Friday, May 29, 2020

Top Qualities for being a Great and Powerful Leader

Top Qualities for being a Great and Powerful Leader Home career Top Qualities for being a Great and Powerful LeadercareerTop Qualities for being a Great and Powerful LeaderBy Suramyaa Tewari - February 18, 20202840Facebook There is no doubt that there are several spheres of work and life where leadership and hierarchy is followed. The presence of a hierarchical system automatically places the image of a leader before us. John C. Maxwell defines leadership, “a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” No matter what, the success or failure of an event, group, task, project, etc. depends largely on the leader of the group. A great leader is a person who is budding with futuristic ideas and knows how to bring these into realities and emerge successfully. Following are a few qualities that can help one become a great leader and rise among the masses.Confidence Contents hide 1 Confidence 2 Honesty and Integrity 3 Vision and Purpose 4 Delegation 5 Inspiring Others 6 Decision Making Abilities 7 You have it in you! In order to be a great leader, you should be confident in all that you do and about your decisions. You should be confident that the group shall follow your commands. If you are not confident or are unsure about your own qualities and decisions, those who belong to your group as your subordinates will not be confident about your commands and about you. In order to be a great leader, you should be very confident in all your approaches and be assertive in your instructions in order to get the work done successfully and gain the respect of all those who are a part of your group as your subordinates.Honesty and Integrity Honesty and integrity of character are such qualities that make the best leaders. In order to be a good and a successful leader, integrity becomes the utmost trait to be in possession. Honesty and integrity become important be it in the office, on the sports field, in defense, or any other strata. For leaders lacking these two essential qualities, they cannot expect their subordinates to be completely honest to you as well as to the work assigned to them. You can become a good leader when you are ethical and honest and you carry your value system with you at all times. Without integrity and honesty, you cannot expect to be a good and respected leader.Also see: Hacks of Being a Star Employee in Your New OfficeVision and Purpose Vision and purpose are other two essential ingredients that make a good leader. A great leader is futuristic and has a vision, keeping in mind which he/she moves forward. A good leader not only visualize it for themselves. In fact, they share their vision with all the members of the group as well. It is necessary to share your reasons and purposes, and to share your vision with your followers. This is so because when the followers know the vision and the purpose of things they have clarity of where they are headed and what exactly are they expected to do.A good leader does everything in his/her power to explain the purpose and the activities to be carried out to the followers. He/she shares all the strategies and plans with the followers and keeps them well informed for best output and more success rate.Delegation It is important for a person to know that if he/she is in the position of a leader then it is not possible for you to do everything on your own. Thus, delegation of work becomes an essential becomes if utmost importance for the smooth functioning in achieving the goal. It is important to take over the work that is concerned with the overall responsibility and giving the other smaller tasks to the followers in the group you are the leader of.You need to as a good leader, delegate tasks to your subordinates. Not doing so, can lead to mistrust and you may also lose focus from the more important matters at hand. While delegating over more important issues, observe the way each person completes the responsibility assigned to them. You need to give a chance to all your subordinates to complete their responsibility as you provide them with the necessary resources and give them a chance to prove themselves.Also see: A career in Fashion designing: All you need to know about itInspiring Others One of the most difficult tasks for any leader is to inspire others and motivate them to follow him/her. Inspiring your subordinates can only be done if you set a good example for them. When things at hand might be getting difficult and there is no smoothness, keep in mind that your subordinates will always look up to you in order to see and understand how you approach such a situation. If you are able to handle the situation properly, your subordinates and other members of the group are sure to follow you through it.As a leader it is best to stay positive and motivated and not give in to the pressure. Stay calm and let all of these attributes be reflected in your actions as well. This will not only help you deal with unwanted situations in a more efficient manner but also help you inspire and motivate the others. If you succeed at inspiring your subordinates then you can overcome challenging situations with absolute ease.Decision Making Abilities As a leader, you should be efficient in taking decisions. Other than possessing visionary qualities, a leader should be capable enough of taking the correct decision according to the demands of the time and need of the hour. The decisions that you take as a leader will be really impactful on the masses and the members of the group. A leader should think thoroughly before taking a decision and take good amount of time in doing so. However, once decided on to something, it becomes necessary as a leader, to stand by it.Although, it has been observed that most of the leaders take decisions on their own, it is advised to take an opinion of the members as well as the experts on the team. This way the members will acknowledge that you respect them enough to have a say. You might also ponder over some amazing solution to the problem at hand or this may help you take a better decision.Also see: The Perks of Art TherapyYou have it in you! We hope that this article was useful to all those who aspire to be great leaders in almost all spheres of their life. You possess all that it takes to be a great leader. All you need to do is work on certain areas and skills and keep in mind the qualities mentioned above. Constant effort and work on oneself can be wonderful contributing factors along with the ones mentioned in this article to push you towards success and become a great leader.TAGSpowerful leader defpowerful leader gifpowerful leader imagepowerful leader namespowerful leader quotespowerful lea ders 2018powerful leaders 2019powerful leadershippowerful leadership verbspowerful leadership words

