Four Excellent Habits: The subtle skills that will give you a permanent edge in shaping your career or starting a new one.
A 2005 piece in Seventeen, predicting which careers would be in high demand over the next decade, scored some pretty impressive hits. Good things will come, no doubt, to the teenage girls who, six years later, are following the magazine's advice to work as “Chinese interpreters” or “energy engineers.” Faring less well, we suspect, are the girls looking for work as a “space tourism agent.” (Richard Branson can take only so many trips.)
It’s hard to forecast which jobs will be prized in the future. So to get an edge in your work, focus on what you can control: not the macro-economy or specific trades, but the way you steer your career. There are four principles—consider them navigational skills—that will serve you well regardless of what the future brings. These principles are habits of mind: How can you make better choices by thinking differently? Read more.
I want to change careers. How do I get employers to see beyond my résumé?
After a successful 30-year career in the arts and entertainment sector (both non-profit and for profit) I decided I wanted a change and perhaps contribute to my community in a different way. For the past year I have applied for several executive director jobs in the social services, where my skill set made me clearly a credible candidate. In a couple of instances I was able to get to an interview with the recruiter. However, at the end of the day, the employers were unable to see past my particular experience, and to focus on my transferable skills.
How do I get an employer to think out of the box and at least grant me an interview? I am confident that if I can get into the room, I can address their fears that I am some “flaky arts guy.” I have a track record of significant accomplishment, and can provide references from community leaders. Read more.
10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders
It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on enunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others), which leaders desperately need to learn. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. In today’s column I’ll share a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results. Read more.
Sixteen Reasons Why People Fail In Their Careers
We seek success. But it’s often through failure that we can learn best.
“After all, success is often just a moment – a goal fulfilled, soon to be replaced with new goals. But failure is the ambitious person’s constant companion, often dogging us for months, years, or even decades before we finally reach our aim,” Australian leadership coach Siimon Reynolds writes in Why People Fail. Read more.
