Dress for the Job You Want?

Dress for the Job You Want?

10 Ways to Cut Overhead without Decreasing Morale

10 Ways to Cut Overhead without Decreasing Morale

Do your leaders practice what they preach?

Do your leaders practice what they preach?: "It isn?t enough anymore for companies to ?say? they support an issue. To be publicly perceived as really making a difference, companies ? and their employees ? must fully engage their support. Successful leaders, in particular, must be engaged in thoughtful public dialogue regarding the key issues and challenges facing their organizations."

10 Decisions Not to Make Alone

10 Decisions Not to Make Alone: "We all make financial decisions every single day, some small, some large. Do I cook at home or go out to eat? Do I change banks? Do I clean my own home or hire a housecleaner? Do I buy a used car, a new car or lease a car? Do I start my own business or buy a franchise?"

Too Creative To Be A Leader? Really?

Too Creative To Be A Leader? Really?: "In his insightful post entitled ?Are the People in Your Organization Too Smart to be Creative?? Forbes contributor, Chunka Mui, co-author of Billion-Dollar Lessons previews a study to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (summary here) by Jennifer Mueller, Jack Goncalo, and Dishan Kamdar to the effect that in traditional organizations open expression of creative ideas is negatively correlated with perceptions of leadership potential."

Is Your Network Helping Your Career Goals?

Is Your Network Helping Your Career Goals?: "Networking is the best way to find your next job. Make sure your network is the right one for your career with these 3 networking strategies."

How to Avoid Simple Career Mistakes

How to Avoid Simple Career Mistakes: "In an interview that my Be Your Own Best Publicist co-author and I did with personal branding expert Dan Schawbel for our blog, he said that he'd recently 'received the worst PR pitch...ever seen. Instead of saying 'Dan, would you be interested in interviewing the CEO of XYZ,' they made it very impersonal and said 'Hi .' What this does is notify me that I?m on their list without permission, that they didn?t take the time to speak to me personally and that they are careless.'"

The Best Exercises To Do At Your Desk

The Best Exercises To Do At Your Desk: "The word exercise comes from the Latin exercere, meaning to keep busy or at work."

How to Succeed With Today's Empowered Customers

How to Succeed With Today's Empowered Customers: "You can’t succeed in your new startup if you can’t win customers, and the new Internet-empowered customers are tough. They are in control, and they no longer care where or from whom they buy. They do have a specific purchase progression with key milestone moments that determine your win or loss outcome in every transaction."

Why Marketing Is Critical For Start-Ups

Why Marketing Is Critical For Start-Ups: "Former Wal-Mart CMO on one of the top reasons why companies fail."

Pitch Your Idea in 140 Characters

Pitch Your Idea in 140 Characters: "Sell your ideas more effectively by creating a Twitter-friendly summary.  I once talked to an early investor in Google who said the Google guys—Sergey Brin and Larry Page—were able to explain their new service to investors in one sentence:  "Google allows you to access the world’s information in one click."   Today if you walk into this investors office to pitch your company, you’d better be able to give him the big picture in one sentence because that is what he expects."

Why Multitasking Gets You Nowhere, Fast

Why Multitasking Gets You Nowhere, Fast: "Have you ever watched someone attempting to do several things at once in the workplace?"

How To Negotiate Your Salary

How To Negotiate Your Salary: "I mentioned to an advertising honcho friend of mine that I was thinking of writing a story on how to negotiate salary in job interviews. My friend, who is in his 50s--we'll call him Don--was inspired to write me a 10-point memo on how he's done it. Don likes to play hardball."

5 Ways To Show Thank You, Not Just Say It

5 Ways To Show Thank You, Not Just Say It: "Yes it’s cliche, but sometimes saying thank you is not enough."

Serve Your Customer. It Pays Off. Big Time.

