Category Archives: General

Use Change Management to create an impeccable reputation

Posted on by

 

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail.

If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
If you are enjoying these tips, please refer and pass along to others.

My mother very much enjoys the daily judge programs. When I was growing up, soap operas was the prominent daytime TV.  Today, it seems to be the judge programs.  programs.  Majority of the conflicts stem from miscommunication or lack of communication.   Many times one person is suing the other for “not doing what they promised they would do”.  Other times, they are in court because one person doesn’t feel that the other is taking responsibility for their own actions.Most of these cases can be eliminated and avoided with some simple Change Management steps.
Although organizational change management processes can vary (and are often more extensive);  following these minimum steps in both your working and personal relationships, you will avoid much grief and regret.

1) Clearly state, document, and sign the agreement of action.  Have all stakeholders agree and sign the agreement.  Include communication plans in this agreement).
2) Verify that all parties understand the issues.  Get individuals to paraphrase the agreement in their own words, so that you can validate that they really understand the expectations on both sides.
3) Agree upon communication plan.  Define how parties are going to provide status, communicate problems, and discuss deviations/consequences from above agreement.
4) Immediate communicate any deviations from the signed agreement. Expect change and be totally transparent on the progress and status of the activities
5) Collaborate, document and sign the agreed change to the original plans.  Have all stakeholders agree and sign the agreement.

Taking the time to do these simple steps keeps everyone in the loop and protects both working and personal relationships.

Try it and let me know what you think.
In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into this in detail.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Are you killing your career? 10 reasons why your career is stalled.

