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unordinary-analysis · 4 years

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Episode 166

Honorable mentions:

I always love seeing a student with John’s old ‘loser’/helmet hair lmao it makes me happy

For the first time ever, when I say ‘Remi, pop off queen’ you know I actually mean it lol

Tldr: the high-tiers (can’t really call them “royals” anymore can we) establish themselves and prove their worths as paragons (perfect examples) of what royals should be and i applaud them for it

The amount of joker masks that the superhero posse brought in has to be representation of their power. Isen, the lowest-ranking of the superhero posse brought 1, Remi brought 3, and Blyke brought 3. You might be thinking ‘hey remi is more powerful than blyke’ but we know that he’s been working hard recently and because he only has one more mask than Remi, i think this idea is plausible. so let me believe that blyke is more powerful than remi please.

Nothing to really say about Isen except that he needs a hug

Going to ignore that remi listed cecile as someone she wanted to recruit help from because i would just get my hopes up

Only occured to me now that i could pull off a John and Rei comparison especially after reflecting over episode 150

Arlo and seraphina give off such close vibes and it’s obviously because they got close (or at least intensely familiar) when they were the king and queen and i just- i absolutely love when plots or characters go full circle and reflect (revisit?) the start of the story even though that sounds anti-development, it’s not im just bad at explanations.

WHAT I WOULD GIVE FOR CECILE TO BACKSTAB JOHN not that i don’t like john because i absolutely aDORE him because of his impact on the story, but i just want to see Cecile backstab someone and john is convient

just me talking for a bit, scroll if you want to skip to the actual content i understand ;( :

Okay: so.

I’ve figured out that instead of putting little talkative comments in the honorable mentions like I’ve been doing lately, I can put them here and not feel like total trash and that I’m downgrading the post so that’s fun.

Anyway, sorry if the massive ton of parentheses(?spelling) i'm using is confusing or hard to read. I mean, I won’t fix it, but I hope it’s not too bad ya know

Again: sorry for talking like im texting someone in 2017 it’s an issue, im aware. No one ever says anything, but yeah?? Im sorry???

Im panic-writing this an hour before the new episode drops so hopefully this is up before then, there’s no real hope though it takes me 10 minutes just to transfer this from my google doc to tumblr because i have to manually re-add all of the bold and italics and bullet points. Still not removing this bit tho even if (lmao “if”) it’s late ;)

Talking too much, but whenever you see (?”spelling/grammar/word choice/etc”), that just means that I messed up in that way, but I’m too distracted to fix it. Figured i should say that eventually seeing as i literally do that every post

Next post will not be written in first person at all because i think it makes these feel way too familiar and makes new readers uncomfortable which is stupid but is how i would feel so we’re experimenting. If you’ve never read one of my posts, i just act very informal with everything i do and i just want to say, i'm not in this tightly knit niche group that reads these and that ive been friends with for years. i just. Talk like this. So don’t feel like you’re eavesdropping by reading one of these. I really hope im not an outlier in feeling this way when reading other peoples post because if nobody actually feels this way, im bout to be real embarrased oops.

Im getting the talking out of my system because no talking next post.

Yeah this post is late. But: i stopped for pizza in the middle and my webtoon isn’t loading so im like sitting around waiting for it to

Remi:

Now, in this episode particularly, it has occurred to me that I need to give Remi credit where credit is due. I made a post (AN: multiple posts but we’ll ignore that) over a year ago talking about her abilities as queen and- I did her pretty dirty. Not unfairly, but dirty. I basically dissed her a lot and said that she wasn’t a good queen in any sense. And I’ve done this multiple times (AN: ignore last AN) because I can remember at least 2 other times when I just berated Remi over and over for being shit queen.

I’m not going to disagree with myself in this post (because I didn’t lie), but I want to give her some credit because I do believe she has changed recently and it has affected how I view her as a position of royalty. And, yes, while it is unclear if she is currently technically still a royal, what with John having somehow destroyed the entire concept of Wellston having royals (?), she has been taking the actions and responsibilities that a royal would. So-

What made me want to write this out was in this episode, episode 166, I really realized/noticed her attitude and actions dealing with and revolving around this whole joker situation (currently more about the fake jokers) was?? Actually productive?? To explain: In this episode, we see Remi approaching a group of low-tiers who are worriedly talking about the joker situation and 1. Analyzes the conversation in reference to the measures she, Blyke, and Isen are taking to prevent the situation, 2. Reassures the low-tiers that qualified help (her, Blyke, and Isen [aka the superhero posse]) is doing the best they can, and 3. Asks if they have any suggestions or ideas that might help them attain their goal. Like?? Hello?? The Professionalism? And the way she didn’t let her disappointment that her previous efforts up until now affect her is a stark contrast from the Remi of the past. I’ve ripped her apart because of just how often her emotions would completely overwhelm any sense she had. So: that stood out. But, anyway, big picture again: This whole short little scene from her was so impressive?

Honestly, the fact that Remi is going through all this effort to stop the fake jokers and make sure the low-tiers are safe is very different than what we would’ve seen from her in the past. One of the common reasons that I kept saying Remi was a bad queen was because she didn’t care about her responsibilities and didn’t take her authority seriously. There are even examples of Arlo, or others, telling her this (the example that came to my mind was when Remi was warning students about EMBER and Arlo stepped in [and the reason behind the events of this example helps to support my next point] {ALSO (sorry) afternote: I was reading through everything I’ve ever said about Remi’s leadership and I used this exact example in my post “Remi” from just over a year ago}). Another reason that I was against Remi as queen, which ties nicely with the previous reason (this sounds like repetition of like two seconds ago when I said that my last reason would support this point, but it’s not because words), was that she prioritized personal missions over things her school needed her to do. I remember being very pissed around episodes 110-120 because she ignored the big conflicts happening at Wellston in order to track down this separate crime organization (EMBER) and took Blyke and Isen with her (royals)(who were both against the idea). And I know that her reason for doing this is valid and I do respect her for attempting to avenge her brother, and I would have let this slide if she gave one thought or listened to Isen and Blyke at all about Wellston. I know this still sounds bad on my part, but it was many instances stacked on top of each other of Remi being, not just unconcerned, but unknowing, about Wellston’s current state as a school. At that time, Remi was the queen, she was one of the school’s royals, whose job was to maintain order and peace within the school. I couldn’t see any instances of Remi even attempting to do that. That was in the past though, because obviously, things are different now, like I said. Currently, Remi has gone out of her way to dedicate herself to the wellbeing of Wellston, that is obvious in the way she has been talking with low-tiers and unmasking fake Jokers. I only hope that her new motivation isn’t just a phase brought upon her due to her personal relationship/conflict with Joker, with John. I want to know if John ever happens to be dethroned or Remi somehow gets her technical authority back, will she still be dedicated to the school, or is her motive purely situational? I hope not? Because we’ve seen lots of change from her recently what with learning of the low-tiers mistreatment and all, so let’s cross our fingers.

Regardless, there has been improvement in Remi. In her leadership and dedication. And that needs to be acknowledged. So I am doing it. Yeah. Here you go. Badge of honor for Remi.

Obviously, most of what I’ve said also applies to Isen and Blyke, who are honestly going above and beyond (especially Blyke), just this section is a response to my previous statements of how Remi is not a good queen, not only for Wellston, just in general. And, again, while I still agree with my evaluation of Remi as a queen in reference to her past self and past episodes, This is a new development I felt obligated to talk about. :).

Blyke’s idea (?word choice confuses me):

Wowee this is a fun one. So: Blyke broke up a fake joker fight in a hallway this episode, and i just have to acknowledge this like I did for remi: props, but anyway, I was very intrigued by the way he handled the damage control like?? He refuses for the fake joker to be unmasked (?grammar) and gives the reason, “I’m not about to show his face so that you all can just gang up on him later!” And: applause. I think that this has occurred to me before, I just never dwelled on that idea, so I was taken off guard by this from Blyke. He was able to understand this and form a plan with how to deal with it? I don’t know about you, but that screams king behavior. Anyway, what Blyke does is take the fake joker to a separate room and unmasks him privately then talks with him as a way to both protect the fake joker’s safety and discourage him from any future stunts like the one he pulled a sec ago. And?? This is so great because, guys, this is liTERALLY the concept of like anger management and behavior therapy??

I especially liked how Blyke took the time to hear the low-tier out(something that the high-tiers are really starting to do [technically because of john because john became joker and caused all of this {and since john wanted to destroy the hierarchy because high-tiers didn’t give a shit about the low-tiers in a way he’s achieved his goal, albeit unknowingly}]). And, like i literally just said, by hearing him out, he’s creating yet another bubble of safety around the low-tier because immediately after (okay maybe not immediately, blyke did scold him a bit), Blyke says that whenever the low-tier is being picked on, he can come to Blyke. And NOT ONLY does this whole thing help with the fake jokers issue, but Blyke, along with Isen and Remi, are creating trust and respect between the low-tiers and high-tiers. This is them doing the hierarchy right! They are establishing themselves as leaders and as people that can be relied upon, which is exactly who the royals are supposed to be.

Just want to say: He also talked about how the guy who got attacked should also reflect on his actions, and yes, this deserves recognition, but this has been a common theme, so I didn’t think it was worth really discussing. Blyke got bonus points for this. Extra credit if you will.

Remi’s idea:

Back to Remi, but her idea about recruiting John to help get rid of the Jokers? Excuse me? The innovation, the growth, the potential. And, I know this was shut down pretty quickly by Blyke, but I still have to talk about it??? And this section is starting off horribly because there was absolutely no transition or introduction but hello??

Anyway, obviously the fact that Remi would even suggest getting any help from John (Joker) is astonishing. 1. He literally beat up everyone present in the scene 2. Honestly from what john’s doing for all anyone knows, he likes that low-tiers are faking being joker (remi even points this out lmao) 3. Again, he beat everyone up? Not exactly looking good for any kind of compromise. And yet despite these obvious reasons, Remi still lists him as a possible ally. Why?

