How to Impress During Your Probationary Period

How to Impress During Your Probationary Period The figure for new staff sacked in their probationary period is widely reported to be one in five. I suspect the true figure is much higher but concealed by discreet mutual arrangements where the newcomer is not welcome after their first few months in the job. Of these, over half fail due to the catch all of “poor performance”. How did it go so wrong? After all, great care was taken to find you. You jumped through endless hoops during the interview and other assessments.   And you were so excited about your new role! You updated LinkedIn and told all your friends. Don’t be one of the casualties of the failed probation. My message to you is that no one wants to catch you out, but the best interview candidate can start in the new role, be competent and conscientious  and yet still fail to impress forgetting to command respect when you are at your most vulnerable. Why? Because the workplace is at once a catwalk, a  marathon, a cocktail party, a snake pit and a jungle.   Because your line manager, the senior management team  and Board are scrutinising you when you first start in a new role. Whether or not there is a formal probationary period, your new companys stakeholders are not yet convinced that they made the correct decision based on your interview. Look right: The ancient maxim “you only get one chance to make a good first impression” is sadly as true as it is unfair. You are on a catwalk. You need to quickly scan the new workplace and absorb everything about how the winners look. What do they wear? What language do they use? Are they at their desks til late, in the pub every Friday night together, or out on the road?   You want to strike the balance of blending in while demonstrating that you are a genuine and self-aware individual. While you are learning, you need to make two friends. These are allies who will feed you the subtle information that isn’t included in the corporate induction video but is vital for you to survive. Pick two peers at your level of seniority, who seem quietly confident but not overly vocal, and invite them separately to lunch in your first week. Each time is the first time: Your first few work tasks are going to be scrutinised by all. The community that is your new workplace all want to know: do you make mistakes? Can your advice be trusted? Do you miss deadlines? Look after yourself in your first few months, cutting your social life right back, getting early nights and keeping weekends clear to read your notes and take some exercise. This is the marathon stage. You need to be rested and give work enormous concentration during this crucial early period.  Re-read your professional documents before you carry out any project and double check even the facts you could trot out in your sleep.   The so-called ‘halo effect’ means that if you can impress the key people in your new job (your immediate line manager, the big boss, and a handful of respected peers) this buffer to help you through the rest of your first year is vital to invest in. Should you give the impression that you are unreliable, rude, or that you get your facts wrong, the unfair truth is that this reputation may prove impossible to ever shake off. Remember you are still being tested: You must consolidate the promises you made at interview, otherwise you are unlikely to be  credible in your new post. You must also wow the rest of the key decision makers who were not part of your selection, to avoid sniping and undermining behaviour childish, yes,  but a reality of any workplace. You made sure they knew you were the trouble-shooter for their current problems (see also my article Square Pegs) and you now need to re-state those promises and check which you are expected to deliver on. You need to treat each of your first 100 days in the new job as something of a cocktail party. Smile! Be nice to everyone! Listen carefully without interrupting  and bring out your most impeccable manners. Give each person your undivided attention, and train yourself to remember names. Dont play games: You are too new to get away with playing office politics (arguably these are never a good idea). Dont criticise others unless constructively to their face so they have the opportunity to learn from your feedback. Gossip only makes you look like the problem, even in a snake pit where everyone seems to be at it.   You may well feel resentment towards a colleague who appears to have won over the boss, probably years ago, and now is thought to be a safe pair of hands no matter how lazy he or she is being, managing to maintain an excellent reputation while doing very little. Ignore them. You need to build your own security. Neither get sucked in to their time wasting, nor be tempted to try to grass them up. You never know what power they may hold.  They could be the child/secret lover/loan shark of the big boss and therefore untouchable. The rules of the newcomer apply to you and you have to prove yourself. Play to your strengths: Don’t forget they chose you for the job and there were good reasons for that. Do you know which of your natural attributes won you the interview? If not, you can ask for feedback, perhaps from the HR team if they were part of your interview. You also want to invest in your own self-awareness whenever you get the opportunity, whether it is using a psychometric tool or asking for 360 degree appraisal information from your peers, staff or customers. It is your responsibility to know how you come across and your failings. Self-awareness is key if you are to quickly demonstrate the value you add, win over your critics and knobble your competitors. If you are successful, you will have rewarded the interview panel for the trust they placed in you. But if you are successful, other people in your new workplace will feel threatened and competitive. Its a jungle out there! So remember to look after yourself and give your new job all you have in your first 100 days. You owe it to yourself. No one wants to catch you out, after all, great care was taken to find you. But it would be naïve to forget that your new companys stakeholders are scrutinising you when you first start in a new role. You will never get such attention again, so use it to your advantage, and show them they were very lucky to get you for their job. Author: Helen Marsh from Creative HR delivers senior HR management experience to the public, private charity sectors. Creative HR: Challenge, Collaborate, Create. All views are my own.

