How To Be Awesome At What You Do

How To Be Awesome At What You Do: Have you ever wondered what makes someone a world-renowned musician or a critically acclaimed novelist? Malcolm Gladwell would say it all comes down to practice -- over 10,000 hours of practice, to be exact. But a study by Gary McPherson, discussed in David Brooks' book The Social Animal, highlights that there is also an important attitude needed for success.

Six Keys to Successful Networking for Entrepreneurs

Six Keys to Successful Networking for Entrepreneurs: Successful entrepreneurs know that the lifeblood of their business is found in making the right connections. Whether it is for potential business alliances, sales, marketing, supply chain management or just to escape the loneliness of being a solopreneur, making connections is vital for business growth. For those of us that are extroverts, this may come easily. For many, it may not be so easy. My intention today is to share six proven practices that can make this a rewarding part of what you do to strengthen you business. The six practices are:

Startup Owner's Manual: How to 'Get' Customers

Startup Owner's Manual: How to 'Get' Customers: Now that you've launched a mobile app or retail website, it's time to "pull" customers toward you. In this book excerpt, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf discuss how.

How to Respond to Emotional Outbursts

How to Respond to Emotional Outbursts: "Please, Daddy, please? Can we open our presents from you now?"

How To Find A Job When You Don't Know What You Want To Do

How To Find A Job When You Don't Know What You Want To Do:

Searching for a job is an arduous task...even when you know exactly what you’re looking for. And what about when you don’t? Perhaps you’re changing careers, or maybe you’re just starting out. Whatever the case, it can be difficult to find your next job when you’re not even sure what

How To Stay Honest In A Dishonest Work World

How To Stay Honest In A Dishonest Work World: This is a guest post by Simon North, founder of career consultants Position Ignition and co-author of the book 135 Networking Career Tips.

The Secret To Successful Networking Is A Four Letter Word

The Secret To Successful Networking Is A Four Letter Word: Talk.
This is the first of a three part series exploring the professional words we use. Over the next three weeks we will cover our words related to: networking, interviewing and just around the office. The words we choose have been proven to impact our personal brand and how quickly we move up or down the professional ladder. Here's to keeping our words and our future on the up and up!
A Harvard University study shows that 15% of the reason a person gets a job, keeps a job, or advances in a job is related to technical skills and job knowledge... 85% has to do with people skills. Due to our current employment rate and downsized companies, working this 85% is never more important than when networking. Whether it’s official business or social, making conversations can make or break how we build a network of people to call on as we make our journey up the professional ladder.
As the old saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Likewise, what comes out of your mouth can never taken back.  Remember – working a room is work. It’s exhausting, and it can be overwhelming, but with a few conversation skills you can be sure that you’ll be communicating with 100% of your people skills.
Work Your Name: Enunciating your first and last name is the single most important aspect of networking, because if those you’re connecting with don’t know your name...they can’t contact you. When saying your name, say it slowly and clearly. In the world of self-introductions, Mindy easily becomes Cindy, and more difficult names can become nothing more than a mumble... especially in a sea of people working hard to make their names known and remembered.

10 Smart Risks That Every Business Should Seek Out

10 Smart Risks That Every Business Should Seek Out: Being a risk taker in business is not the same as being reckless. Nevertheless, the word “risk” has a negative connotation to most of us, implying danger and possible loss. For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return.

How to Negotiate. . . as a Business Owner (Video)

How to Negotiate. . . as a Business Owner (Video): Regina Angeles had to learn a new way to close deals when she started her own recruitment firm. Hear her best tips for negotiating.

Five Painful Startup Traps To Avoid

Five Painful Startup Traps To Avoid: A Venture Capitalist reveals 5 cringe-worthy start-up mistakes, and how to avoid them.

5 Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Old Boss

5 Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Old Boss: Your former colleagues and supervisors are a certifiable networking goldmine: They know your background, they work in your sector, and they have their own set of professional contacts. They can put a good word in for you at a new job, write you a letter of recommendation for grad school, and introduce you to new contacts and opportunities. And at the very least, they can confirm to a potential employer that you performed tasks X, Y, and Z at Corporation ABC.

Don't Cry (at the Office)

Don't Cry (at the Office): Emotional displays are frowned up, but it's unhealthful to just bottle up your feelings. Experts say you should be attuned to your "emotional triggers" so responses can be managed for more productive outcomes.

