How to Become a Great Public Speaker

How to Become a Great Public Speaker Whether you work in recruiting, sales, HR or anything else youve probably been told that public speaking is one key to success. Whats, that is the mere thought of  being a public speaker freaking you out? Youre not the only one! Having to go in front of an audience to deliver a speech is very stressful. Not only do you have countless pairs of eyes staring at you, but you also have to make sure youre delivering seamlessly, looking professional plus everything else. Stressing out before  a speech or presentation will probably harm the quality of your performance. Public speaking is nothing to be worried about and, when performed correctly, can result in a positive outcome for you or your business (or both!). Have a look at this infographic from LondonSpeakerBureau.com   dont miss out on the expert tips  at the bottom! Takeaways: Relevant speech is where what you want to say and what youre interested in overlap. Keep it simple, stupid: dont assume your audience are experts! Make sure your opening line will interest your audience. Use metaphors, adjectives, historical comparisons etc. Dont over practice! RELATED:  How Public Speaking Can Help Your Career

Smart Job Seekers Breaks These Resume Writing Rules

Smart Job Seekers Breaks These Resume Writing RulesSmart job seekers are aware of the importance of resume writing. These individuals understand the importance of successfully completing their resume as soon as possible. The following tips will help you make a good first impression while applying for a new job.Resume Writing Rules - Respect the Rules of Attraction. This means that you must always write your resume in a way that will attract the employers to you. Most of the time, you can land yourself a great opportunity by following a simple system.It does not matter whether your resume is done by hand or with computer software. A resume writing rule still applies. The best way to keep your resume ahead of the competition is to make sure that your resume displays your best side before you actually submit it.Use White Paper When preparing your resume, you can make use of white paper. Since there are many applications available in the market today, it is easy to make the wrong decisio ns as far as the style of your resume is concerned. The best way to avoid these mistakes is to prepare your resume using white paper.Listing of skills. It is an unwritten rule that people are expected to list all the skills they have acquired in their careers. The smart job seekers are going to keep their skills listed, so that the employer will notice it.Keep your Work Experience Short and Simple. It is important to keep your work experience to less than two years. Try to think of the best jobs you have ever held in order to make your resume look fresh and attractive.Bring the People to the Rest of the Resume.While doing a career search, you should not apply to every job that you find interesting. You should keep the focus on the companies that you think are most likely to hire you.Do not Repeat Your Work Experience in Your Resume. In this process, it is important to keep the focus on the things that you have accomplished in your career that will get you noticed. It will be benefic ial to keep your work experience concise.

How to Breeze Through Your First Week in a New Job

How to Breeze Through Your First Week in a New Job The euphoria of the job offer has passed, you’ve packed up and left your old employer and now you’re staring down the barrel of the first week in your new role â€" where do you even start? The first week in a new job can be key for all sorts of reasons, from the impression that you make on colleagues and management, to how quickly you can hit the ground running and start making progress in the role. A successful first week might seem like an impossible prospect in the days before you start but there are some easy steps you can take to make sure that you have a great shot of finishing off the week with a smile on your face: Be prepared: It’s not difficult to guess that preparation is going to have a big part to play in making a success of that first crucial week. Start by giving yourself a break in between ending one job and starting another â€" you want to step over the threshold of your new employer with enthusiasm and a spring in your step, rather than being exhausted and over tired. Schedule in some down time, whether it’s a holiday or just pottering around at home. Spend some time thinking about the role you’re about to commence, what the first week might involve and what kind of information you should go armed with. Do you have a good idea of the culture of the new company or do you need to research that too? Plan the practicalities of the first day â€" what documents do you need to take with you, what training or induction will you need to attend and who are you likely to meet? RELATED: 3 Essential Steps For Career Change Preparation Arrive on time: It’s a huge faux pas to be late on your first day in a new job so take every possible step to ensure that you’re not â€" even if it means you arrive a little early. Plan the route that you’re going to take to the new office, particularly if it’s vastly different from your previous workplace, and factor in extra time for any potential delays or disasters. If the new office has several locations check where you will be based â€" you’re not going to make a great impression if you turn up at the wrong office. RELATED: 13 Time Management Tips You Ought to Know Be calm: Remember that everyone has been the newbie at some point so you’re just going through the same process as everyone else in the organisation. Accept that you’ll probably feel out of place at first, like you don’t know anyone (because you don’t!) and like you have no idea where to being. Avoid putting pressure on yourself to fit in right from the start and just take everything very slowly. The calmer you are, the more likely you will come across as a friendly, open person people want to introduce themselves to. Remain positive at all times: Yes, you’re going to say silly things and make mistakes in your first week and it could well take you an hour to do something as simple as find the photocopier and make a single copy â€" this is par for the course when you start a new job. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and don’t turn down offers of help out of a sense of pride â€" all these steps will gradually get you onto the road that you need to move along to get to a more comfortable place. If you make a mistake then just smile, note the best way to avoid it in future and get on with the day. Dress to impress: The way you dress will play a big part in the impression you create on a new boss and new colleagues and could well impact on the way you’re treated, both during the first week and on an ongoing basis. Choose professional over casual every time, even if your first day happens to fall on a dress down Friday or something similar. It’s better to be the one person in a suit when everyone else is in jeans than the other way around. Remember to pay attention to the details too â€" shine shoes, wash hair, cut nails and clean jewellery. The impression you want to create is of someone who is comfortable in the office and ready to go out and meet clients too. Take lots of notes: Unless you have the most amazing memory, the sheer volume of information you’ll have to deal with during your first week could seem completely overwhelming. So, take notes of everything, from where the post room is located, to what your colleagues’ names are. It might seem a little geeky but it’s far preferable to having to ask the same questions over and over again â€" that will get annoying very quickly. You might think the first week in a new job is a scary, intimidating prospect but actually it’s the perfect opportunity to demonstrate just what a capable and professional employee you are. Enthusiasm, humility and the recommendations above will all help to make sure you finish the week with a sense of pride and excitement about what’s yet to come. Author: Nick Peacock is CEO at Ascendant Recruitment, a Milton Keynes based recruitment agency.

