3 steps to help you grow from the feedback you receive

3 steps to help you grow from the feedback you receive3 steps to help you grow from the feedback you receiveWhile peers and managers to share feedback to can be helpful, its not always shared in a way that provides action steps. Often, its up to you - the recipient - to interpret how you can use these suggestions to grow in your career.At MovingWorlds Institute, we train mid-career professionals in leadership development, and we possess a formula for this common career dilemma. In our Global Leadership Fellowship, we teach professionals the Think Back, Think Through, and Think Forward method for feedback.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIll work through each step, imagining that the feedback provided to you was that you didnt contribute to an important meeting.Think backThe intention in this stage is to simply state what happened, and brainstorm in a pressure-free environment what should have happened. Try not to attach any judgment to what youre describing, but rather approach this as if you were a neutral third-party. The idea here is that this will help you focus on the underlying behavior that youre trying to develop, without creating emotional reactions that can be destructive. The questions to ask yourself during this stage areWhat happened?What are the facts about the event(s) that prompted the feedback?Your VP had asked the table for ideas, but you didnt speak up.What thoughts did you have?What were you thinking about and considering during this event?Perhaps you were thinking youre idea was too out of the box and would make you look out of sync.How were you feeling?What emotions and physiological responses were you experiencing during this event?This could be something like that you had sweaty palms and were feeling nervous.Think throughAt this stage, the goal is to identify the ideal action(s) you could have taken instead. Look at the gaps bet ween the actions you took in the moment and alternative actions you could have taken will help you pinpoint the specific underlying behavior that you need to developWhat did you do? How did your actions appear to others?It probably looked like you werent engaged, because you said nothing.What should you have done? What could you have done differently?You could have shared your idea. Additionally, if youre still not sure it wouldve made sense, another option would have been to contribute to the meeting with one (or more) thoughtful question(s).What blocked you? What underlying behavior or scenario kept you from doing the thing(s) you should have done?This might be feelings of insecurity or fear, or something more systemic, like a lack of structure in the meeting.Think forwardAt this last stage of the reflective process, you want to envision what you will do next time youre in a similar situation.What will you do next time? Imagine that youre in a similar situation next week. Visualiz e the scenario in your mind and note what emotional reactions and thought processes this exercise triggers. Are you prepared to manage your feelings and take a different action than you did before?This might be suggesting an idea, asking a question, or perhaps proactively addressing a systemic issue, like proposing all meetings have an agenda emailed in advance so people have the opportunity to prepare more thoroughly.How can you prepare? What can you do to prepare and manage your trefflich reactions, emotions, and physiological responses?You could come up with a list of questions that might be asked in the next meeting, and then practice responding to this to build confidence in speaking up.How can you stick to your intention? How can you leverage your strengths and overcome obstacles to do the thing you are intending to do?You might practice on your own and or with a colleague, mentor, or friend in advance of your next meeting.As a final step, make sure to take time to write this all down and share your goals with a trusted friend or colleague to help keep you accountable. Those two things are proven to make you more likely to achieve your goalsMark Horoszowski is the CEO and co-founder of MovingWorlds, a social enterprise that operates leadership development + social impact programs for individuals as well as global corporations. Mark is a Fellow at The RSA and also serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Washington Tacomas Center for Social Responsibility and Leadership. You can find him on Twitter at markhoroszowski and experteering.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Understanding the Chain of Command in Your Workplace