How to Craft Your Elevator Speech

How to Craft Your Elevator Speech: The uses and abuses of elevator speeches or pitches

Turn A Rejection Into A Job Offer

Turn A Rejection Into A Job Offer: The woman was interviewing for a lucrative position as director of a sales team. After having three great meetings full of lively conversation about how she’d handle the job, she was optimistic. But then came the fourth and final interview, with the company’s executive vice president. Things were going swimmingly until the interviewee asked a question designed to lock in the offer: “Do you have any issues with my candidacy?”

Why you should run your business as if it's always for sale

Why you should run your business as if it's always for sale: No matter whether you plan to get out soon, eventually or never, there are sound reasons for managing your company as if it could be for sale at any time

How to Overcome the '5 Forces Conspiring Against Your Savings'

How to Overcome the '5 Forces Conspiring Against Your Savings': Do you ever feel like the world is conspiring against your ability to retire? Some people even feel like retirement has become unattainable and obsolete. Joe Mont of The Street has a post in Forbes discussing 5 of these "external, uncontrollable" forces working against us. While we may not be able to control them, there are ways to adapt and overcome them by focusing on what you can do.

Ten Things to Do When You Lose Your Job

Ten Things to Do When You Lose Your Job: How does it feel to be nearly 60 and back in the job market after an unexpected layoff? You went down with an entire department’s implosion.

Networking Mistakes We Often Make

Networking Mistakes We Often Make: Networking is about building long-term relationships—not simply selling yourself.

Spring Clean Your Way to Being a Better Leader

Spring Clean Your Way to Being a Better Leader: I don?t pretend to know everything it takes to be a great leader. I do know that I have tremendous respect for business people who are calm, decisive, energized, and really present for the people they interact with. I also know that I?m at my professional best when I exhibit these traits and that the opposite is true: I?m far less effective when I?m frenzied, unfocused, tired, distracted. And I?ve noticed that I often get bogged down by a most curious phenomenon: clutter. Clutter appears in my life in various forms?in my file cabinets, my hall closet, my mind, my heart. The messier things are, the more my leadership suffers.
Clutter Is a Drag
Clutter?both the tangible and intangible kind?interferes with my clarity. It distracts me from what?s important. It slows me down from taking intentional action. It leaves me tired, discouraged, distracted and disengaged. As a result, my creativity stagnates and my relationships suffer. Clutter makes my ?I am woman, hear me roar? sound more like a meow.

How to Manage (and Minimize) Workplace Interruptions

How to Manage (and Minimize) Workplace Interruptions: One of the most common complaints I hear has to do with something that is so fundamentally a part of the modern workplace, it?s almost impossible to avoid. Yes, I?m talking about the dreaded interruption.

Five Ways to Organize Your Office--Stylishly

Five Ways to Organize Your Office--Stylishly: How to make your office project a professional image for your business, and a look at products to help you do it.

How To Increase Your Compensation In A Difficult Economy

How To Increase Your Compensation In A Difficult Economy: Do you ever feel like your job is a treadmill with you running harder and harder without ever getting ahead? No, this isn’t a bad dream. According to a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, income growth stagnated, as seasonally adjusted median weekly earnings remained relatively unchanged from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, wages haven’t kept pace with price inflation as weekly earnings increased 1.9% from a year ago, compared with a 2.8% increase in the Consumer Price Index. This means that in real terms, we’re actually going backwards.

How To Negotiate Severance

How To Negotiate Severance: A friend called recently and asked if I?d written anything about negotiating the best possible deal with your employer when you lose your job. A friend of hers feared she was about to be laid off and didn?t know if there was anything she could do to protect herself.

Are You Buying a Job or a Profitable Business?

Are You Buying a Job or a Profitable Business?: Find out if the owner was compensated and what's prompting her to sell. Then get an accountant to help you go through the company's books

The Things We Don't Do

The Things We Don't Do: We are all so focused on action, on the things we do, that we underestimate the significance of the things we choose not to do, even if the actions we didn’t take have higher impact on us.

Three Do's, Three Don'ts For Pitching a VC

Three Do's, Three Don'ts For Pitching a VC: A colleague in Portugal told me that he had an opportunity to make a pitch to venture capitalists (VCs). While I don't know anything about his venture, he asked me to provide some general advice on three things to do and three things not to do when it comes to pitching VCs.