This post is hard to write, so you better read it.

This post is hard to write, so you better read it. What Ive learned from selling stuff on this blog is that I dont like to do it. Its hard to tell you Im hating myself and then tell you, Buy my course about happiness! So, Ive decided to change my business model. Except that I dont actually have a new business model yet. And while Im looking for one Im  making  missing monthly payments on a new cello. But now I feel more free to write, and there is so much to tell you. I miss the farmer so much. I would go back to him in a second if I didnt have kids. But I cant let the kids see me like this. A friend told me her daughter has no respect for her. I asked why. And she said, Because she watched me put up with way too much from my husband. I want my kids to respect me. I am not sure I love myself enough to take care of myself. But I love my kids way too much to not take care of myself as their mom. I thought I only missed the farm. But I miss everything. I go on Google Maps to look at the farm. I cant wait till the picture updates. I think about when the Farmers parents will die. Then he will not have to please his mom and he can be with me. I wont do that. But I still think about it all the time. We have mice in our apartment. It was cute at first. We knew the mouse. He had his patterns and favorite spots. Now there are a lot more mice. I keep telling myself the more mice we have the more my sons college application will stand out. But I can see Ive gone too far in my efforts to keep our fixed expenses low. Ive been trying harder to fit in with other moms. For my whole life Ive told myself no one notices anything and no one reads what I write. But now I see that  its just me who notices nothing  and doesnt read what I write. I had to start reading what I write because  my editor  quit. He didnt tell me he quit. He just disappeared. I think its because I have a blog that says  you should never divorce  and  we dont need teachers, and he just divorced his wife and got remarried to a teacher. Melissa  started editing. But when  Melissa  is my editor I feel like shes not my friend and I had already lost my editor and the farmer and the farm.  Melissa  is my oldest friend so I have to keep her. I used to have friends who were older. From high school. One never spoke to me again after  I wrote about her. And the other two never spoke to me after I said  zero tolerance for domestic violence is wrong. I am starting to think being a person on the receiving end of domestic violence is like being a person who is anorexic. Everyone around the person says to just fix the problem. But the person cannot fix the problem. The person thinks maybe its OK to die from the problem instead of fixing it. I have  a new friend, Lauren, who is a comforting type. She has a husband, Michael, who may or may not want his name on this blog. Sometimes I want to be married to Michael, but he is almost the same as me, so really I should marry Lauren. But Michael got her. Lauren and Michael have a grown-up kid who I coach sometimes, but only when hes desperate because he hates everything I tell him. There is so much more I want to tell you. I went to a domestic violence shelter. I didnt need shelter, like a place to live. I needed shelter from  messed up ideas  of  how people should treat each other. I learned a lot about boundaries. And I am figuring out how to have good boundaries with everyone â€" except you. So, things are going to be different around here. New Editor I have a new editor. Molly. Because  Melissa  has  a full-time job being my best friend. Molly is someone I coached. She wrote to me and told me she wanted to edit. I said OK because I thought I remembered her. I didnt remember her correctly. She is 38 years old. She has no kids because she doesnt want them to mess up her life. She has a career she doesnt care that much about. Shes been reading my blog for a very long time. I feel like it says so much about her that she lives a life I would never condone but she still likes reading my blog. New Email List I have been sending out emails about individual personality types for a long time. Most of you dont receive those emails. If you want to receive emails about your type,  send me an email  with your type in the subject and Ill put you on the list. When theres a new course on how to become a freelance writer, or maybe when I have free trips to Club Med to dole out, Ill announce it on that list. And since the lists are organized by type you will not get a trip to Club Med if you are an NT, and you will not get a freelance writing career if you are an SP. Not many SPs read this blog. But you might have a spouse who is an SP, so you could sign up to be on that list as well. But youll need to submit two different email addresses, one for each list. New Bravery I have been timid here. Young cellists perform with boundless gusto, but then they get older and they start to become self-conscious. For most of my life I have been that bold little kid. But recently Ive become the self-conscious teenager. Ive felt so fragile, like any misstep will ruin me. But now I realize that whats most ruinous is no missteps at all.