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Want To Be An Effective Employee Heres 3 No-Brainers To Get You Started

Want To Be An Effective Employee Heres 3 No-Brainers To Get You Started How can you be an  effective employee? How can you be an  effective employee? We all want to be good at our jobs. The question is: What do you do when you are thrown into a situation in which you have absolutely no idea what youre doing? The good news is that having no clue what youre doing is something that every professional experiences on a fairly regular basis. What separates the extremely successful people fromthe restis their ability to be an effective employee. What can you do to be uber-successful, uber-productive, and uber-awesome at work in every way? 1. Google It. If you dont know how to do something, Google is your best friend. Learning how to do effective research will save you time, teach you to work independently, increase your overall knowledge, and give you confidence. Googling it is one no-brainer tip that every career girl should employ as often as possible. 2. Ask Questions. The key to asking questions is making sure that they are the right ones. You want to save as much time as possible for everyone involved, so make sure that youve done your research and have as much information as possible available to you before reaching out. Theres nothing more annoying than answering a question for someone that they could have answered for themselves just by putting in a little effort. Want to ask better questions? Read this article to find out how. 3. Keep Trying. One key habit of highly effective people is that they dont give up. When one method doesnt work, they try another. Problem-solving is an invaluable skill that can be nurtured through practice. At the end of the day, the most effective employees have learned how to learn. They know how to do their research, how to ask the right questions, and how to keep trying until they have accomplished what they set out do.   Uber-productive people not only work harder than most, they work smarter. Do you have the qualities of an uber-productive person? Read this to find out. Do you have any no-brainers that you would like to share? Tweet them to me @sncueto or @mscareergirl! Recommended Reading:  [amazon template=productasin=1608820211]