Understanding the Chain of Command in Your WorkplaceUnderstanding the Chain of Command in Your WorkplaceAre you interested in knowing mora about the chain of command at your workplace? Chain of command describes the way in which organizations, including the military, religious institutions, corporations, government entities, and universities, traditionally structure their reporting relationships. Reporting relationships refers to an organizational structure in which every employee is placed somewherbeie on an organizational chart. The employees report to the employee who is listed above them on the organizational chart. When every employee reports to one other employee, decisions and communication are tightly controlled and flow down the chain of command through the organization. This is an intentional, traditional structure for the chain of command in organizations that want to tightly control the dissemination of information and the allocation of power and control. Traditional C hain of Command In the traditional chain of command, if you look at relationships pictorially presented on an organizational chart, the president or CEO is the top employee in the chain of command. This persons directly reporting staff would occupy the second line of the chart, and so forth down through the reporting relationships in an organization. At each level of the organization moving down the chain of command, the power to make meaningful decisions is diminished. This hierarchical method for organizing information flow, decision making, power, and authority, assumes that each level of the organization is subordinate to the level to which it reports. Terminology like a subordinate to refer to reporting employees and superior to refer to employees others report to, such as managers, are part of traditional hierarchical language and thinking. These terms are increasingly not being used as much, as a move to more egalitarian workplaces is the norm. Larger organizations are more prone to using this terminology. Command and control are intrinsic in the chain of command within organizations. The further up the chain of command your job is located, the more power, authority, and usually responsibility and accountability you have. Traditional hierarchical structures have pluses and minuses about how they work in organizations. Chain of Command Positives Clear reporting relationships exist with employees designated who are responsible for communicating information, providing direction, and delegating authority and responsibility.Each employee has one boss, thus alleviating the problem of multiple masters and conflicting direction in the chain of command, such as in a matrix organization, where employees can report to multiple bosses.Responsibility and accountability are clearly assigned and each manager has oversight responsibility for a group of employees performing a function. Employees are not confused about whom to go to for resources, assistance, and fe edback.A certain simplicity and security exists when you organize people and relationships in a structured, unbending, controlled hierarchical cascade.Chain of command communicates to customers and vendors which employee who is responsible for what decisions in their interaction. Job titles that define each level of the organization further communicate authority and responsibility to organizational stakeholders and outsiders. For example, external stakeholders know how much power the title of vice president conveys. Chain of Command Challenges Chain of command thinking originated in an industrial age when work involved more rote activities, less information, and communication options were limited, Decision making and authority were clearly placed in the hands of a few individuals at or near the top of an organization chart.Todays organizations experience a plethora of communication options, more intellectually challenging and information-based jobs, and the need for faster deci sion making. The chain of command, in many ways, impedes these new organizational options and needs. When information is available everywhere, a hierarchical order that ensures the communication of decisions and information needed by various levels of employees is unnecessary to the dissemination of information.The need for flexibility and faster decisions in an agile work environment requires that employees communicate directly with all levels of the organization. Waiting several days for the boss to be available is not acceptable if a customers need goes unserved or an employees work is slowed. The employee should be able to talk with his bosss boss or the president or make the decision on his own. If the desire is to develop employees who can immediately respond to a customer need, because customers require immediacy in this fast-paced world, employees must be able to get information immediately and make decisions without oversight to meet customer needs in a timely manner.Jobs a re no longer rigidly defined and the current expectation promotes employee empowerment, autonomy, and decision-making authority close to where the need for the decision exists. The hierarchical order may leise exist for ease of organization and reporting relationships, as laid out in a chain of command on an organizational chart. But, the lines and the former rigidity are blurred. In the past, if an employee circumvented his or her boss in favor of talking with the bosss boss, the employee received clear communication that the chain of command was in place for a purpose. While organizations still retain some of its vestiges, the chain of command is much more difficult to enforce when information is so freely circulating and communication is so easy with any member of the organization. The span of control of an individual manager has become broader, with more reporting employees than in the past. This change forces the manager to allow more autonomy. Technology has blurred the hierar chy further since information is available all of the time to any employee. Many organizations are experiencing the value of decentralized decision making. Position Power Within the concept of the chain of command, position power still plays a role in organizations. Its a by-product of the traditional hierarchical organization. For example, a quality department supervisor at a small manufacturing company asked to become the quality director in her company. Her stated reason for the change in title was that, if she was a director, people would have to listen to her and do what she wants. This is a young supervisor, who is still learning how to accomplish work through other people, but her perception that a bigger title would solve her problems was troubling. In another example, a new employee was asked to send out a note with a question and a deadline to the director and VP-level managers in her organization. The request sparked an hour of work over a simple note because it was g oing to the biggest, most important people in the company. What the Future Holds Modern management science is exploring other options for organization and customer service delivery in this brave new world. But, in the meantime, even the smallest organizations frage back on the traditional chain of command, hierarchical models of organization. The future holds out hope for innovative organizational structures that better serve the needs of employees, organizations, and the marketplace. The rise in popularity of telework and remote employees, a specific desire for millennial employees, further escalates the need for better management structures. After all, these employees are doing work that you cannot see them doing. But hierarchical thinking, a chain of command, and attributing power to position and titles all still exist.

