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.