Friday, May 22, 2020

How to have faith in yourself

How to have faith in yourself Sunday nights at our house are dinner with me, the kids, the Farmer and the Ex. They are always fun dinners, and I always feel very lucky for that. My six-year-old talked about his new baby cousin, Eva (who is pictured, in utero, above). She has a terrible name, he said, for Pig Latin. Its Vaeay. It doesnt work. We all do the vowel arranging in our heads and agree, Eva is not a good Pig Latin name. Mom has a great name! Its Enelopepay. The Farmer says, It sounds like it could be the name of her next company. The Ex says, Yeah, emphasis on the pay. The three adults laugh. And then I get nervous. About what Im going to do next. If you have had three companies, people assume you will have a fourth. So I assume that, too. Which makes me nervous. When I was in the doctors office with my son, he was playing his DS and I was looking for something to read to distract myself from the urge to rein in his video game time (I decided that parents who limit video games are delusional.) And I saw this pamphlet that looked like a food pyramid so I grabbed it to get some insight into how to use the food pyramid to make myself not want to eat and lose weight overnight. What I thought was a food pyramid pamphlet was actually a mental health pamphlet. It was a pyramid that had taking care of life goals and meaning of life stuff on the bottom, and the middle part was daily routine mental health stuff like exercise and talking to friendsthe stuff you already know you should do every day. And the top was the immediate stuff. Ways to calm yourself down in the moment. For the most part, the top part was positive self-talk. I am good at the first two, but the immediate stuff Im not good at. In fact, I eat when I am anxious. I found, actually, that drinking is more calming when Im anxious, but eating is more socially acceptable. Xanax is always good, but only if I can sleep the rest of the day. And really, if I have a day where I can sleep then Im probably not anxious. Not that I would ever know. Because I havent had a day where I can sleep the whole day since I became a mother. Anyway, I am trying to find good ways to calm myself down when Im nervous. And I took the pamphlet home to make myself more conscious of what I do in the moment when anxiety arises. Mostly this means that Ive started to tell myself, Oh, look. I must be upset becacause Im eating. But in this moment, at the dining room table, while the kids talked to the dads, I went into the kitchen to calm myself down. And I didnt eat. I practiced positive self-talk. I had rehearsed it before, which is how to prepare for the moment of huge self-doubt. Here are the five points Ive come up with: 1. Stay confident that I am making good choices based on good data. When I started having kids I dropped out of the software industry and the startup world. The moment was similar to me deciding that homeschooling is a non-negotiable. Everyone told me not to drop out and that I was crazy. But I had read a lot about attachment theorythat kids need one, single primary caregiver for the first two years. I realized that its common knowledge among child development experts that kids need a single caregiver for the first two years, but no one wants to be the bearer of this bad news. Because daycare means there are two primary caregivers, at least, which jeopardizes a babys ability to attach. So sending a kid to daycare was out of the question for me. And thats how I feel now, about homeschooling. Even though its wreaking havoc on my career. 2. Remember the times I felt like a failure when it was not true at all. This research made me intensely committed to finding work I could do from home to support the family. Which lead to temporary financial ruin. And I felt like a failure. All my friends in the software industry disappeared because we had nothing to talk about. The writers I met earned so little money that I worried hanging out with them was bad for my career. After a few years, I launched this blog. It got big enough that people who make a lot of money started paying attention to me again. And I didnt feel like a failure anymore. If I could go back to that time, Id tell myself to stop worrying about failure. The worry just makes the change harder, and no one is a failure in the middle of a big change. You cant fail if youre moving toward something. You fail only if you stop. 3. During big transitions, be clear on priorities. I have a startup right now. I started pitching some top-tier VCs Id like to work with and they said the business idea would not grow big enough. So I showed how I can win at the whole online food business because the barrier to entry for selling meat and cheese online is huge and I have a way to get around that. Everyone loved my marketing plan. Except that the business was too small to be funded. There would not be a big enough exit and I cant get great business partners if I dont have huge exit potential. Thats a problem because I want to work only with hotshots. I dont want to work with moms who want jobs on the side. Please God do not strike me down for saying this, but as a mom who is trying to have a really exciting career, I dont want to work with other moms. I want to work with twenty-something men who have no kids and have endless time to address their endless curiosity. So I worked with an angel investor to craft a business plan that moves quickly from online food to online everything. I talk about the future of shopping . It used to be that shopping was exciting because you could find different stuff in different cities. Discovery and exploration are part of shopping. But online, everything is a commodity. People want discovery and they want to feel that what they are buying is special. I say all this to show how my online food business will transform the consumer experience. You need to say that kind of stuff to get A-list partners and A-list funding. 4. Getting what you want means deciding what youll give up. So last month I got a great developer to agree to move forward with me. Last week there was no barrier to me launching my goat cheese business as step one to transforming the American consumer experience. Except that I dont think I can handle talking like this every day for five years. Which is what a startup is: talking like a manic dreamer with crazy ambitions that no one thinks you can really pull off, but some people will take a wild bet on. Thats what it would be. Its so fun. But not with kids. Its so great to have an amazing business partner, but not if they have to chase you down in between playdates. They start to hate you. So I have this business Im not doing. And Im banking on the advice I tell other people, that admitting what wont work to do right now is a step toward figure out what will work to do right now. 5. Keep moving forward and believe youll go somewhere good. I am at an in-between stage, and Ive been here before, so I am going to have faith that Ill come out okay. I am going to have faith that I am not going to wither away and lose my ability to earn a lot of money. I am going to have faith that when I am done with my current identity crisis there will be top-performers all around me. I coach so many people in their 20s who are lost, and they are worried that their feeling lost will never end. And I tell them to just keep trying jobs until one sticks. Have patience and believe that youll figure things out. This is true for me, too. Right now. The more times you live through that feeling of being lost, the more faith you have that youll keep moving forward and come out fine. You know what makes me happy right now? My sister-in-law had a baby after losing her first one. Im really happy for her. And my small, odd family has fun dinners together. And focusing on the stuff that definitely feels good gives me faith to trust that eventually I can put the pay in Enelopepay.