Because when she met up with him before he completely dethroned the Wellston hierarchy, she noticed similarities in their goals and their beliefs. She says, and quotation marks mean quote, “When I spoke with him… I really thought both of us wanted the same thing… Just that our methods of approaching the situation were different.” !!!!!!! Remi knows that they really want the same thing: a safe environment for low-tiers. That was the one thing that John kept repeating over and over when they met up and talked (episode 150) (other than the fact that royals are shit but-): he wanted to create a school environment that was safe for the low-tiers. Whether or not that’s his goal now, or if he’s acting with that goal in mind, Remi obviously remembered this the most from their conversation because it seemed so similar to the way she was thinking. And Remi thinks that it would be possible that John would prioritize this over his dedication to his own personal project of destroying the school :).

Anyway, this whole idea is scrapped by Isen and Blyke who give valid arguments as to why trying to ally with John is a really bad idea, but oh my god the way my heart stopped.

This section is basically a summary and very quick, but this scene in the comic was riveting because of this. I just don’t know what else to say.

#unordinary #webtoon #uno #official #unordinary webtoon #episode 166

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jcmorgenstern · 6 years

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3x04

Okay I’m gonna try to put my thoughts in some semblance of order about this episode because they were largely negative but I think I can qualify and explain them somewhat. I think the biggest problem I’m running into here is the worldbuilding and certain really foundational flaws in how some aspects of the characters are written. (Readmore for length).

What they had with Jace’s mental health is a good start. I still do quibble with the tactless decision to conflate psychotic symptoms with demonic possession, but I think we can agree they probably didn’t mean it that way, and even if it could have been thought through better...everyone’s mileage on that varies. But the biggest flaw that kept me from really engaging with that storyline was the utter unbelievability of the surrounding worldbuilding.

The fact there is absolutely no established procedure for medical evaluation or burnout in the field is just totally unbelievable. The fact that Alec isn’t required to order a medical evalution of Jace to continue field work, or even has any sort of health-related support or a medic to consult with is totally ridiculous. We’ve been told they have medics--Victor Aldertree was one before taking up a position as resident asshole--so where the fuck are they? The Clave is a military organization, there’s no way they don’t have some sort of health infrastructure to provide Alec support in figuring out what’s wrong with Jace.

If Alec had come to Jace in the same scene and asked if he’d be willing to see to a medic for his sleep problems or whatnot (and Jace refused, saying that Alec thinks he’s “crazy” and unfit for duty despite the fact he’s been giving things his all) that would make much more sense. But as it stands it just seems like the Clave’s policy is to have absolutely no health (let alone mental health lmao) support and like. That’s just incredibly stupid. They fight with swords. They’re going to get injured. So much of this show is just free-floating (often contradictory) facts in a total lack of coherent worldbuilding, and for me it’s starting to pile up and detract from my ability to emotionally engage with the action.

A lot of the dialogue was very clumsy in this episode--good ideas, but very poor execution. So much telling rather than showing, often with little tweaks that could have made it so much better. Like, if instead of saying “My love for Clary overcame your possession” Jace could have said that Clary helped him believe in the good in himself and he knew he’s not who her visions said he was. That is, in effect, the same statement, but the second is much more emotionally impactful--he’s not just saying they’re in love, it’s demonstrating a facet of that love and that bond and how it pulled him out of her possession.

Also, another thing that’s been bothering me since....well, ever, is that Clary more than anyone else is written so inhumanly and robotically. And it’s becoming more obvious. Alec gets to go home to Magnus and talk about how being unable to help Jace is impacting him, how he was scared when their rune faded and how he’s frustrated his attempts seem to be pushing Jace further away, but Clary can’t even express mild distress or even pretend that she’s fine when someone asks. Killing Valentine, watching Jace die, knowing that she’s going to be thrown into prison for life if anyone finds out what she’s done--none of that weighs on her or even seems to be in her mind at all. She’s a cardboard cutout, writing wise, and in light of the complexity they’re at least trying to lend Jace, the disservice done her character really shows. Even when she claims she’s willing to brave the Guard to keep Jace safe, the dialogue is so wooden it just rings false, like she doesn’t even know what she’s saying or hasn’t even thought about it, there’s no gravity to her situation--her situation and her perspective isn’t even considered. So instead of speaking to the ferocity of her determination to keep the person she loves safe and the importance and depth of that connection between them, it rings as glib and trite.

The show really struggles to establish gravitas, despite taking itself much too seriously. Part of that is down to the ludicrious pacing--am I supposed to believe a war takes place in a few weeks at most?--but a lot of it is just due to the inability establish the situation and the characters in relation to it, and the extreme self-awareness established by pandering to the fandom’s every whim. In the moments that the show bucks expectation and utilizes its enormous cast to creatively explore how very different characters would interact, it shines.

On the things I enjoyed: I really enjoyed Jordan Kyle so far, I’m hoping they’ll manage to flip expectations regarding how his arc goes down in the books. A personal preference would be finding a non-romantic resolution to the animosity between him and Maia. I enjoyed the conversation between Maia and Luke--I’ve enjoyed him in his leadership position so far, as it seems more realistic than their usual fare. If they don’t wuss out and do actually give Maryse consequences, that realism will really enrich the show and heighten the emotional stakes, even if her punishment isn’t entirely deserved.

Raphael...I don’t really think they’ve coherently linked his emotional states to what he’s doing with Heidi, and while I like that they’ve fleshed her out more from a Empty Blonde Bitch(TM) in the books to someone who sees no reason to function by social rules because they’ve done nothing but let her down and hurt her. The song playing while she fucks around with Simon’s stuff was a fantastic touch. The actress who plays her is wildly overdirected and it’s driving me insane, but it...could be worse.

Izzy still doesn’t have a coherent arc, and to be honest I did find her assertion that most of her relationships were about sex and with Raphael it was better because he didn’t want sex--I felt that was a bit. Unfortunate in its implications. I’m willing to shut up and wait it out but...that’s all I’ve done with her since S1 and I’m getting tired of it. I did love Lilith and I hope they can keep it up with her even though. Her dialogue this episode was also pretty painful. She dictates her plans to the screen and...it’s very cartoonish and so. much. telling. not showing.

Anyway overall this episode....tried to do a lot of things and for me most of them fell sort of flat, mostly due to some really unfortunate writing choices but also mostly due to a really fundamental failing of worldbuilding and characterization. I’m hoping 3B will at least give them a chance to flesh Clary out a bit more emotionally, but considering they’ve had all of season 2 to start I...don’t see that happening. I’m fine with having a few episodes I loved less than others, but unfortunately for me these flaws are sort of fundamental and won’t really be fixed, and will probably continue to impact how much I enjoy a lot of what they do. While there are islets of stuff I really enjoyed, the show’s huge cast and enormous ambitions make it almost impossible to put together coherent thoughts with so many arcs and threads hanging loose with little integration. I’m willing to hold out judgement until we’ve seen more of the resolution of the stuff they’re starting, but often with this show I find they do more starting plot threads than actually keeping them up or resolving them meaningfully so....yeah. More creative problemsolving for their plot thread integration is direly needed.

tl;dr: there was no crispy in this episode and some idiot (me) won’t shut the fuck up

#i need a talking tag #if you'd like to add your own thoughts feel free to send an ask or something! im curious what people think

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riichardwilson · 4 years

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How to Use Executive Search Recruitment Practices to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workforce

September 11, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

By now, anyone who’s paying attention to workplace diversity, equity and inclusion knows that gender and racial representation are essential to organizational growth. Studies have shown time and time again that companies with diverse leadership teams are more profitable and innovative. Employees are also more engaged, and customer retention is higher.

Based on a study by legendary management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, when an organization has more gender and ethnic diversity, the likelihood of financial outperformance in the market is an average of 35 percent greater.

Related: 7 Ways to Check Your Bias When Evaluating Your Team

Achieving parity is a process

Diversity has proven to increase the bottom line. In 2017, companies in the S&P 500 closed the year at an increase of 19.45 percent. At that time,16 companies did not have a single woman on the board or in the C-suite. By the end of 2019, every company had at least one woman on their board — and closed the year at a nearly 30 percent increase. Plain and simple, diversity at the top is good for business.

So if the data is this crystal clear, why are women and people of color still so underrepresented in executive leadership? Recently, Mogul, the global diversity recruitment company of which I am CEO, held a “Diversity in Executive Search” webinar about this topic. Cathrin Stickney, the founder and CEO of Parity.org, a nonprofit that advocates for representation of women and people of color at the highest levels of business, shared insights with Mogul members.

She outlined that achieving parity in organizational leadership is a multi-pronged process and specifically highlighted the importance of making progress across representation. Recruitment is a foundational step in increasing representation. If you’re in leadership and looking to add diversity in your workforce — and you absolutely should be — there are five easily implementable executive recruitment strategies that you can take advantage of to give you the best chance to hire the top talent. Many of these I’ve come across in my personal executive search practice, and it’s changed the way we recruit at Mogul.

1. Eliminate unconscious bias at every opportunity. Unconscious bias is present everywhere and affects everything from recruitment to compensation, mentoring and promotion. Bias can create unintended setbacks in designing a truly diverse and inclusive workplace.

2. Be deliberate in your recruiting process. During her session, Stickney noted that there are no two ways around this; if you want to design the best team, you must be deliberate. This means creating gender and ethnically neutral job descriptions, taking out any overly casual or “bro” language, and eliminating age and other identifiers in your applications. Effective neutral job descriptions will attract top talent, and the removal of identifiers will allow you to look at their qualifications as objectively as possible.

Related: We’re Looking at the Wrong Workplace Diversity Numbers

3. Put together a diverse interview panel. Bringing minorities into your interview process shows your candidate that you understand the importance of different perspectives. In 2014, Intel began requiring that interview panels for all new hires include at least two members of underrepresented communities. Since then, Intel’s diversity numbers have shot up. Before the new requirement, 31 percent of new hires were either women or people of color; two years later, that number was 45 percent.

4. Hold your search firm or recruiter accountable. We hear a lot about diverse slates. But, as Stickney noted, you can have a seemingly diverse slate and still never hire a woman. You also could have 50-50 gender parity in your slate, but if everybody comes from the same ethnic or cultural background, that’s not true diversity. Stickney defines true diversity as a representative slate. When working with an executive recruiter, request candidates who represent the gender and racial makeup of your country or region and make the search firm you’ve hired commit to bring a representative slate of qualified candidates and hold them accountable to deliver what you want. Top executive recruiters will have an expanded network of diverse individuals, so a good rule of thumb for an effective representative slate should include 50 percent women and 40 percent people of color. Don’t settle for the sake of time, and push back if you don’t get what you’ve asked for.

