Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Web Sites for the Jobless

Unemployment in the U.S. has hit a 14-year high as companies cut back.  That has sent masses of laid-off workers flocking to the Web in search of opportunities and job sites have been stepping up to meet the challenge.

Some sites, such as www.Vault.com and www.JobCoachTips.com , are providing career counseling and other new services.  Vault.com has created a $999 service for job seekers to get two 45-minute career coaching sessions over the phone to help them land a new job.  JobCoachTips.com offers a one-hour career coaching session with a certified executive & business coach for $275 and a year's subscription to weekly job coaching tips for $9.95.  

JobCoachingTips.com offers 21 job seeking tips for $9.95 plus links to free and low-cost online career self assessments, free interview tips and a link to CareerBuilder.com:

For a Year's Subscription to weekly Job Search/Career Transition Tips, click here:

For 21 Career Transition Tips, click here.

To Find Jobs, click here.

For Career Assessments, click here.

For a free Interview Success Guide, click here. 

Online Reputation Management

As time goes by, more of us are being tailed by some little thing out there on the Web, an awful bit that emerges when someone Googles our names---a black mark that we'd like to erase before a colleague or a prospective employer sees it.

So the question is: Is it possible for an ordinary person to get some damaging tidbit entirely erased from the Web?

If you're trying to get something erased from the Web, your first instinct might be to pursue legal action.  Resist this urge. 

What is Deflation?

On Nov. 19, 2008, the U.S. Labor Department reported a 1 percent drop in the consumer price index for October 2008. The drop marked the largest decline in 61 years, and it was the first decline in that measure in nearly a quarter of a century. The 1 percent drop was twice as large as many mainstream analysts had forecast. Such a large decline in consumer prices is forcing U.S. policymakers to rethink the possibility of deflation in America.

For more on deflation, we turn to Robert Prechter, the man who literally wrote a book on how to survive it. The following article, adapted from Prechter’s book Conquer the Crash – You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression, will help you understand exactly what to expect from deflation. 

In addition to the following article, visit Elliott Wave International to download the free 8-page report, Inflation vs. Deflation.  It contains details on which threat you should prepare for and steps you can take to protect your money.

Healthy Corporate Cultures

An overwhelming number of companies are lackluster because they culturally replicate fear-based behaviors, reacting to events rather than driving toward a vision.  An atmosphere of judgment and criticism prevails.  These companies stifle human potential and behave in ways that lead to mediocre outcomes.

Successful companies are most often led by leaders concerned with the well-being of everyone who works in the organization.  Research shows such companies have leaders who are humble, inclusive, inspirational and willing to demonstrate innovative/visionary leadership.

Leaders First

Human behaviors are notoriously difficult to change, but attitude and cultural adjustments are the only ways to differentiate yourself long term.  To have a meaningful effect, leaders’ attitudinal changes must precede actual organizational changes, which ultimately herald social and employee shifts from stress behaviors to positive performance.

It takes focus and tenacity to improve corporate culture, instill attitudinal changes in positive thinking and routinely express appreciation.  You must find a few actionable principles that truly make a difference and revolutionize workplace culture.  You must take specific steps to drive these principles deep into the company, at every level and into every behavior.

This is a tall order, which begins at the top.

Personal Mastery and Resilience

There are four paths to counteracting stress and disease at work: two personal and two organizational, according to research in the book What Happy Companies Know, by Baker, Greenberg and Hemingway.

An individual’s or organization’s failure to take responsibility can quickly destroy a team.  The organization must refrain from imposing unreasonable productivity requirements, and individuals must recognize their limits—a difficult prospect for high achievers.  A company can reduce stress by changing its corporate culture, including increased awareness of the value of appreciation and positive emotions.

Personal Mastery

Personal mastery of stress begins by recognizing that it’s a palpable force in the workplace—one for which we must proactively prepare.  Of course, a certain amount of stress is the norm in business, but recognizing its signs and symptoms is essential for diminishing and controlling detrimental reactions.

Accepting a degree of chaos becomes part of the challenge.  Instead of looking at change and uncertainty as a series of calamities, we can reframe these situations as exhilarating experiences that provide opportunities.

Resilience

We can also reduce stress by inducing a positive mental state before or during stressful situations.  We can learn techniques to refocus the mind before we succumb to stress, thereby reducing the time and energy needed to reestablish a calm, thoughtful state.

Studies show appreciation-generating techniques can reduce the production of cortisol (the stress hormone), lower blood pressure, improve hormonal balance and increase the body’s production of antibodies that fight pathogens.

Recognizing employee strengths and expressing appreciation are key stress-management components.  Coaching and mentoring programs can help companies develop corporate cultures that foster creativity, productivity and optimal performance.