Monday, May 18, 2020

Teases, Code Words, and Dances for Holiday Branding - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Teases, Code Words, and Dances for Holiday Branding - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career “Can I just relax now?” you’re asking. “I’ve been working hard all year building my career, my brand, and my job. I’m going home for the holidays and I need a break.” Okay. You can have one for a little while, but your Holiday Branding Elf (me) asks that you don’t waste golden opportunities in the meantime. How do you continue to build your brand, or not, when you’re “off duty”? Don’t push it with the family Okay, here’s where you can take your break. Your family doesn’t really want to hear how you are the thought leader for the free world about the latest financial derivatives product. Holidays ? Selling. The irony is that family and friends often know the least about our work life. You’ll see this playing out all of the time with your family or golf buddies not thinking about giving you the referral that they ran across because your brand wasn’t embedded in their subconscious. The objective over the holidays, therefore, is to catch up with them, drop in a couple of “teases,” and to plant code words that help embed your brand in their memories for future access. Teasing, a family tradition The type of response you want from teasing your siblings has changed. Instead of evoking retaliation or humiliation, your conversations will now tease listeners to ask more questions. When you evolve your teasing into “implied successes stories with a modest twist,” you subtly implant your brand for post-holiday results. “Yeah, I’m dead. Thanks for asking. The article I wrote in the fall about the ‘next big thing’ in derivatives generated a lot of interest from the government and media. That’s the good news. The bad news is that keeping on top of my day-job is eliminating any sleeping. I’ll probably taper off of the hyperactive drugs in a month or two.” Humor gets bonus points. You planted multiple teases in that story. If they don’t ask questions, they’re beyond hope. Change the topic to football. Planting code words Your family and friends are primarily interested in you on a personal level, thank heavens. Isn’t it nice that someone loves us? If you’d like to implant some “delayed release” branding, however, now that you have a face-to-face chance, you may feel the love after the holidays for your professional side as well. Planting “code words” that will trigger your brand when you’re not around is the secret. “May I give out your name to the next company I hear talking about outplacement?” a friend of mine asked, knowing of my work and that word-of-mouth is the best referral going. “Thanks,” was my response. “I’d appreciate it.” “To avoid a ‘Heard on the Street’ type situation, however, when it’s too late to buy a company’s stock because it’s success is now public knowledge, could I get you to listen for some early-warning-sign words as well? ‘I may need to terminate someone’ or ‘Results haven’t been great so we may need to reduce costs’ are  leading indicators of layoffs and outplacement. If it’s comfortable to do an e-intro for me with that person, I can take it from there. Thanks!” I just embedded code words of “terminate,” “layoff” and “reduce costs” that will trigger our conversation later on. Avoid going for words like, “job openings,” however, but rather for the conditions that might create them. After you’ve done your branding work, switch to talking about their kids. Dancing the two-step Which brings me to my final point: you’re dancing constantly during the holidays, not just when the music starts. This dancing is about switching which partner is leading and in charge. Talking about what you’re doing and interested in is fine…it would be a hollow holiday if everyone stayed at a superficial level all of the time. Turning the lead over frequently to your conversational partner, however, asking your relatives and friends about their lives, then listening lets both sides gain and learn from the conversation. I’ve seen job seekers try to drag leads out of friends that the friends didn’t have, so the job seekers were avoided after that. Those job seekers are going to dance alone. You’re not. You’re good at the two-step, so will have on-going partners. You can honestly surmount your own pressures to focus on others, laugh, and embed teases and code words while dancing during your conversations. You’re creating your brand for the long term and having fun in the process. Happy holidays from your Holiday Branding Elf. Author: Pam Lassiter is author of the award winning  The New Job Security and Principal of   Lassiter Consulting, a career coaching firm doing outplacement or internal growth programs for companies or individuals.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Is Your LinkedIn Profile 100% Complete - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Is Your Profile 100% Complete You may be wondering what 100% complete is, and why it even matters. When your profile meets their criteria for completeness, your profile is  more likely to land higher in search results. Your visibility increases dramatically. Executive recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies are more likely to land on your profile when theyre sourcing and assessing  good-fit candidates. In mid-February, changed  the completeness criteria and the way they calculate profile completeness: The new calculation gives you more control of your score by emphasizing things you have direct control over, like Skills, and putting less weight on areas you may have less control over, like Recommendations. The score also takes profile freshness into consideration, so frequent profile updates can now help with profile completeness. Heres what you now need for a complete profile: Your industry and location An up-to-date current position (with a description) Two past positions Your education Your skills (minimum of 3) A profile photo At least 50 connections says that adding a profile photo makes your profile 7x more likely to be found in searches. Having your 2 most recent positions makes your profile 12x more likely to be found. Looks like its time for you and all of us who rely on to attract business and job opportunities, to spend a little time working on our profiles. Related posts: My free ebook, Executive Branding and Your Profile: How to Transform Your Executive Brand, Resume, and Career Biography Into a Winning Profile Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search Does My Profile Really Need a Photo? Best Tips: Find Groups to Join photo by nan palmero 00 0