Serve Your Customer. It Pays Off. Big Time.: "I was visiting my friend Lindy the other day, and she asked for some help with her computer. Specifically with some e-mail problems. I'm no super-geek, but I tend to know my way around a PC, and I volunteered to help. Did I succeed? Nope. Not even close."

Thinking Like a Student Can Impede Your Path to a Successful Career

Thinking Like a Student Can Impede Your Path to a Successful Career: "Much has recently been made of the fact that there are now more women college graduates than men who earn their Bachelors degrees from four-year institutions. At the Claremont Colleges here in Southern California last night, Gloria Feldt (No Excuses, 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power) fielded the following question from one of the young men in the audience."

Is Your Head On The Chopping Block?

Is Your Head On The Chopping Block?: "Warren Buffett is fond of filleting the "helper" class--those various intermediaries who come between investors' money and the things that ultimately generate a return on it."

In Pictures: 12 Fool-Proof Ways To Shake A Bad Mood

In Pictures: 12 Fool-Proof Ways To Shake A Bad Mood: "Proven tricks from experts and real people who've been there, done that--and seen results."

How Setting Career Goals Can Backfire

How Setting Career Goals Can Backfire: "According to Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist who teaches courses in ethics and decision-making at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, a slew of studies have shown that people perform best when they set tough and precise goals for themselves--what he calls "specific stretch goals." They do much better than people with "non-stretch," or easy-to-achieve goals, or vague aims like "do your best." Strive for concrete, ambitious ends and you'll exhibit greater motivation, higher performance and more creativity, he says. But you can also get in real trouble that way, he adds."

Sales Are Good--Strategic Customers Are Better

Sales Are Good--Strategic Customers Are Better: "Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs invented a clothing fabric made from recycled plastic. Now to brand it."

How To Keep Going When You're Out Of Gas

How To Keep Going When You're Out Of Gas: "Tips for maintaining on-the-job performance in the wake of stress, fatigue and tragedy."

Are the People in Your Organization Too Smart to be Creative?

Are the People in Your Organization Too Smart to be Creative?: "A career-limiting move can be something as overt as challenging the boss.  Or, it can be as subtle as driving the wrong make of car, not belonging to the right country club or being a little too indiscrete on Facebook.  In one organization I?ve worked with, conventional wisdom was that facial hair on men and slacks on women constituted career-limiting moves. Now, a study finds that being openly creative might well be a career-limiting move, too."

How CEOs Can Improve Their Speeches

How CEOs Can Improve Their Speeches: "Here are 5 ways CEOs can improve their speeches, based on lessons from President Obama's State of the Union address: http://bit.ly/f40Mw9. Enjoy!"

Decision-Making 101: How to Choose Between Two Job Opportunities

Decision-Making 101: How to Choose Between Two Job Opportunities: "A woman recently emailed me and asked the following question, ?I have two job opportunities but I?m at a loss as to which one to choose.  Do you have any suggestions that will help me decide what I should do?? "

Marketing: Investment or Expense?

Marketing: Investment or Expense?: "Every business lives or dies by its brand. Few owners, however, invest the time and money it takes to support their own with a thoughtful marketing strategy"

5 Ways for Small Businesses to Reboot Revenues for the New Economy

5 Ways for Small Businesses to Reboot Revenues for the New Economy: "It?s no secret that all businesses have been rocked over the past few years by the economic asteroid that hit us. And like when an asteroid hits Earth, our environment has changed for a long time to come."

Why Giving without Expecting a Return is your Best Business Strategy

Why Giving without Expecting a Return is your Best Business Strategy: "When we speak of purpose, we first think of ourselves. This is natural, and it?s not wrong. Perhaps one might say we are survivors by nature and thrivers by nurture. Yet the individual?s -- or company?s -- primary purpose for existence cannot begin and end with oneself, for no true purpose is exclusive to self.  A true purpose must include others. Every great purpose grows beyond the individual ? and the organization."

