Finding Inspiration at Your Job Building Your Future Now

Finding Inspiration at Your Job Building Your Future Now Do you sometimes feel that there is only work.at work? It is important to feel that you are learning, being valued and finding some kind of inspiration wherever you are. Even if you consider your job just a job next time you go in try and look around. When you start to talk to other employees or discover other parts of work. Find out what your boss does on their spare time. If you are able to talk to ownership, ask them about how they started the business. Its all about rediscovering your work environment. When you know your surroundings betterthe people and their lives you sometimes get a better grasp of what you are truly doing at work and your career. Find inspiration at your job As discussed, if you feel your job is just a job try to look at it in a different perspective. Talk to people at work and get to know them better. Create a community there and build relationshipsits a way of making your job into a positive area. And one of the ultimate things you can do is find inspiration therestories; team building exercises and moments you can chat with others. Inspiration is key to making your job into something special. Image: Obbarredas

Financial Checklist for Young Professionals

Financial Checklist for Young Professionals So, you’ve graduated from college and landed your first professional job. Could life be any more promising than it is at this exact moment? No more cramming for finals. No more scraping money together to go out with your friends. Spending your days in your career instead of preparing for it. Now that you’ve made it this far, what should you focus on next? Enter the young professional financial checklist. If you’re not married and don’t have kids, then right now is probably the most financially free you’ll ever be. And if you put a little bit of money aside each month towards future goals, you’ll see the impact in a big way later. Do this and your 30-year-old self will thank you profusely. Financial Checklist: Set a Spending Plan Wondering why I didn’t say budget? Because budgets are boring spending plans are fun! Now that you have a salary, think about where you want your money to go. If you don’t track it, you may end up spending it on things you could care less about without even realizing it. So start with the amount you take home each month and subtract your bills. What’s left? And what do you want to do with it? I’m sharing some important options below. Once you allocate your money to the important stuff, see if you have any left over and start saving for more fun goals. You’re a lot likelier to make that dream of a month-long trip to Europe happen if you stick to a spending plan. Financial Checklist: Emergency Fund With spending plan in place you can now build an emergency fund. Whether the economy is good or bad, you never know what can happen to your job or your company (or if you’ll still want your job in a year or two). There are varying time spans you can plan for, with the minimum at three months of living expenses but six months to one year being the ideal. Take the amount of monthly bills you added up in your spending plan and multiply it by 3, 6, or 12. That number will show you how much you need to live for a certain period of time. Once you’ve decided how big of a cushion you want, put a designated amount of money aside each month until this is fully funded.  After that, any other savings should go into a separate account. The emergency fund should never be touched. Financial Checklist: Student Debt Payoff Plan After your emergency fund is in place, the next step is to pay off debt. Strategize your student loan repayment because, unfortunately, the payment plan you were put on after graduation will probably cost you a lot more later. (Sometimes over the lifespan of the loan, you could even see yourself paying almost double the original amount!) To start, put whatever you were saving to build an emergency fund on top of your monthly minimum due on your student loan. Since you’re already used to not having that money to spend, this should be an easy transition. If this is too tight of a squeeze or you need help with this, you can use programs like ReadyForZero to automate your payoff strategy and keep you on track. Side note:  if you have credit card debt, pay this off first. There are a few reasons for this: 1) the credit card most likely has a higher interest rate and 2) you’ll get a tax break for your student loans but not for your credit card. Financial Checklist: Get Acquainted with Your Credit Report This one is easy, but also very important. Request your free credit report each year and check it thoroughly for errors. Also make sure all the accounts in your name are accounts you opened. This is a proactive way to catch identity theft and to make sure that your score is correct. So get and stay acquainted with your credit report. Financial Checklist: Retirement Fund Last but not least: save for retirement. I know it sounds crazy I certainly wasn’t thinking about retirement in my early 20s but the sooner you get started, the better off you’ll be. If your employer offers a 401k, max out the percentage they match. Not doing this would literally be turning down free money. If your company doesn’t offer a 401k, go to your local bank and open up an IRA. To be honest, you don’t even have to save much. Thanks to compound interest you’ll end up with more money later if you start saving a little bit now than you would if you start saving a lot at 30. Plug some numbers into this compound interest calculator to see just how powerful early savings can be. We don’t all get a handle on our finances at such a young age. I myself am seven years late in taking care of this checklist. If only I’d known better when I first graduated from college, I’d feel a lot less stress now! That’s why I’m giving you the advice I so wish someone had given me. So go out there and enjoy these awesome years, but don’t forget about these goals as you go! Image Credit:  thetaxhaven

