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How better Presentation Skills can get you ahead in your career

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When are you making a presentation at your workplace? At the seminars, meetings, expos, sales presentations? Think again, presenting is much more diverse and is an inherent part of today’s workplace. Not only in a meeting but when putting up a proposal on why you must expect a pay increase this year, discussing your performance reviews or trying to move on to a more satisfying project, you are using your presentation skills to make the mark. And of course your main presentation skills are put to test during the interview process which is your make or break chance of getting that job.

Howsoever you use these skills, there are primarily three different levels of presentation skills that you use in your career:

  • Business Presentation skills
  • Public Speaking
  • Communication Skills

Note that all three of the above involve formal or informal levels of presentation, but they are used at different levels and chances are that all of the above may not pertain to your present career but I am sure you are using one or more of these time and then at work or in your personal life. Let’s see how we can define these:

Business Presentations

Business presentations may or may not involve public speaking. During such a presentation you are using your persuasion, influencing skills or trying to convince a buyer into buying your product or service. Often business presentations are there to seal a deal or foster collaborations and/or mergers. Negotiations also fall in the business presentations category.

Public Speaking

Public Speaking largely involves speaking to a large audience or at least a group of people. Here you are presenting or perhaps promoting a product or service that your audience must know about. Speaking in expos or workshops is where you are using your public speaking skills.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are something that you are using daily at your workplace and in personal life, communicating with your colleagues, manager or with a face-to-face meeting with a customer or a remote client.

Evaluate which of the above skills are most relevant to you and which ones you would give yourself a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Note which skills you need to work on first and prepare an action plan on how to enhance your knowledge and experience in these areas.

The Difference between a Presentation and an Effective Presentation

How many times have you sat through a presentation which was “just another one” – a regular “nothing special”  presentation which fails to leave a mark on the audience. And how have you felt after witnessing an awesome presentation that leaves you feeling either ecstatic, o impressed or motivates you to take an action (either on buying a service that was offered or a course of action that was proposed during the presentation)? That is truly the difference between a “sleep inducer” and a energizing presentation. To be truly successful and effective in presenting skills, see if your presentation is achieving the following:

  • Well practiced and timed speech
  • Confidence and honesty in what you are presenting
  • Effective tone and vocal variety in your speech
  • Catching attention right from the introduction and maintaining audience involvement
  • Wrapping up your presentation with a general Q&A with the audience or some sort of feedback to monitor any unaddressed issues that you can either cover there or later on

If you can achieve the above and can see that you have truly engaged audience interest – there you go you just made a successful and effective presentation. Don’t work toward getting things done, strive to do it more effectively with success as the final goal. Also think about how you can make your next presentation unique and stand-out from others or your previous ones. Doing the same thing over and over again does not lead to better success.

A Leader must be a good Presenter

If you wish to lead a team to success one day or are currently on it, then just be ready to work on your presentation skills now. Presenting well does not only mean that you are working on giving flamboyant presentations, but it truly means how effectively you can influence and charm others to get the work done or a sales deal sealed right there on.

How to get Experience?

Some of the easy ways to hone your presenting skills is to join a Toastmaster’s group or start a new one at your workplace, taking seminars and courses (which can be expensive but if your company can reimburse you for such courses, take on the initiative to enroll in a couple of them). Another effective way is to take initiative to present in meetings and later in large gatherings to practice your presentations skills. Practice makes perfect – nothing else!

But none of these methods will be effective if you do not ensure a proper feedback process, either by recording (video/audio) and self-evaluation or through a feedback process where you actually get to see or hear your audience respond to the effectiveness of your presentation. Do better by learning from this process and avoid previous mistakes.

And always remember that good presenters can be motivators and movers and shakers of an organization, they are sought after to present the product or service in a client presentation or large expos and get into the good books or upper management faster. And if you really want to move up on the corporate ladder, then this is an essential skill you must strive to perfect.

Presenting for Introverts

However all said, it is not easy for everyone to be up there and make a jaw dropping presentation and take on the deal in the first go. It takes time and practice and also depends on your skills and your personal outgoing attitude. For most introverts presentations can be mighty scary and bring jitters and sweats which can be demoralizing. However you must not let this be a drawback to your career. Learn to identify how you can use your “other” skills for example making effective presentations online or on special software can help divert the main emphasis on “you” to something awesome that you have done. Just finding new ways to present is also something that can make you more confident. And confidence in yourself and your skills is the key to success in anything!

