Everybody is now looking for jobs that fit their desired lifestyle and not the way around…
These days, people seek out flexible jobs.
Some people want to work from home and others want to work at the beach.
Some people are able to do a job they love with a lifestyle they aspire to.
1. Flexjobs
Flexjobs is a job seeking application that publishes flexible jobs.
With Flexjobs, you can find jobs from up to 50 career categories that fit into your lives better and not the other way around.
You can find flexible jobs from quality employers quickly, easily and safely.
Flexjobs is for freelancing leaders, retired leaders who want to share their expertise, people with a nomadic lifestyle who want to work from anywhere, people who want to work from home and get more quality time with em their families.
2. Power To Fly
Power To Fly is a job seeking and talent seeking application that understands that a diverse team performs better.
Power To Fly is built to empower and connect the underrepresented talents to high profile companies and high visibility jobs.
It is made for people looking to change their career or who are seeking a flexible job.
Journey To Leadership curates the best apps available on the market to satisfy the needs of our readers and leaders.
You’ve got a great app and want to promote it on our website, make sure to check out our prices and to contact us.
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
140 inspiringtweets that give out helpful job searching tips to newly college graduates.
There are tweets for people who wish to identify and highlight their professional strengths.
There are tips for graduates who are applying for different jobs, scheduling job interviews, crafting efficient resumes, cover letter and any other tools necessary to get the job.
These tweets relate also networking and creating relationships with hiring managers.
For example, being present on various social media and using your profile in order to connect directly with the hiring managers is a skill that can be acquired.
Other soft skills such as managing different job offers without burning bridges and navigating office politics and making a lasting good impression on your boss and coworkers are introduced.
Review
#ENTRYLEVELTweet by career expert Heather R. Huhman is a fast and easy read and gathers both practical and motivational tips that, I believe, can be helpful to boost your job search.
#ENTRYLEVELTweet by career expert Heather R. Huhman is intended for newly college graduates with absolutely no idea how to transit from the classroom to the cubicle.
Leadership development aims to provide leaders with the hard and soft skills needed to execute their job within their capacity and within their organization.
Usually, leadership development boosts employee morale, engagement, alignment and productivity.
1. Leaders demonstrate integrity and instill trust
“Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.” – SETH GODIN
2. Leaders learn continuously
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
3. Leaders maintain strong communication skills
“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iacocca
4. Leaders possess good decision-making skills
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
5. Leaders build healthy relationships
A leader’s attitude is caught by his or her followers more quickly than his or her actions. – John C. Maxwell
Last Words Of Advice
There are several leadership programs out there.
It is important that you find the right one for you to gain the ability to inspire, influence, improve your performance and cope with challenges.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
Job interviews over the phone constitute a selection process that most companies use to screen candidates, to prevent candidates from having to travel to their company and to promote their company.
Wondering how to lead a successful job interview over the phone?
In this article, find all the tips you need to prepare yourself.
1. Write down everything
Write down all the information and schedule given to you and create alarms to remind you of the interview.
2. Look up the companywebsite
Look up the companywebsite and write down the company’s values, sector, number of workers, locations, annual income amount and most important projects. Knowing the company brings you points.
3. Prepare questions
Prepare some general interviewing questions (“tell me about yourself”, “what are your strengths?”, “what are your flaws?”,… ) and then write them down on paper.
A few minutes before the interview
4. Avoid noise
Make sure you are at home and not in public transports or in a noisy environment.
5. Wake up early
Wake up twenty minutes before the call literally and figuratively. Nobody likes a slurred speech and a hoarse morning voice.
6. Take care of yourself
Take care of your basic human needs 10 minutes before scheduled interview.
7. Prepare pen and papers to take notes.
If this interview is successful, it will lead to another interview at the company and those notes will be useful.
8. Surf the net
On your computer, open the company’s website page and get ready to discreetly surf for answers.
If you cannot find facts about the company, it’s OK.
The interviewer will provide them himself. It’s part of his job to introduce you to them.