Theres a less stressful way to receive smartphone notifications

Theres a less stressful way to receive smartphoneleidificationsTheres a less stressful way to receive smartphonenotificationsAfter you feel a buzz in your pocket or see a flash on your phone, your attention is already fractured.You could pick up your phone and see if whats called you away is something you really need to address immediately - or you could try and focus on your work, all the while wondering what youre missing out on.Since it can take close to 25 minutes to get back on track after a distraction, according to researchers who study productivity, this is obviously a recipe for a distracted day where not much gets done.Fortunately, we are learning better ways to handle smartphone notifications, according to research being conducted at Duke Universitys Center for Advanced Hindsight, which was presented by senior behavioral researcher Nick Fitz at a recent American Psychological Association conference. The research was conducted in collaboration with the startup Synapse, whi ch is incubated at the Center.Fitz and collaborators have found that batching notifications into sets that study participants receive three times a day makes them happier, less stressed, feeling more productive, and more in control. That works better than getting notifications normally, getting them once per hour, or even than blocking them of completely.Turning them off doesnt really work, Fitz said in a follow-up interview after the conference. But we can get notifications in a smarter way.So many notificationsFor the particular study Fitz discussed at the conference, they analyzed the notifications that people got on their phones and found that the average person got between 65 and 80 notifications per day (people may check their phones more frequently, thats just the number of notifications that show up).So for their study, for two weeks they had a control group check their phones normally, one group receive notifications in a batch every hour, another group that received three batches of notifications (at 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m.), and one group that got no notifications.While not receiving notifications people could check their phones normally but wouldnt see anything on their lock screen - the phone would ring for calls but not leave a missed call on the lock screen.In general, people report that phone notifications make them feel stressed, unhappy, interrupted, and non-productive. That held true for the study control group. Receiving notifications even once an hour was so similar to this that it didnt make much of a difference.Surprisingly for Fitz, turning notifications off completely didnt work either. People did feel that they checked their phones more intentionally, which the researchers considered positive, but people were also anxious about what they were missing out on. Its possible that over a longer period of time, several months, people may have adjusted and enjoyed this experience more, according to Fitz. Or, perhaps a system that let som e notifications through - emails from a boss or calendar reminders about important meetings - could have assuaged that anxiety.But three batches of notifications seemed to be the sweet spot, with people feeling more productive, positive, and in control.Building an even better systemAccording to Fitz, the ideal system would be context-aware - it would recognize the best times for a person to get a batch of notifications and might allow certain particularly important notifications through.Interruptions, in general, arent great but its better if they come at opportune times, said Fitz.The ideal system might be location-aware and give you your first batch of notifications as you arrive at work or hop on the subway, a second batch at the end of a lunch break, and a third batch as you head home for the evening. Perhaps emails might come through that way, but less-important notifications from Facebook would only be delivered once per day in the evening.The fact that this worked was some what surprising for Fitz, as notifications are just one component that can add stress to complicated lives. But it turns out that even adding some element of control can really improve peoples lives.Its not as if this is some panacea, were not going to solve ADD with this, said Fitz. But it certainly has an effect on people.The Synapse team plans on releasing the app they built to regulate notifications, Daywise, to the public within the next few weeks. (The study was conducted only with Android phones since it wasnt possible to have that level of control over Apple devices for now.)

