How To Evolve Your Career Call it vocational Darwinism: Seeing similarities between the Galapagos Islands and our recession-era ecosystem, Nacie Carson wrote The Finch Effect to help you be more like those titular birds--which adapted their beaks to environmental changes within a single generation--and less like the species that have perished around them. Fast Company spoke with the author about the evolutionary benefits of owning your career, the intersecting axes of personal branding, and why natural selection is not survival of the strongest. This interview has been condensed and edited. FAST COMPANY: The Finch Effect is all about adaptation. NACIE CARSON: What we need to adapt to as modern professionals is the rapid changes that we're seeing in the job market. The truth is that because of different factors like outsourcing and how fast communication happens, the pace at which changes in the job market happen is not going to slow down. How do you take that responsibility? So how do we add to our buoyancy?
9 Keys to Business & Career Success I'm fortunate enough to know a number of remarkably successful people. Regardless of industry or profession, they all share the same perspectives and beliefs. And they act on those beliefs: 1. Time doesn't fill me. Deadlines and time frames establish parameters, but typically not in a good way. Forget deadlines, at least as a way to manage your activity. Average people allow time to impose its will on them; remarkable people impose their will on their time. 2. Some of your employees drive you nuts. You chose them. Think about the type of people you want to work with. Then change what you do so you can start attracting those people. Successful people are naturally drawn to successful people. 3. Dues aren't paid, past tense. No matter what you've done or accomplished in the past, you're never too good to roll up your sleeves, get dirty, and do the grunt work. Remarkably successful people never feel entitled--except to the fruits of their labor. 4. 5. Ask people why they have been successful.
Sheryl Sandberg's Full HBS Speech: Get On A Rocketship Whenever You Get The Chance Make a Great First Impression: 7 Smart Tricks Research shows that customers decide whether or not they want to work with you within two seconds of meeting you face to face. That puts the burden on you to make certain that those two seconds really count. The only way to do that is to prepare ahead of time. These tricks may help. 1. Your energy level is dependent upon your overall level of health. This does not mean that you need to be a bodybuilder or Hollywood thin. 2. Different industries have different norms about what's appropriate in terms of personal appearance and meeting behavior. 3. Your semiotics are the signals that your appearance immediately communicates to other people. As far as is practical, make sure you are consciously creating a set of visual signals that is most likely to communicate that you're the kind of person that's it's appropriate to do business with. 4. There are three parts to your greeting: your smile, your words, and your handshake (or your bow, in some parts of the world). 5. 6. 7.
5 Tips for Creating the Perfect Profile Pic No matter how much quality information or witty repartee we send out into our social networks, first impressions are almost always visual. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the first thing we see when checking out a new Twitter follower, Facebook friend, or LinkedIn connection is a profile photo. And in a world of quick clicks and divergent attention, if the photo you present isn't eye-catching, or illustrative of your personal brand, you may miss your shot at making a positive first impression. We asked social design experts for their take on what makes for a killer profile pic, and they've provided some strategies on implementing your personal brand, and a few tools for snazzing up that boring Facebook self-shot you've been clinging to. 1. Start With a Quality Photo This may seem obvious, but we've all come across countless social profiles with blurry, dark, or low-res images. 2. A rule of thumb touched on by many is consistency. "Don't change it every few days. 3.
Email Tricks Of The Super Successful Over the past month, the most successful people I know have taught me a very important lesson: be a great emailer. Nearly all of them have a few simple tricks up their super-efficient sleeves: be ridiculously fast (responding in 30 minutes and no more than 24 hours), keep messages short, delegate responsibility through CC, and be available every waking moment. Because I don’t want to turn this article into the name-dropping olympics, I’ll forgo identifying the people who inspired this post; suffice to say that it’s part of my job to occasionally deal directly with house-hold names in technology, media, and government and my interactions with them spill over with important life lessons. Responsiveness Engenders Trust: Being a responsive communicator builds loyalty and support throughout your entire network. As an example, take social media powerhouse, Mayor Cory Booker, as an example. Sorry 2 hear. Keep It Short: There’s only one way to dig through 500 emails a day: be brief.