Can a side gig help your career?

Can a side gig help your career?: Certain kinds of moonlighting may actually help you in your main job, and wise organizations can embrace, rather than squelch, entrepreneurial zeal.

Working For An Unethical Firm: What Are Your Options?

Working For An Unethical Firm: What Are Your Options?: Options? You have none. Well, you have one, which thus isn't really an "option," in the sense that there need to be at least two for you to be able to choose one over the other(s).

How to Manage a Micromanager

How to Manage a Micromanager: These eight steps can help you rein in the control freak.

Great Ideas: Master your key financial indicators

Great Ideas: Master your key financial indicators: In his forward to the book Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits, iconic business coach Verne Harnish credits author Greg Crabtree with highlighting basic truths about running a business that are rarely articulated in a business book, “starting with the fatal mistake of thinking you’re making a great profit without accounting for a reasonable salary for yourself.”

5 Tips On Maintaining Social Contacts While In Career Transition

5 Tips On Maintaining Social Contacts While In Career Transition: Recently, I had several members at my company celebrate their first year anniversary of working within their current job positions. The key word here is celebrate, especially noteworthy since they were all millennials. As fellow Forbes contributor J. Maureen Henderson pointed out in her post on whether loyalty was for losers or not, for the millennial generation a year in the exact same position is the equivalent of a decade on their watch. But the overall consensus rings true both in her column as well as within reality: if a millennial (or Gen-Y'er or Boomer) is happy at work and they know it, stay put.

You Already Know The Right People To Land Your Dream Job: How To Get In Front Of The Decision-Makers

You Already Know The Right People To Land Your Dream Job: How To Get In Front Of The Decision-Makers: It’s a common frustration of job seekers everywhere: you know you are the right person for the job if only you could get the attention of the person actually hiring. Submitting a resume to the company website falls into a black hole. Appeals to HR go unanswered. Somehow you need to bypass these gatekeepers and get to the decision-makers. It pays to know the “right” people.

Deadly Meetings in the Workplace

Deadly Meetings in the Workplace: When it comes to meetings, co-workers can be deadly. Among the biggest offenders are naysayers and co-workers who wander off-topic. To boost productivity, some managers take extreme measures.

5 New Ways to Network (That You Won't Dread)

5 New Ways to Network (That You Won't Dread): If you want to groan every time you hear the word “networking,” well, I don’t exactly blame you. The word conjures images of uncomfortable schmooze-fests, where suit-clad business executives work the room, wine glass in hand, feigned interest at the ready. Who would enjoy that?

Do You Need a Checkup?

Do You Need a Checkup?: I had been feeling a little odd; a number of minor physical discomforts were leading me to feel anxious about my health in general. And that anxiety was subtly getting in the way of my performance. I was a little less focused. A little more scattered.

Big Incentives Can Hinder, Rather Than Help

Big Incentives Can Hinder, Rather Than Help: Financial incentives can spur us to success, but only up to a point, a new study says. Also, chatty women may be snubbed in the workplace.

11 Secrets of Hiring Managers

11 Secrets of Hiring Managers: The next time you walk into an interview, consider the following:

Choosing a Leader? - 3 Things to Look For

Choosing a Leader? - 3 Things to Look For: Sometimes in cruising around the internet, I find an article that has one paragraph that really leaps out at me.  This article by Jeffrey Cohn at CNN Opinion is a case in point.  He's talking about why we so often pick poor leaders, even though we know how important good leaders are to any business. This subject is dear to my heart: I can't tell you how many times I've watched a board pick a new CEO or a senior executive hire or promote someone to fill a leadership spot, and thought to myself (or said it out loud, if I'm given the chance), "Really?  That person?  I'm pretty sure he or she is going to do a bad to mediocre job." Sometimes I'm wrong, but most of the time I'm right. And I just hate to see the stress that such hires and promotions put on an organization - on the people, and on results.

Starting a company from scratch

Starting a company from scratch: How can you beat the odds if you want to join the boomerpreneur boom and start your own company after 50? MONEY put that question to small-business experts and dozens of fiftysomething entrepreneurs for their best advice.