We waste 17 hours every week on pointless work email

We waste 17 hours every week on pointless work emailleWe waste 17 hours every week on pointless work emailThe workingworld runs on emails. A study found that workerssent and received 112.5 billion business emails a day around the world. Even the rise of messaging and group planning platforms like Slack, Gchat and Basecamp has leid delayed the rise of work email.So yes, we must acknowledge that email is superior,but too many of us have let the endless cycle of send, reply, forwardtake over our lives. A recent Carleton University study found that people spend one-third of their working hours doing emails.Worse, the researchers found that 30% of the time, the emails being sent or received werent urgent. Even so, people answered them quickly and where they stood.What that means Employees are not setting boundaries around work and are letting it follow them into their homes. In their survey of 1,500 workers, researchers found that employees would send and receive about 86 emails at workan d 25 emails related to work from their homes.This is no way to live. Reaching inbox zero shouldnt feel like climbing Everest. Here are tips on how to be more productive with emailing so youre not wasting17 hours of your life every week answering an email you never needed to make.Block off time to disconnectModel the kind of inbox etiquette you want people to show you. If you dont want people emailing you at 10 p.m., it helps if youre not also emailing them at that hour. Block off time in your calendar and remind your colleagues that youre unavailable during such hours. If youre working with workaholics who dont respect your hints, the Muse createdemail templates on how to convince your colleagues and superiors that you are trying to stay present and why that would be mutually beneficial for everyone.There are also multiple email scheduling services that will send out emails at the best time for recipients to get them. Use them. No one wants to read a work email after midnight.Priori tize what needs a response and what doesntNot everything dictates a response. Just because someone emails you, you dont have to email them.Prioritize your inboxinto what needs an action right away and what can be answered with time, with a conversation, or not all. Clicking on that reiter is tempting but interruptions in one task makes it harder for us to return to it.A Gallup study found that when employeesare interrupted at work, it takes them about 23 minutes to get back on task.Youre only hurting yourselfby distracting yourself with emails that you know arent urgent. Set asidetime in your schedule where youll just read and answer emails so it wont take up the rest of your day.Write your emails so that you only have to send them onceWe waste too much time sending follow-up emails as we wait aroundfor people to answer our requests. Make your emails count so you dont need to repeat them.Are you including a subject line? Thats the first step. The researchers at MailChimp, an email m arketing service, found that clear, descriptive subject lines describing what the email was going to be about had a much higher success rate than just vaguely writing meeting?How you end an email matters too. Boomerang, an email productivity app, analyzed over350,000 email threads to find out the best email sign-off most likely to guarantee a response when youre asking for help. Thanks in advance, thanks and thank you had the three-highest response rates.Meanwhile, best had the worst sign-off response rate out of all the closing words used. Expressing your gratitude, even if it may be presumptive, is most likely to engender a response. This goes along with previous research on gratitude which discovered that students were more likely to answer emails asking for cover letter help if the sender included a thanks somewhere in it. So, thanksKnow when email isnt enoughAbove all, recognize that email isnt everything. The people who dont let email run their lives understand that its just o ne tool of communication. When it comes to sensitive conversations, face-to-face ensures that theres less of a chance for misunderstandings. People who are the ultimate pros at emails dont waste time emailing back and forth when a phone call or a face-to-face conversation would suffice.

Sales Resume Sample - Overview

Sales Resume Sample - Overview Resume samples are a practical way to direct yur own writing. A sample is able to help you decide what type of content you should include, along with how to format your resume. The templates help you in quantity of means. Our creative templates allow you to stick out from the masses. Though the strategy is precisely the same, you need to know when to back off or come on. There are two fundamental strategies. For instance, there are a couple contact management guide titles that are standard for many ausverkauf organizations. Perhaps you introduced a new procedure to management. Once you comprehend the essentials of effective resume composition, you can platzdeckchen them to work for you while you make your own document. As its a typical practice to award employees whove been exceptional in sales so as to motivate them, your awards in your resume would raise the value of your candidacy greatly. You would like your acceptance letter to appear clean and crisp. Writing an acceptance letter is in fact very straightforward. Theres no need to begin your resume from scratch. Be certain to make particular connection showing the way you can help them grow. If you take a close look at all our free resume writing examples, you are going to see they employ clear, succinct sentences that get right to the point. Each one of our creative style themes supply a perfectly well-balanced mix of personality, professionalism and reliability and a small style. Based on the kind of retail sales job, you might be on resume feet for many hours. Everything in your resume ought to be simple to read and simple to comprehend. You have enough time to prepare so get the most out of it. Applying for a sales job should take some time, but nevertheless, it shouldnt allow you to stress. Companies want to understand how you contributed to the success of your prior employers. Express that youre honored to accept the opportunity, and the way y ou aspire to add to the success of the business. In the instance of the sales department of a business, a sales manager is needed to manage, oversee and tackle all sales related troubles. If youre a recent graduate or career changer free of experience in retail sales, youre want to compose a sales resume objective. For instance, achievements in your college which arent related to sales shouldnt be described in detail in your resume since they will just waste your time in addition to of your prospective employers. Only if you prefer the very best retail jobs. The Hidden Facts on Sales Resume Sample Have a look at our marketing resume samples and find out how you can successfully market yourself and eventually sell your skills to possible employers. Our sample resume is a great resource to assist you attain any managerial sales position. By agreeing sales resume the usage of sample in light of our cookie policy. To make an eye-catching retail sales associate resume, you will n eed to incorporate a few vital components. Making a resume can be a difficult job. Recruiters look to know the type of person that you are and whether you will have the ability to take on the many challenges. Job looking could be quite tough and continue publishing is most likely the tasks that ought to be achieved when browsing for work. Employers know youre searching for work, and therefore you dont need to waste valuable space on your resume stating the obvious. Its critical to offer attainable future employers an idea of how youre likely to work for them. You want to have that retail job.