What do you do to better your presentation skills at your work?

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Where the JOBS are NOW– A Book Review

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Unemployment rate is the highest ever, many new grads are unable to find decent jobs or any job for that matter and we are not even sure whether the lost jobs are ever coming back. The job market is not at all a happy place for millions, and as the struggle continues we find solace in advice and direction from career experts and authors. Now you can add one more person on your list- Joe Watson! Joe Watson is the CEO of Without Excuses (www.withoutexcuses.com) and StrategicHire and his book Where the Jobs are Now (McGraw hill) comes in time to explain the new job market and the new jobs and resources we must be learning more about this year.

Who is this book for?

  • If you are looking for a career change in the new emerging industries, or even in the existing ones like health care, education and government, then this book is for you.
  • If you have been unemployed for a long time and would like to know more about the green industries, the jobs they offer and for example what kind of jobs and how many are/would be available in the green energy sector then this book could be for you.

Where the Jobs are Now will not help you in getting a job but is a good resource to know what is going around these days – the stats and predictions are all over the web, but the author presents a good discussion on where the emphasis would be in near future and how you could possibly think about diversifying in those areas if you can. For example read this:

Environmental engineers are experiencing the fastest growth at 25 percent, while civil engineers are seeing the largest employment increase, with an estimated 46,000 new jobs by 2016. .. Even in slower growing or declining manufacturing industries, engineers are still needed design, build, test, and improve products, but it’s the faster growing service industries that are generating most of the employment growth.

And how about the financial sector:

Joe says: We’ve got 77 million baby boomers who are getting ready to retire and will need help managing their money. As the economy rebounds (because it always does), the retirement of the baby boomer workforce will mean expanded job opportunities for personal financial advisors, as well as their corporate cousins, financial analysts. In fact the BLS has forecast that personal financial advisors will be one of the 10 fastest growing occupations in the nation.

Another great aspect of this book is the appendix, in itself it is a great resource for any job seeker to spend some time on the internet and gain more knowledge on new emerging industries, career self-help advice blogs and websites, IT, freelance and many others through the numerous relevant links here.

Visit the book’s website: http://www.WhereTheJobsAreNow.com

Get your copy on Amazon.

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The Career Within You– A Book Review

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“If you are a romantic, you want to work for a company whose policies you agree with or to sell a product you believe in. If you are an adventurer, you love freedom and variety, the thought of sticking with one job for the long haul may cause you some anxiety.”

What career type are you?

The authors Elizabeth Wagele and Ingrid Stabb discuss 9 career types which will help you identify your career strengths, weaknesses and interests.

An overview of what to expect in this book:

  • A quiz to determine your personality’s “Career Type”
  • Worksheets that fit a selection of jobs to your strengths, needs, and objectives
  • Extensive tables of jobs that currently offer your choice of what you’re looking for, whether the most money, the most opportunities, or the greatest flexibility
  • Sample résumés that will catch an employer’s attention
  • Detailed tips on preparing for a successful interview
  • Success stories of people just like you.
  • Exercises to help prioritize what you want most in a career

The Career Within You: How to Find the Perfect Job for Your Personality (HarperCollins) presents a good understanding of the Wagele-Stabb career finder, a tool which “leads you some suitable careers by asking you to match up your two or three favorite strengths to possible jobs that also call for that combination.” After each chapter which elaborates on a career type, the authors include a career-finder worksheet which is extremely helpful in putting together and getting a better insight of how to translate your personality type to a suitable career. Once you are done with the analysis you can note if your favorite career fields match your needs and requirements for an ideal job.

Wagele and Stabb do a great job in putting together this book by using numerous examples of how a personality type would fit into a career description, for example: “An adventurer might be a marketing director putting a new spin on the positioning of a company, a travel guide scouting out new venues for ecotourism, a product developer adding new features with the latest technology or an executive coach helping clients explore their full career potential.” A wide range of choice but you can most certainly figure out on the best match based on your skills and interests.

It turns around to be a great book to read once, at least to know more about what your work traits are and how you respond to particular situations are your current workplace, or even for the first time job hunters to know more about yourself. And that perhaps is the most important step in achieving anything in this world!

Get to know more about the book at the authors’ website: http://careerwithinyou.com/

You can get this book at Amazon.