Revise and Crush Your New Years Goals in 5 Steps - Classy Career Girl

Revise and Crush Your New Year’s Goals in 5 Steps So the first half of this year has passed, and its time to adjust your road according to your core desires for this year. Time goes so quickly these days, and you don’t want to waste another year not having what you truly want in life. You deserve it! You work hard, and sometimes you wonder why you can’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions more than a few weeks. I remember a few years ago, I was so excited to make huge resolutions and plans in January that were going to get me where I had never been before. I’d go crazy and decide to run 10k per day, learn two new languages, and never eat sugar ever again! I can see now how silly that was, and how I was setting myself up for failure. And they all failed, several years in a row! Then I decided it was better to only have one goal and to give it everything. Something that I thought would change EVERYTHING, like “no eating after 5 pm.” And, of course, I failed these ones too after even fewer weeks or days. I had many things wrong in the first place and had to learn it the hard way. But over time, I became a pro in planning and reaching my goals, and here’s what I learned in order to reach them: Revise and Crush Your New Year’s Goals in 5 Steps 1. Assess Your Daily Reality and Compare It To Your Goals The good news is that being a few months into this year can give you an idea of what your year is going to be like, and why your resolutions didnt stick. When setting goals, we often make the mistake to think of an entirely different life. However, our goals must fit in our current lives in order to stay and actually change our life! You now have the ability to be brutally honest with yourself and define what worked, what didn’t, and why. Take each one of your goals and ask yourself the following questions: (I recommend that you take a piece of paper or a journal to do so, this is going to be helpful in the future) How long did this resolution last? What was the first barrier/excuse that prevented me from doing it? (maybe it is time, weather, lack of motivation, other priorities â€" in which case whose priorities was it? Be specific.) What worked the times when I actually stuck to it? (look for something that worked more than once) Is this really a priority for me this year? Now is the hard part: Bill Gates once said we overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. You probably can’t do it all this year (but you will in 2 to 3 years, so don’t worry), and you must unapologetically prioritize what is the most important for you. Choose two or three big goals, not more. You can always come back to the rest when you have your priorities right. One year, I decided to move to Germany to work there and learn German, while at the same time committing to a one-year coaching training,  plus tutoring on the side. At some point, everything fell apart and I had to make a choice. I left Germany, and even if my German isn’t so good now, I never regretted actually following my real goal. 2. Couple Your Goal Wisely With Other Daily Incentives The biggest secret to sticking to your goals is to have them meet several of your needs and desires. Motivation comes and go, we all know that. Its object changes as well: some days we are motivated to work out, some days we are motivated to connect with friends, or to learn something new, or to do something for someone, etc… The trick here is to have a plan that will cover two or even three of your needs or goals, so when the motivation for one is gone, there’s still incentive to do it for another reason! This year, I moved to a new city and I needed to make friends and a completely new network. My number one goal was to get really fit and active. I decided to register at a local gym instead of my usual running in a park or dance class. I figured I would meet more people, and that it would motivate me to go more than once a week. The result was better