Jay Wren – Page 35 – Be in the Top 1% in Mindset – Leadership

Wise Choices: Little Adjustments Can Change the Day

Wise choices: Success comes from making wise choices about how to feel and respond to the things that happen to us. When I am having a bad day, I can strain to push myself through the day. Ruminating, sulking, and whining are great ways to stay stuck in a bad day. On the other hand, I can restart my day anytime.

Making Little Adjustments Can Lead to Wise Choices

Start My Day over with a Little Grooming

Splashing a little water on my face is refreshing. I can dampen my comb and start with a fresh part in my hair, just as I do when I am beginning the day.

If I wore makeup, I could restart my day with a mini-makeover: lips, eyes, cheeks.

I can refresh the way I am dressed. I can tuck in my shirt and adjust my tie just as I do when I first get dressed in the morning.

I not only feel refreshed. I empower myself with a stronger presence among the people at my workplace.

Practice Affirmations

Everyone is different. However, I find that by focusing on the things that I have accomplished rather than the things I regret can increase my energy and my confidence. I affirm that am capable and accomplished.

I have a friend who is fun and interesting. He told me that every morning before he heads out the door, he looks in the mirror and says to himself, “You are fantastic.”

Whenever I am around him, I find that I feel better about my own life through his positive attitude.

Take breaks.

When I am hungry or tired, I may deal with situations poorly. I can relax with quiet meditation to calm my mind and reset my disposition. A 20-minute power nap has been part of my lifestyle for years.

Adjust my Schedule.

Sometimes I schedule too many things. On other days, too many new tasks arise. I can restart my day with a new schedule.

If I am struggling with a task, I can break the task down into pieces. I can look at the pieces or elements of the task and define my true goal for this task. With this process, I better understand what I am doing and cut the number of false starts and revisions.

I can then schedule a completion date for that task. I may find that I am dealing with a truly valuable task that will return greater rewards once I have stopped forcing my way through the task and have begun to work with a schedule of steps.

Take Walks

By exercising, I burn up that adrenaline that accumulates from the mental stresses of my workday. Rather than sit at my desk to eat my lunch, I can take a short walk or go through a series of stretches at my desk.

Leadership Types: Success and Failure

Leadership Types: Leadership is a trait that can start from any place in an organization, but usually starts at the top, and runs throughout the entire organization.

Great leaders create great organizations through picking and developing winning teams. Bad leaders can create failure in any organization.

Leadership Study from Literature

“The Caine Mutiny” is a novel about a commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, whose tyrannical command creates such desperation among the officers that they commit mutiny. Herman Wouk, the author of the “The Caine Mutiny,” drew upon his knowledge from World War II experiences aboard a similar vessel, the USS Zane.

The book dramatically portrays leadership failure. The mistakes and dishonesty of Captain Queeg result in mistakes among the officers and crew and create dangerous and embarrassing situations for the ship under his command.

My Navy Experience with Leadership Types

I was a bridge officer aboard an aircraft carrier. I worked around great leaders, and I studied great leaders.

As I said in an earlier post, there is a saying in the United States Navy, “So Goes the Captain, So Goes the Wardroom, So Goes the Ship.” The wardroom is the officers’ eating area aboard ship. The point of this statement is simple. Great commanding officers raise the performance of their officers and in turn their crew.

During World War II, Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz was the Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces. Here are two quotes from Admiral Nimitz that show his view of leadership.

“Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.”

“Some of the best advice I’ve had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.”

My Experience with a Great Leader

The greatest leader I ever worked for is Admiral Sylvester R. Foley, who was Commander, United States Pacific Fleet. Earlier in his career, he was my commanding officer aboard the aircraft carrier, the USS Midway. He would say things to encourage and to simplify the job for the people under his command.

His first week after taking command, he called all of us bridge officer into his cabin. He explained that, in his absence, we bridge officers had ultimate authority over the safe navigation of the ship. As an example, he said that at sea, even in middle of the night and everyone is asleep, we had the authority wake the entire ship to go to battle stations. In doing so, everyone would lock down the watertight doors and hatches to protect against flooding in the event of a collision at sea.