Posted on by
This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my IT Professional Development Toolkit – I go through the: who, what, where, when, and how of the below.  If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
Do you feel your career has stalled?  Chances are that there are some things that you are doing to kill your own career.  Check this list to see where you stand.
1) Singular focus on doing a great or perfect job on your assigned tasks and responsibilities
– Many professionals complain that they work 10-12 hours a day to do an excellent job on their tasks. Then they complain that they still only get “Average” or “Meet expectations” in their performance review — when they feel they deserve an Exceptional or Excellent rating. The fact is that employers pay you to do excellent work in your assigned tasks. They expect you to be exceptional in your field of expertise. Therefore, you are ‘meeting expectations’. To get an “Above Expectation” rating — you need to offer something in addition to your defined tasks.
2) No career vision or plan.
-Many people don’t take the time to design a career development plan. They don’t sit down and envision where they really want to be in 10 years. It’s something people do when they first get out of college. But once they get a job in their profession, they often allow the company (or their manager) manage their career at that point. Managers intend to look out for their employees and do what’s best for both their employees and company. But if the employee doesn’t clearly articulate what the employee really wants in their own career, the managers don’t know what is best for the employee. Because employees are not taking ownership for their own career plans, companies/mangers often direct their resources (employees) to fill the companies’ gaps.
3) Lack of imagination in your career vision.
-When asked, “What do you want in your career?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years”; most people say, “I just want to still have a job.” Doing the same thing, the same say — will keep you in the same place. Merely doing a good job at what you are asked to do — will keep you stalled. Having a larger vision of where you want to be – gives you an exciting roadmap. For instance, if you decide you want to own your own company in 10 years, you will realize that your technical background is fine — but you lack the Big Picture and marketing savvy. So — now you have identified some gaps that you need to fill for your longer-term goals. Now you can start filling in those gaps (perhaps taking on a temporary position with sales and marketing to help fill in that portfolio).
4) Not aligning your performance with the company bottom line.
– Companies are in business to make money. If you are assigned to projects and products that are not making money, then you are not contributing to the company bottom line. By not taking ownership of your own future (delegating your career progress to your manager) – you may feel like you are being ‘the good soldier’ – but you are losing the fight. You need to understand the company vision, mission and goals — and then quantify your own performance according to those company goals. Otherwise, you are killing your career.
5) Not ‘project managing’ your own career.
– Most complain that they don’t have time to do anything ‘extra’ because they are already overworked. They are too busy doing their assigned tasks — and don’t have time to focus on their own individual development plans and career growth. Your career is one of your most important project that you will ever have. You are the one accepting the various tasks from your managers, coworkers, and sibling departs. You have the power to properly manage your time and projects. Your employer is a ‘blind waiter’. They will continue to pour until you say ‘when’. YOU are responsible for saying ‘stop’. If you don’t project manage your own career and life, you won’t be able to be, have and do whatever you want.
6) Blaming other people for your work-load.
– Along the lines of the above. You feel that you are being a ‘good soldier’ when you take on other people’s work. You feel you are a good team player to accept interruptions and urgent, last minute requests. Even though you are behind in your other commitments, your solution is to merely work harder and longer to catch up. As a result, you continue to fall behind, churn among several tasks and fail on all of them. You blame other people for giving you so many last-minute requests. It may make you feel better to blame others, but you are the one responsible for accepting and making those commitments. And it’s your career on the line – not theirs.
7) Not understanding what is expected of you
– Not documenting your responsibilities and SMART goals in reaching your departments business goals. Employees need to understand their company and their department’s business goals and commitments. Employees also need to understand how their role and responsibilities support those company and business goals. Employees and managers need to outline their own Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document – to achieve their department goals. Documenting your SMART goals with your manager’s approval, should be used for your performance evaluation review. If you know upfront – what is expected of you (i.e. your PBC with your SMART goals) – you are more likely to get a good performance rating.
8) Not making use of Change Management
– The above PBC is a living document. The only thing that is constant is change. Therefore, the better you can manage change, the better for you. Every time a new task, new project or new request comes to you – you need to do a Change Management process on it. You need to review the priority, consequences, stakeholders involved, and what will come off your plate to accomplish the task. Just because a request comes to you NOW — doesn’t mean that it’s an urgent or even important request. It just means that the request is coming in NOW. You need to review the priority against your other tasks and what will be delayed, delegated, diminished, and deleted because of it’s addition.
9) Assuming your manager know all the answers
– Beware of the high-level dumb. Just because your manager suggests you do the task in A,B,C,D steps — doesn’t mean that A,B,C,D is the most effective or efficient way to do it. Your manager doesn’t really care HOW it is done. He/she just wants is done accurately, on-time and with quality. If you can accomplish the essence of the goal with high quality, precision and reduced time — he/she will be happy. If you do exactly what people are telling you — then you are not illustrating your expertise, creativity, and initiative. You won’t get gold stars for doing what other people tell you to do. That illustrate that you are a good follower — but not a leader.
10) Not asking for help
– Many feel that asking for help illustrates a lack of competence and ability. People rather deliver something late, instead of owning up that they are running into a roadblock or challenge. You feel that you will figure it out — if you work harder and longer on it. You know everyone is overworked and don’t want to bother them. Instead, you just stay isolated, with head-down to get your work done. In the meantime, you have become the bottleneck in the critical path. By being transparent in everything that you do, you can avoid many of these bottlenecks. High-performers are not ‘all things to all people’. They just seem that way, because they know who to go to for mentoring and coaching. Take the time to do a self-assessment of your skills and skill gaps. Line up the appropriate mentors and coaches to fill those gaps.

