The Focus Factor

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Several years ago, my youngest son won his first two matches to advance to the semi-finals of the Wisconsin State wrestling tournament the next day. Prior to his heading to the tournament we talked about what he wanted to accomplish at the tournament. This was a continuation of a discussion that began at the start of the season when he thought about… and… actually put his goals for the season in writing. Certainly not anything I ever did as a kid!

Our discussion got me thinking about how we often fail to have discussions about development goals with our kids… or our employees. The discussions tend to be more spur of the moment… not that it’s a bad thing to have discussions when the moment arises… but certainly no substitute for structured discussions that force the parties to think about where they want to go in their career.

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About the Author

Jeff Kortes is known as the ‘No Nonsense Guy.’ He is the President of Human Asset Management LLC, a human resource consulting firm specializing in executive search and leadership training. He has trained hundreds of first-line supervisors, managers, and executives during his career. His approach to training is no-nonsense, and practical.

Jeff is also a member of the National Speakers Association and a regular speaker on the topics of retention, recruiting and leadership. For more information, visit www.SlugProofYourTeam.com.

Awareness of Actual Circumstances Versus Impervious Optimism

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Why is an awareness of actual circumstances so hard – and what makes it so important – for leaders to see the world as it really is? Let’s look as some examples of leaders who have addressed this question.

When we think of all the responsibility, setbacks, and other difficulties that a leader must face in today’s work environment, the need for an underlying optimism is hardly surprising. But that optimism, something that is widely viewed as a valuable personality trait, can be an Achilles’ heel for leaders.

Optimism is a much more complicated concept than we often realize. Consider the following illustration involving a former employee of mine.

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About the Author

Justin Menkes is an acclaimed author and leading expert in executive assessment. A consultant for the influential executive search firm Spencer Stuart, he and his colleagues advise the boards of the world’s leading companies on their choice of CEO. He authored The Wall Street Journal bestseller Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have and has written articles for Chief Executive and the Harvard Business Review. To read Justin Menkes’ complete biography, click here.

My First Date Was A Phone Interview

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Looking for a new career? Your phone interviewing skills could be the deciding factor in getting a live interview. The phone interview is KEY to your job campaign success.

Think of the phone interview as a first date. Going out for an ice cream is a great first date: cheap, easy and noncommittal.

If the ‘ice cream’ date goes well, then you may want to spend more time and money on the person so you move on to a dinner or a movie date.

A phone interview is an easy, cost effective way for a company to say, I’m interested in talking with you – similar to an ice cream date. If a company really loves you, the organization would schedule a formal ‘face to face’ interview in the office, spend more time and money on you… similar to a movie or dinner date. Only if you make a great ‘phone interview’ impression will you get a second date.

Here are tips to improve your phone interviewing skills:

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About the Authors

Paul Bailo, MBA, MSW, Ph.D. (candidate) is the founder and CEO of Phone Interview Pro – a service for job seekers who want to perfect their telephone job interviewing skills. Paul recognized that while resume, interview preparation, and target company research assistance are commonly offered by outplacement and career counseling organizations, the importance of the telephone interview is often overlooked. In response to this, Phone Interview Pro has created a 250+ point phone evaluation not seen in the career services industry… until now! This is not only a new company, but also a whole new industry; it’s exciting for us, of course, but the real excitement generated by Phone Interview Pro will come from those who hone their skills using the service. To read Paul’s complete biography, click here.

Six Steps that Invent the Future

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Companies who succeed in today’s volatile business economy must learn to conquer obstacles like a championship basketball team in a ‘FastBreak’ overcoming the insecurities that hold them back and responding instantly to the flow of the game.

Before leaders can accomplish anything, they must first understand themselves and present reality, challenge their own thinking, communicate a well thought out and concise strategic direction and define a clear and actionable plan for execution.

A leader must make the final call. To make that call with confidence a leader must know the answer and/or know how to find the answer, and must communicate in a compelling manner that is clear, simple and concrete. Only then, will his team have the faith to follow and achieve the company’s objectives.

The following six guidelines provide a roadmap for surpassing common business hurdles to achieve success and invent a well-designed future reality for your business or life. These steps work for everything from building a porch of the front of your house, to creating a great company, or nation.

Six Steps to Inventing the Future:

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About the Author

Paul David Walker, CEO of Genius Stone Partners, was part of the first to create a leadership firm designed to align strategy, structure and culture to fortify some of the largest companies in the United States including Star-Kist Foods, Rockwell International, Conexant Systems, Chase, Anne Kline and New York Life. His own genius lies in integrating business strategy and philosophical insights, guiding the leadership of major companies with a holistic approach that allows them to grow grounded, stable and balanced – and ultimately, become much more successful leaders. Some of the most influential leaders in American business have relied on him for expert guidance since 1984. To read Paul David Walker’s complete biography, click here.

The Happiness Advantage: Escaping the Cult of the Average

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Excerpt from The Happiness Advantage…

The graph below (see Figure 1) may seem boring, but it is the very reason I wake up excited every morning. (Clearly, I live a very exciting life.) It is also the basis of the research underlying this book. This is a scatter-plot diagram. Each dot represents an individual, and each axis represents some variable.

This particular diagram could be plotting anything: weight in relation to height, sleep in relation to energy, happiness in relation to success, and so on. If we got this data back as researchers, we would be thrilled because very clearly there is a trend going on here, and that means that we can get published, which in the academic world is all that really matters. The fact that there is one weird red dot – what we call an outlier – up above the curve is no problem. It’s no problem because we can just delete it. We can delete it because it’s clearly a measurement error – and we know that it’s an error because it’s screwing up our data.

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About the Author

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, spent over a decade at Harvard University where he won numerous distinguished teaching awards for his work. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a Masters from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. In 2006, he was Head Teaching Fellow for ‘Positive Psychology,’ the most popular course at Harvard at the time. In 2007, Shawn founded Good Think Inc. to share his research with a wider population. When the global economy collapsed in 2008, Shawn was immediately called in as an expert by the world’s largest banks to help restart forward progress. Subsequently, Shawn has spoken in 45 countries to a wide variety of audiences: bankers on Wall Street, students in Dubai, CEOs in Zimbabwe. Shawn’s research on happiness and human potential have received attention from the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Forbes, CNN, and NPR. To read Shawn Anchor’s full biography, click here.