He went on to explain that, if we made a mistake, he would take responsibility for our actions. Furthermore, he said that it is better to awaken the entire ship for safety than risk lives by failing to act.

Leadership Types

Great leaders like Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Foley influence lives. For me, these two are leadership types I try to follow.

Confidence Development: Clearing the Mental Clutter of Job Stress

Confidence Development: Stress loves mental clutter. As the pile of clutter grows in a person’s mind, stress becomes more powerful.

The clutter creates confusion and undermines our ability for confidence development. Instead of planning for upcoming events, we worry about upcoming events. The growing stress robs our energy. Lower energy leads to inaction, procrastination. Inaction creates greater mental clutter.

Mental Clutter>>Confusion>>Doubt>>Stress>>Fatigue>>Less Action>>Greater Mental Clutter>>Greater Confusion>>Greater Doubt>>Higher Stress>>Greater Fatigue>>More Procrastination>>Mental Clutter. So goes the cycle.

Writing Can Open Our Mind to Greater Confidence Development

When I suffer from worry, I often write about it. When I am feeling stressed about something, writing takes the power from my anxiety. Sometimes, just putting something on my calendar helps clear my mind. I name the problem and create a to-do list for the solution.

For example, I might write, “I am afraid that I will miss my flight.” Then I can write a solution. “I will make my flight, because I will go to the airport early and relax until my flight begins boarding.”

Case Study

A more complex example is how one of my friends prepares lectures he gives to large audiences. Public speaking is stressful for nearly everyone. My friend is an expert in his field. The first time he gave one of his lectures, just thinking about the presentation made him nervous. As he spent more time thinking about speaking to an audience, he became more nervous. Confidence development was lost.

The Solution

As he prepared for his speech, he found that writing about his feelings had powerful results. He wrote, “I am nervous about giving this presentation to this group.”

Then he outlined what he wanted to say. It occurred to him that he was not the subject of the presentation. His knowledge was the subject. He began to see his audience as people who needed the information that he could give them. Additionally, he saw how his presentation could help his audience become more successful in their professions through learning what he had to say.

He focused on writing out the details that would benefit his audience the most. As he wrote, he gained confidence. He saw the value in his knowledge.

He has given the lectures for over a decade. As new developments occur in his field, he updates his presentations. His ideas are current, relevant. New audiences need his knowledge as much as the first audiences did. He keeps his mind clear by sweeping out the clutter by naming his fear and focusing on the solutions he is giving his audience. He has learned the tools of confidence development.

Meeting Agendas: Gaining Control Through Preparation

Meeting Agendas can empower you to set and control the purpose of a meeting as well as the agreements reached during the meeting.

Are you tired of meetings that accomplish nothing? These lessons from sales training might help.

Case Study

During lunch, a field sales manager of a major consumer goods company told me about an experience he had had during a day in the field with his company’s chief executive officer. He said that he went through the day will a well-planned series of meetings. Each meeting was important to the success of the company’s brands. And he felt that his day was a success.

However, the CEO showed him how he could have made each meeting more successful by entering the meeting with a prepared agenda. He pointed to instances of the meetings getting off track and failing to obtain commitments that were there for the asking.

Preparation for a Sales Call

In my training at a major consumer products company, I learned how to plan a sales call. The night before, I would create a presentation for each call. The presentation included the objective of the call, the benefits to the buyer, and the quantities of products I planned to sell. Interwoven into the agenda were possible objections I might anticipate from the buyer and how I would handle them.

A Status Board as a Meeting Agenda

When I entered the recruiting industry, I first worked for a search firm that had a former pharmaceutical industry executive as CEO. The only thing that he asked of us recruiters is that we sit down at the beginning of every day and go over a single sheet that contained a list of search assignments and prospects, code the status of the assignments, and update that sheet every day. From there he asked to see a copy of the sheet at the end of every week.

Each morning, we recruiters met to review our “Status Boards,” which were the agenda for the meeting.