Hiring interns for the first time

Posted on by
Most new business owners don’t have much budget for staffing.  So we experiment with interns or inexperienced new hires. The success or failure of any new-hire (intern or paid) depends on how well we prepare.
Below are some tips:
1) Don’t underestimate the value of an orientation program
All new employees need to go through a documented and repeatable orientation program. In this program, you cover important policies, procedures, daily administrative expectations, code-of-conduct, company hierarchy;organization flowchart, and company mission and vision statement
2) All origination material should be available 24-7
Place all learning material on-line on your website – for future reference.
3) Pair new employee with a buddy or mentor
The buddy system reduces multiple people getting interrupted by the new-employees questions and issues. Having an assigned buddy or mentor enables the manager to manage the training load. The training curve isn’t limited to the new-employee’s learning curve — but expands to everyone they interrupt to ask questions.
4) Have documented procedural manuals for all significant tasks
If you don’t have documented procedures, have the new-employee be responsible for create (or correct). Having the new-employee document the procedures keep the living documents relevant and accurate.
5) Conduct frequent one-on-one meetings with the new-employee as well as with others
During your regular one-on-one meetings with yoru employees, explicitly ask how the new intern is coming along. Have specific SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals for them to accomplish in a timely fashion. If they are consistently not meeting those metrics, then it’s prudent to release and find someone else better suited.
This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail.If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.

How to do things that scare us.

Posted on by

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail.

If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
If you are enjoying these tips, please refer and pass along to others.

 

There are things in our professional careers that naturally scare us, but are required for advancement and continued growth.  If we get complacent and too comfortable, we are actually stagnant.  Fear is actually a sign of growth and development.  We are rarely afraid of things we have already done before.  We are normally afraid of places we haven’t been before, things we haven’t tried before or subject matter that we know nothing about.  If fear is a sign that we are pushing our envelop, then conquering that fear is a sign of real personal and professional growth.  In essence, fear is an indicator that we’re ready for that next level.

So, how do we gather enough courage to take that next step?  And transition to that next level?  One of the most effective tools to conquering fears (and how to do things that scare you) is to focus on the advantages that conquering that fear will provide.
For instance: If you are afraid of public speaking, but it’s required for that job promotion — focus on all the doors that your presentation skills will open.
1) Ability to persuade and present your proposals to high-level executives
2) Ability to be seen as the thought-leader in your field by your executives, clients, and other experts
3) Ability to get bonuses for your work, publications, and speaking engagements
4) Ability to have company-paid vacation/travel as you promote the company technology to different technical conferences and trade-shows
5) Possibility of being interviewed on radio, TV, and technical journals as a thought-leader in your field. 

Try it and let me know what you think.
In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into this in detail.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

How can a career vision help me with my career

Posted on by

How can a career vision help me with my career

 Professional Development Series

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into professional development and  real-world IT topics in detail.

If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.

There is a saying that “If you don’t know where you are going, then anywhere is fine.”

Steve Wynkoop and I were talking a lot about designing and managing our professional careers on a weekly interview on SSWUG.org.  This episode was about what steps to change your position in the your current company.

The most important step is to clarify what you really want.  As in any success strategy, clarifying your goals (in any endeavor) is extremely critical.

Visualize yourself in 5 or 10 years into the future.  What are you doing?  What is your yearly income? What type of people are surrounding and supporting you? Where are you living?  What type of neighborhood, town, and leisurely activities are you enjoying?

For example:  What if you see yourself campaigning for a senate seat in 10 years?  Or you see yourself a partner and VP of Research and Development at your own company?  Or you own a company with 100 employees in 10 years?

After you clarify your career vision and goals (5 and even 10 years into the future), do the following:

1) Clarify your career vision and goals. [For a dream sculpting worksheet to help clarify your career vision– check out the Worksheets for Success page]
2) Do a self assessment on the skills, attributes, and education required to achieve those career goals
3) Identify the skills and education gaps between where you are today and where you want to be.
4) Put together a 1, 3, 5, 10 year Individual Development Plan designed to achieve those goals and start filling in those gaps. [For a copy of a IDP worksheet – check out the Worksheets for Success page]
5) Include reasonable forcing functions, accountability partners and manager/mentors/coaches to assist you on your journey.
In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into each step in more detail

For more worksheets (like the individual development plan) check out my Worksheets for Success at https://www.lauraleerose.com/worksheets-for-success/

Links:

Try it and let me know what you think.
If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Thinking like an owner

Posted on by
Just because you own a business doesn’t mean you are actually thinking like an owner…..

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.

If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.