9. Use your notes
Last but not least, place your notes with the prepared answers in front you.
The interviewer does not need to know that you are reading your answers.
During the interview
10. Actively listen
Listen carefully to the interviewer and wait for your time of speech.
Being nervous is understandable, but try to control yourself.
11. Keep your voice energized and upbeat
Smiling is also a great way to show your interest and excitement for the opportunity.
12. Maintain your energy
Even though you don’t know the answer for a question right away, stay calm, confident and positive. Politely request a few seconds to collect yourself.
13. Stay professional
Even though the interviewer is friendly, laugh quietly at his or her jokes but stay professional and composed. You are not talking to your best friend.
14. Stay calm
If you are nervous or need focus, feel free to pace around your house or sit at a desk.
After the interview
14. Send a thank you email
You can add questions about the offer to show your interest and motivation.
15. Send an update email
Wait 48 hours before sending an email to get an update on whether you’ve been selected or not.
Last words of advice!
Phone interviews are generally awkward because you are sharing details of your career life with a perfect stranger. In order to avoid all awkwardness, job interviews should be thoroughly prepared.
The interviewer or head hunter will call you a first time to schedule a job interview and will provide you with his or her company’s information.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
Congratulations. You have just been hired, after an incessant job search and multiple job interviews.
Now, the real work has just started!
Wondering how to build a positive professional image as soon as you arrive on the job and to sustain it throughout your whole career?
From your first day on the job, your colleagues will definitely be judging you and your capabilities as a leader, as a team member or as a threat to their current position.
Meanwhile your employer will evaluate your abilities to integrate the organization and to quickly adapt, to learn the job skills. You have to be ready to handle the pressure and to measure up to the job.
And unfortunately, I learnt that there aren’t any do-overs when it comes to making a first impression of your professional image.
On the first day on my first job, I showed up on the first day with a negative attitude: I was anxious, unconsciously rejecting the fact that I had to work corporate and work for someone else.
Therefore, in the long haul, I started involuntarily rebuffing the idea of getting along with people, learning new skills and focusing on my job.
As a result, I integrated an unfavorable perception of my environment and I certainly believe that I left a negative impression of myself in the workplace.
This stuck to me for a while until I quit the job and was able to start over elsewhere with a better knowledge of both corporate and leadership. At the same time, to survive, I did what my elders told me: “work hard and keep your head down!”. But this brought on additional issues.
Why? Because, according to Daniel Goleman, in Working With Emotional Intelligence, the “rules for work are changing. We’re being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other.[…] These rules have little to do with what we were told was important in school; academic abilities are largely irrelevant to this standard.”.
In order for you to steer clear from the same issues that I have experienced, to develop a leadership image from the start, follow the tips below:
1. Arrive to work early and leave late on your first day
Arriving early to work demonstrate your motivation, your eagerness to learn and gives you more credit as a professional.
In addition, arriving early will allow you to get a general feel of your new colleagues’ arrival time, schedules, morning procedures.
It will also give you a time to which you will be expected to show up at work.
On your first day, at least, make sure to leave the office after a few coworkers have left the office and not before everyone else does.
2. Dress appropriately and to look your best
Undeniably, your coworkers will make snap decisions about you without getting to know or understanding your core values.
Subsequently, they will judge your book by its cover, no matter how you feel or what you say.
Dressing appropriately, without drawing attention to yourself, gives the perception that you fit in, that you are the right person for the job, and that you care about yourself and others.
At your job interview, you had the time to consider the company culture and to take notes on the proper attire to fit in.
Even on casual Fridays, groom yourself, do your best to look the part, and to dress for the job you want and not for the one you have.
3. Be confident, positive and prepared for a full-blown interview from your colleagues
After the job interview, take heed of the coworkers interviews.
Most likely, they will ask about your education, your professional experience, your professional competencies for the job, a description of your current position, and the members of your team. Prepare a short presentation of yourself to introduce yourself confidently.
4. Assume also that some of your coworkers won’t bother to get to know you
So, you will have to take initiative and make the first steps.
