 Rinker
& Associatesreal world career coaching & consulting |
Today is your day! Everyone is capable of living their dream. All it takes is courage, determination, and inspiration! |
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Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart! (Confucius)
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"It's the
constant and determined effort that breaks down resistance, sweeps away all
obstacles." - -
Claude M.
Bristol
Quiet the Chatter (August 2008)
"It's early morning and I'm standing on a long pier overlooking
a beautiful lake as the sun rises to change the sky from dark to light.
I'm surrounded by quiet except for the sound of my own breathing. I'm
not meditating, I'm practicing being present. In anticipation of
starting my day with more focus and clarity, the quiet gives me a chance to
get in touch with what I want rather than what the people around me expect.
Eventually, the rest of the world wakes up and the chatter starts to happen."
- L. Rinker
Here are a few ways you can quiet the chatter:
Get up an hour early. Whether you're in a big city
or in a rural community, getting up an hour early gives you a chance to
experience your surroundings in quiet (or at least quieter than normal).
Use this time to sit quietly with your cup of coffee, write in your journal,
or gaze out at the sky as the sun rises. Waking up "quietly" does
wonders for your health, attitude, and overall well-being.
Take a 10-minute silence break. If you're on one
of those walks around the business park (or on a nature walk) with your
colleague or friend, stop chatting for an agreed-upon period.
Eat in silence. Make the most of your lunch hour
as an opportunity to create quiet time for yourself. Turn off your cell
phone, get away from your computer, and leave your book behind. Just
take your lunch to a favorite quiet spot, relax, and really enjoy your food.
Focus on tastes and textures by eating slowly and swallowing each bite before
taking the next.
Growth through Budget Cuts (July 2008)
It might sound strange, but you can grow and develop
your business (and yourself) even when faced with budget cuts that effect
training and development.
Pendulums swing and cycles repeat. There are things you
can do to position yourself ahead of the curve so that you will be in prime
position when things bounce back. Face it, a slow or sluggish economy
could be the best time to turn your efforts inward and regroup or retool for
the future.
Here are a few ideas:
Technical Training - If your training and education
budget has been cut, look to internal expertise to provide informational
sessions, classes, or workshops for your entire organization. Seek out
the subject matter experts (technical and non-technical) who possess the
knowledge (and experience) that your organization will benefit from learning.
You're even in better shape if your technical experts understand the business
side as well. They're perspective will be invaluable since no one from
the outside understands your business better than you do. (If this is
not the case, then you have a whole other problem you need to work on first!)
This is a great opportunity to bring multiple departments
together and build value bridges across the organization by sharing and
informing.
Business Training - Ask one of the organization's
executives (including the C-Suite) to speak on a topic during a lunch hour
"broadcast". This is a great opportunity for your executive to share and
communicate the company's vision, mission or strategies. Making the
session interactive by having the executive ask for participants to share
ideas on how their work fits into the company's overarching themes is a great
way to build alignment through all levels of the organization.
Wouldn't it be great if you could ask your CEO and a line
staffer to explain what the purpose of the company's work is and the answers
given by these two people would be the same? Meaning they would be in
alignment with each other. You can make this happen!
Educate During Staff Meetings - Carve out 15 minutes out
of your weekly staff meetings to have a subject matter expert explain a topic
that is relevant to the work your team is trying to accomplish. This
could be a new product being launched by another department that your team may
be chartered to support or use, or you could cover a policy or guideline topic
that reflects a recent change in the organizational structure of the company.
There are many topics to choose from, the key is to make it relevant to your
team's ability to succeed and keep it short.
Your training efforts do not need to take additional time
out of the day. Use the lunch hour to invite people to bring their
"lunch" to a specified location for the class or workshop. You can
combine the physical and virtual worlds by holding a tele-conference and/or
video-conference as well.