Resume Writing EBooks - Why Resume Writers Are No Longer Needed

Resume Writing EBooks - Why Resume Writers Are No Longer NeededMost people who have gotten their first job after college or university did so thanks to resume writing and eBooks. This is why they are called resume writing books; the majority of the information and tools that you get are all contained within the book.Resume writers were once highly sought after because of the very quality of the information that was contained within the books. In today's world, however, this is not the case; the average person can get the same information from the Internet; and they can do it for far less money and time than the professionals.Many of the resume writers who worked with other companies still utilize the same materials that they wrote. It has become extremely common for people to use the same resume writing software that their previous employer used in order to keep a check on their own applications.All of these items can be found on the Internet without the need for resume writers. The resume writers who were used to write these books are no longer necessary; the individual can find their own resumes for free.These are books that you take part in to learn about resume writing, career paths, and college courses. Some of the books are written by some of the best college professors; and they are often the ones who are considered to be the experts in the field.What made the resume writers who wrote these books such an expert? They spent the time needed to learn the ins and outs of writing resumes and also of careers.These are the people who learned how to sell themselves and make it through college professors. The resume writing and eBooks were the product of this knowledge.There is no doubt that these books are extremely valuable to the person whois trying to start out as a resume writer. Whether you use resume writing software or simply use resume writing eBooks, you will benefit greatly from using them.

What doesnt make people happy at work (but many people think it does) - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