Personal Branding Interview Mark Goulston - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Mark Goulston - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Mark Goulston, M.D., who is a business advisor, consultant, trainer and coach trained as a clinical psychiatrist and author of the new book, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone.   In this interview, Mark compares listening and speaking, goes over the elements of persuasion, shares some tips for getting attention at work and more. Mark, can you compare listening and speaking. Which is more important during a networking situation and why? Your partner, spouse or kids are not the only ones who don’t want an unsolicited opinion or advice or to be convinced of something. The people you meet in a networking situation actually feel the same even though paradoxically they want something from you. Is that difficult to believe? How would you feel if someone overtly (vs. covertly) said to you without being asked: “I’m here to sell you on hiring me or purchasing my service or product.” Your goal in a networking situation is to say the least possible that will spontaneously trigger a response such as, “How do you do that?” or “Tell me more,” or “I need to follow up with you; what’s the best way to get in touch with you?” or “Can I call you tomorrow?” or “Are you accepting new clients or customers?” Speaking more than you listen, jumping to conclusions, and interrupting people are highly unlikely to generate the responses above. What will generate those responses is asking questions and then listening intently to the answers in a way that shows genuine interest in the other person. In doing so, this will trigger reciprocal interest in you except in the case of “dyed in the wool” takers with whom you should be careful about revealing too much. Sample questions that trigger spontaneous responses from others include: Show your interest in the service or product: “What do you (or your service or product or company) do, and who do you do it for, and when?” Go deeper and show an interest in another individual as a person: “How did you get into that?” “What’s the best part of what you do?” One of my favourite questions (I can get away with this as a psychiatrist, but when you have time you can also ask it) is: “Where and from who did you learn the best lessons on how to succeed in life, and what were those lessons?” This last question is terrific, because it causes the other person to remember someone they feel grateful to and what they feel grateful about…and at some level they will be grateful to you for giving them the chance to feel it. What is the relationship between listening and persuading someone to do something? Everybody functions as if they were in a silo. And every silo looks at the world differently. When you try to persuade someone without knowing or caring where that person is coming from (because you too are blinded by your siloed view of the world), it’s like entering that persons room or office without knocking. Listening deeply earns you the right to persuade people to do something. I usually make the transition between listening and persuading transparently (vs. sneakily) by saying to someone after I have heard them out, “Might I make an observation from what you’ve said?” At that point I can summarize what I’ve heard and then come to a conclusion that begs for a solution. For instance, I may say: “I’ve heard that you want to accomplish such and such a goal by year-end, but I’ve also heard that your people may not be skilled enough to pull it off and so I wonder what training you have in place for them to get up to speed?” How do you break through emotional barricades by listening and what results will you receive? It’s what I call, “listening with my eyes,” and commenting on a barricade or roadblock I am noticing. So if someone seems resistant to something we have spoken about that makes patent and obvious sense, I might say: “I see you nodding that what we are talking about makes sense, and yet I perceive something is holding you back. What question haven’t I asked or situation haven’t we addressed that if we addressed, would address and ease some of the reluctance you are having right now about our moving forward with this?” The key is that when the other person begins to tell you about their internal reservations, you acknowledge those reservations instead of bulldozing through them. Invite the other person into collaboration to solve their reservations. You can do so by saying something like: “I understand exactly where you’re coming from and your hesitation. Since you have agreed that what we’re talking about makes sense, how might we resolve or work around that issue that is causing you to hesitate?” What are your top three tips for making your manager or co-workers pay attention and care about your work? A lob into the future. Ask your manager or co-workers to imagine it is a year down the road and they are evaluating the past year. Say, “It was much better than any of us could have expected and we dodged a few bullets that we normally would not have paid attention to.” After they agree to do that, ask them to answer: “What happens this year to make that so?” Finally, articulate with them how and where what you do will play a critical role in that success. Anticipatory Performance Review Training. Say to your boss or co-worker, “At my next performance review I am looking to have everyone who weighs in on it to say, ‘Give him a promotion and more money.’ What results will I need to get for that to occur?” Whatever they say, repeat it exactly back to them and wait for a confirmatory, “Yes.” A confirmatory “Yes” deepens their commitment to giving you the promotion or raise when you achieve those results. To make those results more achievable for you say to them: “In the event going forward I see that I need additional training or that I have to let go of some other projects I’m working on, and you may need to run interference for me, what’s the best way to elicit support from you on either issue?” Earning respect gets you noticed. Say to your manager or co-worker that you have made a commitment to improve your performance, increase your results and the respect that people have for you and would like their help. Therefore you would like them to point out three things you should always do and three negative things you should never do that would cause them to increase their respect for you and also probably impact on your performance and results. How have you built your own personal brand? I am still a medical doctor at heart, because what still drives me in my relationships with other people is to listen deeply to them. My goal is to be of service to the other person without keeping score of what I am getting in return. Because of my natural inclination to be of service to others, it is important for me to select people to be involved with who are reciprocal by nature. I have developed relationships with some of the top CEO’s in the country by practicing exactly that. I never sell them on anything; I always try to make their lives better. With time and after they realize that I have no hidden agenda they spontaneously reciprocate and want to help make my life better. And as MasterCard might say, “Generosity from a Fortune 500 CEO…priceless.” Mark Goulston, M.D. is a business advisor, consultant, trainer and coach trained as a clinical psychiatrist.   He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and was named one of America’s Top Psychiatrists for 2004-2005 and again in 2009 by Washington, D.C. based Consumers’ Research Council of America.   A partial list of companies and organizations he has trained, spoken to, provided executive coaching to or consulted with include: GE, IBM, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch.   He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches and is the best selling author of four books including Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (AMACOM, 2009), is a contributor to Harvard Business, blogs for the Huffington Post, writes the Tribune media syndicated column, Solve Anything with Dr. Mark, column on leadership for FAST COMPANY, Directors Monthly. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with regard to contemporary business, national and world news by television, radio and print media including: Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, Los Angeles Times, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox/CNN/BBC News, Oprah, Today.