Top 10 tips on how to create a successful CV When it comes to applying for a new job, your CV could be just the ticket to get you that initial foot in the door and secure an interview. But how do you ensure your CV is added to the ‘interview pile’ rather than straight to the bin? Putting together a successful CV is easy once you know how. It’s a case of taking all your skills and experience and tailoring them to the job you’re applying for. But what if you haven’t got the right criteria, I hear you say. Well, I’ve put together the following top 10 tips to help you create a successful CV… 1. There is no right or wrong way to create a CV but there are some common sections that you should cover. 2. A successful CV is always carefully and clearly presented, and printed on clean, crisp white paper. 3. A good CV is clear, concise and makes every point necessary without waffling. 4. The clues are in the job application, so read the details cover to cover. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Negotiating Trick: Don't Focus on Price "That's more than I had expected." Have you heard this line? Of course you have. It's a standard response, heard a gazillion times a year by salespeople everywhere, after a price is quoted or heard. And quite frankly, it's an understandable response from a prospective buyer--especially one who is not experienced in purchasing your type of product or service. What actually drives the response? Lack of context: When the buyer does not understand the problem accurately, he or she cannot connect the solution's price to its value. Regardless of the reason, if you get to the point of submitting a price quote and you get that response, then it is possible you missed a couple of key steps earlier in the process. Surprising prospects is bad. Better Way to Shape the Conversation To avoid getting a surprise response, make sure you build these steps into the process. 1. 2. 3. Do not succumb to the temptation of offering concessions or asking, "How much can you afford?"
Clayton Christensen On How To Find Work That You Love Back in 1976, two economists, Michael Jensen and William Meckling, published a paper looking at why managers don’t always behave in a way that is in the best interest of shareholders. The root cause, as Jensen and Meckling saw it, is that people work in accordance with how you pay them. Many managers have come to believe this, too: you just need to pay people to do what you want them to do, when you want them to do it. The problem with thinking about incentives in this way is that there are powerful anomalies that it cannot explain. For example: some of the hardest working people on the planet are employed in charitable organizations. So how do we explain what is motivating them--if it’s not money? Well, there is a second school of thought, which turns this thinking about incentives on its head. Frederick Herzberg, probably one of the most incisive writers on the topics of motivation, published a breakthrough article in the Harvard Business Review focusing on exactly this. Clayton M.
How To Run Your Meetings Like Apple and Google Careers have been built on poking fun at meetings. From commercials to comic strips it’s no secret that most of us would rather be, you know, working. But there’s good news: Rapid experimentation with meetings in the past decade by startups and Fortune 500 companies alike has produced a new set of rules to consider. All meetings must have a stated purpose or agenda. Of course, there’s no need to stop there. Apple During the Steve Jobs era, Apple constantly worked to stay true to its startup roots while becoming the largest company in the world. Every project component or task has a “DRI.” Catalyst Catalyst, a group of young Christian leaders in the South, places an emphasis on keeping meetings positive and loose. The answer is always “yes, and…” and never “no, but…” Keep things positive and ideas flowing by not shouting down initial proposals.Take a break every 30 minutes. Google All meetings should have a clear decision maker. 37Signals Keep it short. Reily Technically Media
The Best Path to Success is Your Own - Gianpiero Petriglieri by Gianpiero Petriglieri | 9:00 AM May 11, 2012 If you’re wondering what to do next in your career, you’re hardly alone. The debate about where and how we may best feed our hunger for mastery, service, prestige, approval, safety, achievement — whatever we’re after — is fiercer than ever. Do you go after, or hold on to, a corporate job or strike out on your own? That is a crazy thought, rebutted Kellaway from her column in the Financial Times, where she has worked for a quarter of a century. The two perspectives make for an informative debate on the changing sources of prestige, and on the best strategy for the ambitious to gain recognition in this day and age — be it from employers, local and virtual communities, or inner critics. Take these two New York Times essays, arguing that young Americans are too complacent to hit the road to find work, and have the passionless and eager-to-please attitude of salespeople. Such things have long sparked heated discussion. Here is my view.