than I expected: I made a ton of good friends (even a business network), and I learned a variety of new fitness exercises. I am having so much fun going there that I now go 5 to 7 days a week! This was a huge win for me because I was never the kind of girl to go to the gym so consistently. I go for different reasons: health, fitness but also fun, friendships, learning, and networking! Another example is cooking at home. I wasn’t sticking to it regularly until I made a  habit of inviting friends over for casual dinner or lunch. It is so much more enjoyable to cook for several people and have a nice conversation along the way. It motivates me to cook more at home, or cook at home and bring food with me to work or events. [RELATED: Goal Setting: 6 Strategies For Success This Year] 3. To Succeed, Think Convenience In healthy eating, fitness, or other personal goals, the biggest barrier people have is convenience. The time wasn’t right, the weather wasn’t comfortable, its too far away, takes too much time, requires too much investment or changes in our lives, etc… The more convenient a goal is, the easier it is to stick to it. We want to achieve a result: think about the WHY, not the HOW. Example: I wanted to be very fit. Running 5 times a week wasn’t actually my goal, it was a way to get there. However, it wasn’t convenient (winter, work, lack of motivation….). When I let go of the HOW and focused on a solution to get my WHY (a toned body) that was convenient in my life (a gym 5 minutes away from my home), I got my result quicker than planned! Simplify your goal to the exact outcome you want and look for creative ways to achieve it that will fit into your daily life. What would be a new, more convenient way to achieve what you want? If it implies something new or a change, go for it. Its always positive to expand our comfort zone! [DOWNLOAD: FREE 90 Day Vision Planner] 4. Plan and Prepare Like a Boss What ambitious successful people know is that if its not planned, it won’t happen. Now that youve prioritized your goals, linked them to several incentives, and found new convenient solutions to make it happen, you actually have to make it happen. If you already did the three steps above, this is going to be a smooth operation because you already have all the key elements in place. All you need to do now is: Plan it specifically: set calendar times and days and block them. Prepare for it: get rid of all the excuses and barriers. Go shopping if you need new utensils to cook, or workout clothes, or a camera for your business, etc… Register with a software of app if that’s part of your plan. Do everything you need in advance so there’s no excuse left in the way. Now, you are good to go and rock this goal of yours! 5. Be Open to Change and Serendipity The last important tip is not to hold on too tight to your original plan. As ambitious people, we often have the tendency to want to control everything. The problem with blanket control is that its an all or nothing mindset. If you fall off the wagon, youre  automatically doomed. Whatever our main goals are, we don’t always know the best way to navigate our plan simply because there are so many options weve never explored. So, if something comes up and you feel like it is going to stop you from your original goal and plan, be open to new perspectives. Maybe this unplanned trip will give you new ideas on your project or offer different ways of moving your body or make you meet new people that will show you their way of succeeding. Maybe being stuck in traffic will give you the time to unwind, breathe, or sing out loud with the radio. Maybe invitations or work lunches will give you new ideas for your cooking or show you that it is possible to eat out and stay healthy. Whatever your goals are, life throws opportunities at us all the time. Its our choice to either seize them as happy surprises or stay uptight and block our way to success. As long as you keep walking in the right direction, you will get there, even with a few detours.