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Creating a Stress-Free Career Journey – Ten Tips for the Young Professional Woman

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Guest Post by Dr. Ann Gatty

Is there such a thing as a stress-free career path?  Probably not but at least we should try to minimize stress while working as much as we can.  It is a fact that most of us have to work to pay the bills.  We invest a lot of our time making a living so, doesn’t it make sense that if we are going to invest so much of our precious time earning money, can’t we try to find work we enjoy?  Can we develop a life that is fulfilling for professional ambitions, personal enjoyment and family connections?  I want to offer some advice from my many years in the workforce.  Hopefully, some of the information will make sense to you and offer some strategies for crafting a more stress-free career path.  So here is my list of 10 strategies to build a successful (and hopefully stress-free) career.

Know thyself.

You really can not know what type of career to choose until you take a honest look at yourself.  Identify the strengths that you can bring to a job, the weaknesses that need to be improved and your genuine interests.  Be honest with who you are.   As you set your goals in life- make certain that they are your goals that you are trying to accomplish for your own self-worth, not for family members, friends or colleagues.  Choose a career because it is the right fit with your personality and a career in which you believe. There is nothing worse than working in a job you hate.  One other thing about personal assessment–don’t forget identifying your learning style.  How do you like to learn new information?  On the job learning is important and constant, and if you find that your style of learning does not match that of the job you are pursuing, you will be frustrated and stressed.   Through your assessment, you should be able to identify what your competencies are knowledge-wise; what your skills are that you use with job performances; and what your abilities are that you can add to your organization.  This unique combination that you possess is your competitive edge and indicates why an employer should hire you.

Know your passion.

As you consider a career path, ask yourself, “What do I love to do?”   Where is the passion in your life?  Have you considered how you can make money pursuing this passion?  When you identify what you really love to do, then pursuing the passion will bring you the most satisfaction and allow you to stick with the learning curve and the ensuing tedium without loosing your enthusiasm.  Remember that doing exceptionally well is the result of obsessively focusing on one thing and getting passionate and inspired by it.  I believe that by pursuing your passion means that you will shine.  And people will notice.  They will notice competency, self-confidence and a smile.

Guard against career stress.

What causes you stress within your job?  Is it the long commutes, or the obnoxious bosses?  Maybe you feel career instability or burn-out from the long working hours.  The flip-side of knowing what you like, is knowing what you don’t like.  So take time to define what stress looks like in your life and then identify where it shows its ugly face in your career.  Can you label the sources of your stress or describe what triggers your anxiety attacks? Some of you may be looking to change jobs soon in your career path so it is best to identify job patterns to avoid.  The economic climate is shaky at best right now so you don’t want to be job hopping.  That causes more stress.  And a word of caution for you single ladies.  Single women can feel additional burdens as you pursue your career path.  You may be afraid to make a job change, even if it is warranted, because having a single income.   Financial fear is a real issue and often causes stressful choices for those reliant on a single income.

Enjoy the journey.

It will be full of surprises, some good, some not so good.  By journey, I actually mean action plan.  And the action plan is really a set of directions that allow you to move down a path toward a goal.  But the goal is just the end point, and getting there is the most important activity. Learn from the people you meet and the experiences that occur.  Learning is a lifetime activity.  It never stops. With your career path, strive to enjoy the process and use all of these components to enrich your perspective and continue towards your goal.  Find the benefits in the work you are doing now that can make positive contributions moving you forward.  Be optimistic and keep looking ahead.   Change the path if you need to, but keep a forward perspective.  Know when to move on, when to stay and keep your head up, looking forward. The experience needs to be enjoyed.

Play nice.

As you keep moving up in your career path, take care of the people behind you.  Let them have the benefit of what you have learned.  Help women climbing below you on the corporate ladder.  Give back to those who helped you.  Don’t make enemies.  You may need them and never know where they will end up in their career path.  It is much better to work together to accomplish goals.  It applies to all facets of life.   And this is a good networking tactic.  People notice who they can trust and rely on to get their work done.

Read.

Yes, you need to read and read different types of news and different types of books.  If you read the NY Times, then read the Wall Street Journal.  Get different perspectives.  Know what is happening in the world around you.  The more you read the more you shape your personality.  And you become more interesting to your colleagues.

Keep a portfolio of your work.

Put aside materials that you have produced reflecting relevant skills and accomplishments.  These can be work assignments that you have produced in various phases of your career or reflective of different job capacities.  Choose about five examples of your very best work that make you proud.  Keep these works as a reminder to yourself about what types of assignments and tasks you prefer.  Having concrete reminders is helpful for your self confidence and allows you to sell your capabilities to future employers when job interviews come down the road.