Extend a firm handshake, smile and proactively introduce yourself by using the short presentation about yourself and to control the message regarding yourself.
Also, prepare a set of probing questions for your coworkers.
5. Observe your coworkers in return, their behavior towards one another, towards their boss
Don’t be fooled, on your first day, most of your coworkers will be on their best behavior around you and will try their best for you to like them.
Withal, you can discreetly notice the clicks and the areas and subjects that bring tension.
6. Pay attention to company culture
Who gives orders, who is the unofficial leader, who arrives early and who arrives late, who takes coffee breaks and how often, who start the lunch process, where lunch takes place and for how long…does everyone work out? Should you go to the after works?
Take a moment to understand the rules, on your own, without referring to any coworker just yet.
7. Remember the names of the people you meet
I am not a name person but you should not ask for names that were already given. Wait a few days and someone will throw a name out there.
8. Cultivate emotional intelligence
Even though your coworkers will be on their best behavior for the first few days, there is ALWAYS someone to come around and test you for fun.
Your reaction to his or her obnoxious behavior will market your capabilities and your personal qualities, for future career success.
9. Communicate effectively, listen more than you speak and observe your body language
Listen actively and with intention of asking probing questions. Ask for people opinions before you give yours.
10. Show interest in your new tasks
The responsibilities that you are given on your first days are boring and minimal: you will most likely be reading job regulations, technical documents and implementing basic tasks.
Nonetheless, ask pertinent questions, take notes, commit to the task at hand and don’t expect your boss or your coworkers to hold your hand.
11. Be open to correction, advice and guidance
Even though you have some experience under your belt, stay humble instead of showing off your knowledge, listen to what your coworkers have to tell you
Thank people for their help and own up to your mistakes. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know. Let me find out and get back to you.”.
12. Accept invitations for coffee, to smoke or to lunch with your coworkers
Mind you, I don’t drink coffee, I don’t smoke and I only take lunch breaks alone during my working hours.
But those breaks are essential to show that you are social and willing to integrate and share their habits.
Use those breaks to your advantage to get to know your coworkers.
13. Don’t indulge in office politics and gossip on your first day or ever
Avoid people who partake in gossip and employ aggressive methods of office politics.
To not be implicated in the rumor mill, don’t expose your personal life. According to Daniel Goleman, pay attention to “what to say, what not to say, and what to call it” throughout your entire career.
Last Words Of Advice!
Building a strong professional image and leader brand, as soon as you step into your new position, is detrimental to career success.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership! Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
We all have been exposed during a period of time to annoying, hateful, toxic coworkers that can drive us crazy.
Sometimes, bringing us to ask ourselves whether they’re the problem or we are…
Wondering how to spot these toxic coworkers from afar and how to handle them?
Every workplace has difficult employees and we all have been, to some extent, in different situations with hateful coworkers.
I do believe that we all, partially or fully, demonstrate some level of toxicity towards a third party in the workplace.
Below, are the 15 worst toxic coworkers that I have already met and have had to deal with.
Case Study #1: The Delicate
Key Symptoms
The Delicate is a sensitive person with vain imagination that constantly and easily feels under attack, and that takes things deeply and personally. The Delicate thinks that people are looking, gossiping and criticizing him or her!
Treatment
Keep the conversation on superficial topics and crack jokes about him or her.
Avoid using sarcasm, making dry remarks, directly confronting this person. Instead, try to sugarcoat things and to give indirect constructive criticism.
Case Study #2: The Slacker
Key Symptoms
The Slacker is mostly concerned about personal life and regulating it during working hours.
The Slacker does not take his or her work seriously, spends his or her working life over the internet, cannot make a deadline to save his or her life, is not punctual even absent, unapologetically displays a lack of motivation.
The Slacker is visibly unfulfilled in his or her current position but won’t do anything about it.
Treatment
Impose a deadline or better yet let him or her publicly impose a deadline.
Pick up the slack with the rest of the team and keep quiet.