To Be A Great Innovator, Start By Changing Your Perspective

To Be A Great Innovator, Start By Changing Your Perspective: "Look at this image: These people are all working on the same physical plane. But for one it?s flat, for another uphill and for another downhill. It depends where they?re standing. They all have different viewpoints."

5 Success Tips With Difficult Aging Parents

5 Success Tips With Difficult Aging Parents: "Are your aging parents driving you a little nuts? If so, you're not alone."

Billionaire Sam Zell's Advice To Entrepreneurs

Billionaire Sam Zell's Advice To Entrepreneurs: "A couple of weeks ago I sat down with real estate mogul Sam Zell at his Chicago-based office to talk real estate (see the resulting story on Zell's foray into the emerging markets here)."

Employee Motivation You Can't Buy

Employee Motivation You Can't Buy: "A few weeks ago I wrote a piece saying that there?s nothing worse for your organization than a traitor. My brother Mark agreed with me (more or less), but we found ourselves dissecting just what it means to be a traitor to an organization."

Six New Tools That Every Entrepreneur Should Know About

Six New Tools That Every Entrepreneur Should Know About: "As entrepreneurs, we have an ever increasing number of fantastic tools at our fingertips that allow us to run our business from anywhere, at any time. How great is that?!"

A 4-Step Plan To Balance Immediate Needs With Long-Term Goals

A 4-Step Plan To Balance Immediate Needs With Long-Term Goals: "You have a demanding job already, but you want to explore elsewhere (different role, different company, different career). You run your own business and need to serve current clients but also sell more work. You have requests coming at you now, but you know there are critical projects due in the next few weeks."

The Big Picture: Three Steps To Keep It In Focus

The Big Picture: Three Steps To Keep It In Focus: "Why is it so frustratingly easy to lose sight of the big picture? Our vision of what we want, who it is that we want to grow into and where we?re going professionally isn't just blurry. For many of us it's all a big question mark."

Five Rules to Help, Not Hurt, Your Career With Social Media

Five Rules to Help, Not Hurt, Your Career With Social Media: "It is estimated that over half of all hiring is based to some extent on social media research. That means your social media behaviors might very well be reviewed the next time you apply for a job."

The Best Months to Get Promoted

The Best Months to Get Promoted: "This may seem like a strange time to write about getting promoted, with the unemployment rate stuck close to 10%, and the real jobless rate double that (government stats only count those who are actively looking for full-time work)."

A New Model For Personal Branding: Variety

A New Model For Personal Branding: Variety: "There has been a lot of buzz about personal branding, and a lot of the focus is on consistency. Apple is about design. Walmart is about low prices. Fedex is about dependable delivery."

The Essence of Business

The Essence of Business: "Every now and then, situations arise among people in business that make me feel they?ve forgotten what they?re there for:"

Twelve Sites That Will Put You to Work Now

Twelve Sites That Will Put You to Work Now: "Make anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred dollars per hour"

7 ways to be more productive at work, according to Investopedia

7 ways to be more productive at work, according to Investopedia: "Feeling low on the job? Investopedia recently compiled seven ways to improve your productivity at work. Take a look to see if they can help you improve your work day."

5 Ways for Small Businesses to Reboot Revenues for the New Economy

5 Ways for Small Businesses to Reboot Revenues for the New Economy: "It?s no secret that all businesses have been rocked over the past few years by the economic asteroid that hit us. And like when an asteroid hits Earth, our environment has changed for a long time to come."

3 Keys to Competing

3 Keys to Competing: "When we consider ?the competition? as other companies offering similar products we are only partially right. There are three levels to competition and our direct competitors are only the first and most obvious."

Motivation ~ Creative Approaches

Motivation ~ Creative Approaches: "Last February I promised myself that I would implement a creative motivating approach to ensure this January would not suck. In an accountant?s world, no matter how planned and prepared you are, the multiple January 31st bureaucratic deadlines wreak a bit of havoc on your business. This year was going to be different!"

Time To Fire The Talent?

Time To Fire The Talent?: "Here are two types of talent you can do without, and one you can't."