Build your self confidence.

It is the best gift you can give yourself.  But show confidence not arrogance.  Confidence comes from doing your job well and also from feeling good about yourself.   Take care of yourself, know where you derive your confidence and protect that attribute.  Confidence comes from many sources including the way you dress–clothes–your shoes–or the accessories you add.  You can also gain confidence knowing that you are taking care of yourself with good skin care, proper diet and exercise. Maybe you enjoy relaxing after a long day at work.  Taking care of your well being goes a long way towards feeling good about yourself.

Develop a game plan.

What is your dream?  I have talked about the journey but really a journey is only as good as the plan that creates it.  Your plan should provide a sense of direction, but leave your doors of opportunity open so you can make changes when appropriate.  Your career plan is developed with a sketch of information as you start, and then it becomes more detailed as you learn and experience more.  You become more knowledgeable and your expertise actually comes from your many contributing experiences.  Yes, it is ok to fail as long as you learn from it.  As a matter of fact, I don’t know anyone who has not failed at one point or another when building a career.  Keep your eyes on the prize and don’t lose track of the big picture.

Know that your life is not always in balance.

Really, work, family, community, and you are never in balance.  Sometimes there is a tradeoff.  I have found that you can not wait for time to be exactly right in order to make a decision.  You are always living in the present, not waiting for some future event to occur.  Emotions can only be felt in the present.  Past is a memory and future is unpredictable. So live now, listen to others, and know who you are and what you want to do.  Then do it.

About the Author:

Dr. Ann Gatty is an educator, author, organizational strategist and personal consultant.  She has taught in classrooms, museums, boardrooms and employee seminars.  She has mentored and coached.  From her work and personal experiences, she finds a continuous need among women, of all walks of life, to find answers to questions about their life balance, goals, and health.  Because of these needs, Ann Gatty hosts a website, www.stress-management-4-women.com.  The purpose is to answer the questions women share as they negotiate life’s many challenges.

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Divided by a Common Language – The Indian Interaction

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Guest Post by Gunjan Bagla

Global 2000 companies have grown their India subsidiaries at a dizzying pace in recent years as a result the CEOs of Hewlett Packard Dell Computer Cisco Intel and others have visited Bangalore Mumbai Hyderabad and Delhi frequently. Simultaneously IT and IT-enabled-services vendors from India have grown their American revenues to over 5 billion a year.

At the early stages of this tidal wave most CIO interactions were focused on immigrants from India who often received graduate degrees from U.S. universities before entering the American workforce. Increasingly though North American IT professionals need to interact directly with their Indian counterparts from India. Even though both sides officially speak English there are significant pitfalls for the uninitiated caused by culture parlance and distance.

It’s 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and you are finishing up a phone call with Jay your counterpart in Bangalore. Jay tells you that he will get back to you “tomorrow.” Don’t necessarily expect anything on your Wednesday. Remember it is already 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday in Bangalore since Indian Standard Time IST is 13 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Pacific Standard Time. Jay might be implying that he will get back to you when it is Thursday Seattle time but it would be better if he said “Anita I will get back to you on Thursday by 9:00 a.m. your time.”

Jay calls you back on Thursday to say “Anita the change request can be implemented in a couple of weeks when I will be in Seattle.” Jay does not necessarily mean 14 days. In India “couple” is an imprecise measure and often means “a few” not exactly two. It is best to clarify and ask for a specific date.

Jay and his colleague Ram arrive at your Seattle offices “in a couple of weeks” and you are huddled together in an all-morning meeting. Jay shows you the list of remaining software bugs and says “Anita have you and boss ticked off the critical ones?” No he is not asking if you have made anyone upset. He simply wants you to “check off” the critical bugs. You check off the bugs that you care about and say to them “If your developers finish the bug list by Thursday it will be a home run for you!” Perplexed Ram responds “Actually Anita don’t we have the meeting about the new project on Friday afternoon? We won’t be going home until after that meeting.” Baseball is not popular in India and home run is not universally understood.

Mark Nelson Executive Vice President of Global Sourcing for IndyMac Bank says that he is careful to limit the use of American idioms when speaking with his Indian vendors Cognizant Technology Solutions and EXL Service. “I don’t ask them to fish or cut bait we don’t hit singles and doubles and no matter how severe the weather it never rains cats and dogs” he declares having made two trips to India this year. Since American media are ubiquitous in urban India some Americanisms have become common but not all. You may never know the mistakes you are making so it is better to restate key points in non-colloquial terms.