5. Be aware of common myths and see through them. Stickney pointed out three common myths within hiring practices that need to be addressed. The first is that top talent went only to top schools. I say this as a Harvard Business and Yale graduate, but there are plenty of incredible people who have risen through the ranks via their own grit and tenacity who have never received a degree. I certainly have my own bias when a fellow Yalie’s application hits my desk, but anyone who has hired enough people will agree that top schools matter less than the person’s passion for their work.

Second, Stickney points out that “culture fit” is a buzzy phrase that needs redefining. Hiring for culture fit by way of personality fit only asks things like: Are you like me? Can I get along with you? Can we socialize together? Do I understand you? Do you understand me? While it’s important to know if you’ll be able to work with someone on a day-to-day basis, these criteria should carry only so much weight. Through the hiring process, you should define your culture by company values and match the candidates who share those values.

The third myth is the notion that there are not enough women and people of color that qualify for the open executive and board seats. As Stickney pointed out, this is a network problem. We all need to continue to diversify our networks if we want to find better candidates. There are plenty of qualified women capable of moving up the ladder. It’s a matter of being active on professional platforms like Mogul and LinkedIn, and diversifying your network to find them.

Related: Be Intentional About Diversity

Progress is happening, but slowly

A final word on the progress we’re all making together. As noted in the 2019 Spencer Stuart Board Index, a record-breaking 59 percent of new directors are diverse, and women constitute 46 percent of the new directors coming in. Women and minorities now represent a combined 39 percent of all S&P 500 directors. Yes, it’s a new milestone, but it’s still far from 50 percent.

Creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce is a top-down effort, and I believe organizations need to be publicly committed to it. Being committed to diversity and inclusion allows top talent to know where you stand, and lets your current employees, suppliers and customers know you are a company that does the right thing. Posting about your successes on your public-facing channels highlights that you are a champion of diversity and will attract the best and the brightest to your organization.

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source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-executive-search-recruitment-practices-to-foster-diversity-and-inclusion-in-your-workforce/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/629050648077484032

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scpie · 4 years

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How to Use Executive Search Recruitment Practices to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workforce

September 11, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Related: 7 Ways to Check Your Bias When Evaluating Your Team

Achieving parity is a process

Related: We’re Looking at the Wrong Workplace Diversity Numbers

Related: Be Intentional About Diversity

Progress is happening, but slowly

loading…

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-executive-search-recruitment-practices-to-foster-diversity-and-inclusion-in-your-workforce/

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laurelkrugerr · 4 years

Text

How to Use Executive Search Recruitment Practices to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workforce

September 11, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Related: 7 Ways to Check Your Bias When Evaluating Your Team

Achieving parity is a process

Related: We’re Looking at the Wrong Workplace Diversity Numbers

Related: Be Intentional About Diversity

Progress is happening, but slowly

loading…

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-executive-search-recruitment-practices-to-foster-diversity-and-inclusion-in-your-workforce/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/09/how-to-use-executive-search-recruitment.html

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alanrangerphotography · 5 years

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Learn Photography - How?

Professional Photographer available for commissions and photography tuition

alan [email protected]

https://www.alanranger.comAlan Ranger Photographyhttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/5013f4b2c4aaa4752ac69b17/t/5abe963a2b6a285e96883598/1547642167202/(44) [email protected]

I am sure you know the meme from Malcolm Gladwell, about the 10,000 hour rule?

Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years

I have also made the point, in lectures and classes, that If you practice something incorrectly for 10,000 hours you will be a master at doing it incorrectly.

Sanjay Srivastava, made interesting points in his paper in “The Hardest Science” that apart from simply practice there has to be an innate talent to start with and goes on to point out that “luck” and “privilege” also play an important part in becoming successful. In layman's terms, these debates about what makes someone become ultra successful/good at what they do have been propagated and simplified to provide a way of conveying that all you need to do is practice and work hard and the results will come. The article goes on to make the case that there may be at least four elements involved in very successful outcomes, of course this largely depends on your measurement of success.

Talent - there is such a thing as talent and that it matters for success

Preparation - that practicing for 10,000 hours will make you better

Luck - being in the right place at the right time

Privilege - having the means (resources) to access the opportunity

This reminds me of a project I worked on as a management consultant twenty years or so ago. The organisation was attempting to change culture and bring about change in the way individuals worked to be better, as part of the sum of the digits, to produce momentum and create a swing in positive “outcomes”. I worked with a fellow external consultant, Howard, who worked with the British Rugby Team, prior to their world cup win in 2003, as a sports psychologist.

The “simplified” philosophy became P=CxA2

P= Performance

C= Capability

A2= Attitude Squared

Meaning, your performance is based on your innate capability multiplied by your attitude squared. This translates to whatever your capability is, your attitude has a larger factor to produce a better performance than your innate ability. Or in even simpler terms, loads of capability but poor attitude produces a piss poor performance and even a little little capability with a great attitude produces a great performance.

Performance

You only need to compare the performances and outcomes of the last two English World Cup Football teams. Consider the difference in how well England performed and progressed in 2014, with arguably a better squad of players but went out in qualifying rounds, verses 2018, where England reached the semi-finals with (arguably) less capability but a better attitude. An additional factor of leadership (tutor) may be brought into the equation too.

I don’t have any major objection to the simplification of a narrative if it helps to inform and focus the reader's/receivers mind on the bigger picture rather than the details and problems of everything else.

However the oversimplification of some things, (consider how the Brexit campaign was portrayed to the British Public as an example. Both sides made arguments that oversimplified what is clearly a very complex subject and one, in my opinion, that should not have been put to a referendum) can create a false paradigm.

[A false paradigm is a mental model of the way a complex system works that is incorrect, leading one to make incorrect guesses about unavailable information, to misinterpret available information, and to make incorrect predictions about the future.]

In the pursuit of becoming a better photographer, whether it’s for personal pleasure and hobby, professionally or any other purpose. It’s too easy to think that you just need buy the right gear, go to the right places, get enough social media likes and attention, sell a print, offer a portrait/wedding shoot or just practice lots to consider yourself successful or good.

We all strive, aim and want to become better at whatever we do in life, whether it’s fitness, health, diet, a hobby, relationships, our career and so on. Suggesting that there are a set of simple steps, rules, guidelines or memes that we can adopt to achieve these goals is just a way of helping us focus our efforts and renew our motivation to improve. I am always hesitant, and even uncomfortable, about writing and proposing “10 Steps to…” because they are in some way a false paradigm too. Despite the fact that I have written and sell “Pocket Guides - My Top Tips”

However, having taught and met thousands of photographers at the novice and beginners level, I know they need a simplification of information, so they can see a way forwards and have a framework to work on a progress with. Ten step guides are useful for beginners learning about shutter speed, white balance, depth of field, rule of thirds, focusing, lighting and composition, metering and other aspects to learn the basics.

I have been providing photography courses for beginners for the last six years on digital photography to help novices take what they feel are good photos and using editing software to become better photos through post production. Most don’t aspire to be a professional photographer, most just want to improve their photography skills for personal satisfaction and enjoyment of their hobby and subjects/places they photograph and experience.

Not many have an innate creative and technical talent to take it a step further, so proposing that 10,000 hrs will make you successful, is of course false, if you don’t possess the raw ingredients that are required to meet your criteria of “success”. If you add the ingredients of Luck - (to be in the right place at the right time) and Privilege (the means to access) to the mix then it’s understandable to see how few can achieve panicea.

Imitate

However, for most people I meet, fortunately, panicea is based on a different model and criteria of success. Most just want to end the frustration of not understanding terminology, science and technicalities of the camera - The Mechanics. Using the camera to maximise its potential and help capture and record what they see and where they are. This is often based on a criteria of imitating shots they have seen of a subject or location and trying to put their own spin on it which of course will rely on circumstance (luck and privilege) of when they are there with what talent and preparation they have.

Learning to use the instrument correctly, in this case the camera, is largely a technical exercise, coupled with practical experience and objective evaluation of the results. The objective evaluation can be achieved in many ways depending on your assessment of what’s valuable and insightful verses the extreme of what strokes your ego.

For my own part, entering competitions, exhibitions, gaining accreditations and being part of the photographic communities ways of acknowledgement played a big part of getting external feedback on my work and progress. Whether it’s through camera clubs, the RPS, BPE or some other form and society, external feedback and formal recognition plays an important part of giving us targets, milestones and a way of motivating us to strive for improvement. I didn’t, and often don’t agree, with those assessments, outcomes and criteria but those are the ways and rules of those bodies so you have to play by them or vote with your feet and ignore them.

Assimilate

Once we have achieved a certain standard and have the confidence to execute technically, we start to face some difficult challenges. Assimilation - Making choices about what and how we photograph, applying our “personal” style to it through more considered compositions and skillful post-production. This part of the process becomes more difficult because it relies on having some talent, awareness and attitude and one could argue that luck and privilege play a part too.

Creating images that speak to the reason for it, the intention, conveying the photographers interpretation and skillful presentation of their subject matter rely on being a master (or at least proficient) of the mechanics.

Having a clear personal style and way of seeing and connecting to the subject matter is an ongoing journey that will mean a return to some new mechanics. You may imitate the work of others with more skill than before, and have less external confirmation as the pool of external credible assessors becomes shallower and therefore sometimes easier to ignore. However this stage is often a tipping point too.

Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass”

The idea, appetite, motivation, commitment reaches a tipping point for many, whose interest in photography is enjoyment and recreation rather than a passion and way of expression through the medium of a camera. Very few go on to strive for something beyond this point and, understandably, are fulfilled with what they have achieved and can produce when motivated to do so.

Innovate

The personal execution of photography is a much sought after ideal. Is it possible to innovate and be original and unique in a field where literally hundreds of millions of people take literally billions of photos on a daily basis? We visit the same places, see similar things but somehow some people manage to see, capture and express the same thing we experience in a way that speaks a different language.

Innovation is the direct result of hours upon hours of imitation and assimilation. It’s the result of travelling that road of learning every lesson, putting it into regular practice with confidence and reason and then taking it to another level. Of course there are different stages and levels within this and some people seem create something completely unique, others variations of uniqueness. What’s most important is it doesn’t have to be 100% unique - It has to be 100% authentically YOU, and you have to be fulfilled with the work regardless of external opinion.