Have a Concern The Clock is Ticking

Have a Concern The Clock is Ticking The health of a relationship, team or organization is a function of the average time lag between identifying and discussing problems. For example, this morning you attended the executive committee meeting with your new manager. You were there because you’d helped prepare a budget she was going to present. Then, during the meeting, she changed her mind and buried the proposal. You are a bit concerned, firstly because your team needs the additional budget, and secondly because you’ve seen this kind of behavior before. Your last manager never fought for your team. In fact, he’d throw you and your teammates under the bus whenever he thought it might help his career. Now you wonder if your new manager will do the same. It turns out that how you handle your concernâ€"specifically how long you wait before you discuss your concern with your managerâ€"provides an accurate and important measure of the health of your relationship. People who have strong, healthy relationships speak up as soon as they notice their concerns. The rest of us dither, delay, and defer. According to a new study by VitalSmarts, organizations lose an average of $5,000 in productivity costs when a problem, process or strategy isn’t addressed within three days. We surveyed 792 professionals about the time lag between identifying and discussing problems, and we asked them about the costs these delays incur. As we’d predicted, time lags are common. We looked at fifteen different kinds of concerns and found the average time lag between identifying and speaking up about a concern is about a month. People are less likely to put off concerns that relate to workplace safety and sexual harassment, but more likely to put off concerns that involve peers or managers or that relate to workplace politics or controversial topics. Below are some results from the survey: Unsafe actions or violations of a safety rule. 76% speak up within a week. Any form of sexual harassment or misconduct. 44% speak up within a week. An idea that might improve a process, increase quality, decrease costs, etc., but that encroaches on somebody else’s turf. 28% speak up within a week. Peer performance problems (taking shortcuts, giving poor attention to detail, doing the minimum, etc.). 27% speak up within a week. A manager has gone back on his/her word or broken a promise. 26% speak up within a week. A policy decision that is beginning to create unintended consequences. 23% speak up within a week. Let’s go back to our example. When your manager changed her mind and buried your proposal, it probably felt as if she was going back on her word. Our data suggest that only about one in four of you would share your concerns with her in a timely way. Why wouldn’t you? We wanted to know, so we asked our respondents. The top reasons people gave for delaying these conversations included: worries it will damage the relationship; fears of retaliation; concerns it won’t do any good; and the belief that others won’t step up to support them. Let’s suppose you are among the three out of four who decides to delay the conversation. What do you do instead? Do you somehow put the concern out of your mind, or does it affect your behavior? Our data show that delaying these conversations has a profound and negative impact on your actions: 44 percent avoid working on projects with the person; 43 percent stay away from the person altogether; 39 percent engage in dysfunctional workarounds, and 64 percent internalize their frustrations. None of these actions help to resolve the concerns. Instead, they create problems that are likely to further undercut the relationship and undermine performance. Finally, we wanted to see if we could calculate the dollar cost of avoiding or putting off these conversations. We asked our respondents to estimate the cost to their teams. These delays are very costly. For example, when the problem is addressed within three days, the damage is limited to $5,000. However, when the conversation is delayed by five days or more, employees estimate the damage at more than $25,000. The lesson here is “When you see something, say something.” This sounds simple, but it takes skill. Only 8 percent of those surveyed said their team members were skilled at discussing sensitive, touchy, or political topics. Invest the time to skill up. Be the one who can raise concerns in a way that is honest, frank, and yet respectful. You will build a better relationship, avoid painful workarounds, and save your organization big bucks. About the authors: David Maxfield is a New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and leading social scientist for business performance. He leads the research function at VitalSmarts, a corporate training and leadership development company. His work has been translated into 28 languages, is available in 36 countries, and has generated results for 300 of the Fortune 500. Steve Willis is VP of Professional Services at   VitalSmarts. A respected and valued instructor, Steve consistently receives accolades for his charismatic presentation style and highly effective training design. As one of the original trainers at VitalSmarts, Steve has been on the forefront of developing award-winning training programs, perfecting quality training platforms, and delivering training content that has influenced more than 1,000,000 people.

The Interview Focus Is on Future, Not Past - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Interview Focus Is on Future, Not Past - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Until about 1990, the conventional thinking was that if you did your job satisfactorily, you would keep it for many years to come. Several of my friends were ATT employees in those days, and many of them had had seniority for one or two decades. So it seemed like they had it made and that the only foreseeable future would be their retirement. But then we learned certain new words, such as downsizing and outsourcing; and life in America started shifting. Until then, managers had had to be good at planning, organizing, managing people, managing processes, managing budgets, and so on. That was indeed the business world of the past. Today, though, things are different. Today’s managers and rank-and-file employees have to show they are innovators and that they can add value and competitive advantage via creative input and collaboration with internal and external customers. And those who are unable to live up to such expectations soon find themselves either marginalized or reassigned to mundane tasks or, in the worst case, terminated. Today’s employees have voiceâ€"something that typically did not exist in the pastâ€"and they’re now judged by the contributions of their creative ideas for improved content, processes, and technologies. Plus, employees are now expected to improve customers’ satisfaction levels and to express themselves more extensively. So, what does all this have to do with interviewing? I hope that my preface has shifted the thinking of those preparing to talk about their past during an interview. Of course, you should recite, quantify, and herald your professional accomplishments. But remember that the interviewer’s focus is on the future. Through your examples, the interviewer is trying to figure out whether you’re the one to solve the company’s future problems. Think about the big picture emphasized earlier, and provide examples of your ability to make the interviewer visualize you and your future contributions as parts of that interviewer’s future team. Here are a few common interview questions that will give you the opportunity to talk about your future with the company. Where do you see yourself in the next three to five years? Why would you like to work for us? What is your management style? What would you do within 90 days after your hire? What’s your personality like? What traits do you consider important for this job? If well rehearsed, your answers to all of those questions could position you in the hiring manager’s future. Good luck and congratulations!