Monday, May 11, 2020

How Does Time Tracking for Freelancers Work 6 Apps Freelancers Should Use - CareerAlley

How Does Time Tracking for Freelancers Work 6 Apps Freelancers Should Use - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Working as a freelancer has huge benefits like flexible hours and the freedom to work without a boss breathing down your neck. Thats why 57 million people in the US are doing it. Yet, time truly is money when you work for yourself and it does tend to disappear rapidly at times. Time tracking for freelancers is an essential part of the daily grind. It helps you to manage your tasks and learn how to stop the hours running away from you. Heres how to keep control and stay accountable for every minute of the day. Working as a freelancer has huge benefits like flexible hours and the freedom to work without a boss breathing down your neck. That's why 57 million people in the US are doing it. Tweet This Time Tracking for Freelancers 101 These time tracking apps dont work like the payroll reporting programs used by businesses. They simply keep a watchful eye on how you spend your time in front of your computer. For example, we all know about the time-eating vortex of social media. A time tracker records how much of your day these sites really take up. These are our top 6 freelance time tracker apps. Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash 1. Rescue Time This is one of the easiest time trackers to use. You simply download it, allocate different websites and apps according to work or play and leave it. Rescue time sends you a gentle reminder every week about time spent on work or distraction. This helps you to set goals and boundaries for yourself and improve your productivity during work hours. 2. TSheets Tsheets helps when it comes to billing time. This app tracks and date stamps the activity on each of your client accounts, so you always have proof in the event of a query or audit. This mobile app also gives your clients the ability to track your whereabouts when you say youre working. 3. Toggl Toggl integrates with over 100 web applications so you can log time from different browsers. It lets you know when deadlines are approaching or overdue too. The app provides visual reports of your time expenditure based on tasks and time vs pricing. You have heard it numerous times planning is crucial for everything, and it should be included in terms of your career. Having a great career action plan is the right move to jumpstart your career or make the necessary changes to achieve your long-term goals. Consider professional plans that are worth considering. 4. Due One of the most basic time trackers around, Due acts a self-activated counter for billing purposes. You simply start the time when you begin work for a specific client and stop it at the end of your session. Due keeps track of idle time too, in case you forget to hit the pause button for any reason. 5. Sighted Sighted works in a similar fashion to Due except it takes the manual labor out of billing. As soon as you mark a job as complete, Sighted creates the invoice and sends it off. This can save a lot of time for math-challenged creatives who spend hours agonizing about invoicing. Image by U. Leone from Pixabay 6. Harvest Harvest integrates well with other remote apps like Basecamp and is ideal if youre splitting your time between projects. This app can monitor how much time you spend on each client without your intervention, even if youre charging different rates. Making the Most of Your Time Now that youve learned how to take the pain out of time tracking for freelancers, why not subscribe to our newsletter for regular doses of more useful career advice. We have many helpful resources for anyone who wants to grow their career, whether youre working for a boss, looking for a new job, or going it alone. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