6 Essential Elements of Online Business Security - Classy Career Girl

6 Essential Elements of Online Business Security The world of eCommerce is growing faster than ever before. According to statistics gathered by AdWeek, the world of eCommerce generates roughly 1.2 million dollars every 30 seconds. While eCommerce giants like eBay and Amazon soak up most of the money, small companies can still make a lot of money online in today’s day and age. Of course, starting a business is definitely not an easy job, no matter how small is it. And one of the biggest problems most first-time entrepreneurs seem to ignore is security. A recent CSIS report has revealed that every year, cybercrimes costs the US economy around $455 billion â€" and SMBs are often attractive targets for these kinds of criminals. Why? you may ask. Simply because they tend to have much weaker security than their major counterparts. And that’s why you should focus your attention on preventing these criminals at the very beginning in order to prevent any problems down the line. 6 Essential Security Tips For Your Online Business 1. Human Error is a Big Problem Before talk about any protection methods, you have to realize that human error plays a major part in almost every security breach. This means that in most cases, one of your employees will be the weakest link in your security chain. According to a recent IBM study, around 95% of all incidents involve a human error in one way or another. Most people download apps from untrusted sources  and use personal devices for business purposes. More importantly, they are ignorant about most threats. 2. Cultivating a Security Culture Naturally, if you want to reduce errors, your workforce has to completely understand the importance of security. This, of course, applies to companies of all sizes. You have to work with your team and make an honest effort to educate your employees on the importance of security policies. Usually, you also need to instruct them on how to use different security tools. 3. Organizing your Workforce Even once your employees start learning about different protective measures, it still doesn’t mean they’ll share that information amongst each other. Recently, vArmour conducted a survey that revealed that more 50% of IT professionals don’t share any information with their co-workers. Making sure that every single person in your teams collaborates and works together on your protective strategies should be your top priority. You should also try organizing an intelligence sharing network of peers. Try to connect with as many companies as possible to exchange information about various problems and solutions. [RELATED: How Safe Is Your Company Data?] 4. Establishing Management Strategies As soon as you learn enough about cybercriminals, you’ll understand that practically every single attack is neatly thought-out, strategized, and executed. In fact, the United Nations estimate that 80% of cyber-attacks are run by well-organized crews with years of experience. If you want to be one step ahead of criminals, you need to have a plan for as many attacks as possible. You need to establish a strategic approach to your protection policies and tactics. Your office environment should operate as an integrated defense. 5. Working on Your Policies Today, everyone uses a mobile device on a daily basis. More and more organizations are implementing mobile apps into their business processes. Because of that, you have to be extra-cautious about certain vulnerabilities. Recent Alcatel-Lucent research has shown that,  at any given moment, 11 million mobile devices around the world are infected with malware, spyware, and ransomware. In addition, numerous other risks are associated with smartphones and tablets. If you want to have your company completely safe from malicious software that lurks on the Web, create a sound mobile policy that limits the dangers. 6. Choosing the Right Agencies Last but not least, you have put a lot of thought into your security service provider. You need a company that provides inexpensive solutions with a seamless upgrade path. A company that demands ridiculous amounts of money for a  single upgrade is simply unacceptable. You also need to have unlimited access to skilled IT professionals that can help you and your workers respond to any security issues they encounter. Final Thoughts Finally, keep in mind that most cybercriminals today are aware of all of these protective measures. They are always looking for new ways to attack you. For that reason, you have to be on your toes at all times if you want to successfully prevent any attacks on your servers and protect your intellectual property. So don’t stop learning about both the risks and the prevention steps you need to take.