Where does this leave us?

Not everyone wants to become a professional, achieve formal accreditations or qualifications. Most people I meet simply enjoy photography as a hobby and means of getting out and exploring new places and environments. Naturally some want more or less input, guidance and challenges.

I will write something soon to share my insights of the photography lessons I feel will benefit any level of photographer with any level of ambition. It will be based on my fifteen plus years of being passionate about this craft and my own journey of development. It will cover the intellectual, emotional and physical steps required to improve year on year.

The most important advice I can give and best lesson is to only do what you enjoy and some sense of satisfaction from.

#Composition Curiousness

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iamkelvinlee · 7 years

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Does social media REALLY matter if you're working in financial services, pharma or even engineering companies?

Before Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, people bought from people in social ways.

From a sales person perspective, an integral part of the sales process is seeking our new contacts, getting to know your prospects and establishing relationships. No matter which industry you’re in, even in business-to-business (B2B) sectors or company, being social has always been an essential characteristic of the most successful employees in any organization.

In the era of print, buyers were happy to trawl thorough thick stacks of brochures, whitepapers and pricing guides (brought by the traveling sales people, in leather briefcases,) to ensure that they were able to make the best buying decisions.

There was a big reliance on the SALES REP as the sole, TRUSTED go-to-person.

Changing Buyer Behaviour

Say hello to the democratization of information, insights, thought-leadership, competitive knowledge that is now available online. Cold calls and email blasts are becoming less and less effective.

Fast forward to 2017, with the 24/7 availability of peer to peer networks, brand and product review sites (e.g G2 Crowd), external user forums (e.g. Quora) and virtually unlimited access to information about your company, products and your competition, the behaviour of the buyers (and influencers and actual users) in all B2B industrues is changing dramatically.

This is, of course, also backed by the very often quoted Google/ CEB study that says that 57% (more than half!) of a typical B2B purchase decision is made before a potential customer even picks up a phone or talks to a potential supplier.

A Forbes story also concluded that most – in fact 78% - of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers who don’t.

Being social on professional social media platforms is now considered an essential weapon of any sales persons' client engagement arsenal.

The most successful sales people who are being social are using social media to research, listen, engage, educate prospects, widen their networks ... and yes, even close deals.

So, let's get more sales people on social media, you say? It's not that simple ... read on.

'Brink of distrust'?

With all the political and economic events as well as scandals that have happened in the last couple of years, Richard Edelman, CEO & President of Edelman, says that trust has imploded and that 'businesses are on the brink of distrust' (Edelman's 2017 Trust Barometer Annual Survey report)

Within this climate, the same report concludes that for the ﬁrst time ever, 60% of respondents said that “a person like yourself” is now as credible of a source for information about a company as a technical or academic expert.

This is leading to a rise in 'micro-marketing' in all companies. It's NOT just about getting the sales teams to sell or marketing teams to market - this means every single employee is potentially a 'sales person', be it if you're in engineering, product design or even the intern.

Swinging back to the importance of social selling among sales, another survey insight which I found fascinating was by the Sales Executive Council - which attributes the sales experience as the largest contributor (53%) to why your clients choose to go with your brand (or your competitor) and why they continue to do business with you (customer loyalty).

These latest insights puts immense pressure on every organizations' leadership team and sales managers to reinvent and refocus the way that their teams (product, engineering, business development, account managers, customer service staff etc) engage with their clients by moving away from just product and price to more value-added discussions around perspectives on the market, advice on pitfalls and alternatives as well potential issues and outcomes.

However, a organizational change doesn't happen overnight. CEOs, business managers and sales people, whilst worrying about meeting this year's target, also need to keep an eye out on the increasingly digitized and social buying landscape now and in the very near future.

Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist and Start-Up Advisor, expresses this in her blog post 'Bringing (sales) leadership into the digital age' - "many leaders don’t understand that effective sales strategies require an emphasis more on selling through service and insights, rather than through pushy pushy, in-your-face closing skills."

If any organization's management and sales leaders do not adapt and and take steps to implements the required changes, it is suffice to say the lifetimes of these organizations will be limited, indeed. I haven't even discussed the advent of artificial intelligence, robots and machine learning!

Simply put, your client wants to able to rely on you, the sales person, to help them make these difficult and often complex buying decisions. They want to be able to TRUST you.

"Don't expect to see a change, if you don't make one."

Therefore, no matter if you're a quota-bearing sales person or a back-end product developer, there has never been a better AND more urgent moment to re-evaluate and re-strategize your personal digital brand to ensure you are sufficiently and accurately represented online and on social media platforms in the business areas you care about. If you're a team leader, challenge and motivate your team to do the same.

If your prospect or business contact (someone you just met at a conference, perhaps) does a Google search for your name, what will he/ she find? Go on, do a test!

Chances are that your social media profiles (e.g. LinkedIn) will be close to the top of the search results. If you have spoken at events or been quoted on press mentions, these are likely to appear high up in the results as well.

OK, but how about the rest of us, mere mortals, who might not have had the chance of being interviewed by the media OR spoken at conferences? Seek out those opportunities then. Think you're not qualified or feeling insecure? Then, start building your credibility in your marketplace!

Andrew Grille, Global Managing Partner at IBM Social Consulting said "It's NOT about what you know. It's NOT about about who you know. It's who knows what you know" at the Thomson Reuters Digital & Social Media Conference 2016 in New York.

3 focus areas:

Here are 3 focus areas that you can implement immediately, so that you begin to take advantage of social media more effectively to establish the online trust that your prospects or clients are seeking in you;

1. Carve out 15 minutes every week to optimize your LinkedIn profile credibility and discoverability. Make sure you have a corporate photo displayed. Include keywords and multimedia in your title and summary to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge in your asset class or sectors. Don't forget to ask for endorsements from customers, partners and ex-colleagues.

Seek and regularly share industry updates that educates your buyers and prospects. Keep them up-to-date on the areas that you and they care about (e.g. fintech, big data or the impact of MiFID II in 2018). If you don't know what your clients care about, you might be in the wrong job.

2. Curate your own list of credible sources on your mobile or desktop and make it a point to share about interesting, relevant content 3 to 5 times a week. Twitter is equally a great source for finding, sharing content as well as connecting with industry experts.

3. Publish a monthly blog post. I truly believe everyone is an expert on at least one thing. Combine your experience, asset class expertise with your own interpretation of the market events. Pepper your blog with charts, graphs - SHOW that you know the market better than anyone else (aka competitors) whom your clients might also be speaking to.

Jamie Shanks, CEO @ Sales for Life offers more tips here on the mistakes that (sales) leaders are making on their Linkedin profiles. These tips pertain to anyone who is thinking about getting serious on social, not just for sales. Don't make them!

What other ways or examples have you seen social media and social selling work for you in your industry or your clients? I want to hear your thoughts, leave your comments below.

------------------------

I am Director of Social Media, Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters - based in London, UK. Join my network on LinkedIn (please do not connect with me to pitch products in a blend, anti-social selling way!), Twitter (@iamkelvinlee) or Snapchat.

Image Credits:

Edelman Trust Barometer 2017 - Executive Summary

Marketoonist.com

G2crowd.com

Reuters Pictures

#social media #b2bsocialship #iamkelvinlee #kelvin lee #marketing #digital strategy #social media marketing #marketing strategy #innovation #digital brand #digital selling #b2b #business change

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revlatte · 7 years

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Sanctuary: Pre-Launch Thoughts

It’s Sunday morning here in the Land of the Sky. I sit in front of a computer screen, alone down a very long drive way. There’s tea brewing in the kitchen. Jill Scott is playing on my Spotify. The track is currently “He Loves Me.” I’m in winter socks, plaid boxers, and a University of Tennessee Center for Leadership & Service long-sleeve shirt I received as a gift for participating on an alumni panel. My plaid pants are laying on the bed next to me with a pair of long johns inside. The heater is set to “4″. I have no clue what temperature that is but it’s warm enough. The curtains are still drawn because I’m a Pisces and love lurking in the dark, even in the day light. I am about to light 3 candles to be obedient to my partner’s ancestors.

Admittedly, my brain is not firing as strongly as it used too. This gives me great pause and reason for concern. It’s almost as if my brain reached it’s peak a decade ago when I was working, involved in ministry as a youth pastor, and in graduate school at Wesley Theological Seminary. I’ve spent the last decade searching for my people, my family, my home, my faith community, myself. Perhaps with the Sanctuary Movement, I’m a bit closer.

3 Thoughts for Today: Hidden Figures, #wearenotinvisible & brewing, Black Star Line Brewing.

Hidden Figures

One of my good friends here in Asheville and I went to the pre-release to see Hidden Figures on Thursday. I was so proud of Taraji P. Henderson. She is a true come up! From Hustle & Flow to Hidden Figures with Kevin Costner. As a Black American, I understand the significance of this and how Taraji is maturing as an actress who is commanding respect in Hollywood circles. I may not respect all of her choices in movies but I see her value as an actress and role model. Heck, she inspired me.

Throughout the movie, there is a common narrative that we as Black women are familiar with. The asshole bosses who lack any emotional intelligence and create hostile work environments and don’t give two shits about how their egoism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, cis-gendered male privilege, misogyny impacts everyone one else. There’s the narrative of having to work harder than everyone else though you’re more qualified and have more experience. The experience of being paid less because of what’s between your legs and the color of your skin. The narrative of others knowing the discrimination you are facing is real but THEY DO NOTHING! They want to protect their safety, their freedom, their privilege. They watch as you face oppression, hatred, bigotry and become ostracized. And, there’s the one person who can see through this shit and validate and affirm our experiences. We, as Black women, so often, play critical roles in the development of institutions, organizations, companies and receive no accreditation. We are written out of history and convinced that we can be nothing more than subservient slaves to capitalism and white supremacy. Hidden Figures broke that narrative.

I left that movie theater inspired and proud. I left with a fire in my belly that we, the Sistahs of Sanctuary, could do anything. We already are.

#wearenotinvisible & brewing

When I first came to Asheville and arrived at my home on Lamar Avenue, I declared my new home as sanctuary and a place to land. I told my girlfriend at the time that I wanted to fly under the radar, keep my nose down, not get involved with organizing, and take some space to process and heal. I needed a low-key, “normal” life. That was my desire.