I was talking to a solo-entreprenuer the other day.  He was staying very busy, but not making much progress on his business growth and recurring revenue goals.  The mistake that most starting entrepreneurs make is the speed of their transition from “worker bee” to “thinking like an owner”.  They stay busy doing the tasks to keep the business ‘afloat’ that they are not doing the things that allow their vision and business to grow.

Some of the mistakes my friend was making was:
1) Doing everything himself.
Take EGO our of the picture.  Just because something needs to be done, doesn’t mean you have to do it.   Hiring part-time assistants, or collaborating with affiliates and partners are some solutions.
2) Not thinking ROI on the things he was doing.
Even though he was spending time publishing articles and speaking at various engagements, he was not collecting any sales leads.  He ‘felt’ he was reaching a potential of 1000 readers — but he had no way of consistently reaching them or understanding what topics or services they could be interested in.
3) Not thinking about up-sales.
He had no product or service (outside of his manual time) that could be sold 24-7.  He wasn’t taking the time to product-ize the things he was doing over and over again, manually.  He was not using his current articles and speaking engagements to up-sale and promote his on-line products and services.  He wasn’t taking any marketing strategies to building, sustain, and retain his current clients.  He didn’t have any follow-up products and services that lead this current clients from introductory to more advanced services — to retain and sustain his current client base while also growing his referral base.

Typical entrepreneur excuses:

  • I stay busy, but am not reaching anyone new.
  • I have a great speaking opportunity to expose myself to people I haven’t connected with before, but I am too busy with the daily running of my business to create the  materials and products to access this group.

 

Being busy is a positive affect of your great work. On the other hand, it can often limit your success because the busy-ness constrains what you can really do with your potential empire. If you would like business coaching assistance on how to expand beyond the activities you are handling today, please keep my business coaching expertise in mind.
Thinking like an owner:Every action should be positioned to give you positive revenue results.  Giving speaking engagement without prepaving for up-sales, product sales, or additional sales leads (in the form of new customer contact information and database growth); is not ‘thinking like an owner’.  Staying busy with “worker bee” activities without tying it to marketing and sales goals is not ‘thinking like an owner’.
As for creating up-sale products –an up-sale product can be as simple as:
  • a free introductory consulting session or evaluation (by phone, skype or visit)
  • a free in-house customized presentation for their department or company
  • a free subscription to your “already produced” newsletter, blogs and/or articles.
As you see, these sample product ideas don’t need any up-front preparation or time-energy — but can lead you to future sales and client contacts. Sometimes we feel we are too busy and that ‘busy-ness” limits our imagination on how we can actually do more with ease.  Just because we are an ‘owner of our own business’  doesn’t necessarily mean that we are ‘thinking like an owner’.

Homework:  Review the items that you are currently doing.  What would change if you actually ‘thought like the owner’.

Try it and let me know what you think.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

15 Etiquette Tips to Get Ahead

Posted on by

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office methods on various real-world IT topics in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.

Yvette Maurice (http://blog.opencolleges.edu.au/perfect-office-manners-check-list-30-rate/) wrote an interesting article regarding Do You Have Perfect Office Manners? Check This List of 30 To See How You Rate!

I liked it very much.  There are great tips for getting comfortable in your current position.  I then took some of hersame tips (just 15) and modified them for the 15 Etiquette Tips to Get Ahead.

They are strictly based on Yvette’s tips with a twist.

Here are some of the things Yvette listed – but with a small twist to get ahead.  For her unmodified advise, read http://blog.opencolleges.edu.au/perfect-office-manners-check-list-30-rate/

1. Don’t “Blame-storm”  – Get the team to immediately focus on the solutions.

When you see the Blame-storm start, initiation the focus on the solution by saying, “Great, we know what we need to fix.  How do you want this to work from this point forward?”  Focusing on how and why something occurred only keeps you in the same ‘thinking state’ as when the problem was created.  Visualizing how you really want the “entity” to work is really where you want your ‘thinking power’ to be focused.