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3 Career Tips When Times are Tough
(July 2008)
Timing is everything and you simply never know when that next "dream job" opportunity will come along. What are you doing to make sure you're ready for it when it does come along? Is your resume ready to go? Are your references lined up and ready to share a stellar testimonial? When was the last time you wrote a high-impact letter of introduction? When times get tough, well you know the rest. But, I'll say it anyway - - the tough get going! So, here we go . . . Tip # 1 - Update your ResumeWhen was the last time you updated your resume? You may think you can have it ready in 10 minutes, but the reality is it will take you hours. You'll have to recheck dates and assignments that have changed over time. You'll have to make sure your accomplishments are current and relevant as well. Here's what you do: - Update your resume on a continual basis. There's no better time to update your resume than when you've had a performance review and/or promotion. - Use keywords and "words that matter". - Here's one I've been opposed to in the past, but the people in charge of filtering resumes today are not HR Managers, they're entry level folk. So, to compensate for their lack of experience, you'll have to do more work to be noticed by preparing more than one resume if necessary, one for each job title you are seeking. Tip # 2 - Cultivate Employment ReferencesPositive references can seal the deal. Your employment references are one of your most valuable assets so take good care of them. Here's what you do: - Prioritize your employment references. - Check in before and after; let them know when you give out their name and keep them posted on what happens. - Create an alternative employment reference if there was "bad blood" between you and your manager. Tip # 3 - Polish Up Your Letter Writing SkillsYou're not going to get away with simple writing skills. Writing a high impact letter requires practice, practice, and more practice. Getting a job (or client) often means writing letters of introduction, cover letters, thank you letters, follow up letters, letters to accept an offer, letters to decline offers, and even letters of reference for others. All of this letter writing requires finesse if you want your letters to be read and not simply tossed aside. Here's what you do: - Write an elevator pitch. - Less is more; keep letters short and to the point. - Always write a thank you letter or note. That's it - - 3 career tips to get you through the tough times. Be consistent and kindly persistent - your future will be bright! ========================= Imagine for a moment that you're a vice president running a division and life looks pretty good from your lofty perch in the organization's hierarchy. Then, another executive decides to conduct a "social network analysis" to explore how communication and collaboration occurs in the organization and the resulting diagram shows you to be way out "in left field" practically all alone outside the real communication hubs. Official titles set within traditional hierarchies are a thing of the past when it comes to determining who is in the influential hub of information. The first step in a social network analysis is to survey everyone in your organization. Based on the successful execution of this process by Steve Randle (VP Operations for XO Communications) all you need to ask is this: - Who do you go to for advice or information when assessing a difficult problem or discussing ideas? - Who do you depend on to get your job done? - Who do you communicate with most frequently? - Who is your most valued contact within <fill in the blank with the name of your organization>? Use the responses to these questions to create your social network diagram, or "sociogram", where each node represents a person and the connections between nodes indicate communication between individuals. Analyze the resulting diagram and notice who your major hub is and don't be surprised if it turns out to be someone who is not that high on your original hierarchical org-chart. The more central this person is within your sociogram, the more interconnected this person is - - hence, the more valuable this person is in terms of information and access to resources (including C-Level executives). Sociograms can also reveal negative traits of your organization such as the existence of communication "silos". But, you can turn things around by determining where communication can be increased and where cross-functional groups can perform more efficiently by better connections. ================================================
Are you organized enough to have a prioritized to-do list but can't find it because it's buried somewhere beneath the piles of paper on your desk? If so, this is a perfect time to shift your organizational skills into high gear and "spring clean" your way to a more productive business operation. On your mark:
Get set:
Go!
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The worst
thing about the miracle of modern communications is the Pavlovian pressure it
places upon everyone to communicate whenever a bell rings. - -
Russell Baker,
London Times
How to kick the "crackberry" habit.
(February 2008)
There are some great career-focused self-improvement things to
put on your "to-do" list for 2008. One of those things requires your attention
to "Blackberry-mania" and how to deal with information overload.