Within just a few short months, all of that had turned on its head. I was working at the progressive UCC in town. It was a great experience and also really damn difficult. I had the same degree as the co-pastors, comparable experience in many ways, and was in a position of assistant. My options for employment were limited so $14 an hour for 14 hours a week (as it started) was stable and kept the lights on. Additionally, I had some outside contracting work and residuals, so it was all good. While there, I realized my brain was working the same and was too afraid to say anything to anyone. I imagine the pastors could tell something was off. Perhaps none of us wanted to say anything. I was a shell of a person. Through it all, I waited for the moment when they would ask me to preach on a Sunday. Or help with the Eucharist (which I believe is the most sacred and holy of acts in faith communities.) Or do a reading. I waited for an invitation to be a part of the community. Rarely, if ever, did that come. My engagement with the community was structured around ways I was showing up as a staff. This was sad in many ways and I received a sense of home, place, community through it all. Until...

The week before Valentine’s Day 2016. My partner was certain she was going to loose the baby. I was not surprised. Stress, shitty ass nutrition, and a diet of many beers, mixed with older age. This was sad and devastating for me, as their partner. We had dreamed of the baby, names, colors for the walls. The plan was that I would be transitioning to her house to live. All of us, as a family.

I received a call from the doctor that whatever was growing on and inside of my uterus was growing. Surgery had to be scheduled immediately for that upcoming Tuesday, the 11th.

Long story short - an emergency hysterectomy for me while simultaneously, my girlfriend was having a miscarriage. Devastation.

I was out of work from the church and my girlfriend did not want any support or visits. I couldn’t understand but wanted to respect our relationship boundaries. Less than a week later, a white, older, lesbian, wealthy Board member came in to my home and unleashed her white rage on to me and broke a really dear item to me, at my dining room table. In the weeks that followed, the #wearenotinvisible movement was launched to address anti-Black bias in the workplace, primarily in gay/queer organizations. The fall out was shitty. As per usual, folks took the side of the oppressed, did everything in their power to discredit me, and engaged in a long and multi-tiered level of victim-blaming. It was humiliating and devastating. In fact, to this day, the organization has comments on their website about the #wearenotinvisble movement. As SHE said, it’s painful and it hurts.

Through that advocacy and raising issues around transparency, I was blackballed. Eventually, I had to leave my job at the church. My relationship with my partner was falling apart. And I was in this new damn town, isolated, alone, afraid, unemployed and not employable. I sought Sanctuary. I had to go inward. Once inside, I couldn’t make my way through the mountains, rivers, valleys, and streams of consciousness and trauma. I was alone.

Over the next year, I would watch friends come and go. Hot and cold. Close and far. It was as if I was walking around town with the Mark of the Beast. In each conversation, I had to give a disclaimer of who I was and what I was about. It fucking sucked. I just wanted to live.... until I didn’t because I couldn’t take it anymore.

So what does this have to do with brewing? The #wearenotinvisible movement got hijacked and all around town I saw people wearing the shirts that I paid for (for half of them at least), and not knowing the history. It was clear that they knew this one person and bought a shirt to be a part of a movement.

To be a part of something bigger than yourself. That’s what the Sanctuary Movement is all about. That’s what we are striving to achieve. Collective working, unity, healing, and liberation. To embody the principles of Kwanzaa.

Well, as I think about the craft brewing industry, to be blunt: it’s fully of really privileged, white, cis-gendered males with a lot of access to cash. If they have enough cash, they can work hard enough (or make others work for them at a fraction of their worth), and amass a great living, if not millions, in just a matter of years. There’s no one in the industry that looks like me. A thick, Black, masculine of center, queer, woman. I know we exist and are excited and interested in beer. We are the under-served, un-tapped market. I know the secret to our success and healing. #wearenotinvisible and yes I can see the Hidden Figures.

Black Star Line Brewing

Again, you are probably reading this wondering what the hell I’m talking about and how it all comes together and if it’s remotely related to the Sanctuary Movement. The answer is YES!

Sanctuary will initially house 4 Black, queer womyn and their children in the month of January 2016. We will host rituals. Healing circles. Visioning sessions. And begin to create the world we have envisioned. Challenging supremacy, capitalism, and individualism. We are welcoming each other home. To Sanctuary.

AND, that comes at a cost. Rent is $1200. Utilities will probably average about $200. Water about $100. Internet is $60. Food for all of us around $400. Other items (such as toilet paper, paper towels, etc.), are estimated around $150 a month. If we have a shared car, estimated payment around $350/month. Insurance estimated at $200/month. Total baseline for the household: $1620. Add food and miscellaneous items: That’s $2170. Then, if we’re able to secure a car and insurance for such, we’re looking at $2,720. For the sake of round numbers, let’s say it cost $2800 per month to support 4 Black women and 3 children. That’s it.

However, we are all coming to the space because we need, desire, and crave Sanctuary and community. Our collective and individual capacities to “work” in the system, to make someone else richer, and to have our worth evaluated at $10/hour at best, is not an option. There needs to be soul-affirming work with dignity, pride, and honor.

To that end, we’ve asked folks who can see the Hidden Figure and those that know are lives matter, that #wearenotinvisible, to donate to the Sanctuary Movement. To donate in recurring donations, single donations, donate food, cars, whatever and however they are able. We are not a non-profit (because we do not believe in that hierarchy and oppressive structure). We are Sistahs of Sanctuary who are doing the work of healing and starting where it matters the most, with ourselves.

We have most of the brewing equipment we need to get started. But not the funds for the rest of the materials or equipment. If we are able to brew and partner with our friends at breweries around town, we can make beer, mead, cider, etc. as a viable stream of income to support the community. We can break through the color and gender barrier in the industry and really show strength in self-sufficiency. This could be a model we could replicate and break free from the chains of traditional employment that is exploitative. It is a pathway to our liberation.

We have the land and space to grow hops and really distinguish ourselves.

As we heal, we will see the launch of Black Star Line Brewing as a testimony to our individual and collective healing and liberation. As a form of resistance and renewal. As a form of Sanctuary in a bottle.

Alone. Down the long driveway. Over a mason jar of tea. I dream of the tomorrow that is almost here. I dream of Sanctuary. Of our collective brilliance. Of being at the precipice of healing - individual and collective. I dream of the story that our children and grand children will tell about us being bad-ass, radical women who blazed the trail in the craft brewing industry, in commercial cleaning, healing, at life.

I think of my Sistahs and give thanks. Because of them, I have the will to live. The fight in my belly. Because of them, I can come home. Because of them I am home and have finally found Sanctuary.

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 5 years

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Paper代写：The job hunt

本篇paper代写- The job hunt讨论了求职问题。现在越来越多的毕业生抱怨大学学历不等于就业，这是真的。俗话说万事开头难，在找工作之前，我们应该提前做好准备。如果你的专业是商业和管理，那么首先要对行业有一些了解，知道在行业真正需要的技能和资格。其次，你的简历和求职信要尽量满足这些要求。本篇paper代写由51due代写平台整理，供大家参考阅读。

Nowadays more and more graduates complain that getting a college degree doesn’t equal to employment, that’s true. There is a serious situation we have to face is that we need to get ourselves a job, let alone a dream and satisfactory one. And the saying goes everything begins with difficulties, my philosophy is that, before finding a job, we should get ourselves well prepared in advance. For example, I major in business and management, I should first gain some insight into the industries, knowing what skills and qualifications are really demanded in it. Second, I try to make my curriculum vitae, and cover letter meet these demands as possible as I can, however, I cannot claim myself to be someone that actually I am not. Upon completing these preparations, I will then start filling out applications. In the applying and interviewing process, I might get some feedbacks from the HR department of companies and from the interviewers, and I could then adjust my job-finding plan and my profile. Actually this is also reflexive process in which I grew from being unconscious and incompetence to becoming conscious and competence, most of all, I feel more confident sending my applications to companies.

Why do people think curriculum vitae and cover letter are important? It is not about telling others who we are and what we’re able to, but the communication between the applicants and the companies. Reflexivity goes beyond simply reflecting back over what has happened. Before making this I do search a lot of information from website, and I felt it was easy. But now I don’t think so, I am a bit anxious about how to start this process as I had seldom applied for any jobs, especially when I have to meet the position’s demands as much as I can. There’s no doubt that curriculum vitae and cover letter are quite important, for that might be the only way for the HR manager to know about us, our information, education background, internship or part-time jobs or relevant working experience, as well as the social activities we joined in, and talent skills, etc. In such a rapidly changing world, the society is asking more from the graduates, capacities like creativity and innovative skills, teamwork and leadership are also the qualifications to expect. From my own experience, I know that most of the companies are interested about applicant’s education, job experience and talent skill, and most of all, the matching of the applicants to the position, which shall be a focus and potential difficulties in the applying process. We must learn to “build” our documents. First of all, from what we have learned during lectures and seminars, such as the communication and presentation skills, CV’s booklet, interviews, management skills, even lectures on how to prepare for an interview, to navigate in jobs market and to develop portfolio, psychometrics assessment centers.

And for me, one of the most useful point is communication and presentation skills for example, we must feel anxiety when we having an interview, but how we solve the problem from the learning. I think the key to it is to find out the reasons behind these anxieties. For example, some of us are born with the fear of speaking in front of the public, which is quite common. While some of us might be too concerned about the evaluations in the interviews and presentations, which might put some pressure on our mind, etc. Having found out what makes us anxiety, we will then try to fix the problem. There are also some useful tips here: first of all, we have to face it, acknowledging the anxiety is not a shame, it’s quite normal, we should then target our audience, for example, in an interview, the interviewers are our audience, they are here because they want to see if “I” am qualified for the position they are offering. In the process, we’d better pay attention to some eye contact, which might show our respectfulness and engagement. Always bear in mind, an interview or a presentation is a very formal communication rather then simple chatting. We must structure our talking. Rehearse the questions the interviewers might ask and find out what answers they might expect from you. And learn to shift our attention to the audience, getting feedbacks and make quick adjustment to be more confident in interviews.

The next is CV’s booklet; I still remember three questions how to make a great CV. Before that, there are several aspects that I should take a review of myself first, for example, to start with, I will ask myself: first, what are my strengths? After four years’ education, what skills I have acquired and I can bring to my future employer? Third, what industry I’m going to plunge into?