Toward noon you ask your working visitors “Shall we take a break for lunch now?” Jay tilts his head to the side in response. His colleague Ram says “Yes I am famished.” You pause waiting for them to make up their minds. They look you at you wondering if you disagree with them or wish them to make more progress before lunch. You have just encountered the unique “Indian Head Crick.”

Americans indicate yes by moving their heads up and down. Indians might do that but they have a few other ways of nodding yes. One way is to tilt the head sideways with a bit of jerk and it means “Yes of course I agree let’s do it.” Another method involves a “Head Bob” rotating the head on “all three axes” according to Avinash Agarwal who established Sun Microsystems’ India Development Center in Bangalore in 2000. Other regional variations of yes exist and most of them look like a no to the uninitiated American. The former CIO of Echostar Corporation Ed Allwein spent several weeks in Delhi this year working very closely with a team of developers who are writing the code for his current company Active Sensing Inc. “By the end of my trip I had deciphered the head nods of each of my team members except for one” he chuckles.

At the end of the day Jay has to leave earlier than Ram. You see them walking down the hallway arm in arm and one tells the other “I’ll give you a tinkle when we are back at the hotel to see if we can have breakfast tomorrow.” It is perfectly normal for heterosexual men to touch each other in India and tinkle simply means “phone call.”

Next day Ram needs to buy a U.S. adapter for his cell phone and you offer to give him a ride. As you get into the car Jay remarks “The Verizon lady told me that we should not bark in front of the bed’s door.” What? Indians often pronounce the letter “P” like a “B” and the letter “T” like a “D” so he was probably told to not park in front of the pet store. Most Indians pronounce “V” and “W” interchangeably and many Indians from the eastern states pronounce their “V” and “W” like a “B.”

Each culture has its own acronyms and it is helpful to understand some of them when dealing with India. An “NRI” is an Indian living overseas or “non-resident Indian.” Indian immigrants may refer to someone as an ABCD short for American Born Confused Desi a humorous reference to any second-generation Indian living in the North America. If you see the term “FOC” in India it means “free of charge.” An “STD booth” is nothing prurient or dangerous it is simply an attended pay phone short for “subscriber trunk dialing” which is the old name for long-distance calling in India.

Despite these pitfalls the former CIO of MGM Studios Ed Altman now runs the Entertainment and Media practice at Tata Consulting Services out of his Los Angeles office and says he’s had a remarkably easy time adjusting to his Indian colleagues at India’s largest outsourcer. “The studio business is so inherently multicultural and it has been for a long time that I have not had a problem all I have to do is remember to use metaphors around cricket not baseball.” Occasionally when his colleagues are very animated or excited about a customer discussion Altman says that they tend to lapse into Hindi and he has to remind them to switch back so he can participate.

India is a very large and complex country and it is often possible to come to diametrically opposite conclusions about the same subject depending on your perspective. Nelson Altman and Allwein each commented on how “unfailingly polite” attentive and courteous the Indians appear in dealing with them. Yet they are seldom polite to strangers in public spaces the concept of waiting in line does not exist in most places in India. Allwein learned the meaning of “Indian Stretchable Time” during his recent stay in Delhi. “People would keep me waiting up to 30 minutes and more as a matter of routine. Not once did anyone show up early for an appointment.” Yet his software delivery schedules have been met accurately. “For a year-long project I am within two weeks of the initial projected delivery date and that is excellent.”

“Although there are times when nuances in language and speaking styles may result in restatement of a comment or two for purposes of clarification there are no language barriers that inhibit the successful conduct of business—or building friendships” concludes Nelson with a twinkle. “After all we’re all just chips off the same old block.”

This article originally appeared in the CIO magazine a few years back, reproduced with the author’s permission. Content Copyright Gunjan Bagla.

About the Author:

Gunjan Bagla has 25 years of global sourcing, engineering, and marketing experience. He has held senior positions in technology sales and marketing. Bagla has managed teams sourcing products and services from China, India, Japan, and the rest of Asia. He began his career as an engineer for Larsen & Toubro, Bangalore, a prominent Indian industrial firm. Mr. Bagla came to the U.S. and later worked as Director of Program Management for Tandon Computer.

Based in California, he is the author of the acclaimed title “Doing Business in 21st Century India: How to Profit Today from tomorrow’s most exciting Market” published in July 2008 by Warner/Hachette Books

Find out more about Gunjan Bagla’s company at their website.