This individual will sink himself or herself. Otherwise, this individual will eventually have to get up and swim, explain their behavior, their performance and their results to upper management.
Case Study #3: The Rocket Scientist
Key Symptoms
The Rocket Scientist is the individual on the team that is full of knowledge but who is in search for recognition for his superior intellect and who demands an immense respect for his expertise. The Rocket Scientist will feel insulted and will almost become passive aggressive if his or her ideas and point of view are being questioned.
Treatment
Stop comparing his expertise to anyone on the team.
Avoid diminishing his knowledge and ideas in front of the team or behind closed doors.
Avoid criticizing his work and intellect.
Instead, tap into his range of knowledge by placing him or her in the role of a counselor but not a decision maker.
Case Study #4: The Gossiper
Key Symptoms
The Gossiper is an individual that enjoys gossip, that emphasizes and embellishes a rumor.
The Gossiper is nosy and loves to keep the rumor mill spinning. This person is even capable of destroying someone’s reputation in the office.
Treatment
Listen to the rumor without adding any input. The information may not be malicious but indicative of office politics or of a situation that you can take advantage of.
However, learn to separate useful information from the gossip.
If this person only brings negative void information, crafted gossip, signal your disinterest by not responding or responding with monosyllables or challenging the facts in the story line, discreetly remove yourself from the circle, avoid participating in the rumor mill.
Be careful not to offense this person, for they would drag your name in the mud. If this person is actually gossiping about you, avoid any interaction and adding fuel to fire by striking back with gossip before damaging your reputation.
Confront this person in a non threatening and diplomatic way, in a private setting by stating that you are aware of the gossip and everyone is saying that she is a liar and the bearer of the negative information but you know that is not true.
Case Study #5: The Bulldozer
Key Symptoms
The Bulldozer is an individual that believes wrongly in his intelligence.
The Bulldozer doesn’t hesitate to make everybody’s life miserable if things don’t go his way.
The Bulldozer threatens, bullies, intimidates, steps on toes and remains on the verge of harassment in order to get things his way. “It’s my way or the high way!”. The Bulldozer imposes his way of doing things even if it is not the best way of doing them.
They make the worst managers ever but are the most common managers found in corporate.
Treatment
Cultivate your emotional intelligence in order not to respond to negativity with negativity.
listen to this person point of view from beginning to end without uttering a word, then summarize their position and calmly expose yours.
Case Study #6: The Work-To-Rule
Key Symptoms
The Work-To-Rule discards any part of responsibility in a situation, does not understand tram work and does exactly what is stated in their contracts and no more. In fact, the Work-To-Rule insists on not taking on more responsibilities than his or her job description.
Treatment
Stress the importance of team work and the value of this individual contribution at work.
Case Study #7: The Overly Friendly
Key Symptoms
The Overly Friendly is an individual that thinks that his coworkers are his extended family and that doesn’t mind sharing extra personal details of his or her life. These details will make you uncomfortable.
Treatment
Explain that you don’t want to hear the gruesome details of his or her life. If his or her behavior are too intimate, it can be considered as harassment and can be reported to human resources.
Case Study #8: The Naysayer
Key Symptoms
The Naysayer is an individual that irritatingly pinpoints everything negative in a situation and predicts problems before they happen, without proposing an alternative and constructive solution to the situation at hand.
Treatment
Position that person in roles that require to see problems before they occur. No need to argue and show the positive side of an idea. To inhibit this behavior, request an explanation why the situation would not work and a thought-through plan for the solution
Case Study #9: The Blameshifter
Key Symptoms
The Blameshifter is an individual that points the finger at everyone else but themselves and that comes up with very creative excuses to completely remove the blame from themselves.
It is a form of narcissism: the Blameshifter is afraid of confronting themselves.
Treatment
Come prepared with evidence.
If the blame is pointed at you and you know that it is not your fault, give proof of your innocence without accusing this individual.