9 Tips on Conducting Great Interviews

9 Tips on Conducting Great Interviews: In my career, I have conducted thousands of interviews, been interviewed hundreds of times and as a media consultant, I have also observed thousands of interviews from a neutral seat. There are a few tips that have worked consistently well for me and perhaps they will help you. I write this from a media professional's point of view, but I think many of these points  are applicable to business and employment interviews as well.

5 Reasons People Stay Stuck in Their Careers

5 Reasons People Stay Stuck in Their Careers: If the US economy is going to rebound, people need to become more satisfied with their work.   Based on a job satisfaction survey conducted by Glassroom.com, 40% of employees are satisfied at work, while 27% say their jobs are “ok” and 33% are dissatisfied at work.  If you don’t like what you do, how can your productivity and performance at work increase? How can organizations grow and compete when their employees lack competitive hunger?  As much as an organization is responsible to provide their employees the leadership, workplace culture and tools to thrive, the employee is equally as accountable to find satisfaction in their careers.

How to Get Low-Cost Legal Services (Video)

How to Get Low-Cost Legal Services (Video): The secret? Persuade lawyers that your scrappy startup will one day be a paying client, says serial entrepreneur Mark Hirsch.

Time Management Secrets Anyone Can Use

Time Management Secrets Anyone Can Use: If you're reading this article instead of doing your work, chances are good that you have trouble managing your time efficiently. You're not alone. According to a survey by Salary.com, the average worker admits to wasting about two hours of each eight-hour workday, not including lunch or scheduled breaks. While computers have dramatically increased efficiency, they have also provided the ultimate in distraction. The Web is like the next-door neighbor who keeps asking us to play when we know we have homework to do. It and e-mail offer so much distraction on a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour basis that we find it nearly impossible to give our full attention to higher-level tasks. And because there are no defined edges to most of our projects--and certainly not to our workdays--we live in an endless jumble of work and life. We can book a trip to Mexico while participating in a conference call. We can send work e-mails from a chairlift above the ski slopes of Vermont. It's tough to establish boundaries and focus on any one thing.

The Ten Commandments of Getting Thine Own Way

The Ten Commandments of Getting Thine Own Way: Thou Shalt Do Thine Own Research, ascertaining thine own market value and learning what thine bargaining partner wishes to accomplish, to whom she must answer, what interests she must satisfy and what she most fears and desires.

7 Tips for Naming Your Business

7 Tips for Naming Your Business: Choosing the right name for your business can have a lasting impact when it comes to propelling a business to success. Here are tips in choosing the right one.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Career Changers Make

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Career Changers Make: As a career coach and a career reinventer myself, I can confidently say that changing your career to something that is more suited to your values, needs, skills, and interests, is doable today, even in these tough economic times.  But to switch careers effectively and achieve a positive outcome, you need four things: clarity, courage, confidence, and competence. Without these, you?ll most likely struggle hard and fail.  Further, there are core steps you must take to ensure you are emotionally, financially, and professionally ready for this next step and for the eight important stages that you?ll undergo.

How To Turn A Job You Hate Into A Job You Love

How To Turn A Job You Hate Into A Job You Love: This is a guest post by Nisa Chitakasem, co-author of the book, How to Get the Job You Want. She blogs at Career Blog.

13 Signs You Are Meant To Be Self-Employed

13 Signs You Are Meant To Be Self-Employed: Your boss is driving you crazy because of his short-sightedness.

8 Tips for Using Workplace Humor

8 Tips for Using Workplace Humor: The old saying ”everybody loves a comedian” has regretfully given birth to a time where everybody thinks they’re a comedian. Sadly, what many have failed to realize is the old saying noted above was meant to be sarcastic…We all love good humor, but the truth is all humor is not good. The timely and appropriate use of humor is an asset to any leader. Likewise, distasteful or inappropriately timed humor can be a significant liability.  As a leader it’s quite easy to get a laugh - your title will virtually guarantee it. Therefore it’s important for leaders to become skilled at distinguishing the difference between a compliant chuckle and a sincere chortle. Good humor can bring people closer, but poor humor can be one of the strongest repellents known to man.

Fired Before Your First Day: Lessons Learned From Khristopher Brooks

Fired Before Your First Day: Lessons Learned From Khristopher Brooks: Khristopher Brooks was living the dream: He had a full-time job offer as a reporter at the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal before graduating with his master’s from New York University. Excited, as most young professionals would be, he decided to announce his new position via a pseudo press release on his personal blog. The next thing he knew, the job offer had been rescinded.