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How to Inspire your Team to better Performance

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In simple terms this title could very well had been “how to be a good leader” but that can be a huge thesis in itself, here the focus is primarily on the core skills that are essential for a good leader to help bring conducive results for the team and hence for the company. What can you do to better your team performance?

Be WYSIWYG

Doing what you say is essential to be a role model for anyone. You can inspire only if your followers see you do what you say. Follow the “what you ‘say’ is what you get” approach to inspire and instill ethics and credibility to your team.

Support and Empower

The more trust and responsibility you can share with your team the more effective you can be in your team building efforts. Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge say: ‘Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.”

Share and Open up

The more you willing to share news and updates on the projects and expectations, the more trust you can build with your group. Secrets sour relationships and have no place when you aim towards building strong, high-performance teams. Be approachable and be informal to the level where you keep your required distance and respect; you are the beacon and inspiration of the team, always remember that you cannot be a co-worker to your team, to motivate and to inspire you have to be on a “pedestal” – someone to be be looked up to!

Show them the Money!

What are you working for? What inspires you? It could be more money or recognition; almost everyone works for a desirable end result. What motivates your team? It is your job to survey each team member on an ongoing basis and show them what they can achieve by surpassing the goals you have set for them. It is your job to show then how their work influences the company growth and how they are a part of a larger goal?  To inspire your team always keep them in touch with the company’s vision and show them how they will benefit when the company outperforms others in the competition.

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Jobs and Employment News April 2010

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It is kind of deceptive and confusing when I read the employment updates and the current economic recovery news for the US. Some things are on the upward trend and maybe calls for celebration but with the main problem lurking darkly around, the joblessness and no-hiring – the middle class is in for a long haul. Whatever the analysis, here is what’s going around:

CNN Money reports:

Jobless claims in another surprise surge

The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance for the first time jumped for the second week in a row, according to government data released Thursday.

There were 484,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended April 10, up 24,000 from an unrevised 460,000 the previous week, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report.

Read on…

Financial Times reports:

Dimon And Bernanke Upbeat On U.S. Economy (JPM)

According to a report by the Financial Times, Jamie Dimon , the head of JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, showed optimism over the state of U.S. economy on Wednesday and said that stronger businesses and consumer spending is harbinger of an economic recovery. Both Bernanke and Dimon used the same optimistic language at different venues, downplaying fears of a return to sluggish growth. The Remarks from Washington, where Bernanke testified before the Congress, and New York, where Dimon announced strong first-quarter results for JP Morgan, helped the markets to move higher on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the psychological mark of 11000, moving to 11,123 and the S&P 500 crossed the critical 1,200 marks. Stronger-than-expected retail sales in the month of March have resulted in a positive mood. However, Bernanke was more cautious than Dimon in expressing optimism for the economy. In his testimony before the Joint Economy Committee in Congress, Bernanke predicted “moderate economic recovery” due to higher spending by businesses and consumers. He had slightly upbeat outlook on the economy than in the past.

Read on…

 Financial Times reports:

European Central Bank warns of global imbalances threat

Distortions in the global economy that provided the backdrop to the financial crisis threaten to widen again and upset the worldwide recovery, the European Central Bank has warned.

In unusually blunt language, the ECB has made clear its fear that governments are not doing enough to put the global economy back on a sustainable growth path – despite international policy initiatives in the past year.

“At the current juncture, global imbalances continue to pose a key risk to global macroeconomic and financial stability. The stakes are high to prevent a disorderly adjustment in the future that would be costly to all economies,” it concludes in a special article in its monthly bulletin published on Thursday.

Read on…

 

Speedy Recovery: India’s Job Market Heats Up

According to a report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Assocham), the Indian economy will create 87.37 million new jobs by 2015. The study was released in March by the secretary of the Planning Commission, which gave the projections an official seal of approval.

According to Assocham’s survey, the most significant growth will come from the manufacturing sector, which will add 32% (27.88 million) of the new jobs. Trade will be next with 24.24 million jobs, following construction with 15.13 million. Tourism-related employment, information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS), and financial services will also grow. The weak spot is agriculture, which will be stagnant. “Most of corporate India — including foreign organizations — is witnessing a resurgence,” says Sandeep Chaudhary, leader of human resources outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates’ performance and rewards consulting practice in India.

Read on…

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I’d rather be Working!

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This post celebrates the passion and love for the work you do.