If this individual comes to you with an object of complaint on someone else, in order to avoid being put in the middle, claim that this is none of your business and suggest that they have a conversation with the alleged culprit.
Case Study #10: The Neophobe
Key Symptoms
The Neophobe is an individual that doesn’t deal well with change.
The Neophobe is capable of refusing it, sabotaging it or even halting it.
Treatment
Demonstrate to him or her that change isn’t traumatic and can be positive.
Provide proof and facts that the change eminent is positive.
Help that person embrace change.
Case Study #11: The Chatterbox
Key Symptoms
The Chatterbox is an individual that drops by your workspace and starts chatting without solicitation about anything and everything.
This individual does not necessarily partake in gossip, but volunteers to share their point of view. This individual tends to makes you unproductive and inefficient.
Treatment
Avoid using words of exclamation or affirmation to not encourage this person to keep on talking.
Avoid making eye contact when this person is passing through.
Politely and respectfully explain that you are on schedule.
Case Study #12: The Martyr
Key Symptoms
The Martyr is a dedicated employee, willing to “die” for their company without being asked to do so, and that searches for recognition and validation. For example, the Martyr does extra hours at work and manipulate the boss when someone else get a promotion.
Treatment
Show appreciation for this employee and value their work within the company.
Case Study #13: The Stealer
Key Symptoms
The Stealer constantly steals coworkers ideas, takes credit for them and denies it when confronted.
Treatment
Hold back on your ideas and opinions when having a conversation with this individual. Listen more than you speak.
Avoid confronting this fool but bite your tongue instead because he or she might not know how to implement your ideas.
Don’t report it to upper management before appearing to be salty.
Case Study #14: The Snake
Key Symptoms
The Snake is an overly ambitious — almost sociopathic — coworker that smiles to your face and that stabs you and everyone else in the back. The Snake will claim that your ideas are wonderful but will degrade them when you are not looking.
Treatment
Keep your personal information, brilliant ideas to yourself.
Listen more than you speak.
Stay socially engaged and involved in office politics.
Case Study #15: The Ultra Competitive
Key Symptoms
The Ultra Competitive is an individual that is prepared to step over your dead body to succeed or to get recognition in the workplace.
Treatment
Focus on your work or get involve in a project where the Ultra Competitive person is not involved in.
Stay socially engaged with your other coworkers and keep networking.
Consider the company culture, compare them to your values and figure out whether or not you fit in.
How do I deal with other difficult personalities?
Last Words Of Advice!
Most coworkers use extreme tactics to get advancements in the workplace and would do anything to trigger you, to demean you or sabotage your own progress. Some take job positions where they do not belong and that they cannot handle. Others are misusing their strengths and transforming them into flaws that are not accepted in the environment they choose to work in. Others are even responding to an already toxic workplace. Lastly some coworkers are oblivious to their visible flaws and practice them outside of work. In order to deal with other toxic coworkers:
cultivate emotional intelligence,
listen more than you speak,
look for the positive or the humour in negative circumstances.
No matter the reasons, you have to learn how to insulate yourself emotionally and spot a hateful coworker from a distance.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
Creating a culture of candor, by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman and Patricia Ward Biederman, is the first essay from Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor. It reveals the effects of transparency and lack thereof in organizations…
What is Transparency?
Transparency is defined as “the degree to which information flows freely within an organization, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders.”
This essay also describes ways to implement a culture of candor and stresses the fact that the rise of digital technologies made it almost impossible for organizations to keep secrets or remain opaque.
Transparency is a choice to make that brings success, additional clarity and instills trust. However, most companies don’t chose candor and openness: true transparency is hard, as much as true honesty is.
Leaders find it hard to be transparent:
In today’s world, the race to become number 1 brings leaders to overlook any wrongdoings or any existing flaws.
Another reason is that leaders need to make an immediate decision and look decisive. Therefore, leaders tend to dismiss information.
Knowledge is power and by virtue of human nature, most people, leaders included, enjoy hoarding information to feel powerful and superior.