Why Team Building Should Never be Just a Formal Checklist - CareerMetis.com

Why Team Building Should Never be Just a Formal Checklist Image Source: Unsplash.comUpon hearing the term ‘team building’, most people think about fun activities like paintball or going out to a company sponsored dinner, all expenses paid, during which employees get a chance to socialize more outside work as well. While these are beneficial for multiple reasons, meaningful team building relies on much more than that.evalWorking with a young and dedicated group of people is immensely rewarding both creatively and financially, but it can also become tricky to manage. Thus, you need to know how to bond with your team and promote a healthy mentality in the office. To do this, the most important thing to remember is that you’re collaborating with individuals, not robots.How to Promote the MentalityYour team building endeavors should represent more than a formal checklist of things you feel obligated to do. It’s no secret that managers are the heart and soul of any good team, which is why you need to be ready to undertake the responsibili ty of ensuring that every one of your employees feels like they are part of the conversation.Amazing success stories like that of Ruth Tal’s vegetarian restaurant empire Fresh all have one thing in common: a team of young, determined and like-minded individuals working together towards achieving the same goal. Here are four tips on how to make comparable levels of success in your business.Know Yourself and Your TeamAccording to Forbes Magazine, being fully aware of your leadership style is just as important as getting adequately acquainted with the rest of your team. The two go hand in hand because only by possessing in-depth knowledge of the social dynamic within your company are you able to determine whether or not your techniques will be useful or not.evalThus, the effort needs to be a collaborative one on your part as well, not just theirs. Furthermore, by involving your team in your process, you will most certainly get bonus points like a boss. There is nothing employees appr eciate more than a superior who cares about their opinion.And that’s not all. Knowing what buttons you need to push to activate the hidden talents of every separate person under your supervision is a skill that only the best leaders have. And how can you acquire it? By getting to know them, of course. There is no better way, so don’t be shy to mingle with your staff.Be Clear about DemandsAs you may very well be aware of by now, it is your responsibility to define roles among your staff and delegate responsibilities in such a way that everyone is achieving their full potential. evalThe ability to do this goes hand in hand with the skills mentioned in the previous section. Simply put, by knowing your employees, you are also aware of their capabilities.And through this, you will be able to stipulate clear demands that everyone should meet, as well as more specialized individual ones. The vital aspect of this is to make sure that these tasks are interconnected so that an integral te am philosophy is maintained throughout. It’s an important duty, but someone must do it, and that someone is you.Give Constructive FeedbackEffective communication is an integral part of building a functional team, which is why you need to promote this idea daily. And there’s nothing more important in this department than constructive feedback; ask your company’s HR manager. This type of response builds self-confidence and promotes efficient error resolution.It shouldn’t come from you only. The input of your workers is equally important when it comes to your management techniques, as well as how their other colleagues interact with them. To encourage such actions, you will need to keep an open mind and reassure them that it’s perfectly fine to do the same.Nurturing an atmosphere of security and proving that you value the opinions of those who work for you is the key towards a beneficial company culture. You’ll be surprised at the amount of improvement that is born from suc h a primary method. Not only will your employees collaborate better among themselves, but they will also respect your authority more in the long run.evalCelebrate SuccessLast, but certainly not least, you need to remember that people