2. Chewing Gum and other ticks

Everyone has a nervous tick or activity.  Some it’s chewing gum, others it’s twirling their hair or tapping their fingers.  When you see yourself doing your “nervous tick”, use it as a trigger to let you know something is not exactly right.  Then ask yourself these questions:

  • Am I bored? If so, start another project on my todo list.
  • Am I nervous?  If so, do something positive and productive to reduce that nervousness
  • Am I angry or frustrated? If so, think about what you can do right now to reduce those negative feelings.

3. Dressing with Respect BUT FOR SUCCESS

Dress like the person you want to be.  Dress more like the next level up then your peers.  If the managers are dressing in more business attire and your co-workers dress very casual – I recommend dressing more like the managers (or the group that you want to be).  Surround yourself with the type of people you want to emulate.

4. Don’t take Personal Hygiene to extremes

Don’t over-do cologne or perfume.  Many people are allergic to scents in deodorants, soaps and perfumes.  Also be careful with scented candles, if you are in a shared working space.  It’s more of a health and safety issue at this point.

5. Cover Your Mouth and Say Excuse Me

In Yvette’s article, she was commenting on how to handle coughing and sneezing.  My recommendation is to stay home when you are ill.  Often people feel that they are being tough when they come into the office – but actually you are costing the company money.  And no co-worker around you appreciates it either.  Think of it this way.  You come in and work with (infect) 5 people.  Now instead of losing 1 day of work from you, the company is losing 5 people the next few days.  You are also only 40% productive while you are there; and others are also distracted with the thought that they will become sick as well.  With today’s ability to work from home – the best solution is to stay home and help out from home.  You’re get better faster and will be able to produce at 100% then you do arrive in the office.

6. Keep Interruptions to a Minimum

In Yvette’s article, she recommends keeping personal calls to a minimum as to not interrupt your co-workers.  If you work in a cube environment, reserve a conference or team room for those important personal calls.  With the advent of text and on-line instant messaging, many can carry on a quick communiqué from their desk.  And then take the longer (necessary)  conversations to a small conference room (or schedule those at lunch or during outside breaks).

7. If Someone Does Something Nice, be Appreciative AND RECIPROCATE

In Yvette’s articles, she mentions saying thank you for these nice things.  If you want to get ahead, actually reciprocate beyond what they did for you.  If they helped you with a project, send a thank you note to them and copy their managers.  If they mentioned you in their presentation, mention them in yours and ask them to stand up when you give your presentation.  Reciprocate one step beyond what most people would be expecting.  And make sure their manager (and your manager) knows they are helping you.

8. Be Helpful and Cooperate with Your Colleagues to a point

In Yvette’s article, she correctly recommends helping others.  If someone needs help with a copy machine or directions to someplace, please be courteous.  But don’t take too much time helping others.  Don’t take on others people’s problems as your own.  You lose time and momentum on your items.  If your colleague’s problem is aligned with your goals, take the time to assist.  If their issues distract and derail you from your tasks, schedule and goals give them your consult and move on.  Call-in and delegate their problem to the appropriate person.  Remember, your colleague is currently stuck and is just asking for assistance to get to the next step (to get unstuck).  They aren’t necessarily asking you to do their work.  Advising them or calling in the right person for the job is helping.  It doesn’t have to be you doing the actual work; just advise them to their next step so that they are no longer stuck.

Also – be careful you are not training people to continually come to you with their issues.  Teach them to fish.

10. Look After New Employees to a point

The only thing I would add is that – if you are taking much time with a new employee; make your manager aware.   The new employee should already have a ‘helper’ assigned to them.  Get the “helper” involved in orientating the new employee.  If you company doesn’t have an orientation program for the new folks, then make your manager aware that you are helping a new person.  As long as your manager understands where your time is going, your manager can assist with the issue.  Don’t be afraid to talk to your manager about your project progress, your interruptions, and your challenges.  It’s your manager’s job to manage the normal ebb and flows of a project.  Keep them in the loop at all times.