More and more people are saying they are bombarded by too much
information. Not only that, but nearly as many are saying that they
cannot figure out which information is current, let alone understand the value
of the information they do receive.
An interesting finding comes from the Burton Group report:
"Expectations for responsiveness have increased; individuals feel an
instinctive need to immediate gratification", sighting that this may be
coupled with employees who need to feel wanted and to confirm that they are an
integral part of the decision-making process, known as the "Crackberry
effect".
Information overload can lead to serious personal and
organization problems including an inability to focus on business basics.
Ignoring context of information can lead to errors in judgments, findings, and
result in erroneous conclusions and bad decisions.
So what can you do?
1. Schedule email time.
Set aside a short (10 minutes or so) duration of time a few times a day to
read your incoming email.
2. Turn your email notifier off.
It's easy to become conditioned to any alarm on a regular basis, so stop the
impulse to see what just arrived in your inbox by turning off your email
chimes.
3. Reduce Blackberry usage.
If you find it difficult to go "cold turkey", just limit your use to a set
schedule during the day. If at all possible, instead of responding to
messages as they come, find time during your schedule to initiate
communication when you get a quiet moment.
Finally, there is the Bill Gates approach to handling
information overload - - the information retreat called a "Think Week".
Apparently, Gates sets aside a week on a bi-annual basis to thoroughly engulf
himself in books and articles accumulated by his assistants. According
to Jack Santos (Burton Group), "This accomplishes two things: It keeps
him current in a 'crash course' type of environment, and (for him) ferments a
creative brew of ideas that translate to strategic initiatives for Microsoft."
Find an information management method that works for you and
see what a difference it can make in your productivity - - -
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I loved work and I loved pouring myself
into the work, you know. It was the real life that I had trouble with. - -
Roseanne Barr, Larry King Live, Mar. 2,
2006
A Sensible Approach to Work-Life Balance (June 2007)Work-life balance is a popular goal with many people today. Most will tell you that it is not an easy thing to accomplish, if ever. It does not happen over night, over a week, or over a month. It is actually a process that reaches far beyond looking at achieving a "50-50 play/work" lifestyle. It's about looking at the long term sustainability of yourself in terms of your physical and emotional health. Here are a few sensible tips to help you become "sustainable". Make serious time for introspection - This is the hardest step to take because it requires courage to take a long hard look at just how serious your situation is. Avoid the knee jerk reaction of escaping a frustrating situation by first assessing the reality of it. For instance; is your email inbox overflowing and out of control because you need to find a way to stop checking your email into the late hours of the evening or wee hours of the next morning or, do you need to make a career move? Take a hard look at your priorities to find out "where you want to go with your life". Ask yourself "what things in life give me energy, what things flat out drain my energy?" No one will know what you want better than you do. Create and Maintain Boundaries - Creating work/play boundaries is one thing; maintaining them is a whole other ball game! Maintaining boundaries is where most people fall down, so help yourself succeed by setting realistic boundaries and build from there.
Be an Example for Others - If you want to maintain a high performance team, you need to give them time to sustain their energy level as well as you do (if not better than you do). Sure, we worked long hard days and pretty much loved every minute of it; but I always encouraged others to "take a break" or "call it a day" when necessary. And, I knew that they would not take my advice unless I practiced what I preached. This was a very hard thing for me to do; being a Recovering Type-A Perfectionist Workaholic; I can say it was the best thing I ever did. Being a positive example for others who look to you as a leader is the most honest and integral way to earn their trust. Remember It's a Process, Not a Task - You will probably spend a long time trying to change your behavior to accomplish a sensible and sustainable lifestyle. It will require diligence and a ton of self-discipline on your part. But, it will not break you to face things head on if you look at how these small changes you make in your life right now can have a big impact on your life in the long run. It's the Butterfly Effect; Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? (Philip Merilees, 1972) Try it and find out!
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Send mail to lorraine@rwcs.biz with questions or
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