Regardless of whether the economy is going well or not, one thing that’s remained consistent in the workplace over the last few decades is the reality that each of us is responsible for managing our careers and with it, the opportunities we obtain for professional growth and development. But how exactly do we obtain these opportunities to get ahead in our career? That’s the focus of my conversation with executive coach and writer Joel Garfinkle in this episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”.

Joel has been recognized as one of the Top 50 leadership coaches in the US, having worked with executives from many leading companies including Oracle, Google, Amazon, Ritz-Carlton, and Gap. He has also been featured in a number of respected media outlets such as ABC News, The New York Times, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.

Joel has written seven books including his latest “Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level” in which he discusses the three key steps you should take to ensure you get those opportunities and promotions you need to move ahead in your career.

Over the course of our conversation, Joel and I discuss:

• How to get over our fear of increasing our visibility at work so we can ensure those in charge are aware of the value of our contributions.
• Why we need to speak up more and share our thoughts and ideas at meetings and the benefits we’ll gain from doing so.
• How we can find out how others perceive us and what we can do to ensure we’re creating the perceptions we need to get ahead.
• The importance and value of getting feedback to help you increase your visibility and influence in your organization.
• What it means to be influential and how it’s not dependent on what title/position you have.

As I mentioned at the end of the show, Click here to continue reading »”Leadership Biz Cafe Podcast #7 – Joel Garfinkle On How To Get Ahead In Your Career”

With the holiday celebrations now at an end, many of us are returning to our usual daily grind refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive into the tasks awaiting our attention. The start of a new year is also a time when many of us make resolutions of what we’d like to accomplish over the next 365 days, and possibly beyond.

Granted, it’s only natural that we’d be motivated right now to create these lists of goals, as the start of a new year often inspires that feeling of a new start; that the turning to a fresh page instills hope for new opportunities and bright possibilities for our future. The buoyant positivity around this time of the year can certainly be quite beneficial as it encourages us to take time for some personal self-reflection, pushing us to define goals of what we’d like to change in ourselves, and what areas of knowledge and understanding we’d like to develop a greater awareness of.

Of course, in order for us to truly reap the benefits of this exercise, we need to review the events of the previous year; of taking note of what we endured, learned and gained from those past experiences which can serve as the foundation that we build upon as we move forward.

Another point to consider when developing these lists of goals is how the focus doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to ourselves. Indeed, the start of a new year is a perfect opportunity for leaders to evaluate how they can help their employees with achieving their professional goals for this year.

Now, before the cynic within all of us dismisses such notions as being the result of an euphoric haze that often comes with celebrating the arrival of a new year, let us consider one of the lessons we learned over the course of the previous one. Namely, how Click here to continue reading »”4 New Year’s Resolutions To Help Your Organization Succeed This Year”

If there’s one aspect of business that’s becoming clearer as a consequence of the current challenges present in today’s global economy, it’s that the most valuable resource an organization has are the people found within their workforce.

That’s why one of the most critical tasks businesses face is not only finding talented individuals, but finding those individuals who are the best fit for their organization. Equally important to this task is ensuring that you take the necessary steps to recognize and develop your employees. Otherwise, you risk losing these employees you worked so hard to find as they go elsewhere in search of better opportunities.

Perhaps the best example of this is Zappos, which not only performs additional interviews of potential candidates simply to assess “culture fit”, but which also offers new hires $2 000 to quit their jobs following a four-week training period in order to ensure those who stick around do so for the culture and not just for a regular paycheck.

Of course, we can’t all be like Zappos nor should we even try to be. But what we can learn from them is the importance of having a clarity about what our vision is and which values matter to us in terms of fulfilling our objectives. Armed with this knowledge, organizations will have a better understanding of which candidates will be a good fit for their team, as well as what leaders need to do to retain and develop their employees so that they can provide even greater value to the organization in the years ahead.

In her article “Finding (and Keeping) the Right People for Your Business”, Gina Abudi, co-author of the book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Best Practices for Small Business” shares her insights on how businesses should go about selecting and interviewing potential candidates, and what steps to take to help employees with their professional development so that they can continue to be valued contributors to your team.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive monthly incentives to share my views on content I find noteworthy and relevant for my audience.

Imagine walking into work one day and your boss decides to divide you into teams of four with the following challenge – to build the largest structure you can using 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string and one marshmallow, which has to be placed at the top of the structure. It’s an unusual assignment, to be sure, but it’s also the basis of a sociological experiment on teamwork called “The Marshmallow Challenge”.

In his TED talk “Build a tower, build a team”, Tom Wujec shares his findings from performing this challenge with a variety of different groups – recent business school graduates, lawyers, engineers, CEOs, and even kindergarten students. As you’ll see, his observations about how the various groups approached the challenge gave rise to some surprising, and at times humorous, results:

While Wujec shares some interesting points on the nature of how we collaborate and the process of design, there are some additional lessons we can learn from this challenge on how leaders can guide their teams to a successful outcome: Click here to continue reading »”What The Marshmallow Challenge Can Teach Us About Fostering Team Success”