In the very beginning, I just completely have no idea, though I know these three questions are critical. But now I have the answer in my mind, and that help build the framework for a professional CV. I still remember what the lecture had told us: when we are the new blood for the company, it is very important to bring value to the company. For this lessen, the key point is empathy. Taking a view from the company, to run the company well, what are the competitive and strength of the company in the market, and what the company will hope its employees to bring to foster these competitive and strength.

There is saying goes that the devil is in the detail. We are supposed to pay attention to format and layout, spelling and grammar, and how to describe skills, strengths and achievements correctly and properly in our cover letter. There is something we can do and we’d better not do in this process, for example, we should do make our CV relevant to the position; we’d better prepared several versions of our CV to different companies. And we can highlight our most relevant experience, which can make you stand out, especially in a quick glance. However, as we’re fresh out of school and don’t have so much relevant experience or we want to hop into a new industry, don’t be afraid, we can list those transferable skills and qualities; we can also show our potential skills by using facts and details.

And the next knowledge point is navigating jobs market and developing portfolio, and how to developing our application portfolio, we should ask ourselves following question; who am I and what do I want? Who are employers and what roles do they have? Does this all match up (gaps)? Keeping on top of it all, we should know what exactly.

My target profession is working in airline companies, which has complete welfare system. For me, the most important part is we have a lot of opportunities to develop ourselves. In conclusion, there is big stage for us to develop and future career in the international companies. In order to better fit this job, I search the internet for some information about different positions in these companies and see if I meet their demands. For example, a famous airplane company put a recruitment ad on the internet, which reads they are looking for an e-commerce officer; the working place is in Beijing, China. And the requirements are like they want someone who is proactive and results-driven, obeying company management and, most of all, someone who can help increase company sales online. Bachelor degree is a must, and they want someone who knows well of online business (related experience preferred). The candidate should be able to manage at least two of the following aspects such as email marketing, social media promotion, etc.

From this, we all know what kind of candidate they are looking for, and what we should prepare from now on. Since I major in business and management, we’ve took the e-commerce class before, and now I’d better apply what I’ve been taught into real business practice. Nowadays e-commerce has influenced the world economy in countless ways, and will keep a trend in the future. While a successful e-commerce entrepreneur knows well of the advantages and disadvantages in this field and they could make preparations and plans in advance. That’s the way I’m heading for in my career plan.

For my personality strength, I am confident about this, first of all ,language strength ,I can speak fluency English and Chinese, which can help me better to communicate with the foreign colleague, and another things is I am familiar with Chinese mass media, such as embarking program, which is part of our subject, besides I am learning French from my classmate, most of the classmates are came from all over the world, they have different culture ,which make me recognize the diversified world culture. Secondly I have strong innovation and creativity in business; teamwork and leadership in management perspective, good at communicate, and have a good relationship with classmates and professors. They are really friendly to me when I get into trouble, which touched me a lot, and I remember it all the time.

In the last, I think that having a high emotional intelligence quotient isn’t always considered one of the most important employee strengths, but a misconception. Being able to read other people, understand them and interact with them in ways that are affirming, positive and beneficial are extremely important, because of this, I read a lot books on human psychology, which I think might help me better deal with the colleagues in the working field.

Two more thing are becoming more and more important as to my field is the innovation and creativity in business as well as the teamwork and leadership in management. Actually, “innovation” and “creativity” are quite often mentioned interchangeably, however, there is still difference in them. When we talk about creativity, we usually refer to new ideas, while innovation means to put these new ideas into realization. We can easily come up with news thoughts and ideas, but how many of them can be really implemented? Very few, I would conclude. Therefore, it comes to me that I should not only pay attention to keep a record of my ideas and thoughts but also notice to put them into implementation. I’m always focused, once I make up my mind, I will stick to the end, which I would say it’s also my strength.

As for teamwork and leadership in management, though it’s a repeatedly mentioned topic, we surprisingly find that actually we know very little about how to effectively lead the team and make the team members work cooperatively. Individually, we should first know how to work with others. Sometimes team members just differ in opinions and can’t agree with each other. At the moment, all the team members should bear in mind that we are all committed to the organization goal, that’s the key to the teamwork, and then just put aside the disagrees and come back to the most important point soon. We should also not take any disputes too personal, being in a team, all the members are equal and unique, and the communication is open, honest and respectful. Besides, we should also learn to appreciate others’ merits. “Many hands make light job”, we are employees of different living environment, education background and personal experience. Working together can make most of everyone’s wits and labors. And for this, I will learn to better cooperate with my classmates to accumulate experiences in teamwork.

I think the process to build CV and cover letter is also the process to rediscover myself, through this process, I will have a much clearer view of my future career plan, better know my strength and shortcomings, researching into what my future job is really demanding from me. Through reflexive activity, I do feel more confident about my future.

References

Dweck, C. (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.

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celticnoise · 6 years

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Someone on Twitter updated me on the issues around Gerrard not holding a European Pro Licence.

According to a Twitter user called Red Left, the European governing body makes allowances for clubs in the Irish Leagues, if the individual is studying for the course.

It may well be the same in Scotland.

Another person brought it to my attention that in the Portuguese league they get around the issue, domestically anyway, by having a qualified licence holder on the bench. That, in this case, would be Gary McAllister who actually holds the qualification that Steven Gerrard does not.

Does this satisfy UEFA?

On a surface reading no, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some grey area here.

Football governance is full of grey areas.

But major European leagues do not allow someone without the requisite qualifications to hold managerial posts – I was told that in Germany this rule applies to the top three divisions and not just the Bundesliga 1 – so I would be amazed if UEFA allows any wiggle room on it at all.

This stuff is hardly written in code.

It’s there, in black and white, in their regulations and clubs have known about these rules a long time.

I am informed that it’s why Martin Canning’s Hamilton were refused certification by the SFA. That information may be erroneous, but that they were refused their certification is a fact and it’s also a fact that Canning is booking up for the qualification right now.

In the end it’s up to the European body to decide whether they let this one slip by.

But put it with the pile of other issues Sevco faces in getting the nod.

This is a club that seems to exist in the grey area.

Nothing with them is ever straightforward, and even the smallest things aren’t cut and dried.

Last year, they missed the deadline for submitting kits to the league. This year’s deadline was two days ago and as you may have gathered barely a soul outside of Hummel knows, for sure, what this year’s Sevco kits look like. Did they make the deadline?

Who knows? Transparency doesn’t exist over there, and until the governing bodies change their regulations to make it mandatory and to put this stuff where we can all see it we’ve got no way of ever finding out. But this is so typical. This is so them.

Everything with this club happens just outside of the norm.

And that includes the Gerrard appointment itself, which has been hailed as a masterpiece of ambition by the Scottish media when there are so many holes in it that you could drive an armoured tank division through it.

UEFA might wave this aside – and they might wave everything else aside as well, and the SFA might not bother to punish Sevco over what happened in 2011 – but in the end, the biggest challenges facing that club are where they’ve always been; on the pitch. They are under-resourced and led by men of no vision and no ability that I can see except in pulling the wool over the eyes of their fans. They excel at that, probably more than any other club.

What’s become even clearer in the past 24 hours is how underqualified Gerrard is for doing the Ibrox job. As Matthew Leslie brilliantly pointed out, on Twitter, the much maligned Ian Cathro arrived at Tynecastle having held the UEFA Pro License for many years and had worked as part of management teams at Rio Ave, Valencia and Newcastle. He was qualified, and yet the media treated his appointment as a joke. Part of that is his age; he wasn’t even 30 and had no playing experience. But Mourinho wasn’t a player and did pretty well in the game.

Gerrard’s “on field leadership” is being hailed as his experience, but that’s for the mugs in the gallery who don’t realise there’s a difference between what the captain does on the pitch and what the manager does on the touchline. At almost every top club the pecking order is pretty clear; the manager relays instructions to the captain and the captain makes sure the players have got the message. His job isn’t to fix things, it’s to implement the manager’s instructions.

And so far Gerrard has given those instructions to kids, at the youth level.

To people who look up to him as a role model and as hero and as somebody to aspire to follow.

When he walks into the dressing room at Ibrox he’s going to face professionals. Men who have worked and sweated and bled to get where they are. Men who will not be star-struck. Men who may even (and whisper this, the press doesn’t want you to consider it at all) be a little bit resentful of what Gerrard has achieved in terms of his profile. He’s not that much older than some of them, and a handful will fancy coaching careers of their own.

It’s not a lock that he will “command respect.”

Professional footballers don’t just dole out respect like candy in a schoolyard.

They want to know that the man who’s giving them their instructions knows his business and they won’t simply accept that based on his having once sat where they are. This guy hasn’t learned half of what he needs to know yet and there will be no disguising that from the footballers who will have to work under him.

The media is excited over this in a way only Scottish hacks get about a manager at Sevco. Look at the hype that surrounded the Portuguese loony or that which surrounded Warburton … and he’s the case in point here, he’s the real comparison, because his own managerial experience was a solitary year in the Championship. Sevco’s appointing him was an act of lunacy when what they needed was solidity and experience.

When the club sacked him Dave King himself lamented that they had “hired, at short notice, a relatively untested management team.” Well next to Gerrard, he had the CV of a battle hardened veteran. Back in December, and shortly before Murty was given the gig until the end of the season (which he didn’t complete, of course) in another statement King said that the club would “re-evaluate the criteria” on which they based future appointments.

Do you think he meant that they’d just throw the guide-book out of the window and go for somebody with no experience whatsoever? Of course not. He said the manager would be given a three-year deal. Gerrard was given a four year one which is simply breath-taking when you consider what the costs of terminating it early will be.

And he also said this;

“In my opinion, what would truly be wrong is if the board made a quick knee-jerk appointment without a thorough consideration of the options available at the time just because it appealed to certain sections of the media, or to some of the more outspoken supporters … The appointment of a manager is far too serious for us to endorse such a frivolous approach.”

No matter what way this is portrayed, the Gerrard move is a staggering risk and it’s already started to unravel before he’s in the job for more than a day. Key targets have already been identified and missed. His “scouting expedition” has been revealed as little more than PR to cover the fact that he’s effectively still at school.