What Makes A Good Technical Writing Resume?

What Makes A Good Technical Writing Resume?The best technical writing resume is one that's well written and compelling. For this reason, it's important to first examine the resumes that you're considering writing.First of all, if you're a good technical writer, you're probably not very concerned with the spelling and grammar in your resume. Your resume, in essence, is the only chance you'll get to put your name out there.Technical writing is a niche market. That means that the market for technical writers is extremely competitive. Consequently, you will want to make sure that your resume is both technically accurate and compelling.If you're a technical writer, one of the most important elements of your resume is your list of credits. You must list all of the projects you've worked on over the course of your career. This doesn't mean you have to break it down by company. It's OK to have an 'All Projects' listing.Another element of a good technical writer's resume is the tone. Technica l writing jobs often involve a lot of detail, and so you should ensure that your resume makes it clear to the reader what you're trying to convey. Highlighted keywords, use of bullet points, and short paragraphs can all help in this regard.Even if you don't have any technical writing experience, you can still come up with a great writing resume for a technical writer. Start by making sure that your resume is brief, clean, and informative. Do not include any fluff or marketing fluff in your resume; rather, focus on describing the skills you bring to the table.On a technical writing job, you'll likely be asked to do some editing. You're just starting out, this is an excellent time to take advantage of a professional editing service. While they'll charge you for their services, you'll find that you'll save yourself a lot of headaches and time.If you don't have technical writing experience, you should consider starting that up early. The first step toward writing a great technical writi ng resume is to list your skills. You'll find that once you have your work and portfolio under your belt, you'll be able to write professionally, and create a great technical writing resume.

Leading with Happiness - Free Webinar December 3rd - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Leading with Happiness - Free Webinar December 3rd - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Update: Over 150 people have signed up already. We believe that there is a new style?of leadership emerging one that focuses?more on doing whats good for employees and customers than on short-term profits. A form of leadership, in short, that has happiness at its core. Join our free webinar on Wednesday December 3rd?if you?d like to learn about: What does happy leadership look like? How do you do it in practice? How can managers?themselves stay happy in their?careers? What are great examples of happy leaders? Could it be that happy leaders ultimately create better results than traditional leaders? Date and time:?Wednesday December 3rd?at noon US East coast time / 9am pacific time / 5pm GMT / 6pm Central European time. Over 250 people signed up for our last webinar?and just like that one, this one?will be short (only 30 minutes) and punchy. We will get to the point quickly and leave you with new information and tools you can actually use. The webinar will be held live on our youtube channel, so there is no login needed and no software to install. If you can watch youtube, you can join. There will be a chance to ask questions via chat. Sign up for the webinar right here: Email Address * First Name * Last Name * Title * Company * Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Book review The naked ape - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review The naked ape - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog The naked ape is a classic. Its about humans, but its written by a zoologist, who treats us as just another type of ape. The premise is this: If you took the skin of one of each species of primate and examined them closely, theres one that would stick out the human. Were not covered in hair, hence the naked ape. He then goes on to describe the myriad ways in which we resemble apes, physically, psycologically, socially, sexually, etc. Its brilliant stuff. It reminds me of a question asked in Douglas Couplands Generation X: What animal would you be, if you were an animal? Answer: You already are an animal. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related