Source: Baker, Greenberg and Hemingway: What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better There are four paths to counteracting stress and disease at work: two personal and two organizational.

The Costs of Workplace Stress

Work is a common source of unhappiness and stress. 

Studies have concluded that the number of burned-out, stressed-out or chronically stressed individuals is between one-fourth and one-third of the work force.

Leaders and workers must be fully present and engaged at work, in a state of health and well-being.  Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than any other factor in people’s lives, even financial or family troubles.

While they may fail to realize the health implications, people at work are acutely aware of stress.  A Northwestern National Life survey shows 40 percent of workers report their jobs are very or extremely stressful, and 25 percent of employees view their jobs as the top stressor in their lives.

Stress happens when:

• We fail to meet deadlines, budgets or other goals.
• We have ambiguous job responsibilities.
• We perceive a lack of control over tasks.
• We have a sudden upsurge in tasks.
• We have conflicts with others.
• We feel we have little control over our work lives
  

Spooked by the Shaky Economy

46% of U.S. middle managers polled in mid-September 2008 said switching employers in the current environment is risky, according to a survey by Accenture Ltd.

Just 13% of respondents said they were actively looking for a new job, down from 30% the last time Accenture conducted a similar survey in 2005.  Yet, unemployment claims are at a seven year high with many employers reducing headcount to control costs during this recessionary period.

Automakers, brokerages, retailers, airlines, home builders, banks, newspapers and countless other ailing industries are slashing staff.  Your job could disappear tomorrow.  Getting ready for your next career transition should be part of your workday schedule today.

Both unemployed and employed managers would be wise to learn some effective career transition tips to pay attention to long before he or she is walked out of their workplace.

Why Your FDIC-Backed Bank Could Fail

With big bank bailouts dominating the news, there’s no better time to get the truth about bank safety.

This informative article has been excerpted from Bob Prechter’s New York Times bestseller Conquer the Crash. Unlike recent news articles that are responding to the banking crisis, it was published in 2002 before anyone was even talking about bank safety. However, you may find the information even more valuable today than ever before.

For even more information on bank safety, visit Elliott Wave International to download the free 10-page report, Discover the Top 100 Safest U.S. Banks. It contains details on how you can protect your money from the current financial crisis, updated for 2008.

Underprivileged Leadership

Today, the U.S. needs a few less-privileged leaders from Washington state to Washington, D.C. and Wall Street to Las Vegas.

Regressing from "adversity & craftsmanship" to "dexterity & speed"

The nineteenth century version of success stressed the value of compensating for disadvantage.  If you wanted to end up on top, the thinking went, it was better to start at the bottom, because it was there that you learned the discipline and motivation essential for success.

Andrew Carnegie insisted that there was an advantage to being "cradled, nursed and reared in the stimulating school of poverty."  According to Carnegie, "It is not from the sons of the millionaire or the noble that the world receives its teachers, its martyrs, its inventors, its statesmen, its poets or even its men of affairs.  It is from the cottage of the poor that all these spring."  He believed that poverty provided a better preparation for success than wealth did; that, at root, compensating for disadvantage was more useful, developmentally, than capitalizing on advantage.

In the 20th Century, human dexterity & speed was all that was needed to mass produce goods and services cheaper if not better.  Henry Ford's mass production of automobiles in Detroit attracted human bodies that could use their muscles with speed.  A high school graduate could easily land a well paying job in the automobile factory, using little brain power.  These factory workers would become the chief consumers of the cars, trucks and recreational vehicles produced.  Generations moved from high school to factory to retirement during this prosperous century....hardy ever having to use their brains.

Three Good Manager Virtues

Few organizations recognize the degree to which managers are the vessels of a company's culture, and even fewer work diligently, through training and coaching programs, to ensure that their vessels hold the knowledge and skills that motivate employees to perform, feel satisfied and love their jobs.

The TalentSmart Study (www.TalentSmart.com) analyzed more than 150,000 managers in every industry, at every level of management, and in a wide variety of job functions, and found that superior managers--those who lead their teams to the greatest levels of performance and job satisfaction--often share three critical habits.  These habits ensure that positive and negative feedback are delivered in small, digestible doses.

Expectations:  Ensure that employees' efforts are spent doing the right things, the right way, at the right time.  There is a big difference between telling people what's expected of them and making sure that what they'll be doing is completely understood.

Communication:  Observe what employees say and do, and speak openly with them about their work.  A manager's interaction with his or her employees delivers the resources, guidance, and recognition they need to succeed.  Communication clicks when it is frequent and in a language that everyone understands.

Performance:  Pay attention to each employee's performance and offer praise as frequently and emphatically as you do constructive feedback.  Keeping your focus on performance pushes your team to new heights by positively reinforcing successful endeavors and realigning efforts that become misdirected.