If he qualifies to lead his team into continental football – and if they get a license – it will be because of dispensation that exists in national associations like Scotland and Ireland … the stuff of farce in other words.

Squeezing in through the narrowest crack.

Do top clubs really get run this way?

We know they don’t.

And the warchest?

Well it’s June now and there’s no sign at all of Dave King’s promised share issue, which is supposed to provide Gerrard with the bulk of his funding. In terms of transfers out of the club which is meant to secure him the rest, the media today is briefing that he’s decided – without having seen them play – to keep Tavernier and Windass.

I guess those English clubs preparing to offer millions will be disappointed, right?

So too, I presume, will the clubs getting ready to offer game-changing money for Morelos.

And even as these facts are becoming apparent to even the daftest person who’s looking at the big picture, our hacks and sections of the Sevco support wet their pants at the merest mention of this guy’s name. You could not make this up. It is astonishing, and all too clearly heading for one Hell of a denouement when the football actually starts.

But at least the question as to “what the Hell is Gerrard thinking?” has been answered. This is the best gig he was ever going to get at this stage in his career. He probably can’t believe his luck. On a four year deal too, with image rights secured … a four year deal for a guy who doesn’t even have his UEFA Pro License. Amazed? Not even close.

This is Sevco. Nothing is too crazy to be true.

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#CelticNoise #Celtic #CelticFC #TheCelticBlog #News

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helen-nana-blog · 6 years

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Unit1 Assignment : Know Yourself

1) Task In order to know ourselves better, we should understand clearly about the personal overviews in our daily life. Personal values is the thoughts, ideas, and actions that are important to me and which I use to gauge or evaluate the people and things in my life. Learning style has do with how people bring new information into their knowledge base. There are 4 main learning styles are visual learners, aural or auditory learners, reading/writing learners and kinesthetic learners. There are 7 main different intelligence types in multiple intelligence: Linguistic ,logical, musical，bodily-kinesthetic, visual，interpersonal，interpersonal. personality type is that there are you passive, aggressive, assertive, introverted, extroverted, leader, a follow, etc. right brain and left brain also take an important role in our daily life. Right brain is creative thinkers gather information by feelings and intuition. Right brain is you nonverbal and intuitive brain. Left bran is critical thinkers collect information using logic and sense. Left brain is your verbal and rational brain. Extensive research has also identified clusters of personal skills called personal transferable skills (PTS). These are skills developed through your education, work, hobby, social, and other life experiences. Last but not least, there three main personal management skills, teamwork skills and academic skills.

I am a quiet but a little active girl in my life. My personal values are that highly education, highly salary and highly life level so that l should study more harder and enter into a good university. If l want to study more harder l should know the proper learning style in order to improve me become a successful person. As we all known that there are 4 main learning styles: visual learners, aural or auditory learners, reading/writing learners and kinesthetic learners. I think I am a auditory leaners in my life because l always listen carefully when teacher is talking but not always talk with teacher or other people. As an auditory learner, I think it can help me to solve some difficult problems for others, for example, I seldom absent-minded in class, because I have to be serious with ears to listen to the teacher speak content. In the multiple intelligences of seven major, I think my logic is one of the best, left or right side by doing it more developed tests, my left brain is stronger, part of the tube and the left hemisphere illogical. Second, in daily life, I am also a like finishing things, often write a plan to accomplish, but also very like to solve some complicated math problem. Finally my transferable skills and employability skills are leadership, because I think I am a very will lead people, always want to arrange someone to do something instead of me to listen to others, it is important, I will arrange everybody to finish right amount and suitable job. To sum up, these skills can help me achieve certain achievements in my future life. I hope that I can keep going and try to improve my shortcomings.

2) Career choices and Reflection After a series of self-assessments, I passed some forms and learned that my three jobs were: lawyers, writers or scientists. Can be the three professional because of my language ability and logical stronger when doing the test, I go to write a set of instructions, is good at speak on a subject or understands the relationship between communication and meanings well. And in the present life, my personality is a fairly quiet or partial introverted person. At the same time, when the right brain and the left side of the brain are superior, my left and right brain ratio is 8: 3, this part out of my left brain logic control is good and language ability is good, in my most ten preferred skills, I wrote the first three skills is checking for understanding and solving the problems and editing, this can clearly see I am indeed a suitable to write, to help others to solve the problem, As long as I start to strengthen my efforts to cultivate or improve my skills from now on, I am still qualified for any one of these three professions.

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fairchildlingpo1 · 7 years

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How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

As the owner of a consulting company, one of my favorite things to talk about is how to navigate from, “I need a team” to, “I just hired my dream candidate” to, “Let’s get this relationship built” to, “Time to get some work started!” to, “Let’s keep this machine running well.”

That’s because, in professional services, your people are your product, meaning your people are also your profit. Building the right team and retaining top talent are two of the most important aspects of running a profitable consulting company.

After years of experience building powerhouse teams, this is the process I have discovered to be the most successful at finding the right players and setting them up for success.

Build the Strongest Team Possible

In an industry where your people are your product, there is nothing more important than having the strongest team possible. I always put the emphasis on the word “possible” because we would all love to hire the best of the best, but we don’t always have the financial or creative means to do so.

We have to focus on hiring the best we can afford at the time, and sometimes building the perfect roster can be more difficult than it seems.

The market is flooded with qualified (and unqualified) candidates, and finding the right one can feel a lot like finding a needle in a haystack. So instead of the traditional method of one-on-one interviews with a checklist, I have found success in building my teams by looking beyond the resume.

Anyone can copy and paste a job description, so focus on things like how they will fit into the company culture, how they will interact with your established team, if they understand your leadership model, and what motivates them. Take candidates out of their comfort zone with group interviews, have multiple team members interview them, ask for their track record or examples of previous work, and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. A qualified candidate will be able to fit in well, articulate their skill sets, and clearly demonstrate the value they would bring to your company, even under pressure.

I always advocate for focusing on three primary areas when hiring new staff. One is your interview process. It will evolve over time—you just need to have one. It doesn’t have to be great, but I do recommend you spend a little time thinking through it. A good interview process can save you time, money, and a lot of headaches. We have refined our interview process over the years and will continue to do so. Right now, we have a three-step interview process that is designed to narrow down the candidate pool at each step.

An interviewee’s first interaction is with an administrative person, who conducts a short, 30-minute or less phone interview asking the interviewee a prescribed set of questions. These questions are designed to eliminate interviewees that have not done any research on our company or the job position. This step also establishes a cultural fit baseline through some fun and pointed questions.

If the interviewee gets through the first step, they move on to a virtual/video interview (or in-office, pending location) with a technical team member. This step in the process tests the candidate’s technical knowledge and their ability to solve real problems with little time. It also involves another set of cultural questions. This process has taken 60 minutes in the past, and we continue to refine it with the intention of capping it at 45 minutes.

The last step in the process, pending the candidate gets that far, is a face-to-face interview with me. In most cases, I have a pretty good idea as to who I am talking to and what a few of the team members think about the interviewee. It’s my job to determine a few things, including cultural fit, long-term expectations, and whether or not I can work with them day in and day out. Overall, this process has done very, very well for us.

Interview questions are the second area you will want to focus on. You can search online for interview questions all day and find the same boring, overused questions. I tend to shake things up a bit and really find out who I’m talking to. In our interview process, we ask a lot of open-ended questions, the type of questions the interviewee doesn’t necessarily practice.

We also ask the salary question first. This helps set the stage for the rest of the interview. In my experience, one of two things will happen: Either the interviewee has thought about it and has a number and some sort of justification or they are afraid to talk about it upfront.

Personally, I prefer the interviewee that knows what they want and has at least put the time into understanding their justification. This is not to say they will get what they ask for, but just the awareness and preparedness is key for me. Also, by asking this question first, you will get a good understanding of their personality and whether or not they are even in the ballpark of what you have to offer.

Here are a few of our interview questions:

Why are you leaving your current company?

What does it mean to be coachable?

Give me an example of something you weren’t sure about or didn’t agree with. (Note: The key component is to try on something they didn’t know and give it a real chance.)

What does teamwork mean to you? What does that look like?

Why do you think you want to work here?

Are you familiar with the characters in Winnie the Pooh? Which character most likely depicts your attitude/nature?

Last, but certainly not least, is interview scoring. I was introduced to interview scoring some time ago and think it can be the key to truly effective hiring. We try to measure everything that matters, including the quality and fit of potential new hires.

For every new job opening, we create a decision model with categories and scores. I find this is the most efficient way of evaluating the things that matter when it comes to our culture. With each category comes questions which determine the interviewee’s score. I usually have a minimum of two current employees score each candidate, and we take the average of the internal scores.

At the end of the day, we end up with numbers and not opinions, and it really creates a sense of community and communication among the current team.

Here are a few of the categories we use:

Coachable

Attitude

Sense of humor

How are they motivated

Capable of multiple roles

Think on their feet

Awareness of strengths/weaknesses

Once you’ve built your project team, it’s time to bring them together and get them established, grounded, and ready to rock-and-roll. Below are some tips to guarantee a well-prepared team.

Iron Out All Wrinkles in Your Onboarding System

Consider onboarding as the foundation for a house: You can’t expect it to be sturdy and reliable if it doesn’t have a solid base. It’s the same for an employee: An untrained and poorly onboarded employee is being set up to let you down.

For the smoothest onboarding process, offer a good amount of training on how your business operates internally (what tools you use, how you collaborate, what happens when someone needs help), set clear standards for the work environment (dress code, usual working hours, times when they should be focused on internal activities rather than billable client work), establish benchmarks for regular evaluation (I don’t believe in semi-annual or annual review—too much happens in between—and prefer a checkpoint at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days, then every 90 days after that), keep the door for questions, and most importantly, be direct with expectations and have patience as they learn your ways.

And always remember, you can’t reprimand someone for crossing a boundary that you never set.

Have three checklists already created, one for each checkpoint. The 30-day checkpoint will look different than the 60, and the 60-day will look different from the 90-day. Make sure to show the new employee the checklist so they know what is expected of them. There are no right or wrong items to put on the checklist; it just needs to be visible and appropriate for the time period.

By creating this checklist, you may also find that your process and information sharing needs a bit of work. That’s a good thing; that means this part of your process is evolving and maturing!