In having us create this simple “Status Board,” the CEO established more than a plan. He created an agenda for our daily activity. We not only had to present the names of the hiring companies and the name of the applicants; we had to state our progress in the process. For potential candidates, we put no number after their name. If a candidate agreed to an interview with a company, we put a “1” beside the name of that candidate. When we had a candidate scheduled for an interview, we put a “2” beside the applicant’s name. A “3” meant that the candidate had an offer. A “4” meant the candidate had accepted the offer.

What this CEO accomplished was to require each recruiter to know the details and progress of each search assignment. He called this sheet a “Status Board.” Implicit in this activity is that this CEO laid out the details of an agenda that kept us recruiters on track and kept him informed.

Meeting Agendas Across all Industries.

So began my practice of having an agenda for my daily activities. I add to my agenda as new events arise. Again, this agenda is more detailed than scheduling a task. The agenda contains the objective, progress, and completion of the task.

A second example, is how I manage visit to the doctor’s office. I state the purpose of the visit. Then I add a list of questions I plan to ask. I include a section for next steps. This simple method makes my appointments more meaningful, and I don’t leave the meeting with regrets for not asking the right questions or frustration on over not understanding the next steps. Therefore, I can then take the steps for more successful action for my health.

Recruiters: What Job Seekers Need to Know

Recruiters: If you are in a job search, you may find it helpful to understand the relationships of recruiters, hiring companies, and job seekers.

As a recruiter, I contracted with over a hundred companies to fill their vacancies. I have friends who are recruiters. My broader understanding of the types of firms started when I began my career with a company that had two departments: one for search and one for applicant placements. This article will help you understand recruiters and perhaps the best way to work with recruiters effectively.

Recruiters

Hiring companies contract with recruiters to find applicants that are often not on the market. If you are a working with recruiter, you are valuable to that recruiter. The recruiter will not charge you a fee. The hiring company pays the recruiter.

This distinction over fee payments is one of the differences between recruiters and some placement agencies.

A recruiter does not find jobs for people. Instead they find people for jobs. Some people call recruiters “headhunters,” because they hunt for people to fill positions for the hiring companies.

Placement Agencies

These agencies often work to find jobs for job seekers. In some cases, employment agencies may charge the applicant a fee. The successful employment agencies have a strong network in a local market. Although employment agencies may recruit candidates for a specific job, these agencies are typically working with job seekers who have come to the agency’s office and completed an application.

Contingency Recruiter or Retained Recruiter

Both contingency recruiters and retained recruiters have a contract with the hiring company. Also, both seek to find people for jobs. The difference is that a contingency recruiter makes no money until a hire is made. On the other hand, retained recruiters receive scheduled payments as they work on the search. Additionally, both types, myself included, are listed in national directories of professional recruiters.

You and the Recruiter

Recruiters get on phones and call people. They may publish job listings on their websites. My initial use of this website was to promote my recruiting efforts. Most recruiters specialize in searching for specific types of jobs.

If you have the skills that match a recruiter’s specialty, you might find this recruiter a valuable asset, because he or she will often have a number of jobs that fit your background.

The Limitations of Recruiters

I have a separate article on why you might not want to work with a recruiter. You should be aware that recruiters are working to serve their own interests to fill jobs quickly. These recruiters may not refer you to companies where they already have successful candidates in progress.

Success Story: Resumes that Land Job Interviews

Is your resume a success story? Have you included job information in a way that makes your job history stand out against the competition?

Even employers who do not know what they are looking for are going to get more excited when they read a resume that reads like a success story than a mere list of job specs.
~ www.jaywren.com

My Experience

The following information is based on the feedback I have received from hiring managers, staffing managers, other recruiters, about that they look for in a resume and from talking with thousands of applicants about their resumes.

Accomplishments

Most people use bullet points in their resume. A way to make the bullet points count is to list the things that you did to make things better, not simply list the things you did.

For example, instead of saying things like “Managed seven-person sales team,” you might consider saying things like “Lead a seven-person sales team to double-digit growth in a declining market.”