respond well to positive reinforcement. This is why your team will become even more motivated to deliver higher quality results if you acknowledge and celebrate their victories, no matter how small. The proper reward for someone’s success sometimes relies on merely admitting its value.Nevertheless, be conscientious not to exaggerate with this and praise people for irrelevant things. It’s understandable that you want to be a ‘cool boss,’ but don’t fall into the trap of congratulating people for just showing up and doing their job as usual. When you aim for excellence, it’s essential to enforce it every step of the way.evalTo better differentiate between praiseworthy achievements and doing the bare minimum, set milestones for the team. What wo uld impress you? What would benefit the company’s development? Establish these things and allow the team to surprise you as well.Final ThoughtsWhen your professional goal is promoting a team building mentality, you will need to admit the importance of this responsibility. By being aware of your skills and knowing your team you can delegate tasks more effectively. Equally important, it assures proper feedback. This type of team building leads to efficient organization, which is indispensable to a firm.Finally, don’t forget to praise success and accomplishments, especially considering how these benefit you and your company as well. Ignore mediocrity and focus on greatness to achieve the best results, and always remember to stay involved. Your employees will admire you for it, and this will reflect in their performance.

Book review Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I just finished reading the order of the phoenix by J.K. Rowling in 3 days, which should tell you something about how exciting it is. This book fully lives up to the promise of the previous books. And J.K. Rowling does so much more than just rehash the same concepts and characters. New themes appear throughout the book, fleshing out the description of the wizarding world, and giving us deeper insight into many of the main characters. The mood of the book is very dark, and the challenges they face are greater than ever giving them a chance to yet again rise above themselves. And as always, good values like loyalty, trust, friendship and courage carry our protagonists forward. Theyn dont win simply by being the strongest. This may ultimately be the strongest force of the series, they way the characters are allowed to grow not only older but also more complex, realistic, stronger and more experienced through their trials. This book is a very satisfying read, and I recommend to any Harry Potter fan. 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

What Does Your Personal Brand Say About You

What Does Your Personal Brand Say About You Since a lot of businesses now use the internet to check potential employees, its very important to know what your personal brand says about you. So, how do you do that. For starters, search for your own name on Google to see what comes up about you. Sometimes, there will even be other people with the same name so you need to make sure you know which searches are relevant to you. Google will find you especially if you have any Google accounts such as email, Google Voice or Google plus. Additionally, make sure your social networking pages are more professional than casual. Be careful of the things you post on networking sites. You dont want it coming back to bite you, and it will if you arent careful. It doesnt matter what others are posting on their own sites, but if you are trying to build a brand, yours needs to be more professional than that. Register for online forums that are relevant to your type of skills so that you can build your personal brand better. Forums are an excellent way to find business relationships and information. The more you keep your presence alive on the internet, the easier it will be for potential employers to find you and to become acquainted with who you are. Last, but not least, tailor your resume so that it details all the relevant skills you have and your expertise. Once that is done, post your resume in as many places as possible on the Internet. Before long, you will have built a professional brand that others will contact you instead of you always having to seek job positions.