Educate and Empower Your Project Manager

The billable resources that compose a great amount of your team are the power behind the project. Without them, nothing would get done, but they can also take up a lot of time. Inevitably they will require some management and support, and that’s where your project manager steps in.

I was responsible for managing projects before opening my own company, and I know that it is crucial your project manager is educated on the requirements of the project and the needs of the client. The project manager needs total visibility into resource and project progress and needs to feel in complete control.

Here are a few ways we empower project managers:

All project managers approve billable resource time and are accountable for having that time be submitted and approved on time.

Each project manager has insight into invoicing and are accountable for ensuring accuracy and timeliness.

All project managers also meet with leadership once a week, for no more than 60 minutes, where they have an open forum to talk about project issues and risks and ask for help solving project- or resource-related problems.

Integrate Every Department of the Team

Whether it be uniting your sales and project leaders, your IT and marketing leaders, or your marketing and sales leaders, integration of departments is a great way to ensure fluidity among team members and reduce the chance of errors caused by improper communication. When a team is integrated, not only does the team’s strength grow, but company culture expands as well.

In order to accomplish this internally, we have daily checkpoint meetings at 8 a.m. where each team gives an update that consists of three things: First they let everyone know what they worked on yesterday, then what they plan to work on today, and finally if they have or know of any project-related issues. When I start to feel like these meetings are getting stale, or attention and focus are waning, I will put everyone into cross-functional pairs, and they will have to give each other’s updates for a week.

Focus on Retention and Keep Them Motivated

If your average employee lifespan is six months, chances are morale around the office is not so great. The longer the employees stay with you, and the longer the team works together as a unit, the higher the quality of work. A huge part of retaining your talent is keeping them happy and motivated.

A study by The University of Warwick found that happy employees are 12 percent more productive, and when your people are your profit, that 12 percent can make a huge difference. Here are a few ways I keep my teams engaged.

Open the Conversation Around Failed Projects

For some reason, there is a stigma in the industry about project failure. The stigma has become so great, it’s like when someone is diagnosed with a fatal disease. Almost everyone knows it’s happening but refuses to talk about it because they either (a) don’t know how or (b) feel incredibly awkward doing so.

But in order to avoid another failure, this behavior has to stop. A project team can learn just as much, if not more, from failed projects. In fact, nearly 50 percent of unsuccessful projects are impacted by poor decision making, which means identifying and discussing these decisions is crucial to continued project success.

A project team can learn just as much, if not more, from failed projects. Click To Tweet Listen to Their Needs

Even the most powerful, experienced business leaders can fail to respond properly to the needs of their team, and this can be detrimental. A team member who feels ignored will become disengaged. Performance drops, and the likeliness of turnover increases.

I try to remind myself that the problem is not the problem—meaning the issue they bring up is usually not the root cause but rather the pointy end that is poking them. Dig deeper until you feel you’ve found the real cause of the issue. Your staff might not love the deeper dive, but if you solve the root cause and prevent the issue from surfacing again, they’ll appreciate it. Plus, this process will help your staff understand how to re-think problems, and hopefully, they’ll actively look for the root cause of the issue next time.

Provide Regular Training and Growth Opportunities

When it is clear that you care about the success and future of your employees, they work harder to prove they are worth a spot on your team. Offer to send them to a seminar or conference once a year, or just reimburse them for a certain budget for educational materials each quarter. Nothing makes a team more powerful than staying well-educated and motivated.

To get the best bang for my buck, I may ask an employee to give a presentation on what they learned and (almost more importantly) how we can incorporate this new learning into our people, process, or tools. This holds the employee accountable for not only attending with intent but also the ability to retain the knowledge and understand how to apply it where it matters most: the company.

Place an Emphasis on Closing Profitable Projects

Oftentimes, we can get so caught up in starting a project and managing all its tasks and deliverables that by the time the project comes to an end, the profit margin has taken a hit. Maybe a resource took longer than expected, or a mistake was made that slowed everything down, but the team was so busy trying to complete the project that they forgot to complete it with the most amount of profit possible.

To encourage more awareness of profit margin, set a goal based on margin percentage on completion, and track your progress toward this goal from start to finish. Review this goal every week after time cards are submitted and approved, and provide a space for an open dialog around how the team could make adjustments if/when needed.

Hiring, training, and maintaining the best team isn’t something you can set and forget. But I hope that if you use these practices, you’ll be able to build a happier and more productive team that fits your company’s needs. Let me know how you’ve recruited your own perfect project team in the comments below.

http://ift.tt/2l95V9R

#How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

0 notes

byronheeutgm · 7 years

Text

How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

After years of experience building powerhouse teams, this is the process I have discovered to be the most successful at finding the right players and setting them up for success.

Build the Strongest Team Possible

We have to focus on hiring the best we can afford at the time, and sometimes building the perfect roster can be more difficult than it seems.

Here are a few of our interview questions:

Why are you leaving your current company?

What does it mean to be coachable?

Give me an example of something you weren’t sure about or didn’t agree with. (Note: The key component is to try on something they didn’t know and give it a real chance.)

What does teamwork mean to you? What does that look like?

Why do you think you want to work here?

Are you familiar with the characters in Winnie the Pooh? Which character most likely depicts your attitude/nature?

At the end of the day, we end up with numbers and not opinions, and it really creates a sense of community and communication among the current team.

Here are a few of the categories we use:

Coachable

Attitude

Sense of humor

How are they motivated

Capable of multiple roles

Think on their feet

Awareness of strengths/weaknesses

Once you’ve built your project team, it’s time to bring them together and get them established, grounded, and ready to rock-and-roll. Below are some tips to guarantee a well-prepared team.

Iron Out All Wrinkles in Your Onboarding System

And always remember, you can’t reprimand someone for crossing a boundary that you never set.

By creating this checklist, you may also find that your process and information sharing needs a bit of work. That’s a good thing; that means this part of your process is evolving and maturing!

Educate and Empower Your Project Manager

Here are a few ways we empower project managers:

All project managers approve billable resource time and are accountable for having that time be submitted and approved on time.

Each project manager has insight into invoicing and are accountable for ensuring accuracy and timeliness.

Integrate Every Department of the Team

Focus on Retention and Keep Them Motivated

Open the Conversation Around Failed Projects

A project team can learn just as much, if not more, from failed projects. Click To Tweet Listen to Their Needs

Provide Regular Training and Growth Opportunities

Place an Emphasis on Closing Profitable Projects

http://ift.tt/2l95V9R

#How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

0 notes

christinesumpmg · 7 years

Text

How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

After years of experience building powerhouse teams, this is the process I have discovered to be the most successful at finding the right players and setting them up for success.

Build the Strongest Team Possible

We have to focus on hiring the best we can afford at the time, and sometimes building the perfect roster can be more difficult than it seems.

Here are a few of our interview questions:

Why are you leaving your current company?

What does it mean to be coachable?

Give me an example of something you weren’t sure about or didn’t agree with. (Note: The key component is to try on something they didn’t know and give it a real chance.)

What does teamwork mean to you? What does that look like?

Why do you think you want to work here?

Are you familiar with the characters in Winnie the Pooh? Which character most likely depicts your attitude/nature?

At the end of the day, we end up with numbers and not opinions, and it really creates a sense of community and communication among the current team.

Here are a few of the categories we use:

Coachable

Attitude

Sense of humor

How are they motivated

Capable of multiple roles

Think on their feet

Awareness of strengths/weaknesses

Once you’ve built your project team, it’s time to bring them together and get them established, grounded, and ready to rock-and-roll. Below are some tips to guarantee a well-prepared team.

Iron Out All Wrinkles in Your Onboarding System

And always remember, you can’t reprimand someone for crossing a boundary that you never set.

By creating this checklist, you may also find that your process and information sharing needs a bit of work. That’s a good thing; that means this part of your process is evolving and maturing!

Educate and Empower Your Project Manager

Here are a few ways we empower project managers:

All project managers approve billable resource time and are accountable for having that time be submitted and approved on time.

Each project manager has insight into invoicing and are accountable for ensuring accuracy and timeliness.

Integrate Every Department of the Team

Focus on Retention and Keep Them Motivated

Open the Conversation Around Failed Projects

A project team can learn just as much, if not more, from failed projects. Click To Tweet Listen to Their Needs

Provide Regular Training and Growth Opportunities

Place an Emphasis on Closing Profitable Projects

http://ift.tt/2l95V9R

#How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

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kraussoutene · 7 years

Text

How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

After years of experience building powerhouse teams, this is the process I have discovered to be the most successful at finding the right players and setting them up for success.

Build the Strongest Team Possible

We have to focus on hiring the best we can afford at the time, and sometimes building the perfect roster can be more difficult than it seems.

Here are a few of our interview questions:

Why are you leaving your current company?

What does it mean to be coachable?

Give me an example of something you weren’t sure about or didn’t agree with. (Note: The key component is to try on something they didn’t know and give it a real chance.)

What does teamwork mean to you? What does that look like?

Why do you think you want to work here?

Are you familiar with the characters in Winnie the Pooh? Which character most likely depicts your attitude/nature?

At the end of the day, we end up with numbers and not opinions, and it really creates a sense of community and communication among the current team.

Here are a few of the categories we use:

Coachable

Attitude

Sense of humor

How are they motivated

Capable of multiple roles

Think on their feet

Awareness of strengths/weaknesses

Once you’ve built your project team, it’s time to bring them together and get them established, grounded, and ready to rock-and-roll. Below are some tips to guarantee a well-prepared team.

Iron Out All Wrinkles in Your Onboarding System

And always remember, you can’t reprimand someone for crossing a boundary that you never set.

By creating this checklist, you may also find that your process and information sharing needs a bit of work. That’s a good thing; that means this part of your process is evolving and maturing!

Educate and Empower Your Project Manager

Here are a few ways we empower project managers:

All project managers approve billable resource time and are accountable for having that time be submitted and approved on time.

Each project manager has insight into invoicing and are accountable for ensuring accuracy and timeliness.

Integrate Every Department of the Team

Focus on Retention and Keep Them Motivated

Open the Conversation Around Failed Projects

A project team can learn just as much, if not more, from failed projects. Click To Tweet Listen to Their Needs

Provide Regular Training and Growth Opportunities

Place an Emphasis on Closing Profitable Projects

http://ift.tt/2l95V9R

#How to Build and Retain the Perfect Project Team

0 notes