helped me network with people who had experience that my mentors lacked.

“The Coach” Who Mentored Tech Geniuses

From 1974 to 1979, Bill Campbell was head coach of the football team at Columbia University. Later in his career, he became chairman of the board of trustees of Columbia University and chairman of the board of Intuit. Furthermore, he served as vice president of marketing and as a board director for Apple and held other positions on advisory boards and as a corporate executive.

Steve Jobs at Apple, Larry Page at Google, and other tech executives referred to Campbell as “The Coach” for his mentoring skills in helping them with their careers.

Even the superstars of industry have mentors to help them throughout their careers.

Are You Wasting Your Time?

Well, yes, you might be.

The person who is mentoring you might not be able to help you.  A valuable mentor is not just someone who listens to your problems.

Specifically, mentors are helpful when they listen to you and help you gain perspective, wisdom, or information to solve problems.

What Qualities Do You Need to Use a Mentor?

People who benefit from mentoring must can keep an open mind.  Furthermore, they must have the desire to learn from others.

Specifically, people who benefit from mentoring have the emotional intelligence to park their ego when people tell them things they may not like.

Therefore, to benefit from a mentor, you must have an open mind to accept different ideas.  If you are a person who does not like to hear the point of view of other people, you will have trouble listening to a mentor.

Lastly, you must be at a point where you want what a mentor can offer.  My first mentor had a very successful business. In this case, I enjoyed his being around him and hearing about his success.  Specifically, learning what he was doing helped me learn about the things that I needed to do.

Working with a Mentor Requires a Commitment on Your Part.

Benefitting from a mentor requires that you do a few things.

First, stay in touch with your mentor.  At the least, you need to call your mentor.  Furthermore, meeting with your mentor once a week or even more often helps a great deal.

Second, you need to listen to your mentor.  Some mentors are helpful by listening to you.   However, if you do all the talking, you will not learn much from your mentor.