What doesnt make people happy at work (but many people think it does) - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog There are two things that organizations traditionally use to make their people happy, but which simply do not work, and which may even be harmful: Salary, raises, bonuses Corporate status symbols and rewards As long as companies look to these two things to make people happy at work, we will get nowhere. And make no mistake: Businesses use enormous amounts of money, time and effort trying to fairly apportion money and rewards. Theres one more thing that just doesnt make people happy at work, but which employees and trade unions oftgen cling to it: Job security. Lets look at why money, rewards and job security dont make people happy. Why the salary does not make people happy In 2004 IKEA in Denmark did something completely unexpected. They decided without negotiations or union pressure of any kind to give their entire check-out staff a 25% raise. A typical salary of 16.000 DKK (aprox. 2.500 USD) suddenly became 20.000 DKK (approx. 3.100 USD). Was this expensive? Sure. While cashiers arent highly paid, IKEA has more of them, than of any other group of employees. Were talking a sizable raise in total monthly payroll expenses. So why did they do it? Because it made the check-out staff happy ? and IKEA knows that happy employees create results. Fantastic results. Lets immediately turn around and contradict that story: A high salary does not make people happy at work. Neither does a raise, a bonus, a prize or any other kind of financial reward. What happens when a person gets a raise, is a brief spike in happiness at work, but it quickly settles back to its previou level. (graph) When IKEA initiated the 25% raise for its check-out staff, they expected results in return. They didnt do this out of the kindness of their hearts, it was very much a business decision. And they got results: Lower employee turnover ? meaning time and money saved on recruiting new staff More experienced staff ? when people stay longer, they grow more experienced and better at their jobs Higher customer satisfaction ? because of the experienced and happy staff Higher quality / fewer errors because of the experienced and happy staff IKEA found that the raise paid for itself within six months! So if Im claiming that a raise doesnt make people happy at work, then why did it work for IKEA? For two reasons: This group of employees were the least well paid in IKEA. This means that a 25% raise made a palpable difference for their quality of life. Recognition. IKEA clearly stated that the reason they got the raise was, that they are the most important group of employees. Though sales staff is available inside IKEAs stores, the reasoning went, most customers help themselves, meaning that the only IKEA staff member they will ever talk to, is sitting at the cash register. This made the check-out staff feel valued and trusted ? and that made them happy. Fairness. Psychological business studies show, that people dont judge their salary based on the absolute figure but by comparing it to their colleagues, peers and the market average. Which reminds me of the New Yorker Magazine cartoon where an employee is turned down for a raise and then asks Well, if you cant give me a raise, could you at least give Peterson a pay cut?. The checkout staff were suddenly paid as well as other IKEA employees, and far above the market average. You need more proof? Irma, the grocery chain mentioned in a previous chapter, is the fifth best workplace and the best retailer to work for in Europe and their salaries are market average no more. If salary is so important, how is that possible? The truth is this: The salary is what makes it possible for people to show up at work every day. It has no effect on how happy or how productive they are. Lofty titles, a larger desk, company cars, the key to the executive rest room and other status symbols dont make people happy at work either Alfie Kohn, the author of the provocative and excellent book ?Punished by rewards???, has this to say: The idea that dangling money and other goodies in front of people will motivate them to work harder is the conventional wisdom in our society, and particularly among compensation specialists. rewards are not merely ineffective but actually counterproductive. Subjects offered an incentive for doing a task (or, in some of the studies, for doing it well) actually did lower quality work than subjects offered no reward at all. As University of Texas psychologist Janet Spence put it after discovering this surprising effect in an early study of her own, rewards have effects that interfere with performance in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Kohns book may be one of the meticulously researched business books ever, collecting the results of hundreds of psychological studies. But then it has to be, because Kohns message is so much at odds with the way businesses traditionally motivate employees, which is mostly by throwing money and rewards at them. Kohns research found that rewarding people reduces productivity and quality. This seems counter-intuitive at first, but Kohns explanation is simple: Every time you reward people for doing something, you motivate them externally, an act which inevitably reduces peoples inner motivation. And only inner motivation, ie. people truly wanting to do a good job, is any guarantee of quality and performance in the long term. Its funny to think, that businesses and leaders struggle to motivate people, and the way we often use bonuses and rewards actively works against this intention. So if rewards dont work, what should a business do instead? Kohns advice would be to do everything possible to take employees minds off the rewards, and that incentives, bonuses, pay-for-performance plans, and other reward systems violate the last principle by their very nature. The fair distribution of rewards and status symbols can take up significant amounts of time and effort in an organization, but they actually have a negative long-term effect on employees happiness and on organizational performance. Not zero effect ? negative effect! The upshot: The vast majority of businesses use raises and other rewards to drive behavior and to make people happy at work. It doesnt work! In many cases, its counter-productive. Job security I work in the government sector in Denmark as a tjenestemand, a type of position which makes you virtually immune to being fired. No matter how incompetent or obnoxious I get, I cant be fired without a huge hassle for my government department. Though the public sector is moving away from hiring people on these terms, many people still have them. No matter what they do, they wont lose their jobs. Its the ultimate job security. Its terrible. People end up stuck in a rut. Their world gets smaller and smaller, their focus gets more and more narrow. They also resist any and all change, no matter how small or how innocent. I hate to say this, but in many cases I really feel that firing that person would actually help him, because it would force him or her to move on. In studies that ask people what makes them happy at work, job security often figures high on the list. Rarely at the top, but always in the top 10. Its obvious that spending each work day in fear of being fired will make you desperately unhappy. But the kind of job security where youre almost certain to hang on to your job no matter what happens, is also bad for peoples happiness at work. Rosenbluth International faced this very dilemma. As described earlier, theyd decided to put their people first. Heres the interesting question: If you have put your people first, how can you ever fire any of them? CEO Hal Rosenbluth had an elegant answer: Putting your people first entails a responsibility to fire people who dont fit in. Not at the first sign of trouble, obviously, you start by trying to help the employee. Training, coaching, guidance. Maybe a new position inside the company. But when these things dont work, a commitment to your employees happiness means precisely that you have to fire employees that simply dont fit in. And thats why unrestricted job security will actively make an organization a less happy place to work. Because when people stay on at jobs where they really dont fit in you get: Lower performance Higher workloads More conflict Allowing an employee to stay in a job that doesnt make that employee happy is not only bad for the employee, but for everyone around that person, because of the lower performance and because unhappiness at work is contagious. (Graph of happiness at work as a function of job security) So to sum this up: Too little job security makes us unhappy at work. It leads to fear, avoidance of conflicts and stress. But too much job security is also bad, because it leads to passivity, cynicism and resistance to change. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Felicidad en el trabajo - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Felicidad en el trabajo - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Heres an excellent article about happiness at work in Spanish written by Martin Leroy of Grupo Aukera, our Woohoo Partner in Buenos Aires. If you have a workplace in Argentina that needs some happiness, hes your man. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related