How do you feel when getting to work is a pleasure you look forward to?
How do you feel when everyday you wake up with a bounce in your step and excitement in your heart to start a new day – working on what you like?
A true satisfying and exciting feeling for sure! Though most of the internet searches would be to get away from what you do at present, there are many many of us who just love doing what we do, maybe because we have found our calling and have figured out how to make the best of the both worlds doing what we want (job/business etc.) and getting what we desire (the money, satisfaction or extra time) or just because doing what we do brings us happiness in all possible way we had imagined work-life to be.

A friend who was in a layoff one and half years back felt extremely dejected when the layoff happened, he had been with the company for 11 years! He was not prepared for it and of course was a rude shock. But knowing him I knew that he would not take it lying down, I was not at all surprised when just after 3 months of his layoff he had launched his own company and had two friends working together on a couple of wireless applications. Today he is satisfied and happy doing what he does, and not only that, he seems excited and driven than ever before. He says, “I had been doing my best at my job, and I liked what I use to do at my previous company, but THIS is completely different! I LOVE doing what I do now and it is so exciting and fulfilling. It is something like suddenly finding wings to fly high and get wherever you want to.. my whole perspective of work has changed, it is not work anymore, it is fun, excitement and love.”

Elisabeth is a health coach at Take Shape for Life and exhibits deep passion and love for her new career. She says, “For 16 years I had an independent bookshop–loved it, but worked 6-7 days a week, 10 hours a day. Because I loved it, I kept it open much longer than I should have. I was proud of not being a bottom line person, but guess where that got me? I’m still not a bottom line person–I could double or triple my income in two months if I wanted to work that hard. I don’t want to work that hard. Now I have almost no overhead (have to actually create overhead–luckily I have clients and other coaches I work with all over the country and can travel, something I love doing), and I’ve built a great business that doesn’t require me to work non-stop, gives me flexible hours, and supports my family comfortably. And when I want a raise, I give myself one (that is, I put in that bit of extra time to make it happen). I guess there comes a point when we stop and look at what our building for the future is doing to the current quality of life we’re living. Once we do that, sometimes we are able to let go of some of the things that take time/effort without a pretty clear payback within a reasonable time frame and put that time and effort into better daily living or into other things that may bring the needed results. All I can say is that my work IS my pleasure, and I’m grateful to have found a great opportunity that allows me to do what’s important to me–while I help other people do the same.”

Well said Elisabeth and I’m sure you’d say “I’d rather be working!”

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

– Kahlil Gibran

What do you love about your work?

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Filed Under: Career Self-Help, Entrepreneurship Tagged With: ,

3 Ways to Eliminate the Core Reasons of Stress during Job Search

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Identifying the core reasons for stress during job search is the first step towards eliminating them. Can you answer this question honestly?

What are you worried about the most and how can you eliminate the core reasons for your stress?

The three core stressors during a long-term job search are:

  • Financial pressure
  • The fear of social gatherings
  • Self pity and self loathing

 

Take Care of your Financial Health First

A majority of the tension comes from the money matters. Yes of course money matters and taking care of this major stressor might be right about half the battle won.

  • How is your financial health during this job search?
  • Where does it land in your priority list of reasons for stress?
  • How much money do you have left that you can survive on paying your bills and making at least the base essential living for your family?

Evaluate and do a practical analysis on all these questions above and find ways to take care of the issue.

Some good advice you can find on the About.com pages.

The Human Touch – Do not Curtail Interaction

Often, post-layoff, many tend to slow down on social circles or even cut off interaction with friends and family, emotionally and externally. Many of those who are stressed do their best to hide their emotions or not talk about how they are feeling. Evading the topic seems like the most convenient thing to do and sooner or later evading people and gatherings is what you might end up doing. This is the worst case scenario to increase stress. Human interaction, touch and being expressive are the most effective de-stressors.  During the job search process it takes a whole lot to stay motivated and driven and some comfort can come from those you trust and love. Do not shy away from public gatherings; in fact participate more using your time diligently. And when you meet with a group or those who can help, meet them sincerely, networking should be on the mind but not always.. encouragement and sometimes  great advice and good offers can land out of the blue when you are least expecting it!