Friday, May 8, 2020

How to Master Your Next Job Interview - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

How to Master Your Next Job Interview As your career evolves, so does the interview process. The types of questions you’ll face in interviews for executive-level positions will be much different and tougher than those you encountered earlier in your career. Regardless of your professional experience, it’s important to thoroughly prepare for any job interview. Here are a few things that you can do before and during your next job interview to show that you’re a great fit for the job. Play the role of interviewer The hiring process for an executive-level position can take longer than your standard position. You will likely need to meet with several people from different departments. With that being said, it’s important to stay engaged through every phase. During this time, you should make a sincere effort to get to know the people you meet. Even if you don’t end up working for their company, these people could prove to be valuable contacts for your professional network. During interviews, be prepared to do some interviewing of your own, when appropriate. This is your opportunity to gather important details about the company and gain insight into any specific challenges the company may be facing. In return, this will allow you to provide more thoughtful, solutions-focused responses as you move through each step of the interview process. Expand on answers During the interview process, you’ll likely be asked a few situational questions that present hypothetical scenarios. This line of questioning helps the interviewer get a feel for how you may react to challenges once you’re on the job. The interviewer may also ask for actual examples of how you’ve handled a variety of situations in your current and previous positions. Even if you’re just answering basic questions about decisions you’ve made on previous projects or tasks, most hiring managers will expect you to expand on your responses to provide more details or context. Think of this as an opportunity to describe your critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Dress appropriately The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. Within seconds of meeting you, your interviewer will be making a judgement of you based on what you’re wearing and how you look. This is why it’s essential to dress appropriately for a job interview. Typically, you’ll want to wear professional or business attire. For men, this might mean a suit and tie, or a sweater and button down. For women, this might mean a professional dress, or a nice blouse and dress pants. If you’re shopping for a new interview outfit, stay away from clothing that is too bright or flashy to avoid distracting the hiring manager. Make sure that you feel comfortable in whatever you choose to wear and that everything fits properly. You don’t have to break the bank to look professional at your interview either, especially if you’re on a budget! Consider shopping at secondhand stores like thredUP, who offer a variety of clothing options from top brands that provide the professional look you want at a lower cost. Highlight your interpersonal skills For hiring managers, it’s important that the people they bring into executive roles are a good fit with the existing company culture. Therefore, you should expect that a significant portion of your interview process will be dedicated to determining whether or not you’re a good fit for the company. Hiring managers will want to spend time assessing more than your technical skills and expertise in order to get an overall sense of your leadership traits. For example, work environments are more collaborative today than ever before. In order to collaborate effectively with your peers, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate that you have strong interpersonal and communication skills. Be sure to provide examples of how you’ve applied these skills to drive positive outcomes in work situations in the past. Author bio: Nora Banks is a freelance writer who is passionate about sustainable living. When shes not researching her next topic, she can be found tending her garden.