Followers find it hard to be transparent:
Followers do not directly transfer raw internal information to the leader(s). The raw information is limitedly conveyed, colored and sugar-coated.
Followers think of leaders as demigods: they admire them and praise them. This attitude prevents followers from criticizing their leaders or speaking the awkward truth to them.
The need for whistleblowers
When there is no transparency, whistleblowers, loyal or not, patriotic or not, reveal the truth at the peril of their life because they believe that the organization’s secrets is too unscrupulous to keep and that the organization’s values no longer align with theirs.
Whistleblowers put their lives at risk, are often shunned, demoted for speaking the truth. With the development of internet, secrecy is almost impossible and whistleblowers are no longer at risk and can reveal secrets anonymously.
Blogs have become an unstoppable force, capable of damaging big and perennial corporations, institutions and individuals, of economically boycotting companies. Thankfully, blogs have protected and enabled whistleblowers.
How to create a culture of candor?
In order to implement a culture if candor, followers, on one hand, must feel free to speak up and to speak openly. On the other hand, leaders must value the truth, welcome unpleasant information and reward such openness.
Leaders must combat transparency by demanding feedback from their team and listening to the feedback.
Leaders must not to be overconfident about their own leadership capabilities.
Leaders must treat the follower’s ideas with importance and take counsel from the follower. Leaders must seek information at all level of chain.
Leaders should be allowed to be prudent and to take their time in order to make a decision.
Internal information flow must be treated as importantly as the information coming in and out of the organization.
Transparency should be mechanized by installing whistleblower software (EthicsPoint and Global Compliance Services for example) to enable employees to report anonymously any wrongdoings and to alert to any problems.
Whistleblowers should not be ostracized for speaking up.
The dangers of group-think
Bennis, Goleman and Biederman finally compare organizations secrets to the dark secrets kept by family members. In families as in organizations, the lack of transparency introduces toxic secrets that are unfortunately well kept.
These secrets tightly bond employees, which make it hard for a member to come forth by fear of being expelled, punished, by fear of threatening or destroying an entire organization.
Furthermore, these employees take pride in belonging to such a tight-knit organization, leading to feelings of superiority and to group-thinking.
Group-thinking is defined as the “subsequent congressional investigation made an explicit diagnosis of groupthink—a process in which unfounded assumptions drive a plan of action and contradictory information is suppressed, along with any doubts about the assumptions themselves”. Although group thinking brings in cohesiveness, it allows only one pattern of thinking and generally leads to one unique bad decision.
Review
Creatingacultureofcandor, byWarrenBennis, Daniel Goleman and Patricia Ward Biederman is a very interesting and well written essay. It provides us with pertinent examples, gives rise to contemporaneous observations and administers great advice for effectively creating a culture of candor.
While I was reading this essay, the Volkswagen scandal kept coming to mind in 2015 where the performance results of 11 millions cars worldwide where altered to admit a low carbon-dioxide emission levels. In the race to success, Volkswagen has not been candid with the public or to the Environmental Protection Agency.
This essay still highlights many current issues where numerous ethical issues present in modern corporations. It was surprising to see, even with the rise of digital technologies, how many corporations, organizations and institutions remain opaque.
Favorite quote(s)
In idea-driven organizations—and which are not these days?—genuine, collegial Leaders collaboration leads to better morale, a greater likelihood of creativity, and greater candor and transparency.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
From your first day on the job, your colleagues will definitely be judging you and your capabilities as a leader, as a team member or as a threat to their current position.
Every workplace has difficult employees and we all have been, to some extent, in different situations with hateful coworkers.
Most coworkers use extreme tactics to get advancements in the workplace and would do anything to trigger you, to demean you or sabotage your own progress. Some take job positions where they do not belong and that they cannot handle. Others are misusing their strengths and transforming them into flaws that are not accepted in the environment they choose to work in. Others are even responding to an already toxic workplace. Lastly some coworkers are oblivious to their visible flaws and practice them outside of work. In order to deal with other toxic coworkers:
Creating a culture of candor, by 
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