12. Instead of Wait Your Turn to Speak in a Meeting – Create Your Turn

My only recommendation is to get your topics on the meeting agenda.  Meet with the meeting facilitator to add your issues to the agenda.  Tell the facilitator that you will need to leave the meeting at a certain time and ask him/her to put your agenda toward the front end of the meeting.  This way, you can relax and really listen to what’s going on in the meeting, without being worried that you won’t get a turn to speak.  If you want to get ahead, you will want to participate in meetings.  But, as Yvette mentioned, you don’t want to unnecessarily interrupt.  Showing initiative to place your topic on the agenda will allow you to calmly have your turn.

13. Respect not only Your Elders

The only thing I would add is to RESPECT EVERYONE.  You never know who these people will be next year or even next month.  Your co-worker may become the next manager of a sibling department or your department.  You may find that – in order to be on your dream project – you will have to work alongside someone that you don’t normally associate.  You may find out that in order to complete your task; you will need to ask a favor of a sister-department.

14. Manners at All Times but with balance

Although I agree with the general thought of “mind your manners”; don’t be a doormat either.  Take respectful initiative in everything you do.  Be considerate but selective where you put your time.  Keep your own business commitment in mind at all times.  Don’t risk not completing your tasks to assist others with their jobs.  If someone is having a lot of computer problems, call IT for them.   If someone needs a lot of help, advise them to seek their manager.  It’s their manager’s job to make sure his/her employees are running smoothly (not yours).  Make sure your manager is aware of what’s going on with your project – so that he/she may help manager some external distractions that you are encountering.  Keep external interruptions to a minimum, to allow yourself to stay on track.

Keep the airplane rule in mind:  “Put on your oxygen mask before helping others.”

30. And Don’t Nit – Pick!

I’m just skipping to tip 30.  My general rule is to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.  Everyone is actually doing the best that they can with the information and expertise that they currently have.  Everyone wants to do a good job.  Everyone wants to do the right thing.  If you have that attitude, things will look differently to you.

 

Try it and let me know what you think.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Leveraging Links

Posted on by

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.

If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
Most professionals have a LinkedIn.com account and profile.    They accept requests from friends, coworkers and family members that they already know. Then they stop there.

  • Is your social media connections assisting you in your professional and career goals?
  • Are you using your social media contacts smartly?
  • Are you connecting only with people you already know instead of the people that can help
  • you in your development?

We typically associate with folks of the same socioeconomic circles.  Studies show that your salary and income are typically within 20% of the group of people you regularly hang around with.  So, if you want to jump to a different salary or professional level, we may need to change who we hang around with.  If you want to leap to the next professional rung, we may want to find ways to network with people that are of that next desired level.  In other words, surround ourselves with the success we want to achieve.

We can use our social networking profiles to do this.

For a quick review of the steps, watch the video  and  purchase the Leveraging Links Zipinar Ebook.

To create your individual networking strategy, sign up for our free workbook at: http://eepurl.com/njCWz

Make a quarterly goal of increasing your networking circle by 10% in the right direction.

Other things to consider:

1) Invite the authors of your favorite technical journal articles to your LinkedIn.com network
2) Socialize at the cafeteria and create intellectual discussion groups.  Add them to your LinkedIn.com network
3) Conduct Brown Bag Lunch series on important topics to your industry.  Offer to send the presentation and whitepaper to those that connect with your on LinkedIn.com
4) Work on white-papers with your manager on items that can be shared and published.  Invite your readers to link with you on LinkedIn.com
5) Select a side-hobby and invite those folks to your linkedin.com network.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Even when everyone does everything right….

Posted on by

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables story shows that even when everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing, there will be conflicts and oppositions.  Set in the backdrop of the French Revolution, the characters both implodes and explodes because of these diverse principles.

The story is more rich than this quick summary depicts; but these are just quick examples of how even when people are doing what they feel they must do – there are conflicts and opposition.