Finding the Right Mentor to Help Grow Your Business

Finding the Right Mentor to Help Grow Your Business: To grow your business, the right advisor can help you more than any business book ever could.

12 Ways To Spot A Liar At Work

12 Ways To Spot A Liar At Work:

  If only it were this easy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Your boss tells you that “this change is for the best,” but as she speaks, you notice her stiff body posture and forced smile. Is she being honest with you? Your co-worker says he’d be happy to help you with your project, but

3 Ways To Stand Out And Sell More Than Your Web Competition

3 Ways To Stand Out And Sell More Than Your Web Competition: Starting an online business is the last American Gold Rush. Think about it.  These days, the top 1 percent of the country controls 40 percent of the nation's wealth. This makes it harder and harder for the "Average Joe" to break into the business world and become a massive success, especially when it seems that we live in a world where chains and corporate conglomerates have taken over nearly every neighborhood in America.

Finding the Right Mentor to Help Grow Your Business

Finding the Right Mentor to Help Grow Your Business: To grow your business, the right advisor can help you more than any business book ever could.

Six Lines Your Boss Should Never Cross

Six Lines Your Boss Should Never Cross: In these days of open plan offices, casual dress and blurring boundaries between home and work, it can be confusing to figure out whether your boss is behaving inappropriately. But if your boss?s comments or actions make you feel consistently uncomfortable, then there?s a good chance that she or he is stepping over the line of professionalism into inappropriate behavior.

A BRAVE New Approach to Finding a Job

A BRAVE New Approach to Finding a Job: If what you?re currently doing to find a job isn?t yielding the results you want, adjust your efforts by asking yourself these five questions:

The Customer Is Not Always Right, But They Do Have All the Answers

The Customer Is Not Always Right, But They Do Have All the Answers: The old adage "the customer is always right" is completely wrong. The reason is simple: customers lie all the time. They might lie to try and get a better price. They might tell you they're willing to pay for things they are not. They might even tell you there are all kinds of new competitors when there are none. They might also tell you everything is going great 24 hours before they cancel your contract. These might be lies, partial truths, or they might be misinformed attempts at truth. Who knows?

Taking Time Out: Six Steps To Doing Nothing And Accomplishing A Lot

Taking Time Out: Six Steps To Doing Nothing And Accomplishing A Lot: Step #1—Eliminate everything but the most essential.

Why Managers Fail Their Teams - And What To Do About It

Why Managers Fail Their Teams - And What To Do About It: “Teamwork” is the mantra of today’s workplace – but too few executives know how to manage and support it. That’s the conclusion of Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, author of the new Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy. For starters, she says, the fast-paced demands of modern corporate life have rendered stable, carefully-selected, long-term teams obsolete: “We often don’t have the time and luxury to get it just right before the moment has passed,” she says. Instead, teams have yielded to a more fluid, ad hoc series of relationships – “teaming,” in which groups come together for short-term projects, often crossing geographical or other boundaries.

7 Tips For A Better Retirement

7 Tips For A Better Retirement: What retirees can do now for a better retirement later.

Why Entrepreneurs Succeed - and You Can, Too

Why Entrepreneurs Succeed - and You Can, Too: All it takes to become an entrepreneur is a big idea and a million dollars ? right? Len Schlesinger, president of Babson College and co-author of Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future, argues that?s a pernicious myth ? and it may be harming your career. With lifetime employment long gone, every employee needs to take responsibility for their own career and develop an entrepreneurial mindset: ?Entrepreneurship is a skill that enables people to effectively cope with the uncertainty and unknowability that exists in the modern workplace, and effectively take action.?

4 Keys to Great Leadership

4 Keys to Great Leadership: There are 4 keys to being a great leader. That's a simple thing to say but not an easy thing to do. Then again, adjectives like “great” shouldn't apply to leaders who only accomplish the easy stuff, right?

How To Quit With Class

How To Quit With Class: Even as the economy struggles to recover and add jobs, workers keep moving around, sometimes for greener pastures. Career coaches and human resource pros agree that it's best to leave the best possible impression whenever you exit a job, no matter the circumstances. Here are some essential things to do to quit with class.