What Staffing Executives Want to See

A staffing executive from a major consumer company once said to me that his company is looking for people who are going to make the castle larger and not someone who just wants to hold the keys. When you are writing your resume or in an interview or on any other occasion that requires self-reference, a few facts about your success weaved into your list of experiences will increase your opportunities to get a job offer.

Resume Musts

Your resume must show at least four things:

How your experience and skills match the job requirements
The ways your accomplishments set you above the competition
That you want to do the type of job the hiring company is trying to fill
How your background shows that you want to do the type of job the hiring company is trying to fill

Resumes
Resume Suggestions That Can Get You a Job
Is a List of Core Responsibilities a Resume?
Resume – Management Level

Winning Traits: Empower Yourself for Success

Winning Traits: What traits do successful people have that empower them for success? Are they traits that you can develop?

Horrible things happen to all of us. Things beyond our control. But developing winning traits can change the questions we ask when we meet challenges. We stop asking, “Why me?” Instead, we ask, “What steps can I take today to make things better?” ~ www.jaywren.com

What is Self-Empowerment and How Can We Achieve it?

Self-empowerment is taking control of your behavior to reach your goals and achieve success. This trait empowers us to do the things that we can do. Furthermore, it enables us to recognize our weakness and turn them into strengths.

1. Hustle

The people who hustle move ahead of the competition. They are the ones who recover the fumble, catch the rebound, or bring their product to market before competitors do.

2. Integrity

There are many quotes about integrity. Usually these quotes look something like this: Integrity is what you do when nobody’s watching. However, integrity is a quality that builds success whether people are watching or not.

People without integrity lie in public, con people into choices, break their commitments. They lack loyalty, fairness, decency. No one trusts people who don’t have integrity.

On the other hand, people with integrity do none of these things. Nor do they have any of those bad qualities. Additionally, people trust people who have integrity.

3. Self-Honesty

There are two types of honesty. Cash register honesty is one. Certainly, cash register is important for building trust and staying out of jail. However, self-honesty enables people to see their shortcomings. More importantly, self-honesty enables people to correct their mistakes and strengthen their weaknesses.

To have self-honesty, we must be open-minded and have a willingness to change.

4. Absolute Ability to Set Priorities

Anyone can make a list of things to do. However, a simple to-do list is not a list of priorities. Successful people must have the ability to know the difference between the things that they should do today from the things that must do today.

5. The Ability to Act

Do not confuse motion with action. A swivel chair has motion but it is not going anywhere. People who move into action create self-empowerment to reach their goals.

6. Relentlessness

People who are relentless don’t give up on themselves or their success. Through effort and intelligence, they move past obstacles to achieve their goals. I write two to three blog posts a week. Sometimes, I don’t feel like writing. Other times, I can’t think of ideas for writing. However, I have a relentless attitude to continue to read and grow and find powerful ideas to share on my blog.

Accomplishments: Knowing the Purpose of Your Goals

Accomplishments: Why is it that some companies and some people fail to achieve their goals? How can they define their goals better with stating what they hope to accomplish?

The Benefits of Knowing What You Want to Accomplish

Goals are the things we hope to do. Before we set goals, we should ask ourselves what we hope to accomplish.

For example, a sales vice president may have a goal for the sales team to average 10 sales calls per day. By making several calls each day, the sales team increases opportunities for increasing sales.

However, sales teams can go for days, weeks, and even years making presentations to buyers and do little more than deliver an order pad.

On the other hand, if before each call, the sales reps decide what they hope to accomplish on each call and design a presentation that will make their call far more successful.

Successful Companies

Successful companies start with an idea of whom they will serve and what these people want.

Case Study

There are two competing peanut companies (not real companies). The goal of each company is to meet consumer demand for peanuts. However, Company A realizes that consumer satisfaction is the purpose that will create demand for the company’s peanuts. Company A focuses on taste, price, and availability to exceed customer expectation and builds greater customer loyalty. They focus on accomplishing consumer satisfaction in their product.

