The Single-Word Image Maker

Ah, the professionalism declaration, saying “Huh” in response to anything, everything, and then repeating it to the point of insanity – or the other person simply walks away (which was the original intent). Who has suggestions for curbing the propensity to do this? Some youth use this in order to have their way without showing blatant defiance. Others simply have a hearing problem. No matter what the explanation, “Huh?” or “What?” is a real image breaker.

Fitness Careers

Not to be outdone, it would be wise for a person who’s planning to enter a particular industry and career to start building connections and doing some strategic planning about building credibility and references. These are a few suggestions I want to offer to the blossoming fitness guru. I’m certain there are other things that have been overlooked.

On Your Shoulders

Reliability Definition Magnifier Shows Trust Quality And Dependability

Taking responsibility for failure to deliver is essential to reaching maturity. Recognizing when circumstances begin to build toward a failed commitment and making necessary, satisfactory adjustments is essential to having the right leadership ingredients. Those involve planning and foresight. Those involve being able to make contingency plans.

Compensation and resourcefulness are important to remember for the sake of projecting professionalism.

Whatever the dynamic, the “slippage” is not the fault of someone else or something else and responsibility for it is On Your Shoulders. Read more about it in the Career Coach Corner.

Compensation

Compensation has several definitions. While it can mean the amount of money that’s paid someone for the work that they do, it can also mean making allowances to balance things out.

There are many times when we find ways to put responsibility for shortcomings on the shoulders of others. That is called blaming.

Compensation, on the other hand, is coming up with ways to meet the goal when there aren’t sufficient resources to do it alone. That’s also considered being resourceful. Read more about several prisms of Compensation in the Career Coach Corner.

Developing Good Mini Habits

There was a recent question posted on Quora where the person wanted to know some “mini habits” that can be practiced everyday for about five minutes. Now that was definitely a good question because it focuses on building in small steps to be more efficient.

Read more of Developing Good Mini Habits in the “Ask Yvonne” folder of Entrances Bulletins.

Fitting into the Environment

Having a good relationship with the co-workers (whether autonomous work or team) is important. Being mindful of how all of the processes fit together to create a cohesive whole unit is useful for making sense of the job and what you do there. Getting along with your co-workers means you have the rapport to be considered part of the team.

Read more of Fitting into the Environment on Career Coach Corner.

When in the Course

Maybe you’re also a fan of The Amazing Race, a TV reality show that has contestants conquer tests and obstacles around the world in order to win $1,000,000 (in addition to various segment prizes).

A few years ago, a middle-aged couple had the task of counting beads and reporting to the gatekeeper the number they’d reached. Mind you, there was a factory room filled with these beads. Just the sight of them would make your head swim. Counting them, while daunting by the sheer volume, was doable. The husband of the middle-aged team began counting. He kept getting the wrong number and had to begin again. In one clip, there was a record of his losing count by ten beads.

So it goes when you’re standing alone and dealing with an overwhelming amount of content. Things need to be brought into perspective. Things need to be organized into manageable chunks. Some things need to be delegated, if possible, to teams that have more hands, more ideas about how to effectively organize things, more experience in managing the scope of the project.

Sometimes it doesn’t really matter where you start nor what you choose to put first. It’s simply a matter getting an idea of how to organize the project and then choosing what will be the first line of attack. Just stick your hand into the mosh and make it the starting point. There are many great examples of dealing with the jumbled chaos of a huge project.

Bringing order from chaos. (from Kozzi.com)

There will be times when the greatest distraction proves to be external circumstances that need to be resolved before starting the project. If they’re ignored, they prove to be like an elephant in a 4 x 3 room. Every time you try to do something, you find yourself bumping into a blockage. Clear up some of the distractions. Take care of the external; resolve it. Handling it in small bite-sized chunks won’t do because it’s still there being a distraction that needs to be settled. It’s like a burr in your shoe. Just not having it waiting in the wings will be a relief and free your mind to focus on what needs to be done.

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Career Tip: How Am I Doing

A young woman who had attended a class with me happened to mention a group interview where she was one of the candidates. She shared her concern about how she did and whether she would be called back for Step 5 of the six-part interview screening.

What she expressed was trying to figure out what the interviewer was thinking and their reaction to her. The interviewer seemed to have a skeptical posture and kept looking at her while covering their mouth with one hand, almost as if to hide a sneer.

© Savol67 | Dreamstime.com – Woman Boss – Female Executive Leadership Photo

One thing the young woman shared was the impressions of one of her competitors. That person commented on how articulate and well spoken she was during the interview. They admired her for those talents and expressed a desire to be that capable.

So how did this young woman do and what could she have done to feel she’d won over the interviewer? My suggestion hailed back to my days of competitive speech.

The competition in the speech rounds was the other five orators and the judge. The other speakers were also audience. It was my job to deliver my speech as well as possible, as convincingly as possible, with good expression (physical, verbal, appearance), good interpretation of the message, and win over anyone who appeared to be hostile while addressing everyone in the room.

My technique was to speak to everyone in the room, making eye contact with each one. But I would give a little extra eye contact or emphasize a particular point while looking at the one person who appeared to be the most hostile toward me or skeptical of my ability. If I saw their attitude melting, I was certain that I’d won over the entire room and also placed well in the round. Each time I employed that tactic, I placed first in that particular round and usually came away from the competitions having won first or second place in that category of speaking.