Bring it On Class of 2013!

Bring it On Class of 2013 Forging a career path for the Class of 2013 wont be easy, but it is certainly doable if you are willing to bring it on and showcase what you have to offer the world. The first step comes from articulating what you want in your professional life. Say it out loud write it down, and then start to own your aspirations by telling others. Before you know it, people will surface who can help you on your customized career journey. You will attract members of your Personal Board of Directors when you start to envision what it is you really want in life and there is no better time to start than now Lean In To Your CareerSheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, gave an inspiring graduation speech at Barnard College in 2011 that lives on in the blogosphere and has evolved into her best-selling book of the same name. She told the young graduates to be ambitious and self-confident, and to lea n in to their careers, especially since control was theirs for the taking. The world will present many choices during your professional lifetime and career paths can be circuitous and inevitably, they will change. But if you lay back and let things happen by default, you lose the power of choice you so richly deserve.According to Sheryl Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision that honors you.Be excellent at what you do and lean into your career with self-confidence and the power to control your professional destiny.Make Time for DreamsGive yourself permission to dream. Its healthy and exhilarating to think big and be ambitious about what you really want personally and professionally. Leadership belongs to those who take it and career management is leadership behavior. Leadership has nothing to do with rank. Even if you are an entry-level employee, you must take your career future into your own hands.Its ea sy to get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae and forget to honor your dreams. Work/life integralrechnung is tough and balance is next to impossible, but dreaming will empower you to rejuvenate and focus on what you really want. Dreams are necessary to develop your goals and they tap your creativity to consider the possibilities.Only you can define what success and happiness means to you, dreaming gives you permission to design your life and career destiny. Dreaming begs the question what would you do if you werent afraid? Fortune begs the bold dont let your fears overwhelm your desire and give yourself time to dream big so you can begin to make it your reality.Expand Your Comfort ZonePut yourself out there because you will never know what you are capable of unless you try. Aim high and dont think about stepping out of your comfort zone as a painful process. Consider expanding your comfort zone as a way to sharpen your strengths and discover new passions.Naomi C. Earp, former Com missioner of the EEOC said Society moves forward because people venture something new, not because they play it safe. Push through your fear and seize new opportunities. Youve got to identify how you want to bring it career wise.Create Your Own Tipping PointBy bringing it, setting goals, and dreaming big you not only honor yourself but you can create the momentum you need for your personal tipping point. All of these things add up and will help you prioritize what you want and deserve in your professional life.Take comfort in knowing that you can be in control of your professional dreams and your career future. You can change your mind, change direction, and reinvent as often as you wish. But bringing it is your way of embracing your dreams, walking tall, and owning your self-confidence. Consider the legacy you want to leave in the world. Are you bringing it?The Class of 2013 is the succession plan for the future. The challenge is yours as well as the responsibility. Create relation ships with influencers and connectors and be ready to talk about what makes you unique. Someday soon youll be tapped to help future graduating classes find their way in the career world and this will be your chance to pay-it-forward.Celebrate the success you have earnedI am cheering you on all the way. Now the tougher journey has begun, but I have confidence that you will succeed if you assume the responsibility and take the power you have and use it wisely.