Career

For career success, turn the focus from what you can accomplish for yourself to what you can accomplish for your employer. ~ www.jaywren.com

In creating and updating your career plan, take a different view. If it is your goal to make a lot of money, ask yourself, “What can do I have to accomplish earning money?”

A broader example: your career goal may be to become the president of a company. For some people, what they hope to accomplish is recognition. However, the best way to become president of a company is to accomplish the greatest sales and profits for your company. By aligning what you hope to accomplish with the needs of the company, you will have a greater opportunity to accomplish what you seek in success in your career.

Choosing Better Friends: Powerful Steps to a Happier, More Successful You

Choosing better friends is more than picking friends you like. And it does not mean breaking ties with friends you cherish.

The Experience of Choosing Better Friends

As you make better friends, you will drift away from the friends who bring little value or even diminish your life.

Rather, choosing better friends is a means to develop relationships that can enrich your life personally and professionally.

Choosing Better Friends Who Make You Laugh

Friends should be a great source of joy and laughter. These friends can help brighten your day by showing you that life is not always serious. Additionally, these friends can bring you joy by helping you see the good in your life.

Choosing Better Friends Who Make You Think

Some friends can help you grow mentally and intellectually. These people may hold different beliefs from your beliefs. The reason for the difference is that these people have had different life experiences from you. Therefore, they have developed different ways of looking at the world. These people may make you pause and wonder about new ways to see the world. Furthermore, you can grow from their life experiences.

Choosing Better Friends Who See Solutions

People who see solutions do not view the world as a series of problems. ~ www.jaywren.com

Negative people focus on what is wrong. Positive people focus on what is right. However, problem solvers focus on correcting wrongs and improving the things that are right. These people get things done. Additionally, they can help you see ways to make your world a better place.

Choosing Better Friends Who are Knowledgeable

It is good for me to remember that in school I seldom got 100% on all my exams. Still today, I find that my friends are able to help me check the accuracy of my thinking.

In other, practical situations, my knowledgeable friends have shown the expertise to help me manage issues for which I had no experience.

Winning Interviews: 5 Steps to Success

Winning Interviews: What can you do to prepare and practice for your job interview? Here are some ideas that will help you.

Give yourself an edge over the competition with interview preparation. ~ www.jaywren.com

What You Can Anticipate in an Interview

No one can know with any certainty what questions to expect in an interview. However, interview questions tend to fit into categories. For the most part, these questions fit into a range of questions.

Essentially, interview preparation come under four categories:

Everything about you
Everything about the hiring company

These points will become clearer in the discussion below. Here are examples of questions under these two categories.

Everything About You

Workplace Relationships: Keep your answers positive. The interviewer is trying to understand how well you work with others.

How would you describe your workplace relationships?
Who was the best supervisor you have ever had?
Tell me about the worst supervisor you ever had?
How would your peers describe you?
Tell me about a conflict you faced at work and how you dealt with it.
What do you expect out of your team/co-workers?
describe your expectations of your future manager?
What qualities to you seek in building a team?

Everything about the Hiring Company

Taking all of the questions above, you should direct your preparation on how your answers to those questions show why the company should hire. You must show that understand the opportunity. Additionally, you must know the company’s products, distribution channels,

Putting your knowledge of the opportunity together with your knowledge of company, you must show how you fit the company’s short-term and long-term goals and needs.

The answers should show, based on your knowledge of the job opportunity and the conditions at the company, that you are the companies best possible hire.

Here are some sample questions.

Why do you want to work for [insert company name]?
What is your dream job? Should indicate why you the hiring company is the place where you want to work?
Could you describe your plan for the first 90 days on the job at our company?

Mental Attitude and Interview Practice

Interview practice will help you think more clearly. Furthermore, the practice will strengthen your ability to think on your feet. Interview role playing with another person and in front of a mirror will help you feel more poised.

Winning Interviews: Going to the Interview

Interviews are like batting in baseball. Who knows what pitch is coming next? Often the pitcher does not know where the next pitch is going until it gets there. As professional baseball players do, take a deep breath. Stay loose. Trust yourself.