Free Software For Suits

Free Software For Suits: "In the current issue of Forbes Magazine we zoom in on Aaron Levie, the energetic and so young (at 27) co-founder and chief executive of Box.net."

PR for Startups: What Works And What Doesn't

PR for Startups: What Works And What Doesn't: "There simply can't be too many smart articles that aim to help entrepreneurs allocate their precious capital. This post, from Mark Suster, an entrepreneur cum venture capitalist,  clearly addresses one fundamental issue that Forbes has tackled before, and will keep tackling (see columns by our own Robert Wynne)."

Making Flexible Work Policies Work For You

Making Flexible Work Policies Work For You: "A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a New York Times article heralding the accounting profession's lead with regard to flexible workplace policies. As interesting as the story itself were the reader's comments. Many wrote it was a 'puff piece' that had no basis in reality at all. For example, there was this:
'This article has to have been planted by the AICPA's PR folks - it sounds like a campus recruiting blurb. CLM = Career Limiting Move = calling attention to yourself by doing anything so short sighted as letting people in the firm think you have a personal life or family.'
'The individuals cited in this article constitute an extremely small sample. Pay no mind to the conclusions put forth.'"

10 Things To Ask Your Boss For Instead Of A Raise

10 Things To Ask Your Boss For Instead Of A Raise: "The economy may be thawing, but companies are still reticent to offer promotions or significant raises this year. ?There isn?t much mobility in companies right now,? says Kathy Kane, SVP of talent management for staffing firm Adecco. ?The raises we are seeing are typical annual merit increases of around 3%.?"

Is Office Clutter Costing You A Promotion?

Is Office Clutter Costing You A Promotion?: "Are you an office hoarder? The piles of paperwork, boxes of files and discarded coffee cups that you?ve been meaning to tackle may literally cost you a promotion."

How To Start Building Your Nest Egg

How To Start Building Your Nest Egg: "It's never too early to start planning your retirement--or to learn from your parents' mistakes."

How Charm Can Bring Happiness, Prosperity, and a New Job

How Charm Can Bring Happiness, Prosperity, and a New Job: "Has anyone ever called you charming? If not, you should work on it."

Expanding management: The delicate art of sharing control

Expanding management: The delicate art of sharing control: "While the thought of sharing control of your company can be nerve-wracking, those who have been through the transition swear by having a second set of hands. As long as they're the right hands."

A Marketer Coaches Online Daters on Personal Branding

A Marketer Coaches Online Daters on Personal Branding: "A marketing expert turns her skills to the dating scene with a website that advises love-seekers on how to impress."

How To Select Your First Financial Advisor

How To Select Your First Financial Advisor: "A few pointers on choosing someone to help plan your financial future."

How To Do Your Taxes On The Cheap

How To Do Your Taxes On The Cheap: "Software and Internet services cut the cost of completing your 1040. Free human help is available if you're broke."

Own a business? 6 new tax breaks

Own a business? 6 new tax breaks: "Doing your taxes stinks, right? No fun at all. But take note as you brace for your 2010 return: A handful of changes in the tax code could translate into a fatter refund check."

Three Big Questions For Anyone Running A Business In 2011

Three Big Questions For Anyone Running A Business In 2011: "This year you'll have to pay especially close attention to your company's global footprint, labor force and financial structures."

5 business myths to ditch now

5 business myths to ditch now: "Feeling a little disillusioned lately? That's not a bad thing if you're an entrepreneur. There's nothing like humbling economic times to force chief executives to let go of the sacred-cow ideas and grandiose illusions they've been harboring and start building on reality. Some of the smartest business owners I know have fallen for these five myths. Ditch them. It will make your business that much stronger."

Family businesses and succession

Family businesses and succession: "Handing over the reigns can be a tricky prospect."

Four Trends Startups Need to Know Now

Four Trends Startups Need to Know Now: "How to embrace the global, financial and social changes affecting your business this year."