 

  • Jean Valjean steals bread to feed his sister’s family, and is sentenced to jail.  He was trying to do what he was supposed to do, in providing for his family.  Jean Valjean completes his sentence, but is on parole forever.  Because he has a criminal record and is on parole, society ostracizes him.  He cannot find  ‘honest’ work.   He soon realizes that he cannot provide for anyone under the title of convict/parole.  So he breaks parole to start a new life.

 

  • M. Myriel, the kindly bishop of Digne, provides Jean Valjean with the means to start a new life.  Even though the bishop was ‘breaking the law’ by harboring a criminal – he was doing what he was supposed to do by saving a soul.  At that point Jean Valjean committed to use the riches to enrich other people.  With his new life, Jean Valjean becomes a benevolent business owner and major.  He supports and watches over his entire town.

 

  • Fantine (single mother) tries everything to provide for her daughter, Cosette.  Because she is a single mother, society ostracizes her and it’s difficult for her to get ‘honest’ work.   As a last resort, she sells her hair, teeth and finally herself to send money to her daughter.  She was trying to do what she was supposed to do – in providing for her daughter.
  •  Javert, Montreuil’s police chief, is duty-bound to hunt criminals and people that break parole.  His job is to capture Jean Valjean if/when their paths cross.

 

The character list continues as the above.  Most characters have very good reasons for doing what they do.  As you look at each character separately, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing.  Set during the pre-ample of the French Revolution (an even larger conflict), each of these characters are met with situations that challenges their core principles.  The colliding of these diverse (yet reasonable) principles both implodes (by Javert’s suicide) and explodes (revolution).

 

This concept is great for any personal or professional interaction.  Give others the benefit of the doubt in the office boardroom, meetings, and project schedule conflicts.  Most people are actually trying to do the right thing.  If you can pause and view the situation from their perspective, you may be able to recognize other alternatives in which everyone can win.

 

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.

Turning competition into collaboration.

Posted on by

A friend of a friend was visiting from Berlin, Germany.  Although I regularly teach a private group lessons at my friend’s home, she wanted to postpone (cancel) our January group classes — so that her group can take lessons from their visiting friend.  Although I could have seen this as a negative, I didn’t.  It would not make much sense to do so.

  • My friends have been taking from me forever; and they will continue when their friend returns home.
  • Their friend will only be here through January.  I’ll be here long after their friend leaves.
  • My friends enjoy all different types of dances; and it’s fun for them to learn from different instructors.
  • Although I have connections into the Argentine Tango community, I don’t  teach Tango (which is my friend’s friend’s expertise).
  • When their friend leaves, I can still help them stay in practice with Tango during our regular dance lessons.

So I immediately went into collaborative mode.  When my friend mentioned why she was canceling our January classes,  I forwarded my friend all the Argentine Tango community information that I could find.  I also introduced some local Argentine Tango instructors to my friend’s friend.   Local instructors could then offer guest workshops and private lessons with an international Argentine Tango instructor without much overhead or hassle.  I also connected her with a local Argentine Tango instructor that has her finger on the pulse of everything Tango.  This allowed all sides to benefit from the connection.

Even though making these connections between the guest instructor and others may not directly or immediately benefit me — both sides realize that I was thinking of their best interest.  And like any good dance partner, we look out for each other (both on and off the dance floor).

On the dance floor or work environment, we don’t want to show-off, out-do, or struggle with our partners.  We don’t want to make our partner feel uncomfortable or ungraceful.  If the moves aren’t coming out exactly as we had initially envisioned, just relax and co-create a new movement from the blending of your styles.  If your follower isn’t exactly paying attention to you OR if your leader isn’t giving you any play time — just ease into the space and make the best out of this current situation.  You may be surprised  what will develop.  This specific song/task will only last a very limited time.  But the steps and care that you in invest in this time will give you lasting results.

If you are interested in knowing how to take these  concepts into the professional environment, please sign up for my professional and career management (free) newsletter at : http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/