Win your detractor to your side by knowing your subject extremely well. Make good eye contact. Definitely avoid staring; be amicable. Ask good expositive questions that concern matters that could not be ascertained online or through research.

Close the interview with courtesy, a friendly hand shake, a thank you for having been able to have the meeting (it could have been cancelled) and the opportunity to learn more about the opportunity and the company.

The Other Things

Did you notice the people you passed as you went to the office where you were to be interviewed? Did you pay attention to what they were doing, how they were interacting with others, what they were saying or how they were saying it? All of that comprised just some of the working environment and culture. In addition to thinking about whether you’ll be called back for the next phase, think about whether that culture and atmosphere is what you want for your work life or how you can make a positive impact there.

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Do the Research

Entrances is a 360 networking forum on LinkedIn. It’s for an exchange of information and for networking with others in order to develop new connections and awareness of new opportunities. The purpose is to gain better insights about another part of the employment sector other than your own space so that better choices are made based in feedback from the other players. One goal is developing relationships that can lead to referrals.

Entrances – Making sound choices based on informed networking

While it isn’t a forum for political speech, there are a series of videos running that are produced by ColorofChange.org based on their #IfTheySpeakForMe theme . They show by various examples of what ensues if others make choices for you because you didn’t do your research; instead, you were passive and took whatever you got. In this weekend before midterm elections, the videos emphasize the importance of doing good research before embarking on an endeavor or entering into relationships.

With those compelling ColorofChange messages are scenarios of hair care dictated by a stranger and being hijacked in a taxi. Those are similar to taking on employment with a client or employer you haven’t researched.

I encourage you to do the research this weekend that will help you make the right choice for you in the voting booth. Remember to vote. Exercise your rights.

Who Is This

That being said, remember to do some research, ask meaningful questions, about where your livelihood is or will be. Find out who the potential employer is. Determine whether the recruiter is the right one for you. What does the recruiter want in terms of a “qualified candidate” and how can the resume writer or the career coach help you them reach your goals. Maybe they simply are not the right fit. Maybe their philosophies are (and never will be) in consonance with your own ethics or beliefs in good practices. Consider the video wherein the hairstyle of several women is determined by a total stranger who contravenes the women’s wishes and relationship with their hairdresser.

We’ve talked about hair in Entrances from the perspective of what is accepted by the other side of the employment desk. It was intended to look at the various styles, colors, whether it constituted good grooming, and whether hairstyle is a valid hiring criteria. A few interesting views were expressed.

Making Impressions

Has someone impressed you with their words? What did they do to make that impression? How reliable are they? Would you be willing to refer them to something that may be a good match for what they have to offer?

Bottom Line

Which is the more important emphasis? Know who the employer is. Know their product or service before going on the interview or taking them on as a client. Recruiters are held liable for the misdeeds of their clients. It is a recruiter’s duty to guide a client along the more ethical path if they are erring in their decisions or execution of their business practices. But it’s imperative to know all of these things before getting involved or else having a delicate but compelling reason for taking a different, better path to open the right door and make better entrances.

Having an Impact – Appearance

Do looks matter when vying for a new position or even when seeking acceptance? The larger man and ‪woman face many challenges when they endeavor to ‪dress the part and be accepted as a leader in their industry. It can become a challenge in many ways. In particular, finding fashion that makes the right statement, is affordable, and flatters the physique can be difficult.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a new job interview that requires the right attire. It can also be a matter of commanding the necessary level of respect when making a presentation, teaching, doing public speaking, or just appearing before cameras.

© Savol67 | Dreamstime.com – Woman Boss – Female Executive Leadership Photo

To what extent are we missing one of the best by ignoring the larger sized person? This isn’t a constant phenomenon but it is an obstacle that confronts much of our population. Perhaps it isn’t so much the size of the person that becomes a hiring deterrent as much as the health risks the larger person carries and the resulting impact on health insurance premiums. It could be that a subsidized fitness center membership could be included among the cafeteria benefits offered in order to allay those issues. Just a thought.

Let’s consider the special challenges women face when it comes to vying for upper management and leadership positions. We’re told that they find it useful to dress for power, the better to gain the influence they seek. The more likely they will not become mired in a support position they outgrew decades before. A New York Times article considers this proposition and concludes that the higher one climbs, the more limited the fashion choices become. After all, there are only so many ways to wear a suit (or especially a dress) without a masculine cut and avoid having a soft, pushover image. Women, by necessity, are forced to make bolder strides in fashion so that their voices, identity, and authority can override the traditional perspective of being weak and subservient.

Notice where this feminine fashion dynamic is happening in the NYT article? There are an important lessons to be derived from this. It isn’t “sexy”, per se, that’s driving the advancement. Being attractive, even alluring, gains attention and a desire to have this person around. But those aren’t necessarily the same magnets that garner respect and regard for being extremely talented. They’re merely part of marketing and branding. But the overriding emphasis is on knowledge and ability. A woman’s attire needs to communicate those skills without her making exaggerated demonstrations of them in other ways. They become part of her brand.

In this instance, brand represents gaining success and being able to have improved status by association. The critical ingredient to all of this is having and using good knowledge and wisdom. Then fashion is merely the window dressing for the ultimate prize.

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