Commend your Competencies – pat yourself often

Long-term job search also results in low self-esteem and often self-deprecation. Another reason of stress and depression. Do not let this deter you, you must find time to write down what you are truly good at – then learn to appreciate it and see how you can add all your positives in your resume and your elevator pitch. During job search you are learning some new marketing skills – you are marketing yourself. Think about it – if you want to buy a new product what do you look for in it? You want certain features that fulfill your needs at the right price and must be available at or around certain area or place. Right? Now turn it around – what do you have in yourself that fulfills the job description, are you ready to relocate to get the job or search for jobs in a particular area? How would you market yourself to the recruiter so the recruiter “buys” you?  Prepare to create the “want”, prepare a pitch which showcases your competencies and again – feel good about it – every day! 

Feeling great and celebrating “you” is a major step towards defeating all odds, a positive and driven person can achieve anything with the right skill set.

What are your major de-stressors?

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Why do we don’t do what we WANT to do

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There is so much we want to do there is so much we need to do, though simple words are they need and want often forces us on different paths; it does not a matter if we like it or not.

We often don’t do what we want to do because of the various hurdles that we have or we make in our lives. But whatever this discussion comes to it is safe to say that it is easy to do what we want to do if we take care of the “need” first. Read on and please share your thoughts too!

Are you doing (or are you in a career) that you truly want to do/be in this life? If not then why don’t we do what we want to do; this article takes a look at the major hurdles we face in our life that stops us from doing so.

You may have learnt to love what you do but there is a big difference in doing what you love. The former is a compromise – but hey nothing bad about it! The latter is a way of life how you define on your terms, a way to live when survival is not an issue. But at times it is not easy to do what you want because there are constraints there are needs which much be taken care of first. Let’s have a look at the reasons on why we don’t do what we would love to do.

Money Money Money – We need money

We should be thankful if we can do what we want on our own terms because for many of us it is not a choice at all.

A single mother of three working two part-time jobs to get her kids through school and pay for the rent; it is most often not a choice for her to do what she loves – because it may not bring in the kind of money she needs to sustain her family’s needs. A person who has a family member with a medical problem or disability has to work hard to get the medical bills paid. The priority is to make that much money to get the bills paid and the family taken care; you might take on a job that you is not exactly to your liking but pays you well.

But say, you had been diligent and had saved for the ‘rainy days’ enough that you can survive well for a certain period of time till when your plan will see the light of the day – you can most certainly do what you want to do because money is not a hurdle anymore. Sure enough that is one major lesson we have learnt from the recent recession, to save well and for long-term equates to sustainability and security.

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”

– Maya Angelou

Where to go?

As with any step in life, you must first know where you want to go and for that knowledge is the first stepping stone. You must take time to first understand and know what you want and how to get there. Without a plan there is not much success to count on. Often you have difficulties in finding the right-plan that ‘works’; you are not alone.  Almost everyone has gone through this phase, to conquer this hurdle you must first have faith in your plan and then you must seek guidance from mentors or those you know who have “been there” in the field of your interest.

Once you are armed with the knowledge and the knowhow on how to do what you want to do, you have conquered the biggest hurdle to do what you want.

Quotes: Alice in Wonderland
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.

Lack of Drive

We continue doing what we do because that is what we have done so far.
Change is not my cup of tea and what happens if I don’t like it when I switch to another job or career?

This situation is called the ‘foot-rest’ state. And of course the fear of change. To do what you truly like to do needs a strong drive (or call it enthusiasm and persistence) and at times external and internal motivation and risk.

The recent tough economical times have shown us how things can change quickly, millions now are jobless and there are thousands who had been in their present job for more than 20 years and that is the only skill set they have- and now they find themselves in a completely clueless situation – no jobs so how do I find a job?

We were perhaps too comfortable doing what we did… diversification was never in our portfolios because the world seemed to be going along well. The current situation teaches us to be more proactive in dealing with our careers, it is your skill set that is yours to keep rest all can shift or melt away in a matter of minutes. The point is – think about it, if you continue to do what you do without anticipating change you might find yourself in a tough spot later on. Always be ready to move on, to move with the Cheese.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

–  Lou Holtz

Fear of Failure

Ahh another colossal hurdle- the fear of failure and the word “expectations” that we have from ourselves and that others have from us. What if I fail to be successful at what I truly want to do?

Sure enough a tough hurdle, but as the saying goes: The only real failure in life is the failure to try. It is your choice to give it a try rather than never having it done at all.

And failure plays a large role in your success, think upon this quote:

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
–  Colin Powell

There can be a lot of excuses that you can come up with, oh yes, some are genuine for sure but most of these are excuses. What has stopped you from doing what you truly WANT to do?

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Filed Under: Career Self-Help, Job Search Tagged With: , , , ,
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